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!
Sunday, 23 January 2011
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!
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!
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
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!
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).
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.
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.
Monday, 17 January 2011
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!
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!
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