Paying the Price for Visiting Oman

Recently, we did something we had never done before.  We went for an extended trip to a very expensive country. Or so we thought we did. Oman was our first Gulf country, and all we heard before our visit was that the oil-rich countries of the region were not the […]

In the Heart of Oman: Exploring Sharqiya Sands

One of my favorite memories from Egypt was the two days and one night we spent in the White Desert with the endless starry sky, surreal white rock formations, and sand dunes glowing in the sunlight.  I’ve wanted to go back for over a decade and Oman finally offered a […]

Essential Oman – Forts and Castles

When we traveled to Thailand 10 years ago, one of the planning concerns was how to see as many Thai temples as possible without being “templed out”. Although by the end of the trip, the beautiful Thai temples did start to resemble each other, we left the country just in […]

The Wonders of the Wadi

The next few posts are going to be about what we consider to be “essential Oman” – the natural beauty of breathtaking landscapes and the traditional architecture of historic forts and castles.  I am going to start with something we’ve never seen before and that only exists in a few […]

Hump Day in Oman 

It was 5 am and we were on the move.  We got up in the middle of the night to drive out of Nizwa, a lively city full of neon signs and bustling markets, towards a dusty outpost town of Sinaw in the desert.  The next thing I am going […]

The Highway to Our Own Personal Hell (Wyoming)

By Julia / June 18, 2020

Our road trip in 2004 had many memorable moments in California, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado, but the one anecdote we always associate with this trip actually happened in the “drive-through” state of Wyoming, on a long stretch of a highway, deep at night. We were eight days deep into our […]

The Trip That Started It All

By Julia / June 11, 2020

This is probably going to be the oldest story published on this blog, back from March 2004, before we had our backpacks and cats.  Victor has been in the US for less than a year and was itching to discover more of America than just the Chicagoland area.  He was […]

A Traveler’s Dilemma: The Human Zoo

By Victor / May 28, 2020

In December of 2013, while traveling through northern Thailand, we had the option of visiting indigenous hill tribe villages. As we walked the streets of Chiang Mai, nearly every tourist agency and hotel touted trips to nearby ethnic minority villages by displaying pictures of smiling women in colorful traditional dresses […]

Egypt: Camping in the Desert Mustafa-Style

By Julia / May 21, 2020

Our Egypt desert adventures start here. As the sun was setting over the White Desert, our Jeep headed towards the overnight camping spot.  With no large dunes or stones to block our view of sunset or sunrise, our guide and driver found a spot in a large flat valley, white […]

Egypt: Black Desert, White Desert, Best Desert

By Julia / May 14, 2020

We’ve never had a bad trip.  We’ve had a lot of mishaps and quite frankly several shitshows, but we never have been to a country we didn’t like.  And now, looking back at dozens of excellent trips we’ve taken around the world, I can tell you with complete honesty and […]

All Aboard the Booze Train!

By Victor / May 8, 2020

After visiting blue agave fields on the way to the town of Tequila, our tour continued at the Jose Cuervo tequila distillery known as La Rojeña.  The decision to visit Jose Cuervo, and not any of the other numerous tequila distilleries in the area, was an easy one.  Jose Cuervo […]

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