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1 Year of Travel Selfies: July & August
I've looped! I booked a flight home for the end of August, meaning that my travel duration has been finalized at fourteen months, or 428 days. That's a lot of selfies! The finish line nears, but some of the best has been saved for last.
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My Love for Laos Restored by Looms and Rice
A month ago, I read about Living Land Farm in a Lonely Planet Guidebook and immediately clocked it as something I wanted to do. I’d been looking forward to it for several weeks and it lived up to my expectations. At Living Land Farm I learned how to... Grow, harvest, and prepare RICE.
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Laid-Back Laos Loses My Vote
Backpackers love Laos. Usually, when I ask them why, they say things like "it's less touristic." Another version of the same thing that I've heard it "it's more authentic." I understand the push for authenticity, to see how people really live.
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1 Year of Travel Selfies: May & June
May and June were busy and exciting--something new all the time! I explored Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
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Death by Starfruit & Other Things I Never Considered
June 22 I’m laying in my hostel dorm bed. I’m on the bottom bunk. My shower towel is draped over the bar by my face like a curtain closing me off from the rest of the room. This is good, because I feel like I’m unraveling. I feel like I can’t relax my limbs. My neck is tight. My heart isn’t racing, but it’s pulsing, quick and steady. I hate it. I hate that I am afraid. And I hate that this isn’t a fear I can face head on, like my fear of heights. I can’t jump off a bridge. Because this is a fear that has no solidity,…
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A Sloppy, Sweaty Trek in Sapa, Vietnam
The drive into Sapa was a cavalcade of buses. And, despite the many switchbacks, they were vying to be first, passing in the shortest of lanes so that often the bus being passed and the vehicle coming from the other direction had to slam on the brakes so the impatient driver could shoot through the gap.
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High Heat and Home Visits in Hanoi, Vietnam
In Hanoi, I walked. And I sweated. Walking at all meant wiping my upper lip, wiping my forehead, feeling water prickle at my hairline, feeling sweat stick my shirt to my back, running down my neck and into the collar of my shirt.
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Singapore Kaleidoscope
May 20-22
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Trekking a Trio of Deadly Volcanoes in East Java
I'm cold. I'm in Indonesia and I'm cold. Shivering. Shivering, on an island that is about 8 degrees of latitude away from the equator. To be fair, I am about 6,000 feet above sea level and it is 2:30 am. Why, you might be wondering, am I awake at 2:30am?
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Peace, Love, and Turtles – Gili Air, Indonesia
Beneath my feet, beneath the planks of the dock, it is the brightest turquoise. A pale sandy beach runs in each direction and the most perfect shades of blue stretching away. To my right is the large island of Lombok with green hills and mountains. To the left is Gili Meno and Gili T.
