The quest to take better travel photos is lifelong, if only because you don’t want your current “best” travel photo to be your best ever.

When I took my infamous dog-and-butterfly photo “Lightning Strikes Once” in Laos a couple years ago, I was frightened of this very thing happening. I gave it this title because let’s be honest, how often does this:

"Lightning Strikes Once," Laos, 2010

happen?

This article isn’t going to speak much to technical aspects of photography, but rather the sorts of photos that in my opinion make for great travel mementos. Taking better travel photos isn’t about having the “right” camera or shooting settings, but about capturing moments that transport anyone who seems them to the other side of the planet.

Photographing People and Animals

"The Eyes Have It," China, 2010

When I first started taking travel photos, my immediate interest was in portraying people, whether that meant portraits of young children eager to pose for the camera or candid shots of locals living their lives. Being able to depict the people who call a certain city or country home is essential is capturing its essence for your audience, no matter its scope.

Photographing people brings up an interesting ethical dilemma. Specifically, do you ask permission or not? Although I would like to believe the answer to this question is a simple “Yes,” the fact is that people who are aware they’re being photographed almost always pose and while posed photography is great, it isn’t necessarily an accurate reflection of who the person is in relation to where they live. Go with your gut — mine usually tells me to snap the photo as fast as I can without being noticed.

"Chat Session," Peru, 2011

With animals, this is less of a concern, as even their “poses” are overflowing with character and spontaneity. If you aren’t comfortable photographing people but still want to give your photos a “living” quality, photographing animals is a great way to go about it.

Depicting Place

"Blowing Kisses in the Wind," Spain, 2011

Of course, people and animals aren’t the only things that exist in a particular destination, although they are important. If you want to take great travel photos, it’s essential to practice capturing the essence of a place itself.

I personally find it easier to do this in cities than it is in natural settings, if only because cities provide you with more familiar reference points. When I was touring southwest Bolivia last year, I found myself overwhelmed by the number of things going around me, from flamingos, to rock formations, to salt flats, to strangely-colored lakes and so on. I usually take more than double the amount of photos in nature than I would in the city, if only because it’s much more trial and error for me.

"Carbon-made," Bolivia, 2011

In cities I focus on the usual things such as buildings, streets, parks and traffic, but focus on drawing out what is unique about a particular element of a city, what I believe sets it apart, rather than simply photographing something cool or interesting. A great way to do this is to get local artwork or foreign language in the picture, although that’s definitely not a hard and fast rule.

Food and Inanimate Objects

"Nighttime Refreshment," Morocco, 2011

Another great way to give people who view your pictures and insight into what it was like being somewhere is to photograph inanimate objects. Food in particular helps achieve this because of the sensory associations people have with food. The more you can make someone taste the food you’re eating, the better.

"The One Who is Holy Loves You Truly," Israel, 2011

How you go about photographing inanimate objects is up to you, but I usually try to portray them in a direct way — either straight on or from the top. Although elaborate framing and compositional techniques benefit people and place shots, I find that trying to get too fancy can detract attention from small and seemingly insignificant objects like food and other inanimate objects.

Perspective and Context

I touched on perspective and context in a more esoteric sense in another recent piece, but they are equally essential to consider in a tangible context. Simply put, how you portray a scene — be it a person, place or thing — can be the difference between a picture that is mind-blowing and a picture that is forgettable.

To illustrate the impact perspective can have, consider these two shots from my trip to Egypt this past September:

"Untitled," Egypt, 2011

"Lakefarers," Egypt, 2011

Notice how the second shot calls attention to the large number of boats contained in such a small area, while the first shot depicts such a large area that you hardly notice the boats?

Context, too, is important. After all, if a picture doesn’t at least somewhat give you a sense of where it was taken, how is it supposed to transport someone.

One way in which context can come in handy is as a tool for making cliche, ordinary shots interesting. Consider, for example, this shot of the Cristo Redento in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is probably the most visited tourist attraction in all Brazil:

"With Arms Wide Open," Brazil, 2011

Notice how my emphasis on the tourists and the statue give a commentary the scene at the statue’s base?

The same can be said for this shot of a motorbike in Vietnam, a photography subject that is far from unique for visitors to that country:

"Free and Clear," Vietnam, 2010

I hope these travel photography tips have been helpful and beneficial to you. Do you have any of your own travel photography tips to offer? Please leave them in a comment if you do.

The Arab Middle East gets a bad rap. Sure, it’s illegal to have sex there if you’re gay and women, I would argue, are still very much second-class citizens (although some of my female Muslim friends strongly argue otherwise.) Still, there is much to love about travel in the Middle East and much fun to be had.

Although you may find yourself initially frustrated when landing in someplace like Amman, Beirut, Cairo or Damascus, keeping these common-sense suggestions in mind will help you enjoy yourself more quickly and thoroughly.

1. Be patient

Complaining only makes the traffic move more slowly.

No matter where in the Middle East you arrive, your commute from the airport will likely be spent in heavy traffic in a taxi or bus that’s less than comfortable. The faster you become accustomed to waiting a little longer for things to happen, the less serious the inevitable delays of Middle East travel become.

2. Walk like an Egyptian

I love the Bangles as much as anyone else, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. What I mean is this: Do and act like a local whenever possible. Whether it’s dashing across the street with a crowd in Cairo or adding a certain seasoning to your shawarma in Beirut, the people who live in Middle Eastern countries usually know how to do Middle Eastern things best.

3. Modesty is the best policy

Dress and act as modestly as possible when you travel in the Middle East to avoid cajoling.

With the exception of perhaps Saudi Arabia, Arab countries in the Middle East expected neither Western women nor men to wholly adhere to their cultural norms, covering up the hair and body included. That being said you should dress and act as modestly as possible out of respect not only for local people but because, simply put, people may cajole you if you look show too much skin.

4. Don’t assume Arabs hate Americans

In spite of having very briefly written for CNN in Shanghai, I am no fan of the mainstream media. Among the most despicable lies media organizations have spread is that Muslims and Arabs hate Americans. This is far from true, especially in revolution-wrought places like Egypt and Tunisia. Don’t even think about pretending to be Canadian — it simply isn’t necessary, although you should be prepared for sometimes harsh criticisms of the U.S. government.

5. Have a sense of humor

When in doubt, smile!

Another inaccurate perception of people in the Middle East is that they’re serious or mean all the time — Arab men, some say, are constantly stern, which makes their fearful women rigid and emotionless. This is absolutely not true! It’s especially important to keep this in mind if someone makes a comment to you that you think is offensive. Men in Egypt, for example may try and offer you a certain sum on camels in exchange for your wife, girlfriend or other female travel companion.

6. Don’t be afraid to say “No”

Because they wrongly believe Arab people are angry and mean, many Western tourists are afraid to politely refuse a product or service when an aggressive local salesman (or, in some cases, women) approaches them. You shouldn’t be! In addition to the fact that these con artists expect that you’re going to say “no,” Islamic law pretty explicitly prevents them using force to retaliate against you when you travel in the Middle East.

7. Smile

This one is pretty self explanatory. No matter how modestly you behave and look when you travel in the Middle East, people may look at you funny, even with seeming disdain or puzzlement. The universal antidote to awkwardness and misunderstandings is always a smile and you should smile as much as possible when you travel in the Middle East.

I’ve literally just landed in Melbourne, Australia, where I’ll begin my very first visit to the continent “down under.” This trip is an important personal milestone because I’ve now visited all six inhabited continents, which is especially cool when you consider I got my first passport just seven years ago and I’m not rich at all.

My maiden voyage to Australia has been literally decades in the making. I first became interested in travel to Australia in second grade (1992, for reference) as a student in Australia-obsessed Mrs. Fraley’s class. You read that right, Aussies: I was humming “Waltzing Matilda,” telling “Kookaburra” to save some gum for me and hankering for shrimp on the barbie long before most American children my age knew what or where Australia was.

My trip to Australia, which will last about six weeks, will take me to the large cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns; to famous attractions like Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef; and to coastal hotspots like Byron Bay and Port Douglas. After flying my way around the southeastern portion of the country for about 15 days, I’ll spend the last several weeks of my week traveling up the east coast of Australia by Greyhound bus — and maybe even hitchhiking?!

Are you in Australia? Let’s meet up! Are you curious how I keep up my breakneck pace of travel? Check out Leave Your Daily Hell’s “Inspiration” section, or sign up to be notified when personalized travel consulting sessions (which start in March, when I return) are available for booking.

Now, about that shrimp on the barbie — I’m hungry!

It’s no secret: I flipping love Beijing. Its perpetual smog, grimy streets and the iron fist of the communist party are not enough to shake my affection for the Chinese capital, the “northern” capital of ancient China that has been the center of the Middle Kingdom’s government five times throughout its history.

If there’s one thing I hope these photos illustrate to you, it’s that what Beijing lacks in traditional beauty,  it compensates for ten-fold in character.

Beijing's most alluring feature is the fact that it's home to so many structures from the ancient Chinese period, as oppose to newer cities like Shanghai which are, well, new. Perhaps the most famous among these is the Forbidden City, pictured above, which dates back to the 15th century, when the Ming dynasty ruled over China.

A counterpoint to the ancient influence in Beijing is how often ancient structures are juxtaposed with modern one. Take the example of Tian'anmen Square, shown above, which sits just opposite the entrance to the Forbidden City, a palace that stands to honor the great legacy of ancient Chinese civilization, one the Maoists who built Tian'anmen sought largely to destroy.

As you can also see in both of the pictures that came before this one, smog in Beijing is indeed a big problem. It sometimes almost appears to be a white smoke, as seen in this picture of the Beijing Olympic grounds, which are still a popular tourist destination among Chinese people. Note also the extent of crowding in China.

Of course for every overcrowded, smog-filled, ugly place in Beijing, there is an equally beautiful, serene one. OK, maybe it isn't one-to-one. One-to-ten? Twenty? In any case, the walkway leading up to the Lama Temple, as seen above, is a great example of the kind of natural splendor I'm talking about.

Ah, Beijing traffic. You knew it was coming, didn't you? Although I'd imagine it's a bitch to be sitting in one of these cars, there was something almost poetic about watching them sit there (for they weren't moving) from a pedestrian overpass. In Beijing as well as in life in general, there are beautiful moments in even the most unfortunate realities.

Another juxtaposition! Beijing is chock full of these. Above you see the Summer Palace, which has its origins during the reign of Wanyan Liang in the Jin Dynasty period around 1120 AD. More recently the palace served as the summer (shock!) home of the Empress dowager Cixi in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Although Beijing has gained an international reputation as the nucleus of the oppressive Chinese government, this preconceived notion makes the appearance of the country's exploding middle class seem all the more dramatic of streets on Beijing. From jiu bas (bars), to expensive electronics to designer handbags, hundreds of millions of Chinese people are now able to enjoy a standard of living comparable to those of us in the West. The Chinese middle class is estimated, in total, to number more than the population of the entire United States.

Some thing in Beijing are just plain bizarre. Take these psychedelic-looking mushrooms, for example, which emit a (presumably) water vapor mist into the air to cool passers-by during Beijing's humid summers. Although their appearance likely owes more to their being built in the groovy 1960s than anything "magic," the add yet another of character to the incredible Chinese capital.

Much of the South American tourist trail twists and turns its way through the Andes, one of the highest mountain ranges in the world. It isn’t shocking, then, that altitude sickness is a problem travelers to South America frequently encounter.

Whether you’re hanging out in Cusco before heading to the Sacred Valley of the Incas or Machu Picchu or exploring the Bolivian capital of La Paz before you head southwest to the Uyuni Salt Flats, altitude sickness can strike you in many of the most popular South American tourist destinations.

Unfortunately, altitude sickness isn’t something you can predict based on your overall health or fitness. Even worse, it’s a sickness that comes on suddenly and whose symptoms may linger for days or even weeks. Although there is little you can do to fully rid yourself of altitude sickness if you experience it, there are steps you can take to lessen its impact on your travels through South America.

Who Gets Altitude Sickness?

La Paz, Bolivia is one place you might come down with altitude sickness

It would be tempting to think that altitude sickness only afflicts those who are out of shape or unhealthy. After all, people who’ve trained for a marathon are far more able to complete and even excel at the race than people who’ve never run a day in their lives.

Altitude sickness doesn’t really work like that, though. In order to imagine the effect altitude might have on your body, you have to consider how high some of these places are. Cusco, Peru, for example, is around 11,200 feet above sea level, while La Paz, Bolivia is in excess than 12,000, both more than twice the height of Denver.

Imagine, if you will, that the mountainous ground under your feet isn’t there and instead, that you are hovering 12,000 feet above the ground in flat-as-a-pancake New York City. Pretty dizzying, huh? Although your eyes can see that you are very much on the ground, your body isn’t always as aware. As a result, altitude sickness can affect literally anyone.

Symptoms of Altitude Sickness

Altitude sickness may also come on in Cusco, Peru

The first time I experienced altitude sickness was in a van at about 3 a.m., on the way from the city of Arequipa, Peru up over the Andes en route to the Colca Canyon.

My initial symptom was a nauseous, lightheaded feeling. I didn’t have time to think about how it was affecting me but rather, felt compelled to simply lay my head in my lap. Similar bouts of such symptoms would continue occurring throughout my time in the Andes, in Cusco, La Paz and everywhere in-between.

For some people, symptoms are more severe. Namely, you may actually vomit and rather than a fleeting lightheadedness, experience a headache or a full-on migraine. Nick, a Belgian I met at the Loki Hostel in Cusco, was literally bedridden for days. And trust me ladies, he was fit.

Treatments for Altitude Sickness

A fellow traveler in bed from altitude sickness in Cusco

The most terrible thing about altitude sickness, other than the fact that its onset and severity are completely unpredictable, is the lack of treatment options available. If your body doesn’t quickly adapt — which it well may; my symptoms became much milder as the weeks I spent in the mountains went on — your only option is to take it extremely easy, which may involve spending a lot of your trip at your hostel relaxing.

Another treatment option is chewing leaves of coca, the origin plant of cocaine. You can buy these leaves, which are legal to chew, almost anywhere in Peru or Bolivia. It’s also possible to drink coca as a tea, a less potent though more pleasant option. Coca tastes like crap!

Are Coca Leaves Cocaine?

Watch out for altitude sickness when you climb Machu Picchu

Although coca leaves are derived from the same plant as cocaine, coca leaves are not cocaine. The amount of stimulant in coca leaves is merely enough to power you through bouts of weakness that result from altitude sickness; you aren’t going to be high in the least.

But will coca leaves make you fail a drug test? I don’t know; I’m not a microbiologist. As I mentioned above, however, they are a common and accepted form of treatment for altitude sickness, something anyone who might refuse you a job due to a maybe-failed drug test can easily learn online.

I hope none of you reading this end up suffering from altitude sickness when you visit South America. If you do, however, get some coca, get some rest and pray that it passes.

With a total land area just a hair under 500,000 square miles, Peru is somewhere between the U.S. states of Texas and Alaska in size. Although significantly smaller than several of its South American compadres, it is a very large country, 20th in the world by area.

As is the case through much of the rest of supersized South America, travel options within Peru are many — but only a handful of these options make sense to budget travelers and backpackers. Getting around in Peru is cheap and relatively painless if you’re flexible and willing to travel overland.

Bus Travel in Peru

Traveling through Peru by bus ensures you don't miss any breathtaking scenery.

Buses are by far the most popular way to travel within Peru, for locals and tourists alike. Prices vary depending on the distance you travel and the class of service, but are among the cheapest in South America.

Likewise, whether you choose a standard semi-cama seat or a lie-flat(ish) cama bed, the comfort of buses in Peru is almost second to none, except for maybe Argentina. Popular long-distance bus companies in Peru include Cial, Ormeño and Cruz del Sur which is, in my opinion, the best of them all.

As I mentioned in my article about Lima’s Miraflores district, public buses exist within Lima. In other cities, you’ll have to stick to taxis and collectivos, taxis shared by multiple passengers you can think of as small buses.

Trains in Peru

Both major train companies in Peru operate services to Aguascalientes, at the base of Machu Picchu.

Although Peru’s rail network is far from sophisticated, it is arguably among the best developed and maintained in South America, particularly for tourists. Specifically, the two companies that operate trains in Peru — PeruRail and Inca Rail — operate only along popular tourist routes.

PeruRail’s network is more extensive, relatively speaking. PeruRail trains run from the city center of Cusco to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, and then on to Machu Picchu. IncaRail, on the other hand, operates trains only between Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo.

I traveled on both type of Peru trains: I took PeruRail from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu (the station for which is technically in the nearby town of Aguascalientes); and IncaRail back the other way. Although there isn’t much discernable difference in the quality of service, Inca Rail is almost twice as expensive as PeruRail — about $100 one way vs. $40 — and as a result, has more reliable availability. If you don’t book in advance, you’ll probably end up taking Inca Rail.

Flights in Peru

I recommend leaving flying in Peru to creatures with wings.

I advised against taking flights in South America in my larger article about transport in South America and I stand by this suggestion for travel wholly within Peru. Although cheap-ish fares can be found (the Loki Hostel in Lima had a flight to Arequipa for under $100), they are still almost always more expensive than buses.

But don’t buses take longer? Well, of course they do. But they’re also extremely comfortable and allow you to experience scenery that would literally pass right under your nose if you were flying. The bus journey from Lima to Arequipa was one fo the most incredible experiences of my life — the transition from the seaside cliffs of Lima to the strange desert dunes of Ica into the dusty valley where Arequipa sits was mind-blowing.

Private Transport in Peru

Taxis are about the only way to get in Peruvian cities other than Lima.

Many private transport options exist in Peru, primarily for those travelers who want to travel by tour. In some instances there is no other option, such as for the journey from Arequipa to the Colca Canyon, located so high into the Andes that public buses don’t exist. It’s also possible to hire a taxi or bus from the town of Aguascalientes up to Machu Picchu.

I work when I travel. Whether I’m doing one of my Web copywriting gigs to pay the bills, taking photos of a city or country or doing on-the-ground research for my next Leave Your Daily Hell article, I’ve always got something going on. Admittedly, this is born more out of necessity than choice.

But you know what’s strange? I much prefer traveling this way than I ever did traveling purely for leisure. As I alluded to in my article about maintaining travel-life balance last week, traveling with a purpose or intent — be it for work, study, charity or creative reasons– is essential if you want your trip to be fulfilling.

Documenting Your Travels

Documenting your travel is a creative, fun way to stay actively engaged in travel. Start your own travel blog or begin practicing travel photography.

Starting a Travel Blog

Before I departed for India in March 2009 I made the decision to launch my first travel blog, Indioma. The decision was far from a professional one. Rather, I wanted to create a living memento of my first “big trip” with my best friend Dora.

The response I received was astounding! People I didn’t know were emailing me complimenting me on my writing and photography — and, best of all, telling me how much reading my blog made them want to go to India. Obviously, if you made the decision to click through to Indioma, you’ll see how far I’ve come since then.

Want to start your first travel blog? I recommend using WordPress, which is the easy-to-use content management system that powers Leave Your Daily Hell. After you sign up for a free account on WordPress.com, you can choose a design for your blog, begin publishing your entries and link your friends and family to them via social media. You can even transfer WordPress onto your own custom domain if you want, something I’ll write about in an upcoming entry on travel blogging.

Practicing Travel Photography

Although I didn’t purchase my first DSLR camera until February 2010 when I was visiting Bangkok, I’ve been long interested in travel photography. Having a “nice” camera certainly helps you take better quality photos, but you need not spend thousands to hone your digital travel photography skills.

As is the case with travel, good travel photography requires a purpose. The reason I never post photos from any of my pre-India trips is that I, like many young travelers, was more focused on taking photos of myself and friends than I was in documenting what was right in front of me. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course.

I guarantee you, though, that once you start using your camera to document your travels, people will become much more interested in the photos you post. Whether you want to tell the story of a place or just highlight beautiful things you’ve seen, turn your lens away from yourself and document your surroundings.

Need some inspiration? Head on over to Leave Your Daily Hell’s new photography page.

Studying or Living Abroad

Studying or living abroad is another great way to stay engaged while you travel. Whether you participate in a “semester abroad” with your university, teach English as a second language in Asia or simply decide to stay in a foreign country as long as your visa allows, being in a city or country long-term allows you time to get to know the people and then land at your own pace.

In some ways, this is the easiest way to travel with a purpose. By doing something simple like befriending a local person and conversing with him over lunch or dinner, you are participating in a valuable cultural exchange than works both ways. Likewise, while adjusting to local behavioral norms, you may discover a way to make your own life better you never knew existed.

One thing I highly suggest you avoid when living abroad is to spend too much time around other expats. Obviously, belonging a community of “people like you” is comforting on days when you miss your family and friends back home. When in doubt, however, live as local as possible and interact with as many locals as possible. You won’t regret it!

Working or Volunteering While You Travel

If you do decide to stay somewhere long-term, another option for occupying your time is to work or volunteer abroad. While landing a professional job can be difficulty depending on where you are — namely, due to visa regulations — volunteering is something you can typically do on a tourist visa.

When I visited Peru last March, for example, the Loki Hostel in Cusco ran daily school-building excursions to local earthquake-damaged communities. A group called “BEAN” in Shanghai works with local disadvantaged people, particularly women and children. I’ve encountered countless other volunteering opportunities as I’ve traveled.

In general, I would advise against traveling somewhere specifically to volunteer, unless you do so through a large organization like the Peace Corps. The reason is not that I am anti-volunteering, but rather that small organizations frequently require you to pay to volunteer — and I don’t just mean covering your own transportation and living expenditures. I mean paying a huge flat fee!

Location-Independent Work

The most work-intensive way of all to travel with purpose is to actually, well, work while you travel. If you have a job back home, your boss may let you telecommute when you go on vacation. That’s cool, but it can be stressful if you have to be online at a certain time and you’re a dozen hours behind or ahead of your workplace.

The more flexible option is to procure location-independent freelance or contract work. Finding your first gig, whether you do freelance online copywriting, Web design or programming, can be difficult, particularly if you’ve never done freelance work before.

My suggestion to you is simple. Peruse the “Jobs” section of any Craigslist site in your country (large cities like New York and Los Angeles have the largest selections) and tick the “telecommute” box at the top of the page, then click “Search” to pull up a list of all telecommuting opportunities. I recommend you look only within your country of citizenship or residence since that eliminates the need to get a visa — or to lie and risk deportation.

Have you found a way I haven’t listed to travel with a purpose? Leave a comment and tell me what it is!

I’ve gotta be honest: The Vietnam war was the last thing on my mind when I was traveling through Vietnam. Whether I was catching rays on the concrete beaches of Mui Ne, soaking in the otherworldly Cat Ba Island or traveling overland from Hanoi to the Lao border, the last thing I wanted to do was torture myself with the memory of a war that began and ended before I was born.

Indeed, it was at the suggestion of my travel companions that I took a trip to an important war relic located about 30 miles northwest of Saigon. I’m glad I paid a visit to the subterranean Cu Chi tunnels, one of the most impressive defense systems in the history of war, in spite of how low a priority seeing Vietnam war history was for me.

History of the Cu Chi Tunnels

Not only did a person fit down there, but an entire town existed down there

The Cu Chi tunnels were originally started in the 1940s as a means of camouflaging and protecting Vietnamese fighters, initially as a means of combating French colonial occupation. Locals expanded the tunnels, which were dug using simple tools and bare hands, as tensions with the United States escalated in the 1960s.

More than just tunnels as their name suggests, the labyrinth that exists beneath the soil of Cu Chi is a complex, elaborate system that enabled an entire town to go on living in the wake up unspeakable terror happening just above. The Cu Chi tunnels are not just significant because of the role they played in the Vietnam war but indeed, because of how they testify to the human will to live.

Sinh Cafe Bus to Cu Chi Tunnels

Careful -- it's a trap!

Several public and private transport options to the Cu Chi Tunnels exist. The Sinh Cafe, whose Vietnamese bus services I highlighted in an earlier article, offers buses departing from their office in the backpackers area of Saigon for about US$5. A public bus from central Saigon — specifically, bus 13 at Ben Thanh bus station — costs 25 cents.

Alternatively, if you have a group of several travelers, it might be just as economical to hire a private taxi. Cars holding up to four passengers can be had for as little as $30. If you can do simple math you’ll see that’s not quite as economical, but it’s definitely more comfortable. No matter how you travel, expect the journey to take around 90 minutes.

Inside the Cu Chi Tunnels

Inside the tunnels

Once you pay the 80,000 dong (about $4) entrance fee, you can enter the Cu Chi tunnel complex. Several of the tunnels themselves are open for exploration and I highly recommend you crawl inside. They’ll seem extremely small but trust me: They wouldn’t let you in if anyone had ever gotten stuck.

You’ll also seem some of the traps that exist at Cu Chi, which include pits filled with sharp daggers pointing upwards. You can also seem the remnants of craters left by bombs, which the residents of Cu Chi were thankfully able to survive thanks to their well-designed system of tunnels.

Cu Chi Tunnels Tour

Tour guides are on-hand to explain the intricacies of the tunnels to you

Most privately-operated buses departing Saigon include a tour guide, the quality of which varies greatly. Although tour guides are uniformly friendly, the problem you will likely encounter is difficulty understanding everything they say.

Indeed, I spent most of my time roaming freely around the tunnels and taking photos. Whether you stay with the group or chart your own course through the Cu Chi tunnels — just don’t fall into any of the traps! — your experience at the Cu Chi tunnels will transcend a simple history lesson.

Perched above cliffs that recede dramatically into the North Atlantic, the seaside city of Essaouira, Morocco is set amid scenery that seems more befitting of Brittany or even Western Ireland. Its bone-white buildings accented in deep blue are about as far as you can get from the warm reds and pinks that define medinas in Moroccan cities like Marrakech and Rabat.

These reasons alone make a trip all the way to the western edges of the African continent all the more rewarding. Once you can learn to pronounce and remember the city’s strange name, book a bus ticket to Essaouira, the sparkling gem of Morocco’s Atlantic coast.

History of Essaouira

Essaouira's past as a military and trading port is extremely evident

Known as “Tassort” in the local Berber language and “Mogador” in Portuguese, Essaouira (pronounced ess-oo-wee-rah) was first explored by the Carthaginian navigator Hanno around 400 B.C. More recently, in 1506, Manuel I of Portugal established several forts there. The Portuguese retreated less than half a century later; The French had come and gone by 1700.

The city you see now when you set foot in Essaouira began in the mid 18th century, when Mohammed III of Morocco began using it as a port for trading with European powers. Although initially fruitful, this decision would backfire in 1844 at the onset of the first Franco-Moroccan war, which would once again relegate Essaouira to French control, between 1912 and 1956.

It was during this “French protectorate” period that Essaouira began to gain popularity as a tourist destination for Europeans. As is the case throughout much of the rest of Morocco, French cultural influence in Essaouira is still strong.

Bus from Marrakech to Essaouira

Essaouira at night

The best way to travel to Essaouira from Marrakech is by bus. As I detailed in my post on getting around in Morocco, two bus options between Essaouira and Marrakech exist: The government-run “CTM” bus; Or a public, local bus.

In Morocco, “government-run” is synonymous with “high-quality” and “legitimate,” so you should book a CTM bus if you can. As of January 2012, these depart Marrakech at 8 a.m. and 12 noon. Regardless of which bus you take, the cost is 80 D.H. (about $12) one-way and the journey takes between three and fours hours.

One word of advice: Do not eat any of the meat they sell along the road there. You will regret it!

Hotels and Hostels in Essaouira

Inside the Riad el Pacha

Although Essaouira isn’t a tourist hub along the lines of Marrakech or Fez, it is a popular spot for foreign tourists and Moroccan locals alike. As a result lodging options are plentiful, where you prefer luxury hotels, basic hostels or anywhere in-between.

Since this is Leave Your Daily Hell and my budget policy is always “as cheap as possible,” I’m going to recommend hostels. Personally, I stayed at Riad el Pacha, a charming riad-style hostel located just off the main shopping street. The riad had the classic open Moroccan construction and a lovely rooftop terrace that provide an amazing view of the entire city.

You can also stay at the Hostel Essaouira, which is the most popular hostel on HostelWorld. The only reason I didn’t stay there is that they were full when arrived. And as you might remember, I’m not a fan of booking in advance.

Things to Do in Essaouira

Visit with seagulls almost anywhere in Essaouira

As is the case throughout much of the rest of Morocco, Essouira is filled with a plethora of dining and shopping options. You can also hop another bus a few hours south to Agadir, Morocco’s surfing capital.

Above all, however, Essaouira is a place to relax. Whether you stroll the old stone street of the medina, along any portion of the city’s Atlantic coastline or even head south to its camel-laden beaches, you’re sure to leave Essaouira feeling much more refreshed than you did when you arrived.

As I mentioned in my recent post comparing it to São Paulo, Brazil’s economic nucleus, the Cidade Maravihosa of Rio de Janeiro is marvelous primarily because of its positioning between the crystalline turquoise waters of the tropical Atlantic and the mountains and jungles that rise up over the sea.

There is absolutely no shortage of great beaches in Rio de Janeiro — and for some travelers, this is precisely the problem. Where should you go to relax? To see-and-be-seen? For the best scenery? There is no definitive “best” beach in Rio de Janeiro, so focus instead on matching your tastes and preferences to the stretch of coastline that’s best suited to you.

The “Big Three” Rio de Janeiro Beaches

Ipanema Beach.

Broadly speaking, you can divide Rio de Janeiro’s beaches into two sections: Copacabana and Ipanema, which sit to the east and west of the Arpaodor rock formation that separates them respectively. Copacabana has been popular since the 60′s and 70′s and is uniformly more crowded, while Ipanema rose to prominence more recently and while also crowded, has tranquil parts.

Specifically, you’re likely to find peace it you stick to Leblon, the western half of Ipanema. I would actually go so far as to say Leblon is the third of what are three main beach areas in Rio de Janeiro, the aforementioned Copacabana and Ipanema being the other too.

Looking west over deserted Leblon as the sun rises over Rio de Janeiro.

Generally speaking, the further east you go (that is to say, Copacabana), the more crowded the beaches become and the less affluent the adjust neighborhoods are. Leblon is therefore extremely upmarket, its beaches sometimes almost deserted, which you could read as either boring or refreshing in a place like Rio de Janeiro. Ipanema is somewhere in-between and provides a nice balance of bougey, calm Leblon and bohemian, chaotic Copacabana.

Rio de Janeiro Beach Post Numbers

Copacabana Beach just before sunset.

Rio de Janeiro beaches are further subdivided by the number of the “post” adjacent to the street, starting at “1″ on the eastern edges of Copacabana near the Sugar Loaf and ending at…well, actually I don’t know how far they go in Leblon! I found Leblon’s beaches boring (although I was staying in Leblon) and always headed east into Ipanema.

In my experience, anything east of Post #10 is going to be a good time, whether you’re looking to enjoy a caipirinha, play beach volleyball or simply watch sunkissed locals doing their thing. Looking for the “gay beach”? You’ll find that between posts “8″ and “9.”

Ipanema Beach gets extremely crowded as the day goes on.

In general, however, beach posts offers less of an indication of what you’ll find on a certain stretch of beach and are instead most useful for setting meeting places with friends.

Navigating Rio’s Beaches

If you stick to either the Copacabana or the Ipanema side, it’s best to simply walk the beach of your choice by foot, even if you want to get from one end all the way to the other. Although you could conceivably take a bus or taxi, you miss out on some of the world’s most beautiful scenery if you do.

The beach road is crowded no matter where in Rio de Janeiro you are.

Trying to pass between the two sides on foot gets more tricky, although it’s definitely possible. Specifically, you’ll need to cross over the Arpaodor by foot, then walk along the extreme western shores of Copacabana, which may or may not be exposed depending on the time of day and how high or low the tide is.

The easier way is to get a MetroRIO bus to the General Osório/Ipanema station of the Rio de Janeiro metro, then take it to one of the Copacabana stops: Cardeal Arcoverde and Botafogo. Once you exit, Copacabana Beach is just a few minutes’ walk southward.

Rio de Janeiro Beaches at Night

Looking down Ipanema beach from the Arpaodor at night.

Given Brazilians’ openness toward casual sex, it seems logical that sandy shores from Copacabana all the way to Leblon would be dotted with couples doing the nasty. I can back up this logic with personal experience. You can also find a hotbed of activity, sexual and otherwise, on the Arpaodor at night.

The only potential danger of hitting a Brazilian beach at night is, well, danger. Although touristy areas like Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon enjoy far lower rates of crime than the rest of Rio de Janeiro, spending too much time outdoors anywhere at night in a Brazilian city presents some risk.

Still, no matter which Rio beach you decide is your favorite and when you device to lay out on it, few better beach experiences in the world exist.

After you wind down a tour of the Uyuini Salt Flats in southwestern Bolivia, you have two options: Return to the town of Uyuni and then, to somewhere else in Bolivia; Or continue over the Andes and down into Chile’s Atacama desert.

In addition to being the “highest, driest” desert in the world, the Atacama desert is home to the town of San Pedro de Atacama, an extremely small town that is chock full of gringos. You know, other white foreigners.

If you’re stopping in San Pedro de Atacama in hopes of getting your first taste of Chilean culture, then move on. If you don’t go out and explore the abundant otherworldly natural features that surround the town, a trip to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile promises little more than a behavioral study of tourists in transit.

Getting to San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama is surrounded by a whole lot of nothing.

As I mentioned above, San Pedro de Atacama is typically the first stop for travelers who’ve just finished touring southwestern Bolivia. The Chile-Bolivia border sits about an hour northeast of San Pedro de Atacama — and several thousand feet above it in the Andes, of course.

Most Salt Flat tours include the option for a complimentary transfer to San Pedro de Atacama. If you choose this option, make sure to get your Bolivian exit stamp at the immigration office in Uyuni town, as the border (where your tour will drop you off) is usually unmanned.

The Chilean immigration office is actually situated in the San Pedro de Atacama vicinity, so you’re literally traveling through no man’s land for your first 50 of so kilometers in Chile. Well, minus the fact that Chilean roads are actually paved, have guardrails and have stripes painted on them.

Relaxing in San Pedro de Atacama

The majestic purple mountains that rise behind San Pedro de Atacama make it easy to relax.

The main reason I stopped in San Pedro de Atacama, rather than continuing straight on to the Chilean capital Santiago, was to recharge after a tiring two weeks in Bolivia, which I spent mostly sick. Cultural anemia aside, San Pedro de Atacama is an extremely relaxing place to find yourself. The town barely moves!

It’s important to remember the fact I cited earlier over the course of your visit: San Pedro de Atacama is, in fact, situated in the world’s highest, driest desert. Although on paper these superlatives might not seem significant, the effects of this highness and dryness on your well-being (if not your health) may be significant.

Although I spent only four days in San Pedro de Atacama, my hair, skin and lips were the driest they have ever been in my life by the time I left. I had to use lip balm (which is surprisingly hard to come by in such an arid place) for the first time in years! The good part of this is that if you have any excess sinus moisture, you won’t for long.

Restaurants and Hostels in San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama is a great place to enjoy pizza.

San Pedro de Atacama has no shortage of places to eat and stay. In fact, it would seem upon arriving in the town that restaurants, hostels and hotels are among the only businesses in San Pedro de Atacama.

If you enter from Bolivia the vehicle will drop you in the town’s central “Plaza de Armas,” whereas travelers arriving from Santiago or elsewhere in Chile will arrive at the bus station in the northwest corner of town. No matter where you arrive, I suggest you head as far east as possible — in other words, walk toward the Andes — to find the most affordable place to stay in San Pedro de Atacama.

Restaurants, unfortunately, are uniformly expensive. The good news is that several grocery stores are available on the Caracoles main road and many of the hostels include kitchens where you can cook food.

San Pedro de Atacama Excursions and Activities

Check out the carved, stone faces of Pukara de Quito on the outskirts of San Pedro de Atacama.

You can do a lot or a little in and around San Pedro de Atacama, depending on your energy level when you arrive. Mine was low so the only activity in which I partook was biking around the vicinity of the town for several days. In addition to some charming local farms, incredible Andean scenery and a creepy (but cool) graveyard, I was able to see and climb through incredible rock formations (with carved faces!) at Pukara de Quito.

As you wander through the town, you will see tours advertised for activities such as Valle de la Luna  (Valley of the Moon), local geysers and salt flats and a “star tour” that happens nightly depending on how clear the sky is. I can’t recommend any of these personally since I was exhausted and didn’t partake in any of them, but I will recommend, as always, that you shop around to make sure you get the best price.

When I ask friends, family members and even fellow travelers when they’re going to take that trip they’ve always dreamed of, I get a varied spate of responses. For many, it’s “When I get the money.” Some others say “I’m too busy at work to travel” or “I want to see if Mr./Ms. Right Now becomes Mr./Mrs. Right.” The vaguest among them always respond with a simple “Someday.”

Now, I’m not under any illusions. I realize that the vast majority of us can’t hop on a plane tomorrow, as much as we’d really like to. By vowing to travel at the nearest possible point in the future, however, you dramatically increase the chances of your dream trip becoming a variety. Still aren’t ready to set your departure date? This list will motivate you to stop procrastinating and hit the road.

1. Life is short

As the old cliché says, you could walk out onto the street today and be hit by a car. Wouldn’t you rather meet your end on the crazy streets of Marrakech or in a sleazy Bangkok back alley?

2. The world is huge

I’ve managed to rack up 36 countries in my seven years of travel, yet I’ve still seen only a fraction of the world’s surface area. The sooner you start traveling, the better your chances of visiting everywhere you want to see in your short life.

3. The only time is “right now”

I don’t mean to get all yoga instructor on you, but I’ve come to love this particular piece of wisdom a lot. To say it another way, if it’s always “right now,” then doesn’t “I’ll travel later” mean you’re planning to travel at a time that doesn’t exist? Ooooooom.

4. You will never have enough money

If your decision not to travel right now is financially-based, what exactly is your end financial goal? As I detail in my article about how to travel middle class, making travel happen is about re-arranging your priorities, not striking it rich.

5. Your friends and family will be there for you when you return

A lot of people I meet tell me they’re afraid to travel because they feel like they’re leaving their loved one behind. Even if you move overseas for a year to teach English, your friends and family are going to be right where you left them. Unless they, too, grew balls and decided to hit the road.

6. The idea is fresh in your mind

The old saying “strike while the iron is hot” applies to travel as well as it does any situation in your life. Dreaming of a slow trip up the Nile River or an encounter with pandas in China? Being excited and enthused about an upcoming trip energizes you as you re-arrange your life to accomodate your upcoming travel.

7. Retirement is a long way away

Even if you were able to enjoy the same cushy retirement as your parents and grandparents, do you really want to think about how many times the elderly you would need to get up an use the toilet on an overnight train in India? Take it from someone who’s seen incontinence in motion: It’s best to travel while your body still works.

8. The world is (kind of) at peace

As a world traveler, I am not under any illusions that the world is actually at peace. Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, Libya — the list goes on. Thing is, there isn’t currently an international crisis that is preventing the movement of people across most borders. There could be later this year, however, if Israel and the U.S. get their way.

9. Travel is contagious

One of the greatest joys in my life is reading comments here on Leave Your Daily, responses to my posts on Facebook and Twitter and direct email messages telling me that my stories have inspired others to travel. Yours will do the same — pay it forward!

10. Leave Your Daily Hell is here to help!

Leave Your Daily Hell is filled with comprehensive destination guides and practical travel advice, no matter where you want to go. Or maybe you just want to look at some pretty picture for inspiration?

I have never once heard Manila, the capital of the Philippines, listed as anyone’s favorite Southeast Asian city. Or mentioned anywhere on a list of “favorites,” for that matter.

As someone who had an absolutely fabulous time in Manila last December, this saddens me. If the adventures I described in my previous post about the Philippine capital didn’t convince you, consider these seven reasons you should spend at least a few days in Manila.

1. You’re already going to be there

Manila is the center of the Philippines in every measurable sense.

The vast majority of flights arriving to the Philippines from abroad arrive at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Instead of rushing onward to your next destination, why not stay a few days in Manila? You know, since you’re there anyway.

2. Manila is rich is cultural treasures

Manila has merit as a final destination, not just an initial one. From Intramuros, the city’s historical city center that dates back to Spanish colonial times, to the massive Chinese cemetery that pays homage to Manila’s Chinese immigrant heritage, to the city park dedicated to national hero José Rizal, Manila has literally centuries of culture waiting to be discovered.

3. Love shopping? You’ll love Manila

Enjoy Manila's rich cultural tapestry.

As I mentioned in my post about spending Christmas in the Philippines, Manila is home to literally dozens of huge malls, which sell everything from brand-name consumer goods to island-inflected toys and trinkets, with prices ranging from bottom of the barrel to high end. Plus, they’re all well air conditioned, which is one of the main reasons they’re so loved among Filipinos.

4. There’s plenty of cool stuff very close to Manila

Visit Taal volcano, about an hour south of Manila.

Metro Manila is one of the largest urban areas in the world, but you don’t have to travel very far outside the city to feel like you’re on other planet. Whether you head north to Pampanga to enjoy the annual Giant Lantern Festival, east to WWII-era Corregidor island or south to Batanganas province, home to the Taal volcano and its heritage town, the immediate Manila area provides a diverse range of travel options.

5. Manila is a transit hub

You will love Manila, if only for all the friendly locals.

Didn’t take my advice and spend a few days in Manila after you arrived in the Philippines? You’ll get another chance, I promise. Whether you’ve got a day between Cebu Pacific flights from sunny Boracay island to the mysterious Banaue Rice Terracesor pass back through Manila as you’re criss-crossing the country by land, plenty of opportunities to stop in to Manila for a short time exist.

6. Prices in Manila are low

Manila's bayside Roxas Boulevard.

This fact won’t be news to you if you’ve traveled extensively in Southeast Asia, but the prices you find in Manila on accommodation, food and transport are among the lowest you’ll find anywhere in the Philippines, if only because of competition and a large local population. Even if you’re nearly broke from your Palawan beach vacation, you can subsist in Manila for less than you think.

7. Manila will surpass your expectations

Even if you take this article at face value, you probably won’t be able to shake the “Manila is kind of a shithole” stereotype that seems to dominate the travelsphere — and that’s great, as far as I’m concerned. The lower your expectations going in, the more delighted you will be to find that Manila is, well, delightful.

As I described in a guest post I did a few weeks back on the fabulous Bohemian Trails blog, I made the dastardly decision to travel through southern Egypt on an organized tour. Well, maybe more naive than dastardly. In any case I don’t particularly recommend booking a tour of Egypt when you visit the land of the Pharaohs.

I do, however, absolutely recommend visiting the southern part of the country, if only to sail up the Nile river on a traditional felucca boat. Southern Egypt is calm, sparsely populated and culturally separate from much of the rest of the country, as I hope these photos convey.

Whether you travel independent or on an organized tour, your first stop in southern Egypt will almost certainly be the city of Aswan. Located approximately 200 miles from the Sudanese border, Aswan is at the center of what was once Nubia, a kingdom of black Africans that was repeatedly absorbed into the pharaonic kingdoms of Egypt, only to gain independence and then be re-conquered. These days, the city is a mix of indigenous Nubian and the Arabs that currently inhabit most of the rest of Egypt -- and Islam is as strong in southern Egypt as anywhere else in the country. As you can see, the revolutionary fervor born in Cairo has also made its way down to Aswan.

One of the central tourist attraction of Aswan is the Aswan High Dam and the resultant Lake Nasser. I say "resultant" because Lake Nasser didn't exist prior to the construction of the Dam, which was completed in 1971. At that point, collected waters from Nile flooded previously barren swaths of desert, forming a large, manmade lake that stretches into Sudan. Although the dam itself is nothing to write home about, the vastness of the lake is overwhelming.

Aswan has been perhaps the hardest hit of all Egypt's cities by the tourist drought that has arisen in the wake of this year's revolutions. Walking through Aswan's Old Bazaar at night, I was greeted by many a shopkeeper desperate enough to part with his items for literally next to nothing. As shown above, the majority of shoppers were local people at the time. Even if you don't take one of these merchants up on his too-good-to-pass-up deal, a trip through the Aswan Bazaar is definitely worth your while.

Abu Simbel temple is probably the most famous tourist attraction in the vicinity of Aswan, located about three hours south near the Sudanese border. It's only possible to reach Abu Simbel, which were constructed around 1264 B.C. by Ramesses II, by a convoy of tourist vans that leaves Aswan at the agonizing hour of 3 a.m. Surrounded by the waters of Lake Nasser, Abu Simbel is definitely one of the coolest places I've ever visited, although the organized nature of tours there (even if you aren't traveling southern Egypt on an organized tour) makes the experience a bit rushed.

If you take one piece of advice from all my Egypt content, it's that you absolutely must spend at least one night aboard a traditional felucca sailboat when you visit southern Egypt. After departing Aswan, you'll spend an afternoon and evening (and the very early part of the next morning) out on the water, before docking about 100 km south of Luxor, the next stop on the southern Egypt tourist trail.

En route to Luxor you stop at Esna Temple, built in the Greco-Roman period of Egyptian history during the third century B.C. The temple complex is massive in extent, centered around The Temple of Khnum, the God of the source of the Nile River. Since you'll pass near the Temple of Esna on your way north through Egypt anyway, I highly recommend making at least a brief stop there.

Luxor itself isn't anything particularly special, a mid-sized city that has grown almost entirely as a result of the Egyptian tourist industry. Located about 300 km north of Aswan, Luxor is closer in ethnic and cultural composition to the rest of Egypt -- you can see four minarets in this picture alone. As was the case with me, you'll probably do little more than sleep and eat dinner in Luxor or perhaps enjoy some flavored shisha in the city center.

Although Luxor is home to a temple bearing its name, the most popular tourist attraction is undoubtedly Karnak, the largest temple in Egypt and (reputedly) the world. Karnak dates back about 3,600 years to the New Kingdom of Egypt, which had its capital at nearby Thebes. Although it was fascinating to walk through the more than 25 temples that make up Karnak, I was much more surprised by the sheer amount of tourists who were also there. Although most of the rest of Egypt had been all but deserted, there were no less than 5,000 people at Karnak when I was there. This owes itself as much to the fact that Karnak is important as it does the temple's relative proximity to popular Red Sea resorts that didn't suffer at all in the wake of revolution.

When I began planning out my trip to South America around this time last year, I was elated upon realizing that only two of the countries I was planning on visiting required entry visas: Bolivia and Brazil. Even better, I learned I could obtain my Bolivian visa at the country’s border with Peru and my Brazilian visa in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

What wasn’t such good news, however, was my discovery of “reciprocity fees.” In layman’s terms, reciprocity fees are supplementary the governments of certain countries in South America require nationals of certain foreign countries to pay when they enter by air, aimed at making the reciprocal immigration process more fair.

Unless you travel through South America exclusively overland as I did, there isn’t any way to avoid paying reciprocity fees, so build these dollar amounts into your travel budget before you depart.

Reason for Reciprocity Fees

Reciprocity fees exist to make immigration more fair

I won’t mince words: It’s fucking difficult for national of South American countries to get tourists visas to the United States and, to a lesser extent, Australia. One young man I met in Brazil told me that the process takes several months, hundreds of dollars and often ends in rejections.

Although having to pay a hundred (or more) extra dollars just to enter a country seemed unfair at first, I now see reciprocity fees as what the countries who levy them intend them to be. Namely, reciprocity fees aim to level the immigration playing field. These fees don’t exist for holders of E.U. passport, since E.U. immigration restrictions are much less stringent than those for the U.S. and Australia.

The silver lining of reciprocity fees is that you need only pay them once for the life of your passport. If your passport is getting full, this is another reason to consider adding pages to it as oppose to replacing it.

Argentina Reciprocity Fee

If you fly directly to any city in Argentina (such as Buenos Aires) from outside Argentina, you must pay a $140 fee

Argentina is one of two South America countries that levies a reciprocity fees to passengers arriving by air. The fee, which is $140 (payable in U.S. dollars) as of January 2012, is due for all U.S. citizens who arrive on flights originating from outside Argentina’s borders.

This means you have to pay the fee not only if you take a flight from Chicago, New York or Houston to Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza International Airport, but also from anywhere else in South America to busy airports serving Argentina’s second-largest city Córboda, the wine-producing region of Mendoza and Ushuaia in Patagonia.

Chile Reciprocity Fee

In Chile, only the airport serving capital Santiago levies the $131 fee

Chile also charges a reciprocity fee to U.S. citizens who arrive by air, although its implementation of this fee (which is $131 as of January 2012) is less strict than that of Argentina.

Specifically, you only need to pay this fee if you enter Chile via Santiago International Airport. If you are coming directly to Chile from the United States this is hard to avoid, but if you’re coming from elsewhere in South America, many other choices exist, such as entering by land after touring the Uyuni Salt Flats in southwestern Bolivia.

Avoiding Reciprocity Fees

If you want to avoid reciprocity fees in South America altogether, your only real option is to travel South America entirely by land, as I detail in my article about transportation in South America. This might seem daunting — and distance-wise, it no doubt is — but I highly recommend traveling by land, if only because it enables you to see vast swaths of South American nature you might miss otherwise.

With the exception of misunderstood Mynamar, Laos is probably the most primitive country in Southeast Asia when it comes to transportation infrastructure. In addition to the fact that public buses are poor quality and low in number — and trains are almost nonexistent — Laos’ mountainous terrain means that travel within Laos is usually slow and often downright treacherous.

Still, getting around in Laos isn’t absolutely impossible — although you might feel it is when you’re trapped inside a public Lao bus with dozens of locals.

Flights to Laos

Flying is the easiest way to enter or exit Laos

Flights are the most common way foreigners exit and exit Laos. Major and low-cost regional carriers fly from their hubs in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore to both Luang Prabang and Vientiane International Airports.

One benefit of entering Laos by air is that you can purchase your visa on arrival at the airport, drastically shorter travel times notwithstanding. The primary disadvantage of flying to Laos is that it tends to be quite expensive — one-way fares from Bangkok or Saigon can run as much as $200 each way!

Entering and Exiting Laos Overland

Entering Laos by land is far from a serene experience.

If you read my post about traveling from Vietnam to Laos overland, you’ll know that although entering Laos overland is definitely a cheap alternative to pricey flights, it is far from easy or even pleasant. To give you the Reader’s Digest version, it takes a minimum of two days to travel from Luang Prabang to Hanoi (or vice-versa) overland.

If you’re coming from or going to Thailand the process is much easier, as I’ll detail in a few more paragraphs.

Ground Transport in Laos

Ground transport in Laos is plentiful.

Once you’re in Laos the transportation situation is decidedly more cut and dry. Specifically, you have a choice between taking public buses and private share vans and taxis.

The quality and comfort of public buses varies greatly depending on where in Laos you. When I traveled from the Lao-Vietnam border to the norther Lao transit hub of Oudomxay, it was in a van-sized vehicle with no less than 20 fellow passengers — and no air conditioning. The public bus I took for the five-hour journey from the mountain town of Vang Vieng to capital Vientiane was much more comfortable by comparison.

Private transport will generally always be comfortable and clean, although you will definitely have to pay for it. Of course, nothing is particularly expensive in Laos, but once you get accustomed to bartering with people for less than a dollar, the extra $2-5 you might have to pay for comfortable transport may seem like a lot.

Laos to/from Thailand by Train

New train service makes traveling between Laos and Thailand delightful and simple

Ironically, my favorite transportation experience in Laos was the one that took me out of the country, which says nothing about the fantastic time I had there. Well, except for the bad noodles I ate in Vientiane, which left me sicker than I’ve ever been in my life.

In any case, I’m talking about the new-ish train service between Vientiane and Bangkok, which makes traveling between Laos and Thailand a piece of non-spoiled cake. Trains depart Thanaleng, a station located about 10 miles from Vientiane and just a couple inside the Lao border, for Bangkok several times per day.The advantage of taking these nonstop trains is that you can book a sleeper cabin for the 13-hour journey. If you’re on an extremely tight budget — the bed costs 780 baht, or about $23 — you can also book a seat for around 400 baht ($11).

For more information about trains between Laos and Thailand, check out Seat61, one of my favorite websites and an indispensable resource for budget travelers.

At the end of the day, budget travel is about spending money only to meet one’s most basic necessities — things like transportation, lodging and, most importantly, food. Whenever someone asks me specifically how much I set aside per day, week or month for any particular necessary expense, my response is always the same: “As little as possible.”

Just because you spend next to nothing on your food doesn’t mean you have to eat next to nothing, however. No matter where in the world you are, it’s easy to eat well without spending a lot of money if you make the right decisions.

Eating in “Cheap” Countries

That price is thankfully in Chilean pesos, not U.S. dollars.

The surest way to find cheap, delicious food when you travel is to travel to countries that are “cheap” to begin with. Broadly, this includes Southeast Asia, China, India, South America and parts of the Arab Middle East.

The culinary benefits of traveling through these parts are the world are two-fold. Not only can you usually pay for your meal with coins, but the food in developing countries in usually amazing. Whether you’re having a jian bing egg pancake for breakfast in Beijing, slurping down pho in Vietnam, dipping hummus in Lebanon or enjoying sumptuous lomo saltado in Peru, tasty local food can always be had in all the places backpackers gravitate.

“Local,” do remember, is the operative word here. If you choose to indulge in Western comfort food in Africa, Latin America or the Far East, you’ll pay at least double what you would in your home country — just wait until you get home to enjoy the real thing.

Cheap Food in Expensive Countries

When in doubt, eat Asian to save on food when you travel.

It’s possible to eat cheap even in countries that are traditional moderate to expensive in price, although it takes a bit more effort.

You should definitely still “go local” whenever you can. In Greece, for example, munch on mouthwatering gyro sandwiches for under two euro, even in Athens. Headed to Israel? I’m not going to lie: You’ll probably spend at least 15 shekels on a falafel sandwich. But it beats how much you’d pay for a swanky Western breakfast, I’ll promise you that.

If you can’t eat local or find that eating local is still expensive, the other solution is to eat Asian or Indian. Just as dishes like Tikka Masala, Kung Pao Chicken and Pad Thai are cheap in their countries of origin, it’s difficult to find expensive Asian or Indian food no matter where you are.

Cooking in Hostels

Cooking your own food is a great way to save.

Another way to save big on eating well when you travel is to cook whenever possible. Many of my favorite hostels have had kitchens for guests, where you can turn simple ingredients from local grocery stores into incredible gourmet meals.

Cooking in hostels isn’t always easy, however. Often, facilities and equipment leave much to be desired — and you may have to wait a while to cook if you get hungry around a typical mealtime.

This being said, it’s always easy to throw together a simply pasta dish or salad if your hostel has a kitchen for guests. If you’re stuck between two comparable hostels, always choose the one with the kitchen.

Drinking Cheap

Drink at the hostel to save on alcohol.

As can be the case at home, drinking alcohol is often a great expenditure than eating is. This is unfortunately the case no matter where in the world you travel — I’d pay the same for a cosmopolitan at somewhere on the Bund in Shanghai as I would in Amsterdam or Zürich. OK, not quite as much as I would in Zürich, but you get the picture.

The solution is simple: Buy your beer, wine and liquor at the store and enjoy it at the hostel before you go out, so that your in-bar drink purchases are kept to a minimum. Glasses of white wine at the Paradise Beach Club in Mykonos were a whopping 7 euro a piece when I visited there last September. By contrast, I bought an entire bottle at the nearby convenience shop for just five!

Eating cheap never means having to eat poorly, whether you prefer to eat in restaurants or cook for yourself — and this same truth extends to drinking and partying. Check out my articles on how to keep transportation costs low for more ideas on how to save money while you travel.

By the time I started planning my first trip to Thailand, I’d been living in chaotic, crowded Shanghai for more than three months. As beautiful as I’m sure they are, I was less than thrilled at the prospect of spending the Chinese New Year holiday on a crowded beach in Phuket or Koh Samui.

After a week or so of careful research, I determined that a little island known as “Koh Mak” was among the last unspoiled paradises in the Gulf of Thailand, described as having a Robinson Crusoe-type feel and a marked lack of visitors when compared to more popular Thai beach destinations.

My sources would eventually prove to be correct, although my initial arrival at Koh Mak’s busy main dock led me to believe they’d been wrong. Although Koh Mak is far from deserted, silence and tranquility are never more than a short walk or bike ride away.

Bus and Boat to Koh Mak

Take a boat from Trat to Koh Mak

Koh Mak is located off the shores of Thailand’s southeastern Trat province, whose capital city is located around five hours from Bangkok by bus. Your first task in getting to Koh Mak from Bangkok is thus arriving in Trat.

If you’re heading straight to Koh Mak from Suvarnabhumi as I did, take a shuttle from the air terminal to the bus terminal and buy a ticket on the next departure to Trat, which should run you under 300 baht. If you’re already in Bangkok, how easy a process this is depends on where you are. Staying at Khao San Road? Several buses per day leave direct from Khao San to Trat. If you’re elsewhere in Bangkok, take the SkyTrain to Mo Chit station, located adjacent to Bangkok’s busy northern bus terminal of the same name, and travel to Trat from there.

Once you arrive in Trat, you need to take a boat to Koh Mak, which involves taking a taxi or tuk-tuk to the Laem Ngop pier. Once you’re there, purchase a ticket from Leelawadee Speedboats, whose boats depart at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Expect to pay around 400 baht for a one-way ticket for the 45-minute journey. If you can’t get to Trat before 2:00 p.m., think about staying in Bangkok an extra night — there isn’t very much to do in the Trat area.

Koh Mak Arrival Pier

Enjoy a delicious Pad Thai near Makathanee Pier

Your speedboat will drop you at Koh Mak’s Makathanee Pier, which is located along the southern shores of the island. While beautiful, your initial impression will not likely be one of the Robinson Crusoe paradise that was foretold.

From here, you have two options: Walk down the beach as far as you can and find accommodation that will afford you an easy escape from the (relatively) crowded scene near the pier; Or walk straight down the main road until you hit a dead end, then turn left and follow the red, dirt road until you reach its end as well.

After about an hour you’ll reach Ao Pra and Ao Soun Yai beaches, two Koh Mak shores that are decidedly more serene than those you find at Makathanee. Alternatively, you can hire a taxi or tuk-tuk to take you here or to other quieter beaches.

Koh Mak Hotels and Resorts

Koh Mak's shores are dotted with beach huts

Koh Mak has no shortage of places to stay, no matter what your travel budget is. If you’re reading this blog I’m going to assume your travel budget is the same as mine was when I visited: As little as possible.

Unaware that the aforementioned quieter beaches existed, I chose to stay at the aptly-named Koh Mak Cottage, a collection of white cottages located about 500 meters down the beach (take a right) from Makathanee pier. I paid about 250 baht per night for my own private cottage. Although it was nice, it was infested with cockroaches. Food for thought. Er, not food. Whatever.

My best advice to you, unless you’re too tired to like, walk around when you get there, is to shop around until you find a place with a location and at a price point that suits you. Although the majority of lodging in Koh Mak wasn’t high end when I visited, you should make sure the place you want to stay isn’t before you commit to staying there. This map might help you.

Beaches of Koh Mak

There's the beach!

Once you sort out getting to Koh Mak and finding a hotel in Koh Mak, it’s time to hit the beach! Since Koh Mak is, well, an island, there are absolutely no shortage of them. My recommendation is this: Spend your days slowly exploring the Koh Mak coastline, walking along the shore until you literally can’t go anymore. Once that happens, take to the island’s aforementioned red dirt roads and walk until you find a different beach.

Regardless of where you stay or beach in Koh Mak or how long you spend there, an island getaway to this paradise is just the short break you need to ease any travel stress you have. Not sure you where you should head once you’ve got that tan? Why not take a train to Cambodia or visit the sex tourism hub of Pattaya?

In the corporate world — gag, I know — “work-life balance” has recently become a buzz phrase. From global companies like Facebook and Google to forward-thinking local businesses, ideas like working from home, having professionally-cooked lunches and even adult nap time are becoming the rule, rather than the exception.

So why am I mentioning these fun facts on a blog about making travel your lifestyle?

See, when travel becomes your “life,” it takes the place of “work” in the above equation. While some may argue that travel is about losing yourself, about letting go with wild abandon and picking up the pieces later, I believe travel should be an active quest to find yourself. Frankly, if travel doesn’t help you live your everyday life better, you’re doing something wrong.

Travel With Intent

One of the saddest sights I encounter on the road is other travelers who’ve atrophied, as I like to term it. Whether they’ve become content to dance each and every night away until they have no more money or exist completely within the confines or a hotel or hostel from sunrise to sunset, at least a few of the fellow travelers I meet everywhere I visit seem not to be traveling at all, but rather flagellating aimlessly in a country where they don’t happen to have citizenship.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I love a good day (or week!) at the beach. You should absolutely build time into your travel schedule for relaxation. The problem I find is that if relaxation doesn’t serve a purpose — for example, to alleviate weeks or months of hard work back at home or to reward yourself for making a long, overland journey across a continent — then I don’t see it as serving much purpose.

To be sure, there’s a huge difference between checking into an Indian ashram with the intent of meditating and sitting at your hostel’s rooftop bar because you aren’t inclined do anything. That difference is, well, intent.

Although traveling without intent might seem obliviously blissful when you’re in the midst of it, you’ll return home feeling like you’ve never left. You’ll spend your days restless and miserable, longing for your next vacation rather than applying what you learned from your last one to your life at “home” because let’s face it: You didn’t learn anything.

Stay Connected

When you travel, it’s easier than you might think to completely forget your life at home, particularly if you’re like me and don’t carry a cellphone on the road. Get to know each new person you encounter as fully as time and your energy levels allows (if you find yourself in Brazil, this will probably be on a rather intimate level), but do your very best to maintain at least occasional contact with your friends and family.

I’ve been out of the United State for my mother’s past three birthdays, yet have managed to call her (at a time she’s actually awake, I’m proud to say) no matter whether I was in India, China or Chile. Likewise, I make sure and send at least one communication per week to each of the people I consider to be my friends, even if it’s a simple emoticon sent across Facebook Chat. I even managed to donate $20 to my friend Kristen’s “Walk for Alzheimers” when I was in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula last September.

If you take even a second of your time to let your friends and family know you’re thinking of them when you’re out on the road, it makes them feel loved, important and best of all, that you’re still a part of their lives. I can tell you from experience that some people in your life will essentially have forgotten you by the time you return if you don’t at least minimally stay in contact.

Now, this isn’t generally out of malice, but stems from a more pragmatic source. It’s simple, really: If you are absent in someone’s life long enough, they will fill the space you held with other people and things, not to shun you but to keep themselves happy. If you don’t occasionally remind the people in your life of how important they are to you, you may find upon returning that they’re no longer in your life very much.

Don’t Travel Too Much

After passing through immigration at Houston Intercontinental Airport upon completion of my trip to South America last spring, I encountered an advertisement for a Continental Airlines credit card I already held. No one says “I take too many vacations,” it read. Although I doubt anyone has actually uttered those words, seeing the advertisement got me thinking: Is it possible to travel too much? Within seconds, I knew that the answer was an unequivocal “Yes,” even if I didn’t specifically feel that way myself.

Travel, it goes without saying, is defined by adventure and accomplishment, by journeys and destinations one after another and (hopefully) by frequent encounters with people and places you never knew existed. The negative side to this constant upside is that it can be difficult for your “real life” to compare. This is what’s known as the “post-travel blues.”

As someone who’s spent years cultivating location-independent income (which, if you’re curious, is mostly really, really boring commercial Web writing), I can just about travel whenever I want and about as often as I want. I choose not to, however, because I think it’s essential to reflect for at least a few weeks on what traveling has taught you and how it’s changed you, and to spend at least a few weeks after that applying what you’ve learned and how you’ve changed not only to your only life, but to use do whatever you can to help others find peace and satisfaction in theirs.

I think this quote from Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, one of my very favorite travel books, sums it up perfectly:

When you’ll have found blissfulness in the forest, then come back and teach me to be blissful.

If you don’t come back and stay long enough, how can you enjoy your blissfulness or teach anyone to be blissful?

Relax After You Get Home

As I alluded to a few paragraphs up, relaxation should never define your entire travel experience. Likewise, you shouldn’t think of heading home as “getting back on the grind.”

Indeed, something I think most people fail to realize is that even the most leisurely of travel is work. Whether it’s before-dawn wake-up calls for early trains in India, biking through the Andean foothills so you can get your Malbec on or simply living day-in and day-out in a place where the nutrition is of lower quality than you’re used to, travel requires constant, active engagement unless you happen to be private jet-owning celebrity.

Rather than punishing yourself by working late every day your first week back, treat yourself to a massage or spa day. Don’t you dare stress about all the money you spent! Instead, be thankful that you got to spend it living your dream, rather than pissing it away at happy hour or on clothing you’ll never know you wanted.

Relaxation doesn’t have to be sedentary, either. Too tired to go on that 10-mile jog? Spend an hour or so compiling the best travel photos from your trip or sifting through the ticket stubs, advertisements and other paraphernalia you picked up every place you visited. Invite your travel companion over for a cup of coffee and get down to reminiscing business.

If you follow these simple steps, each trip you take will make you more adept at living the life you want wherever it is you call home. Will your wanderlust ever wane? If my story any indication, probably not. But what is life, if not the grandest trip of all?

While seeing pandas in China was without a doubt a priority for me when I moved to the Middle Kingdom in late 2009, I really have my Aussie friend Dan (whom I’ll be seeing when I go down until later this month) to thank for my having seen them when I was there.

See, Dan had been absolutely adamant that we had to devote at least a few days of the two weeks he planned to spend in China in southwestern Sichuan province, home not only to pandas but to world-famous spicy food — more on that later. The bottom line is this: If you want to see pandas in China, and lots of them, your surest bet is visiting the official panda breeding and research center near Chengdu.

The Sad Story of the Panda

Artwork at the Panda Base depicts the fierce pandas of yesteryear

With all this talking panda “bases” and “breeding centers,” you’re probably wondering: Why can’t I just see pandas in the wild when I’m China? The short answer is that, for all intents and purposes, there aren’t any.

See, the panda has had an extremely unlucky history. Although it originated as a fierce, carnivorous predator in prehistoric times, it slowly evolved into a docile, vegetarian animal over the eons. Which would’ve been fine enough had the Chinese not come along, at which point pandas became increasingly restricted in terms of where they could live. This geographical confinement led the cruelty-free ursine to a diet that was not only vegetarian, but composed entirely of a specific species of bamboo, whose presence and quality also began to shrink thanks to the encroachment of the Chinese.

What pandas in China look like today.

To make matters worse, this fiber-rich, nutrient poor diet weakened both the panda’s digestive system and its metabolism, which is the reason the animals move sluggishly — it isn’t to be cute, in spite of how cute it makes them appear. They can also mate only once per year if they’re lucky and frequently miscarry, hence their plummeting numbers.

The final nail in the coffin of wild pandas in China was the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which I mention in my article about Sichuan’s Qingcheng mountain. The earthquake destroyed most of what was left of the panda’s natural habitat, which has thankfully been reconstructed at the Chengdu panda base, now understandably almost the only place to see pandas in China.

Inside the Chengdu Panda Base

The morning panda feeding session.

Once you enter the Chengdu Panda Base, for which there is a 50 yuan fee, you will find the panda museum and information center on the left side of the main road. Here, you can explore the long history of the panda in greater detail than the sob story I dictated above.

After you finish at the museum, you begin walking through the base’s massive 260-acre footprint, which is home to 83 giant pandas as of January 2012, who range in age from newborns to old timers. If you arrive early enough in the morning (I would suggest getting to the base no later than 8), you can view a live morning feeding session, which is one of the coolest things I’ve seen.

Staff at the Chengdu Panda Base have gone to great lengths to reconstruct the habitat of pandas in China.

Apart from the feeding, the number of pandas you see at the base really depends on luck. If the pandas are tired, the weather is poor or your timing just happens to be off, you might not see any pandas at all. During the first hour or so of the three I spent at the base, I didn’t see many pandas roaming among the reconstructed panda habitat, but the pandas thankfully became greater in number as the day progressed.

Panda Extras at the Panda Base

The adorable red panda, or 小熊猫.

For fees that seem to change at the whim of individual base employees, you can pose for photos with pandas or even get up close and personal with baby pandas, if there are any. I obviously didn’t take advantage of this offer, given my fear of being hustled in third world countries.

Although the standard giant panda (大熊猫 or da xiong mao, literally “big bear cat” in Mandarin) is without a doubt the star of the show at the Chengdu Panda Base, you’re also likely to see smaller red pandas, appropriately named xiao xiong mao (小熊猫) or “small bear cat.”

Getting to the Chengdu Panda Base

It's definitely going to be an uphill climb for pandas in China.

The Chengdu Panda Base is located in Chengdu’s northern suburbs. Although it is possible to use Chengdu’s public bus system to reach the panda base, it is far easier to just take a taxi from your hotel or hostel, such as Sim’s Cosy Garden Hostel, particularly if you’re traveling with several people.

I absolutely recommend you visit the Chengdu Panda Base, although I imagine that doing so will make you quite sad, as it made me — the panda seems to be near the end of its lifespan as a species, in spite of humanity’s valiant efforts to save it. For more information about seeing pandas in China at the Chengdu Panda Base, visit the base’s official website.

Morocco sits just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain, but the two countries couldn’t be more different, architectural styles notwithstanding. Although Spain is far from the most sophisticated country in Europe, it is more modern than Morocco in just about every way you can imagine.

Still, as countries in the developing world go, Morocco’s transportation infrastructure is quite modern. Whether you use buses, trains, taxis or any combination thereof, the experience of getting around in Morocco is about stress-free as you’re going to find in most of the Middle East and North Africa.

Moroccan Trains

Trains can take you from Marrakech to almost any other major city in Morocco

Although I landed in Casablanca, my first destination in Morocco was actually Marrakech, the country’s most popular city for foreign visitors. Not only was a fast train from Casablanca’s Voyageurs railway station to Marrakech available, but I was even able to make a rail connection between the Casablanca airport and the city center, something relatively rare in the Middle East and North Africa.

Indeed, the most obvious lasting benefit of Morocco’s colonial link to France is the modern rail system that France has helped develop over the past several decades. This continues to the present day: Morocco’s first high-speed TGV (tren à grande vitesse) line, which will connect the capital Rabat with both Casablanca and the port city of Tangier, is expected to open by 2015.

You can take the train between most any major city pair in Morocco, be it for a short from from Fez to Casablanca or the long-haul from Tangier all the way to Marrakech. For more information, visit the official Moroccan Railways Website.

Buses in Morocco

Travel by bus to experience the stunning coastal landscapes of Essaouira

I made a point of mentioning “major city” pairs above because if you’re looking to travel between small- and medium-sized cities in Morocco by train, you’re out of luck. Thankfully, bus links in Morocco are plentiful, often comfortable and tickets can almost always be yours at affordable rates.

My first bus experience in Morocco took me from Marrakech to the charmin coastal city of Essaouri, about four hours to the west. Unfortunately, my travel companion Erin and I got to the Marrakech bus station too late to catch the “good bus,” so we ended up having to settle for a dusty, cramped local bus we would later found out had cost us the same amount, on account of being foreigners.

If you can, book a bus through government operated CTM — the aforementioned “good bus” — at nearly any bus station in Morocco. For schedules and rates, check out CTM’s official website (which is unfortunately often down for maintenance and is only available in French and Arabic) or ask the front desk staff at your hostel.

Taxis and Private Cars in Morocco

Private transport can also help you traverse Morocco's roads.

Thanks to the generally low price point of transport in Morocco, you may be able to justify the usual luxury of taking a private taxi (in Morocco these are known as grand and petit taxis, respectively) to traverse long distances.

After I’d finished my time in Morocco’s Sahara desert, for example, I couldn’t bear the thought of spending seven more hours between the city where I was and Fez on a bus, even a “good” CTM one. As it turns out, the full-care fare for a petit taxi to traverse said distance was just 720 DH, or about twice the cost per-person of a seat on the bus, which wasn’t due to depart for more than eight hours after I needed to leave.

You can also rent cars in Morocco, although I am not sure I would personally feel comfortable driving on most of the rural roads throughout the country. The highways, on the other hand, are quite good.

Urban Transport in Morocco

Moroccan cities and towns are great for walking.

Not surprisingly, Moroccan cities are completely lacking public transport. For longer distances, you’ll need to hire a taxi (or, if you want to be really silly, a horse-drawn carriage) while most cities’ medinas are perfectly suited for leisurely walks.

However you choose to get around in Morocco, I imagine you’ll find it to be easy once you’ve spend a few days there, particularly if you’ve traveled in other developing countries, whose transportation infrastructures generally pale in comparison to that of Morocco. Even if you aren’t headed to Morocco anytime soon, check out my photo essay about the country to get a feel for the beautiful sights you’ll find there.

This is a guest post from Laura Yates, a misplaced Midwesterner currently living in Lima, Peru. When Laura isn’t traveling she works for SA Luxury Expeditions, a travel company specializing in Machu Picchu tours and personalized South America vacations. Interest in guest blogging for Leave Your Daily Hell in exchange for a link to the blog? Shoot me an email and let’s talk!

Traveling through South America is usually fairly easy. The people are welcoming, costs are reasonable, and when you use your common sense, most destinations are fairly safe. The only hiccup? Visas.

If you travel on an US, Canadian, or Australian passport (in addition to others), several countries are going to charge you tourist entry fees. Sometimes you can evade the fee by traveling over land (a neat trick to avoid paying when you enter Chile and Argentina), but Brazil is relentless. If you want to visit, you need to arrange, and pay for, your Brazil tourist visa ahead of time. No way around it.

And since Machu Picchu is a major notch on the typical vagabond’s belt, it isn’t unlikely you’ll find yourself in Peru at some point during your South America travels. And if the beaches of Brazil are tempting you eastward, here is how you can get your Brazil tourist visa while in Lima, Peru.

Brazil Visa Prep

Before heading to the Brazil Embassy, make sure you have your documents in order. The first step is finding a computer with a printer to access the online Brazil tourist visa request form.

Conveniently written in English, the site requires you to enter your basic personal information (name, date of birth, nationality, etc.); your passport information; your occupation details (profession, work place, address, phone number, etc.); and your permanent address, current address, and address in Brazil. For the last part, you can use the name of a hotel you plan to stay at during your time in Brazil. You’ll also need to estimate your total travel within the country.

When you finish, you’ll need to click “submit” and print the form.

Required Documents

The online visa request form has a list of what you’ll need to obtain a visa. However, when I went to the Brazil Embassy in Lima they handed me an additional piece of paper that stipulated what they require.

The exact list of what the Embassy of Brazil in Lima requires for a tourist visa: passport valid for at least six months from your intended arrival in Brazil, visa application form with recent passport-sized photo attached to the middle of the form, copy of round-trip ticket or copy of travel itinerary, copy and original of your credit card.

Oh, and the $140 USD to pay for the actual visa.

And, just to make things tricky, the final item on the Embassy’s list of requirements for obtaining a tourist visa: “Other documents, as demanded by the Consular Officer.”

Luckily, when I went in late 2011 to get my visa, I was not asked for any other forms. But here are a few tips to make sure the process runs smoothly: your passport photo needs to be taken on a white background and you should have a neutral expression on your face; you only need the front part of your credit card photocopied (although I brought the back part with me on a separate copy just in case they asked); you don’t need a copy of your passport (they take the original); if you have roundtrip plane tickets you do not need an itinerary.

Handing in Your Papers

The Brazil Embassy in Lima is open to process visa requests from 8am-12pm Monday through Friday (excluding holidays). You do not need an appointment to visit, but the earlier you get there the better. The building is located on Avenida Jose Parado 850 in Miraflores.
For travelers who have spent at least a day in Lima, the easiest way to find the Embassy is to start at the tip of Parque Kennedy where the McDonalds is (trust me, you can’t miss it) and head down the main street Jose Parado toward the ocean. The Embassy is located about 7 blocks down the street on the right-hand side, soon after you pass the main street Comandante Espinar.

Simply walk in the front door of the Embassy, tell the guard you want a tourist visa, sign in with your name and passport information, and allow yourself to be shuffled through a musical chair-esque rotation to the main office window.

After handing in all your documents, you’ll be given a little slip of paper and told to pay your $140 fee (or other amount stipulated by your nationality) at the bank.

Paying the Fee

Just in case you didn’t enjoy your walk down Jose Parado the first time, you get to walk back up the street to the HSBC bank to pay your visa fee. The process is pretty simple—except when the consulate gives you the wrong amount to pay. Like they did with me. Which would then require two trips to the bank rather than one. So take it from me: If you are American, you MUST pay $140. There are no exceptions, and if you’re told differently or given a different amount to pay, just point out your passport again and insist.

The bank is located on Jose Pardo 269, back up the street toward where you originally started. It will be on the right-hand side of the street next to a delicious-smelling barbeque restaurant. Simply wait until an attendant is available, hand over the slip of paper you were given along with the required amount of cash in US dollars and show a photo ID. Don’t worry if you don’t speak Spanish; this bank sees a lot of visa payment forms and knows what to do.

In return, you’ll be given a receipt. Return to the Embassy and wait in line again to turn in the proof of payment. If you’ve paid the proper amount, you’ll get a piece of paper with the date you can return to pick up your passport (which they hold on to) and your brand new Brazil tourist visa. Allow at least five business days for processing.

When I was a small child, I could often be found staring up at the world map my parents had hung over my bed as a gift for my sixth birthday. I spent much of the rest of my free time making drawings and sketches of all of my favorite spots in and around my neighborhood, which comprised all of the traveling I’d done up to that point.

Fast forward nearly two decades to 2009, when I found myself out of college, unemployed and without any real direction in life. I was excited about an upcoming trip to India, which I’d planned and paid for just before I lost my job, but spent the majority of each day worrying about how I was going to make ends meet once I returned.

As has often been the case throughout my life, I would eventually find both solutions and solace not by devising a clever plan to evade unpleasant circumstances, but rather by giving into them, if only temporarily, so that I could them not as a hindrance but as an opportunity to find success elsewhere. I used to believe that I couldn’t see the world until I made something of myself, but I ultimately learned that travel is a prerequisite for a balanced life, not a consequence of one.

Travel

India was what I consider to be my first “real travel” — that is, my first visit to a place that was dramatically different than the one in which I’d grown up. Almost immediately upon arrival in Mumbai, the scope of my understanding of the world began to rapidly increase. It’s one thing to see crowded slums depicted on a Catholic Charities commercial; It’s quite another to smell the stench of human excrement from miles away.

Although my visit to India was mired in annoyances and inconveniences, whether it was trains delayed by several hours, the stomach-churning side effect of malaria prophylaxis or the fact that con-men seemed to be lurking around every corner, it was only when I allowed my mind to wander back to my apartment in Austin, Texas that I truly began to feel stress. All it took was an instant’s thought about the bills I might not have the money to pay in a few months to remove me from the starlit shores of Palolem Beach or the timeless sands of Rajasthan. Am I crazy for having come here? I thought to myself. Shouldn’t I be back at home looking for a job?

Of course, remaining in the United States those three weeks likely wouldn’t have helped me find employment anyway, as the hundreds of job applications I submitted that summer without response would prove to me. After nearly nine months of being unemployed, I decided in August 2009 that the only way for me to overcome my financial (and, increasingly, psychological) crisis was to teach English in Asia, a solution I’d considered shortly after using my job but eventually shrugged of as a cop out. I knew that I would never be able to find a job stateside that would offer me such high pay with such a comparably low cost of living and, more importantly, the opportunity to continue traveling. When an English school in Shanghai extended an offer to me, I accepted immediately.

Photography

After the initial elation of being in China tapered off, I found myself sobered by the reality of my situation. On the positive side, I was paying down a huge percentage of my debt with every paycheck and the social atmosphere of the school was quickly chipping away at the wall I’d built up around myself being unemployed and depressed. On the other hand, work so occupied my free time and energy that I had little of either to contemplate future travel. To make matters worse, getting time off, even unpaid, was far more difficult than I imagined it would be.

By stroke of luck, I managed to be one of the few in my office to receive the entirety of the Chinese New Year holiday off the following February. I decided long before I arrived in Shanghai that my first foreign trip would be to Southeast Asia.  After I landed in Bangkok, the plan had been to spend about five days each in Thailand and Cambodia. When I woke up in on a Thai island the third morning of the trip, however, an unexpected malfunction changed all that: My crappy point-and-shoot camera had broken, just two days before I was to visit Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, perhaps my most-anticipated destination ever at that point. I freaked out for a few minutes, then began thinking through my options. I’ve been thinking about getting a DSLR for a long time. Maybe this is a sign?

As it turns out, the would-be disaster — my camera breaking two days before I most needed it — had several positive consequences. First and foremost, I ended up with the professional camera I’d always wanted. Secondly, I made the acquaintance of Amber and Kale, two fellow American travelers who were teaching in Taiwan at the time. We ended up spending the entire extent of our time in Cambodia together and hatching a tentative plan to travel together once we were all out of our teaching contracts.

Context

My DLSR would prove a faithful companion to me over the course of the weeks and months that passed after I purchased it. Starting with my travels within China, then continuing on through my return to Southeast Asia with Kale and Amber and the rest of the three-month trip that would take me back to Austin in late 2010, I suddenly had a creative, productive means of occupying time on the road. I began to focus less on what I was doing when I traveled, but more on the places I was visiting and the specific people and things that stood out to me as being important.

It wasn’t really until the following February, on the eve of my trip to South America, that I began to critically assess my own photography. A year of traveling extensively and capturing most of what I saw had undoubtedly transformed me from an inquisitive novice into a budding professional photographer. What I began to notice as I examined my portfolio, however, was that I tended to focus almost exclusively on minute details, interesting as they were, with only scant regard to the greater context of what I was shooting. That September in Israel, my friend Lior would provide me with a specific example of this tendency. “I like that you’ve chosen to spotlight local street art,” he said. “But it isn’t really very artistic on your part if you zoom in too much. Why not try and show the big picture?”

The notion of context has become central not only to my strategy in photography, but also to the way I view my progress on the road of life. Looking back, the near-year I spent jobless and feeling sorry for myself was really a referendum: I hadn’t been doing what I wanted and since I didn’t make the choice to change that, the universe chose for me. Likewise, moving to Shanghai to teach English was less about abandoning ship completely and more about allowing myself to reform, restructure and become open enough to see opportunities when they arose — specifically, the freelance copywriting gig I landed just prior to leaving China, which has financed nearly all of my travel since.

Perspective

My greatest solace in life is that I have now learned to see my city, my friends and my simple Texas existence from a more balanced perspective. When I first moved to Austin after college, I assumed that I would find the “right” job, meet the “right” friends, settle into a comfortable life and ride off into the sunset. The difficulties I faced finding and holding jobs my first several years here caused me to harbor a sort of disdain for Austin, in spite of the wonderful friends I have here.

Spending most of the past three years away from my adopted hometown has shown me I once saw myself as a failure not because I had failed, but because I had defined success in the wrong way. In my case, this was setting the expectation that Austin should fulfill me either completely or not at all. When I struck material gold seeking spiritual enlightenment elsewhere, I realized that living in Austin had always brought me the inner peace I desired. It was arrogant and selfish for me to expect or want more.

Travel has taught me many things, but above all, it has made me realize that life is never about having everything at the same time or in the same place, but rather about being cognizant of what you get from each place you live or visit — and being brave enough to seek out what you need elsewhere if necessary. Learning to depict the world as I see it through my photography has shown me that the world is less of what you see on the map — that is, land rigidly divided into countries separate from one another — and rather a collection of convergent, beautiful moments as accessible to you or me as to the people that happen to be living them. Travel makes you realize that just because you can’t find what you need where you are doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

The fabled “Pink City” of northwestern India’s Thar desert, Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan state and one of the most popular destinations for foreign visitors to India. Jaipur’s sandy surroundings, abundant Islamic architecture and rosy terracotta coloring give it a decidedly Middle Eastern feel, separate from much of the rest of India.

The problem many visitors to Jaipur face is not a lack of things to do but in fact, an overabundance of activities and attractions. The list I present here is far from all-encompassing, but should provide you with ideas on how to get your Jaipur adventure started.

Amber Fort

Ride an elephant up the Amber Fort in Jaipur.

Although I rarely travel with a set plan in mind, one goal I was adamant on achieving in India was riding an elephant. Unfortunately, I didn’t encounter the chance to ride one during the first half of my trip, such as in Agra (near the Taj Mahal) or the capital city of Delhi.

When I arrived at Amber Fort, a 400-year old royal palace located about 10 km outside the city center, it became immediately obvious that my wish was about to come true. After a few minutes at the “Elephant Booking Office” — and paying a fee of Rs. 750, or about $15 — I was on my way up to the top of the fort, built by Raja Man Singh of the Kachwahas Rajput.

The fort isn’t actually amber in hue but yellow — its name refers not to its coloring, but rather to the fact that it was named after the ancient town of Amber, built in honor of the goddess Amba. As for the elephant ride, you’ll be surprised how smooth it is, even if it’s scary the first few seconds you get off the ground.

Jaipur City Palace

Pay a visit to the Jaipur City Palace

If you’re tired from an inbound Indian train journey or flight, you might instead want to begin your time in Jaipur with a trip to the Jaipur City Palace, located not surprisingly within the city center. In fact, it occupies more than 10 per cent of the entire walled city.

Blending local Rajput architecture with classic north Indian Mughal architecture (the Taj Mahal is one example of the latter), the City Palace was home to the Maharaja of Jaipur and dates back to 1732. The City Palace was built by Sawai Jai Singh II, who reigned over Amber, namesake of the aforementioned Amber Fort.

Admission to the Jaipur City Palace include a complimentary audio tour, which takes you through the Palace room by room and explains the importance of each to you. Perhaps the most fascinating thing about the Jaipur City Palace is that although a small portion of it has been converted into a public museum, descendants of the royal family still call the City Palace home.

Jantar Mantar Observatory

Enter the world of ancient astronomy at the Jantar Mantar Observatory.

In spite of the recent media rumblings about India’s space program, astronomy is probably the last thing that comes to your mind when you think about India. A trip to the Jantar Mantar observatory, located literally a stone’s throw from the City Palace, will cast asides any doubts you might have about Indian astronomical prowess.

Built around the same time as the Jaipur City Palace by the same ruler, Jai Singh II, the observatory is home to more than a dozen ancient time measurement, star tracking and even eclipse-predicting devices. Of course, you’d never guess that most of the equipment here was used for its actual intended purpose, so do take care to read the informational placards in front of each of them.

Monkey Temple and Sun Temple

They call it the Monkey Temple for a reason!

If you climb up the hill that rises behind the eastern gate of the Pink City, you will search the Sun Temple, or “Suriya Mandir.” Although the temple itself is nothing particularly special, the panorama of Jaipur you enjoy from its summer is really something else.

Located at the bottom of the Sun Temple hill is the aptly-named Monkey Temple, which is also known by its local name “Galwh Bagh.” Although the monkeys that call this temple home are allegedly tame and love to be fed, I kept my distance when I visited — I didn’t want rabies! Still, they were extremely cute.

Jaipur Hotels

The hotel Umaid Bhawan has a luxurious feel at an affordable price point.

As is the case in most of the rest of India, a nice Jaipur hotel room can be yours for next to nothing. Although extremely luxurious Jaipur hotels — such as the seven-star one Anderson Cooper and his boyfriend stayed in when they visited in late 2009 — you can still in someplace extremely comfortable and stylish for much less than the $3,200 per night Andy and his man paid.

I highly recommend the Hotel Umaid Bhawan, a four-star property where double rooms start at just Rs. 1,600 (about $32) per night. No matter where you choose to stay in Jaipur, however, you won’t soon forget your experience in India’s charming Pink City.

I know already posted a photo essay about Myanmar a few months ago, but I got so many great shots there that I couldn’t really resist doing another. Myanmar (or Burma, if you prefer) is one of the most talked-about countries in international media, but definitely one of the least understood.

Whether I was traipsing the chaotic streets of cities like Mandalay and Yangon, strolling through the ancient town of Inwa or tiptoeing my way across the shaky Amarapura Bridge, I found myself immersed in a world I never knew existed. Cast aside any preconceived notions you have of Myanmar and take a trip with me through one of the most interesting places on the planet.

I arrived to Yangon, the Burmese capital, just as night was falling on the town. I knew from the get-go that Myanmar was going to be a rough and tumble place -- the taxi I took from the airport to the city center was clearly built in the 1950s, apparently around the time the roads were last paved. What's cool is that the Burmese don't let this get in the way of them enjoying themselves. As you can see above, plastic children's tables are no impediment to enjoy a tasty street café meal at night time.

The interesting thing about Myanmar is that it used to be an extremely wealthy, prosperous place -- specifically around 2,500 years ago. Perhaps the most conspicuous illustration of this former glory is Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda,pictured above. Allegedly spawned from a gift the country now known as Myanmar achieved from Siddharta, who had just achieved Buddahood at the time, the Shwedagon Pagoda has become slightly more extravagant several times since around 1,400, when monarchs started imposing their own touches onto it.

One upside of Myanmar having little access to the Western world is that you can actually look at advertisements there and not see the tired faces of Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. It was interesting to me to see that although the scope of products and services offered in Myanmar is dramatically less than you would find anywhere in the developed world, some of the same advertising tactics are used -- and, as you can see above, with the same attention paid by prospective consumers.

After spending a few days in Yangon I headed north to Mandalay, the largest city in northern Myanmay and its most recent royal capital. Although Mandalay isn't quite as populous as Yangon, it seems decidedly more chaotic to me. Thankfully, the chaos was often juxtaposed with serenity, as the maroon-robed Burmese monks piled onto these crowded vehicles illustrate beautifully.

It wasn't until I visited Myanmar that I really began to pay attention to quotidian things and animals, such as pigeons. When I saw this mass of city birds perched on top of a power line just across from Mandalay's city palace, I couldn't resist snapping them. In Myanmar, even sights that might be ordinary in the U.S. or Europe seem otherworldly and strange.

Soon, I 'd find myself heading down the Mandalay river to the old town of Inwa, home to its own famous leaning tower -- and to people who live their lives in a practice, functional manner. Although I'm not sure I could ever live without creature comforts like my computer, iPhone or DSLR camera, the way these people lived their lives was a model for sustainability and simplicity from which I think the world could learn.

Another awesome quality of the Burmese people, and in particular the ones I met in and around Inwa, was how friendly and non-judgmental all of them were. I know if I were living a "poor" existence and spent my entire day dealing with "rich" Westerners with their noses point up in the air I would feel bitter after awhile. To me, this seeming lack of disdain is a testament to the character and integrity of people in Myanmar.

In an era of unionized construction crews, automated factories and skyscrapers that rise in a matter of months, I think people in the West have largely forgotten how things are built -- and without a doubt, how to build them. Although I do feel sorry that rural people in Myanmar have to work so hard to sustain themselves, their ability to assemble the building blocks of their own lives is awe-inspiring to me.

For better or for worse, Lima is one of the least talked-about cities in South American. Lima was where my inbound flight from the U.S. touched down, so I made a point of filtering out the little I had heard about the city so as to experience it without any preconceived notions.

Although the Peruvian capital was generally very pleasant, one neighborhood of Lima in particular really impressed me: Miraflores. Perched above the Pacific in the southwestern part of the city, Miraflores is colorful, cosmopolitan and just a short walk from some of the most stunning urban scenery I’ve ever laid eyes upon.

Getting In and Out of Miraflores

Miraflores' beauty can be overwhelming at times.

No matter how you get to Lima, the easiest means for getting to Miraflores is by taxi. Although Lima’s public transportation isn’t awful, it’s low enough in quality that I wouldn’t recommend using it to traverse long distances.

If you’re arriving to Lima via any of its bus stations, such as if you’re inbound from the Colca Canyon or Machu Picchu, a taxi to Miraflores will cost you between S/. 7 and S/.10, or between $2-3. From Lima International Airport, which is located further outside of the city, you can expect to pay anywhere from 40 to 50 soles.

Miraflores is just a short bus or cab ride from Lima's historical center.

While Miraflores is definitely my favorite part of Lima, it definitely isn’t all the city has to offer. Lima’s historical center, for example, is home to a Franciscan monastery, the Lima Basilica and the city’s bright yellow Plaza de Armas, to name a few notable sights. Whether you travel here or to festive Barranco, located a bit further south than Miraflores, I recommend you try out the city’s public buses at least once.

In addition to providing a cheaper alternative to taking cabs, buses increase the authenticity of your Lima travel experience. Aren’t sure how to get started? Ask your hotel or hostel staff for recommendations.

Hotels and Hostels In Miraflores

Ride a Peruvian public bus for an authentic experience

Speaking of hotels and hostels, Miraflores is home to a wide variety of them. If you’re more of a hotel person, choose from places like the Miraflores Penthouse or the luxurious Thunderbird Hotel Suites and Casino, a gaudy property centrally located at the intersection of Alcanfores and Miraflores Avenues.

Hostels are also abundant through Miraflores including my personal favorite South American hostel outlet, Loki. Hostels in Miraflores are generally of high quality, very safe and include a simple breakfast of bread and coffee in the price. Loki’s full service bar and restaurant also offers à la carte breakfast items for hungrier backpackers.

Enjoy a stroll through relaxing Parque Kennedy

No matter where in Miraflores you choose to stay, you’ll find yourself completely surrounded by colorful buildings, flowers and trees, thanks to Lima’s year-round good weather. To me, Miraflores has the feel of a slightly rougher version of Miami in terms of its architecture and vegetation. At the center of Miraflores is Parque Kennedy, a large and calm green space you can pop in and out of as you stroll.

Miraflores Restaurants, Bars and Nightlife

Ceviche, anyone?

Miraflores is simply put the best place to be in Lima if you want to feel good, whether you do so by eating, drinking or going out dancing.

Sample authentic Peruvian favorites like citrus-cooked raw seafood ceviche and meat-and-potatoes lomo saltado. While the famous Alfresco restaurant advertises itself as having the best ceviche in town, I recommend you be as adventurous as possible when eating. Find the local food stall with the most customers enjoying meals and join in!

What about Lomo Saltado?

Miraflores is likewise an ideal place to enjoy Lima’s bar and nightlife scene, whether you want to relax with a pisco sour, the Peruvian national drink, or dance the night away in a busy discoteca. If you stay at the Loki Hostel you can even pre-drink at its bar, which serves delicious frozen vodka drinks for just S/. 6 a pop.

Costa Verde Beach in Miraflores

The stunning Costa Verde

My personal favorite feature of Miraflores is its proximity to Lima’s Costa Verde, a deep green swath of the Pacific ocean flanked by dramatic cliffs and black stone beaches. I discovered this accidentally when I was strolling south on Avenida Santa Cruz toward the ocean. I knew I would meet the sea at some point, but had no idea what a beautiful sight I was in for.

Indeed, at the end of the day, what Miraflores does best is beauty and serenity. Is Lima a world-class city on par with Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo or even Buenos Aires? Not particularly. But unless you have unrealistic expectations for what you’ll find there, I can almost guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

When I was planning my first visit to Israel in 2010, I asked my friend Matan where in the country his hometown was located. “Close to Tel Aviv,” he replied. “But then, most everything in Israel is close to Tel Aviv.”

Israel is indeed a compact country, about the size of New Jersey if you exclude disputed territories like the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and West Bank. Although some Israeli politicians view the state’s small size as an impediment to its national security, it make traveling within Israel extremely quick and easy.

Buses in Israel

Buses are a popular transport option in Israel, both within cities and long-distance.

Buses are the most common means of travel within Israel for both Israelis and foreign tourists. The majority of my travel within Israel has been by bus.

After crossing the country’s calamitous northern border with Jordan in 2010, I hopped a series of buses from the city of Beit She’an to Tel Aviv. The first was operated by the Egged bus company, the largest operator of intercity buses in Israel. I also spent the five-hour journey from Tel Aviv to Eilat during my most recent trip to Israel on an Egged bus.

While Egged buses are clean, comfortable and new, I’m glad I don’t have to traverse the distances I did say, in South America, on them — the seats barely recline and there is no service to speak of. Other companies operate long-distance buses within Israel, but Egged’s extensive route network and good reputation have allowed it to control more than half of the public transport market in Israel, so it’s likely you’ll ride an Egged bus when you travel within Israel.

Israel Railways

Israel Railways is a fast, safe means of travel in Israel.

Another fast, convenient way to travel within Israel is to do by train. Fast, modern Israel Railways trains run from Tel Aviv to most major cities within Israel, including Be’er Sheva, Haifa and Jerusalem. Prices are generally a bit higher than you’d pay on a bus, but travel time is also greatly decreased.

Traveling from Tel Aviv to the old city of Acre near Haifa, for example, takes just over an hour and costs 40 shekels, or about $10. Israeli trains are equipped with large windows, which allows you to take in the beautiful country from your seat — if the person sitting next to you doesn’t insist you close the shade, that is.

Although you can purchase Israel Railways tickets online and in advance, departures between Tel Aviv and most major cities are frequent enough that you shouldn’t encounter trouble just turning up at the station on the day of travel. Israel Railways’ hub is located at Tel Aviv’s HaHagana station, located just a stone’s throw from Tel Aviv’s central bus station.

Urban Transport in Israel

Tel Aviv is a pedestrian-friendly city, so why not walk?

Just as Egged dominates the l0ng-distance bus market in Israel, Dan bus company is king when it comes to intercity transport. Named for the Hebrew phrase for the Tel Aviv metro area (“Gush Dan”), Dan operates buses within Tel Aviv, as well as to and within many smaller cities in Israel. Dan buses are your run-of-the-mill city buses — don’t expect anything fancy.

Another way to travel within cities in Israel is to take a share taxi-van known as a “sherut.” Although the sherut system takes some time to master — there aren’t official stops and the destination of a particular sherut isn’t always marked — advantages to taking them exist. Namely, that they can drop you off anywhere. Prices are generally identical or comparable to a regular bus.

Some sheruts operate longer-distance routes as well. While waiting for a delayed bus from the central Israeli city of Afula, for example, a sherut driver approached me and offered me a seat in his vehicle, which dropped me exactly at my destination in Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv also recently started an urban bike share program, with rental stands at conspicuous places like Ben Tsion Boulevard. I’m not sure what the pricing and usage details are, as I didn’t take advantage of it, but it’s nice to know that it exists. Tel Aviv is also a great city for walking, thanks to its small urban core.

Car Rental in Israel

Traffic in Jaffa and other cities is notoriously bad.

If you don’t want to take advantage of public transportation in Israel, you can always just rent a car. As is the case with most things in Israel, doing so is rather expensive, particularly when you factor in the high cost of gas in Israel. I wouldn’t recommend this option unless you plan to travel to really out of the way places — traffic is notoriously bad in cities like Tel Aviv.

Indeed, public transportation in Israel is so good that you shouldn’t need any means other than buses, trains and sheruts to get you where you need to go.

When 2011 began, I’d been home from my last trip of 2010 (which took me to Thailand, Myanmar and The Philippines, in case you don’t remember) for less than 72 hours. In many ways, travel was the last thing on my mind.

To be sure, I didn’t travel quite as much in 2011 as I had in 2010: 13 countries vs. 15, respectively. I do believe, however, that travel began to take on an even more significant role in my life this year that it ever had before.

South America

Feburary: My Israeli friend Assaf at the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Peru

The first of my two “big” trips in 2011 was to South America, between February and April. After touching down in Lima, I headed to Arequipa, Peru, where I enjoyed the fantastic Colca Canyon, twice as deep as the United States’ own Grand Canyon. Next I hit up the city of Cusco, ancient capital of the Incas, and visited both the Sacred Valley of the Incas and Machu Picchu.

Once I was done in Peru, I moved on to Bolivia. After spending a few days exploring the sky-high Bolivian capital of La Paz, I bussed it to the southwestern portion of the country and toured the Uyuni Salt Flats, one of the most alien landscapes I’d ever seen. Throughout my time in Peru and Bolivia, I stayed almost exclusively in Loki Hostels, some of the friendliest, most comfortable places I’ve ever slept.

March: Cosmpolitan Santiago, Chile

The next stop was Chile, the most “civilized” stop on my itinerary at that point. I spent a couple days in the gringo town of San Pedro de Atacama in the country’s northwest, where I literally ran into Amanda and Aeriel, two American girls who’d stayed at Loki Cusco with me. I then headed to Santiago, Chile’s cosmopolitan capital city. I explored Santiago for almost two weeks — it’s definitely one of my favorite cities I’ve ever visited. There, I reconnected with Martin, an Australian who’d been in my Salt Flat tour in Bolivia.

April: Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Following a day trip to the Chilean port of Valparaíso, I headed over the Andes to Argentina. My first stop in the land of Evita was Mendoza, anchor city of Argentina’s wine-producing region. Next was Córdoba, Argentina’s second-largest city, followed by the fantastic capital city of Buenos Aires. I stayed in San Telmo, in the historical part of the city, where I met up with Bethan and Danielle, two British girls who’d been on the same Salt Flat tour as Martin and I. After snapping up a Brazilian visa, I crossed into Argentina’s northern neighbor country at Iguazú Falls.

I divided my time between Brazil’s big cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. I was shocked at just how much I enjoyed São Paulo, having heard mostly bad things about the city from fellow travelers. My time in Rio, on the other hand, was defined mostly be relaxation and searching for cheap, delicious food. I had my fair share of romantic encounters in Brazil, but hey — sex is what you do in Brazil, after all.

Summer in the States

August: San Francisco, California

I flew home to Austin on April 24 and spent the first month or so after my return reflecting on my trip. South America was noteworthy for me in many ways. For one, it was the first time I’d done an entire trip traveling overland. I also forged deeper connections with fellow travelers than I ever had before — and with quite a few of the locals in some of the places I visited as well.

In June, I began preparing for the arriving of my best friend Bianca, who was coming from Switzerland to spend the whole summer in Texas. While she was here, we took a break from the scorching Austin heat and headed to California for a week. After starting in Los Angeles, we drove up the “1″ to San Francisco, stopping in Santa Cruz along the way. Unfortunately, Bianca left about a week after we returned to Austin.

The Mediterranean

September: Mykonos, Greece

Thankfully, my second trip of the year helped dry my tears. I flew to Athens on August 30, spending about three days in the Greek capital before hopping a ferry to Mykonos, a stunningly-beautiful Greek island. Apart from pleasingly low prices, I saw few signs of the Greek financial crisis.

In a surprising move (if you read about my 2010 visit there, anyway), I followed up Greece with Israel, where I spent the majority of my time exploring the city of Tel Aviv. While my time in “outer” Israel had been spent fearful of interrogation by police and military, my time in Tel Aviv was defined by joy and delight — and probably too much time between the sheets with Israeli men. I was also lucky enough to meet up with Assaf, an Israeli traveler I met at the Loki Hostel in Cusco. Good place that place!

North Africa

September: Cairo, Egypt

After Israel I headed south along the Red Sea to Egypt, where I chilled for a couple days in Sharm el Sheikh. I followed Sinai up with the fantastic Egyptian capital of Cairo and, not surprisingly, a trip to the famous Giza pyramids. I also toured some lesser-known pyramids before heading the south of Egypt, where I rode a felucca boat up the Nile River. Egypt was someplace I’d been dreaming about visiting since I was a little boy and it didn’t disappoint. As had been the case in Greece, I saw little indication of the upheaval the media had so hyped in Egypt.

October: Morocco's central valley

I spent about two weeks in Egypt, then flew across North Africa to Morocco, where I started my adventure in the love-it-or-hate-it city of Marrakech. I relaxed for a couple days in the coastal city of Essaouira, then spent three days and two nights camping in the Sahara desert, one of my all-time travel highlights. I ended my trip in Morocco with a couple days in the blue city of Chefchaouen — and in complete awe of how diverse and abundant Morocco’s culture and landscapes were, in spite of its small size.

Europe

October: Las Ramblas, Barcelona

Following a flight to Barcelona, I found myself all of a sudden back in the developed world, a jarring transition if there ever was one. Thankfully, Spain’s cheap prices made this less dramatic. After a few days in Barcelona, I took a bus down to the city of Granada, where I saw Nellie, who runs WildJunket, and had participated in the Thailand Medical Blog Content with me the previous November in Thailand. I ended my second trip to Spain in Madrid, which surprisingly gave Barcelona a run for its money as my favorite city in Spain, an awesomeness underscores by the incredible Parque del Buen Retiro.

Part of the reason I didn’t let myself get too upset about Bianca leaving at the end of August is that I had worked a trip back to Switzerland to see her into my schedule. The week I spent there in October marked my third visit to the land of chocolate, which further underscored to me that Switzerland is anything but boring. We stayed mainly in and around Zürich, where Bianca lives, but also visited the city of Luzern.

October: Modernity Party in Zürich

We followed up my week in Switzerland with a visit to Amsterdam, our third together and something of a tradition. Although most of our time together there was spent legally smoking marijuana in Amsterdam’s coffee shops, I focused my two days in Amsterdam post-Bianca on enjoying the city sober. I also made the acquaintance of a charming young German man named Björn. Thump-thump.

The last stop on the trip was Portugal, the only country in Western Europe I hadn’t yet visited prior to this trip. I was pleasantly surprised at how different Portugal was from Spain — you’d think, after all, that they’d be similar, since Spain almost completely encircles Portugal. I fell in love with the northern city of Porto and its port wineries, as well as the fabulous capital of Lisbon, home to Travellers House — literally the top-rated hostel in the world.

November: Amsterdam's "Bloemenmarkt"

I returned to the U.S. in early November completely exhausted, but also completely refreshed. Each trip is a spiritual reinvention of sorts, but this one in particular had been a doozy, defined by contrast and undulation. Cultural openness was one dimension of these dramatic shifts. Less than a week every bedding every other man I met in Tel Aviv, for example, I was traveling closeted in Muslim North Africa. The first thing I saw when I stepped off the plane in Barcelona was a young man kissing his boyfriend in plain sight!

My 2012 Travel Plans

November: Lisbon, Portugal.

As of this moment, my only set 2010 travel plan is a six-week trip to Australia which begins on January 31 — soon, I know? I’ll meet up with Martin, whom I mentioned a few paragraphs up, as well as dozens of other Aussies I’ve met out on the road. I’ll be updating during my trip, although you shouldn’t expect to see Australia content being added until I get back in mid-March.

Beyond that, I’m not really sure what 2012 will bring. It depends on a lot of things, but mainly finances. Ideally, I’d like to also visit Russia and Eastern Europe, southeastern Africa, northern South America and the Himalayan region. Ambitious, right? Well as I like to say, you have to dream big to travel big.

As 2011 draws to a close — for some of you, it already did — I wanted to thank each and every one of you for reading Leave Your Daily Hell. Download my new photo e-book if you haven’t already and get ready for lots more good stuff is to come in 2012!

After my first trip to Southeast Asia in early 2010, I knew more extensive international travel would be in my future. My passport didn’t seem quite as sure — all but four of its 21 pages had at least one stamp on them.

Initially I panicked, fearful that I would have to replace my passport after only five years of use. Thankfully, a young man I met on the train from Thailand to Cambodia had let me in on a little secret: It’s possible to add extra pages to your U.S. passport, rather than replacing it outright. I was thrilled – nothing screams “amateur” like a shiny, new passport.

If you travel frequently and are running out of room in your U.S. passport, have pages added to it to maintain your travel street cred.

Required Documents to Adding Extra Passport Pages

The first condition of having pages added to your U.S. passport is that the passport is, you know, full. The State Department defines this as between two and four remaining visa pages. The passport should also be in relatively good condition. Not new, but also not ripped or mangled either.

If your passport meet these basic requirements, download and print form D.S.-4085 “Application for Additional Visa Pages” from the Travel.State.Gov website and fill it out as completely as possible.

Adding Pages to a Passport at a U.S. Embassy Abroad

Since I was living in Shanghai at the time I needed to have pages added to my passport, I made an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Shanghai, whose staff added extra pages to my passport while I waited. If you’re living or traveling abroad, consult this page to find your nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

The only disadvantage of having the pages added this way is that the literally tape the pages into your passport, which makes for an unattractive addition. Of course, if your passport is already tore the F up like mine, this won’t matter to you.

Add Extra U.S. Passport Pages by Mail

If you’re at home in the states, add extra pages to your U.S. passport by mail. Once you fill out form D.S.-4085, send your passport, the completed form, and a check or money order for the current fee to the following address:

National Passport Processing Center
P.O. Box 90106
Philadelphia, PA 19190-0106

Officially, processing times for adding pages to a U.S. passport are the same as for the passport itself — around 4-6 weeks without expedited handling. As a general rule, mail your package off as far in advance of travel as possible to avoid complications. Or, pay $60 extra and mail the passport and form to this address:

Expedited Processing
National Passport Processing Center
P.O. Box 90906
Philadelphia, PA 19190-0906

Cost and Limitations

The reason I saved the cost section for last is that it’s variable. For example, I didn’t get charged a cent to add pages to my passport in Shanghai, whereas other U.S. embassies abroad definitely charge. By mail, you’ll pay $82 as of December 2011. For the cost at this moment, consult the “Passport Fees” page on the Department of State’s website.

Officially, you can only have pages added one time, although I have heard that it’s actually possible to add them twice. I’ll let you know if this is case — I’m seriously considering having some extra pages added before my trip to Australia at the end of next month.

When I first noticed the large, green rectangle on the tourist map I received from Madrid’s Way Hostel, I knew that Parque del Buen Retiro would be a great place to find some tranquility. After all, it occupied a physical area no less than half the size of the entire Madrid city center.

What I didn’t realize before I made the trek eastward into the park was how grand and spectacular it would actually be. Think Versailles, think Shanghai’s Century Park the way it might look next century. Whatever your usual opinion on city parks, make sure to visit Parque del Buen Retiro next time you’re in Madrid — I promise you’ll be thrilled you did.

Getting to Parque del Buen Retiro

Crossing this imposing road, Paseo del Prado, is the first step to arriving safely in Madrid's Parque del Buen Retiro.

Parque del Buen Retiro, literally “Park of the Pleasant Retreat,” is less than 30 minutes’ walk from anywhere in central Madrid. It’s so massive, really, that you need only keep one instruction in mind: head east. Specifically, until you get to Paseo del Prado, the massive boulevard that separates central Madrid from the Museo del Prado, which I like to think of as the gateway to Parque del Buen Retiro.

After crossing Paseo del Prado, my favorite route for getting to the park is heading just north of the museum and taking a right on Calle de Felipe IV, a charming street replete with neo-Classical architecture, statues and grandeur. A great preview of things to come.

Plaza del Parterre

Looking out onto what you can still see of Madrid from the Plaza del Parterre.

If you follow my instructions and head down Calle de Felipe IV, you will enter into Parque del Buen Retiro’s Plaza del Parterre immediately after crossing Calle de Alfonso XII, the next big north-south road after Paseo del Prado. You won’t have any doubts as to whether you’re there, I promise.

Once you clear the wrought iron gates that stand in front of the parterre, walk slowly though the veritable gallery of pruned plants that rises around you. After you arriving at the fountain on the east side of the Parterre, turn around and take in the beautiful view of what you can still see of the city. Notice how small it already seems! Continue heading straight until you reach the first roundabout, then turn right.

Parque del Buen Retiro’s Rosaleda

They call it the "Rosaleda" for a reason.

The walk down Avenida de Cuba (this is the street on which you just turned right) is quiet and serene, defined by massive trees and green everywhere you look. If you haven’t completely forgotten you’re in one of the largest cities in Europe at this point, you should be well on your way by the time you get to the next roundabout, where you’ll need to take a left.

The road to the Crystal Palace.

Immediately on your right is the Rosaleda. What does “Rosaleda” mean? That should become evident as soon as you see it. Indeed, Parque del Buen Retiro’s incredible rose garden can occupy at least an hour of your time, if you have a full day to devote to the park.

Roses of literally every shape and color blanket the oval-shaped maze, which is also defined by vine-covered archways, plentiful sunshine and a “fallen angel” fountain inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost. Erected in 1922, it depicts Lucifer falling from heaven and is the only known public monument to the devil in the world.

The Crystal Palace at Parque del Buen Retiro

I'll give you ten guesses what this is.

If you don’t decide to abandon your real life and simply live in the Rosaleda, head straight out of the garden and walk north until you see, well, a massive crystal palace — there isn’t really any other way to describe it. This is (yep, you guessed it) the Crystal Palace of Parque del Buen Retiro.

Inspired by its more famous counterpart in London, the Palacio de Cristal (as it’s known in Spanish) was built in 1887 to showcase animals and plants from the Philippines. When I visited this past October, it had been completely emptied for maintenance. A bit of a bummer, but it’s not every day you come across a palace made entirely of crystal, so I dealt.

There’s also a lovely pond and fountain in front of the palace, where you can find ducks, turtles and even a manmade waterfall, which flows over the stone walkway that leads you away from the palace.

Monument to Alfonso XII

The Monument to Alfonso XII

The reason I suggest you follow the trajectory I describe here when you visit Parque del Buen Retiro is that I would prefer you to arrive at the Monument to Alfonso XII after seeing the rest of the park. Although the pictures I post here give you a preview of what to expect, the sheer grandeur of the monument will astound you, particularly if you’ve been calmed as you should be by the rest of the park’s tranquil, understated beauty.

Not surprisingly, the monument to Alfonso XII was erected to in honor of Spain’s King Alfonso II, who ruled from 1974-1885. It was ultimately designed by Spanish architect José Grases Riera, who won the national contest put on by none other than Maria Christina of Austria, distantly (I hope) related to Alfonso through inbreeding. And you thought globalism was a 21st century phenomenon!

Rent a boat and relax on the lake in front of Monumento de Alfonso XII.

Funny as it is, I had Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” stuck in my head the whole time I was visiting this fountain. The lion statues and the presence of water did it for me, although the Monument to Alfonso XII looks almost nothing like Venice otherwise.

Whether you follow my suggested itinerary or visit Madrid’s Parque del Buen Retiro on your own accord, make sure and spend some time there, even if it’s just a couple hours. It’s a great dose of tranquility without having to leave the city.

As I’ve written about in the past, my first visit to the state of Israel was less than charmed, most of it wasted at the northern border crossing with Jordan. The tension in the air there was palpable and lingered with me even as I traveled to and through the old city of Jerusalem.

I was clear before setting foot on Israeli soil a second time that I would only visit Tel Aviv, which would hopefully limit my exposure to the fearful, paranoid and ultimately unwelcoming reception I’d gotten during my previous trip. And it did, in spades.

Walking the streets of Tel Aviv, you’d never know there was a 5,000-year Holy War going on a few hours away. Tel Aviv is a bubble in that way. One on hand, it’s separate and enclosed; On the other, its thin veil makes it vulnerable and delicate.

To say it another way, I almost feel that the rest of Israel is something of a shield for the Tel Aviv bubble. And Tel Aviv is definitely a bubble worth shielding: It represents the the very best of what’s possible in the Middle East, the actions of Israel’s government notwithstanding.

I immediately knew I was in for a different experience when the first Israeli soldier I encountered (if you don't count the immigration staff at Ben Gurion Airport, that is) begged me to take her picture, rather than asking me if I'd visited Lebanon and if so, why. This encounter, which occurred literally within hours of my landing in Tel Aviv, seemed to foreshadow a second Israel experience devoid of detention and questioning.

What I found funny as my first day back in Israel progressed was that in spite of there being less outward nervousness or animosity in Tel Aviv -- in fact, there seemed to be almost none -- Israeli national fervor was incredibly conspicuous. This began before I even arrived in the center of the city. Itay, a sexy 20-something I'd met on the flight inbound from Athens, informed me that the cross of David he wore around his neck wasn't there for religious reasons. "Being Israeli is all I have," he said. "It's all we have. We're surrounded by people who've wanted our destruction for 5,000 years. I am eternally proud of being Israeli."

I spent my second day in Tel Aviv exploring the most touristy part of the city with my friend Assaf, whom I'd met in South America earlier that year. The first stop was Benedict, a breakfast eatery on Rothschild Boulevard, where housing protests from the early summer were still raging. More interesting to me than people living in tents in the median of Israel's answer to Fifth Avenue was the obvious discord between the city's present and future the street embodied. Skyscrapers were rising up everywhere, casting their shadows on the quaint cafés and quirky Bahaus architecture that sets Tel Aviv apart from the concrete jungles of the rest of the developed world. As Assaf informed me, "Most of the people who are going to be living in these buildings are wealthy foreign Jews -- they aren't even Israelis."

Seeing Israelis having fun in Israel was also a novelty to me. After all, my experiences at the border area and even in Jerusalem had mostly been with armed, expressionless soldiers and other foreign tourists. Be it their love for pets (as seen above) or the city's wild nightlife, people in Tel Aviv know how to have a good time -- and they make it a point to do so. As a friend so eloquently noted, "The day a bomb falls on the street of Tel Aviv, it's all over anyway. So we live our lives as if we're not afraid." Carpe diem!

Another interesting aspect of Tel Aviv was the interspersing of Orthodox Jews there. Prior to visiting, I'd assumed that they would be both unwelcome and out of place in liberal, forward-thinking Tel Aviv. To be sure, I only ran into them rounding the occasional street corner and at places like this pomegranate stand at Carmel Market. To a non-Hebrew speaker (such as myself, and probably you), this may look like little more than a pretty picture with some pretty Hebrew writing. Its message is also pretty, religious overtones notwithstanding. "Who you are, how you are, the one who is holy loves you truly."

Isn't it beautiful? At the end of the day, one of the things I appreciate most about Tel Aviv is how incredibly pretty is it -- architecture, people, its being situated right on the Mediterranean, everything. The abject beauty of Tel Aviv alone was enough to make me feel at peace the entire time I was there. It's almost eerie to think that a massive war is being waged a couple hours down the coast from here in Gaza.

One of Tel Aviv's highlights for tourists and locals alike is the old Arab city of Jaffa, located near the southern extremity of the city's Mediterranean coast. Jaffa's architecture notwithstanding, the neighborhood was inspiring me to because of the fact that Jews and Arabs live side by side there, presumably entirely at peace with one another. Indeed, I almost never encountered conflict of any kind in Tel Aviv, which seems so strange when you consider the endless stalemate that exists between Israel and all of its neighbors. If cities in the Middle East can't aspire to be like Tel Aviv itself, then I think Jaffa is a good model to follow.

When all was said and done, I was extremely sad to leave Tel Aviv. It wasn't just the beach or the boys or the colorful streets and homes that made me feel that way, although the city was definitely tops in all those categories. In fact, I felt that I had perfectly fulfilled my mission of returning to Israel for a second time; I had gotten the "other side of the story." My first time there had exposed me to the very worst Israel and the Israelis had to offers; Tel Aviv is the very best. I wish images like the ones I've shared with you today were the picture not only that Israel's enemies could see, but also that Israel itself would use market its mission statement for the Middle East -- which, I think, is an ultimately beneficial one -- to the rest of the world.

If your impression of Egypt is one of deserts, pyramids and camels, the country’s Red Sea beaches on the Sinai peninsula might come as a surprise to you. While the bluffs and sands that rise above and away from the water are stereotypically Egyptian, the calm, crystal-blue waters of the Red Sea seems more befitting of Greek Islands like Mykonos.

Whether you’re looking for award-winning scuba diving or just want to enjoy some beach time before you head to Cairo or beyond, spending at least a few days exploring the beaches of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula is well worth your while.

Buses and Planes to Sinai

Take a bus to Sinai from Israel, or fly from Cairo or elsewhere in Egypt.

The best way to travel to Sinai depends on where you’re coming from. I came from Eilat, Israel, so my only option was to cross the Egyptian border at Taba and take a bus onward into Sinai.

After you cross the Egypt-Israel border at Taba, which should take you about an hour, you walk for about 200 meters, at which point you’ll see the Taba bus station on your left side. It’s pretty rough and tumble, to be honest, but thankfully bus fares match the station’s decor. For 30 Egyptian pounds, you can take a seven-hour East Delta bus to Sharm el Sheikh. Prices are slightly lower and transit times much less if you get off in Nuweiba or Dahab, further north in Sinai.

If you’re coming from Cairo it’s also possible to travel by bus, which takes about nine hours to anywhere in Sinai for around 50 L.E. Alternatively, you can fly EgyptAir Express to Sharm el Sheikh airport, from which you can transfer to Sharm el Sheikh, Dahab or anywhere else in the Sinai peninsula.

Dahab

Sinai's coastline is positively biblical in scale.

Dahab is a bohemian hippie community located about halfway down the Sinai peninsula along its eastern coast. Crowds here can range from moderate to excessive, although the ambiance is decidedly uncommercial. You’re more likely to stay in a shack or cabin than in a nice hotel or resort, although the in-progress construction project currently engulfing the town might be looking to change that.

Due to a time shortage, I didn’t properly stop in Dahab, so I can’t offer you any specific advice on visiting, other than that it’s just as famous for scuba diving as anywhere else in Sinai and costs less to visit than more touristed places in Sinai, such as Sharm el Sheikh.

Sharm el Sheikh

The promenade at Naama Bay in Sharm el Sheikh.

Looking back on my trip to Egypt, I’m not quite sure why I decided to visit Sharm el Sheikh with the three days I had to spend in Sinai. Oh, that’s right — because of the airport and direct connection to Cairo! In any case, be forewarned: Sharm el Sheikh is crowded, commercial and not at all what I would call relaxing.

That’s not say Sharm el Sheikh isn’t interesting. Indeed, it’s as eerie to see the “Chili’s” logo rise in front of Sinai’s biblical bluffs as it is cool to see Egyptian’s people getting down to techno music as they lure you to come into the bars and nightclubs of Naama Bay, Sharm el Sheikh’s commercial center.

Additionally, Sharm el Sheikh’s scuba diving is world-famous and several of the hotels and resorts there offer packages that bundle accommodation and scuba diving together, including instruction and certification courses for beginners.

Ras Mohammed National Park

Good lucking finding the beach at Naama Bay.

If there was one reason for me to recommend you choose Sharm over Dahab (if you, like me, are constrained enough to need to make that choice), it’s Ras Mohammed National Park. Located about 20 km south of Naama Bay on the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, it’s hundreds of square kilometers of literally uninhabited deserts, bluffs and completely virgin beaches.

The only difficulty when it comes to Ras Mohammed is getting there. There isn’t any public transportation to speak of in Sinai, so you must either get a private or shared taxi to the park and back — there won’t be any taxis waiting at the exit, plus the park is too vast to walk through anyway. This can get expensive since you also have to pay the driver for waiting with you. Expect to pay no less than 300 L.E. for five hours at the park and transport to and from.

Getting to Ras Mohammed can be an epic journey in more ways than one.

A word of advice: Do not accept a ride from any taxi driver who approaches you. Book only through a hotel or resort’s front desk, even if you’re not staying there. That way, you have an outlet for recourse in the event that your driver tries to charge you more and threatens you with a large boulder in the event that you refuse to pay, which is what happened to me in Sinai.

Sinai Visa and Egypt Visa

Once you arrive at Ras Mohammed, you may think you've accidentally gone to Greece.

The last consideration to make if you plan to visit Sinai is which visa you need. If you’re coming from Cairo or anywhere else in non-Sinai Egypt this is not an issue, since you’ve get a proper Egyptian visa stamped in your passport on arrival at Cairo airport.

Coming from Israel, things get a little tricker. Egyptian immigration officials issue free, 14-day Sinai-only visas at the Taba Border crossing. Thing is, they really mean “Sinai Only.” Not only can you not travel to Cairo or elsewhere in Egypt with this visa, but it isn’t possible to upgrade it to a full visa from within Egypt.

It isn't possible to walk through Ras Mohammed Park, so don't even try.

As a result, I recommend you stop by the Egyptian consulate in Eilat before you cross the border at Taba. The consulate, which is located about 30 minutes’ walking time from the Eilat airport and bus station, opens at 9:30 a.m. and can have your visa ready by 1 p.m., or in plenty of time for you to cross the border and get to wherever you need to go in Sinai on the same day.

Generally speaking, an American passport is a priceless asset for a world travel. With some exceptions, it affords easy and free (or, at the very least, cheap) entry into any country in the world. One such exception is Bolivia, among the several countries in South America (Brazil being another) where U.S. citizens must obtain a visa prior to entry.

Before I visited South America this past February, I did some online research into how I would acquire the various visas required to enter South American countries. Curiously, most websites I visited told me that I’d need to obtain a Bolivian visa in Peru in advance of leaving the country, either at the Bolivian Embassy in Lima or the Bolivian Consulate in Puno.

Thankfully, this is not the case. As long as you have a passport with at least six months remaining validity and U.S. dollar cash in hand, getting a visa to enter Bolivia is something you can do while crossing the border.

Bolivia Visa Requirements

The process of getting a Bolivia visa at the Peru-Bolivia border can be carefree if you are properly prepared.

Officially, requirements for a Bolivian visa are relatively strict. In addition needing a passport-sized photo, a completed visa application and $135 (ouch!) cash, you are supposed to have hotel reservations for the duration of your stay in Bolivia, as well as an outbound flight or bus ticket. Additionally, you should have proof of yellow fever vaccination.

In practice, however, nearly all of these items are superfluous. As long as your U.S. passport has at least six months of remaining validity (this is non-negotiable), the only materials you need prepare prior to crossing the Peru-Bolivia border are a passport-sized photo and $135 in cash.

Peru-Bolivia Border Crossings

Two Peru-Bolivia border crossings exist: Between the cities of Puno, Peru and Copacabana, Bolivia over Lake Titica; And over the Desaguadero River between the bi-national city of (surprise!) Desaguadero. I highly recommend you use the Desaguadero border crossing, particularly if you are bound for La Paz. Copacabana is a tourist trap of sorts and if you’ve already been to Puno and done the Lake Titicaca thing, it will seem redundant.

Use the southern border at Desaguadero to avoid unnecessary crowds and hustle-bustle.

From the Puno bus station, a collectivo (the shared taxi I describe in my post about traveling South America by bus) to Desaguadero takes about two hours and costs around S./10 per person, although hustlers in the bus station, who are eager to get you to take their private taxis, will inform you that the fare is much higher.

If you are arriving to Puno in the late afternoon or evening, it is essential that you depart Puno no later than 6 p.m.: The Peru-Bolivia border at Desaguadero closes at 8 p.m.

Scams at Peru-Bolivia Border

Be vigilant at the border to avoid getting scammed.

Your collectivo will drop you in the town center of Desaguadero, which is about 600 feet from the bridge over the river of the same name, where the border station is located. From here, crossing from Peru into Bolivia is a two-step process.

The first step is leaving Peru. Once you see the bridge, look for a two-story building to your left just before it: This is the Peruvian immigration exit station. Officials here will stamp your passport, at which point you can walk across the bridge into Bolivia.

This is where many tourists get caught up in the first scam, a time-wasting bag search. To avoid it, simply don’t make eye contact with any of the men standing in front of the building to the right of the road. If you do, they will ask you to come into their office so they can come through your bags, which is particularly risky if you arrive at the border near closing time — you might not make it into Bolivia the same day!

Once you get into Bolivia, catch a second (and more cramped!) collectivo to La Paz.

Once you arrive on the Bolivia side, the processing building is located just to your right. While your U.K. and European friends enter with only a stamp, you must wait at the window to get your visa. The process should be quick. Namely, you fork over 135 big ones, fill out the simple application and affix a passport-sized photo to it. Within a few minute, you’ll have a Bolivian visa good for five years stuck inside your passport.

Here’s where the second scam tends to come up: The attendant will ask that you return to Peru to get a photocopy of your passport with the Bolivian visa stuck inside it. The problem is that you have been stamped out of Peru and must re-enter to get a copy made, an inconvenience for which Peruvian authorities may try to assess you a fee.

My advice? Grab your passport as soon as you get your visa and walk on into the Bolivian side of Desaguadero. They didn’t chase after me; I promise they won’t chase after you.

From the Border Onward

Once you're in Bolivia, the sky is the limit.

Once you’re in Desaguadero, ask any local where you can find a collectivo to La Paz. This shouldn’t cost you anymore than 10 bolivianos and will take about 2.5 hours. Once the vehicle is full, that is — the driver won’t leave Desaguadero until it is.

Finding a La Paz-bound collectivo becomes more difficult if you cross the border near closing time, keeping in mind that Bolivia is one hour ahead of Peru. Still, you shouldn’t have to wait more than an hour to be on your way.

If you’re lucky, the collectivo will drop you within the La Paz city limits — but you probably won’t be. Make sure and obtain the exact address of your hotel or hostel (I personally recommend the Loki hostel, as I detail in this post) before you leave Puno so that the taxi you get after exiting the collectivo can take you directly there. Again this becomes important at night, given the amount of crime present in La Paz.

Crossing the Peru-Bolivia border as an American isn’t complicated, although it is quite pricey considering. The good news is that everything else in Bolivia (a tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats, anyone?) is dirt-cheap, so the cost of the Bolivian visa is quickly offset once you’re in, monetarily and otherwise. For a preview of what to expect in Bolivia, check out my Bolivian travel photo essay, as mentioned by Lonely Planet.

Yesterday I wrote about last Christmas, a delightful tropical getaway I spent in the fabulous Philippine Islands. Today’s topic is the Christmas before that which sadly, couldn’t have been more different.

I’ll go into gorier detail in a minute, but for now I’ve give you a preview in the form of a rhyme:

Shellfish, and liquor, and vomit! Oh my!
That was the extent of my Christmas in Shanghai

Christmas Observance in China

Although the Chinese are eager to put up decorations, go shopping crazy and, in the case of my students at English First, learn about Christmas customs and traditions, Christmas is not officially observed in China. Most companies that employ Westerners, including English schools in China, close to let their employees have Christmas day off.

EF was white enough to close early on Christmas Eve, too, so I left the office at about 5 p.m. instead of my usual 9. I’d been invited to a Christmas Eve dinner with Brandon, Dave, Debbie, Laura and Mark, the five people who’d started at EF with me six weeks earlier, so my first priority after leaving work was purchasing my Secret Santa gift for dinner.

We’d decided on “Down Home Kitchen,” a nice-ish Shanghainese restaurant located in the “New Factories” retail and restaurant complex in the Jing’an district. Par for the course in China, we ordered about a half-dozen main dishes to share, which included Chinese favorites like gong bao ji ding (Kung Pao Chicken) and sautéed xi lan hua or broccoli, as well as more out of the ordinary selections, my favorite being the spicy stir-fried cuttlefish.

We followed up dinner with an evening of drinking at Debbie’s place, but ended the festivities early so that we’d all be able to wake up the next morning and head over to Laura’s for a delicious catered Western meal with all the fixin’s. I could positively taste it as I laid me down to sleep.

Shanghai on Christmas Day

I woke up Christmas morning to Dave knocking on my door. Wake the F up! he texted. We’re going to be late to Laura’s. Somehow, I’d managed to sleep until almost 10, which is extremely late for me. I invited Dave inside and began to get ready, but had difficulty moving fast.

“Man,” I said, “I didn’t think we drank that much last night — I can hardly get dressed.”

“You just need to eat something,” he said. “And drink some water.”

I threw on my neon yellow pants from the night before, a button-up shirt and a jacket, then grabbed a water bottle from my fridge. “OK, let’s head out.”

Judging solely by the Shanghai streets that morning, you’d never have known it was Christmas, minus the superficial decorations the Chinese put up for their own entertainment. We took the Line 1 Metro up to People’s Square and were walking to Line 2, where we needed to transfer to get to Laura’s apartment in Shanghai’s Zhabei district, when I realized something was seriously wrong.

“Dave.” I placed my hand on his shoulder as we neared the bottom of the escalator. At almost the exact moment I stepped off, I bent over and opened my mouth wide. A clear liquid approximately the color of the aforementioned neon yellow pants poured out, to the horror of most of the local people around me. I stood there, hunched over for a minute, until a Shanghai Metro staff member with a sanitation bucket urged me to move out of the way.

I looked at Dave once we were inside the moving metro car. “I don’t think this is a hangover.”

“You’re fine,” he urged. “We’ll just get you some bread to eat at the next Lawson we see. You need to have some carbs.”

Western Christmas Food in China

Unfortunately for me, the bread I got from Lawson would meet the same fate as everything I’d consumed the night before, albeit in Laura’s toilet instead of on the shiny floors of the Shanghai underground. As it would turn out, I couldn’t hold anything down, not even water.

Laura danged a piece of white turkey meat in front of my face. “Are you sure you can’t have just one bite?” She dug into the mashed potatoes and creamed corn on her plate as I studied the clean-looking piece of meat. This is bland, I thought. But filling. Maybe the reason I couldn’t hold down water is that there’s no bulk to it?

Wrong! Within minutes of swallowing the luscious breast, tasty as it was, I was on the floor hugging the toilet again. How ironic, I thought, that my decision to eat Chinese food — at a nice restaurant, no less! — the night before Christmas resulted in my not being able to enjoy the Western Christmas meal I’ve been dreaming of the whole time I’ve been here.

I spent most of the afternoon wallowing in pain and misery on the couch as the rest of the gang chowed down on the meal I wanted desperately to eat. After a few hours and the disappearance of my hunger entirely, I was sure that what I had was food poisoning and that it had nothing to do with having drunk alcohol the night before.

Worse still, the feeling of server sickness persisted through to the end of the day’s festivities, to such an extent that Laura literally had to walk me down to street level to get a cab — I couldn’t bear to go back in the metro. The chilly late December air felt even colder thanks to my fever, although I was still feeling far too nauseous to be bothered with shakes and shivers.

Sick on Christmas in Shanghai

About 20 minutes after getting into the taxi, the driver arrived in front of my building, apparently oblivious to me. Eventually he got out of the car and opened my door for me, at which point I fell out onto the pavement and starved vomiting, having held it in for the duration of the journey.

I told him, in my best broken Chinese, to take the cab fare from my pocket, plus a small tip. I usually didn’t tip cab drivers in China, but I become much more generous the more in need of someone’s services I am. He sped off and luckily, no other car drove over me in the minute or so I spent writhing around in my own vomit.

I spent most of the rest of the night curled up in a ball under the hot water of a running shower, my apartment far too cold and drafty for me — most buildings in Shanghai aren’t equipped with central heat, in case you didn’t know. Whenever the hot water ran out I would run to my bed and curl up in my Tibetan wool blanket, occasionally calling my mother over Skype to update her on my progress.

I was supposed to have gone to a party with my immediate co-workers after Laura’s party, but obviously wouldn’t make it. Several of them, plus a couple students, called intermittently to check up on me and ask if I needed medicine. I politely declined each time, knowing full well that food poisoning is just something that has to run its course.

Indeed, although I was initially upset by the fact that my first (and thus far only) Christmas in China was spent sick, hungry and mostly alone, it was a humbling and even cleansing experience. Looking back, I was almost say it was my body’s way of telling me “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

Wherever you spend Christmas this year, I wish you an extremely happy (and not sick!) one. See you Monday!

While participating in the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Medical Blog Contest last November, I met Claire and Ivan, two travel bloggers from the Philippines. “You should really come to the Philippines after the competition finishes,” Claire urged, upon hearing I hadn’t yet visited her country. “Christmas in the Philippines is the best time to visit.”

I’d always wanted to visit the Philippines, so I didn’t waste time booking a cheap flight from Bangkok to Manila. Just as Claire had told me it would, spending Christmas in the Philippines proved to be a wise decision — and not just because of the tropical warmth.

Catholicism in the Philippines

Christmas at Taal Volcano near Manila.

The obvious reason Christmas in the Philippines is such a huge celebration is the fact that the country is so predominately Catholic. With nearly 74 million adherents as of 2005, the Philippines is home to the third largest contingent of Catholics in the world, after Brazil and Mexico.

Indeed, while Christmas is “celebrated” throughout Asia in the material sense — namely trees, people dressed in Santa costumes and ceremonial gift-giving — Filipinos are among the only nations in the region (the other being East Timor) that literally put the christ in Christmas.

Of course, Catholic churches and other architecture are so widespread and flamboyant in the Philippines that it’s difficult to say whether the coming of Christmas makes much of a difference in outward religious expressions. It’s hard to imagine the Manila Cathedral or San Agustín Monastery, for example, being much grander than they usually are.

Malls in the Philippines

Nativity scenes are only the beginning of Christmas in the Philippines.

The Philippines’ being so solidly Catholic does little to diminish the country’s more material expressions of Christmas cheer. Indeed, stepping foot into any of the literally hundreds of shopping malls that dot the country exposes you to chaos, festive and good-natured as it is, unlike any you’ve ever seen.

After I landed at Manila International Airport, Ivan dropped me off at SM Makati Mall in central Manila, a huge shopping center made all the more massive by virtue of being connected to the neighboring Greenbelt and Glorietta malls. I was apprehensive when he dropped me off that I’d be able to occupy five hours of my time at a mall, but had barely crossed from SM into the Greenbelt by the time I was to meet him where he’d dropped me off.

Christmas trees seems somehow out of place in the balmy heat.

Malls in the Philippines during Christmas are decked out in the same kinds of Christmas trees, oversized ornaments and red-and-green trimmed store signs and advertisements you’d find in the United States or Europe. Two key factors make the Philippine Christmas shopping experience more memorable: The size of the malls and the number of people crammed into them.

By a stroke of luck, I ran into Claire (who was manning a booth on behalf of Habitat for Humanity, where she works full-time when she isn’t maintaining her blog “First-Time Travels”) on the ground floor of the SM Mall. When I asked her, perhaps ignorantly, how so many people in the developing Philippines could afford to shop at malls, she let me in on a secret.

“A lot of people don’t come here to shop,” she said, pointing up to the air duct on the ceiling. “For some, malls are just a place to come and enjoy free air conditioning.”

Philippine Weather in December

My view on Christmas morning in Boracay

And believe me, you’ll need the air conditioning, even if you come to the Philippines during Christmas.

With the exception of the mountainous north, where the exquisite Banaue Rice Terraces are located, the Philippines is hot all year-round. In Manila, for example, the average high temperature in December is a balmy 30°C, or about 87°F.

Precipitation-wise, the country (again, with the exception of Ifugao and other mountainous provinces in northern Luzon) is on the drier side in December. This is because December falls within the “Amihan” seasonal weather pattern, which is the driest of the two patterns the Philippines experiences, the other being the “Habagat” or monsoon.

Regardless of slight regional variations, the Philippines is one of the best places in the world to experience a snow- and cold-free Christmas.

Regional Christmas Observance in the Philippines

Blow-up Christmas decorations on the beach in Boracay.

I was lucky enough to spend Christmas day on the tropical island of Boracay, located about an hour’s flight south of Manila. Like the capital, Boracay’s December weather is characterized by balmy temperatures and clear skies.

Due to both a deficiency of churches and an overabundance of tourists, Christmas on Boracay tends to be characterized more by hotel and restaurant brunches than sacred masses as it would elsewhere in the Philippines. Still, a sense of festivity is nonetheless present, with Christmas Santa sculptures, blow-up ornaments and palm trees decked out in Christmas lights.

The "Giant Lantern Festival" in Pampanga takes place just a few days before Christmas.

Other regions of the Philippines were likewise festive. When I arrived at Taal Volcano, located in Batangas province about about 100 km from Manila, my envoy was greeted by children dressed in Santa costumes are our boat docked on the volcano’s shore. Meanwhile up in Ifugao province near the rice terraces, signs of Christmas were much less conspicuous, perhaps owing to that region’s preservation of its own indigenous religion. In Pampanga province, located just north of Manila, the annual “Giant Lantern Festival”takes place close to Christmas.

When I departed Manila the evening of December 27, I felt extremely happy that I’d chosen to spend Christmas in the Philippines. Whether you’re Catholic and want to attend Christmas mass in Manila or simply want to escape the snow and cold and relax on the beaches of Boracay or Palawan, I highly recommend you spend Christmas in the Philippines.