Ahhh . . . Santorini – can you say “amazing”. I’ve seen the photos for years and let me tell you, it is ten times prettier in real life. But, it’s funny because when we arrived in Santorini on our ferry, we were expecting to be greeted by the famous white buildings with the blue domes and we were met with a dingy port and people trying to get to us stay in their accommodations. Are we on the right island? where are the buildings in the photos? Well, as it turned out, it took a a day or two until we actually saw them as we were staying on the other side of the island in a cool beach area called Perissa.
Perissa Beach, as it turns out, was a pretty happening place–the sand is pitch black and very fine which means it gets scorching hot during the day. It is also lined with tavernas and cafes on one side of the street and beach with chairs and umbrellas on the other. So, if you eat or drink at one of the establishments, you are most likely able to strike up a deal with a free chair and umbrella.
Continue reading 'Santorini & Anafi'»
PINCH ME!! I still can’t believe we are actually in Greece, let alone Mykonos. What a perfect place to celebrate my birthday – in the land of my ancestors. We are staying at Mykonos Camping and yes, there are tents here but hey, how else can we travel for so long, right. Our ‘private double’ was more like a shed you would have in your back yard but instead of it being 100% metal, it had a metal frame and was covered with canvas. Inside was a nice double bed cot and a light but what more do you need, we are in Mykonos for God sakes! The surprising part of it all was the grounds – these are not the campgrounds I know and love, these were amazing; a pool that overlooked the ocean, a bar, a DJ, a grocery store, a restaurant and a self service cafeteria. The infinity pool was surrounded by relaxing lounge chairs and trendy wicker chairs. There was a second level that had beanbag chairs and tables to sit and sip a cocktail while overlooking the gorgeous sea. So, we may be sleeping in a shed but the grounds were like a 5 star hotel.
Continue reading 'My Big Fat Greek Birthday ! !'»
So we took an all night flight into Cairo. Our original intention was to take public transportation to our guesthouse and when we got to the bus, we were bombarded with eager taxi drivers wanting to take us into town. The price was right so we agreed and good thing too because we would have never found our guesthouse. It was down a wiggly road with most road signs being in Arabic and it was in a building that in the bottom was a dilapidated shell of a bank. In fact, the guesthouse sign was tiny and three floors above the street – who’s going to look up there?! Even our taxi driver had a difficult time finding the place and had to ask about four different people for directions. Once there, we were greeted warmly and offered a complimentary breakfast of coffee, two baguettes, butter, laughing cow cheese and a boiled egg. A nice way to arrive! Our first order of business was to book a tour to the Pyramids of Giza. Rumor had it that our guesthouse inflated the tour prices so off we went in search or a tour agency and since we were in the embassy area, all we found were tours that were even more expensive. Little did we know, there were plenty of tour agencies downtown but since we didn’t know where the downtown was at the time, we eventually headed back to our guesthouse and they happily booked us for a private tour for the next day at an exorbitant price, of course.
Continue reading 'Walk Like an Egyptian'»
I really have to take a moment and do a post about the transportation in Asia–it is that interesting!!! First let me tell you about our best transportation day…it starts like this, we were in Battambang, Cambodia and wanted to get to Koh Chang, Thailand for a little fun in the sun. Unfortunately, there weren’t any direct routes because there was a border crossing involved and Koh Chang is an island. And each time we asked how to do it, we got some convoluted story–even our sometimes trusty but crusty Lonely Planet didn’t make much sense. In the end, our hotel arranged for us to take a shared taxi two hours to the border for $7 each. Well, he picked us up at 6:30 a.m. as planned, took us to the end of town in Battambang and we waited there for a while for others to show up. It was a shared taxi after all! Well, nobody showed up so he said the price went up to $10 for a private taxi. We had no choice so off we went.
Continue reading 'Asian Transport-asian'»
So, we had a bit of adventure getting to Phnom Penh and it was wonderful. Instead of taking the bus, we opted for a two day river boat to Phnom Penh.
Why not! We headed out of Ho Chi Minh City early and had one last drive through the countryside before getting on the boat. We really loved Vietnam–the people were so friendly, the food tasty and the accommodations were amazing and cheap as well, which makes for a backpacker’s paradise. Anyways, we took a minivan to the boat, then took a lovely ride up the Mekong River. There are many houses and villages that line the Mekong, and many people in the water bathing or swimming or washing clothes. It’s just amazing how, when they saw our boat, they smiled and waved like it was the first time they’d seen a boat go by. We love that about Vietnam. Everyone is so friendly.
Continue reading 'Phnom Penh, Cambodia'»
This is the second part of Christine’s post about our adventures down the coast of Vietnam. If you missed the first part, go here: Good Morning Vietnam (Part 1)
Da Lat: Finally a town in the mountains with some cool weather! Da Lat is up in the central highlands and significantly cooler than the coastal areas and cities. It’s only about 200 kms from Nha Trang but took 5 hours due to the biggest potholes I had ever seen. Some were as big as a Volkswagen beetle! We could hardly believe the bus would make it as it chugged along at about 20 km per hour. But we made it and, like always, were dropped off right outside a guesthouse. So, we started walking down the street and decided to duck into a different guesthouse just to see what the prices were like given it is festival time. This was the weekend that Vietnam had a big holiday celebrated both Reunification Day – April 30, and Labor Day – May 1. Lucky for us, the guesthouse had one room left, but it was down on the basement level (flashbacks to our last apartment in Seattle).
Continue reading 'Good Morning Vietnam (Part 2)'»
Well, here we are on another sleeper bus in Vietnam heading to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, aka: Saigon) with yet another psychopath driver. Just moments ago he passed a car – on the shoulder! – at 60kph! Despite his crazy driving, I am enjoying the lounge chair that reclines and the cozy blankets as well. HCMC is the last city we will visit before we head into Cambodia. We can only stay 4 nights as our visas are due to expire. I realize we haven’t written much these past weeks and that is because we have been having so much fun in this amazing country. So, let me tell you what we have been doing. We already told you about crazy Hanoi and spectacular Halong Bay so I will continue with our story from there.
Continue reading 'Good Morning Vietnam (Part 1)'»
If there is something I love, it’s drama! Especially when it is not my drama which is probably why I went into social work.
We have been traveling darned near 9 months now and I think we are finally ‘getting it’. Although we have seen so many amazing places, met tons of wonderful people and sampled the yummiest of food, we were surprised to find that long term travel has a down side. How come nobody talks about it??–I would have loved to have been warned. I never in my wildest dreams expected to run into some of the issues we ran into–I mean, after all, we are lucky enough to travel for 13 months. Isn’t the world is our oyster? How could we have even one bad day? Well, we have had our fair share so, sit down and let me tell you about some of long term travel’s dirty little secrets . . .
Continue reading 'Dirty Little Secrets of Long Term Travel'»
Some call it “Lee-os”, some call it “Lay-os”, we call it “La-owe”. This is by far the poorest country of S.E. Asia. We have only been here 8 days now and have already accumulated so many cool memories. Laos is definitely the S.E. Asia experience that we were hoping for for several reasons; less tourists (“falangs” as they like to call us here), more interactions with locals, amazing scenery, baguettes and very strong Lao coffee, so inexpensive and each and every ride we take is an adventure in itself.
Continue reading 'A Wonderful Place Called Laos'»
So, we went to Chiang Rai to get some hill tribe action and that is exactly what we got. We stayed at the Akha river house which is owned by a leader in the Akha hill tribe. Although I had exchanged many emails with the owner, when we arrived at the guesthouse, the man at the counter had no idea we were coming and very limited English. Well, closer to no English. Luckily we got some free SIM cards at the airport because it was the perfect time to use them to call the man I had emailing, who after me reminding him of our plans, reassured us that we had a room and tomorrow’s tour would be set up. So, we settled in and then went for a walk about around town. We found the hill tribe museum and it was fascinating to read about them. It also got us excited for our next day’s adventures.
Well, the next day arrived and so did our tour guide. He took us to the boat launch where we caught a boat down river. As usual, it was lovely being in a long tail boat, cruisin’ down the river. Our first stop was an elephant riding station. A bit on the touristy side but still we got to ride an elephant (not the ‘adopt an elephant for a day’ experience that we had hoped for but it was fun). We rode around the community, through the river and Paul even got to ride on it’s neck, while I rode in the chair on it’s back.
Continue reading 'Hill Tribin’ in Chiang Rai, Thailand'»
Comments (0) 
Ahhh . . . Santorini – can you say “amazing”. I’ve seen the photos for years and let me tell you, it is ten times prettier in real life. But, it’s funny because when we arrived in Santorini on our ferry, we were expecting to be greeted by the famous white buildings with the blue domes and we were met with a dingy port and people trying to get to us stay in their accommodations. Are we on the right island? where are the buildings in the photos? Well, as it turned out, it took a a day or two until we actually saw them as we were staying on the other side of the island in a cool beach area called Perissa.
Themocracy