Extreme Sights North Korea-Arch

Bigger, taller, more: 5 unusual sights in North Korea

Update June, 2017: Since our visit to North Korea in 2011, the recent death of American tourist Otto Warmbier, who was detained while visiting the country, is a tragic situation that is inexcusable. Accordingly, despite our feelings that tourism…

Facing deadly komodo dragons in Indonesia

From guest writer Ray Uzanas ~ I was barely ten years old when I drew a picture of a Komodo dragon lizard; the image copied from a library book about reptiles. I was fascinated with the forked-tongued creatures that look like relics from…
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A trashy beach in Bali

Update: August, 2019. This continues to be one of our most visited posts, and also one of our most controversial. Updates from readers (along with our continued research) indicate that Bali's beach/trash situation has unfortunately not improved.…
Rocky statue Arch of Triumph North Korea
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From the Smithsonian: Traveling with the Rocky statue in North Korea

As we traveled around the world with our statue of Rocky Balboa, there were only two groups of people who didn't recognize him: North Koreans and the San people of the Kalahari in Namibia. Everywhere else he was quite the celebrity and a…

Pictures from the frenetic streets of Hanoi

Our hotel in Hanoi was in the Old Quarter, a frenzied and chaotic labyrinth of streets that rambled like they had been laid out by a toddler chasing a rabbit. Each street specializes in selling a certain product. Apparently our…
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To travel cheaply, go where it’s cheap

Cheap travel is often a challenge, but how would you like to live in a land of 35 cent hoagies, $25 gourmet meals for two and beers for a buck? A place where the dollar stretches so far it could cover the entire country. That’s daily life…

I miss Saigon

From Michael ~ Yesterday, on our last day in Saigon, I strolled around the city streets for one final look. I miss Saigon already. Its current name is Ho Chi Minh City, but it was in the news a lot when I was a kid and it will always be…
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Fill ‘er up with Johnnie Walker Black

When we walked the streets of Bali we noticed sidewalk vendors selling bottles of Absolut vodka with a yellowish liquid inside. Usually the bottles were stuffed closed with a wad of cloth making them look like a row of Molotov…
Foot pedicure massage

Video: A fishy foot massage in Malaysia

Imagine having hundreds of fish nibbling at your toes underneath a giant sign that assuredly proclaims "No Piranha." Now picture your feet are in a tank with about a dozen other feet that are also being nibbled on. Larissa normally loves…
Singapore skyline
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Rooms with a view

We've generally rented apartments with some hotels thrown in. A few of them have had incredible views of either city scenes or country landscapes. The picture above is the view from our flat of the Sky Tower in Auckland. This being New…
Original Starbucks Pike Place Market
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10 food tourist traps to avoid

We've all fallen for them; food places the guidebooks say you absolutely must try when visiting a certain city.  So we join all the other tourists who've read the same guides and wait on long lines for what turns out to be overrated, mediocre,…

Playing “tourist tag” in Bali

Balinese kids love to play a game we dubbed “tourist tag.” It reminded us of a game American kids play called “punch buggy” when they spy a Volkswagen Beetle and get points. Everywhere we went kids would call out to us, smiling and waving.  We…
Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center
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Food tips in a Shanghai taxi

It was a dreary, rainy day and we were sitting in a taxi that was stuck in traffic on the way to the Shanghai airport.  A car breakdown had caused the traffic to flow to the pace of a toddler. As the minutes ticked by we worried that…

Shoe diplomacy in North Korea

Update June, 2017: Since our visit to North Korea in 2011, the recent death of American tourist Otto Warmbier, who was detained while visiting the country, is a tragic situation that is inexcusable. Accordingly, despite our feelings that…
Kim Il Sung mausoleum Pyongyang

Is it morally right to visit North Korea?

Update June, 2017: Since our visit to North Korea in 2011, the recent death of American tourist Otto Warmbier, who was detained while visiting the country, is a tragic situation that is inexcusable. Accordingly, despite our feelings that…

Remembering the Pueblo Incident in North Korea

When I was a child my father spent one Saturday morning on the phone trying to find a store that sold a “Remember the Pueblo” bumper sticker.  He finally found a store that had the sticker so we all piled into the car to go get…
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Book Reviews: North Korea

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives In North Korea by Barbara Demick is a valuable peek behind the curtain of North Korea, a gray land whose monochrome pallor is broken up only by the bright colors in propaganda posters lauding their Great…
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Book Reviews: Lost on Planet China and China Road

Lost On Planet China: One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation By J. Maartin Troost   Lost On Planet China by J. Maartin Troost is one Westerner's take on the riddle of modern China. The…