Chris Backe's Blog, page 92

December 4th: the bizarre statues of Xiengkuane Buddha Park, from 3 Days in Vientiane

(This is an excerpt from my revamped book, 3 Days in Vientiane. More on that in a minute.)

Xiengkuane Buddha Park Thadeua road, Vientiane (GPS: 17.912633,102.764289)

Admission: 5,000 kip (add 3,000 kip for a ‘photography fee’ and 3,000 kip if parking a motorcycle). Open 8:00am to 6:00pm. This bizarre site was erected in 1958 by Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat, a priest / shaman who aimed to integrate Hinduism and Buddhism into a single religion. After the revolution in 1975 forced the king to...

December 3rd: the elephant poo paper park, from 3 Days in Chiang Mai

(This is an excerpt from today’s release, 3 Days in Chiang Mai. More about the book in a minute.) Elephant Poo Paper Park 87 Moo 10, Amphoe Mae Rim, Chiang Mai, 50180 (GPS: 18.925398,98.931604)

Opened in early 2013, it’s a stone’s throw away from the incredibly touristy (and ethically questionable) Tiger Kingdom. As you’ll guess from the name, they really do make paper from elephant poo. Not just from elephant poo, of course, but it is an ingredient. The park documents the process, and y...

December 2nd: the museum dedicated to Batman, from 3 days in Bangkok

(This is an excerpt from today’s release, 3 Days in Bangkok. More about the book in a minute.) Batcat Museum 7032 Sri Nagarin Road. Huamark, Bangkapi, Bangkok (GPS: 13.763863,100.645350)

Easily the biggest collection of memorabilia and items of its kind, the Batcat Museum has tens of thousands of items on display, almost all of which fall under the fantasy / animation genres. Several medium-sized rooms hold more action figures than the toy store ever had. As you’d expect, Batman (and vil...

December 1st: the start of something awesome

Free travel guides from now until Christmas Eve?!

Be honest: if you didn’toverspend on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, you’ll probably be spending a fair chunk of change between now and Christmas time.

One new book will be released for free every weekday from now until the 24th. Here’s how it works.

As mentioned in a previous post, I recently took all the One Weird Globe books off of sale. SImply put, I was embarrassed by how some of these books looked – somewere originally writtenfrom 2009 to...

That US Department of State ‘worldwide travel alert’ is ridiculous. Here’s why I laughed at that.

You probably read the news yesterday – The US Department of State has basically said it’s not safe to travel anywhere in the world:

As someone that has made travel a lifelong interest (and who makes money from writing about travel), this sort of announcement is hilarious. On one level, traveling the world is made out to be a dangerous activity, when in fact it’s about theleast dangerous thing out there.You’ll note from the screenshot that a ‘Worldwide Caution’ had been issued since July (whic...

November book reviews: vagabonding, getting published, life after ESL, and more

Once a month, I put together the books I’ve readinto a single review post. Alternatively, see plenty of previous book reviews over here, or see how I rate books.

Also, a quick disclaimer: review copies were provided or downloaded for free, and links may be affiliate links. These reviews cover the version of the book Ireceived, not necessarily the version that’s currently available. A newer or updated version may be available – check for yourself using the links below.

The Beginner’s Guide to...

Why I’ve taken all One Weird Globe books off of sale

Wow, that sounded dramatic.

But it’s true. I’ve pulled the purchase links for all One Weird Globe brandedbooks from my Books page. I’ve unpublished themfrom Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. (The Choose a Way series is unaffected.)

Huh? What happened?

I published my first travel guide in 2010 with the help of Unanchor– 3 Days in Seoul. It was an newidea to me at the time – I write the itinerary, they format it and getthe PDF and Amazon versions ready. After a few iterati...

Destination: Carthage, Tunisia

Part of Tunisia’s charm goes back thousands of years.

Exploring Northern Africa means seeing one of the UNESCO World Heritage’s oldest registered places. Carthage makes for a surprisingly easydaytrip from Tunis, and makes for a great reasonto visit Tunisia in the first place.

You’ll have to go all the way back to the 9th century BC to discover the founding of the area. Over a few centuries Carthagedeveloped into a trading empire and popular port on theMediterranean. (If you wanted to sail be...

Destination: the OTHER Roman coliseum and a secret surprise (El Jem, Tunisia)

It’s not every day you have a place to yourself as a tourist.

Despite being easy to reach and a wonderful example of Roman architecture, this 3rd century UNESCO World Heritage doesn’t get nearly the sort of coverage it deserves. We saw no more than 10 tourists during our shoulder-season visit, though to be sure the future of Tunisia’s tourism is unclear aftertwo terrorist attacks in 2015. The center of filming for both theLife of Brian andGladiatormeans you might have some flashbacks as you’...

Destination: Halloween in Medellin 2015

October 31st is a holiday in many places around the world, and Medellin has had Halloween costumes in the department stores since mid-September. Last Saturday, I headed to Parque Lleras in Poblado to take in the scene around the city’s best place for Halloween.(Apologies in advance – for better or worse I didn’t want to take out the DSLR, so these are all from the iPhone.)

Full marks for creativity – Pac-Man and four ghosts, along with a couple more dark blue ghosts ready for eating.

Severa...