61 posts
I will be leaving the San Francisco Bay Area in one month and returning to Seattle. During the year I was here, I explored the hell out of the area. I saw more of San Francisco than many will see in...
Read more →My only other visit to Portland, Oregon was when I drove from San Diego to Seattle in 2007. Since then the coffee scene has exploded down there. I will post a full report on INeedCoffee later. For...
Read more →If you live in Seattle or plan on coming here for vacation, I highly recommend taking the Seattle Underground Tour. It is 90 minutes long and full of fun history on how the city got started. Most of...
Read more →Two years ago I read the travel book Vagabonding, which I enjoyed. I was pleased to discover the author had written another book. !Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade...
Read more →Early in my 4 week trip to Asia, I discovered that slow upload speeds would prevent me from posting my travel blogs in a sequential timeline. Now that I have all my posts finished (finally), I can...
Read more →It seems I missed a post. I posted about the cool things I did in Chiang Mai, such as the Thai cooking class, elephant training and playing with tigers, but I didn't mention the town itself. Chiang...
Read more →This post is primarily for people who have not traveled outside the United States. When you first enter a foreign country you must present yourself to an immigration officer. They will look over your...
Read more →As much as a bad user interface annoys me, I really enjoy discovering an excellent U/I. While in Thailand and Cambodia, I noticed a brilliant user interface. They place a second counter on traffic...
Read more →The long awaited video and photos to my day of elephant training are finally ready. Enjoy my gracefulness! This highlight video was made using Windows Live Movie Maker, which I just downloaded and am...
Read more →How did I end up in Cambodia when my original travel plans only included Thailand? It was me discovering what type of traveler I am. The thought of spending two weeks on the white sand beaches of...
Read more →This is a video clip of the elephant we saw in Ko Samui, Thailand. This is not the elephant I rode in Chiang Mai. http://www.youtube.com/v/TyupPQdDIh0 --- Comments Jeremy December 25 at 2009 at 9:27...
Read more →Here are the video clips taken by my friend when we stepped into the cage with the tigers and baby lion.
Read more →Angkor Wat is the expansive temple complex in Cambodia built over a few hundred years starting in the 10th century. It is an amazing place to visit. It far exceeded myexpectations. I spent 2 days and...
Read more →The sad history of Cambodia involves land mines. Lots of them. I read an estimate that there may still be 2 million land mines buried in throughout the country. And no one bothered to document where...
Read more →I do not carry dental insurance. I never have and never plan to. My teeth are in great shape. Back in the dot-com days, I got one small cavity after going through a full tin of Altoids every day for...
Read more →While in Siem Reap, we had our driver take us out to the Floating Village. Unlike our Bangkok experience, this was not a tourist trap. It was the real deal. The Floating Village was a community of...
Read more →This was too weird and cheap not to try. Siem Reap, Cambodia has something called Angkor Dr. Fish Massage. Basically you put your feet into a tank of water filled with little fish. The fish then...
Read more →On the return flight home to Seattle, I had a 12 hour layover in Seoul, South Korea. Urban hiking in 41F rain felt a lot like Seattle. Like Kuala Lumpur, Seoul has an airport which connects right...
Read more →Yesterday I had a 12-hour layover in Seoul, South Korea. Instead of hanging out at the airport, I decided to venture into the city and seek out some coffee. Before heading out, I got a good espresso...
Read more →What do you do when you have a 12 hour layover in Seoul, Korea? Hang out in the terminal or go exploring? Explore! It is time to put allthat cold weather training to use. Once I step outside the...
Read more →Today I journeyed to the north outskirts of Kuala Lumpur to see the Batu Caves. It was OK. Probably not worth the trip. !batu-caves-1 Oh yeah, there were monkeys everywhere. !batu-caves-2 Photo...
Read more →The adventure continues. I arrived in Kuala Lumpur late last night. This is an awesome airport. The KLIA Ekspres hooks right into the terminal and drops you off in the center of the city, which is a...
Read more →For those keeping score, I left Cambodia and returned to Bangkok for a night before flying down to Malaysia. Before returning to Seattle, I will go back to Bangkok for one more night. I will get...
Read more →Do I really want to spend another 5 nights in Bangkok? Nope. I've decided to head down to Kuala Lumpur for some urban hiking and Malaysian curry....
Read more →After escaping the hell known as Patong Beach, I headed for the quieter beach setting of the island of Ko Samui. Although the vendors were still pushy, it was far less than Patong. If you only have a...
Read more →The prime vacation destination for Thailand is probably Phuket. That should have been a warning. I did not care for Phuket. It was loud and the vendors were beyond obnoxious. It was probably my...
Read more →Besides riding elephants and playing with big cats, the other cool thing I did in Chiang Mai was take an all day Thai cooking class. I've been cooking Thai food pretty much every week for the past 18...
Read more →My posts are getting a little out of sequence. Although I have more to say about Chiang Mai, I want to get out my photos from the Phi Phi Islands. The Phi Phi Islands are off the coast of Phuket. We...
Read more →All those pull-ups didn't help. My side got crushed in a tug of war match with an elephant in Ko Samui, Thailand. Video below.
Read more →For just 50 baht ($1.65), I was able to use a fishing pole to lower a chicken down to a pit of hungry crocodiles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSqJNwo5xUI
Read more →There are at least two ways to ride an elephant in Thailand. One is to do a trek. They put you up on a mini bench and two can ride seated side by side. That is what I planned to do when I came to...
Read more →I had a chance to get inside a cage with some cats in Chiang Mai at Tiger Kingdom. !mas-lion !mas-tiger !mas-tiger-belly
Read more →Here is a video sample of the boat ride to the Floating Market. It took 70 minutes to upload 35 seconds of video and this is the fastest connection I've had since arriving in Thailand. --- Comments...
Read more →Here is a preview of an upcoming post. !mas-tiger-500 --- Comments aviva November 23 at 2009 at 11:19 PM did you eat lunch at the buffet there? it was one of the BEST meals we had!! --- MAS November...
Read more →I am behind on my trip blog posts. The primary reason is the upload speeds in Thailand (to my American servers) are horrific. This means the photos are being uploaded at a painfully slow rate. Most...
Read more →When it comes to face to face customer service, I use something I call the Paraguay / Circuit City scale. During my one day trip to Paraguay in 2006, I went to a market where the vendors were in your...
Read more →How about 5 nights then? I was told by several people who had visited to Thailand to get out of Bangkok as soon as possible. It is dirty, loud and not representative of the real Thailand. I had low...
Read more →I am off for a 4 week trip to Thailand (Nov 12 - Dec 10). This is my first trip to Asia. In 2006 I met a retired British school teacher in Auckland, New Zealand. For over an hour he told me how...
Read more →Last December, I learned that my super common name was on the "naughty list" at airports. From the post Osama MAS Laden: > Guess what common American as apple pie name is now on the governments watch...
Read more →Last weekend I stopped into the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie for a coffee and found a bunch of cool coffee artifacts. Vashon Island is a ferry ride southwest of Seattle. It was a good thing I had...
Read more →Writing about travel is the hardest thing for me to do. I'd rather hack out 500 words on the stupidity of Ben Bernanke. It pains me to use terms like "nice" and "beautiful" to describe a trip. That...
Read more →Well I am finally getting around to posting on my trip to New Orleans. I arrived on the Sunday before Fat Tuesday and left Thursday afternoon. This was a great way to see the city both during the...
Read more →When I arrived at my gate at the DFW (Dallas Fort-Worth) airport, I walked past a stunningly beautiful woman. Magazine cover quality. Two minutes later, a better looking woman walked by. And then a...
Read more →Whenever I fly, I check my bag in. The reason is I detest all those people who abuse the carry-on policy. One small bag became one small bag plus carry on. Then the bag got larger. Women would not...
Read more →Guess what common "American as apple pie" name is now on the governments watch list? Mine. American Airlines has confirmed that my name is on the naughty list. Why did my parents have to slap me with...
Read more →Just like I did in 2007, soon I'll be assembling my Best Books of 2008 list. I'm almost certain this one will make the list. !Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer Smile When...
Read more →The 4-Hour Workweek exposed me to the idea of working on the road. Although I'm pretty good at working remotely, more instruction was needed on the traveling part. !Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to...
Read more →I got tired of waiting for my high school reunion planning committee to set a date for my 20th (now 21st) high school reunion. Guess I'll catch them at the 25th. I'm heading back for a long weekend...
Read more →On my shortlist of places to visit next is Japan. My first step in learning about a new country is reading the Culture Shock! book for that country. !CultureShock! Japan: A Survival Guide to Customs...
Read more →What is the best thing to read on a cold wet January day in Seattle? Maybe a book about how much cheaper and warmer life could be in Costa Rica. !Moon Living Abroad in Costa Rica (Living Abroad) Moon...
Read more →Vancouver was an amazing city. Think San Diego with frostbite. Actually it's downtown is further built out than San Diego. Despite the rain and cold temperatures, I was able to get some good photos....
Read more →Next week I will take my first trip ever to Canada. I will visit Vancouver and Whistler during this trip. I decided it wasn't cold enough in Seattle and that I needed to go further north....
Read more →After reading the Culture Shock! books for Chile and Cuba, I thought I'd read the one for Vancouver. My first trip to Canada is in a week. How shocking is the Vancouver culture? Judging solely by the...
Read more →I've noticed that people who travel tend to fall into two camps. 1. People who go to the same places they know and like multiple times. 2. People who always seek out a new place to visit. I'm...
Read more →Over a month ago I stumbled upon the most interesting travel book I've ever seen. This book isn't about places to snorkel in Hawaii or New England bed and breakfast locations. This was a book on...
Read more →Last year before I went to South America I did minimal research. Basically I just checked to see what the weather would be like, got some vaccinations, and read the travel bulletins provided by the...
Read more →I'm back from my 12th Guavaween. Another year, another great time. The first thing I learned once I arrived in Ybor City was that the Tampa Bay Brewing Company relocated. They left 15th St and...
Read more →I'm back from my 11 day trip of New Zealand. The trip just covered the North Island. For all those people who said why didn't you go to the South Island? The answer is it is still winter in the South...
Read more →My 3 week trip in South America was hosted by Gap Adventures. The name of the tour was In Search Of Iguassu - Rio to Buenos Aires. I'm glad I took the trip and got to visit a nice section of the...
Read more →I always find it interesting to measure my weight and bodyfat percentage before and after a vacation. Stepping away from my standard diet and exercise routine can shock my system into either weight...
Read more →Hope you missed me, I'm back in America. The last 3 weeks I was in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. And I even made a surprise unplanned trip to Paraguay. In the next 2 days, I plan to have the trip...
Read more →