Bangkok’s Best Temples

Bangkok’s Best Temples

Thailand loves its temples! There are more than 40,000 of them in Bangkok alone and each one is just stunning. Most visitors will have at least a couple of temples on their “must-see” list when they visit The Kingdom, but which ones are really worth the visit?

In Thailand’s humid heat and incessant sunshine, one must carefully plan their day trips so as to see the best sites without over-exerting one’s self. Sometimes the biggest and most famous tourist attractions are not really the most impressive or most worthwhile. In this guide, I will introduce a few ways for Bangkok travellers to see some of the most interesting temples in the easiest ways possible.

Travelista published my article and photos here for you to check out! 

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8 Reasons Koh Chang is the Best

8 Reasons Koh Chang is the Best

We have visited the island of Koh Chang so many times! it is pretty close to Bangkok, yet feels a million miles from the bustling metropolis. You can get there in a cab, or save money and take a bus. The island is huge and provides travellers with any kind of vacation they need. With bars and nightlife, as well as total seclusion, crystal clear waters, and rigorous waterfall hikes. This place is just perfect.

Check out my article on the Travelista website here! 

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5-Star Luxury on Koh Kood Thailand

5-Star Luxury on Koh Kood Thailand

Completely spoiled and ridiculously pampered. When we got the opportunity to visit the amazing Soneva Kiri Resort on Koh Kood Island in Thailand’s northeast, we could hardly believe our luck. The hotel’s private plane picked us up at Suvarnabhumi Airport and in just over an hour we were landing in paradise.

The hotel is just magical, and Koh Kood is heaven. Our massive villa had its own pool, we were given a own golf buggy to cruise around on, and everything we ate was perfection.

Travelista published my article about the experience here! 

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Chinatown, Bangkok – Drinking and Dining

Chinatown, Bangkok – Drinking and Dining

For amazing food, hustle and bustle, old timey vibes, and hipster bars, Chinatown “Yaowarat” in Bangkok, Thailand is the place to go.

For our anniversary, Tyler took me on a staycation to Chinatown where we stated at the Shanghai Mansion Hotel. Appropriate since we met in China more than 10 years ago.

We roamed the streets and found that Soi Nana is the perfect location for a pub crawl with dozens of awesome bars along one short block.

Thanks to Travelista for publishing my Chinatown guide. Read about it here! 

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Kaeng Krachan National Park

Kaeng Krachan National Park

When one lives in a tropical paradise like Thailand, it can be hard not to just go to a beach for a long weekend. Now that we have been here a while, we are starting to explore more of the countryside areas and trying to find places that are popular with Thai local tourists. Kaeng Krachan is a gorgeous dam, reservoir, and national park southwest of Bangkok in the province of Petchaburi. We also visited one of Thailand’s few, ethical elephant and animal sanctuaries Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand.

Check out my article published by Travelista here. 

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Soneva Kiri – Benz’s Restaurant

Soneva Kiri – Benz’s Restaurant

We were treated to a magical 3 nights at Soneva Kiri on Koh Kood. The island is just a few hours east of Bangkok but you feel a million miles away. One of our nights there was spent dining at Benz’s restaurant. It was a luxurious and incredible, 8-course meal of seemingly-simple but complex and wonderful Thai food.

You can find more of my photography in this article on Travelogues From Remote Lands. 

Also, click to read more!
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Escape Bangkok

Escape Bangkok

Step-By-Step Koh Samet Guide

Is the BTS crush giving you a headache? Are you tired of traffic? Sick of your schedule? Then it might be time to run away for a few days. Instead of wasting time in transit or fussing around with airports and delayed flights, try closer to home and look no further than the white sands of Koh Samet. Only 3 hours from Bangkok to the beach, you can be sipping from a fresh coconut overlooking turquoise waters before midday. With this guide, you get the experience of someone who has been to Koh Samet three times in one year to help you plan the easiest, most relaxing mini-break.

This article was originally written for and published by Travelista.

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Learning Thai – Study Tips Part 1

Learning Thai – Study Tips Part 1

After almost 16 years (give or take a year here or there) in China, speaking Mandarin every day, learning the tones, the characters, the bad words, the Beijing slang, and generally being pretty Chinese, I have had to turn off that part of my brain. Every day, I have to try to silence the little part of me that is desperate to communicate with locals in Chinese. The language I have spent so long trying to figure out is useless now, but my idiot brain is having a hard time realising that, and when English fails, it automatically wants to use the other language it knows to get the point across. I find myself constructing sentences with taxi drivers here in Bangkok, and while all the key vocabulary is in Thai, the conjunctions, articles, particles, and pronouns all slip out in Chinese before I can stop myself.

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Getting an ED Student Visa for Thailand

Getting an ED Student Visa for Thailand

I moved to Thailand! This has been a fantastic adventure and I am not ready to settle into the workforce just yet. I plan to spend my time studying and exploring. In order to do those things, however, I do need a visa. There are people who live in Thailand for years by exiting the country every 30 days and coming back in on a new tourist visa, but that sounds exhausting. Below is my guide to getting a student visa for the Land of Smiles.

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A Secret Paradise – Callala Beach, Jervis Bay

A Secret Paradise – Callala Beach, Jervis Bay

My friend Carolyn and her lovely family recommended this spot to me as the perfect easy, laid-back holiday destination. Then I remembered that my mum used to take us to Jervis Bay as kids to stay in the caravan park. I soon realised there was so much to offer on the NSW south coast and I just had to share this magical destination. It seems that the more time I spend outside of my beautiful country, the more I appreciate just how lucky I am to be Australian.

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Road Trip! Sydney to the Gold Coast

Road Trip! Sydney to the Gold Coast

Australia’s Pacific Coast is just stunning. I grew up driving up and down it with my mum, and little brother. Listening to a soundtrack of Patsy Cline, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. We spent every holiday in a caravan park in Arrawarra, we went to the Pet Porpoise Pool in Coffs each time we drove through. We regularly visited friends in Dorrigo and Belingen, and for a few years when I was young, I went to Currumbin Primary School. My brother and I were both born in Sydney, but we were central coast kids at heart.

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Travel Guide – Quick, Cheap, Easy Philippines

Travel Guide – Quick, Cheap, Easy Philippines

Our first trip to the Philippines was incredible. We spent 3 weeks on Palawan Island, visiting El Nido, Port Barton, and Puerto Princesa. We loved the people, the beaches, and the country and really wanted to go back. For our second trip to the Philippines, we didn’t have a whole lot of time and we were looking for a vacation which just included lots of swimming, eating, and relaxing. After some online research, we decided on Matabungkay in the Batangas Region.

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Guns and Fun

Guns and Fun

Beijing’s suburbs provide endless entertainment, even if it is hard to find sometimes.

For Tyler’s birthday last May, I rented a bus to take us and 12 of our friends out to the mountains around Changping to stay in a nongjia hotel and then visit a shooting range to blow stuff up. We had a blast (pun intended) and I wrote a bit of a story/guide to getting out of Beijing for this kind of adventure. Thanks to Travelista for publishing my story.

Read all about it here. 

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DIY Mooncakes – They’re Edible, It’s Lunacy!

DIY Mooncakes – They’re Edible, It’s Lunacy!

No one likes mooncakes. This is a simple fact of life in China. Every year I am gifted several boxes by employers and business associates (jk, I don’t have those). Every year, I re-gift them to my ayi and my mechanic. Every year, I get the distinct feeling that they are going to pass them on to distant relatives. It is the cycle of the mooncake. I am quite certain that—in the history of mooncakes—no one has ever eaten one, ever. Read more about DIY Mooncakes – They’re Edible, It’s Lunacy!