Bali is seductive. The combination of lush palm trees, creamy frangipani petals scattered across the ground like snowflakes, and incense wafting from tiny plates of roadside offerings has been casting spells on visitors for decades.But truth be told, we almost didn’t go
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I crept slowly in the dark towards the dilapidated outhouse, the weak light from my headlamp illuminating the snowflakes drifting down from the sky. My breath came out in ragged gasps in the cold as ice crunched under my feet. I was
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“Ahhhhh!” I screeched like a crazed banshee as we leaned out of the Jeep. “It’s a teeny baby! Look!”Just twenty feet away, a wild baby elephant was galloping back and forth between its mother and another adult elephant. The baby, just a
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From cherry red hibiscus blossoms to bright yellow saris to the sapphire blue Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is an explosion of color everywhere you look. For such a small nation, it contains a staggeringly diverse amount of natural beauty, but the color
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Singapore is an improbable oasis of calm in otherwise bustling Southeast Asia. When we crossed the border from Malaysia (our easiest land border crossing yet–see our Cambodia post for the sketchiest one), it felt like we had stepped into a magical land
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“Oh my god,” I said, glancing up and down the street at the dozen restaurants and food stalls on our block alone. “How are we ever going to choose what to eat? I want it all!”On just one street in Kuala Lumpur,
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Another day, another sketchy land border crossing!I’ll start by sharing that crossing overland borders in Southeast Asia isn’t exactly a picnic. Border checkpoints tend to be chaotic and crowded, and usually lines don’t exist. There’s often just a crowd of people clustered
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“3…2…1…HAPPY NEW YEAR!” We shouted across Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake, our voices intermingling with hundreds of other revelers. Even the cold weather couldn’t dampen the festive atmosphere on our final night in northern Vietnam.In the United States, Mike and I have never
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Vietnam is not a country that instantly captured my heart. After just 48 hours in the capital city of Hanoi, I was ready to hop on the first flight out back to quiet, languid Laos. However, my opinion of Vietnam completely changed
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There are two vacation styles: planning everything in advance, and just winging it. My personality is definitely more suited to the former, and I know where I get it from–my dad 🙂My father has been a master vacation planner ever since I
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