Category: Asia
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Uzbekistan: Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva
You may be wondering… Uzbekistan? Really?! What an odd choice, Silleck family. It feels a bit random – 4,000 kilometers in the opposite direction of any sensible route from Tokyo to Colorado. Rest assured, your confusion is entirely justified, as we had the exact same reaction! A former Soviet republic…
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Japan: Fujikawaguchiko, Takayama, Yamagata, and Tokyo
Completing the Kumano Kodo, the last big scheduled trek of our sabbatical year, left our family with a lot of feelings. At this point in our year of travel, it felt like we had been away from home forever, but also simultaneously that we had just left our home in…
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Japan: Kyoto, Nakasedo, and the Kumano Kodo
Following our brief stay in Shanghai, we boarded our next flight for Osaka, Japan! We were all excited to arrive, as Japan was near or at the top of our list of destinations to visit for the whole family (H in particular had been dreaming of it for several years…
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China: Xingping, Zhangjiajie, Xi’an, Huangshan, and Shanghai
As we have exited each destination throughout this year of travels, we have always felt ready to move on to the next chapter of our adventure. Those same feelings were not present as we prepared to depart from New Zealand – the idea of leaving the tranquility of a place…
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Vietnam: Hội An, Ninh Binh/Tràng An, and Hanoi
After our adventurous two week family “snorkelfest” through the islands of West Papua in Indonesia, we headed back north to Vietnam. Our time spent here was coordinated with the Lunar Lantern Festival in Hội An (January 13th) and the Vietnamese New Year (Tết, the week-long period around January 29th)! We…
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Indonesia: West Papua and the islands of Raja Ampat
Our self-induced family hostage crisis in Laos, aka the weeks spent waiting for our replacement passport, came to a chaotic end on the afternoon of December 23rd. On the morning of Christmas Eve we began our journey to Indonesia. Due to the limited last-minute flight options, we found ourselves traveling…
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Laos: Luang Prabang, Nong Khiaw, and Vang Vieng
Our time in Laos was a very (very!) loosely planned portion of our year. Honestly, neither of us knew much about this tiny, landlocked country in Southeast Asia before arriving. What we discovered here was stunning beauty, diversity, and a complex history that has limited the country’s past and future…
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Losing a passport in Laos
Everyone’s worst traveling nightmare – losing a passport! Here are all the details on the sad mess I created by losing a passport while traveling through remote central Laos (of note, one of the last remaining communist countries on earth). A step-by-step account outlining how it happened and how we…
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Northern Thailand: Chiang Mai and Pai
After six weeks of intense trekking in Nepal we planned a few weeks of relative downtime and family relaxation in northern Thailand! Not by coincidence, our downtime was coordinated with the ancient Yi Peng and Loy Krathong festivals – also commonly known as northern Thailand’s “Lantern Festival.” When we started…
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Nepal: More Kathmandu and Everest Base Camp
From Pokhara (our previous Nepal post) we headed back to Kathmandu by bus for a couple more rest days and to make final preparations for our planned 23-day journey to Everest Base Camp (as well as the 18,375′ summit of Kalapathar, Cho La Pass at 17,800′, and Goyko Lake)! We…
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Nepal: Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Mardi Himal Base Camp
Our flight from Istanbul to Kathmandu (via Mumbai, India) was on September 28th. Little did we know that ongoing tensions in the Middle East were about to escalate – we were on one of the very last flights to safely cross this incredibly tenuous airspace. In fact, within hours, the…
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Türkiye: Istanbul and Cappadocia
Istanbul, Türkiye! This MASSIVE, beautiful, historic mega-city is where the West (Europe) officially meets East (Asia) – we explored the city center, attended a European women’s soccer game, and consumed impressive amounts of Turkish delight, baklava, and kebabs! We stayed in central Istanbul, the Golden Horn/Sultanahmet neighborhood – in the…
Eight Boots Abroad 