Britannia, the saving of Chiang Mai

Our train journey to Chiang Mai is outstandingly beautiful, a cutting straight through the hills and a lot of jungle.

When we reach Chiang Mai it's the usual skirmish between warring tuk tuk and song thaew drivers. We opt for an older couple, although she is quite formidable. Our first choice is 650 baht which is over budget everywhere else is full. We wLk up, we walk down. It's high season and Chiang Mai is chockablock. Finally we find a place at 400 baht which is so tiny only one person can be off the bed at once. Chiang Mai is not appealing to is, in fact we are totally unimpressed. It's a young place, that's a definite.

The saving grace for our place is it sells beer at a time when they aren't supposed to due to the current election which doesn't start until 2nd February (go figure) and it's running at 65 baht a big bottle. A good price anywhere in Thailand.

An early start sees Adrian traipsing round the guest houses looking for something a little more 'us'. It transpires The Britannia Guest House is it. We have a huge room with balcony for 650 baht a night - you have to learn quick at this game - and it's blissful. Owned by an Australian guy and his Thai wife, it is immaculate. We are happy and Chang Mai looks good all of a sudden. 

Walking tours of Wats commence followed by night markets and booking of cookery course. It's really not as bad as you might think here.

Our cookery course (which Adrian is a reluctant participant for) is on an organic farm some 17km from Chiang Mai. Our first stop is a market, a beautiful, immaculately clean food market. We're shown the five must have ingredients of Thai cuisine and the different types of rice available. Some wandering time sees me buying fresh pineapple and curry puffs, beautiful empanada-like pastries filled with chicken curry.

The farm is lovely, perfect cooking areas and herb and fruits as far as the eye can see. My chosen menu is red curry paste which then makes a Thai red chicken curry, tom yam soup, chicken with basil, fresh spring rolls and sticky rice with mango. Way too much food for one day and I'm FTB at the end of  it. I'm quite chuffed when I get star pupil on spring rolls (the two top right in the pic).

All in all it's a great day with 8 complete strangers and the staff at the farm and I can't wait to get home and cook a Thai banquet, although I'll probably fall at the first hurdle. Does anyone know where I can get galangal from...?

The Destination Disagreement

We have a slight disagreement about where our next destination should be, I fancy a stopover in Phrae before going on to Chiang Mai but Adrian feels we should head to Mae Sot to do some Burma homework. We both acquiesce and it transpires Phrae is the first bus leaving from the bus station, so that's where we are headed.

The bus journey is beautiful as we head to a slightly more remote area, we see more jungle than before. There does seem to be quite a deforestation problem here which apparently is now being recognised in decreasing wildlife.

There isn't much accommodation listed in the book so we decide to try the nearest to the bus station. It's 330 baht ( less than £7) and has a private balcony - perfect.

In the grounds of the hotel is the Free Thai Museum - not a museum that's free but a museum about the Thai resistance against total Japanese occupation during WWII. It is very interesting giving another different insight into the war and there is plenty of info in English. We have several pictures taken by the curator for his Facebook page.

From the museum we head to town in search of food. It is unbelievable anywhere else you can't move for food stalls here you can't find one! We eventually find a very clean little place doing both noodle and rice dishes so we are both happy. As we are walking a beautiful Wat catches our eye and we nip in. To our surprise we are hijacked by a Buddhist monk, very keen to talk and show us round. He tells us about the 'little monks' aged 13-17 who are studying to become monks and complete their high school education. There is even a radio station broadcasting from the site. In the little cafe he buys us both a smoothie (blueberry for Adrian and green tea for me) and water for when we are walking around. It's a lovely way to spend a hour.

Our next stop is the home of the last king of the kingdom who went into to exile in 1902 following a revolution in the area. It's a beautiful teak wood house with cool,verandahs. Underneath are cells with various tools of torture a complete contrast to the comfort above.

Just as we are heading back our eye is caught by a large reclining gold Buddha, I haven't seen a reclining one that isn't a ruin so we head in. The Wat is having a new little Wat built and we watch two men putting the decoration onto the stucco. Adrian has a go at adding decoration and then carving detail. He's quite overwhelmed by the fact his handiwork will be admired by 1000s in years to come. It is to hitherto be known as Wat Now Adrian?

An early morning song thaew sees us headed to Den Chai and the train to Chiang Mai.

Cycling in Sukhothai

Our oh so very long and winding road leads us, eventually, to Sukhothai. An old Siam Kingdom built upon an old Khmer site. The kingdom flourished for just shy of 200 years and whilst much smaller than Angkor is quite special. It is also a UNESCO world Heritage Site.

The site is a few kilometres out of town and we grab a passing song thaew to get there. It's oh so organised, you hire a bike at the entrance to the Historical Park get a lock and a map and away you go. It's been a while since I last rode a bike but thankfully the local car drivers are obviously used to wobbly cyclists and give us a wide berth.

There are Buddhas as far as the eye can see and lots of water makes for a very tranquil experience in spite of it being Thailand's most visited site. It seems many people only come to see the main central zone, as we've gone to another zone a little further away it's nice and quiet in the central zone when we return.

At one point we are passed by a little tram full of school children who all should 'hello' and squeal with delight when we shout and wave back. Let me tell you trying to wave, cycle and take a photo is really not that easy.

When we leave the site we walk back to the old town and visit a beautiful Wat on an island which houses a Buddhas footprint. It's not that far from the madding crowd but once again we find a tranquil spot.

A song thaew back to town for a walk and showers before heading out for beer and backgammon. my luck is not with me at the moment.

I do know I haven't been on a bicycle for several years and there are bits of me that feel very tender I think I may pay for it tomorrow, but it was absolutely worth it.

The long and winding road

Our time in Nong Khai being over we head to Udon Thani on the bus to go to Sukhotai. A day of 10 hours travelling doesn't sound attractive so we decide to break the journey up at Loei, a provincial capital in the mountains. We are expecting a small quiet backwater but Loei proves to be the hippest, happeningest place we've been - sadly it doesn't get going until after we're in bed!!!

On arrival we bump into a German guy and his Thai partner who are unbelievably kind and take us into town and book us into a swank hotel that otherwise would have been out of our budget. We later return the favour by drinking at his bar and then eating at his restaurant.

The town is seriously lovely and friendly but we need to move on. Our first bus of the day is cancelled, the next bus is an hour late and we don't both have seats. I get a seat on the back seat but Adrian has to stand. I great my fellow passengers with "Hello everyone it's great to meet you", this sets the scene for they whole 4 hour journey. First I show them my holiday photos on the ipad! then the lady next to me reads my palm before trying to convert me to Buddhism. One hand looks good the other suggests poverty or at least that's what I glean from her. The man next to me kindly shows me what he thinks I should see out of the window and the Buddhist monk on the end shares my Mintos, we're a motley crew but it works. 

When we finally reach Phitsanulok I think we're ready to part company. Sadly our next bus is one hour late too. This means we reach our destination of Sukhothai in the dark. Thankfully the Sam lok (tuk tuk) driver doesn't mess us about too much before reaching a real price. Ooh it's been a long day. 

The Mighty Mekong

Nong Khai is the border town for crossing to the Laos capital, Ventiane. Laos being one side of the Mekong River, Thailand the other. The river is huge, very fast flowing - truly mighty.

Our digs are the Baan Sai Thong guest house, a beautiful teak building. The room is huge and immaculately clean, the kind of place you could stay a while. There's a strange choice of tiles on one wall in the bathroom though!

The town is quite big but spread along the River, it's friendly and quiet, particularly where we are staying. Nearby is a huge covered market which seems to be mainly a tourist thing, I saw a stall selling Laos souvenirs, a bit odd but whatever we're not exactly a million miles away. 

Dinner on our first night is riverside and we get a local to order for us. The food is delicious but too much. Lemongrass chicken, a fantastic whole deepfried fish which is filleted served with prawns and a squid salad and a tom yam soup, which has meat and fish in. It was, we thought in our western way, an odd combination of food and we're completely FTB when we finish. The food here really is delicious.

A three and a half hour walk gets us to the Thai Laos Friendship Bridge and back. We walk to the centre of the bridge which is the border between the two and back again. It's quite scary on the bridge, very windy and big lorries are going over quite fast. I'm more than a little relieved to be back on terra firma. 

The Friendship Bridge was designed and paid for by the Australians, it took 29 months to complete and was opened in 1994.

Our last task here is a sunset cruise down the Mekong to the Friendship Bridge and back. We have a couple of Chang beers to help us on our way. We've had a very relaxing time here but it is now time to move on.

Phimai, little town with big ideas

Phimai is a divine little town very quiet and friendly not many travellers bother to come here. We're here specifically to see the Khmer style ruins which the town historians say Angkor Wat was modelled on. It did technically come first and there are some similarities but the model for Angkor is a biggie. The ruins are lovely and are the most restored in Thailand. We visit briefly at night too when they are lit up. It isn't difficult to imagine religious ceremonies taking place lit by beacons.

A short walk out of town takes us to the largest Banyan tree in Thailand. The tree covers an area of 35000 sq ft and is 350 years old. It's a popular weekend destination and good for the old people watching. There is a large lake here where you can buy fish to release. The type of fish or eel you buy depends on what rewards you will achieve. It's only 20 bahts but Adrian can't be persuaded, not surprising when you see the size of the catfish in the lake nothing is going to escape them.

On the way back from our walk we come across a traditional Thai massage clinic and both dive in it's only 120 bahts for an hour's body massage and it's wonderful. There's a lot of giggling coming from Adrian's side of the room both him and his Masseuse are laughing turns out he is a massage virgin. In spite of the giggling I manage to relax and enjoy mine.

Massage makes you hungry and on our way back we pop into a lovely looking restaurant we passed yesterday. The food is as delicious as it looked. Sadly there isn't much to keep us here it's a shame as it's a lovely town but tomorrow will see us moving on.

Food glorious food

We always see our trips as a good chance to loose a bit of weight - no wine, chocolate, dairy or bread. This holiday is proving slightly different from the norm, the food is so good we find ourselves almost grazing all day long. Obviously we aren't eating all the aforementioned rubbish and we are definitely not drinking bucket loads of wine on a daily basis so hopefully we could still be on slimming world Thai-style.

The Thai food vendors generally know enough English words (and definitely more than our Thai) to give us a vague notion of what they are selling. Some stalls have a buffet arrangement so pointing is all that is required. Most of our meals have been costing between 30 - 40 baht which is less than £1.00. Proper cheap eats.

Spicy really means spicy here, the red and green curries as we know them at home are tame. On every table is usually an assortment of dry chillis, chopped fresh chillis, soy sauce and sugar, so spicing up is an option

Breakfast seems to be mainly noodle soup. Very tasty, very fresh but soupy. Adrian loves it and gets upset if he can't find any when he's ready in the morning. The 'meat' element differs by area I think. In Bangkok the meat is squid, in Ayutthaya it was chicken here, in Phimai it's beef. Now I say that with confidence but, to be fair, my confidence was shattered

yesterday.

Phimai has a nightly night market which is food in one form or another, we had some beautiful fish cakes, gorgeous noodles and a lovely spring roll, we suddenly lost our appetites when we saw... BBQ rat.

This little upset aside the food has been wonderful and we have yet to eat in a 'proper' restaurant needless to say my next meal post rat was vegetarian.

What a lot of Wats

We've now moved on to Ayutthaya a UNESCO World Heritage Centre. It was a very rich Siamese kingdom for a little over 400 years, ending with the Burmese ransacking and looting the kingdom in 1767. Its wealth having been deemed to be on a par with Paris by Louis XIV.

Digs are the Chantana Guest House with a lovely balcony that catches the afternoon and early evening sunshine. 

The main focus here is Wats, temple ruins and lots of them. It's not on the scale of Angkor but some of them are a similar style. The town is like an island surrounded by 3 rivers, it flooded quite badly in 2011 and late 2013 seriously affecting the ruins.

It is possible to travel between Wats on elephant back. Never wholly sure of the welfare of these animals I prefer to buy some food and feed a little lady hempant, we form a strong bond until she's finished lunch and then basically I'm dumped. Talking of dumps, Adrian has a strange fascination for standing on the piles of elephant pooh in the street.

Our days are simple, out about 8.30am to find breakfast, sightseeing and walking until 3ish with maybe a spot of lunch sometime, back to the drum for a shower and late sun on the balcony. Then head out for beer and backgammon and dinner. It's hard work you know.

A few words about the weather, it's hot. 

Kanchanaburi and The Death Railway

All will be relieved to know we didn't manage to get ourselves involved in the protesting although we did see the army mobilised following the shootings. Anyways we're out of that Bangkok hot bed for now. After a very early start from the lovely Tavee Guest House our train leaves about 30 minutes late. Plenty of people watching at the station and Adrian wobbles to a nearby market for breakfast.

The train journey to Kanchanaburi was delightful, pootling through towns and villages and paddy fields. At every stop a new vendor entered the fray selling all manner of edible goodies, breakfast for me this morning, noodles chillis and fish bits (eyes mainly I think) absolutely delicious and only 20p. We have decided that anything 'meaty' we can't identify is in fact toad, but that's ok, it tastes like chicken!

Kanchanaburi is a town of split personalities. On the one hand is a seedy bar and prostitution area whilst on the other is a clean and friendly town. Why Kanchanaburi? This town is alongside the River Kwai (pronounced square without the S) and the bridge built by prisoners of war under Japanese control. The bridge is a tourist hotspot for both foreigners and Thais.  One cannot begin to understand the suffering the POWs went through working relentlessly in the heat on meagre food rations and the dreadful treatment of the Japanese soldiers.





In the nice part of town is a Cemetery tended by the War Graves Commission, absolutely immaculately maintained, containing some 6700 graves. Just like the cemeteries of northern France, a chilling reminder of the huge loss of life and suffering of so many. An excellent museum completes our education and leaves us feeling both sombre and thankful.

Bangkok

Two days of drinking, eating and travelling have taken its toll and on arrival at The Tavee Guest House we crash and burn. Six hours sleep and a shower later and we are ready to go.

First job get Adrian a hair cut as he looks decidedly unkempt. Dinner is at a little restaurant by the river. Lots of pointing to other peoples dinners finds us tucking into roast pork with rice, shrimp salad and tom yam, a soupy affair. I'm not bothered by the soup but the rest is delicious.  As you walk along the streets past the little restaurants it is complete sensory overload, everything looks and smells wonderful.

The river is served by a wonderful ferry service, it's overloaded but quick and cheap. We have a mid afternoon cruise down to China Town a wonderful maze of alleyways were you can buy anything.

Our next stop is to be Kachanaburi, bus or train bus or train? We take the boat to the station to check out the prices. When we eventually find the railway station the train looks fantastic like something from 70 years ago, hard wooden seats and open windows - decision made, we leave tomorrow.

Lounge Lizards

We're flying Oman Air, our favourite airline, but it means a fairly lengthy stop over in Muscat. Having sampled the delights of No 1 Lounge (Heathrow Airport) and they were delights we head straight for the Plaza Premium Lounge and coffee then sleep.

We momentarily bemoan not having taken the slightly more expensive flight with shorter stopover but as ever, everything happens for a reason and it's positive, having passed half an hour chatting to a lady who thought she knew me we now have an invitation to Kuwait and our time here is well spent. Not to mention we've seen the biggest jar of Nutella in the world. In the picture the top right jar is the usual size. The big one costs $76.

There is not a cloud in the sky here in Oman, the mountains look beautiful. On our return leg we shall go into Muscat for the day and visit the grand mosque but today we are happy to lounge. Eat, drink and then more of the same. The hummus and flat bread are delicious.