Outside of plane flights and bus tickets, virtually everything you buy in this part of the world is negotiable. Lodging, trinkets and clothes at the market, tuk tuk fares, massages, and sometimes even food are all negotiated items. Although some people would rather avoid conflict or feel bad haggling over a few bucks, the reality…
If you ever find yourself venturing near the northern part of the Thai/ Laos border (definitely a top 10 destination for Americans, right?), you 100% have to do the Gibbon Experience. In a nutshell, we just spent two days ziplining and trekking deep in the Laos (pronounced without the “s”) jungle and slept in a…
Within five minutes of the bus dropping us off in Pai, it was a unanimous vote that Pai is the “Asheville” of Thailand. Why might you ask? Well, we were surrounded by a beautiful mountainous area with a relaxed, hippie vibe. To say that we saw more dreadlocks than people sporting normal hairdos paints a…
Using your iPhone on the cheap while in Southeast Asia (or anywhere for that matter) is actually pretty damn easy. However, because domestic carriers like Verizon and AT&T would much prefer you pay them exorbitant fees to use your phone abroad, the simple steps to accomplish this are not widely known. Here are the basic…
There is a place called Tiger Kingdom just north of Chiang Mai where, for ~$12 USD, you can go into a holding area and expose yourself to wild tigers. You literally just walk around petting and taking pictures with them as if they were house pets. It’s pretty crazy (and a little scary). We didn’t…
Most of the street side restaurants and vendors in Thailand rarely have a menu listing the dishes they offer, and if they do, the menu is almost always written in Thai. If you stumble upon a street vendor that not only has a menu but has the menu written in both Thai and English, well…
A quote from Joy, our lovely host at U-Baan hostel in Bangkok. We decided to check out Sukhothai anyways in search of a small town change of pace from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and to break up the trip to Chiang Mai. Turns out, we loved the place! Although there wasn’t a heck…
In case it got lost in translation, that’s a reference to The Hangover II. We always envisioned jumping off the plane in Bangkok, Armageddon style, with wide-eyes and ready to take the city by storm. However, the reality was a little less glamorous. Jet lagged and absolutely exhausted from our 30+ hours of travel, we…
Each of the major airline alliances (Star Alliance, Oneworld, and SkyTeam) offer round-the-world (RTW) flight options. Generally the tickets are either mileage or segment based, meaning you receive a maximum number of miles allowed to travel or a maximum number of flight segments. Mileage-based tickets typically allow for ~20,000-30,000 miles and segment-based are typically ~14-18 segments (all connecting flights…
Beaches & Backpacks 