Bargaining in Chatuchak Weekend Market in Thailand. Photo: Eugene Tang / BangkokSights.com One of the biggest obstacles to traveling is the language barrier. Simple tasks like asking where the bathroom is, telling a taxi driver to take you to your hotel, and others can seem like impossible missions. Can technology bridge the gap? Some new...

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Life, today more than ever before, often involves the navigation of cultural stereotypes. It's a tricky business, as world leaders, soldiers, missionaries, and Kentucky Fried Chicken will tell you. Stereotypes aren't necessarily negative. Like stories, they help us frame and understand the world. They give us a starting point from which to...

Simplicity and, by association, frugality, are key traits of most successful vagabonds. Want less, do more is a good -- if oversimplified -- soundbite description of the way most long term travelers live. Naturally there is considerable variation within that tenant. Some vagabonds get rid of everything entirely, others simply throw their possessions in a...

The images and news reports coming out of Haiti after Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake are heartbreaking. Many people are wondering how they can put their skills to use to help those in need. Volunteer Abroad offers a database of volunteer opportunities through their own search engine. Médecins Sans Frontières is a noteworthy organization and has...

Got a great photo of New Year's the last time you were in Asia? Well, dust it off and submit to the Asia Welcomes 2010 Photo Contest . It's sponsored by the Asia Society , a nonprofit organization working to strengthen links between the United States and Asia. The contest will accept any photos taken...

Penang, Malaysia Interesting people can be found in hostels, bus stations, and everywhere else where lungs pull in breath. Then there are the places where lungs have long fallen still: cemeteries. Interesting people are found here, too. For example, behind an Anglican church in Macau in late 2004, I met a young woman named Abby...

How long have you been planning your extended trip around the world? Still waiting for airfare to drop a little? Or to get those last few reward points for a free trip? Or just waiting for... the perfect time? We're all familiar with procrastination when it comes to things we don't want to do, but...

Creative Writing Workshop at the Paris American Academy July 1 st through the 28 th , 2010 For the sixth year running, I'll be teaching an intensive, month-long creative writing workshop at the Paris American Academy . College credit is available for this hands-on English-language writing program, which includes courses in: Fiction Poetry Travel Writing...

It’s that time of year again! STA Travel will begin accepting applications for its World Traveler Intern position beginning January 26th 2010. For vagabonders aspiring to get a foot in the door in the fields of travel writing or photography, this is a great opportunity! STA Travel will foot all expenses and choose 2 lucky...

Selecting 250+ pictures to represent the expanse and wonder of the planet is a daunting task, but it is one that Earth Bound: A Rough Guide to the World in Pictures has done very well. Best known for its guidebook series, Rough Guides has pulled from a collection of more than 100,000 images to create...

You might be familiar with Where's George , the US Currency Tracking Project that allows you to go to the website, enter the serial number of a bill, and find out where it's been before you (there's also Where's Willy to track Canadian money). Often, bills that have been entered into this project have a...

Be warned: I think I’m Christina Aguilera on the road. I’ve driven across and around and up and down the length of North America. The road is seductive enough on its own, but part of the fun is in those quirky road tripping habits formed over countless journeys. Sure I can, and have, made a...

I’m not a fan of once-a-year resolutions. I usually try to be mindful—throughout each week, month and year—to make changes and adjustments in my life as I need them. Just like those yearly resolutions, sometimes my intentions work and sometimes they don’t. That’s why, every Jan. 1, I try to set the tone for my...

Some of us have vagabonging etched so tightly into our DNA it could be considered a heritable trait. I certainly plan on introducing any children that I would have to a lifestyle of frequent travel. I plan to sling my would be cublings across my back and walk into the world with them. But could...

Perhaps the most prolific traveler of the season is none other than Old Saint Nick himself. In order to deliver presents to an estimated 800 million households across the world in one evening, he must travel more than 5 million kilometers per hour . While an especially American phenomenon, Santa Claus has roots throughout Europe....

The trouble started last summer when a laid-off construction worker set up a hot dog stand on the South Side of my current city, Bethlehem, Pa. Some loved it, some hated it, and a six-month debate on vendors ensued. The conclusion came last night when City Council voted to severely curtail street vending. My time...

I’ve been accused of always finishing a destination-related book with the comment, “I want to go to … (the name of the destination).” Fiction or nonfiction, it doesn’t really matter. If it’s a good book, the text allows me to conjure in my mind what the place is like. If it’s not so great, I...

Just last month and exactly one year after Scott wrote that it might be possible for U.S. vagabonds to visit Cuba soon , Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) made the following statement in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; [edited] Americans have the right to travel to Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,...

Everywhere you travel, you'll always end up naked with a certain stranger: The shower. The (near) daily ritual of bathing is a sensory riddle, forcing you to figure out a place on the most basic level. Sometimes it's easy and you have a predictable, jet-infused tub to soak in, with surround sound speakers and fluffy...

The quest to escape tourist hordes can lead you to some pretty strange places, but some travelers go a bit farther than most, hence the arguably suicidal, but almost always compelling, war-zone travel adventure. We've written before about tourists heading to war zone destinations like Iraq and how tourism can transform economies-in-ruin into thriving tourist...