The first time I rode a motorbike I was terrified. I was vacationing in Hawaii when my family peer pressured me into renting a scooter. Though my family views me as both a laid-back hippie and an adventurous traveler, I am actually a pretty anxious person. So I was petrified as I swerved my scooter onto the highway and…
By the time we arrived on Nusa Lembongan my boyfriend, Aaron, and I had traveled through Southeast Asia for exactly 203 days. For nearly seven months we’d lived out of backpacks, cohabitated in tiny (and often grimy) hotel rooms, and spent virtually 24 hours a day together. We’d proved that we rock not only as…
I kicked off my flip-flops, waded into the warm Balinese water, and clumsily hoisted myself onto a rickety 20-foot boat. The motor grumbled as we forged into the deep-blue ocean, the small vessel bobbing up and down on the ocean’s rounded swells. The journey would take nearly two hours, but despite my slight nausea I…
If you’re a vegetarian, eating in Southeast Asia can be frustrating to say the least. In Vietnam, I can’t even convey how many times I repeated the phrase “no fish sauce” just to smell the overwhelming aroma of nước mắm (fermented fish sauce) wafting from my bowl of vegetarian phở (Vietnamese noodle soup). In Thailand my requests for “no…
I was so excited to see Mount Bromo, the sulfur-gushing Javanese volcano, that the 10-hour journey from Yogyakarta to the cool mountain town of Cemoro Lawang didn’t really faze me. One look at this otherworldly landscape and you’ll understand why. The holy trinity of the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park consists of three uniquely picturesque…
After traveling in Southeast Asia for six months – visiting six countries, exploring 35 cities, and inhabiting 46 hotel rooms – I was in need of a break. When I arrived in Indonesia, all I wanted was a beach to collapse on and coral-free water to swim in. So, based on a recommendation, I boarded…