At last! She blogs! I know, I know, it’s been way too long, and to those of you who have been checking for   wanderlust-y entries and sexy giveaways, I sincerely apologize for my extended absence.  I have an annoying habit of taking on too much and not saying “no” when I should,  so the bottom of 2011 was beyond busy for me in every way imaginable. My little blog suffered copious amounts of neglect as my professional and personal lives demanded more and more of time and attention. But,it’s a new year, things have calmed down considerably, and I remain as committed as ever to sharing my love for travel and interesting places.

Part of this commitment is changing the focus of the blog a bit. I will continue to write about my wanderlust  and visit  different places (Petra, Jordan, I’m coming for you), but I also want to highlight my own backyard, Texas. I don’t know how I managed to overlook it in the past, but Texas has some amazing things to offer to any traveler, and I look forward to writing about it in as a regular feature.    I’m still thinking of names for this, and while The Lonestar Files is a seemingly appropriate name, it’s a far too cheesy. I’ll keep you updated.

Lastly, I want to transition the blog from being a mere collection of random musings of a hobbyist to something far more engaging. This will involve interviews with  travel professionals, seasoned globetrotters and staff at different destinations.

And that’s about it, for now. Sound good?

For example, an eight-day, seven-night stay at a  five-star hotel in Beijing, China costs all of  $227. A four-day, three-night stay in Las Vegas, Nevada costs  $199. Isn’t that ridiculous?  Of course, if it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it kind of is. These prices do not reflect the cost of airfare, shuttles/car rentals, meals, or travel insurance, so before you book your room, check a site such as Kayak.com or CheapoAir.com  for fares that suit your budget. Also, be sure to book your flight early in the week, rather than later. According to the Wall Street Journal, you’re more likely to find a more agreeable fare on Monday or Tuesday.

Happy travels!

I’m posting this for a dear friend of mine, who  left San Francisco to spend time working in the Middle East. I miss her a lot. Hi, friend!

More often than not, when people think of San Francisco, California, they immediately think of the Golden Gate Bridge. I don’t think this can be helped, seeing as how movies, TV shows, and documentaries filmed in  the Bay Area feature it prominently (think of the opening credits for “Full House”). Other may think of Rice A Roni and earthquakes.  For my part, I think of Ghirardelli Squares, Alcatraz, and Irish Coffee, but that’s to be expected, as I 1) am a huge nerd; and 2) love finding things to do and see in different cities. It’s a nice way to kill a lazy afternoon.

Photo Courtesy: GPS Magazine

I have a few trips coming up, and as much I love to travel, I’m finding that as I try to plan them, I get very overwhelmed and frustrated. I have no idea why this is happening, but it is. I’m going to Vegas with friends at the end of June, as well as traveling abroad to volunteer this fall (more on this in another post!). While the volunteering trip is mostly about business and learning something new, the Vegas trip is supposed to be purely about fun, or as I like to call it, “ratchetness”. It could be that I’m unwilling to leave most aspects of the trips to chance, instead trying to figure out every single detail before I ever set foot on a plane.

And that, my friends, is how you suck the fun out of planning a trip.

Some would argue that the trip itself is where the fun lies, a reward of planning carefully and living frugally for a few months, but anticipation and finding fun things to do ahead of time are part of that fun, in my opinion. I have high hopes for my Vegas trip, especially since I didn’t have such a great time when I was there last July. I’ve been researching a potential itinerary (read: doing 10,000 Google searches every half hour), trying to find activities that will let me make the most of the few days I’ll be there.  I don’t know why I can’t just trust my friends to find fun things for me to do, or why I’m expecting this trip to be perfect. I suppose that since I rarely get to go anywhere these days, I’d like for my travel to be worthwhile, and I’m certain I’m not alone on that.

If I had any idea as to how to stop sucking the fun out of planning a trip, I would gladly share it, but I don’t. If anything, this post serves as a guide on how to do the opposite. Relax and try to enjoy planning your trip, but be willing to leave some parts of it to chance. It might be those random, unplanned segues that end up making the trip a great one.

Bisous bisous,

Pakistani cjhildren reaching for a bottle of milk. Photo Courtesy: Artsy Spot

Osama bin Laden is dead. He was shot and killed by a Navy SEAL team  in Abbottabad, Pakistan on Sunday afternoon.

This story will undoubtedly keep Pakistan under international focus for weeks to come, which is why highlighting the plight of Pakistan’s children and  poor communities  is so important. Nearly a quarter of the people there are living in abject poverty, and half cannot read (Save The Children).  In response to  the August 2010 floods, Pakistan received approximately $500 million in emergency aid, which is far less than what other disaster-stricken nations have received in the past. According to projections, it will cost at least $10-15 billion to rebuild Pakistan over the next five years (MSNBC).

Millions Americans have certain misgivings about Pakistan, and I’m positive Sunday’s developments will reinforce them,  but being of a “we are all in this together” mindset, I do think that we have an obligation to help people when we can. That includes the people of Pakistan. The average annual income in Pakistan is less than $1, 000, and that was before the floods hit last August. These people live on pennies a day, far less than what the developed world subsists on. They needed the help before, and need it now more than ever.

If you’d like to help, Charity Navigator has compiled a list or reputable organizations that accept donations.

Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. (Photo Courtesy: Lnsart)

It’s the highest point in Africa, and is also #10 on my travel bucket list. Happy Easter, everyone!

Child soldier in Sierra Leone

One of the most popular posts here on Wanderlu5t is my Photo of the Day featuring Sierra Leone. I’ve been meaning to write more about the human rights crisis in that country for some time, but always seem to be too busy to research and plan the entry as well as I would like. I’m still a little too busy at the moment, but I wanted to publish a few more facts about the country and the situation there until I can write a more detailed entry later on.

Ten facts about Sierra Leone:

1. The UN estimates that some 10,000 child soldiers served in the country’s ten-year civil war (1991-2001).

2. For twelve years, Liberia’s then-president Charles Taylor regularly traded weapons and money for Sierra Leone’s diamonds (Wikipedia).

3. In 2009, the World Bank estimated that Sierra Leone’s GDP (gross domestic product) was $1.94 billion for the year, yet 70% of the country’s population lived below the poverty line.

4. Though the country is known for its diamond reserves, mineral mining and agriculture account for 90% of Sierra Leone’s annual revenue. Diamond sales bring in about six million dollars annually, respectively (Revenue Watch).

5. The end of the civil war brought on a renewed interest in educating Sierra Leone’s youth in 2001, but with nearly 1,300 schools having been destroyed in the war, 67% of Sierra Leone’s youth couldn’t attend. Things have improved since then, but as of 2007, nearly 30% of Sierra Leone’s children do not attend school (Wikipedia).

6. Women suffered tremendously during the civil war, being subjected to rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of torture at the hands of Liberian soldiers and Revolution and Revolutionary United Front rebels. These atrocities contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Sierra Leone; at the end of the war, 90,000 of the 170,000+ cases of HIV/AIDS were Sierra Leonan women (United Nations).

7. The literacy rates for Sierra Leonan women are far lower than those of Sierra Leonan men (Wikipedia).

8. On average, Sierra Leonan women live three years longer than Sierra Leonan men, with the average life expectancy for both being 39 years and 42 years, respectively (World Health Organization).

9. Per every 1,000 children born in Sierra Leone, 269 die before reaching the age of five (World Health Organization).

10. The Sierra Leonan government spends 3.5% of its resources on public health each year (World Health Organization).

There is a lot more I’d like to say, especially regarding the human rights abuses that are still ongoing, but I will save it for a later post.

Things are a little busy on my end, so in the mean time,  here is a great photo of The Great Blue Hole in Belize.

The Great Blue Hole is a massive underwater sinkhole located just off the coast  of Belize, discovered by Jacques Cousteau in the 1970s. According to Wikipedia, Cousteau considered it one of the world’s top ten scuba diving destinations, and thousands of tourists visit each year to dive, boat, and observe the marine life living there. If  you’re aquatically-inclined, The Great Blue Hole is an ideal destination.

Few places can hold my interest as well as Petra. I first discovered it a few years ago, while attempting to learn more about Jordan’s past, and immediately put it at the top of my travel bucket list. Okay, it’s second to Paris, but you get the idea.

Petra is an ancient city in southwest Jordan, and was one part fortress and one part trade stop for the Nabataeans. T.E. Lawrence, of Lawrence of Arabia fame (yes, he was a real person), helped defend it from invading British forces in 1917. It’s now a renowned tourist attraction, and one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.

Massive and completely carved from rock, it contains several caves, tombs, temples,  wells, aquifers,. and a man-made oasis, once used to sustain its inhabitants during droughts. Petra’s most famous feature is the Treasury, a massive amphitheater with Roman architecture. The Romans controlled it for decades, building roads and expanding water structures, but mostly failed to maintain the  city.

The Treasury

Petra now stands mostly in ruins, but after being declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1985, it is being restored by both the UN and the Jordanian government. It’s a popular tourist spot, and I personally think it’s a destination that should be on every traveler’s list of places to visit.