Now that the year has ended, it’s time for another reflection. We recently came across this questionnaire and thought why not journey back on our travel memories in a fun way. So here’s an A-Z of our travel memories from 2016 (and some from before).
A for AGE of first International Trip
Kanika has been going on trips since she was a kid with her family. As long as she can remember, every year they would go to USA and have been to countries like Japan, Australia, Nepal and more. Shayan took his first international trip with his family to Thailand when he was just 2 years old.
Our first international trip together was to Singapore back in 2009. We were in our early and mid 20s.
B for BEER
Best foreign BEER we’ve had & where: It has only been recently where we have been having a craze for beer, but specifically craft beer. Our favorite place to go is TAPROOM which has 26 beers on tap and 100s more in bottles.
Although we haven’t tried them in many countries, Bangkok sure has an amazing craft beer scene. From now on we’re going to try local beers everywhere we go.
C for CUISINE
Our favorite cuisine is Thai hands down. We also like Japanese, Italian and Mexican.
D for DESTINATION
Favorite: We usually dislike this question because everywhere is unique but nowhere that we want to visit again and again. We’re always looking to explore new places and things. However, Sri Lanka did surprise us this year.
Least favorite: Siem Reap, Cambodia. We couldn’t wait to leave. It was just so hot, dirty and chaotic. There are lots of scams here too. We were glad to see the Angkor Wat and other temples though.
E for EXPERIENCES
Something that made us go WOW: South Africa safaris and Seychelle’s ocean water during our honeymoon made us fall in love with travel. It’s where our journey for Dose of Life began. Although we didn’t explore the local life of the country as much as we do now, it was a wow experience because it was our first trip outside of Asia together.
F for most FUN we’ve had on a trip
The most fun we’ve had on a trip? Well we always try to have fun on our trips. Even if we are busy all day with work or roughing it, we’re having fun. And at the end of the day, we always make time for a different kind of fun, if you know what we mean.
Work hard, play harder – that is our mantra.
G for GREATEST feeling while traveling
The greatest feeling while traveling would have to meeting new people. We love hearing their stories and connecting with them. We also like to learn about cultures and lifestyles.
H for HOTTEST Place
As we mentioned in D, our least favorite place was Cambodia and partly for this reason. It was blistering hot during the day and nights weren’t any better. We could barely sit outside to have a meal. There were hardly any indoor, air-conditioned restaurants and our hostel AC didn’t work properly half the time.
I for IDYLLIC island
The best and most beautiful island that we would consider idyllic would have to be Koh Nang Yuan just off Koh Tao in Thailand. Never seen anything like this place!
J for Journey
A journey that took the longest was the flight from Bangkok to South Africa as we had a stopover in Kenya for a few hours and our flight was also delayed.
Another journey that took us a long time was the drive between Chiang Mai to Bangkok – about 12 hours because of traffic!
K for Keepsake
We always buy a fridge magnet of the city we visit. We also like to buy locally made souvenirs for our family/friends.
L for LET-down
Again, we’d have to say Siem Reap, Cambodia. We tried to make the best of it but it was a place we just couldn’t wait to leave. The Angkor Wat was great but it wasn’t all that as hyped.
M for MOMENT we fell in love with travel
Kanika has always loved traveling while Shayan, not always so. But when we went on our honeymoon, we both fell in love with it. However, it’s not the love that most travelers or travel bloggers have. We aren’t obsessed with it.
N for NICEST people
Every country has nice people and also rude ones. Further you go away from city center, people tend to be nicer. Touristy places also tend to have vendors and people who aren’t so nice unless they are in the service industry.
However, we found Sri Lankans to be high friendly overall.
O for OBSESSIONS
Our travel obsessions range from taking awesome photos of landscapes and us in them to trying out the local cuisine to even hitting up the trendiest bars in town.
P for PASSPORT Stamps
I think we don’t love travel THAT much because it is really hard for us to do. Mainly the fact that visas don’t come easy or cheap for us, especially Shayan. We would love more stamps from more countries but it is not a numbers game. We just want to visit someplace new every year – stamps or not.
Q for QUIRKY
The quirkiest place we probably have visited is right at home in Bangkok – the Siriraj Medical Museum. You have to go if you haven’t yet.
R for most RECENT trip
Our most recent international trip was Sri Lanka and domestic trip was Hua Hin for a friend’s wedding. We were suppose to go to Turkey for New Year, but Shayan’s visa was rejected =(
S for SPLURGE
We love to splurge when we travel. Mostly it is on nice accommodation, food and drinks.
T for Favorite TRANSPORT
Domestically, a car. Road trips are the best! Internationally, well, we have no choice but to fly because of our nationality, especially Shayan being a Pakistani. Most, if not all countries, he has to fly to so we both have to.
U for UNFORGETTABLE
Although most of our trips are unforgettable, Seychelles/South Africa and Sri Lanka have to be on the top of the list.
V for VISA
Visa is always an issue as we mentioned before. For Shayan at least. Past two years he has been denied visa to New Zealand and Turkey. We hope to get more visas in 2017!
W for WINE
Best wine we had was in South Africa. It was amazing and so cheap!
X for most XENOPHOBIC
The most xenophobic place we have been to, well, is supposedly South Africa but we didn’t feel it. We heard a lot of stories and cautious advice from family before going but when we got there, it was quite pleasant. Granted we only stayed in a secured resort – Sun City.
Y for YUMMY
Yummiest dish: absolutely love Tom Yum. Most delicious dish ever!
Yummiest drink: Kanika – Bloody Mary / Shayan – Ginger Mojito
Z for ZEALOUS fan of
We are huge fans of anything lifestyle and travel related. We scour Instagram for the latest posts by our favorite Instagrammers to see where they are and what they are doing so we can be inspired to do the same or similar.
That’s a post also still on my list, like the kind of forced creativity one is facing when answering the single parts 🙂 I know the challenge of the passport stamps though – being German, I don’t get many actually…
Really? I thought German passport is the best ranked and least amount of visas needed…does that mean you don’t get stamped either?
We get stamps if we travel, but we don’t get enough visas haha
This is a great type of article and really well written, the alphabet makes it more interesting! So many experiences and interesting facts about traveling 🙂
haha yea we saw someone else do it. We changed a few of the letters that fit us a bit more. Thanks!
What a great idea to do so that I can learn a little more about you. It is interesting that you say that about Sri Lanka as I am planning on going there this year. Thanks for sharing more about yoursleves
C is for Cuisine – definitely my favourite part of travelling – I’m a complete foodie and love trying all the dishes a country has to offer and eating something I’ve never tried before!
Oh yea cuisines is definitely one of our favorite too. What’s your favorite?
It seems you guys did have a bad time in Cambodia. Did you guys get to try Lion Beer in Sri Lanka? Even we loved Sri Lanka, gorgeous place and cheap place, nice people and good food. Hope your 2017 is better than 2016. Cheers.
In terms of cultural and exploration, it was bad but night time was pretty good. Food was good, drinks were damn cheap. And we like Beng Melea temple more than Angkor.