I have an air-tight plan for money management on the road. Two credit cards, two debit cards, all thoroughly vetted for ease of use overseas and stored in separate location so I always have a backup. I track my daily expenses with an iPhone app and each month do a full accounting analysis of my spending…

I consider myself to be a lapsed City Girl — these days, I only daydream about skyscrapers and high culture, while spending my time kicking around laid-back islands in flip flops instead. So I’m actually quite excited when my travels bring me to a big urban metropolis. But I’ve come to learn that I’m in the…

In my never-ending exploration of hostels in Southeast Asia, I stumbled across a recently opened hotspot in my next destination of the Philippines — Pink Manila. My first week in the Philippines I was flying solo, and so I was eager to meet other travelers to explore what I considered a somewhat intimidating city. I had…

I had big plans for Manila. I wanted to take the infamous Carlos Celdran tour of the historic Intramuros area, enjoy the nightlife of glittering downtown Makati, and take a trek out to the shoe museum featuring footwear of the fascinating Imelda Marcos. Unfortunately, I arrived in the country to heartbreaking news, followed immediately by the…

I remember back to years ago, before I first stepped foot in Southeast Asia. I knew that geographically there were different countries here but I couldn’t help but picture them as one homogenous lump of rice, temples, and elephants. Of course, it didn’t take me long after arrival to begin to appreciate the nuances and individualities…

Has it only been a week since I last checked in? I’m traveling through the Philippines in a manner I’m not really accustomed to — at lightening speed. Generally I’m a slow, lazy traveler. I like it that way. But with only a three-week visa and so much I wanted to see, I thought I’d give…