Blogs from North-East Thailand, Thailand, Asia

We certainly did all our steps today, all 6000 of them, climbing up to Wat Phu Tok a temple at the top of 'lonely mountain' 359m high up very rickety steep steps. The temple is in a wide open cave at the top, actually level 5 on the map, so not quite at the top. The skeleton of the original monk is there in a glass cabinet. Jeremy and Waree's son Adam (15) was our guide. He's been up lots of times. Jeremy was OK to walk up but coming down is a bit hard on the knees. A kindly monk recommended we turn right and go the scenic route when we were almost got to the top. Ha!! It was the one that goes round the mountain by way of a fragile-looking wooden walkway that ... read more

Picture a hot Sunday sitting on a raft in the middle of a lake sipping wine, watching fish, chicken and prawns cooking on a bbq, eating them with green papaya salad, then having a swim to cool off. That was yesterday's activity. We've had quite a few 'pinch me' moments on this trip and this was one of them. The Ford Ranger was packed in the morning, Jeremy, Ian, Waree (pronounced Walee) , Cody and me inside and Jitt, Adam and Toby in the back sitting on cushions. Off to Lake Pan about 30 kms south of Phon Phisai, near where the house warming was the other night. On he way we stopped off to buy fresh whole fish. We met Nee and Robert there (they of the house warming) with her sisters Nam and Num. ... read more

Retour à Chiang Mai, je commence à bien la connaître cette ville, capitale du nord de la Thaïlande, et pourtant, je suis surpris en permanence par son dynamisme, son expansion, sa capacité d’accueil touristique en recrudescence. Je jette mon dévolu sur l’hôtel Nanya (520 THB (14 €) sur Agoda, 650 THB en direct), piscine et petit déjeuner compris. L’hôtel est situé dans la partie ouest de la vieille ville, les guesthouses y poussent comme des champignons les soirs d’orage, tout près du Wat Phra Singh que nous ne manquons pas d’aller visiter, incontournable. Chiang Mai se parcoure facilement en vélo, c’est tout plat, location 50 THB pour 24 heures. C’est moi qui fait le guide à ma petite thaï (de petite taille comme il se doit), c’est sa première visite dans le nord. Je me débrouille ... read more

Geo: 16.42, 102.83Awake with the alarm at 05:00. Have some breakfast, get our things up together and we are leaving the house still in the dark just before 06:00. With the three of us on the bike and all our bags we are well loaded down this morning so take my time on the dodgy roads.Drop Jai, Fin and bags off at the bus station then go to park the bike up at a relatives house across town. Bus leaves at 07:00 on the dot. Once again we are taking the bus that goes the long way, through Roi Et and Maha Sarakham, before getting to Khon Kaen. It is a nice comfy bus and no-one is ever able to tell us what time a direct bus will be leaving so ...Fin is a bit excited ... read more

The brilliant Homtel gang and I were settled on our next episode, we'd head down to settle in Khao Yai national park from the farm. A big goodbye and thank you to the family, such a special place. It felt strange to leave our home of the past two weeks. Swinging into Pak Chong early morning, on one of the few village buses out, we soon found stalls for our jointly craved potion of Iced Thai Tea, '4 coming right up.' We passed elephants that were walked through the streets by the market's only aggressive sellers (no thanks, we didn't want anything), and soon grabbed a hearty breakfast - various dishes, which were assured of our desired spiciness 'real spicy, honestly', including the delicious morning glory (wonderfully seasoned and spiced water spinach). From here we were ... read more