I had always wondered about the mystical islands of Fiji. When you hear “Fiji”, one automatically thinks of pure drinking water, amazing beaches and the movie “Blue Lagoon”(where it was filmed). A friend of mine had asked me to help her find a deal to Fiji and after I had done a little research for her, she changed her mind and decided...
Every time I post on Facebook that I’m headed to Dubai or Oman or anything with the letter “Q” in it, I immediately start receiving warnings and words of caution from my friends about where I’m going. At the moment of this writing, a handful of people have met their demise at the hands of a terrorist group called ISIS. Trust me, I’m...
Island Hopping in the Maldives I’m sitting here enjoying my last day on one of the most beautiful islands I’ve ever seen. The sand is sugary white. The palm trees lean and sway with scores of coconuts. The crabs run away and come back every time they think I’m not paying attention to them. I’m in the Maldives, a collection of...
Sometimes the Top of the Train is Better than the Inside Photo: Bill Wiatrak At the moment, I’m riding on a train in Sri Lanka towards Colombo.It’s not crowded, everyone has a seat, and it is ridiculously cheap. Since this is my first train here, I expected something much worse.Last night before I made my decision to take this mode of transport, I was...
I woke up at midnight last night (or this morning) because I still haven’t gotten adjusted to the time difference between Texas and Sri Lanka. I have plans of riding my rental motorcycle to the fish market at 6 am today, so I’ve had roughly 4 or 5 hours to contemplate the meaning of life…. Oh, and figure out where the hell I’m...
Shaman Preparing Ayuhuasca It was almost dusk. The amazon jungle completely surrounded us as we walked precariously on the wooden boards that someone had spent days or possibly years placing in position so that pedestrians wouldn’t fall in the muck. The shaman we were following looked no different than any other Peruvian we had spotted. His clothes were simple...
We slipped out of the museum, heads down so that our tour group wouldn’t notice us. We looked around surreptitiously hoping that no police were watching us. Not that they would necessarily know we were guilty of wrongdoing mind you, but we couldn’t take a chance. As we made our way backwards through the entrance line, I felt an...
Everyone should get robbed once while traveling. There’s nothing like that exciting feeling of not having any money in a strange country and wondering how you’re going to replace your stuff. I got robbed my second time to Europe. It sucked. I still have no desire to go back to Madrid. That was a long time ago and I vowed at that moment that it would never...
I recently got back from a trip to Central America and while traveling I posted a few pics of something a little strange I had ordered off the menu. My friends all agreed that there was no way they would ever order such a thing and couldn’t believe I would. I thought about it for a while and realized that I felt the same way but I almost had a responsibility to...
When travelers complain about luggage getting lost or start packing 2 weeks before a trip, I’ve always told them the same thing. The only two things you really need for any international trip is money and a passport.In reality you can actually get by without money for a little while if you’re resourceful, but the passport is the key that opens the lock...