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CouchSurfing Travel Tips

Putting Surf in CouchSurfing

Would you sleep on a complete stranger’s couch? Sounds crazy, I know, but when traveling, doing just that can become a truly awesome experience! CouchSurfing is a website that let’s you do just that! I signed up for it in Decemeber, thinking that it would be handy for my 3 month Asian adventure! And boy, […]

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Photos Say What??

Say What??: “Sound Advice”

China just loves to dole out advice on all sorts of matters (though whether people actually follow said advice is another story entirely). Earlier, we saw some of their lovely shopping tips being handed out to visitors to one of their UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Yunnan town of Lijiang. Today’s “Say What??” also comes […]

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Photos Say What??

Say What??–“Complaint Box”

Today’s “Say What??” comes from remote Lao town of Luang Nam Tha, a tiny town in the northwest part of the country that I spent a mere night in, as I had previously visited it three years ago. Being a communist country, it only makes sense that the Lao government should give the people a […]

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Asia 2010 China

China Wrap-Up: Part II

Behold the “Middle Kingdom.” Zhongguou, more commonly known by its English name of China, is an up-and-coming force to be reckoned with in the world. And now that I’ve had a few weeks to digest my second visit to the world’s most populous nation, I’m ready to write Part II of my wrap-up. In Part […]

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Asia 2010 South Korea

Homeward Bound

2 hours of sleep. That’s all I had gotten before what would become one of the longest single days of my life. The lack of sleep was definitely not my choice, as a key snafu kept me up till 3:30am and I needed to head to the airport for my flight home at 5:30am. Thus […]

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Asia 2010 China

Shanghai

Shanghai. The mere mention of that name evokes images a modern, cosmopolitan city…a far cry from the “traditional” China that so many travelers seek. A walk down Shanghai’s bustling shopping street, Nanjiang Rd or through its business district, Pudong simply reinforces that view. A sprawling example of China’s dramatic growth, Shanghai (pronounced SHAWNG-hai) serves as […]

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Asia 2010 China

World Expo!

The World Expo. That mere phrase has a certain aura surrounding it. In fact it’s a concept that came to me at a young age when I worked on a production of Meet Me in St. Louis, a movie and Broadway based on the excitement surrounding the 1904 World Fair. Now the World Fair certainly has […]

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Asia 2010 China

Social City

Cities certainly have redeeming qualities, even after they’ve chewed you up and spit you back out again! Such was my first experience in Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, nearly 2 months ago, when I had an amazingly frustrating day trying to figure out how to get out of this place. Then, I did […]