I've uploaded some more of my photos here.

I'm behind again. Quite a ways behind. It's partly because I spent most of my time when I first arrived in India trying to figure out where I was going to go and what I was going to do, but it's also because I haven't really felt much like writing. I am, however, informed that I still have a few readers left, and I know I will be glad to have a ( Read more... )

Behind again, but not by so much. Plus, not a lot has been going on, so this should be fairly quick. Monday was my day for Thai cooking school. Tourist activities in Chiang Mai tend to focus on trekking tours to the hinterlands to gawk at the ethnic minorities who live there, or else on self-improvement of various types. Though I accept ( Read more... )

I'm still not quite through my backlog, but I'm writing (if not posting) something “day of” for the third day in a row, so that's at least some kind of progress. I spent today exploring Chiang Mai. In truth, there's not all that much to see, but at least it's a more manageable size than Bangkok, and it's possible to get most places on foot. After a ( Read more... )

Today was another transit day. I got up early so I could have breakfast when the hotel's restaurant opened. When it came down to it, I wasn't in the mood for cheese, so I got a baguette with butter and jam, and a thing of yogurt. The bread was less impressive without the cheese, but still tasty. I then headed off to the bus station to catch the 8: ( Read more... )

I'm still not quite caught up with my backlog of entries, but I think I'm close enough to justify spending some time writing about today, rather than last week. Which is good, because today was actually a pretty good day. I caught the bus from Bangkok to Sukothai yesterday morning. Joe drove me to the bus station and helped me get a ticket (read: ( Read more... )

Needless to say, Bangkok was much easier with Joe than it was on my own. My first full day was a Saturday and our main goal was to hit the Grand Palace, but we started off wandering a bit in the Indian part of town and meeting up with one of Joe's college friends for lunch. The restaurant we went to is one of the best known Indian places in Bangkok ( Read more... )

I am not a beach person. This is the conclusion I reached after several days on a tropical island. I dislike the sensation of the sun beating down on my skin. It just makes me hot and sunburned, which means I am constantly slathering myself in greasy sunblock, to which the sand inevitably sticks, and hunting for shade. Some people apparently enjoy ( Read more... )

I wasn't really in the mood for Bangkok my first day there, but I was even less in the mood for another bus ride, so I decided to try and make the best of it. Joe wanted to show me the Grand Palace himself, so I started in the morning by wandering a bit, and then visiting the National Museum. It wasn't terribly exciting, but it was an OK way to ( Read more... )

I don't really have much to say about my time in Saigon. I was there primarily to visit my friend Becky, who had class in the mornings. The first day I walked around the city a bit, but wasn't really interested in any of the tourist attractions and so went back to the hotel fairly soon. It was cooler and less humid than Hanoi, but still not “cool” ( Read more... )