Gina's seafood serves fresh tasty marlin, squid, crabs and crazy giant shrimp:

Delicious!

I ate 5 and made myself stop, but I'll be back to test my limits soon enough.

This is the unique dish I've been looking for here.

Update: i grabbed a beer from the 7-eleven and i'm going back now. Guy went home but I'll be back in a few days for the Chinese New Year celebration.

For new destinations I am entirely unfamiliar with, I check their spot on this list before buying a ticket.

I find these comprehensive travel safety scores to be helpful indicators as to whether or not i should be looking up relevant travel advisories.

I had a lot of fun singing

1. Lump by PUSA
2. Wine, Women and Song by Harvey Danger
3. Genghis Khan by Miike Snow

My Chinese friend sang "My Heart Will Go On" beautifully and put us all to shaaaame.

There is no pressure to be a good singer(trust me), you just have to want to sing a song.

Arnis is the actual Philippines national sport, and while I have not seen a single dojo yet, I have seen and heard people singing karaoke here day in and day out.

My set list from a couple days ago:

1. Come Together by the ol' Beatles

2. Shiny by Jemaine Clement from Moana

3. Everybody by the Backstreet Boys

4. Hmm...there was beer at this party.

5. Well, whatever, I'm going back today.

Tropics:

Europe:

Asia:

Africa from $114, Europe from $121:

SEA from $139:

The lines are "ba" and the dots are "tik", made by a piece of bamboo either dragged across or tapped into the wax between dyeing processes, as far as I understand.

A uaeful, organized reference list for US citizens to check if they need to prepare additional documentation before traveling.

For 9 out of 10 countries, if they have their passport and $500-1000 USD per month, they're good to go.

I already have a huge list but limited time in Bacolod and my local friend says she doesn't know half of the things i read about on wikipedia.

And your demon...guardians?

What a great experience. Weird to be back in the non-sober world again.

However will I adjust?

There was a huge gallery and they were so impressive (and compact) i picked up a couple as gifts.

Cool technique, didn't know anything about it until i got here.

Unless they have it in the philippines, which I will be scouring the town for.

There are a lot of things to eat in the Philippines too. I hear they also have food.

After the AYCE buffet rain started pouring down I was amped up and after it wasn't coming down in buckets, decided to jog back home in the drizzle.

It was a good time.

Regular ol' painted van instead of slightly larger regular ol' painted van

Europe:

Middle East:

Africa:

Buffet:

Lightning grab:

These are pretty normal prices, my ticket from Ireland to Morocco was $13 ten yeas ago, iirc. Or $11?

Croatia for $370 per month:

Medellin: $369 per month:

Mexico City: $275 per month

Morocco: $256 per month

This just came up talking about passive income with an English speaker who wanted me to lay out the specifics of how they could retire 40 years early:

1. Take a $9000, 40-hour-per-week in-person ESL job.

2. Live on $1000 very comfortably abroad, invest the other $8000 at 5%; index funds are a good option and often outperform 5% returns.

3. After one year, you have $96000 invested, returning 4800 indefinitely, $400 USD per month.

That's enough to live in dozens of countries in a private bedroom with utilities/wifi and afford groceries and data.

4. After two years, your return will rise to $9600 per year at 5%, $800 USD per month.

That's enough passive income to live in most of the world in a private house/condo/apartment with utilities/wifi included with $400 left over for food and entertainment.

If you want to work 20 hours a week instead of 40, it takes 4 years instead of 2, working 10 hours a week takes 8 years.

8 years might sound like a long time, but it's a lot shorter than 30 or 40 years and you only work 10 hours a week.

You can also blitz 40-hour workweeks 2 months of the year and work 10-hour weeks the rest of the year, there's a lot of customization to be had.

I've been using a bottle bidet for the past year, which works very well, but of course doesn't dispense the volume of water that a handheld bidet does.

Bidets make so much sense!

And now they're everywhere again! I shake hands without hesitation.

1. Check the average exchange rate online(1 USD=18765 Rp)

2. Go to a window, check their sign or ask them their rate.

3. I was looking for less than 5% commission, this guy quoted 16,500 per dollar, a 1.5% commission over flat exchange.

4. He types and prints out this little receipt to confirm the exchange rate. Usually they'll type it into a calculator and hold it up for you to read.

5. Great rate. He takes my 20, gives me 330,000 Rp, done.

Airport windows/ATMs will charge you 10-20%, in-town ATMs will often charge you 5 to 10%, in-town local money changers will charge you under 5%. Confirm their rate before giving them your money.

This cat is the size of three or four cats.