After the heat and humidity of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and, well, everywhere, the cool, fresh air in the mountainous Cameron Highlands region was more than welcome. I only spent two nights and one full day in the tiny, one-street town of Tanah Rata, but it was a very productive day. The day started out…
Month: May 2019
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The capital of Malaysia is only a cheap 45 minute flight away from Singapore. Pat and I arrived early in the morning, checked into our fancy hotel, grabbed coffee (because we woke up at 3:30 in the morning like insane people) and decided to start the trip with a visit to the 451-meter tall Petronas…
Singapore Part Two
In my last post about Singapore, I talked about the shiny city with skyscrapers and clean streets that everyone associates with the city. In this post, I’m going over the other side of Singapore; the colorful, multicultural side that I didn’t expect to find in a city known for its financial hub and clean streets….
Singapore (the shiny parts)
The famous, ultra-modern island of Singapore is at the top of most travelers’ to-do lists. The island is diverse in every way: the people, the neighborhoods, the food, etc., so I needed two posts to explain it. This first post is dedicated to the shiny, futuristic, skyscraper and super tree-filled Singapore that I was expecting….
Ha Giang Loop, Vietnam
Ha Giang is Vietnam’s northernmost province bordering China. It’s famous for the Ha Giang Loop, a motorbike loop through amazing mountainous landscapes, isolated villages, and endless rice terraces. Unlike Sapa, Ha Giang is off the radar for most of the tourists who visit Vietnam, probably because it requires a motorbike to see most of it…
Sapa, Vietnam
Sapa is a small town in the Hoang Lien Son Mountains in northwestern Vietnam. I took a seven hour sleeper bus from Hanoi and arrived there at around 7pm. Little did I know it would be another two hours of driving on a (very unsafe seeming) cliff side dirt road and having to walk half…
Hanoi, Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City is the most populous in Vietnam, but I had way more fun in the capital. I stayed near the city’s Old Quarter, where historical buildings meet aggressive street food vendors and at night the streets are filled with people sitting in plastic chairs enjoying mugs of beer for 5,000 dong (about…
Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
*Post Disclaimer: Thailand was my home away from home for six months, so I’m very biased and think it is better than everywhere else.* Throughout my month in Vietnam, I constantly heard other backpackers at hostels either raving about the beauty of the famed Ha Long Bay, or discussing how it was the most important…
Tam Coc, Vietnam
Ninh Binh is a small city on the Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam. Surrounding areas like Tam Coc and Trang An are filled with caves, limestone karsts, mountains, rivers and rice fields. The (intensely green) landscape is dotted with cute, little homestays that sit at the end of dirt paths that turn into mud…
Phong Nha, Vietnam
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is in Northern Central Vietnam. It is a protected area known for its huge caves and breathtaking limestone karsts. The actual town of Phong Nha is little more than a short street with a few hostels, tour companies, and restaurants, and there is a small village next to the river….