Bangkok’s Chinatown

Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown
Bangkok Chinatown

On our way back to Chiang Mai from Cambodia, we made a pit stop in Bangkok. I’ve read somewhere that you never appreciate Bangkok on your first visit, but if you come back around a second time, you’ll welcome it with open arms. I feel like that statement was pretty spot on for us. Maybe it’s because we found ourselves caught in the tourist trap area of Khaosan Road on our first visit, but second time around we explored deep through the veins of Bangkok’s Chinatown. We must have got lost in it’s alleyways for hours that day. A labyrinth of never ending markets where anything can be found. Vintage records, colorful wigs, antique arcade machines, and even ancient Chinese potions in mysterious bottles. As we got deeper and deeper into the trenches of street food, gold shops, and rows of silks and fabrics, we realized that to describe Bangkok, words fail. We could come everyday and walk down the same road just to come back to write a different story. It’s wild, it’s almost tangible, it’s Bangkok.

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Getting from Chiang Mai to Siem Reap

Chiang Mai to Siem Reap

Our first 30 days in Thailand were about to expire so we planned to take a trip across the border into what many now refer to as the “Wild Wild West of Southeast Asia”, Cambodia. I can’t even begin to express how much I loved our time there (i’ll save for another post), but I do strongly encourage anyone who is in this part of the world to be sure and pay a visit to this beautiful kingdom.

Getting from Chiang Mai to Siem Reap is a fairly cheap and inexpensive trip. Although there aren’t currently any buses running directly to Cambodia from Chiang Mai, there is a new government-ran bus serving connecting Bangkok to Siem Reap. I found a lot of good information on various posts/forums sprinkled throughout the interwebs, but I wanted to compile a quick run-down of how we got from Chiang Mai > Bangkok > Siem Reap all in one post.

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Chiang Mai to Bangkok

In Chiang Mai we purchased an overnight VIP bus ticket to Bangkok from the Arcade Bus Station, located 3 or 4 kilometers east of the old city. There are several travel offices located around the old city, but don’t fall for their dirty tricks. Most charge double the rate you would get as opposed to going to the bus station in person and booking yourself. Chiang Mai is such a small town, getting to the bus station is well worth the extra time and effort. When you arrive to the station, you’ll immediately be blown away by all the Thai women yelling at you from their little ticket booth windows. Have no fear, they’re shouting because ticket prices are not a flat price and will vary slightly from agency to agency — so be sure to shop around to work the best deal. We ended up booking a super comfortable double-decker VIP for 550 baht each. And when I say “VIP” I mean VIP! Each seat had its own LCD monitor with a great selection of movies to choose from, they all reclined waaaay back and had an electronic massage function built in! Needless to say we both fell asleep very easily and woke up 9-10 hours later in Bangkok.

Get your ticket before leaving Mo Chit!   You’ll arrive to the Mo Chit bus terminal in Bangkok, and this is also where you can purchase your ticket for a direct bus ticket from Bangkok to Siem Reap through Transport Co Ltd Bus at booth 22. As of September 10, 2013, the agent at the ticket counter confirmed that there is only one bus each day, and it leaves at 9:00 am. So plan on staying at least one night in Bangkok after reserving your ticket for the following day. The tickets can be purchased from booth 22 on the ground floor, for 750 baht ($25 USD) each.

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Bangkok to Siem Reap

We only stayed one night in Bangkok. I booked a dorm room at the WE Bangkok Hostel because it was the most affordable option that was located within walking distance of the BTS (Bangkok’s Skytrain) line. Staying near the BTS made it super easy to get to the Mo Chit station the next morning without having to fight rush hour traffic jams. From BTS Mo Chit station catch the 11 bus to take you to the terminal.

This direct Bangkok to Siem Reap line opened in February 2013, so a fairly new luxury. In the past, you would need to change to another bus service (Cambodian run company) at the border. With this direct route, however, you will be traveling on the same bus and with the same driver and staff the whole route. From Bangkok you’ll drive to the border where the bus stops for about 20 minutes for passengers to arrange their Cambodian visa. They also provide a small boxed lunch to snack on throughout this stop. From here, the bus will drive you a little further to the Thai immigration office. The bus will drop you off here and you’ll walk through Thai immigration to get your departure stamp. You’ll then walk to the Cambodian side to get your arrival stamp and the bus will be waiting for you on the Cambodian side. Welcome to Cambodia! It was another 2-3 hour ride from the border to Siem Reap. Enjoy the bumpy ride along the beautiful countryside. Can’t wait to make this trek again. 🙂

What if Money Was No Object – Alan Watts

This time last year I was working full-time for a cool little design shop in Austin. The environment was laid back, the work itself was fun, and I couldn’t have asked for a better boss or co-workers. I understood how fortunate I was compared to most people having a job that I absolutely didn’t hate, but still, I had an over-consuming feeling like there was something else I should be doing. I found myself waking up every morning looking forward to the weekend, and time after time I realized that the week had flown by…then a new month…and then a whole year had passed. I couldn’t believe how fast time was moving and how many days I spent wishing I were somewhere else.

The greatest perk of being a designer is being able to work with headphones on and listen to music throughout the day. When I needed a break from music I would listen to lectures from Alan Watts and others to get my brain stimulated with things other than design. I came across this short video montage that uses an audio snippet from one of Watts’ famous lectures and it really struck a chord. It made me ask those questions and reach deep within to understand the simple truth that I could do anything and go anywhere I wanted. I shouldn’t be living 5 days out of the week with this feeling like I was wasting my time chasing money. Although I enjoyed my job, I knew I was only in it for the money just like 99% of the people in this world that work. I knew that I still wanted to design, but the thought of being tied down to one place was root of my discontent. I wanted the freedom to pick up and go if I wanted to or to extend my stay longer if I loved the place. This video along with a few other influences led me to talking with Charmie into taking the big leap — stop chasing the dollar and start living as we truly wanted to. We may not have as much money now as we did when we both had full-time jobs, but we’re content and happy. Somehow small projects keep coming in here and there and they’re keeping us afloat. It makes me think of something Tina Roth Eisenberg said at her SXSW keynote speech, “When things keep falling into place, that’s the universe telling you to keep going.” We’re now somewhat living the way the majority of the world does. Living day to day not knowing where the next dollar is coming from. It’s such a thrilling experience and right now I wouldn’t want it any other way.

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Prokudin-Gorskii :: Russian Color Photography from Early 1900

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I’ve always been fascinated by pictures from the past. These color photos from Russian photographer/chemist Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii are simply incredible. Between 1909 and 1915, Prokudin-Gorskii traveled across his home country, using a relatively new technology of color photography to document what he saw along his journey. Outfitting a private train car with his own dark room equipment, Prokudin-Gorskii captured landscapes, buildings, and people in a series of breathtaking images. Without sepia tones’ time-distancing effects, the characters in these images feel right there, full of stories of a bygone era and a diverse, colorful culture on the brink of revolution.

View the entire collection of high res photographs here.

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Sebastiao Salgado

Tigray, Ethiopia, 1985

Sebastiao Salgado

Sebastiao Salgado

Sebastiao Salgado

Sebastião Salgado

Ethiopia, 1984

Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado

Just came across the absolutely incredible work from Brazilian photographer and photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado. The majority of his photographs leave me wondering how he got to such bizarre locations he did in order to produce such beautifully apocalyptic images. I even start to question if they’re real or if they’ve been digitally created or altered. But indeed they are real film shots. His work is such an inspiration to seek out these far corners of this world that very few have captured the way he has.

Enchanting Southwest USA

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Finally taking some time to go through the crazy amount of photos we’ve taken over the past few months. Looking back through our US road trip photos, it makes me a little home sick. The Southwest has to be one of the most beautiful places on this earth. There’s something magical about the desert and I look forward to returning there sometime in the not so distant future. Here are a few of my favorite shots captured with the Nikon EM.