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 […]
Taiwan: The First 24 Hours
The first 24 hours in Asia are crucial. This isn’t an easy 4-hour flight to Mexico City, where we get out of the airplane and hit the ground running, only occasionally stopping to marvel that just a few hours ago we were at home. It doesn’t have a mere 6-8 […]
When the Night Falls: Night Markets in Taiwan
A few days before our trip, I was talking to someone who had previously visited Taiwan and their only piece of advice was straightforward and without mincing words: “Do not eat street food there.” This was completely unexpected. If they’d said, “Don’t go there under any circumstances,” that would have […]
Kamikaze Tourism: Surviving Nicaraguan El Classico
Fútbol or baseball? That was our dilemma. Although Esteli was only an overnight stop on our itinerary to break up a long journey from Granada to Somoto Canyon, we had a few hours to kill in the evening, and the town hosted not one but two professional sporting events. So, […]
From Mud to Magic: A Day in Nicaragua’s Pueblos Blancos
On day four of our Nicaraguan adventure, we were visiting Pueblos Blancos (White Towns), picturesque white villages outside of the town of Masaya known for their unique artisan traditions, with each village specializing in a particular craft or activity. Our first early morning stop was in Diriomo, otherwise known as […]
Two Volcanoes and Too Many Surprises: Exploring Ometepe
I am going to start this post without multiple paragraphs praising the incomparable beauty of Ometepe (unless you are comparing it with much more expensive and overly touristy Bali) and without a single mention of just how unprepared we were to traverse Ometepe on scooters, as neither of us possessed […]
Getting Around Ometepe
If I had to explain in one word why we absolutely plan on visiting Nicaragua again, that word would be “Ometepe”. The first time I saw it in our itinerary, I thought it sounded spiritual and mysterious, with a note of an ancient ceremony, and a hint of volcanic eruptions. […]
The Coffee Robbery of the Century
If you order a cup of Nicaraguan coffee at home, chances are that the beans used in preparing your drink will be from one of the fincas near Jinotega or Matagalpa. After all, this is a premier region for renowned and much-sought shade-grown Nicaraguan coffee. We were lucky enough to […]
The Shadowy Business of Nicaraguan Coffee
At breakfast, we planned to ask Edgar, if he could give us a tour of his El Soccorro finca or recommend any other coffee tours in the area. But it turned out, we didn’t even have to ask. Edgar was super enthusiastic and excited about these two travelers who wanted […]