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 […]
The Places We Go and The Places We Stay
If I ever decide to run for a political office, I will take an unconventional step of having Airbnb provide my character references. A quick glance at our Airbnb guest review page will quickly demonstrate what an honest, punctual, clean, quiet, and non-intrusive person I am. It really sounds like […]
A Night in the Cemetery – Picnic with Ghosts in San Andres Mixquic, Mexico
Continuing from the previous post: Day of the Dead in Mexico – This is not Disney’s Coco. After the Day of the Dead parade was over, we grabbed a few tortas and coffee at a local restaurant to warm up. It was 5 pm, and the weather was turning again […]
Day of the Dead in Mexico – This is Not Disney’s Coco
We had conversations for years about visiting Mexico on the Day of the Dead (Dia de Los Muertos) but wanted to wait until celebrations fell on the weekend. Finally, in early 2019, we bought tickets to Morelia and excitedly started planning the trip. Around Lake Patzcuaro, an hour from Morelia, […]
Tombstone Tourism
A cemetery is not something you travel to another country to see. Not usually, anyway. Maybe you stop by for an hour or two to stand at a grave of a long-dead celebrity, pay respect to fallen American soldiers of WWII as we did in Normandy, or explore a beautiful […]
Sardines and Egg Custard Tarts – The Overlooked Cuisine of Portugal
We were standing in a giant store where every wall was covered with floor-to-ceiling shelves, displaying thousands of cans of sardines. “Is this… a sardines store?” Julia asked no one in particular. Her question echoed off endlessly stacked cans and down the airport hallway. We had arrived on an overnight […]
NSFW Temples or How Victor and I became Temporary Celebrities
Buckle in, the day has come. This is our very first NSFW post. None of this previous “Asian Massage but no Happy Ending” or “Pot Pizza without Any Actual Pot” nonsense. This post is going to contain the most non-family-friendly pictures so far, at least until we get to posting […]