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The following restaurants cater to tourists/expats, offering English menus and English-speaking waitstaff. Many also have a sustainability focus, which can be a relief after seeing the amount of one-time-use plastic you'll encounter during your travels around this quickly developing country.
In this post, I hope to highlight the positives of working online (because they really do outweigh the negatives). Above all, teaching online means the flexibility of both time and location, which is an invaluable benefit for travelers. VIPKID is a fun job that works around your life, all with a competitive hourly wage of up to $22 per hour! All of VIPKID's benefits work together to provide income security and purpose to the traveling teacher's life. I know what it's like to search for online jobs and sources of passive income online and come up with nothing that either a) fits your qualifications/lifestyle or b) pays enough to be a good use of your time. As far as gig economy jobs go, you really can't ask for more than what VIPKID offers.
Taking the sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Thailand is probably the easiest and most enjoyable way to travel between the two cities. If you're planning a trip to Thailand, both Bangkok and Chiang Mai probably appear on your itinerary (as they should!) There are lots of different ways to get there. You can [...]
I'm not trying to argue this is a complete list. There are other things I find shocking and many more aspects of Vietnamese culture that are just plain interesting. But these culture shocks are the ones that stuck out to me immediately during my first couple weeks in Vietnam. While the elements of Vietnamese culture [...]
If you're looking for beaches and nature in Vietnam, Da Nang is the place to visit. For us, it was the perfect way to relax, enjoy fair prices, and see the sites that give Vietnam its famous natural beauty.
Find the right job and the right city for you. Learn from my mistakes. This step-by-step guide will tell you everything you need to easily land a teaching job in a Vietnamese city.
After a 40-minute ride on a bumpy, rented motorbike (a.k.a. scooter) we arrived at what we thought would be a mountain pass up to the Golden Bridge. That wasn't the case. Read the full post to hear why the Golden Bridge outside Da Nang, Vietnam didn't meet my expectations. Just in case you need to make a quick decision, here's everything you need to know to see the bridge.
Just in recent years, Ho Chi Minh City became known for its craft beer scene. I made this tour for craft beer lovers like me who want to try all the city's unique beers, even if they have a limited amount of time. Visiting the breweries in the order I suggest below adds up to only 2.7 km (1.7 miles) of walking. However, you can get a taxi (or order a Grab motorbike taxi for extra fun) anywhere along the route.
After our long flight, Ethan and I decided to treat ourselves. He needed a haircut and I told him to wait until we were in Vietnam. We found a funky barber shop where tattooed barbers played rap music and cut designs into fades. Ethan and I don't know much Vietnamese yet, but we came prepared with a picture and his barber was able to copy it perfectly. He paid ₫80,000 which equals $3.45 or €3.03.
We left Chicago on a chilly gray day and landed in a lush, green country full of life. A border patrol agent checked our passports and took our photos. After feeling a little nervous throughout the whole planning phase, we were glad to receive little pink stamps in our passports saying "Republic de Cuba, 26 Oct 2018, José MartÃ." (If you love passport stamps as much as I do, you'll be happy to know we got another upon exit.) Some people say Cuba is like another world. It definitely feels like a place frozen in time. It's charming, colonial, and decaying. Still, despite years of uncertain economic circumstances, the people there are full of energy. Everywhere there are neighbors in the streets chatting, bartering, smoking, and playing.