Traveling to Dangerous Places

This Saturday I’m flying to Acapulco, Mexico. I’ll be there a few days before sailing on the Queen Elizabeth up to Los Angeles as a guest of Cunard Cruise Lines. Not surprisingly, almost everyone I’ve told mentioned something about crime, murders, drug gangs, or beheadings. Almost all the news coming from Mexico lately has been …

Read more

McDonald’s Malaysia: Golden Arches Over The South China Sea

This post was nine months in the making. Just as Malaysia is split into two distinct parts, my visit to Malaysia was separated by over half a year. I visited Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo in January and I visited Peninsular Malaysia in August. I could have written the post back then, but I wanted …

Read more

McSamoa’s….or, Polynesians Got Back

I’m going to combine the Samoa and American Samoa McDonald’s entry because they aren’t interesting enough to do separately. As far as I can tell, there is only one restaurant in each county. The Samoa McDonald’s is right in town a block off Beach St. and the American Samoa restaurant is out near the airport. …

Read more

McDonald’s Noumea

The McDonald’s in Noumea wasn’t anything special. Nothing special on the menu. The only thing of note was how they organized their value meals. You picked a sandwich, you picked a side (salad or fries) and a drink. Each meal was the same price. They also had the Royal Cheese from Pulp Fiction fame. Not …

Read more

You Do Not Need A Guidebook To Travel

If you have been reading the news the last few days, you have probably come across the “scandal” about the Lonely Planet writer who wrote parts of the Colombia guide book without ever traveling to Colombia. Actually, it is a non-story. He was never supposed to go to Colombia. He was just supposed to write …

Read more

The Most Beautiful Island In the Pacific

Pohnpei is the most beautiful place I’ve visited in my trip so far. Hands down, no questions. I was completely taken aback at the flowers, birds, lagoon, mountain, and the reef. The place I stayed was the Village Hotel, which is exactly what you think of when you dream of living on an island. All …

Read more

McPacific America

I’m lumping McDonald’s for Hawaii, Guam and Saipan all together. They are pretty much the same and all share the one unique thing I find interesting. The McDonalds in Waikiki did something I liked an haven’t seen anywhere else. They gave you a free package of diced pineapple with every meal: breakfast or dinner. It …

Read more

Evri samting you wantem save long Bislama be yu fraet tumas blong askem*

First, I’d like to suggest the following to every college student who needs to satisfy a foreign language requirement to graduate but doesn’t really want to study a language…. LEARN BISLAMA. I was totally able to understand a conversation a man who was helping me had with a coworker. Only a few words were beyond …

Read more

Best and Worst of the Pacific

The following lists are based on places I actually visited. If you know of a place that should be on this list but isn’t there…oh well. You will notice a big discrepancy between my top 10 and what you might find in the 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I swear the book was …

Read more