The flooding danger seems to have gone away for now in the two stops I decided to skip. So, I’m going to attempt them now, starting in Chiang Saen. Chiang Saen never did flood, but it is one of the villages that they were most worried about since it’s located right on the bank of the Mekong River. And just as a precaution I decided not to sleep there and instead stay in Chiang Rai about an hour away. It’s…
From Nan it was about a five hour drive north way way up into the hills of Phu Chi Fa National Park. It’s time to take a break from all the temples and focus on some hiking. I quickly found my accommodation for the next few nights perched on this very steep slope, Chill Chill Camp. This place is awesome! It’s one of many similar camps along the single lane mountain road up here. I’m not even sure what village…
Well, I was supposed to head north from Chiang Mai, but it turns out there’s a giant typhoon wreaking havoc and causing devastating floods from Vietnam, across Laos, northern Thailand, and into Myanmar. The whole region has gotten about three times the average amount of rain so far this year. That’s a lot of water! Anyway, two of my next three planned stops are either dealing with floods or are in danger of flooding soon and unfortunately for me, my…
Greetings and welcome to Thailand! After having my visa rejected over a typo about six months ago, I finally got everything straightened out and NOW, I can enjoy another Holy Crap Adventure in this beautiful part of the world. Thankfully, my journey here went super smooth. But I also arrived super late, so I just stumbled into my hotel and crashed for the night. After a good night’s sleep I’m ready to start exploring my first stop, Chiang Mai, in…
East from Boquete along the Interamericana highway and then high up in the mountains of Veraquas province is the microscopic little town of Santa Fe. The road up here was awful! I’ve never dodged so many potholes in one day before, and that’s saying something, but the destination is really beautiful. This will just be a quick stop. As awful as the road up here was, the roads around Santa Fe were actually pretty nice. It seemed that around every…
It was a very long drive from Anton Valley west to Boquete, almost six hours. I was more than ready to get out of that car when I arrived. While Anton Valley was seemingly abandoned in its idealic setting in the mountains, Boquete, on the other hand is packed with people and all the traffic that goes with it. Not that’s its not a pleasant town, just a busy place. My hostel is pretty unique. They have the typical hotel…
From Uvita in Costa Rica I had a couple of big travel days. First, a long drive back to San Jose to turn in my rental car and to spend one night. The next morning I was on a plane to Panama City, then a quick Uber downtown where I rented another car and then braved the Panama City traffic west for about eighty miles until I reached Anton Valley high up in the mountains. It was a busy couple…
I left the beautiful mountains of Costa Rica down some really stunning and curvy mountain roads until I hit the Pacific coast and then made a hard left to the south. Before I reach my destination, though, let’s make a quick stop at the Crocodile Bridge. It’s a section of Highway 34 over the Río Tarcoles. My guide at the animal sanctuary, which I’ll visit later, said after the fact that the crocs hang out here because the locals used…
I arrived at my next stop, Monteverde, after my fun day of swimming and waterfall gazing at Llanos del Cortés in the late afternoon. Actually, I’m staying in the town of Santa Elena, though this whole area is referred to as Monteverde, after the nearby Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve. More on that later, but first, I stopped off at the local Ranario just down the street from my hotel. A ranario is kind of like a zoo, but for…
The drive from Grecia took me past some really amazing scenery and through lots of little towns around Volcán Poás where they apparently grow nothing but strawberries. There were big signs in the shape of strawberries everywhere and strawberry vendors all over the sides of the road. It was also still holy week, so there was quite a bit of traffic going through those towns and through every tourist attraction along the way. I did finally make it through to…