I just finished volunteering for my first year at the SXSW (South by SouthWest) Festival in Austin, Texas. The festival is a mixture of Film, Music and Interactive (think tech/business/internet), with the first half focusing on interactive, the second half on music, and film running the entire length of the nine-day conference. As a volunteer, [...]
The 84th Annual Zilker Park Kite Festival was held on Sunday, March 4th in Austin, Texas. You couldn’t have asked for a better day with all the sun and wind anyone could ask for. Under an umbrella of thousands of kites, the festival offered the usual American-festival goodies like games and face-painting for the little [...]
Contrary to popular belief, Mardi Gras isn’t just about Beer, Beads and Breasts. The festival and parades were actually described to us by one locals as being put on “for the locals, not for the tourists”. A family affair, outside of Bourbon street you’ll see festival revelers of all ages, and even a few local [...]
A week after I arrived in Australia, I managed to find a group doing the exact road trip I was seeking. We left Perth and drove up to Exmouth in 7 days stopping along the way at The Pinnacles, Shell Beach, Monkey Mia and a dozen look outs and national park stops. We spent 3 days [...]
The Can Cau and Bac Ha markets are weekend markets on the Vietnamese side of the border between China and Vietnam. They are frequented by a variety of hill tribes including the very colorful Flower Hmong tribe. Most people traveling to this region use the town of Sapa, Vietnam, as a home base, which is about eight [...]
Last week’s photo essay focused on the water works that Songkran is famous for. This week’s essay is on some of the cultural activities that are also part of Songkran, but perhaps a bit less famous.
The official dates of this year’s Songkran (aka. Thai New Year) were April 13-15, but they got underway a day early in Chiang Mai. Anyone backpacking or flashpacking through Thailand in April should make every effort to take part in the festival. Even though it’s known locally as the “seven dangerous days” due to the [...]
After wrapping up my summer in Ibiza, I spent a couple weeks flashpacking through Ireland. I was lucky enough to spend a week traveling through the South, from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher, and another week in Northern Ireland exploring Belfast, Derry and the Giant’s Causeway. The murals below are a small sample of [...]
The Panjiayuan Market (aka. the Dirt Market) is a huge flea market held on the weekends that should be visited by all travelers and flashpackers spending a weekend in Beijing. As you can see in the images below, you can find just about anything there. Some areas are organized by goods sold while in others [...]
I’ve never been through a hurricane, tornado, blizzard or tsunami. Growing up in Los Angeles, however, I have ridden my fair share of earthquakes, the biggest being Northridge in 1994. Although it was a big one (6.7 on the Richter scale), I can’t even remember where I was at the time. 12 hours ago, Japan [...]
This week’s essay is part four of four and is the last part of the Ibiza series. If you haven’t been following, Part one focused on the DJs, Part Two covered the Dancers and other performers, and Part Three gave you an idea of the clubs themselves. These shots are of the clubbers and are the types [...]