After 5 days spent discovering the busy cities of Ayutthaya and Bangkok, we get a chance to slow down at the Thai Plum Village, a mindfulness retreat center that was established by Thich Nhat Hanh. Each morning starts at 3:52 am. Monk time is 8 minutes early. We usually start with some sort of seated meditation or chanting, followed by a walking meditation. After that we have a small break… Read More

The hustle and bustle of Old Chiang Mai has become a familiar homestead for me. It's the constant place we come back to after new experiences with home-stays, farms, long treks and elephants. Void of my family it has me feeling a bit homesick. Dodging the cars, motorcycles and tuk tuks has become second nature to me, and I surely am going to miss this city. The long alleyways that… Read More

It's Iris here–I'm still alive. We're doing to scavenger hunt now in Chiang Mai and Hannah and I are totally gonna win. This is my first computer since Hong Kong and its all in Thai so I'm completely dumbfounded as to how to navigate anything. So far we've paraded around the city trying not to get hit by passing cars or motor bikes. The food has been AMAZING and nowhere… Read More