To call Luang Namtha a ghost town would be an exaggeration. However, in a country of under eight million people, the town has fewer than 40,000 inhabitants, and zero crowds. The small size, quiet streets and personal space is what I liked about
![The White Temple or Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai, Thailand](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Resized-White-Temple-Wat-Rong-Khun-2.jpg)
The smallish city of Chiang Rai, not to be confused with its bigger cousin of Chiang Mai, (187 km south), is a good city for temple drifting and coffee sipping. During a week in this laid-back town, I walked to places of interest.
![Dumplings for sale at a night market in Chiang Mai, Thailand. From post: Thai Sounds With Food Words: Memory Enhancement Through Imagination](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Night-Market-Scene-in-Chiang-Mai-1.jpg)
After virtual teleportation up and across the grand globe, and finally touching down in Southeast Asia’s humongous hub of Bangkok, I was unsurprisingly bombarded with the Thai language. Bangkok is a city of around 15 million people, so there’s no shortage of eavesdropping
![The map on the seat back in front of me on a long haul flight from JFK to HK.](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Flying-Over-Alaska-Resized.jpg)
Traveling across the earth threw me for a loop. There was not a thought about being on the receiving end of extreme jet lag. When traveling across time zones, odd fatigue and not being able to sleep at night are often a given,
![The cathedral and birds at the Parque Central or Central Park, Guatemala City, Guatemala.](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Parque-Central-Resized.jpg)
Because I’d read more bad than good about Guatemala City, I loosely considered skipping it. However, I’d come to realize that la capital is a terrific travel destination. Like many travelers, upon arriving, I took a shuttle straight to Antigua and got to
![A refurbished former US school bus the market in Quezaltenango, Guatemala](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Bus-at-Xela-Market-Guatemala.jpg)
As the subcontinental railway is the pulse of colorful India, the refurbished former US school buses are the man-made vibration of greenery-laden Guatemala. Shortly after arriving at Guatemala City airport, I was on a 45-minute shuttle bus bound for Antigua, Guatemala. Arriving in
![](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/View-Up-in-the-Sierra-Madre-Mountains-Zunil-Guatemala.jpg)
The early morning Journey to Fuentes Georgina started from the Hotel Lar Antiqua beside the Parque Central. After a cool 20-minute power walk I was at La Rotonda and soon thereafter on a refurbished school bus bound for Zunil and its geothermal pools.
![](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Zaculeu-2-Resized-1.jpg)
Unplanned until the evening before, I found myself wandering the grounds of the ancient Mayan site of Zaculeu, in Huehuetenango. Because Guatemala’s second biggest city of Quetzaltenango hosts a huge celebration for the country’s Independence Day, I was forced out of the Lar
![](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Super-Vista-7-Resized-1.jpg)
Lake Atitlán is a magically wondrous body of water that Mayans have surrounded for millennia. The following anecdotes are based on the subjective and spontaneous choices I made while spending two plus weeks around naturally and culturally stunning Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. When someone
![Memory enhancement through imagination](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/View-of-Atitlan-From-Pana.jpg)
If I travel to England or Ireland and look at the signs and names around, I can often remember something without giving it much thought as these are the same names or labels I grew up with in Massachusetts. However, a person who