Hey, I’m Maya — and Asia basically ruined me for everywhere else.
I took my first solo trip to Thailand back in 2013 with a beat-up backpack, a Lonely Planet guide from 2009, and absolutely no idea what I was doing. I got ripped off by a tuk-tuk driver in Bangkok on day one, ate something questionable in Chiang Mai that knocked me out for two days, and somehow still booked a one-way ticket back six months later.
That’s the thing about Asia. It gets under your skin.
Over the next decade I kept coming back — and kept going further. I spent three weeks lost (happily lost) in the backstreets of Kyoto, chasing down a specific bowl of ramen I’d read about on some obscure forum. I hired a scooter in Vietnam and drove the entire coastal road from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, white-knuckling mountain passes and eating pho for breakfast every single day. I got completely overwhelmed by India my first time — Varanasi cracked me open in a way no place ever had before — and went back the very next year. I slow-traveled Cambodia for a month and still feel like I barely scratched the surface.
I started this site because I got tired of outdated guides written by people who clearly hadn’t been there in years. I got tired of “top 10” lists that send everyone to the same three tourist traps. And I got tired of watching friends waste money on bad planning or miss incredible places because nobody told them.
Real travelers struggle with this stuff — figuring out which visas are actually complicated, knowing when NOT to visit somewhere, understanding what things really cost on the ground versus what blogs claim. I’ve made every mistake you can make in Asia, and I’ve learned a lot along the way.
This site is my attempt to share that. Honest, practical, and actually up to date.
I hope it helps you plan a trip you’ll never forget.
— Maya