Prologue Prior to December 2012, I was self-employed which meant that I had more time on my hands and usually more money as well, so I qualified easily for status with American Airlines. Earlier this year, I realized that I was not on course to requalify for status. Around that same time, American sent me a 15% off coupon so I decided to make a mileage run. The next decision was – where should I go? I knew I wanted to explore a new place. I was tempted to go to New Orleans, but I found a cheaper fare to San Juan. A quick scan through the Lonely Planet led me to Posada San Francisco, a hostel offering private rooms for $30 in the heart of Old San Juan. With that, the deal was sealed. Saturday, ... read more

Prologue I lived in Bangkok in 1994 and 1995 in the days before the metro and skytrain and before Suvarnabhumi Airport. At that time, roads were almost always gridlocked and it took a long time to travel even a short distance. I remember it once took me over two hours to drive 5 miles to work. The city was crowded, noisy and polluted, but it was also endlessly fascinating. One of my favorite memories was looking into my rearview mirror and seeing an elephant behind me! When I booked our award tickets for our vacation to Bali, I could only get us back home from Bangkok, so we decided to spend two days there. We opted to spend one day in Ayuthaya (see our other blog entry) and the other day in Bangkok itself. Krung Thep, ... read more

A Primer on Balinese Naming Conventions: In this entry, I make reference to three people named Made (pronounced "ma-deh"). A quick discussion of Balinese naming conventions may be in order first. Balinese names usually begin with "I" (for males) or "Ni" (for females), followed by Wayan, Made, Nyoman or Ketut to signify birth order, and then followed by their given name(s). Our guesthouse owner, I Wayan Karja, for example, is a man and he is the firstborn in his family. Prologue I first visited Bali 20 years ago when it was mainly a backpacker destination and long before Elizabeth Gilbert hit that midlife crisis that led her to write Eat Pray Love. I planned on staying only a day or two thinking it was a tourist trap. Arriving into Ubud late at night after a long ... read more

I did not intend to blog about this trip so please forgive the sketchy details. My reason for traveling to the Bay Area in March 2013 was not a happy one. In early March, I received news that a close friend from grad school had died suddenly. I made a last minute decision to go for his funeral in San Francisco. Fortunately, my cousin A. lives in the East Bay, and she and her partner T. graciously put me up. This was a good thing as far as I was concerned because they were there to listen and help me process the loss of my friend. The funeral was held on Friday March 8th and it was my saddest day in recent memory, but at least I got to say goodbye to M. and reconnect with ... read more

In July this year, I traveled to Singapore to visit family and friends. As I was using miles for my flights, I had the luxury of choosing some exotic routings utilizing United's excellent new award booking site that allows direct booking on partner airlines. The flights I chose were: Outbound: Washington Dulles to Bahrain (with stopver in Kuwait): United Business Class Bahrain - Doha: Qatar Airways Economy Class Doha - Kuala Lumpur: Qatar Airways Business Class Return: Kuala Lumpur - Doha: Qatar Airways Business Class Doha - Dubai: Qatar Airways Economy Class Dubai - Washington Dulles: United Business. Flights between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore were tickets purchased on low cost carriers Air Asia and Jetstar. As the return journey had an eight hour connection in Dubai, I decided that I would exit the airport and explore. ... read more