It's actually been a whole heck of a while since I've written a lately post. I figure it's about time you know what's up with us as we continue our journey of living (and traveling) abroad. >> I've been designing my life away. Six full designs in the last couple of weeks, plus I'm in a constant state of rebranding. That being said, I've started a design blog over at The Suitcase Designs! If you're interested in what I've been designing, premeades, Blogger & Wordpress tutorials, my referral program, and more, you should probably follow along via Bloglovin' (yes the design blog has it's own Bloglovin' page! eeeep!). >> We found a Thai restaurant in our town. It's owned and operated by the sweetest Thai family. I'll tell ... Read More
Archives for March 2014
White Temple, Chiang Rai
We all love Pinterest. As a female with a severe case of wanderlust, Pinterest so graciously offers me travel boards, of which I use to daydream to my heart's content about the great World we have waiting in front of us. I pin places I would eventually (in my wildest dreams right?) like to see and photograph myself, and I never thought I'd be visiting one of these 'ultimate' locations within two years of having Pinterest. The moment I saw the White Temple (formally known as Wat Ron Khun, but foreigners like me can't remember names like that) on that random travel board, I just knew I had to get there someday. Did this place fall straight out of Narnia? I knew the temple was somewhere in Northern Thailand, a place I was not familiar with ... Read More
When Hotels Bite
Derik and I have stayed at a lot of hotels over the past two years. Add the ones from the years before that and I'll be counting for half the day. We've had quite a bit of success booking killer deals and fancy places; like the time we booked the Ramada for $40 bucks in Seoul ($230 dollar value) and ended up getting upgraded into a freaking suite with a full kitchen, two bedrooms, two baths, and a living room. However this is not always the case. Sometimes hotels up and bite you, and they bite hard. The worst part? You're usually on vacation in an unfamiliar place, and don't have time to deal with a horrid place to stay. You see that picture above? That is not the bed from the Boracay Beach House in we stayed in for approximately 4 hours ... Read More
Grand Palace, Bangkok
The Grand Palace was built in 1792 to be the royal residence of the Thai King. It's built up of many different buildings, offices, and temples (including the famous Wat Phra Kaew or otherwise known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha), spanning over 200,000 sq. meters. Derik and I had a brief two day trip through Bangkok, and after extensive research, decided that staying somewhere along the river would be the safest. We had been traveling during Bangkok's violent riot period in February, and were a bit hesitant to travel around the city. We settled on a tiny little B & B location literally right next to the Grand Palace. The area was filled with local markets, construction, and quaint restaurants. If we end up back in Bangkok someday, ... Read More
Living Minimalistically
Do you ever grow tired of acquiring things? Tired of jumping on that downward spiral of a train called 'I'll be happy if I only have ____?' Yeah me too. If there's one thing the past two and some years of being an expat has taught me, it's that living minimalistically is not only ok, but it should be desired. A dear friend of mine told me that after our two month backpacking trip, I'd see the world a different way. She was right. After living with only enough clothing items to fit in my small 60L pack, I walked into our little Korean apartment and was overwhelmed by all the stuff we have acquired in the last two years: T.V.s, musical instruments, kitchen appliances, mechanical tools, and a whole closetful of clothes. After being back ... Read More
Stay Out of Trouble While Traveling
I can confidently say that 99% of us have left our brain back home as we giddily head out the door for yet another vacation. After all, it's been 389.8888 days since the last one, you deserve to have fun! Here's the thing. When you add a foreign country or location you're not familiar with, leaving your brain back home may not be such a good idea. Let's talk a little bit about how to stay out of trouble while traveling. Last thing you want to have happen is end up as a featured story on that show 'When Vacations Attack' right? All these points I'm about to cover have been observed in some form or fashion while Derik and I have been on the road ourselves. 1. Have 'travel smarts.' I wrote about this after our trip to Borneo. Here's the ... Read More
Baan Chang Elephant Park
Elephants are one of my favorite creatures in the entire world. I'm also a huge fan of dolphins and tigers, of which you'll get to hear about soon enough. We had visited an elephant park when we went to Bali, but that was two years ago, and we knew it was high time to check out another one! I had my heart set on visiting Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, but unfortunately our emailed reservation was overlooked, and they sold out of the remaining days we were there. I jumped on Trip Advisor and quickly found Baan Chang Elephant Park, which is known for it's quality of care and genuine concern for it's elephants. The only fault is that they do temporarily keep their elephants on chains instead of letting them roam wild and free like ... Read More
Things Only Expats Understand
I was going to write another post filled with pictures from our trip, but I've decided to interlace the photography posts with stuff that has somewhat legitimate/entertaining content to read. Last night I was laying in bed staring at my ceiling and trying to fall asleep for 2.5 hours, when this post came to me. I started to make a list of things only expats (and travelers) understand, and they flowed onto my iPhone notepad like butter. Sometimes insomnia is a good thing? 1. Names become harder to remember, especially in a foreign country where they all start with 'Su' or 'Kim' and end with 'Ho' 'Li' or 'Seung'. 2. There actually is something worse than the DMV. It's called the Immigration Office. 3. You get asked where you are from ... Read More
Maui Photo Session
It's been a long time since Derik and I have had a legit couples photo session. Actually, its been since our engagement/wedding over three years ago, and I knew it was high time to schedule another one. The only problem was finding a good photographer. I thought it would be really awesome to hire someone to take our pictures while we were on our big trip, so I started looking for a professional/freelance photographer in Hawaii. You wouldn't believe the amount of so-called 'photographers' in the Maui area. Most charged over $1,000 for something I could have easily done with a point and shoot. I took one last drastic measure to find the kind of photographer I was looking for by checking out Craigslist. Yes, you read right, Craigslist. I'm ... Read More