Latest Articles
- $7,035.57 = How much it costs to travel around the world through nine countries over five and a half months
- Revisited: How to pack for an independent traveler with no set return date
- A glimpse in the thoughts of Bolod Namkhai Mukhadi
- Beijing to Ulaanbataar Mongolia: The nitty gritty of independent travel
- How to get Chinese and Russian visas as a United States citizen: My experience
- Writing assignment: "Inside The Candelaria Festival of Puno, Peru"
- Marathon hitchhiking: Southern Mexico to Michigan in 7 days over 3,400 mi
- Mango Surprise: Being the victim of a random, delicious act of kindness
- Legendary Vagabonder Rolf Potts with priceless advice on travel
- Fire juggler in San Pedro de la Laguna, Lago Atitlan, Guatemala
Latest Destinations
- Romania: WWOOFing in Transylvania and back to the US
- Bulgaria: Nice cities, tipped off about an isolated beach, and getting perspective from a prostitute's cigarette burns
- Istanbul, and a few tips on curing impotency from the Hittites
- Giant carved heads, incredible valleys, camping on the Mediterranean, and a heavy dose of Roman ruins
- Lessons from a Kurdish-Swede rapper about Kurdistan, and finally getting my hands on an AK-47
Stories
Beijing to Ulaanbataar Mongolia: The nitty gritty of independent travel
Written by Tyler Cole | 31 March 2011
Click here to go straight to the directions
While on the road and back home, I frequently meet people who confuse independent travel with vacation. That it, when I describe a few months-long trip across Asia, what comes to mind is some sort of luxurious tour guided through the gems of the continent. The reality, though, is not like that for someone with a backpack and figuring it out for themselves as cheaply as possible (unless you consider riding across the border of China and Mongolia crammed in the trunk of a car with 12 other passengers “luxurious”).
In any case, I originally wrote this for other travelers who were trying to figure out ways to get across the border from Beijing to the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbataar, for relatively cheap, but I think it is also an illustrative glimpse of the day-to-day logistics that a traveler has to figure out and that I don’t really write about on my site (it is boring).
"Gas jugging" and coke dealers: hitchhiking for the first time (Ann Arbor, MI to Chicago)
Written by Tyler Cole | 31 December 2009
A clumsy, narrative manifesto
Gas jugging: click here to jump to how Matt and Galen got free gas crossing the country
[The bulk of this was written the day after I returned, and I would be enthralled to receive comments and criticism. I hope you find it entertaining]
Final night in The City of Big Shoulders, and falling asleep under the stars certainly had a romance about it. Considering the metropolis lights usually wash out the dim pokes from above, it felt like quite the time and place. Indeed, that grassy area gave an impression that the Traveling Gods purposefully carved it out, with shit-faced grins plastered on their faces high above. Providence divine, since I decided to finally indulge my unprompted pull to hitchhike and pay them proper respects.
