When Meaghan Mulholland heard about a Hong Kong restaurant offering a unique style of service, she knew she had to try it, even if it did turn her stomach.

Until a few days ago, if you'd asked me to pick the restaurant industry's worst contribution to society, I might have chosen KFC's "Double Down" sandwich, or perhaps the aggressive marketing of Fast Food corporations towards children.  

That was before I went to Modern Toilet Restaurant.

Yes, Modern Toilet Restaurant: a restaurant with a toilet theme. Picture a roomful of people slurping noodles out of toilet bowls, and you get the idea.

When I first heard about the place, I didn't believe it, either, so I took the Metro from my Hong Kong apartment to bustling Mong Kok one night to see for myself. Turns out the place not only exists, it's doing booming business; my husband and I had to wait fifteen minutes for a table. At last we were led to a glassed-over sink flanked by four brightly-colored toilet seats; the walls were of colorful tile, and the light fixtures shaped like plungers. When I spotted the signature dessert, "Marton #5" (from "matong," the Chinese word for toilet), a swirl of chocolate ice cream served in a miniature porcelain commode, I realized there was no turning back.

Elephants lumber behind stone Scottish cottages. A cheetah races along the shores of a loch. A herd of water buffalo graze among Celtic crosses in a hilltop cemetery. London-based photographer George Logan has brought the impossible to life in Translocation, a new photography book that fuses Logan's shots of African wildlife into his dramatic takes of the Scottish countryside.

• J.D. Power and Associates on Tuesday released its 2010 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, which grades hotel guest contentment. The best-scoring hotels, organized by class, offered amenities like free wireless internet, free breakfast, and free parking. You can check out the full results here. [CNN]

• The parliament of Catalonia, Spain, has voted to ban bullfighting beginning in January 2012. The resolution is based on a 180,000-signature petition organized by activists who call the sport "barbaric and outdated". Bullfighting supporters fear that the ban, the first in Spain, will lead to more across the country. [BBC]
  
  
• Starting next week, authorities in Rome will officially begin a campaign to find sponsors for a long-delayed restoration of the 2,000-year-old Colosseum. Investors would sponsor individual stages of the project, the scope of which has been likened to the restoration of the Sistine Chapel in the late '80s. Plans for the building include the outfitting of new security and fire systems, as well as structural reinforcement of high-traffic areas for public use. [ANSA]

Photo: The Colosseum in Rome, adebond1 via Flickr

Alison Brick pauses to thank the people behind our National Parks.

It's the heart of summer, and you can almost hear the pounding of tent stakes into the ground and the blowing of embers to start campfires as people make their way outdoors. National and state parks across the country are being appreciated this time of year for their natural beauty, but what about the people who run them?

Fortunately, this Thursday, July 29 is Thank a Ranger Day. After all, we have rangers to thank for a lot of our favorite park memories. Not only do they greet us at the park entrances (always with a smile), but they lead guided tours, host campfire programs and interpretive programs, offer directions, conduct geological and natural history research, and provide law enforcement and search and rescue. Their dedication both preserves the natural wilderness and ensures that it will be available to visitors for generations.

Thank a Ranger Day started in 2006 to honor Jeff Christensen, a ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park who died while on backcountry patrol in July 2005. So if you happen to be at a park on Thursday, give an extra thanks to a person in uniform.

And while we're celebrating, let's give a shout-out to our favorite campsite dessert, s'mores. National S'mores Day is August 10th, and several parks will be hosting events in honor of the sloppy snack. Shenandoah National Park will have a Backyard Barbecue & S'mores Festival on Saturday on August 21 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Skyland Resort. And Mesa Verde National Park is offering a camping package that includes ingredients for s'mores and a pancake breakfast as well. But even if you're not near a campfire that day, you can still make do with a microwaved or broiled marshmallow/chocolate/graham cracker combo. Just a little of that classic gooey mess can make you feel like you're roughing it.

[National Park Travel Guide]

Photo: Nps.gov

As a kid I remember watching The Adventures of Tintin on TV and being captivated by the intrepid Belgian reporter who chased a good story around the world with his faithful dog Snowy by his side. Tintin was a clever and fearless traveler, jetting off to faraway places that a young girl like me could only dream of visiting.

However for fans who want to travel with Tintin outside of their imagination, today that real-life adventure is becoming, well, a reality.

On the Go Tours has launched a set of four itineraries designed specifically for Tintin fans who want to travel in the footsteps of their favorite comic strip character. Called "Destination Tintin," these tours have been specially crafted by On the Go through an exclusive partnership with Moulinsart, the organization that promotes and protects the work of Tintin's creator Hergé.

• Every spring in the rice paddies of the small town of Inakadate, Japan, locals work together to painstakingly plant and groom different hues of rice to create massive, intricate works of art before harvesting the rice in September. This year's masterpiece, a depiction of a samurai fighting a warrior monk, is in its full splendor. A tradition since 1993, the rice art attracts thousands of visitors every year. Read more about Inakadate in this New York Times article.
  

• Even with all the security concerns that flying in the US presents, automation is slowly taking over: Continental Airlines has confirmed it's testing a "self-boarding" gate at Houston Intercontinental airport. This is the first experimentation with the procedure in the US, although 14 foreign airlines already use it including Air France, Air New Zealand, and Korean Air. Passengers can simply swipe their boarding passes at the gate to go through a turnstile onto the jet-bridge, rather than waiting for an airline representative to scan them in. Similar to automated check-in kiosks that print boarding passes, the self-boarding lines are expected to speed up the boarding process and free up airline agents for other tasks. A TSA spokesman told USA Today that self-boarding should not pose a security risk. [USA Today]

Photo: The 2006 Inakadate rice paddies, bebot via Flickr

After working as a reporter in Cairo, Theodore May wanted to know more about the history, culture, and people of the Middle East. So he decided to explore it, and use one of history's conquerors as his guide. For eight months he'll be following in the footsteps of Alexander the Great, tracing the 2,000-mile path Alexander forged through the modern Middle East. Theo will be writing about his experiences for The Global Post, and you can be follow him on Twitter at @Theodore_May. He'll be contributing glimpses from his journeys here at Intelligent Travel.

The bus ride alone was worth the trip. Winding through the hills north of Ramallah, in the West Bank, we passed Palestinian towns and farm fields. We meandered through Israeli military outposts, and saw orderly Israeli settlements perched on hilltops.

An hour later, we arrived in Nablus.

I must admit, I asked a lot of security-related questions when my hosts in Ramallah suggested I visit Nablus on my one free day in the West Bank. Recollections of violence from the last intifada dancing through my head, it took several assurances before I became convinced the trip would be safe.

But like so many Westerners, my worries were outdated. While Nablus does have a tradition of fierce resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the city has become a tourist friendly spot. And, as New York Times columnist Tom Friedman recently wrote, it's quickly becoming a financial hub in Palestine.

Set in a narrow patch of flat land between dramatic mountains, the West Bank's largest city is centered around a bustling old market.

Several friends had told me that Nablus is most known for its fabulous knafeh ("It's the best in the Middle East!" one friend told me), a syrupy pastry that adorns dessert tables throughout the Middle East. [Read more about the knafeh here.]

My first order of business, therefore, was to find the best knafeh in town. I wanted to try some, and I thought it would make a fitting thank you gift for my hosts in Ramallah.

After I'd entered the old city, I stopped a person on the street, explaining to them that I'd heard about Nablus' famous knafeh and wanted the best in the city. "Helowiat Al-Aqsa," he replied without hesitation. "Helowiat" means "sweets," and "Al-Aqsa" is the name of the holiest mosque in Jerusalem. I asked two other people minutes later and received the same reply.

Rainer Jenss offers a cautionary tale for travelers with green cards...

As terrific as my recent visit to Brazil was, it almost didn't happen. So I'm posting this cautionary tale in the event anyone else runs into the same predicament as I did and needs some guidance.

Because I am a German national and still hold a passport from my mother country, I do not need a visa to enter Brazil. Americans, on the other hand, do, since the United States started applying visa requirements on Brazilians as a result of post-9/11 homeland security measures. This was not always the case, but Brazil has a reciprocal visa policy, meaning they adopt the same measures towards countries that place restrictions on theirs.

Not being a U.S. citizen, however, does mean that I'm required to travel with a green card whenever I leave the country . . . especially if I want to get back in! So the story starts on the JFK Express Bus on my way to the airport.  That's when I realized I'd accidentally left my green card at the house. Without enough time to go home and retrieve it, I had to think fast about what to do. Miss the flight and hope to get on the same one a day later? Or should I risk it and leave the country without it as long as I had it coming back? I could have my wife FedEx it to my hotel in São Paulo.  To help me decide, I frantically tried a number of different Google searches on my iPhone, but I couldn't get a precise answer on what my options were.

Say you're an editor at a travel magazine, and you're getting married. Your friends and family are all so excited, and keep asking you about the details: The location, the food, the music, and yup, the honeymoon. I fortunately had all of those first details squared away for my recent nuptials fairly early on. But when it came time to find a honeymoon locale, I was overwhelmed to the point of near-paralysis with the decision-making process. Air fares to Europe were exorbitant, and it was the rainy season in most of Southeast Asia. Tim and I had already traveled in the Caribbean and Mexico, I'd been to Hawaii, and we both had just spent two weeks in Morocco late last year. We didn't want to use up precious honeymoon time dealing with jet lag. And we wanted something different but not drastic, far-flung but fairly accessible, with beaches and cities and the opportunity to do a lot or nothing at all, depending on how we felt each day. I was flummoxed.

• One glance at Arkansas' 100 Free Things list proves the state worthy of its nickname, "The Natural State." You can hike to waterfalls, marvel at river-side limestone bluffs in the Ozarks, take a dip in Hot Springs, boat down the great Mississippi, or visit kid-designed Peabody Park, complete with climbing rocks, underground tunnels and a motion-censored splash fountain. Now Arkansawyers are bringing their greenery full circle with the launch of Arkansas' Department of Parks and Tourism's new website greentravelarkansas.com. Here you will find sustainable suggestions for lodging, dining, attractions and events all throughout the state of Arkansas.

The website even includes a list of Green Deals & Packages like the "One Tank Road Trip Package" to Hot Springs, Arkansas' Lookout Point Lakeside Inn, an eco-friendly B&B that has made appearances on Traveler's 2008 Stay List, as well as Traveler and BedandBreakfast.com's top romantic getaways list of 2009. The package includes a three night stay at the inn, admission to both the nearby Garvan Woodland Gardens and the twenty-one story Mountain Tower, a $50 dining certificate to your choice of local restaurants, and breakfast served each morning to the soothing sound of a waterfall.

For more on traveling in Arkansas, check out our Family Vacation Planner.

Photo: My Shot user Melanie Huff

It's taken me a few long months, but I'm happy to say I'm finally caught up on my Mad Men episodes and am ready to start watching the show in real time this Sunday, July 25, when it begins it's fourth season on AMC (10 p.m. EST).

When I lived in New York, the city seemed to always be changing, so I loved finding sites that felt like they'd never been touched by time, like standing in the center of Grand Central Station and staring up at the constellations painted on the ceiling, or grabbing a burger at Primeburger, where the menu has been the same for decades, and the same goes for the wait staff. This walking tour put together by Time Out New York does a nice job highlighting some locales that still present the city as it's depicted in the show. The list is a good one: Grab a Manhattan at the iconic P.J. Clarke's Bar, stay at the Roosevelt Hotel, and visit the fictional headquarters of Sterling Cooper at 405 Madison Avenue. But I know there are other parts of New York still evoke a bit of 60's nostalgia. Where else would you expect to spot Don Draper today?

[Mad Men Walk]

Photo: AMC

Writer Aimee Brown is traveling along the Gulf Coast and reporting on the effects of the oil spill. This is her fifth post. Read her other posts here.

The houses in southwestern Louisiana sit 14-feet-plus above ground. Raised on stilts and heavy pilings, there's enough space under most of them to park a car, put up an erector set, dunk a basketball.

In Delcambre, La., I take a short walk away from the shipping canal where I've been watching fishermen work on their boats. I pass a tan-colored ranch home that has to be at least 16 feet up. Two flights of stairs snake up from the ground toward the front door. In the shade beneath the house, two men, either of which could be my grandfather if my grandfather had spent his life pulling nets from the sea and eating seafood five times a week rather than playing chess and eating dried-out chicken, sit on a hanging porch swing.

Out on the sidewalk the sun is beating down, melting my will and likely my manners. I wander into the yard toward the shade. I lean against one of the pilings, the equivalent of lingering in the doorway, say hello, and ask, "Boy, is it always this hot?"

The men look at me with confusion. It must be 15 degrees cooler under the house. I'm dripping sweat, sticky with it, and they don't appear to be perspiring at all. They ask me where I'm from and I say Oregon.

"Long way from home."

"Yes," I say. "And it was 55 degrees when I left."

They can't recall the last time it was 55 in Delcambre.

The men don't seem to mind my interruption, so I take the opportunity to ask about the stilts.

"Before Rita, we were on the ground like everyone else," says the one with sun-bleached blue eyes and white beard scruff. "But she brought four feet into the house. Two of that was just sludge and mud. The rest was water."

According to Delcambre city reports, in 2005 a ten-foot storm surge from Rita flooded 878 of the 903 structures within the city limits.

"When Ike came it was the same flooding all over again, but worse," he continues. "There was probably six feet where you're standing. After that we got a two-story house."

He gestures at the exposed plumbing and the foundation overhead and smiles at me to see if I get the joke.

I tell them I might have considered moving at that point, causing the other man, the one with gray hair combed impeccably back from his forehead, to shake his head at me.

"Where else would we go?" he says. "Don't want to go to Oregon. The family is all here, and we couldn't just leave them. Been here all our lives. Don't want to be anywhere else."

• Donald Trump's always been big on the fresh capital; a business maven known to lavish millions of dollars on revamping a single hotel. But now the Donald brings a new take on just how green his money is, with the Trump Hotel & Tower Chicago becoming the first to offer room service that's certified organic. The menu will transform the Chicago hotel into the first in North America to provide an in-room menu entirely crafted and cooked from local and sustainable farmers. The breakfast menu includes a "Fight the Fatigue" fitness meal complete with fresh juice, egg white omelet, chicken sausage, tropical protein shake, and a housemade Trump bakery muffin. For lunch or dinner, guests can choose from offerings like an organic Caesar salad, fusilli pasta with wild mushrooms, asparagus, and English peas, and wild mushroom risotto with parmigiano reggiano. [Gadling]

• Italy in the peak of the tourist season can be a cruel place for budget travelers. But the cast of Jet Set Zero's seventh season has embarked on a journey across the European hot spot in search of local jobs, housing, and, of course, some hearty Italian food. Previous seasons took place in remote towns in Asia and South America, where the dollar remains strong, but the Italian coastline presents greater challenges in pitting contestants against the steep Euro exchange rate and high-season pricing. What's more, this year's cast is made up of all women, competing against each other to see who can use the shoestring budget most efficiently. New episodes air Fridays at jetsetzero.tv/italy.

Read more about the start of Jet Set Zero's seventh season here.

Photo: Will Merydith via Flickr.

In 2005, Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, and Amanda Pressner were living the dream in New York City when, faced with sudden doubts about the permanence of their high-pressure media jobs (not to mention impending milestone birthdays), they decided to do what most travelers only dream about: Cut and run.

Apartments and jobs were given up. Goodbyes were said to family and friends. And in in June of 2006, the trio set out on a yearlong jaunt around the world in search of adventure and enlightenment. In their new book The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World, the women take turns narrating the story of the trip that spanned 12 countries and 60,000 miles, sharing all the terrifying, hilarious, and moving experiences they had along the way.

From Ashrams in India to sunsets in Kenya, errant taxi drivers in Hanoi to bungee jumping in New Zealand, the Lost Girls covered a lot of ground. I got the chance to speak with Amanda Pressner about the highs and lows of world travel and the art of keeping the peace in a group. You can check out our Q&A after the jump.

Writer Aimee Brown is traveling along the Gulf Coast and reporting on the effects of the oil spill. This is her fourth post. Read the other posts here.

Grand Isle, La., is beautiful. Lawns are manicured, clipped short, perfect. Streets are free of litter. The bright sun shines down on white sand. It's quiet. Real quiet. And tidy. To be honest, Grand Isle freaks me out a little bit.  I came expecting to see a mess.

Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill began washing into Barrataria Bay, and onto the islands and shorelines around this small delta community in mid-May. Seabirds coated in oil have since been found in Grand Isle State Park, and crews of workers have been deployed to many area beaches to clean up oil and sludge.

Yet, with the exception of some fencing along the beach, some heavy equipment, and a host of military vehicles done up in jungle camouflage and army green, I don't see any physical evidence of the spill. Here, it feels like the effect is more intangible. It's a haunting, eerie feeling.

Tourism and recreation are down. Restaurants are closing their doors, or operating with reduced hours. Families aren't coming to the beach to harvest blue crabs or to throw baited lines into the surf. Fishing rodeos--some of the most famous and long running in the nation--have been canceled. Camps sit empty as forgotten summer getaways.

In the span of 80 days, Grand Isle has become a ghost town. Underlining the point is an artistic installment of small white crosses that someone has placed in an open lot facing Highway 1. On each cross is the name of something that has been lost due to the spill: fresh shrimp, playing on the beach, fishing rodeos, community, oysters, sand castles.

I wonder whether clean-up crews are working on the beaches in the middle of the night. Is this all some sort of surreal cover-up designed to keep us from panicking? At the Starfish Restaurant, instead of ordering, I ask the waitress. I ask what's going on, and how business is doing. I ask what the future looks like, and if she's scared. I ask if this is real, how she manages to get out of bed in the morning.

She answers: Not much. Slow. I don't know--real bad if a storm hits. Being scared doesn't do much good; it's already happened. What else am I going to do, you just take it one day at a time and do the best you can. We rebuild. We've done it before.

Photo: Justin Baillie

Animal advocate and college student Louisa Dickison is traveling Down Under, and offers up some tips on how to travel around the massive continent. Read her other posts here.

Australian animals are some of the most amazing creatures on the planet; the country is rich with elegant birdlife, enormous reptiles, and an eclectic collection of mammals. You're just as likely to spot a flying fox swooping past you in broad daylight as you are to be accosted by a rogue goanna (monitor lizard).  Of course, if you really want to experience typical Aussie wildlife, you should become acquainted with the largest, bounciest marsupials on Earth. The best place to see wild kangaroos and wallabies in New South Wales is probably around the Great Lakes area, which is startlingly beautiful even if the curious marsupials decide to stay hidden.

In the bush around Forster/Tuncurry and up toward Crowdy Head, there are many national parks and camping grounds where gray kangaroos mingle daily among the caravans. Though friendly, these curious campers can be dangerous, so it's wise to watch them nap and graze from a distance.

An example of one of many kangaroo-frequented caravan parks in this area is Seal Rocks, where dingoes were sulking in the carpark when we arrived. To see koalas, the absolute best place to go is the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie where you can take a free tour of the grounds and get acquainted with its many furry patients. The friendly caretakers at the hospital can direct you to places where wild koalas are plentiful, and will warn you to drive carefully. Surprisingly, one of the greatest places to encounter native wildlife is in Sydney, in the Royal Botanic Gardens. The park was truly my favorite aspect of Sydney, as it is home to a variety of delightfully exotic plants and animals living freely among human urbanites. The flying fox population (above) in the gardens swelled to about 22,000 fruit-eating, tree-damaging members while I was visiting; a relocation of the bats is scheduled to begin this summer. Fortunately, there will still be giant eels in the ponds, ibises strolling the lawns, cockatoos and lorikeets boldly landing on the heads of unsuspecting tourists, and brush-tailed possums curled up in tree hollows, among many other resident species. The dismissal of the bats is not expected to interfere with any other animals.

Photo: Naddsy via Flickr

... unless you're in Australia - then it's a "brumby."

This summer Chincoteague Island, Virginia, will be celebrating its 85th Annual Fireman's Carnival, Pony Swim and Auction. Sometime during the morning of July 28th (wild ponies are not known to run on schedule), the equine inhabitants of Assateague Island will make their way across Assateague Channel to Chincoteague Island, where after a short rest, they will be herded to the carnival grounds for auctioning and the crowning of Queen (or King) Neptune (awarded to the first pony who reaches the shore).

The practice of pony-penning began on the island around the 1850s and has grown into a much anticipated summer celebration, complete with carnival rides, live music, and fireworks, all enjoyed by thousands of locals and visitors every year. The Pony Swim is a fun tradition, but for those who can't make it in July, visiting Assateague Island National Seashore any other time of year offers a calmer, less crowded, and even closer-up experience with the ponies in their natural environment.

When I share news of the Pony Swim with friends from out of town they often respond with confused looks and a deluge of questions. Wild ponies at the beach? Yes. Who feeds them? Themselves... and sometimes firemen, I think. Why? For the pony auction. And they swim across? Yes. Do they drown? Low tide. How the heck do you herd a wild pony? Saltwater cowboys. Saltwater what?

It appears Misty of Chincoteague has been sadly removed from the common elementary school list of required reading. Thank goodness for YouTube.

But after several such conversations, I've realized that perhaps there is something unusual about having to dodge a pony or two while you're boogie boarding. Which made me wonder, what other islands could be hiding beautiful sandy stallions? The only other beach I frequented as a kid was near Corolla along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where, strangely enough, it is just as normal to find wild ponies roaming the dunes. Turns out wild horses do dwell on many an island from Puerto Rico all the way to Cephalonia, Greece.

Find out where else after the jump.

Writer Aimee Brown is traveling along the Gulf Coast and reporting on the effects of the oil spill. This is her third post. Read the other posts here.

For the fifth time in as many minutes five-year-old Sailor Pitre has lost her bait. In her pink rain boots and jean shorts, she stomps her feet and hollers at her dad and the rest of us, "We're out of worms! We need more worms!"

Sailor's dad, Bobby Pitre, invited us out fishing with his family after we stopped by the Southern Sting Tattoo Parlor to ask about a politically charged mural covering an entire exterior wall of the shop.

"Last year she didn't want anything to do with fish or fishing," says Bobby Pitre of his daughter as he cuts several large worms with a long kitchen knife. "This year it's all she wants to do. And now they're telling us we can't fish. Crabbing and shrimping are all closed, too. How do I explain that? All this water here, all this space and life, and we can't fish anymore? She's not going to get to experience what I got to experience - what my mom got to experience and her parents."

Four generations of Sailor's family have grown up within 20 miles of this canal in southwestern, Louisiana. Her grandmother, Josie Bergeron, and great-grandparents are members of the Houma tribe. The family is very much from right here.

"When I was Sailor's age, we didn't use a car; we had to take a boat to school," says Bergeron. "And when we got there, I had to learn to speak English. We spoke Cajun French at home."

Sailor rebaits her hook with a bit of worm and casts into the water. A minute later she's thrown down her rod and is running toward a group of other kids, grandparents, and friends. Upon confronting the boys, she declares that she is the Queen of the Fishermen -- a title she bestowed upon herself after catching several blue gill, also called perch, earlier in the day. She continues taunting the boys until they have their rods rigged, then dashes back to her own set-up only to find that she has once again lost her worm.

Bobby Pitre grins at his daughter and attempts to corral her into a hug.

"This is home," he says as she squirms away. "I moved to Texas once, to San Padre Island. I was there four months and I was so ready to come home. I got there to Morgan City and put on Credence's 'Born on the Bayou' and just cruised."

Photo: Justin Baillie

Animal advocate and college student Louisa Dickison is traveling Down Under, and offers up some tips on how to travel around the massive continent. Read her other posts here.

Many people consider the ultimate defining feature of Australia to be the outback, which is easily as entrancing and mystical as the much-romanced wilds of Africa. It is undoubtedly the most dominating of all Australian features, covering an astounding two million square miles of a continent only marginally bigger than the continental United States. Although 21 million people call Australia home, more than 90 percent of the population resides near the coast, leaving the heart of the country - the outback - virtually abandoned by humankind. Desert landscapes are famously unkind to living things, and the outback has upheld this reality for thousands of years.

Yet the indomitable Aboriginal people have survived in the Aussie bush ("wilderness" in American terminology) for so long, some native animals, such as the bilby, struggle to exist without their presence. Starting on the east coast, you can witness this beautiful but caustic place by booking one of the pocket-friendly packages that offer experiences such as eating bush tucker in the shadow of Ayer's Rock (Uluru in Aboriginal language) or traversing the lonely track to Alice Springs or Darwin in comfort. For a quick taste, you can take a two-day return trip from Cairns to Undara for $389 or a five-day Sydney-to-Byron Bay trip for $500. Longer experiences are available, and for the independent traveler, though nothing beats OzExperience's Fish Hook pass at $1,535. Hoards of backpackers purchase fully-equipped sleeper vans or buses from fellow travelers to explore the outback, then resell them to other potential bush explorers; you can find a multitude of cozy (and often inexpensive) cars, vans, and buses being sold daily on hostel-busy Victoria Street in Sydney. As a side note for the prudent and lucky: vehicles that have not been sold in time are sometimes abandoned at airports with signs dictating their reluctantly gratis state and can be claimed by sharp-eyed travelers.

Photo: Louisa Dickison