For those who solo travel, bargains are harder to come by, particularly if you're booking a cruise or taking a tour. Most tour prices are couple friendly. If you have a traveling buddy, lodging is cheaper.

Ed Perkins, a consumer travel writer for Tribune Media Services offers some suggestions for people who are going it alone to reduce the cost of an adventure.

One option is to have a cruise line or cruise operator find a roommate for you. Perhaps someone is in the same position you are. You would only be sharing a room, but the rest of the time you can strike out on your own.

Another is to look for a traveling companion by hitting up your friends, coworkers, family members, basically anyone you know, to find out if they know of someone who would like to go on a trip.

Check out an organization like Connecting Solo Travel Network, Travel Acquaintance and Travel Chums. These businesses specialize in hooking people up to single travel deals and with each other.

Perkins also suggests O Solo Mio Tours and scouting out last minute deals with tour operators. Sometimes you can get a good deal right before a trip starts.

Even for people traveling with a partner, hooking up with a single person can be a money saver and can offer a broader experience. When my husband and I were traveling in Vietnam we became friends with Amit, a woman from Israel. We shared a room and hired a driver together, and even arranged to meet up with her in Hanoi after we veered in different directions for a few days.

We also hung out with Stan, a Vietnam vet who was traveling alone. After sharing a meal, we shared the cost of a driver from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang. Since Stan was stationed in Nha Trang, this gave us an experience from his point of view.

Amit became our companion from Nha Trang to Hue and on to Hoi An.

In Hoi An, Amit and I had a wonderful time shopping while my husband was relieved to not tag along.

Anyone lose a Boeing 727 lately? I just checked my hangar and all of mine are in stock. Girlfriend check one out? Nope, she's on the yacht.

Well someone is missing one. Vietnamese officials at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport can't seem to figure out who left the aircraft at their airport late last year; it's currently sitting collecting dust at on the tarmac with an outdated order for "essential maintenance". Nobody has bothered to claim it.

Looking at the aircraft, there is a Cambodian flag on the skin with the name "Air Dream", but the Vietnamese don't seem to have any information on the airline -- whether that's a testament to a defunct, outdated airline and aircraft or the failures of the communist bureaucracy, I'm not sure.

Meantime, I have half a nerve to send one of my Vietnamese cousins up with a briefcase full of parking fees and say that the 727 belongs to my family. I've been meaning to bedazzle one of my aircraft and park it out on my front lawn in The Hamptons. Maybe Gridskipper will pick up the story.

What strange things have been found on planes?

Click the image to read the bizarre story...

[Thanks to moody75 for the tip]

I have succumbed to the fascination in viewing dead people. I'm not talking about funerals, but about viewing dead people who have been dead awhile, as in years and years. The recent public viewing of Padre Pio, a Catholic saint, in San Giovani Rotondo, Italy has brought back memories.

Ho Chi Minh was my first preserved body tourist attraction. Mao Zedong was the second one. I wasn't really comparing which of the two looked better when I went back for a second gander at Ho Chi Minh, but preservation has treated him better, in my opinion. Neither of these former leaders looked real, though--more like odd wax dolls.

If you have 21 days between now and May 15 and August 20 through December 1, Cathay Pacific Airways has the All Asia Pass that gives travelers a chance to visit Hong Kong and up to four more cities in Asia. Prices range from $1,099 with two additional cities; $1,399 for three cities, plus Hong Kong; to $1,699 for the four cities and Hong Kong. With San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York as departure cities, you could probably snag an inexpensive flight to any of them if you plan early enough.

If I were going to take advantage of this ticket, I'd head to Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and Cambodia. The first three, because I've been to each of them and have people I'd like to visit. Cambodia is a place I'd love to go. None of them are far from each other which would help maximize my time in the countries and not going from place to place. In Vietnam, I'd head north to Sapa, a place I haven't been and see friends in Hanoi. In Thailand, I'd spend a day or two in Bangkok and then head to a beach somewhere. Taiwan would mean revisiting places I liked when I lived there, particularly Beipu and eating all the food I've missed since I left. Cambodia would mean new discoveries.

But, since as with most great travel deals, the summer is excluded and that's when I would have the 21 days to spare, I can't take advantage. Hopefully, others can. Except for Taiwan, it's possible to travel in the other three on a shoestring. Hong Kong is good for a day or two, but I'd head to cheaper locations ASAP.

As soon as Anthony Bourdain of "No Reservations" sat down on David Letterman's TV show couch, I perked up wondering what Letterman would dish out about the food Bourdain eats on his travels since Justin asked Bourdain some questions last June in a Talking Travel interview. Here are highlights of Letterman's banter.

"Do you get sick? Get hepatitis? Throw up?" asked Letterman.

"Only twice," said Bourdain. "I got sick in France from too much of a good thing. . . and from the business end of a warthog." The warthog was a food he chewed on in the Kalahari. He said any other sickness that led to an up close and personal experience with a bathroom's cold tile floor has come from imbibing on too much alcohol.

"Humans can eat about anything?" Letterman leaned in for a response.

"I don't recommend chicken nuggets," quipped Bourdain and went on to say that when traveling, he's found that whenever someone says, "We have something very special for you," be wary. Such was the case when he downed the still beating heart of a cobra, an event Letterman asked him about. A delicacy in Vietnam, the cobra's heart is supposed to be a real libido boost.

"It's like eating an angry athletic oyster," said Bourdain after describing how it's removed from the cobra right in front of the person who will be dining on it. In this case, him. Hint: swallow it whole.

As for how to avoid raising a picky eater, Bourdain said that there will be no grilled cheese sandwich with the crusts cut off for his daughter. She's already eating prosciutto flavored baby food and from what he said, she'll be on a first name basis with the best sushi chefs. Bourdain, at age 51, is a fairly recent first time father. I wonder if this means the cobra thing works? Actually, Bourdain is a very charming, funny guy so I'd say that has something to do with it.

"No Reservations" is on the Travel Channel and Gadling is going to be there watching Boudain in his travels and taking notes.

Anna's earlier post today about the ban of cyclos, the three wheeled transportation so popular in Vietnam, highlights on an important change taking place in Vietnamese society. Yes, many tourists and visitors enjoy cyclo rides from time to time (I know I've taken a few), but this ban will do wonders for the traffic situation in Saigon.

Traffic, you see, is a little difficult in Saigon, largely in part due to the number of motorbikes and poor signaling. The sheer volume of motorbikes in the city is staggering; transferring into the city from Ho Chi Minh airport, I was baffled by the number on the street. So with fewer cyclos taking up precious vehicle space, hopefully traffic can streamline itself into a more efficient pattern.

I took the following video in the middle of a weekday, so traffic is light. During weekends, rush hour or holidays, the number of motorbikes is absurd.

Over at Travel Happy, Don Morgan has an exhaustive run-down of the costs of traveling around Vietnam. As someone who will be visiting the Southeast Asian country for the first time later this year, I'm pleased to see that Vietnam is even more affordable (read: cheap) than I had originally thought. One thing I'm not looking forward to, however, is the brain-busting exchange rate-- 16,000 Vietnamese dong to 1 US dollar. Oh no, not math!

Discussing cheap accomodations, Morgan writes, "If you're really want to save, look for signs that say 'Nha Tro' or 'Nha Phong,' which means 'boarding house.' Also, 'Co Thue Phong' means 'we rent rooms.'... You can get a concrete room with nothing but a bed and a separate bathroom for less than 2 USD a night."

Also be sure to check out the article for where to find ATMs, where to convert currency, and the cost of meals, booze, and cigarettes. And where else can you read a line like this: "Laos will dong you up if you're headed east. Don't change too much money at border crossings - the rates are horrible. But your first dong will probably spit out at you from an ATM anyway."

For more from Travel Happy on the costs of traveling in Southeast Asia, read "How Much Money Do I Need for Thailand?"

I'm generally pretty good with languages, and often have few problems communicating the basics in a new country after I've been there a few weeks. I thought this skill was relegated to the romance languages only, but when I traveled solo in China, necessity forced me to pick up a sizable chunk of Mandarin.

So when I left China for Vietnam, I was feeling fairly confident in my language abilities. And I was also hungry for some phô. For those of you who haven't tasted this beefy delight, get thee to a phô shop immediately! (In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a chain called "What the Phô.") In this dish, beef is simmered in broth with cinnamon, star anise, rice noodles, and a bunch of other savory stuff, then served to you with a side of fresh sprouts and herbs. Fill your bowl with these, some chiles and fish sauce, and you've got the best bowl of soup you've ever had.

You'd think I could master the simple phrase "phô bo" (beef noodle soup) -- pronounced in English as "fuh buh." I had a month in Vietnam to perfect it, and I ordered the soup daily, yet I could never get it right. Vietnamese has 6 tones that go up,down and around -- as far as I could tell -- and every time I ordered pho bo (with different tones each time) I was met with confused looks. I tried rising, then falling: "Fu-UH BU-uh" Nope. Short, then long: "Fuh Buuuuuuuuh." Huh-uh. Even though I was at a noodle shop that served only pho, even though I was getting all the consonants right, they still had no clue what I was saying. Thankfully, most of the vendors seemed to understand "beef noodle soup."

And that's about as far as I got with Vietnamese.

In September when I was in Los Angeles for an impromptu weekend away, sans family, my friend and I passed Cedars-Sinai Hospital the night we went to the Algonquin West Hollywood Literary Award Soiree. I'd be lying if I didn't say that this made me think of Owen Wilson and his stay there. (Even Justin has his Owen Wilson musings. Although, I have to say, I was perhaps more fond of Darjeeling Ltd. than Justin.)

Now that Britney has had her Cedars-Sinai stay, I have to admit, that, yes, reading about her visit to the hospital gave me a flashback about my LA trip and when I passed by Cedars-Sinai.

This brushing up with news stories happens frequently if you travel. Those who stay home merely get info from a newspaper that ends up in a recycling bin or is off the radar as soon as the channel changes. Yesterday's news stays yesterday's news.

Travel makes news stories more vivid somehow, even if the news is months old. Places become not just a name we heard about, but one with which we have a taste of a personal relationship--even if it's just an asterisk.

If you're earning a salary in US currency and are unlucky enough to spend it traveling internationally, you know the pain of the depreciating dollar.

The rest of the world has become frighteningly expensive as the dollar continues its slide. My recent trip to North Korea, for example, was $800 more expensive than it would have been two years ago for the mere fact that I had to pay for the tour in euros. Man, did this hurt! Unfortunately, such increased costs have become a factor in many travelers' vacation plans as prohibitive prices continue to limit options.

But this isn't the case everywhere. Certain parts of the world are still "on sale" due to local currencies that even weaker than the dollar.

Countries where dollars go the distance is a handy LA Times article that explores some of these remaining bargain locations--Vietnam, Morocco, Bolivia, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Albania--and provides a fantastic short list of wonderful places that would still be worth going to even if they weren't "on sale."