Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 20

Sitting having breakfast on a restaurant over the sea (tide out). My bargain transfer worked! I was quite sad to leave Best House today, especially as last night one couple was trundling a trolley with many cases of beer on it, saying they’d bought enough for 4 weeks. I vaguely considered cancelling my plans and just staying put for 3 more weeks, but that would have been costly and unadventurous. And I was looking forward to staying in the Old Town. Not that there’s much to it. So I trundled my bag along the stony road to the travel agent at 8 o’clock, to be super sure my lift would materialise. It is so so quiet in the morning. The guy didn’t looked surprised or furtive, so I was encouraged, and at 8.20 a songthaew rolled ... read more

Saturday 1st February 2020 We left home at 8 a.m. to be chauffeured to Alicante train station by our son Nick. The fast train to Barcelona departed on time at 9.25 and just four-and-a-half hours later, having stopped just three times on the way, at Valencia, Castellon and Tarragona, we alighted at Barcelona Sants station in brilliant sunshine. We have excellent trains in Spain, fast, smooth, quiet (on modern track) comfortable and excellent value; we paid twenty-four euros each, in First class. Very civilised! By 3 p.m. we were at Barcelona International Airport, so had a long wait until our 9.35 p.m. departure. Fortunately, we were able to check in the rucksacks straight away at the Qatar Airways bag drop, then had a leisurely lunch of barbecued ribs and browsed the smart shops. Barcelona is a ... read more

After a pleasant dinner in " Somewhere Else " restaurant we sauntered over to Aleena Mini Mart for our usual after dinner drink. As always the long wooden tables were crammed with people from all nations eating street food and enjoying a cold beer or two from the mini mart. We stood scanning the scene deciding which table to join when a girl came rushing over to us asking if we remembered them. They'd met us there two years ago and had been wondering if we would be here again this year. After a few moments I got my brain into gear and , yes, I did remember them. We joined them at their table and the memories came flooding back. They remember Sharon and Scott and of course ' the sweet little blonde haired children' ... read more

Archie and I just got back from our Cambodian trip. We had a wonderful time with Archie’s family. After a few days, my parents called to inform us that they would like to come and visit us at our home in Chiang Mai. I was so excited to see them and wanted to make them try new things this time. It was challenging to think about things to amaze my parents. And you know what...it wasn’t that hard since I know how much my family and I love food so I started searching for best restaurants and bars in Chiang Mai to take them to upon arrival. Our main concern was finding a café that offered tasty food and great music, without appearing to be too loud, especially taking into account my parent’s advanced age. Eventually, ... read more

Chiang Mai airport seemed much more techy this year ...... and I was very soon through Immigration and waiting for my bag beside the carousel. It was late afternoon and the sun was still shining ...... the hazy mountains a great backdrop for the airport.( although I understand that hazy probably means that it's a bad day for air quality!) It seemed quiet and it took no time at all to get a taxi. But of course , then I realised it was Sunday and traffic was sparse. No weekday homeward bound workers. The taxi driver dropped me off by the front steps of the condominium across the road and I trundled my bag down the familiar dusty alleyway towards Baan SongJum (translates as House of Memories) , where the purple bougainvillea spills over the top ... read more