Full disclosure: the only reason we thought about visiting northern Thailand was to try food I saw on a TV show with Anthony Bourdain. Then we were talking with scuba diving friends who had a wonderful time at an elephant camp outside of Chiang Mai. Just like that, it was added to our itinerary after Bangkok. And we’re glad it was! Continue reading →

We went to the train station a bit early to try and get tickets from Bangkok to Chang Mai in the sleeper car, but almost everything was full! Our only option was 3rd class “seats” on the late night train. Since we really needed to get to Chang Mai for a pre-purchased elephant adventure, we decided to give it a try. It only cost 530 baht ($16). With the money we saved, we had some beers at a restaurant across the street while we waited five hours for the late train. Continue reading →

We arrived at the ferry terminal in Koh Tao and obtained red stickers for Bangkok. Travel consisted of a 3 hour ferry to Chumphon (which was a wonderful pit stop with clean bathrooms and free wifi!) then an 8 hour bus ride to the city. We ended up arriving to our pre booked guesthouse at 2:00 in the morning.

Our main purpose in the city was to obtain a visa for Vietnam which required us to visit their embassy twice. In the downtime, we wandered through markets and a few malls, hit some tourist spots, and relaxed at our hotel, Bangkok 68 (with a rooftop pool). Best of all though was Continue reading →

We headed to Koh Tao at the recommendation of some fellow travelers who said it was beautiful with great scuba diving. Although I did some research for places to stay, we did not settle on anything and chose to look when we arrived because it would be early afternoon. On the ferry from Koh Pangnan, there were several salesmen trying to get us to book at their scuba resort. We talked to the guy from the resort that was recommended, Ban’s, and he offered us a free ride to the resort (score)! Once at the resort, we signed up for the PADI Advanced Open Water course, which even included Continue reading →