Thailand
Bangkok
Home base. A city you don't visit so much as negotiate with — best read from a canal boat, a temple courtyard, or a fourth-floor noodle shop.
A Southeast Asia Travel Journal
Bangkok & Beyond
Slow itineraries, honest reporting and a quiet obsession with the corners of Southeast Asia that don't make the listicles.
Issue No. 01 · Volume I
The Atlas
39 cities, 9 countries — and counting.
A running ledger of every place we've spent at least a night.
Thailand
Chiang Mai
The old north — slow mornings inside the moat, gilded wats catching the light, and the cleanest coffee culture in the country.
Thailand
Chiang Rai
Quieter than its southern sister and stranger for it — white temples, blue temples, and tea plantations climbing toward the Burmese border.
Thailand
Ayutthaya
Ninety minutes north of Bangkok and 400 years back. Bicycle between brick stupas at dawn, before the bus tours arrive.
Thailand
Kanchanaburi
The River Kwai and a difficult history. Stay one night past the day-trippers and the valley opens up — limestone, jungle, sleeper trains.
Thailand
Hua Hin
The royal seaside. Less raucous than Pattaya, more Thai than Phuket — long beaches, a wooden train station, and very good seafood.
Thailand
Pattaya
Loud, fluorescent, fully self-aware. Skip the strip and head south to Jomtien, or out to Koh Larn for the day.
Thailand
Pak Chong
The gateway to Khao Yai — vineyards, elephants, and the country's oldest national park, an hour's drive from a Bangkok platform.
Thailand
Bang Kachao
Bangkok's so-called green lung — a teardrop of jungle in the river bend, reachable by a two-minute ferry and a rented bicycle.
Thailand
Ao Nang
The launchpad for Krabi's limestone karsts. Use it as a base, then disappear by longtail to Railay or Hong Island.
Thailand
Phuket
Bigger and quieter than its reputation. Old Town for shophouses and Peranakan food; the west coast for the sunsets they sell postcards of.
Thailand
Phi Phi
The famous viewpoint, the famous bay, the famous crowds. Worth one night to wake up before the day-boats.
Thailand
Koh Lanta
The long, low island for people who want the Andaman without the noise. Scooter the spine of it from Saladan to the southern lighthouse.
Thailand
Koh Lipe
As far south as you can get before Malaysia. Three beaches, no roads, water the color of a swimming pool.
Thailand
Koh Samui
The full-service Gulf island — Chaweng's nightlife on one side, Bophut's old fisherman's village on the other.
Thailand
Koh Samet
The closest decent island to Bangkok — three hours and a short ferry. Best as a Friday-to-Sunday reset.
Thailand
Koh Chang
Thailand's second-largest island and one of its most forested. The east coast is where to stay if you want quiet.
Thailand
Koh Kood
The one we keep telling people about and then regretting. No 7-Eleven, no nightlife, just coconut palms and clear water.
Indonesia
Bali
Skip Kuta. Base yourself in Ubud for the rice terraces and ceremonies, then drive east to Sidemen or north to Munduk.
Japan
Tokyo
A city best understood neighborhood by neighborhood — Yanaka one morning, Shimokitazawa the next, never trying to see it all.
Japan
Kyoto
Stay near the Kamo River, walk Higashiyama before breakfast, and book the temple gardens you actually care about in advance.
Japan
Osaka
Loud, funny, hungry. The cousin who runs a bar. Eat your way from Shinsekai to Tenma and skip the castle queue.
Japan
Hakone
Two nights in a ryokan, one good onsen, and — with luck and clear weather — Fuji-san across Lake Ashi at dawn.
Cambodia
Siem Reap
Angkor at sunrise, then a long lunch and a swim. Three days, not one — and hire a guide who can actually read the bas-reliefs.
Vietnam
Hanoi
The Old Quarter as a single, continuous market. Pull up a plastic stool, order whatever the table next to you is eating.
Vietnam
Da Nang
Beaches on one side, the Marble Mountains on the other, and Hoi An a forty-minute taxi south for the lanterns.
Vietnam
Phu Quoc
The big Gulf-of-Thailand island that happens to be Vietnamese. Go for the north of the island; everything south of Duong Dong is built up.
Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
Underrated as a food city, overshadowed by Singapore. Bukit Bintang for the towers, Kampung Baru for the satay.
Malaysia
Penang
George Town is a UNESCO masterclass in shophouse architecture and possibly the best eating on the peninsula. Plan around hawker hours.
Malaysia
Langkawi
Duty-free and dramatic — mangrove tours, a cable car up Gunung Mat Cincang, and quiet beaches if you rent a car.
Philippines
Manila
A complicated, generous city. Intramuros for the history, Poblacion for the bars, and out by sunrise to wherever you're actually going.
Philippines
Boracay
Famous for a reason — a four-kilometer beach of powdered sugar. Stay on Station 3, walk north for the sunset.
Sri Lanka
Colombo
Most travelers skip it. Don't. One day for Galle Face at dusk, a Tamil breakfast in Wellawatte, and the old Dutch hospital.
Sri Lanka
Kandy
The hill capital and the spiritual one — Temple of the Tooth at dusk, then up into the tea country by train the next morning.
Sri Lanka
Sigiriya
The rock fortress is the photo; the frescoes and the water gardens are the reason you stay. Climb before 8am.
Sri Lanka
Dambulla
The cave temples — five chambers of Buddhas under a single overhanging rock. Twenty minutes from Sigiriya and just as worth the climb.
Sri Lanka
Galle
The Dutch fort on a peninsula — Portuguese walls, colonial townhouses, surf on three sides. Stay inside the ramparts.
Laos
Luang Prabang
A small UNESCO town at the meeting of two rivers. Wake for the alms ceremony, swim at Kuang Si in the afternoon.
Laos
Vientiane
Possibly the most relaxed capital in Asia. A baguette, a riverside sunset over the Mekong, and you've seen it.