What kind of people willingly break the law to let foreigners sleep on their couch for free? I tried to get the answer from these three residents of Myanmar. — One night, many months ago now, I was sitting on a bench outside a hostel in Battambang, Cambodia, talking with a young European couple. Like me, they were traveling, but they had made a rule for themselves: No paying for transportation or a bed. They would hitchhike and crash with…

The hidden -and quite often surprising- value in understanding what we do with time. — We’ve all heard the cliches: Time is valuable. Time is our most precious commodity. We’ve even seen the studies: A time-saving purchase makes people happier than a material purchase. And yet, most people avoid actually taking the time to, well, track their time. It’s understandable: For decades, if not longer…

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.” — from Desiderata I think about this quote — not all the time or anything, but occasionally, when I’m not looking for food — when I travel alone. Though traveling alone leads to loneliness…

It seems easy to say this now, in the wake of his death, but the day that someone told me that I reminded them of Anthony Bourdain, my life changed. I had always enjoyed watching “No Reservations,” a fun show about food hosted by a dude who I recognized as…

I’m a millennial. I was also a manager of a group of writers for a digital media outlet for several years. While my time in that position was mostly successful, I narrowly avoided more than a few disasters. …

Paris — a city in France. It’s a place so magical, it sends Japanese tourists into an emotional tailspin, and not the good kind! I recently saw a headline on the Matador Network, which has never accepted any of my travel writing pitches, that boasted “12 things I wish I…

Employee resistance to changes in how businesses are organized and their work is conducted is legendary, and as old as the “modern” workplace — the Harvard Business Review first tackled this issue back in 1969. When businesses introduce new project management tools, IT software, office policies, or roles and relationships, employees tend to chafe. For organizations, this should be expected. As the writer Arnold Bennett once put it, “any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.”

Touring the super-famous Khmer ruins by bike isn’t for the weak, but those who pedal themselves there (and back, and there, and back) can reward themselves with extra visits. — For budget travelers, Angkor Wat can be a wallet-killer. …

Smartphones are making travel easier and more enjoyable. They’re also destroying everything that was once good about it. — It’s been some years since my last long-term stretch of travel. Back in 2010 and 2011, I spent four months moving through Central America, as well as a few more living in Paris and taking a few trips to other parts of Western Europe. Now, I’m on the road in…