The pace of life in Luang Prabang, Laos is so very charming. Charming is the only one-word description I can come up with for this low-slung city with wide streets (unnatural for much of Southeast Asia), French inspired post-colonial architecture, monks clad in sunny saffron robes, and a humming buzz of relaxed tourism. I wrote earlier about the changes three years and more tourism brought upon this sweet, sleepy country set between Vietnam and Thailand, but what cannot change in the intervening years between my visits,  is the history. Laos was …

The thudding of a large motor caught our attention as we carefully navigated our bicycles down the pothole-strewn road. A glance to the right showed the slanting sun reflecting off an expansive sea of dry, off-white husks coating the yard of a house. I cocked my head to the side perplexed…the day before, Ana and I had noticed these houses with husk-like debris where grass should grow, and now, as then, I was unable to explain their curious presence in yards all over this region of Burma.
We cycled past the …

If you’re heading to Chiang Mai, Thailand and want a handful of the best things to do in town – well, you’ve come to the right place! I offer up a selection of my favorite vegetarian eats around town. The sights you shouldn’t miss, places to stay and even some of the more popular (and ethical) of the day-trips around Chiang Mai.

I’m going to miss my home-away-from-home and this wonderful city is well-worth of a visit when you’re traveling through Thailand.

Color me pleasantly surprised by my three days wandering the tidy and tall streets of Shanghai. I rarely love big cities—I’m much more of a small town girl at heart and busy sidewalks, gridlock traffic and the lack of greenery and earth starts to overwhelm me within a day or two.

Three days in Shanghai remapped my every definition of big city life and I loved the city within minutes of stepping outside of my hotel that first morning. Thanks to the generosity of my friends we spent our last days in China right on the edge of Shanghai’s trendy walking street, but with expansive views over the People’s Park (they splurged on the hotel and I got to tag along).

The thunderclouds hung low for hours over Havana, Cuba before my friend Louise and I decided enough was enough–if the rain was going to play a game of chicken with us then we were going to spend the afternoon exploring the city instead of hiding indoors in anticipation of the thick sheets of rain that had, for six long and cold days, followed us around the island like a lost puppy.

We bundled ourselves tight into our rain jackets, twisted our cameras safely into zip-lock baggies, and set out on foot to walk Old-Town Havana (la Habana Vieja) and Cuba’s famous Malecón. The Malecón being a place that has always elicited evocative images seared into my memory from Hollywood films…

I find myself frequently fighting a nonchalance that creeps into my travels – like a spider building a web, the thoughts spiral: “Is this worth my time? Could I be eating food right now? I mean really, how is this different than the 25 other palaces I’ve seen in the past two and a half years?”

Then I feel the guilt. I’m in CHINA. Of course I need to see the Forbidden City. The thing is, I have to cop to knowing very little about it prior to my visit. And this lack of information only contributed to these wayward musings.

The first views of the Great Wall of China appeared over the treetops just as the chair lift gained enough height to crest the forested hillside.
My nerves fray into pools of anxious fear when I’m dangling over a mountainside from a dilapidated metal box , so it was a real effort to keep my eyes open for that first glimpse of the wall after the chair scooped me up from the base of the Mutianyu section of the Wall and started the rickety jaunt to the top.

The brown winter mountains …

Travel Memories:
Two of the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road

Pretty picture! I’ll admit, that mostly inspired this post. The ocean reminds of blown Murano glass in Venice , Italy and nature purposefully highlighted the scene with a sizable dose of redish-orange limestone (two colors opposite on the color-wheel and therefore complimentary :). My tour guide on the Great Ocean Road shared all kinds of facts and stories, with a handful of local lore thrown in for good measure, but it was this drive’s likeness to the another beautiful road …