Nicole and I knew we wanted to visit Vietnam, Bali, England (to attend a wedding), and France during our trip. The time we spent in Bangkok and Helsinki this past week was a bonus.
Because we could be flexible with our travel dates, we were able to schedule flights to take advantage of some airline miles we had. In order to make this...
Read MoreAccording to Wikipedia, two of the most popular sports in Thailand are Muay Thai and soccer. I saw both on our first day!
Heading into our short, three day stay in Bangkok, my singular goal was to attend a Muay Thai kickboxing match. Although spectators can watch Muay Thai at many places in Bangkok...
Read MoreIt is a privilege to travel. Thus, when Nicole and I are travelling, we often feel guilty if we aren't out seeing and doing things.
Nonetheless, earlier this week, rather than heading out to a restaurant, Nicole suggested ordering takeout. I thought, seriously? Phone our order and have food delivered to our door...
Read MoreIn my opinion, the best travel writing touches on a traveler's setbacks and difficulties; no one wants to read about blissful days spent frolicking by a pool in picturesque settings.
If you share my view, you will surely be disappointed with this post. :)...
Read MoreFor the past week, Nicole and I used some of Nicole's hotel points to stay at a Westin resort on the Nusa Dua peninsula of Bali, in Indonesia. What follows are our observations:
1. Resort living was a-ok, but doesn't leave me much to write about. Over Bintang beers last night while playing cribbage on our terrace (see picture below), Nicole and I remarked that, after a week of resort living, I had virtually nothing to write about! Most everyday we woke up, maybe watched the sunrise and meditated, then had coffee and oatmeal on our terrace before hanging out by the pool all day. We would mix in occasional trips...
Read MoreAs I finish up this blog post in Bali, it is bittersweet! On the one hand, we are excited to be visiting new countries, but on the other hand, we are sad to have left Vietnam. For anyone interested in Vietnam travel, what follows is an overview of our thoughts, opinions, and tips after having spent two months travelling through the country. [Nicole's added notes are in brackets throughout]...
Read MoreWhat's it like to spend months on the road with your spouse? Prior to our trip, Nicole and I had no idea. We knew that (a) we would be spending nearly every waking hour together and (b) travelling in developing countries where we don't speak the local language can be challenging and stressful. Thus, combining (a) and (b) could be a formula for marital friction (if not handled correctly)! :) ...
Read MoreA few days ago, on the boat ride out to the best snorkeling experience I've ever had (once again proving that the best experiences need not be expensive -- $17 for a full day's tour including lunch), our guide told us solemnly to prepare ourselves for the day's underwater adventure in the Vietnam Sea.
The Vietnam Sea?
Our guide waited a few beats, raised his eyebrows...
Read MoreWe’ve spent the past week at the Avani Quy Nhon Resort & Spa, located about ten miles south of the city of Quy Nhon near a small fishing village called Bai Xep, with our friends Leigh Anna and Kara who live and work in New York City and decided to take a two week vacation to Vietnam to coincide with our time here. They spent their first week touring Hanoi, Halong Bay, and Hoi An, before joining us here for the second week. It has been awesome having them here and we're sad they're leaving!
Last night, before we dove into a game of Hearts...
Read More"Hey Nicole, how about if I do a blog post on how much money we've spent thus far on our trip?" "Great idea, Travis! Can you also post a screen shot of our bank accounts and copies of our previous year's tax returns, too?!"
So I had to convince my better half that this post would be a good idea. :) My sales pitch included that (1) whenever I read about someone else's travel...
Read MoreOftentimes when someone returns from a trip and tells me about their vacation travel, I ask if anything went wrong. A lot of times those seem to be the best stories. If someone were to ask Nicole and I that question, thus far our answer would be choosing to spend ten days in Da Nang! (oh that dang Da Nang)
We'd heard a lot of good things about Da Nang's beaches, so our expectations...
Read MoreBelow are a handful of products that we have been getting a lot of use out of on our trip. In some instances, this was expected, in other instances it was not.
Lululemon Travel Yoga Mat. Nicole completed a yoga teacher training at Yoga Shanti in NYC immediately before our trip and already had been planning to bring her travel yoga mat with her. I didn't have a travel yoga mat and my regular mat was way too...
Read MoreWhen Nicole and I took our first overseas trip eleven years ago, we packed a separate translation dictionary for each of the four countries we visited and studied them religiously. I still remember going on morning walks in Italy and saying Buongiorno to every single person we saw.
Since that time, for the most part I have slowly stopped learning the language basics of the countries we have visited. This has coincided with...
Read MoreA lot of people have asked about the background details of our trip, so I figured it was time to provide some info! :)
Nicole was sort of the brains behind getting the Meserve Reserve website up and running. Originally, we purchased a Squarespace account and the domain name as a means to sell candles that Nicole had been making. But as we were getting that running, we decided to take...
Read MoreThree days ago, after pedaling bicycles a few miles back to our beach cottage in 95 degree heat, Nicole and I couldn't figure out where the strange smell was coming from. We opened the refrigerator and freezer, sniffed the waste basket, and checked the bathroom. Something was off but we couldn't figure out where....
Read MoreThe highlight of our stay in Phong Nha village came about because of the eating binge I had been on prior to leaving for our trip.
Before I get into that, one sidenote is that, in our humble opinions, anyone travelling to Vietnam should make time for a stay at this village within Phong Nha - Ke Bang national park. We loved the contrast of staying in a small, rural village after the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. We stayed at a little hotel, the Phong Nha Coco House...
Read MoreIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Nicole and I rented a motorcycle.
This was one of my must do's when we were planning our trip to Vietnam. For a few weeks, I even became fixated on the idea of us traveling solely by motorcycle during which time I probably read every blog that's ever been written on motorcycling in Vietnam. But we came to our senses and realized that renting one periodically along the way would have to be good enough.
Nonetheless, my desire to rent one only increased after spending time in the country...
Read MoreFlashback to two weeks ago when we were moving our possessions to a storage unit prior to leaving for this trip. We put most of our wine bottles into storage, but a handful were way past their prime and we couldn't justify storing them longer. Among others, we had a bottle labeled "Great Wall" that we bought during a 2007 trip to China, a "Plantation Red" Hawaiian wine we picked up on our honeymoon in 2004, and a Utah bottle I purchased at a convenience store during a mountain biking trip to Moab with my friend Nick. One of the bottles lived with us in Spokane, then traveled by UHaul to Arizona...
Read More1. I should have packed more t-shirts. I've been wearing the same one for 3 days now. But we're doing laundry this afternoon!
2. Nicole could do without overnight sleeper buses. Because of an (unknown to us) national holiday weekend going on in Vietnam, we were unable to book a train from Hanoi to Phong Nha. So our hotel helped us book a sleeper bus. The good: $25/person. The bad: The "beds" would be fine if I were 5'3'' and skinny, and the bus comes with its own soundtrack, ie, the cell...
Read MoreThe second to last picture taken in our NY apartment of 7 years (the last was a selfie :)).
What to take on a 5-6 month trip where the goal is to be mobile yet comfortable? Here's what we decided to bring. I'm using a large North Face duffel and Go Ruck GR1 backpack and Nicole is using an Away suitcase, tote, and handbag. We will see how it works out!
Travis
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