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Our impression of the Keraton started long before we stepped foot in the hotel. Admittedly a bit wary about spending the next few days in Jakarta (thanks to our friendly hotel owner in Bali!), I was a bit on edge as we arrived at the airport — where we were the only tourists around. My thoughts of dread quickly turned around, though, when we were met with a hotel representative at baggage claim with our name and the Keraton logo on an iPad. He grabbed our luggage and escorted us out of the airport.
Fleet of Mercedes
We came upon a huge fleet of Mercedes Kompressors and we jumped in one with chilled towels (with [...]
Air Asia QZ 7529 Dept: Bali (DPS) 3:35 pm Arrv: Jakarta (CGK) 4:15 pm
We knew we needed to fly fro Bali to Jakarta for weeks (if not months), but for whatever reason never booked a flight. We were partly putting it off having heard not-so-great things about Jakarta and I guess we were a little nervous to go. In fact, up until the day before our flight, we were still deciding whether we should extend our stay in Bali/Ubud or fly to Singapore early or bite the bullet and go to Jakarta. We finally ended up booking our Air Asia flight the day before departure for $156.67 USD total (for the two of us).
Of $156 total, $99 [...]
We headed to the Blue Mosque first thing one morning to try to avoid the crowds as much as possible. Luckily for us non-morning people, the famous mosque was only a few blocks from where we were staying.
By: Jenny – CC BY 2.0
By: Jorge Dalmau – CC BY 2.0
The Blue Mosque (also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque) was built between 1609 and 1616, and made bigger and higher than its across-the-street neighbor, Hagia Sophia (then a church, currently a mosque), in an effort to show Islam’s dominance over Christianity. The [...]
Taking the bus from Santiago, Chile, to Mendoza, Argentina, turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of our trip and made for a day of sites that were postcard-worthy. It’s always fun to try new ways to get around – I’m so glad we chose the bus route rather than just taking a short flight because we were able to see more of the countryside and an up-close view of the Andes as we drove right over them.
I was (secretly) dreading our day-long bus trip. What if it snowed and we couldn’t cross? And, more importantly, what if the roads were so bumpy and curvy that even I got car sick… and then had to stay on the bus for 5 more hours? [...]
We knew before we ever left the US that we wanted to do a bike tour of Ubud. I’d done a bike tour of Tuscany when I studied abroad and it was one of my favorite memories from my time, so I was really looking forward to learning more about the area in Ubud with a long bike tour. Plus, what’s more romantic than a bike ride through the rice paddies on your honeymoon? Many tours were advertised for appx $30, leaving at 7 or 8am and returning by 2pm, so we knew it wouldn’t be hard to do once we arrived.
As luck would have it, we were chatting with the Swiss owner of our hotel (Villa Semana) upon arrival and he very kindly [...]
We were having the best time just hanging around our hotel (W Retreat & Spa Bali) during the first part of our honeymoon, but finally felt like we should venture out and explore more of the island. After speaking with the hotel concierge about how to best leave the property and see some cool sights in the area, we settled on hiring a car and driver by the hour. The W had a few prescribed routes for sightseeing, but the beauty of being able to rent a car + driver is that you can easily custom tailor it to what makes sense for you.
We weighed our options and ultimately decided to leave in the morning to visit the temples Tanah Lot and then Taman Ayun –with a few more [...]
After a relatively early (to our ordinary days in Myanmar) wake up call, we checked out of Inle Resort and began the trek to the airport. We asked the concierge to help us arrange transportation ahead of time but the resort car was unavailable, so they booked us a taxi that actually came out to be a bit cheaper ($30) than the hotel provided ride ($35).
The best part of rising early in Myanmar is that the weather is just about always perfect, even feeling crisp and refreshing at times.
The ride took us back through Nyanungshwe, winding around a few of the small mountains to Heho Airport. The journey lasted about an hour, putting us to Heho by around 8:05 a.m [...]
