If you ever wanted a good time for a low price, Thailand is 
where you need to go. We recently traveled to Thailand and while we were there we hung out in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Lop Buri, Ayutthaya, and a handful of other colorful towns. Our primary motivation for going at this time (November 2015), was because of the famous Yi Peng festival that was going on. It’s commonly known to us tourists as the lantern festival. I’ll get into the festival and all of its pyro-glory in another post here.
Our first stop in Thailand was a hip little hostel that we found off AirBnB (our new favorite thing). For about $15/night we had a private room, access to clean and hot showers, a full spread continental breakfast, and a very helpful manager who made sure we would wander off in the right direction.
Our next stop was up north in Chiang Mai. Here, we stayed with a Thai family for 5ish days. This was probably the most memorable part of our trip. There is something awesome about sharing cultural experiences over great Thai food and even better Thai beer. Our host, Jim, happened to be a Thai cooking instructor as well as a Thai tour guide. We were pretty much set for the rest of our trip.
Aside from experiencing the Lantern Festival and Loi Krathong, we went to an elephant sanctuary, visited several temples, played with wild monkeys in Lop Buri, took a cooking class, and scooted around town. Thailand was a bucket-list trip that we were happy to have experienced. We plan on returning to see Phuket in South Thailand one day. Until then, I’ll be grateful that we survived the crazy Thai streets on our moped and have some lifelong memories to share. ♦
