Taylor Pearson
My wife, Amy, and I have had a dream to spend an extended amount of time traveling around the world. After saving for years our dream became reality and we left our jobs in June of 2011. We spent the majority of July and August with family in northern Wisconsin and enjoyed everyday we could on Lake Superior. Our travels will start in Central America, move to India, and end in Southeast Asia. We have almost no itinerary. Gitche Gumee
Travel Blog Posts
April 4th 2012
After the disappointing few days in the Legian Beach area our time in Bali only got better. Ubud was a nice getaway from the Westernization that has ruined the Kuta-Legian-Seminyak area. Although, Ubud is not immune from the Westernization - it is really a yoga/spiritual Mecca and as a result has its own growth/tourism issues that can plague the area. The local market was a nice draw in Ubud as deals could be found! As we only had about a week left in our travels we stocked up on some nice things to bring back to the States. From Ubud we went to Amed – this is the Bali I was hoping to see! Amed is a sleepy coastline that really doesn’t have much of a city center and is just one road along a rocky ... read more
March 25th 2012
Our flight from Medan to Jogjakarta (aka Yogyakarta, Yogya, or Jogja – the “y” is pronounced like “j”) was eventful for one reason, Durian fruit. It was also a milestone for me as it was my first time South of the Equator! You might wonder why a fruit (Durian) would make a flight eventful – it is because Durian is banned from airplanes in a few countries in Asia. Why? Because Durian fruit smells so awful that describing it is probably an injustice, but I will do my best. Durian smells like all the stench of a 100 pound propane tank compressed into a TicTac sized bottle, then the super potent stench was injected into your nose with the addition of the following: five day old gym socks, vomit, and open sewer. AND THE LOCALS EAT ... read more
March 16th 2012
After our beach day in Krabi we headed south to Penang Malaysia via minibus. The roads in Southern Thailand are paved, but they are rather bumpy and it made for a rough ride. Crossing into Malaysia was easy (only country where you don’t have to fill out Visa forms), but the lines were long. We arrived in Penang around 6:00pm, having set-off around 7am, an eleven hour day. On the ride we sat next to a very chatty German who was a retired contractor, I’m guessing he was around 65. He has travelled a lot and now calls Asia home. He made the trip very interesting as he told us all of these stories about the United States that he learned through the “news” – many of which I have not heard. I say “news” because ... read more
Thailand - Diving and Beaches
Published: March 10th 2012Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Krabi
March 10th 2012
Our trip from Siem Reap to Bangkok was interesting for one reason, the mini-van ride on the Thailand side of the border. We boarded a bus at Siem Reap around 6:00am and we made it to the border a few hours later. After an hour or so we were through the border and greeted on the other side by a tour guide that assigned us to a van, and one of the craziest drivers in the world. I believe the speed limit in Thailand was 80 km/h. Using the kilometer stakes I had marked us going about 120 km/h most of the time, slightly faster at times. This would not be a big deal on a normal U.S. road, but in Thailand you are weaving in and out of traffic and passing cars with cars coming ... read more
February 29th 2012
After leaving Sihanoukville with a stopover in Phnom Penh to break up the trip we arrived in Siem Reap – the base for exploring Angkor. Angkor (which I previously incorrectly referred to as Angkor Wat – I’ll explain later) is the largest pre-industrial city in the world. It was the “capitol” of the Khmer Empire which lasted from about 800AD through 1400AD. Depending on your source of information (and probably because it is too difficult to know definitively) the city of Angkor encompassed over 1,000 square kilometers and had about 1,000 temples/sites within that area. The second largest pre-industrial city in the world, Tikal – located in Northern Guatemala, is not even half the size of Angkor. The area is so large that they offer one, three, and seven day passes to visit the area surrounding ... read more
February 24th 2012
Our time in Cambodia started with the same theme of Laos and Vietnam (death and destruction from the Vietnam War), except that in Cambodia the destruction was not from the Vietnam War but at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Not to say Cambodians are not impacted by the Vietnam War – they are – about 1000 Cambodians a year are hit by an UXO (more than Laos). However our time around Phnom Penh would be focused on learning more about the Khmer Rouge – something I was not knowledgeable about prior to coming to Cambodia. In the mid to late 70’s Cambodia was the scene of atrocities that are hard to imagine. Under the leadership of Pol Pot three out of every eight Cambodians were killed from 1975 to 1979. If this rate of killing ... read more
Vietnam War Remnants and Tunnels
Published: February 19th 2012Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City
February 18th 2012
On our last day in Nha Trang we joined a tour group to go snorkeling. Unfortunately, it was the only cloudy day while we were in Nha Trang and with the winds off the South China Sea the air temperature was rather cold. In addition, the water temperature was probably close to the same as Lake Superior in late June or early July (rather cold). On the plus side we were snorkeling in the same areas as the divers (which really means the divers were not seeing anything near what we saw in Utila). There were quite a few jellyfish that were just over an inch in diameter that we had to consistently dodge and several of the snorkelers came back with stings. Overall, I would say that this snorkeling trip was actually the worst I ... read more
February 10th 2012
After our dreary weather in Hanoi, our visit to Hoi An was welcome relief ushering in blue skies and gorgeous beaches. Hoi An is another UNESCO World Heritage City that sits at the foothills of the Vietnamese mountains about 4 kilometers from the Sea of China. Our original reason for visiting, the full moon festival, was only a small portion of the charm that Hoi An has to offer. To get to Hoi An we flew from Hanoi to Da Nang for a very reasonable price. We had set up an airport pick-up which worked perfectly again and we were on our way to Hoi An, a 30 minute drive or so. Almost instantly we were greeted by some immense development as we drove along the sea shore. It is clear that Da Nang is going ... read more
February 4th 2012
After our near miss flight experience in India we decided we better arrive at the Vientiane airport early so that we would not have any issues and would make our flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. Therefore, we left our hotel with enough time to arrive at the airport about three hours early – which turned out to be completely unnecessary! The Vientiane airport is very small (three gates) and you are not even allowed to check in until two hours before your flight. Thus, we sat around for an hour before we could get our tickets, check our bags, and wait another two hours for the flight. Getting through the airport was probably the easiest I have had in my life and if we would have showed up 10 minutes before the flight we probably could have ... read more
January 28th 2012
Our journey from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, was on a sleeping VIP bus. This was a first for us, and generally it was a good experience, but not something I would want to do if I was traveling alone. We left around 8pm for the ten hour journey, which is probably only 200 miles or so. Upon entering the bus we were pleasantly surprised to find the conditions conducive to sleeping. The sleeping bus essentially replaces seats with small cubes, stacked two high, to sleep in. The one downfall is that the cubes are relatively small. I think they were about as wide as a twin bed but only about five feet long – this is for two people. This was no big deal for Amy and me; however, if we were ... read more
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