Curious to challenge our own assumptions about Filipino cuisine, we set out on a culinary journey through Iloilo City—recognized as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy—eager to experience the depth of Ilonggo food beyond familiar Filipino staples like adobo and lumpia. What we found was a rich, historically layered cuisine shaped by diverse cultural influences, featuring comforting, savory, and often tangy dishes built around local ingredients like seafood, coconut, and batuan fruit. From standout meals like KBL and chicken binakol to iconic eats such as La Paz batchoy and halo-halo, our adventure was filled with both delightful surprises and a few personal misses. Along the way, we navigated communal dining customs, bold flavor profiles, and our own evolving tastes—ultimately gaining a deeper appreciation for the complexity and character of Ilonggo cuisine.

Hidden on the quiet northern coast of Panay Island lies Pilar, Capiz—a humble fishing village where life moves with the tides and the sun. What began as a long-promised visit to friends turned into a few days immersed in seaside simplicity: sunrise walks along tidal flats, rows of fish drying in the salt air, and the glow of the famous capiz “windowpane” oyster shells that gave the province its name. Between dusty strolls into town, unexpected café discoveries, moonlit seafood feasts, and even whispers of a mischievous tree-dwelling troll, Pilar revealed itself as a place full of character and small surprises. It’s not a typical travel destination—but that’s exactly what makes the story worth telling.

Roxas City, named after the Philippines’ first president Manuel Roxas, isn’t exactly a typical tourist stop—and that’s exactly why we liked it. We flew into this non-touristy city on Panay Island as a jumping-off point to visit friends in nearby Pilar, but ended up spending a week getting our first taste of everyday life in the Philippines. Roxas is known as the “Seafood Capital of the Philippines”, though it feels more like an ordinary working town than a resort destination. If you ever find yourself in Roxas City, here’s a few of our experiences!

Read about our two main activities while in Seoul, Korea! A once-in-a-lifetime tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and one of the best food tours we’ve experienced at Gwangjang Market! Both booked through Viator.

Because we chose to take a ferry to South Korea, our first destination became the southern port city of Busan, known for its beaches and seafood! We showed up during the biggest holiday Seollal or Korean New Year Day, marking the first day of the lunar calendar, making note of places either closed or with limited hours.

Here’s Our Brief Busan Experience

• Review of Camellia ferry ride to from Fukuoka to Busan

• Pro tips on location finding, navigation, and transportation in South Korea

• Korean food highlights

• Short list of sightseeing, including a hidden secret spot for the best views of Busan

The infrastructure for living is definitely not setup for nomads. Convention assumes a person has a home-base to conduct daily life such as banking, healthcare, connectivity, streaming favorite shows, etc. Good news is, unconventional solutions do exist for people like us and is ever evolving. Start digging around YouTube and there’s a plethora of advice on how to accomplish this. Here’s Part 2: Reliable Global Connectivity of the behind-the-scenes look at how we chose to structure our nomad life operations…for now.

We spent a few days in Fukuoka, Japan because it is situated close to South Korea and our next move is to head there via a 6-hour ferry ride! We noticed due to its close proximity to the the rest of East Asia, Fukuoka is a convenient pitstop for Koreans and Chinese to indulge in Japanese retail therapy without having to fly all the way to Tokyo. We dined on a few Fukuoka specialty dishes and found the city to be very walkable with a variety of sites in the old town, shrines, temples, parks, and art.

This time, we had more discretionary days in Japan so we headed somewhere new-to-us. Kyushu is the southwestern island / region of Japan, comprised of seven prefectures. Our destination was Fukuoka so we could take the ferry across the sea to Busan, South Korea. We added Nagasaki as a side trip. Nagasaki was delightful! Find out more about our 2-day 3-Night highlights!

Goodbye to Harvey-the-House, Virgil-the-Versa, and Olive-the-Outback. Our last tethers to Kansas City!

In the middle of one of the biggest and densest cities in the world, Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden rests in quietude, beckoning those of us weary from the overstimulation of neon lights, skyscrapers, endless shopping, and crowds. The national garden was even more peaceful first thing in the mid-winter morning. All the vegetation seemed to be resting dormant except for a few resilient roses blooming and a cherry tree blossoming its regal canopy of pink flowers. The NTT Docomo Tower looms on the horizon in almost every shot.

For a first-time visitor to Oahu, renting a car is a great way to drive around and see the rest of the rural island. While one can drive continuously around the island in about 4 hours, we obviously took our time to stop and explore so the day ended up being a full one from 8am to 6pm.

This is a list of the mostly touristed scenic viewpoints we went to!

The infrastructure for living is definitely not setup for nomads. Convention assumes a person has a home-base to conduct daily life such as banking, healthcare, connectivity, streaming favorite shows, etc. Good news is, unconventional solutions do exist for people like us and is ever evolving. Start digging around YouTube and there’s a plethora of advice on how to accomplish this. Here’s Part 1 of the behind-the-scenes look at how we chose to structure our nomad life operations…for now.

Within 3 months of each other, we had the honor of visiting both the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (A-Bomb Dome) in November 2025 and now, the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Both were devastating acts against humanity in the name of war. Both memorials exist not only as a deterrent (hopefully) but as a reminder. With the recent passing of the last survivor aboard the USS Arizona, Lou Conter; and the last generation of the A-bomb survivors dwindling, we can all be more intentional about remembering and keeping the stories alive. If you have the opportunity, we highly recommend visiting both memorials in your travels.

Kudos to our friend Michelle G. for finding the perfect article for us, “Homebase is the new home” by @theangrytherapist that describes our why, our purpose for coddiwompling!

Imagine waking up in an opulent Gilded Age luxury hotel room, but it’s actually your dormitory room in college. You walk down an ornately carved wooden staircase under a gold-leafed rotunda with goddess frescoes. Then you cross a lush courtyard with a sundial fountain to go have breakfast in the school’s dining hall, enveloped in Tiffany glass windows. This is the former Ponce de Leon hotel from 1888 turned Flagler College since 1968 in St. Augustine, Florida.

St. Augustine, Florida was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and is recognized as the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States. It predates other major settlements like Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth (1620) by decades! It’s a charming walkable city full of history, great architecture, scenic views, art, and souvenirs.

Who knew?! Disney and The Villages aren’t the only destinations in Central Florida. This area is a hidden backcountry gem full of sprawling horse ranches, beautiful trees swathed in Spanish moss, and miles and miles of pristine natural spring water-fed rivers for manatees to hibernate in over the winter.

When we shared that we were planning to give away ALL of our belongings, sell the house and cars, and downsize to a backpack for all our worldly possessions; reactions were, “I could never do that”, and “That’s gotta be so emotional…so hard.”

We are coddiwomplers “who embrace the journey and the serendipitous discoveries along the way, rather than focusing on a fixed endpoint.”