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 […]
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 […]
Gaudi’s Barcelona
We arrived in Barcelona early in the morning after a hellish overnight train ride that we still remember more than 10 years later. Bleary-eyed and groggy, our zombie-like entrance into the city was less than glorious. But that didn’t matter after all. We were in Barcelona. The city of Lionel […]
Walking on Not-Very-Thin Ice in Argentina
Start From The Beginning: Hiking in Argentina We arrived in El Calafate a bit beat up from two days of hiking in El Chalten. My blisters had blisters, all my hiking socks were dirty and torn, and my supposedly waterproof brand-new hiking shoes were very much soaked through. But none […]
Hiking Into the Sky, Patagonia, Argentina
Start with Part I of Argentina Travels to figure out who Ayala is and who we are. “First hike in El Chalten,” Victor said, “Is twenty-six kilometers. Next day, we’ll take it easy and do nineteen. The following day, we get to El Calafate and hike up a glacier.” “When […]
Free Wheeling Through Albania
As we planned our Albanian trip, the first question that popped up was “How will we get around?” Private transportation for two weeks was too expensive, and public transportation was too inconvenient for our overbooked itinerary. The only viable option was to rent a car. But I had my doubts. […]
Albania: Buzzed in Berat
Our guidebook passionately warned that Albanian red wine was utterly terrible and recommended sticking with white wines only. We are not big wine drinkers at all, but what we did want to see were the Albanian wineries. Of course, the best part of any distillery or winery tour is the […]
Where To Next?
“Next week is going to be our 100th blog post!” announced Victor, who likes to keep track of useless statistics such as his billable hours, NFL scores, and how many times each cat throws up a hairball. I was planning to post about that time Victor, his mother, his aunt, and […]