I have come to a pretty clear conclusion from my four months of travel in Asia -the name Shannon is not common, normal, or in some cases, even comprehensible. It’s completely normal in the United States…and Ireland for that matter!…but Asia is a whole other story. I dare-say that the theme for my journey over the past seven months could be summarized as “The Changing Names of Shannon” or, perhaps even more appropriate:  “The Complete Bastardization of my Name.”
Where did this start you may ask? Well, in Australia actually. Shannon …

I don’t want to be too overly dramatic here, but I feel as if this trip has firmly closed a chapter of my life for good.  I started the trip as a quarter-life crises of sorts as well as because of a general yearning to see the world and break out of the borders of the United States.  A lot of friends and family have sent emails and made comments about how lucky I am to have a year of vacationing.  Let me clear something up just …

I have largely neglected my duties to this blog so far by not updating all of my readers on the state of driving on this side of the world.  For those who have not yet had the pleasure of traveling or backpacking through Asia, well, it’s unique and an assault on Western safety sensibilities.  To understand the way these people drive you pretty much have to completely abandon your conceptions about Western driving tactics and strategies and instead accept the organized chaos of a free-for-all.
From what I’ve discovered so …

With just a handful of hours left in Bangkok before our bus to Laos, Laura and I hopped a public bus to the HUGE Chatuchak Weekend Market – since we were in town on a weekend the market was a must see.  Allegedly you can find nearly any jewelry, clothes, wood crafts, pottery, kick knacks and doodads imaginable.  I don’t think that I could do much to convey the sheer size of this market – except perhaps to point out that we spent nearly three hours wandering around the …

The flight from Sydney to Bangkok was hellacious…and that is by far not an overstatement.  I blame my stressful predicament on my own under preparedness – something that I now vow will never happen to me again!
The situation: on my happy and rosy-cheeked arrival at Sydney airport, all ready and set to board my flight to Bangkok via Melbourne, the unsympathetic and taciturn check-in attendant informed me that I could not board a flight into Thailand.
Sputtering I could only ask “Why?” and listen to the response with a sinking heart.  …

I leave in the morning – bright and altogether too early for my personal taste – on a flight bound for Bangkok.  Naturally I’m really excited about this next step on the trip… I most definitely am.  But at the same time it’s  I feel like traveling solo in Southeast Asia is a bit of a different beast to tackle than traveling solo in Australia.
A lot of the travelers I have met here in Oz have raved about SEA and many have just come from the region – so that …