Verdant World Travels

11/15/2024

I'm aware I may be one of about a dozen people left on Earth that still sends postcards, but I just love them. I always send one to myself with a few reminders of favorite moments from the trip.
Anyone else out there still send postcards? ✈️📬🖊

11/14/2024

These fantastic, St. Mary's clients recently returned from a trip to Ireland and wanted to share their photos and stories with me. Where else to meet for lunch but Savannah's new Wexford Pub!
The food was delicious and I loved hearing all about their adventures. They're already thinking about another trip for next year.
☘️CIE Tours

11/12/2024

There is no better way to clear your head than to take a nice long walk. Join me on a women’s-only adventure to the remote and less-travelled reaches of Morocco. Begin in Marrakech, then set off to experience the side of Morocco they don’t tell you about in the guidebooks. Break bread with Amazigh families in remote homes, see how an artist co-op is empowering female rug-weavers in small villages, and take in the beauty of the far-flung M’goun Valley over four days of hiking with the region’s first local female guide.

Five spots remain for our April 2025 trip. Depart the US on April 11th, return April 19th. Message me to book your space.

https://travefy.com/trip/6yw9rqtrb3mwqz2a56u6fry5xng7w8a

11/08/2024

Such a gorgeous time to visit Australia! Message me to start planning your trip today.

11/02/2024

Two more days to submit your travel photos! I'll be choosing four to feature on the Verdant World Travels holiday card this year. Email or post them here to enter.

11/01/2024

If you can’t make it to Argentina, stop in Belen de la cruz empanadas & pastries in Savannah! Delicious empanadas and pastries!

11/01/2024

10/31/2024

Love Halloween? Next year, why not celebrate spooky season in Ireland's Halloween Capital, Derry? This four day street celebration allows you to discover folklore, history and heritage while enjoying aerial performances, pyrotechnics and music... and incredible costumes, of course! Fun for all ages!

📸 Cred: Tourism Ireland

10/30/2024

Do you still have vacation time to use this year? Now is the perfect time to sail with AmaWaterways with up to $400 off per stateroom, combined with their 20% cruise savings promo. Choose from 15 different sailings in Europe, including some Christmas Markets cruises. Message me for full details!

10/29/2024

Every day is "cat day" in my house! Show me your cat photos from your travels. I know I'm not the only one!
😸

10/29/2024

Proud to sponsor one of my favorite events! Plus, one of my pieces is in the auction again this year! Check it out here: https://www.32auctions.com/organizations/70058/auctions/171798?r=1&t=all

10/15/2024

Day 15 - our last day of vacation was a whirlwind of trying to see as much of Singapore as possible. We walked a lot of miles!

We began with yummy pastries from So Good Bakery paired with coffee from Bacha Coffee. Then we went in search of guitar shops before walking to Chinatown and hoping on the MRT to head to the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The botanic gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage site and were fantastic! Much of the gardens are free to visit and there is so much to see that we couldn’t do it all. We did purchase a ticket to see the National Orchid Garden and that alone took over an hour. Gorgeous flowers and greenery!

By this time, we were starving and sunburned (the forecast was for clouds so we weren’t prepared for sun- rookie mistake!) We found a little Italian spot just outside the gardens and had great paninis and cold drinks.

The MRT took us over to Little India where they are preparing for the Deepavali Festival of Lights. There was a special street market set up with colorful decorations, clothing and sweet treats.

We returned to The Guitar Shop Singapore (they were closed when we stopped by in the morning) so Darin could check out the locally made guitars. Jith was extremely knowledgeable and friendly, not only sharing info about the guitars but also tips on where to visit in the city.

We ended the day with an evening cruise on the Singapore River with Singapore River Cruise. These electric boats quietly traverse the river providing a nice perspective. We even caught a little of the fountain show outside Marina Bay Sands.

Tomorrow we begin the long journey home.

10/14/2024

Day 14 - today was a travel day as we said goodbye to and traveled to . 🇰🇭 to 🇸🇬

The new Siem Reap airport is about 45 minutes from the city and only a year old. It was clean and quiet and even had some outdoor spaces to wait. Arrival in Singapore’s Changi Airport was easy and we took a Grab (their rideshare app) to our hotel in the financial district.

We hired a local tour guide, Eliza Hoh, to show us around the city. She shared some of the history as we walked along the river and the colonial district, then took a bus to Chinatown. We then took the MRT (subway) over to Gardens by the Bay to watch the nightly light show before ending the evening at a nearby hawker center for dinner.

The contrast to Cambodia and Vietnam is striking. Singapore is a small country - 15 by 35 miles - and everything is clean, orderly and quite regulated.

Tomorrow is our last day and we plan to explore more of the city on our own.

10/14/2024

Day 13 - fair warning….lots of elephant pictures today!! 🐘

We began our day at Kulen Elephant Forest, an organization started in 2019 to take in retired elephants. Elephants had previously been used for labor and to transport tourists around the temples. That practice has been stopped and these ten elephants now live in a 200 hectare forest where they are looked after by the staff.

The farms in the community grow sugar cane, bananas and other favorite elephant foods to earn money. The center also employs local villagers.

Of the ten resident elephants, nine are female and range in age from 38-65 years old. We had the privilege of feeding three of the girls snacks and taking a walk through the forest with them.

I have conflicting feelings about using wildlife for tourism but felt that this was conservation first with tourism second. The elephants seemed very well loved and taken care of and it was so incredible to walk among them, look into their eyes and listen to their communication with each other.

After more pool time at Shintana Saya Hotels, we ate like locals with some fried noodles and chive cakes at គ្រួសារលតឆា នំគូឆាយ KLC 1987. We saw a story about them on YouTube and luckily found it!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Cambodia and head to Singapore!

10/13/2024

Day 12 - there are so many temples to see that we hired our driver from yesterday, Mr. SoPhornn, for the afternoon. Forgive the lack of historical tidbits as we went without a guide!

Our first stop was Pre Rup Temple. It was a reddish color and seemed to be constructed more of brick. Next, we drove about 30 minutes to Banteay Srey, the lady’s temple. It had very intricate details, cool statues, and a reddish/pinkish color.

We stopped at the Cambodian Land Mine Museum, an organization started by Aki Ra. He is a former soldier who has worked for decades clearing land mines. In 2010, he received one of the CNN Heroes awards.

The Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre provided a nice contrast with colorful flowers and butterflies. Our guide (the only person at the center), truly had a gentle touch with the butterflies and was so genuinely excited to tell us about them.

On our way to the last few temples, we stopped in Preah Dak for palm cakes, steamed in giant, wood fired woks on the side of the road. Inside each banana leaf wrapped cake was a dallop of coconut milk. We ate it warm next to the tuk tuk.

We made fairly quick stops at Ta Som, Preah Neck Pean, and Preah Khan before joining the masses at the hilltop temple of Phnom Bakheng for sunset.

After a cold shower (have I mentioned it’s hot here?) at Shintana Saya Hotels, we enjoyed dinner at Fellini Siem Reap. After nearly two weeks of Asian cuisine, we were craving pizza and Fellini was perfect.

10/12/2024

Day 11 - today we hired a tuk tuk driver and guide through our hotel, Shintana Saya Hotels, to take us to the most popular temples. We left at 5am so we could see the sunrise over Angkor Wat.

After spending the morning touring the 900 year old temple, we had breakfast in the tuk tuk then headed to Bayon Temple. Along the way, we crossed through the Tonle On Gate with rows of statues on either side of the bridge.

At Bayon, we saw more intricate carvings, learned about the kings that built the temples and how they went from Buddist to Hindu and back again over the years.

Our last stop was Ta Prohm Temple, made famous in the US with the movie Tomb Raider. This temple also has ongoing reconstruction efforts but the giant trees growing over and through the buildings make it unique, more shaded and quiet. This was our favorite so far.

The timing of our visit has been good. We are here at the end of the wet season and crowds are few. Luckily, most of the rain has been at night and we’ve had beautiful sunny skies.

After relaxing at the hotel pool, we headed into Siem Reap and had a great early dinner at The Little Red Fox Espresso. It was delicious!

We wandered there some shops and the market before turning in for the day.

10/12/2024

Aurora Expeditions is fantastic! If you’re looking to book a 2026 solar eclipse cruise, I’d highly recommend them. Reach out ASAP as the ship is small (200 passengers) and it will sell out quickly.

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10/11/2024

Day 10 - today was a travel day with a short flight from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. The Phnom Penh airport may have been the cleanest airport I’ve ever seen!

Once we arrived in Siem Reap, Shintana Saya Hotels picked us up and provided cold towels and cold fresh coconut water for the 40 minute ride.

After checking in, we took a tuk tuk to buy our Angkor Wat tickets, then visited the APOPO Visitor Center. Here we met the Hero Rats being trained and used to detect land mines. Truly incredible work this organization and their African Giant Pouch Rats are doing.

We cooled off in the beautiful pool, then had an early dinner at the hotel. 5am pickup tomorrow for our sunrise visit of Angkor Wat!