After crossing the Mengla (China)/Boten (Laos) border, we immediately noticed the laid back difference of our new home for the next two weeks. Laos is lovely! Truck drivers no longer honked their horns incessantly, the people are polite, reserved and…

It was a shock to our system to fly in from tropical Samoa to New Zealand during winter! Thankfully, there were tons of op shops (second hand stores) for us to score some cheap winter gear. We flew from Auckland…

Esfahan is a magical city. We were thrilled to discover that our overland trip brought us back to this lovely section of Iran. Lucky for us, we had a whopping 3 nights here! Seeing the ancient bridges of Esfahan at…

Xiahe is known as “little Lhasa” and since we were unable to visit Tibet, this city was the next best thing. Xiahe is an ethnically Tibetan town famous for its Labrang Monastery, which is one of the most important centers…

American Samoa was our bonus Pacific island as it wasn’t on our original itinerary. But once we saw one of our favorite bloggers (X Days in Y) write about how easy it was to hop from Samoa to American Samoa,…

Our last week in Turkey came to a rapid end. From Cappadocia, we were supposed to visit Mount Nemrut and the massive statues from its Royal Tomb, but we had to give it a wide berth after reports of an…

Tanna is Vanuatu’s biggest draw card because of Mt Yasur, one of the world’s most accessible active volcanoes. It is a rugged, spectacular island with poor road infrastructure which is surprising given the number of tourists and aid groups who…

From Kashgar we drove due east and made our way towards Kuqa and Turpan. The journey was supposed to take 5 blazing hot days, bush camping en-route. However, those plans quickly went by the wayside on the evening of day…

Land diving, Pentecost. Ever since we heard about the birthplace of bungee jumping, we wanted to check it out firsthand. That was how our trip to Vanuatu was hatched. The problem with seeing land diving is that it only occurs…

Our second week in Turkey was a busy one! We left Pamukkale and headed straight for the amazing Saklikent Gorge, which is Turkey’s longest at 20 km. Here we donned waterproof sandals to hike into the gorge which was absolutely…

The main island of Viti Levu hosted our last few days in Fiji. We stayed at a lovely villa in trendy Pacific Harbour, which touts itself as Fiji’s adventure capital. 15 years ago, we dove Beqa Lagoon with Aqua-Trek which…

After the mountain resort of Altyn Arashan, we had one night at a homestay in Karakol. Little did we know this would be the start of a week of slaughter (sheep, rabbit, sheep)! When our homestay hosts offered to cook…

We spent 2 wonderful weeks enjoying a family reunion on Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second biggest island. Our idyllic base was at Siga Siga Sands, a fantastic place to call home! Located near Savusavu and sandwiched between the petite airport and…

The last portion of our Georgian adventure brought us from Kutaisi back to Tbilisi for a day on our own before a week away in Armenia. Upon our return to Georgia, we spent a fun day with Shota up in…

Fiji is a special place on earth. Ever since we visited in 2002, we have longed to return. 15 years later, the greetings of “bula” still ring as sweet as ever. Our first week in Fiji was spent on the…

Crossing the border from Uzbekistan into Kazakhstan (Yalama / B. Konysbayeva) was hellishly long because two members of our group (Daniel from Canada and Kevin from Ireland) had neglected to obtain their Kazakhstan visas prior to arrival. Since they had…

The final week of our 6 month journey! When we started this overland trip in Istanbul back in April, we thought that 6 months was a super long time and the trip would go on forever. But here we are…

From Khiva we made our way onward to Bukhara, an ancient oasis city on the fabled Silk Road. Bukhara is an easy city to explore on foot and we enjoyed getting lost in its back alleys while exploring its highlights…

One week in Sumatra (Indonesia) was barely enough time to scratch the surface, but we loved what we saw and experienced. We flew from Penang to Medan (Indonesia’s 3rd largest city, a bustling metropolis that we were only too eager…

Crossing the Turkmenistan border into Uzbekistan brought no relief from the relentless heat. If anything, it was kicked up a notch or two. And we still had a few more bush camps to get through…yippee!! First stop was in the…

The drive from Saigon to Phnom Penh took about 8 hours on a comfortable bus equipped with AC and WiFi. Even though we knew the Cambodian visa fee was $30, everyone had to fork over $35 to the bus driver’s…

Turkmenistan! Our 5 days/4 nights here flew by and its time to jot down a few thoughts of this fascinating and bizarre country. Getting into Turkmenistan was surprisingly easy. We were efficiently stamped out of Iran and into Turkmenistan in…

We flew into Hanoi the night before Typhoon Dianmu hit northern Vietnam. Tucked away in the old quarter, our original hotel (Grand Holiday) claimed they never got our booking because the storm had knocked out internet for the majority of…

Our last week in Iran was spent in the fabulous mud built city of Yazd, the tranquil desert oasis of Garmeh, and the holy city of Mashhad. Yazd was voted by many of our group to be their favorite city…