Since I left home for my Great Escape, I’ve been doing monthly roundups of my adventures filled with anecdotes, private little moments, and thoughts that are found nowhere else on this blog. As this site is not just a resource for other travelers but also my own personal travel diary, I like to take some time…

Does it seem like I’ve been writing about my Divemaster course forever? It kind of does to me! It’s time to wrap things up on this subject before I lost the interest of all my land lubber readers, but I do have some final thoughts and pieces of advice I want to share first. First, a…

Being a “yes girl” — it’s a philosophy I live by, and it’s also how I found myself on a three day expedition to hike Lombok’s sacred volcano, Gunung Rinjani, on less than forty eight hours notice. It’s been three days since we returned and I’m still walking like a robot thanks to stiff muscles. We…

While organizing photos recently, I realized I never posted about my three-day stopover in Bangkok en route back to New York in May. I spent most of the time shopping and eating up a storm, but I also took on a little bit of work — a hostel write up and a tour review. Another tough…

Once upon a time, I wrote a Budget Breakdown post for my trip to Honduras — one I cobbled together from data diligently recorded on the back of an envelope containing my lempiras. I intended to do so frequently along my travels, but it didn’t really work out. Most of my trips just aren’t suited to…

After five weeks of theory testing, skill practice, and practical experience of teaching and testing, it was time to get down to the business of the Divemaster Training. The business of hazing. First, I had to survive the Stress Test. The Stress Test is actually just a sadistic modification of / addition to the PADI-required equipment…