“Habibi - for you, special price, almost free. Look, I give you these earrings. Make myself. Are you married? I can marry! I nice Egyptian man for you.” His name was (shocker) Mohammed and he was one of the many... Continue Reading →
After our epic week in Laos, Corli and I flew to meet her husband and a few friends of ours in Thailand to spend the Christmas holidays together, springing for a nice resort for the first few days on the... Continue Reading →
One of the big desires we had when booking Laos was to visit an ethical elephant sanctuary to spend time close to these majestic animals. I’m sure there are lots of elephants with below-level intelligence, anger issues, violent streaks, etc.,... Continue Reading →
I’ve been wanting to get to Angkor Wat for a long time, but never thought I’d make it until I surprised even myself by moving to Asia. Now many of the coolest things in the world are just a stone’s... Continue Reading →
Amie looking to North Korea Different from my normal backpacking adventures, there are elements of a trip to South Korea that you have to plan in advance for. For example, walking routes and other directions aren’t available on Google Maps,... Continue Reading →
Few things can make or break a friendship like travel. Like realizing we’re all getting charged 400HKD we hadn’t planned on to check one bag, or the suitcase zipper breaking open in the trunk of an unmarked “taxi,” or the... Continue Reading →
Solo travel looks glamourous. For a woman, it also probably seems quite dangerous, and scary, and a bad idea, and who's going to take all those super-posed pics of me walking into a sunset or staring off into the distance... Continue Reading →
It was hard to hug Jeanie goodbye - living abroad, one of the weird ways your heart has to grow is to learn how to say goodbye to people for real, knowing that there is a very real chance you... Continue Reading →
Ten years ago I was going through a thing - I was working at an awesome weekly newspaper in my college town, waiting tables, living the dream. I danced downtown Tuesday through Saturday and in drum circles and at sunsets... Continue Reading →
My life is a lot of accidentally doing things the hardest way possible. With an all-star cast of strange characters. A sprinkling of mishap. A lot of "well, at least this will all be a very funny story in a... Continue Reading →
Like all good travel stories, this one starts with pollution, pirates, and a flu epidemic. Teaching in Brazil taught me to choose countries with good public holidays (I miss you, Carnaval), and I was très excited to see a 10... Continue Reading →
There is an English idiom, 'like riding a bike,' that I got to try out in a few ways on this trip. I was literally riding a bike around rice paddies and down busy streets with opposite traffic laws, and... Continue Reading →