El Salvador was a late addition to our travel plans. There was nothing particular drawing us there, but it was much cheaper and faster to fly into San Salvador than it was into Guatemala City. This time and cost saving, plus a love of scratching additional countries off the map, led us to book tickets…
Is it safe? How do you keep safe? Do you ever get worried? Isn’t it dangerous there? These are among the most common questions I get asked when I talk about travels both past and future. Beyond the general ignorance involved1 there is something wild about being asked if I feel safe in another country…
Before we dive into the various ways in which I was unprepared to travel again, I want to do a little rambling. As is my nature. One of the most common questions I get asked about traveling across the globe is how do I manage the different languages. My travels at this point have involved…
It has been 4 years since I have been backpacking. Or budget traveling, or flashpacking, or long traveling, or whatever made up terminology you prefer. Covid was of course the big cause of this, but there were also a hundred minor emergencies that sucked money from the travel fund, as well as significant time spent…
I’m on a vacation of sorts, more of a staycation but in someone else’s home. Relaxing by a pool, listening to people complain about the heat, trying to find time to read without interruption, failing miserably in that quest, things of that nature. I don’t think I’m alone in finding vacations to be fairly, well…
I have always considered myself a writer. This is a particularly bold proclamation considering I have zero published writings to my name. But as both ancient philosophers and current girlfriends constantly champion the power of manifestation, and since people will mostly just accept things that you tell them as true despite the extreme ease of…
Let’s talk about Hoi An, and through Hoi An let’s talk about how we talk about countries as backpackers. The first thing that I notice about Hoi An is that is beautiful, the second is that there are a lot of tourists, the third is that is expensive. The first thing causes the other things,…
Vietnam is likely the country from this travel that you, person who for unknown reasons keeps reading these, know the most about. For as the old aphorism states “war is how Americans learn geography.” But while war might teach us that Vietnam is in Asia, that it is communist, and that it is tropical, it…
We arrived in Bangkok in the middle of the night and began parsing how exactly to get to our hostel. Bangkok is rife with scams, or so the internet would have you believe, so despite our fatigue we were wary of taking a taxi from the airport. We determined to take a train into town,…
It takes a long time before the reality of long term travel sets in. Usually weeks unfortunately for those suffering under the tyranny of standard American vacation time. Sometimes it is a slow process of letting the stress and responsibility of the real world roll off as you realize they no longer hold sway over…
Slackerz Guide 