Browsing the "First Impressions" Category →

Three days of rural Japan With only 10 days in Japan, Alissa and I had to narrow our list of cities to visit down to three.  Tokyo and Hiroshima were on the list from the...

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OK, well technically these are not our first impressions of Japan.  We spent 24 hours in Tokyo back in 2010, but back then we barely had time to truly see much of Tokyo, much less...

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After 3 days in Hanoi, we’re starting to get a sense of the city, and hopefully its a indicator of good times to come in our total of 20 days in this country.  Here’s what...

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Rarely do places as hyped as Chiang Mai meet our expectations, but in this laid-back Northern Thailand city, we are just as in love with the place as everyone else we’ve talked to about it....

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It’s amazing how easy it is to stay in your comfort zone while traveling in most Southeast Asian countries.  Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos all make it very easy to explore the culture for a...

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We survived our second sleeper train of the trip and arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos early Saturday morning. Crossing the Border from Bangkok to Vientiane Our experience was a little different than other...

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There were a lot of unknowns when we left three months ago, including our condo not being rented.  However, in mid-April, we were able to lease our condo to two young professionals in Minneapolis.  Leaving...

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Travel days bring conflicting emotions – the sadness of leaving a great place (Ubud, in this case), the excitement of the journey, anticipation of the new destination, and the physical discomfort of being tired, hot,...

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We arrived in Bali yesterday morning after catching a 4:50am flight from Perth, Australia.  We’ve arranged a to stay in a villa in Ubud, Bali with some fellow working travelers.  The villa has about 6...

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After a rainy weekend in Brisbane, we are ready for some sun! The forecast for the week looks better and we’ve seen enough of the city, so we spontaneously added a week in Gold Coast, about an...

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