After returning from Croatia and spending a few weeks at home in Arizona, we turned around and took off to Southeast Asia for six weeks. This is a trip we have been planning for a long time. This trip got canceled during Covid and we spent the last year putting it together again. We decided to go to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. We really wanted to take our time and get to know the real essence of these countries. Since traveling to Southeast Asia was new for both of us and there were so many places that we did not know where to go or what to see, we spent a lot of time working with the experts at the Asia Desk (Asiadesk.net), who we found through CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER. Sandy and Ethan helped us put together great locations and guides throughout Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. We would highly recommend them.
Tara and I planned out our whole trip through Thailand ourselves and Asia Desk put together the rest. They were extremely helpful they gave us a 30 day schedule with all kinds of places to go. We were able to rearrange it anyway we wanted. But overall they set us up in wonderful places to stay and fantastic guides who really knew everything about their country and cities. Since Asia Desk specializes in these countries they had some very unique one-of-a-kind outings that really made our trip special.
Thailand - Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket
Tara worked her magic and found us business class flights using airline points in and out of Bangkok from Los Angeles on Cathy Pacific airlines. From Bangkok you can get to just about anywhere in Southeast Asia. It was the best place to start and finish our long trip. Bangkok is a huge city with over 9 million people. The hustle and bustle is nonstop. Vespas are everywhere and the city never really seems to rest. We took tours of several temples as well as the royal palace. Southeast Asia is very much about ancient temples. Every country we went to we saw amazing artwork.
On the day we went to the Royal Palace. It was a Sunday and it was open to the locals for free. Unfortunately, that was kind of bad for us because there were hundreds of local people visiting their most famous and beloved temple. The highlights at the palace, were the massive gold resting Buddha, and the Jade Buddha.
As you probably know, Tara and I love to go to incredible restaurants whenever we travel. So of course, while in Bangkok where many of the best restaurants in the world are, we went to Potong which was the 15th ranked restaurant in the world. We had an incredible 20 course dinner with the wine pairing. I hope you enjoy this video that describes our night at Potong.
Tara and I always take walking tours when we go to different cities around the world. In Bangkok we did a food tour on the streets of downtown Bangkok, as well as a tour through some of the markets and temples. We also took a walk through the only Christian community in Bangkok and the beautiful Christian church that was there. We like to use the website Withlocals.com we have had great luck with them in many different cities. It's usually just Tara and I or maybe one other couple. We have not been disappointed.
And here is a selection of videos that we shot while on our tours in Bangkok.
Stay tuned, more to come from Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia.
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