When in search of an English conversation in Cambodia, find a novice monk.

I spent hours wandering the souk taking photos. The men loved having their pictures taken.

I had a Eurail pass for the Balkan Peninsula, so I figured it would be easy to get around. Wrong.

Love them for freeing independent travelers with their wealth of information, or hate them for making everywhere accessible to the backpacking masses, the Lonely Planet guides have undeniably rempapped the face of travel.

A few months back, I blogged about Tribewanted.com’s Fijian island experiment. James Vlahos went along with the “first footers” who kicked off development on the island, and lived to tell the tale in National Geographic Adventure.

Abha Malpani of the Written Road spilled the beans today about a new online travel community that’s just emerged from private beta. Matador Travel is going for one-stop shopping for all your Web 2.0 travel-site needs.

In May 2004, Jono Lewarne and a childhood friend set out from the UK for a 12-month round-the-world trip. Little did he know, then, that it would turn into an odyssey that would run through April 2006.

Mark and Nate are two guys from Vancouver, who like to “get the hell out whenever there’s a chance.”

Couchsurfing.com is having a bit of a moment right now.

Travel headlines for the weekend of 12/24/06