Blue Dot Explore

Our next two cities were quicker stops, Battambang and Phnom Penh, the two largest cities in Cambodia. We arrived in Battambang from Siem Reap via a minivan, which was comfortable for the 3-hour or so ride. I wanted to take the boat between the two, but it was almost 3x the cost and would take at least 8 hours, so ultimately we opted for the much less adventurous, but much more convenient, mini-van.  Arriving in Battambang, we spent our first evening strolling the city and visiting the night food market. It had a very different feel from Siem Reap, which was equal parts tourists and locals. Walking around Battambang, we really didn't see any other tourists, and I feel like we attracted more attention. The next day, Johnny and I parted ways for our own tours. He did a full-day guided bike tour of local culture and I took a Cambodian cooking class where I learned how to make Fish Amok, fried spring rolls, and green mango salad. One of the highlights of Battambang was the chance to to...

  January 13, 2023 Sunrise at Angkor Wat We left Kho Chang Island early Tuesday morning via a packed mini-bus and arrived at the Cambodian border around 1pm. There we had our first border crossing experience which was relatively easy and stress-free, however, we learned soon after, that was partly because we paid for it. Turns out, we just could've walked through customs and gotten our own Visa for $30, but instead, we were told to wait at a comfortable restaurant and enjoy lunch while our tour guide took our passports and $42 to get our walk-up Visas. There were a few red flags that started to cue me (like watching a man scoot away with my passport), but ultimately it was legit, we just paid a "convenience fee" of $12 for a local to take care of it for us. The easiest option would have been to get an e-visa in advance, but we've also been cautioned about that route because they are not taken at all border crossings and must be done a certain number of days in advance...

*Warning: This post is too long and the pictures are formatting weird (if only I knew a programmer to help me). I'm still figuring out this blogging thing, I promise I'll get better.  January 6, The first of three waterfalls, Khlong Phlu. that we visited with our motorbike on Koh Chang The only other part of the trip that we had planned before leaving the states was seven days on the island of Koh Chang. Johnny had found this island through another travel blog,  Koh Chang: The Last Cheap Thai Island , and thought it sounded like a good place for us to relax into the trip. Although he had found us our next destination, the question remained, how do we would actually get out there? Here we hit our first of what I'm sure will be many travel decisions. We basically had three options to get to the island: big bus, mini-bus, or private car. Big bus: pro it’s the cheapest, con there are 3-4 connections and it takes a couple hours longer. Mini bus: pro it’s faster than the big bus ...

We are officially underway! The 9 days in CA absolutely flew by. The only touristy thing we managed to squeeze in between the holidays was a day trip to Yosemite. My parents dropped us off at San Francisco Airport and I surprisingly teared up a bit at all the emotions of starting this new adventure. After 14 hours to Taiwan, we had a slight hiccup when a battery pack was found in Johnny's checked suitcase (the same one I recommended we lock with a TSA luggage lock) and they had to call Johnny over the intercom to get the key. Silly thing we should have known, lesson #1: TSA locks are NOT an international thing. Silly thing we should have known, lesson #2: rechargeable battery packs are lithium batteries and cannot be checked. After a stressful (for me) 20-something minutes of watching the whole plane load, we finally saw a tiny flight attendant dragging his massive pack up the jetway for us to unlock and retrieve the culprit. Crisis averted, we boarded the plane and we were on our ...

One of the first questions you get when you tell people you are going on an around-the-world trip is inevitably "where will you all be heading"? Good question. Fair Question. But unfortunately, not as easy of a question as you would think.  We'll start with how this idea even came about. Over a year ago, after 7+ years of dating and 4ish years of living together, it was time to have a talk about what was next for us.  When I cornered Johnny to get some answers about our next stage (marriage? family? live in a new state?), his response was that he felt like he needed a "big adventure" (thus starting the ongoing joke that this trip is his "mid-life crisis come early").  I've been very fortunate that in my younger years I had lots of opportunities to travel and see the world. Over the course of our relationship, I've regaled Johnny with stories of my adventures and I often talk about how much I loved living abroad and how much I would love to do i...

Image: 14 February 1990. Voyager 1's view back at Earth as it continued its journey into interstellar space. " There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known ." - Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot , 1994 I first came across this quote in some science class or another while a biology major at UC Santa Barbara and it has stuck with me ever since. It reminds me that what seems endless can actually be just a tiny "blip" when seen from a different perspective. It doesn't seem to be a particularly common quote and often warrants an explanation, but it's referenced often enough in my own thoughts that it felt like an appropriate name for this journey we are about to start. We are embarking on our very own tour of this blue dot, which feels thri...