Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 87

Walking in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has been one of my favorite global cities for nearly a decade now. This short film focuses mostly on the city’s architecture, which has always been impressive and continues to develop as more people settle from mainland China and elsewhere.

The last time I was there, I’d recently seen a series of photographs featuring the city’s practice of “cocooning” buildings in colorful wrap during construction. Once I started paying attention, I noticed these buildings everywhere I went.

“Cherry...

Scholarships for Real Life: “Your First Clue”

Last year we started a foundation, making an initial investment of $100,000 and pledging to support “Scholarships for Real Life,” a program to enable people to pursue a dream of their own while also addressing a problem that affects others.

In this short series, we’ll highlight our initial grantees.

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Up until now the LGBT narrative has focused on the often painful and conflicted “when did you know?” and “coming out” stories. In contrast, the First Clue project collects and shares stories fro...

Ending Soon: 50,000 United Mileage Plus Bonus Offer

Link: 50,000 Miles for United MileagePlus Explorer Card

For the next 24-48 hours (or less, depending on when you’re reading this), you can still earn an improved signup bonus on this card.

I first wrote about this offer several weeks ago. Here’s what I said:

Chase has increased the bonus for their United Explorer card. The card now offers 50,000 MileagePlus miles (formerly 30,000) upon completion of a $2,000 minimum spend.

In addition to the improved signup bonus, the card also offers the follow...

Mini City Guide: Aachen, Germany

I love big cities, and always enjoy returning to Hong Kong, New York, and Sydney—among many others. But what about those unknown gems that are off the beaten tourist path… those obscure places that are just waiting to be explored by real travelers?

Our new “Mini City Guides” are here to uncover those gems, and we’re looking to our favorite explorers—AONC readers—to give us the inside scoop.

Tell us if there’s a city you’d like to nominate. This city was nominated by reader Ann Belle.

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Which acce...

The Surprising New Trend of Active, Nomadic Retirement

David Law and his wife, Bonnie Carleton. Instead of settling down for retirement, they hit the road.

The nomadic way of life is not just for the young. Or to be precise, it’s for the young of all ages.

For years I’ve been meeting retired folks who are embracing a more active lifestyle than their parents’ generation may have done. I also often receive emails from people in this demographic, along with the question, “Am we the only ones?”

Good news: they’re not the only ones!

I’m always glad to s...

Giveaway: Color Cloud Hammock

Every Friday is giveaway day. Comment to win!

**Note: Today is the last day to pre-order bundles for The Happiness of Pursuit**

Several years ago, three nomadic adventurers started a small business making and selling hammocks. The hammocks have since gone global, with sightings in more than 40 countries and all 7 continents.

I love these hammocks! We use them in the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) lounge at WDS every year, and they’re always a huge hit.

Also, be sure to check out their hammocks ar...

6 Discoveries From Near and Far, Volume VII

I. Around the World

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

The Professional Career of Mini-Golf — A 19-year-old Czech superstar practices seven hours a day

The World’s Hardest Geography Test — One that’s not taught in any classroom

Joey Roth has a new poster — The original “hustler” one (featured in The $100 Startup) has sold more than 10,000 prints!

“I was a digital bestseller” — An interesting story on the promise and perils of digital pub...

Tyler Tervooren’s Strategy for Becoming Comfortable with Risk

I work with Tyler on producing adventures for WDS, as well as several other projects.

A couple months ago, I heard him give a great (and hilarious!) talk at TEDxConcordiaUPortland. In the talk he mentioned his three theses:

a. Adventure can make you smarter

b. Adventure can make you stronger

c. Adventure can make you more attractive

Check it out below and be sure to visit his site for more.

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Service Is Free to Offer But Incredibly Valuable: Lessons from an Airport Shuttle Driver

At the Hyatt Dulles, my shuttle driver was named Abdullai. He was extremely enthusiastic about welcoming his early-morning travelers on board for the ride to the terminal.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “Welcome to my shuttle. I’ll be taking you to the Dulles airport this morning. The journey will take exactly 13 minutes.”

Then he opened a cooler and handed us all a bottle of cold water.

A bottle of water! Such things go a long way when jet-lagged at 5:30am.

Midpoint through the 13-minute jour...

A Free Offer to Help You Get Rich Slowly

Most people who read this blog aren’t poor. Some are relatively poor, in the sense that other people around them have more money—but that’s different from being really poor.

Nevertheless, in offering a personal finance guide, neither J.D. nor anyone on the Unconventional Guides team wants to be insensitive to anyone who could benefit from this resource but doesn’t have the funds to purchase it.

If you truly can’t afford even the basic version, will you let me know?

You can do so confidentially...