![\"bangkok04\"](\"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/bangkok04.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMonk taking photo at Wat Arun, Bangkok<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Back then, I took the clockwise loop from Bangkok through northern Thailand to Laos, from there to Hanoi in Vietnam, all the way down the country towards Phnom Penh in Cambodia and back again to Bangkok. My first trip outside of Europe took me the better part of two months.\u00a0I didn’t cover the region in my\u00a0previous job<\/a>\u00a0as an EM analyst, so I never returned for business thereafter.<\/p>\n Wat Arun, Bangkok<\/em><\/p>\n Thailand has been through somewhat of a turbulent decade since. 2006 saw the disposal of populist\u00a0ex-PM Shinawatra<\/a>\u00a0and the ensuing\u00a02008-2010 political crisis<\/a>\u00a0seemed (from afar at least) like an eternal back-and-forth between the largely poor and northern red shirts versus the royalist, middle-upper class southern yellow shirts.<\/p>\n House along Chao Phraya River, Bangkok<\/em><\/p>\n In 2013, we’re here just for a few days to get our Burmese visa processed. We will stay in Myanmar for about a month until the end of May. The country is opening up and international money is chasing investment opportunities on the ground. I will use this blog to jot down observations and thoughts while there.<\/p>\n I figure this blog has been turning into a bit of a travelog as of late: me and my wife are on the road, and after spending a bit more than a week with family in India, we’re now in … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Housing block in Chinatown, Bangkok<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"