Our journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was a bit of a misadventure. I realized an hour before we were supposed to leave that our tickets were to Battambang, a different city in the opposite direction. Luckily, I was able to get them changed. Then, when we were finally picked up at the hotel, we were … More Phnom Penh, Cambodia
We flew from Chiang Mai to Siem Reap via Bangkok. Thanks to a last minute booking, we got a great deal on a beautiful room at Cafe Lodge Hotel that I nicknamed the “honeymoon suite.” I think the people in Cambodia were the nicest of all of the countries we visited. The hospitality is supreme. … More Siem Reap, Cambodia
The blog has been on hiatus during the first leg of my travels, but it’s back! Expect a zillion updates in the next few days. My dear friend Natalia and I embarked on a three-week journey through Southeast Asia. After spending a few days on her own in Bangkok, she met me in Chiang Mai so I … More The Journey Begins
What I originally planned as a couple of days in Pai has turned into over a week. I boarded this minibus at the terminal in Chiang Mai on Monday. You can see our luggage on the roof. It was about a three hour ride shared mostly with Chinese tourists. The road to Pai is paved with … More Pai, Thailand
The German owner of the guesthouse where I stay, Willi (pronounced with a V sound), kindly offered to drive me to my meditation retreat at Wat Tam Doi Tone, a forest monastery about an hour and a half west of Chiang Mai towards Burma. Willi has given me many pieces of wisdom about Thailand, and the long car ride was a … More Forest Monastery
The view from my balcony in Chiang Mai, one of the few times I’ve seen rain since I’ve been in Thailand. This guesthouse is serving as my home base for the time being. I arrived in Chiang Mai via overnight train. The second class sleeper was rather comfortable, other than the arctic temperature of the air … More Arrival in Chiang Mai
Two days in Bangkok was plenty for me. I was eager to move on to greener pastures. I took a taxi to the Hua Lamphang train station and boarded the train to Ayutthaya. The trip was about 45 miles and took about an hour and a half. My ticket cost 15 baht, or about 43 cents … More Ayutthaya, Thailand
Way back when I first arrived in Thailand (four days ago), I was really impressed by sights like this one. I posted this picture on Facebook on my first day with the caption “Greetings from Bangkok!” About a hundred temples later, I realized that there is nothing special about this one. You see a temple, … More Bangkok, Thailand
Last weekend, my parents had a going away party for Adam, Madi, and me. Meredith and I had decided to visit the Chicago Botanic Gardens on our way up. When we got off the highway, the traffic was backed up all the way down the exit ramp and also down Green Bay Road, which was not … More The Long Goodbye
My last few days in Chicago. You may notice a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright in this post. Good thing Joaquin’s mom (Claudia’s aunt) is an architect. No idea what she thinks of Prairie School style architecture, but I like it. Here we begin at the Robie House in Hyde Park, on the south side … More So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright
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