• Asia,  Thailand

    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.  I sound like I’m choking on Pad Thai while native speakers seem to sing their way through their sentences.  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…

  • Asia,  California,  Canada,  Europe,  France,  Ireland,  North America,  Northern Ireland,  Pennsylvania,  Scotland,  Thailand,  UK

    My 13 memorable moments of 2013

    It’s the last day of 2013!  What an amazing, exciting and rewarding year I’ve had and I can’t wait to see what awaits in the coming year.  Until then, here is a list of my thirteen best moments of 2013 in no particular order!  Enjoy and have a happy new year! 13.  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.  The Aquarium by the Bay in San Francisco makes you feel like…

  • Asia,  Thailand

    World Elephant Day 2013

    What kind of elephant lover am I that I was unaware of World Elephant Day until the eleventh hour!  Once I found out I immediately took the opportunity to pull up my hundreds of photos from my experience at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand and write about my experience.  When I first was planning my trip to Thailand, I excitedly did some research into what exotic things I could do and see while there and the first thing I looked into was going on an elephant trek.  Riding elephants, I mean what American wouldn’t love that right?  The more I looked into riding the elephants the worse I…

  • Thailand

    Wats Going On?

    The beaches of Phuket were nothing short of amazing but I was ready to explore another side of Thailand to get a better idea of the diverse culture and climate of the country.  We headed up north for our last week to Chiang Mai.  Chiang Mai is one of the oldest cities in Thailand and used to be the ancient capital.  Only a few hours from the Myanmar (formerly Burma) border it is an amazing contrast from the white sand and blue waters.  Surrounded by mountains and soaked in culture, Chiang Mai meaning “new city” was founded in 1296 so there is a constant mix of the ancient and the…

  • Thailand

    Tongue Thai’d

    I have had some of my more interesting and delicious meals here in Thailand.  An exotic cuisine that is becoming increasingly popular in the US I thought I had an idea about what Thai food would be like when I came here.  As a farang (westerner, or foreigner) I have learned far more than I had expected.  I’d be wise to add a disclaimer to this list noting that I have what I like to call a “particular palate”.  For me this means that I’m not averse to exploring something new on my plate but I would definitely fall into the category of a more “American” eater, sticking to things…