Where I’ve Been: Global Edition
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31
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The colors and scenic views that Banff has to offer are world famous. Even if you’ve never heard of Banff or the province of Alberta, Canada, chances are you’ve seen pictures of these iconic turquoise blue lakes. They’re that beautiful.
What type of accommodations do you like to stay in on your trips? It varies for me and a lot of the time it depends on the destination and costs. Sometimes the traditional hotel room or even Airbnb, isn’t always the best or most unique choice.
Have you ever wanted to stay at an overwater bungalow? Ya me too. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, have you seen pictures or video of those beautiful villas on stilts over water in Tahiti or the Maldives or Jamaica? Well, these over water villas can run in the thousands per night. I know, you’re thinking there’s no way that’s ever going to be a possibility, right?
I've said it before and I'll say it again - Cambodia is one of my favorite countries I've ever visited. As of now I've been fortunate to visit 30 countries, so I think that's saying a lot! It's been a dream of mine to see Angkor Wat and experience the beautiful Cambodia culture.
If you were to ask me where my favorite place to visit of all time is, I would pretty immediately say that Japan was hands down one of the best places I’ve travelled. It doesn’t come down to one thing I saw or a specific location I went to, it really is about the people and the culture of Japan that makes it so incredible.
It’s a tough choice to make between seeing as many places you can see and really getting to see enough of a place. On my most recent trip to Southeast Asia, I ended up having 3 stops where they were just short layovers. A 10-hour layover. A 12-hour layover. A 24-hour layover.
I am seriously regretting not having higher hopes for visiting Taipei because this is one underrated country! I really just thought of Taiwan as a a stopover, an overnight layover really, at the beginning of an almost three week tour around Southeast Asia.
Vietnam is one of my favorite places that I've visited. There really is so much culture to see and it feels like you've been transported to another world. Vietnamese food was truly the highlight of my trip which you can read about here, but wandering around the city is definitely a close second.
Sunrise at Angkor Wat is one of those bucket list experiences you have to have once in your life. Sitting there watching the sunrise just behind the main temple of Angkor Wat was somewhat spiritual for me. It was so incredibly beautiful that I almost wanted to cry. I had dreamed about sitting there to witness that for years and it was happening right in front of my eyes.
Singapore is always a country I was interested in visiting but had always heard that it was super expensive to visit. I prepared myself a bit for possible pocket-gauging prices especially since generally traveling through Southeast Asia is very affordable and in most cases insanely cheap.
The city of Hanoi is one beautiful place. It's full of such beautiful culture and incredible foods to try. A stop in Hanoi is a must do on any trip to Southeast Asia and I found a great option for a place to stay.
There's not much explanation needed for this blog post. When you make a trip to Hanoi, make sure to add all of these foods to your list of things to try. I've even linked the addresses for the stalls, restaurants and cafes we ate each food at. Most of the places didn't have names, but just star the addresses in your Google maps and you'll be good to go!
It’s inevitable. When you return from a trip, friends always ask where was your favorite place you visited. Usually I don’t have a favorite and struggle with this answer because generally I like everywhere I visit. During this past trip, sure I absolutely loved so many of the stops on my trip, but I do have a favorite. My absolute favorite place I visited was Cambodia.
Kuala Lumpur was our second to last place we stopped on our whirlwind Asia trip. I can't tell you how comforting it was to stay in at the Lanson Place Bukit Ceylon Serviced Residences. When you've been living out of a suitcase for a few weeks already, having a great place to stay like this is key.
I didn’t realize this before going to Siem Reap, but Angkor Wat is only one temple that makes up the Angkor, Siem Reap area. In actuality there are approximately 50 temples and they all have different names. Angkor Wat is the most famous which why is easy to make that mistake. Although the phrase Angkor Wat does literally mean city of temples in the native Khmer language.
If you’ve read my blog before, you know I’m a sucker for pretty places with great design. The Quincy hotel is no exception. Literally every inch of the Quincy is fabulous and stylish. Each detail is so well designed and thought through. I mean, when you just see the hotel building from the outside, you can’t help but admire its design.
It’s been a few months since I returned from Europe and a few weeks since my last blog post. I’ve been slacking a little bit. I’ve decided to finally wrap up my Europe posts this week before the year comes to an end.
Whenever I visit a new place I always google “points of interest”. These are always the most iconic and famous sights that that particular location is known for. I like to know what a city is known for. Sure, finding hole-in-the-wall places and things off the beaten track are fun, but if you've never been to that city, you gotta see the classics.
If you haven’t heard of Lake Bled or the country of Slovenia yet, don’t worry you haven’t been living under a rock. Slovenia really hasn’t been on many people’s radars, until now. Its magical, fairytale land is much less undiscovered because of how beautiful it is.
Oxford, England holds a special place in my heart. If you happened to catch my Instagram stories from when I was in Oxford, you would have learned that I not only studied abroad once, but twice. Once here and once in Rome, Italy. My first experience was at Magdalen College at Oxford University.
Malta. Could you place this island on a map? Let me tell you, I couldn’t have told you anything about Malta before I visited. When my friend and I were brainstorming where to go and she brought up Malta, I said sure why not! What did I know about Malta, though? Ya, nothing except that the Azure Window had just collapsed there a few months prior.
I’ve said a couple times that my plans in Europe didn’t go exactly as planned. Really though, when does life always go as planned? When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. I had planned to do a long weekend road trip around Ireland my second week in Europe with one of my friends.
During any trip to Portugal, you should definitely visit Lisbon or maybe even Porto, but if you choose to go anywhere else, the Algarve should be at the top of that list. I knew the Algarve is a beach area but I don’t think I realized how beautiful it was going to be. Before we went, of course I goggled it but you never know if you can trust the professional pictures of a place.
My first very stop on my month long Europe trip was to Lisbon, Portugal. I don’t know why Portugal was never on my radar before. I mean I’ve still never been to Spain, so Portugal hadn’t even crossed my mind. This seemed a bit like most of the places I visited on this trip.
Honestly, I knew nothing about Ljubljana until just a few weeks out from my trip. I am so glad I was able to visit because this city is worth a visit. Since the city is pretty small and very walkable, I wouldn’t suggest more than 2 days here.
I don't think there are many words needed for this post, so I'll keep it short. After all, these photos speak for themselves, don't they? If you made it all the way down here, I know you're thinking, get me on a plane now, right? And before you might've never even heard of Lake Bled let alone the country Slovenia.
Budapest is definitely a gem that can't be missed on your next European trip. I really didn't realize how much I'd like Budapest. I actually didn't know what to expect. The first day we got to Budapest we decided to take in the city by wandering through the streets. This is my favorite thing to do.
What better a way to start of my Europe blog posts than with one from London. I spent about a week and a half in London, which is by far the longest I stayed in one city during my month long adventure. I definitely have a soft spot for London and it is one of the only cities in the world that I have visited not once but four times.
My first stop of this crazy European Adventure of mine was Lisbon, Portugal. I had the opportunity to stay with Gat Rooms Hotel in Rossio. I can’t tell you how nice it was to have such a great hotel to stay at while in Lisbon. Not to mention one as comfortable as this one to help me get through my jetlag.
Sometimes I get it in my head that it’s so hard to travel with a 9-5 or in my case 9:30 to 6:30 full time job. In actuality, it isn’t as hard as we think. Weekends are the perfect time to plan your getaways. You can see much more than you’d think in just a few days. If you can swing it, throw in a Friday off and you’ve got a whole 3 days for exploring.
Have you ever wanted to walk through a frozen canyon? Did you know you could do that? What exactly is in a frozen canyon you ask? Yes, everything is frozen. There’s ice on the ground, the river is frozen, the canyon walls are covered in snow and ice and the gorgeous waterfalls are frozen solid.
I’ve never been to Canada. Well, that should be in past tense. I had never been to Canada before. Honestly, the initial reason I chose to book a trip to Canada was because the roundtrip flight from Los Angeles was less than the cost of a trip to Arizona. Arizona borders California. Canada is a whole other country.
Yes, flying from the United States to Thailand for just a week, or from anywhere across the world from wherever you are, sounds just plain crazy or tiring, and maybe not even worth it to you. The thing is when you only have a certain number of vacation days, you kind of have to suck it up and take what you can get.
Backpacking in Thailand, is definitely an experience. In fact, it was my first experience with the backpacker lifestyle. I quickly discovered what I actually needed and what I didn’t. Trying to travel efficiently and with the least amount of weight is the goal.
Northern Thailand is really a beautiful area. I think I've said before - it definitely differs from the southern areas of Thailand. The main hub in the north is Chiang Mai. While there are ton of things to see and do in the Chiang Mai (see my post about what to do) area, there are also a bunch of awesome places just short distances from there that you could plan a day trip to visit.
I’ve seen pictures of the ladies of the Karen Long Neck village since I was young. I’ve always been so curious about the necklaces they wear around their necks. There were so many questions that would pop up. Are they uncomfortable? Do they actually hold up their heads? Why do they do this?
In my research for Thailand - let’s face it, by now you should know I do a crazy amount of research before going on my trips - I found pictures of these dreamy little islands connected by just a sand strip. I set out to make sure I could make it to this scenic destination. I found out they are just off the coast of Koh Tao, located in the Gulf of Thailand.
Before I headed to Thailand, I had heard over and over that Bangkok wasn’t really that great, was just a stop-over location and that I didn’t need to spend much time there. I’m here to tell you that I think everyone was wrong!
Spending time at the Elephant Nature Park was one of the coolest days I’ve had in my life. I have to admit elephants are one of my favorite animals. Elephants and dolphins, actually. Seeing that typed out sounds random, but they are both so cute. If you spend the day at the Elephant Nature Park, it is really well planned out.
If you plan on heading to northern Thailand - which if you’re not, you most definitely should change your plans - Chiang Mai should be at the top of your list. The northern part of the country is pretty different from the south, the islands and even Bangkok.
Ever since attending the Rise Festival back in October, I put releasing lanterns in Thailand at the top of my bucket list. Well, to be honest, Thailand has always been at the top of my list. After I returned from Bali in September, I just could not get my mind off of traveling again. My work gives us the last 2 weeks of the year off and I knew I had to do something to take advantage of that time off.
It’s that time again - another Travel Photo Diary to share with all of you! Maybe I just wanted to look over all of my Bali travel pictures again or I’m just itching to get out and travel. Ya, it’s definitely both. Good thing I’ve got my next trip quickly approaching - Thailand at the end of the month!
One of the things I really wanted to do when I went to Bali was take a cooking class. I already love cooking and of course I love Asian style food, so this was kind of a no brainer. Balinese food is very similar to other Asian foods like Chinese and Thai, but has some differences.
Ubud, first off, is a dreamy place. I can't speak highly enough about it. I would go back to Ubud in a heart beat. Just being in the middle of the jungle is cool enough, but all that Ubud has to offer is even better. I think part of the reason why I look back at Ubud so highly is because of the amazing hotel I stayed at.
There are about 600 monkeys that live in the Monkey Forest. It can be an intimidating place. But it was such an awesome experience. I read about these rules beforehand, and at the sanctuary, so I thought I'd share. There are definitely some things you should know before going to the Monkey Forest. Don’t use them as rough guidelines, just follow them - trust me:
It's only been a week and a half since I got back from my trip to the beautiful island of Bali. I had the time of my life, literally loving every second of being in such an incredible place. My absolute favorite part of my trip to Bali was my time spent in Ubud.
Of course I'm always dreaming at my desk about traveling around the world. I mean I wrote about the struggle, here. I started looking through old photos of places I've already been too.
In true throwback Thursday fashion, this here is a throwback to my trip to China just over a year ago. After taking a look at the traditions my family has during the Chinese New Year, I thought it would be fun to share my personal highlights from Beijing, Shanghai and Xian.
I’ve been over this topic before in previous blog posts. The how can I travel when I have a limited amount of time issue? Or how can I see everything in such a short amount of time? I think there are two ways you can travel - spend a ton of time in each place really exploring every aspect of the culture or only get a taste of each location. This post is definitely about the latter.