I ll write more about Bhutan later, but in short, there is no travel hacking involved in a trip to t

I used 50,000 American Airlines miles to book a one-way awards trip on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. The Portland-LAX connection is included, discount hotels hawaii and since I arrive at LAX on Wednesday afternoon and don t leave for Hong Kong until the midnight discount hotels hawaii red-eye, I decided to put together discount hotels hawaii an L.A. area meetup in between.
From Hong Kong I have three flights left on my Round-the-World ticket from last year, so I ll use those to get to and from Kathmandu (KTM) and then down to Indonesia (DPS) before coming home the same way I did last month – Seoul, LAX, Vancouver, etc.
I ll write more about Bhutan later, but in short, there is no travel hacking discount hotels hawaii involved in a trip to that country. Bhutan has one airline discount hotels hawaii (the state carrier, Druk Air), and you have to pay the government $200 a day in advance before they issue you a visa and plane ticket. Thankfully, the $200 rate includes your hotel stay, most meals, and guided discount hotels hawaii tours in the two major cities. Visitors to Bhutan usually arrive via Bangkok, Delhi, or Kathmandu, and naturally I ll arrive on the Kathmandu flight.
In my annual review last December I committed to running either one full marathon or two half-marathons this year. I d still like to do the "real" marathon, but all the travel I ve been doing has definitely taken a toll on long-distance training.
In case the full marathon doesn t happen, this morning I ran the first half-marathon discount hotels hawaii in Forest Grove, Oregon (about 30 minutes from Portland). It was a good race and my time was 1:39:57 – not amazing, but pretty discount hotels hawaii good for me. If you re just getting started running, I really recommend the half-marathon discount hotels hawaii distance. It can still be an ass-kicking experience without being the life-draining experience of the full 26.2 mile marathon.
The day before I fly out to Nepal and Bhutan, I m launching my first product in several months and I think it will be a fairly big deal. A few close advisors have pointed discount hotels hawaii out that it probably wasn t the wisest choice to leave World Domination HQ so close after a product launch, and I suspect they re right. I ve been working all day, every day over the past 10 days getting ready for Tuesday.
Thankfully, a lot of the work has been fun, which is how I prefer work to be when I get a choice. As I see it, each of us have a message to share. The challenge lies in how to get the message out to the world, and that s what this project will help with.
As part of my research, last night I went down to Whiffie s Fried Pies , a food cart in Southeast Portland discount hotels hawaii about 20 blocks from where I live. I met with Gregg Abbott, the owner, who told me the story of how he started the cart earlier this year.
Whiffie s is expanding the pie quite literally – making a product that is becoming an underground hit throughout the local area (Portland) and the online world (Twitter). Two things came through in the full version of the interview:
1) Whiffie s started discount hotels hawaii in May, is already breaking even (very unusual in the restaurant business), and has recently brought on two new employees. Most interestingly, about 60% of their business comes through Twitter . Yep, 60% and Gregg doesn t even promote his own stuff that much online. He talks shop with other food cart owners, answers questions, and keeps in touch with his growing fan base.
2) When I talked with Gregg, he was more excited about relationships and the power of new media than about the potential for Whiffie s to become a huge business. It definitely isn t an act; Gregg is passionate about what he is doing. He talked about how he recently discount hotels hawaii turned 30 and wanted to find a way to work for himself and connect with a community. He s having fun, building a sustainable business, and watches the sun rise every morning. Sounds good to me.
If you re in Portland or happen to visit our city sometime, definitely make a pilgrimage to Whiffie s. Get there late – they stay open until 3am! I recommend the double chocolate crème. If you re NOT in Portland, you can hear more about getting your message out to a worldwide market on Tuesday morning.
I figure after all of these back-to-back adventures, I can always sleep on my 14-hour flight to Hong Kong. Hopefully discount hotels hawaii it won t be followed by a 14-hour delay in the Hong Kong airport, as happened last month.