One of our travel guides partners, Not For Tourists, has several unique offerings for travelers on their website this week. Check out the following highlights from their Seattle correspondents this week...

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The Anti-Teriyaki By:  Karen Watson

Cedars

One of my very favorite books, EVER, is called The Travel Adventures of Lilly P. Badilly: Costa Rica (and not only because we share the same name). This book made me laugh, and laugh. It has a cd that goes along with it, and it is full of funny, original music. The songs are so great.

I hadn’t planned to go to Halong Bay.  But now here we were, walking the streets of Cat Ba Island, being turned away by yet another hotel as late afternoon light slid sideways onto Jessica’s face.

Its a celebration like no other on the festival-packed Laos calendar: Seeing out the old year in Luang Prabang and ushering in the new, with waterfights, solemn temple-going and elaborate parades. And the setting couldnt be more magical, in the former royal capital at the junction of the Mekong and Khan Rivers, nestled among the mist-shrouded mountains of Laos north.