Travel is already inherent with discomfort, so your clothes shouldn’t be. I’ve probably made all the travel clothing mistakes one could make — wearing the wrong shoes, packing uncomfortable and impractical clothes, and carrying the world’s heaviest luggage. In 2009, when I started traveling every other month, I came up with a mission: refine my…
An hour jaunt from Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and we were standing on another of China’s breathtaking mountains, Tianmen. The more compact Tianmen Mountain National Park is a day of extremes. We took the world’s longest mountain cableway nearly 25,000 feet to reach the top. We stood at 4,900 feet above sea level watching tourists…
I love giveaways as much as I love travel. This is my chance to give back to you, loyal reader! I want you to enjoy China as much as I did, so I’ve partnered with some awesome sponsors to give away this travel package for two! I’ve personally experienced Guilin and Zhangjiajie and now I…
It was far past sunset and we were traveling to our B&B in the round mountains of Guilin, China. It was too late to be traversing the Li River legally, but that didn’t stop the confident driver of a small, motorized bamboo raft. We had seen the hump-shaped mountains on the dusky drive from the airport. Having just been wowed…
If you ever wanted to live inside a Maxfield Parrish painting, then book the next flight to China. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is simply one of the most ethereal places on Earth. These staggering karst spires inspired the film “Avatar” and you have to see them in person to see…
Films often inspire my travels. I saw “Avatar” when it came out in 2009. Despite the obvious inspiration in the film, that wasn’t what moved me to visit China’s floating spires at Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. It was actually another film, a documentary, about BASE jumpers. BASE jumpers are those crazy people in squirrel suits who…
Tucked away on a narrow hillside road is the charming No. 5 Valley B&B in Yangjiajie, China. The B&B is just 2 km from the breathtaking national park that inspired the movie “Avatar” with its mystical mountains. No. 5 Valley was constructed in July 2015 and is the B&B for R&R — a rural idyllic…
It’s not every day you see a man lying face down in a ditch with blood trickling down his head. Next to him an old woman wailed in despair. Three or four men crowded around but didn’t touch the man whom I could see was still breathing. We were being driven in a car past…
Cairns is nothing if not an adventure sport destination. I love adventure travel so I was more than ready to white water raft for my first time ever back in February. If you have no aversion to looking like a deranged Teletubby for an adventure sport, then don a GoPro-mounted helmet and go white water rafting….
If you want to work off the excess of the previous night’s feeding and drinking frenzy in Cairns, here’s a chance for some good old fashioned cardio. Cairns Zoom is a zip line that could double as the set of America Ninja Warrior. Don’t even try to not look like an ape on this 65-foot vertical obstacle course. Even if you’re wearing chic ballet slippers, you’ll be hard pressed to preserve your dignity when you’re squeezing your posterior through a barrel. Does my butt look big in this harness?
