But For the Sky

Author: Nick

  • Around the World in Seven Songs

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    Nick
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    We love music. It’s a big part of our lives here at home, and while away we kept our ears open, always ready to find something new and different. Music is something universal; in every city, town, and village in every country we visited we heard rhythms spilling out of restaurants, cafes, and bars; being…

  • On Returning

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    Nick
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    Round the world! There is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings; but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct? Only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started, where those that we left behind secure, were all the time before us. –Herman Melville, Moby Dick We’ve now been home for almost five…

  • Video Dump 6: Southeast Asia

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    Nick
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    Hello and welcome to our sixth and likely final video dump. This one covers our time in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Enjoy! First, here are two more videos of the election night celebration in Mandalay, Myanmar: Click here to watch the first video of the election night celebration Click here to…

  • Cat Ba Island: Taking the Plunge

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    Nick
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    With our time in Vietnam running a bit short, and having gotten our exposure to the countryside and mountains on our motorbiking trip, and to city life with a few days in Hanoi, we decided what was missing was some time on the coast, so we headed to Cat Ba Island, home to a large…

  • Motorbiking in Northeastern Vietnam

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    Before visiting Southeast Asia, we weren’t big motorbiking enthusiasts; in fact, Claudia’s motorbiking experience consisted entirely of a few anxiety-ridden hours in Europe many years ago, and mine consisted of crashing a small toy bike into a fence in Portland, Oregon in 2009. However, taking a multi-day motorbiking trip in the north of Vietnam is…

  • Northern Laos in Seventeen Syllables

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    Nick
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    Everyone who had been there said, “Spend as much time in Laos as possible.” Unfortunately we didn’t heed their advice: partly because of geographical constraints, and partly because of some outside circumstances, we had to take one destination off our southern Laos plans, and rush through the north a bit. We still enjoyed the heck…

  • Kampot: Riverside Relaxation and Sunset Lover’s Dream

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    Nick
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    Our last stop in Cambodia brought us to the aforementioned town of Kampot, of peppercorn fame. We spent a few relaxing days on the riverside, during which we enjoyed the slow pace of life, ate many pepper-infused meals, drank excellent local coffee, and blissed out on some of the most incredible sunsets we’ve seen all…

  • Crabs, Pepper, and Crumbling French Mansions: It’s What Cambodia Does

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    Nick
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    Back home in Washington DC, one of our favorite summertime treats is to head toward the Chesapeake Bay and spend a day eating Maryland blue crabs until our stomachs are stuffed. So when we learned that there was a city called Kep on the eastern end of Cambodia’s coast whose waters were teeming with crabs,…

  • Siem Reap: The Final Push

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    We gather all our patience, attention, and–yes–courage for the final push. It’s not going to be easy: slogging through the damp and dimly-lit passageways; pulling ourselves up the mountainous formations, the sun beating down hard on our backs. It’s like the final three miles of a marathon (or the final three miles of a three-mile…

  • Inle Lake: A World Afloat

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    We pull our bikes up to a building offering longtail ferry transport across the lake. A genial old man with a huge smile welcomes us into the yard and offers us a seat on a bench while the boat is readied. Old Man: “Would you like some tea?” Claudia: “Sure, thank you.” Old Man: “Where…