From Places

My Top 25 Most Unforgettable Travel Moments of 2013 (Part 2)

Something beautiful popped up in my Facebook news feed in April last year. It was a link to a Bored Panda post featuring 22 places that are hard to believe really exist. Instantly, it became a bucket list. When I reached the bottom of that page, I promised myself that I would visit all of these…

My Top 25 Most Unforgettable Travel Moments of 2013 (Part 1)

You won’t find Paris on this list. No, you won’t; I have yet to set foot on Europe. You won’t find Rio, either; South America has to wait a couple more years. And Egypt and Jerusalem? They’re my dream destinations, but no, I still have a long, long way to go to get there. There…

A Look at the Islands of Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi-tawi

Many of the travelers I have met on the road consider the Philippines as the most underrated country in Southeast Asia. It’s not difficult to see why. Geographically, we lie isolated on the “other” side of the West Philippine Sea. We are pretty much “out of the way,” given that Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia,…

In Search of the Best Cheap Tom Yum

VIENTIANE, Laos — The picky little guys on my tongue called tastebuds were singing Hallelujah in unison when they first soaked in the weird mixture of sour and spicy that came from a bowl served by a woman I had fondly called Mama Thai. It was the summer of 2004 and I was a college sophomore…

A Bangkok Welcome

BANGKOK, Thailand — In utter disbelief, I stared at the receipt while I walked the length of the airport to the train station. I just arrived in Bangkok and the first thing I did after making it through the Immigration was exchange currencies. It was another obvious lesson for me: Convert only a little at…

Macau Cake Walk

MACAU — The only instances where I took any mode of transportation around Macau were the taxi ride from the airport to the Macau hotel and the bus ride from the hotel back to the airport. I simply walked the whole time no matter how far my next destination was. Haha. I just love walking…