Author: Judith Villarreal

During your time abroad, you may want to start up a blog. Whether for fame and fortune or just to keep your friends and family updated on all of your new adventures, your new travel blog needs to have a name. As travel blogging has become more popular, you’ll need to choose a name that stands out to compete with the hundreds of blogs that are created on a daily basis. (After all, your friends, family, and future fans need to be able to remember the name of your awesome blog!)

It’s been about 3 months since I’ve been back in America after my adventures in Asia. It was an exciting move back, an endless week or two of welcome home parties and storytelling. Now that the dust has settled, life has become, more or less, a routine. Work, exercise, dinners, drinks.

Does the idea of traveling the world to collect stories appeal to you? Have you ever browsed Travel + Leisure for hours on end? Maybe you’ve planned out hundreds of trips just for fun?

October is here! So, bring on the pumpkin spice, cozy sweaters, and Halloween candy. If Halloween happens to fall on your list of favorite holidays ever, then you might be a little disappointed to learn that not every country is as zombie and ghoul crazed as America.

Last week we brought you part 1 of this scholarly tale letting you know a few pointers to look out for when travelling. Here is part 2 that will present to you the aftermath of mistakes made in Part 1.

I’ve referenced the horrid story of my days suffering from intense food poisoning in Thailand a few times in past articles, but I’ve never actually gotten the full story out onto paper – er- online. Partly because I’m incredibly embarrassed that I made such a stupid mistake, and partly because reminiscing on these memories makes my stomach rumble (a Pavlovian response, I guess). But, just as I finally succumbed to the projectile wretching in Thailand, I’ve decided that it’s finally time to let it all out. Hopefully, it’ll make me feel better.

During my years abroad, I came across a variety of people, personalities, and temperaments. Some expats I really enjoyed, but some travelers were more of an acquired taste. I got on with most people as best I could, but there was a certain type of traveler that just really got under my skin.

We’ve all been there. Stuck traveling with that one friend who thinks eating tortilla chips and a can of Tostitos medium spice salsa is being crazy. It’s all fun and games (laughing at them while we snack on adventurous food) until we realize that we have to cater to their pansy taste buds when we travel with them.