I took the red-eye from San Diego last night – vey happy to be home! Have lots to do, and I'm looking forward to checking things off my assignment desk.

Right now I'm busy writing about my Borneo ecotour experience with Terra Incognita, packing up our things for our upcoming move and keeping an eye on Hurricane Earl's path. Can you believe it's September already?

The winner of the book "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" and some fun animal postcards is Christy! Congrats! Please contact me with your mailing address & get excited for some serious travel inspiration :)

My hotel view in San Diego, California...

Thanks to everyone for your sweet & encouraging messages... The last 48 hours have been a whirlwind of spending time with family & my dogs, doing massive loads of laundry, unpacking & repacking, photo & video editing, outling, writing, more editing & catching up on emails.

I'm off to San Diego this afternoon to help out a friend – I haven't been in CA in about a year or two, so really looking forward to it. I'll be returning to the NYC area in a few days.

If you want to read about my wildlife excursions in Borneo, stay tuned and I'll keep you posted on the publication dates. In the meantime, I have some fun, random travel videos & photos to share on this blog when I have a free moment.

I hope you all are doing well & I'd love to hear about any trips you have planned this fall.... And be sure to enter my giveaway of the book "1,000 Places to See Before you Die" for some travel inspiration!

{P.S. I captured the flower photo above near Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia}

Hello everyone! Hope you all have been well. It's been a crazy busy, exhilerating August.... I'm back in Hong Kong after about 10 days on the island of Borneo. We hiked through thick rainforest, photographed exotic plants, tracked orangutans and elephants, cruised a river filled with 20-foot crocodiles, snorkeled in coral reefs and so much more. Can't wait to share all the news with you soon..... now, off to catch my flight to the States!

Follow my frequent travel updates on Twitter.

Off to Hong Kong – goodbye, everyone! Enjoy your weekend :)

Did I tell you that we tested the DNA of our 7-year old adopted mutt, Moose? The results arrived!!!!!! Visit the National Geographic DOGS Blog, make your own guesses & see if you're right!

Have a new travel buddy! Can't wait to fill it with my gear!

Would you like to win a free copy of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die?

This book is a reliable source for travel junkies who want to experience every memorable hilltop village, castle tour, sacred ruin and historic cathedral during their lifetime – essentially, it's a library of dream trips.

I'll also be sending the book giveaway winner a set of 5 vintage inspired animal photo postcards. These postcards are made from photographs I've captured of diverse animals on my behind-the-scenes zoo, aquarium and wildlife sanctuary tours.

This giveaway is open to blog followers only.

Comment below with the international sight you'd like to see.

Tweet, blog or facebook this giveaway & leave a second comment below.

Giveaway ends Sept 1.

Good luck!  xo

Are you on Twitter?

I keep up with most of my writing and traveling colleagues by following their tweets, and would love to read yours as well! Through Twitter I've scored writing contacts, interviewed wildlife experts, made new friends and discovered travel deals, so I'm a big social networking fan.

Back when we were prepping for the Mexico trip, a shark conservationist was so inspired by this marine biologist's tweets that she booked a trip down to the Whale Shark Festival and we were able to meet up with her! It's so cool when like-minded individuals can network with one another.

I'll be tweeting from various destinations – such as China, Sabah, Malaysia, Indonesia, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands – over the next 2 months. Here's my twitter account handle – @passportpocket – if you'd like to mutually follow one another! I'd love to read what you're up to while I'm on the road.