Celebrity Travel: Go Away With Dan Payne
A. I would pick a casual meal, because I think it could possibly be closer to the authentic food of the area and it has a far more social aspect about it. And you're outside!
Q. Do you speak any foreign languages?
A. I speak French. I love languages. I have an affinity for languages, I think. I remember traveling around Brazil for a month and by the end of the trip, I felt comfortable with basic Portuguese. I love Spanish and I do my best to absorb and speak as much as I can every time we go to Mexico.
Q. What are your five favorite places?
A. Vancouver, Los Angeles, Chiang Mai (Thailand), Airlie Beach (Australia) and Santorini.
Q. Where have you traveled to that most reminded you of home?
A. Airlie Beach. It wasn't because of the food, architecture, vegetation or anything of that nature. It was just a feeling. I know being there with my brother helped a lot. But there was something more. It's hard to describe except that when I arrived there, I felt like it all made sense. I believe a lot of that feeling came from the people and the welcome atmosphere that seemed to just emanate from the entire town. And I am madly in love with the ocean, too, so the town's immediate proximity to the water also helped.
Q. Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?
A. I would love to do a Sherpa-guided trip to the mountaintops of Tibet with my family or do some shark breeding ground drift dives off the coast of the Maldives.
Q. When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?
A. Usually if sunscreen is a must-have, then I'm off to a great start. But truthfully, for me, it would be headphones and my music. I'll often hear songs and be transported back to a moment somewhere in the world where that song was playing or I was listening to it.
Q. What is your best and/or worst vacation memory?
A. I truly hope my best vacation memory is yet to come. So far, the best one that comes to mind was the month my wife and I spent in Costa Rica. We felt like we packed that trip with almost everything possible -- surfing, random feeding of crocodiles, found a phenomenal tiny hidden restaurant run by a French chef who came and never left, natural hot springs in the mountains and on and on. Just brilliant!
The worst vacation memory was when my wife and I were flying home from Australia and were suddenly forced to land in Hawaii because 9/11 had just happened. The pilot didn't explain much except that the plane was in perfect working order, however, there was an FAA closure of all U.S. airspace. We spent four days there trying to figure out what had just happened to the world before we could go home.
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(Jae-Ha Kim is a New York Times bestselling author and travel writer. You can respond to this column by visiting her website at www.jaehakim.com. You may also follow "Go Away With..." on Twitter at @GoAwayWithJae where Jae-Ha Kim welcomes your questions and comments.)
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