Name: Nicky Wetzelberger & Rhys Farrow
Tell us a little about yourself:
Hi! I’m Nicky Wetzelberger and have been traveling alongside my boyfriend Rhys Farrow for the past 2 years. I am from Maryland, USA and he is from Cardiff, Wales. Our overseas relationship has seen us pack and move to Asia where we have been traveling and teaching our way through. We left our homes in May 2009 with a one way ticket to Bangkok & traveled all over South East Asia for 3.5 months before moving to South Korea to teach English. We finished our one year contracts for public schools in Ulsan before hitting the road again through India for 9 weeks & then on to Nepal for a month. We are currently living & working in Ho Chi Minh City, teaching & traveling once again, but this time in Vietnam.
Favorite city you’ve been to:
It’s so hard to pick a favorite city- every place has such a different feel to it, it’s almost impossible to pick one! Ubud on the lovely Indonesian Island of Bali stands out in my mind as one of the most beautiful, peaceful, and artistic places we’ve ever been. We spent a few days there hidden away in our very own 2 storey bungalow. Our bungalow was in the middle of a lush, green rice paddy and we had a small pond full of fish in the front. Paradise. We spent the days wondering around, weaving in and out of the rice fields from one terrace to the next taking in everything around us. Upon our arrival to the laid-back, artsy little town, we were immediately floored by the beauty all around us. With every turn of my head I could easily understand why the now famous Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat, Pray, Love chose Ubud as her sanctuary of love.
Favorite restaurant:
The seafood restaurants dotted along the cliff-side in Varkala, India were unbelievable. We feasted on fresh catch of the day fish every night for $4.00. We laid on the beach all day and I daydreamed about dinner that night…. with thoughts of the tuna or red snapper I would be devouring being caught out at sea in that moment. Morbid? No, dinner was that delicious!!! The restaurants laid out their fresh catches of the day every evening allowing travelers to choose between tuna, snapper, marlin, and …. the list only goes on. If it swims off Varkala’s coast then it’s on display. We would stroll along the cliff-side restaurants bartering with each place for the best deal. “Well… the restaurant at the top of the hill says they will give us 1 large snapper and 1 medium tuna with fries and a salad for $7, what can you do for us?” So, every night we wined and dined on fish cooked to our choice- oven grilled was my favorite!
Best place to relax:
There is a secluded tropical island off the coast of Sihanoukville in Cambodia. The island is called Koh Ru and is equipped with a few simple beach bungalows and a restaurant for all your food & beer needs… and that’s IT! The restaurant owns all of the bungalows and keeps a running tab of your expenses the whole time you are there, less than 20 people can stay on the island on any given night. I am not exaggerating when I say that… we could fall out of our bungalow right onto the beach, with the sea 20m further on from our front door. It was our own slice of paradise. We went snorkeling, read, had campfires at night, and did a lot of nothing- all relaxing! We spent 3 days hidden away from the world in our state of isolated idleness dreading our return to civilization again.
Best place to have fun:
Koh Tao, Thailand is a grown-ups play ground. We spent our days exploring the island on motorbikes and the nights drinking and dancing in a castle. Koh Tao was easily my favorite Thai Island with so much to do, we never got bored! Koh Tao has a ton of different bays all over the island, each one offering an entirely different array of corral and underwater life. We zoomed around the island exploring the different bays with the feeling that we worked for The Discovery Channel. The variety of fish & corral was beyond impressive. We even dared swim with sharks in Shark Bay! At dusk we adventured out with our leaky goggles swimming off the shore in search of sharks. I mean who cares if they’re harmless reef sharks- they looked like people eaters to me! Shark Bay has no living corral, so it looks like an elephant grave yard. The corral is all dead, white, and in broken pieces that look a lot like bones when you’re swimming 30ft above with leaking goggles. It made our shark search even more exhilarating. Before long I felt like I was a member of the JAWS cast, sharks were everywhere! They glided effortlessly through the waters in search of their next meal while Rhys and I floated a few feet away. Adrenaline rush isn’t even the word for it.
Best trip you’ve ever taken:
Hands down, the best trip we’ve ever taken was our adventure up to Mt. Everest Base Camp in Nepal. We arrived at Mt. Everest Base Camp after hiking and sleeping in freezing temperatures for well over a week. Standing at the foot of mighty Everest, feeling so small with the World’s giants surrounding us was an unbelievable feeling. We had 60 miles of hiking behind us and stood at 17,600ft with our fists in the air, witnessing the place where so many dreams begin and ours was accomplished.
What one piece of advice do you have for travelers?
Never expect anything, just let it happen and say YES as much as you can! It’s amazing what new experiences can come from saying yes to one person, whether it be a tuk-tuk driver or allowing a kid walk you around town for the day. Also… always pack a sarong! It is something less essential & so simple that it is easily overlooked. However, it does it all. It’s a sheet on cold airplanes, a towel on the beach, a dress or skirt, a pillow on long bus journeys, or a blanket when you find yourself sleeping on the floor of a dirty Indian train station.
Where else can we find you on the web?
Our blog address sums us up pretty well. 2nomads1narrative.com, 1 American + 1 Welshman = 2 Nomads, and 1 Narrative is our travel story told through our blog.
Twitter: @2_Nomads
Email: [email protected]
Blog: 2nomads1narrative.com
Tags: 2 Nomads, 2nomads1narrative.com, Featured Traveler, gtrotter, Nicky Wetzelberger, Rhys Farrow