From Khorat it’s just a short distance west to what is considered one of Thailand’s premier national parks, Khoa Yai. I think the name of the village where I’m staying is Mu Si, but everyone just refers to this whole area as Khao Yai. This is where the people of Bangkok come for rest and relaxation. There are tons and tons of really fancy resorts, big restaurants, and for some reason, go kart tracks all over the place. From my…
Welcome to Holy Crap Adventures season 51, episode 11, in which our intrepid hero explores many ancient Khmer ruins and gets violently attacked by a hyper-aggressive gang of locals… On this section of my journey, I’ll be resting my head in the town of Nang Rong in Buri Ram province. There’s absolutely nothing to see or do in Nang Rong, but it’s close to the many sites I want to visit along the nearby Cambodian border. So let’s just dive…
I left Kamphaeng Phet in a deluge of rain for what was the longest drive I’ll be doing on this trip, about eight hours, northeast, clear to the other side of the country. Luckily, the rain got lighter the further east I got. A little over halfway there the highway was blocked because of flooding. Uh-oh! I followed the detour signs into a very rural area which added about ten miles to the journey, but while traveling through some small…
The next stop of this trip was supposed to be Mae Sot and Um Phang way out west in remote Tak Province to see the tallest waterfall in Thailand. Unfortunately, the road going to the waterfall is inaccessible due to flooding and mud slides. And even if the road was clear it wouldn’t matter because the waterfall is overflowing so much that it completely destroyed its viewing platform and the nearby campground. So the government of Thailand closed off the…
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…
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…
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…
My “easy” travel day from Granada to Isla Ometepe turned out to be quite the adventure. I found the bus easy enough, but since they don’t leave until full, I ended up waiting for an hour and a half. And by full, I mean we were stuffed in there like sardines. By now I’m already pretty sweaty and gross. The bus only goes to Rivas, so next I had to find a taxi to the San Jorge boat dock. I…