How To Deal With Christmas Away From Home

Julio Moreno Personal 0 Comment
How To Deal With Christmas Away From Home

I have never done one of these ‘seasonal posts’ so bare with me. I have been thinking about which holiday to focus on and I settled that Christmas and I have a rocky enough history to be worth talking about.

When I was little, I loved Christmas, but as I grew older, the atheist in me wanted nothing to do with it. Many of us non-believers still celebrate it for the presents and not for any cultural tradition or anything noble like that. When I turned 21, I decided to boycott it altogether and although I got crap for it, I was able to hold off for 2 years.

 

Christmas at an Airport, 2009

Then I moved abroad, and celebrating it with the family was less of a choice. My buddy Vicente talked me into visiting China on Christmas vacation of 2009 and while he was totally right that it would be an amazing trip seeing all those Terracottas, I celebrated Christmas that year in Incheon Airport. In fact, I didn’t arrive in Chengdu until 3am on Dec 26th.

I guess I never take pictures in airports, except of the airplanes. Anyways, you get the idea.
I guess I never take pictures in airports, except of the airplanes. Anyways, you get the idea.

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A Hike In The Hunua Ranges

Julio Moreno New Zealand , , 0 Comment
A Hike In The Hunua Ranges

Another wonderful Tuesday came by a few weeks ago (which is currently, my only day off), and it was not going to be wasted. We had a choice of either going hiking or taking a long trip to check out Hobbitton, but after reading that it is $75 for a 90 minute guided tour, we opted to hike.

Hunua Ranges

The Hunua Ranges is a huge park in the greater Auckland area about an hour south east of the city center. Since we were pretty impressed by Piha, we decided to give it a try! The first thing to know is that it is massive, with quite a few entry points and hiking trails. Since Sid and I are both grossly out of shape not at the zenith of our form, we went with the easy one to a 23 meter waterfall.

Hunua Waterfall

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Travel Tales #6 – I Really Wanted to Hate Thailand, But I Don’t

Julio Moreno Thailand, Travel Tales , , 1 Comment
Travel Tales #6 – I Really Wanted to Hate Thailand, But I Don’t

“I am not going to like Thailand”

I thought to myself. In many ways, my idea of the over-developed country and the fact that you couldn’t go five minutes without seeing a foreigner did materialize and made Thailand as ‘on the beaten track’ as expected. When a place is too saturated with tourism, the ugly demon of commerce and greed consume the population as they find ways to make money off of unsuspecting tourist. The culture changes and the sense of human kindness is lost, or so , this is what I always thought. Thailand changed my mind, and the Thai people came through like I never would have imagined.

A bit much?
A bit much?

After Sidney joined me late July of this year to continue what began as a solo SE Asia trip, we decided to go straight to the beach. Koh Chang was highly recommended and the elephant island did not disappoint. Then came a string of bad luck.

 

The Trouble with Scooters

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Everglades National Park

Julio Moreno UNESCO World Heritage Site, United States , , , 2 Comments
Everglades National Park

Everglades TurtleLocation: [Near] Miami, Florida, USA

Visited: June 22, 2013

Site Type: Natural

Inscribed: 1979

Background and Opinion:

The Everglades National Park was on my to do list for as long as I could remember. When I got an 18 hour layover in Miami on my way to Peru last year, I didn’t even hesitate in making plans to explore this ecological wonder. While I did not get to see manatees, it definitely did not disappoint. If there is one thing the region is known for besides sandy beaches and hot bods, it is the swamps filled with a fantastical amount of alligators. Seriously, if you can go through this area without seeing a gator, you did something wrong.

Florida Gators

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Why I Hate ‘Backpacking Culture’

Julio Moreno Personal , 9 Comments
Why I Hate ‘Backpacking Culture’

“You will totally love New Zealand. It has a great backpacker culture!”

And immediately, I cringed. It was just a reaction that I didn’t intend to offend with, but nonetheless it confirmed something I suspected long before I even arrived in New Zealand. I may be a guy who travels with a backpack, but I definitely did not fit the profile of a ‘backpacker.’*

 

I Wanted To Be A ‘Backpacker’ SO BAD! 

Backpack Woman

My final year in Korea, I knew this was it. I regretted not doing it earlier, but I was set on traveling across South East Asia with nothing but a backpack and seeing where the wind would take me. There was something about ‘going without a plan’ and ‘meeting other travelers’ that sounded so cool and appealing. That is until I got started and realized, what a lot of people call ‘backpacking’ is not at all what I thought it was. 

 

My Idealization of ‘Backpacking’

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