I had food poisoning yesterday, on our bus ride back from Cambodia to Bangkok. It was most certainly from the buffet at Koulen Restaurant in Siem Reap where we went to the dinner show with traditional dancing the night before. Of course, we didn’t get a bug from the delicious street food we’ve been eating all trip, but from the… Read more →
After a somewhat arduous journey from Koh Phangan, we are in Cambodia! Things we didn’t know about visiting Angkor Wat: Visas to enter Cambodia cost $30USD. You need a recent passport photo to enter. But if you don’t have you you pay $2USD extra so no biggie. Everything is in US dollars. Everything…we changed all our US dollars into Cambodian… Read more →
Getting around Koh Phangan tended to be more time consuming and costly than I had imagined. After being in Chiang Mai, I was surprised at the difference! I share these tips because it was hard to find online beforehand, and only discovered once we were here. The Raja Ferry from the Surat Thani airport was 500 baht/person, which included the 1.5… Read more →
We were excited to hike to “the most beautiful beach on the island” Bottle Beach, but we realized the directions we had found online were from Chaloklum, not from Thong Nai Pan Noi where we are staying. So here are our directions 🙂 From the little town at Thong Nai Pan Noi, we headed out for the main road coming… Read more →
Today we intentionally “did” nothing. No hikes, no waterfalls, no town. We just woke up, had breakfast at Baan Tapannoi on the beach (Thongtapan Resort‘s onsite restaurant), laid out our chairs and towels 50 feet away, got massages at the beach massage hut 30 feet away, had lunch at Baan Tapannoi (the red snapper larb is ridiculously good), laid out again, had… Read more →
After breakfast we hiked to Than Prawes waterfall which was kind of random but great too. It’s more a series of little waterfalls and you climb up boulders on the river. We had a nice time sitting and chatting by dozens of butterflies. Then it was beach time again! Not much else. Laundry in town, ATM for more cash, beach… Read more →
So this is how booking stuff on the internet goes. You have no idea what you’re gonna get! In this case, we got lucky. For 1,500 baht (~$43/night) we are at this fancy-ass resort on Thong Nai Pan Noi beach: Thongtapan Resort. We have air conditioning(!) and beach towels and free beach chairs(!) and breakfast(!) at the restaurant that serves… Read more →
We arrived last night to the Haad Chao Phao Resort on Koh Phangan after a 10 hour journey — 2:00 flight to Surat Thani; 1:30 bus ride to Donsak Pier; 2:30 ferry ride to Thongsala Pier; 30 min taxi up the west coast of the island — and here we are. We didn’t quite expect how rustic it is–little bungalows… Read more →
Today we left Chiang Mai to go down to Koh Phangan, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. Highlights of Chiang Mai were: Our cute quiet guesthouse, Top Garden, recommended to us by our friend Alli & a 5 min walk to Thapae Gate Breakfast at Cat House everyday — best lattes, delish gluten free banana pancakes, French toast w… Read more →
Sofia wasn’t feeling so great today, so the thought of getting up early for a long day trip on the scooter wasn’t too appealing. We went to get breakfast at our favorite place, Cat House, that our friend Alli had also gone to when she stayed at Top Garden. Jacky, the owner, has been running it for 6 years. It’s… Read more →
We thought that when we arrived to Chiang Mai we would book a “trekking” tour out to the forest, where they would take us to the national park to hike, or to see elephants, or to raft down a river on bamboo. But then we were just not that excited about spending $100+ to be on a guided tour all… Read more →
Today was our first full day in Chiang Mai! Our plan was just to walk around the city and explore, before we take day trips the next couple days. We had lattes and banana pancakes at Cat House, literally across the street from our guest house. We spent some time on wifi looking up whether we wanted to do and… Read more →
A colleague who used to live in Bangkok recommended Cooking with Poo — a cooking class led by a social entrepreneur whose nickname is Poo. As the story on her website goes, when the price of rice increased she needed to find a way to survive from cooking–since setting up the cooking classes 7 years ago, she has been employing… Read more →
Many friends and travelers suggested we “get out of Bangkok as soon as possible.” But, both Sammy and I were skeptical of such dismissal of a city with 10 million inhabitants. Ever since we left LA to go to college, we would hear people not from LA tell us how much they disliked our home-city, how much they hated where… Read more →
After lattes and spicy noodles at our favorite noodle shop (30 seconds walk from our hotel), we packed up and got ready to go to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. We landed at the Chiang Mai airport and went to Top Garden, a guest house right by the “moat” canal surrounding the old city that our friend Alli… Read more →
This beautiful puppy {a Maltese + Poodle mix} made our stay at Minh & PA’s house so sweet. She’s just 5 months old and is currently being house-trained. She’s the cutest, even when she pees on the floor. 💕💕💕💕💕 Read more →
Phuong Anh is the Marketing Manager for Vietnam at Google, so she took us to her office for breakfast and a tour. I had to get some model shots of the power couple… Sofia and Minh have been friends for 14 years! Since their hippie days at UC Santa Cruz. Then we were rained out of our plans to… Read more →
We headed out to what felt like a suburban part of Singapore for supposedly the “best chicken rice,” according to Google. Ming Ji Chicken Rice & Porridge was in the Kim San Leng Food Centre, a self serve food court with trays and delicious Singaporean Chinese food. We got chicken rice, beans sprouts, vegetables w oyster sauce and a Tiger… Read more →
Look at that delicious homemade brunch. ‘Nough said. Today was a national holiday, Hari Raya Puasa, the end of Ramadan. We hung out at home for hours during the monsoon rainstorm that lasted only 15 minutes, playing card games like Exploding Kittens and Monopoly Deal. Their Italian friend and neighbor Cristina came over too. We rallied and got out of… Read more →
We arrived in Singapore late at night on July 4, and got to Minh and PA’s house at 1:30am after some slight mishaps with the address. They welcomed us to their beautiful apartment and promptly went to bed, as we did soon after showering. The next morning we woke up bright and early for our first day of exploring the… Read more →
I love packing light. So here we are, up late the night before, fitting everything into 35 and 45 liter backpacks. Tomorrow, we’re off! Read more →
We are counting down the days for our summer adventure in Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia! We’ll be blogging here and updating with pictures. Here’s a rough itinerary to whet the appetite. Singapore (4 nights) Visiting Minh and PA! Bangkok (2 nights) Cooking with Poo, floating markets, explore the city. Chiang Mai (4 nights) Trekking in the forest, sights & temples. … Read more →
For Sofia’s birthday we chose to go to Death Valley and spend time in nature. It’s healing. We meant to see the “super bloom,” but it had mostly passed. We went up to Thorndike campground in the Panamint Mountains at 8,500, and hiked almost halfway up to Telescope Peak, which is at about 11,300 feet altitude. We heard there were more… Read more →
A 3-day weekend in Joshua Tree. We missed the turnoff for the West entrance so entered the park from the South entrance for the first time ever. We camped at Black Rock campground and took an 11 mile out and back hike to Lost Palms Oasis. Read more →
Day 1 Arrive & take the E-2 bus and Uber to our Magical Art House AirBNB in the Bywater. Eat at Coop’s Place in the French Quarter for “New Orleans food.” Food was okay, we got the taster plate, the bartender was also kind of a jerk. First time to Café du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets [tally: 6 beignets]… Read more →