We started early today as we traveled from Chiang Mai to Railay Beach in Southern Thailand. We'll be staying here for four days. The flights weren't very convenient so we had a long layover in Bangkok. Upon arrival, our driver met us at the airport with cool towels and water. He drove us to the dock where we hopped on a boat for a 30 minute ride to our hotel, Rayavadee. Since it was low tide, they drove a tractor and portable dock right into the water, up to the...

Today we finally slept in! Well, I slept in and Kevin was nice enough to read his book on the porch for a while. We had a leisurely breakfast and explored the hotel a bit. Behind the hotel they have some rice paddies as well as some traditional Thai buildings. They do various programs for people who stay at the resort and it was nice to walk around and see the rice close up. Next, we boarded a shuttle to the day market. When we got there the streets were bus...

We were exhausted last night! We fell asleep with all of the lights on and completely missed dinner. When we finally woke up this morning, we enjoyed a slow breakfast as we had no definite plans other than to explore the city. One of the places on our list to explore was Wat Doi Suthep, a temple about 15 km outside of town in the mountains. To get there, we hired a tuk tuk to take us to the Chiang Mai Zoo. From there, we hired a songthaew to drive us up the ...

Today we woke up to birds singing outside our window where the tropical gardens are very thick and you can't see from one room to the next. The breakfast at Siripanna is a buffet that has both Eastern and Western food. From fresh fruit, corn flakes and made-to-order omelets to sticky rice, curried pork and pad thai we tried a little bit of everything! Then our songthaew arrived to take us to our cooking class on a farm outside of Chiang Mai. A songthaew is a ...

Today was relatively uneventful in that we spent the afternoon and early evening flying from Siem Reap to Bangkok to Chiang Mai. We tried to sleep in but after going to sleep so early the last two nights, we couldn't sleep much past 8:30. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and relaxed most of the morning. After packing, we took another tuk tuk to the airport. We had a minor panic attack thinking we left our money in the safe and had the driver turn aro...