I got my bags back on a roll heading out there and I'm ready to go looking real good

in my passport photo.

Amateur Traveler episode 307. Today the Amateur Traveler talks about futuristic cities, vast

grasslands, and ships stranded in a desert as we go to Kazakhstan.

I'm going to

I know that I should be heading home

but maybe not, maybe not

to the amateur traveler. I'm your host Chris Christensen.

Before we get into this week's interview I do have three news stories for you.

Perhaps your mother tucked you in at night and said don't let the bedbugs bite?

Well, that was a problem that Flyers had recently on a Delta Airlines flight to New York.

I suspect this is a story unfortunately we're probably going to hear again. Unfortunately, bed bugs reminds me of hotels, and a surprising story about

hotels is even as the US troops are pulling out of Iraq, the US

companies are moving in. Best Western recently broke ground on two hotels,

and then Hilton and Marriott are also opening hotels in 2013 and 2014.

And then this is a strange idea. Carnival Cruises is doing something different.

They're doing the first horror convention at sea.

In this April, they're going to be showing a series of horror films on a carnival cruise. This itself sounds like the making

of a bad horror film. For links to all these stories check out the show notes at amateur traveler.com.

I'd like to welcome back to the show Mike from Toronto who has been on the show twice before once talking about southern Taiwan and also talking to us about Hiroshima and you've come back on the show to talk to us about Kazakhstan.

Mike welcome back to the show.

Hi Chris.

...