In 1999 National League for Democracy leader and Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, called for a tourism boycott in Burma believing that money spent by visitors would be supporting the military regime and show international support for its practices. In November 2010, right before I first moved to Thailand, she called for a lifting of the […]

Tonight I walked down a street in Chiang Mai I’ve been down a hundred times before. I’ve been down it a hundred times because I’ve now been based here for four years. It’s the longest time I’ve had the same “home” since high school and feels like a lifetime ago that I was working in Seattle and […]

I’ve been back in Thailand for more than two months now (I swear time goes more quickly in Chiang Mai…). I never meant for this site to become a ‘living in Thailand blog’ but then again, I never expected to be staying here so long with. The questions and my answers/experiences below are a follow […]

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” – Alan Keightley This month marks the 2-year anniversary of Paper Planes – which feels strange to say since, depending on the day, it either seems like I’ve been doing this forever or […]

This past weekend marked my three year anniversary of leaving Seattle and moving to Southeast Asia. Though at the time I didn’t really think of it as ‘moving’, more like I was leaving for an extended trip, I’ve now used Chiang Mai as a home base for longer than anywhere else I’ve lived after high […]

Every trip has its own set of packing requirements. For short weekend trips it’s easy to throw stuff in a bag last minute, long backpacking treks require more planning ahead and items that can serve different duties, and moving to a new country is too overwhelming to to think about. How can you pack for […]

There’s no right or wrong way to travel…but there are a few things everyone should keep in mind while on the road. 1. Be patient Things will go wrong, planes will be delayed, the weather won’t cooperate and you’ll forget to charge your camera battery. In the end, it probably won’t matter too much. Just relax […]

When I first left home and moved to Thailand two years ago I wasn’t really stressed, anxious or worried before I left. People would ask me if I was scared to go, and I wasn’t at all. I wasn’t really excited either, or didn’t feel as enthusiastic about it as I thought I should. Instead […]

I’m going home next week for the first time in more than a year and the entire thing kind of scares me. I want to go home.  It’s time.  I need it.  I want to see my family and friends and eat cheese and Mexican food and bake and sleep in my bed and see […]

After two years of living abroad, there are a few tips for expat living that have come up frequently that make life and settling down in a foreign place a little easier.