Confession time: I love traveling and exploring new places, but I have always strongly disliked travel planning. It’s always been a tension area for me and my then boyfriend (you knew him as D) ever since we first started traveling. See, I’m the “go with the flow” type. I get to a place and just wander around and see what interesting things we can find. D, on the other hand, was a planner. He had to have all the logistics figured out, as…
I’m headed to Japan! (… At least, trying to…)
Dear travel gods, I only ask to please be delivered to D safely, and hopefully with all my marbles in tact. I think I may be losing a few hour by hour. This is the worst travel between two destinations I’ve ever experienced. You see, I started my journey at approximately 10 pm last night in Los Angeles. I was already pretty tired but still in mostly high spirits. After close to two months apart, I was going to rejoin…
Homeward bound: when life presents the unthinkable
So, change of plans. I’m writing this from the Rome airport, where I will soon board two flights that will land me home in Los Angeles in approximately 21 hours. I had hoped that I didn’t need to write about this because I honestly hoped that things will get well enough that there would be no need to. But that is not the case. So now I’m not sure how to write about it, so I’m just going to cut…
Being stingy: things we missed out on (and things we did instead)
I’ve made it no secret on this blog that D has an online business that funds our travels. We’re not broke backpackers (budget flashpackers, maybe). I know how lucky we are to have that income stream. I really appreciate this when we can rent our own apartments instead of having to share a room and bathroom with strangers. I can’t do that anymore. I can handle D’s stink, but not anyone else’s! But these days, we are still operating on just a…
Temples, monkeys, and needles: a Lopburi misadventure
I should have known better. I should have known that beneath the cuddliness, is danger. During our 2nd full day in Ayutthaya, we took a day trip out to Lopburi, a little town about an hour’s train ride north of Ayutthaya. Up until a couple of days before, I’ve never even heard of it. But a couple of people we’d just met told us to go there to see monkeys. Any mention of potential animal encounters, and I’m in! After an…