What I’ve Been Reading on the Road

Nothing is a better cure for a never-ending bus trip or lazy night in the hostel common room than a good book.

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Making Good on a Promise

Way, way back when I was just a baby traveler, not two weeks off the plane from JFK airport in New York, I visited my first Thai island, the beautiful Koh Phi Phi. Right around the same time, a massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti.

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50th Post: My Bucket List Beginnings

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about long-term goals and the proverbial bucket list. Sure, there are tons of things that I want to do (or wanted and have since done them!), but I never really stopped to write them all down…until now.

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When the Traveler Becomes the Tour Guide

The Grand Palace isn’t what made me fall in love with Bangkok (let’s be real, I’m still not even sure I know what I was looking at), nor was it the crowded 4-Island snorkel trip that made Krabi feel like my personal paradise. So I abandoned all original plans and decided to show my guest the more “real” side of Thailand and what it is that makes the country so special to me.

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Red Shirts and Wet Shirts: A Thai New Year

Songkran is a three-day holiday from April 13-15. Its most obvious celebration — aside from visiting wats, paying respect to the family and cleansing the Buddha — is the throwing of water. It has since evolved into one of the biggest water fights in the world. People line the streets armed with Super Soakers, garden hoses and buckets of clay to smear on faces of passersby. It's been really interesting to see how the holidaymakers and the protesters have interacted.

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Ch-Ch-Changes [in Travel Plans]

I’ve met a lot of people on the road doing some pretty awesome things — teaching English, running their own businesses, blogging, volunteering — and realized I really wanted to be one of them. So I’ve chosen to stay in Bangkok for the time being to work toward that goal.

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Taking the Leap when You’re Afraid to Jump

Every so often I’ll get an e-mail from someone (usually an old friend I’ve lost touch with who stumbles across my blog through Facebook) asking me what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. For all the questions they have for me, I have one simple one for them.

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Reviewing “The Art of Travel”

With its misleading title, “The Art of Travel” by Alain de Botton is not what it appears. It is not a guide on how to travel, but rather a deep philosophical exploration of why we travel and the role it plays in our lives.

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The Charm of Hoi An

Here’s a warning to anyone headed to Hoi An while traveling through Vietnam: it can suck money out of even the most budgeted of travelers.

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Music and Travel

Needless to say, there’s a strong correlation between music and traveling. For some, it’s the comfort of an iPod on a long bus journey or the $25 guitar they found in Thailand. For others, it’s the constant thumping of the bass line or same song played over and over on the river in Vang Vieng. Music can bring a traveler back to lands they visited prior, conjuring up memories of places and people. And when it doesn’t offer up a nostalgic past, it simply enhances the travel experience. What makes travel and music such a perfect combination is the way it transcends all cultures and countries. Music speaks to everyone in some way and leaves a lasting impression on the way we think, speak, act and listen.

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