When I decided to visit Sri Lanka for a month, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had heard it was a combination of India and Thailand -- two countries I happen to adore, so I was excited. But planning a month-long trip to a country you haven't yet visited is difficult. What do [...]
In all honesty, Taipei has never been a destination that was remotely on my radar. But when a friend moved there and I was planning a trip to Asia, I figured, why not tack on a few days in Taipei and check it out. I started my trip off in Hong Kong and then headed [...]
Ever since I was a young girl I’ve wanted to visit the Bornean rainforests. I was fascinated by an exhibit at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo called Tropic World, which consisted of three rainforest habitats where different types of monkeys live. One was Malaysia, and there were gibbons and orangutans swinging from ropes and trees. They had [...]
Our visit to the islands of Indonesia wouldn't be the typically Bali trip most people do. Lombok is located on West Tenggara, an island which is just east of Bali and the Gili Islands are three tiny islands just of the coast of Lombok. We opted to head here as opposed to Bali to have [...]
After two overnight flights, we arrived in KL pretty delirious, but happy to be there. We grabbed the KLIA Express train after clearing customs and picking up our bags which took us to KL Sentral, the main train station. Our hotel, the Aloft KL Sentral, was actually accessible through walkways within this giant station/shopping mall, [...]
Sorry for the Tina Turner reference, just had to. Anyway, our two-day cruise up the Mekong river was one of the aspects of our trip I was most looking forward too, especially since we weren't able to cruise from Mandalay to Bagan in Myanmar along the Irawaddy River. We set off on a misty morning [...]
Flying into the Luang Prabang Airport was absolutely breathtaking and terrifying at the same time. The airplane lowers into a slim valley set between two beautiful mountains covered in green foliage and floating clouds making for beautiful views, but one false move and we're all goners. Luckily, we arrived safely and headed to obtain our [...]
DAY 1 We excitedly arrived in Bagan and our hotel, the Oasis Bagan was a short taxi ride (about 4 euros) away located in Nyang-U. There are three sections of Bagan: Old Bagan (where most of the temples are and super pricy luxury hotels) New Bagan (far away from everything) and Nyang-U (mid-range hotels and [...]
After three sweaty yet amazing days in Bangkok we headed to Mandalay. I was really unsure on what to expect. I really couldn’t find too much info on Mandalay and what to do there during my pre-trip research. In fact, many people just head to Yangon, Inle Lake and Bagana and skip Mandalay entirely—some say [...]
Our second day in Bangkok was relaxing and fun, albeit hot. We woke up feeling fairly well rested and set off for the Wat Arun temple, aka the Temple of Dawn. We started off by taking the ferry there. We then realized upon arrival that the actual temples were ages away from the ferry stop [...]
