martinandcharlie

Now for the day I was looking forward to the least! Come on, who really wants to go on a Mountain bike ride when the temperature is in the mid 30's, oh yea, that would be Charlie! On a plus point we weren't being picked up until 09:30, which for us is now classed as a lay in (bring on the Beach section). Another plus was that the ride was 90% downhill, though we're not talking roads here, we're talking dirty tracks with rocks, ruts and roots strewn across you path. But the briefing and all the kit (helmets, gloves, arm and leg pads) were all professional. Due to an illness of one of our group we were reduced from four to just us. This actually paid off as our guide was very friendly, chatty and ... read more

What a day! We got picked up at 09:00 and head straight to Tiger Kingdom. Where they house 33 Tigers (& a Lion), though this isn't your normal Tiger centre. No here you get in and Pet the Tigers! Umm, I know what your thinking and I can't discount the use of drugs either (the Tigers, not us, though that would of helped)! As it was all Charlie's idea I let her choose which cage we entered, fortunately she choose the 'Smallest'. This involved us spending 10 minutes with 2 baby Tigers which were only two and a half months old. Though Charlie being Charlie, I had to be first into the Lions Den so to speak. The first one (Nu-lu) was 'feisty' to say the least, in fact when he smelled (intentionally) my feet, I moved ... read more

After a fairly early rise we checked out and headed to the airport, traffic doesn't normally move very fast in Bangkok, but at 09:00 it doesn't move at all! After 15 minutes we'd progressed 200 yards. I think at this point our driver saw Red, the next thing we knew were weaving in and out of traffic, jumping red lights, scaring the Hell out of pedestrians. I was liking this guy (even if he did play Dido!), the next thing we knew we were under and overtaking everything in sight. Even with the slow start we made the trip in 35 minutes, well under the quoted hour)! The flight to Chiang Mai (though taking off an hour late) was uneventful, just a pity our hotel pickup left without us (looking at his job title, he must ... read more

Awoken by our alarm clock at 08:00 we started our day as if 3 hours sleep was enough for any man! This mornings destination via the Sky Train was the Sunday Market at Chatuchak Park, 35 acres of covered stalls. Half of which sold the Classics from Nike to Kath Kitson (can I go know where in this world and not be confronted with kitch)! The other half comprised of Tat, General Tat and not forgetting a whole section devoted to Weddings, which we 'managed' to stumble into... The highlight for myself was seeing TNT and DHL stalls, strategically placed to enable tourists to send home the assorted house hold tat they've burdened themselves (and Partners) with. Fortunately Charlie decided that it was too early in our trip to go on a spending spree. However I'm ... read more

A selection of photos are now available at ... read more