It seemed like a good idea.....

We had expected that our overnight train journey to Chiang Mai would be a highlight and at least worth the trouble that it took to book. Sadly - even though we had decided we could spring for the 1st Class cabin - it turned out to be an uncomfortable, relatively sleepless night in a carriage which was seriously past its sell-by date. In addition, the failed suspension system when allied with the poor state of the track meant that we felt every bump of the 12 hour journey.

Nevertheless it was good to arrive in Chiang Mai - our base for a week or so. It is small enough to be walkable and has a huge amount to offer. We are staying in a guesthouse run by a Thai woman who was married to a Frenchman for many years - quite refreshing to be greeted in French first by all the staff - and they do have decent coffee and pastries (although you have to be early to get any).

Started off with 2 days of cooking classes at the Thai Kitchen Cookery Centre - recommended by Linda's friend Eilish from Dublin. It all seems so simple when you are taught in easy steps - proof will be in the dishes we can produce at home. After cooking 7 dishes each on each day - and eating it all as well - we haven't managed to eat anything else. I couldn't manage my first Singha until after 8.00pm last night and tonight may be the same. Interesting group of people on the courses with us including an American couple with their three boys - 12, 10 and 7 -who had taken a year out and were travelling around the world.

Off trekking in the Doi Inthanon National Park tomorrow for three days - spending the nights in hill tribe villages - and then back to Chiang Mai for a couple more days to see the sights before we head for Luang Prabang in Laos.

Hellfire Pass

This was to be stage 3 of our death railway programme and was worth the visit -despite the fact that the tour meant we did not have as much time as we would have liked. The museum and the walk through the passes (a three hour circular walk which we had to skip) were established and funded by Australian veterans with some government backing. As you walk through the pass it is hard to imagine the work that went into cutting the stone over three months during the hottest part of the year.
The final part of the trip was the journey back to town on the train but having been rushed through the museum and the walk our guide got a call to say that due to an accident - 'no worry, nobody killed' - the railway was closed for the rest of the day. This was hugely disappointing and we had to settle for the trip back by road and a visit to the bridge on foot.

Travelling companions

We decided to travel to Hellfire Pass with an organised tour which included a trip to the seven levels of the Erawan waterfall - one of the best in Thailand, a visit to the Pass and then return journey by the train along the death railway (or DEAD railway as a number of Thai signs described it). Since it was difficult to do all of this in one day under our own steam, we thought we would take advantage of someone else's experience.
Turned out that there were only three of us on the trip - our companion was a youngish Austrian named Kai who had been travelling in Thailand since the end of December and had been on his own for the last two weeks after his girlfriend had left to return to work in Austria. To say that he was talkative would be a gross understatement - from meeting at 9.00am until we got back to the guesthouse at 5.30pm he never stopped. Guess he hadn't had much conversation in the last couple ofweeks!
He was also staying in the same guesthouse and as we sat down to dinner he arrived and joined us - without eating or drinking - for the whole meal and then did the same again at lunch time today. We picked up one or two helpful tips from the constant chatter but were very glad to wave goodbye as he headed for Bangkok and his flight home.

Lost for words

We spent our first morning in Kanchanaburi visiting the Death Railway Museum and the main allied cemetery.

It is hard to describe the effect of the story which these two sites tell when taken together. Despite my previous research, the exemplary way in which the museum told the story and 7000 war graves in a small city block, I still cannot begin to understand the suffering that the allied POW's and the Asian conscripted labourers went through during the building of the railway.

Juxtaposed with the tv pictures of that grinning monkey - who was our Prime minister for far too long - trying again to justify his decision to start his own war in Iraq - it makes me wonder if we will ever learn anything about the futility of war!

Tomorrow we are heading up the railway to Hellfire Pass to pay our own respects - in some small way.

As a sideline it is interesting to note that the river over which the infamous Bridge was built was not the Kwai at all. Pierre Boulle who wrote the book which was turned into the movie had assumed that because the railway ran along side the KwaiNoi for much of its route, that this was the river that had been bridged at Kanchanaburi. In fact it was the Mae Khlong. Obligingly the Thai government renamed it Kwai Yai after the movie had been released and the first groups of tourists started arriving to visit the site.

More travelling

Minibus from hotel to Rama II in Bangkok suburbs - taxi to Sai Tai bus station -minibus to Kanchanaburi - soong thaew to hotel - all at breakneck speed. About 400km in 7 hours including a refreshment stop at a cost of £7.50 each.
We were both glad to reach Apple's Retreat on the riverside at Kanchanaburi - a friendly welcome, comfortable room (£10 per night) and cold beer. Also an oasis of calm after the rush of the day. Would recommend it to anyone not least because of the great food in the restaurant -however will leave the tripadvisor comments to Linda!

Life's a beach!

Golden Pines Resort at Pak Nam Pran had everything that you could want - comfortable room, balcony with great view of the sunrise over the Gulf of Thailand, Air con, hot showers, wifi, a great pool overlooking the beach and very friendly helpful staff - of course. Unfortunately it was sadly lacking in one commodity - other guests! A 33 room resort with only four guests (including us) felt a little empty to say the least - at any time the staff outnumbered the guests by at least 5 to 1.
The same applied to most of the places along the beach - even our favourite bar - Bamboo Beach - while busier than most others always had empty tables. The Thai owner Jane bemoaned the fact that there were so few western visitors in what should have been high season and complained that asian visitors tended to spend all their time in their resort hotels.
Naturally we were accosted in the bar - in a friendly manner - by the ubiquitous Scot(s). This time it was a pair of retired schoolmasters from Elgin Academy. They were keen to tell me how glad they were to have retired early - didn't believe that I had beaten them by 10 years!

On the Road

As we waited for the taxi to take us to the Southern Bus Station for our bus to Pak Nam Pran, the hotel concierge asked where we were going and then asked why we didn't just hire a car and driver to take us the whole way "much quicker, much better"!

That would have been my plan but since Linda was in charge of the arrangements, we are now aboard the #985 bus to Pranburi. So far so good - plenty of room to stretch out and to sit and type as well - probably more room than the Toyota Camry - and only 4 stops on the way down. Jury's still out but...

........Well, what can I say? Very comfortable bus journey which dropped us at the centre of Pran Buri in less than 3 hours - an hour ahead of schedule. Interesting discussion with a Songthaew driver to get us to our hotel - think we have now tried 8 different types of public transport with only tuktuks, samlors and motorbike taxis to go!

Pak Nam Pran is a very Thai resort and quiet during the middle of the week, but the hotel has all the comforts and, of course, very friendly. So far there are 2 english speaking staff - think we will see a lot of them!

The sights and flavours of Bangkok

I had been promised a couple of days to relax, so our sightseeing was restricted to Jim Thompson's House - an oasis of calm and tranquillity - and the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo - a hive of tourist activity. It seems odd that the temple of the Emerald Buddha should be the busiest place that we have been since arriving but I guess I could say the same about the Grand Mosque in Casablanca or the Alhambra in Granada.

My protestant upbringing has difficulty with the concept of merit-making while my western eye finds much of the decoration overdone.However I love the simplicity and functionality of traditional Thai architecture and the grain and texture of the teak.

As usual, we had identified a few places to eat - some recommended by friends, others the result of reading too many guide books. For simple meals, the Bus Stop and the Seven Seas on Sukhumvit Soi 4 were good - too early in the trip for hawker food! Cabbages and Condoms may be an institution but the food was still excellent- wonder if we could introduce the concept to the West of Ireland?

Brown Sugar - Soi Sarasin - was a great Jazz bar with a good resident band, a jam session on Sunday night and the food wasn't bad either (thanks PL). Curries and More... on Soi Ruam Rudee was upmarket Thai food and on the pricy side while La Gritta - Soi 13? was an expensive - very good - Italian which we chose by mistake because we had forgotten the name of the place Jimmy C recommended (La Giusta for future reference).

Been there - done that!

My first visit to Bangkok was 1974 - I remember meeting David Frost on the flight from Singapore - and my abiding memory was of the overwhelming presence of young US servicemen on R&R from Vietnam.

I was back again for a few days in 1978 - getting a visa to work in Brazil - but except for touching down at Don Muang Airport a few times on flights to Oz, I didn't return to the city until the 90's when I was here regularly on business and you couldn't move for the construction works for the MRT and the Skytrain and the new superhighways.

Linda's memories are of hockey trips from Hong Kong and Singapore and some of those stories will probably remain untold - 'what goes on tour.....'!

Landing at Suvarnabhumi airport this week it seems that the city has reached adulthood and taken its rightful place as another suburb of that sprawling Pacific city whch already includes Tokyo, Shanghai, Hongkong, Singapore, Sydney,Santiago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

Unfortunately, the city seems to have lost many of those features which seemed uniquely Thai and ended up like most of the others in the region - a fellow traveller described it as Blade Runner without the rain! Until you get to Sukhumvit or Patpong, of course, where you encounter hordes of attractive young women selling their services to the legions of fairly unattractive Farang.

Maybe my memories are rose-tinted, or perhaps I am becoming more cynical (is that possible?) butI am glad to be leaving the city behind as we head south for the coast and Pak Nam Pran.

Best laid plans

It seemed such a simple plan - a few days in Bangkok, a short visit to Kanchanburi and the Death Railway and then jump on the overnight sleeper to Chiang Mai. Unfortunately everyone else wants to get on the sleeper as well and there is no room for at least the next week. Guess we will have to settle for a few days on the beach until the rush is over.It's a rough life, but.....

Stop the banker's bonuses!

Despite notifying Lloyds that we were travelling to Thailand and Laos via their call centre and by email, they still managed to freeze our bankcards on both the accounts we had planned to use on our trip. In addition,when we called to sort it out they claimed that they couldn't do anything for 4 hours because all their systems were down for maintenance / upgrade.

For the same reason - apparently - we couldn't check the accounts via on-line banking. By the time it was finally resolved we had spent more than 15 minutes calling the UK from Linda's mobile - had to reorganise our plans for the day and grown a few more grey hairs.

I bet this wouldn't happen with a Canadian bank!

Taking a break!

Sunshine and 31C

Sitting by the pool with a cooling beverage watching the sun as it disappears behind the hotel tower next door.
10 days of visiting family and friends - driving 1100 miles and 14 restaurant meals later - was great fun but we were both ready for a break by the time we got into the taxi on our way to Heathrow.
Enjoyed being back around the Barbican for a couple of days but the taxi journey reminded me why city life lost its attraction a year or so ago. A lunchtime accident on the A4 had almost closed the road and even at 6.00pm it was still clogged justifying our driver's decision to take the A40. Unfortunately everyone else had the same idea so we crawled along from from White City to Park Royal.
Hour and a half to terminal 3 - thankfully we had checked in online and had plenty of time - and a very smooth passage through security left us with time for a farewell glass of fizz before boarding.
Flight was long and fairly uneventful - amazed at the number of single men of a variety of ages but equally bad dress sense and personal hygiene who were onboard. Assume they were coming here to visit their tailors and indulge in some personal grooming! Although having seen their ilk on our first night here they all seem to have engaged the services of a young(ish) female (mostly) Thai companion to help them cope with cultural differences - I assume.
So the adventure begins - so far we have agreed on 4 nights in Bangkok and then moving on the Kanchanburi and the Death Railway on Tuesday.

So what happened to 2010?

Well last time I looked it was around the beginning of October, we were busy fattening our two pigs, there were 23 geese on the paddock along with 5 of Keith's lambs and the hockey girls were settled and producing 28 fresh eggs every week.
Suddenly Christmas and Hogmanay are past and I am sitting opposite Linda on the Stena HSS ferry from Belfast to Stranraer as we begin 10 days of family visits in the UK before we head off for 7 weeks in Thailand and Laos.
Raising the pigs was definitely one of my successes for the year. By the time they went to the butcher at the beginning of November they had grown from 20-25 kg each to 85-90kg. As a result we ended up with nearly 120kg of meat in various forms (including 17kg of sausages) and 18 kg of Black pudding. Too much for our new freezer but thankfully our landlord took nearly 30 kg and paid a generous price for it – fair play to ye, Eugene! The meat has been very tasty with just the right layer of very sweet fat – not good for the cholesterol level but too good to avoid. Not sure if we will have pigs again next year – we will still be eating Billy and Bruce for most of the year – but it would be fun to try again.
The large flock of geese is definitely not to be repeated -too much effort and very little return – by Christmas time they were only selling for about 70% of their cost. They did reach a good weight – around 4.5kg when oven ready – and tasted really good but next time I think I would only raise a couple for ourselves.
The Hockey Girls were a great success for Linda - lost track of the number of eggs over the 6 months but there were never less than 24 per week. They were the only survivors as we packed up to leave – they are on their holidays too staying with Keith in a brand new “Celtic Tiger” henhouse – I may return to this later.
We had a great Christmas with friends visiting from the UK – more on this later too – it was so good to be able to share so much of our own produce with them!
So we packed up everything at Moyhill over the last weekend and are off on our travels again – sorry to all those regular readers who have commented on my indolence – there are lots of stories to tell so I will try to do better!!