We spent three nights in Ao Nang, one of Thailand’s west coast beach towns in the Krabi area. It was beautiful. We spent most of our time living the beach bum life, relaxing on the beach and then reading by the hotel pool. One highlight was chartering a long tail boat to visit Tup and Poda Islands which are about 30 minutes from the mainland. It’s hard to put into words how beautiful it was, so we’ll just share some…
Chai Lai Orchid is about an hour’s drive from Chang Mai in northern Thailand and is situated right along the Mae Wang river. It’s run by a woman from New York and staffed by locals who are in most cases refugees or at-risk women learning hospitality skills they can use to tap into the area’s booming tourist industry. Chai Lai’s mission has expanded from supporting local communities to providing ethical elephant experiences and saving elephants from some of the harmful…
After a quick stop in Bangkok, we arrived in beautiful Chang Mai. We had three nights to explore this incredible city and had some of the best experiences (and food) from our time in Thailand here! Some of our favorites were: Cooking Class We took a cooking class with Asia Scenic Cooking School. We arrived in the morning and met our teacher, Marin, and our 6 other classmates from Denmark, South Korea, New Zealand, and Germany. As a group, we…
Our friend Terri, who I’ve known since high school, joined us for nearly two weeks in Thailand and we had so much fun together! We met up in Bangkok to start our journey and spent some more time in the city at the end of her visit. Bangkok is enormous and a city it would take forever to get to really know. We had a blast scratching the surface to learn more about what it has to offer. Our first…
After seeing a handful of photos from Yehliu Geopark, we knew we wanted to see it ourselves. Located about an hour from downtown Taipei, Yehliu was a great escape from the city and a chance to see some beautiful, unique coastal scenery. We took the bus from Taipei Main Station. We asked the folks at the information desk in the main station how to get there and they quickly pointed us in the right direction. It only cost a few dollars…
We had four fantastic days in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city. We saw some of the city’s historical temples and shrines, visited the newer downtown area (home to Taipei 101, the world’s 5th tallest building), and sampled lots of local food at several of the city’s night markets. We also did a day trip to Yehliu Geopark. Taipei Temples We started our day with an attempted trip to Confucius Temple but quickly learned a lesson about checking which days of the week…
Kenting was recommended to us by my cousin Carolyn who lived in Taiwan for a year. We were originally thinking of staying in Taipei for a week and doing some day trips from there, but are so glad we instead opted to spend some time in this fantastic beach town! We arrived in Kenting around 6pm on a Wednesday to a bustling night market lining the main street where we stayed. After dropping our bags in our room, we went…
Visiting the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea is one of our top travel highlights so far. We took a DMZ tour from Seoul with Panmunjom Tours, an agency we picked based on positive reviews we’d seen from other bloggers. This was one of the most expensive things we’ve done to date at about $100 USD per person, but was absolutely worth it for such a unique experience. Here’s a rundown of our DMZ tour: Q&A With a North Korean…
Busan We arrived in Korea at the very southern end of the Korean peninsula in the city of Busan after a 3 hour ferry from Fukuoka, Japan. The ferry ride was mostly smooth and uneventful despite some 3 to 4 foot swells in the Sea of Japan. For those of you that like facts, Busan is the second largest city in Korea and the 5th busiest port in the world. My traveling philosophy is that the bare minimum language you…
On our last day in Japan we traveled from Kyoto to Fukuoka where we caught the ferry to Busan, South Korea. When looking at the map, we realized Hiroshima was pretty much on the way so we stopped there for the day to learn more about the city’s history and see the site of the world’s first atomic bomb drop. Getting There and Around We used our JR pass to take the shinkansen (bullet train) directly from Kyoto to Hiroshima….