take the leap of faith and try these posts out
At this point, I’ve got about 300 posts on this blog and I thought it was time to do up a page where some new readers can catch up with some stuff. These are some posts that have gotten a nice positive feedback from long-time readers and also some of the older ones I have here that I really like, but probably passed most readers by, since my readership is now a lot more than it was back then.
I hope you enjoy. Feel free to comment on any of the pages or send me an email via my contact page if you have any questions or feedback.
Humor Attempts:
Good People, Bad People, Dead People. My 2011 year end review. A little different look back on my first year of serious blogging.
Top 10 Lists Suck. A Lot. As most of my blogging friends know, I have a visceral negative reaction to Top 10 lists. There is just something phony about picking out “10” as some sort of magical number that sets me off.
Top 10 Months to Travel. So, of course, I had to follow up my semi-controversial Top 10 Lists Suck post with…. my first snarky Top 10 list. Tough choices had to be made here.
Castara, Tobago: an undiscovered gem wrapped in awesomeness wrapped in paper cliché. There are a variety of kinds of bad travel writing, but the one that most bloggers have too much of early in their writing is an overabundance of cliches and trite, overused phrases. I think I hit almost all of them.
The Hostel and Dorm Rules. This was one of my first popular posts. I’ve spent a good many nights in hostels and these are some of the basic rules you should follow next time you spend a night in one.
What’s Up with the Air-Con? If you have traveled in the Third World, you have run into this problem, especially on buses.
World Cup 2022: the Drinking Guide to Qatar. Qatar was recently awarded the 2022 World Cup. As you can imagine, there is a good bit of drinking done at that event. Qatar has one liquor store. The situation seemed rife for a humorous riff.
Wedding Trip to the Cayman Islands. This was a long, long ago post and you can tell. No pictures. Too long. But… I still think it is pretty amusing.
Don’t Lose Your Passport!! One of my first efforts, meaning it is too long. I still love it — mainly because almost all of the humor is directed at how stupid I was.
Oddities:
It IS a Small World After All. If you talk to any long-term travelers, they will have some amazing stories about running into people thousands of miles from where they saw they first. Here are some of my odd meet ups.
Latin America: Receipts for Everything. There are so many things that will strike you as odd out there while traveling around. Here was one that made me laugh constantly.
Germany Summed Up in One Picture. The essence of very few places can be summed up in one picture. I posit this picture sums up a good bit of the German psyche.
To Khartoum, Sudan from Gondor, Ethiopia. Horribly titled and too damn long (again), but how many travel tales include a guy getting on a bus with a live chicken and an AK-47. And a later bus where Muslim women were rooting during the video playing of… Wrestle Mania XX – the Women’s Championships?
Hitchhiking and General Niceness in New Zealand. I know that I shouldn’t find niceness an oddity, but I’m telling ‘ya, you have never experienced the niceness level of New Zealand. And hitchhiking is the way to experience it fully.
Thoughtful Pieces:
Yes, I try to do some of those occasionally also.
13 Reasons Everyone Should Travel. My first post for the Huffington Post and one that was received really nicely by my friends and readers.
Travel, Change, and Social Conscience — Why I Currently Wouldn’t be Traveling to Egypt. This is a post I did after a year after the revolution in Egypt expressing my views on traveling there at that time — when the military dictatorship was killing peaceful protesters in the streets.
New 7 Wonders of the World — the Scam before the Sham. The announcement of the New 7 Wonders of the World lead me to do a bit of research. This whole thing is a money grabbing sham.
Third World Begging. One of the many things you will quickly have to get used to in the Third World is the frequency of begging that you will run into. This is a post that attempts to discuss that topic — and the comments from readers are great also.
What I Don’t Like about Travel. Don’t get me wrong, I want to do this for the next decade or so, but constant travel isn’t all wine and roses. Here are some of the things on the road that I’m not a huge fan of.
Ferry to Aswan, Egypt from Wadi Halfi, Sudan. I love the Middle East, but this particular trip gave a bit of insight into young Muslim men’s attitudes towards Western woman. It wasn’t positive.
Visas, Dollars and Bureaucrats (and Cabbies that Save my Ass, again). Another post that was way, way too long, back before I figured out what I was doing, but this hits on some of the big ups and downs I had on my RTW overland trip.
Safety and Crime while Traveling. I was incredibly lucky on my trip, but the question that I got asked most often back home (aside from my favorite country) was about avoiding crime on the road. Personally, I don’t think it is any more dangerous “out there” than here in the States, but here are my more developed thoughts on the topic.
Golf Trip to Ireland. Thoughts on mortality and getting old during a golf trip with my brother and father.
What I Wish I Knew BEFORE my RTW Trip. I learned a heck of a lot during my 16 months traveling around the world. Here are some of the lessons I wish I knew at the beginning.
Just Travel Stories:
Your First Excellent Wine. I love wine. Love. This is another post that tends to the way too long side of things, but it has some of my favorite wine memories of my life… so far.
Pissed off in Turkey – a Bad Travel Day. What Paul Theroux has become to train travel — I seek to become to bus travel. This was not one of the best bus days of my many of those on the road.
Worst Dorm Night Ever… and my Revenge. I was so worried to write and publish this post, but some of my fellow travel bloggers talked me into it.
Cabo Polonio, Uruguay. One of my favorite little beach towns in the world. No electricity, but lots of fun. Yes, I said there is no electricity in the entire town.
Strip Joint Night in Medellin, Colombia. I think the title pretty much sums up the night. It was a funny one.
Dumb Texan in Hoi An, Vietnam. I went to college in Texas. I met people in real life that were just like this guy.
Photography Posts:
Portrait of Joy. My single favorite photo, out of about 15,000, from my RTW trip.
Feeding Wild Hyenas in Harar, Ethiopia. I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Ethiopia, but this was one of the highlights of my time there.
Heard (and Seen) at the Wellington Sevens. This weekend in New Zealand was a blast and the main reason was the craziness of the fans at this rugby tournament. The photos are at the end of this post — and there is a link to more of the “heard” part in the front that I think is hilarious.
Photo Journal: Bogota Street Art (Part I). I like both of the posts on this topic, but in short, the graffiti street art in Bogota is amazing.
Photo of the Day: Lighthouse at the End of the World. From Patagonia. Love the colors and reflections on this shot from a tour boat.
Photo Journal: Barichara and Guane, Colombia. One of my favorite countries and these two little towns are some of the most photogenic spots there.
