A few more pictures from Asia/The Pacific

[PhillyB]

How are you able to travel so much? You may have explained in the past, but did you just take a lot of time off to travel or is there another reason for visiting these places?

long story. basically a couple years ago i got fed up with a lot of the things that western society views as important, and completely rejected them, a paradigm shift which led me to quit my well-paying corporate job, sell/throw away most of my possessions, and purchase a one-way ticket to Australia. I biked/backpacked around Australia, Asia, and the Pacific for a number of months, and in the process became utterly and hopelessly addicting to the joy that is international travel and the spirit of the backpacking community.

Since then I have taken every available opportunity to travel and expand my horizons. Ive been back to Asia twice since that first trip, been to Central America twice, heading to Peru in less than a week and maybe - just maybe - Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in November.

I can do it because the desire to do it is greater than the fears that would keep me from doing it, which is what keeps 99.9999% of people who think this sort of stuff is cool and want to do it, from actually doing it.

I can afford it because I live an incredibly low-budget life. I don't buy movies or game systems or TVs or cars, I don't smoke, I drink but I do so in moderation. When I travel I bust ass to find the cheapest possible flights, and I never stay in hotels - guesthouses and youth hostels, besides being ridiculously inexpensive, are are phenomenal experience and remain one of my all-time favorite parts of backpacking abroad.

To put this in perspective, if you smoke a pack a day and spend a hundred bucks a week on drinking (a very conservative estimate for the average person my age) you're spending between four and five grand a year on these things. If you quit both things, or quit the former and tone down the latter, you'd be able to afford a four thousand dollar trip. You can get to any major airport in the world, round-trip, for $2000. Europe is expensive, but most other places are incredibly inexpensive. A guesthouse in Chiang Mai, Thailand, costs roughly five bucks a night. You can live on fifteen bucks a day.

For four thousand dollars you could live in Southeast Asia for three months EASILY.

It's all about the desire. If you want to do it, you'll find a way.

[Guest]

Thanks again for the great stories and pics.

[Hotsauce]

I wish I had time to read all that, but the pictures were great!

[thennek]

If you like to read about WWII, here are some recommended books (I have a bunch more if wanted, and most can be purchased and reviewed on Amazon.COM).

With the Old Breed by E.B Sledge

Helmut for my Pillow by Robert Leckie

Gaudalcanal Dairy by Richard Tregaskis

One Square Mile of Hell..The Battle for Tarawa by John Wakovits

Unbroken by Laura Hildenbrand

A few Vietnam Books:

Escape from Laos by Dieter Dengler

Rescue of Streetcar 304 by Kenny Wayne Fields

Across the Fence by John Styker Meyer

Five Years to Freedom by James N. Rowe

Secret Commandos by John Plaster