Looking back and rounding up: a travel summary Sunday 19th April 2009 This is our final blog, number 85 (and 666 photos). We've had our "Pension Gap" so now we shall go back to Spain to retire and try to grow old gracefully; unless the feet start itching again! Travel doesn’t just broaden the mind and stimulate the senses, it also nourishes the soul. Having spent eight months with the most basic meagre wardrobe and without make up, I feel surprisingly unconcerned about what I look like walking around town here in England, even although hiking boots, and faded tops are [View Full Entry]

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“Goodbye Bangkok’ - update:last day in Bangkok Wednesday 15th April 2009 , Just a quick update to our last (and we thought final) blog from Bangkok, to enable us to publish these couple of fairly dramatic photos taken on our way to the airport on Monday. The situation there had escalated by Monday morning when armed forces turned on demonstrators with tear gas. We had planned to spend our final day sightseeing but by lunchtime (and check out time) it was evident, following the armed response to the rioting, with tear gas employed, and burned out vehicles just a stroll away [View Full Entry]

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Songkran and Riots Monday 13th April 2009 “Anarchy reigned in parts of Bangkok this morning following the Thai military's pre-dawn raid on anti-government protesters who had blockaded parts of the city. (The Times news report) Where we are there is, thankfully, no evidence of rioting, only of people celebrating the New Year, Songkran. Here people are throwing water; elsewhere some are throwing petrol bombs. We shall not, however, venture far on our last day here in the city, and we shall leave early for the airport because several major road junctions are blocked so it could [View Full Entry]

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The start of Songkran in Bangkok Saturday 11th April 2009 Some people armed themselves with huge water pistols this morning, ready to soak unsuspecting victims in the Khao San Road. It is the start of the Songkran weekend, Thailand’s New Year. The water pistol terrorists needn’t have bothered! By lunchtime Khao San Road had become Khao San River, flooded by torrential rain after a dramatic thunderstorm, unusual for this early in the year. We got drenched and had to paddle through some pretty filthy water, adorned by floating dead cockroaches. Nice! Yesterday, we were shop [View Full Entry]

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Ultimate Destination: Bangkok Thursday 9th April 2009 We have arrived at our last destination on this “Grand Tour”; the eastern “City of Angels”, Bangkok. Just seven months ago we were in the western “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. How time flies! In some ways, however, time has passed at a leisurely pace since we left home last August. We have done and seen so much, it has been such a rich and full experience, that it seems a long time ago that we set off on our travels. We spent yesterday travelling, thirteen hours on the slow train from Chiang Mai [View Full Entry]

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Bo Sang, San Kampaeng handicrafts Monday 6th April 2009 The Bo Sang, San Kampaeng region, which is a western suburb of Chiang Mai, is home to several handicraft centres, a silk farm and provider of employment for a large percentage of the local Chiang Mai populace. Tourists can see craftsmen and craftswomen working in leather, silver, silk, cotton, lacquer ware, bronze and jade, jewellery, ceramics and in the production of paper parasols. There is a bit of pressure to purchase, especially in the gems factory and silk works, but we managed to resist both (we did, however, buy some lacquer [View Full Entry]

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Elephant trekking and rafting, Mae Taeng Valley, ChiangDao Friday 3rd march 2009 One and a half hours drive north of Chiang Mai, near to Chiang Dao, lays the beautiful Mae Taeng Valley. Having spent two days doing very little, apart from enjoying Chiang Mai city, especially the night bazaar and the food, we spent today elephant trekking and rafting at Mae Taeng. The scenery is stunning, with forests of teak, lychee trees and banana palms lining the river, which winds its way through the hilly terrain, home to rural hill people who live in villages of thatched stilt houses. We didn’t [View Full Entry]

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The Journey to Chiang Mai Monday 30th March 2009 The train took the strain. The journey to Chiang Mai by train was considerably more comfortable than the long-haul bus trip of a few days ago. Despite the fact that the train arrived 30 minutes late from Bangkok to Ayutthaya and it was sweltering (and inescapable) heat at Ayutthaya station, we knew as soon as the train arrived and a smartly dressed cabin stewardess alighted to welcome us aboard, that this was to be a better journey. We only had second-class allocated seats but there was plenty of leg-room, reclining seats, luggage [View Full Entry]

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Ayutthaya, the City of Gorgeousness Sunday 29th March 2009 The journey from Khao Lak wasn’t exactly enjoyable. Thirteen hours on a coach is a long time. It is OK if one travels on the “V.I.P“. busses, because they are very spacious. Unfortunately we couldn’t get booked on one of those and the bus we were on was very squashed with little leg room. We arrived at Bangkok southern bus station one hour late at 6 a.m. Our original idea was to get a boat to Ayutthaya but we found out that there were no public boats only expensive tour cruises. Therefore, [View Full Entry]

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Are we in Thailand? Thursday 26th March 2009 Khao Lak is one of those places that could be anywhere. Full of mostly German tourists, pizza restaurants and “Happy Hour” bars. Travel guide books usually give an accurate impression of a place, but not this time. Our “Lonely Planet” unfortunately is rather old and other guides are misleading. We envisaged this area to be similar to Ao Nang (we wish we had stayed there longer) without the limestone crags but with a mountainous backdrop instead and similar Thai bungalow huts fringing a sandy beach. Well, the mountainou [View Full Entry]

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