Happy Valentine's Day! We are in Nong Khai on the Mekong River between Thailand and Laos. We are relaxing for a couple of days before we head out across the border to Laos. We really enjoyed the town of Nong Khai, particularly the stretch right down by the Mekong River. It is so peaceful and relaxing here! We changed guest houses from the Ruan Thai guest house (with a really comfy room) to the Mut Mee guest house which had smaller (read: cheaper) rooms but w...

Short Version: Our guide while we were at the village, Andy Phanno, invited us to his home outside the village for a few days after we were done teaching. His whole family welcomed us with open arms and showed us even more Thai hospitality. We learned so much during our time with Andy's family, including Thai customs, Thai language, and the business of selling homemade products. Andy's mom makes Thai desserts and sells them at the local market. During our visit,...

Short Version: Our next stop was a village called Ban Nong Hoi Yai, one hour south of the town of Nakhon Phanom in Isan, the northeastern part of Thailand. Isan is a rural region with an agrarian economy based primarily on rice. The region is the largest producer of sticky rice in the world. Few western tourists regularly visit Nakhon Phanom, as it is a bit off the typical tourist track. As most of the residents do not travel far from home, getting there was ...

Ban Nong Hoi Yai Village We made it to the village on Monday, and we have been having a great time with our homestay family and teaching English to 5th, 6th, and 7th graders at the local school. We are about one hour south of a town called Nakhon Panom. We have limited internet connectivity now, so we will be updating with more details this coming weekend. We are doing well and having just an absolutely fantastic time. The looooong version of our experience ...

We are on a string of fairly low key days. We're just trying to get our next stop squared away. We were hoping to try out the Gibbon Experience in Laos, but it was very difficult to get any real information. Bev's voluntourism contacts came through with an opportunity to teach English in eastern Thailand in a town called Nakhon Phanom (NKP). It sits on the Mekhong river in northeastern Thailand with Laos on the other side of the river. Bev's been doing a lot of ...