We are a family of five that decided to leave our normal lives behind and travel around the world for 180 days. Joey and I are both physicians back home in Lexington, KY and our kids are Wilson (a smart, funny, pragmatic 14 year old who approaches life with the wisdom of an 80 year old and the mischievous grin of someone who gets the inside joke), Bailey (an opinionated, strong-willed, compassionate 12 year old who never misses anything and may rule the world someday), and Gus (an energetic, passionate 9 year old who lives every second of his waking life with everything he has and would give the shirt off his back to ease the suffering of an earthworm). We love traveling, trying new things, meeting awesome people, eating good food, and adventure sports. In this blog, we will be sharing the stories of the places we experience along the way. We will share our successes and our failures in hopes that this is inspiring, helpful, and entertaining to our friends, family, and anyone else who happens to discover us. For more on why we decided to do this, see our blog post on “Traveling is my favorite thing”. Read More About Our Philosophy.
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Where to stay in Amman Jordan: Jabal Al Lweibdeh, a vibrant, diverse neighborhood that has it all.
The Dead Sea and Petra inspired us to add Jordan to our around the world itinerary and Amman, the capital city, was the natural starting point for a week in Jordan. I had no idea what Amman would be like and I’m not sure I had even seen a picture of the city before planning the trip. When booking a place to stay in Amman, my primary motivation was finding a place within walking distance of the major attractions. Beyond that, I knew nothing about the various neighborhoods. Despite this lack of foresight, we somehow ended up in an amazing and absolutely perfect neighborhood…
Plan A Day Trip to the Dead Sea in Jordan
loating in the Dead Sea is a truly out of this world experience. I wore my Chaco water shoes while swimming and they are slightly buoyant in fresh water. In the Dead Sea, it felt like I had balloons strapped to my feet and I could barely keep my feet under me. While casually floating, half of my chest was out of the water and the resultant feeling of weightlessness was truly invigorating. If you know me, you know I was giggling with excitement the whole time.
Visiting Petra: Tolerating a full 8 hours of constant harassment in the most spectacular place on earth.
Petra is a deserving member of the “seven wonders of the modern world” and may be the most spectacular place on earth. If a more spectacular place exists, I can’t think of it now. It is truly remarkable. The swirling patterns of yellows, reds, oranges, whites, and blues of the sandstone walls and the magical narrow crevasse of the Siq are spectacular enough on their own to land Petra in the top 20 coolest places on earth…..With all that amazingness in mind, it is hard to believe how visiting Petra could be as unpleasant as it was. You can imagine that it would take a lot to ruin such an amazing place, but, somehow, the people offering animal rides in Petra have managed to do it.
Barauli Homestay and Western Chitwan Safari with Kids
The Barauli Community Homestay is a small community of cottages that was established as a part of the Community Homestay Network. The Community Homestay Network is a non-profit organization that helps local women throughout Nepal establish viable tourism based businesses by providing loans and training in English, hospitality management, and Homestay management. The Barauli Homestay is managed by local women in the Terai community. It consists of a central dining hall where meals are served and where you can get a drink anytime of day, a small courtyard where cultural dances are performed, and 6 surrounding one room cottages with attached bathrooms.
What to expect when White Water Rafting on the Lower Seti River in Nepal with Kids
As part of a 2 week itinerary in Nepal, we were scheduled to spend two days rafting the Seti River with Rainbow Adventures Nepal, including one night tent camping on a beach on the riverbank. Of all the adventures planned for us in Nepal, this is the one that we had the least information about. We didn’t know what level rapids we would be rafting. We didn’t know what we would be eating. We didn’t really know what to bring with us. We didn’t know how long we would be rafting. We didn’t know what type of tents we would be staying in
Visit Thailand Now! Bangkok post COVID
If you have ever considered visiting Thailand, go now! Over the last couple decades, Thailand has become a hot spot for tourism. From backpackers looking for bustling streets lined with clubs, vendors, and street food carts to families in search of pristine beaches, Thailand has drawn some major crowds. Although Thailand was one of the first (and still one of the only) Asian countries open to tourists, the mountains of red tape one has to jump through to get there and the ever-present mental threat of testing positive for COVID and getting stuck in a foreign country has kept the tourists away. This fact had a profound impact on our experience as tourists in Thailand. Aside from a small scattering of Europeans at our hotel in Bangkok, we saw almost zero western tourists during our time there. This had several downstream effects, some good and some bad.
Annapurna Purgatory: A Satirical Essay
My experience trekking was one I would not recommend. One of the only good things was the food. It was all freshly made by the people that owned the tea houses. We ate the same thing almost every night, which was Dhal Bhat and MoMos. Momos are basically steamed dumplings, and Dhal Bhat is a combination of lentil soup, white rice, vegetable curry, saag, and different types of pickled vegetables all on one plate. Usually when camping or backpacking my favorite part is sleeping, but thanks to altitude sickness, the stray dogs who loved to bark at the air, and pillows that could be compared to a sack of frozen butter, the sleep, at least for me, was scarce.
The Annapurna Poon Hill Trek in Nepal
Why go trekking in Nepal?
Believe me, I have asked myself that question more than once in the last 72 hours. When I lay completely and utterly physically exhausted, but unable to sleep due to the altitude and 5,000,000 stray dogs barking in Ghandruk at 2:00 AM, I asked myself this question. As I sent my 9 year old into another outdoor pit toilet to defecate into a hole in the ground because he contracted a GI illness on our last day in Bangkok, I asked myself this question. As we gingerly made our way through a jumpy herd of water buffalo on a narrow path on the side of a mountain, I asked myself this question. So, I’ve thought about it and here is why…
The Trials of Transportation in Thailand
One of the most alien things about Bangkok is the transportation. A foriegn license won’t cut it here, so anyone coming here must stick to walking or having someone else drive you. The city has a very large amount of foot traffic, but is the least pedestrian friendly place I have been. For one, it is always hot here. It is also a truly magical city, as the sidewalk will just randomly disappear.
When it comes to driving, you may see two differences between our roads and theirs. First of all, you will see more motorcycles here than you have ever seen before, and you won’t just see them on the roads, but the sidewalks too. It is a good sign that the sidewalk is about to disappear when an unfazed motorcyclist almost hits you. Though it seems, not just legal, but also completely normal for motorcycles to drive on sidewalks.
The Sun Rising over Kauai from Poipu Beach. January 23rd, 2022