Three hundred kilometres at the speed of the current, a bench that was not built for anyone's back, and the best bowl of soup I have had in four years.
Jelena Larsen
18 min read
4 September 2026
A berth, a thermos, and eleven hours of not being able to see anything at all.
Nobody comes here on purpose. That is exactly why the food is this good.
Six shared taxis, one very confident teenager, and a lesson in asking twice.
Every baht, dong and riel, written down at the time and added up honestly.
Twice a week, cash only, and no timetable you can find online.
The guesthouse is a coffee shop now. I am not sure I am allowed to mind.
I am Jelena. In 2019 I took a job that ended badly, bought a train ticket instead of a plane ticket, and never really got around to going home.
Everything here is written after the fact, from notebooks, usually months later. I pay for my own beds and my own meals, I do not take press trips, and if a place was bad I say so. The archive goes back to the first post, mistakes included.
Jelena Larsen
No listicles, no affiliate links, no ten best anything. Just whatever I have been working on, sent once a week to around eleven thousand people.
