It was 1:30 a.m., and I was taking in the Malaysian nightlife near the PETRONAS Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
I needed to wake up early to catch a bus, so I decided I should get back to my hostel …
There’s an old Chinese proverb, 黄金万两容易得，一个知心最难寻。(huáng jīn wàn liăng róng yì dé, yí gè zhī xīn zuì nán xún.) – Gold is easy to obtain, but a great friend is the hardest to find.
Chinese culture places a lot …
Maya Angelou once said, “A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.”
When we travel abroad, one way we can guarantee that we’ll have a good time is by making new friends.
And potential friends are everywhere! They could …
In the movie “Predator,” Austrian-born movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger screams at the top of his lungs, “Get to the chopper!”
He was in such a rush to get out of the jungle that he didn’t have the chance to …
Voltaire once said, “The danger which is least expected soonest comes to us.”
We might not expect anything to go terribly wrong when we travel abroad. We’re on vacation! Life should be relaxing. All we have to focus on is …
Google has literally changed the world.
And one of its most disruptive technologies has been the open-source, mobile operating system of Android.
Every day, billions of people use an Android phone to talk to their friends, take photos, conduct …
Dan Rather once said, “If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.”
Traveling the world is challenging.
For many globetrotters, one of the most challenging parts of …
I had just arrived in Guatemala City at 10 p.m. and had an important Skype meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. the next day.
That meant that I had fewer than 12 hours to find a private location with fast Wi-Fi.…
In “The Innocents Abroad,” Mark Twain wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.”
The benefits of studying abroad can’t be understated.
Yes, studying in another country will broaden your perspective of the world and teach you about people …
When I stepped off the plane in China, I knew I wanted to do two things:
Drink Dragonwell tea at West Lake and visit the Honghe Rice Terraces in Yuanyang.
After spending a year in China, I had …
I was staying in Kuala Lumpur when my United States bank suddenly contacted me to report a potential security threat to my debit card. They said they needed to cancel my old card and had already issued me a new …
Tom Miller once wrote, “The finest travel writing describes what’s going on when nobody’s looking.”
Whether you’re making money from your travel pieces are just starting out, there’s always room to improve.
“The finest travel writing” consists of much …
When I was traveling through Indonesia, I made a split decision to take a three-day trek through the jungle. It would be three days with no internet, cell service or access to the outside world.
I was working as part …
Everybody has heard of Mt. Fuji.
And the temples, shrines and geishas of Japan’s big cities, like Tokyo and Kyoto.
Now, if you want to see bright, big cities and experience the magic of modern Japanese culture, hitting all …
There are over 1.4 billion people living in China
And guess what? You could be one of them.
If you want to eat 包子 (bāo zi) — steamed stuffed buns every day, ride around the country on a …
It was a national holiday and three-day weekend. Along with a few fellow expats who also lived in China, I decided to travel to Inner Mongolia in the northern part of the country.
After an eight-hour bus ride from …
Do you dream of hiking Machu Picchu in Peru?
Or maybe you’d rather relax on a Colombian beach or walk through huge Chinese cities.
These are all nice ideas, but let’s be real. How would you even begin …
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do,” Mark Twain once wrote.
We can’t help but agree with him. That’s why it’s vital to have amazing …
I was on the subway, headed to meet my friend at the Shenzhen airport.
But I missed the connection to the correct subway line!
I decided it would be fine to exit at the “Airport East” station instead of …
Want to stand on top of a snow-capped mountain and yodel with an alphorn?
How about walk on a 13th century bridge and feel the mist of a rushing waterfall?
These are just a couple life-changing experiences you can …
It can’t be denied, Berlin is an amazing city.
But when people talk about the best places to live in Germany, they always seem to mention the same major cities: Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt.
There are so many other …
What’s the most difficult part of a backpacking trip?
Planning.
Visiting multiple destinations makes planning more difficult than, say, spending one week at the same hotel in Paris.
These days, a huge aspect of planning a trip is downloading all …
College can be rough.
All-night cram sessions before tests. Student loans. Pressure from parents and teachers to have it all together.
Wouldn’t it be nice to escape it all for a little while?
Well, you could run away and join …
The first time I boarded a high-speed train in China, I couldn’t make out the Mandarin on my ticket. In my mind, the Chinese characters were just weird shapes.
My friend and I had to go off the cuff, …
