Between the malls, pizzerias, and international schools, Bangkok feels like a rather European part of Asia. Like Toyko or Seoul, but smaller. It’s one of the most expensive places to live in Thailand, but also the most convenient for visitors. If you’re looking to keep your Bangkok travel costs low, it’s a good idea to …

I recently finished my fourth trip to Thailand, most of it for chocolate. And you’ll understand why I think 10 days in Thailand is the perfect taste of the country really soon. When I think of the food I ate in my childhood, some of my favorite memories involve going to Thai cooking classes with …

Compared to the more-visited city of Bangkok, chocolate in Chiang Mai is rather scarce. But it’s not impossible to find. There are three chocolate makers in Chiang Mai, and a few makers transitioning onto the scene, set to debut sometime in 2020. For a current list of Chiang Mai chocolate shops, see below. Chiang Mai …

Thailand is hot. Even in the dead of winter, the south is sticky, melty hot. It’s not the kind of hot you normally associate with chocolate, but Thailand has actually been growing cacao— the raw material for chocolate— for over a century. Over the last few years, this fruit has been cropping up across southern …

“Squirrels will eat all your cacao pods and leave [them] like a bat, you know, hanging on the cacao trees. And the uncle will say ‘Oh, I cannot fight with it anymore.’” -Paniti Junhasavasdikul, Co-founder of Kad Kokoa Chocolate Thailand is the country of potential. Immigrants from nearby Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia come to the …

To whomever actually reads the introduction, in many ways this is a list of places I want to travel to in the near future (a few of which I’ve already been to). But this is mostly an article for you, the reader, who visits this site for insight into how the research I’ve done has …

Elephants are much hairier up close, I’ve recently realized. Their speckled foreheads hold in their superb memories, full of events they’d probably prefer to forget. As smoke gathered in the air next to his right ear, his smile crinkled in anticipation of another banana. Thep the elephant looked so happy eating those bananas that we …

Thailand is not yet known for its amazing chocolate or flavorful cacao. Most people visit Thailand for just a few days, exploring the floating markets in Bangkok or heading straight for one of the southern islands. Over the next few years this will change, but thanks to its current market of expats, Thailand’s fine food …