Many of our fondest memories of our travel life seem to revolve around boat trips. Whether sailing on a felucca around Elephantine Island on the Nile, launching small, candlelit offerings while watching the Arti festival near Varanasi on the Ganges River, rounding a corner and watching hundreds of wintering egrets take flight from the dense green foliage on the banks of a tributary of the Amazon In Peru or arriving at the hidden Mayan ruins at Yaxchilan after a short ride up the Usumacinta River on the border between Mexico and Guatemala. We often remember walking along a hand-crafted dock after our boat crossed the Mekong south of Saigon and finding a jungle restaurant that serves the best fish I’ve ever tasted in my life. It seems that our best trips have been close to or ... read more

Maybe it’s the heaviness of the wood, the solidness of the brass. Perhaps it’s the feel of the glass in your hand, the smoke of the mirror or the muffled corner conversations that you can only hear the good parts of. Perhaps it’s the smell of the liquor itself, faintly sweet, or the salty sea breeze that floats casually through the curtained window somewhere near the door. Perhaps it’s the way the bar stool fits you just right, shaped by some chair artist fifty years ago when they knew how to build them right. Perhaps it’s the light cast by the globed lamps, mounted correctly on the wall next to the mirror behind the bar so the light is reflected from the smoky glass and doesn’t hit you straight in the face or maybe it’s the ... read more

The heat is oppressive, unrelenting, surreal. It takes your strength, appetite and will. You can’t fight it, there’s no reason, you can’t win. It’s a thick heat, the humidity is so high.The moisture peels the paint from the walls and then peels the stucco until the red brick shows. You tie a ribbon on your fan so you’re sure it’s still moving. You try to sleep, but the heat gives you strange dreams. Dreams of jungles and strange voices you can’t understand. Your clothes stick and you dread walking. You learn to survive in the morning before the sun comes or in the evening as it subsides. You learn to find relief in anything cool, a breeze, an umbrella, a cool drink. Anything to survive for a few more minutes. You curse the people who block ... read more

We have come to the end of our month long stay in Bangkok. We have enjoyed our visit and while we will be sad to be on our way, we are excited to continue our travels further into Southeast Asia. Because Bangkok is the hub of everyone’s travels in this area of the world, we know that at some time we will be back and we look forward to our next visit to this busy and exciting city. Bangkok has been a great place to get to know with its seemingly unending variety of things to see and do. Bangkok is busy and it is hot, and might not be everyone’s favorite place, but like most great travel cities of the world, it is filled with helpful and vibrant people and almost non-stop movement. To be ... read more

We have passed our first 10 days in Bangkok learning a new way of life. After travelling around Mexico and Central America for a year and a half by car, we have spent a good part of our time in Thailand busily learning subway, Skytrain, ferry, bus, shuttle and train schedules and times. Connecting their routes are taxis, motorcycle taxis, tuk-tuks and of course walking. We have become quite good at using each mode of travel despite not knowing any language (either written or oral) and at times even struggling with the new currency. While at times it has seemed to slow us down a little, I think that the tradeoff of convenience has also helped us to get out of the car and see things at a slower pace than just passing by on a ... read more