Thailand is a great big country literally overflowing with beauty... and water!
EVO: If you missed our last couple shows, opportunity has brought us to Thailand, a country we didn't know all that much about. Hard pressed to identify it on a map, we'd have found the general area, but probably confused it with Myanmar or Cambodia. That's not a fact that makes us proud, and we're working on correcting it.
SHE: We had a lot of misconceptions about Thailand. Some of those misconceptions were rectified the moment we looked it up on a map. Like the size of the country, for instance. If you're thinking Thailand is a small country, you're wrong:
SHE: We never did write the blog post, but we did the research.
EVO: And it's a good thing I didn't bet myself, because "that big lamb chop looking weird thing" that makes up the bulk of Thailand's area *is* Nevada sized... and then some. Overlaid on a map, it pretty much covers Nevada, bulges into Utah, and gets into California and Arizona. And that's not even counting the long, thin strip of land where we're staying. Thailand is BIG.
SHE: And it's beautiful. It's greenery on scale we've never experienced. Clouds, mountains, islands, seas... At the risk of quoting Sting lyrics, every step we take leads to more stunning vistas.
EVO: Now listen: it's hard to convey the beauty of this place in audio form. We're surrounded by it the moment we leave town. It's more than a little overwhelming and hard to describe with words.
SHE: I'm taking tons of photos, but like the Grand Canyon, photos of the beautiful rainforest just don't to it justice.
EVO: But there's one ubiquitous geological feature that does photograph well. And they're more common than monkeys in Thailand.
SHE: Waterfalls.
SHE: Where we're from, waterfalls aren't all that common. To see one of any appreciable size, you need to drive a few hours. And when you get there, you're at THE waterfall, likely the only one around for hundreds of miles.
EVO: Here, you'll find a waterfall about every 10-15 kilometers. Not kidding. Some, like Punyaban and Ngao, are visible from the main highway, easily accessible to locals and tourists alike.
SHE: Some are less accessible, only visible by an occasional glimpse on rough jungle trails. And some waterfalls appear only when it rains.
EVO: And rain it does. A lot. If you listen close, you've probably heard it under some of our narration segments recorded in Thailand. Lots of rain here. Insulation to baffle sound? Not so much. This is the rainy season of Thailand, and Ranong is the province with the most rain in the entire country. A double whammy for us. And quite different from what a good portion of our audience is experiencing.
EVO: And yes I know I said hydrological instead of hydrologic. Sorry. I was a little shocked by the sheer volume of rain that happens here, so forgive my meteoricological slip.
SHE: I'm not so sure that's not the right word, either. Coming up, a sneak peek from a future show. But first...
EVO: Last week I told you that we really didn't have an outlet for all the travel hacks we're learning along the way, and that I was offering them up as content for other web properties. The overwhelming response from listeners was "we want those travel hacks, dammit!" so I'm obliging. We're revamping our email newsletter -- which had largely languished the last few months -- as that outlet. Each week, we'll email you one of our travel hacks. No, not one we've culled from some other website. These are the hacks we've learned during our travels and we're sharing them exclusively through our weekly newsletter. If you're not signed up already (and I know most of you aren't, so... seriously) do it today. And if our domain is too long to spell, just use Shevo.wtf. That'll always work.
SHE: Here's what we've got cooking for a future show.
EVO: Get it? Cooking? Oh, I slay me. Oh, and we've revamped our outro to make it a heck of a lot shorter. Sorry about the prior rambling. Cheers from Thailand!
SHE: Funding for our endless world tour is provided, oddly enough, by postcards.
EVO: Give us five bucks, and we'll send you a hand-written postcard from our travels abroad every single month. Get on the list at ShEvo.wtf/postcards.
SHE: And we save a ton of money by housesitting. It's freeand beats living in hotels. Want super cool people like us looking after your pets and property while you're traveling? Visit ShEvo.wtf/stayforfree to register,either as a housesitter or a home owner. We do it, and we love it! Thanks for listening to this episode. I’m Sheila Dee.
EVO: And I am Evo Terra. Our theme music is "On the Ground" by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com. All other sounds, voices, and odd bits you hear were most likely created or captured by us. Visit ShEvo.wtf to get more goodness from us and to see where opportunity will take us next. Thanks for again for listening and tell a friend about us. Now would be good.
New episodes of the The Opportunistic Travelers Podcast are available every Tuesday. Of course, Tuesday can be a very different thing depending on where we are in the world. Cheers!
