For reasons that we would later discover, the cheap flights up to Chiang Mai were booked up, and the train tracks under repair, so Daisy and I opted to try the local favorite and take a ten hour overnight bus. We weren’t sure what to expect but it turned out to be reasonably comfortable. If it wasn’t for the concerning rocking of the whole double decker after every pothole it would have been an even better ride.
We arrived in Chiang Mai at 7 am and were retrieved by a songthaew, or red truck, for …

We successfully arrived at our hotel and almost immediately headed to the beach. Although we were exhausted from traveling for 30+ hours it was not even noon, and since we only had three days in southern Thailand we were determined to enjoy the sun. After taking a ferry boat past the famous Phi Phi and Railay beaches it was a relief to walk down the local road to a sandy beach with no one in sight except a couple of fishermen. Phew. We waded in the incredibly warm (bath) water, and took in the fresh …

The plan for getting to Thailand was kind of complicated. There was no direct flight from Taipei to Bangkok that was within my budget so I bought two one-way tickets (on the same airline-learning from my Egyptian fiasco), to Manila and then on to Bangkok. I was spending a few hours back at my hostel before taking the train to the airport when I got an e-mail from my friend Daisy, who I was to meet in Bangkok. It started with “Omg. I don’t have my wallet,” and continued with “Freaking out. Also, typhoon is …