From the moment we strap on our backpacks, tell the cats we love them and to behave themselves, and head out to the airport, an invisible target appears on our backs. We are now tourists and therefore the target of every tourist scam in the world. We are strangers in […]
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It’s always interesting for me to see which of our posts get more traction and which barely get a trickle of visitors. I often find it to be completely unpredictable when some of my own favorite posts fly under the radar (example 1, 2, 3) while uninspired 20-minute write-ups are getting […]
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Last month, we did something irresponsible. Are you ready? We paid $15… for a cup of coffee. Yes, frugal backpackers who run this blog did that. Before you judge us for the splurge, all I can say is that we did it in a four-story fancy Starbucks on Magnificent Mile, […]
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There are old fables of exhausted men climbing tall mountains to find a wise Buddhist monk meditating on the very top. The monk then, in very few words, discloses to the weary traveler the secret to success, love, life, or whatever grand question is presented. In these fables, the monks […]
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Every time I visit a place that is universally considered to be a “must-see” or a “wonder of the world”, I quietly prepare myself to be disappointed. Mass popularity often brings visitors (including us) to totally overrated places. Mount Rushmore, Stonehenge, the peeing boy statue – my personal list of […]
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