So I have a problem. If I keep traveling around the world, falling in love with different people and places, and leaving pieces of my heart everywhere that meant something to me... Eventually I'm going to run out of heart to leave behind, right? I can't have my heart on 7 continents at once, can I? Would I eventually just turn into an empty shell, too split up do anything? .... I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just making myself an excuse for a return trip, so that I can say I'm going back to reclaim a piece of my heart. Because [View Full Entry]

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Because a picture is never going to capture Angkor. Anything at Angkor, really. Even the dirt seems special when you realize that it's mixed in with the ground up sandstone, sweat, and blood from the temples of the empire that dominated Southeast Asia for centuries... and you're definitely not getting that feeling in a photo. So I'm going to try and use words in a situation where photos fail, and describe a couple of the moments I had in Angkor. First, just to clarify, Angkor is the name of the empire that existed in SE Asia in the centuries around 1000AD. [View Full Entry]

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So I'm sorry for the recent failure at blogging. Recent events and situations have kept me pretty preoccupied in addition to the normal busyness of traveling. Unfortunately those same events are probably causing a lot of people to want to hear from me, so I'm going to try and give some reasoning here. In case you're reading this and are really confused, I've decided I won't be studying in China this fall, and will come back to ISU instead. I'm actually sitting in the Singapore airport right now, in transit, waiting for my next flight to leave in about 10 hours. [View Full Entry]

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So we're still on Ko Tao, our island in Thailand. It's pretty cool... just been doing your standard relax at the beach type of thing. Sadly, I think I'm officially bored of it now. I'm in another part of the world, and I feel like there are lots and lots of things to get done and lots and lots of places to go. I have the itch to actually be traveling. Unfortunately we have already booked all our transportation for the 13th, so we're pretty much stuck here until then. Oh well, I guess there are worse places to be stuck [View Full Entry]

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So when I last blogged about our wonderful stay on Phu Quoc Island, I was writing from an coffee shop in Saigon on Friday afternoon. I wasn't aware at the time, but we had begun what would basically be 51 hours in transit as we blundered our way to an island somewhere in Thailand. Over those 51 hours we spent 5 sleeping in beds, 19 in stations/airports, 7 wandering Saigon, and 20 on some sort of transportation. And before I give the details, yes, it was every bit as pleasant as it sounds. So we left our place on Phu Quoc [View Full Entry]

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First off, you need an island. Obviously. But it can't be just any island. This island should be in the tropics, and it should be pretty much isolated from the rest of the world. A breed of indigenous dogs found uniquely on your island is a good sign. The island should also be large enough that there is plenty of space without people. There should always be a part of the island you haven't seen yet, whether it's empty beaches, rocky bays, inland forests, or island-crossing rivers. It should be fairly undiscovered, sort of like it's a trade secret and only [View Full Entry]

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To start with, I would just like to point out that I'm currently no longer in Saigon, but instead on a tropical island paradise. I've just waited until now so that I can fit in everything I want to, plus I figured there's nothing like relaxing on a beach to give you some time to think. And don't worry, I'll be sure to write a blog with the sole purpose of making everyone jealous of my little paradise here, just not doing it yet. So this is why I'm in love with Saigon: I loved the ride from the airport into [View Full Entry]

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Hey everyone, so I somehow messed up the last time I tried to write a blog and I don't think it published properly. So now I'm making a blog entry to direct you to another blog entry. It was meant to be published yesterday. Here's the link: http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-424509.html [View Full Entry]

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Can I learn more from a Sunday in Saigon than an entire semester at Iowa State? I woke up Sunday morning and walked out the cramped alley our guesthouse is jammed inside and saw streets bustling with activity. Maybe not bustling; Saigon is always bustling. Maybe... overflowing with riotous activity. The whole neighborhood turned into a giant market, and everyone showed up. Eating breakfast, chatting up acquaintances, hawking goods, buying from friends. I sat down with Rachel and a clutch of locals at the pho stand just out our alley for breakfast. Pho is a noodle soup, the noodle sou [View Full Entry]

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Alright, this is going to be me giving up on actually journaling everything we do while traveling. It's just not going to be possible to keep up... too many things to do, too difficult to take time out and find some internet, too many words to write about too many mind-blowing experiences. So from now on I'm just going to right about whatever random topic I feel like whenever we happen to find internet. Kind of like what a blog is meant to be in the first place. So right now we're in Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon), Vietnam. I [View Full Entry]

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