Little Teapot Short and Stout

If your country historically has rocks and water in close proximity to each other, I will probably end up writing a post about it. Let me explain. Anywhere in the world where there are rocks and water, there will usually be deposits of clay, created by the breakdown of igneous […]

The Mist, the Cloud, the Tea, and the Sunset: The Trails of Shizhuo

The hardest part of any itinerary is usually not where to visit or when, but for how long. There are always disagreements online over how much time each place deserves, with some people claiming to have fully explored everything in one day, while others take a week. And when it’s […]

Spilling the Tea about Alishan

Victor loves coffee, and this blog is a clear testament to that. There are so many posts about coffee tours, coffee shops, coffee destinations, conversations about coffee over coffee, and even hiking through coffee plantations. Yet if you were to go through our kitchen, you’d find at most two bags […]

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 […]

Hump Day in Oman 

By Julia / February 22, 2024

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

By Victor / February 13, 2024

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

By Julia / February 8, 2024

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 […]

Welcome to Oman!

By Julia / February 1, 2024

We arrived in Muscat early in the morning, having spent the last two nights in an airplane, the first flying from Chicago to Frankfurt, and 14 hours later, from Frankfurt to Muscat.  Unsurprisingly, we were exhausted.  We checked into the hotel, ate breakfast, and collapsed into bed.  Four hours later, […]

Christmas Miracle in Frankfurt

By Julia / January 18, 2024

It was 11:30 am and I was in the office, finishing my morning tasks and wondering what I was going to do for lunch.  It was a regular day as any other, except we had a 9 pm flight to Munich and after a 12-hour layover another flight to Muscat, […]

The Cotton Castle in Türkiye

By Julia / December 13, 2023

The first time I saw a picture of Pamukkale, I had no idea what I was looking at. Was it snow? Super white sand? White marble? Salt deposits? Was this natural or man-made?  These questions were not answered until we physically got to Pamukkale, mostly because Victor insisted that I […]

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