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 […]

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 […]

A Traveler’s Dilemma: The Human Zoo

By Victor / May 28, 2020

In December 2013, while traveling through northern Thailand, we had the option of visiting a hill tribe village. In Chiang Mai, nearly every tourist agency advertised these tours with photos of smiling indigenous women with unnaturally long necks wrapped in brass rings. Initially, the trip looked tempting, and we even […]

Egypt: Camping in the Desert Mustafa-Style

By Julia / May 21, 2020

Our Egypt desert adventures start here. As the sun was setting over the White Desert, our Jeep headed towards the overnight camping spot.  With no large dunes or stones to block our view of sunset or sunrise, our guide and driver found a spot in a large flat valley, white […]

Egypt: Black Desert, White Desert, Best Desert

By Julia / May 14, 2020

We’ve never had a bad trip.  We’ve had a lot of mishaps and quite frankly several shitshows, but we never have been to a country we didn’t like.  And now, looking back at dozens of excellent trips we’ve taken around the world, I can tell you with complete honesty and […]

All Aboard the Booze Train!

By Victor / May 8, 2020

After visiting blue agave fields, our tour continued at the Jose Cuervo distillery known as La Rojeña. Choosing to visit Jose Cuervo over any other distilleries in the area was an easy decision. Jose Cuervo is the birthplace of tequila mass production and one of the oldest distilleries in Latin […]

We Drink Tequila in Tequila (Mexico)

By Victor / April 30, 2020

For many people, tequila is one of the most recognizable products of Mexico-the country’s brand.  And that’s why when we visited the state of Jalisco, we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see the town of Tequila, known obviously, for tequila. Located just 40 miles northwest of Guadalajara, Tequila was […]

Part II: How We Lost Our Luggage and Minds in Barcelona

By Julia / April 23, 2020

Read “Part I: The Train Ride from Hell” here. After spending the entire night being tortured by bright lights, uncomfortable seats, and unruly passengers, we finally reached Barcelona. It was early morning, cloudy and chilly, and we barely had an hour of sleep last night. Shivering, we ran down the […]

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