Adam R

Dear friends and family, First and foremost I hope you and yours are happy, healthy, and having a great one. I am back in the US and have decided to dust off the old travel blog and provide everyone with a brief update of what I've been up to since my last, very outdated, post. This is just a preview and there will be more to come between now and Christmas, so be sure to subscribe if you haven't already. Warm Regards, Adam ... read more

Procrastination sucks. This entry will briefly chronicle my trip to Thailand in February. A couple of usual suspects joined me, Jake and Geoff. The cities we visited were Chiang Mai, Pai, and Bangkok. Although Thailand is the most traveled Southeast Asian country, and therefore the most overrun with tourists, it is definitely worth checking out for its hospitality, affordability, and pad thai, not to mention the pristine beaches and diving. We flew into the Northern Thailand city of Chiang Mai on the eve of Chinese New Year, one of the biggest holidays of the year in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. In Malaysia it last for a week; in China it lasts for an entire month. Chiang Mai is known for it's outdoor activities by way of mountains that surround the city. On our first ... read more

On New Year's day I set out to the largest lake in Southeast Asia, Lake Toba. It was listed as a 'must-do' in my Southeast Asia guide book, I booked the flight 3 weeks earlier and went there on a whim. Wikipedia intro to Lake Toba: A former supervolcano, Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world. It is 100 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide, and 505 metres (1,666 ft) at its deepest point. Located in the middle of the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra with a surface elevation of about 900 metres (2,953 ft). In addition, it is the site of a supervolcanic eruption that occurred about 74,000 years ago, a massive climate-changing event. The eruption is believed to have had a VEI intensity of 8. This eruption is ... read more

After Vietnam, we entered the Kingdom of Cambodia. Geoff and I were still traveling via boat up the Mekong River, but the change in scenery immediately peaked my interest. Gone were the heavy populated banks of the Mekong Delta, enter rural farm lands, villages, and water buffalo. Exactly what I wanted to see and experience all along. The second half of our trip was off to a great start, but first a brief history of Cambodia. Genocide The Khmer Rouge was responsible for 1.7 million deaths after overthrowing the country's government in 1975. The majority of these deaths were blatant genocide which they called 'social engineering'. The Khmer Rouge wanted to create a purely agrarian-based Communist society by moving the city dwellers to the countryside and subjecting them to forced labor. The Khmer Rouge specifically targeted ... read more

Hey you. It's time to dust off the old blog and let you know what's been happening in the life of an expat. The last 6 weeks have flown by and I take this as an indication I am feeling settled into the new lifestyle. Although I must admit that I am starting to miss a few things like the media craze of American sports. Especially now that both the NFL and College seasons have started I find myself addicted to reading articles on ESPN.com. Behind March Madness this is my favorite time of the year, especially when Jayhawks are off to a good start; Rock Chalk, go KU. The mascot inside of me simply won't die. It's a small price to pay, but one of those little things you don't anticipate until you are out ... read more