Bad Things

We arrived in Taipei on December 13th and left on the 18th to explore Alishan. On December 19th, 2025, a 27-year-old man threw smoke grenades and stabbed people in a Taipei metro station, killing three people and injuring eleven others. He then killed himself by jumping from a building. This […]

Taiwan: Shaking in Our Boots

It was an evening of our last day in Kaohsiung, and we were visiting the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas.  Temples in Taiwan usually have dragons painted by one set of doors to indicate that those doors are used to enter the temple, and tigers by another set of doors, which […]

Day Lilies, Yuli Noodles, and the Mountain Mist

Of the four days in the East, we spent three days driving up and down the coastal highway.  These days were filled with stopping at ocean viewpoints, exploring the shoreline’s rugged geoparks, and learning about local indigenous culture. But as we navigated through this narrow stretch of land, sandwiched between […]

The Wild, Wild East: Taiwan’s Enigmatic East Coast

Like Alishan, we considered cutting the East Coast out of our itinerary entirely. The region was remote, and it was a logistical puzzle to plan.  Also, it was the only place in Taiwan where we needed to rent a car and potentially drive through what looked on the map like […]

Food.  Taiwan.  Must I Say More?

I wanted to write about the top 10 dishes we ate in Taiwan and quickly realized that the list was way longer than 10 and each dish deserved its own blog post, and this would quickly spiral into Two Cats Backpack Eats Taiwanese Food for Entirety of the Foreseeable Future […]

Welcome to Lycia!

By Julia / October 19, 2023

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

By Julia / October 5, 2023

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 […]

Small Towns, Big Problems

By Victor / September 28, 2023

Even before the pandemic, Europe had been seriously suffering from over-tourism, with masses of tourists visiting the most popular destinations at rates not seen before.  The pandemic didn’t ease the situation, and to some extent, even exacerbated the problem, causing people who’d skipped travel in the last 2-3 years to […]

The Unexpected India

By Victor / September 14, 2023

India was our best trip and our worst trip.  Nine years later, I’m still shocked that, while still being relatively new international travelers, we had enough courage to pick India as our second Asian country to visit. We wrote extensively about 16 unforgettable days in India that included, among other […]

Six Wonders of the World: Part II

By Julia / August 30, 2023

Start with Part I here for the Colosseum, Chichen Itza, and Taj Mahal. 4.  Christ the Redeemer By the time we visited Brazil in 2015, Christ the Redeemer was firmly established as one of the New Wonders of the World, and the tourists were certainly aware of it.  From our […]

Six Wonders of the World: Part I

By Julia / August 17, 2023

We were on a mountain in Peru, looking down at a gorgeous green valley, peppered with ancient stone constructions. “I can’t believe we are finally at Machu Picchu!” Victor said, “Congratulations!  You have now visited all “New Seven Wonders of the World”!” “I have?” I asked, unsure. “Well, let’s see.  […]

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