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Blue Ridge Birthday

Blue Ridge Birthday

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My birthday falls at the end of June. Growing up, this was unbelievably awesome. Even as the snow days would pile up for the New Hampshire school systems, it was inevitable that summer vacation would narrowly save me from a celebration spent sitting at a desk on a sunny day as my classmates sang the obligatory birthday song. Since moving to North Carolina, though, I’ve enjoyed my birthdays significantly less. Here, June signifies the rapid transition to oppressive temperatures, suffocating…

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Must-have Meals Around the Globe

Must-have Meals Around the Globe

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One question we are constantly asked is, ‘what’s the best thing you’ve ever eaten on your travels?’  We’re typically left with a puzzled gaze, sputtering out a few words as we stumble over hundreds of foods in our heads. It’s about as easy to pick one meal as it is to pick a favorite country or city – we’ve had so many that have been wonderful yet so uniquely different. Since we can’t choose just one, we’ve compiled a list…

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Great Guesthouses in Southeast Asia

Great Guesthouses in Southeast Asia

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Having traveled around with backpackers living on a true shoestring budget, we quickly realized how cheaply you could stay in southeast Asia. A bed in a dormitory-style hostel seemed to run anywhere from about $6 to $10 USD per night (we even met up with an easy-going Argentinian who was elated to find he could get a mattress on a floor in Houay Xai, Laos for only $2/night). If you’re kicking around southeast Asia and want to do cheap, you…

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How to be an Airbnb pro

How to be an Airbnb pro

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Before embarking on a year-long trip around the world, we’d never used Airbnb for international accommodations. Because we’d typically only be traveling for a couple weeks at a time, we usually stayed at cozy inns, boutique hotels, or bed and breakfasts (if we weren’t camping). This time, though, we were going to have to sustain ourselves for an entire year. Knowing we’d have to cut corners on the budget in some way, we turned to Airbnb. The increasingly-popular online booking…

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Dog Days of Summer

Dog Days of Summer

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Sorry it’s taken me so long to publish this blog post. It’s totally my mom’s fault. I’ve been bugging her for weeks, but she’s been too busy working on her TEFL certificate to help proofread my work. Lucky for me, though, she just turned in her last assignment – so I guess I can withdraw my classified ad for a more reliable editor and we can finally go back to things being all about me again. But I digress… Because…

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Elephant Nature Park Dogs

Elephant Nature Park Dogs

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Two years ago, Stephan and I visited Elephant Nature Park. It was an experience that forever changed my life… an experience that touched me so deep in my core, I can’t begin to put it into words. It was a place that enveloped me with an overwhelming sense of happiness and peace. It was a place that was a world away, but somehow felt like home. And it was a place, unexpectedly, where I found my best friend. I think,…

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Vegging Out in Chiang Mai

Vegging Out in Chiang Mai

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As part of my first solo trip abroad, I was pretty excited to put together a little vegan food tour of Chiang Mai. Because I usually travel with Stephan, a meat eater who loves to explore each region’s native cuisine, we typically seek out local hotspots for him to expand his adventurous palate. While I fully support this endeavor – as I am by no means an adventurous eater – for once, it was super fun to plot out my…

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Going Solo in Chiang Mai

Going Solo in Chiang Mai

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After months of dreaming about returning to Thailand to volunteer with the Elephant Nature Park pups, I finally found the nerve to book the long flight across the world for my first solo adventure abroad. I don’t know if it was my approaching birthday, or the dissatisfaction I felt from not really challenging or inspiring myself over the past year, but I somehow silenced the angst-ridden flyer in me long enough to hit the yellow ‘purchase’ button on Expedia. A…

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Strangers on a plane

Strangers on a plane

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Nelson Mandela once professed, ‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.’ As someone who spends countless hours struggling to overcome fear, Mandela’s creed resonated strongly with me. Traveling is one of my greatest passions. Unfortunately, though, this love of exploring is irreversibly coupled with a deep-seated fear of flying. I have to admit, it’s really…

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A Year Abroad: Our Budget

A Year Abroad: Our Budget

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Making the commitment to pack up and spend the world sightseeing is an exciting prospect, but at the same time daunting and perhaps a bit surreal. We are not independently wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but we are pretty diligent penny-pinchers and savers. Before we left on our long-term adventure, my mind continually questioned, ‘can we really do this on a practical budget?’ After months on the road, I learned that the answer simply – if not surprisingly –…

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