September 27, 2017
Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.
September 24, 2017
Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.
September 11 - 15, 2017
Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.
day two hundred: april 6, 2016
After realizing we would be seriously missing out if we moved further south without visiting Yoshino/Nara, we booked another night at our AirBnB and took the train to Yoshino for the day. We were not disappointed and were happy we went early in the morning too as it got hazy in the afternoon. Oddly enough, we ran into a woman, Donna, from our New Zealand trek on the Milford Track in Yoshiko. What an incredibly small world!
day one hundred and ninety-five: april 1, 2016
We spent a night in Hakone at a really great AirBnB that was in a remote area of Hakone, but unfortunately the weather wasn't great and we couldn't see Mount Fiji, so we only have one photo from that day.
days one hundred and ninety-six thru one hundred and ninety-eight: april 2, 2016 thru april 4, 2016
After saying our goodbyes, we boarded a train back south in pursuit of sakura in full bloom. First stop, Nagoya. Wow, what a difference a few days makes. Our two days in Nagoya were quite something with the sakura in full bloom. After a full day of cruising around the city, we were lucky enough to meet up with another group of friends visiting Japan. Our friend Fion and her husband Marcel stopped thru Nagoya to have a quick dinner with us and catch up before to Kyoto.
Later that evening we headed to one of Nagoya's main parks where the sakura were supposed to be illuminated. That's not the only thing we found in the park. Tons of locals were out enjoying the sakura and there were food stalls and live music. It was quite a celebration!
The next morning we continued to explore Nagoya and took our time and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery with the locals.
Hope you're not tired of sakura yet...because there are a lot more pictures coming! :)
days one hundred and ninety-three thru one hundred and ninety-four: march 30, 2016 thru march 31, 2016
Next stop, back to Osaka in search of more cherry blossoms. In just the few days since we landed in Japan, the sakura blossoms were already more mature, beginning to bloom and the locals were already out enjoying the beautiful scenery, weather, and picnicking under the blossoms which they call hanami .
day one hundred ninety: march 27, 2016
In the late afternoon we headed to the airport to catch a late night flight to Osaka, putting us in close to 2 AM. To our surprise, the immigration lines at Osaka airport were some of the worst we've experienced thus far. We didn't get our bags and exit the airport until close to 4 AM. For such a major airport, we would have expected there still to be taxis available to take us into the city, but we weren't so lucky. Our other option was to take a bus into the city and then a taxi the rest of the way to our AirBnB. At around 5 AM we arrived at our AirBnB. I went to sleep for a few hours while Jonathan went up to the rooftop to check out the sunrise with Osaka Castle across the river.
days one hundred and ninety-one thru one hundred and ninety-two: march 28, 2016 thru march 29, 2016
Today we took the train to Kyoto, dropped our bags off in a locker at the station and went to meet our friends Lindsey, Clement and Kari who were on vacation from the states. Thankfully, they were ok with us crashing their trip. For two days we cruised around Kyoto and explored temples, shrines, and ate as much food as our stomachs could bare.
When we visited Fushimi Inari Shrine, it was late in the afternoon and we intended to find a nice place to watch the sunset. Not surprisingly, there were tons of people walking thru the Torii Gates and was near impossible to escape the crowds. Jonathan had the bright idea of following a trail that wandered off the side of the hill and supposedly reconnected with the main walk path at the top of the mountain. Let's just say that we successfully escaped the crowds, but we also didn't get to see much of a sunset. We did, however, get to make our way casually down at dusk which was much more peaceful than being amongst the crowds down at the bottom of the hill.
After leaving the shrine, we were starving. Lucky for us, just nearby the train station there was a small yakitori restaurant that was still open. I think we ordered the most of anyone there.
The next morning, we headed to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion and managed to snap a few photos with barely any people in it, quite an art form when some of these places are seen in person.
This was one of the first areas where the sakura (cherry blossoms) were starting to bloom, but many weren't open yet.
Next stop, the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest and the nearby park.
Just above the bamboo forest is an area overlooking the river down below. The sakura contrasted against the green surroundings was beautiful.
That evening we went to visit Kiyomizu-dera Temple perched up on the hillside with a view of Kyoto. We had read that some of the areas were illuminated in the evening so we wanted to check it out.
Afterwards, we headed back to Gion for some dinner with the rest of the group. On our way, we came across this beautiful weeping sakura tree hanging above the walkway.
We found another small yakitori restaurant off a small side street and were told that we could wait for seats to open up. After about 5 minutes of waiting they called us in and asked if a room upstairs would be ok and if we could squeeze. To our surprise, the room was more than big enough and we even had our own little balcony area. (yes, we pretty much ordered the entire menu!)
Next stop, Osaka!
day one hundred and eighty-one - march 18, 2016
It was difficult deciding where to go after Raja Ampat. After discussing our options we decided to head to Hong Kong to visit Jonathan's cousin Stephanie (Stef) who moved there late last year. Our close friends Hajime and Maily were also moving to Hong Kong at the same time which was an added bonus.
days one hundred and seventy thru one hundred and eighty-one: march 7, 2016 thru march 18, 2016
Oh yes, we're back. It didn't take much convincing for us or even Jonathan's parents, to dive Raja Ampat. Hey, we know what we like, right? Similar to our first cruise, we spent 11 days on the Samambaia exploring the Raja Ampat area with the same crew we've grown to love. We got spoiled again and pretty much had the boat to ourselves - it was us, Jonathan's parents, and our cruise director's parents. Not bad, eh?
days one hundred and fifty-six thru one hundred and one hundred and fifty-nine: march 3, 2016 thru march 6, 2016
We had a short gap of time to fill before heading back to Raja Ampat and we decided to stop thru Singapore since we had friends we could visit. In our three days there, we were pretty impressed with the city. Amazing architecture that integrated sustainability, efficient public transportation, clean streets, and thankfully good food too!
day one hundred and fifty-eight: march 4, 2016
After hearing about Gardens by the Bay, we decided that it was the one attraction that we had to see in Singapore. Separate from the main gardens, there are two enclosed domes that you can buy tickets to enter. The first is the Flower Dome, which is the largest glass greenhouse in the world and houses plants from around the world. And most importantly, it's air conditioned!
The second dome is the Cloud Forest Dome, which is more focused on plant life from the tropical highlands.
Our final stop in Gardens by the Bay was the Supertree Grove, which measure between 25 and 50 meters in height and are designed to provide shade during the day and come alive with lights and sound at night. Over 162,000 plants comprising over 200 species are planted on the Supertrees.
Ooof, I know that was a lot of flowers to go through -- but they were all just so beautiful!
day one hundred and forty-six: february 22, 2016: a loooong day in transit
The afternoon before, we flew to Kuala Lumpur since flights to Tokyo were significantly cheaper and KL was a good hub for future travel. After our one night stopover, we boarded our ANA flight to Tokyo on time on the morning of the 22nd. After settling into our seats and taking off we were both comfortably watching movies when there was a sudden jolt and a bit of noise. It wasn't characteristic of typical turbulence and to be honest, we were pretty scared, momentarily clutching each other's hands. About 5 minutes after the incident, the flight attendant came on the intercom and announced that the right engine failed. Yikes! She said that we had to turn back to KL because we wouldn't make it to Tokyo on one engine. Of course, we were thankful to be safe, but bummed to be delayed. We were told that everyone would be sent to an airport hotel and rooms would be arranged and flights were being rebooked for everyone.
days one hundred and fifty-two thru one hundred and one hundred and fifty-five: february 28, 2016 thru march 2, 2016
Sorry, not a ton of photos from Tokyo, but it mostly entailed eating, drinking and a little bit of karaoke. So in addition to the whole ski crew from Myoko Kogen, we also were able to meet up with our good friends, Hajime and Maily, and my cousin, Stephanie, all of whom live in Hong Kong now. So yes, we basically ate our way thru Tokyo. There are some videos from karaoke the first night that somehow didn't make this post, but those who were there enjoyed a Jung brother's rendition of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas", something that will never be forgotten.
days one hundred and forty-two thru one hundred and forty-five: february 18 - 21, 2016
We spent our last few days in Vietnam in a beachy town called Nha Trang so I could get scuba certified. Yes, I finally decided to jump on the Jung Family Scuba Diving wagon. It only took me 10 years...hahaha! I joined another group of 3 people and spent 3 days doing a confined water dive (in a pool) and four open water dives (in the ocean). I'm glad I finally got over my fear and will be able to dive on our upcoming trip in Raja Ampat with Jonathan's parents. Here is a picture with my buddy, Danielle -- another fellow American from South Carolina and our dive instructor, Flo from France. We had a lot of fun together and quickly became real buddies over the 3 days!
day one hundred and forty: february 16, 2016: ba bể national park
We arrived in Ba Bể National Park today. Our original itinerary had us taking a boat down the river and visiting a cave along the way before arriving in Ba Bể Lake at the Mr. Linh's Homestay. Due to a mechanical issue with the boat, we swapped our itinerary for the last two days, so first we squeezed in something not on the itinerary, a visit to Thác Bạc Falls (Silver Falls), but known to foreigners as Silk Falls.
day one hundred and thirty-eight: february 14, 2016:
Remember the bánh cuốn we had in Hanoi? Well, when we told Quang we had eaten it in Hanoi, he told us that we had to have it Đồng Văn because they made it the best. In Đồng Văn, it is commonly made with egg and served with a noodle soup and type of sausage. We had been looking forward to trying this for breakfast and were not disappointed at all. It was waay better than the one we had in Hanoi.
day one hundred and thirty-seven: february 13, 2016: ha giang to dong van
Soon after waking up, Jonathan went to take the photo below only to be accosted by several bees (maybe looking for their missing honey?) and got stung on the cheek and the back of his neck. It's the first time he's ever been stung so we were happy to learn that he wasn't allergic!
day one hundred and thirty-five: february 11, 2016:
This morning, we met our local guide for the day, San May. She was from one of the local minority groups, the Red DZao. The women of the Red DZao are easy to recognize based on their red head scarves. Married Red DZao women also cut their bangs very short to signify their marriage status. As they get older they change their head scarf to a much larger more decorative one. San May insisted that she will continue wearing the same scarf hoping to stay forever young. We headed north from Sapa up and over a hill, thru villages, past small homes and barking dogs to reach the extensive rice fields we would trek thru.
