Matt and Roberta

We came to the island of Cebu in the Philippines in pursuit of perfect freediving . Panagsama Beach, just outside of Moalboal, is definitely a tourist town that caters to divers. There seem to be as many scuba shops as there are restaurants, and a few freediving shops as well. We had a very specific wish list: depth close to shore so we wouldn't have to rely on a boat, good visibility, warm water, and calm seas to enhance comfort while breathing up on the surface. And we did get it, well mostof the time. It was raining when we arrived in Manila and I tried not to take it as a portent of what was to come - we'd had our fill of monsoons in Bali. A short flight to the island of Cebu and ... read more

It's only a two hour flight from Đà Nẵng to Siem Reap and Angkor Archaeological Park. Before leaving Vietnam for the next leg of our journey we had to take advantage of our proximity to this famous site. The Khmer empire ruled over most of mainland Southeast Asia from around 800AD to the 15th century. Angkor was the capital city of this shifting empire and comprises over 1000 temples in various states of decay spread out over 400 square kilometers. The temples built by the Khmers survived changes in rulers, ideologies, languages and religions before they were forgotten and ignored for centuries. The 'discovery' of the temples in the 1850's lead to much pillaging of sacred statues and carvings by both individuals looking to make a buck and museums in the name of education. When Pol ... read more

When we arrived in Hanoi it was raining, which was welcome after the heat we'd experienced in Luang Prabang. Plus it gave the city a freshly scrubbed look just in time for us to take to the streets. The traffic in Hanoi overwhelmed us at first. It's a big, busy city full of people with places to go and things to do. But after a few hours we fell back into step and realized we really liked this northern city, the capital of Vietnam. Formerly the most formidable city in Vietnam, it was surpassed by Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) in population but is now re-asserting itself. Everywhere we looked new buildings were popping up in and amongst the old. We stayed in the French quarter and found lots of cafés and cramped little shops to wander ... read more

What to do when it gets too hot to stay home? Head further inland of course! OK, maybe this wasn't the smartest time to go but Matt and I were both determined to visit Laos whose people, we'd been told over and over, were absolutely lovely. We only had a short amount of time so oscillated between Vietiane and Luang Prabang until friends from Montréal told us that for them, Luang Prabang was the town in Laos to visit. Boy are we ever glad we trusted their advice - thank you France and Jean-Maurice! It took us about 3 seconds to fall in love with this town. So much so that we started talking about a possible long term visit sometime in the future. There is so much to say about this little city with tons ... read more

The wonderful thing about renting a house and staying in one place is that you get a real feel for where you are. After a month or so everything seems to exhale around you and in the next the breath you are taken up into the rhythm of the days. Matt and I sometimes question our style of traveling, mostly when we meet people who have been to the same country as we have but covered a lot more ground in a shorter period of time. But something always happens to remind us why this works for us. We don't just meet people, we get to know them. We see them out of context, running into them at the market or on the street. With each interaction we share a little bit more beyond the standard ... read more