Tuesday Photo Challenge: Trees

Taken over by giants.

Location: Angkor Wat, Siem Riep, Cambodia.

Tuesday photo challenge: Trees

Week 14: Part one of many…my favorite travel destinations

Week 14: Top three favorite destinations

For this week’s Travel Tuesday, I’ll be sharing my top three travel destinations. Top Three? How did I narrow this down? Well I did not… Think of this little list as part of a far longer list of favorite destination ;-).

Angkor Wat (Cambodia): 

This was my first big trip after college. I decided to go explore Southeast Asia. I went here back in 2012. These temples are something and far larger in person.

Denali National Park, Alaska, USA

Denali National Park is one of my favorite national parks I’ve gone to so. I went here back in 2004 with my parents. It’s a huge park with 90 miles of road and they only allow your private vehicle to drive up to mile 14. To explore the rest of the park, you need to take a National Park Service shuttle. They do this to preserve the wild life of the park. Imagine if they did it to all the national parks?

Rome, Italy

Unfortunately we did not take our time to enjoy Rome. We only spent two whole days exploring the city, when it should deserve at least 5-7 whole days. We’ll be back, Rome!

Honorable mentions:

• Amalfi Coast
• Zion National Park
• Yosemite National Park
• Kyoto, Japan
• Mt. Apo, Davao, Phillippines
• Versaille, France
• Paris, France
• Florence, Italy

What are your favorite travel destinations?

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Week 1: Your Favorite Travel Photo of You and Intro
Week 2: Little Known Travel Tips
Week 3: Funny Travel Story
Week 4: Travel Misadventures
Week 5: Top three cultural foods
Week 6: Unusual Travel Activities and Photos
Week 7: Inspiration for traveling
Week 8: 5 Favorite Blogs
Week 9: Gross/disgusting travel stories
Week 10: Best adventures while traveling
Week 11: What’s in my backpack?
Week 12: Happy and Sad Travel Stories
Week 13: Unique Cultures Encountered

Who else is doing the challenge?

• Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
• Wandering Outside the Box – Winta
• Trouvaille, Mon Cher – Aly
• Simply Emily – Emily
• Benjamin Lessard – Benjamin

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 12: Hey, You!

Week 12: Happy and sad travel stories

Travel Tuesday is back! I just came back from a 3-day camping trip in Sequoia. Today I am taking an extra day off to clean and get back into the swing of things before tomorrow’s business trip to San Diego.

I initially wanted to share both a happy and sad story, but for this prompt, I’ll stick to the sad story because it’s more of a call to action. I would hate to have my happy story to eclipse this serious issue.

One time I was at a hotel bar in Sihaunookville, Cambodia ordering a coffee. I paid, I received change and walked back to the car with my travelmates. When we were about to leave, the girl who took my order said I never paid. I told her I only had a 20 in my wallet and received the correct change. I counted the change in front of her and she was still steaming and continued to say I still owe her a dollar. A couple of her coworkers joined her and said, “we were at the bar too and we did not see you pay. We have video.” Maybe she was embarrassed I declined to give her another dollar and her coworkers came to her in sodality, because come on, American tourist, “it’s just a dollar. It’s nothing to you.” The hotel owner came to the rescue and apologize for the misunderstanding. The chances are she was most likely trying to hustle me for a dollar, not because she forgot. Maybe she thought I had more bills in my wallet.

Sihaunookville, 2012

Through every town I’ve gone through in Cambodia, I would see kids congregate around a beach towel on the street looking for the next person to ask for a dollar or to buy something. Some of the can become aggressive and heckle when you say “no”. During my trip, I did not give in to giving a single dollar to a begging kid because I was warned far in advanced and repeatedly to not give in. At Sihaunookville, I almost gave in because I tend to be a sucker. This girl was smart, she caught me in the right time to shame me in front of my travelmates.

Sihanoukville, 2012

These kids should be in school! It’s sad to learn their parents are not supportive of their schooling. Cambodia is an impoverish country with a lack of assets, domestic product, democracy, access to finance, and investment in education.  Education in Cambodia is not compulsory as it is here in the U.S.. The parents in Cambodia see their kid’s education as a financial burden because they need to purchase school supplies,  uniforms, and other school fees. With this being said…

My call to action is to support kids and their families in Cambodia. Please check out these organizations below:

1.  Volunteer Development Children’s Association (VDCA): An NGO based in Siem Riep operating the Free School offering children free English classes, computer classes, hygiene, and other courses.
2. UNICEF: Donate to UNICEF to support children and their families such providing clean water, better healthcare, and technology.

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Week 1: Your Favorite Travel Photo of You and Intro
Week 2: Little Known Travel Tips
Week 3: Funny Travel Story
Week 4: Travel Misadventures
Week 5: Top three cultural foods
Week 6: Unusual Travel Activities and Photos
Week 7: Inspiration for traveling
Week 8: 5 Favorite Blogs
Week 9: Gross/disgusting travel stories
Week 10: Best adventures while traveling
Week 11: What’s in my backpack?

Who else is doing the challenge?

• Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
• Wandering Outside the Box – Winta
• Trouvaille, Mon Cher – Aly
• Simply Emily – Emily
• Benjamin Lessard – Benjamin

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own today!

Week 3: Funny Travel Story…More Like Funny Posters…

Week 3: Funny travel story

Last week’s prompt was more wordy so for this week, I’ll share more photos. Actually more like some photos of funny signs and posters I’ve come across from my travels:

Cambodia, 2012. On a bus trip from Siem Riep to Phnom Penh. I understand eating durian in the bus, but rice?

Cambodia, 2012. Found this poster in a bar at Sihaunookville.

Thailand 2012. A cab ride in Bangkok. Normally I don’t take cab rides anywhere because they’re expensive and I anticipate there is a likely chance I’ll over pay. I was with a friend who is local and lives in Bangkok and let him do all the talking. For me, I noticed this sign. See? No durian allowed. Plus no fire arms, no alcohol, no goats, no dogs, and don’t have sex and smoke cigarettes in the taxi!

Most recently, a “covfefe” sign in Seattle.

I had a story about last year’s camping trip, but I feel it qualifies for next week in “Travel Misadventures” where we inadvertently went “glamping” — or at least this is our definition of “glamping”. Also, this is what happens when you don’t wake up early for the first come, first serve camp sites (har har).

Read more posts from the Travel Blogging Challenge:

Week 1: Your favorite travel photo of you and intro
Week 2: Little known travel tips

Who else is doing the challenge?

• Journey Through the Trees – Victoria
• Wandering Outside the Box – Winta

Interested in participating in the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge? Feel free to make your own!