5 Nights in Myanmar- Most Beautiful Sunrises I Have Ever Witnessed- Part 1

"It's a very special moment when you arrive someplace, look around at a vista that is clearly, awe-inspiringly fantastic and think: "Holy ****! Almost no one else has SEEN this!"

This was Anthony Bourdain's description of Myanmar from his TV show, "Parts Unknown," and it was what exactly piqued my interest in visiting this place. After watching that episode, there was a sense of urgency in me to visit before this place blew up like Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat.

Sri Lanka: Moped Adventures

Continuation of my adventures on my "around the world trip." If you would like to read from the beginning, here are the links:

Around The World Trip: The Idea
Booking the 'Round the World" trip
Korea: Day 1
Korea: Things to Check out in Itaewon
Taiwan: Food, Fun, and Friends
Kuala Lumpur: Food Never Stops
Sri Lanka: Scared for my Life
Sri Lanka: Great Tuk Tuk Scam Part 2?

My moped adventure epitomized the benefits of traveling alone. I did what I wanted, when I wanted with no real destination and no one to compromise with.

Sri Lanka: The Great Tuk Tuk Scam Number 2?

With my previous 3 destinations being full of food and adult beverages, I decided to give either my stomach or my liver a much needed break. (If I deprived myself of both, what fun would there be?) Luckily, Sri Lanka was my next stop, which I planned as my relaxing beach destination.

Some beach shots I took:

Beach side dining

Back of my hotel

Even though a random man asking me to marry a girl from his village did make the beach interesting, I realized that I had as much enjoyment as I could with the beach after relaxing there for an hour by myself. I decided to explore the area for the next two days.

Scared for my life: Sri Lanka

Arriving in a developing country at 11pm at night and trying to find transportation for my estimated 2.5 hour drive to my hotel, I can say that being mugged/kidnapped and/or having my body parts sold on the black market definitely crossed my mind. I eventually took my chances with a private driver hired from the airport for a mere $65. (I might as well have lost a kidney)

Step 1: Profit. Step 2: Profit. Step 3: Profit.

Title says it all!

If you follow our blog or listen to us preach, you'll know that a lot of our strategies have a step where we actually lose some money (most often in the form of negligible activation fees).

That won't happen this time around. Instead, it's net gain all the way. Here's what I earned today:

• 1,770 points
• $20 Staples gift card
• $11 credit for my American Express credit card

Unfortunately, this is a targeted promotion, but read on to find out how you can check to see if you're one of the lucky few!

Legendary trip Part 2: AROUND THE WORLD IN 20 DAYS!

A few years ago I had a dream lingering in the back of my head, something I did not think I would be able to achieve until much later on in my life. That dream was to fly international first class. As many of you know, not only did I fly first class internationally, but I did it on one of the premiere first class products: Cathay Pacific. Accomplishing that goal at a much earlier time then I had anticipated just whet my appetite for flying in luxury. A new goal came to mind; circumnavigate the globe in first class.

Enough room to invite the cute girl next door for dinner.

Rocking my PJ's in my lie flat seat

Leveraging miles for last minute bookings

Contrary to my typical nature of procrastinating, I tend to purchase my plane tickets 2 months in advance due to it usually(this used very loosely) being the cheapest time to do so. Airline tickets tend to become more expensive the closer it is to departure date. So what do I do when the unforeseen happens; when I have an emergency to attend to, or maybe a last minute vacation I was approved for? Spend those hard earned miles to go to Hawaii!
 

"The Great Game" The search for Vanilla retailers

In the Prior post As good as Sherlock I had outlined my cousin and I's detective work which would potentially lead to almost as cheap Ultimate Rewards points as Vanilla Ink Bold strategy. The next step after solving the puzzle was to try and implement it. Below is the journey I mapped out. Read on to find out how I planned this!

Where can you go with 3 people for $778?

Try Australia, with a 3 day stop over in Hawaii, airfare AND hotel included. The flights are in economy, but the hotels are not in your cheap hostels or economy hotel (nothing wrong with these) but Hyatts and Marriotts. Sometimes we get so caught up in collecting miles, we forget the big picture: spending them!

I got my cousin seriously into the miles game back in July when he applied for the Ink card and Sapphire card in November, and it paid off—big time.

Southwest 50k points back!

Deals We Like has posted that the Southwest 50k Rapid Reweards points after $2,000 spend in 3 months credit card is back. Remember if you applied to one already, you can still apply to the other 3 cards since they are considered different products. I will be applying to another one myself.

Check our more detailed info on the card below!

Southwest Rapid Rewards Card

Redeeming Your Points (Part 2): Partner and Alliance Networks

In Part 1 of my Redeeming Your Points post, I talked about putting your points to use and how straightforward it can be to redeem them (some more so than others, of course). But here's an important thing to know when you want to redeem your miles: you're not limited strictly to that airline.

Let's say you have racked up an envious amount of Avios points (the reward points for British Airways) and you want to fly from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. It doesn't mean you HAVE to fly British Airways (BA). If you were to fly strictly BA, you would first have to fly east to London before continuing onto Hong Kong. Two precious days of your vacation time will be devoted completely to traveling—one way.

But luckily for all of us, most airlines aren't this guy:

Learn more about Partner and Alliance networks and how it's getting easier to use them after the jump.

When Does a Mile Not Equal a Mile?

The biggest misnomer we'd like to clear up is the term "mile" or "point". It's forgivable if you believe that when you earn a 50,000 mile bonus, you're able to fly that many miles. Unfortunately this is not the case. (If that was true, you could fly around the world twice with that single sign-up bonus.)

The terms "mile" and "point" are interchangeable and it just depends on which reward program you're talking about. The key to understanding the term is to think of miles/points as a currency, and not distance. If miles/points are a currency, how much are they worth?