The water was flooding panic into my goggles and stinging my eyes. I blew out sharply to clear my mask.
We were pulling ourselves down by the anchor rope, descending to the ocean floor. I was at the head of the group and the second in line. Going back up was not an option.
Was there a leak in my mask?
Word on the street is that you’ll get the best scuba diving deals in Southeast Asia.
I spent two hours on Khao San Road in Bangkok, bouncing from agent to agent, searching for a diving package to ring in my first solo birthday on the road . Finally, my four-day PADI open water diving certification program was booked at a jaw-dropping low price . Travel gossip didn’t lie.
I’m not lucky enough to be one of those travel bloggers to score sponsored press trips nor am an ingenue haggler, but I don’t scold myself. I make up for it by being a queen hunter of basement bargains and cheap day tours of reasonably good quality!
What did my package include? Round trip transportation to the island of Ko Tao, a 4-night resort stay and 4 days of licensed training, confined water (more…)
A three-day trek in the mountains of Chiang Mai, Thailand? Loved it. A rugged and intense workout, it made me feel like I really earned those landscape gems of perfect waterfalls, manicured paddy fields and quaint mountain villages.
By now, a porcelain bowl in the ground and a bucket of water to flush isn’t so shocking to me. My odds of hitting my shoe when I squirt are 80 out of 100. Yay! I’m getting pretty professional.
A village home stay with an outhouse isn’t horrible in the light of day. But at night with no light? That’s a different story… (more…)
These days I enjoy trekking where it’s possible. Aside from a great workout, I like visiting mountain life, its lush and pristine settings of streams, hills and rice paddy fields and simple, hardworking and content inhabitants.
I arrived in Muong Ngoi. Closer to trekking routes and offering lower tour prices, I decided to take a trek from my guide at my guesthouse.
Mary was a Dutch woman in her 50′s, who had traveled for over two years now, solo. We had met on the boat and decided to share a room in Muong Ngoi. Now we hoping to take a day trek.
“It’s an easy walking trek,” Aoot, our guide pitched as he sized up Mary, two senior U.K. ladies and myself.
Easy walking?
My enthusiasm dropped notches. No gasping for air with breathless intensity? No hard-burning physical workout. This didn’t seem like the treks I’d (more…)
Muju, South Korea.
Walking through a forest with the autumn leaves in fall and life transitions into hibernation, I walk in silence, with my camera. Life is tinged with a trails of abandon and death. From burial grounds to hunter’s markings, everywhere I turn, I’m reminded of how man continually exerts its boundaries within nature.
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It’s officially fall! The autumn leaves in Korea are revamping with vibrant color and it’s exciting to see what materializes in the picturesque. Fiery reds, oranges, greens and yellows, wash the land with the distinct feeling of fall. As a result, this Halloween I opted to take a girl’s road trip out to Mt. Seoraksan.
Girlfriend road trips are fun when you’ve got a great group of yogi gals, some semi-decent K-pop songs and a handful of road trip games. Essentially, very little can go wrong.
… unless you have a Korean GPS.
Full Story »Jeju Island’s Olle Trails aren’t exactly a hidden secret, but for the western traveler it may as well be. With rival sights such as the Manggual caves, Mt. Halla, Loveland, golf parks, theme parks, etc… Olle trails aren’t one of Jeju’s biggest or loudest boasts. It should be…
Have you ever found a secret love letter? That’s how it felt when I discovered an Olle Trail. I stumbled upon a trail by accident when I was searching for haeneyo, and a love story opened before me.
Full Story »I love experiencing natural highs! Dancing in a disco completely losing yourself in the sound, absorbing a powerful meditation of either silence or chant, connecting to your breath as you perform a juicy downwards dog or just plain exploring a new place on foot… I need this kind of rewarding past time where I can listen to the uncluttered spaces of my heartbeat and come home to myself. This workout-meditation medicine however, always changes with my environment and circumstance. Those things worked for me when I lived in New York but somehow living in Korea, either the opportunity to enjoy them is not there or
Full Story »The saying is, you can take your wishes to Gatbawi Buddha (the Stone Hat Buddha) and pray for them to come true. But that’s if you can reach him! The trail to Gatbawi is a steep 3-hour hike up Palgongsan mountain and there are two ways to go about it 1) you can take the rock steps, an steep 75 degree incline climb or 2) take the mountaineer’s trekking path. Both are pretty intense but the stairway will probably give you the hardest and sweatiest workout, as it just keeps ascending while offering little to no rest points! It’s a rigorous workout, to say the least.
Full Story »
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