Greencaviar Travel

The pictures of Angkor Wat’s stunning architecture and landscape of spectacular beauty inspired me to travel to Cambodia. I never saw a picture of Angkor Wat with people in it, except for captures of Buddhist monks in orange robes reflected in the water as a backdrop to a tranquil landscape. Imagine my surprise upon seeing the long lines at the ticket office. (Passes to the park can only be purchased from the ticket office, a separate building about 10 minutes-drive to the archeological site park entrance. They take your picture and imprint it on the pass). Or I should not have been surprised. As the 8th wonder of the world, thousands of tourists shared the same goal of visiting Angkor Wat and checking it off their bucket list. Also on the night we arrived in Siem Reap, the current city near the Archeological Site, our guide mentioned that visitors outnumbered the residents in Siem Reap. I’d like to think of myself as a traveler rather than a tourist, so I had not done a...

After a 23-hour flight (including layover in Hongkong and Singapore), I landed  in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, but did not get into our hotel until 2 hours later because of the heavy traffic.  I passed out as soon as I hit the bed.  Having skipped dinner, I woke up hungry, so I went to the hotel restaurant as it opened for breakfast.  The hotel had a rooftop restaurant with an amazing view of the river.  While eating breakfast, I was entertained by the most amazing crimson-colored sunrise that appeared and disappeared behind the clouds before becoming yellow and reflected on the river below.   Perhaps, the absence of high rise gave the sunrise a more dramatic vibe.  Sunrise reflections on the river below and pool water above The first thing on our itinerary was to visit the grand palace, but it was closed for Buddha's Day.   So the schedule got changed to visit another main tourist attraction (if you can call it an at...

My Epic Journey Part 1 - Joy on Earth Hiking Yosemite Nevada Fall, Kata Tjuja National Park, Uluru, the Blue Mountains Climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge, Machu Picchu, the Great Wall Flying over Mt. Everest, Kidkidnapper's Bird Safari, Chitwan Safari Camel Trekking across the Sahara Desert and playing in the sand Playing with rescued elephants in Thailand Exploring the ends of the earth: South America, New Zealand, Asia  My Epic Journey Part 2 - Road to Glory Walking the Camino Pilgrimage to Lourdes, France Pilgrimage to the Holy Land My Epic Journey Part 3 - Crescent From Adriatic to the Baltic

Last month I took the Bernina Express to St. Moritz, Switzerland. It was my second most scenic train trip. My first was on the Taieri Gorge Railway in New Zealand. While the Taieri Gorge Railway is historical with century-old wooden carriages and also runs along stunningly beautiful landscapes, the Bernina Express is like the train on steroid. Touted as the slowest express train, the Bernina Express has been on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites for its sixty-one kilometers of high-altitude engineering wizardly and running along the highest altitude mountain, against the backdrop of the tallest peaks of Graubünden. My train journey started in Tirano, Italy, a medieval town once said to be a part of Graubünden. From the train station, I grabbed a map and informational guide that showed points of interest, towns, and stations. After passing a Mediterranean scenic view, a narrow valley of vineyards, the train slowly ascended to Brusio circular viaduct, where the view went ar...

Europe is the birthplace of the castle and the home of the vast majority of the castles in the world. Having traveled to Europe on various occasions, I thought I have seen enough castles. On a recent trip to Ireland, I took part in a tour to the outskirts of Dublin and towns famous for their castles like Kilkenny and Killarney. And many castle ruins came into view as we traveled to the countryside. So, it’s not uncommon to hear the phrase, “ABC - Another Bloody Castle” even from the tourism industry folks. I could not help but notice how the castles in Ireland differed from what I saw in Germany and France. The castles I saw in Ireland were more like castle ruins, damaged by war and had been restored for tourism. I don’t want to minimize the castles historical and cultural significance, but I look more into the aesthetic point of view, such as the architecture from the medieval, stone and elaborate designs like the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany that inspired Disneyland or the...

We arrived in Galway late in the afternoon and had a short visit to the cathedral before checking into our hotel.  We were greeted by a beautiful sunset bursting with orange, pink, and purple hues. I drank on the magnitude of the scenery of the imposing cathedral with the orange and purple sky in the backdrop and took quick pictures inside. The following morning, I decided to go back to the cathedral to learn more about its history and to admire the artwork. With a camera hanging around my neck, I headed to the cathedral, passing narrow cobbled streets lined with pubs, restaurants and gift shops.  The streets were empty and quiet except for the sound of small delivery trucks revving engines. As I was about to cross the bridge leading to the Galway Cathedral, I saw two rivers diverged. ( To borrow a phrase or two from Robert Frost's 'The Road Less Taken'),  I looked down as far as I could  to where a wooden foot bridge lead to a grassy pathway dividing the riv...

Happy 100th Birthday (NPS) National Park Service! I could not think of a better way to celebrate the (NPS) National Park Service centennial than to visit Yellowstone, the oldest national park in the world. So this month I went on seven-state tour visiting National Parks, National Monuments and National Memorial and spent the bulk of the trip at Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone National Park  Yellowstone National Park is located in Wyoming and includes some areas of Montana and Idaho.  It is comprised of more than two million acres of the diverse landscape from the forest, valley, geysers, hot springs, craters, canyons, waterfalls, rivers, and lakes.  I visited the three main attractions which are on the Wyoming side. We started at the North Entrance, by the old Roosevelt Arch to see Mammoth Hot Springs. Then drove past roadside forest mainly of needle pines and thousands of young trees said to have regenerated after the forest fires of 1988. ...