Blogs from Western Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 4

I left the dizzying madness of Bangkok behind via (surprise, surprise) a public bus - $110b - bound for Western Thailand near the Burmese border. My destination was Kanchanaburi - a town with a storied, albeit dark, history. Here in town snakes the River Kwai. In the second World War the Japanese needed a safer route to transport military goods into Burma to supply their troops who were fighting the British. The ultimate goal was to push into India. A railway linking the lines in Siam to the ones in Burma needed to be constructed. The 415km line was to start in Kanchanaburi, crossing the River Kwai, and moving North to Burma. After a three hour bus ride from Bangkok I showed up into town and found a place to stay. I ended up in an ... read more

Five years ago we fell in love with PKK and the Sun Beach Hotel. Back then we stayed for five nights but this time we only had two. None of our friends had ever heard of the place but last year, to our surprise, we worked with acouple who had visited the town and loved it as much as we did. Our aim this time was to relax and we certainly did that. The very high tide meant that once again the beach was unusable so we'll have to check the tide times and levels carefully before our next visit! Lounging by the pool or wandering through the sleepy streets was good enough for us. The town had changed a bit. There are quite a few more hotels and restaurants but there didn't seem to be ... read more

Sunday 21st August 2016 I was up really early this morning in order to reach Hua Lumpong Railway Station before 6.30am. I had asked P to book a ticket for me on the weekend excursion train to Kanchanaburi and beyond. The Railway Station where I boarded my train was of a decent size and it was not as intimidating as I had envisaged. Getting my bearings right was very straightforward as the overhead screens clearly showed which platform I was supposed to go in order to board my train. The excursion train is a typical third class non-air-conditioned carriage that served its purpose even though not particularly comfortable for the 12-hour journey. I had always wanted to try out this route since my previous trip and this was sort of a personal achievement for me. Train ... read more

Back at it again with these white vans! Seth and I are on the road to Hua Hin. By the time you read this, we will have already arrived. But for now, we are sitting in a van on a 5 hour road trip. We just returned from lunch, which came free with our tickets. Lunch consisted of fried pork ears, sour chicken soup, yellow curry, a plate of limp veggies, another plate of veggies that I couldn't identify, a plate of steamed veggies, watermelon slices, and of course white rice. It was served on a lazy susan and was surprisingly good. While I've never been a particularly picky vegetarian, Thailand has certainly bent those boundaries further. Most broths, including those of vegetable soups, are chicken or pork based. Many foods are simply unidentifiable pastes. And ... read more

Hua Hin is well known for nice beach and this town is flooded by foreigner. It is like Koh Samui where you can see villas and condos owned by foreigners. Since today's ride is shorted mileage thought the my rides, I took it very free and easy. I left Sabai Sabai around 9am and I reached Hua Hin town around 11 after having couple of breaks in between. Hua Hin has its own attraction and one of it is the railway station. My first stop is at railway station and took some photos of the area. The next thing that caught me by surprise is stall that sells Teh Tarik. Teh Tarik is known as pull tea and one of the must have drinks for breakfast in Malaysia. Once done with my photos, I head there ... read more