After visiting the beautiful old town of Siena the day before, I was excited to continue on the medieval path through Tuscany to the small town of San Gimignano. Like many towns in the area, it originated as an Etruscan village but was built up into the town it is today during the middle ages. [...]
I was glad to leave Phuket. It was like being in a different country outside of Thailand; the kind of country that I prefer to avoid. I wanted to find a real Thai tropical island to laze on the beach for a few days and although I knew that Phi Phi Island would be touristy [...]
I didn't really know a lot about Nong Khiaw, Laos. All I had really seen about it was the amazing photos of a river surrounded by jungle, with huge limestone karsts surrounding it. That was enough for me to want to visit. The slow road to Nong Khiaw I left Luang Prabang in the morning [...]
I had heard the stories about Vang Vieng; I had read about people's bad experiences and the general accusation that if there was one place that you should avoid in Laos, it's Vang Vieng. I had already decided that it was a place that I wouldn't like; that although naturally beautiful, all Vang Vieng was [...]
My first taste of Laos came from its little capital city, Vientiane. By the third day of exploring the city I had come to see how much the French had influenced the architecture and culture. Although the city seems to be trying to develop into a modern capital, some of the older buildings have kept [...]
On my first day in Bangkok I was a stupid tourist. The first time in a new city and in a new country is when you are at your most vulnerable. You don't know your way around, you don't know the way that things work, you don't know how much things should cost; basically you [...]
In the old Siam capitol of Ayutthaya, there are many interesting ruins that stand as a reminder of the past and some of the events that led to the founding of modern day Thailand. One of the most popular and impressive ruins is that of an old temple named Wat Mahathat. History of Wat Mahathat [...]
Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand is the place that we chose to do an elephant trek. I had been elephant trekking before in Nepal, but my wife had never even touched an elephant so we booked a typical day tour that included an elephant trek and a few other experiences in the area, including bamboo [...]
Wat Pho (Wat Po), officially called Wat Phra Chetuphon, is also commonly known as The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The temple is apparently the oldest and largest in Bangkok, and is also one of the most spectacular. The Reclining Buddha Near the entry is the site that most people go to the temple to [...]
I awoke in the village of Lobuche, Nepal, on a freezing morning. Overnight the temperature had apparently dropped down to under -15 degrees Celcius. Although I had been snowed in two days before in Dingboche, the weather was now perfect. Clear blue skies let the morning sun shine down on the ice capped mountains towering [...]
