This year while my family and friends were stuffing their faces with turkey and pie for Thanksgiving, I was celebrating Loi Krathong in Thailand! It is purely coincidence that Loi Krathong fell exactly on Thanksgiving this year, but I was happy to have a reason to celebrate while far from home. Loi Krathong is a…
Tag: culture
A Weekend in Nan, Thailand
This weekend my fellow foreign teachers and I ventured away from our home in San Pa Tong to Nan, Thailand’s Northeastern-most province, which borders Laos. Just a cozy 5-hour night-bus away from the city of Chiang Mai, Nan is a rural province that borders Laos and is known for its spectacular national parks, the most…
Grand Palace, Bangkok
I have been to some beautiful mountain tops that can’t be beat, but the Grand Palace in Bangkok is by far the most beautiful man-made structure I have ever seen. It’s not just one Palace, but a complex of temples and buildings where the king lived for centuries (until the mid 1900s). The Grand Palace…
Nights Out in Bangkok
I only had one week in Bangkok, and because of jet lag and exhaustion from a busy teaching orientation schedule, I only had three nights out to explore the city. Night one was a trip to the famous Khao San Road, known as ‘the center of the backpacking universe’. This long street is lined with…
I Made it to Thailand!
After 30 fantastical hours of traveling (not really fantastical at all) I have arrived in Bangkok, Thailand! Before I write about my first impressions of Thailand, I have to mention how insane the Incheon/Seoul Airport is (insane in a good way). South Korea’s largest airport was not only massive, but also super clean (employees with…
The Garden Route
Last weekend my housemates and I took a trip along the garden route, a famous stretch of coastline on Route 62 between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. The garden route is 300 kilometers of beautiful South African mountains, Karoo plains, vineyards, and game reserves littered with lots of little towns and attractions. Views from the…
Life in Cape Town
Behind the mountains, beaches, wineries, and wildlife that make Cape Town famous are the everyday lives of locals. Void of tourist attractions, what the day to day lives of local Capetonians lack in paragliding and shark cave diving, they make up for with diversity and character. Now that I’ve been living in Cape Town for…
Cape Town Cuisine
Obesity is a well known problem in the U.S. and Americans are often criticized for our processed foods and overeating. Because of that, I had assumed that any other country I visited would serve tiny portions and locals would walk to the local market each morning to pick up fresh, unprocessed food for the day….
Cape Malay Cooking in Bo Kaap
I had been looking forward to visiting Bo Kaap to see the iconic colorful houses since arriving in Cape Town. Bo Kaap, which translates to “Upper Cape” in Afrikaans, is situated on the slopes of Signal Hill just above the city center. Settled in the 1700s by Dutch colonists, the area is made up of brightly…
Rock Climbing at Silvermine
On Friday morning I headed to my job for what I expected to be another normal workday. At about 9AM my boss informed me that he would be leaving to go rock climbing with a visiting supplier at around 10:30, and asked if I would like to join. Determined to be open to lots of…