A Beginner's Guide to World Travel

Wat Pho Temple, Bangkok, Thailand

I took my very first solo travel trip ever, late in 2012 and even then, at 31, the very idea of solo travel was completely new to me.  And backpacking, that was something teenagers --born with silver spoons-- did with graduation money.  Until very recently, I had no idea that it was in fact absolutely possible to travel the world, venturing across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, to see and do as much as I could, all the while paying off huge chunks of debt I had accumulated as an undergraduate at Rutgers University.

Trekking in Chiang Mai

Twelve hours in an overnight bus from Bangkok wasn't a bad way to reach Chiang Mai. I read, I slept and then read some more.  At around 7 am, I collected my travel bag, hopped on a red van thingy with 8 or do visitors which then dropped us of at our respective guesthouses.