Tag Archives: travel

Travel

Asia Adventure: Siem Reap

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I’ve just returned from a 3-week trip to Southeast Asia, including 2 weeks in Cambodia, 5 days in Laos, and 2 days in Hong Kong. Overall, the trip was really fantastic – I met a lot of great people, got to meet up with friends from Hong Kong, saw amazing historical sites, had fun travel buddies, and ate yummy food. So as not to overwhelm, I’m breaking up my posts by city. Today’s adventure: Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The temples of Angkor Wat are the reason why people travel to Cambodia. Built over 800 years ago, these temples are absolutely fascinating. Many of the structures were unfinished and left to ruin. In the 19th century, French explorers rediscovered the temples and since then the historical buildings have been the go-to destination for Cambodia.

There are many temples that make up Angkor Wat and you can choose to explore most of them with multiple-day passes. You can hire a guide to drive you around and explain the historical significance, bike around the complex, or simply hire a tuk tuk driver for the day. We chose to go for one day with a tuk tuk driver who took us to the four main temples we were most interested in visiting.

Angkor Wat  

The most common way to visit this temple is at sunrise. It’s a 5:00am pick-up so you can enter the park at the 5:30 opening time. It definitely is worth the early alarm.

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Travel

Asia Adventure: Phnom Penh

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I’ve just returned from a 3-week trip to Southeast Asia, including 2 weeks in Cambodia, 5 days in Laos, and 2 days in Hong Kong. Overall, the trip was really fantastic – I met a lot of great people, got to meet up with friends from Hong Kong, saw amazing historical sites, had fun travel buddies, and ate yummy food. So as not to overwhelm, I’m breaking up my posts by city. Today’s adventure: Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is home to the Killing Fields & the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. A brief history lesson: the Khmer Rouge seized power over the Cambodian government in 1975, with the intent to make everyone “equal”. They forced many people out of their homes, either brutally killing them or pressuring them to do break-backing work with little to no food. The Khmer Rouge’s reign over Cambodia lasted 4 years in which an estimated 1.5 to 3 million people died.

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Travel

Oh, the Fun you’ll have in Mexico City!

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With a 5-day work trip on the books for Mexico this summer, I decided to tack on an additional 4 days of fun in Mexico City. Since CDMX (Ciudad de Mexico aka Mexico City), isn’t known for being the safest, I invited my friend Karen along to be my wing-woman.

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First things first, our hostel was awesome. Okay, so the WiFi was terrible and the pillows were lumpy, but Karen and I had a blast staying at Hostel Mundo Joven Catedral. It was located directly next to the Zocalo (see more below), so sightseeing was a breeze. The rooftop bar had a spectacular view, cheap drinks, and fun activities each night.

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Hong Kong, Travel

Here I Come (Again), Asia!

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In exactly two months from today, I will be hopping on a plane to Asia!! First stop: Hong Kong! For the past three years, I have been dreaming of the day I get to return to my favorite city in the world. The layover will be less than 24 hours, but I’m planning on packing in as much as possible: cupcakes at Sift, xiao long bao at Crystal Jade, a peek at my old apartment, a jaunt through Hong Kong Park, and hopefully a ride up to the Peak. I am beyond excited about the entire trip, but these mere 40 hours (20 on the way there, 20 on the way back) are what I’m the most geeked about. Hopefully, I’ll even get to catch up with friends (if that’s YOU and you’re reading this in Hong Kong, save Dec. 10 and 29 on your calendar!).

I’ll be traveling with my friend Lindsay from Chicago for 10 of the 21 days I’ll be gone. Our flights were awesomely cheap. Get this – to fly direct to Hong Kong is $1,040; to fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia through Hong Kong is $840. It’s $200 cheaper to take two additional flights. I don’t get the logic, but I love it!

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Travel

Mackinac Island: Home of Fudge, Bikes, and Ghosts

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My mom and I had a lovely time exploring the 3.8 square mile Mackinac Island, Michigan over a long weekend recently. While characteristically touristy for a long stretch, more than 80% of the island is a state park. Over 15,000 visitors a day come to Mackinac Island in the summer, so you know that there must be something appealing. Is it the endless supply of fudge? Or the beauty of the rolling hills? Maybe it’s the kitschy shops every 10 feet or the fact that you can bike eight miles without any cars getting in the way. Whatever it is that brings tourists here, there’s something pretty magical about this island.

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It’s a 6-8 hour drive from Chicago, depending on how many stops you take along the way, so we left bright and early on a Friday morning. Since no cars are allowed on the island, the ferry is your only option for getting island-side. There are plenty of options – do you want a speed boat or slow boat? Do you want to pay $20 or $40? We attempted to do this weekend on the cheap, so we went with Arnold Line. Normal ticket prices are $18 roundtrip and it takes about 40 minutes one-way.

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Travel

NOLA on a Budget (and by Yourself)

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With four comp days to kill and vacation always on the brain, I decided to take a budget trip, so I went to Kayak.com/Explore and the cheapest flight was to New Orleans. NOLA was on my bucket list, so I was sold! My nonprofit paycheck and my desire to go to South America in December, made the budget for this trip even tighter than normal. I was also going by myself, so there was no one to share a hotel bill or taxi fare with. Here are a few hints if you’re ever looking to go to NOLA on a budget and by yourself:

  • Spirit Airlines is awesome and annoying all at the same time. The flights are super cheap because their bare bones flights get you exactly that – a flight. Pay to print your ticket, pay for baggage, pay for water on the flight. So for $97, I flew to NOLA for 4 days with a personal item (has to be less than 16x14x12). I stuffed all I could into my duffle and that was it!
  • The ultimate accommodations in budget travel are hostels. At $26 a night, my hostel served my purposes perfectly. Check out my first experience in a hostel here.
  • As I’ve done in Barcelona and many other European cities, I love to take free tours when I get to new cities. I took three free tours when I was in NOLA – at the French Market and with Free Tours by Foot in the Garden District and a ghost tour. The tours are free since the guides work on tips. I also took a tour of St. Louis Cemetery – which isn’t open to the general public – through a tour I found on Groupon (I also saw a pub crawl Groupon on there, which would’ve been super fun if I’d been there on the weekend).
Lafayette Cemetery which was on the Garden District free tour
Lafayette Cemetery on the Garden District free tour

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