18 November 2018 Not much to do today, catch up on admin and take the 11:30 bus to Chiang Khong on the Laos border. The bus was a totally knackered old specimen, with open windows and door to keep cool, and it rattled us along the 2 hour journey for a princely £1.50 each. Because » » »
Archive for category ‘Thailand’
24 November 2018
Mountain coffee, valley tea
17 November 2018 We explored Chiang Saen some more this morning, and although it can’t boast anywhere near the scale of ruins as Sukhothai or Ayutthaya, it’s still evocative to poke around for an hour or two. And it was fun to juxtapose a wander around an old ruined Wat of crumbling red bricks with » » »
20 November 2018
Eating off the pavement
16 November 2018 Today began… inauspiciously. For a start, 4:30am is no sensible time to be getting up. But we had to leave our lodging by 5am to have time to drive and then trek up to Phu Chi Fa in time for dawn at just after 5:30. Except we trekked up through thick cloud, » » »
20 November 2018
On the road in Thailand
15 November 2018 I ought to whisper this, but we’ve only been in Thailand for a day and everything we’ve eaten has been better than anything we ate in the Philippines. I don’t know how they do it. We’re staying in a lodge with literally no other guests, and yet they still seem to be » » »
30 October 2018
Six weeks in SE Asia
Laos, Thailand, The Philippines, Vietnam
24 October 2018 We’re off on a six week trip to SE Asia. The plan is to visit the Philippines, north Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The Philippines is a nation of scattered islands, so it looks like lots of internal flights are on the cards. We’re aiming to visit Bohol, a rural backwater island where » » »
1 February 2011
Budget Update Asia
Budget updates, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Tibet
Written by Maureen, Financial Director of M&M Ltd Our goal in Asia was to enjoy ourselves while spending less, and save up for Indonesia where we plan to meet up with friends and family. So how did we do? Hong Kong Hong Kong is easy to summarise. A cosy room in a budget guesthouse was » » »
Tags: budget
17 January 2011
Thailand nutshell
It’s clear why Thailand has such a gravitational pull for travellers of all kinds. The country is full of interest, it’s more modern and accommodating than other Asian nations, and the crucial travelling commodities of food, lodging and transport are all cheap and good quality; you can dwell comfortably in Thailand for £20 per day. » » »
10 January 2011
Run for the border
9th January 2011 Written by Maureen Our visas run out tomorrow so we had no choice but to leave our idyllic beach resort and run for the border. After one last walk on the beach, we jumped on a tuk-tuk which sped us to the pier, where we hopped on a longtail boat, which crossed » » »
Tags: transport, travelling
10 January 2011
Postcards from Ko Yao Noi
8th January 2011 I never really set the scene for our island retreat. Ko Yao Noi is a 12km long island in Phang Nga bay, a huge sheltered bay full of tiny limestone islands. Think ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’ and you’re right there. Ko Yao Noi is very laid back and nowhere near » » »
10 January 2011
The secret lagoon
7th January 2011 It’s the kind of place a film-maker or a fantasy novelist would invent. A tiny island in the Andaman Sea, less than half a kilometer across with sheer cliffs on all sides. But on one side there is a hole in the foot of the cliff, visible only at low tide, through » » »
7 January 2011
Delicious
6th January 2011 The sea kayak is not like a normal kayak. It’s actually a big air-filled yellow banana with dimples in the top for two bums and four heels. And yet it is surprisingly stable and floats a treat. We went paddling out off the beach to a nearby speck of an island, a » » »
7 January 2011
Protein-rich breakfast
5th January 2011 This morning I drank a mouthful of ants. It wasn’t my intention. We had a glass of water by the bed as always, and in the morning I sleepily took a drink from it. I’d taken a second mouthful before realising that the first swallow was very… bitty. I spat the new » » »
Tags: accommodation, wildlife
5 January 2011
Ko Surin
Underwater photography proved wretchedly tricky – our compact camera is on the blink, and often the lens simply won’t extend properly. The LCD is also scratched, and through the underwater camera case it is now completely impossible to see; rather a problem when the LCD is the only viewfinder. I saw so many lovely fish, » » »
5 January 2011
No redeeming features
4th January 2011 Kuraburi Greenview Resort really is a hotel with no redeeming features. The gala dinner you’ve already heard about. The room itself is comfy enough, but we’ve paid half as much for just as good in Thailand. Dinner last night was rubbish, a peculiar tasting yellow curry and some awfully chewy fried fish. » » »
Tags: accommodation, moan
5 January 2011
Back to shore
3rd January 2011 Some of the people to be seen loitering on the beach at Ko Surin while we wait for our transfer back to the mainland: an orange-robed monk over for the day to bestow New Year blessings on the park HQ; muslim tourists in their tropical island wear of full black headscarf, jeans » » »
Tags: people, snorkelling
5 January 2011
Khao Sok
Khao Sok lake is a very special place to watch for wildlife. Instead of tramping through a mosquito-infested jungle in the constant shadow of towering trees and visibility of twenty metres, you get to glide across an enormous lake surrounded by limestone cliffs and thick jungle in either a longtail boat or kayak. Related Images:
3 January 2011
Ko Surin
2nd January 2010 Ko Surin lies a 60km jolting speedboat ride out in the Andaman Sea. It’s one of the most renowned places to go snorkelling and diving in Thailand, although it turns out that “coral bleaching” is a dire problem here and even the exhibition at the island HQ rates all but two of » » »
3 January 2011
Happy New Year
31st December 2010 What does £24 per person (the price of three good meals in a Thai restaurant) get you for a New Year’s Eve bash at Kuraburi resort? You get a buffet dinner that includes nothing you’ll remember in a week. You get as much fruit punch and cheap beer as you can drink, » » »
31 December 2010
The funky gibbon
30th December 2010 Today was our best day for wildlife, though I still can’t give Bau any credit for it. We set out for an early 6:30AM paddle again and this time as we explored we were serenaded by the haunting song of the gibbon. Very reminiscent of the Indri in Madagascar, the troops of » » »
Tags: wildlife
31 December 2010
There are guides and guides
29th December 2010 I’m referring to the guides that we’ve gone with in various places to help us find wildlife – Madagascar, Bardia, Hala Bala, here. You obviously pay a premium for this, and each of these four trips has come out of our “special fun budget”, but a good local guide is crucial for » » »
31 December 2010
Khao Sok
28th December 2010 Khao Sok is certainly a beautiful place. Thirty years ago it was an area of steep mountains and deep valleys, but then a dam was built and now there is an enormous lake. Not the typical oval of a natural lake, instead it has hundreds of long winding fingers of water; the » » »
19 December 2010
Lucky charm
18th December 2010 We left Bangkok on the 5:55AM train and headed for the Cambodian border. Research on the internet and in guidebooks suggested we were in for an irksome day – tales of a thousand touts and a hundred scams at what was described as a “nightmare” border crossing. We got off the train. » » »
18 December 2010
Bangkok busy
17th December 2010 How lazy is this? A four day gap since the last blog. But it’s easily summarised. On the 14th we made one last (failed) attempt to watch for small-clawed otters, then said farewell to Jan and Tu boarded the train at 2PM. Rattle, rattle, rattle, at 3PM on the 15th we stepped » » »
Tags: accommodation, city
17 December 2010
Otter craze
Written by Maureen, 13th December 2010 Here’s a summary of our trip to find otters in Thailand. Where? At a secret location in the Narathiwat province, extreme south of the country. We got special permission to visit thanks to Jan and Tu who have excellent contacts Accommodation? At the Hala Bala wildlife sanctuary research station, » » »
17 December 2010
Hairy-nose, Part 2
12th December 2010 Again with the early start. Again watching the light grow over the mangrove. Again the otter appears out of nowhere. This time Jan and I follow the old adage “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” and we snap photos. Naturally, the camera-click alerts this incredibly alert and » » »
17 December 2010
Hairy-nose day
11th December 2010 Happy Hairy-nosed Otter day! The horribly early start paid off. Quite eerie, wading through the knee-deep water in pitch darkness with just our head-torches picking out the path through the reeds. Getting settled into the hide, during which Tu dropped his mobile phone. Alas, the floor of the hide is very gappy. » » »
16 December 2010
Not all otters
10th December 2010 Hala Bala has lots of wildlife, but we’re spending so much time searching for otters that we haven’t seen as much as we could. This really is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the hairy-nosed otter, though, so we’ve got to focus. But in between days in the otter hide we’ve seen gibbons, » » »
Tags: wildlife
16 December 2010
Jan and Tu
9th December 2010 Jan and Tu are our guides in the search for otters in southern Thailand. They’re fantastic company, are totally passionate about wildlife, and know Thailand’s national parks inside-out. They’ve been looking after us very well. They actually live in the north-east, in a splendid-looking house in Nan. After weeks of travelling and » » »
Tags: wildlife
16 December 2010
Searching for hairy noses
8th December 2010 This is how you look for the world’s rarest otter. First: you wake up at 3:45 in the morning, in order to get going at 4:30 on the hour-and-a-half drive to the secret site (sssssh!). Then you get bitten half to death by mosquitoes while you unload the car. This is so » » »
16 December 2010
Training day
7th December 2010 Looong transit day today. The train leaves Bangkok’s Hualamphong station (which I can’t stop thinking of as hump-along station) at 13:00 and doesn’t reach Sungai-Kolok in the far south until 10:45 the next day. Our sleeper berth is of nifty and compact design, seats by day and bunk beds at night. The » » »
15 December 2010
Muay Thai
6th December 2010 Why would I go to a kickboxing match in Bangkok when I’ve never been remotely interested in going to a boxing match in England? In part I suppose the oriental martial arts have a lot more “cool” attached to them than good ol’ Marquess of Queensbury rules. I like martial arts films » » »
15 December 2010
Diarising
5th December 2010 I’m going to try blogging daily. I’m flattering myself that my writing is interesting enough to put together a diary that won’t reduce our small readership to zero. If anyone has any views on whether this is a good or bad idea, please drop me a comment! I’ll happily go back to » » »
4 December 2010
Evoking Ayutthaya
Travel writing includes a lot of deception by ommission, probably not often intentional. I happen to have read a short piece by someone about visiting Ayutthaya – the ruins of the old capital of Thailand – and this also happens to be what we did today. We also did pretty much what he did, which » » »
28 November 2010
Theme of laid-back
It’s night-time at Cave Lodge, the lights are surrounded by swarms of incredibly stupid flying bugs and a huge gecko just jumped from the lampshade to the table with a thud like a dropped bag of sugar. So what have we been up to since Loy Krathong? We spent four days in Chiang Mai eventually, » » »
28 November 2010
Cave-holing
We went on a caving trip and visited three caves. There’s only photos from two, because Waterfall Cave involved crawling on our bellies through foot-deep water – even I wasn’t determined enough to try and take a camera there! Related Images:
25 November 2010
T.G.S.
“Why the f*** aren’t you making babies?!?” This is the comment from Singh (a friendly chap who turns out to be trying to lure us to a bespoke tailor for a commission) when we explain that we have been together for over fifteen years. I’m not sure whether all his swearing is natural, or part » » »
25 November 2010
Festivities
Loy Krathong, the festival celebrating the Thai people’s close connection with water, is said to be celebrated best in Sukhothai and Chiang Mai – we were lucky enough to coincide our travel with the last night of the festival in both places. Related Images:
25 November 2010
Loy Krathong
The unofficial slogan of Loy Krathong (the Thai festival of lights) in Chiang Mai seems to be “Play With Fireworks!” We’re on the main bridge over the river Ping, and people are cheerfully lighting firecrackers and fireworks and flinging them out over the water, up into the air, or if their aim is bad back » » »
22 November 2010
Nepali farewell
My farewell gift from Madagascar was a dodgy stomach, looks like Nepal’s farewell gift is lost luggage. Our flight from Kathmandu was via Hong Kong with DragonAir then onto AirAsia, and the luggage was checked right through. But after 14 hours of transit I was standing wearily at luggage belt 12 in Bangkok airport with » » »