Family Spirit Phuket
Phuket is known as a beach paradise, a place to get away from it all, relax and enjoy. After almost five months on the road, that sounded ideal, and what better way than in the company of family? For the first time on one of our extended travels, someone paid us a visit! Greta (Donny’s […]
Seaside Qingdao
Challenges of the Chinese Train in Summer Summer is in full swing, and it seems like everyone is on vacation. Trains are jammed, with seats sold out weeks in advance. We tried in vain to buy a ticket to Harbin in the north and to Xi’an in the south. Then we started looking into buses. […]
Naksan Temple
The sometimes lush and green, sometimes bare and craggy Taebek Mountains meet the pounding Eastern Sea in South Korea’s northeastern Gangwon Province. To the north is North Korea, to which originally part of the region originally belonged. (Kim Il Sung’s former villa is nearby). Seoul is a few hours southwest by bus, and everything east […]
Dynamic Busan
As their campaign promises, the city of Busan is indeed dynamic, with a free WiFi program, helpful volunteers in the stations, friendly citizens, shopping, dining (fine and otherwise), beaches, mountains, temples and a casino. Haeundae Beach and Gwangalli Beach are just a few subway stops away from one another, but have very different atmospheres. Haeundae […]
Manuel Antonio
We arrived at Manuel Antonio, the town attached to the National Park of the same name, after another bad taxi experience in San José. We had to pass through, since we were travelling from the Caribbean to the Pacific Coast. There are separate bus terminals, though they aren´t too far from one another. The driver […]
Cahuita National Park
White sand, coconut trees lining the beach and reefs near shore? Sounded good to us. The small beach town of Cahuita is on Costa Rica´s Caribbean Coast, about 4 hours from San José, south of Limon. We decided this would be the perfect introduction to the country on our first visit here. High on […]
Choroni
Choroni is a hopping little beach town and one of the more accessible for harried Caraqueños trying to escape the big city. That being said, we left for Choroni on Monday morning. Using public transportation to arrive is an adventure. The bus from Caracas to Maracay is no big deal, $2.50 and an hour and […]
The Coromandel
Why head back to the city so soon when we could have one more pretty drive in the country? We spent our last day-and-a-half on the Coromandel Peninsula, exploring hidden beaches and camping by a stream. We passed artist’s studios, pristine beaches and inviting forests. It was a great way to wrap up the New […]
Bondi
Today was the day I met Pete for the second time. The first time had been 22 years ago, as exchange students in Japan. Though we were just teens then, I guess we were pretty good judges of character, since the four of us (Donny and Pete’s partner Kate included) had a wonderful day exploring, walking, chatting […]
Yabba Dabba Doo. Enjoy the Cave in Aruba!
Soon after arriving in Aruba, we rented a Jeep and took off to explore. Resorts are comfy and relaxing, but we wanted, as much as possible in a place so heavily reliant on its tourist infrastructure, to see what Aruba was like away from the tourist hotels, beaches and malls. Aruba, along with Bonaire and […]