I’m about to join millions of strangers in a sacred ritual I’ve never seen before—the Kumbh Mela, the largest human gathering on Earth. As I zip up my backpack and check my itinerary, I can’t help but wonder: how will I find my place in such an overwhelming sea of humanity? For someone who grew …
Finally time for another big trip. This time we’re heading to Mexico City and Oaxaca!! The goal: to eat ourselves silly.
Sam relentlessly followed me across the entire country with minimal complaints about how much I had planned each day. Our journey took us from north to south with many stops! So to end the trip, I catered to his ‘vacation’ style and we spent 3 very relaxing days on the island of Phu Quoc. No …
Even Isabel, who doesn’t particularly like coffee, drank some everywhere we went. The trick here, adding some condensed milk. We had everything from coffee shop coffee to out of the hotel pot. Most noteable was the coconut coffee (made with coconut cream) and egg coffee (made with meringue like egg topping that gets folded in).
We decided posting all the food pictures separately was a better choice. We got to eat so many fantastic and different things, hopefully it makes you hungry! Not pictured, the millions of passion fruit Isabel ate every morning.
Ho Chi Minh was the biggest city we’ve been to! The night we arrived we decided to go see a show at the Saigon Opera House. We saw A O Show, which describes itself as a Bamboo Cirque. It was a very fun show contrasting Vietnam’s peaceful country life versus the noise of urbanization in …
It was time we headed south so we hopped on an overnight train out of Ninh Binh and headed to Hoi An. Technically we got off in Hue and then rode a bus for 3 hours but either way we made it. The train was…an experience. The cots are not for people taller than 5’ …
From Ha Long Bay we took a quick pit stop in the Ninh Binh/Tam Coc region as we make our way to central Vietnam. We woke up at 4:45 am and by 5:15 am we were hiking up stairs to catch the sunrise at the top of Mua Cave overlook. It was a beautifully clear …
What she really means is, “let’s fly somewhere pretty so we can hike our butts off”. I keep letting myself be fooled but that’s ok because the views and exercise we always do are worth it. The Ha Long Bay excursions were no different. Kayaking in the Bay The first day our guide took us …
Ha Long Bay has been one of my lifetime bucket list items. We spent 3 days and 2 nights in a ‘junk’ boat floating through the UNESCO World Heritage site. Our time was jam packed with activities but I would recommend everyone to go visit! To begin, here is our ‘junk’ boat the UniCharm. I …
After our overnight sleeper bus, we arrived in Sa Pa at 4:30 am and were taken to a hostel to sleep a little longer and store our luggage. We would only be needing small backpacks for this part of the trip. Around 8 am we meet our guide for the next two days, Su May. …
If bussing between places was always this comfortable I wouldn’t bother flying. We just arrived in Sa Pa for some trekking and we took a sleeper bus all the way from Hanoi. It was very comfortable and I am already looking forward to the bus ride back!
A few things we quickly learned about exploring the city! Crossing the street is an act of bravery, the key is to stay consistent and not stop moving. You may see crosswalks but they mean nothing. I was under the impression this time of year was slightly cooler. That is false. It may not be …
Every other store front or stall here is coffee. But not all are as unique as The Note Coffee. Five stories completely covered on the inside with post it notes from their visitors! I’m not a coffee drinker but I’ve never had anything more delicious than egg coffee and coconut coffee! ☕️
This morning we made our way to Trấn Quốc Pagoda; the oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi built in the early sixth century.
Today was our first day in Hanoi and no better way to start the trip than a food tour. Really we are here to eat good food for two weeks… We landed in the morning, checked in to our hotel, then started exploring on our own in the afternoon with $3 Pho and coconut coffee …
One year after booking the tickets and we’re finally sitting on the plane. See you in 14 hours.
3 days till the adventure begins! After putting off packing for a few days now, we decided it was probably time to see how much stuff we’re going to bring. Since we are only bringing our backpacks for ease of travel on trains and buses, I knew this would be a challenge because I’m an …
