Follow the Journey

Sabai, Sabai Thailand, the Land of Smiles, and temples, rice paddies, forest villages, and tuk-tuks, pad thai and iced tea, farms and families, and soon a Carpe Diem group called Sabai. And on to Cambodia… big rivers and orange sunsets, markets and circuses, creativity and yearning, and in the jungle a lost ancient city found again.   Unbelievable. Less than week from now, if all goes according to plan, Sabai will… Read More

Written By Natalie & Paff How quickly things can change, hey? Three days ago, we all sat around wooden stools at Sandot’s permaculture farm gorging on banana cake and fried noodles. Two days ago, we were singing “Happy Birthday” to Jordan and Daniela during our final dinner in Chiang Mai. Yesterday, we parted ways and gave one last scorpion salute and “Seize the day, baby!” in San Francisco. Today, we… Read More

Written By Fields & Jordan Swatdeekaaaaah, Greetings from an airport cafe in Taipei, Taiwan. This past week has been a kerfuffle of events. We began the week in Chiang Rai, refueling after a long stay with the Hill Tribes full of games, learning bamboo skills, chickens, and amazing foods. City life was popping. Our hostel was mega bougie. There was a pool table and a real life pool. It hosted… Read More

Written By Rosalba Hola todos! Oops wrong country This is Rosalba, writing the blog in an A/C hostel room while everyone else is out getting Thai massages. If you think I had to stay behind to write this, you thought wrong. Thai massages are way too painful for me to endure again, so I’m happily typing away! For the past few days, things have been going all sorts of ways;… Read More

Written By Daniela Greetings family and friends 🙂 We hope you are all doing well and enjoying life back at home. This is Daniela reporting to you from a big porch with chickens bocking away and an incredible view of green mountains. Last week, we had the opportunity to stay in Chiang Rai for a couple of days. The city was filled with beautiful streets and a vibrant night market… Read More

Written By Whitney Hey friends and family of the hustling and bustling Sabai 2020 group. This is Whitney (Whitneeeeyyy in Thai) coming to you from our first official laundry stop in 2 weeks in Chiang Rai, Thailand. After an inspiring first week in Chiang Mai for orientation, we packed up our bags from the Sarah Guest House and our lovely Ajarn (teacher) Panom drove us a quick 45ish minutes past… Read More

Hello from the land of smiles! We are excited to be reaching out for the first time together as one and hope this blog entry finds you well. We are wrapping up orientation in Chiang Mai and are about to depart for our initial homestay experience in Mae Rim. The crews (Team Free Boyfriend, Lost Wanderers, and Mango Vibes) just returned from their scavenger hunts filled with stories. Here are… Read More

Greetings friends and family The Sabai group landed safely in Chiang Mai, Thailand on February 14th. The group had a short layover in Hong Kong, and have arrived happy and a bit tired. The group will now make their way to the East side of Chiang Mai city to their orientation accommodation and will meet up with their final group member! After some food and a nap, the group will… Read More

Greetings, Family and Friends of the Carpe Diem Spring 2020 Sabai group, We are happy to inform you that the Sabai group is united and already beginning to get to know one another at the San Francisco airport. They have quite a journey ahead of them, with a long overnight flight and a brief Hong Kong layover, however, they seem to be a group that is more than up to… Read More

Sawadee-Kap, In just a little over a week, we’ll be wandering the streets of Chiang Mai, hunting down the best Pad Thai we can find, wondering what additional adventure awaits. On our end, the excitement for this is real. We’ve been training and scavenging (hunts, not food) and having a blast in Portland these last few days in preparation for our semester. We hope you too have been finding the… Read More

A song thaew seats twelve. Well, eight comfortably. Ten if you squeeze. But right now it seats twelve. Right now twelve sets of shoulders hold each other locked in place. Heads jostle on the bumpy road and someone compares them to bobble-head dolls. Some laugh, some grin, some act like they didn’t hear. Maybe they didn’t. The pavement is rough and the tires aren’t new. Song thaew is Thai for… Read More

Hey guys welcome back to my YouTube channel, it’s Madi here, featuring Sammi. To start off student directed travel, we had to wake up bright and early to catch a sleeper bus to Hoi An. The bus ride took us 13 hours and we arrived at our hostel later that evening. After a group dinner Claire, Audrey, Bryley and Harrison went to the night market where they got gelato. The… Read More

Written By Kylie Xin chao from Ho Chi Minh City! After Kylie and German’s extra few days in Phnom Phen with visa issues, the group was finally reunited. In the morning we were happily overwhelmed by all the welcoming handshakes and hugs from the Tan Tao University students. They picked us up from our hostel, and as we rode to Tan Tao University we all got to know each other… Read More

Written By Joe The day we left the island we traveled back to Kratie and on the way stopped at a wild dolphin watching spot. We learned that in Cambodia there are only 92 Irrawaddy dolphins left. Although we didn’t get to see much besides dorsal fins, we were excited to have experienced this. Joe made a friend with a local who gave him a sugar cane juice for free!… Read More

Written By Pualina Did you know that the best place to swim is in the Mekong River? We know from personal experience, but this blog post begins five exciting days before. We left Siem Reap in style, in a 12 seater van that should probably only be used for ten people. A very cramped eight hours later, we arrived in Kratie, a peaceful city along the Mekong River. Our group… Read More

Written By Claire G. Suae Sdei from Cambodia! We have now ended our Thailand journey and we start anew in beautiful Cambodia. After having spent 6 weeks in Thailand, it was a very weird experience going to the airport. We arrived and it was go time. We went through security with no problems except a couple of scissors being taken away. We all got through immigration without any problems. And… Read More

Written By Claire C. Lots of Monk No Chat (Monk Chat Meditation Retreat) Hello, everyone! Before we get into the juicy stuff, we’ve got to reflect for a second. This trip is halfway through! How was it six weeks ago that we met at the airport, had those do-we-hug-or-do-we-not-because-we’ve-never-met-but-we’ve-snapchatted-what-do-we-do moments (you know what we’re talking about…) and engaged in awkward small talk about the weight of our backpacks. Look how… Read More

Written By Audrey After two rest days in Chiang Rai, we headed North and took a four-hour bus ride to the small town of Thung Chung in the Nan province of Thailand which is about a forty-minute drive from the Thailand-Laos border. The bus ride left the group feeling quite car sick but the gorgeous, lush, and green mountain views were breathtaking. This past week we stayed at the Sahainan… Read More

A trek in the hills of northern Thailand. What a wild five days it’s been! Leaving our home in Ban Apa, we started our four day trek on October 6th. Our first destination was Ya Fu village. On our first day, we had a one and a half hour trek to the first stop at a waterfall where we got a delicious lunch wrapped in bamboo leaves. Paulina was a… Read More

After an exciting yet exhausting week at our first homestays in Thailand, it was time to say la gon (goodbye in Thai.) We packed our bags, bought some snacks, and our families sent us off to our next adventures. The leadership team, which consisted of Joe, Bryley, and Claire G., coordinated transportation and bought bus tickets to Chiang Rai. The four-hour long journey, although boring at times, was breathtaking the… Read More