By Lillie
Catch more of her adventures at http://aroundtheworldl.com
For the second half of the second day on the road, Lulu and I wove slowly up, up, up and through the lush green mountains of Vietnam’s Central Highlands.
To clarify, I cannot drive a car, and I sure as heck cannot drive a motorcycle. I was on the back of Lulu’s machine, letting the expert of nine years (and over 150 such journeys) do the put-putting for both of us. Meanwhile, I tried to keep my mouth from being too widely agape at the …

By Lillie
Catch more of her adventures at http://aroundtheworldl.com

Holy sweet heaven and earth. After four days on motorcycle and foot through the Central Highlands of Vietnam, I am ridiculously thankful for the experience and the newunderstandings gained, and ridiculously happy to now be in Nha Trang, showered, reuniting with old-new friends, and chilling the heck out.
After the initial day of test-driving the motorcycle through Dalat’s immediate surroundings, Lulu and I strapped our packs onto the back of a shiny blue Easy Riders motorcycle. “W-w-what?” you stutter– “I thought you were terrified …

By Lillie
Catch more of her adventures at http://www.aroundtheworldl.com

Worms, silk. Silk, worms. You don’t realize how weird a combination this is until you see the dirty, bug-filled process it takes to birth the regal material!

Dalat, Vietnam has a number of silk factories, and it is absolutely worth it to tour one. The moment Lulu and I walked through the dusty doors of the building, I started gasping.
Come along on the amazing tour of captions for each photo!

Top Left: A sort of bookshelf to make silk worms comfortable enough to create their cocoons. Silk worm …

By Lillie
Catch more of her adventures at http://www.aroundtheworldl.com

What can you get for ten dollars and seven hours in Dalat, Vietnam? Sheesh– what CAN’T you get? Check out all the amazing and bizarre sights…

1. Linh Phuoc Pagoda: There’s a massive roaring dragon sculpture and two golden beasties making googly eyes at you! What’s not to love? Walk around the back and see that Mr. Dragon’s tail undulates up and down through the pools of water. Then up the stairs, a jolly fat Buddha smiles and invites you to rub-a-dub his creamy belly. Nice!
2. Strawberry …

By Lillie
Catch more of her adventures at http://www.aroundtheworldl.com

After two months on the road, voyaging from Boston to California, to Japan, to Southeast Asia, which gear has proven to be the most and least useful? What should YOU consider packing if you’re planning a long-term trip, particularly to the Developing World?
1. A medium-sized travel backpack (non-wheeled!) which zips more than halfway open (not top-load) and which fits in an airplane overhead bin. I almost splurged on a rigid wheeled backpack, but such an item is officially not worth it! My Kelty Redwing 3100 …

By Lillie
Catch more of her adventures at http://aroundtheworldl.com

Busty travelers of the world: strap on your triple strength sports bras before attempting the passage from Mui Ne, Vietnam, to Dalat! And if you’ve got back problems, hoo boy! Better bring a rigid brace and some Advil.
For the five hours from Mui Ne, our small bus jolted and banged along the rocky road, twisting around mountains and overlooking mist-shrouded green vistas. When a particularly ominous stretch of brown water-filled craters appeared, we’d slow almost to a crawl, splashing deep into the soup at a …

By Lillie
Catch more of her adventures at http://www.aroundtheworldl.com

I am fundamentally a lazy bum. Therefore, I usually kick and scream when friends try to get me to mobilize for touristic productivity. But you know what? I always thank them for it in the end. Check out what $10 and seven hours buys you in fantastic Mui Ne, Vietnam…

1. Meet your jeep driver at any of the one hundred tourist kiosks where you booked your trip. (I love how easy they make it! Walk two steps and you have another chance to purchase any …

By Lillie
Catch more of her adventures at http://www.aroundtheworldl.com
A major goal of this blog is to show folks who think they don’t have the luxury to travel that it’s actually easier and cheaper than you think. The key is to get yourself to a “Developing Country”, aka, a country less rich than yours. Basically, if you save up for the $300 flight to Latin America, or reeaaaally save up for the $700+ ticket to Southeast Asia, you can live like absolute royalty for months on end.
That initial plane fare really deters people, …

By Lillie
Catch more of her adventures at http://www.aroundtheworldl.com

I’ll admit it: when I was in Japan for those ten days in August, I didn’t get it. Everything was so quiet… so mercilessly efficient and effective… so… helpful! The fact that the trains were on time to the MILLISECOND made my free-spirited soul panic.
And yet, I am now starting to get it.
Sitting in Saigon’s hottest new cafe, the Japanese-run “Ministry of Food” (“MOF”), I gazed at my green tea and red bean ice cream (with chocolate gelato hugging it for Italian pizazz), and realized …

By Lillie
Catch more of her travels at http://www.aroundtheworldl.com
Five hours out of Ho Chi Minh City, our bus trundled into Mui Ne: a beautiful coastal town in South-Central Vietnam. What followed nicely illustrates my current hotel selection process whilst solo, budget backpacking in new and far-off places. Perhaps this strategy may work for you in the future!
1. Pre-research the location through a guidebook, but acknowledge the guidebook’s out-of-date-ness. Ahh Lonely Planet Guidebook– it’s been good for basic background info and maps, but its hotel selections have proven musty, dusty, and unfriendly, at …