Travel tips: Stay healthy in airports and on planes, and get through TSA quickly Here are a few things you can do to protect yourself from germs and other health issues while traveling on planes and through airports, as well as some tips to help speed you through the airport process ALWAYS have hand-sanitizer with …
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Sunset over Uluru (Ayer's Rock) In the Red Center of Australia, Uluru is the main attraction. You can fly directly to the area, or drive south from Alice Springs, or north from Adelaide. The road is very long and has very little to see other than a few dead kangaroos, some tumbling weeds, and …
Continue reading Sunset over Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the Field of Light #magical
Unique Adventures: Waitomo (Why-toe-moe) Caves Tube in a cave with glow-worms As I've mentioned before, I love caves, and take many opportunities to see them. In New Zealand, there is a particularly rare cave experience. It is called Black Water Rafting, but what it is is tubing in the dark in a cave, jumping off …
Continue reading Unique Adventures: Waitomo (Why-toe-moe) Caves – tube in a cave with glow-worms
Travel where you don't speak the language If you haven't recently traveled to a place where you don't speak the language, you'd likely be surprised how easy it can be these days. First, it's amazing to see how well pantomime works. When we were in Panama, and I couldn't remember the word for ice (kept …
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My recent flight to Asia was 15 hours, and I had ended up in the middle seat. I guess that was the price I paid for getting that flight for around $500. Despite that, I did get a decent night's sleep on the way. Here's how. Have a leg rest. They sell them on the …
My tagline is: Collect Experiences, Not Things When I was in Colombia at the Bazurto market, I had the opportunity to have El Runner make me a poster. And that is what I chose to get. One good way to collect experiences is through travel. For example, this research concludes that "And here’s the important …
Because I travel so frequently, I have a few things that generally just live in my suitcase so I take them on every trip. One of those things is a small packet with a collection of items in it that have often been helpful so I will list some of them here. Nearly every trip …
When you travel a lot, it can be very important to have an easy and quick way to do your laundry. While sometimes you are lucky enough to have access to a washer and/or dryer for a cheap cost (30c in my hostel in Thailand for example), other times you are left with doing laundry …
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A few things about China that may be helpful for others. VPN A VPN is essential if you want to use Google products at all (or Facebook, or nearly anything you are used to using). Use of the VPN was also required to get access to pay my insurance bill while I was away, which …
Cabins on cruise ships are notoriously small and have very little storage, among other deficiencies. Here are a few cheap things that will help you maximize what you can do. Number 1: Magnetic Hooks The walls on cruise ships are made of metal so you can use these to hang clothes or other items on …
Continue reading Cruise travel: 4 inexpensive things you want on your next cruise #cruise #packing
As I write this, I'm on the high-speed train from Xi'an to Beijing. What is most striking about this trip is not only the speed (up to at least 309 km/h, that I've noticed), but that there are tons of buildings with no lights on. There are very few lights outside as I go by. …
Soaring over Cappadocia in a hot air balloon is a memorable experience. To do it, you get up extremely early in the morning, so early that many people just stayed up so that they wouldn't chance missing it. You are driven out to the location where the balloons take off and they start unrolling and …
If you are in Morocco, one of the things you may see when driving outside of the cities is goats in trees. Well, goats in Argania trees specifically. Most of Morocco is quite arid and there are tasty argan fruits in the trees (the seeds/nuts of which are what all the argan oil places are …
It is hard to describe the beauty of Sagrada Familia. I have heard that some people went to it, saw the exterior, which IS marvelous on its own, and thought they had seen all there was to see and had left. They missed a truly exceptional experience. While the outside is a mosaic, sculpture, and …
Continue reading Sagrada Familia – indescribable beauty (Barcelona, Spain)
For Loy Krathong (which is about the same time as Yee Ping, Yee Peng, whatever spelling variation you see), there is a great parade in Chiang Mai. There is a Loy Krathong song which is very catchy and you will be quite familiar with it by the end of the parade. You can …
Continue reading Loy Krathong (Kra-tong) festival in Chiang Mai (Thailand)
Travel Around, Experience the World 