It was late. Late even by Thai standards. I had one last night in Pattaya and I wasn’t going to leave without experiencing the crazy night life. I was hopping around from bar to bar, chatting with “working ladies”, a few lady boys who fooled me and acting like a tourist for once. Sometimes it’s good to be a tourist. Just have fun and keep your clothes on. I had been...
I decided a number of years to go to every country in the world. Things went pretty easy for a while as I knocked Europe off my list and most of South America. Lately, it’s been getting a little more difficult with revolutions, impossible visas and places that are just too dangerous for travelers. So I started looking for loopholes. Iran has a very difficult...
Ask most people what they think of Kuwait and you’ll get a lot of interesting answers. Many conjure up thoughts of a flat ugly desert with oil wells pumping in the background, Arabs running around with machine guns looking for someone to kidnap, or even broken down cities scorched by the sun. Our opinions about places are often shaped by the media or sometimes...
I don’t watch much TV, but I somehow became addicted to the popular AMC show The Walking Dead in it’s third season. So, when I decided to do something creative for my birthday this week, I came up with the brilliant idea of going to Atlanta for two days to visit filming locations where the show was created. It was the most fun one could have without...
I was sitting in Central Grocery on Decatur in NOLA savoring the most delicious muffuletta sandwich I’ve ever held. As I unwrapped the giant $17 sandwich I realized why I keep coming back. There’s nothing anywhere in the world like it. I was on a whirlwind tour with less than 48 hours in NOLA and as I sat in the 100 year old store enjoying every...
HOW I RAN INTO BILL CLINTON I was convinced I had malaria. In Africa it could be sleeping sickness, bilharzia, typhoid, dengue fever, hepatitis or just about anything else. I’d been on 2 weeks of safari traveling in the middle of Tanzania and Kenya so just about any disease was possible. I’m lucky when it comes to illnesses, but my luck had run out. I had...
I was sitting in an Irish bar. It looked like every Irish bar I’d ever been to, except this one was actually in Ireland. No one in the world can get Mexican food right except Texas, but every Irish bar I’ve ever been to is an exact copy of the the one I was sitting in. As I sipped my Guinness and tried to fit in, I suddenly found myself in a conversation...
I had never seen ants this size. They were almost 2 inches long and looked like the ones in the old cartoons as they marched through the jungle in an infinite formation carrying leaves three times their size. The vegetation was so thick it was impossible to walk through it without the machete guy hacking plants in front of me. Suddenly he stopped, bent down and...
There’s been something weird going on with Cuba and the US for a long long time. Cuba and the US have never had a war to speak of, but for over 50 years we’ve been imposing economic sanctions and not allowing any citizens to visit. You could actually end up in jail for visiting the country or even trying to bring in a Cuban cigar through customs (no...
Hong Kong is not a place you want to be without money. The city is about as capitalist as you can imagine and you’re either a “have” with money, or the financial equivalent of an “untouchable”. As I walked out of the 5th bank to reject me for a cash advance, I was beginning to have my doubts about how I was going...