Hail Mary at Taoist Temple
“You enter on the right through the dragon door and exit on the left through the tiger door. And you never enter or exit through the middle door. That door is for gods.” We sat on a bench in front of a brightly colored Taoist temple with a rooftop looking […]
Taiwan: The First 24 Hours
The first 24 hours in Asia are crucial. This isn’t an easy 4-hour flight to Mexico City, where we get out of the airplane and hit the ground running, only occasionally stopping to marvel that just a few hours ago we were at home. It doesn’t have a mere 6-8 […]
When the Night Falls: Night Markets in Taiwan
A few days before our trip, I was talking to someone who had previously visited Taiwan and their only piece of advice was straightforward and without mincing words: “Do not eat street food there.” This was completely unexpected. If they’d said, “Don’t go there under any circumstances,” that would have […]
Back to Asia: Discovering Taiwan
The last time we were in Southeast Asia was in 2019, which now seems like a lifetime ago. Our first trip to that region was Thailand in 2013, followed by India in 2014, Japan in 2016, China in 2017, Cambodia in 2018, and finally Vietnam in 2019. On our first […]
France Flashback: Châteaux of the Loire Valley
If you’ve ever skimmed our blog, you already know our usual pattern: go to a country, spend two weeks there, enjoy the hell out of it, swear we’ll return, and then never set foot there again. It happens every single time, no matter how earnestly we insist that this time […]
Izmir Food Special
When Victor visited Istanbul last year with his parents, he was so impressed with Turkish markets that he later wrote three blog posts on this topic (post #1, post #2, post #3). So obviously, while visiting Türkiye this year, we couldn’t skip Kemeralti Market in Izmir, one of the oldest […]
Leblebi, Leblebi Everywhere
In the evening of Day 6 in Türkiye, we were driving from Pamukkale down to Fethiye, after having spent the whole day exploring what Turkish people consider to be the 8th Wonder of the World. There’ll be a separate post about that later with some of the most surreal photographs […]
Getting Clean in Türkiye
My motionless body lies inside the octagon. I’m on my back, in a state of total disorientation, hardly registering what is going on around me. I feel neither my legs nor arms, and can barely hear any sounds. My eyes are closed, and when I squint them open, all I […]
Surviving the Apocalypse in Türkiye
After visiting the archeological treasures of Ephesus, one of the most famous and well-preserved ancient cities, in the morning, we were in the mood for something easy and delightful, with a bit of indulgently sweet on the side. And so, a stop in the village of Şirince, just 8 kilometers […]
Welcome to Lycia!
We visited Lycia, and I am here to tell you all about it. If you are staring at a map, confused and bewildered, let me get you a little better situated. Lycia is a maritime district of southwestern Anatolia and can be found on the Teke Peninsula, surrounded by the […]
Türkiye: The First Time
The first time we ended up in Türkiye was back in the winter of 2013, and to be perfectly clear, we didn’t go to Türkiye, we went to Thailand for two weeks and had an overnight layover in Istanbul on our way back. And so, Türkiye was an afterthought. We […]