Blogs from South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 10

Today my buddies and I were booked in for a cookery class, with the lady who featured in Gordon Ramsay’s Thailand cookery programme (YouTube, 33m49s) and taught him how to make fish soup. I wondered if it will be al fresco, in the house on stilts, or whether that was not her house and a location chosen for filming reasons of authenticity. Martin ably negotiated the price down to 1000b each, including transport there and back. It’s a way out of Ao Nang. There would be 5 of us, what fun! I was told to come hungry as you get to eat it all afterwards. I’d had my usual lunch of corn, being completely unable to say no to the corn guy, bless his deaf little heart. He’s always so cheerful. I was picked up first ... read more

After an eight hour flight we finally arrived in Phuket International Airport, we had previously booked a transfer from Phuket to Patong which takes about 40 minutes but having been an accident in the hills it took an hour or more and we finally arrived at our hotel at about 9 p.m. large rooms and a beautiful rooftop pool with the breeze blowing everyday to cool things off a bit. It has been around 30 degrees everyday and 24 overnight, the weather has been absolutely perfect and we enjoyed the lovely breeze as we walked around each day. This holiday was for total relaxation so we've done lots of walking around 10K everyday. We haven't been to Thailand for over 26 years and now we realize why we haven't.... Patong is a shithole but there are ... read more

Last night I tried the famous roll icecream. The making of it is very theatrical, they put all the ingredients on a frozen plate, chop them up like mad before spreading it all out to freeze (in seconds) and then scrape it off into rolls and put it in a pot. Looks impressive, doesn’t taste particularly wow! 100b, 8/10 for the entertainment factor. Today our pickup was at 8.30-8.45. My buddies were already in the back of the tuktuk and we picked up others along the way until we were quite squashed in. The others were from Taiwan, China, the Ukraine and France. We had no real idea where we were going but ended up on the coast to the north, about a 30 min drive through rubber and palm oil plantations. On arrival there was ... read more

Thai babies are not transported in buggies. They are carried, then they walk. End of. Just saying..... For food the night before last I thought I’d try to find the big night market on the other side of town, not being really sure if it actually existed or not. Or if I’d be too late, as the local ones seem to start at 5ish and finish early. I was more or less confident that I knew where it was. Along the front there were small clumps of ladyboys in fabulous gowns, each about 6’6” tall in high heels, asking for money to have their photos taken. They seem to prefer to congregate outside fast food places like McDonald’s and Burger King. They don’t like the non fee-paying public sneaking a shot when they’re posing. I didn’t ... read more

ok, this time we were determined to at least start the trip out alittle slower... And with that thought in mind, we booked an overnight layover in Doha, to break up the 24 hour trip to Bangkok. Staying at the King's gate hotel, they upgraded our downtown room to an amazing executive suite on the top floor. It had floor to ceiling windows along a third of the room with a stunning view of the city! We were only there 24 hours, but enjoyed just walking around the souk section. Then it was on to Bangkok. We arrived at 4am, and surprisingly there were not 350 people ahead of us to get thru customs. This was definitely the easiest transition from airport to taxi to hotel. The downside to this, we arrived at our hotel at ... read more