We always look forward to wandering the historic streets of European cities. Vienna was no exception and it was pleasant to visit in Spring before the hordes of Summer tourists. On the far-flung edges of the Roman Empire, the Danubian Limes marked the border between civilization and the barbaric Germanic tribes. Water alone wasn’t sufficient…
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Qatar Airlines is usually rated the top airline in the world, and one we’d been interested in trying in the past but never had a route that worked for us. The country of Qatar was a different story… one that until now was not on our radar for a visit. However, it turned out that…
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After 10 days of traveling around India’s Golden Triangle I think we might have an inkling of what it’s like to be a celebrity! Apparently, having your picture taken with a foreigner is a thrill, and we were very good-natured about it but wow, is it weird, especially when they want you to hold their…
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Our time in SE Asia is drawing to a close, but before we left we spent some time checking out the seaside city of Nha Trang. The Chams were the original inhabitants of Vietnam. Between the 2nd and 17th centuries, their kingdom extended from the coastline inland across much of modern-day central and southern Vietnam….
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If you need a reprieve from the oppressive heat in Southeast Asia, may we suggest heading to the highlands of south-central Vietnam and the city of Da Lat. Nicknamed “The City of Eternal Spring,” average temperatures are between 14 and 23°C (57 to 73°F), although April, the hottest month, has occasionally seen daytime temperatures as…
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Much of our time in Cambodia this year was retracing our steps from a trip seven years ago. Kampot was completely new for us. Roughly 5 km (3 miles) inland from the Gulf of Thailand lies the riverside community of Kampot, the capital of Kampot Province. During French colonial administration it had been the capital…
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Seven years ago we had a one-day whirlwind tour of the Angkor temples. Now, as full-time travelers, we’re back for a more in-depth exploration. In the first century CE, Indian culture began taking root in much of Southeast Asia as more and more Hindu and Buddhist traders settled in the region. While the term “kingdom”…
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Why, you might ask, are we back in Southeast Asia after we made such a big deal about the heat in several of our posts last year? Well, a too-good-to-pass-up opportunity for a cruise from Singapore to Athens (with stops in Sri Lanka, India, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel) presented itself last summer; this…
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One of the most frequent questions I get is how I’m tracking the information I report, so in this post I’ll go through how we capture and display our cost and travel information. AS A BONUS, at the end of this report is a link where you can get a free copy of my spreadsheet…
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With the opening of Asia from Covid lock-down in the last half of 2022 we knew 2023 would be our opportunity to spend quality time exploring the region. We spent Christmas 2022 and January in the Palm Spring, California area with Whitney’s parents, and a quick search in Google Flights showed LAX to Tokyo was…
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