by Daryle Rico | Aug 31, 2026 | Cooking, Culture, Favorite Tours, Food, Thai Smiles, Thailand
If you ask me, the next best thing to eating Thai food is learning how to cook it. Fortunately, Thailand makes that remarkably easy. Whether you’re in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hua Hin, or some tiny village whose name you can’t pronounce without...
by Daryle Rico | Aug 3, 2026 | Culture, Food, Hua Hin, Thailand
Just three short blocks from my condo sits one of my favorite discoveries in Hua Hin: the ever-delightful Cicada Market. Now, calling it a “night market” feels a bit like calling the Grand Canyon a “nice ditch.” Technically correct… but wildly insufficient. Cicada...
by Daryle Rico | Jul 20, 2026 | Bangkok, Culture, Thai Smiles, Thailand
One of the great joys of living on the opposite side of the world is discovering that things you assumed were universal are, in fact, not universal at all. Take grocery shopping. Back in America, grocery shopping generally involves a shopping cart, a parking lot, and...
by Daryle Rico | Jun 21, 2026 | Culture, Thai Smiles, Thailand
The dreaded queue. We’ve all been in one. Maybe it was waiting two hours for a ride at Disneyland. Maybe it was camping outside a store for the latest iPhone. Maybe it was standing behind someone at the grocery store who suddenly remembered they needed to write...
by Daryle Rico | Jun 14, 2026 | Chiang Mai, Culture, Favorite Tours, Thai Smiles, Thailand
If you spend any time in Thailand, I highly recommend visiting an elephant sanctuary. One of the highlights of my time in Chiang Mai was a visit to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, where I had the chance to get up close and personal with some of Thailand’s most...
by Daryle Rico | Jun 9, 2026 | Cooking, Culture, Food, Hua Hin, Thai Smiles, Thailand
Ah yes, Som Tum—the famous green papaya salad of Thailand. A dish so beloved, so iconic, so deceptively innocent-looking… you’d never suspect it might double as a controlled burn for your internal organs. On paper, it’s perfection. A bright, crunchy mix of shredded...
