Welcome to Dharavi, the largest slum in Mumbai and one of the largest slums in the world. Dharavi is home to an estimated 1 million residents packed into an area a little over a square mile (1.75 km2), making it one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Given extreme difficulty as well as […]
The financial and entertainment center of India, Mumbai is sometimes referred to as a microcosm of the larger country. A significant wealth disparity is an inescapable reality as lavish residential and corporate skyscrapers grow like trees out from knolls of impoverished neighborhoods. The streets are the heart beat of the city and the everyday interactions […]
True serendipity strikes very few times in one’s life. That in mind, when greeted by one of these rare moments, our mantra during this trip has always been “lean into it”. This was one of those moments. Meeting our Future Hosts Our trip to Mumbai was predicated on meeting up with Arjun Ramen and Lavanya […]
Short, sweet, sublime. That was our trip to Apo Island. A tiny island, Apo is 30 acres big (.3 sq miles) and located about 4 miles off the coast of Negros Island in the Philippines. Getting there is no easy feat either. We flew into Dumaguete City. A 30-kilometer car ride later we were looking out […]
The Best Beach in the World! That is the headline of our trip to Boracay. Named the World’s Best Island in 2012 by Travel + Leisure Magazine, the distinction did not let us down. After spending a little less than a week in the metropolis of Manila, Alison and I were ready for a few days […]
The Great Wall of China! Yes it’s kind of a big deal. We couldn’t have been more excited to embark on this momentous event. We booked our journey though a local travel agency and were incredibly impressed with the outcome in hindsight. They picked us up from the front door of our hotel early that […]
The imperial mecca of China, Beijing carries with it quite a bit of expectation. Showcased in the 2008 Olympics, I was extremely excited to see what this this city of massive coordination had to offer. Since our flight to Korea wasn’t for another five days, we had some time to kill. With a wide open […]
With less than 48 hours on our stopover in Xi’an it’s pretty transparent that our only reason for traveling to this city was to see one of China’s most popular and revered cultural attractions, the Terracotta Army. While Wikipedia can certainly do a much better job of telling you all the “cool” history about the […]
Below is a collection of photos from the Muskoka Foundation Photography Workshop we recently taught in the city of Dali in China’s western Yunnan province. All photos were taken by the students and the ones included below were chosen by these students as the best photos from the class. If you are interested in reading more […]
It always amazes me how the smallest gestures somehow end up yielding the most profound impact. Dali was one of those experiences for us. It all started several months ago. Alison and I received an email from Daniel Anggara from the Muskoka Foundation. Following the mantra, “doing good as you go”, Muskoka focuses on connecting […]
Just reading the name “Tiger Leaping Gorge” makes you feel like you are in China. Commonly named as one of the top 10 things to see in China, this is a very special piece of natural wonder that we were not about to miss. A stones throw away from both Burma (Myanmar) and Tibet, the […]
Check out this detailed interactive map to get a visual picture of our journey. And just incase you missed it, here is a link to our month by month, country by country RTW Itinerary as well as a link to a full size version of the above RTW Travel Map complete with a list of our […]
We made a brief stop in Manila and had the treat of staying not at a hotel, guesthouse or hostel- but at a home with family! My Mom’s Dad’s Sister’s Daughter’s Daughter is Susan. Susan is married to Greg and they have 3 kids, Scott, Ryan and Ashley. Greg is on a three-year work assignment […]
Kyoto is a place you go to breathe, meditate and marvel. The wonders of this city have the potential to calm even tightly wound souls and to transform busy minds into places of peace. As the well-preserved cultural capital of Japan, Kyoto was fortunate to be spared from massive destruction during World War II. Due […]
Who knew Seoul, South Korea was the most Western place in the East. We arrived and quickly found it to be an incredibly comfortable, well-developed, cosmopolitan city. Maneuvering all around the city was a breeze. We took some taxis but primarily utilized the extensive and amazing underground subway system. Koreans line up in an orderly […]
With a population of over 23 million people, Shanghai, China is the most populous and most developed city in China. Arriving without expectations, Shanghai quickly became one of my new favorite large cities of the world. The Huangpu River divides the city into two major districts, Puxi, west of the river and Pudong, east of […]
In the very northwestern tip of the Yunnan province, bordering Tibet is Shangri-La or Zhongdian, Yunnan, China. This area is primarily a Tibetan county. With very strict regulations and rules to enter Tibet, this was as close as we were getting. Shangri-La is located at an altitude of 3,200 meters and the climate is much […]
Sometimes a place deserves a second chance to win you over, certainly a country as large as China deserves a segmented review. Overall my first impressions were pretty hasty and harsh, but with a second look I realized China offers much more than meets the eye. From a tourist perspective, China doesn’t need you. This […]
Food and wine capital of South Africa and home to one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, this 15,000 resident strong tiny town with a strong French influence resides in one of the most beautiful valleys in all of South Africa. Franschhoek lies in the heart of South Africa’s wine valley just east […]
Knysna sits in the middle of South Africa’s famous Garden Route. The Garden Route is a 175km (109 mile) stretch of coastline that starts in Mossel Bay on the Western side and continues easterly through George, Wilderness, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, and finally ending in Storms River on the border of the Western and Eastern Cape […]
Welcome to Dharavi, the largest slum in Mumbai and one of the largest slums in the world. Dharavi is home to an estimated 1 million residents packed into an area a little over a square mile (1.75 km2), making it one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Given extreme difficulty as well as […]
The financial and entertainment center of India, Mumbai is sometimes referred to as a microcosm of the larger country. A significant wealth disparity is an inescapable reality as lavish residential and corporate skyscrapers grow like trees out from knolls of impoverished neighborhoods. The streets are the heart beat of the city and the everyday interactions […]
Ronda is a city like no other. Set in the Andalusia hills, this city is one of the most precarious settings I’ve every seen. The Guadalevín River splits the town into two sections, each part separated by a 350-foot deep canyon carved out by the river. After leaving Granada we jumped in our Skoda […]
As one of the most talked about cities in Spain, the buildup for Sevilla is warranted. We were excited to save this gem of a city as our last stop in Spain and our last city in Europe (for a while at least.) Sevilla possesses all the tradition and history you except in Spain- cathedrals, […]
Being the budget conscious travelers we are we obviously were shopping around for the cheapest way possible to get from South Africa to New Zealand. Low and behold one obvious winner rose to the top; Qatar Airlines. The only catch – it’s a 72 hour flight with horrendous layovers in Qatar and Melbourne. With a […]
Hurghada, Egypt was our last stopover on our tour of Egypt. After many days of non-stop go-go see-see travel we were actually ready for a couple days of beach relaxation. Situated on the Red Sea, this former fishing village exploded over the past ten years and become a very popular beach and diving destination. Most […]
Short, sweet, sublime. That was our trip to Apo Island. A tiny island, Apo is 30 acres big (.3 sq miles) and located about 4 miles off the coast of Negros Island in the Philippines. Getting there is no easy feat either. We flew into Dumaguete City. A 30-kilometer car ride later we were looking out […]
The Best Beach in the World! That is the headline of our trip to Boracay. Named the World’s Best Island in 2012 by Travel + Leisure Magazine, the distinction did not let us down. After spending a little less than a week in the metropolis of Manila, Alison and I were ready for a few days […]
The imperial mecca of China, Beijing carries with it quite a bit of expectation. Showcased in the 2008 Olympics, I was extremely excited to see what this this city of massive coordination had to offer. Since our flight to Korea wasn’t for another five days, we had some time to kill. With a wide open […]
Kyoto is a place you go to breathe, meditate and marvel. The wonders of this city have the potential to calm even tightly wound souls and to transform busy minds into places of peace. As the well-preserved cultural capital of Japan, Kyoto was fortunate to be spared from massive destruction during World War II. Due […]
