Welcome To The Jungle
The last of my tour-based day trips around Bangkok took me to Erawan National Park, home to Erawan Falls, seven delicious tiers of waterfalls and pools. This was truly a day trip: I left home…
All Market, No Flea
My grand tour of the highlights surrounding Bangkok continues. Today’s edition is all about markets, the Maeklong Railway Market and the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. Both of these markets were interesting not because of the…
The Temples of Ayutthaya
With only a month in Bangkok, time’s a-wastin’. Bring on the day trips. For those of you who have been following all along, you know we’re not big fans of tours. For the most part…
Beach Blanket Christmas
Well, this is new. This is the first trip we’ve taken out of spite. Specifically, spite at obtuse airline restrictions designed to keep you from using your travel credits. We had to cancel our scheduled…
They Doth Protest Too Much
I have been wrestling, sadly, just with myself, with writing about Chicago. I think of this blog as my way of deciphering the environment I’m in when we travel, seeing it as an outsider but…
We Are Art Sluts
I’m not ashamed. Of anything, really, but certainly not of being an art slut. So much of our motivation to travel is to see what clever people in different places can do with their thumbs.…
Like Etsy IRL
Java has been a thicket of arts and crafts. Silver, glass, weaving, painting, basketry, leather, puppets… Java has had the richest mix of crafts of anywhere we’ve been, on a par with Morocco or Oaxaca,…
Batik-apalooza
Bali’s ikat fabrics are gorgeous. Subtle, rich, intricate, implausible in their craft. In counterpoint, Java’s batiks are the bumptious clown car to Bali’s sleek Formula 1 racer. Loud, intense, riotous, overstuffed… As we looked around…
Ramayana Ding Dong
Dance and performance have been recurring themes all throughout Southeast Asia. From Cambodia’s post-genocide recreations, to Vietnam’s water puppets, to Bali’s gamelan-fueled Ramayana tales, we’ve sampled performance at every stop. Wayang Orang Sonobudoyo We’d yet…
We Owe It All To Sir Stamford Raffles…
Borobudur : Java :: Angkor Wat : Cambodia. You’ll thank me when you next have to take the SAT. What I mean is that both temples are so iconic that, even if you can’t name…