~ Early Web Links ~

Sacred Destinations is a comprehensive online travel guide covering sacred sites, religious buildings, pilgrimages, and holy places across every continent, organized by both region and religious tradition. Visitors can explore destinations ranging from Buddhist temples in Cambodia to standing stones in Ireland, with photos, historical context, and practical travel information for spiritual journeys worldwide.

Built by a traveler who spent a decade living across Southeast and Central Asia, this site catalogs the most common scams tourists encounter, from fake monks and jet ski schemes to counterfeit currency and gem store cons. Each scam gets its own detailed entry with photos, making it a practical and eye-opening guide for anyone planning a trip through the region.

Drifting Clouds is the travel blog of Jani Patokal, featuring detailed trip reports and cultural comparisons from across Asia and beyond. This post offers a fascinating side-by-side comparison of Xiamen in mainland China and Taipei in Taiwan, written from the perspective of a seasoned traveler with Japanese and Chinese language experience.

A firsthand visit guide to the Desert Bar (also known as the Nellie E Saloon) near Parker, Arizona, a quirky solar-powered off-grid bar built into a desert hillside. The page features 17 photos capturing the bar's eccentric horseshoe sculptures, a decorative church facade, and multi-level outdoor structures, along with practical tips on hours, cash-only policy, and seasonal closures.

Jenikya's Blog is a richly illustrated personal travel and lifestyle journal documenting day trips, street art discoveries, food markets, and cultural landmarks primarily across London and Bristol. Posts cover everything from pancakes at Greenwich Market to Bristol's Upfest street art festival, making it a charming guide to off-the-beaten-path urban experiences in the UK.

Bernhard Heiser's Asiaphoto chronicles backpacking adventures across Southeast Asia and South Asia, covering Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia, and India with detailed travelogues, travel tips, and extensive photo galleries. The site has been running since 2000 and offers both practical travel information and vivid photographic documentation of destinations like Phuket, Bangkok, Mandalay, and Rajasthan.

ReiseSpuren is a German-language travel site featuring photo galleries, blog posts, and travel reports spanning 16 countries across 4 continents. Visitors can explore world travel photography and firsthand trip accounts from a globetrotting duo who document their adventures from destinations around the globe.

Perceptive Travel is an online literary travel magazine edited by Tim Leffel, featuring long-form narrative stories from published book authors venturing to destinations across the globe. Each monthly issue is themed around a place or experience, with a deep archive of hundreds of travel stories dating back to the mid-2000s plus an ongoing blog covering unusual and offbeat destinations.

Camp Wireless, built by Koos van den Hout, is a directory of campsites across Europe and North America that offer wireless Internet access, making it easy for connected campers to plan trips without going offline. The site includes articles, links, GPS waypoints, and Google Earth integration to help visitors locate and evaluate Wi-Fi-friendly camping spots.

Chuck and Barb Shipley have chronicled their remarkable journey from liveaboard sailors on a Kadey-Krogen 48 trawler to full-time RV travelers, documenting destinations across the Caribbean, Europe, and the American West since 2005. With hundreds of posts organized by location spanning everywhere from Bonaire and the British Virgin Islands to Norway, Spain, and Italy, this is a richly detailed travel log that captures over a decade of adventurous living.