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…
After zig zagging all over the Khmer temples to the northwest, I finally arrived at Ubon Ratchathani, the eastern most stop I’ll be making on this trip. Ubon Ratchathani, is like some of my other stops, just a very convenient and pleasant place to stay while I explore the area. I did of course take a day to explore the city, though. Thung Sri Mueng, seen above is pretty much the center of the city. It seems a bit out…
From Udon Thani it’s just a short drive south to another important northeastern Thailand city, Khon Kaen. I’ll have to turn in my rental car when I arrive and pick up another rental car when I leave (long story), so I’m going to spend the day seeing a few out of the way sites before losing the car and checking in at my hotel. I started with a cruise through Phu Wiang National Park and a quick hike to the…
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…
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…