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….
Tag: out there doing that
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…
Cebu, Philippines
In our search of “what to do in the Philippines”, Cebu and the surrounding area stood out for nice beaches, some interesting geographic sites, and the whale sharks. Originally we planned five days in the area, but this leg of the trip became compressed between the Elephant Reserve in Thailand and expanded travels through Korean…
El Nido, Philippines
We flew to El Nido directly from Tokyo. You can’t pick more complete opposites from a size, cleanliness and social norm perspective. Tokyo is one of the largest cities in the world while you can walk across the town of El Nido in 15 minutes. Japan was obsessive about germs, waste, and toilet hygiene and…
Thrilla in Manilla
Yes – this title is based on the Mohammed Ali fight slogan. We had different drama. Our next stop after Japan was the Philippines. This country was a late addition to the itinerary after we opted not to go to Australia. Having never been here, we chose our destinations and routes very diligently: we googled…
Japan
We have just wrapped up the second leg of our “Cold Weather” trip having spent the past week exploring Kyoto and Tokyo. Our arrival into Osaka from Busan and transport to Kyoto was pretty smooth and painless, with the only challenge being the final AirBnB check in under a driving rain. We stayed in…