May 10th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Let's face it: things happen while you're traveling. Although many travels go off without a hitch, occasionally there are unforeseen hurdles, which simply need to be navigated. Sometimes this can be as minor as your bag ending up in Hamburg when it's supposed to be in Berlin, as unlucky as contracting swine flu in Mexico, or as downright scary as ending up in a knife fight in a back alley in ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
vagabondtales posts
Vagabond Tales: How To Pay Off The Police While Traveling
May 10th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Let's face it: things happen while you're traveling. Although many travels go off without a hitch, occasionally there are unforeseen hurdles, which simply need to be navigated. Sometimes this can be as minor as your bag ending up in Hamburg when it's supposed to be in Berlin, as unlucky as contracting swine flu in Mexico, or as downright scary as ending up in a knife fight in a back alley in ...Vagabond Tales: How To Survive A Coup On Your Honeymoon: Part 2
May 4th, 2012 at 10:30AM:
The following is a continuation from last week's "Vagabond Tales" column, a rundown of events leading up to Kyle finding himself in the middle of a political coup in Quito, Ecuador.
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There are few sensations more terrifying than running away from gunfire – particularly on your honeymoon.
As intermittent pops echoed against the hillsides of Quito, I found myself entrenched in ...Vagabond Tales: How to Survive a Coup On Your Honeymoon, Part 1
Apr 27th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
With the radio crackling from the speakers of his rusty old cargo van, Juan's furrowed brow indicated a greater focus on the newscast than on shuttling us to Pululahua Crater.
My wife and I being the only two passengers on his 11am tour, Juan had begun to speak to us as friends, not customers.
"I am very scared for Ecuador" he confessed. "I am sorry you must be here for this."
Through ...Vagabond Tales: Salar De Uyuni, The Weirdest Place On Earth
Apr 23rd, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Right now, as you read this, there are pink flamingos and wild llamas running amok on the shores of a red lake in Bolivia. In a land far, far away, people are watching the sunrise amidst steaming geysers while dodging puddles of boiling mud. There are hot springs where you can bathe nude at 15,000 ft, hotels made entirely of salt, and rocks that look exactly like trees.
No, this isn't ...Vagabond Tales: Are Plastic Bottles Becoming A Natural Resource?
Apr 12th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
The island of Mabul, Malaysia, is not big. In fact, it's tiny. You can walk around it in 45 minutes.
A popular destination for scuba divers, visitors to this remote island off the coast of Borneo frequently pass the time by diving the offshore reefs or lounging beneath a coconut palm – pretty taxing stuff really.
While digging into a good book from the confines of a hammock is all ...Vagabond Tales: Why Is There A Monkey In My Sleeping Bag?
Apr 9th, 2012 at 9:00AM:
There are few moments more startling than waking up to a jungle primate seeking refuge in the warm recesses of your crotch. Consider the fact you're sleeping in an abandoned, open-air, concrete nightclub in the middle of a Peruvian cloud forest, and the entire ordeal takes on a new aura of peculiarity.
This, however, was exactly how I started my morning in the rural village of Santa Teresa ...Vagabond Tales: Standing inside the Devil's Throat
Mar 29th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Eleanor Roosevelt and I have one thing in common: We both have stood inside of the Devil's Throat.
Yes, those words came out right, and no, I haven't been drinking.
Far less cult-like than it originally sounds, La Garganta del Diablo (The Devil's Throat) comprises the most dramatic section of Iguazu Falls, a humbling series of waterfalls spanning the border of Argentina and Brazil.
...Vagabond Tales: Tunneling beneath the 'scariest place on Earth'
Mar 20th, 2012 at 9:00AM:
This may come as a shocker, but traveling to North Korea as a tourist isn't exactly easy. In a country that tops the paranoia charts when it comes to dealing with "outsiders," the tourist administration in Pyongyang isn't real cool with throngs of camera-toting tourists soiling the ultra-pure North Korean populace with their strange and fetid ideals. Better to simply keep them out.
Sure, ...Vagabond Tales: Everyone wants to stay in a castle, even presidents
Mar 12th, 2012 at 11:30AM:
I doubt there is anyone in the world that, if given the chance, wouldn't want to stay in a castle.
It's a shame that modern architecture has strayed away from castles, because there are few structures that possess the innate ability to be stoic yet romantic, welcoming and yet terrifying all at the same time. Castles conjure images of a bygone time of messengers on horseback, swords in ...Vagabond Tales: Scuba diving Nicaragua in a lightning storm
Mar 6th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
In spite of being one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, many travelers list Nicaragua as their hands-down favorite country in Central America. The colonial heritage of Granada and Leon, the world-class surf of Popoyo and San Juan del Sur, and the relaxing feel of the islands, these are all highlights of Nicaragua that draw visitors back time and again.
Wait. Did you just ...Vagabond Tales: How to wine taste in France without speaking French
Feb 27th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
For many global travelers there are few languages more useful than French.
In case you aren't aware, or it's been a healthy number of decades since your last high school French class, the Francophone world still extends far beyond the borders of France. From the beaches of Martinique to the cloud forests of Rwanda, French is still the default language of choice for tourism and local ...Vagabond Tales: Winter on California's Mt. Tahquitz
Feb 21st, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Some people are not aware of the fact there are mountains in Southern California. Not just brown looking hills with Hollywood signs sprinkled across them, but real mountains which feature real fresh snow. You can even ski in Southern California.
If you aren't one of the 22 million people who currently reside in Southern California, there's a decent chance this is the first time you are ...Vagabond Tales: Snorkeling with irukandji, one of the deadliest animals on Earth
Feb 11th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
"This guy over here has been tagged three times mate."
The dive instructor on our Whitsunday Islands cruise peels off his neoprene gloves and shows us a slight scar located just above the knuckle of his right thumb.
"Luckily every time they got me it was in the hand or the foot", he claims. "If they'd gotten me on the bloody torso I'd be a gonner."
As someone who has worked on charter ...Vagabond Tales: Swimming with elephants in Thailand
Feb 9th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Anyone who has visited Thailand will recognize the word Chang.
The national beer of Thailand, the over sized green bottles are found everywhere from the markets of Chiang Mai to the bars of Bangkok's Khao San Road. In the Thai language, however, Chang does not mean beer. It means elephant. Hence the ornately drawn white elephant placed prominently on the bottle.
Another Thai word you may ...Vagabond Tales: Is sandboarding better than snowboarding?
Jan 31st, 2012 at 9:00AM:
Contrary to what you may believe, the ocean in Peru is not very warm. In fact, it's not warm at all. It's freezing.
Other than desert outposts in the northern reaches of the country where it's still possible to surf in boardshorts (Mancora, Vichayito, etc.), the Humboldt current--which swings northward from Antarctica--renders the water in Peru so cold that much of the coast is a seascape ...Vagabond Tales: "The Governator is better, yes?"
Jan 23rd, 2012 at 9:00AM:
Crossing borders can always be a bit of a hectic experience. There are long lines, scam artists, customs officials, new currencies, people offering to expedite your visa process for a fee, screaming children, rogue livestock, and occasionally people with guns. Dirty and dingy, border crossings are never the favorite part of my trip.
Luckily, however, I was once aided through a particularly ...Vagabond Tales: The strange food of Vietnam
Jan 20th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Apparently, there are no sharks left in Vietnam.
This is not a scientific fact. It's based solely upon the opinion of my dive instructor in Nha Trang, a trendy resort town in southern Vietnam. While you may initially think this is a good thing, the sad reality is that sharks are one of the most threatened animals in the undersea environment and the vast majority pose no threat to humans ...Vagabond Tales: Nobody plans to visit a hospital in Uruguay
Jan 17th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
About the last thing that anyone wants to have happen on their vacation is to end up in the hospital. This much nearly all travelers can agree upon.
What's even more fun is ending up in a hospital in a country that speaks a foreign language, realizing your vocabulary doesn't yet include the translations for words such as "syringe", "infection", and "spinal tap".
Luckily for me I found ...Vagabond Tales: Lunch on Guilty Beach, Cambodia
Jan 12th, 2012 at 10:00AM: Lunch on Guilty Beach was a tough meal to swallow.
If you look on a map of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, you'll find beaches such as Victory Beach and Independence Beach, but you'll find no such place as Guilty Beach. Regardless of what a map might say, unofficially, every beach in Cambodia is Guilty Beach.
Guilty Beach is not just a Cambodian phenomenon, but rather a global destination that can ...Vagabond Tales: How to roast marshmallows over an active volcano
Jan 10th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
This may sound strange, but one of my favorite aspects of international travel has to do with liability, or rather, the lack of it.
Although the age of personal responsibility seems to have gone the way of the cassette tape and litigation is now just another part of business, believe it or not, there are still a refreshing amount of countries out there where common sense and an acceptance ...
