We’ve reached the point in our trip where things are palpably winding down. We no longer have plans to visit several new countries in the next week or so. We’ve spent nearly the last month relaxing in various parts of the US, catching up with Ian’s family and handling plans of upcoming grandeur (like our … More USA: Seattle and the Southwest
We touched down in Palawan’s capital and largest city, Puerto Princesa, which feels more like a small town with an airport. Our guest house owner was waiting for us at the airport to give us a lift. We had three weeks of entirely unstructured time in the Philippines, which was far from our norm for … More The Philippines: Puerto Princesa to Manila
Cebu We touched down in Cebu with a bit of time to spare before sundown. The airport was not a very happening place, and securing a SIM card took longer than we expected, so we wandered around outside waiting for a taxi for a few minutes before we found the stand. The ride into the … More The Philippines: Central Visayas
Hanoi Hanoi is a city that’s absolutely teeming with life. It was evident as soon as we began to make our way from the airport. By the time we finally made it to the old quarter, there was hardly an inch to walk where there was not another person, scooter, cat, dog, rat, or small … More Vietnam
Thailand After a fairly painless border crossing, we hopped in a shared taxi to the other side of Mae Sot. Once we arrived, we had just about 5 minutes to kill until the next northbound bus to Chiang Mai. We hadn’t eaten all day and were all veritably starved, but we managed to secure some … More Northern Thailand and Laos
Kawthaung Myanmar was immediately and starkly different from the Thailand that we had just arrived from. There were Buddhist temples lining the jungle-covered hills surrounding the town of Kawthaung, itself a bustling port on the muddy shores of the Kraburi river. We made our way down the narrow alleyways, past food carts and open store … More Myanmar
We had a very short night in Kuala Lumpur on the way back from Tioman Island, with a lot less sleep than we anticipated (because of the much longer than expected bus ride), and continued on to the airport in the morning with a short flight north to Surat Thani in Southern Thailand, and finally … More Thailand: Chumphon Archipelago
On this day exactly one year ago, we set off from home in Finland for our trip. Since then, we have seen and done a lot of things, so we thought it would be a nice reflection to post our answers to a questionnaire we came up with. The questions are mainly modeled after the ones … More Our Year of Traveling
Indonesia Bali In about as much time as it took us to get from Melbourne to Perth, we got from Perth to Bali and touched down in a totally different world. Gone were the familiar luxuries of western cities, and in their place a sweltering chaos; a requirement for awareness. After confirming over and over … More Indonesia and Malaysia
We were arriving in Australia with the hopes of seeing enough of it to at least get a feel for it. With only two weeks, it was very clear that we’d be missing huge portions of the country, but we were aiming to at least see three of the four major cities. Our choices were … More Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth
Sometimes the wrong train will get you to the right place. 