We have had the good fortune/bad fortune to have seen some of the big wows of the world without having to share the experience with large crowds. We were in Egypt just after 9-11, visiting Machu Picchu, Peru during a cholera outbreak, in Fes, Morocco after a restaurant bombing, in Timbuktu, Mali after high profile kidnappings... (you get the idea). Avoiding the crowds at another wonder of the world, Angkor Wat, was simply not going to happen. Not only is it on t...

How do you plan a multi year trip? You don't. We have a general idea of where we want to go and what we want to see but booking anything ahead of time would just limit our options. The one exception was Singapore- we really wanted to visit this Asian Tiger but since Singapore is reputed to be just another big modern city, I wanted to tie our visit to a festival or celebration. Problem solved since Singapore plays host to one of the biggest Chinese New Year pa...

I usually don't comment on the hotels we stay at as long as they offer up the basics of cleanliness, running water, and a reasonably comfortable bed but our introduction to Phnom Phen hotels was somewhat unique in that the lobby had been cut in half by a flimsy divider and and small parking garage was set up on the other side. This space obviously used to be the hotel restaurant as our breakfast was served out on the street- not sure who the business tycoon w...

It would be hard to classify Phu Quoc Island as an 'undiscovered' beach paradise but it was not so long ago, that it really was that. Now there is a fair amount of development taking place but its still a long way away from comparisons with Hawaii- just what we were looking for as a place to rest before leaving Vietnam and tackling Cambodia. We are not beach people (apologies to Christine L) but we've been traveling hard the last couple of weeks and t...

This was really just a pit-stop for us as we waited for the boat ferry to Phu Quoc Island and as a result we're only taking away five mixed memories:1- We had to pay twice for our hotel room. I had been using Agoda to book some of our rooms as they have a strong presence in Southeast Asia (they do require the payment up front which is different from most booking sites and a big negative). Unfortunately they also have a reputation for non-existent customer ser...