It wasn’t long before we were landing at the Hanoi airport, listening to the song “Hello, Vietnam” on repeat from the speakers. Dan bought a SIM card, and a stranger informed us that Vietnam has Uber. Then we got an Uber to our hotel before another full day exploring the river and rice paddies of … Continue reading →

In the morning, our guide picked us up from Onederz in an SUV complete with air conditioning, bottled water, and ice-cold washcloths to pat our faces with after being exposed to the Cambodian heat. We made a quick stop for tickets where the staff took our headshots and printed them on day passes for the … Continue reading →

We boarded our comically short flight (45 minutes). Dan ordered food for us when he was booking our tickets because it was cheap. We proceeded to have a mess of a time trying to scarf down our meal, dessert, and fill out the immigration documents before the plane landed. Cambodia had even more immigration documents … Continue reading →

After walking off the plane and into Suvarnabhumi Airport, excitement was mounting as I struggled to connect to wifi. This was the first time I’d see my brother and cousins in over a year… and it was in Thailand of all places. Finally I managed to get on one of the airport networks and a Facebook … Continue reading →

Singapore wasn’t in the original plan, but plans change, so here we are. A flight from Taiwan to Singapore to Thailand was the same price as a flight from Taiwan to Thailand. Why? Because sometimes airline prices make no sense. My 4-hour-and-40-minute flight to Singapore was around $80 on an airline I had never heard … Continue reading →

Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Festival is a 4-day weekend in Taiwan, but as with most 1-day holidays falling during the work week, an extra vacation day or two is added to connect it to the weekend, and then the entire country works on a Saturday to make up the connecting work days missed. That’s … Continue reading →

Strawberry Picking A big group of us, about 13, met at Neihu MRT on a quest for Strawberries. I was actually supposed to go to this same Strawberry farm about a month earlier with another friend, but the trip got rained out. I was grateful to have a second opportunity to pick fresh strawberries, my favorite food. … Continue reading →

Howard’s plans are always an adventure, and he had planned a full day of activities for us. Sean, Annie, Howard, Tammy, and I all met up at a pizza place for lunch before heading straight for Yangmingshan, a mountain near Taipei. It was spring, flower viewing season, and we were headed to a field of … Continue reading →

This post is a collection of some of my favorite parts of the trip. They are highlights that needed to be grouped together because of what they have in common: necessities for the quintessential vacation! Paradise Beach Follow me back to Day 2 of the trip, when we visited Paradise Beach. We haggled down a … Continue reading →

On Thailand Day 6, we hiked down a steep hill to the secluded Freedom Beach. (I will cover that in my final Thailand post.) For now, I’ll move on to Thailand Day 7. Megan and I both agreed that Thailand Day 7 was our favorite excursion of the whole trip, which says a lot. We were picked up by van … Continue reading →