Trip Articles
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A trip to the Wallowas and Eastern Oregon
With our intimate Sprinter van, we headed off to see the Wallowa mountains. Traveling in a van with 10 people and no toilet necessitated extra stops, but those provided opportunities to enjoy experiences that can’t be had when traveling in a full size motorcoach. In addition to a couple extra overnights to break up the…
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Explore Thailand and Laos on a maiden voyage
A couple years ago, Joan and I did a travel presentation for our upcoming tours. At the end, someone came up to Joan and lamented, “I wish I had gone on one of Tom’s trips back when they were cheaper”. Well this December, I’m offering the chance to take one of those budget trips. In…
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Copper Canyon train trip from Mazatlan
When I visited Mazatlan last October, I saw a question posted in the Facebook expat group regarding visiting Copper Canyon. Not only is this one of the most unique experiences in Mexico, it is easily done from Mazatlan. Of course, the most efficient way to do this would be to fly to Chihuahua or Los…
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A weekend getaway from Portland to Tokeland
As a tour guide, I occasionally find myself planning the perfect tour. In fact, I’ve proposed a couple of these tours to my employers in the past, but they’ve explained that there’s no money in them. People want to see things and places they’ve heard of, and you just can’t get enough people to sign…
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What’s it like to visit the southern Thai Islands and Peninsula?
Phuket, Pataya, and Hua Hin All of the above are party towns dominated by overage men looking for barely legal women to keep them company. Phuket, in particular, felt like a Las Vegas run by Russian mobsters, and I left after one night. Pataya is not much different, and Hua Hin is a smaller scale…
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Thailand: Phang Nga bay tour from Phang Nga town
I thought I was being clever heading all the way up to the top of Phang Nga bay. I knew there were boat tours offered from both Phuket and Krabi, but since they started 45 miles south of the bay, I figured they’d cost more than one starting from the top of the bay. While…
