Agape means unconditional love. At least that’s the definition I was given at a home for children with HIV, just outside of Chang Mai, Thailand. One morning at my guest house, I was fated to meet at breakfast a young couple, Ben and Lauren, from Ohio, a state next door to my home state of Michigan. In fact, it turns out Ben’s brother lives in my home town of Grand Rapids. Small world. When they said they were headed that morning to...

When I heard you could hang out with elephants in Thailand, I admit I was hesitant. I’d heard stories of animal abuse – drugged tigers you could pet, and overworked elephants carrying tourists around and around on their backs. But then someone told me about Happy Elephant Home, a rescue refuge that takes elephants out of hard labor and gives them a life of supposed relative ease, And I have to admit, they look pretty happy! A young...

Why did I return to Thailand after a week in Cambodia? Because the artsy town of Chang Mai was calling me, as were my new friends from the meditation retreat. As an American, you get a month tourist visa in Thailand, then if you leave the country, even for an hour or two, you can get another month. I had thought I’d continue on in Cambodia and Vietnam, but when friends suggested that, as an artist, I might appreciate Chang Mai, I decided...

Udonthani, like most of Thailand, is a blend of old and new, low tech and high tech… …local market and super market. What’s it like to live like a local in Thailand? I was lucky enough to find out, thanks to a connection made by another Travel Angel, my friend Lee in California, who introduced me via email to what turned out to be two more Travel Angels, Paul and Joi. They live in Udonthani, which is a fairly big city in the...

Paradise can be had for a song in Thailand, just head south… After 10 days at a bare-bones silent meditation retreat, I needed to recover, meaning a beach, a cold beer and a hammock! Sabine, a woman from Germany that I met at the retreat, had reserved a little island bungalow on Koh Phangan for $16 a night and invited me to share for a few nights. $8 a night for paradise, how could I turn that down?! Having heard about the wild full and...