About 45 minutes down the road southwest from Jianchuan, along the busy Lijiang-Dali road is a town where most travelers fail to stop. No one pays too much attention to Shaxi these days. Its heyday is long gone. Once it stood on the busy Tea Horse Road—a less famous trading route than the Silk Road, [...]

Malacca, Malaysia in Photos Traveling to some of the touristy towns of China (like Lijiang) and in Vietnam (Hoi An) now one year later, I think back to what a special place Malacca, Malaysia is. Don’t get me wrong, Melacca is a super-touristy town, but why it’s special is that the old district has yet [...]

  I had wanted to visit Halong Bay for years now. It’s one of those destinations that you see a picture of and you promise yourself that you have to go some day. But I recently read some bad press about someone’s experience there: the Bay is polluted; there are too many boats in the [...]

By Stephen Bugno For some this is the quintessential China experience. I must admit, after countless bus rides, hotel check-ins, and big city headaches, this river’s foggy stillness came as a relief. It may be extremely popular and touristy, but there is no denying the beauty that this river and the Three Gorges possess. Choose [...]

The standard bukhanka. Not the worst but not the best. This is what a lot of food consumption comes down to in the capital.   The Soviet fossils in Ashgabat are strewn over the surface of daily life here. One in particular is the bukhanka. This is the Russian word for “loaf”, as in “loaf [...]

One of the temples on Emai Shan sacred Buddhist mountain. By Stephen Bugno The Good The sights—Where else can you see the Great Wall of China, panda bears close up in their hometown, or a gorge the likes of Tiger Leaping Gorge? Nowhere. That’s why you come to China, for these heavy hitters. I won’t [...]

Turkmenistan visas are not for the faint of heart. With the exception of a few intrepid overlanders who take advantage of an oddly liberal three-day transit visa, getting into the country is not easy. Either one comes in a very expensive tourist visa package or one comes sponsored by an international business or organization. As [...]

Dali is one of those places that I really hoped I wouldn’t dislike. Its description in the guidebooks made it sound so pleasant a town—except for one thing—the growing number Chinese tourists. Well, there were tons of tourists, but Chinese tourists seem to stick together in group tours and don’t drift very far from the [...]

Dear GoMad Nomad, I am wondering if you can advise me on good places to visit in China, off the beaten path, where the prices are low, the people are friendly, the women are beautiful, and the scenery is breathtaking. Sincerely, Symour in Pasaic A few of Jade Snow Mountain from Lijiang   Dear Symour, [...]

  It’s not easy to navigate the streets of Lijiang’s old town. Timeworn cobbled streets follow steams, bending over ancient stone bridges forming a centuries-old maze. Lijiang is the capital of the Naxi Kingdom, set beneath the spiky Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The Naxi are an ethnic group descended from the Tibetans, settling this region [...]

It’s impossible to give a report of traveler’s expenses for China as a whole because prices differ extensively from region to region. So for this post, I’m going to focus on Yunnan Province, a destination in which I spent over a month traveling. It is a fascinating region with spectacular landscapes and diverse peoples. It’s [...]

Photo Credit: Alex Dodd   The following post is brought to you by Skyscanner. Body Most of us, when preparing to travel, don’t take a bathroom cabinet of drugs and potions with us on holiday. This is because we either believe we won’t get ill or that we’ll be able to furnish ourselves with the [...]

Despite a high per capita income for Djibouti, this is one of the most common means of transport in the city. By Jett Thomason I like Djibouti in the morning. I wake up early in the US, so jetlag throws my natural tendency into overdrive with a 3:15, 4:30, or if I’m lucky, 5:00 am [...]

By Gabi Logan For travelers with itchy feet and empty pockets, WWOOFing sounds like the perfect opportunity. You can stay for free (with food included) amid such picturesque rural locations as olive orchards in Italy on cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean, rolling hills covered with lavender in the south of France, and blossoming cherry orchards in [...]

  Muang Ngoi is a small village on the banks of the Nam Ou River in Northern Laos. It’s a one-street village with no motorized vehicles—the only way to get there is by a one-hour boat ride from Nong Khiaw. It’s a peaceful place to spend a couple days. There’s only electricity from 6pm to [...]