Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Myanmar

    Myanmar is pretty new to tourism.  They just opened their borders to outsiders recently and there aren’t nearly enough hotel rooms for all of the tourists that want to come.  Luckily we weren’t coming during the high season so there were plenty of rooms available, but the prices were still double what we’d found anywhere…

  • Chiang Mai

    Our first night in Chiang Mai, we had a hotel reservation through Agoda as usual, but we’d been hearing travelers all along our journey tell us that they’d found better deals by walking through the backpacker districts and checking out hotels in person.  Since we were spending more time in Chiang Mai than anywhere else…

  • Mae Hong Son Loop – Thailand

    After traveling according to bus and train and plane schedules, we were excited to arrive in Northern Thailand where we rented a car for our road trip around the Mae Hong Song loop (Thanks Brad and Xiao Ling!).  This 4 day loop out of Chiang Mai and up toward the border with Myanmar (Burma) takes…

  • Laos

    We entered Laos in the southern capital town of Vientiane.  Our hotel was very close to the night market, so we wandered around that a bit the first night. We weren’t far from a Scandinavian bakery and several massage places either, and took full advantage of both.   Khmu massage was very similar to Thai in…

  • Kampot

    From Phnom Penh, we took a karaoke bus down to southern Cambodia to the coastal town of Kampot.  The karaoke was a screen at the front and a man swapping out discs of Cambodian pop songs with corny 70’s style music videos.  It was humorous at first, but by the end of the ride, we…

  • Phnom Penh

    We arrived in Phnom Penh after our first ride on a “hotel bus” – a bus with beds instead of seats so you can lie down flat and if you’re under 5’ 3” even stretch out.  Compared to the vans and busses we had been taking, this was luxury!  We were both able to get…

  • Siem Reap, Cambodia

    At our hotel in Railay we had to pay for internet separately.  We rushed to buy our tickets to Cambodia before running out of minutes and running out to climb.  We found that the cheapest place to fly into Cambodia was Phnom Penh, the capitol, but it had an overnight layover in Singapore.  As we’ve…

  • Railay Beach, Thailand

    We took the speedboat to Railay Beach, which takes about 2 hours.  When you get there you have to transfer mid-water onto a smaller longboat which can get you close enough to shore that you can hop off and wade to the beach.  There didn’t appear to be any dry way of getting to land…

  • Koh Lanta

    There are a number of islands off the West coast of southern Thailand.  All have access to countless incredible dive sites.  Koh Phi Phi is the most well known and popular with the young party crowd while Koh Lanta is a little more off the beaten track so more popular with families and old fogies…

  • Krabi

    We left Georgetown and the island of Penang on a crammed minivan that we assumed was taking us across to the mainland where we would catch our bus.  It turns out, this crammed minivan WAS our bus.  The next 11 hours cuddled up with strangers – unable to put our feet down naturally since the…

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