The Road of a Thousand Turns Heading to the Western border of Laos, Lee and I experienced road travel for the first time since entering this country. Loading into a small bus crammed with bags of grain, caged chickens, and staring locals we mentally prepared ourselves for the long 8 hour trip ahead of us to Sam Nuea. We were the only white people onboard, and the unblinking fascination of the other passengers made me feel as though I must be a recognized celebrity in this part of the world. Perhaps my pseudo-identity of Jenny Lopez is beginning to precede me. [View Full Entry]

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(Mis)Adventures in Northern Laos Disdaining the usual tourist trail of Luang Prabang - Vang Vieng - Vientienne, I instead decided to catch a boat upriver to the tiny town of Nong Khiaw. The brief glimpse of rural village life I caught while ensconced in the slow boat down the Mekong a few days earlier merely served to whet my appetite for a more behind-the-scenes look at this country. I felt that there was so much more to Laos then the French bakeries of Luang Prabang, convivial party atmosphere of Vang Vieng, and the modern day hubbub of Vientienne. I wanted to [View Full Entry]

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Lovely Laos Crossing the border into Laos was like crossing over into a different world. Where Thailand was frenetic and full of energy, Laos was relaxed and lazily content. One country had its eyes firmly fixed on the future, whereas the other remained entrenched in the past. Thailand could boast of its sunny beaches, while Laos stayed centered around the sleepy Mekong. Looking past the pace and landscape to the people, it was the subtle difference between a cheeky grin and a shy smile. I loaded onto a large longboat which would be my home for the next two days as [View Full Entry]

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Thailand - The Final Hoorah! For some obscure reason, travelers who enter Thailand overland can only obtain a 15 day tourist visa, versus the 30 days that you are allocated if you fly into the country. This is a new law, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who can adequately explain why a government, who in every other way aggressively promotes tourism, would restrict it in this way. A lifetime wouldn’t be enough to make sense of this bizarre and complicated country - much less 15 days. I’d been here for a month already and yet had barely scratched the surface. [View Full Entry]

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Whirlwind Tour of Malaysia Demonstrating once again that no matter how much research you do for a trip like this it still will not be enough, I found myself in a position where my visa would run out before my travel plans would. I could have gotten a 60 day visa for Thailand if I had gone to the embassy back home, but honestly didn’t think that I would need more then the standard 30 day visa that you get on arrival. Oh how wrong I was. Even Tracey, who has been traveling through Thailand for the past 11 months, has [View Full Entry]

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Songkran Festivities We returned back to the mainland a few days early so that we could participate on the annual Songkran festival. This is a 3-day affair celebrating the Thai New Years and it basically degenerates into a massive water fight out on the streets. This festival is celebrated throughout Thailand, however due to the fact that Ko Tao is largely overrun with tourists, the coordinators thought that we would enjoy a more authentic experience if we came back to the tiny town of Chumphon. They were right. The 45 minute drive from the pier to our guesthouse stretched into [View Full Entry]

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Cleaning up Ko Tao We caught the fast boat over to Ko Tao on the morning of April 7th. Demonstrating yet again my usual skill for picking the WORST seat available, I ended up seated next to a local woman who was violently afflicted with motion sickness on the rough crossing. Most of the people on the boat, upon realizing that they were going to be sick, elected to quietly and quickly slip to the back of the boat where they could void the contents of their stomach in the relative privacy of the bathrooms. Not this woman. She decided to [View Full Entry]

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Southern Paradise After the craziness of the past few days, we were all excited to be heading South to enjoy some of Thailand’s infamous beaches. Our overnight bus pulled into Chumphon at the sleepy hour of 5am. The hotel staff stumbled out in their robes and slippers to let us into the guesthouse. After the chaos of assigning rooms and roommates had been sorted out, we all collapsed into sleep. I woke up, hours later, to grey and steady rainfall. It was ironic that we never saw a cloudy day while in the bustling cities of Central Thailand, but as soon [View Full Entry]

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Kanchanaburi Kraziness After we left the Monastery, we learned that we had another full day in Lopburi before we set off to the next adventure. This roughly translated into over 24 hours of complete and utter freedom. A novel and heady sensation after the rigidly scheduled timeline of the past few days. Unfortunately it didn't take more then 24 minutes to discover that, besides getting raped and pillaged by monkeys, there is not really much to see or do in Lopburi. Boredom quickly set in, and with it, a certain reckless disregard for calm and careful deliberation Someone menti [View Full Entry]

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Thailand - A Rant When I first started telling people back home about my intention to go traveling in Southeast Asia, the first place that came to their mind was Thailand. Somehow, this country has become the iconic symbol of the East. People who have been here have rhapsodized over it. People who have not, spoke longingly over their intention to see it one day. Friends who mentioned the possibility of meeting up with me on this trip stated that they would do so in Thailand. Despite all of my efforts to sell them on Cambodia or Vietnam, only Thailand would [View Full Entry]

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