Author: Nancy

We arrived in Agra in the early afternoon and stopped at Agra Fort enroute to our hotel.  The city of Agra rose to prominence during the reign of the Mughal emperor, Akbar; he built the double walled Agra Fort of sandstone and marble over an eight-year period beginning in 1565. Akbar’s predecessors continued to build…

Today is the Temples of Angkor day.  The Angkor archaeological site is huge and filled with remains of hundreds of temples and one can spend days exploring them.   Our first stop was Ta Prohm, often called the ‘Jungle Temple’ because of the trees that are intertwined among the ruins.  Ta Prohm was a Hindu temple…

Drove about 45 minutes outside Siem Reap to Tonle Sap.  According to our guide, Samay, Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Asia and fourth largest in the world.  (Fun fact – Lake Superior is the third largest freshwater lake!).   The drive took us past some very rural and poor communities. Our guides up…

The food tour was one of the most interesting and fun experiences we had in Cambodia.  Once again, we jumped on the back of Vespas and took a progressive food tour around Siem Reap with our guide, Piak.  First stop was Pub Street for Cambodian cocktails – we enjoyed delicious ginger mojitos and local Cambodian…

After spending the morning learning about ancient Cambodia and Khmer culture, we were eager to spend the rest of the day exploring and learning about the current way of life in Cambodia.  We visited a school, Hun Sen Srah Srang Primary School, to meet teachers and students and learn about Cambodia’s public education system. Great…

We were at the gates of Angkor Wat by 5:45am.  It was still dark but quite crowded with tourists like us wanting to watch day break and the sun rise over the organic stupas of Angkor Wat.  Even with flashlights, it was a bit precarious walking over a flexible plastic bridge to cross the moat,…

Cambodia is the half way point on our around-the-world itinerary both in miles traveled and elapsed time.  Cambodia was once a wealthy, powerful country whose Khmer kings built elaborate cities, or angkors with amazing stone temples, ornately carved lintels and stupas during the 9th-11th centuries.  Today, Cambodia is a poor country, with a more recent…

It was pouring rain when we arrived in Cairns, Australia. Enroute to Port Douglas, we saw a lot of flooded areas and although we paralleled the coast for a good part of the hour’s drive, it was hard to see the ocean because of the rain and mist. We checked in at Pullman Port Douglas…

We crossed the international date line enroute to our next stop, Samoa.  Best thing was that although we lost a day, the actual time in Tahiti and Samoa was the same.  Our bodies aren’t affected if one moment it’s Wednesday and the next it’s Thursday; what’s more important is that it remains 11am.  We were…

Although an unplanned stop on our journey, Papeete was a welcome relief from Easter Island.  We had nice accommodations at the Sofitel Merida Resort about 15 miles south of Papeete in a coastal area that was mostly private residences. We slept in, had a nice breakfast on the hotel veranda and then spent the rest…