- Half tourist o When we travel we select the most important tourism place in the area don’t go to too many places if you don’t have a month to travel. Try to look for ONLY 2-4 best places in your destination and spend more time there. o Find the best place to stay not too close and not too far from the center. Find the best, meaning that we find the safest location, easiest to access to public transport and have a lot of good reviews from people that have been to. I recommend searching for many website to compare. Try Booking.com or agoda.com (don’t forget to read their review and how many STARS they have). Then go to their own official website sometimes, they have cheaper or higher price than the 2 above. o Plan well from A-Z before you start your journey. make the itinerary just like you see in the tour agency where they provide date, time, what to do and where to go. Make it by yourself from the first minute you arrive to the airport. I did it for my first few times of traveling. Then I didn’t do that in detail now, but I still did some advance research.  E.g. What is the best affordable way to go to your accommodation. (Like my case, there are several methods. Bus, Train, taxi or shuttle car/van. As I travel alone, shuttle car is the best way because I could just share cost with strangers and I have 2 big luggage with me. It made the price cheaper than taking taxi and it’s not easy to take bus with many bags. It depends on your situation. If subway is available from the airport to the nearest station of your accommodation then it’s good to use it.  Check the internet on how to use transportation in your destination. Using Public transport, like bus, subway or monorail…, is better to avoid spending if you travel alone. But, taxi like uber (In USA or Europe) or grab (in Asia) is sometimes more affordable when you travel by 2 because you can share and it’s a lot more convenient (but maybe not in NYC where traffic is damn bad)  You may want to visit some more countries if you travel in europe or some more cities or states if you travel in USA. It’s advisable to book bus, train or flight earlier as possible to catch best offer. Otherwise, you will need to pay double or triple when booking close to the date of departure.  Eating, I’m picky when talking about food. I can enjoy only Asian food like Thai, Vietnamese or Chinese food when travelling. Therefore, I need to plan where to eat well during the stay. We can plan it when we arrive. Google map help us a lot.  We can change or modify our plan anytime depends on the situation.

- Half local o It’s good to stay somewhere not in the center area. But somewhere you can walk safety in the neighborhood too explore their local life. From my opinion, the best way is to stay in the dormitory or hostel and travel alone or at most 2 is really recommended, not more. So, you have your own time to do what you want without waiting. o Having (a)local friend(s) in your destination is a PLUS. He/she will invite you in his/her house, bring you to local restaurant/street food and guide you to somewhere tourist may find hard to go. o Walk more than ride! To explore, riding public transport too often is not fun. Use only when you can’t walk. And walk as much as you can. o Homestay is also recommended if you want to be local and pay cheaper price (sometimes more expensive too), but most likely the host’s home is very far from the city. Homestay allows us to be with the local, eat and sleep with the host. You will need to wash the dish by yourselves too. You can find out on Airbnb.com o Do not have more than 1 luggage. It is very hard to travel with big or 2 luggages. Be light!

Time to share my experiences ~Hawaii - The longest short course ever I’ve taken. - Aloha! It’s the words we will hear every time and all day long in Hawaii. It means “hello”. Local people here look nice!! - There are a lot of Japanese and Filipinos here. If you are Japanese or Pinoys, you will feel home. - I got to meet only 2 Khmer-Americans here. I heard that there is also khmer community here as well, but they live far away from the central city of Waikiki. - I got an identity card from the school which, sometimes, can be used to make some discounts in some American brand shops or even bus ticket. But I knew it at the end of my journey already and I didn’t make use of it... that’s sad. - Main public transport here is bus. It’s very convenient but I need to wait for quite long to go to each destination. Let’s say if I take taxi, it’s only 20mn while taking bus is 1h or more depends on the traffic. If you go to many places a day, or in another word, if you take more than 2 rides a day, you should buy a one-day pass bus ticket. - Whether was super-hot but it rains sometimes (hot but humid). - My most favorite place is “Polynesian Cultural Center”. If you are a cultural lover, you should visit there. You will see many performances of people from different nations from the pacific islands.

New York - traffic was very bad in manhattan. Take subway is faster than car/taxi. Parking everywhere too messy. - The City looks old. Many old buildings. Not really clean as expected. - Saw how children bully. A bunch of children (maybe 16 years old) kick the small on the street. Just like in the movie. No one care. And as I’m alone I can’t do anything. - it’s not recommended to walk alone or holding valuable stuffs at some area where you may see many homeless people. Be careful all the time. Change the route if feel not comfortable. - The subway is very convenient even if it’s very old (The oldest subway in the world). I bought the 1 week pass even I only stayed for 2 days because I used it a lot and as calculated, it’s better than buying single pass. - Personally, I didn’t really like NYC!

Washington DC - My first impression here was that I feel like in Bruxelles. And it really was. Buildings, people and food! - I didn’t really need to take bus or train here as uber is affordable. There is a share ride uber taxi (like blablacar in Europe) where we could share the ride with strangers to similar destination within the city. It’s very affordable. - Most of the museums are free. You can’t take one day to visit all the museums in DC. They are big, and each museum may take at least 1-2h if you rush. - Compare to NYC, DC is a lot better.

There are a lot to share but seems like it’s too much to write here. Not many people want to read this long… message or email me if you have any question that I could answer….