While I was passing through Hong Kong, I met a lot of backpackers at my hostel who were caught off guard by the airport shutdowns in Bangkok. This was due to the massive anti-government protests taking place. One Korean traveler in particular was worried it wouldn’t just ruin Thailand for him, but potentially his whole Southeast Asia jaunt, because he was planning to get his plane tickets and tourist visas in Bangkok.

Kuala Lumpur … Read more »

Online social networking has revolutionized the way people communicate via the internet.  Even travelers can benefit from this by using Facebook, one of the leading social networking sites out there.  Here are some ways you can use Facebook as part of your travel experience:

Find people who have been to your destination. One thing I love about Facebook’s search feature is that it’s comprehensive.  The results usually start with the people in … Read more »

A friend just told me that she was already wrapping holiday gifts. Mind you, not just writing out her list, but checking off items. Not just buying gifts, but wrapping them.

Just as ahead of the game, it seems, are several websites—ready with gift recommendations for travelers, would-be travelers, or friends-of-travelers. Here are a few of the more intriguing ideas I’ve found (and not just blow-up pillows or passport holders):

• Aquapac Compact … Read more »

For Americans, nothing feels quite so foreign and exotic as a long rail journey. The U.S. simply doesn’t have much in the way of rail lines and, even in those places where we do, very few people use them.

I’ve traveled a good 4000 miles by train in my life and not so much as a mile of it was here in the States (unless you … Read more »

So I’m back in Dubai after a week in Mumbai. I was there when the terror attacks happened; awful, awful, but I won’t get into a rant about that.

I got into the city last night, and I’ve already been at work a day. It all feels surreal, like I never took 3 years off, like I was in some sort of coma all this time. Did I really live in Spain for 3 years? … Read more »

When I took a meditation course at the Kripalu Institute (which offers a live-in volunteer option for anyone who might want to work, live, and study yoga in the Berkshires) back in 2007, my teacher pointed out that the popular mantra, Om nama Shivaya, is an invocation to Shiva, the god of change.  “Change isn’t always positive,” she said.  “So you can pray for change.  Just be willing to accept the consequences.”

Now, with … Read more »

“When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship’s whistle still … Read more »