Laos is the hidden jem of South East Asia located a little further up the road or river from Thailand and Vietnam. It was once nearly impossible to get to, but that is changing fast. We spent two days motoring down the Mekong River from Thailand to reach Luang Prabang and traveled under partially completed…
Author: Jason Andrews
Traveling With Teens for Three Months in SE Asia – The Journey So Far
As I write this it is day 60 of our 99 days in SE Asia. On the road and online you meet many fellow travelers. You swap stories and learn from their successes and failures. Most travelers are in their 20s or 30s and are taking a gap year in school or in life. It’s…
Kuang Si Falls, Laos
The are waterfalls and then there are really epic waterfalls. Kuang Si Falls is in the second category. It’s deep blue waters emerge from a limestone cave and almost immediately cascade down the side of a mountain in a series of tiers and pools. The limestone deposits build up on anything they touch to create…
The Mighty Mekong
There are many ways to travel from Chiang Rai to Luang Prabang (in Laos). As the crow flies its only 200 km. However, that crow would have to fly over several mountain ranges blanketed in dense jungle. As a result, there is no direct route. You can spend a full day flying there by backtracking…
Chiang Rai, Thailand
Chiang Rai is one of the usual stops on the Northern Thailand tourist circuit. We were attracted to this town by the pictures of the White and Blue Temples which reside in this small city near the Golden Triangle. Chiang Rai is our last stop in Thailand before heading to Laos via the Mekong River….
Floating Pagodas
Editorial Note – I posted the following on Trip Advisor. Seemed like a good blog post. We spent three weeks in Thailand and Wat Chaloem Phra Kiat, which is also known as the Floating Pagodas, was not on our radar when we arrived in the country. We “discovered” it by seeing a picture on Instagram…
Pai, Thailand
Pai was not a place we planned to visit when we departed Seattle. Eli, Ethan’s former Evergreen teacher, turned us on to this bohemian town near the northern border of Thailand. It was mid-December and we had to lock in our early January travel plans so Ethan took the lead in planning these few days…
Journey to Freedom – Elephant Nature Park
There are few times when you can reflect back and pick a week that was fundamentally transformational. For this family, Journey to Freedom was one of those weeks. Journey to Freedom is part of the Elephant Nature Park, an organization dedicated to the preservation of elephants. We picked this program because it had a service…
Chiang Mai, Thailand
We came to Chiang Mai, the jewel of northern Thailand, to explore its temples, markets and natural scenery. It was also to be our launching point to visit the Elephant Nature Park, Pai and Chiang Ria. Over the decades Chiang Mai has become a big tourist destination for all of these reasons. We were lucky…
Bangkok, Thailand
We rolled into Bangkok road weary, battered, bruised and suffering from a range of maladies: food poisoning, bed bug bites, mosquito bites, a cold and lots of scrapes and bruises from canyoneering. We had a week’s worth of laundry to do and were in much need of an internet connection. Bangkok is our gateway to…