Color me pleasantly surprised by my three days wandering the tidy and tall streets of Shanghai. I rarely love big cities—I’m much more of a small town girl at heart and busy sidewalks, gridlock traffic and the lack of greenery and earth starts to overwhelm me within a day or two.

Three days in Shanghai remapped my every definition of big city life and I loved the city within minutes of stepping outside of my hotel that first morning. Thanks to the generosity of my friends we spent our last days in China right on the edge of Shanghai’s trendy walking street, but with expansive views over the People’s Park (they splurged on the hotel and I got to tag along).

The bright colors of Guatemala take their palette from a kindergarten classroom, or perhaps from the toucans and macaws that inhabit the country’s forests. The brilliant reds mix with saffrons made of liquid sunshine and blues right out of the darkest depths of the ocean.
I’ve milked just about story possible out of Guatemala except for the markets. I love markets all over the world and until Guatemala India held the top spot in my heart; now the two countries compete for the honor of most diverse and brilliant hued marketplaces.
Chichicastenango—Huge, …

The dilapidated bus that was to be our next means of transportation was my next “welcome to India moment” – the bus had been around far longer than I have even been alive and the last paint job was probably administered around the time I was weaning from the bottle.  It was quite a piece of work let me tell you.  There was no reason to desire tinted windows on the bus because they were so dirty and cloudy that light could only seep through them anyway.
There are no …

Udaipur was a really relaxing stop for me and I’m glad that I took the whole week to relax in the town and get used to the peculiarities of India.  I spent my days in Udaipur getting some work done, taking it slow on the sightseeing, and drinking some chai…actually not some chai, a lot of chai.
Indians drink a milked, sugared, spiced chai at least three times a day and most likely many, many more times than that.  Shop owners are quick to offer up a cup of steaming-hot, …

If all of the cities in Laos are thought of as siblings, then Luang Prabang is that beautiful older sister, the apple her parents’ eye and she can do no wrong.  Vang Vieng (and Laos river tubing) was the rebellious and party-tastic younger brother; this city, instead, is really old and full of beautiful Wats (temples).

The city is actually so culturally rich that in 1995 it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site -the whole city!  That means that even in another decade, you wont see multi-story concrete buildings …

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 backpacking SEA and many have just come from the region – so …

If all of Australia’s major cities could be considered siblings, arriving in Melbourne is like meeting the red-headed step child of the family.  The town is unapologetically alternative; and while Sydney relies on beauty and cleanliness to stay a favorite, first impressions indicate Melbourne is an “anything-goes” city.  I arrived in Melbourne with Pauline and Linda and the three of us were immediately struck by all of the Asians, hipsters, punks, and businessmen all commingling on the streets of the city.

The CBD (Central Business District) is naturally full of …