Charles A. Ray is a retired U.S. diplomat and former ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe. Before joining the Foreign Service, he served 20 years in the U.S. Army. Over his diplomatic career, he held key positions including Deputy Consul General in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Deputy Chief of Mission in Sierra Leone, Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs. He is a prolific author of more than 400 fiction and non-fiction books, with genres spanning leadership, history, diplomacy etc., and […]

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This Cambodia trip was the most unexpected and unplanned trip I have ever been on. Although I had intended to travel there, I never anticipated it would happen so quickly because my 14-day visa-free had expired, and I had to leave Thailand urgently to avoid paying fines. This blog will follow my chaotic trip from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, along with some advice and tricks. I was informed that I could not extend my visa anymore, only a night before I would leave for Cambodia. So, I checked all possible […]

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After recently visiting Luang Prabang, hindsight has given me a unique perspective of the region. I can inform you that not all activities were worthy of exploration. Therefore, to save you the hassles of doing these non pleasing activities – I have whittled my list down to two top activities that I found the most enjoyable during my stay. Kwang Xi Waterfalls: Tourists will be coaxed into visiting the waterfalls soon after they land – by any of a number of representatives from tour operators hanging out at the airport. […]

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The Yunnan Province of China has become one of the most sought after travel destinations for those seeking to witness a truly unique cultural experience. Being engulfed by a  breathtaking countryside is nothing to sneer at either. This blossoming tourist destination has remained largely obscured and tucked away from outsiders for hundreds of years until modern infrastructure and transportation has allowed access. Located in the southwestern region of China, stowed away beneath rugged mountainous terrain, ethnic minorities migrated and settled largely in the lowlands of the Yunnan Province for peace, […]

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The audacious promises of sustainable tourism The promise that was never lived up to Don’t we all wish we could do more good while having the time of our lives travelling? Years ago, when I was still a student, a big part of my travel memories were filled with little children tugging at my jeans for a donation, the homeless out on the streets or seeing the local people do amazing crafts but only finding out after that they are extremely underpaid. Voluntourism, as most forms of sustainable tourism call […]

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The hipster maker culture The maker culture, part tech, part traditional, has been taking the world by storm, at least the hipster spaces. Now you can regularly find $90 courses teaching you wood-working, brass crafting or something similar along those lines. Its cool, definitely, but I always feel a little underwhelmed after participating in these kind of overpriced workshops. You make something really really simple (in the interests of time, cost and ease of effort) It’s very expensive You don’t learn that much Your instructors are usually not the masters […]

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New Gelato Partner for the Second Edition, that will start in Singapore Record requests for participation from Australia for the first stage: 16 gelato artisans in Asia / Pacific in the race for the title of World’s Best Gelato Rimini Fiera – The second edition of Gelato World Tour will start in less than days in Singapore making the city state the Gelato Capital of the World for 3 days in March 2015. The event will also be an occasion to celebrate fifty years of the Republic of Singapore! The […]

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When you wake up on a concrete floor with only a bamboo mat between you and the cold you might just wonder what the hell you were thinking the night before.  This was my situation a few years back while I traveled the world for a year or so. Some days it felt longer and this was one of them. I lay there body sore, taught as a fisherman’s net soaked with salt, dried in the hot afternoon sun.  Rubbing my eyes, I dared to take a day light look […]

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Vietnam’s Traveler Cafes Offer Much More Than Just Joe WEASEL COFFEE: $300-$600 A POUND On the far shore of an artificial lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, I found a much-needed antidote to restaurant hell, with its reckless gastronomical woes on untranslatable menus (involving Indochinese delicacies like baked sparrows with the feathers still on, fried scorpions, sautéed snakes, roasted rats, and “No Cock, only Fanta Orange”). It was a coffee stand. But not just any coffee stand. Here they served the Vietnamese national drink and aphrodisiac: “Ca phe da.” Which is basically […]

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Long time Photojournalist Alison Wright has traveled to the far corners of the planet photographing endangered cultures and people. Her work has been dangerous at times – including covering demonstrations that became violent in Nepal. And she has certainly been involved in a number of mishaps in her career. But this story is not about those adventures. It is about a horrific crash involving a bus she was in and a logging truck on a windy dirt road in Laos. And the incredible story of how she survived this crash […]

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John M. Edwards Liquors Up and Loosens the Tongue of Adventure Journalist Bruce Northam, the Guru of Globetrotter Dogma Award-winning travel journalist Bruce Northam has wandered freestyle in over 100 countries on seven continents, with experiences ranging from drifting with Burma’s sea gypsies, playing naked Frisbee with New Guinea natives, and beholding the beguiling shores of Antarctica. With three books under his equatorial belt and a fourth on the way called “The Wisdom of Strangers”—a 108-country journey in search of unsung hero wisdom and happiness–Bruce still finds time to contribute […]

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John M. Edwards sings the Buddha electric, embarking on a quest in the Laotian capital for the world’s most unique body posture. People thought I was a lunatic for coming all the way to Laos, a landlocked nation without any beaches, for a “vacation”? Even I thought I was out of my mind. After a couple of days lying on the wavy grass in the hazy egg-yolk-shaped sun of Vientiane, a Southeast Asian Wild West boomtown, though, I was bronzed as a Buddha and ready to haggle in the marketplace […]

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As I hastily climbed the stairs of my neighbor’s house, gasping for air with sweat dripping across my forehead, I had one goal in mind: to win this game of Hide and Go Seek. I had no idea that this simple game would change my life forever. Continuing up the stairs I had the mentality of many young children – my life seemed invincible and the thought of death was distant and abstract. Thinking that I would outsmart everyone, I climbed onto a bed to reach a window and obtain […]

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Disoriented is a term that means being lost or unclear about where you are. It originated from when the East or the Orient was considered the center of the world. If you have lost the orient you are dis-oriented and are not sure of where you are. From a young age, I have been oriented to travel from when my family moved to Georgia when my dad was in the army or moving to California as a young child or my many years of living at sea. Parts of the […]

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SANTA MONICA, CA (5 January 2011) – Outside magazine calls it, “One of the 50 Most Amazing Trips in the World,” Peter Greenberg says that, “Unlike The Amazing Race, this challenge is more about your ability to connect with cultures,” while NationalGeographic.com says the travel competition is, “like Survivor, The Amazing Race and the Eco-Challenge all rolled into one except with much more cultural interaction.” The 7th annual Global Scavenger Hunt does bring back the romance of travel and is designed to test Indiana Jones-like participants travel IQ, while traveling […]

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