After four months on the road, I’ve learned which kinds of destinations I like the most: gritty cities, hippie beaches, small towns that have yet to be discovered by the masses. I’ve also learned what I don’t like: any place that caters to wealthy, upmarket tourists. By the time the upmarket tourists arrive, a place …
Show me someone who feels ambivalent about Hanoi, and I’ll show you a liar. Hanoi invokes strong feelings, and the people who visit the Vietnam capital tend to either love it to pieces or hate it bitterly. Into which category would I fall? The former. I absolutely loved Hanoi, and it was one of my …
Ah, Luang Prabang. The jewel of Indochina. The city about which everyone raves. Naturally, I could only love it, couldn’t I? Well, here’s the truth: Luang Prabang made my skin crawl and I had to get the hell out of there. Blasphemy, eh? It might as well be, because just about every travel blogger in …
New Year’s Eve in Bangkok had been on my itinerary for quite a long time — I had long planned to bring in 2011 with two of my travel blogger friends! Mike of Art of Backpacking, Stephanie of Twenty-Something Travel and I decided to plan a wild Bangkok bash. Travel Blogger New Year’s, we called it. …
It begins at the airport in Chiang Mai, where I’m about to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur. “Excuse me, miss?” I turn around and see a crowd of teenagers staring at me. One tentatively steps forward. “You have something in your hair.” I reach up and pull off a red luggage inspection sticker. “Oh, …
When I was learning about Chiang Mai, I kept hearing the same themes: “It’s so nice and relaxing here.” “It’s much calmer than Bangkok.” “It’s a great place for a family.” So a nice city, but no nightlife destination by any stretch, I assumed. Was I ever wrong! On my first night out in Chiang …
Chiang Mai, Thailand’s most famous northern destination, is worlds away from Bangkok. The medium-sized city is so pleasant, so clean, and home to more wats than you can count. Many travelers come to Chiang Mai to go trekking in the mountains, visit hilltribe villages, or learn a skill: Thai cooking, Thai massage, Thai language, yoga, …
There’s much to dislike about Bangkok. The air pollution is difficult to take. The traffic is a nightmare. Cab drivers who have no idea where they’re going, incessant heat, and sixty-something Western men with their much younger Thai girlfriends add to why many people can’t stand the city. But I have no problem saying that, …
I have a few random phobias, and a few of them are about animals. One is birds, especially pigeons — touching them, them landing on my head, poop landing on me from the sky. But my biggest phobia of all is my fear of fish. Growing up, we would spend our summers camping on a …
Rockport, Massachusetts, lies at the tip of Cape Ann in Massachusetts’s northeast corner. Surrounded by water on three sides, it’s no surprise Rockport became one of New England’s quintessential fishing towns. Today, Rockport is still home to fishermen, but you’ll also find a number of artists. Galleries, shops and restaurants fill storybook-like areas like Bearskin …