Siem Reap has captivated me. I had a feeling it would, after all “OMG, I LOVED it there!” was a common response when I told other travelers where I was going. I can’t even tell you how long this quiet city has been on my MUST SEE list. I’m a sucker for a place with a tumultuous past after all. Now I know what you’re thinking, don’t all places have tumultuous pasts? I suppose in one way or another they do but not all places have seen just how evil human beings are capable of being. Cambodia is a country of phoenix’s, spirits rising from the ashes of despair to rebuild the lives they want for themselves. Some people at home are incapable of that following a bad report card or dentist visit, geez I dwell ... read more

If there is anything I have learned on this journey it is this, roosters are huge assholes, and I have way more than I need to be happy and despite what I have told myself for years, I just may be one of the “lucky ones”. Our time in Laos is rapidly coming to an end. Our last destination is the 4000 Islands in the south. But before we could get there we had to get from Ba Nah Hin to some kind of bus station in some place we’d never heard of! Our friendly guesthouse matriarch told us that a tuk tuk would arrive at 9:30 to take us to the bus. Low and behold at 7:45 the next morning she was tapping on our window telling us the tuk tuk was actually arriving at ... read more

Ba Nah Hin, a good place to stay when wanting to head out to THE CAVE is… well you know those pictures you see of very northern communities where it looks like helicopters came and just sort of dropped a settlement in a permafrost laden dirt patch. That is what Ba Nah Hin looks a bit like minus the permafrost and plus some very red arid dirt. It’s a quiet little place littered with guesthouses that you can only guess exist for the purpose of housing those brave enough to enter THE CAVE. There may also be trekking opportunities as the mountains that surround the town are quite beautiful. The locals shout hello in Laos at you as you walk by, goats and dogs roam freely and kids buy BeerLao from guesthouse fridges. Regarding that last ... read more

Singapore is a place I have wanted to visit for a long time. Not because of a specific culture or specific attractions but because it sounded like a place of the future and I wanted to see it for myself! I certainly was not disappointed. It’s a nation of only one city, millions of people all of whom seem to hail from a different corner of the world and buildings that test the imagination. It’s clean… almost too clean! This is the result of heavy penalties for littering, chewing gum and eating and drinking on public transport. I certainly have nothing against these restrictions, especially after Indonesia and watching people through their garbage out of train windows and bathe in rivers that could pass as garbage dumps. Pristine Singapore was the breath of fresh air we ... read more

I’ve now had a few days to reflect on my time in the country of 17,508 islands and the conclusion I’ve come to is I’m glad I went but from now on I will keep my enthusiasm about a place in check until I have at least made my way out of the airport! There is absolutely no doubt that Indonesia is a beautiful country. The landscape is absolutely breathtaking. There were times I found myself searching the green terraced hills for dinosaurs and other extinct creatures as we wound our way across Bali. After Bali we headed to Java, an island we didn’t expect to like all that much but ended up enjoying quite a bit. We spent time in Solo, Yogyakarta and Jakarta. All three had their perks and I would definitely recommend them. ... read more

The first thing I noticed about Gili Trawangan was that no one was harassing us about transport. This could be because the only forms of transport on the island are horses, bikes and good old-fashioned walking. Despite the reggae music and boat motors Trawangan was a wonderful place! It is easy to see why the guidebook states that many people end up staying longer than planned, we did 4 nights and I think we'd only really planned on 2 or 3. I would have happily stayed longer! Our snorkeling trip turned out to be too good to be true. We had paid $30 each for island hopping and 5 snorkel stops. In the end we stopped at Gili Meno for a mediocre lunch and snorkeled twice. Naturally, places on the island were offering trips for about ... read more

You know that place in movies where a car of friends breaks down and half of them are saying things like "Guy's we can't stay here." "It's weird we need to get out ASAP." And a couple others are saying, "Oh come on it's fine!" "Yeah nothing is going to happen, stop being babies!" and then they are all murdered in horrible ways, except for one that ends up laying on the side of the road all bloody from her daring escape, that's the place we ended up. We were all joking about the movie thing but I think deep down we really were a bit nervous! No transport out, no internet, probably no cell service and a volcano still decently active! I'd also come up with the scenario that in the night we"d be captured ... read more

“You want magic mushrooms?” “If they’re free sure!” “Oh yes! I’m on them right now! Flying!” the guy says as he turns up the techno music while he drives down an impossibly narrow lane made of mud and rocks. That was the conversation we had with one of our many drives of the day. To say the past 48 hours have been weird would be an understatement. They were weird and frustrating and a bit stressful. It all started when we left our lovely room at Sama Sama Bungalows in Amed on the west coast of Bali. We had to get to Padangbai to catch the ferry to Lombok and then travel up Lombok to get to the Gili Islands. Our room in Amed was so beautiful that it was a bit nice to think we ... read more

Bali in Korean means hurry so it’s kind of funny that Bali, Indonesia is a slow paced kind of place! It has been a nice change and I’m slowly but surely adjusting to this pace. There is still part of me that thinks I’ve only got a few days left and will have to return to work but I don’t… I’m totally free. I have no schedule, no duties, no 9-5 business going on at all in my present situation, a girl could definitely get used to this! I left Korea on a late flight bound for Kuala Lumpur where I had a 5-hour layover. 5 hours of staring at my computer screen begging the time to go faster! At 9:30am I boarded a flight to Denpasar, Bali. I had to get a visa on arrival ... read more

I'll be honest most of 2010 was a giant countdown to October 1st! Not setting foot on Canadian soil for nearly 2 years was starting to take its toil on me. Everything sucked. I had 0 tolerance left for Korea and I missed the ability to speak in full sentences... and to speak face to face with friends and family! My kids were pushing me to the edge of insanity, I wasn't enjoying the pushing matches with ajumma's on the subway the same way I use to and I had a feeling that all the pigeons were out to get me. So when October 1st rolled around and I made the trip up to Incheon it wasn't a minute too soon! When I landed in Vancouver I didn't have much time to go WOW I'm "home"! I ... read more