Today Rose and I embarked on our big trip to Southeast Asia, which will take up most of the rest of our year off. We drove down to Denver a day early to see our friends Josh and Monika before heading out Thursday evening to the airport for 25 hours of travel over three flights to Bangkok. The trip was long, but we were so excited to finally be starting our long-awaited adventure.

After we landed and figured out customs, currency exchange, and cell service issues, we hopped on the train to head into town. Rose booked us a hotel between Chinatown and the Royal Palace, so we headed that way and grabbed some curry and a beer at a local joint in the neighborhood—our first tasty bite of many to come. We checked in to the hotel and freshened up before our first activity, a street food tour in Chinatown. Turns out we didn’t need to eat lunch beforehand, because we had 15 different dishes from the stalls and shops around the neighborhood. The Vegetarian Festival is going on in Thailand too, so after the tour, we walked alongside a parade heading down the main road through Chinatown on our way back to the hotel. What an explosive way to start the trip!