Chiang Mai - Thailand

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Chiang Mai - Thailand

After our relatively sleepy few days in Ayutthaya, Sam and I headed up north to Chiang Mai.  We'd heard from a bunch of people that Chiang Mai was a highlight of their trips to Thailand, so we were super excited to check it out.  It's a much sleepier city than Bangkok, and it was definitely much easier as a tourist.  We had a hotel booked right in the middle of the old city, which was a perfect hub for seeing the sights.  It's a city that is filled temples and history, and we spent a few days taking it all in. 

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Bangkok & Ayutthaya - Thailand

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Bangkok & Ayutthaya - Thailand

We flew from Khao Sok to Bangkok directly after our night on the raft boat.  It was definitely a shock going from serene and peaceful jungle to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.  When we arrived we were unable to find an Uber, and were facing about a three hour line in the taxi queue due to a local festival and increased traffic.  Fortunately, after about 30 minutes of spamming for rides, we eventually got an Uber and made it to our hotel. 

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Khao Sok National Park - Thailand

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Khao Sok National Park - Thailand

Recharged, 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!

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Kumarakom & Munnar - State of Kerala, India

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Kumarakom & Munnar - State of Kerala, India

We 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. 

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Jaipur & Udaipur - State of Rajasthan, India

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Jaipur & Udaipur - State of Rajasthan, India

We 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.

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Tiger Safari in Ranthambore, India

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Tiger Safari in Ranthambore, India

We 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.  

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Delhi and the Taj Mahal, India

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Delhi and the Taj Mahal, India

After our brief stay in Jordan, Samantha and I flew to India for a fairly busy itinerary we had built with the help of my friend Rohan, who lives in Delhi.  He was generous enough to put us up at his family's house located centrally in Delhi with his parents, Anil and Renu.  It is a beautiful bungalow that, coupled with their incredible hospitality, began feeling like home almost immediately. 

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Diving in the Red Sea, Egypt

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Diving in the Red Sea, Egypt

As 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!

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77 Favorite Photos from 6 Months of Travel

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77 Favorite Photos from 6 Months of Travel

As 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.

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Valley of the Kings & the Temples of Luxor, Egypt

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Valley of the Kings & the Temples of Luxor, Egypt

Our first day in Luxor we went to the West Bank of the Nile River to see some of the many temples and sights. First, we stopped at the Valley of the Kings, which is a valley where tombs of Pharaohs were cut into the rock. This mainly took place from the 16th to the 11th century BC, which is part of what makes it such an amazing and famous site. 

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Cairo, Camels, and the Pyramids

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Cairo, Camels, and the Pyramids

I’ve been to Egypt once before, in 2013 with my friend Chris Simpson, and absolutely loved it. Seeing the pyramids at Giza and the Valley of the Kings near Luxor is an unforgettable experience. Unfortunately, on that trip we didn’t get to visit Abu Simbel, so Chuck and I decided to visit Egypt on our travels so I could check that off my list, and so he could see Egypt for the first time.

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The Atlas Mountains & Camping in the Sahara Desert

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The Atlas Mountains & Camping in the Sahara Desert

A 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.

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Lisbon & Sintra, Portugal

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Lisbon & Sintra, Portugal

Arriving back in Lisbon was a bit hectic.  The apartment we booked was in a very compact, old residential neighborhood and it was definitely not designed with cars in mind.  Construction and police road closures complicated things even more, but eventually we found our way and got settled in.  We had two full days before Luke and his girlfriend Elena would arrive, and wanted to make sure we saw as much as we could in that time, though obviously we wouldn't be able to see everything.

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