My girlfriend and I have been living in Thailand for about a year now, and after all that time we’ve adjusted (almost) to a more Thai budget.  We eat noodles on the street for 50 baht, take the bus rather than catch a cab, and we balk at the price of beer in the tourist areas (at least twice the price of beer in 7-11, and some places charge an obscene amount for a small bottle of Singha).

What we’ve also started doing is looking out for deals in local stores.  We’ll bulk buy toilet paper to save a few baht, and we’re never happier than when we discover a bar that runs an all day happy hour.  We’re living on a tight budget, and it’s these little victories that make me feel a little better about the state of my bank account.

If I could give any traveler a piece of advice it’s that they should keep a close eye on the internet for bargains while they’re traveling.  The largest expenses are usually split between hotels and days out, and you can easily end up with a daily bill of hundreds of dollars if you go on a lot of guided tours or visit tourist attractions like museums and zoos.

DealPasta is a great example of a site worth watching.  My partner and I are taking a trip to Alaska later this year, and I’ve just spent a couple of hours browsing the daily deals for an idea of what we can expect.  The answer is: a hell of a lot.

First, I’ve always wanted to go whale watching.  I took a boat out of Melbourne many years ago and caught a glimpse of a pod of Northern Right whales, but the ferry didn’t get close enough for a good look.  On this trip I intend to get up close and personal, so I’ve already set aside $250 to pay for the two of us to take a day trip.

DealPasta, though, is listing a whale watching trip for just $119, down from $238, for a three hour whale watching tour for two.  There are lots of daily deal websites that offer crappy discounts, but that caught my eye.

So, for the next four months I’ll be hoping and praying that the deal is still running when we get out there :)

You know, for the past six months I’ve been spending the vast, vast majority of my time working my fingers to the bone at my computer, typing away at paid article work for up to 18 hours a day just to make ends meet.  In fact, a few weeks ago I broke my hand and couldn’t even take a day off.  Didn’t have the time or money to visit the hospital here in Bangkok, and now I’ve lost the knuckle of my pinkie and my hand constantly hurts like hell.

Last weekend, though, I got the rare opportunity to take a night off.  My Mongolian girlfriend occasionally works for a local hospital that caters for rich visiting Mongolians (you can’t get a decent nose job up there), and when they’re here they often hire her to work as a translator while they shop and visit tourist attractions.

This time, though, it wasn’t patients but businessmen.  They were down here to attend the worldwide Rotary conference attended by about 35,000 Rotarians, and they wanted her to go along to – of all things – translate the words of the corporate comedian at one of the evening meals.

I’ve never seen anything so funny in all my life.  The comedian himself was very good, but what truly tickled me was the burst of drunken laughter that came from the Mongolian table ten seconds after every punchline.  Until you’ve seen corporate comedy translated into Mongolian you haven’t lived, I tells ya.

Well, I’m back to work now.  It’s 9AM and I’ve been writing for 16 hours.  My hand hurts like you wouldn’t believe, and I’m desperate for sleep.  Still, that memory will stay with me all my life.  It was definitely worth taking the night off.

One of the top US travel destinations is Key West, Florida! It’s been the haunt of artists and writers since the greatest writer of the 20^th Century – Ernest Hemingway – put Key West on the map. Hemingway called it the “St. Tropez For the Poor” but the days of bargains in Key West are gone. It’s all high end now.

So, what was it that attracted Hemingway to Key West? Ole Hem loved the water – he was an avid sportsman who loved to hunt and fish – there isn’t much to hunt in the Florida Keys, but there are plenty of big game fish in the sea!

Hemingway loved the water and the wonderful watering holes … his patronage made Sloppy Joe’s, the town’s best known bar, famous. Today Key West’s biggest tourist attraction (on land) is the Hemingway House. Originally built in 1851 by Asa Tift, an early settler and wrecker in the Southernmost City; the charming colonial style home welcomes visitors to the island who appreciate architecture and literary history.

The historic homes and quaint architecture of Key West is another one of the main attractions. Several thousand homes and buildings on the Historic Register make the shady streets, narrow lanes and by ways a delight to wander. An old cemetery with above ground crypts, ala New Orleans, makes an interesting tour of the city’s past.

Many of Old Town’s historic mansions and homes are open to the public for viewing – and you can stay overnight in some of them. In addition to the Hemmingway House, you can visit Harry S Truman’s Little White House, the Curry Mansion (tours and B&B), the Oldest House in Key West, and the Audubon House, which houses an incredible collection of the artist’s work. One of the most picturesque, the Southernmost Mansion, is now an historic inn on the beach.

Many who visit Key West soon decide that staying in a historic home once is not enough – they simply must have a second home in the Southernmost City. If that good fortune has befallen you, and you want to buy your own historic home in Key West, Realtor Rudy Molinet invites you to search the MLS listings in Key West to find just the right property for your frequent visits to the Southernmost City.

After several years of living in Asia I still find the idea of traditional medicine a little unusual.  Out here in Thailand (and especially up in China) they set a lot of stock by the healing power of herbs, and until recently I couldn’t get my head around it.  After all, I spent the first quarter century of my life in the west, and there I developed a very strong belief that real medicine (i.e. the stuff that actually comes in handy when you’re ill) comes in the form of pills and injections.

Herbs and natural remedies?  No thanks.   I’m not interested in any form of medicine popular in a part of the world in which people sincerely believe that cutting off and eating a tiger’s penis will make a man more virile.  In my mind, eastern medicine is stupid, uneducated hokum from people who don’t understand the first thing about the human body.  What’s more, this belief was compounded by the fact that my Mongolian partner used to be given a glass of her mother’s first piss of the day when she was sick as a child (apparently it’s a great cold remedy).

Occasionally, though, this part of the world accidentally stumbles on something that actually works.  For thousands of years the Chinese have been consuming the ephedra plant to treat everything from the common cold to asthma to hayfever, and in recent years we’ve learned that this is one plant that actually does what it says on the tin.  Today you can buy ephedrine (the active ingredient in the plant) to help with weight loss, concentration and athletic training.   Ephedrine is a stimulant that acts in much the same way as caffeine (though much more powerfully), and it’s very popular with bodybuilders.

So, all I’d say is that you should take eastern medicine with a pinch of salt, but you should also keep your eyes open for the occasional hidden gem.

You know, as someone who spends his life living on an extremely tight income while travelling the earth I often find myself in the strange position of sharing a drink with people with whom I share almost nothing in common.  I had such an experience last night, and it really brought home the fact that my life has changed enormously in the last couple of years.

I used to be wealthy.  I’ve never lived in a mansion and driven a Bentley to the bathroom, but let’s just say I was extremely comfortable.  For several years I was lucky enough to earn an income that was, without a great deal of effort, practically unspendable.  I could buy anything I wanted without worrying all that much about the price tag, and I used my wealth to travel to strange new places and experience new cultures (and drink in very nice bars, of course).