It’s been over a year since Charlie and I returned from our trip around the world. In May, we did a quick extended weekend in Moab, Utah to spend time in Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park. For the first time since we returned, I had an urge to take some photos of our adventures and post them to the blog!
Read MoreAfter a quick day in Rangiroa, we headed north to another atoll called Fakarava. There isn't much to see on land here, as its just a narrow ring of sand and palm trees surrounding a huge lagoon, but the diving was incredible. We booked two dives and everything we read said that the diving here would be very similar to the diving in Rangiroa. Other than the unbelievably clear, 80 degree water, we found it to be a completely different experience.
Read MoreAfter visiting our friends in Hawaii, we flew south to Tahiti to board a cruise that would end our final three weeks of our year of travel. The cruise crossed the South Pacific Ocean, starting in Tahiti and ending in Valparaiso, Chile.
Read MoreAfter a very full 30 days in Vietnam, Samantha and I were very much looking forward to our next stop. Our friends Greg and Kathy live in Honolulu and we felt like a visit with some friends was in order. We planned to spend two weeks in total in Hawaii, and split that time evenly between one week on Kauai followed by a week with them on Oahu.
Read MoreWe arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam after a couple of flights from Bali, steeling ourselves for more crazy Southeast Asian traffic and bustle. And while it was definitely busy, it wasn't nearly as hectic as some of the other Asian cities we've visited. Sure, the roads were filled with a high number of cars, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians, but at least there weren't many cows.
Read MoreWe left Cairns heading north to Indonesia for a two weeks on a tiny little island called Gili Meno. We were looking for a little beach time after what was a fairly fast paced month and half beginning in New Zealand, and Gili Meno proved to be exactly what we needed.
Read MoreDiving the Great Barrier Reef has always been on my bucket list. Charles and I booked a liveaboard dive trip, which basically means you live on the boat and dive as often as possible. From Kangaroo Island we took a ferry and a couple of flights to get up to Cairns, where our boat would embark from.
Read MoreAfter about a week in Sydney, Sam and I headed south to Kangaroo Island by way of Adelaide, in Southern Australia. We both knew we really wanted to spend some time in the outback but hadn't really counted on exactly how hot the Australian outback gets in the summer time. Kangaroo Island was the perfect solution because it is home to all of the wildlife that we wanted to see and was a pleasant 70-80 degrees each day.
Read MoreWe took a ferry from Picton on the South Island of New Zealand across the Cook Strait to Wellington on the North Island. The seas were really rough that day, and unfortunately I had the worst seasickness of my life! When we got to Wellington all I wanted to do was sleep and do laundry. Chuck, Justin and Tania went out and met some locals and had a few beers. We didn't get to explore Wellington too much, but there's only so much you can do in a limited timeframe!
Read MoreAfter our weekend in Kaikoura, we had a few days to relax and take in Christchurch. Both Sam and I really loved the city, though it is a bit small and definitely a bit sleepy. Everyone we spoke to told us that before the big earthquake several years ago the city was a bit more bustling, and you could definitely see how that would be true. Though they have come a long way in rebuilding, the signs of the damage are all around in the central business district (where we were staying).
Read MoreAfter lots of time away from family in unfamiliar cultures, we were very excited to travel to New Zealand to visit my brother and sister-in-law, Justin and Tania Peterson, for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. After a few very long flights, arriving in Christchurch, New Zealand felt a little like coming home with clear-cut rules, clean restrooms, and native English-speakers everywhere. Our first weekend in New Zealand the four of us traveled north from Christchurch to Kaikoura, a tiny beach town on the South island with a lot of tourist activities.
Read MoreThe main place to visit in Phnom Penh is the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields, which is actually a collection of sites where about 2 million out of the total population of about 8 million people were killed in the 1970s by the Khmer Rouge regime. In order to save ammunition, the Khmer Rouge executed this genocide by using all manner of horrific tools to try to kill as many people as quickly as possible. That included children, whose heads were bashed against the trunks of trees before they were tossed in mass graves next to their parents.
Read MoreWe had heard about some cool places in Northern Thailand to check out from some people we met along our way. We knew for sure we wanted to go to Pai, about 3 hours north west of Chiang Mai, and also Chiang Rai, about 3 hours north east. After doing some checking, it seemed like the best way to visit both would be to rent a car, which we did on our last day in Chiang Mai. We had been warned by literally everyone we spoke to that had been that the road to Pai is a little bit crazy, which was one of the main reasons we decided not to rent mopeds and opted for the car. It was a good thing we did.
Read MoreRecharged, we traveled by bus 3 hours north to the remote Khao Sok National Park, complete with an ancient rainforest, limestone cliffs, waterfalls and rare flora and fauna. The massive national park is half lake, half jungle, and we wanted to experience both.
Our first two nights Charles really wanted to stay in a treehouse in the jungle! It was totally awesome!
Read MoreWe flew to Kochi in the Indian state of Kerala for the next stage of our trip. Kerala is on the southwest coast of the country, and stands in stark contrast to the Northern part of the country. Kerala has a tropical climate, and we could feel the humidity the moment we stepped off the plane.
Read MoreWe arrived in Jaipur in the evening, still super excited about our fantastic luck with the tigers. Because we wanted to fit a lot of India into the time we had before being back in Delhi, our itinerary didn't leave much time for relaxing. We woke up in the morning and began our sightseeing tour of Jaipur, a very remarkable city. It is commonly referred to as the Pink city, due to still-on-the-books laws that require the old city to be painted in the same shade of pink. This is due to the pink sandstone that was originally used on many of the forts and palaces in the region.
Read MoreWe arrived in Ranthambore in the evening, unsure of what to expect for the following days. Anil, upon seeing our initial itinerary which had only one drive, told us we absolutely needed to add at least one, but preferably two additional drives to increase our chances of seeing a tiger. Even with these two more drives, he made sure to let us know we shouldn't expect to see anything, as tiger sightings are incredibly rare.
Read MoreAs we mentioned in a prior blog post, we spent four days diving in the Red Sea in Egypt! We were scuba certified before the trip and did our Open Water course dives in freezing water in South Africa, so this was our first "real" diving experience.
We loved it! We went with a great company called Aqua Nabq, and had excellent lunches and wonderful, sunny days exploring a bunch of different dive sites. We used our GoPro to take video and pictures. Here's the video, and a few favorite snaps!
Read MoreAs of a few days ago, we’ve been traveling for six months! We looked back over our photos and our travels so far, and decided to post the top photos from every country we have visited so far. We’ve taken 4,059 photos, visited 18 countries, and stayed in 63 different hotels / AirBnbs. These are our favorite 77 photos.
Read MoreA trip through the Atlas Mountains to spend the night in the Sahara desert is a “must do” for time spent in Marrakesh. Since we were lazing around, we got around to booking our trip just the day prior to leaving. We woke up at 6:00 for our 7:30 departure time, and were completely unsure of what to expect.
Read MoreSamantha and Charles Parsons went a little overboard when planning their honeymoon. Instead of a few short weeks of travel, they opted for a year-long adventure around the world! Follow along as they leave their home in Denver, Colorado in the United States to travel the globe.
Just click on the logo of the store you want to shop at, and every purchase you make at that retailer will get the Parsons team around 4% - 8% of the cost of your order!
It costs you nothing!
Charles & Samantha Parsons
parsonsworldonline@gmail.com
