April 12, 2014
Tessa Bradford
2 comments
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. Our ferry pulled into the dock and…
April 9, 2014
Tessa Bradford
2 comments
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. We headed to the Thai Kitchen Cookery Centre, where they promptly loaded us into a tuk tuk with a group of other students and whisked us away to…
April 6, 2014
Tessa Bradford
2 comments
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.) It was raining when we left Luang Prabang in the early morning, but it wasn’t a…
March 31, 2014
Tessa Bradford
1 comment
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…
February 28, 2014
Tessa Bradford
17 comments
In Trouble in Laos for my own dangerous stupidity In Vientiane I demonstrated my previously untapped potential for complete and utter stupidity. After taking an over night sleeper train to the Thai-Laos border, we stood in line at immigration. The young man in front of me had a problem–
February 18, 2014
Tessa Bradford
3 comments
The Safari Park Zoo We arrived in Kanchanaburi unsure of what to expect of our time at the Safari Park Open Zoo. We were excited to see animals but we didn’t know much about the project. At the designated meeting spot in town we met a few of the other new volunteers, had a bit…
January 12, 2014
Tessa Bradford
4 comments
Why Cambodia Deserves Our Attention I didn’t know much about Cambodia, but it was a new place to see and that’s usually a good enough reason for me to want to go somewhere. Plus, there was Angkor Wat to explore, and seeing the Wonders of the World is high on my bucket list. But Cambodia…
January 10, 2014
Tessa Bradford
No comments exist
Backpacking Southeast Asia For two months Nicole and I explored Southeast Asia. We went to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Singapore. We volunteered at a zoo and befriended lions, monkeys and giraffes. We helped build a sustainable living community and Buddhist monastery in the jungle. There were riverboats, beaches, bustling markets and wild animals all…
November 28, 2013
Tessa Bradford
5 comments
The Mindfulness Project We were in Khon Kaen because we had volunteered to help with the Mindfulness Project, a Buddhist monastery that was being built in the jungle along with a sustainable community to give housing to the homeless of the city. We met up with our hosts, a young German couple called Christian and…
November 15, 2013
Tessa Bradford
4 comments
Thailand and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Bus With Taiwan sadly in my rear view, I went to Northern Ireland for my friend Amy’s wedding and a brief respite from Asia. Home-cooked food and people I love like family made it a great week. From Ireland I headed back east and landed in…