With every new place Seth and I go in Vietnam, I feel hit upside the head with happiness. So far (knock on wood), nobody has scammed us into giving them too much money, everybody has been really friendly and spoken reasonbly good English, the food has been amazing every single time, and the country itself … Continue reading Life’s a “Beach” – Hoi An and Whale Island
After our last night in Hanoi, we woke up early to catch the bus to Halong Bay. We hopped in a minibus with about 15 other people -- all cool and interesting from all over the world, between the ages of 23 and 45, and took the 4 hour ride to the bay. From there … Continue reading Pinching Ourselves in Halong Bay
We love Hanoi. This place rocks. It has all the modern conveniences we're used to (multiple constantly functioning outlets in the hotel, no power outages, I haven't squatted once to use a public bathroom yet!) and the weather has been completely clear since we arrived. So, we begin when Seth and I got off a … Continue reading Falling in Love with Hanoi
The last two days we spent trekking were awesome, and exhausting. The foothills of the Himalayas don't exactly have flat paths, so about 97% of the time you have to keep your eyes really focused on the ground so you don't fall (in a new record, I only got two bruises!). Dat view tho I … Continue reading Trekking Poon Hill, Hot Springs, and Chitwan
The night before our first trek out of Pokhara, we went out for dinner and ate wild boar curry at a happy hour at a bar we found which was playing live music and offered lounge chairs on the terrace overlooking the lake. It was dark, but we could still see little lights on the other side of the water of families who live in these incredibly remote areas on mountains.
Good news everyone! Tomorrow we will set out on a trek near the Annapurna Mountian Range. The trek is called Poon Hill and it's super popular among backpackers. Our itinerary is as follows: Friday: fly to Pokhara Saturday through Wedensday: trekking from Mayapul, Ulerig, Ghorepani/Poon Hill, Shinadanda, then back to Mayapul and Pokhara Thursday through … Continue reading Paradise in Pokhara
Hey gang, Seth here. I'll be recounting our exploits for day two so Patrice and nurse those typing blisters (she doesn't really have blisters...I'm...I just wanted to be funny. Please like me...) So, after one heck of a start, we took a much more zen-like approach to Nepal and put the high-octane, let's-get-destroyed-by-a-mob level adventuring … Continue reading Kathmandu Cont’d: Temples, Stupas, and Hinduism 101
We weren't in Osaka for very long, but as per our new usual, we still walked and walked until we couldn't walk anymore, then walked a little more. We eventually found Osaka castle, which was definitely the most impressive castle we saw in Japan. It was well-preserved and the walls next to the moat were … Continue reading From Osaka to Kathmandu: Welcome to the Third World
Tokyo is a really cool city. I was most impressed by how incredibly tourist-friendly it was. Usually when we were lost, we could count on being able to find a sign in English about where we were and which direction something was. That something was almost always the exact tourist attraction we were looking for. … Continue reading Lost and Found in Tokyo
On our second day in Hiroshima, we set out for Miyajima Island. I thought maybe we would be able to incorporate it into our first day since we managed to cover everything we'd wanted to see on foot, but it was never discussed because we fell asleep. So before heading off to Miyajima, I thought … Continue reading Miyajima Island & Mount Misen