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April 12, 2014

Basking on the Thai Islands

Basking on the Thai Islands

A very long (but comparatively comfortable… after previous mistakes we’d figured out the bus system) over night bus ride took us south to the coast. We caught a ferry in Chumphon to Ko Tao, and I found out that I’m not good at boat rides. [spacer height=”20px”] (more…)

April 9, 2014

Learning to Cook in Chiang Mai

Learning to Cook in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is known for all its outdoor recreation. We didn’t do any of that. Instead, we took a cooking class.[spacer height=”20px”] (more…)

April 6, 2014

Riverboats in Laos

Riverboats in Laos

To get back to Thailand we decided to take the slow riverboat. This was an excellent decision, as our decisions so often are. (Just kidding. We make wrong decisions 87% of the time. This is a rough estimation.)[spacer height=”20px”]

It was raining when we left Luang Prabang in the early morning, but it wasn’t a long tuk tuk drive to the muddy river docks, and it had turned into a hazy gray day. The rain had become a drizzly mist obscuring the horizon. We carefully made our way down the slippery shore to the anchored riverboat and climbed aboard. [spacer height=”20px”] (more…)

April 3, 2014

The City of Elephants and Waterfalls

The City of Elephants and Waterfalls

2017 UPDATE: I wrote this post when I was wildly ignorant of the terrible treatment of elephants in captivity. I strongly discourage anyone traveling in South East Asia from taking part in elephant rides, baths, etc. If you want to help them, donate to an ethical sanctuary, and observe them from a distance. Thanks for your understanding!

Luang Prabang was definitely out of our price range. We were wandering around with another traveler who assured us she’d checked the guidebooks and had some great hostel options in mind. First one she took us to: 70 a night. Did they mean 70,000 kip, perhaps? Ha! Ha ha ha ha, HA! 70 US, thank you very much. We practically ran out the door.[spacer height=”20px”]

But by poking our heads down a few alleyways we found some places in the typical $5-8 range. Phew. [spacer height=”20px”] (more…)

March 31, 2014

Drifting in Vang Vieng

Drifting in Vang Vieng

After the misadventure in Vientiane, my brain just needed a few days to check out. Luckily we were headed to Vang Vieng, a chilled out river town where every restaurant seems to be a TV cafe where they lounge on big couch cushions all day and watch Friends while they drink coffee after coffee– or in Nicole’s case, milk shakes.[spacer height=”20px”] (more…)

Hi. I'm Tessa.

Tessa Bradford

I'm a waterfall-loving, world-wandering, picture-taking, journal-writing sort of traveler.[spacer height="20px"]

And this is where all my memories end up.[spacer height="20px"]

The culture, the people, the food, those moments that make you want to pull your hair and the ones that make you laugh till your gut aches.[spacer height="20px"]

These are the stories and photos that I've collected over the last five years.[spacer height="20px"]

Thanks for letting me share them with you. 

Pictures from Instagram

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