I was hoping to catch a sunrise at the summit early morning today. And by early I mean 3:30 am. That was when the gate was opened to visitors. This isn't a routine, it happens only 3 times a year and we just happened to be there on one of those days. Doug was kind of hoping the same but we both knew how we are like when it comes to getting up that early. Yeah, I guess you know we didn't make it. When I first opened my eyes that morning, I heard the rain. That gave us a reason [View Full Entry]

---

---

About 2.5-hour drive from Boston and we were in Franconia, New Hampshire. We have already entered White Mountain National Forest and all I can tell is that it's huge and there are several places to visit: waterfalls, view points, trails, caves, and forest. I definitely have things to keep me busy when I'm here again. Lost River Gorge, just a few miles off of route 3 to the west, belongs to a private party and is open to public for a fee of $13. The entire trail is boardwalk helps protect plants on the ground from tourist's footsteps. I took pleasure [View Full Entry]

---

---

Nothing is better than being off my feet for a good while at this point. Voila, the free trolley ticket I got yesterday came in handy so I spent my second day morning riding around town before getting off at Sheraton hotel where I got on. My feet liked me that morning. Yesterday we had dinner at one of the restaurants in Faneuil Hall Marketplace. The best way to get there was to take subway. This Boston subway ride has given me more appreciation of DC subway and you'll see why. Above the ground Boston seems close to a heaven to [View Full Entry]

---

---

My first chapter of New England adventure started in Boston, Massachusetts. The city I had heard about for a long time but never had a chance to experience it myself. Well, I can't complain this time. I had 3 full days in Boston and I had to make the most out of this opportunity. Why 3 days? because Doug had a conference here. So now you can probably guess that I was exploring Boston alone but that's okay. Solo or duo, I was ready. First off I had to say that we were lucky. Our hotel was right in the middle [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's Spring time and we once again have good thing to enjoy in this season, Cherry Blossoms. Yes, it's Cherry Blossom festival in the capitol city. We joined my sister-Mook, brother-in-law-Tim, and my 7 year-old nephew-Mii and rode the metro(subway)to Smithsonian Gallery station. It was unbelievably packed in the train cabins and it got even worse when we got off at our station. It normally takes about a few minutes to get out of the metro station but today we got stuck in there for close to half an hour. We got stuck on the platform immediately after getting of the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Finally our last part of the trip has come. It's just never enough time to travel. I and Doug arrived to Chiang Mai in the evening so it was dark. Our airport limousine driver didn't have a problem finding our small hotel even though it was located in a fairly complex area. We stayed at TadKham right next to Tad Kham temple. It was nice and simple boutique hotel with affordable price. We walked to get dinner at the local market nearby. There were varieties of food available and i wish my stomach were able to handle food more than it [View Full Entry]

---

---

I took Doug on a canal boat in San Saap canal. It was the most direct and fastest way to get from Paan Fa where our hotel was to Pratunum(watergate). In 15 minutes and we were there. This was my usual commute when I was in college. Everything looked quite the same, but i think the fare was slightly increased which is understandable. The pier located just across the street from Central World, our destination. It was supposed to be a short walk. Practically the distance was short but the time that it took us to get there was longer than [View Full Entry]

---

---

We flew from Phuket to Bangkok and got there just before rush hours. I was kind of prepared that it could be bad. Surprisingly from Suvannabhum airport to our hotel, on Rajchadumnern road which is on the other side of town, took only about 50 minutes by taxi. It was nice that the expressway was seamlessly connected with the airport. I had a hard time telling when we left the airport road. I took Doug, Sharon, and aunt Lynn to Bang Lampoo to try street food for dinner. It was about 15-20 minute walk from our hotel, Old Bangkok Inn. I [View Full Entry]

---

---

Thanks Sean, Heather, and Sharon for supplying all the photos in this entry. The night before our wedding day, Doug got really sick and threw up multiple times throughout the night. I thought we might have to put off our wedding but he felt better in the morning. I almost couldn't get up after getting only a few hours of sleep. Thai wedding's generally not arranged at a temple but at a groom's house. I kind of adapted it to fit our situation. Since I'm a "Chinese" Thai, the bride will have to move into the groom's house therefore the wedding [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived to Phuket international airport in the evening. Luckily, there were other 2 planes landed at about the same time so the immigration hall a size of a medium conference room was filled with tourists. In another word, it was totally packed. One immigration counter was opened each time in the next 15 minutes to try to relieve the congestion. I was surprised that there was no counter assigned for Thai passport. I felt a little bit strange to be among all these foreigners in my home country.As my impatience and a sense of unprivilege grew, I saw one official [View Full Entry]

---

---