We’ve Finished our RTW, so What Were Our Favorite…. Drinking Experiences?!

08/22/201508/19/2015globegazers Leave a comment

We’ve finished our RTW trip. We get a lot of questions about our favorite things on the trip. We’ve decided to start a new series called “So, What Was Our Favorite…” We visited 29 countries on our RTW: Egypt (just 1 day), South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe (just 1 day), Namibia, Germany (just 1 day), Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Ireland, USA, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia (just Bali), Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, and Nepal.

As many of you know, we are not really big partiers- but we definitely like a good drink/drinking experience. As we traveled around the world, we tried as much of the local alcohol as we could, but there were a few “drinking experiences” that really stood out. These were times that we remembered best for being somewhat alcohol centered, however, we think you’ll notice that often it wasn’t just the alcohol that made the experience so memorable.

This edition looks at our top 10 favorite “drinking experiences” around the world. These are not in order from best to worst. They are just our top 10 favorite in the order in which we visited them.

Chobe Safari Lodge, Kasane, Botswana

For three nights on our self-drive safari, we stayed at Chobe Safari Lodge in Botswana. The campsite itself was a little substandard. But the benefit was that we were less than 100 feet from a bar overlooking the river, where we spent multiple afternoons drinking beers and watching elephants graze. The sunsets were gorgeous and we enjoyed some local beer. The beers themselves weren’t wonderful, mostly pretty boring lagers, but the setting and sights were awesome!

Elephants across the river – seen while enjoying a good beer

lovely sunset

Groot Constantia Wine Estate, Cape Town, South Africa

We visited here during our city sight-seeing tour in Cape Town, and we wish we could have spent the whole day there! It is the oldest wine estate in South Africa. It was started in the late 1600s by members of the Dutch East India Company. It took awhile but it then began to compete with all the fine wines in Europe and has continued to make excellent wine since then. We took the cellar tour and participated in a delicious wine tasting. We then wandered the vineyard and explored the historical buildings. The location was lovely and historic and we felt like we had a nice connection because we had just read James Michener’s Covenant which was about the history of the Cape and we had learned about a similar winery in the story. Definitely an enjoyable day!

Valley of Beautiful Women, Eger, Hungary

Just over the hill, about a 25 min walk from the Old Town of Eger, is the Valley of Beautiful Women. We’re not sure why the name, especially because we saw almost no one in our time in the valley. It was a miserably rainy day. But, the bad weather didn’t deter us from our reason for visiting Eger: the ~ 50 wine cellars all right next to each other, clustered in the valley. Tastes are free and glasses were as reasonable as 100 forint (about $0.50)! We really enjoyed striking up a conversation with a bored Hungarian working in the first cellar. We chatted about wine, Hungary, language, and her life. We also enjoyed trying the Eger special wine: Egri Bikaver or Bull’s Blood. The wine gets its name because in 1552, the people of Eger withstood a siege by the Ottoman Empire for a month. 2000 men from Eger against 100,000. They held! The king Istvan Dobo helped his troops by giving them wine which stained their beards red. This lead to rumors through the Turkish army that the men of Eger were so strong and vicious because they were drinking the blood of bulls! Every cellar has their own variant of this famous Eger wine. They also will fill up a plastic bottle of wine for cheap prices. We filled our 1 liter nalgene bottle of our favorite wine for only 500 forint (a little over $2.00!!) There are many cellars to try, but the rain and the alcohol caused us to only get to 3. We wish we lived close by cause we would go back regularly!

Bull’s Blood wine

Very rainy day…

Our favorite wine cellar, where we chatted with our new friend

Our Nalgene full of yummy wine!

Buza Bar, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Buza means hole in the old Dubrovnik dialect. That’s just what this bar was – a hole in the wall. Literally, you walk through a hole in the city walls of Dubrovnik. The bar was quite crowded, but it was still an absolutely beautiful view out over the ocean. We had a few drinks there at sunset, enjoying our last evening in Croatia. Gorgeous!

The sun sets on our time in Dubrovnik and Croatia

Literary Pub Crawl, Dublin, Ireland

This was a new adventure for us! Dublin has a very rich literary history- writers such as WB Yeats, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, and and James Joyce made Dublin their home. Neither of us knew much about any of these authors, nor had read anything by them. But, Della thought that maybe this would be the perfect way to learn more about them, especially as we were in Dublin… and it couldn’t hurt that beer was involved. We really enjoyed the pub crawl! We went to 4 different pubs throughout the evening. At each one, we enjoyed our guides. They made sure to tell us stories either about the history of Dublin or about one of the many authors that contributed to that history. They also sprinkled in several small performances, either scenes from different plays or books, or from letters from the authors. It was an entertaining way to spend an evening exploring Dublin’s past and Dublin’s beer!

Duke’s

Good beer

Literary Pub Crawl

Red Mountain Winery, Inle Lake, Myanmar/Burma

On our first full day in Inle, we rented bikes and headed out of town toward a winery! The Red Mountain Winery is about 5 miles outside of Nyuang Shwe (the main town for Inle which we were staying in). It was a glorious day and we really enjoyed the ride. It was quite a push up the hill to get to the winery, but it was so worth it. You can get a taste of 4 wines for about $2. The wine was OK though not fabulous. We each found one we liked well enough to enjoy a glass of while we nibbled on an appetizer and took in the view. We waited around for the free tour and ended up being the only 2 on it for a little while. It was a short tour and we learned how the winery is quite new, imports most of its plants from France, and has mostly broken machines so they do things like label by hand. The glorious views and lovely day make this a fantastic place for a drink!

enjoying the wine

halfway up the hill

more awesome view

A Riverside Bar, Vang Vieng, Laos

Many people talk about the joys of tubing down the river and stopping for crazy party drinking at the riverside bars in Vang Vieng. We weren’t really into that, but on our last day in town, we headed down to the river where there were a few small riverside huts and a small bar with music playing. It was past the crazy, tubing part of the river so it was really quite calm. It also helped that we hung out there during sunset. It definitely felt like spending a day at the beach (without the icky sand and salt!) We had nice shade and shelter from the sun in our bungalow. We took turns going for a quick dip – the water was pretty cold – and relaxed and read our books while sharing a Beerlao. The bar also had some speakers playing Western pop music, many of which we recognized and had fun singing along to. We also enjoyed watching the huge air balloons floating above us as the sun sank down to the horizon.

Then the hot air balloons appeared!

Hanging out

Beachfront Restaurants, Ko Lanta, Thailand

We had a short time on the beach during our trip to Thailand. (Short was just the right amount of time for us!) We stayed near Khlong Nin beach, which was quiet and restful. There were lots of beachfront restaurants where you could sit and enjoy a drink. We ate many lunches, using the restaurants as sun blocks while we enjoyed our beer and looking out on the beach. Many of the beachfront restaurants offered happy hour deals on beer, which was great since the beach faces west. We took advantage and made sure to find a good seat to watch the sun fade below the horizon.

Enjoying a sunset beer and some spring rolls

Sampling Fresh Beer, Hoi An, Vietnam

In Hoi An we had our first chance to sample “fresh beer,” a classic beverage that is unique to the country. The beer is called fresh because it has just recently been brewed and is served without preservatives. It has less alcohol than normal beer and less carbonation, but is very cheap. We paid only 3000 dong (about 15 cents) per glass! It was also extremely hot during our time in Hoi An. Stopping in at a restaurant or stand to enjoy a cheap, quick, and refreshing fresh beer was a great way to cool down and rest out of the heat!

Wine in Our Own Lodging, Anywhere Around the World

In several countries (though most notably: Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, and Hong Kong), the most affordable option for drinks was to buy a bottle of wine (or retsina) and take it home for an evening in. There were many a bottle that we enjoyed while lounging on a balcony of our hotel or in the sunroom of an airbnb that bring back some wonderful memories. There is something special about spending time together, remembering the new and exciting experiences of the day, planning our next moves, and relaxing – with no stress of job (or calories). It’s a freedom we will try to remember often as we restarted our jobs this last week.

Tzatziki and retsina in Meteora

Enjoying some of the traditional local cuisine

Enjoying some local tsipouro (a type of brandy) from the balcony at Sibylla

Enjoying dumplings and carrots in our room. Another benefit of eating in is cheaper beer!

We finished our RTW, so What Were Our Favorite… Museums?!

08/15/201508/12/2015globegazers 5 Comments

This third edition will cover our top 10 favorite museums around the world. These are not in order of preference, instead they are in the order in which we visited them.

Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa

The museum started with the beginnings of Joburg as a mining town, and then went through the first attempts at segregation to the implementation of the full-fledged apartheid system in the 1940s. Then, there were displays about the realities of living under apartheid, and the first wave of resistance that led to Mandela being sentenced to life imprisonment. Then, as we went chronologically. We got into the student uprisings of the 70s. For the 1980s, there was a gripping video detailing the horrific violence that brought the apartheid movement to its breaking point. We then moved on to the 90s, which detailed Mandela’s release, then end of apartheid and the founding of the new government (and also showed how close the country came to total anarchy at the time). The museum is particularly gripping as it starts right out with you being randomly assigned to be white or non-white, and then having to enter through the respective door and then garnering a different experience for the first room based on what you picked. While we visited, there was also a large exhibition on the life of Nelson Mandela.

Cradle of Humankind Museum, Outside Johannesburg, South Africa

This nice (and relatively new) museum is set up to explain the history of life on Earth and the history of human life as well. Once you enter the main building, you are taken down into the basement and you do this cheesy but fun boat ride that takes you though the different elements necessary for life. We then went through the different exhibits in the large space. There ranged from discussions about DNA,to extinct animals, to the different types of hominids that paleoanthropologists have identified (many of which have been found in the Cradle) to what it means to be human. We particularly enjoyed some of the interactive exhibits, for example, there was a long hallway with illustrations which helped to show the length of different eras in time.

Posing with an austrolopithicus

Shindler Factory Museum, Krakow, Poland

This was the only museum we visited in Krakow, and it was excellent! The permanent exhibits walk you through what happened in Krakow during the years 1939 – 45, during the Nazi occupation. The museum does fascinating things in each room, designed to make you understand the subject with all of your senses. The room for before the war has nice, warm lighting and happy music playing. It feels like sitting in a comfortable room, watching old family movies about Jewish life in Krakow. Then you enter a hall which describes when Germany attacked. It is black and gloomy with red lighting streaking across the walls, representing the fire, and the sounds of shooting and bombs is everywhere. Even the floor of each room played a big role: in the room describing the initial attack, the floor was uneven; in a room describing life for the Nazis, the floor was fancy swastika tiles; in a room for a concentration camp the floor was actual white gravel. The last room was quite interesting as well. To get into it, you walk through a dark room with a spongy floor (we aren’t quite sure of the interpretation). Then, you enter the “room of regrets”, which is stark white and covered with snippets of writing. Upon closer inspection, the snippets are quotes from people who did something (or didn’t do something) during the war period. The building was actually Schindler’s Factory (from Schindler’s List), so his office is preserved and there are a few rooms dedicated to him.

Room of regrets

Gallery 11/07/95, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

We paid a visit to this moving and disturbing exhibit in Sarajevo – a series of exhibits that attempt to explain some of the tragedies of the war, mainly the genocide at Srebrenica. Our guide gave us a brief overview of what happened there. It’s hard to give a concise explanation in this space, but the gist of it is that over 8000 Bosniak people in the town, mostly males, were killed and dumped into mass graves by the approaching Army of Republika Srpska, even though the town was supposedly under UN protection. We walked through the photo gallery, watched a documentary, and also listened to the stories of some individuals who were affected. The gallery also included a small display and a documentary on the siege of Sarajevo. We vaguely remembered that Sarajevo was in the news when we were kids, but I don’t think we realized the scope of what the town went through. It was under siege for almost four years, which is the longest siege in modern history. The residents had to live in constant fear of being attacked by snipers in the hills surrounding the valley that the city sits in. The documentary, called Miss Sarajevo, was shot during the siege and showed the resilience of the residents in the face of this (and was later turned into a U2 song). It is extremely moving and worth a watch. (If you do watch the documentary, and you should… it’s linked in the previous sentences… and you find yourself as taken with the young girl in the beginning and the end as we were, here is a video of what she was doing in 2009!)

National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece

The museum went in chronological order and was quite extensive. The first major area was the Cycladic figurines and other art, from the 3^rd century BC. Then, they covered the findings from Mycenae. We were pretty excited to see the artifacts from Mycenae that we had heard about when at the site and from reading Greek Treasure. The next stop was the Archaic era, where we again learned more about the kore and kourous statues. The next major era was the Severe Style. The sculptures started to get more realistic, but the expressions were stern. For the classical era, many of the finds were split into different rooms. There was a large collection of rooms focused on the art found on tombstones in the ancient cemeteries. There were many elaborate marble carvings to be found. The next period is the Hellenistic era, which was characterized by sculptures which more realistic faces (instead of idealized) and more active movements. The final period covered was the Roman era. Here they tried to copy the Greek styles and were somewhat successful, although the art was less impressive. All of this chronological history was enhanced by enjoying the museum while listening to Rick Steves’ audio tour. There is much more to the museum so it could be worth multiple trips.

The Jockey of Arteision

Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil, Sparta, Greece

It may not sound interesting, but we found it fascinating. The top floor of this little museum gives the history of the olive and discusses how it and its oil can be used for a wide variety of purposes: food, light, rituals, etc. The lower floor discussed all about how to make olive oil, and had examples of the different machinery that has been used to make the oil from ancient times until the present.

Della about to perform the pressing stage

Antalya Museum, Antalya, Turkey

This is a large archaeological museum, and we enjoyed seeing the different exhibits that included the Stone Age in the Antalya area, ceramics, Roman-era sculptures and sarcophogi, and finally a small exhibit on life during the Ottoman era. Our favorite exhibit was a room with different sculptures of Greek/Roman gods found at the nearby site of Perge, mainly because each statue included a sign with extensive text describing the myths around the god.

One of the goddesses

The National Museum, Singapore

When we visited, we were disappointed to discover that the main exhibits at this museum were under renovation, but ultimately it turned out that the temporary exhibit on the history of Singapore was very good! It walked us through the history as described above in a nice chronological fashion, with good displays. It also worked hard to set the mood and tone of each period in history through the size, color, and feel of the rooms.

The exterior of the museum

COPE Visitor Center, Vientiane, Laos

COPE is an organization that helps provide prosthetic limbs to those who can’t afford them all across Laos. The visitor center describes their work in making the prosthetics, but also talks in detail about one of the main reasons so many are needed: the tons of unexploded ordinance (UXO) that remain in the country as a result of the many bombs the US dropped during the “secret war” as part of the Vietnam war. We also watched a couple of short documentaries about the efforts to go in the countryside and defuse the found items before someone is hurt by them. The problem is especially tough because scrap metal can bring in a significant amount of money, so people will risk harm and handle items that they shouldn’t. The visitor center was small, but we found that it contained a lot of interesting information and was quite moving.

Where the US dropped bombs on Laos during the war

Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, Bangkok, Thailand

This museum is actually within the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok and is free with admission with a palace ticket. Our first intention was just to take advantage of the AC and uncrowded bathrooms, but we also checked out the exhibit on the Queen’s fashion and were fascinated. Apparently, before a world tour in the 1960, she helped revive some classic Thai styles and designed nine different outfit styles that are still used by the Thai women today. There was also an activity room that described silk fashions, and Della got a chance to try on a traditional outfit.

We visited a lot of museums on our RTW the world tour, and came up with a few observations about the ones we liked the best. It was important to us that the museum have good signage and/or a good audio tour. We also enjoyed when the exhibits were interactive or really created a good atmosphere. In addition, the museums that taught us the most about things we didn’t know about or if we were moved by their content.

What Were the Most/Least Expensive Places to Travel Per Day?

08/10/201508/09/2015globegazers 2 Comments

As you might have gathered from reading some of our recent posts, we enjoy gathering and analyzing data- especially when this data regards the costs of our recent RTW adventure.

We kept detailed budget information on all of the places that we visited, in part to see how much we actually spent in total for our 10 months of travel, but also to look at the information broken down by country. We recently wrote about how much we spent in total and were excited that we had managed to keep under our goal of spending less than $100/day on the trip.

But for those of us who are really curious about data, or those who might be considering trips to some of the countries we visited, we have a bit more information!

We visited a total of 29 countries on our RTW trip, but for various reasons, we kept a budget breakdown by country of only 17 of them (as well as a budget for our whole self-drive safari in southern Africa). Some of the reasons we didn’t include a country might be: we visited for only a day so the data isn’t that valid or interesting (Egypt, Zimbabwe, Germany, Macau), we visited with our parents and they either changed our mode of travel significantly or paid for a significant portion of the trip so we felt like the data would not accurately represent what we did there (Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina), we visited friends/family/relatives at home (USA), or our activities ended up being so strange and out of the ordinary that they don’t represent a normal trip to the country (Nepal). We also kept our budget for our self-drive safari as a whole rather than separate the countries we visited (Botswana, Namibia).

We took the data that we were keeping which was in categories for spending (Accommodation, Activities, Alcohol, Food, Miscellaneous, Transport, and Visas) and divided each of those out by day to get some idea of which countries were expensive in which categories.

Here are the countries we have full data on in alphabetical order.

As you can see: 17 countries plus our self-drive safari were looked at. They cover three continents: Africa, Europe, and Asia.

We kept a record of how many days we were in each country.

The shortest amounts of time were in countries that we managed to plan last minute layovers in on our way somewhere else (Ireland and Singapore). We actually are a little regretful that we didn’t spent more time in Poland. As it was, we only crossed the southwestern corner and visited only one city there. Krakow was great and it whet our appetite to see much more of Poland. Hong Kong is small so we spent a short time there, but we ended up wishing we had more! The longest visits were in the places that were farthest away, places where we felt a return trip was slightly less likely. Our self-drive safari took us to 4 countries and was the longest period of time where we did one activity on the entire trip.

Average Accommodation Costs Per Day

Our cheapest accommodations were, unsurprisingly, in southeast Asia. The surprise there is that Turkey was so affordable. The great thing about all of those is that we also got nicer accommodation in all those places than in some of the others. We almost never stayed in a dorm in SE Asia for example, whereas, our most expensive nights were in Ireland where we rented just one room in someone’s home. Singapore and Hong Kong both were high and both of those rooms were small and relatively uncomfortable. The self-drive safari were all campsites (!) yet this ranks on the more expensive half of our accommodations. Strange.

Average Activities Costs Per Day

This is, no doubt, a difficult one to compare. Activities costs depend largely on time of year, length of stay, and interests. Montenegro was low, for example, because we didn’t do a lot while we were there. We took a week to calm down and relax, mostly walking and people watching. Vietnam and Thailand rank more expensive on this list, but that is in part because the cost of activities were so low there, that we chose to do more! For example, we took many day tours in both those places: days with elephants, cooking classes, cave tours, guided excursions, etc. We did none of those things in Albania, choosing more “do it ourselves” activities. However, this does give you a decent representation of activity costs. Ireland and Singapore were very high and that shows!

Average Food Costs Per Day

Our lowest costs here were in SE Asia again – with the weird standout being Cambodia. We’re not sure what to say about that except that it was the beginning of our experience with hot, humid SE Asia. We weren’t tough yet and looked for places with indoor seating and AC which undoubtedly increased our costs. Bali ranks high because we traveled with some friends who really enjoy food! Our self-drive safari comes in low (for the first time) because we did all of our cooking for ourselves. The same can be said of Montenegro, which also comes in pretty cheap. For our entire week there, we only ate out once. Interestingly though, Vietnam and Thailand come in very cheap and we ate out for almost every meal there! They both are excellent places to be if you enjoy eating! Ireland was just plain pricey!

Average Transportation Costs Per Day

Not surprisingly, our self-drive safari comes in the most expensive here with the cost of renting our safari truck and paying for gas. It is frustrating to see Greece come in so high, especially because the transportation there ended up being so unreliable. Albania was a true winner in this area – easy transport (though not super comfortable) and very cheap prices.

So… What were the most and least expensive places?! Let’s find out!

Average Total Cost Per Day

Our cheapest country was Albania! Who would have thought that the least expensive place to travel would have been somewhere in Europe? The most expensive by far was our self-drive safari. This also seems a bit of a surprise because we were driving ourselves and staying in campsites along the way. Other things we noticed which muddle the data: We tended to spend more in places were we spent the least amount of time (see Ireland, Hong Kong, and Singapore). We think we felt the pressure to cram the same amount of things in but had to do it in a hurry. This definitely caused higher average per day costs.

There you have it! Check out our activities in each country to get a better idea of how this data might relate to you and your travel style.

What Were the Most Expensive Places We Stayed?

08/03/201507/26/2015globegazers 5 Comments

We’ve already looked at the cheapest places we stayed on our round-the-world trip, so now let’s look at the reverse. In general, we didn’t actually stay anywhere that expensive when compared to fancy hotels, but in certain countries the budget accommodations are still pretty pricey. We think you might be surprised at where some of the most expensive were! The price shown is the total cost for the two of us.

10. Khmer Surin, Phnom Penh, Cambodia – $50.80/night

We stayed at this boutique guesthouse on the recommendation of a friend who stays here when in Phnom Penh working for an NGO. It is definitely out of our normal price range, but it was nice to get to stay in the same place as him and experience a little luxury. The included breakfast was great as well! Spoiler alert: this is the only actual hotel on the entire list, and the only place in Asia.

Our lovely bedroom

9. Airbnb Flat, Český Krumlov, Czech Republic – $57.50/night

We shared a cozy space with Eric’s parents for two nights in this charming town. It was a little small, but the location within walking distance of the castle was superb.

Della is pointing at the building our flat is located in

8. Halali Campground, Etosha National Park, Namibia – $57.66/night

What?! A campground?! Surprisingly, this is not the only campsite on the list… the ones in Botswana were even more expensive.

The campsite itself was a little sparse, but the amenities: lodge with restaurant, watering hole, and hot showers were all nice.

The site

7. Airbnb Studio Apartment, Nafplio, Greece – $58.60

Renting our own space was more expensive than staying in a guesthouse, but food in Greece was relatively expensive, so we wanted our own kitchen to cook our meals. We found this nice space just outside the tourist area of Nafplio and ending up eating in every night.

Taking advantage of having our own kitchen!

6. Room in Townhouse on Airbnb, Dublin, Ireland – $61.67

Dublin really had no good cheap lodging options. Most of the hostels were booked, so we decided to try Airbnb again. We ended up having to settle for just getting a room in someone’s home (versus having the place to ourselves like on our other stays). Our host was kind and accommodating, but we decided we still preferred having our own space.

The common living area

5. Apartment from HomeAway, Athens, Greece – $62.40/night

We met up with Della’s parents and sister for a few days of sightseeing in Athens. Finding a place for 5 proved to be a bit of a challenge, but we eventually found a fancy two-bedroom place on HomeAway (which is basically the same as Airbnb). Whereas some places felt like they were designed for rentals, in this case we were clearly living in the place that was the primary residence for the elderly owner: the decorations and fixtures seemed to match her personal tastes.

Reading at the dining table

4. Third Bridge Campground, Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana – $79.05/night

We had heard that the campgrounds in Botswana were expensive, and the reputation turned out to be true. Granted, the facilities were nice, with hot water showers and flush toilets, but it still seems pretty outrageous.

This campground had a nice location in the middle of the park. We were a little annoyed that the management company messed up our reservation and we ended up having to share a site with another group on our first night. Luckily, they turned out to be very nice people who gave us a lot of great advice which we followed various times throughout the rest of the trip!

First night camp

3. Khumaga Campsite, Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana – $101.37/night

That’s right, a campsite here cost just by itself cost more than our daily trip budget. Still, if we wanted to do our self-drive safari and stay in the best parks, we didn’t have many other options. We have mixed memories of this park: it was in a pretty setting, but we struggled with our first introduction to driving our 4×4 truck on sandy roads.

1 (tie). Khwai Campsite, Moremi Game Reserve and Savuti Camp, Chobe National Park, Botswana – $101.90/night

Not to beat a dead horse, but who would have guessed that the most expensive place we stayed around the world wouldn’t have a roof?

Both of these campgrounds were pretty nice, although the Savuti site was mostly sand, and we did have our encounter with a hyena at Khwai.

Our site at Khwai

Enjoying a beer in the Savuti site

We are pretty surprised that the expensive places were almost all Airbnbs and campgrounds, but we had good reasons for choosing to pay the amounts we did in each situation. Airbnbs provide savings by allowing you to self cater, and there just aren’t many alternatives for most campgrounds inside the parks. Luckily having to pay as much as we did at these places turned out to be an exception and not a rule!

We’ve Finished our RTW, so What Were Our Favorite… Ruined Cities?!

08/01/201507/26/2015globegazers Leave a comment

This edition looks at our top 10 favorite ruined ancient cities. These are not in order from best to worst. They are just our top 10 favorite in the order in which we visited them.

Butrint (Albania)

Butrint was the first large ruin we visited in Europe. This archaeological site has a fascinating history: it has been the location of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman settlements. Old structures from all of these are scattered throughout this small park located on a peninsula in a lagoon off the Straits of Corfu.

Delphi (Greece)

The ancient site of Delphi was a pilgrimage site located in the Peloponnese of Greece. The biggest part of the site is the sanctuary of Apollo, the big destination for those coming to consult the Oracle. Delphi was an active site from at least the 8th century BC up until the 4th century AD (meaning even the Romans kept the site active). Since it was such a popular site, many of the different Greek city states built “treasuries” containing offerings to Apollo to thank the oracle for her advice. The most well-preserved of the treasuries is the Athenian Treasury, built by the Athenians to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Marathon.

Olympia (Greece)

Olympia was the host site for the ancient Olympic Games from the 8th century BC all the way until the 2nd century AD. These ancient games were not just an athletic competition: they were also a chance for the Greeks to pay tribute to their Gods. Therefore, the site has quite the collection of ruins, both for athletic and sacred events.

Temple of Zeus with fallen columns

Mystras (Greece)

Mystras is the ruins of the medieval fortified Byzantine city located near Sparta. It is considered as one of the last remaining centers of Byzantine culture until the empire fell in the 15th century. It is located on a mountain with the ruins of the castle at the very top, with monasteries, the palace, and residences on the way down. The monasteries were both abandoned and active with some old but well-preserved frescoes that gave a glimpse into the Greek Orthodox culture as it existed during the late Byzantine period.

The ruins of the castle of Mystras

Ephesus (Turkey)

Ephesus is on the western coast of Turkey. According to Lonely Planet, it is the most complete classical metropolis in Europe. It started around the tenth century BC and was once part of the Ionian League. It also served as the Roman capital of Asia Minor. Its Temple of Artemis was the biggest on earth and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Unfortunately, all that is left of that Temple is one solitary, lonely, rebuilt column. The rest of the site is quite extensive and includes a large marble-paved sacred way, lined by different structures, such as temples, fountains, public baths and even a public lavatory. The most impressive piece of architecture is the restored facade of the Library of Celsus.

Library of Celsus

Tlos (Turkey)

Tlos was one of the most important cities in ancient Lycia. It is a fascinating site because it has been pretty much continually occupied from the time of Lycia all the way up to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century! It has the distinctive rock tombs of Lycia, as well as an a Roman-era acropolis, theater, stadium, and baths. In addition there are Byzantine church ruins and an Ottoman-era fortress atop the peak. Another thing that makes Tlos impressive is its absolutely awesome setting, situated in the foothills of the Akdağlar mountain range.

Distinctive Lycian rock tombs and sarcophogi

Bagan (Burma/Myanmar)

The area of Bagan is a large plain next to the Ayerawaddy River that is covered with over 3000 Buddist temples built from 11^th to 13^th century. After years of neglect, many of the temples have been restored and Bagan is one of the highlights of any itinerary in Myanmar. This site was the largest that we had seen thus far on the world trip.

View from Shwesandaw Paya

Angkor (Cambodia)

This was another site that was extremely large, stretching over some 400 square km. Angkor contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. The kings who ruled over the empire constructed large numbers of temples in the city as befitting of its status. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations, and many others.

Sukhothai (Thailand)

The Sukhothai kingdom came into prominence in the mid-13^th century AD after the Khmer empire began to decline. It grew into a strong regional power and is known today for the unique artistic style that can be seen in the remaining temples. There are a large number of ruins to be seen which are spread out over a moderately-sized range. We particularly enjoyed Wat Si Chum, which contains an impressive large Buddha that is a great example of the Sukhothai style of art. The location of this image helps amplify its impact: at first you can only see the face, until you slip through a narrow passage and find yourself at the base of the immense seated figure.

Looking up at Buddha

Ayutthaya (Thailand)

The kingdom of Ayutthaya, located on an island in the middle of a river about 50 miles north of present-day Bangkok, came into prominence a couple of centuries later than Sukhothai. It was the capital of the kingdom of Siam and the major trading port with the outside world. An invading Burmese army destroyed most of the city in 1767, but some restoration has been done. Our favorite part was a unique and curious sight: the head of a Buddha image wrapped up in the roots of a tree. No one is sure how this got here.

What Were the Cheapest Places We Stayed?

07/27/201502/19/2021globegazers 2 Comments

Over the course of our round-the-world trip, we stayed in quite a variety of accommodations, from campsites to dorm rooms to AirBnb apartments. The price range varied widely as well. We ran some numbers and came up with a list of the 10 cheapest places we stayed. The price shown is the total cost for the two of us.

This does not include the nights where we had free accommodations by staying with friends and family, or when our parents treated us, or when we were on an overnight form of transportation.

10. Tie – AirBnb in Sarajevo and Emerald BB in Battambang, Cambodia – $15.33/night

When with Della’s parents in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, we got a nice two-bedroom unit with a large living room and kitchen for very cheap. Spoiler alert: this is the only place on the list that is not in Asia!

The living room of our Sarajevo Airbnb

In Battambang, Cambodia, we got a nice room with an ensuite bathroom at the Emerald BB. Despite the name, breakfast was not included, and the building felt more like a hotel.

Our room at the Emerald BB in Battambang, Cambodia

9. TopSky Hostel in Siem Reap, Cambodia – $15/night

We switched to this place for our last three nights in Siem Reap. Despite what the name implies, this felt more like a guesthouse. We got a private room with an ensuite bathroom and A/C, which was nice to come back to after long days exploring the temples of Angkor.

Topsky

8. Easy Tiger Hostel, Phong Nha, Vietnam – $14.85/night

We each got a bunk in the 4-bunk dorms at this popular hostel in Phong Nha. The dorm did have its own bathroom. Surprisingly, this is the only dorm that makes the list (since as you can see, private rooms are still pretty cheap in Asia).

The Easy Tiger

7. Nonni Guesthouse, Chiang Mai, Thailand – $14.68/night

We stayed here on our first two nights in Chiang Mai but moved to a different place for a little more space, as the room was a little small and we had a shared bathroom across the hall. It had friendly and helpful staff.

Our first accommodations in Chiang Mai

6. Gieng Ngoc Hotel, Cat Ba, Vietnam – $14.60/night

Impressive because we even “splurged” for a room with a balcony overlooking the scenic Cat Ba harbor!

The view of Cat Ba harbor from our balcony

5. Hotel Bright Star, Kathmandu, Nepal – $12/night

This family-run hotel had a nice location in the tourist area of Kathmandu, and the owner was very kind and helpful. We really hope that he is able to rebuild his place that was damaged after the neighboring building collapsed in the earthquake.

Hotel Bright Star on its quiet street

4. Sunny Hotel, Hue, Vietnam – $11.97/night

We had a nice but small room on the top floor of this friendly hotel in Hue. We got a lot of exercise walking up and down the stairs to get there!

3. Vadsana, Pak Beng, Laos – $9.92/night

This was where we stayed on our first night of our trip on the slow boat from Luang Prabang to Thailand. It was a basic room but decent-sized room, and we didn’t spend much time here anyway.

Della and Eric’s hotel room

2. Thanomsub, Huay Xai, Laos – $8.68/night

This was our room the second night of the slow boat trip in this border town. We were able to lower the rate slightly by negotiating as a group with other people on our boat. Again this was quite a bit of room for a small fee.

1. Surya Peak Guest House, Syabru Besi, Nepal – $2/night

By far our cheapest room of the entire trip was at this guesthouse at the start of our Langtang Trek. It was pretty basic, with thin walls and a very rustic bathroom down the hall, but there weren’t many other people staying there so it was quite comfortable.

It’s interesting to us to look back over this list and realize how many of these “cheap” places were actually very comfortable to stay at. Many people think that to afford a long trip you have to only stay in the rattiest dorms, but as you can see, in many parts of the world you can get your own room with its own bathroom and not have to break the bank.

We’ve Finished our RTW, so What Was Our Favorite… Food?!

07/25/201507/24/2015globegazers 1 Comment

This first edition will cover our 5 favorite cuisines from the countries we visited. These are in order!

5th Favorite: Greek

We spent almost a month in Greece and we only just barely got sick of eating the same kind of food every day. We loved eating delicious Greek salads, and particularly enjoyed slurping up tzatziki sauce. Della, in particular, loved the constant access to delicious olives. Souvlaki wasn’t bad either =)

gyros, souvlaki, and greek salad in Athens

Greek salad and stuffed grape leaves in Delphi

Tzatziki and retsina in Meteora

Greek salad in Sparta

4th Favorite: Singaporean

We were delighted with the huge variety of food available in Singapore. It is a combination of Indian, Indonesian, and Chinese flavors. We also particularly enjoyed one of their national dishes: laksa.

indian flavors

Laksa and hainanese chicken rice

more laksa (at the airport)

3rd Favorite: Bosnian

We had been a little tired of some of the food we had been eating in Central Europe which consisted of a lot of heavy meat, starches, and very few vegetables. We were thrilled when we arrived in Bosnia and found much more variety than we had been expecting. We had the best of the meat with cevapi and easy, quick food with burek. But we also suddenly had access to stuffed green peppers. In addition, the food was considerably more affordable than all of our prior countries. Yum!

Burek in Sarajevo

Cevapi in Sarajevo

Roasting lamb on the road to Mostar

Stuffed peppers and grape leaves in Mostar

2nd Favorite: Vietnamese

Overall, the best part of our trip food wise the second half in SE Asia. We really enjoyed all of the noodle and curry dishes in most of the countries in 2015. However, Vietnam really stood out. We had some really great pho, which is one of our go-to foods here at home. But, we also had access to a variety of other delicious Vietnamese foods including spring rolls, bun cha (vermicelli), and many other great soups! Basically, there was very few things we tried in Vietnam that we didn’t love. And, to top it all off, it was quite affordable.

Bun rieu cua in the foreground, Della enjoying a banh xeo in the background

bun bo hue (beef soup) in Hue

pho in Saigon

cau lau in front and Eric got eggplant grilled in a banana leaf with lemongrass

Favorite Food in the World: Thai

This wasn’t unexpected. Thai food is Della’s favorite ethnic cuisine here at home as well. But, the ease of access to really great, really affordable food made Thailand the clear best. They have a wide variety of delightful noodle dishes including some of our favorites: pad thai and pad see ewe. On top of that, we often enjoyed delicious curries of all varieties. Street food was easy to come by and we found several great spring rolls as well. We were excited enough to take a cooking class to learn how to make it easily at home!

Enjoying a yummy Thai dinner!

Pad thai street noodles in Chiang Rai

Enjoying our khao soi

Della enjoying a street treat in Sukhothai

Pad See Ewe at night market in Ayuthaya

pad see ewe and red curry in Koh Lanta

Green curry and pad thai in Sukhothai

RTW Budget: Under $100/day??

07/23/201507/23/2015globegazers 5 Comments

This is one of our Budget series of posts to give you an idea of how much we spent traveling around the world. This is our wrap up post which will answer the questions you’ve all been dying to know: How much did we spend on our 10 month RTW trip? Did we meet our goal of spending an average of $100/day?

Let’s find out!

Total Spent (309 days): $29,827.38

We visited 29 countries on our RTW trip and were on the trip for 309 days. Egypt (just 1 day), South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe (just 1 day), Namibia, Germany (just 1 day), Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Ireland, USA, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia (just Bali), Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, and Nepal.

We did return to the USA for a few weeks in December, so we were actually out of the country for 282 days.

A few other things to remember while reading these stats:

1. Our parents visited us several times along the way. This screws with the numbers a little bit because they did choose to “play the parent card” a number of times which lowers our cost. However, there were certain situations where we stayed in slightly higher quality places, or traveled at a faster speed when they were with us which might have slightly increased our cost.

2. When we were at home in the States our accommodation cost/food cost were very low.

3. When were in the states, we bought Christmas presents for friends and family which we did include in our final numbers.

Accommodation: $7,869.29

This was 26% of our total cost of the trip.

Activities: $3,456.50

This was 11% of our total trip cost.

Alcohol: $593.38

We only count alcohol costs when it is not purchased with other food. This was 2% of the our total trip cost.

Food: $5,401.19

This was 18% of our total trip cost.

Miscellaneous: $1,768.08

This category includes any costs that don’t fit into the other categories. It could be things like postcards, souvenirs, laundry, bathroom, our wordpress costs, etc. This was 6% of our total cost.

Transportation: $10,129.86

This was 34% of the total cost. This is surprising to us because we used airline miles for the majority of our large flight costs, which means that this is significantly lower than it could have been!

Visas: $609.07

This is 2% of the total cost.

This divides out to $96.53/day including our time at home! We were so thrilled that we met our $100/day average for the two of us!

Hong Kong and Macau Photos

07/21/201507/18/2015globegazers Leave a comment

Enjoy our pictures from Hong Kong and Macau!

Hong Kong Album

Macau Album

Monthly Recap: Month 10

07/19/201507/17/2015globegazers 1 Comment

Well, this monthly recap is very late! It would have come out, should everything have been normal, on May 2nd. However, as many of you know, we were actually getting ready to come home after experiencing the Earthquake in Nepal on May 2nd. Because of that earthquake, Month 10 turned out to be the last month of our trip… We had been planning on making it until Month 11, but the world had other plans for us. Month 10 had some great times as well as some not so great times (see aforementioned earthquake). Let’s recap, shall we?!

Here are our stats for this month.

Countries visited: 3 (Vietnam, China, and Nepal) Special Administrative Regions: 2 (Hong Kong and Macau)

Beds Slept In: 8 Tarps Slept Under: 1 Embassies Slept In: 1 (Hopefully the first and last of our life.)

UNESCO Heritage Sights Visited: 7 (My Son Sanctuary, Complex of Hue Monuments, Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long – Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Historic Centre of Macao, Kathmandu Valley) *** As of July of 2015, there are have been many new UNESCO sites added! We were pretty excited that two places that we visited on our RTW were now recently added! YAY! Those include Singapore Botanical Gardens (visited in Month 7) and Ephesus (visited in Month 5). Total on RTW: 49

We traveled by 3 planes this month.

We traveled by 4 boats this month.

We traveled 4 long distance buses/minibuses.

We traveled by 1 train this month.

We traveled by 2 helicopters this month.

Top Moments:

~ Our biggest emotional high was when we were rescued by helicopter from Bamboo Village in Nepal. We had never ridden in a helicopter before and on that day, we rode two. We couldn’t have had better scenery: the beautiful Himalayas of Nepal. Despite the destruction caused by the earthquake and landslides, Nepal is a gorgeous country, well worth a visit! If you are interested in supporting Nepal after the devastating earthquake, check out some ideas here.

Flying down the Langtang valley

Della had to sit on top of Eric to get all of us in

Runners Up for Top Moments:

~We had an absolutely lovely day biking through the outskirts of Hoi An. We went a bit off the beaten track and biked through rice fields to a great beach! Good day all around.

~We rushed through Phong Nha National Park in order to see some of the renowned caves there. We struggled with which tour to choose, but ultimately went with a general tour of three caves. It was all amazing, but our favorite part was experiencing swimming through a mud bath in the Dark Cave. It was hard to explain the feeling of floating through a pool of mud – how we imagine it would feel to be on the moon – almost weightless! Overall, a lot of fun!

~We really enjoyed lots of places in Vietnam, but another great day was when we kayaked through the karsts in Lan Ha Bay. We had a lovely day in great scenery!

Getting used to the kayak

~Another great day was when we took the funicular up Hong Kong Peak. Great weather – it wasn’t too hot way up there, and you just couldn’t beat the views!

Items Missing, Broken, Discarded, or Added:

Honestly, we don’t really remember… Sorry!

Packing Update:

We were glad that we had held on to our colder weather gear because we used every bit of it in Nepal. It was particularly good when we hit an emergency situation and ended up having to sleep outside for 5 nights.

Books Read: (Have you read any of these??)

Della has read All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (4)

Eric has read Overkill by James Barrington (2), Gods of War by John Toland (4)

Eric and Della have BOTH read Tai-Pan by James Clavell (4)

The rating system is for Della’s mom who is refusing to look at Goodreads. It is 1 to 5, 5 being the highest.

Make sure to catch up on all our monthly recaps: Monthly Recap 1, Monthly Recap 2, Monthly Recap 3,Monthly Recap 4, Monthly Recap 5, Monthly Recap 6, Monthly Recap 7, Monthly Recap 8, Monthly Recap 9