As we made our way from Chiang Mai to the Laos border, we stopped for a night in Chiang Rai. Not only was it a convenient way to break up the bus ride to the border, we had heard backpacker legends about a crazy “white temple” that was worth stopping for. The rumors were correct. […]

(Please excuse the short detour to a slightly non-travel-related topic) As we’ve traveled in Thailand our hostel and guesthouse rooms have become much nicer than those we were accustomed to in India and Myanmar. This has meant that we’ve started seeing TVs in rooms (what!?), and with those TVs I’ve noticed a proliferation of English-language […]

This is not going to be like one of my other traditional posts: 60-70 pictures and an outline of the activities we did. No. Because in Pai, you don’t really DO anything. You lay back. You meander. You nap in hammocks, on cushions in cafes or in the grass along the river. There are literally […]

Chiang Mai is known as one of the best places in Thailand from which to take a trek, and we knew from the start that we wanted to do a hike and homestay. By luck we ended up going on a trek with a fantastic local trekking company, Libra Tours (www.librahousechiangmai.com). It was a highlight […]

Yes. I used a tiger picture as this entry’s feature image to depict Chiang Mai…it’s so wrong. But if saying the Tiger Kingdom, a huge tourist destination, didn’t make me ecstatic I would be lying. I loved it there. And so while I am embarrassed that it was truly a highlight of my time in […]

From Bangkok we headed north to Ayutthaya, the former capital of the Thai kingdom. It was completely destroyed hundreds of years ago, but the remains are still impressive.   According to the story we were told, Ayutthaya was the longstanding capital of the Thai kings. They were in constant battle with their neighbors, the most […]

On our way back to Bangkok from the islands we stopped for a night in Kanchanaburi. It was a relatively easy detour recommended by seat61.com, by far the best resource for train travel in Asia. Kanchanaburi is the home of the famous “Bridge over the river Kwai” and as such has several war memorials and […]

While total disasters as we landed in Ko Phi Phi directly from the full moon party on Ko Phangan, a 9 hour trip of ferries and buses, we were happy to be there. We dropped our 16 bedroom doom like a bad habit and got ourselves our own room, with our own bathroom, our own […]

Yes, THE FULL MOON PARTY. I had been hearing about this infamous rave-like scene since I was in college and it had always been on my bucket list and you know, why wouldn’t it be? A white sanded beach, palm trees behind you, set in beautiful and exotic Thailand crowded with 30,000 people partying, drinking […]

While we loved the big city life of Bangkok, which felt so normal to us NYC kids, I was SO excited to head to the islands. Our first destination was to the small island of Ko Tao or Turtle Island. Named not only for it’s shape, and bright green spotted waters that make it look […]