It is the return of the earache - previously seen in Indonesia last year, and most likely again brought on by too many underwater excursions. More rest time. Koh Phangan had two immediate reference points for us before arriving here. The first is that the island is known for its infamous Full Moon beach parties that are apparently the stuff of legends. We are purposefully not here on a full moon. (We have since learned that Koh Phangan likes debauchery so...

It's hard to choose between Thailand's many stunning islands, but your choices just might be dictated by the rainy season. Generally, the rains are most severe from May-October on the Andaman Sea side of Thailand, and the east side of the Gulf of Thailand, which left us choosing the one area we haven't yet visited - the west side of the Gulf. Koh Tao is known to have some of the cheapest diving experiences in all of southeast Asia, and so it was a great ch...

We're back in Thailand for a few days before we fly to a new, spontaneous country: Taiwan! And Bangkok is the perfect place to hunker down and enjoy knocking off several items on an exciting to-do list, including: Catching up on writing your travel blog! Using your improved wi-fi and data connections to upload and back up photos, and download some new entertainment content for those long travel days Getting your smudge-y camera sensor professionally clean...

It's only been about a year and a half since we were in Chiang Mai, but it's clear how many southeast Asian temples we have now visited as we spoke this question to each other far too often while walking around the Old Town for a couple of days. We usually imagine the "Old Town" of a city as small and compact, but were reminded that Chiang Mai's Old Town is quite large and simply chock full of fantastic sights that can be hard to keep track of. Not that you can...

The initial plan was to cross the border from central Vietnam into Laos, work our way up to the north, and then cross into northern Thailand. This is a thing! This is what people do. It's supposed to be a cinch. But we had had difficulty finding and booking a bus ticket into Laos as proof of an onward journey from Vietnam, got annoyed and impatient, and ended up booking a cheap flight to Chiang Mai from Da Nang. Although these decisions were made pre-dog bit...