A quarter century down and I know I've only scraped the surface. Here is what I think are the most important things I've learned so far, maybe I'll change my mind in time but for now I think it's working ok for me. There are exceptions for every rule or “There are no Absolutes”. There is no black and white, only shades of grey. Your teachers are not infallible. Failure does not make you a failure. You are the master of yourself. You don’t have to follow all the rules. You can make your own rules. There is no substitute for experience. Your thoughts and experiences make

Travel is just lost on some people, Christine at Almost Fearless has two of my favorite posts about people like this in Escapism: the Dirty Word that Keeps Us Doing What We Loathe and Why You Living Abroad Annoys Some People. Two short but excellent posts that sum up our feelings to these attitudes. “…to them the rules have been set. This is a zero sum game. If you decide to not play the game at all, you’ve lost.” Christine points out the distinctions between thinking about it and doing it. In an oxford dictionary way this is correct but to those who have been lead to believe their l

It happens is just about all developing nations, one price for you and another for the locals, Dual Pricing, Luxury Tax or whatever you happen to call it, it gets up everyone's nose at some point. For many travelers it’s very high on their annoyances list, a blatant rip off, racism even. I hate tourist prices too but I’m not talking about when I’m traveling. One of my previous workplaces was in a tourist town, here regardless of the color of your skin or what nationality your passport declares, everyone, locals and tourists alike are forced to pay exorbitant prices to eat, drink and vi

Yogyakarta (or Jogyakarta) is a special place, the main reason people visit is for the well known Buddhist temple of Borobudur yet even when visiting a major tourist site like this western faces are few and far between. It’s dirty and polluted but charming and not without its own beauty. Off the back of my previous post about avoiding crowds at Angkor the suggested alternative was Borobudur. Here is my take on Borobudur and Prambanan the two most visited temples near Yogyakarta. Borobudur I visited Borobudur during the day, it was hot and crowded yet a lot of fun. The Stupa (It�

Recently a tweet pointed me to a Times Online article The Worlds 5 Most Overrated Tourist Sites I hardly think any of them are actually overrated, in fact the complaints were less about the sites themselves and more about crowds and money. Angkor Wat, glaringly omitted from Hillmans new 7 wonders of the world was listed, the complaint being the crowds. “Unfortunately, there’s no escaping the crowds here.” Put simply, Wrong! Absolutely the crowds are abundant but the suggestion they are inescapable is laughable, the thing about Angkor and Angkor Wat itself is its size. The crowds at An

David is the author of GoBackpacking.com probably the first travel blog I ever started reading. A good two years later and I'm still reading. Dave has just returned from his 15 month Round The World trip which started in 2008. I asked Dave if he could answer a few questions and here they are, an interesting read What countries did you enjoy most? Nepal is definitely at the top of the list.  I flew into the country by way of Mt. Everest, landing at Kathmandu's airport.  Stepping off the plane felt like I was stepping into a whole new world of culture, environments, and experiences.  This i