After Kuala Lumpur I went back to Chiang Mai for a few weeks before heading Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand.   I was a little disappointed when I got there.   Growing up in Florida I've seen my share of beach towns, and that's basically what this was, but it was a bit seedy and run down, at least in my area.   My hotel was right across from a nice sandy beach called Lamai Beach.   A block over was a busy street with lots of bars and restaurants. During the day the place was deserted while everybody was out and about, but at night the streets, restaurants, and bars were packed.      The few days I was there the surf was really too high to enjoy. My first day I went to the beach and waded in.   Although there were a lot of waves, it didn’t look too bad, especially once you were past the breakers.   Boy was I wrong. The waves were breaking close to shore, and they were much bigger and stronger then they looked. It was...

Since we were in Thailand for more than 30 days, we had to leave the country and come back in. This is commonly referred to as a visa run. When you fly out, they cancel your first visa and issue a new one when you come back. I heard much debate on how many times you can do this and there is a difference between a land crossing and flying.   Some people opt to take a bus to Myanmar for the day but it’s a 5-hour bus ride and there’s nothing in the border town.   We decided Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, would be much more fun. It was a cheap, 2-hour flight and there is no visa requirement, although we did of course go through immigration.    When we got to Kuala Lumpur, commonly known as KL, it was much hotter than northern Thailand.  There is an elevated pedestrian walkway linking several major shopping areas of the city and there was an entrance right next to our hotel.  They were blissfully air conditioned and just as crowded as the city s...

Our next stop was Chiang Mai, the largest city in northern Thailand. We had decided to stay there for a month, to rest a bit and explore at a much slower pace. You have to check an official web site ( http://thaiembdc.org/visas/   or  https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/thai-visas-americans/ ), but basically, when you fly into Thailand, you get an entry stamp at the airport which is good for 30 days. You can get an extension by departing Thailand for one day and re-entering, this is known as a visa run. For more information, Google is your friend. There are dozens of blogs and sites dedicated to this issue.       Chiang Mai had a very laid back atmosphere and people are really friendly.  I made more friends in one month then anyplace I have ever visited.  It is a city well known to digital nomads, a term used to describe just about anyone who can work remotely on their computer. Everyone was so helpful and willing to net...

We arrived in Luang Prabang on a Friday and as luck would have it, there was a night market. This was typical of other markets we had seen except this one had more handmade items, crafts and other high quality goods. Things like lampshades, serenity bowls, hand made scarves, skirts and pants, beautiful pop up cards, and lots of hand made jewelery. I saw several people selling items made out of bomb casings, which I thought was a great idea as it also sent an important message about just how many bombs have been dropped in Laos during the Vietnam war, and brought attention to the fact that they were still finding them today.  I also found several hand carved face masks made from wood.  I think they brought my total up to 6 bought just on this trip.  I would have bought more, but I literally had no more space.       Luang Prabang is a sleepy little town next to two rivers, the large Mekong and the smaller Nam Kahn river. I was surprised a...