Chris Backe's Blog, page 107

31 random pictures from my recent travels

A quick note: if you’re not following the One Weird Globe Twitteraccount, start following now. Some of these get published there first for my followers.

As always, random pictures are those photos that don’t fit in any other post, so they get collected here. See more Random Pictures posts in the Random Pictures category!

I love maps like these – especially when it’s clear people have taken a few seconds to pin their actual location on the map.

Japanese Zebras Always Playing Music?
Jordan’sZookee...

Travel Book Reviews: long-term traveling, luxury travel, Southeast Asia, and more

This month: half a dozen books related to travel – whether you’re traveling long-term, on a budget, on the high-end, or simply want to disappear, there’s a little something for everyone. Alternatively, see plenty of previous book reviews over here.

Want to get your travel book reviewed?Send it for review over at oneweirdglobe.com/review-book.

Disclosure: review copies were provided for all books, save ‘How to Disappear’ – I bought that copy myself. Also, links are affiliate links to Amazon – wo...

Destination: Ban Prasat Archeological Site – lots of excavated prehistoric skeletons, anyone?

Whether you come for the skeletons dating back hundreds of thousands of years orexcavations of an ancient community, there are millennia of history on display. Excavated in 1983 and 1984 as the second-oldest archaeological site in Thailand (but not completed until 1991), the site was looted in 1982, yet still described as a ‘successful development’ project. It won a Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award in 1994 and an ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) award in 1996. To be honest...

How we moved ourselves and everything we owned across Thailand for $358.46

Being nomads like us means a few things are a given. A few of them:You’ll make friends in different cities and countries around the world.You may never settle down in an area, even as you get to know it well.You decide to move every so often.

It’s that third one that recently concerned us – specifically, moving from Khon Kaen to Krabi. Between language barriers presenting few options and not always feeling like there’s a lot of choices, we decided to go with one option that I’m surprised we ha...

Life as a Nomad: Madrid, Spain

‘Life as aNomad‘ is an occasional series that focuses on the nomadic life and where we (or nomads like us) have lived it.

So, tell me about Madrid.

Madrid is the capital of Spain and located in the very center of the country. Madrid is the 3rd largest city in Europe but the city center is extremely compact and many visitors will find that you can walk to most neighborhoods and places of interest. Madrid is probably most well known for its museums, nightlife and food scene. The original intentio...

First impressions of Krabi and Ao Nang

Krabi / Ao Nang, we are in you!

I’m happy to report that as of the 1st of October, we moved into a two bedroom house in the Krabi area for our final six months in Thailand. It’s about halfway between Krabi Town and Ao Nang,but a little closer to Ao Nang. We quickly learned should be treated as two side-by-side cities, since they’re about 18 kilometers apart from each other. For the most part, our process was pretty similar as I outlined in my previous post, 3 Days to Settled– one of the bigges...

Life as a Nomad: Chiang Mai, Thailand

‘Life as aNomad‘ is an occasional series that focuses on the nomadic life and where we’ve lived it.

So, tell me about Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is the yin to Bangkok’s yang. Where Bangkok is a city of extremes, Chiang Mai’s solid status of ‘second city’ allows it to take it easy. Home to 150,000 or so in the metro area, the areahas come a long way in the past few years alone. Not too long ago, your average tourists might have passed by the creative city, unsure of what to see once they arrive. Th...

Random pictures, part 16

Gotta love it when you see something along the road that just makes you stop and pull out the camera.

As always, random pictures are those fun pictures that don’t fit in other posts. You might have some of them on myFacebookorTwitterpage – go follow those if you aren’t already!

One of the buildings at the Khon Kaen City Pillar. Loved the way the light bounced off of it.

Presented without comment – found on the back of a pick-up truck.

Like your banana chips tasting like chocolate or tomato? Seen...

Announcing my newest itinerary – and the start of a new series

It’s not very often a single project takes over my life.

Behind the scenes, I’ve been rather busy over the past few weeks putting the finishing touches on a new project – a mash-up of a Choose Your Own Adventure® style book and a Lonely Planet® travel guide. I call it Choose a Way™, and this guide to Bangkok is the first one in the series. (The next one about Seoul is coming soon – travel writers, I’ve got a great opportunity for you over here!)

See Bangkok on your own terms!

Just like the old-s...

An interview with Tim Anderson about TBEX

[One Weird Globe note: this interview with Tim Anderson kicks off a new category about travel blogging. Tim was a featuredspeaker at TBEX Cancun, one of the world's biggest conferences dedicated to travel bloggers. He wrote an epic, 8,000 word post about his experience - still, I wanted more. Read that first, then read on to take in some of his expertise.]

How much different was your experience as a VIP vs. what us mere mortals could access?

The only real difference is in visibility. As a speak...