Tag Archives: Travel

Full-time travel means always having to find a place to live

And that’s pretty much what’s been keeping us occupied these past few weeks that we haven’t been blogging. What started out as a temporary hiatus designed to give our full-contact-blogging related injuries time to heal, morphed into an all-out effort to nail down the specifics of our life going forward – or at least for the next eight months.

What made this particular stretch of our itinerary so challenging is that we decided to significantly slow down the pace of our travels this fall. And while normal people might think that would make planning easier, in reality it hasn’t. We’ve struggled mightily to find suitable apartments in desirable locations to rent for an entire month at a time. One month leases are mostly unheard of in the U.S., which is exactly where we’ve been trying to find them.

We were also attempting to incorporate a number of good travel deals into our plans, all which came with various restrictions. We’d find a great airfare deal only to discover that the car rental we needed would cost double if we flew on those days; or the apartment we wanted wasn’t free on the days we could use our frequent flyer miles to get there; or – when all those things seemed to finally fit – we’d learn that one element of our carefully crafted plan had mysteriously become unavailable, sending our entire itinerary into a cascading failure.

That is until now.

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All’s Well that Ends Well in Battambang

Battambang Cambodia

When we arrive at a new destination, it’s not uncommon for us to quickly, easily step into rhythm with the place. But sometimes, we get off on the wrong foot. Which is exactly what happened in Battambang in western Cambodia.

Battambang was a late addition to the itinerary. We rolled into town tired and sweaty after a seven-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh, only to be given a mosquito-infested room at our not-inexpensive hotel. Dinner at a recommended restaurant was dismally mediocre, while a walk around town showed that the preserved colonial architecture the city is hyped as having really isn’t all that picturesque.

Our less-than-stellar start in Battambang had us wondering why we even bothered to detour there on route from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. If we hadn’t already booked a four-night stay, we might have hastily left town…and that would have been a shame. In Battambang, we ended up having some of our most memorable experiences in Southeast Asia so far.

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The Royal Palace, Phnom Penh

Royal Palace Throne Hall, Phnom Penh

We had begun to feel a little underwhelmed by the sightseeing at some of our last few stops in Asia. The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh cured us of that.

Royal Palace, Phnom Penh 1

Cambodia’s Independence Monument

Independence Monument  Phnom Penh

Erected in Phnom Penh to commemorate Cambodia’s 1953 independence from France.

Four Finds for (Female) Travelers

Shannon with Backpack

Refining the contents of my backpack is a process that will last as long as I’m on the road. With space at a premium, every item that goes into the bag has to be well thought out. I’ve downsized and streamlined, but I’m always on the lookout for resourceful products that make packing easier and take up less room.

Here are a few of my favorite finds:

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