China is completely app-driven these days. Everything is handled by one app or another. Here are some of the most essential. Payment Cash is rarely used in China. Even the smallest street vendor takes payment via app. Credit cards are…
Apps, payments, trains, hotels and the traps nobody warns you about. What I worked out preparing six weeks in China, including where AI helped and where it could not.
Planning a trip starts with two questions: where, and when. One you may have answered already. The other takes a little more work. Here is how to approach both. Step 1: You have not decided where to go yet Step…
Research is useful up to a point. Past that point it becomes a reason not to go. The goal of research is to arrive knowing enough to make decisions, not to have every decision made in advance. Some of the…
The first thing to get right is what goes in your bag. Pack light. Then take out half of what you packed. This is not advice to ignore. Every experienced traveler says it, and nearly every traveler ignores it the…
The tips I wish someone had given me before my first morning in Mumbai. Visas, money, trains, food, Goa, Kerala, photography, and the honest part.
Practical security advice for independent travelers: how to protect your passport, credit cards, and smartphone on the road, how to prepare before you leave home, and why small guesthouses are safer than big hotel chains.
That steel box in the wardrobe looks reassuring. Here is why it is not.
These are not the obvious things. Not “book early” or “pack light” — you know those already. These are the habits I have developed over many years of long solo trips that have quietly made each one go more smoothly…
