lamcquaid

I will be heading to Europe for 2 weeks this winter, leaving the states on December 26 and coming back on January 11. I fly into Frankfurt, Germany and fly home from Dublin, Ireland. My only set in stone plans so far is to spend New Years Eve in Prague with a friend... Does anyone have any tips on other places to see - easy to get to - and good tips on how to travel around the area....train vs. bus vs. flying - or any good hostel tips?? All help is much appreciated.... read more

It has been over a year since I had a post in my Travel Blog - but mostly because I havent traveled, at least internationally. I have taken a few trips - Savannah, Georgia; lots of trips to Chicago; float trips in rural Missouri; Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.... I have decided that even if I'm not taking big exciting trips, I will continue to use the Travel Blog...I do travel quite a bit for work, so this will give me something to do while being bored in a hotel room! I do have another big trip planned - in less than 4 months I will be heading back to Argentina to see my best friend Niko! I will be flying roundtrip to Buenos Aires. While I am there we are also going to Mendoza with his ... read more

The trip is finally coming to a close... I am currently on the 2nd day of Sunday, January 13th...waiting for my flight to St. Louis out of Seattle. Last night was a load of fun hanging out with people I met at the hostel. We went down to a street (dont remember the name) - it was the big backpacker area, so it was FILLED with people and bars and street food and people selling things, etc. We walked around for a bit just having fun and finally settled at a bar. Had a few drinks and then met up with some more people we were waiting for and had some drinks at a "outdoor bar" aka a stand on the street with plastic chairs...we sat there for awhile, it was a lot of fun being ... read more

Today was the last full day of my trip to Asia. Greg left at about 730 this morning for the south and the beach. I woke around 8am and got ready for the day and headed out...I had a really busy day of sight seeing planned. Started out by going to a really nice park where I walked around for a bit and saw some HUGE lizard swimming in the lake...it was massive...like 4 feet! After the lake, I caught the subway over to China Town. I walked through China Town and stoped at a few markets, but nothing to interesting being sold. After China Town, I managed to walk over to the Grand Palace. I had to put my leg section of my shorts/pants on to get in...when I got in, there were sooo many ... read more

Sorry for not updating any sooner - havent had much reliable internet access latley. I have made it to Bangkok finally! It is ungodly hot here, with minimal air conditioning! Oh well. I have 2 full days of sight seeing in front of me before heading home on Sunday. Now that the internet is a little better, when I get more time later, I will add a few pictures from Cambodia... Thats all for now...im off to sweat away 10 pounds!... read more

We took the bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap yesterday...wasnt too bad, just crowded and 7 hours long. Once we got to Siem Reap, the bus stop was going crazy with tuk tuk drivers trying to get you to hire them. We settled on one who had decent english and he drove us to our hostel. This is byfar the best hostel i have been in yet! Only $10 a night....there are 6 people to a room with a private bathroom in it...there is a POOL, and free breakfast, it is very clean, and overall just nice. So yesterday after checking in, we had lunch at the hostel and didnt leave at all! We just hung out all evening here at the bar and then up on a balcony playing pool and chatting with ... read more

Today we spent the whole day sight seeing and it wore me out! We left at 9am aboard a tuk-tuk to the Killing Fields - it was a 30 minute ride...kinda nice, and also kinda dusty! We got there and toured around...it was unreal. Thousands of people were just murdered there between 1975-1979.......they had a monument with built and it housed over 9000 skulls of the victims...it was just crazy. after we woke up our tuk-tuk driver, we rode to the S-21 Prison Museum...this is were the people who were murdered were brought from - it used to be a high school but was turned into a prison where people were tortured and killed....the pictures there were pretty bad. after we were done with the museum, we went to meet our driver, but couldnt find him ... read more

LET me tell you about this bus ride we had today... well first, i am sorry if there are any errors in spelling...this keyboard is bad and the computer is slow...so no pictures either. back to the bus ride... we left the hostel in Ho Chi Minh this morning at 8am....all was pretty well all the way to the Vietnam border...took about 3 hours to get there. At the border, we had to unload the bus and our luggage and go throuh securituy to exit vietnam....we then reloaded the bus...only to exit and take everything back off 1 minute later to enter Cambodia! after that, we had to sit and wait for our passports.........this whole ordeal took about 45 minutes! once we though we were on our way, we stoped on 5 minutes later at a ... read more

FINALLY made it to Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon! Yesterday, we went to the airport for our 815pm flight and got there about 6pm to check in and everything, only to find out our flight was cancelled and we were moved to a flight at 955pm. we couldnt check in until 830pm, so we were stuck in a small airport, with nothing to do for a few hours! After we checked in, there was still nothing more and nothing to do, so we sat around more...and napped a little. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh at midnight and got a taxi to the city...not much traffic that late, so it didnt take to long. We got dropped off at a market and walked to our hotel - - due to wierd street numbering it took ... read more