Four National Parks in Texas-New Mexico
Published:
Before this trip, I had never been to Texas or New Mexico. Initially, our plan was to visit only Big Bend National Park in southern Texas, near the border with Mexico. However, we stumbled upon a blog where the author mentioned that there are several other national parks not far from Big Bend. In fact, the area is home to four remarkable parks– Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns, and White Sands. Despite their proximity, these parks are incredibly distinct from one another. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the unique natural beauty each had to offer.
After we found out that there are some flights from Willard (a regional airport in Champaign) that are inexpensive, we started flying out from here instaead of Chicago. We got a really good price of plane tickets to Seattle, so we decided to go to more national parks! The two parks that we visited were Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks. We thought about going to North Cascade as well, but the time was limited so we planned to visit there next time. Visiting these two popular national parks in the fall was such a good choice–less crowd, nice weather, and fall foliage!
Midwest surprisingly offers us many national parks to visit all year round. One of the national parks near Illinois is the Mammoth Cave National Park in Cave City, Kentucky. We rented a car from Champaign and drove around 5 hours, excluding small stops in Indiana. We had never been to Kentucky before, and we believe that not many international students had been there. Plus, this was the first time we visited a cave in the US, and we start with the world’s longest known cave system!
We’d been thinking of visiting South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Badlands national park for almost a year. Then an opportunity came when one of our friends gave us a buy-one-get-one-free coupon from Delta. We did not hestitate even a bit in buying two tickets for a round trip from Chicago to Rapid City, SD. Although it was an impulsive trip, we had a lot of fun observing the wildlife in the great plains of South Dakota and North Dakota.
Although Poy graduated from the Scripps-Oxford joint Ph.D. program in Biochemistry for half a year and already started working at UIUC as a post-doctoral researcher, his graduation ceremony was held way later in May 2024. His family also came from Thailand to attend his graduation ceremony in San Diego. We then spent over a week afterward traveling around the west coast, including California, Arizona, and Nevada. It was my first time (and his family’s first time) doing a road trip in the west coast. We enjoyed a huge variety of natural wonders that the west coast has to offer.
I have seen many people in the midwest area go see tulip fields every April and May. This year I decided to go to Holland, Michigan, which is known for their tulip festival. The trip was planned quite implusively as I was not sure if I would have time during the end of Spring 2024 semester. We are so happy that we went there. It was a nice little trip to finish off my third year of Ph.D.
Champaign is often thought of a cornfield city and nothing else. I have to admit that the statement is partially correct. However, there are several things to do if you are willing to drive a couple of hours. During Spring 2024, Poy and I made several small trips to our neighborhood cities, including Indianapolis and St. Louis. We also want to record here a small trip to see one of the most amazing natural pheonomena, the total solar eclipse.
In this family trip, we visited several famous places in northern Vietnam, namely, Sapa, Hanoi, and Ninh Binh. For some people, the more they see the world, the less impressive some places appear to them. We also did not find this part of Vietnam outstanding from all the places we have been together, yet it was still charming and gave us vacation vibes. I’d recommend those who like natures to visit Ninh Binh; Sapa is also beautiful, but it seems have some construction going on at the top of Fansipan mountain.
Getting Taylor Swift’s Era Tour concert was highly competitive if you wasn’t aware of that yet. We were trying to affordable tickets at So-Fi stadium in LA, but failed. Luckily, Taylor added a new date for unlucky fans like us, so we were able to get two 50 dollar tickets at Zone 4 of So-Fi stadium. How far were the seats from Taylor Swift? The answer is far enough that you wouldn’t want to pay more than 50 dollars. Still, So-Fi is very equipped. Their huge screen around the stadium made us feel so close to the stage. 3 hours went by so fast!
After having to postpone the Visa appointment for a year due to the pandemic situation, my parents have now got their first ever US Visa! A month right after they received their passports, now with the US Visa attached to, they flew from Thailand to the US to visit me in Illinois. To be more accurate, WE flew together from Thailand to Chicago, though on different flights. Our itinerary was to visit Chicago, Washington DC, NYC, and, of course, my beloved corn field city, Champaign.
The spring semester ended on May 12, marking the end of my first year as a Ph.D. student at UIUC. To celebrate the hard work, I invited my boyfriend to come visit me in Champaign. But since Champaign has nothing much to do, we also planned a short trip to Chicago and also Florida! Poy had never been to Disney World before, so we tried so hard to make it happen despite the price of Disney world’s tickets. Poy flew from England to Chicago, so our first short trip happened in Chicago! It was my second time in Chicago, so I tried to visit different places than the last time I went to in January.
I usually don’t travel over spring breaks as they are quite short and most schools in the US have spring breaks around the same time, so everywhere is just crowded. However, this break was special because I went to visit my boyfriend in England! We hadn’t seen each other for a while (aka 8 months at least), so I didn’t hesitate to go there when I had a chance. Though I had been to many countries in Europe, I had never visited England. I went there for 5 days not including the flight time, but I felt like I got a very rich British experience thanks to Poy.
After I moved to Illinois to start my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I didn’t have go to as many places as before due to all to work I was responsible for. So, when the winter break came, my friends and I decided to have to travel somewhere together, and we chose Chicago, the city that is quite close for Emma and me (but definitely not true for Net and Bonus.) We stayed in Chicago for 9 days renting an airbnb near Western train station. Just like when we traveled to NYC, we decided to buy a city pass so we didn’t have to plan much each day.
After the rainy graduation, the weather had not been recovered, but our plan still went on. We were headed to John’s and Margaret’s to have the packed lunch that we got from Bowdoin. John then took us to the airport where we rented a car for our trip. We planned to go to Acadia, the most-visited national park in Maine, and then go to downtown Bar Harbor. It was a little weird that Emma and I had never been to Acadia even though we had lived in Maine for four years. (Well, it makes sense if we deduct a year and a half that I was not in Maine.
A few days before the graduation, my boyfriend took a flight from San Diego to Maine to be my helper during the graduation. I went to school at Bowdoin College in Maine, so did Poy, but he hadn’t really gone to Portland that often during his time at Bowdoin. So, on the second day of his visit, we went to Portland together! (Note. Portland is definitely not the capital city of Main, but a nice city to visit.) We took a breeze bus to Portland and dropped off at the monument square. It was a nice and sunny day, luckily!
Greece was the one and only trip outside Budapest when I studied abroad in my junior year. It was such a bittersweet memory (well, the bitterness comes from the fact that we got kicked out because of the pandemic.) We went to many good spots in Greece, so I just wanted to share with you all. A trip consisted of my roommates, Lauren and Maria, Ben, Edison, Zach, and Carl. The trip was abruptly planned, and I booked my ticket 2hrs after Lauren told me this idea.
Right after a wonderful trip to California, it was time for me to start my abroad semester in Budapest. While I flew from California to Budapest, my parents also flew from Thailand to the same destination. We planned to meet and travel before the BSM (Budapest Semester in Mathematics) began. It was my and their first time traveling to Budapest, and it was quite special because they had never been with me when I needed to move in before.
The name of this post cannot be more ironic. Well, at that time, I really thought that 2020 would be such a great year. It was not that great for me and, perhaps, for everyone in the world due to the Pandemic that hit us in March 2020. However, I cherish the memories and experiences I received when I was in California. Now that I know that I’ll be in the US for 5-6 more years, I’ll definitely visit Cal again at some point!
My friends questioned our plan, “what will we do in Tokyo for five days?” I said I don’t know yet, but what I knew was that five days in Tokyo are not enough. What I thought was correct this trip is not long enough, not only because of a number of tourist attractions but also some unexpected situation. After having taken Japanese at Bowdoin for 2 years, I gained some vocabulary but not confidence to speak Japanese. Luckily, my Thai scholars friends and I decided to go to Japan together after not seeing each other for almost 2 years.
After my feet touched the ground of Suwannabhumi Airport, my mom came to me and said “Let’s go to Vietnam.” Though I just came back from Maine and still had not adjusted from the time difference, this trip really killed my jet lag! We planned the trip a month ahead and booked the plane tickets and three hotels for three nights in Vietnam. I’d longed for a backpacking trip like this with my family, and it was like a dream comes true. The first day in Da Nang was quite hot, but My Khay beach was so pretty.
Park city has been known as the city for skiing, and it should not be surprising if I tell you that it once held the winter Olympics. Despite all the winter-related facts, I went there in the summer of my sophomore year, yet it did not lose any of its charms. To be honest with you guys, I was there for a nerdy reason, mathematics summer school. The school was held by the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS). The topic was about low dimensional topology and gauge theory. However, during the three weeks of my summer school, I got chances to explore the town with my friends, so let me share some of my favorite spots with you guys!
Where is some of the most popular places to spend your spring break for college students in the US? Disney World, FL, always makes it to the list! Disney World is a magical land that both children and grownups can wear those cute headbands without being judged. Indeed, I should have said ‘the magical world’ since this place is colossal. Disney World has every dreamy thing you are looking for, and you can totally own it if you have… money.
Have I told you that I’m not a Bangkokian girl? My hometown is actually one of the biggest provinces in the Northeast of Thailand, Ubonratchatani. There is not much to do in the town itself, but there are several districts that are worth a visit if you come to this province, and I recommend you go to Khemmarat (เขมราฐ)! This trip happened not so long after I was back from Taiwan with my grandmothers. My parents proudly presented me about their wonderful journey in Khemmarat.
This trip happened not so long before Taiwan had to change its name to Chinese Taipei, so I would like to still call it Taiwan. I have to confess that I know very little about the political issue that is going on between China and Taiwan, so please do not get triggered if I use any words wrong. I intend to purely recount all the good memories when I went to Taiwan with my two grannies. One of them is my mom’s mom, and the other is her sister. That was the last trip that I had with my grandma (mom’s mom). We did have a happy time while we visited Taiwan because of all the beautiful nature there.
Switzerland has been my mom’s dream destination for so long, and, all of a sudden, the dream came true. Thanks to my dad, who also has a dream to travel the world, he brought us to one of the most serene countries in the world. However, Switzerland is just one of our destinations on this trip. We also went to France and Italy, whose beauty is second to none! This trip is probably the longest one we’ve ever had, so I’ll just show you where I’ve been to and how I feel about those places. I’d say that most of the places we visited are considered tourist traps, but I genuinely never feel bad to follow the mainstream. I always think that popular places deserved to be popular for a reason, so just enjoy them!
What would you think of if you heard the name Salem? Witches? Haunted? or Tourists trap? Let me show you what kind of experience I had there! Before I went to New Hampshire to be a TA for the Thai Scholars summer camp, I got a few days off and had nothing to do. My friend, Purim, and I decided to go to Boston to visit our friends in Boston college. For some reason, we got so bored and searched for interesting places to go in Massachusetts, and Purim shouted with excitement, “Salem, let’s go to Salem!”
Nita, my friend from Case Western Reserve University, is an NYC lover. During spring break in my first year at Bowdoin, she invited two Mainers, Um-im and me, to spend our vacation in Manhattan, NYC. By that time, we all had been in the US for almost two full years, yet we were pretty much tourists who know some English. Yes, we were acting just like tourists, and that was a fun part of this trip!
Around new year’s eve 2018, my parents, brother, grandmother, and I went to Malaysia to escape from the noisy celebration in our hometown. The purpose of this trip was not anything much but the desire to explore our neighbor country. Malaysia is right below Thailand, and we had a direct flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, so it was easy enough for my grandmother. We spent around 3-4 days in Malaysia just to see what the country was like. To my surprise, Malaysia was such a good blend of nature and people’s faith.
After my first year in the US, I went back home in the summer to visit my family and friends in Thailand. My high school friends and I were planning to go somewhere outside of the country together, and we decided to visit Hong Kong. For us, Hong Kong was such a perfect place to travel because of all the delicious food (especially dim sum), convenient transportation, and Disneyland! The trip consisted of Stang, Pin, Ploy (not me), and myself. Although we missed one of our roommates Prim, it turned out to be a great trip, and we wish to gather again like that in the future.
Although I titled the post “my first trip to western Europe,” this was more like my first time in Europe as a whole. I went to Bulgaria once for a math competition in 2013, but I didn’t get to travel that much, so it didn’t count. This time I only went with my mom and dad because my brother was busy with school work. It was very overwhelming when we were choosing where to go in Europe since all of the programs looked good! Anyway, we ended up going to the one that went to one of the places that we wanted to go to the most, Hallstatt, a peaceful and gorgeous tiny village in Austria.
After graduating from Mahidol Wittayanusor high school in Nakorn Pathom, my roommate, my neighbor Stang, and I decided to go on a trip together. That coincided when my parent just bought a new house in my hometown, Ubon Ratchathani. We thus decided to gather at my hometown and go to Laos, which is two hours from Ubon Ratchathani. Thanks to several sponsors (i.e., Pleng, Prim’s, and my parents), we had a perfect time staying in my hometown and Savannakhet, Laos.