Just over a year ago we were sitting on the summit of Gunung Sinabung – a docile, extinct volcano in northern Sumatra. It took us three hours to climb from base to summit – not the hardest volcano we’ve climbed, but well worth the work. Shrouded in mist we celebrated summiting with a photo [...]
If buying two Iphones isn’t a sign of us being back in the 21st century, I don’t know what is. The other day, Jaime flew up to San Francisco for a bit of business and came back with not one, but two of these bad boys. Needless to say we’ve had our noses pointed [...]
I had some serious plans for Dogubayazit. I wanted to chase down Noah’s Ark and see what it really looks like. See, a Hong Kong expedition claims to have found the remnants of the Ark, embedded in a glacier on the mountain. It sounded like a great little adventure. Failing that, at least I’d get [...]
Turkey is great. In fact, it is our new favorite destination. The one thing that hasn’t worked out for us is the trekking. We’re here way too early. In just two months from now, the weather will be much warmer and drier, the skies will be fair and all the interesting destinations open for [...]
Martin already gave a fantastic breakdown of our trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake in Myanmar. Since we were able to snap a few pics of some cool things on an otherwise so-so trek, I put a little photo gallery together. Again, it was the wrong time of year, well, century for that matter, to [...]
In order to get at least one trek done, we signed up for a walk from Kalaw to Inle Lake – one of the few treks in Myanmar that can be done without special permits. We were joined by a Slovenian couple, Robin the guide and a cook: a handy group size. After a short [...]
Looking at some pictures of our recent Annapurna trek, you’d believe that we were going off the beaten path up there, breaking new ground and exploring virgin territory. Not so. In fact, we just learned that the Annapurna trails were visited by almost 77,000 people in 2009 alone. That’s 1,000 times the population [...]
Once upon a time I was an accountant. I wouldn’t say I was particularly good with numbers (all accountants know that’s what calculators are for) but I have to admit that I liked messing around with spreadsheets. Fine, I’m a nerd. But that’s neither here, nor there. As a throw-back to my accounting [...]
Settling into a short-term expat life in Kathmandu gives us time to really explore. Unlike the transitory nature of backpacking – transit, find a hotel, find a restaurant, figure out sightseeing, figure out your next form of transit – settling in somewhere gave us the freedom to move at our own pace. We’re not [...]
Our route for our last two days retraced our steps through Chhomrong, then branched into new territory along the Modi Khola river. As Martin mentioned in Day 10′s post, by the time day 11 and 12 rolled around we were looking forward to returning to some of Pokhara’s luxuries (hot showers in something other than [...]
Despite his complete absence in our daily trek accounts, Bacon was with us on our Jomsom/Annapurna Sanctuary trek. For the most part he stayed in my backpack. His plan was simple. He didn’t want to see anything until we made it to the top, figuring that would be the best way to experience the Annapurna [...]
The night wasn’t especially nice to us up at the ABC. We both slept fitfully, waking up frequently and wondering whether or not we were coming down with altitude sickness. A room temperature of 30 F/ -1 C didn’t help much, but thanks to our thick sleeping bags we still managed to get a few [...]
Our ninth day was our pinnacle day – the day we would reach the Annapurna Base Camp (aka as far as you can trek before you start walking on pretty dangerous ground). Knowing this, we were up early and out walking before many people had finished their breakfasts. A steady five hour climb [...]
The morning of day eight offered brief glimpses of the mountains ahead of us, until a thick layer of clouds rolled in. Trekking wise the day was to be a good test of our capacity, having us go up and down in altitude like no other day before. We started the day with a great [...]
Our seventh day walking was an easy one, relatively speaking. The day began bathed in sunlight, a welcome change to the previous night which we spent avoiding the misty cold. Our morning view helped us realize just how close we were getting to some of the impending giants (notably Annapurna III and Machhapuchare in the [...]
You know the saying, “to fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on an extended round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
