Insulant heat. Bees by the shore. Humming of insects. The rain comes no more. I went to the Rain Tree, about an hour and a half from Chiang Mai, Thailand. I rode my motorcycle through national forests, up mountains, down mountains, through villages. Dry season in Northern Thailand means water will be low, and burning season in means I will be riding through burning forest fires. A dirt road that leads to the lake where the rain tree I found stands. I found the Rain Tree on a

Barren and alive. I sit on a sandy death hill. The mountain tree side. Unreachable. Perhaps only by swimming. I'm so close. I hear the birds. Sometimes fish jump. Dead sticks, shells, and rocks. I sweat. I hear voices in the air. Doi Tao Lake, Thailand. Photo by N.Popowich. 2026

Coming to Thailand, I imagined I would be eating Pad Thai and Green Curry almost everyday. To some extent that is true, yet Thailand cuisine offers so much more, from classic Thai dishes I have never heard of, to re-imagined classic dishes. I had a hunch, fish was on the menu, but I was not ready for how affordable, well-prepared, and diverse the seafood cuisine was in Thailand. Baby yellow octopus ready to eat at a Thailand Night Market. Photo by N. Popowich. I travelled in

This is one of the neat butterflies I found fluttering around in the forest.