McFly Travels

Finally, my first stop in Southeast Asia (SEA): Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, in Vietnam! After traveling for about 30 hours (20 hours on flights with a 10 hour layover), I had arrived at my first destination. I immediately felt the humid and warm air getting off the plane and in the airport. I also did a few things ahead of time: found a comfortable Airbnb for my first night to adjust (moving to hostels afterwards), made sure I met all the Visa requirements, and decided on a sim card so I could get data to grab an Uber from the airport. I had researched the Visa requirements for all the countries I was definitely going to visit (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore). All the countries had straightforward Visas on arrival with the exception of Vietnam, requiring an "approval letter" ahead of time. All the countries also had a "stamping fee" that is usually paid in exact change USD, so I prepped that money as well. As a US citizen, I could apply o...

After finishing up in Phoenix on the car, I was excited to start making my way to three national parks: Saguaro (pronounced  [sa̠ˈwa̠.ɾo̞]  near Tucson, Guadalupe Mountains east of El Paso, and Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico. I wanted to visit Big Bend in Texas as well, but realized I would need to rush the others (needed to be in Colorado after about a week). So I put Big Bend on the TODO list for another time. I planned on two days at Saguaro National Park, two days at Carlsbad Caverns, and the rest of the time (about 3 days) at Guadalupe Mountains. I looked at the campgrounds near Saguaro National Park and wasn't too satisfied with them, so I decided to get a really interesting (and cheap!) Airbnb in the middle of southern Arizona. It was close to the small town of Gleeson, Arizona and pretty far from anything else. The space was off the grid, had farm animals, and, I could only assume, very friendly and interesting hosts. I stopped at Saguaro National Park on ...

Since it may take me some time to finish a recap of the last few months, I'll throw in some more recent events, starting with a flight overseas to start off in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with a 9 hour layover in Doha, Qatar. The flight from JFK to Doha would be my longest to date, at 13 hours. My first time flying on Qatar Airways and can only say great things. It's the most comfortable economy experience I've had so far with really solid meals (it was actually too much food!). I read about a city tour of Doha that is offered by Qatar Airways if you have a long enough layover (and needless to say, 9 hours was plenty). For 40 QAR or $11 USD, you get a 3 hour bus tour with 4 stops. And citizens of many countries get a free Visa on arrival. After landing, I signed up for the next available tour slot around 8pm local time. I had an hour or so before the tour would assemble, so I took a much needed nap. I also ended up chatting with a few others during the layover, so had some ...

Having spent the holidays at home with family and friends, I flew back to Portland to grab my car and continue driving. My next destination would be a bachelor party in Scottsdale, Arizona. A journey of roughly 1500 miles with a stop in Logan, Utah to stay with a friend. But the car was still a concern... I had left the car at the house back in Oregon. It was, however, a few repairs away from being ready for the road. The major damage was mostly repaired with some new control arm parts for the front right wheel, but there was quite a bit of positive camber in the front right wheel, similar to the following: Ben had, most kindly, spent some time working on the car while I had flown home. Most importantly, ordering some camber bolts that let you adjust the camber in the wheel. But it proved to only adjust it halfway or so from being aligned. We knew that this positive camber was partly from damage to the subframe that holds the engine (from when I slid off the road). But Ben was ...

After spending Thanksgiving with my brother in LA, I had a bachelorette party to attend back in Sacramento! I took the long way to get back, camping a few nights in Death Valley to see a few more sites and getting my sign pic: I couldn't help but also spend a night at "The Pit" campground in Bishop (Pleasant valley pit campground) because I could hit the Crowley (or Wild Willy) Hot Springs on the way back to Sacramento. Ended up meeting a few recent grads from Oregon who were taking some time road tripping the states in their van. Next up was Mel's bachelorette party. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, as this was my first bachelorette party. But at the same time I realized that Mel wasn't going to have a normal bachelorette party, so I knew it was going to be a whirlwind of a weekend. Complete with the obvious late night of curling and drinking on the ice (thanks to Matt for setting that up): Followed by some more drinks, a hike, and a...

My brother and his friends had three main goals for visiting Death Valley: hike Telescope peak (tallest point in the park), see the Mesquite Sand Dunes at sunrise, and visit The Racetrack (known for it's "sailing stones"). It turns out these were probably the most extraordinary things you can do while visiting Death Valley (and it happened to be my first visit and my 29th National Park). We camped at Wildrose Campground the first night after getting in close to midnight (check out the "hidden" Wildrose Rd if coming in from the south, a dirt road but in decent shape and saves some time from the Google Maps route). This was also the first free campground I've found at a National Park and it's quite nice (a bit windy at night sometimes). We drove the 9 miles or so to reach the trailhead for Telescope Peak in the morning. The road gets a bit gnarly the last mile or so; high clearance seemed like a requirement (but you can add this mile to the hike if you c...