DAY 1-5: DUBROVNIK AND HVAR ISLAND The church bells toll at random times…8:25am one morning, 6:15pm and 7:52pm that evening, then 10am the next day. Kevin has a theory that for €20, anyone can pay to ring the bells and thus, the random nature of it all. I think that it just adds to the …
DAY 1-2 The first thing I like to do when I arrive in a new city is a bike tour. There’s something about the feel of the wind on my face, the sounds of local people on the streets going about their day, the smells (and yes, not all of them are good and that’s …
DAY 1-2 “28 degrees, but feels like 21” was the weather report for today. Obviously Fahrenheit and apparently considered a “sunny day” here despite the overcast skies. That didn’t stop these intrepid travelers from getting on bikes and seeing the sights of Copenhagen…. From the very underwhelming, but super famous Little Mermaid statue to the …
Fardin, our divemaster, frantically waved his arms, pointing excitedly in front of him as a huge dugong slowly swam by us. Definitely a rare sighting. Don’t know what a dugong is? You’re not alone! But in case you are wondering, it’s a huge, funny sausage-shaped marine mammal with a flat nose and no neck that’s …
DAY 1-2 Ok.The irony is not lost on me that within 12 hours of launching my new travel blog, a site focused on getting OFF the beaten path, we found ourselves surrounded by monkeys in what is likely the most touristy spot in Ubud, the Monkey Forest. Here’s the thing…. I might want to avoid …
Apparently when in Vietnam, my “never ride a motorcycle” rule doesn’t apply because, for the third time in just 10 days, we hopped on the back of Vespas and did a food tour of Saigon. You have to understand that riding a moped in Saigon is crazy. At any given moment you are surrounded by …
Their small boat sidled up to ours. After some discussion, two fresh coconuts were handed over, money exchanged hands, and off went the boat with calls of “cam un!” (thank you in Vietnamese). And so it went again…twice more with some sticky rice cooked in a banana leaf and Pho (noodle soup). Such is the …
“It feels like we’re on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland” the kids joked 3 minutes into our “learn about the ancient way of fishing” experience outside the seaside town of Hoi An. I have to say, Kevin and I agreed. What was billed as an “authentic” experience was more like a well-rehearsed show where everything …
My mom always says that most of life is lived on “plan B”. That’s especially true while traveling — which is how Syd found herself hitching a ride up a big hill on the back of a stranger’s motorcycle. The adventure started the afternoon we arrived in Sapa, a small town to the North, nestled …
The nice thing about a beautiful landscape, like the islands of Halong Bay, is that it doesn’t change throughout the years. So, while there were many, MANY more boats with tourists, and our own boat was 10x nicer than what we stayed on 22 years ago, Halong Bay was just as spectacular now as when …
Day 1-2: HANOI “Stick together like sticky rice” our guide, Tuan, coached the kids. This is a must strategy for crossing any street in the Old Quarter of Hanoi where there are 6 million mopeds for 9 million people and few, if any, stoplights or stop signs. It’s chaos. Lots of “beep beep beeps” as …
I have a crippling fear of heights, usually accompanied by crying that I am powerless to control. Despite this, I found myself looking down a 100-meter crevasse surrounded by moss-covered cliffs in the small town of Waitomo on the North Island during the aptly named Lost World Adventure. The task? Abseil down said 100 meters …
As we were diving: “Shark! Shark! I want to go back to the boat!!!” signed Michelle underwater after seeing what could have been a mako or great white shark. “She wants to lead the group into the cave????” Wondered the Divemaster. Having not dived in years, Michelle was a bit rusty with her underwater dive …
Top 10 highlights from our week in the Galápagos Islands (in no particular order): 10 – Approachable wildlife. There are no big land predators, so the animals have no fear of humans. We could get ridiculously close without scaring the animals away. 9 – Panga rides, especially the one where we saw turtles, eagle rays, …
Jose Cotocachi got tears in his eyes when I showed him the three textiles of his that hang in a prominent place upstairs in our house. He said he was emotional because he hasn’t done some of the designs I have in a long time but was so happy to see his work displayed in …
Llamas, and Guinea pigs, and lambs, oh my! We started yesterday with an early departure from Cuenca via the Pan-American highway, which runs from Patagonia, in Argentina, all the way up to Alaska! The countryside is beautiful with bright green fields, snow-capped mountains, and very simple dwellings. Over thirty percent of the population here are …
Original time of departure: 7:35pm. Delayed. New time of departure: 8:30pm. Then 9pm. Board. Taxi. Stop for half an hour. Problem with the engine. Try to resolve THAT for a half hour. Go back to the gate to get mechanic……another hour…it’s now past 11pm. They can’t figure out the problem. Flight rescheduled for the next …
Our European adventure ended today with our return home. The nice thing about an 11 hour flight is that it gave me time to put together my travel video for London and Amsterdam. Speaking of Amsterdam, what a cool city, even for only 22 hours. We stayed on a houseboat on one of the central …
Day 1 and 2: It was a little bit of a culture shock going from Paris to London…..we had spent 8 days immersed in French culture, surrounded by French speakers, about half of which I understood, to being surrounded by people speaking English. It felt weird not to say “Bonjour!” or “merci” all the time. …
Day 1-2 Note to self… do not arrive in Paris on the afternoon the Tour de France ends, esp when your apartment is in the area of all the road closures! Otherwise, you end up having to park and then walk, wheelies in tow, the 20 minutes to the place. Luckily, the driver took his …