Eat…Meditate…Realize Some Important *ISH
Posted February 21, 2012 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
…that would be the title of my trip through Southeast Asia. The first part of my trip was definitely about eating — off the 4 countries that I visited, Thailand had the best food in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong – Vietnamese food is good, and granted – I didn’t stay long in Cambodia …
Post-Trip: Traveling Lessons Learned
Posted January 31, 2012 / By Tiffany / 2 Comments
From December 12th, 2011 to Janaury 12th, 2012 — I traveled from San Francisco to Vietnam, to Thailand, to Cambodia, to Laos, and then back to Vietnam and back home again. I have to say that no words can really describe how much I fcking loved traveling and enjoyed this trip. It wasn’t like I …
A Monk’s Life in Thailand (part 2)
Posted January 14, 2012 / By Tiffany / 1 Comment
My days at the monastery always started around 5:30 am. On my second day, I went to the kitchen and helped out with food preparation, chopping ginger and peeling garlic cloves with a knife. Early morning mindfulness practices in themselves. The kitchen staff were really sweet to me, giving me Thai jook and chunks of …
A Monk’s Life (in the forest monastery) – Pt. 1
Posted January 8, 2012 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
The schedule around Wat Pah Sunan goes like this almost every day: 2:45 AM — Wake up 3:15 AM — Meditate 4:00 AM — Chanting 5:30 AM — Monks go get alms while other folks volunteer in the kitchen or help clean up 7:30 AM — Serve food to the monks 8:00 AM — All …
The Kanchanaburi Trek to Wat Pah Sunan
Posted January 6, 2012 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
The visit to Wat Pah Sunan almost didn’t happen. Not because of the crazy multiple modes of transportation situation that I had to navigate, but because I had to take a shit real bad on the bus ride there. When I tried to tell the driver he just waved me off, thinking that I was …
Traveling Bolo: The Challenges
Posted January 5, 2012 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
So far, travel from Vietnam to Thailand has been pretty smooth. I’ve asked around and have gotten decent advice from a lot of people. Google is also my friend; I have spent many, many hours at the beginning of my trip trying to figure out how to get from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia …
Koh Samui Redemption
Posted January 2, 2012 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
Ok, so I think I’ve been a little bit of a hater on Koh Samui, when it’s really not that bad. In fact it’s probably actually very nice. Yea, most of the tourists are not my style, but with your own crew of folks, it would be great. The beaches would probably be lovely on …
Tourists Gone Wild: The Christmas Full Moon Party on Koh Samui
Posted December 31, 2011 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
So a certain friend of mine, TKO, recommended that I go to the Full Moon Party that Koh Samui is famous for — there happened to be one on Christmas night. I told him that I’m not a raver anymore — he replied that he isn’t either but went anyway, and that I had to …
Koh Samui: Trains and Tourist Trappin’ It
Posted December 25, 2011 / By Tiffany / 2 Comments
After Chiang Mai, I dreaded taking the 13+ hour overnight train ride back to Bangkok. But it ended up being pretty decent. The chairs reclined, they gave us blankets, and we got FREE bomb-ass Thai food for late dinner and breakfast! And I got some sleep. Not bad. After returning to Bangkok just to take …
Chiang Mai: Trekking and Temples
Posted December 24, 2011 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
The hardest parts about traveling in Thailand is: 1) it’s HELLLLA touristy (I see why Phatty didn’t want to come back here) and, 2) folks here rip tourists off all over the place. It’s hard to have a good time knowing that you might pay double for a tour, or might be taken somewhere that …
The Sleeper Train to Chiang Mai
Posted December 22, 2011 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
The day I left for Chiang Mai was a bit of a wasted day. The area around me was HELLLLLAAA touristy. Everywhere I went, old white men and young Thai girls were walking hand-and-hand down the street. It’s really a sad sight to see. I took a few sneak pictures of some of the couples …
Khao San Road to Sukhumvit
Posted December 20, 2011 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
So yes, for my first night in Bangkok, I made the mistake of booking a spot near Khao San Rd., the biggest tourist trap in the city. I read in Lonely Planet that a lot of backpackers go there to lodge (some do – mostly fake, wanna-be hippies), so I was hella surprised to show …
Day 4: Travel Day: Da Lat > Saigon > Bangkok
Posted December 18, 2011 / By Tiffany / 0 Comments
Since one of my goals on this (very short) month long trip was to do a little soul searching, I decided to take off by myself and travel bolo for the rest of my trip (for the most part). I left Dario in Da Lat Friday morning to catch a bus back to Saigon. It’s …