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1 Nov '11

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Hike Your Heart Out Koh Tao: Mango Viewpoint thumbnail

Hike Your Heart Out Koh Tao: Mango Viewpoint

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I'm a New York native who left my home to explore the world slowly and thoroughly. I’m just a little obsessed with photography, scuba diving, and reading guidebooks to countries I have no immediate plans to visit.

A homecoming ✨ When I posted this — my long-a

A homecoming ✨

When I posted this — my long-awaited return to Koh Tao — on my stories back in April (why yes, my feed IS indeed a tad behind, now that you mention it!) I wrote this: “spent the happiest years of my life on this island, back for the first time since 2020.”

Some of you have been here since I spent the majority of my twenties on a wild ‘lil eight square mile sandbar in the Gulf of Thailand.

When I read that today, looking through my archives, I thought to myself instinctively — wow, it feels like the next happiest years of my life have just begun 🥹

I haven’t felt that way in a long time.

I’m so insanely grateful to Koh Tao for reminding me early this year how deliciously good a HOME can feel.

I got back to Bali from this trip and immediately bought @villakerangsue, and shortly after, moved into my new place in Brooklyn. It was a catalyst.

I landed in Thailand from Taiwan after a marathon travel day with no luggage and not a care about it. When the boat got close, I ran up to the top deck so I could stare at the island and just cry happy tears. I felt nothing but pure joy and gratitude for a decade of memories — good and bad — on every inch of this island.

This month in Thailand fueled my SOUL and I can’t wait to share it here on my feed.

Need some magic in your life? 🪄 You’re in luck cause the updated version of my Wanderland Guide to Koh Tao just dropped! She’s a beauty and a long time in the making — many people worked very hard on this! We’d love to show you the results — find a copy via the link in my bio! This guide is a love letter.

Because fourteen years after I first washed ashore here, Koh Tao, I 🫶🏼 you, always…

POV: You’re flying for free, in the front of the

POV: You’re flying for free, in the front of the plane, just by paying your rent! (EVEN if you pay via Venmo, like me!)

It’s all thanks to my new fave credit card! I’ll open this by saying I get bonus points if you sign up through my link, so I’d be super grateful if you use it! <3 (It’s in my bio, in my Bilt highlight, and in my stories rn!)
 I was living out of hotels and Airbnbs for the last few years, which while expensive, racked up major credit card points — epic for converting to flying business class, which as you might have seen, I looooove to do.

When I committed to renting in New York, I was devastated at the idea of “wasting” my rent payments, not something you can traditionally put on a credit card — until I heard about Bilt! I was shocked and delighted to learn that paying via Venmo, payment portal or check all qualify!

There is NO annual fee, which is bananas — you just need to make 5 transactions per month to get your points. While there’s no sign up bonus and never has been, you do get 5X points for the first five days, so plan accordingly! (I kind of blew it on this, whoops.) You can also get extra points by linking your Lyft account, your airline loyalty programs, and adding *any* of your credit cards to their dining program.

Then, get this: they have 1:1 transfer with so many airlines — United, American Airlines, Emirates, Virgin, Hawaiian, British Air, Air Canada, and more. If you follow @thepointsguy, he’s an investor!

If you pay rent and make four other Venmo or check transactions per month that you otherwise couldn’t get points for, you’re kind of throwing away money if you don’t get this card. I got accepted instantly — so apply today!

I’m kinda a beginner when it comes to point hacking, but I do fly multiple times per year for free, often in business class, thanks to cards like this! Any questions? Ask away!

See you in biz class babyyyy! ✈️

Taipei Mini Guide! 🥂 I was in Taipei for all o

Taipei Mini Guide! 🥂

I was in Taipei for all of two days and three nights — a criminally short stop! Yet I managed to fit in a lot, most of which I never would have experienced were it not for my amazing guides @brennabradbury and @aerial_cloudy!

Here were my highlights…

🐉 Asking the Longshan Temple temple spirits if I should buy a house in Bali by throwing Jiao Bei, what looked like little red orange slices, on the ground and reading the answer from the way they landed. I left smiling :-) We also biked around and stopped at several other temples that caught our eyes along the way. They are gorgeous, and everywhere.

💎 A Michelin star Taiwanese meal at Le Palais (my first I think!) thanks to @aerial_cloudy. This was so fancy and fun! With the exception of the seafood, I tried everything, and was surprised by some of my favorites.

🍾 Visiting the Hot Springs in Beitou, another incredible surprise by Cloudy! We had a private spring room and of course, lots of champagne! This is a little bit outside the city, but we just took an Uber, an easy little adventure.

🍵 A DIY tea-based cocktail crawl where we basically just asked everywhere we went what their next favorite tea cocktail was — it was a classic Brenna and Alex adventure — don’t miss @hermits_hut, @placebotaipei, @tei_by_obond, and @u_n_d_e_r_l_a_b! Thanks to @nytimestravel for the inspo. (And sorry to everyone who had to be near me as I navigated a Cat 5 Airport Hangover after this — last slide says it all lol!)

🥠 On the list for next time: the night markets! This is most people’s number one thing to do in Taiwan but I arrived too late the first night and the next two nights, it was pouring! For the same reason I didn’t do the second most popular thing on most traveler’s Tawain list, go to the Taipei 101 — the visibility was so limited there was a warning at the ticket counter… so we went to a champagne bar instead lol.

Let me know if there’s anything else I need to add to the list for next time 🇹🇼

Taiwan in ten seconds! 🍾 Apparently I mostly j

Taiwan in ten seconds! 🍾

Apparently I mostly just went to Taiwan and drank champagne. Sounds on track for me, @brennabradbury and @aerial_cloudy. Not pictured: the large amounts of bubble tea I also consumed. Two of my favorite beverages on earth!

Have you been to Taiwan? Is it on your radar?

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