Traveling every day since January 2102, we’ve gained a treasure trove of memories. We’ve seen the sunrise over 20,000-foot peaks, walked the streets of ancient civilizations, and met hundreds of people we now call friends. Countless moments brought a smile to our faces, though there are a few that have left a deep imprint on…
Following the snaking slot canyon, swirled with red, purple, and gold sandstone, we entered the 2000-year old city of Petra. Once a trade hub linking China, India, and southern Arabia with Egypt, Greece, and Rome, this Nabataean kingdom was sophisticated, exotic, and in a league of its own. Temples, amphitheaters, and mausoleums were carved into…
We drove from Quito down the Pan-American Highway, the storied road from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, towards the highest active volcano in the world…Cotopaxi. It towered over us at 19,347-feet, growing even taller with a steady stream of smoke and ash. We rounded the gravel road and the charming Hacienda el Porvenir appeared, nestled…
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic doesn’t get nearly enough credit. It’s the oldest European city in The Americas (est. 1496) and home to the first cathedral, university, castle, monastery, and fortress in the New World. If you knew that, good on ya, but I feel like every person we’ve told is as surprised as we were….
Every city in Ecuador has a small indigenous population…but in Otavalo they aren’t at the fringe, they are at its heart. The Otavalos are an industrious group of skilled craftsmen and savvy business people. They have managed to keep their traditions of weaving, painting, and carving, and ditch the middleman to garealize the full potential…
When we were planning the HoneyTrek route, Myanmar (formerly Burma) was still under a military dictatorship, saddled with sanctions and virtually shut to the world. The regime officially ended in 2011, but after 49 years of oppression it hardly seemed like a place you’d want to visit…but everyone we met who’d been said exactly the…
Hanoi is an Asia metropolis at its most romantic. With strong Chinese and French colonial influences and plenty of Vietnamese pride, this 1000-year old city is a glorious blend of east and west, old and new. Hanoi would have probably wooed us on any given day with its pagodas, palaces, lakes, and markets but the…
Our love-hate relationship with Vietnam began the moment we crossed into the Mekong Delta. It’s gorgeous, it’s exotic, it’s a veritable sensory overload…but Vietnam has more shysters than any of the other 33 countries we visited on the entire HoneyTrek–combined! We got scammed/lied to/accosted five separate times in our first three days in the country….
Departing Thailand and entering Cambodia was like stepping back 50 years in time. It’s a fascinating country full of charms but cloaked with melancholy. Among the smiling children, waving grannies, chatty vendors, meditating monks, you can’t help but feel a sadness. Cambodia lost 34% of its population to the Khmer Rouge genocide and with a…
Japan is sort of its own special planet. Nowhere is this clean, people are never this nice, and nothing is quiet this perfect. Maybe it’s the lack of land-based neighbors or the 200+ years cut off from the outside world, but they definitely have their own way of doing things. From style, culture, cuisine, humor,…
Tokyo is as lovely and well mannered as you’d expect the Japanese capital to be, but it has a nerdy, naughty, and edgy side that keeps it interesting. Things like capsule beds, anime emporiums, Pachinko parlors, and Hello-Kitty-themed Love Hotels thrive alongside ancient shrines and state-of-the-art skyscrapers. Tokyo Japan a place of endless contradictions and…