Easy Mode in Sri Lanka

After a very busy and difficult month in India, we needed some relax time.. we needed something easy. There weren’t many options in this neck of the woods. We had Pakistan to the west.. no. We had Bangledesh to the east. We had a stop over in that airport a few months back and we …

Chasing the Dragon in the Philippines

So, we wanted “water” time.. we wanted crystal clear waters to swim and snorkel. December would be our month for this and the Philippines love their Christmas even more than we do. A 2 for 1 deal. Using the fantastic internet connection of Malaysia we did some “quick” research and booked our ticket to Manila. …

Muted in Malaysia

We definitely spoke a lot of backwoods slangy French during our stay in Malaysia.. and even then, it wasn’t enough .. even then, I would still get those wide eyes from Sylvie that scream “shut your mouth!”. So most of the time we were confined to expressionless silence in public or whispers in the dark …

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, 2015

August 10, 2015 at 4:04pm Back on the mainland we rented a scooter for the 3 final days of the trip. We loaded our now 4 backpacks on this thing and drove it 2 hours north to the town of Ubud.  Ubud was like the Chiang Mai of Bali .. the place everyone talked about.. …

Nusa Lembongan, Bali, Indonesia, 2015

August 10, 2015 at 3:57pm Back in Bali, where we planned to spend the final week of our trip .. We had 2 goals.. to visit the islands of Lembongan and Ceningan and to visit the town of Ubud. We did both 🙂 To get to Lembongan, we needed to take a ferry or a …

Labuanbajo, Flores, Indonesia, 2015

August 10, 2015 at 3:52pm Oh Lasse .. as he sat there on the curb doing his math, I knew full well that this would be a challenging and very long journey across to Labuanbajo. I can just hear him muttering “2 hours plus 1 hour .. then 50 kms for 3 hours … plus …

Amed, Bali, Indonesia, 2015

Amed, Indonesia, 2015 July 30, 2015 at 3:51am In the wake of all the worldly uncertainty (the Paris terrorist attacks).. the divisions being spliced between schools of critical thought, religion and human rights .. I reluctantly post the next chapter of our Asian trip.  I am in no way insensitive to the current happenings of …

The Gili Islands, Lombok, Indonesia, 2015

We are on the last morning (7:00am) of a 5 day stay on the beautiful Gili Islands. This has been a very relaxing and much needed time to recharge for the next couple of weeks ahead. Wifi has been brutal on this island, so it has been difficult to keep in touch with those back …

Mount Ijen, East Java, Indonesia, 2015

We packed into a bemo mini bus in the village of Cemoro Lawang with 9 other travelers we would spend the next few days with. I am typing this from a beach bungalow in the Gili islands over a week later and we are still with 2 members from this mini bemo bus. The characters …

Mount Bromo, Indonesia, 2015

After a couple final punches to the gut from Vietnam, our Tiger Airways flight landed in the lackluster city of Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. We had focused most of our research back home on Vietnam and weren't very prepared for Indonesia. The first thing we noticed from the jet, was the landscape of incredible Volcanoes …