Category: Travel
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Koh Lipe
Tucked away in the very southern portion of Thailand, near the border with Malaysia, lies Koh Lipe, a formerly hidden gem among Thailand’s world-famous islands. The island has seen an increase in development and tourism in recent years, but still retains its raw nature if you can get away from the tourist areas. Though the island is small, it still has all the things you’d expect from a Thai island getaway: gorgeous turquoise waters, long-tail boats with dark-skinned captains, pretty beaches with sunburnt tourists, plenty of water activities, fresh seafood, stray dogs, and beach bars along multiple coasts. The proximity…
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Singapore
Sitting nearly on the equator, Singapore is just as tropical and steamy as the rest of Southeast Asia, but its first-world status is very different from its neighbors and even puts America to shame in many respects. It gets a reputation as being sterile and bland, but it’s also clean, safe, well-organized, well-covered by public transportation, and has plenty to do, see, and eat. The travel suggestions here are based on a trip that Lummi and I took in December and are by no means exhaustive. In fact, they’re quite basic, since we had only a few days to explore…
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Singapore, Koh Lipe, and Bangkok
Singapore The plan with Lummi was that I would go to Singapore a few days before her, so I flew across the Pacific, arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and subsequently had a Welcome to Singapore, bitch moment when I got trapped in the local grocery store by a sudden downpour. I took my bags and waited it out at the neighboring coffee shop, then went back to the Airbnb, made instant noodles for dinner, watched the thunderstorm from the patio, and passed out from exhaustion. On Sunday, I worked on my blog in the morning, then met my friend Laurie –…
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Taipei
Early on a Monday morning, I slept as much as I could, checked out of my Hong Kong airport hotel, and bounced over quickly to the airport for my flight. (Proximity to the airport for this flight was another reason for moving to this hotel from my SoHo Airbnb.) My initial plans for Taiwan were to immediately hop on a southbound train out of the city and go to Taroko National Park for a couple days, but this plan started to unravel before I even got on my flight. I had previously emailed the lodge I wanted to stay at…
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Hong Kong (ABGT300)
For at least six years now, I’ve nearly religiously listened to Group Therapy, the weekly radio show from dance trio Above & Beyond. Every 50 episodes – so, once a year – they put on a big show somewhere in the world, with the location changing every year. In recent years, the show has grown to a two-day affair, putting it on par with a small music festival. Several months ago, they revealed that this year’s show – episode #300 – would be in Hong Kong, the first “milestone” show of theirs to be held in Asia. While I was…
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Sayulita
This was an unconventional trip for me, so a bit of backstory is probably necessary. Before planning this year’s Coachella weekend with friends, I got the idea firmly planted in my head that I wanted to have a beach holiday for the week following the festival. No plans, no activities, no sightseeing. I wanted upwards of a week to relax, recover, and, quite frankly, do as little as possible. Mexico was the obvious choice, so I started researching places that were within a short flight of San Francisco. Funny enough, my barber – a Mexican-American who owns a small salon…
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Goodbye Again
Another year, another trip to Southeast Asia, another NYE weekend in Bangkok. Unfortunately for us, both Nock and I came down with colds after leaving the island, so the weekend was a bit more sedate than I’m used to. The one thing that made us feel actually better was Feuang Nara, a restaurant around the corner from our Airbnb. We ate there twice in two days, so I feel confident in saying that the service is terrible, but the food is incredible. I ate so much at dinner on Saturday that I barely ate for the next twenty-four hours. On Sunday,…
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Koh Phi-Phi
Throughout 2017, I had occasionally kept in touch with my friend Nock, who I had met last year while I was in Vientiane. Once I knew I was definitely going back to Southeast Asia for this trip, I told her and we made plans to go on holiday at the end of the year. She works long hours – too long, if you ask me – and was feeling a bit burnt out, so I suggested we find a relaxing island to go to. She had already been to all of the places I suggested, so I offered up Koh Phi-Phi. I…
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Saigon
The train ride from Mui Ne to Saigon was par for the course for the developing world: people selling weird foods, a disgusting toilet, and really pretty scenery to watch for hours. After arriving at the train station, we hopped in an Uber to our guesthouse and got our first taste of Saigon traffic. As we lurched and crawled our way through thousands of motorbikes, bicycles, cars, carts, and pedestrians, I wondered to myself: “Oh shit, it’s not going to be like this everywhere, is it?” Answer: yeah, it’s like that everywhere. After we checked in to our cute guesthouse, got…
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So That’s What They Mean by “Canyoning”
Back in November, after the trip itinerary was finalized, I knew that I wanted to schedule at least one full-day excursion in Dalat. I told myself I would research options once I was on the road, but ended up being busier than I thought I would be, so Laurie offered to look into it. She did some research and sent me a link to a “canyoning” adventure. I assumed “canyoning” was some cute Vietnamese synonym for “trekking” or “hiking” – but in a canyon, obviously – so I signed off on it. Truthfully, I didn’t actually open the link, but…
