I didn’t move about as much as I expected to in 2011. Five countries, an extended stay in Thailand, a couple of months at home, then dipping into Central America for the first time made for a busy year. Here are a dozen photos from 2011 — I hope you like them. Happy New Year!

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While walking through the markets in Chiang Mai, I often see these hand-carved soaps for sale and couldn’t resist grabbing a shot. You’ll sometimes find the vendor carving them from small balls of colored soap between sales — well worth stopping a moment to watch. They’ll usually ask for 150-200 baht per piece, but a little friendly haggling will drop that price considerably.

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I can’t stand working in my hotel room. Instead I hang out at cafes and coffee shops around town. The ideal office has wifi, accessible power, preferably a shady outdoor table, a breeze or fan and a wait staff that doesn’t mind me hanging out for hours drinking coffee and fruit smoothies. It’s a tricky combination.

I headed out today at 7:30, planning on stopping at my usual early-morning spot, Ratana’s Kitchen. It’s just around the corner from my hotel and I like to sit outside in the morning and start my day. Today they weren’t open yet and the waiter was standing outside watering the plants.

I thought I’d kill a few moments and walked down to the 7-11 to buy an energy drink and peruse the huge assortment of odd things for sale in the coolers (Essence of Chicken? Why?). Ten minutes later, I checked back at Ratana’s and the waiter was still standing unmoving in the same place, watering the same plant. A bit concerned, I checked his pulse — it was weak but steady, so I left him to his duties and headed to my back-up office.

The backup in this case is Black Canyon Coffee, just inside Tha Phae Gate in the old city. It’s a tourist trap and pricey, but they have decent wifi and it’s a great place to people watch. But Black Canyon has a fatal flaw: they tend to play the same CD over and over for days at a time. Recently it was, inexplicably, John Denver and yesterday it was a collection of rock songs sung in a crooning lounge style interspersed with Whitney Houston hits.

Later in the day I’ll have plenty of options: Archer’s Restaurant, which was one of my first spots and a favorite, Bargin Booze Cafe (yes, that’s how they spelled it. They’ve changed the name to Bamboo Cafe — this saddens me), Ahka Ama Coffee (best coffee in town, but a 30 minute walk), or even Blue Sky Bar, which not only sells the cheapest beer in town and has amazing service but also shows the SciFi channel on TV all day. (Supposedly, they’re open 24 hours a day but visiting a bar at 8 in the morning didn’t seem like a very productive idea.)

Girding myself, I opened the door to the fading strains of I Will Always Love You which not only made me cringe but triggered a memory of a small cafe I’d spotted a few days before, tucked down a quiet soi off the main road. Maybe they were open?

And they were! The Peppermint Coffee House turned out to be exactly what I wanted: they open at 7am, have great food and fair prices, fast wifi and friendly service. They even bring you free ice water to drink — unheard of in this town. Check them out next time you’re in town and tell the waiter, Abu, that Johnny sent you.

If you’re traveling this summer, why not travel slower and consider Thailand vacation rentals as a way to both save money on accommodation and to get to know a destination better. Renting a vacation home gives you a comfortable place to base yourself for exploring the surrounding area as well.

The weekly Sunday Walking Street is one of Chiang Mai’s most popular tourist attractions. About a dozen city blocks are closed to traffic and hundreds of street stalls spring up selling clothing, trinkets, ethnic art and knick knacks of every kind. But the real treasure here lies in the wats (Buddhist temples) that line the street. Several are converted into sprawling food markets that offer a dizzying array of amazing food.

Portions are small, as are the prices, so it’s easy to sample several different options in a single visit — think of it as Thai tapas. Things get very crowded, so I recommend going early –around 5pm– while many vendors are setting up. By 7pm, things will be so packed you can hardly move. And for reference, 30 baht is the equivalent of $1 US. Hope you enjoy the photos.

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Next to camels, elephants are the most ridiculous form of transportation imaginable. I was unlucky, as usual, and ended up riding a particularly cranky one. She’d stop every ten feet or so and refuse to move until the mahout clonked her on the head with a wooden stick.

She would grudgingly start moving again, only to stop thirty seconds later while I sat baking in the sun. After twenty minutes, we had covered about 100 feet and I was very grateful that we’d only signed up for a thirty minute ride. As we approached the stop where the tourists are pressured to buy bananas for their steeds, mine decided to take a shortcut down a steep hill at speed (speed being a very relative term here). It was like riding a ten-ton paint shaker and I quickly understood why the seat had a locked bar across my lap. I spilled my beer twice.

The best part of the experience was actually after we finished the ride and got to hang out by the water watching the elephants gleefully bathe and roll about in the water. The one pictured here almost got me — I had just enough time to snap the shot and then turn to shield the camera.

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