Thailand
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Snapshot Sunday: Thailand in Motion, My video diary premiere
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Coffee Shop Talk: Where to Find the Best Coffee in the World
Brew a cup, order a Venti, or pop a K-cup in the Keurig because we are breaking down where in the world you can find the best coffee. Can I let you in on a little secret? If you read my story about my trip to a Colombian coffee farm, you already know that I’m the only person you know that doesn’t drink coffee. Ok, so what makes me an authority on where to drink coffee around the world? I love everything about the caffeinated craving in a cup aside from drinking it, in particular, the coffee shop.  The smell, people all sitting around socializing quietly with friends or working…
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Snapshot Sunday: Thai Sunsets
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Elephant Nature Park: Pachyderm Paradise
She gracefully swings her trunk over along the thick, gray, wrinkled ear of another elephant. Â They stand next to each other in the field, tapping gently with their trunks, communicating through noises they send through their long noses. Â The elephant is talking to her friend in a way she can understand since she is unable to see. Â They lightly trumpet to one another, the calls are low pitched squeaks. Â Our group stands and quietly watches them as they chat over their lunch, like a couple of ladies at a cafe for brunch. Â It is such a treat to see elephant behaviors in a space that is more like their natural…
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Best of both worlds: Vacationing and Volunteering
Love the satisfaction and helpfulness you feel when you have completed a volunteer project? Craving some vacation time away from the office? Â Voluntourism, or volunteer travel, combines your need for a break away from the mundane to an exciting place while simultaneously filling that humanitarian instinct. Champion a Cause Do you have something that’s important to you? Â Show you care and find a group, a travel company or non profit that offers a program for you to be able to help build a house, help a sick or endangered animal or rebuild a community after a natural disaster. Â If nothing comes to mind right away, no problem! Â This may be…
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A Day in Old Phuket Town
Old Phuket Town Old Phuket Town has it is an intoxicating mix of cultural influences that will keep you lingering, envisioning when the streets were full of Arab, Malay and European traders coming into town to barter for local tin and rubber.  The tin trade brought in the Chinese immigrants who heavily influenced the classical European architecture and coupled together it creates the Sino-Colonial (Sino-Portuguese) surroundings that brings you back to old days in Siam. Sino-Portuguese Architecture Sino-Portuguese?  It’s that old world style architecture that you’ve always loved but didn’t know about.  The buildings exude a life of their own, their worn exteriors have years of stories and smog built…
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Don’t Worry Be Krabi
I ventured from the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman Sea to check out Krabi, a province in the southwest of the country. Â Most of the region is devoted to tourism so there has been an influx of visitors to their beaches and national parks in recent years. Get out your geography books boys and girls! Â I’m constantly getting to brush up on my knowledge of land masses and this is no exception because Krabi is an archipelago. Â An archipelago, if you remember, is a group or chain of islands and the word is a mix of Latin and Greek translating to “chief sea”. Ao Nang I used Ao Nang…
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Celebrating Chinese New Year in Thailand
Lunar New Year I’ve been to many Chinatowns throughout my travels, but there is something a little more exciting being in an Asian country during an Asian holiday. In Thailand, the most noted Chinatown is in Bangkok, but I happened to be in Chiang Mai during the Chinese New Year and was delighted to be able to immerse myself in the sights, tastes and sounds celebrating the lunar new year, or spring festival. The streets in Chinatown were full of vendors selling all different types of foods and drink. Street food here is inexpensive so you want to come with some cash and an empty stomach so you can taste…
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Island Life
This is my second trip to Thailand so this time around I decided to go be a beach bum for a bit and do some island hopping before heading up north to Chiang Mai, taking in the easy, breezy island attitude. Koh v Ko As an American I think the Thai language sounds beautiful but trying to speak it myself is a whole other story. Â I sound like I’m choking on Pad Thai while native speakers seem to sing their way through their sentences. Â The Thai language, like Chinese is tonal, so it is how you say the word that matters making the Koh versus Ko debacle almost a non-issue…
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My 13 memorable moments of 2013
It’s the last day of 2013! Â What an amazing, exciting and rewarding year I’ve had and I can’t wait to see what awaits in the coming year. Â Until then, here is a list of my thirteen best moments of 2013 in no particular order! Â Enjoy and have a happy new year! 13. Â Behind the scenes at Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco, California. As a child you dream of being an oceanographer, a Sea World employee (until you watch Blackfish) swimming with the dolphins or in a job surrounding yourself with wildlife for your 9 – 5. Â The Aquarium by the Bay in San Francisco makes you feel like…
