Backpacking adventures

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Rolling the Dice in Laos

I found myself in a unique situation 8,000 miles away in remote Laos. After taking a leap of faith, which involved quitting my cushy consultant job here in San Diego, I bought a one-way ticket ...

Beer in Bruges

At first glance, Bruges in Belgium doesn’t have a lot going on. It’s small. Tourists often outnumber locals in the summer. And in recent years it’s most famous for a quote from Colin Farrell in ...

The Pirate Streets of Koh Phi Phi

After riding elephants in Krabi, Thailand, it was time to leave that madness behind. So I hopped a ferry for the island of Koh Phi Phi. Midway though the hour-and-a-half-long ferry trip, ominous clouds could ...

Enchanting Chiang Mai

The Thai rainy season greeted me in the form of monks in flowing orange robes holding little umbrellas. Their smiles beamed at me through the thick mist as I sauntered through the old section of ...

Biking in Laos

When I arrived in Laos, I was delighted to find that bicycles are cheap, easy to rent, and can ride anywhere. Finding a bike was as simple as saying to my guesthouse owner, "Bike?" The ...

Iquitos, Peru: Gateway to the Amazon

“Can you carry the backpack on your chest instead?” Gino asked me as we were about to enter Belén Market in Iquitos, Peru. I nodded, turning it around. He winked. “That's a gringa inteligente,” he ...

Backpacking in Europe, the Hard Way

This was the trip of a lifetime. Traveling to Budapest, Hungary, I experienced the time of my life while trekking simultaneously through the hardships of a stolen passport, wallet and train pass. I was studying ...

Whitefish, Montana

The train screeched and jerked to a stop. I awoke in an unknown yard in pitch darkness. I hopped on this train back in Everett, Washington, where the day before I was napping in a ...

Pocatello, Idaho

Pocatello was the end of the line. I needed to get off. I looked around for an exit – a string of fluorescent light cut the darkness and exposed my cover. I didn’t see any ...

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

The boat ride to Santa Cruz, Guatemala, was cold. The wind blew fervently as the boat hit rough patches, splashing swaths of freezing water on the passengers seated in front. Lake Atitlan is very windy. ...

Doing Europe: Croatia

After living in Prague for over a year, my Czech girlfriend, Katka, and I wanted to get out of the city and go on a summer holiday. At the time, in 2000, it was relatively ...