This past time in Chiang Mai I had the opportunity of trying out an awesome new activity in Chiang Mai – Thai cooking courses at Baan Hong Nual Cooking School (surprisingly completed without burning the kitchen down…)...

One major feature of Luang Namtha, our first stop in Laos, is the huge night food market located right in the centre of town (seeing as Luang Namtha is a one-street town, it is pretty hard to miss).  Even before reaching the market, you can smell the chilis cooking, ducks roasting, and chicken feet barbequing from over a kilometer away...

If you’re into history and art and that sort of nonsense, one of Luang Prabang’s not-to-be missed sites is Haw Kham - the royal palace...

Not only does the Khao San Road area near Stray’s Bangkok office have great nightlife and awesome live music locals, but it ends up that it is near a pretty important historic area of Bangkok as well. Only nine minutes and thirty three seconds at a leisurely walking pace away from Stray is Wat Saket, a temple dating back to the 18^thcentury...

So, as I’ve recently discovered, it ends up that boiling eggs in hotsprings is not just a Lao quirkiness but is a Thai obsession as well.  This past time in Chiang Mai, a mate and I decided to get on some scooters (top speed a whopping 60 km./ hour…), and go check out San Kamphaeng Hotsprings, the most well known hotsprings in the province...

Being in the city of Chiang Mai is all well and good, but sometimes you just need to escape the tuk tuk exhaust fumes and get back to nature.  Luckily, for those lazy people like me out there, you don’t need to go too far outside the city to find nature...  

As floodwaters inch closer and closer to central Bangkok, Bangkok finally makes world news for something other than it’s plethora of gender-changing and breast-altering facilities... 

Nothing encapsulates the Lao psyche so well as the Baci (or su kwan, ‘calling of the soul’) ceremony.  In Lao belief, the human being is a union of 32 organs that are each watched over and protected by kwan, vital forces that give harmony and balance to the body...

When we arrive in Luang Namtha we normally go and visit Nam Dee Waterfall (‘Nam Dee’ means good water in Lao…such an original name…).  The waterfall, which is quite pretty when it actually has water going over it in the wet season, is not nearly as interesting as the small ethnic village we walk through to reach it though...

August 12^th is one of the most celebrated ‘double dates’ in Thailand – not only does the 12^th mark the Queen Sirikit’s Birthday, but it also is Mother’s Day since the Queen is considered to be the Mother of the Thai Nation...

The Bolaven plateau outside Pakse, which we visit on our trip down south, is definitely one of the coolest stops in Laos with all of its dramatic waterfalls and spectacular natural scenery...

Not to be a downer, but sometimes there’s some need for some ‘real talk.’... 

Every night loads of Hmong people (one of Laos’ many ethnic groups) from surrounding villages migrate to Luang Prabang bearing handmade textiles, clothing, purses, and even cloth children’s books and set up shop right on the main road...

To try and break up the long journey from Luang Namtha to Nong Khiaw we usually stop and explore a Hmong (one of Laos’ many minority people) village…