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five years!

Five years!  Five years ago, Patrick and I quit our jobs to travel around the world.

Last year was the year of staying still .  But, this year, we've found our traveling feet again, learning --- albeit slowly --- how to travel with a baby/toddler.

Costa Rica
Costa Rica chips Cheese in Costa Rica
Sloth at Manuel Antonio Costa Rica monkey
Costa Rica hiking with a baby Costa Rica with Akila

Highlights from our trip to Costa Rica

Costa Rica : Our first international trip with Amara was to Costa Rica.  The people in that country embrace pura vida and were so welcoming and accommodating of us, as we learned how (not) to travel with a baby .  We didn't pack enough clothes for her so we were constantly doing laundry.  We didn't realize that the time change would affect her so significantly so that by 7:00 p.m., she couldn't stay awake another moment longer.  We didn't count on how heavy a 14 pound baby can get on a four hour hike.

Despite the hiccups, we learned how to see the world through her eyes .  We spent leisurely afternoons, playing with plastic water bottles and meandering through butterfly gardens and jungles in Costa Rica.  We gorged on maduros and panela cheese.  We drank coconut water in the shade.  We pointed out sloths and monkeys to our baby.

We traveled and loved it.  Yes, our baby was a traveler and we were going to love traveling with her.

Airavatesvara Temple
Puducherry  hotel Sai temple
India with my family India

Highlights from India

India: Then, we headed to India for a month. Chennai is not picturesque, charming , or particularly interesting.  Rather, its main attraction is the love that envelops us as soon as we enter that city.  I have over 150 relatives in Chennai, who, despite not seeing us for years or years, welcome us every time with open arms, gifts, and (what I appreciate the most) platters of food.

And, this time around, we brought Amara with us, who quickly endeared herself to everyone.  She was pampered in Chennai and so were we.  There were always ten other hands who wanted to hold, feed, rock, and carry her.  Amara woke us up at 5:00 in the morning when the sun rose and the temple bells started clanging, and we handed her over to my uncle, aunt, and grandmother, and she happily played with them until we arose.  My cousins bought toys and beautiful silk pavadais for her.  My great-aunt made her fresh homemade yogurt each day.  And, when we walked from temple to temple, someone was always ready to pray for her.

We left Chennai for a week and a half to explore other parts of Tamil Nadu.  We swam in the mostly empty pool at our (very reasonably priced) resort in Puducherry and walked the deserted beaches.  We drove to Tanjore and Kumbakonam to visit the stunning Chola Temples , which surprised me with their gorgeous carvings, rivaling those we saw in Angkor Wat.

And, did I mention that we ate?  Oh, yes, we ate so much that we all gained several pounds by our return.  Highlights included the banana flower curries prepared by my aunt, the stunning assortment of food at the Chennai fresh market, and the thin, crisp dosas filled with masala in Puducherry.

Amara Amara at the Ferry Building
Crepe in San Francisco San Francisco
Peach sliders Atlanta Food and Wine Festival

Highlights from our United States travels

United States : For much of the remainder of the year, we've traveled within the United States.  We spent a week in San Francisco, enjoying plump pierogis at the Picnic at the Presidio , eating homemade ricotta from Cowgirl Creamery's shop in the Ferry Building, and eating our favorite dim sum at the always wonderful Yank Sing.  Back in the Southeast, we explored Atlanta with our toddler .  And, we gorged on peach doughnut sliders, the "perfect" brisket (according to Patrick), maple and smoked sea salt sipping chocolate, and sweet moonshine at our favorite foodie event of last year, the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival .

It's been a great year and we're kicking off the new one with two weeks in Brazil.  Thanks for joining us as we roam the world.  Happy travels to everyone reading and happy holidays!

how to make baklava

baklava

Baklava

Here's what we know for certain after spending two months in Turkey: the baklava in the United States isn't anything like the baklava you get in Turkey.  I'm not being a food snob.  Okay, fine, I am being a little snobby . . . but, this is snobbery with justification.  As I truly believe that tofu is underappreciated in the United States , so, too, baklava is not the same when outside of its native soil.  Yes, Turkey has spoiled us for baklava.

I've been dreaming about this post for months now, trying to describe to you the magnificence of baklava, the impressiveness of the labor used to create it, and the reason why I would hop onto a flight to Istanbul just to eat baklava (okay, I probably would eat other things, too, but baklava would end EVERY meal.)

So, for a moment, please erase all memories of inferior baklava from your tongue.  If you're a baklava hater (as we were) and think of it only as a gooey, dense, sticky concoction, set aside those prejudices.  Grab your cup of coffee and hear this story from beginning to end and, perhaps, I can convince you that, when in Istanbul, baklava should be your top priority.

Baklava

baklava
baklava baklava

Baklava from four different vendors in Istanbul: notice, however, the similar puffiness in the centers, the many, many layers of dough, and the relatively small amount of filling

The History of Baklava

This is the part of the post where I normally explain a bit about the history of the dish or the cuisine.  But, there isn't much known about the history of baklava. In fact, baklava lore is akin to politics or religion as a conversation firestarter in the eastern Mediterranean countries.

The Turkish people are very secretive and loyal to "their" neighborhood baklavacis and each Istanbuli we met could point at a flaw in the baklava that was not from "their" shop.  Susannah, one of our Context docents, insisted that it's not possible to get good baklava outside of Gazantiep, her hometown in southeastern Turkey and what is generally considered as the best baklava producers in the country.  But, all Turks agree upon one thing: Turkish baklava is the best and original baklava.

On the other hand, when describing how much we loved Turkish baklava in Athens, Greece, immediately, an older woman began reprimanding our docent, telling him that the Turks make baklava incorrectly and "everyone knows that Greek baklava is the best."  Our docent told us when we were safely away from that bakery that he actually preferred Lebanese baklava to the Greek and Turkish variations.

Baracklava

Nadir Gullu's famous Baracklava, made in 2009, before President Obama came to visit Turkey

Baklava pride is not only an individual matter, but even a matter of state.  In 2006, Greek Cypriots proclaimed baklava as their national dessert in an European Union Day poster, which set Turks off, leading to what the press dubbed the "baklava war": 200 Istanbul baklava producers demonstrated in Sultanahmet against the Cyprus' designation and Turkey's EU secretary raised a protest to the EU.  A few months ago, President Obama stepped into the baklava fray by opining at a Greek-American function that he loved "baklava."  Turks furiously responded, stating that everything, including the baklava, served at the dinner was nothing more than Turkish dishes dressed up as Greek ones.  (Unfortunately, the President never deigned to visit Karakoy Gulluoglu's shop in Istanbul to see the Baracklava made in his honor.)

I've found sources that list baklava as originating from the Turks, Greeks, Syrians, Cypriots, Lebanese, and even the Chinese.  Here are the bare facts what I've been able to piece together:

  • There is a wide Internet rumor that the Assyrians first invented baklava in the 8th century B.C.  I have seen no evidence of this in anything other than random websites BUT, given that Assyria included much of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, this contention makes sense.  The Assyrians supposedly layered nuts between dough, poured a sweet syrup on top, and baked it in ceramic ovens.
  • The ancient Greeks first invented a flaky thin rolled dough (though not as thin as modern phyllo dough).  Even today in Athens, it is possible to find this thin dough rolled over, fried, and topped with cinnamon sugar, a dessert first eaten in the times of Socrates and Plato. ( source from our Context Athens Walk called Beyond Feta )
  • Pistachios are native to the southeastern Turkey, western Iran, and northeastern Iraq.  Archaeological excavations in Turkey show that pistachios were eaten in 7,000 BC.  Gazantiep, in southeastern Turkey, is particularly famous for its pistachios and baklava.  Antep baklava includes pistachio and cream layered between thin flaky dough.  ( source and source )
  • The Ottoman emperors loved baklava.  It was one of the most common desserts in the Ottoman Empire, in part, because it showcased the wealth of the Ottoman Empire: good baklava required specially picked Gazantiep pistachios, butter, honey, and very carefully prepared dough.  (from the Matbah dining menu in Istanbul)

And, that's all I know for certain.  It's a pretty sketchy history of own of the world's favorite desserts.

Nadir Gullu eating baklava Nadir Gullu with his baklava
Karakoy Gulluoglu
Little girl at Karakoy Gulluoglu Loading baklava from the Karakoy Gulluoglu shop

Nadir Gullu, shots of the Karakoy Gulluoglu shop, and loading baklava from the Karakoy production center to the shop

About Karakoy Gulluoglu

If you're not here for the history lesson, here's where we get to the nuts and bolts: how to make baklava.  And, the answer is, that you don't.

Most Turks will laugh right in your face if you tell them that you want to attempt to make baklava.  Nobody makes baklava except for the grandmothers who will spend all day making one batch or the professional baklava shops.  Baklava --- like a wedding cake --- is a dish best left to the experts, the Turks say.  And, once we got our behind-the-scenes blogger tour of Karakoy Gulluoglu, the first Gazantiep baklavaci in Istanbul, we understood why baklava should be left to the masters.

The Gullu family has been in the baklava business since the 1800s when Gullu Celebi spent six months in Damascus and Aleppo to learn how to make baklava.  The Gullu family is from Gazantiep, in southeastern Turkey, and, there, baklava quickly became a favorite dish and baklava shops and street stalls were in high demand.  The family continued making baklava after Gullu Celebi's death and sold baklava to other neighboring towns and villages.

In 1949, Mustafa Gullu, Gullu Celebi's grandson, set up the first baklava shop in Istanbul in the Karakoy neighborhood.  Mustafa Gullu said that, in the beginning, selling baklava was very difficult because, though it was a favorite dish of the Ottoman emperors, the common people had never tasted this delicacy.  "For a few years, we offered free baklava," he said and, slowly, they grew a following of baklava lovers.

Now, sixty years later, Nadir Gullu, Mustafa Gullu's son, manages Karakoy Gulluoglu.  Nadir Gullu is an enthusiastic and energetic man with an infectious love for baklava, his company, and his country.  His moustache quivers as he tells us the importance of eating baklava every day, "It is good for you," he insists. "A good strong man must eat one piece of baklava to live long."

His baklava business is truly an empire.  Though the company is still family run, with no more than one hundred employees, and most of those employees are related to Nadir Gullu, they make over 2.5 tons of baklava and other desserts per day.  They export a large quantity of this baklava all over the world and Mr. Gullu told us that he was the favorite baklava maker for Saddam Hussein: "because we do not care about politics, we care about providing good baklava."

How to Make Baklava by a Baklava Master

Nadir Gullu at the baklava production facility

The baklava production facility

Step 1.  Mix the Dough

We walk excitedly into the inner sanctum of baklava-making, up the stairs, and stand at a window where Mr. Gullu points to his baklava masters.  A master is not simply a person who makes baklava; a master must be trained in the art of baklava making.  The dough consists of flour, salt, water, and a small amount of butter.

Dough rolling by machine

Baklava rolling by machine

Step 2.  Roll the dough by machine.

Initially, a mound of dough is rolled through the machine to thin it out.  This thin layer of dough is rolled around a wooden stick.

Baklava dough making

Making baklava dough Baklava dough
Baklava making dough Baklava dough making

Step 3.  Use those muscles; roll the dough by hand.

"A baklava master must be strong and disciplined."  Traditionally, baklava making is a man's profession, because it is believed that only men have the muscular strength to roll the dough to the necessary thinness.  Baklava making is a full contact sport --- and the men who make baklava are heavy and thick-muscled men.  As each layer of dough is rolled out, the baklava maker flicks starch over the layer to prevent it from sticking, which is why the room is constantly in a floury haze.

Thinness of Karakoy Gulluoglu baklava dough

Flags held up against the Karakoy Guluoglu dough

The dough is impressive, to say the least.  So thin that a mild graze by a fingernail could tear it and with a translucency that allows us to clearly read text and see flags through it, it is still strong and sturdy enough to be held by a single person without tearing.

Pistachios on baklava

Making rolled kadayif

Step 4.  Build the baklava

Forty layers of baklava dough go into a single baklava tray.  40.  The filling is simple: lots of pistachios, honey, and butter.  The baklava master places at least 15 layers of the dough on the bottom of the pan, then the filling, then 15 more, and finally 10 layers that sit like an airy crown on top of the pastry.  The baker then slices through the baklava with a sharp knife to create the pieces we will eat later.

Pouring syrup on baklava

Adding the syrup

Step 5.  Add some butter sugar syrup.

Once the baklava is built, the chef pours warm butter on top of the baklava.

Unbaked baklava

Uncooked baklava

Step 6.  Bake the baklava.

Then, the baklava is baked at 160 degrees Celsius.  When Mr. Gullu opened the door to the bakery, the scents of butter and sugar surrounded us and we each wanted to bask in that glorious air for as long as he would let us.  If real estate agents started baking baklava to lure in clients, I don't think we'd have much of a real estate depression right now.

Baked baklava

Baked baklava

Step 7.  Pour sugar syrup on top of the warm baklava.

Though every step is critical to the success of good baklava, this is the step that most bad baklavacis mess up.  The perfect amount of sugar syrup must be poured on top of the baklava so that the baklava sucks up all of the sugar syrup.  No sugar syrup should pool at the bottom of the pan.  Because only a small amount of sugar syrup is used, Mr. Gullu tells us that one piece of his baklava only clocks in at 90 calories!

How to Eat Baklava

Baklava

Baklava

After all this, you would think that eating the baklava would be the easy bit, but eating baklava has its own set of rules.

Baklava with fork

Fork in baklava

First, we stick a fork into the one-third point of the baklava.  The baklava should make a crackling whoosh sound, as the fork goes through the layers of thin dough.  **If the baklava doesn't make a crackling whoosh sound, it's not good baklava!**

Kaymak

Kaymak

Then, we spread a thin layer of kaymak --- Turkish unsweetened clotted cream over the bottom of the piece of baklava.

Baklava with kaymak and pistachios

Baklava with kaymak and pistachios

We dip the bottom of the baklava into ground pistachios.

Gullu eating baklava

Mr. Gullu eating a piece of baklava

And, then, we place the baklava UPSIDE DOWN into our mouth and crunch.  (Upside down is critical --- you should never eat a piece of baklava right side up.)

First, the soft cream hits the roof of the mouth and the unsweetened cream blends in with the super sweet sugar syrup and pistachio.

Then, our teeth crunch through the forty layers of crispy baklava dough.

We swallow and all of the flavors combine in our mouth, creating a perfect medley of sweet, crunchy, creamy, and nutty.  Sublime.

Where to Eat Baklava in Turkey

Diabak baklava at Karakoy Gulluoglu Gluten-free baklava

Diabetic and gluten-free baklava at Karakoy Gulluoglu

Karakoy Gulluoglu is our favorite Istanbul baklavaki.  In addition to their outstanding regular baklava, they also serve up diabetic baklava with sugar substitutes, gluten-free baklava, chocolate baklava, and many other varieties.  Karakoy Gulluoglo is located at Kemankeş Karamustafa Paşa Mh., Mumhane Cd., 34425 Beyoğlu in Istanbul.

Baklavaci Gulluoglu is another good option with more locations in Istanbul.  They even have a location in New York!  We liked their baklava though we found it a little bit syrupy.

Bilgeoglu

Bilgeoglu Bilgeoglu

Baklava at Bilgeoglu

On the Asian side of Istanbul, we really enjoyed the baklava at Bilgeoglu in the Kadikoy market.  We especially enjoyed the baklava stuffed with kaymak inside.  Yum!

Bodrum

Baklava at Baklavacim in Bodrum

Baklava at Baklavacim

In Bodrum, Baklavacim provides excellent Gazantiep-style baklava.  They have all the usual flavors and a particularly decadent chocolate baklava, as well.  I can't find a web address for it but it is located on the main road from Bodrum to Turgutreis, on the right hand side when you are driving toward Turgutreis, shortly after you leave the Bodrum main town area.

how to ship your car to europe

Our car in Cornwall

Our CR-V sitting in front of our Cornwall house

Apparently, the only people interested in shipping their cars from the United States to Europe are military personnel and the super rich mega-billionaires, because there are a whole bunch of companies related to those two groups and absolutely nothing on the Internet about how an average person can ship their car to Europe.  I mean, I've got to think that there are other people than us interested in doing this, though, to be honest, in the three months we have been roaming through Europe, we haven't seen any other American license plates.

Nonetheless, I'm going to spell it out for you because I've got to think that we aren't completely unique in this world.  (And, if we are, I really would like to be unique for a better reason than that we decided to ship our American car from the U.S. to Europe.).  This post is full of nitty gritty details and some behind-the-scenes chaos that only we seem to land ourselves into.

1.  Why did we ship our car to Europe?

Trains/ferries were out because of the dogs: Most ferries do not allow dogs if you are a foot passenger and some trains do not allow dogs at all.  And, we knew we wanted to spend a lot of time in the countrysides, meaning that a car is essential.

Car rental was too expensive : Renault offers a 6-month car lease in Europe , which includes car insurance and AA service (similar to AAA in the U.S.) and we could have done two different car leases plus an additional one month lease.  When I priced it out, Renault came in at a whopping $16,000 for a compact automatic car for the 13 months.  (If we had rented a manual shift, teeny compact, it would have run more around $9,000.)  Eeks!

We couldn't purchase because we weren't residents: We looked into purchasing a car in Europe but, just like in the USA, in order to purchase a car, we needed to have residency in Europe.  Some travelers had purchased cars in Europe without establishing residency by using expired license plates, but we didn't feel comfortable doing that.

So, our last option was shipping our own Honda CR-V .  At first, the process seemed completely insurmountable but, as we broke down the issues and talked to the shipper over and over again, it became manageable.

2.  How much does shipping a car cost?

Here's the break-down of costs for the entire year:

Item Cost (all in USD except as noted)
Shipping car from Charleston, USA, to Thamesport, UK $1395
Marine insurance for transit $75
Worldwide car insurance through Clements International $1518 (for the year)
Car registration in Alabama $150
Agency/X-Ray Customs Fee in UK 435 GBP (approximately $693 USD)
Return shipment (estimated) $1470
Return fees (estimated) $500
Total $5801
Additional fees held ON DEPOSIT to be returned when we leave the UK

2347 GBP

So, that made the decision REALLY simple.  For less than $6,000 USD we could drive our own very large, comfortable car for the entire time rather than shelling out an extra $10,000 for a compact car that would barely fit our stuff.  Of course, we have to pay for fuel and service costs (such as oil changes, etc.), but we would need to do that with a rental car, and we've discovered that our Honda CR-V actually gets better gas mileage than many of the European cars that we've rented.

3.  Do you have to pay taxes/customs/duties?

The EU and UK have a "temporary importation exemption" to the general importation of car duties , which allows non-UK/EU citizens to import their car for up to 6 months, as long as the car is used for tourism purposes and the car is not left or disposed in the EU/UK.  In addition, the EU/UK allow cars to be imported without paying taxes if the individual has a limited work assignment or is a student for longer than 6 months.

If you've been paying attention, you must have realized that we are staying longer than 6 months so . . . I had to ask for an exemption from the tourist exemption.  I emailed the UK customs officials and explained that we are staying for 13 months, have already booked our departure ticket, and I will be writing and selling my writing about my trip to the EU.  The UK Customs Officials responded in three weeks and notified me that they would grant my exemption because I have a writing assignment that ends on a specified date.

Read more about the UK/EU Customs requirements here .

4.  How did you find car insurance?

The Green Card is a document recognized in over 40 countries, including all the countries in Europe, which certifies that the person holding the Green Card has minimal insurance coverage in those particular countries he/she is driving through.  The Green Card is not itself insurance, but is rather proof of insurance in many, many countries.

So, in order to drive through Europe and be an American traveler, you must have insurance that meets the Green Card requirements.  We found only two companies that will underwrite this type of insurance: Geico and Clements International.  Geico wanted to charge us about $7000 for the year.  When Clements --- an insurance company focused on dealing with expats --- quoted us $1518, we both laughed out loud --- they only wanted a few hundred more than we were paying for minimal car insurance to keep our car registered in Alabama while we traveled!

We have been INCREDIBLY pleased with Clements --- their service is prompt, responsive, and much cheaper than anything else we've looked at.  We are also using them for health and electronics insurance coverage, and several of my travel blogger friends have told me that they are also switching to Clements for gear insurance because Clements actually covers expensive amounts of camera and computer equipment while traveling.  Yay for Clements!

The only thing that we absolutely needed in order to get the insurance was a UK address to which they could ship the Green Card.  So, if you're going through Clements, keep that in mind.

5.  How is the shipping supposed to work?

Here's how the whole thing was supposed to work out:

a.  16 weeks before Car Arrival Date (that is, the date we wanted the car to arrive, shortened to CA Date below): Email UK customs officials regarding exemption of temporary import duties.

b.  16 weeks before CA Date:  Begin corresponding with car import agency.  We worked with Schumacher Cargo Logistics , who as far as we can tell, is the only company out there that will actually deal with individuals and not companies.  Schumacher is a go-between and deals with the real cargo logistics folks that do the actual shipping back and forth.  Schumacher has a limited number of places from the United States East Coast from which they can ship --- they told us they can ship from near Newark, New Jersey; Baltimore, Maryland; Charleston, South Carolina; and Jacksonville, Florida.  In England, they only ship to Thamesport, Kent.

c.  13 weeks before CA Date:  Finish filling out paperwork, including sending payment to Schumacher (or other shipping company.)

d.  8 weeks before CA Date:  Drive to shipping yard and drop off car.  Leave yourselves plenty of time to drop off the car because the shipping office we had been told to drop off the car at was incredibly confused and spent almost half an hour trying to find out where we needed to go.  They finally figured out the shipping yard and dropping off the car was the easiest part.  It took us about one minute to drop off the car, give the guy our bill of sale and title, key, and walk away.  (Though it was a bit nerve-wracking to give all that important information to a random person.)

e.  Wait, wait, wait.

f.  CA Date:  Receive confirmation that the car has arrived.  The car arrives anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks after delivering it to the shipping yard, so your car might have to sit in the warehouse, in which case you will be charged warehouse fees of about 10 GBP per day.  Assuming all goes as planned, you should receive confirmation from the shipper that your car has been offloaded, at which point you will need to pay them via bank transfer the customs/duties fees to be held on deposit, and then you can pick up the car once they receive the fees.

g.  One week after the CA Date:  Receive bill of sale and title from Schumacher by courier, shipped to a UK address.

6.  How did the whole thing ACTUALLY work out?

Well, the whole thing was an unmitigated DISASTER from front to end. On the day we dropped the car off, we drove around Charleston for an hour and a half to four different shipping locations because Schumacher couldn't figure out exactly where our car needed to be sent.  Then, the car was supposed to arrive sometime between 4 to 8 weeks after dropping the car off, but we are pretty confident that they forgot about our car, and didn't send us confirmation that the car had shipped until after Patrick prodded them multiple time.  So, we didn't actually receive the car until 11 weeks after we shipped it, meaning we had to rent a car in England for 2 weeks, which we didn't expect.

We also didn't know that we were supposed to pay the customs amount via bank transfer, meaning that we had to hole up in an internet cafe, talking to my Dad over cell phone to help us do the bank transfer because my bank requires a "SafePass" keycode which must be sent to an American cell phone number in order to transfer large amounts of money to international banks.  We picked up the car and it smelled like the worst kind of awful, awful stale cigarette smoke --- though neither of us smoke --- and we couldn't get the smell out for weeks.  And, then, after we had the car in hand, it turned out that Schumacher lost our original bill of sale and there is no way for us to get another one from Honda, meaning that the copy Patrick made is the only version we have.

Our advice to others planning to ship a car:

- Set aside a lot more time than you expect at either end --- we were so happy that we stayed in England for a solid month after the car was supposed to arrive because it gave us flexibility when the car didn't get there in time.

- Make copies of EVERYTHING and keep hard copies and electronic copies in several places.

- Set aside a lot more money than you think you'll need.  We didn't expect to pay the deposit and were so glad we had extra money sitting in that bank account then.

- Figure out how to do international bank transfers from an international location well beforehand.  Bank of America offers a $25 SafePass card which we have now purchased which lets us easily make international bank transfers from anywhere in the world.

- Put an air deodorizer in your car before you hand it over to the shipping company.

- If your car locks up its radio system when the battery is disconnected, remember to take the PIN code for your radio.

- Smile and take a lot of very deep breaths.

Ultimately, we have our car and it's wonderful being able to drive such a large and comfortable vehicle.  We get all sorts of curious looks about our license plates and one very drunk fellow in Spain nearly fell over as he perused the Steelers logo on the front of the car.  We've been working our four wheel drive hard in Italy because we're staying in an area with mostly rural dirt roads, and we can't imagine storing all of the dog food and extra supplies in a smaller car.

If you see a Honda CR-V with Alabama license plates in Europe, that's us!  Honk if you see us!

[And, I'm sure I've left out all sorts of questions that people have, so leave a comment with thoughts, questions, or just "Hey, we saw your car!"]

April 2011


kruger itineraries and lodges
inside the park
April 14, 2011

March 2011


how to plan a trip to kruger national park
the basics
March 31, 2011

February 2011


how we (don't) fund our travels
February 10, 2011

December 2010


day in the life overlanding
fish river canyon
December 17, 2010

overlanding 101
nuts and bolts
December 14, 2010

September 2010


how to do world expo 2010
in shanghai
September 03, 2010

July 2010


is a japan rail pass worth it?
transportation on a budget
July 28, 2010

June 2010


kyoto for free
japan on a budget
June 22, 2010

April 2010


how to avoid temple fatigue
in 5 easy steps
April 14, 2010

March 2010


how to not be a stupid tourist in thailand
March 4, 2010

February 2010


kindle for travelers
February 27, 2010

July 2009


how to grill pizza
July 30, 2009

how to plan a trip to australia online
July 23, 2009