jboydca

Since finally making my way from Hanoi to Laos, I have been to a couple places. Luang Prabang: When I landed the ATM machine wasn't working, so I kept trying and reporting to the visa guys that it was broken. Finally, after going back and forth about 4 or 5 times, I was able to get my passport back, complete with a visa stamp. Luang Prabang was really nice. After I landed, I spent the day riding around town on a bike and exploring. I've decided to pass on the temples at this point, already having seen the most impressive in Southeast Asia (Angkor Wat). The next day I joined up with a few people I'd met and took a tour of the nearby waterfall. This was really cool, especially because I had a chance to ... read more

Hello again -- Since my last post, I have been to: Hoi An: Small French-influenced town on a river, many restaurants and cafe's lining the riverside. Very nice quiet little stop from the hustle and bustle. I had some sandals custom made here (I've now lost two pairs) for $10. We rented bikes for $1 apiece and rode to the beach, where they had a nice seafood restaurant and plenty of front row seating to view the ocean. We stayed in a really nice hotel with a pool for only $4/person/night. You'd be sleeping in the storage room at a Motel 6 for that price. 12 hour bus ride..... Hue: Another nice little town with not that much to see. I visited an old citadel where they still have the big stone walls and some remaining ... read more

The title of my post is the typical question a tuk-tuk driver will ask you when trying to make a sale. To my surprise, they even ask as soon as you set foot out of another tuk-tuk. I just figured out how to read everybody's comments, so thank you guys! Keep leaving them, I enjoy reading what you have to say. Jim - Can you take that cash you made by selling my life away and buy yourself a dustpan? Maybe if your house was clean, you could open a public storage business out of the attic. I'm sure Lucas would enjoy it as well. It's been awhile since my last post. We're now in Krabi for a night, headed to Ko Phi Phi tomorrow.. Hopefully we'll be seeing some beautiful beaches that Hollywood used in ... read more

We've been in Kanchanaburi, a city to the east of Bangkok for the past couple nights. Our flight from Phnom Penh to Bangkok went really well and I have loved Thailand from the first minute we got here. Dinner the first night - $1 Pad Thai! There wasn't much to see in Bangkok during the day, so we didn't stick around long, but we were able to hire a driver to show us all the temples/buddha statues for $1 the entire day. We also visited TAT (Tourism authority of Thailand) and a guy there was able to help us book some stuff during our stay in Thailand: - Bus to and from Bangkok/Kanchanaburi - 2 nights Kanchanaburi - Train Kanchanaburi/Chiang Mai - 2 nights Chiang Mai - 3-day, 2-night trek in Chiang Mai w/ meals & ... read more

Hello everyone- We met up with the Erasmus class on 5/30 in Hong Kong and spent one last night there together before we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia to start our human trafficking/sustainable development immersion trip. We've been really busy so it's been hard to keep this thing updated, but here goes. Our guide, Borath is a really cool guy. He grew up during the Khmer Rouge and lived through the genocide that ravaged his country. During his college years, he was sponsored by an American family in where else - Amherst, MA - to live with them and graduate from UMass (or Zoomass as he refers to it). He's an extremely intelligent person. However, rather than going on to join the workforce and chase dollar signs, he decided to work for nonprofits and help rebuild ... read more