Because of the adjustments to our trip arising from my prolonged stomach illness (aka: Myanmar trying to kill me slowly), we commuted straight from Bagan to the town of Nyaung Shwe for the last leg of our Myanmar journey. The bus ride itself was adequately comfortable and lasted for roughly Read more…
Before diving too far into Bagan, it is worth noting that details about a certain important part of our experience in this city are covered in the blog post about our engagement (here’s the link!), so be sure to check that out if you haven’t seen it! With that said, Read more…
Monywa is a small town with essentially no western tourism infrastructure whatsoever. Similar to Mandalay, there are a bunch of interesting and attractive sights scattered within easy driving distance of the city, and yet it doesn’t appear that there are enough tourists to support an industry of tour vans or Read more…
When researching Myanmar, aka Burma, we had heard that Yangon (the capital) didn’t have too much to offer other than the main airport for the country, and most travelers skip it altogether. It sounded a lot like what we’d heard about Vientiane, Laos, which was a city where we really Read more…
After our last exciting post from Bagan, we’re jumping slightly back in time to resume our travels where we left off, back in Thailand…. As mentioned before, Jess and I have been consciously building small amounts of independent time into our travel so as to have a brief reprieve (aka: Read more…
We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming…errr…blog with some late-breaking news from Bagan, Myanmar: we’re engaged! We’ll get back to our normal travel blog shortly, but wanted to (joyfully!) announce our engagement and provide all the juicy details that folks have been clamoring to know (and that we want to put Read more…
After a mere 2 hour bus ride from Kanchanaburi we were greeted by the sprawling mass of humanity known as Bangkok. With a population somewhere around 10 million people, the city is an interesting mix of many different types of settings, hurdles and cultures. The city has a pretty broad Read more…
We’d heard that the town of Kanchanaburi, Thailand was a really nice, cute place a few hours outside of Bangkok, but other than that we didn’t know much about it. We did know that after a decade-plus each in New York City, we weren’t too interested in overstaying our welcome Read more…
Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, and on our second time through (after our day passing through en route to Pai), we only had a brief amount of time to explore, along with a fairly streamlined plan for how we were going to spend our time. After Read more…
When we left Laos after our stay at The Gibbons Experience, we had a commute via bus over the border that got us as far as Chiang Mai, Thailand. After a night there we set off for Pai, a smaller town a few hours away and our first real destination Read more…
We arrived via our slow boat in the tiny border town of Huay Xai, Laos ready for one of my most-anticipated adventures of the trip – The Gibbons Experience. After a couple friends had done it a few years ago, I knew that if I ever made it to Laos Read more…
This is a fairly short post, mirroring the simplicity of the activity itself: a slow boat ride up the Mekong River. The Mekong River has been ubiquitous during our time in Southeast Asia as we traipsed through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. At each previous stop we resisted opportunities to visit Read more…
Luang Prabang is a cute little town that has figured out an easy-to-love blend of westernized, tourist-catering coffee shops and affordable massages, while still maintaining a laid-back vibe of a place where locals live and thrive as well. The main street extends down a peninsula bordered by the large Mekong Read more…
After our brief but wonderful time in Vientiane, on December 31st we headed to Vang Vieng, a small town most known for its backpacker culture (read: drinking and drinking-centric activities), which isn’t normally our jam. However, Vang Vieng is also known for fun outdoors activities like river tubing, rock climbing Read more…
When I did research on where to go in Laos, almost every single blog and internet posting about Vientiane basically said to skip it and not think twice about the capital of the country. In fact, many long-term travelers we’ve met have decided to skip the country altogether, deeming it Read more…
Our shuttle back from Halong Bay deposited us in Hanoi on a Sunday afternoon, also known as Christmas Eve. The place was a zoo, in the best possible way! Hanoi is notoriously known for its chaotic traffic (even other folks in Vietnam comment on how ridiculous it is), but each Read more…
In order to reach Halong Bay, we had to start by taking an overnight bus from Phong Nha to Hanoi, which was uneventful and normal in most/all respects (i.e., the seats were mostly uncomfortable, the ride was uncomfortable, the driver drove like a madman and we barely slept). The notable Read more…
As Jess mentioned, she loves caves. I think they’re cool, but my love affair with them is not quite as involved. But one passion her and I both share is a love of adventurous, rigorous hiking. So when we found an opportunity to couple these two passions by joining a Read more…
Caves are my thing – I love them and think they’re incredibly cool. Rorie knew this, so he was excited to stumble upon Phong Nha, a huge national park and area with some of the most incredible caves in the world, while doing research on sites to visit in Vietnam. Read more…
Following Hoi An, our next destination was supposed to be Hue. The problem was, weirdly enough, navigating the transportation options to get from one city to the next, as they were roughly 3 hours away from each other. The issue is that there were several highly recommended sites to visit Read more…