“Flashpacking” is a loosely defined, upmarket variant of backpacking. We are more than happy to take on that moniker for a lot of our approach to travel. With flashpacking, you can have really extreme variation in the budget for different aspects of your travel. The driving considerations are just fun, comfort, and safety. One area […]
“Mike, you do realize this is the most ‘white devil’ stop we’ve ever had on vacation, right?” Watching a throng of British tourists being waited on by servile Sri Lankans in traditional attire…. Yes, the thought had occurred to me. To be clear, we’re sort of co-opting the “white devil” term to refer to remnants […]
Overland transport can be one of the more interesting parts of international travel. We particularly enjoy traveling by train, and the lengthy trip from Colombo through Kandy and on to Badulla is certainly one of the more scenic train rides in the world.
Anyone who has taken more than a few flights may know the feeling of nearly missing a flight. Or, even worse, missing a connection. Or, even much worse, missing an international connection. But those feelings pale in comparison to missing an international connection in the middle of a multistop trip, potentially subverting prebooked lodging, ground […]
For the months of January and February, Dubai has an official “Shopping Festival” going on, which seems to be kind of a big deal. I must say, the shopping festival here in Jan-Feb is pretty similar to the one we have in the U.S. from Nov-Dec. The largest mall in the world (Dubai Mall) was […]
This being our first visit to an Islamic country, we’ve certainly been on a learning curve with appropriate etiquette. The difference here though is that breaches in etiquette, unintentional or not, can have some real consequences beyond causing offense. When you read about some of the very big differences in social protocol in a place […]
Itinerary: UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi) Sri Lanka (Colombo, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Sigiriya, Dambulla, Anuradhapura) Maldives (Male, Huvahendhoo)
*Full Indonesia Gallery Below* Our last day in Yogyakarta, like the day before, started around 0330 to head out for the sunrise over the Borobudur complex. It had rained the day before, and the sky was clear, which made for a very different look to things. It was beautiful… a fire of orange and pink […]
The Manohara hotel is pretty much the only game in town if you want to watch the sunrise over Borobudur. If you’re staying in Yogyakarta, you’re looking at an hour drive to get to the place, and you need to be there by 0430, and then the sunrise tickets will cost you more if you’re […]
Ahead of us was an eight hour train ride across the island of Java from Jakarta to Yogyakarta. The night before, we had procured our train tickets…. that is, a gentleman from the Crowne Plaza schlepped across town to broker them for us. It sounded like an ordeal that we were better off avoiding. “Executive” […]
***Full Malaysia gallery below*** It’s been a really pleasant surprise in Malaysia that the tourist attractions (that is, places that happen to attract tourists rather than places designed with that as the sole purse) are generally hassle free and even free of charge. The Batu Caves yesterday had no entry fee, we went the entire […]
Started off our first day in Kuala Lumpur with a visit to the Batu Caves. The girls seemed mostly excited about quaint and exotic religious practices involving offerings of milk and flowers to the local gods. I’m pretty sure their excitement mostly related to getting some little red string bracelets after the offerings. However, my […]
*Full South Korea gallery below* Forget about a sample 1 day itinerary…. we only had the morning to get a taste of Seoul before heading back to the airport. We stayed at “Toyoko Inn” in Dongdaemun (The same Japanese hotel chain we stayed at in Tokyo), which was very conveniently located. The requisite Toyoko Inn […]