It still feels wrong to spell it “Türkiye” instead of “Turkey” but that is now what it is called, so we should get used to it. We timed our trip to this country to coincide with a big political mess. The mayor of Istanbul has been arrested on corruption charges and everyone is blaming the…
Tag: Asia
Vientiane, the capital city of Laos
Sometimes, it takes a bit to understand a city. We had been in Laos for 2 weeks so we understand the food, the money and a little bit of the culture. We had planned 4 nights in Vientiane to finish out our time in Laos and complete our 3 months in Asia. We had 3…
Long Stay in Luang Prabang, Laos
Yes, this is long for us. 11 nights. We stayed in a resort with a pool for the first 4 nights, then left for a stay in the small town of Nong Khiaw and came back to Luang Prabang for 7 nights in an Airbnb. This town is the main tourist hub in Laos and…
Nong Khiaw, Laos
We actually started our time in Laos by flying from Siem Reap, Cambodia to the town of Luang Prabang. We stayed 4 nights in Luang Prabang and then took a van through 4 hours of potholes to the small town village of Nong Khiaw. We will be returning to Luang Prabang for another week so…
Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia
This place really should be on everyone’s bucket list. We have been hitting all the best ruins around the world so we had to include this into this year’s Southeast Asia itinerary. Angkor Wat and all the other surrounding temples are worthy of all the good things we heard about them. The statues, carved rocks,…
Battambang, Cambodia
This week, we made it to Cambodia which is probably the most affordable country we have ever been to. We stayed in on of the nicest hotels in town with a swimming pool and free breakfast for $50 per night. We could have stayed in much cheaper places that were still comfortable. All our laundry…
Is Koh Mak our Favorite Thai Island?
We have now stayed over a week on 6 different islands in Thailand, over the past two years. We have liked them all for different reasons and I will try to sort that out a bit in this post. First, I need to explain Koh Mak. This is a place for deserted beaches. The island…
Thai Islands!!! First up- Koh Chang
The most popular tourist country in South East Asia is Thailand, and for good reason. We love Thailand. On our last trip in 2023 we visited 4 different Thai Island, and enjoyed all of them for different reasons. We had to come back and see more islands. Our first stop is Koh Chang. It is…
Tet Lunar New Year in Da Nang, Vietnam
It has been 5 years since we were in Vietnam, so when we were eager to include it on our current South East Asia trip. We had last been here right when Covid was starting, and we barely made it out before they started closing down the airports in 2020. It was an interesting time…
Malapascua Island, Philippines
I’m not sure why it took us this long to the to the Philippines. We have heard so many good stories from our Filipino friends as well as other travelers. We lived for a few years in Beacon Hill which is the heart of the Filipino community in Seattle. We are definitely familiar with Filipino…
Gili Air, Indonesia
We had 9 lazy lazy days on the island of Gili Air for our last destination on this trip. Gili Air is about the size of our Stretch Island in Washington state. On the first day we walked the entire 3.4 miles around the perimeter which is the exact same as my kayak trips around…
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
As we struggle to figure out the best pace of travel, we made another mistake by only allowing 3 nights in Malaysia’s biggest city, Kuala Lumpur (KL). We know that after 9 weeks on the road, we have 2 things we are not fond of – 1) travel/transit days and 2) trying to see everything…