If you were around during the 70’s or 80’s you got to see a very ugly face of Vietnam. The war was not pretty or fair and the following Hollywood blockbusters and TV shows did not help to change the perception of Vietnam in the western part of the world. We are happy to report that Vietnam is one of the most amazing countries we have visited so far. The misguided perception that you may have from the past requires a serious update. Despite the communist party being in power and the social limitations that come with that, Vietnam has … Continue reading War is history in this beautiful country

After a not uncommon delayed flight from Shanghai that included a long wait on the tarmark we arrived in HK. The coolest thing about that arrival was that we had very good friends waithing for us in our rented apartment in HK. Carter and Debbie Sherwood flew from Stamford, CT to have their vacation in HK and show us around their second beloved city. So far they have been the only friends delivering on their promises to come out to explore the world with us. We were very happy and thankfull to have them around in HK. Debbie got us … Continue reading Fun HK!

After a 6 hour high speed train ride we got to Henry’s favorite city in China, Shanghai. What a place! This is the poster child for China this days when it comes to modern cities. It has only taken 70 years to build this humongous organized, modern, functional and clean metropolis. We could not wait to wander around to discover everyting that it has to offer. Unfortunately, pollution remains a painfull reality to deal with while we travel in China. We were hoping for an improvement in this in Shanghai but there was none. The amount of manufacturing, construction, cars … Continue reading The pearl of China

We made it to the train! Oh boy, we had to run that night. Never again! We were in Xi’an to visit the word know Terracotta Soldier Army Museum and see what else this city had to offer. We arrived around 8am and we started walking to our hotel. It was located 15 minutes walking from the main train station in the city but we could not find it. So we ended up having some coffee in Startbucks (they are everywhere you need them) hoping to use the internet to find the now mysterious hotel. Oh, internet in China is … Continue reading The beginnings of China

We started our trip in China in the capital, Beijing. Henry had the opportunity to visit China a few years back so he was familiar with some of the Chinese ways and places. Our overall plan was to visit Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai and Hong Kong, let’s see how the plan unfolds. China is a huge country to explore so it is hard to aspired to see much of it in one month, but we tried to get to some key places so we could grasped some of it’s ancient history and it’s current fast paced evolving economy and society. After … Continue reading The busy Forbidden City

Why Korea? Our decision to see some of Korea was based on pure location convinence and a little of curiosity. Convinenance, because we were in Japan and our next stop was China. So it was an easy to stop by to take a look. Curiosity, because when we made the decision we realized that we did not know much at all about Korea. However, very quickly after our arrival we realized that we have a lot in common with this small but surprising country and their people. Back in the US before we started this global journey we used to … Continue reading There is not a South Korea, just Korea!

We took the Shinkansen line to Kyoto. As mentioned before the trains here are very good specially this express line where the speeds are above the 300km per hour. It is very cool to travel on those trains. After three hours of traveling we felt nothing but happiness and excitement, there was no stress, hassle or exaustion. The JR pass is the most important item to bring to Japan while visiting this amazing country. We cannot stress that enough, otherwise the cost is outrageous. We found a place to stay in Kyoto through the AirBnB. We got very lucky with … Continue reading The land of the Samurai!

Let’s see if we can get close to the NY times. We got to Tokyo without many issues after a long day of traveling. The flight was a little bit bumpy and the fact that we were traveling with Malaysian Airlines did not help. Probably to soon for the joke but, truth be told the plane and the crew were very good. One of the nicest planes we have had on this trip and the service was impeccable. However, the brain sometimes plays funny games with you in situations like that. With our JR pass vouchers in hand we went … Continue reading 24 hours in Hiroshima – Japan

Today, August 7 is officially the 6 month mark since we left Boston to start this amazing adventure. We have been in Chennai, India resting our bodies and minds for the last 10 days. When we were planing our trip we thought we were going to need some down time after visiting 18 countries on 4 different continents and we were right. Ten days ago we started to question the need and desire for the next 6 months of traveling. Should we go back? Do we need to follow the planned itinerary, etc… Well the story is very different today. … Continue reading The six months mark and India round 2

A trip arround the world would not be complete without seeing the giants of this planet, the Himalayas. We went to Nepal to see them close-up. We flew from Delhi to Katmandu to discover some of what Nepal has to offer. We were very exited when we got to Katmandu because we were finally out of India (at least for some days) and even though Katmandu is a crazy city it is much more manageable than Delhi. We did not waste any time making it to our main destination in Nepal, Pokhara. We negotiated air tickets in the airport at … Continue reading The top of the world – Nepal