Tag - bill wiatrak

Looking Down at the Stars

We all heard the big news when Hugh Hefner died. His first playmate, Marilyn Monroe, the celebrity that helped launch his controversial magazine to super stardom, was someone he had never met. In spite of this fact, he chose to buy the last piece of real estate he would ever use right next door to her. After decades of a life that few of us can possibly imagine at...

Shanghai Disney

We arrived at Shanghai Disney 30 minutes before it opened, but the crowds of Chinese tourists were already gathering by the trainload. The Happiest Place on Earth had expanded its universe to Shanghai a few years  ago and business was booming. I was more than a little curious how Disney would fare in the Far East.  Would Chinese kids recognize Mickey...

11 Things You Need to Know Before You Visit China

I’ve been traveling through China for the last 2 weeks. It’s a fascinating country with amazing archaeological treasures, breathtaking scenery and pandas. Yes, pandas. Although I’ve been here half a dozen times, I find travel here to be some of the most challenging in the world. It can be extremely frustrating because of language barriers and customs that westerners...

Getting to Mongolia the Long Way

I’m going to Mongolia.  In a couple of weeks I’m hopping on a plane to fly to LA  at the crack of dawn and lingering for 12 hours in California before I catch a flight to Shanghai. A couple days later I’ll jump on the Maglev high speed train and travel 800 miles to Beijing. From there I’ll catch another flight to the border of China and hire a taxi to...

How to Deal With Flight Delays

Some of my friends think that I live the Life of Reilly when it comes to travel. They see my Instagram photos and read the highlights of my adventures and because I focus on my positive experiences, it might seem that everything goes according to plan. Nope. In fact, I probably have more travel setbacks than the average person because I am traveling all the time...

Visiting the Seven Wonders of the World

You’ve no doubt heard people talk about the seven wonders of the world and wondered what exactly they are or where they are. The truth is that the original seven wonders of the world (established by the Greeks) don’t exist anymore except for one: the Pyramids of Giza. The Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Temple of Artemus and Diane, the Tomb of...

Kazakhstan. It’s a Niiiiiiice!

 It’s the number one country in the world for potassium and number two for prostitutes. The residents drink fermented horse urine. You can thank Borat for everything we know about Kazakhstan, which is nothing. The only things that Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2006 film parody got right about the world’s 9th largest country, is it’s flag and place on the map. Even the...