Mark & Jen's 'Around the World' Travel & Photography Blog

Mark and his Marriott points have ruined me. We are no longer “backpackers,” but have upgraded to the “flashpacker” category. Thus our Halong Bay experience.
We decide to pay a little extra for a reputable company to take us on this famous, must-do cruise. By a stroke of sheer luck, we receive more [...]

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Amid the nauseating twists and turns of the bus ride from Pokhara to Kathmandu, I cleverly used my eight hours to narrow down my first meal upon returning home in eight months. One and all are open to cooking for me…I will not stop you.
For starters, I would like a big, cleanly washed spinach [...]

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In Shanghai, we again met temptations of Western life, and succumbed accordingly. Our first morning, we got up early, took a walk and photos in the morning light, stopped at the French bakery for croissants and coffee, munched away while reading the news on the computer, and then finally managed to get [...]

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So Mark and Jen want to be “cool” and they decide to try a typical and popular Sichuan “hotpot” restaurant. The experience goes something like this:
–Point, point, point, nod, nod, yell across the restaurant, a hundred turning heads, and we get a table with a vat of oil.
–Mark goes into the kebab room and comes [...]

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Are we still in China? We couldn’t help but ask ourselves time and again as we traveled along the Northern Sichuan-Tibetan Highway. After two days on a bone-jarring, butt-numbing bumper bus, we arrived in Ganzi, China, elevation 3700m. Along the way, we crossed a 4700m pass, where faithful Buddhists threw their prayers (cards) out the [...]

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