Last updated Aug 5, 2024 | First published on Jul 1, 2024 | Travel Stories
I sat alone. Feet stretched into the bench seat opposite of me, eyes drooping. Kilometer after kilometer of rice paddies flashed by outside. The antique train taking me to Laos was a vintage classic and well past its prime. Rudyard Kipling once said, “The first...
Last updated Aug 8, 2025 | First published on Dec 8, 2021 | Travel Stories
“Ewww… your horse stinks.” It wasn’t exactly the response for which I was hoping after I plodded over to a couple of sunbathing backpackers who had waved at me. But I have to admit: he did indeed stink. Both myself and my steed had been sweating under the...
Last updated Jul 1, 2023 | First published on Mar 19, 2021 | Travel Stories
The first of the sharks appeared around 9 a.m. Or perhaps they had been there all along, circling in the cloudy water around us. Who knows. The safety of the beach, the only dry, horizontal surface for a long distance in any direction, suddenly seemed that much...
Last updated Jun 30, 2022 | First published on Apr 1, 2019 | Travel Stories
After dragging around Bangkok’s Khao San Road for almost an hour, I realized I was hopelessly lost. I stumbled along wearily through a midnight forest of neon. Khao San Road was flicking its forked tongue for the Friday night circus. Masses of vespertine clowns...
Last updated Mar 29, 2023 | First published on Jan 23, 2019 | Travel Stories, Vagabonding Anniversaries
I am happy to report, that after 13 years since leaving for my first vagabonding trip abroad, still alive! Today marks the 13th trip around the sun for my odd, travel-centered, low-paying, high-reward lifestyle of choice. I left the despair of my stressful job in...
Last updated Sep 14, 2022 | First published on Nov 16, 2018 | Philippines, Travel Stories
You learn a lot of useful things while traveling. I certainly did while searching for a Siquijor love potion on an island in the Philippines that’s purported to be home to witch doctors. For instance, I didn’t know that a manananaggal is a hideous,...
