In the Sea of Clouds
When we travel, we usually try to avoid pre-planning everything. By rigidly scripting every activity down to the minute, you can easily deprive yourself of genuine travel experiences, instead just following the “script”. But that doesn’t work with sunrises and sunsets, especially if you want to catch them from a […]
Hugging Trees in Alishan
Alishan was giving me a headache. Trying to fit this mountainous forest into our itinerary was a challenging task. No direct trains from Taipei. No direct buses. Renting a car and driving up there? Maybe. But that wasn’t ideal. The most reasonable option was to get to the city of […]
Getting My Ears Picked in Taiwan
One of the pleasures of going to Asia, at least for me, is the massages. Everywhere from Thailand to Vietnam to Cambodia, the massages are excellent, cheap, and widely available. From restorative foot massages after a long day of hiking, to full body deep tissue rubdown that leaves me in […]
Kaohsiung 高雄市: My kind of town
“Please just point to it on the map. Don’t try to pronounce it!” Julia pleaded with me as we approached a ticket counter at the Tainan train station to buy tickets to our next destination. The day before, she was chatting with her massage therapist and tried to tell him […]
Introductory Course: Taipei 101
All of a sudden, everyone knows what Taipei 101 is, after Alex Honnold scaled Taiwan’s tallest building with no ropes and no fear, live on Netflix. We were in Taipei a month before this death-defying stunt, and when Victor mentioned that we would visit Taipei 101, I had no idea […]
In the Heart of Oman: Exploring Sharqiya Sands
One of my favorite memories from Egypt was the two days and one night we spent in the White Desert with the endless starry sky, surreal white rock formations, and sand dunes glowing in the sunlight. I’ve wanted to go back for over a decade, and Oman finally offered a […]
Essential Oman – Forts and Castles
Ten years ago, we went to Thailand, and one of our main concerns was how to see as many temples as possible without being “templed out”. By the end of the trip, beautiful Thai temples did start to resemble each other, but we left just in time before they became […]
The Wonders of the Wadi
The next few posts are going to be about what we consider to be “essential Oman” – the natural beauty of breathtaking landscapes and the traditional architecture of historic forts and castles. I am going to start with something we’ve never seen before and that only exists in a few […]
Hump Day in Oman
It was 5 am, and we were on the move. We got up in the middle of the night to drive out of Nizwa, a lively city full of neon signs and bustling markets, towards a dusty outpost town of Sinaw in the desert. The next thing I am going […]
Driving in Oman: 5 Pros and 1 Con
I must admit I was a little bit nervous about the prospect of driving in Oman. Driving in the Middle East is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you are going to get. On the one hand, you can get Turkey with its excellent network of roads, […]
How I Became a Fashionista
Back in 2011, when we were preparing to visit Egypt, it never even occurred to me that this would not be an average trip. And I am not just talking about ending up in the middle of the Arab Spring with violent and deadly protests happening three blocks away from […]