There are two things that almost deterred me from traveling to Boracay. The first was Super Typhoon Haiyan and the second was the cost. After getting downright spoiled backpacking through budget-friendly Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, I was a little nervous that a visit to the world-class beaches of Boracay was going to be way out…
One week before I was gearing up for my two-month trip to the Philippines, the country was smacked by the strongest typhoon to ever hit land. Typhoon Haiyan (also known as Yolanda) made landfall on November 8, 2013. I was in my rental apartment in Pattaya, Thailand, glued to the TV. I watched, along with…
When I say I’m obsessed with all things travel, I mean it. I’m the type of person who will watch any movie or any TV show as long as it has something to do with travel. A bad horror movie that’s set in Colombia? Count me in. Andrew Zimmern is eating something bizarre in Peru? Hell…
By now I think I’ve expressed my disillusionment with organized tours, so when it came to visiting the Hindu temples of Prambanan on Java, Indonesia, I decided to heed my own advice and travel there independently. For those who don’t know, Prambanan is a cluster of ancient Hindu temples that were constructed in Central Java around…
Now that I’m back in Southeast Asia it’s becoming increasingly clear to me why I just can’t stay away from this part of the world. I spent a large chunk of the past year backpacking around the region. I visited six amazing countries and relished my time in each and every one of them. Now that I’ve…
My recent move to Jakarta, Indonesia, was a sudden one. I literally had three weeks’ notice to move across the world. My few weeks back home in California were spent shopping for hard-to-find items, freaking out about what to pack and cramming in visits with family and friends. Time flew by and I barely had…
I’ve now been on the road for exactly one year. It’s crazy that so much time has passed so quickly. And it’s incredible that a year’s worth of travel has now evolved into another year abroad. The past year has been a whirlwind – to say the least. It’s very easily been one of the best years…
When I arrived in Colombia I was pretty nervous that I wouldn’t be able to live quite as frugally as I had in Southeast Asia. My goal was to travel on $40 a day. But I had major doubts that I would be able to float myself on a backpacker’s budget. After spending a couple weeks in Bogotá…
I remember the exact moment I booked a ticket to Colombia. After traveling through Southeast Asia for seven months – traversing the region from Laos to Indonesia – my boyfriend and I felt like we’d reached the end of the line. Aaron and I were sitting in our bungalow on the tiny island of Gili…
As we were mapping out the next phase of our Colombia travels, the host at our guesthouse in Bogotá told us that Río Claro was one of his top three favorite destinations in the country. Since David had lived in Colombia for 13 years, this guy most definitely knew what he was talking about. Set in the…