In January of 2008, I took my sister to Thailand. I have always said to myself that I wanted to take her back to see where she was born and of course, I was interested in seeing it myself. My sister was born in Bangkok and had not been back since she was 3 months old, so this trip had more meaning to us than just a vacation. I planned the details of the trip myself and everything went off without a hitch. We arrived in Bangkok and stayed for a couple of days to explore the city. We then continued on to Chiang Mai in the north and Koh Lanta Yai in the south before making a pit stop in Japan for a few days. It was a nice overview of the country exploring a major city, the jungle, and then the beaches. The terrains are extremely different from each other, which added to the variety of the trip. It was also interesting being immersed into the religions of the different regions with Bangkok being 92% Buddhist while Koh Lanta Yai being 95% Muslim. The Thai people are some of the nicest people you will meet. They were always very helpful, gentle, and full of smiles.