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Bali might be a small island but every time I visit I’m wowed by the fact that there are so many beautiful and vastly different places to visit in Bali. And the best part is that every one of them is completely different. From rice terraces to tiny islands to turquoise beaches, Bali really does…
I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and I think I did this whole moving abroad thing totally wrong. Well, maybe not totally wrong but I’ve made mistakes…a lot of mistakes. I’m the first to admit that I wasn’t entirely prepared to move abroad. Yes, I had 10 years of travel under my belt. Yes, I’d…
Renting a scooter in Southeast Asia is never something I thought I would do. In fact, I never thought I would ever muster the courage to ride a scooter. The thought of it freaked me out. I’m not sure if I was more nervous about crashing and burning or making a fool out of myself…
When I first found out I’d be moving to Indonesia all I could think about was how much traveling I’d be doing here. I had grand plans to visit as many of Indonesia’s otherworldly destinations as humanly possible. Fast forward nine months and I’ve done a pathetically small amount of traveling within Indonesia. Because I have…
The beach town of Kuta in Bali is absolutely crazy. It has been deemed by other travel bloggers as “the worst place in Bali” and “one of the most infamous beaches in Southeast Asia.” And, in many ways, it is. It’s akin to the spring break mecca of Cancun, Mexico, the boozy streets of New…
I’m Justine, a 30-something freelance writer and California native who set out to travel around Southeast Asia in 2013 and basically never left. Since then I’ve lived and worked in Jakarta, Indonesia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Beijing, China, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I now live in Dubai! Seriously, this wasn’t the plan. But I suppose for those who…
Oh, Da Nang. I just love that city. I was lucky enough to spend two months there over the summer and when it came time to leave I just didn’t want to. Da Nang tends to get passed over by tourists in favor of the ultra-popular town of Hoi An, which is a short 30-minute…
*Note: I visited Kuta Lombok again in February 2019, following the devastating earthquakes that hit Lombok in the summer of 2018. I’m happy to report it’s business as usual in Kuta. I love Kuta Lombok. I didn’t think I would but that beautiful little corner of the world totally managed to steal my heart. I’d…
When I first heard of the Con Dao Islands in Southern Vietnam I was immediately obsessed. Admittedly, I knew next to nothing about them, but the pictures looked pretty damn amazing. So, without doing all that much research, I booked a spur-of-the-moment flight there just a couple weeks ago. What can I say? I’m a…
When I set off on my big backpacking trip in August of 2013 I figured I would just be traveling around for a while and ultimately returning back home to San Diego. I had no idea I would end up calling Asia home – yet, three years later, here I am! During the past few years…