It being my birthday, and elephants being awesome, it seemed we had no other choice but to pay a visit to Mondulkiri Project‘s Elephant Sanctuary! So Amanda and I braved the 6 hour minibus from Phnom Penh to the town of Sen Monorom in Mondulkiri province for a 2 night stay at the Tree Lodge. The Tree Lodge, run by the same people who run the Mondulkiri Project, is a guesthouse with a bunch of sweet bungalows lined up in…
After more than 3 weeks in Vietnam, Amanda and I are finally inching our way along the map deeper into Southeast Asia. We flew into Siem Reap, Cambodia to spend 3 days and 4 nights exploring the great temples of Angkor. We stayed at Onederz Hostel, a beautiful new hostel with tons of young backpackers and cheap temple tour packages. Lucky us, we got to stay in the private wing, which is like a hotel with the perks of a…
During our second week in northern Vietnam, we thought we’d check out some… wait for it … cool rocks. We spent 3 days and 2 nights in and around Ninh Binh, called “the Halong Bay on land,” and Cuc Phuong National Park. We hired a tour company to do this because of all the transit logistics. Ethnic Travel is what they’re called, and though they’re a bit heavy on the branding and a bit light on the flavorful food, they got the…
The moment we arrived, it was clear the city of Tainan is a place of rich history and amazing architecture. But ask a local, and they’ll probably tell you this town is all about the food. For day 1 of our visit, we were fortunate to have our Taiwanese friends with us, including Joanne who lives in Tainan. So we spent our first afternoon eating and exploring the city center. Between all the eating we did squeeze in some sightseeing,…
On our last day in Korea, Amanda and I headed out of Busan to Geumgang Park, up yet another cable car. If you want the audiovisual version of the story, just watch. Otherwise, scroll down and read on: We knew finding Seokbulsa temple would be difficult because the guidebook said so, and it was correct. We hiked in the wrong direction for 40 minutes and had to turn around and hike nearly all the way back to the cablecar. In…
We did something really special on Monday, as Amanda alluded to in her Seoul post. We decided to see what trouble we could get into just outside of Seoul, so we packed our day-packs and hopped on the bus bound for Bukhansan National Park. Supposedly Bukhansan is filled with tons of great hikes that probably don’t get enough attention. That said, we wanted to check out the very popular Baegundae Peak, the highest point in South Korea. It turns out we couldn’t have picked…
We went to Kobe! It’s an easy 45 min ride from Osaka on the train, and there’s plenty to do to fill at least a day trip. We did the obvious (and gaijin) thing and ate the beef, then ventured up the nearby mountain. Terrible ketchup and not nearly enough fries for this Frenchman, but the burger was good. We decided to head up the fancy ropeway in Kobe, which took us up the mountain to an herb garden, forest, and…
Amanda already wrote a bit about Kurama, but it’s worth a second mention because it’s great (and I took videos)! Less than an hour from Kyoto, you can get there via the JR Eizan line, which winds through lovely tree-covered mountains. Once you get to Kurama Station, walk up the hill to the entrance and either hike 30 min to the top or pay 200 yen per person to ride the funky cable car. We rode up and hiked back down…
On our second day with the rental car, we visited the Sounkyo Onsen Village, another part of Daisetsuzan National Park, to see what we could find. I apparently didn’t quite know where we were going or what we were doing. Whatever. The village itself was lovely, though we really were interested in getting lost for a while in the nature of Daisetsuzan National Park. We took the gondola (they call it a ropeway) up the hill for some better views….
We’re officially in love with Hokkaido. Everyone should come here, twice. On second thought, one thing we loved was the feeling like we’d gotten off the Gaijin trail. We only saw a few white people in the several days we spent around the parks and onsen villages. So stay away! Most western tourists probably only make it to this island for the famed ski resorts, not for the national parks, like amazing Daisetsuzan. We’ve been using Asahikawa as a base…