My passport has seen better days. It’s fraying at the edges, there’s a wavy bend to the pages from being exposed to too much rain or humidity, and there’s an ugly circle-shaped yellow sticker on the back with foreign writing I believe to be Vietnamese, but can’t be too sure. I’d remove the sticker, but then I’d be left with the gooey, dirt-attracting residue which will look even worse than the sticker itself. I figure it adds to my passport’s character, anyway. [Read more…]
Princely Travel On a Pauper’s Budget
It’s 11:50PM where my plane took off from and 8:50AM where my plane will land in a few hours. I’ve got a poor man’s first class seat—an economy class seat with the no one sitting in either of the other two seats next to me. I should probably be adjusting to U.S. time by now but I can’t help but take advantage of the free-flowing wine. “I’ll have another red, please.” [Read more…]
Traveling Overseas: The Non-Essential Essentials
Have you ever been sitting, cramped and hungry, on a 12+ hour flight heading overseas somewhere only to realize you’ve forgotten to pack something? I haven’t, but that’s mostly because I tend to bring an entire medium-sized suitcase more than what I actually need. But I can imagine what it might feel like, and it’s not good. [Read more…]
Finding My Dad in Vietnam
On April 19, 1968, my dad nearly didn’t make it home alive . Operation Delaware, as it was known, was a resupply mission to what the American military termed a “fire base” on top of a hill in the A Shau Valley of central Vietnam. [Read more…]
5 Ways to Not Be Ugly Abroad
Before I ever stepped foot overseas or even had much of a desire to travel very far, I was forced to watch the film adaptation of the book The Ugly American. I had enrolled in a political film class (huge real-world value there..) at Arizona State University and The Ugly American was probably the film I least looked forward to on the semester’s schedule. [Read more…]
