The Cambodia Kid Hustle

June 17, 2009

We’ve encountered our share of street vendors and other hustlers in various parts of the world, but they’ve mostly been adults. In Cambodia, hustling tourists seems to be the primary activity for kids, too. Some of them try to work the sympathy angle, while others have more sophisticated tactics. Nearly all of them speak surprisingly […]

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Surprising Siem Reap

June 16, 2009

I didn’t do my homework on this place – about all I knew was it had some cool temples and we needed malaria pills. I wouldn’t have guessed it would be one of the highlights of our trip! But apparently Cambodia is full of surprises. The first surprise came at the ATM, which gave out […]

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Haikus

June 11, 2009

Hey everyone! Mom & Dad are finally letting me write my own blog posts, so here’s something I like to call “Hannah’s Haikus”: Full Moon Festival sailing by moonlight watching lanterns floating by it feels magical Dinner what’s this on my plate? I’m organ intolerant and not hungry now. more to come… Tweet

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What Not to Name Your Tour Company

June 10, 2009

for some reason, this tour desk in Phuket didn’t seem to be getting much business. Tweet

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Krabi: Paradise Found!

June 9, 2009

I wish we had come here sooner – Ao Nang Beach at Krabi was sooo much better than Phuket! The trash-free beach was much more beautiful, with calmer waves. We found a great, affordable resort called Ao Nang Orchid, with awesome views and a great pool, too. But our favorite place to hang out was […]

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Phuket: Paradise Lost

June 8, 2009

I was really excited to visit the famous beaches of Phuket, to see how they compared to all those Caribbean beaches we’d seen last year. We arrived at the start of the rainy season, which I knew would be a trade-off: the weather and sea conditions might not be the best, but the hotel prices […]

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Getting Tuk

June 5, 2009

I’d like to think that all this traveling has made me a more savvy traveler, able to dodge the scams and tourist traps in all these places. I’d be wrong, though. In Bangkok, we fell prey to the one of the most well-known tourist scams in the city: we got kidnapped by a tuk-tuk driver. […]

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Temples and Stuff

June 4, 2009

Bangkok is home to some pretty impressive temples and palaces, mostly accessible by boat along the Chao Phraya River. One day we took advantage of a break in the monsoon rains to check out some of them. Wat Pho is the home of the world’s largest reclining Buddha, as well as some fantastically ornate buildings […]

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City of Angels

June 3, 2009

In 1782, King Rama I renamed the city of Bangkok as Krung Thep, or “City of Angels”, but somehow the rest of the world never got the memo. Actually, the full name of the city is much longer, translated roughly as “The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the […]

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Mixed Feelings

June 1, 2009

We left China with a lot of mixed emotions, but I think we mostly felt relieved. Of all the countries we’ve visited, this has been the one we were most glad to leave. People have asked us how was China and my reply has been I hated it or just didn’t like it depending on […]

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