Since long before our trip, Rorie had been talking about “this one town in Vietnam where you can get custom tailored suits for really cheap,” and it was finally time to get there – Hoi An, Vietnam. Rorie had planned Read more…
After a few days apart, Jess and I reconvened in the mountain city of Da Lat in central Vietnam. Recharged after our brief reprieve from each other, we were extremely excited to tackle our next great adventure: canyoning. As it’s Read more…
After 14 weeks continuously together since we left NYC and 8 weeks together travelling internationally, we decided to take a few days away from each other so as to have some independent time. This was our first scheduled opportunity for Read more…
The journey from Sihanoukville, Cambodia, to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon, or HCMC for short), Vietnam required an overnight bus and a land border crossing, both firsts for our trip. The overnight bus was a true “sleeper bus” that Read more…
After 5 weeks of wandering through China and a couple weeks of exploring Cambodia with Giannis, we finally achieved the travel conditions that we desperately needed: a beach, sunshine and uninterrupted relaxation. These criteria were provided by Koh Rong and Read more…
Angkor Wat, the primary reason most people visit Cambodia, is the biggest temple in the world, but isn’t even close to the only site around. There are quite a few main temple attractions in the immediate area, and probably dozens Read more…
Phnom Penh We returned to Phnom Penh after our few days of relaxation in Kampot just in time to meet up with our friend, Giannis, who flew from New York to spend two weeks with us in Cambodia. After so Read more…
First, we have to apologize for the long gap between our last post and this one! We’ve had a friend traveling with us for the last couple of weeks, and it’s been a whirlwind without a lot of time to Read more…
After our two days in Zhangjiajie National Forest, I wasn’t sure what scenery could possibly come close to comparing with the view’s we’d had. But Rorie discovered a huge valley known as the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon with a famous glass Read more…
Our last stop in China (!!) – Zhangjiajie National Forest – was the one Rorie was most excited for, and after hearing him talk about it, I was too. [Editor’s note: While we shared excitement to see most of the Read more…
While we were excited to get to Chengdu, our journey there was more onerous than for our other stops in China. Specifically, it involved a 16 hour “soft sleeper” (private vestibule with 4 total beds) overnight train ride from Xi’an. Read more…
The first accomplishment of our time in Xi’an was surviving our first overnight train ride (~12 hours) from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. This time we opted for the “soft sleeper” instead of the “hard sleeper” we’d taken from Beijing to Read more…
When the easiest part of your day is waking up in the morning, you know it was a fairly rough day. That’s exactly what we confronted when we tried to take a daytrip from Xian to the nearby Huashan Mountains. Read more…
I’ve wanted to visit Mongolia for a long time now, with a vision of riding horses across the grasslands in my mind. However, I figured that wouldn’t be possible on this trip since we weren’t planning to spend much time Read more…
After spending a week in the sprawling metropolis of Beijing, we decided we needed to briefly decamp to a quainter, rustic location in China for our next series of adventures. This led us to the “tiny” town (read: population Read more…
We somehow managed to survive our first week in China, all of which was spent in Beijing. In some respects it was exactly as difficult as we expected it would be, but in others it was way more difficult. Amidst Read more…
When we first thought about visiting China, I didn’t know much about the region, but I did know two things I wanted to be sure to see: the Great Wall, and pandas. The pandas will come in a few weeks, Read more…
We’re about to depart from Beijing after a week in this glorious(?) city, and we’ve certainly managed to keep ourselves busy while here. More extensive blog posts on some of our experiences will follow in the coming days (thanks to Read more…
There are many things that shocked us about Beijing the first few days we were here. One of them, which has had a trickle-down effect on all of our actions within the city, has been its epic, sprawling layout. It’s Read more…
I’m sipping my latte completely alone in the hostel café because I’m the only one awake at this hour. Unsurprising given that we fell asleep hard around 8pm last night. It seems despite my efforts to counteract jet lag by Read more…