So this is strange and fantastic:

A hotel in Kenya, Giraffe Manor, gets its name from the spotted looky-loos who stick their tall necks through the hotel windows when they want to chow down.

Imagine you're staying at this unique hotel and sitting in the sun room for breakfast. You're huddled over your espresso, trying to wake up after a pleasurable night of gin and tonics. You're yawning, stretching, downing your orange juice, and tucking into your breakfast croissant, when suddenly --

 A new California-based startup, FlightCar, is offering free airport parking. Plus when you get back from your holiday, your car will be spotless and you'll get a $10 gas card.

The only catch? While you were sipping margaritas on a beach, a stranger was driving your fire red 1971 Cadillac Eldorado convertible.

Yep. I'm not making this up. FlightCar gets you to hand your car keys to a stranger, who hands them to another stranger who then drives your "sweet ride" away.

On the lookout for huge bats in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Basically it's a matchmaker service for someone flying out of an airport who doesn't want to pay $30/day for parking, and someone flying into the same airport who's too lazy to steal a car.

Benefits for the car owner:

Free airport parking, free carwash, free valet, fully insured, and your vehicle is covered for mechanical damage caused by misuse and gonzo driving. Plus you get the satisfaction of knowing that your special bum cheek dents in the driver seat will stay filled while you're away.

Hunter S. Thompson made me a travel writer.

In his book, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, HST hilariously described what it was like to jet around America while covering the 1972 presidential election. By chapter 2, I wanted to bounce around US airports, hotels, and convention halls just like HST did, following candidates as they lusted for the White House.

That's why I'm excited about Mitt Romney's new travel contest.

Young Romney fan is ecstatic to fly on Mitt's plane.  AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

An Australian beer company is brewing an island of men.

Here's the deal:

XXXX (pronounced fourex) GOLD is a pale lager in Australia that contains a whopping 3.5% alcohol. Pretty thin stuff. It's like when I was a kid and my friend's weird cheap mom watered down their milk. That's what XXXX GOLD kinda tastes like.

But it's sure popular down under. The company claims it's "Australia's leading mid-strength beer." And they're making so much money off it, the beer company JUST TOOK OVER AN ISLAND.

 Your very own beach in Costa Rica

The impossible just came true.

My family received a surprise inheritance from a distant uncle’s Irish cousin, some farmer named Robert Johnson. He sold the farm to a cement factory and, when he died, left a small fortune that lawyers split into 150 portions.

My brother, sister, and I each inherited 2000 bones, so now we're spending it on rum and fun where the nights are gay, i.e. the Caribbean.

  New Year’s is nearly here and booze is about to flow like blood from the gaping ribs of a zombie skeleton chasing you down a crack alley at midnight.

If you’re celebrating New Year’s in the USA, this list could be useful for you: The Daily Beast has released its list of America’s 25 Drunkest Cities for 2011.

The media outlet created the city rankings by crunching data from a research firm that surveyed residents in more than 200 cities. Their goal? Find out how many alcoholic drinks are consumed on average every month, and how prevalent binge drinking is in each city.

Does the list of America's 25 Drunkest Cities contain notorious party cities like Miami, New Orleans, L.A., or New York? Nope. None of those cracked the top 25.

Ask any Dreamy Poet or Bearded Wannabe Novelist to name their favourite book of travel writing, and they’ll no doubt give you an impressively literary title like Steinbeck’s 'A Russian Journal' or 'The Sheltering Sky' by Paul Bowles.

Like broccoli, these books are no doubt high in mental vitamins. But they also bore me to tears.

Personally, I’d rather read adventures with bite, wit, danger, and stakes. So in the hopes of helping you inspire someone you love this Christmas, I give you:

5 books that inspired me to become a travel writer

My life is awesome.

Exhibit A: I just bought my dream car – a hunter green MINI Cooper S convertible. It’s a ridiculously sexy ride, and when I roll through small towns, kids and hobos turn their heads to yell out “Whoa, nice car!”

I’m having so much fun in it, I started searching online for “MINI Cooper festival”. I want to meet other MINI owners so we can stand around gazing at each other’s shiny little cars and admire ourselves for being so unique.

But instead of a MINI Cooper festival, I discovered the D.B. Cooper Day festival in Washington State.

As I stood staring out the window, the scenery eventually blurred. I slid inwards, back to the last day I spent with my parents. My mom was sad to leave, knowing I would continue the journey alone. I felt the tension in her hug and heard the catch in her voice when she said, “Take care.” My father doled out advice: “Be careful of the sun. Don’t get sick!” Then they climbed into their minibus and drove away.

In their absence, the silence settled in like an empty house. It had been good for me to see my parents out of their usual context. It was like living in a house for decades, just to discover that there were secret passageways and hidden rooms: houses within houses, people within people.

“Do you want company?” Laurent asked.

 I’ve packed for a slew of trips in the last few years. Trips to Havana, Nairobi, Tel Aviv, the Cook Islands, Guadeloupe, France, and that 2-year-stint-in-a-Mexican-hellhole-because-my-buddy-totally-set-me-up.

You could say I’m a veteran traveller, yet despite my heavily stamped passport, I still pack a lot of dumb stuff…and usually because I’m rushed, tired, or drinking.

Packing tip #1: A cold beer should only be a reward for after you’ve successfully finished your packing, not before, during, or instead of packing).

Here are some of the stupidest things I’ve packed for trips: