Bonjour, ciao, olá, konnichiwa!
We decided to pack away our inhibitions, jobs, and earthly belongings to travel the world in 2020! This blog chronicles our leap of faith to catch dreams, while they’re fresh and swimming close to the surface.
We’re Cathy and Allen, and we met in San Francisco California in 2016. We bonded early on over our mutual favorite words: “I’ve got a crazy idea.” We both believe in questioning the status quo and keeping an open mind. This makes us avid travelers, because the world past our horizon consistently blows our mind with its colors, stories, and ways of being.
Our travel philosophy is "middle-of-the-road”; we don’t have the Benjamins to jetset, nor the stamina to backpack. We’re budget conscious, plan loosely, and will try anything once. We mix in local flavor with tourist traps. We prefer carry-on over check-in, airbnb over hostels and hotels, subway over uber, solo explore over group tour.
You won’t find an endless feed of “Top 10 Things To Do” lists because we don’t presume that there’s a “best” way to soak in a new experience. Our focus in this blog is our lived impressions abroad, the uncomfortable as well as the sublime, and the stories that educate, question, and stretch our awareness of the world.
If we offer a small bit of enrichment to your day, that’s a great day for us! Thanks for reading!
About Cathy
CATHY moved to the US from Shanghai, China when she was two, and has lived in four states before settling down in San Francisco. A former program manager and management consultant, nothing excites Cathy like hounding a worthwhile goal — an attitude that translates to her zeal to aprovecha every drop of savoir-faire from her travels and share!
Cathy Is Into: She’s a prolific houseplant momma of 20+ plants. She's an enthusiastic albeit amateur yogi and pianist. She’s also down to DIY anything, from candle-making to kombucha-brewing to macrame (to Allen’s chagrin).
Travel Superpowers and Kryptonite: Cathy can knock out on pretty much any moving vehicle. Her digestive tract of steel enables her to try street foods without repercussions. She also has a practiced eye for thrifting. Unfortunately, her laissez faire attitude towards making plans results in excess time spent lost and/or hangry.
Favorite Books: Anne of Green Gables is her favorite book of all time. A Manual For Cleaning Women, short stories. Non-fiction that’s changed her life include Eating Animals, Your Money or Your Life, On Writing, and The Feminine Mystique.
About Allen
ALLEN is a California kid through and through, having lived in the Golden State his entire life. While typically risk averse (like many actuaries), he also revels in the occasional and calculated risk. So when opportunity knocks and the world beckons, Allen takes it.
Allen Is Into: He’s a tech enthusiast, with a soft spot for new gadgets and crowdfunding. He is a proud owner of a onewheel. (Unfortunately, airlines hate the onewheel, so it must be left behind.) And of course, Allen is a Cal superfan. One sidequest is to take his Cal gear on the road to make the entire world Bear Territory!
Travel Superpowers and Kryptonite: If technology is good for anything, it’s to turbocharge Allen to get around like a local anywhere in the world. Allen can navigate any city by power of smartphone, battery pack, Google Maps, Google Translate, and local subway system. You wouldn’t know it, however, because Allen rarely shares his travels on social media. Something about that extra step to account for his activity is sooooo difficult. (If you’ve ever had to submit a timesheet, you know the struggle!)
Favorite Books: So Allen rarely reads books. Blogs and longform articles, yes. Books - not so much. However, a 2020 resolution is to read 50 books, so hopefully by the end of the year, he’ll have some favorites.
We are currently in the Bay Area, California. Our future travel plans are postponed due to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, we reminisce of places we have been…
Honolulu, Hawaii USA
03/04/20 - 03/11/20
Sunrises, sunsets, and all the rainbows in between on this island paradise.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
02/29/20 - 03/04/20
Culture, nightlife, big city, sensory overload, oo lala!
Hoi An, Vietnam
02/27/20 - 02/29/20
Charming city where traditional lantern crafts light up the canal after dusk.
Hue, Vietnam
02/26/20 - 02/27/20
Ate “Bun Bo Hue” at this ancient citadel town to break up our voyage down Vietnam’s coast before motorbiking the Han Van Pass — “a deserted ribbon of perfection.”
Ninh Binh, Vietnam
02/23/20 - 02/25/20
National Geographic IRL. Farmlands, wetlands, and majestic mountains collide.
Hanoi, Vietnam
02/15/20 - 02/23/20
Got lost in the cool, chaotic, kitschy streets. Ate every meal on the sidewalk, the lower the stool the better.
Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
02/18/20 - 02/19/20
Misty ocean blue punctuated by mountainous limestone slabs. I hear that dragons live here.
Sapa, Vietnam
02/17/20 - 02/19/20
Over the centuries, ethnic groups in this region carved the indomitable mountains into an agrarian gem. We trekked 10 miles per day, hand-in-hand with our Black Hmong guides.
Siem Reap, Cambodia
02/13/20 - 02/15/20
A romantic Valentine’s Day spent by the ruins of Angkor Wat.
Phuket, Thailand
01/13/20 - 02/12/20
We lived on this island for a month, alternating between Muay Thai training and beach bumming.
Singapore, Singapore
01/26/20 - 01/28/20
In a city where everything is so atas and extra and over the top lah, Chinese New Year is a big freaking deal.
Taipei, Taiwan
01/06/20 - 01/13/20
24/7 eating!! Plus a tour-de-force visit of Allen’s extended family.
Taichung, Taiwan
01/10/20
If Taipei were NYC, Taichung would be like LA. A “dazzling” sprawl speckled with over-the-top food, lights, and photo ops.
Kyoto, Japan
10/06/19 - 10/07/19
Allen waited all night and spotted a geisha. Cathy was jealous.
Koya-san, Japan
10/04/19 - 10/05/19
The heart of Japanese Shingon Buddhism. Night-long vigils at the okunoin temple and cedar cemetery, flame pillars warding off the mountain mist. Sunrise prayers for the dead and for the new day.
Hakone, Japan
10/01/19 - 10/02/19
We onesen’ed three times in 36 hours.
Tokyo, Japan
09/26/19 - 09/30/19
A silent orchestra of bodies in motion. Gonna come back one day and move into Shimokitazawa.
New York, New York, USA
02/14/19 - 02/20/19
Crazy paradise of density, hustle, and COOL. One week barely scratches the surface.