I suppose everyone needs to fly in a hot air balloon once in their life. It might as well be over Bagan. It was expensive – let’s just get that out of the way. And it’s not a long flight – around 45 minutes. I had buyers remorse for a day or two. However, those…
Tag: travel blog
Bagan, Myanmar
Bagan is a magical place. We have not been to the valley of the pyramids, or Machu Pichu, or Angkor Wat (we skipped it to go to Bagan). But Bagan has to rank among the ancient marvels still remaining on this planet. It’s incredibly photogenic – we have more content from Bagan than some countries…
Mandalay, Myanmar
After the overcrowded streets of Hoi An where tourists far outnumbered locals, Mandalay was a refreshing change of pace. We came to Mandalay from Vietnam to get off the well worn tourist track and it took just a few hours in this country to validate that we had. Mandalay feels relatively untouched by western influence….
Hanoi, Vietnam
We traveled 10 hours via van, airplane and taxi from remote northern Laos to the choreographed chaos of Hanoi, Vietnam. We love this city. Old Town Hanoi is a tectonic collision between old world and new. It still retains it’s gritty charm where every family is fighting to use their petite shop, scrap of sidewalk,…
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…