After leaving Kanchanburi we headed south for the much anticipated islands of Thailand. Our first stop was the coastal town of Krabi where we were to meet Geraint who would be holidaying with us for the next two weeks. I had somehow become confused with dates and we had a shock to find Geraint suddenly [...]
Lots of tourists make the journey west of Bangkok to Kanchanaburi to ride the infamous Death Railway. The Thailand-Burma Railway, as it was officially known, was built by allied POWs during the second world war and it is possible to ride the remaining section from Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok. Kanchanaburi, as well as being the [...]
We decided to break the journey from Sukhothai to Kanchanburi at the former capital of Ayutthaya. We made the journey by very comfortable first-class bus. Once we had settled into our seats the attendant came around with a small box containing a chicken leg and packet of biscuits and a bottle of mineral water. An [...]
Sukhothai was not somewhere we had been particularly enthusiastic about visiting. After the temples of Angkor we thought we had seen enough ancient ruins to keep us entertained for a while. However we had some time to kill and Sukothai seemed like an obvious location to break up our journey south. On arrival we checked [...]
Over 600 kilometres and 4000 curves pave the journey from Chiang Mai along highway 108 to Mae Hong Son then back to Chiang Mai along highway 1095. With a sense of bravado which I do not often associate myself with we decided to undertake this ambitious journey. Our chosen vehicle – a 125cc Honda Dream. [...]
Chiang Mai did not really live up to our expectations. We were looking forward to a few days of wandering around the city and enjoying the cuisine for which Chaing Mai is renowned. We left feeling rather disappointed. Arriving into Chiang Mai was a real shock to the system after Kengtung. After being pretty much [...]
After much deliberation we decided to make the journey from Mae Sai to Kengtung in Burma’s Eastern Shan state. It felt morally inconsistent to boycott Burma after visiting Laos and China whose governments’ human rights records also leave a lot to be desired. We decided that we could minimise the amount of our cash reaching [...]
Mae Sai, Thailand’s most northerly town is a hive of trading activity. The towns only north-south street (which comes all the way from the suburbs of Bangkok and ends at the border) is lined with shops and stalls selling Burmese products from across the river and a huge selection of Chinese goods which have come [...]
After arriving back in Thailand from Laos we took a songthaew to Chiang Saen. At least we thought we were heading to Chiang Saen. We reached the halfway point at Ban Hat Bai where we were to change songthaew for the second half of the journey to Chiang Saen. Unfortunately our new driver had no [...]
The long journey from Louang Namtha to Houayxai marked the end of our holiday with Hannah and Pete. On arrival at the town we had a disappointing final noodle soup then walked them to the river bank where we watched their boat cross the Mekong to Thailand. Back to just the two of us, we [...]
