Wiping Away the Fog with Friends and Food in Italy
Italy – Bologna, Vicenza, Marostica, & Bassano del Grappa: June 16 – 24, 2017 As the sun rose on the morning of June 16th, time was setting on our 2-month stay in Valencia. We made one final pass through the apartment and placed our keys on the table of our Airbnb apartment, and then closed the door on this defining chapter of our year-plus nomadic experience. Our experience in Valencia was unlike any other long-term stay and we were ready to regain something we missed dearly during that time – warm friends and good conversation. The sunrise that Friday signified […]
10 Days Down the Danube – Exploring 3 European Capitals
Vienna, Brno, Bratislava, and Budapest: May 6 – May 16, 2017 For as long as humans have been hunters/gatherers, food has always been the centerpiece of comforting and celebratory moments. A few weeks before we became nomadic back in March 2016, my wife and I sat down for one of our usual Friday dinners at the home of our dear friends, Marc and Christianne in Sunnyvale, CA. In between sips of some of our favorite Northern California wine, I posed a question to Joanne, Christianne’s mom – “if you had to pick between visiting Prague or Budapest, which would you […]
Springtime in Spain – The Second Time Around
Valencia, Spain: April 6 – June 16, 2017 When I was in college dreaming about what I’d like to do when I “grew up”, one fantasy that I had was being able to have a residence in Chicago (my hometown), Tempe, Arizona (my college town), and San Francisco (my dream town). Now, 17 years later, as we entered our second year of life abroad, I reflected on how that dream shifted from three cities in the US to spending 3 months in Europe, 2 months in Canada, and 7 months in South East Asia (5 months in Thailand and a […]
The Senses Succumb to the Sounds of Vietnam
Vietnam – Saigon & Hanoi: March 11 – April 5, 2017 We decided to spend the final month of our first year of nomadic travel in arguably what should have been the one place in South East Asia that we could have spent most of our time – Vietnam. Given that my wife is native-born Vietnamese we have fairly generous 5-year multi-entry visas. Yet for a variety of reasons, Vietnam was the final destination (rather than a natural home base) for our time in the region. For starters, while the visas give us great access to the country, the current […]
Leaving the Land of Smiles for a Month in Malaysia
Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur & Ipoh: February 8 – March 11, 2017 After just over four months of settling down in Chiang Mai, Thailand (our South East Asia home base for the Fall and early Winter months), it was time for us to escape the coming burning season and explore life in neighboring countries. The day we departed the “Land of Smiles” my eyes watered as I reflected on the friendships developed and just the overall comfort and stability of life for us in Thailand. The impending distance from familiar faces and places, as well as the personality and ambience […]
Penang – An Embodiment of Creative Disruption
George Town, Penang: January 7-10, 2017 Much like the street art and street (“hawker”) food that seem to serve as the first definition of modern day Penang, the city is one that is best experienced through the senses. Though the city is still trying to create an identity for itself after it was stripped of such comfort during WWII, it is using vibrant, creative solutions to tell its history, share its beauty and humor, and redevelop itself as Malaysia’s thriving second city. Penang (more specifically, George Town, the state’s capital city) was on our short list for options as a […]
The Phenomenal Fortitude of Cambodia’s Emerging Capital
Phnom Penh, Cambodia: December 15-18, 2016 Gray and gritty…these are the two words that rise to the surface when I reflect on our brief 4 days in Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Gray in the truest sense of the word and color, in that it’s place that is in transition – moving from a dark and clouded past to perhaps a bright and emerging future. However, where the city lies on the gray scale spectrum is open to one’s perception. Some may see it as a place that is overwhelming, loud, dirty, and disorganized. Others may see it still as […]
Singapore: A Weekend in the Mouth of Asia’s Most Ferocious Tiger
Singapore: November 25 – 28, 2016 After visiting Kuala Lumpur in October for our first visa-run from Thailand, we decided to venture a bit farther south in November to the island nation of Singapore. I’ve always had a budding curiosity with visiting Singapore, yet it always seemed so far away from my travels. My primary introduction into anything Singaporean were the Singapore Airlines flights between San Francisco (SQ1) and Hong Kong (SQ2) that I’d taken a hand full of times. I’d always wondered what it would be like to take the final four-hour leg of the flight from Hong Kong […]
An Affordable Getaway in One of Southeast Asia’s Super Cities
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: October 27 – 30, 2016 Long-term travel is truly whatever you make it. It can be fast or slow depending on your rhythm and needs. For me, it’s important to have a nice balance of “chill time” in a home base for several weeks before jumping around in short bursts. When we started out in April, we settled in Spain for 8 weeks but still found ourselves bouncing around the country visiting local cities on the weekends. Having a home base to return to after each trip, kept things feeling grounded and somewhat normal. We then set […]
First Month in the Digital Nomad Capital of Asia
Thailand: Chiang Mai & Bangkok | September 30 – October 27, 2016 Thailand, and more specifically Chiang Mai, has become the unofficial digital nomad capital of Asia in recent years. Its low cost of living, great weather, and relative ease with which a “westerner” can arrive and settle in town, have made it a primary destination for many on their nomadic journey. In addition, bloggers like JohnnyFD and ChristheFreelancer have continued to promote the community and the culture, attracting hundreds of life changers seeking to escape the “9-5” and make a new life for themselves. Ironically, our first month in […]
