Naples, Rome, Florence and Venice Naples Why go to Naples? Well, once again, we have many friends who live there. The main connection is that my grandparents lived there while my mom was in college so she visited Naples often. The other reason is my dad’s old coworker lives there now and they invited us… Read More Italy
Unfortunately our arrival in Greece coincided with three of us falling under the weather with fever. So, we made the best of our limited opportunities in Athens. We enjoyed a fantastic modern apartment (on the inside) in a cool neighborhood that offered several coffee shops, cafes, and small grocery stores. Once a few of us… Read More Athens, Greece
Istanbul and Izmir Istanbul After a long flight from Johannesburg to Istanbul, we were jet lagged and exhausted. We slept for the majority of our first day there! Afterwards, we walked around and realized our Airbnb was in a fantastic location–within walking distance of the Sultan Ahmet Square, Hagia Sofia, and Blue Mosque, as well… Read More Turkey
Twenty years ago, my parents visited Victoria Falls at the end of their safari and dreamed of the children they might have and the adventures they might take them on. Here we are. The dream became real. Although the economy of Zimbabwe has changed drastically since they were here, we still had some special moments.… Read More Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Namibia and Botswana Namibia When my parents came to Namibia some 20 years ago, they searched and searched for the desert elephants but never found them. This time, however, we had the best of luck. When looking for them, we were in the wild, not a park or nature reserve. Dad spotted a bull right… Read More Safari
Walvis Bay is a small town about half an hour south of Swakopmund, on the west coast of Namibia. It has much less available than touristy Swakopmund, so we used the time to recuperate, do a lot of baking in the full kitchen and catch up on home school for a couple weeks. We also… Read More Walvis Bay, Namibia
After an extremely early flight from Muscat, we landed on our next continent–Africa!–in Cape Town. We stayed in Strand, a beach town about 45 minutes away from the downtown area of Cape Town. Happy to be in a country where we could wear shorts, we spent time at the beach near our house. Because we were… Read More Cape Town, South Africa
Bangkok, Thailand Before saying goodbye to South East Asia and flying to Muscat, we made one last stop in Bangkok, Thailand. We stayed in a wonderful apartment which happened to be hosted by a Muay Thai champion right above his gym. We met up with our new American friend for dinner whom we had previously… Read More Muscat, Oman
Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay Yangon At this point in our travels, about half way through our 10-month trek, we were getting a bit travel weary. This leg of our journey is full of little hiccups that probably could’ve been easily avoided. We arrived at our hotel in Yangon (formerly Rangoon), learned about the various amenities, including… Read More Myanmar
Getting into Vietnam was a struggle. Perhaps a foreshadowing of our life in Hanoi? We ended up staying in laid-back Luang Prabang, Laos another day, because only four of our six visas had finished processing, even though we had submitted them in plenty of time. So, our trip to Hanoi was cut a day short… Read More Hanoi, Vietnam
The quiet peacefulness of Luang Prabang was so strange to us after Thailand. A World Heritage Site with a French history, Luang Prabang is by far the cleanest town in SE Asia we’ve been to so far. There is little trash on the streets, many bakeries and nice restaurants. Though the traffic can be busy,… Read More Luang Prabang, Laos
After our elephant adventure (see Chiang Mai Part 1), we were happy and tired from the experience and new friendships we made. After a day to rest up and catch up on admin chores, we spent some time touring around our local area. Much of what we loved about Thailand was the food. If we… Read More Chiang Mai, Thailand Part 2
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