Another early morning (by my standards), and more American breakfast. We decided on a tour to chiang rai, the white temple and the golden triangle which is where Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), and Laos all border the same river. Our tour guide's name is Rhun and he kind of reminds me of a Thai "Provo Apex" guy. Pink polo, skinny jeans, aviators, spiky hair... Nice guy tho. I can't tell you how many times he squeezed opium into the conversation. We drove for about an hour and stopped at a little natural geyser but, as with most tourist sites, they really stop there because of the market. This market was actually selling some really great, genuine products such as silver platters/jewelry boxes, real gold/gem stones/diamonds. They were higher priced but still a bargain in comparison to US ... read more

So the Great Siam Adventure began bright and early on Saturday on very little sleep. I'll sleep when I'm dead, right? My nervous mother dropped me off at the SLC airport and I met my friend Stacy to check in. My same, trusty yellow pack-pack felt familiarly heavy and I again cursed myself for over-packing. Someday I will learn. Long story short we travelled for like 30hrs straight and slept here and there on our flights. The longest one, LAX to Taipei, was 13hrs long. Bless my beloved Ambien, I was able to get some shut eye. I would also like to give a shout out to the complimentary slippers we got on the flight—score!! At the Tom Bradley Int'l terminal in Taipei I left my freaking bag at the food court after we devoured a ... read more

I woke up this morning and realized that, in hindsight, two weeks had passed in the blink of an eye. My little adventure was almost over. I also realized that I had slept in a bit and had 45mins to get ready, eat, and walk 20mins to the tour departure site. Crap. Made it there just in time and ready for a nap on what was going to be a long bus ride to Limerick and the Cliffs of Moher. The girl that sat next to me, Allie, is traveling abroad in Rome and on a week holiday in Dublin so we became instant friends. There are so many people in Europe that travel by themselves, so making friends that are in simliar positions as you is easy. She even had a lot of the same ... read more

Oh the rollercoast of emotions that I have had the last little while. After I posted last, I set out on my own to see some of the Dublin sites (St. Patricks cathedral and others), I had about an hour left of sunlight and was coming off of a social-interaction-high from the previous night (having real people to talk to and hang out with) so starting out by myself again was a little depressing. The guys asked me to go out with them again that night but we didn't really have any way of communicating because my phone doesn't work here, so I was pretty sure it wouldn't actually happen. So-on my own again. It's interesting how I hadn't really felt lonely this whole trip until I had a taste of friends again. I began the ... read more

I sniffled my way from my Inverness hostel to the bus station and wound up at the airport a whole hour and a half early. Anywhere else, and that would be expected. They always say to arrive 2 hours before your flight, right? Well, when I walked in a little before 8am, I was the only one in the entire airport. No employees in sight, no waiting passengers. If the lights hadn't been on and sounds coming from behind of the counter at the cafe, I would have thought that I was in the wrong building. There was a plane out back-- I probably could have taken myself for a little joy ride! I waited around and asked the first person I saw where I was to check in. Turns out, in a airport you can ... read more