The Mad Traveler Blog

Travel Photo of the Week: Sandy Point, St. Croix

Pictured: two great friends, former Peace Corps volunteers in Guatemala, one of whom I met on the balcony of a hostel in Panama City. We kept in touch and I…

Travel Photo Roulette 35: “Blue” – Street Musicians in Havana, Cuba

Music is everywhere in Havana, drifting through the air, around the corner, in that shop over there, out that window up there. I found these two street musicians in a…

Travel Photo of the Week: Copacabana, Bolivia

After spending a night on an island in Lake Titicaca, I continued my journey from Puno, a lakeside town on the Peru side, onwards to La Paz, Bolivia. Along the…

Byte-size Travel Reading: WildJunket Magazine

An Interview with Nellie Huang Backpackers and travel porn fans have got a new thrill source. This week marked the debut of a digital travel magazine, WildJunket. The brainchild of…

Travel Photo of the Week: La Habana, Cuba

Havana, with its old-school American cars and dilapidated buildings, is a bit of a time warp, and the pace and rhythm of life there is unlike any you’ll encounter elsewhere….

Editor's Picks

Not a Lotta Terra Cotta: Bummed Out in Xi’an, China

Posted on December 14, 2011 | 1 Comment
Traveling in China can get my goat sometimes. Taxi drivers. Cheats. Hawkers. Cheats. Guys on sidewalk selling you socks. Cheats. Three students who want you to take their picture and...
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Maybe If I Won $500 for Lodging

Posted on November 29, 2011 | 2 Comments
I am a really big fan of booking my hotels through Agoda, especially in Asia. I’ve been using them for 2 or 3 years now, and their point/reward system for...
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New Beer: Sprecher’s Fresh Hop Amber Lager Release Party

Posted on November 23, 2011 | 2 Comments
Last week Sprecher Brewing hosted a release party for Fresh Hop Amber Lager. At the end of the work day last Friday, the fun began with a couple brewery tours...
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Terror From Above: The Air Mos Burger

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 4 Comments
I love Japanese airlines – JAL and ANA and several other Asian airlines I’ve flown long distance – Thai Airways, Korean. I feel like they have consistent and excellent customer...
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Bangkok Floods: Do I Still Go To Thailand?

Posted on November 17, 2011 | 9 Comments
The other day I walked into a camera store in Madison and asked to try a Nikon D7000. “Sorry we sold the last one.” I replied, “When are you getting...
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O’so Brewing Opens Its New Brewery and Tap House

Posted on November 12, 2011 | 3 Comments
November 4 the rapidly growing Central Wisconsin microbrewery O’so Brewing opened its new facility in Plover. And more than a few people noticed. From late afternoon well into the night...
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Pour-Over Coffee in Tokyo: Chatei Hatou

Posted on November 4, 2011 | 7 Comments
Coffee as Only the Japanese Could Do It Though I had a screen shot of a map on my phone, I couldn’t find the very special Shibuya coffee shop I...
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Halloween in Madison: Freakfest 2011 Photos

Posted on October 30, 2011 | 10 Comments
It was a bit nippy this year, but another Freakfest has come and gone without a lot of pepper spray and mounted police. The crowd seemed a bit smaller than...
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Hostel Kitchen: Pierogis for All

Posted on October 29, 2011 | 7 Comments
What are the best meals for a hostel environment? Easy, cheap, and communal, I say. When I was studying Spanish in Guatemala (in Xela), we all took turns doing an...
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