The Final Countdown

The Similans

And here it was… the final few days of the trip. While it wasn’t quite over yet there was no more ‘next week’ and I had to actual start planning to get back to Bangkok and start that long ride home… but not… quite… yet…

Khao Lak is the popular name for a region on the Andaman Coast of Phang Nga Province that lies not far north of the Phuket. Khao Lak itself is actually one small village but is now used to describe a larger series of beaches/towns around the base of the mountains in the region. The Andaman Sea itself is the shallow coastal region of the Indian ocean that makes up most of the western coastline of the peninsula that is southern Thailand. That probably doesn’t mean much to you as a reader but in practice for me it meant it was a much less dense collection of tourists than Phuket itself. While the coast between some of the villages definitely had a number of quite swanky hotel there were collections of smaller hotels and guest houses, lots of locals actually living here and a variety of restaurants and shops. The big attractions of the area are two large national parks… one based around the mountains and waterfalls of the interior… the other a marine preserve about an hour offshore. Guess which one I was there for!

I’d ended up booking a strangely named bungalow called ‘The Mouth’ that was about halfway between two of the villages but walkable to both. Unfortunately because my flight was so late and then I had the roughly 1h15 drive I could tell the host was waiting up for me when I arrived. I did get to meet the welcoming party of two adorable mutts named Coffee and Latte before checking in and finally getting the shower I’d been aching for since sitting on the samui beach hours before. Unfortunately I also got the unwelcome news that they were changing my room after the first night. I wasn’t super happy about this as I was being picked up for my dive trip at 7:30 the following morning so I had to actually budget an early enough wakeup to unpack my scuba stuff and clothes for the day, repack (including my valuables) and trust that it would all end up in the new room. In the end it was fine but I grumbled. I had time for a quick glass of juice and a couple bananas before I was picked up and the minibus driver took a kind of baffling route to the pier… first backtracking down the main road then turning back and grabbing people at some quite fancy hotels (I was already debating an extra night here so was checking out prices on the places and couldn’t believe the variety between some very similar looking places.)  Thankfully it wasn’t a full morning trip though as the pier turned out to only be about 20 minutes back south where it seemed most/all of the dive groups around departed. Access to the park requires a licensed operator and a reasonably high daily fee as they make at least some effort at preserving the area but I think they need to do more.

I’d strongly considered doing a liveaboard trip for my dive portion of the trip however prices were VERY high for anything that was still available when I was booking semi last minute. I’m not going to lie, I was also a little scared at how diving would go. I’ve only gone for one dive since losing a bunch of weight and my breath control is definitely still off. Divers will know what I mean, but basically my ability to keep at a level plane in the water by regulating my breathing intake amounts/speed. This combined with your weight belt and the amount of air in your buoyancy vest is what helps you ‘hover’ in the water. I still didn’t really know my weight belt needs at that point since I’m down another bunch of weight since my one dive in Greece last year (I’m closer after these dives but I think I really need a few more dives to zero it in.) In other words I was worried about flailing around like a newbie and wasting air and pissing off someone else who’d paid a fortune to be there too as I made them come up early. Sadly part of being a diving fan who lives in this terrible place for diving. I’m not super enthused about paying good money to go dive in West Hawk lake but there are definitely times when I wish I could go for a refresher dive not long before a trip that wasn’t just dipping in a swimming pool. That said… at this point I was aching to go diving. I know I don’t have many divers among my readers but there’s something about slipping under the waves and entering a different world that is the most soothing thing possible to me so I was absolutely ready.

Once at the pier I was assigned with two girls and another guy to a Spanish dive leader named Caro and we chatted a bit. The two young women were German (which would become a theme) and my personal dive buddy was Piotr from Poland. Eventually all the folks arrived, I gathered our boat was transporting two different dive shops worth of people but it was owned/run by the company I was using. Boarding was somewhat of a herding action as multiple boats were leaving for our group, another company was loading a giant way too large group of snorkelers and two other smaller dive boats loaded very nearby but at least not the same pier. My company was called Sea-Bees and seemed to be fairly well run, though nobody asked me for my dive card or to fill out any medical info in advance which is kind of a no-no. That aside they did at least have adequate medical stocks on both this support boat and eventual dive tender we were headed out to. The offshore marine preserve is the Similan Islands National Park and consists of a number of small-ish rocky/jungle islands about an hour and a half offshore. For a supposed marine preserve we saw a number of quite large cargo haulers passing between the islands and the mainland… you’d think they could stay outside the islands easily enough since I doubt anything that size was beelining for Phuket.

Eventually we saw the islands appear out of the morning haze… rocky domes topped with bright green trees surrounded by absolutely crystal clear turquoise waters and wish already visibly swarming the boat even before we docked with the actual dive tender called Stingray. We all bundled aboard with our gear (I’d only brought mask and fins and booties but some folks had full gear) and trundled upstairs to the observation deck where there was more fruit and cookies laid out. If you’re on a dive boat worth it’s salt you know you’re going to eat well. Unfortunately (and inexplicably for a hobby so reliant on lungs) the boat was full of Germans and fully half of them decided to light up a cigarette. So gross. I plonked myself down close to one of the railings despite the hot sun and tried to avoid the clouds. The various staff members unloaded the tender with whatever extra gear they’d brought from shore and lunch fixings etc then group by group we were called down for dive briefings and gear setup. I’d previously dived in relatively nearby waters on my previous Thailand trip (around Koh Lanta) so the fish forecast was about what I expected but I remained nervous as my dive leader guesstimated my required weights. I did at least get the lovely knowledge that these days a large wetsuit more than adequately fits me so no more trying to squeeze my shoulders into the largest ones they happen to have on the boat.

Once briefed our group loaded on to a zodiac and scooched a bit further up the coast before back rolling in at the head of a reef. Piotr was a nice guy but a bit of a high needs diver and went back and forth on whether he wanted Caro to take his camera in for him (he hadn’t adequately prepped his gopro for the situation however he did eventually get some nice shots.) He was also not great as a dive buddy as he had a tendency to swim off in random directions to shoot something with his camera and I’d turn around and he’d be heading the opposite direction of the gentle drift dive we were supposed to do along the drop. I was still fighting with my buoyancy a bit… this was definitely a bit too much weight but I counteracted it with a bit of extra air. Overall my consumption was decent but with the combination of trying to keep tabs on Piotr and the drift Caro had gotten a bit ahead by the time I was reaching the ‘time to signal her we should start ascending’ mark and I think Piotr was past it. This would have been fine if she’d turned around and asked for our current air despite the distance (visibility was phenomenal) but she didn’t for a very long stretch until I finally got close enough to tug one of her fins and signal. When we got above water and before the second dive she scolded us for not letting her know sooner but honestly… it was on her and to a lesser extent Piotr. I wasn’t in any danger as I was keeping tabs on my air and would have surfaced myself if I’d had to but she acted like we hadn’t been watching at all. Unfortunately getting back into the zodiac was really bad for me as though my leg hadn’t been hurting me too much for every day mobility… it was very much not a fan of lifting me+steel tank and gear+plus weight belt+however many pounds of absorbed water I had and I struggled up the ladder on that leg.

Once above water we got a delicious curry lunch and a bit of a break in the sunshine as the Stingray transferred over to one of the other islands. I know I’ve mentioned it before but a post dive hunger attack is like the post-swim snackies magnified by at least 4. I probably ate more curry than I did any other meal that trip and despite the super tiny galley on that boat this was some top tier green curry, spring rolls and some honey spiced chicken and rice as well. After lunch the smoking started again but thankfully because of the spot I’d chosen and the headwind it didn’t bother me as much. Piotr and I had a chat and I learned that he was older than he seemed and ran a recycling company back in Poland, he insisted on showing me some gnarly photos of his surgery after a motorcycle accident when his leg was reconstructed but I managed to get him to agree to send me the photos from his camera for these dives.

Dive #2 was in a gorgeous little group of rocks just offshore from another of the Similan islands, below the surface was a solid boulder garden that reminded me of some of my snorkeling spots in Fiji. Definitely some varied terrain but Caro had warned us that the current could surge here and she might be adjusting our path depending on it (and I’d privately warned Piotr to keep a closer eye on her so I didn’t have to try and bridge a gap between them again, thankfully his camera was low on power so he was a bit more restrained in what he chased after this dive.) Sure enough as we crested one area we got hit with a surge that more or less brought us to a standstill. Caro motioned us to squeeze between a gap in a giant bisected boulder and sure enough the surge lessened the moment we crossed the threshold. Annoyingly the girls had gotten to do the swim through below but I’d gotten tarred with Piotr’s brush and she had forbidden us to do it despite the fact that it was very open and I’d done way tighter swim-throughs previously.

We saw a number of lovely schools of fish on both these dives, trumpetfish, parrotfish, some wrasses, numerous lion/stonefish various kinds of blowfish, a ton of nudibranchs… but towards the end of the trip we ran into an old friend from my Fiji snorkeling… a Banded Sea Krait a very venomous (but not aggressive) sea snake that Piotr insisted on going to get a good shot of. I can’t say I blame him as they move in such an interesting way but it was as we tried to stay still in the current that my weight belt decided to break. I thought at first that the snap had come loose but as I very carefully stayed horizontal to keep it in place and signaled Caro for help I could tell that the other end of the buckle had simply pulled off the webbing. Unfortunately, when you’re sitting there in your BCD it’s not exactly easy to get the angle on it to see anything without taking it off, at which point you risk dropping some/all of the weights and completely pooching your buoyancy. Eventually she managed to get it secured temporarily and we surfaced where I again got yelled at for not managing my air despite the fact that no… I had… I’d shown her that I was at 70 (the ‘it’s time to go up’ pressure) at the appropriate time it just happened to be while she was fighting with my weight belt and presumably she forgot. I also surfaced with more left in my tank than one of the girls so I’m not sure why I got singled out given I was the one dealing with a minor emergency caused by their equipment. Side Note: I was not super surprised to discover the next day that she’d only been a dive instructor for a couple months at that point when she revealed that fact to the girls as we were enjoying the ride back in. She was nice and a good diver but I think needs a bit more seasoning.

I was definitely ready for a break after that so I was glad I didn’t have a night dive overnight planned like I’d originally considered. I fired up some tunes as we transferred to the tender as it was noisy enough conversation wasn’t really possible, not that that mattered as most of the passengers dozed off within 10 minutes of leaving the Similans and starting the transfer to shore. I wasn’t quite at that tired state yet so I watched the waves fly by and waved back at the fishermen heading out for an evening’s catch (likely squid fishing I think based on last time in this area.) Thankfully the arrival back at the pier wasn’t quite the same level of simultaneous action and we managed to get up and out and assigned back to minibuses relatively quickly. Hilariously at this point no one had asked me for money or even a credit card as a guarantee and I wondered what they would do if I checked out of my hotel tonight and didn’t return for day two as all they had was my email address and a passport number they’d never verified. Once back on board our bus Sarah (one of my new German dive buddies) and I quickly discovered that the routes indeed seemed to be prioritized by how fancy your hotel was as our driver drove past both of our places twice to hit more outlying resorts for the boomer couples in our car before doubling back to hit her tiny hostel and my smallish guesthouse. This was confirmed the next day when the driver went even more out of his way. Back at “The Mouth” I said hi to my new pup friends before getting an escort to my new bungalow, more or less a twin of the first one but with a worse view. Thankfully all my stuff was waiting and the shower was just as good as that was all I cared about at that moment. I spent a solid 20 minutes cleaning salt and generally rejuvenating then went out on my balcony and read my book as the sun slowly sank down over the ocean (though I could only see the treeline ? .) Honestly I was pretty pooped though and succumbed to the lure of the bed for an hour of semi-dozing watching a tv show before forcing myself up and out to dinner.

The lady at the front desk had recommended a place on the same sidestreet as we were located but their prices seemed a bit high so I decided to do a quick reconnoiter up on the main drag first. In doing so though I walked past the local place (called the Happy Snapper) and found a pretty pleasant garden atmosphere with open air tables and a little combo playing cover songs. I followed through and had a quick look at the main drag but nothing within a ten minute walk really looked or sounded great so I turned around and grabbed a table under a palm tree and ordered a curry and a cider.   The curry wasn’t bad (though they charged extra for rice :p) the cider was wet and delicious and the band was fun so it turned out to be probably the perfect laid back/enjoyable evening I needed. I ended up staying for the rest of the band’s set, tossed them a fiver and was asleep probably fifteen minutes later in prep for another early morning the next day.

Thankfully the next day was a bit less hectic all around… I got up a bit later, had time to actually sit down and eat some pineapple and drink some juice rather than just grabbing bananas to go. Also got to give Coffee and Latte a thorough cuddle which was nice as I was really missing my girls back home. Once back at the dock I was finally asked to pay and we eventually repeated the trip out to the islands… though with only about half the passengers we’d had the day before. The same two girls were with Caro (Sarah and another) and I had a new partner named Axel who was a very large man in width and height. Otherwise the routine was the same other than us hopping off the tender instead of the zodiac or big boat this time. I was less of a fan of that as it’s not set up with a big rear deck with space for putting on fins etc so there’s some awkward squeezing about. Axel had apparently paid for an extra large tank but was either otherwise inexperienced or otherwise rusty and actually turned off my air while doing the buddy check which uh… thanks buddy? Once we were in the water he wasn’t a ton better as I ended up having the opposite problem I had with Piotr in that every time I turned to check on he’d be literally on top of me, or right under me or I’d actively have kicked him because he wasn’t watching where he was going. He also burned through that giant air tank pretty quickly and we were back above the surface in under 30 minutes. To my frustration Caro scolded us about air use again even though I’d finished with the most air left of anyone other than her. Apparently Axel had gotten a bit excited with his camera as we saw another krait and I guess his desire to take photos had clashed with a fear of snakes and he churned through some air…

We had a longer trip between dive sites this time at the lunch break which was handy because lunch included some of the best deep friend chicken wings I’ve ever had (again despite a tiny boat galley) and I pounded back a few more than I should have. The girls and I chatted and enjoyed the sun and breeze and Caro came and sat with us for a bit as well. Eventually Axel showed up as well, revealed himself to be a dentist and asked about my leg and said he thought I should get it checked by a doctor just in case for infection. To be honest I was already leaning this direction but hadn’t wanted to be warned off diving so I’d delayed a bit. This wouldn’t be an issue after today at least and I’d spotted an ‘international clinic’ near-ish to my hotel.

Thankfully Axel’s air use was more under control for the second dive but he continued to constantly be right up in my business. My annoyance factor for this skyrocketed as, perhaps feeling (correctly) like she hadn’t been checking enough the day before Caro kept turning around… but always right after I’d had to dodge the guy… so I was either too high, or using my arms to backpedal (when diving properly your arms should basically be motionless unless you’re using a camera or a light or something) and she’d make a motion to me to level out or get down to her level etc etc etc… basically always something that wasn’t going to be an issue had she turned around 30 seconds before  but I’d had to dodge because Axel had come close to kicking out my regulator or whatever. It was incredibly frustrating since otherwise I felt like I was fully back in my diving groove and indeed when we got back to the boat I had fully 30BAR left and wasn’t particularly far behind her for air usage. Axel was a nice guy but I honestly needed to say something after and I waited til he was upstairs and said ‘for the record, every time you were scolding me for being too high it was cause I’d just dodged Axel’ and thankfully the other German girl said ‘yes I saw him kick you in the face at least twice.’

Highlights for day two were the second krait, a number of anemone fish of black and orange nemo cousin types, humungous schools of smaller glassfish with a few larger shoals of things like Angelfish, surgeon fish, various snappers and trevally and ooooh barracuda! (and many more) I also briefly saw an octopus but he jetted away before I could point him out to camera boy sadly. Annoyances aside, this was a gorgeous place to dive. The water was perfect, despite the offshore location current and surge were never too huge a problem and visibility was absolutely phenomenal as you can see from the photos. I gather as monsoon season arrives the visibility can get much worse but my understanding is diving more or less stops here for a couple months after the end of February which is no doubt good for the health of the park as well. I definitely plan to go back and do a liveaboard between these and the more northern/remote Sulin Island group at some point in my life. I still think they’re kind of overpriced but my Australia liveaboard remains a top 3 experience of my life so I’ll do it someday. This trip also reminded me that I really should get around to getting a dive computer.

Riding back in an hour later we logged our dives and chatted a bit about our fave dive sites. Sarah made us all jealous about her future dive plans for her current trip (I gather she was on a post school long term one like yours truly once did.) We’d also celebrated during the dive as that was her 50th trip down which made me realize I really need to consolidate my various books into the PADI app and figure out how many I’ve done now. Axel reiterated that I should hit the doctor and I assured him that I would.

A circuitous trip back to the mouth later I stopped at the front and asked if they recommended any particular clinic or if the close one was fine. Unfortunately for once language barriers were an issue but I eventually ended up on the phone with the close one and they said ‘we have no one right now if you want to come’ I told her I’d have a shower first but apparently I missed the aspect (or more likely she’d told the guy who didn’t have the best English) that they’d send a car. Instead I walked twenty minutes which was peanuts compared to what I’d been walking lately but somewhat exasperated the nurse who I’d talked to on the phone when I arrived. The clinic itself was brand new looking and spotless and I was quickly checked in, had my vitals taken and all the usual urgent care jazz. At this point I still had a deep gash which I’d been washing and cleaning daily with a local betadine clone and covering with a waterproof bandage for diving, a couple mostly healed scabby scrapes and a giant bruise and various associated bruised areas. There was also just generalized pain associated with standing in certain poses or after sitting for a while but I was fairly certain that was just the large welt straining the existing skin. The nursing staff were super great, I was less impressed with the doctor whose initial exam was basically ‘yeah that leg looks much larger than the other one’ (yeah, thanks chief) as he sent me in for an x-ray. I explained that I’d probably walked 50+ kilometers on it at this point so I doubted it was a full break if anything but I was all for an x-ray to make sure. I was less in favour of zero lead covering for my other areas while they did the x-rays but at least it wasn’t a chest film. At first glance as the x-ray came up I could tell there was no major break but waited for news on hairline issues as they sent me back to the “ER” exam room.

The nursing staff spent the intervening time doing a deep re-clean of the wound, commenting that I’d done a good job but they wanted to be sure all the debris was out. No complaints here and they had me all cleaned and meticulously bandaged by the time the doc came back in and confirmed there was no break but that ‘my bones are very big’ to which I just replied ‘I used to be much heavier.’ Armed with some new higher dose antibiotic ointment, seven days worth of oral horse pills to combat possible infection and a hefty bill for about $350 Canadian I took advantage of their car service this time and got dropped off down at the night market… that it turned out didn’t run this particular night… alas. Thankfully I realized I was actually near Sarah’s hostel and had seen a small Burmese place there so managed to get a big bowl of Burmese curry noodle soup to finally chase the last of the diving hungries away. Absolutely delicious thick and filling with a golden mango shake on the side. I couldn’t resist stopping at the happy snapper on the way back for one drink but the band called it quits earlier than night so that was all it was.

Unusually for me this had been basically the only part of the trip I’d done seat of my pants (though I’d only booked THE MOUTH right before the trip) I had nothing planned for the last few days of the trip and actually decided I’d be up for another day or two in Khao Lak rather than back in Bangkok and I’d maybe do a tour of the land based park. Unfortunately because it was a Friday night and this area is actually a place that some more local folks (both Thai and nearby countries) spend a long weekend I was out of luck for anything that wasn’t $250 a night. In retrospect I should have done one more night in the islands, one more night in Khao Lak and just returned to Bangkok the morning before I left but oh well… hindsight. It just happens that this trip was at absolute peak season of a busy year so I couldn’t be as flexible as I sometimes am on these trips.

With some difficulty I booked myself on a flight back to Bangkok the next night and headed to bed.

Since my flight wasn’t until 9pm I left my bags in the hotel lobby and hiked down towards the nearest of the villages where I’d been the night before. While I’d seen the boat sitting near Sarah’s hostel and the Burmese place I hadn’t had a good look so I walked over and confirmed that yes… this was the Thai police patrol boat that washed this far inland during the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. I wrote a whole mess of words about the tsunami when visiting Phuket on my last trip here so I won’t go back over everything but you can definitely see how wrecked this area must have been. Given it’s a series of narrow beach plains on a relatively unprotected coast it’s not really surprising. Given I didn’t have the time on land to explore the whole area I didn’t see any of the other monuments but there are apparently a number of them scattered around the ‘khao lak’ area. After marveling at the boat (it honestly looks as if it was purposely moved there) I walked through the village of Bang Niang down to the beach. There are definitely signs on the beach that this was once a bit more developed. The road down to the beach ends in a number of giant jagged blocks of concrete as though there was once a pier there, the sand trip is narrow despite the wide bay and feels like it was probably once much more plentiful and a few of places closest to the beach either feel underdeveloped or recently/haphazardly repaired. This too is probably where some of these new larger resorts came from though I suppose it’s also likely that this area being farther from Phuket has been lagging slightly behind on the recovery as tourism gets back to record levels around here.

I sat on the beach quite a while and enjoyed my last gasp of ocean for this trip. I think if I return to Khao Lak I’ll probably do the liveaboard thing ending here then spring for a fancier oceanfront hotel for a couple days just to savour the view. Spending 200+ a night when I’m spending the entire day out diving (for another couple hundred) has never seemed like a particular good use of money though. It was a HOT day though, I think 38 with the humidex and I decided to indulge and let myself have a coke and a sit under a fan. This little town was just as German focused as the rest of the area with every second shop having a sprechen sie Deutsch sign up. I couldn’t resist posting up at a cute open air café at the intersection of two roads and ordering their special schnitzel (yes again!) and a large coke to refuel. While it wasn’t in the same tier as the one at chinchilla it was absolutely delicious and made for some great people watching for an hour or so. I’d actually hoped to pick up some form of khao lak diving tee shirt but I never actually saw the physical location for my shop and none of the other shops seemed to have merch. Even the general market stalls only had the same generic mass produced thai beer company tees you see everywhere here. I remember when I dove on Koh Tau there were definitely large amounts of diving related apparel on offer. Sadly while exploring I also discovered there was a beer festival planned with what looked like a ton of extra food carts and bands, unfortunately it wasn’t kicking off until later that evening. In the end I just wandered around the town a bit longer before grabbing a gelato.

Walking around Khao Lak was another reminder of the schizophrenic thai take on cleanliness and respect for property. Garbage tends to pile up a lot here. I’m not sure if that’s a lack of people in the jobs to take it away (this seemed likely on Pha Ngan) or just lack of infrastructure. Given the tropical climate this can sometimes be unpleasant but I also know it’s not a HUGE problem like it can be some places. The scourge that is plastic bottles is definitely a big problem and I’d frequently see locals just tossing them out of their car windows. Yet at the same time many things are spotless and most public areas are well groomed. We’ve talked previously about the less than plentiful respect Thai folks have for leaving the sidewalk passable for pedestrians and that was certainly the case here as well. Yet at the same time I’ve seen multiple times on this trip a business just wrapped in chicken wire or a tarp to keep out the most casual of walk by theft and nothing more. Likewise while walking khao lak I saw a few public laundromats that are literally just shiny new machines under the barest of protections from the rain, often down a dark alley… can’t help but think of how that would be stripped in Winnipeg within an hour.

After hiking back to my digs I discovered a bigger problem… finding a cab to the airport was a bit of a problem. I’d mentioned to the lady on the morning crew that I wanted one but hadn’t given her a firm time and it seems as if no one was in the mood to drive to Phuket that evening (perhaps they were all going to the beer festival) but in retrospect given it was Friday I was probably running into the issue that most of the cabs who did that run had already driven in to catch incoming rides. In the end my lady at The Mouth found me one for $50ish and I headed in to town. It was just as well that I’d planned to go early as traffic was pretty wild at a few chokes points and it took fully 1h45 to get back vs. the 1h15 I’d been expecting. That said, as I got to the airport and checked in I had some good news. I’d purposely booked the late flight as it was significantly cheaper than the one leaving 2 hours earlier (roughly 2/3 the cost) but when I checked in about 2.5 hours early the attendant said ‘We can put you on the earlier flight if you want.’ Heck ya! This got me into Bangkok early enough to not have to go straight to bed, though to be honest it didn’t take me long to find myself there anyway.


I’d sprung for a hotel in a different neighbourhood of Bangkok from my usual haunts. I figured it would force me to explore some new areas and check out a new neighbourhood. Unfortunately it was a bit of a dud. The immediate locale was not particular exciting after dark except for one alley which is the new hive of go go bars and questionable goings on for tourists. The hotel itself was actually less pleasant than my cheaper place over near Khao San and had a dank mildewy smell every time I returned to the room until the AC had run about ten minutes, alas I should have just booked myself at one of the old standby chain and I could have had a nice soak in the pool to end my day. However, it was SUPER convenient to the subway so I ended up just shuttling all over the city from there for relative peanuts (most rides were $1-2.)

Since it was the weekend I ended up spending the next day at the Chatuchak Weekend Market which is an absolutely enormous flea market near the train station. The variety of goods available is truly bonkers though it’s thankfully semi organized into rough categories as otherwise the chaos of the tightly packed stalls would make it unnavigable. One end of the market is dedicated to art with everything from single artists in tiny stalls to small climate controlled rooms with fancier displays. I actually saw a few things I really loved but everything trended towards enormous canvasses which… even taking advantage of the shipping companies helpfully nearby with tubes and postage would not likely have fit anywhere in my house. Definitely more focused on the McMansion crowd with their giant 2 story vestibules. There are large sections for clothes and as I’d hoped I found some very cool shirts that were designs by local artists in amongst the beer tee stalls. In between are large swaths of stalls dedicated to home décor, kitchenware, used clothes (honestly few deals to be had here I was kind of surprised), pet supplies, plants and fake plants as well as books/antiques/handicrafts at one end. The crowd is an odd mix of locals and tourists, particularly in the long canyons of the inner stalls.

I knew I was somewhat pushing my luck on my suitcase weight already once everything was loaded back in both in terms of space and weight so I tried not to go crazy but I did pick up a couple of the aforementioned tees and some Chinese style soup spoons along with a few other small treats between this and later market visits. It was an absolutely stifling day again with the smokey haze that always makes it worse in Bangkok. Eventually I gave in to the lure of various great smells and scouted out for some food. Very enthusiastic google reviews and a packed house led me to a stall selling ‘boat noodles’ which was a hole in the wall with a simple menu of ‘we have it til we don’t’ noodles. I ended up getting fat rice noodles and braised pork in a peppery savoury broth that was probably top 3 for my meals in Thailand this trip. Super weird recommendation to make to someone but yeah… boat noodle stall in the middle of the weekend market in Bangkok, top tier noodles!  It was hot enough that after wandering a while after lunch it was time to find some shade so I hopped back on the subway and wandered around the district near my hotel again, still not super exciting but a little bit cooler.

Later that night I decided to check out the Chinatown weekend night market which I’d never been to before. It was again thankfully a quick subway ride but I wasn’t expecting just how busy it would be, mostly because they don’t actually shut down the road in question they just slightly widen the sidewalks with metal barriers.

I’m not sure if the level of decoration was normal or it was just the fact that we were only a week and a half after lunar new year at this point. It was a bit of a different vibe than most of the night market’s I’d attended this trip but the food was phenomenal. I started with some great greasy noodles with pork and egg, later found some shrimp dumplings that were delicious if rather heavy on the msg… then finished with an amazing BBQ pork bao. Also gave in to a craving for ice cream in the form of this marshmallow wrapped then toasted ice cream bar that was incredibly messy but tasty. It was definitely an adventurous day culinarily.

The next morning (my last day) I decided to meander across the city with the vague idea of checking out some of the parks and seeing a new neighbourhood or two. Lumphini park was described to me as the “Central Park” of Bangkok. I don’t know if I’d go that far but it was indeed an expansive green space in the midst of the city core. I’d picked up a cinnamon croissant from a bizarre little food stall market under the freeway and walked past the US Embassy (flicking a quick double bird at captain Tariff) before making my way through the gates. I ate my croissant watching a monitor lizard sunning itself until some dumb girl got too close and scared it back into the water. Thankfully it turned out the park is more or less overrun with monitors and I saw a number of other ones sunning or swimming away from the main path. Very neat to see as a prairie boy though I know in parts of Thailand they’re super common. The park itself is a pleasant green oasis that unfortunately seemed to be undergoing a bunch of maintenance at this particular moment. There were a number of public art installations (frequently friendship donations from other nations) and ponds and lakes. I’m not sure how the monitors feel about the swan paddleboats but I imagine they mostly stick to the areas people aren’t blundering.

Wandering the rest of the day wasn’t super eventful. I mostly people watched and tried to dodge roadworks. One long avenue I had to walk down a public works team had opened all the sewer grates for about 4 blocks but left no warning barriers up so you were one stumble away from going headfirst into an inky horror. I eventually ended up back down in Chinatown and picked up a few more small gifts from a stall I’d seen my first visit. My other goals was (again) food related and I tried out a back alley curry bar that was recommended in my old guide book and a website I’d found. It’s basically a random Chinatown alley but they have signs up pointing you in the right direction. Two large serving carts with vats of curry boiling away. You choose which curry, you get a bowl, you pay extra if you want some Chinese sausage added… then you pull up a tiny red plastic stool in an alley filled with shophouses and you devour a delicious meal for sub $2. Again this was worth the special trip and something I’d seek out again.

Sadly it was time to head back to Canada quite early the next morning so I ended my last day with a trip to a Michelin starred restaurant near my hotel doing classic Thai I treated myself to a phenomenal lemongrass, lychee and rum cocktail… some shrimp cakes and a delicious curry… and probably spent as much as I’d spent on the previous 10 Thai meals that trip. Was it good? Yes. Was it worth that much more? Definitely not. I’d visit again though, ideally with someone else to sample a few more things… but I pity the people that come to Thailand and only eat in this sort of place.

As I walked back to my hotel, dodging yet another hooker trying to grab my wrist as I passed cowboy alley I caught myself thinking about how great this trip had been. I know it’s been obvious in this travelogue but food is a huge part of what I love about coming here and this trip had demolished even the massive expectations that had been set by the previous trip. I managed to both see my old faves and make some new discoveries. Some I’d repeat, some I wouldn’t. I had regrets about not doing a couple things but they’re relatively minor and will just go on the list for next time because there’s little doubt I’ll be back in Thailand before long. Honestly I’m surprised it took me this long to be back. I suspect next time I may try a different time of year and make a stronger attempt to just completely avoid Bangkok except as airports require it (I wish flying in to Chiang Mai direct didn’t add so much to the cost.) Despite that, I think I enjoyed Bangkok more this time than last. It’s a great city but I definitely enjoy exploring the rest of the country more. Next trip it’s definitely time to hit the east/northeast of the country and to do more diving (maybe bookend the trip with it next time.) In general it’s probably time to push out of my comfort zone a bit more next trip and I’ll probably try to add Laos on to my trip and possibly another side trip (I think I’m bumping up and doing four weeks next time if I can.)

Thankfully the flight back home was faster and my bet on booking an aisle seat in one of the shorter rows at the back of the plane with an empty middle seat next to me paid off and it stayed empty for the long leg. Making up for my ukranian friend last year by having an empty seat next me for both of the trans-pacific flights this time! Of course… I returned home to find we were in the midst of a nasty cold snap and instead of at least a slight improvement I got again and 70ish degree C temperature flip… alas.

The highlights this trip were definitely the food, the elephants and the diving unsurprisingly… the low points were definitely the complications in travelling to/from Pai even if I mostly enjoyed my time there. Lessons learned? 1. Pre-book Pai travel in advance 2. It’s probably time to get some better earplugs for sleeping. 3. Find a woman who dives/friend who dives who actually travels so I don’t have to play dive buddy roulette.

Overall recommendations for someone thinking of going?

-Thailand is a beautiful country and honestly kind of ‘Asia on easy mode’ for English speakers especially with modern smartphones. Just be willing to get out of your comfort zone a bit and you’ll have a much better time. Don’t be the American woman with her tunafish.

-Plan for some time to adjust to the heat, it’s definitely a brick wall when you first arrive.

-Don’t cram your schedule too tight but also make sure you get outside Bangkok.

As always I’m happy to discuss any of my trips further or give you some pointers if you’re interested in going. It’s a very solo traveller friendly country even if you’re a bit older than the backpacker crews those words bring to mind.

Stay tuned for one post featuring some photos I missed early…

Gulf Island Getaway

As we left off last time it was unacceptable o’clock in the morning and I’d just risen early after struggling to get any sleep in order to catch my ride south back to Chiang Mai for a noon-ish flight south to the islands. It was still black as midnight as I trundled my bags down the deserted street to the tiny counter and parking lot that served as the ‘bus’ depot for Pai. Local dogs were everywhere by the sides of the road that morning but they are thankfully road savvy and got out of the way as we started to move. By the time I finally left town dawn was breaking very slowly and the light started to fight through the mist here and there as we hugged the top of the valley back to the pass.  This quickly became rather breathtaking as we rose completely above the mist and the sun got brighter. I wish we could have stopped to get a better photo but I contented myself taking in the view. Sadly with this driver being just as (if not more) aggressive on the curves there was little chance of catching up on any sleep anyway. We thankfully made it back to Chiang Mai on time as this time I managed to get a cab driver who somehow had never been to the airport before, got on the freeway and subsequently missed exits at least 3 times and took us on a farmland tour before I got out my phone and started turn by turn directing him to the airport. I was a very happy camper once I was finally checked in to my flight and able to get through security and sit down.

As I waited in the boarding lounge I came to two realizations. One, I’d made a rookie mistake and forgotten to take my hoodie out of the big bag and was thus facing glacial thai public transport AC without a coverup. Two… I’d not stopped for anything to eat and as per usual for thai airports all the food in here made a north American airport markup look cheap. I decided to wait for my Bangkok layover in hopes of something more appetizing for actual food and just demolished a bag of chips I still had in my backpack as I sat shivering. Thankfully once I was on my flight despite it being all of an hour I discovered that I actually got a small meal of shrimp Pad see-euw and yogurt which was all the refuel I needed. Just as well as the wing of the airport I ended up in in Bangkok only had vending machines and the AC was turned even higher in this smaller out of the way lounge. I was flying from Bangkok to Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand so I was again on a smaller flight. After 4+ hours of shivering it was glorious to get out on the tarmac at Koh Samui and take an open air transport to the tiny terminal as I breathed in moist sea air. Samui is a hilariously small airport for how busy a tourist destination it has become, basically none of it is truly ‘indoors.’ Unfortunately as expected this was also the end of cheap convenient taxis/rideshares and back to the Taxi Mafias of the southern resort areas. The airport is tucked away in a maze of side streets and it’s a bit of a walk to get to anywhere that’s a public street. Apparently grab (uber equivalent) used to work reasonably well except for at the airport but there have been fights and confrontations and the taxi mafia is back controlling everything. Much like Phuket I gather the government makes a token crackdown every so often then things return to the status quo once their attention is elsewhere. It’s the one downside of visiting these areas as you go from Bangkok or Chiang Mai where you can cross half the city for $5 to my sub 5km trip from the airport to my one night hotel for almost $20. Once you’re out of the airport you do have the option of taking the pickup truck ‘busses’ previously described but even those will try to gouge you as a visitor and you have to negotiate to get a price that again would get you 5x the distance directly to your destination in other Thai locales.

My final destination was actually Koh Pha Ngan the next island north in the chain but try as I might I hadn’t been able to find a Chiang Mai to Samui flight that got me there in time to catch the last ferry of the day. A friend had warned me this would likely be a problem unless I caught the direct flight but as that was $600 instead of $150 I decided to spend a night on Samui. Samui actually seems quite nice, I know people including my parents who have spent some lovely time there but I was looking to get to a slightly more relaxed vibe, do some gentle snorkeling/beach relaxing. Last time I was in Thailand I’d gone straight even further north to Koh Tao as that’s the diving center for the area but I’d made a strategic decision to move my diving later to a more expensive but supposedly great area on the Andaman coast. My hotel for this night was chosen for proximity to the ferry terminal while still being not bargain basement. Unfortunately I’d gotten the last room and it turned out to be the one facing a very busy beachfront street with a large patio window, the seal on the both the inner and patio doors was shot and I could here conversations in the room across the hall as well… definitely not a hotel going on my recommended list despite their location. Luckily by the time I grabbed a quick dinner and a few necessities I was so wrecked from the long day and lack of sleep the night before that I passed out the moment my earplugs were in.

Morning rolled around and I’d chosen to take the second ferry of the day so I didn’t have to race anywhere first thing which turned out to be a great decision as despite what was lacking about the room this little hotel did indeed have a great location right on the fisherman’s beach. Lovely powdery white sand stretched east and west of me in a gentle bay down to large vacation homes in one direction and a giant golden buddha in the other which I knew was appropriately called ‘Big Buddha Beach.’ As check in time wasn’t until noon I grabbed my sunglass, found a beach lounger and spent a couple hours just enjoying the peaceful morning breeze with my book and a bottle of pineapple juice. Eventually it was time to be on my way to the ferry pier and I was feeling pretty recharged. My inherent cheapness meant I was walking there with my suitcase though as I was quoted 15 bucks to go what I knew was only about 1.5km, I probably could have hopped a songthaew but by the time I actually saw one I’d made it halfway. In a normal city this wouldn’t have been a big deal but as I believe I’ve previously described the Thai people have zero restraint in completely blocking sidewalks with vehicles, merchandise, decapitating ropes and cables or just leaving unfinished unmarked roadworks. I will probably need to do some maintenance on my poor suitcases roller wheels once back home. Thankfully the ferry port itself had a bunch of shaded seating, I checked in no problem and was offered a minibus to my hotel at the other side for sub $10 which I figured was an acceptable deal (and turned out to be about half of what I’d pay to get back later.) The ferry itself was a bit of a gong show though. I gather this pier only serves their Samui to Pha Ngan route and they had 3 ferries tied up at the pier. I do not understand why but they tie the one active boat up on the outside of the three all moored together while the other side of the pier is unused. They then proceed to load all passengers and their luggage through the other two ferries (one of which clearly hasn’t sailed in ages) to board the last one. I’m guessing the second boat is only used around the time of the full moon parties on Pha Ngan (which I am purposely avoiding) where an extra 10 thousand or so young people tend to converge on one beach on Pha Ngan. Thankfully the sailing itself was uneventful and I got to my new digs in time to check in to a delightfully isolated and quiet bungalow just off the beach, change into my swim trunks, catch happy hour at the beach bar and have a relaxing swim in the absolutely bathwater warm waves.

The resort itself was about a 10 minute walk from the main road (down some very dark under repair roads) and was one of a series of smallish beach resorts of varying levels of fancy. Mine had approximately 12 small beach bungalows, each with shady palms, a small terrace and sand paths to the beach. They had a small pool which I never used that seemed nice enough for days where the sea was too wild and a small restaurant that was ‘ok’ with reasonably priced drinks and decent coffee according to some germans I chatted with. To be honest, it was perfect. It definitely wasn’t the prettiest beach on the island but it was calm and after the fairly hectic pace of the first half of the trip this stretch of days was all about relaxation anyway. I didn’t move the rest of the day, alternating my book with a couple swims, an order of so-so pad thai from the kitchen and a couple more drinks as I watched sun set over the gulf of Thailand. The only thing that interrupted the peace was something Cicada like that came out for an hour or so after sunset and droned loudly for a bit. I closed down the bar that night and after looking at the stars for a while curled up in the comfiest bed of the trip so far and watched a movie, perfectly content.

I’m not going to lie, with a quiet comfy bed (and no roosters in earshot) for the first time in a bit I let myself sleep in a bit that first day and by the time I emerged, had a morning swim and a long hot shower it was probably pushing lunchtime. I think the most energetic non-swimming thing I did the rest of the day was go for a walk to replace my bandages for my wounded leg and grab a quick lunch. I spent most of the day alternating between swimming, reading and dozing in a hammock in the shade. There was a kiteboarding school just down the beach from my digs and it was fun watching the newbies trying as, from my limited experience with the thing, it seemed like the wind was just strong enough for it to be possible, while also making it really hard to get lift. All in all it was exactly the recharge day I needed and I’d also found my hotel did laundry for a rate no worse than anywhere I’d seen on the main road.

The next morning was absolute gorgeous, the waves had picked up a bit overnight and the gentle crashing was just loud enough to reach my room as I lazily greeted the day. I decided to be a little more energetic but I wasn’t expecting to do quite as much as I ended up doing. The interior of Koh Pha Ngan is fairly rugged and on the west of the island it’s a fairly narrow strip of flat land on the coast before the hills quickly climb carpeted with jungle. I vaguely had it in my head that I’d go for a walk south along the beach, maybe as far as a place called ‘Monkey Corner’ that apparently had a colony of monkeys hanging out near the road. There was a fairly intense storm not long ago that caused some flooding and high waves here and while you couldn’t really tell by my hotel I began to see more signs as I walked south along the beach. A number of damaged boats, piles of battered fishing nets and floats rested near the beach along one of the stream outlets and a large amount of other debris sat along the surge height for quite a ways in either direction. This section I walked along had less in the way of tourism type infrastructure so probably hasn’t been a priority.

Overall Koh Pha Ngan feels much less touristy than Samui. There are still a ton of tourist focused businesses of course but the hotels tend to be smaller bungalow type operations (on this part of the island at least, I understand there are some larger resorts on the northeast corner) and it tends to be overall a bunch of small businesses vs. the kind of giant restaurants etc you see in Phuket. Eventually I reached a more rugged section of coast that precluded beach walking and turned to walk up to the main road. I’d worn my walking sandals due to the beach walking and if you know my terrible feet you know that doesn’t usually go well for me for long distance walking but I guess that’s another side benefit of the weight loss as I managed a ton of walking without any real ill effects other than mild soreness which was fantastic. It’s a good thing too as the road quickly turned into a couple hundred foot climb over a saddle pass into the next bay… then a second longer, steeper climb to actually reach the area of monkey corner. Monkey corner turned out to be pretty low key, genuinely just a small section of road on the point with a small monkey colony hanging out near the road and a bunch of signs not to feed them. They were adorable but not particularly active. One imagines that despite the sign they probably do quite well for handouts by staying near the road and looking cute.

By this point I’d walked halfway to the southern tip of the island and the area where the Full Moon Party takes place which was supposed to be quite pretty when it isn’t overrun with 10,000 drunks so I kept walking until the rising heat (roughly 35C that day) and the sun directly overhead made a lunch stop sound like a good idea. I was still fairly high up in the hill crossing so finding a place with a view didn’t take much work. As I was now in the south it was time to start enjoying some Massaman as it’s almost universally better the further south you go as it’s ‘muslim’ curry and the Thai muslim areas are closer to the border with Malaysia. The meal wasn’t bad… the view was better as the restaurant more or less overhung the cliff and looked down through jungle to the sparkling turquoise waters far below. I lingered longer than I’d originally planned with a nice fan blowing across my face and a mix of view and a good book.

I’d been able to see my ultimate destination from the restaurant as well and kept walking south passing an odd mix of abandoned (covid casualty?) sparsely sited hotels, a few guest houses that seemed more or less deserted and parking lots for various party nights other than the big shebang. While the big party on the beach is the night of the full moon or immediately adjacent the week surrounding it also tends to have large dance parties that run until dawn at other locations, some deep in the jungle, some on other stretches of beach and they often include internationally known DJs running the show. Getting a hotel on this part of the island at that time usually requires a minimum stay so not surprising there are other parties going after those dollars. I was here a solid week and a half before the big day though and things were much less crowded, especially further out from the Haad Rin beach itself. Things became much busier as I reached the actual beach area itself which I found surprisingly small after the various images I’d seen of it online during trip planning over the years. It’s a pretty little cove with lovely white sand that they must do an excellent job of cleaning after the parties. The waves were crashing harder on this side of the island and there was actually a red flag up for swimming that no one was paying attention to. It was in fact quite busy with swimmers and sunbathers I just cannot fathom it being packed with a rock concert’s worth of people… it sounds like my personal hell.

I’ve discussed this in travelogues before but man… why when you’re travelling is there always that one 80 year old dude on the beach. He’s in really good shape for his age and he knows it and he feels the need to just stand there at the front of the beach… always wearing a speedo… he was once well muscled but he’s quite old now it’s more like oiled sinew… he’s ALWAYS tanned so deeply and for so long that his skin has the texture of a really worn out Barcalounger which combined with his low bodyfat makes him honestly just look like some sort of beef jerky golem. He’ll always be in your gaze as you’re trying to quietly look out to sea…

I ended up spending the afternoon there enjoying the sand, walking in the waves a bit and generally just continuing the relaxation tour. I hadn’t yet decided if I was walking back or hopping a red truck but in the end I started walking back but when I paused for a drink of water at the base of the first hill some woman asked me if I needed a ride and mentioned some large sum of money. I laughed and shook my head and continued walking but a moment later she called out again and a young woman on her scooter had stopped and asked where I was going, I told her and she told me to hop on. I wasn’t going to say no but I will admit that wasn’t my favourite motorcycle ride ever as the rolling hills on her underpowered scooter made the uphill bits slow and the downhill bits feel like an exercise in trust in her brakes that I wasn’t sure I was on board with. When she dropped me back at my hotel corner I gladly offered her what I knew the red truck cost would have been and she turned me down with a smile and gave me a wai. I returned the gesture and said goodbye and felt great about the world for a few minutes. I was (unsurprisingly) pooped at this point as even with the ride I’d done about an 8km hike in +35 weather so I went for another swim and enjoyed another happy hour sunset off the west coast.

While randomly browsing google maps of my hotel area I’d noticed a German restaurant with 5star reviews just up the main road from my hotel. I’d already decided to have a break from Thai food for that night’s dinner and had initially been tempted by the Russian place listing pelmeni but given my less than charitable feelings towards Russia at the moment and the reviews for this Chinchilla Restaurant I decided to go for schnitzel. This was the correct choice. The restaurant itself was a narrow roadside stall with four or five tables that seemed to be run by a German dude and his Thai partner. I got a delicious slab of schnitzel, a green salad and a healthy portion of German potato salad for I think about twelve bucks all in. It was phenomenal and one of the best schnitzels I’ve had outside of my platonic ideal from Austria. Full of meat I eventually stumbled back to the hotel and lay reading in a hammock on the beach until my yawns overtook me and I headed to bed.

Sadly the next morning it was already time to leave the island. Unfortunately the night before I’d found out that my laundry hadn’t been finished and though I was told she’d get them to do it first thing I still had visions of having to pack a bunch of wet or dirty clothes but to my relief by the time I was ready to check out there was a washed and pressed pile of t-shirts and undies ready to go and tight enough that I could just quickly pound them into the bag and hop a cab. I had a flight to catch to Phuket in order to head up the Andaman coast and unfortunately the later ferry would have been cutting it pretty fine to the airport so I had to hop the morning one which again gave me time to kill on Samui. Thankfully the ferry terminal had cheap luggage storage so I just left the big bag there and took a walk past the big buddha and over to Choeng Mon beach where my parents had stayed on their interrupted by COVID voyage in 2020.

Choeng Mon was yet another flavour of beach for this trip, a combination of more families (I hadn’t really seen any younger kids on Pha Ngan) and more retiree age folks. The sand was lovely and there were a few more large and/or pricey resorts nearby interspersed with smaller beachfront places. It was a much more ‘mexico-like’ vibe with vendors coming by regularly and the various resorts jealously guarding their various stretches of beach. It was a beautiful spot but I definitely preferred the more laid back vibe I’d had. I again just spent a couple hours on the beach until rising hunger sent me back up to the main road to a place that had looked delicious where I snagged a curry and a beer before making my way back to the ferry then on to the airport.

Samui airport was even odder outbound however as after checking in  (and waiting to make sure they don’t flag your bag as needing inspection) you then have to hike a fair ways to another terminal ‘building’ to actually go through security and leave. I was fairly early so I actually stopped partway at a lounge that was basically a small garden strewn with beanbags where you could relax and watch planes landing/taking off. Unfortunately my flight luck ran out for this one and I was delayed over an hour and a half, never really got an explanation as to why but I felt bad given this was the one time this trip I’d pre-arranged an airport transfer as I was going to a smaller town about an hour to an hour and a half north of Phuket airport itself and I assumed the poor guy was stuck waiting for me. I’m not actually sure he was though or it was just a service, I tried to ask but neither he nor the people at my eventual destination spoke much English. It definitely gets the award as the wildest cab of the trip with quite the party/arabian nights atmosphere when I first got in then sparkling multicoloured stars once we were actually moving.

Khao Lak and a whole bunch of diving was next but I’ll leave that for the next and probably final post. I don’t expect it’ll take as long to get this one up, I’ve just been slammed since getting back to Canada.

Pai Go

Leaving Chiang Mai was less pleasant. I’d hit up the young woman at the front desk the day before to look into a ticket for me to Pai and she said something about reserving me one. This is partially on me, I didn’t realize they’d cut down on the number of minibuses going there and basically only one company was doing it. Unfortunately I didn’t find this out til the morning, when I returned from the cooking class the person on the desk told me there was no note from them. Come morning I asked and ‘no it’s full, maybe you go to station and ask’ (Yes well I would have done that yesterday or started researching alternatives if you’d left a note for me.)

To compound matters she sent me to the wrong station which was (just) within walking range with a suitcase so off I went just to find out that was only for full size buses and the route to Pai had been discontinued at some point. Hop in a grab to the other station, get there to find out all trips are full for the next couple days… ugh… ended up getting hopped on by a ‘private’ cab that charges 3x the price and doesn’t leave til they’re full but thankfully that only took an hour. Since it was basically that or abandon my reservation there and stay in Chiang Mai longer I went for it. To be honest I considered staying in Chiang Mai… or if I hadn’t booked a flight out of Chiang Mai to the islands maybe even just going somewhere else but since everything involved coming back to CM it seemed foolish (The CM-koh samui flight being the priciest in country flight I’d be doing.)

The road to Pai is known for featuring 172 nausea inducing curves as it travels up into the mountains and along a ridge line pass. To put the windy level into perspective it’s roughly a 3 hour trip to cross only 129km of highway distance. When you reach the pee/snack stop there are signs everywhere for motion sickness cures. Thankfully no one in our very packed minivan seemed to be feeling green though I noticed a few people had taken gravol in advance. There were definitely a few who looked very relieved that the journey was over

The road and the surroundings of Pai were stunning with sharp rising hills covered in an absolute carpet of greenery. It made me wonder how much greener it could get since I knew it was the dry season. One of these days I’ll have to come to Thailand in the rainy season and see some of these rivers and waterfalls at full force. The town of Pai… was less impressive. It’s basically become a backpacker mecca in the north and is the most reachable outpost on the Mae Hong Loop in the NW of the country. Even before Thailand legalized (sort of) weed it had a hippie commune rep. To be honest that was part of the reason I’d skipped it on my previous visit. My first impression of the town is that it seemed like Khao San Road in Miniature (KS Road being the backpacker strip in Bangkok that’s a combo cheap backpacker mecca/mini spring break atmosphere.) The poster child for the vibe here might have been the first guy I walked down the street behind. A tall bearded dude that could have been Indian Jesus smoking an enormous joint and wearing mirrored sunglasses and a velvet bathrobe that said ‘Maid of Honour.’

I had been mildly worried about this party central vibe and had booked a small guesthouse a bit off the main drag so I got my bearings and quickly set off. It was pretty clear that the main hive of activity was along this one street and in fact later in the evening it’s a nightly walking street for a few hours. I passed a few tshirt stalls, more motorbike rental signs that I can count and a few restaurants that looked like possibilities. In true thai fashion the sidewalk was barely a suggestion and as I hit the edge of the main district it disappeared… conveniently enough I was walking past the area hospital at least. Down a side street I found Ban Aew Pai, a small garden guest house with 6 or 7 bungalows. It was a picturesque place that seemed like it would be far enough from the noise.

I’d reached the point in the trip where I was kind of aching for some non-thai food so once I’d settled in I took a walk back into the hustle and bustle to try to find food/make some plans. Armed with a hopefully still valid recommendation from my old Thailand lonely planet I set out past bar after bar and eventually reached Maya burger which served a really solid little quarter pound burg with good toppings and crispy fries paired with a delicious garlic mayo. It was definitely a product of the moment but also pretty delicious in its own right. I blame that feeling of contentment for the foolishness that occurred next.

I was honestly trying to do some rafting… unfortunately the only one day trip was done as a one day ‘back to chiang mai’ trip and basically would have been doing the same trip I’d done a few days previous but with my bags being taken along in a van. Honestly had I been aware of it I would have considered it. The only trip the other adventuring company had going out the following day was a trek into the jungle. Don’t get me wrong, I’d been thinking I’d do some hiking in Pai… and in my defence their listing for this trip was a bald faced lie… but still I was mental. I blame my brain for focusing on the ‘finishes at a waterfall’ part. I stayed out for a while people watching but after a couple of drinks I was ready to just retreat for the night given the impending early start.


The day started with a pickup in a Songthaew (pickup truck with two parallel benches in the back) and we immediately headed north further along the Mae Hong Son loop. I’m not a person given to motion sickness but if I’d thought the minibus ride the day before was bad sitting perpendicular to the driving direction in a vehicle with only the barest suggestion of shock absorbers was a new level. It turns out were were travelling a solid couple hours out to the start of the hike (something else I’d missed on the brochure.) Along for the ride were a young British couple and a Spanish woman a few years older than myself. We introduced ourselves and chatted a bit but as the drive progressed and the road got worse conversation became more difficult. The British contingent was definitely feeling the motion sickness by the time we finished and I was honestly keeping an eye on him getting ready to dodge if he lunged for the tailgate.

Arriving in a small village our guide welcomed us and we met the other two hikers with us: two Slovenian girls who were doing a two day hike and who’d overnight-ed in the village. They were very nice but set off the first warning bells when they mentioned they’d definitely hiked way longer than the brochure said the day before. I didn’t really get much time to process that before we were on our way, touring the village and seeing the old style homes where the livestock was penned under the stilted cottages/huts and dogs wagged their tales at us but mostly just stayed in the shade. It was an interesting glimpse of a very different way of life to ours but I laughed pretty hard at the one guy who shouted out to our guide in greeting and he responded with ‘I go trekking, you come?’ and the guy said something that was pretty clearly ‘hell no’ in Thai. With that settled we started heading up into the hills.

Most of the people reading this blog are also prairie people and have probably also experienced the harsh realization that, no matter how good of shape you’re in, your legs are gonna complain when you’re suddenly expecting your legs to do this ‘uphill crap.’ I actually held up pretty well for the first half of the hike and was having to slow down to wait for the Slovenian girls a few times. The first stage of the path was clearly a livestock path and we used ladders to get over fencing a few times and frequently had to dodge cow pats, then a bit later the cows themselves. The views backwards as we climbed up the valley were phenomenal, unfortunately the rest of the hike mostly avoided any great view points.

When we eventually reached the top of the first mountain ridge and took a rest and water break. We all marveled at our guide Jon doing this hike in what looked like dollar store foam flip flops but to be honest he probably could have done it barefoot. Once moving again Jon pointed into a valley a few km away and pointed out his village. A few minutes later he also pointed out Myanmar literally just between the next two mountains, at our closest point we were only a few kilometers away. As much as I’d love to add another country to my scoreboard I don’t think that’s a border I particular want to mess with for funzies.

The brochure for the hike had said 12km of ‘medium’ difficulty as we did the next section I felt very lied to. I don’t consider a half hour climb up giant loose boulders to be ‘medium’ myself we were all dying at the top even Maria the Spanish gazelle. Thankfully the giant cave at the end of this was well worth ascent view wise but I was still puffing hard. When he started moving us onward and I realized we were climbing the rest of the way to the top of that particular mountain I began to get worried, not just that we were still going up but that everyone but Maria was showing signs of serious leg fatigue in the brief moments we were heading downhill, stumbling or wobbling a fair bit. Thankfully it was around this time that Jon called a halt and we had lunch which turned out to be various bags of noodles and rice for the vegan, veg and carnivore among us. Mine was a really nice spicy curry chicken and rice, the 2-days girls who’d had that the day before got noodles instead.


The second half of the day was a bit less rough in terms of elevation up… but definitely stretched the definition of medium difficulty even more as after an initial section which Jon said was on old time road through the area (as well as some caves that he described as being hidey holes during wars with Burma) we headed on another path that was NOT a path for a solid 90minutes. Very narrow footholds, most of us grabbing at bamboo for support that may or may not still be solid, steep downhills that tested tired ankles and knees, it was rough. I’d done pretty well heat stroke wise this trip but was definitely feeling it a bit over the last 1/3. The outwardly fitter of the Slovenian girls had it worse however whenever we went downhill and she was probably nursing a sore hamstring.

For the most part our guide was great but over the last third of the hike he definitely pushed the pace a bit too fast. He seemed to be going by the pace Maria could set which was great… except Maria is a hiking nut that goes trekking in the Pyrenees every weekend all summer. The other five of us were struggling to keep up especially when the trail disappeared for the most part. At one point he called out ok next part flat then down (spoiler: it wasn’t flat, but it was open and sunny) and we were on the last stretch. The Slovenian girl groaned audibly at the start of another downhill section and I kept having to wait on her as she stopped as the trail was too slippery to pass by anyone safely. She eventually coaxed a promise from Jon that it was only another ten minutes… lies. The actual ten minute mark was where the serious pain began for all of us as it was a steep switchback where at times you were basically shuffle running from one tree to another… but in the end we all made it.

At some point Jon had explained to us that we’d actually take the truck to the waterfall as it was nearby but not right here, then end of our hike had us wading across a river at a washed out bridge location. Again it was dry season so I wondered what this river looked like a few months from now but Jon took our bags across for us and the rest of us just enjoyed cooling off and tried not to let the current sweep our tired legs out from under us. I’d stupidly forgotten to bring my water socks with me but eventually managed to struggle across the gravel to the truck once on dry land.

Don’t get me wrong, the hike was beautiful and I’m proud that I accomplished it (mostly) in one piece. I definitely question the person who wrote that brochure as I think it was probably the easiest it was all year right now and the brochure definitely doesn’t change for rainy season (basically all she did on my printout was cross off ‘raincoat’ on the list of items to bring.) I think with even a little bit of mud on that trail it would be fully hard for the full length and even as I would have called 1/2 of it ‘difficult’ terrain. It was also rather disappointing on the viewpoint front. The front half had a few good views, the cave was neat but the last half was mostly close in jungle/bamboo forest

The road from the trail end to the waterfall was godawful (it would be worse on the way out) but we were all still savouring the ride… given the waterfall apparently didn’t involve hiking I was a little worried it would be overrun with tour groups but I’d forgotten just how far we were from anywhere. We had it to ourselves and pretty happily dove in and fought the current over to get a solid massage by waterfall. I laughed pretty hard as the Slovenian girls pretty quickly got out shivering. I wouldn’t call the water warm but it was certainly not cold… I even said when they came back over ‘at least I can trust the brits not to think this is cold water’ and they laughed.

Back on the truck we drove out on one of the worst roads of my life, forded a number of rivers and coughed up so much fine dust into the semi open bed that any cleaning factor we’d felt from the falls was gone instantly we all felt caked with dirt. Given how bad the shower had turned out to be at my guesthouse I was steeling myself for an unpleasant wash. Just before we arrived at the main road we passed through one of the ‘Chinese villages’ a cluster of ancestral Chinese people that have elements of Chinese architecture in their dwellings and who often speak only mandarin apparently.

Back along the road Jon pointed out some of the ridges we’d crossed that seemed now impossibly high up but we quickly settled into a stupor until our pee break. I unfortunately was feeling a bit heatstruck so was concentrating on avoiding motion sickness and basically pounding water, even Maria eventually wedged her tiny frame into the bench seat by some magic and tried to sleep. I made it feeling better, but when the twists and turns ended and we pulled up to my place I said quick goodbyes and hobbled over to my room… making it to the toilet just in time to lose my lunch. Luckily I could just roll over into the shower stall and start hosing off the grime of the trail after that and thankfully was feeling more human after that and an hour or so laying in bed.

This was still Khao Soi country and I’d spotted a street stall the night before making up delicious looking bowls of it the night before so once my appetite returned I found the stall, pulled up a baby stool at the tiny picnic table ordered a gorgeous bowl of it for the equivalent of $4. Sadly that’s actually expensive much like the burger the day before at around $10, Pai prices were definitely of the ‘captive audience’ variety compared to Chiang Mai but I also knew things would be worse in the islands next. I’d love to pretend I stayed up doing something fun but nope, I browsed the walking street for a bit and bought a tee shirt but it didn’t take long before I grabbed some water and a bag of chips at 7-Eleven and headed back to bed. I think I made a token attempt at watching a QI episode and passed out partway through.


The next morning I wasn’t feeling as bad as I’d feared. There was stiffness (and some blisters) but I was mobile. I’d wanted to sleep in but despite the night noise not being bad this hotel’s soundproofing was truly abysmal and before 8am rolled around I could hear a chainsaw running somewhere, roosters crowing and martial music playing as well as some sort of rhythmic drum. I’d made no firm plans but unfortunately if you want to get anywhere around Pai you kind of need a scooter so I broke a personal rule and rented one. The roads were relatively less mental around here Thailand wise and it was also the day of the ‘all day float dj tubing party’ so most of the drunk and stoned teeny boppers were on the river and not on the roads.

I headed up to one of the other places I’d wanted to see here: Pai Canyon. It’s less a canyon and more an eroded formation on a ridgeline but the maze of pathways and steep drop offs is quite pretty. I didn’t do the full hike as it was full sun and I didn’t want to push it after the day before but had a good poke around. Hilariously the Thai tourist authority uses the phrase ‘the area is vast, similar to the grand canyon’ which takes some chutzpah.

The other place I travelled up to was the white buddha lookout which ‘you can drive right to it’ turned out to be quite the lie. It turned out you could drive right up to the base of the 500 or so steps up to the buddha. I guess they meant you could bypass the windy bit of road up to the gate which wasn’t a great walking road. I’d been told the view was worth it but I was not sure I had it in me and sat talking to the temple dogs for a bit before I mustered up the effort required. I grumbled but the view from the top was worth the climb, the Buddha statue definitely needs some TLC though. From the top of the stairs you got a panoramic view of the valley seeing just how tiny Pai was as well as the windy roads leaving in both directions.

Once down from the temple I had to make sure I returned my scooter. Technically I had it 24 hours but my bus out was leaving at 7 the following morning and I had a relatively early flight to catch from CM so I needed to be on it. The rest of the night was mostly people watching as I grabbed a curry and kind of marveled. I was definitely very in between ages on the audience here. As mentioned most of the crowd was gap year teens and early 20s types, a few slightly older hippie yoga instructor types… then there was a small but solid hunk of retirement age people visiting and staying in the nicer places and wandering the town for a bit before bed. I’m guessing they were more doing the short waterfall hikes/visiting the hot springs. Unfortunately while I made it through my own travels without injury I got run into a scooter when a combo of an inexperienced (drunk? rider) coincided with someone stumbling against me on the sidewalk and I’ve now got a fairly nasty gash and a couple of scrapes in my otherwise sore leg… Despite doing a very good job cleaning it I’m (now over a week later) still nursing it and have since had to go see a doctor and make sure it’s not infected/get an x-ray. Blue Cross is going to stop insuring me for Thailand as it’s the only place I ever make a claim on my travel insurance.

I tried to make it an early night but I now had a new neighbour next door and they were simultaneously very heavy footed and when they came back at two am I could distinctly hear them running to use and slamming the toilet seat multiple times though thankfully couldn’t hear any actual bodily fluid noises. Something about the construction of these cottages transmits sound through the beams I think. Unfortunately between that, other noises and the stress of having to be up early to make the transfer to that flight I think I only got about two hours sleep which probably compounded the ‘second day after’ pain from the hike. But, the transfer to the islands is a tail for next time.

Honestly Pai was interesting but I don’t think I’d ever go back. I feel like you could get equivalent hikes elsewhere with better vibes and less of a hippie spring break vibe. Sort of the same vibe I have with Khao San in Bangkok… I don’t mind being near the area but unlike Bangkok there really isn’t much else in Pai to get around the core of that. Going further out that road loop more independently would be fun, I don’t think I’m young and dumb enough to do the whole thing on a motorbike anymore though. If I can ever get someone to come with me it’s probably worth splitting a private driver for a multi day trip given such things don’t break the bank here.

Still I don’t regret it as I wanted some new experiences this trip which is where the back half of this program comes in. It’s now time for the ocean adjacent portion of proceedings in our next post.

The Great Green North

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been very on board with the idea of going back to Chiang Mai since I left last time in 2018? Something about the town captures everything I love about Thailand. It’s a solid home for one of my fave dishes in the world and it’s simply more laid back than Bangkok and so much of the core of the town is easily walkable. Honestly if there was scuba diving I could easily spend a whole 3 week trip in and around it. First though, I had to get there.

I’d decided to take the train, and while I’d considered the sleeper I’d hemmed and hawed too long as they were all sold out unless I left Bangkok immediately or stayed extra time which (in order to not duplicate any legs) I wanted to stick to my timetable. Instead I hopped the daytime ‘express’ train.

As mentioned last post the Thai Railways have closed old Hua Lamphong and moved all northerly trains out to a sparkly new station by the northern bus station/big weekend market. I started my day (prophetically) having a luxuriously long hot shower not knowing how it would be in my next place (not great) then stuffed myself at breakfast not know what the food situation would be since I had heard dining cars had become more rare since I last did this. Thankfully since it was saturday my cab transfer was quick and painless other than my grab driver stopping for a pee at a service station.

The station itself was sparkling clean & modern and completely devoid of soul. Boarding was now strictly controlled time wise and while probably an improvement it was definitely less exciting. I was also kind of surprised despite the warnings as the train was now only 3 cars and definitely more old fashioned than the last ones I was on. I’m wondering if the Thai State Railways budget crisis is very bad and they’re unable to maintain their fancier japanese cars. It’s mostly shocking because this train was FULL, to the point where the seat next to emptied out a couple times but would always be filled by someone else at the same station. It seems beyond argument that they could have filled another carriage at least.

Having done this journey again I likely won’t do it next time (unless I can snag the 1st class sleeper just to try it) but it was a nice relaxed journey through the countryside. A lady came by with snacks regularly and offered us the chance to buy lunch (which inexplicably didn’t come until 2:30ish) which turned out to be shockingly delicious stir fry. For an ‘express’ train it makes a lot of stops as well. Honestly you think for the main route between the two biggest cities and with a healthy tourist usage of it they could do better. That said there were signs in the first couple hours out of Bangkok that they’re working on elevating the train to get it moving faster than it can past level crossings so here’s hoping. Given the current state I wouldn’t expect it to be done in the next decade though.

The journey was lovely and relaxing but at the relatively pokey pace and all the stops it was 10+ hours before we arrived. Again, it’s worth doing once for the experience but I’ll probably hop a cheap flight next time.

Chiang Mai instantly filled my senses once I’d grabbed a Grab Driver (thai uber) and started my way to my hotel through the busy saturday evening. The bars and restaurants were hopping and various night markets were absolutely thronging with people from all over the world. I was eager to get out and find a Khao Soi and a beer or something but first things first… find the dang guest house.

Unlike my last time my driver actually knew where it was! Part of that is grab is of course using GPS but he  said he knew the best way and sure enough we were there with a minimum of pain. You see, the core of old town Chang Mai is a moated and previously walled inner town. It’s a network of narrow alleys and only a few broader streets intersecting occasionally one-way feeders. Sadly I’d been unable to snag a reservation at my much loved previous guest house but I ended up in something nearby that had friendly staff and comfortable rooms. I miss you and your glorious shower Sri-Pat.

After checking in and unpacking a bit since I’d be here a while… I went to find a Khao Soi at the saturday walking street/night market. If you’ve never been to a true asian Night Market and/or don’t know what they are just picture a ginormous outdoor food court. Instead of food trucks (though there are a couple mini ones/vw vans) there are stall after all of food options crammed into every space. Fresh produce, sweets and desserts and curry, noodles and dumplings all over the place. Walking street means that they’ve shut down the area to traffic as well and this generally means a ton of handicrafts etc, but more about that later. 

The important thing is that I’d found a glorious bowl of Khao Soi from a lady almost ready to shut down for the night. It was spicy, creamy, succulent… I’d been waiting 8ish years for this moment and I needed to savour it. Unfortunately since it’s a northern thai specialty we don’t see good ones in north america much and if you see it on a menu in Winnipeg it’s probably the laotian version which is vastly inferior/a completely different dish. The true glorioso is a curry broth, relatively thick with coconut and based on a combo of red thai curry paste and yellow curry powder/turmeric. This is served over cooked egg noodles and then topped with fried egg noodles for a texture contrast. You can then also add lime, fried onions/shallots, fresh shallot, pickled veg etc. If I ever win the megabucks I’m hiring someone from Chiang Mai to come open a Khao Soi shop in Winnipeg.

Hunger sated I defaulted to some people watching and found there was a new? Nightly food plaza/night market right near my hotel near the somewhat trashy square of teenybopper/reggae bars that were really hopping. I ate half a banana crepe but eventually succumbed to the idea of watching a few mins of tv before bed as I’d booked some whitewater rafting for the morning.7

As is the usual my rafting trip involved pick up from the hotel and thankfully they were near the start of the interval they’d provided. I’d just had a chance to hit a local bakery for a muffin and 7-11 for a juice before we were on our way, one couple was already on board and we picked up a second older couple at a larger hotel out in the suburbs on the way out of town. They were of course American. I’m not sure why you come to Chiang Mai if you don’t want to stay at least somewhat near what makes it fun even if not right in old town proper. I’d soon find out that this was going to be the least of my problems with them that day.

The river site was a surprisingly long way out of town from what I’d seen in the description and along the same road to most of the elephant sanctuaries/camps. In fact we got to see a fair number of elephants elephanting at that time in the morning. Given the amount of time it took to get there I was surprised we hadn’t gotten an earlier start. Still when we arrived we got a quick safety briefly then they sat us down to a home cooked curry lunch. The french couple and I dove in to delicious ginger chicken and vegetable, potato and chicken yellow curry and coconut rice with a bunch of freshly picked bananas for dessert… And the americans pulled out some wrapped sandwiches they’d brought with them. To make things worse they then proceeded to start spraying bug spray on themselves while standing near the buffet table. Completely obtuse.

As we did our first briefing we got to listen to her repeated ignore what the guide said about the river being quite low and insisting he tell her what class the rapids we would be doing were. Putting aside the fact that this woman who clearly hadn’t been rafting before would have absolute no concept of a class 3 vs. a class 4… He’d clearly said already our final briefing by the boats would cover the state of the river.  When we did finally get to the actual river briefing she kept talking over him and annoying the crap out of the other 3 of us. So of course I was chosen to go in her boat…

I’m fairly certain this was because the guide knew they’d both be useless paddling and sure enough one of my strokes would over paddle the boat against two from her and her hubby. In the end our in boat guide and I mostly steered with him having to do more paddling than I’m sure he’s used to. The river was indeed low but also still showed the massive damage from a freak flood that had hit last fall. I’d actually end up seeing footage from the flood at the elephant sanctuary the next day. For our journey it was fairly serene with a fairly gentle stretch of 5 km or so to start, some actual rapids with a few decent drops for a short-ish middle section then an extra gentle float to the finish amongst some people doing bamboo raft floats. It was truly a beautiful spot and I’m sad I still haven’t gotten around to picking up a goPro for this sort of thing. Pleasantly surprising however was the fact that one of the team had photographer duties and sent the photos to us free of charge.

Even nicer were the various groups of elephants we passed bathing in the lower river. As much as I’m sure they weren’t from the greatest of the attractions (more on that later) it was still lovely to see them splashing in the water as we floated by. My guide kept asking me why I was travelling alone and in the end became convinced that I’d have a thai girlfriend before I go home.

Overall it wasn’t the most exciting rafting of my life but still a gorgeous day out despite the two annoyances from Chicago. She spent the entire trip down either overreacting or repeatedly telling her husband he was doing the various commands from the boat captain wrong. I honestly wished the boat captain would just tell the joyless harridan to sit in the middle and ride. Hilariously as we finished and they provided us with a packet of oreos, a soda and some freshly sliced pineapple she started nattering at her husband about make sure you don’t use the ice (and he made some comment to the guide about ‘is it safe FOR AMERICANS.’) And at this point she pulled out a can of tuna and some crackers that looked like she’d brought them from home. Definitely one of those people who just refuses to actually eat anything outside their hotel or maybe a KFC or McDonalds. Why some people come overseas to not actually experience the country they’re visiting is beyond me. Needless to say I devoured my pineapple and let myself be naughty and have the coke as well.

Back in town we ran into a bit of a roadblock that turned out to be because the King was in town (though I didn’t learn this until the next day) but I eventually grabbed a disappointingly lukewarm shower before heading out for the big deal sunday night walking street in old town. This was a next level night market. Very little food on the main drag here, most of the temples and other courtyards were jammed with amazing food stalls and a kilometer and a half or so of the main drag (spilling into every side street) was stall after stall of handicrafts, clothing, souvenirs and nonsense. Even arriving a bit later (I’d rested my feet for a bit) it was packed to the gills and took me nearly an hour to squeeze one end to the other. I picked up a very silly shirt, sampled another Khao Soi, a mango smoothie, a korean fried chicken bao and some other goodies and eventually stumbled home later than I probably should have given the early start the next morning.

Monday I had an earlier wakeup for Elephant sanctuary day. After failing last time this time out I’d managed to book one of the tours through Elephant Nature Park the animal sanctuary founded by the woman who seems to have started this movement towards ethical animal parks in Thailand. Basically she’s spearheaded various projects to give new homes to former logging camp elephants, lobbied to end elephant riding and generally has just been an advocate for these ridiculous adorable giants. The trip I’d booked was a small group tour where the first part of the day we went out to the home of a family that owned some previous working elephants and now did a cooperative program with the larger park where we’d help take care of them for a day as they went about their routine. This mostly involved prepping the food and feeding them, walking through the forest with them as they foraged for roughage and watching as they tossed dirt on themselves to ward off flies or scratched itches on trees. The Mahouts who take care of them clearly adore them and though they were previously working elephants their only commands these days are basically to stay together and not wander off where they might end up hurt.

After lunch we walked back down to the farm and said our goodbyes to the guides, the elephants and adorable Ipi and Yai the dogs then transferred over to the main park which is much more hands off due to larger group sizes and the massive variety of elephant temperaments. Many of these elephants were rescued from worse situations and need more care and they often bring new animals in. It was nice to know that my (fairly considerable) sum of money was going solely towards animal care/rescue. ENP also runs a fairly massive dog rescue (dogs and dog beds are everywhere), has volunteer programs, a cat sanctuary and space for cows and other farm animals that need help. Unfortunately they got absolutely slammed by that flood in october ‘24 and what was once a grassy meadow is now all stripped earth. There were large mounds of sand and earth in various places and it seems like they’re trying to build up a new safety berm against the river before the rainy season arrives again.

I was sad to say goodbye but it had been a long day and was a longer ride back due to yet another traffic jam (This is where I learned about the king as someone said it was probably his motorcade as he’d been unable to get to his hostel for 3 hours the day before.) Thankfully I got dropped off second so I got to avoid some of it. Shower + another round of Khao Soi and some dumplings followed then I ended up randomly joining a crowd of thankfully non-teenybopper brits at a pub and drank some cider while watching soccer (I got roundly booed for being an arsenal fan but as the games on were mostly second tier teams only one guy was super invested)

If it’s not clear above I adored every minute I spent on the ENP tour and would endorse any of their tours for ethical Elephant interactions if you’re in Chiang Mai. They also have a tour where you go visit some elephants up in the highlands and that’s probably what I’d do next time.

This was my last full day in Chiang Mai so I was staying in town and revisiting some old haunts and trying out some new ones. I wandered around the moat for a while, tried to find a pie shop that must have closed down recently and wandered into one of the more baffling displays of my life… groups of chinese tourists giving money to various street ‘performers’ who’s entire schtick was scaring flocks of pigeons into the air? Can someone explain this to me? I’ve definitely seen chinese tourists fascinated by pigeons before but this was next level.

I eventually meandered my way through some more residential side streets to a burmese place recommended by a friend called Cherry Burmese. It’s easy to forget as you sit here that historically Chiang Mai was one of the edges of the golden triangle of opium/heroin product (now mostly confined to Myanmar I gather) and is only a few hours from the border. As a result there are a number of Burmese restaurants in the area and just as I did last time I had a delicious meal at this place to take advantage of seeing a cuisine I don’t get to sample very often. It’s unsurprisingly about what you’d expect given Myanmar’s geography a hearty mix of thai/se asian with indian subcontinent flairs. (or at least what I’ve sampled is.)

The rest of the afternoon was more wandering in the sun, a few lazy park bench with a book sessions and then off to my cooking class for the evening. If you’ve been reading these forever you may know I’ve done one in Chiang Mai before, but what the heck, it’s ~$40, you get a hell of a meal at the end and you make some new friends for the evening. I mostly hung out with a young brit couple and some floridians about my age and we made Lahb, various curries, pad thai and deep fried bananas. It was an excellent end to this round in Chiang Mai.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised. Chiang Mai remains lovely and while I’d say there’s definitely an increase in the amount of drunken young backpackers/some encroachment of more american fast food on the fringes it wasn’t overwhelmingly so. I’m also definitely here at one of the busiest times of the year for that as many of the gap year brits in particular aim to be up north first then head down to the full moon party on Koh Phangan in a couple weeks time (I’ll be fleeing the island before that arrives thankfully.) I was mostly just happy to see that my memories remained true and Chiang Mai will continue to be one of my fave places to spend some time.

A show with everything but Yul Brenner!

It is finally time. After a frankly very trying last six months of all kinds of issues I’m finally getting out of town again. For the first time on one of these bigger adventures it’s a re-run! Not fully the same of course but I’m heading back to Thailand and not crossing any new country off the bucket list for the first time in a while. That said, this isn’t likely to be my most detailed travelogue as a result as in some places I’ve already crossed off all the big ‘must sees’ and I’m more just soaking in the culture and back alleys.

Flight out was thankfully pretty uneventful, I double hopped through Vancouver and Hong Kong but managed to get an aisle seat with an empty spot next to me for the 14 hour hop which was glorious. Even managed to snag a plate of Xiao Long Bao in HKIA (thanks for the pointer Sun) as a recharge. Bangkok arrival was around 12:30 local which got me to my hotel around 2AM which honestly worked pretty well, I’d (as usual) only managed a few brief catnaps on the plane so I crashed hard… woke up for breakfast at 9 and was at least semi time converted the first day.

Bangkok is a neat city but I really wanted to focus on being elsewhere  after doing fully ? of my trip there last time but I still needed a day or two to be safe to adjust to heat etc. Unfortunately it was almost as smoggy as my last visit, am hoping my improved fitness/lost weight etc will make my lungs a bit more forgiving this time. Same temperature hop from a Winnipeg -30s deep freeze to +38, humid and smoggy though. Again stayed in the ‘backpacker’ quarter but on the periphery of the madness, this time at the new outpost of my fave hotel chain from last visit. ~$50 a night including a solid breakfast buffet, a nice pool to cool off after some long walks and a quiet-ish clean room with a balcony… what’s not to love?

My original plan was to just have a fairly relaxed day to acclimatize but I was feeling a bit more energetic so I went for a walk past the palace complex and over to Chinatown. The maze like markets of Bangkok’s chinatown are an adventure all their own and some portion of it is always bustling (the taxi the previous night had passed the absolutely rollicking produce market at 2am.) I picked up some crystallized pineapple for a snack and wandered the stalls, managing to mostly resist picking up much in the way of souvenirs despite temptation (I’ll be back to Bangkok before I go and no sense hauling anything heavy around for three weeks.)

One of the random streets I chose for my wandering appeared to be the music shop district and I saw some truly excellent guitar designs in the windows (and more than a few musicians grabbing gear for upcoming shows.)

In my pre-trip planning for this time I’d discovered that most train traffic has been moved out of the historic Hua Lamphong station in central Bangkok mostly to a new modern station 30 minutes north. Apparently there is still traffic but it’s minor lines and as I walked past the station it looked a shadow of it’s previous bustling self. I 100% get it, there was zero room for expansion, the station was ancient and crumbling and the waiting area could get so crammed you’d just fight for a patch of old stone to sit on if your train was delayed… but there was a romance about the place. I seem to recall writing a love letter to it in a previous travelogue so will link it if I remember.

Checking my map I realized I had already walked about halfway to one potential sightseeing spot so I wandered eastward a while then headed north towards Jim Thompson house. Along the way I also checked out a few of the modern shopping malls that the Thai folks seem to adore including the much recommended MBK center that has a food court with at least one michelin guide recommended stall. I used it mostly as a brief respite in the AC but grabbed a snack and a lemonade and listened to a girl with a nice voice sing 70s american rock. The mall itself was quite the place. Seven levels, many with specialties, medical clinics etc and the food court was as advertised and absolutely packed with locals and a few tourists/expats. Speaking of ex-pats… I used some innate Canadian radar and somehow stumbled past TWO Tim’s locations

Jim Thompson house was just north of here and is the preserved house of an American ex-pat who introduced Thai silk to the fashion world back in the 50s/60s. He disappeared in the jungle in the late 60s and there are various conspiracy theories about it (apparently the CIA wasn’t a fan of him.) Per the museum before he disappeared he did a lot of good in helping support/encourage the old silk weaving traditions and built this house near one of the communities he bought from. The house itself is a complex of buildings he rescued from various derelict places and had restored/rebuilt into his home. It’s a gorgeous place with a lush garden and some interesting art, definitely a bit of an oasis in the middle of the city.

The rest of the day I wandered a bit farther in that direction before turning back for home base. I definitely misjudged my path a bit however and added an extra couple kilometers thinking one sleepy area would be more interesting than it was. Given the heat and the travel the previous day I should have taken it easier but did eventually stumble back to the hotel, quickly beat a path for a cooling swim then spent the rest of night reading by the pool. I honestly don’t even remember what I had for dinner that night… clearly not much as I was famished the next morning at breakfast and demolished something like 6 mini pancakes, eggs and yoghurt.

Bangkok felt somehow both familiar and not. To be honest I think the not is mostly that I found it less wild this time? The chaotic streets are a riot… but after being to Hanoi seem tamer traffic wise. I couldn’t live here, the smog is simply too much but the people remain friendly and the vibe is lovely.

My second full day I decided to scratch off something I’d meant to do on my previous visit and see the medieval capital of Ayutthaya. I didn’t want to do one of the package tours though (for sale all over town and probably worth it) I just wanted to wander the ruins with some music playing and feel the spirit of the place. Unfortunately I discovered that the minibus ‘terminal’ is no longer just a haphazard collection around Victory monument but actually out by the northern train/bus stations so it turned out to be less of a deal than it would have been to self-guide. The minibus itself was all of 70 baht which is about $3 for the hour and a half or so ride north.

Ayutthaya is as mentioned the former capital of an earlier Thai based empire, there are partially restored temples and government buildings, temple spires, stupas and the like. It’s a reasonably sprawling series of complexes that the government somewhat annoyingly charges separate entry for instead of just one pass. Rather than farting around in a tuk tuk I decided to get some extra exercise and rented a bike from a guest for a few baht and bounced around between the various sights.

It was worth the trip however the ruins are not as ancient nor as complex/extant as other places I’ve been in Thailand and SE Asia. I found Sukhothai more impressive… though obviously the proximity of Ayutthaya to BKK makes it far more accessible. I enjoyed the walks around and saw my first elephants of the trip (though sadly they were being used to ride.)

Back where I’d rented my bike I ordered a giant pineapple smoothie and a small bowl of curry and spent probably two hours alternately reading my book and looking across the street to one of the most whole of the remaining towers. It was a solidly relaxing afternoon and I managed to not die cycling in Thailand!

I didn’t linger much beyond that as I figured getting back into Bangkok might get worse the later I waited so I hopped back in a mini bus and transferred back, this time taking the subway and the river bus to get back to my neighbourhood to save the feet a little. A quick swim and an episode of QI later I headed out for my last meal in Bangkok this leg, checking out an apparently locally famous Pad Thai joint. 

On the way there I passed what appeared to be late night market setting up that was definitely a bit more on the black market side of things. It was an interesting vibe but I was hungry so I didn’t linger til they set up. When I got to the restaurant I was a bit worried as it had the air of someplace that got famous then coasted on tourism. Thankfully those fears were not realized as though it definitely had that vibe the Pad Thai had a particularly funky shrimp oil and delicious prawns and actually came with the sides it should etc.

Side note: I love pad thai, it’s also one of the dishes of the Bangkok region, but I also try not to have it much over here as it’s something you can get very good versions of in North America. I generally try to focus on dishes that are different here or just not as good back home. Stay tuned for my paean/laments about Khao Soi once in Chiang Mai.

Sadly I had an early train the next morning so with that it was back home, a quick beer in the alley vw van bar with some people watching then off to pack/bed. Bangkok was fun the 2nd (3rd?) time around and it was nice to already feel myself getting used to the heat, another side benefit of my new size. Still I always worry about shifting from the deep freeze of January winter to the smog, high 30s and dankness of Bangkok. Thus far I seem to avoided getting sick as a result like last time so fingers crossed that remains the case.

Next stop: Chiang Mai, already one of my favourite destinations in the world.

Meteoric Rises and Ukrainian Elbows

Arriving in Athens so late this time I was worried I wouldn’t be able to catch a train downtown as the subway kind of shockingly shuts down at midnight and doesn’t run again until morning. Thankfully once I’d collected my luggage and made my way to the station I saw that the last train had yet to leave. About an hour later I was stepping out into the area south of the Plaka district and heading for my short overnight before picking up the rental car. I’d skimped a bit on this overnight amenities wise but it actually worked out well as they had a small coin laundry downstairs and after breakfast I had time to do a load before my car pickup. Freshly laundered I clattered my way down the cobble sidewalks with my suitcase and over to the subway station where the rental car pickup was. To my delight this car had Android Auto so I was able to connect my gps instructions to the screen and save some pain but to be honest getting out of Athens and onto the highway north was a breeze. That afternoon’s destination was Delphi, the home of the Pythian Oracle.

Delphi is just close enough to Athens to be bus-tour doable but I’d gone for a self drive in order to include some further destinations as well as to save myself bouncing back to the capital repeatedly. The drive itself was a mix of modern highway with extortionate tolls, side roads small enough I might have questioned if I was heading the right way if I hadn’t seen bus tours heading back to Athens and steep mountain roads winding up and around blind corners. Getting to Delphi this way also involves passing through the closest ‘ski country’ to the capital and even though I’d been aware of this in advance it was still odd to see signs for end of season ski and snowboard sales. Apparently the resort on Mt. Parnassus was still running, if I’d had a couple extra days I might have gone for a ski just to say I had. A couple of the mountain towns I passed were incredibly interesting looking but even at low season seemed to have nowhere to easily park. I think if I went back I’d  probably make an effort to spend an extra day in the area though.

Delphi itself is a relatively modern small town by Greek standards as the residents were built a new town around the turn of the 20th century after an earthquake in exchange for removing themselves from the area over what is now the archaeological park. It’s nestled around the curve of a mountain pass with steep one way streets scarcely having room for cars much less the behemoth tour buses. Again I was thankful it was low season in this instance as I managed to snag a super affordable room with a valley view out towards the Gulf of Corinth and by some miracle also lucked into free street parking a few cars down from the entrance. Less positive due to low season was the sanctuary/museum closing early and unless I felt like rushing my whole visit into a 30 minute window I’d be waiting for morning. Even here a lot of things were closed but what was open was at least staying open past 3pm (other than the museum/site.) In the end I wandered the town as it quieted down for the evening while scouting out a place for dinner, buying a few souvenir gifts. I met a number of the town dogs and cats and eventually just found a spot in the church square and spent a happy hour reading a book/enjoying the view.

Dinner was a phenomenal meal overlooking the valley for sunset. I sadly couldn’t get right on the cliff being a single diner but I still had a great view as I sampled a local cheese done saganaki style and some local lamb and herb sausages. I lingered quite a while but eventually the monotony of overhearing nearby Americans grew too much after a nice long period of not hearing much English around and I headed out into the streets. There definitely wasn’t much in the way of nightlife at this time of year though with a mostly older crowd around, I’d been hoping for a pub type situation but in the end I just took another walk then called it a night in order to be up and at the ruins first thing. This seemed to be the best way to do things at this time of year (and to be honest would probably work well in busier times as well. Hit the sights early and spend the later part of the day getting to the next destination.

Come morning I tossed everything in my trunk then headed off to the ticket office managing to sneak into the site just before a tour group of French high school kids who’d obviously stayed either in town or nearby. It was an incredible experience to be at the sanctuary as the sun was really only just beginning to shine in earnest. The kids were getting a big lecture at the entrance so it was only a couple of people up exploring the site proper.

Delphi was the site of the Pythia, oracle of Apollo and one of the most important sources of prophecy to much of the ancient Greek world. The legend is that the priestess ranted while huffing fumes from a chasm beneath the temple and her attendants then translated them into (moderately) decipherable prophecies to be interpreted by the visitors. The truth of all this is of course questionable (there are some thoughts the rantings came from a poisonous drug) but regardless Delphi was a powerful religious site for several periods in antiquity. Eventually the site was abandoned for centuries before new settlements formed in the area and covered the ruins until the aforementioned land swap.

Standing on this steep hillside I remembered my drive from Athens the day before and was struck by what an epic journey it would have been on foot from most of the other centers of that ancient Greek world. Probably a week’s walk from Athens and much further from Sparta or Macedon or the islands. No doubt made harder because you’re lugging whatever offering you’re bringing to the Oracle. You arrive in this impressive place up overlooking the valley, you get your vague prophecy to interpret how you will, then you turn around and go home. There was more to it than that of course. At the highest heights there was a whole industry around it here as well as theatre, quadrennial games nearly as important as the Olympics etc. And of course if you were a mere mortal you might be waiting around a while for your turn at the Oracle so hospitality as well.

Having the upper tiers of the site more or less to myself made it easier to try and imagine the walls rebuilt, the marble shining and the statuary truly epic as gifts to the oracle dominated the site. Once I’d finished exploring the site the nearby museum housed some of these gifts that still remain. As a side note, one of the nice things about Greece has been the fact that at most of the sites I’ve visited the nearby museums actually have some of the artifacts so you can see them at least close to in context. Of course, some of the mega treasures are in the national museum in Athens (or in various conqueror’s collections… or stolen by the Brits.)

Thanks to my early start I’d seen the sights and done the museum well before lunch time so I grabbed a ham and cheese pastry and charted a slower course up through the mountain valleys and off towards Kalabaka and the monasteries of Meteora!

Once I’d gotten out of the mountain valley I ended up back on the same highway I’d left out of Athens but this soon gave way to an odd secondary road that seemed to snake off and on a brand new/uncompleted highway. Seems like a very odd way to build a new expressway… 20km or so of basically unused road then a large section where it disappears and I snaked across some back ways. It’s new enough that it doesn’t feel like something that was abandoned during Greece’s big crash a while back. The off again on again led to some more speed camera shenanigans as the limit yoyo’d through these secondary sections but (fingers crossed anyway) I avoided the nonsense.

If you’ve never heard of it Meteora is a region of rock formations in the inland valleys of Thessaly. These picturesque pillars of stone jut out on the edge of a flat fertile valley and clinging to them sometimes seemingly in defiance of gravity are a number of ancient monasteries. Monks and hermits have apparently been retreating to the valley for almost a thousand years and more elaborate monasteries started to be built in the 1300s. There were as many as two dozen at one point but now six fairly large ones remain and are open to tourists by schedule.

For most of their existence access to these retreats was only by rope ladders, baskets or nets lowered to the valley floor from above and just getting up was a test of your faith and courage. These days there are (no small number of) steps carved into the rocky pinnacles. Some of these were ridiculously intense as you see from the pictures, one in particular was definitely 10 stories down from the parking then 12 more back up (then reverse it to leave.)

What you find at the top are no simple huts but elaborate courtyards, finely decorated orthodox churches and chapels and simple accommodations for the brothers or sisters with spectacular views. If you remember the villain’s lair from For Your Eyes Only it was filmed around/in one of the monasteries.

I won’t blather on about it, the place was gorgeous and it’s best seen in photos.

The one positive here is that things were open on a split day for some of them so I actually managed to see 3 of the 6 the same afternoon I arrived from Delphi which made the step climbing a little less intense. I’m not sure if I would have made it up to all 6 had I done them all the same day. (7 actually since I was a genius and mistakenly climbed down to one I’d already done from below, despite a friend warning me she’d made the same mistake on visiting.)

In between all this climbing I settled into a very nice little hotel called the Theatro Hotel Odysseon where every room was themed with a stage play. I was in the Madame Butterfly room with some mildly questionable Asian decoration but otherwise very nice and with a small terrace looking up at the rocks. Nightlife was also a little more hopping here and I managed to find a pub with a delicious wood fired pizza and some cider and wiled away a few hours people watching as a rainstorm hit. At this point it was definitely starting to hit that the trip was almost over and I’d more or less done the planning to maximize what little time I had left.

The following morning I had a delicious included hotel breakfast (god I miss the feta and pastries) savoured the freshly rain washed sunshine and headed up to do the rest of the climbs. They definitely made the first day look easy but the views were worth every step.

The Grand Meteoron Monastery is the oldest and largest of all of them and is truly an impressive complex but they all have something worth seeing. Each of them asks for a 3 Euro donation for entry, something that is made plainly obvious everywhere but of course I ended up walking up behind an American couple who were flabbergasted that this remote monastery didn’t have a credit card reader for them. You’re also expected to dress ‘respectfully’ with what that means being the usual religious sexism nonsense. Not really a problem at this time of year but I can imagine getting up there in the heat of summer and not particularly wanting to cover my aching legs.

Thanks to an early start I’d finished seeing what I was going to see before 11 and set out on my next transfer, this one being a bit of a marathon drive from up in the middle of the country down across the gulf of Corinth and on to the Peloponnese peninsula that juts out SW of Athens. This again took a number of mountain switchback roads to get up to the main highway followed by a truly epic series of short to long tunnels as I crossed the spine of the country. Greek mountains, while mostly not very high, do occasionally have some impressive isolation and you can see how the ancients would have thought them the homes of the gods.

As I got closer to the west coast I was slightly disappointed to not have a chance to go to Corfu only an hour or so further on but I needed to get back closer to Athens for departure. I definitely think I’ll be back in Greece at some point and I’ll come at a time of year that’s nicer for the north. I caught the occasional glimpse of a bright blue Ionian sea on my right with one of my best views being at a fuel stop of all places, at least until the impressive bridge crossing the gulf. (It has to be said that between the tunnels, the expressway and that bridge I ended up spending double on tolls than the car rental itself cost me for that day.)

Eventually after about 5 hours I arrived at my destination for the night: Ancient Olympia. The birthplace of the games is unfortunately a kind of charmless modern town (again only about half open due to low season) but it’s reasonably isolated from anywhere major so it was best just to plunk down for a night to see the site of the original games. The positive was that the site was totally walkable from town so the next morning I again just threw my bags in the car and went for my explore.

I will nerd it up here and say I’ve played a video game that recreated a few of the sights from Olympia and it was fun to see how they’d done so from seeing the real thing. The site has remnants of the temples/altars from the celebrations of the ancient games but also the practice and training facilities for the competitors, the baths and the workshops of the artisans working in the area. And of course, at one end of the site there’s the ancient stadium. The competition floor is huge and the spectator areas are small grass banks but you can still see the judging stand and there’s a marble starting mark still there for you to line up on. Overall it was worth a visit but the actual interpretation on the grounds left a bit to be desired, I was glad to have my guide book

The area around Olympia (and most of the last hour of the day before) had seemed… I don’t want to say run down but perhaps a region that was in decline. Lots of stores that appeared to be shut down not just for the season, half finished buildings etc. By contrast as I headed further south that afternoon I’d clearly passed into an area where plenty of folks both domestic and foreign had their getaway pads. The coastal road I followed wound in and out of a number of small bays and there were many small clusters of boutique hotels and ‘cottages’ from simple to palatial. Again most were closed for the winter but they became more and more plentiful the further south I went. At a certain point they all changed to a similar construction of stone block almost castle feeling structures where even the large ones under construction were aping this ancient looking build style. I’m guessing it might be a matter of insulation for the hot summer days? Or who knows, maybe just tradition, the area is known for these towers after all.

My main destination for this day was the caves of Pyrgos-dirou which are a huge network of caves filled with an underground lake. You end up taken on poled boat through almost 2 kilometers of caves and apparently this only represents a small fraction of the cave system, most of which is still being explored. The caves are super impressive, stalagmites/tites are everywhere and the water is completely transparent. If you’re a taller person or even average height you may find yourself ducking (often at the last minute) as your guide swings you around through the pillars.

The experience itself was bizarre though. I showed up about 90mins before the website said they closed, had no issues checking in at the gate and getting a ticket before driving down to the cave entrance. Parked and was told to wait a while… not entirely sure why as everyone I ended up on a boat with was already there at the time. For off season there was a truly ridiculous number of maybe staff? Maybe construction? People around. Multiple women nattering in the gift shop entrance, 5 or 6 surly men smoking who I think were all the guides and another 5 or 6 people that seemed like they worked there but I couldn’t see anything they were actively doing.

Eventually we got taken over to get a life jacket and loaded onto the boat, as a solo traveller and a bigger guy I was put at the front. I was pretty thankful for this both for advance warning of low bridges incoming and because my guide had some truly TRULY horrendous body odour. I felt for the people sitting at his feet at the back because when I had to climb past him after the tour I gagged. Due to time of year he also didn’t speak English but I didn’t mind much as I knew how the caves were formed and I caught enough to understand he was mostly giving out the fanciful names for particular formations (Zeus’ bolt etc.)

The last section of the cave is traversed on foot and then you emerge on the edge of a crystal blue bay as the waves roll past. It was absolutely worth the trip out of my way, triply so as a person who really just loves neat caves.

Unfortunately, at this point it was decision time. I needed to have the car back in Athens by noon the following day. Either I could stay somewhere near the caves and see something else in the area or I could travel part of the way back and see some more historical sites. Part of the problem was nowhere nearby being particularly affordable stay wise. It wasn’t a situation when I wanted to splurge on a hotel knowing I’d just be there for the night and having to leave at 7 the next morning. In the end I decided to head halfway back to Athens and visit the onetime republic capital of Nafplio.

Not going to lie, it had been a tiring couple days and by the time I got to Nafplio I was tired and sore and made extra grumpy by a booked room that had lied about it’s location. While I had a car and it being a couple KM from the old town wasn’t the end of the world the extra time looking for the place when I desperately wanted a shower and a meal wasn’t appreciated. Actually getting that shower lowered the grumpiness at least 50% though and I had a brief explore of the old town center before dinner.

Nafplio is a pretty town right on the coast and loomed over by a giant fort that’s well lit at night. The old town is a mix of narrow cobbled roads and wide plazas and is apparently a weekend getaway hotspot for Athenians. It was Saturday night and absolutely hopping when I was there even on a relatively chilly march day. It made for some interesting people watching between family holidaymakers, some obvious stag and stagette types and the occasional person walking past in what I’d describe as renaissance masquerade-wear (genuinely not sure if they were on their way to a fancy dress party or street performers heading home.) After a fairly middling dinner I treated myself to a nice gelato and strolled around for a while. This sort of place in Europe is always funny with the super high-end boutiques often sharing a building with a super tacky souvenir store. I’d be interested in visiting the town again on more than a flying visit but it definitely wouldn’t be tons longer.

The next morning, I got another early start and headed to the ruins of Mycenae for my final archaeology stop. This one was definitely more of a ‘mind’s eye’ ruin than some of the rest as the only really visible things remaining are the (impressive) gate stones and various pits/depressions. That said it was a fascinating spot because you could see the defensibility of the place. Excellent sightlines in all directions, clear view down to the bay side forts that would have given lots of advance warning for attackers by sea and tough approaches on land. It was one of the really ancient centers of Greece having fallen from prominence in the collapses around 1200BC. Near the site is also the Treasury of Atreus, a hillside tomb with a massive dome.

Thankfully I’d timed things pretty well and got away from there with plenty of time to get back to Athens. Unfortunately for me I’d forgotten that the wide boulevard I’d picked the car up on had been closed for the changing of the guard Sunday morning… to make matters worse I’d also picked the day of the Athens marathon to return the car. This led to me having to force my way onto a side street and some frankly stressful narrow lane crawling until I lucked into a spot in front of a coffee shop about a block from the rental return. When I told the agency where it was, I had to walk them over and they made some comment like “next time you need to bring it to the door” and I just wordlessly pointed at the cops still blocking the road completely at the nearest corner.

The rental place being in a subway station came in handy again as rather than fight my way with a suitcase past the marathon runners multiple times I scooted underground, dumped my bag at my final hotel and headed off to the national archaeology museum I’d missed on my first Athens stop. This one was fun for content as it’s got some of the greatest treasures of the land (and the originals of some of the things I’d seen reproductions of) but the building itself is pretty tired and is apparently closing in phases for needed complete rebuild.

With that done it was time for one last walk around the acropolis area, some last-minute souvenir shopping and a final souvlaki and baklava. I ran into an odd street festival procession with people dancing and Greek ‘bagpipes’ wailing away. At a sadly early hour I headed back to my hotel to do a final pack. Unfortunately I had to be at the airport by 5 which meant not having subway access. After a relatively fitful sleep I was up at 3:30 and kindly provided with a packed “breakfast” by the hotel I grabbed an uber taxi to the main square where the airport bus made a relatively fast path to the airport and I was checked in right behind a swath of Canadian schoolkids.

Getting to Zurich was relatively uneventful though I’ll never get used to prices in Switzerland (though god some of the chocolate looked tasty.) I did have a good laugh when taking the shuttle to the international area there was a stereoscopic video presentation of Heidi yelling at us about “hope you saw all these sights!” This time the travel luck wasn’t with me though and on the long hop from my stop in Zurich to Toronto I ended up next to a hulking Ukrainian dude who for the first hour of the flight insisted on watching videos on high volume on his phone…. Constantly elbowing me whenever I started to drift off and then talking across me to the woman sitting on the other side of me. The only saving grace was it was a bulkhead seat so my feet weren’t cramped but I was desperately wishing I had a sleeping pill. It was frankly amazing how fast the flight from Toronto to Winnipeg went by comparison, and typical Winnipeg small town I ran into a friend on the flight.

Greece was for the most part lovely. I would definitely visit again however I absolutely wouldn’t go at this time of year. I definitely missed out on part of the experience but, at the same time, I hate when things are super crowded and I think I’d find Santorini hellish in another way if I went in July. September/early October might be the ideal time for me for visiting the islands at least. Spring would work too but the ocean would be warmer in September for the diving side of my travel personality. That said, the quieter time definitely led to a few great experiences and some good prices so it wasn’t all bad.

The Greek people were almost universally super friendly, eager to welcome you and happy to struggle to communicate with you if they didn’t speak at least a bit of English. Bus drivers were perhaps the exception but then, aren’t they always. Probably the highlight overall was Crete, I knew I’d love Athens, other sights were great but Crete was both gorgeous and a total surprise to me versus my earlier thoughts. Thanks again to Jay and Kim for that recommendation.

Bonus Round: Extra Photo Dump

Hey Everyone, here are some extra photos from the first half of the trip now that I’m home and can fight the server with some extra tools/better internet. Some of these may/will be repeats but I wanted to upload some things from the other camera as well. Enjoy!

Athens and Santorini

Athens is a heck of a city, hopping, compact to explore for a tourist and full of friendly people and great food. Heartily recommended!


Crete Views

A couple weeks before I left I wasn’t even planning on hitting Crete but I’m glad my cousin’s Jay and Kim had the recommendation because it was absolutely gorgeous even in low/dry season. I caught the start of the wildflowers coming out but I bet it’s gorgeous in another 2-3 weeks.

Herculean Beauty

My first taste of Crete was the rather run down Iraklio/Heraklion Airport as I waited at baggage claim to find out if my bag had successfully made the dash between the planes that I had. Much to my shock and delight it showed up rather quickly. Figures, I was planning to stay in one place for a few days so it could have caught up and nothing happens! I’m still paranoid after Madeira!

Life on the beach in Crete

The bus into the city proper was relatively painless as well though could have been better signposted. For some reason my google maps pointed me slightly wrong however and combined with the ‘help’ of a local I ended up getting off the bus about 2km short of where I actually needed to. Not the end of the world though as it was later in the evening at this point and I got to see the inner ‘Old City’ positively bustling with activity making me quite happy I’d booked a central hotel. The hotel itself was also not the best at directions having given me vague instructions better suited to arriving by car (figures my one hotel on Crete that had a parking lot would be for the stretch before I rented a car) and unfortunately on some of the maps all the back alleys of these old towns that date in some cases to the byzantine era kind of turn into a maze. Eventually I found the path! After passing what felt like all the cats in town staring me down I came to the Kipos Suites nestled at the end of an alley and looking like an island of modernity amongst the mix of crumbling post-war concrete and more ancient buildings in this section of old town.

My room was spacious (for Europe) and had a powerful shower that I immediately used to wash off the airport before hitting up the desk clerk for recommendations for a Cretan dinner. Unlike some of the clerks so far this trip this guy had strong opinions so I decided to check them out as they were all quite close. Actually all of Heraklion’s old quarter was super walkable and I checked out all the options before deciding on Xalali. This place had a fun looking family taverna atmosphere and I ended up sitting outside again as it was such a nice night. Dinner was a chicken with cretan cheese sauce which turned out to be a juicy chicken cutlet served with a sharp cheese and white wine sauce along with incredibly flavourful tomatoes and a side of actual bread an tzaziki (as well as olives completely wasted on me.) Unsurprisingly some of the neighbourhood felines found their way over to covet my dinner and it was a little like being back at home with certain dogs. As I quickly discovered was standard on Crete dinner ended with my waitress bringing me a small bottle of raki (local liquor like a less anis-y ouzo) for a shot and a small chocolate chip cake topped with a scoop of ice cream. The baffling thing to me is most of these places still have a dessert menu!

I decided to walk around a bit longer to work some of that off and discovered a plethora of churches in the old town, even by Greek standards. Nestled between the churches there was a warren of old streets, some pedestrianized, lots of late night food options of the meaty variety and a number of bakeries/patisseries open just as late (the hours on places here continue to baffle me.) Eventually though I succumbed to the allure of that comfy bed and headed back to watch a show and send some emails to discover that while the hotel was lovely it was definitely of the vintage of greek building where soundproofing isn’t really a thing. Less of a problem this night though again despite the hotel not being full as far as I could tell I’d been placed right near the main entrance and could hear the electric slide open a few times after I climbed into bed.

The next morning I woke fairly early and planned my trip out to the archaelogical site of the ruins of the palace at Knossos. This was so conveniently close to town that a city bus ran there and it conveniently embarked about a 3 minute walk from the hotel. Armed with a bacon, egg and cheese pastry for brunch I was on my way reasonably early as I wanted to hit the archaelogical museum back in town that has some of the finds from the site on the same day and I knew from experience at this point that winter hours would be stupidly short. I’d also decided that it was time to proactively find some laundry service before things reached critical mass in a less helpful place. The close place to the hotel was a bit more expensive than I’d hoped for wash and fold but I didn’t really want to waste any more time on it so I left it and hit the bus.

The site was very impressive but also a bit frustrating. I wasn’t about to hire a private guide for just me but the info on the signboards at the site seemed a bit selective. Thankfully my Lonely Planet (RIP 🙁 ) guidebook had a big section on the palace and I augmented it with some internet searching on breaks. The palace was at various points the capital of ancient Crete, particularly in the days when the Minoan civilization conquered a big chunk of the modern Greek area. Trade was quite wide and there were elements found here that hint at contact far and wide across the Med.

The site’s documentation hero worships the Brit who lead most of the early excavations but also doesn’t do the greatest job of mentioning how controversial some of his restoration work was. Like most of that era of Archaeologist he seems to have come to a conclusion of what he thought a site/subsite was and stuck to it. Some of the restoration as a result may bear little resemblance to reality. That said, most of the site is untouched and his finds revealed a lot of what we’ve come to know about the Minoans. It’s a fascinating place even taken with a grain of salt especially when you remember that this massive palace predates the parthenon by a millenium. Not going to lie, seeing all these places is making me want to play some Civilization on my computer when I get home.

Back in town I discovered happily that the bus pathed right by the Museum so I hopped off and inside. I was disappointed to discover they didn’t have an audio guide but there was an app with extra context though in this case the English commentary was actually great so I felt spoiled. This was another place with some great future pottery inspirations especially in some ancient ‘marine decorated’ pots. The museum was great but despite my reasonably early start I really only just had time for both before it was closing for the night and I headed back to my hotel on foot to have a bit of a rest/do some research for further planning. In practice this actually turned into a 90 minute nap.

Once I’d woken up, picked up the laundry and thrown on something less ‘backpacker’ looking I headed to a restaurant recommended by my guidebook, a culinary guide and a few random reviews and discovered an absolutely enchanting farm to table place nestled in between a couple alleys between a church and a park. It would have taken some work to discover it without a map. Their emphasis on farm to table is sincere to the point where they have their own farm that supplies all the ingredients for the restaurant for 3/4 of the year (the rest of the year they supplement with other local organic farms.) Every dish has the distance from the table the farthest ingredient has come from marked on the menu. They also offer a tasting menu of 10+ olive oils which I did not indulge in. It was called Peskesi.

I ordered a slow cooked lamb and yogurt dish with rice pilaf and when it came out it was not at all what I expected. Completely melt in your mouth lamb crusted with flavourful cheese over a layer of herbed yogurt as an island in a pool of some of the most amazing rice I’ve ever tasted, almost more like a very wet risotto. It was incredibly delicious and I didn’t make it through more than 2/3 of it. This time the complimentary Raki was also flavoured with rose, I’m not normally a huge fan of florals in drinks but something about the interaction of the rose and the anise made this really hit the spot (though I only had two shots unlike some at nearby tables.) The dessert was unusual as it was a semolina based pudding smeared in a thin layer on the plate then drizzled with honey, lemon, cinnamon and almonds. The texture was interesting, I’d described it as a sweet thicker cream of wheat. It was really quite good but again I was stuffed and didn’t come close to finishing my included portion. Overall an incredible meal and arguably in the top ten of my life… and ridiculously cheap for the quality. I paid under $25 CAD if I recall.

I was kind of surprised that the busker scene in Heraklion wasn’t livelier but I guess with it being low season and ‘cold’ there wasn’t the draw. I ended up sitting by a venetian fountain from 1629 and just people watching for an hour or so before taking a circuitous route back to the hotel and calling it a day. In truth, at least in old town, the bar scene in general seemed kind of meh at this time of year. I’m guessing it’s likely livelier somewhere closer to the university or whatnot. There were a few small lounges that were quite hopping but Greece is definitely an ‘eat late then party late’ place.

Originally I had planned to leave the next morning and rent a car to move on and explore more of Crete but I’d had the luck to connect with the only diving company planning to start for the year before I left and staying in town an extra night was going to get me a dive on the Saturday so I spent friday finding a local rental car provider who’d rent me a small automatic. Honestly I need to re-learn how to drive standard but I figured chaotic greek town then sharp mountain roads probably wasn’t the time to struggle through it. The rest of the day was exploring the town a bit more and having a bit more of a relaxing day. I hit the other big museum in town, explored the harbour fort and partook of a snack or two in sidewalk cafes.

The dive shop itself was again right on a bus route and we weren’t starting at the crack of dawn so I stumbled in at about ten and got kitted up. This was a bit eye opening given recent changes as well as the fact that we were running on different equipment than I was used to as well as it being an SSI shop when I’m a PADI trained diver. Phil at the shop was great though and I met the other two divers on the trip and we drove about 30 minutes away to a small cove nestled at the bottom of a steep switchback. Oddly despite having done I think almost 40 dives now this is only the second time I’ve done a shore dive after the time in Cuba. The water was cool but not crazy cold for a Manitoban. The young german woman who was my dive buddy generally dove in the baltic so she wasn’t cold either. Our dive lead on the other hand was wearing a dry suit for some unknowable reason. Coward!

The bay we were diving in is apparently in the process of being turned into a marine reserve. I won’t pretend it was the most exciting dive I’ve ever done (first dive since Fiji was always likely to be a bit tamer) but it was an excellent time. Current/surge was relatively low, we had 15m visibility despite the cloud and managed to see some barracuda, a couple lionfish, some trumpetfish and a number of grouper. Only sadness was not seeing any octopus since Phil had said they saw them quite often but overall it wasn’t a bad dive.

Back on dry land I had a tipsy moment when I forgot to baby my legs a bit having forgotten that I have not used flippers for a while but then had a lovely chat with two other divers who were prepping to go out with a scooter. They were a couple (one German, one Belgian) who were living in Crete at the moment and sampling the dive sites around the island while things were quiet. We shared stories of our fave places elsewhere and I got a couple future targets to think about aiming for. Eventually we wished them well as they headed in and Phil had finally struggled out of his drysuit and we headed back to the shop. I’d stupidly let myself run out of small change for the bus and didn’t think a bus driver would take kindly to me trying to break a fifty so I walked a few blocks back towards town until I found a fruit market, bought a banana for some potassium and some dried pineapple for dessert then made it back to town to pick up my rental car.

I am mildly ashamed of the fact that I’m not confident driving a stick, to be honest that was for one marathon road trip 20+ years ago and nothing since so it’s not really surprising. Unfortunately it makes renting a car outside North America a bit harder/pricier. At the smaller local rental place I ended up using they really only had one option which was a micro Hyundai hatch that just barely fit my suitcase in the back and had an engine that sounded like it was going to die at some point. Still, I wanted to hit the roads of this beautiful island so I put-putted away, trusting my gps to get me outside of the old town at least and then at that point there’s really only the one main east-west highway on the island. I was heading for Chania, the ‘second city’ of the island which meant heading from the more central Heraklion to almost the west coast.

Quick side note here. Cretan drivers are absolutely mental. At almost no point of this section of highway are there two lanes in one direction. There are only small sections with a dashed central line and the road follows the coast for most of its length so there are a ton of blind corners. This does not stop people from passing. You’re expected to pull off half or fully onto the shoulder to let these nutbars by. Eventually I got used to it but yikes. Thankfully the road itself wasn’t in bad shape and the views were absolutely gorgeous. Crete is a stunning place and at times really reminds me of northern California, especially at this time of year where many sections are quite arid running down to wild looking coastline.

I arrived in Chania (Ha-nia) not long before sunset having not actually booked anywhere to stay yet. To be honest I’d been worried I’d be too tired after diving to make it past the halfway point but it hadn’t turned out to be an issue. As I reached the outskirts of the modern town I pulled into a closed business and started browsing booking.com for something that looked decent. I was comparing things on a map when someone knocked on the window and I nearly jumped out of my skin, immediately thinking the business owner was grumpy. It turned out to be an older British woman who asked me if I had any jumper cables. She and her Canadian partner had broken down nearby. Obviously I did not in my baby rental but I agreed to try giving her a boost if she bought some at a nearby garage. This being a typical greek road this involved me fighting across a street the wrong way and bumping up onto a curb to get mostly out of traffic. Sadly the boost was unsuccessful. At first I assumed it was just my baby battery not having the oomph to help their similarly sized car but it sounded in the end like it was some more major electrical fault. They thanked me profusely anyway and actually offered to let me stay in their guest room but informed me they were 30 minutes out of town back the other way. Had I had more time I might have taken them up on it but I definitely wanted to stay in Chania’s beautiful old town so I wished them well and booked myself in.


Venetian Old Town

Chania’s old town is dotted with buildings from the era when the Venetians owned the island. Narrow cobbled streets run into church plazas and then run down to the beautiful harbour. The fortifications remain on two sides helping make the district close to but not quite car-free. I was arriving on saturday night and things were already hopping in that area. I knew I was unlikely to get anything too close parking wise but it ended up being quite the ordeal. Unlike most places in Crete a lot of the street parking in that area was paid and when I finally found a spot I ran into issues getting their parking app to work. Ended up having to tether my laptop to get a confirmation email because the only credit card I could get to work would send my fraud alerts to an older email. (Side note to people who run so-called travel cards, maybe don’t have confirmations only be SMS-able when plenty of travel folks get travel SIMs while abroad?) Eventually I was set until midnight and parking was apparently free on sundays so I hoped things would be fine. That said I can’t fathom how terrible the parking must be in high season.

Setting off into the narrow old lanes with my suitcase clattering away I noticed again the winter deadness. This was saturday night, some of the main thoroughfares were hopping and a few restaurants were packed but almost every hotel I passed looked shut completely. When I found my hotel it looked SLIGHTLY more alive but was locked and no one was visible inside. I rang the bell at the Vilelmine and got a long wait followed by a confused sounding mess of greek. Tentatively I said “checking in?” wondering if I’d somehow buzzed an apartment. A lady walking past took pity on me and spoke to the person on the intercom and translated. I’m guessing that was maybe a family member of the owner because when he showed up 5 minutes later he spoke quite good english and apologized that he’d missed the booking notice on his phone. He chatted with me a bit about the town and told me that Chania’s old town was so beautiful because it was one of the few places the Germans hadn’t wrecked in WW2 as it was their last refuge/where they ended up surrendering. Makes sense but would have been a bit awkward to know that when my german dive buddy was extolling the beauty of the place a few hours prior.

I was clearly the only person in this hotel as when he came in the door he flipped on a bunch of breakers saying “I guess you’d like the hot water.” I was only half paying attention though as the building was gorgeous. It was a narrow Venetian townhouse that had been subdivided into quite large suites and had gorgeous art on the walls and a spiraling staircase leading upwards. My host showed me up to one of them and I found a massive bedroom, a tiny couch area with coffee and a minifridge and a balcony that overhung the church square. He had definitely not been wrong about wanting the hot water though as since I’d already checked out before diving I’d had to drive a couple hours still salty from the dive (ick.)

Showered and mildly more presentable I spent the rest of the night wandering the town. It was an odd mix. While many many hotels and restaurants were closed, others were completely packed. When facing the harbour itself it was as if everything on the west side was shut down. Yet at the same time there were floods of people around and a much younger skewing crowd than I’d seen in many of the towns since Athens. This made more sense later when I found out that there was both a NATO naval base and a large university near town. This also explained the larger number of young American voices I heard in the babble. I eventually ended up at a fish restaurant recommended by my host which ended up being a bit of a dud. Nothing terrible just underwhelming, but rescued by a small cone of citrus sorbet on the way back up the road. By this point the dive fatigue had indeed arrived and I decided to head back and get some sleep.


I’d forgotten the next morning was sunday. A cacophony of bells reminded me at around 7. I had been planning to get an early-ish start but my room being essentially right at the height of the belfry made damned sure I wasn’t sleeping any longer, especially when they went off again 15 minutes later. By the time I’d had another shower and gotten mostly ready to go I was able to sit out on the mini balcony with a glass of water and see parishioners going in and out and the orthodox chants of the service filled the chilly morning air. One of the church staff was outside setting up a buffet of food was no doubt going to be spending the next hour defending it from cats. I couldn’t help but laugh as one man came into the square with his two dogs, one leashed, one wandering off leash behind him… he eventually stopped mid-square, tied the two dogs together and left them waiting quite patiently tied to one another as he went into church for a blessing and returned about five minutes later.

Church theatre aside it was time to get moving. I’d decided to visit a famous beach at the southwest corner of the island and was mildly nervous if my wussy little car would make it or not. One guide I’d read said the last bit of the road wasn’t in great shape, the other said no issues. My rental company had warned me I wasn’t covered for gravel road recovery but in the end I decided to try and I’m glad I did. It was definitely the most european of european roads though, as once I got off the highway the secondary road kept going through cliff-side villages as we climbed a mountain pass. Cars would be jammed willy nilly, roads would barely be wide enough for one car much less the tour buses I knew must come this way in high season. I firmly got out of the way of the speed demons this time but overall it was mostly just fun at this time of year. My only regret was the lack of places at times to stop and check out the view properly.

Eventually the road opened up to a view of a gorgeous aqua sea and the road spilled out onto a somehow even more rugged coastline. I was all set to say this is now the closest I’ve been to Africa before I remembered that I’ve been to Gibraltar… whoops. The beach itself is famous for pink ‘sand’ which is actually crushed shells floating over the sand. Due to tides/wind I wasn’t there at peak beauty by the sounds of it but it was still gorgeous. Apparently the ‘island’ offshore is often connected by a spit of the pinkish sand but on the day of my visit the lagoon had completely separated it. The lagoon was totally wadeable though and at spots was only ankle deep, at first I just waded out a bit but eventually decided to go all the way across to explore the spit of an island jutting out in the bay. As I was putting my shoes away (I’d worn a bathing suit though had not been sure if I’d swim or not) a couple started walking back from the island with their two dogs who made it clear the depth never got above waist high.

The island was gorgeous, small coves everywhere with picturesque rocks and slowly rolling waves coming in off a barrier reef. The ocean pools reflecting with sheens of emerald and indigo. I read later that after increasing crowds for a number of years they have been cracking down and are trying to return more of the area to nature/keep permanent fixtures at a greater distance so hopefully the main shoreline will eventually be just as great. I gather the main beach is basically a giant expanse of deck chairs and umbrellas come July and August. On this particular ‘winter’ day I only saw about 15 people total all day. I spent a couple hours in a few of the coves, did a bit of snorkeling and just generally relaxed and enjoyed the view. I’d definitely love to come back some day and snorkel when it was a bit warmer but it was still absolutely worth the trip.

Back in Chania I found a spot in an entirely free lot that I found mention of online (mostly so I wouldn’t have to log on and pay for a couple hours at 7am the following morning) then tried to have a look around some shops. This was definitely not a sunday shopping town though, especially at low season so in the end I just did a lap of the harbour, took some photos then went back to to my room for a bit of a nap and sitting on my balcony for a while writing some of this travelogue. Dinner was much better that night as I indulged in some saganaki and souvlaki in one of the narrow alley eateries before curling up with a book until bed.

I lingered for a bit monday morning wanting to check out some of the stores and hoping they’d actually open at the time google listings said they would, thankfully a few of them did and I made a couple of small purchases for folks back home. I had one more full day with the car and decided to race to the other end of the island just to have seen a bit of each side. Now that I was more used to the roads this went fairly smoothly, especially since the highway east of Heraklion is markedly better and even has some passing lane areas. A few hours later I ended up in Agios Nikaulaus (St. Nicholas) a town on the edge of yet another gorgeous bay full of glassy turquoise waves. Other than beaches the draw here in prime season is an offshore island that was a leper colony until the 70s.

On the plus side street parking was free here, on the negative my hotel had neglected to inform me that their street in the warren was under construction and thus their instructions on getting to the front door were useless. In the end I parked on the waterfront and dragged my bag around the breakwater until I found a way to climb up to the hotel where I found no host just my name and a key. This was the first serious dud of a hotel for the trip as the beds were hard, the toilet needed to be fought with to not run after a flush and the construction the next morning started back up early. Things seemed almost Santorini dead in this town and other than a lovely beach I visited 20km away there wasn’t much of excitement happening (but it would probably be hopping in summer.)

My flight back to Athens wasn’t until fairly late the next day so I dragged out the car adventures as long as possible and instead of cutting straight back to Heraklion I drove down to the south coast and back across the mountains of the spine of Crete. Tons of lovely views but I found myself baffled by a couple of the towns on the coast where absolutely gorgeous oceanfront property was being used for businesses you’d never expect like auto wreckers etc. Also I got a delicious feta croissant. The southeast of the island was absolutely covered in greenhouses… like acres and acres of them. I’m curious as to what they grow in them that’s such a big crop. As I crossed over the middle I ended up driving through olive groves and vineyards, two of the products of the island I’d already sampled quite a lot of. Unfortunately my car also started beeping at random a few times with no accompanying warning lights. I got out and checked tire pressure etc but everything seemed to be running just as well as before even though that wasn’t great. In the end it went away after a restart for a while and then stopped happening completely after another 45 minutes so I rolled the dice and kept driving.

Of course… after having no rain to speak of… once I’d dropped the car off that afternoon and had fully 5 hours to kill before my flight there were a number of short downpours. Eventually I gave in, stopped running to hide under canopies in between stretches reading on a park bench with my suitcase and found a burger joint, ordered some food and loitered my heart out until it was time to hop the airport bus. Actually to be honest I probably would have left it another hour at least but I was starting to get the stinkeye at the cafe and figured I might as well. Low season was in evidence at the airport too however as very little was open and large stretches of the airport had temporarily been barricaded until business improved.

Overall Crete was a blast and I’d come back in a heartbeat (though at a warmer time of year to check out more dive sites, do more swimming, see a different side of the island. I’d honestly love to be back with someone else as well, if only to get to order more of some of those menus to share at dinner.

Santori-no fun for you

Fira from the bay

I slept a bit fitfully the night before the ferry, the way you do before early travel and not helped by someone noisily throwing out trash at three am in between incredibly violent bursts of rain. The plan was to hit the subway not long after it opened for the morning and catch it to the port where my ferry was leaving at solidly “WHAT?” o’clock. It was just as well I was very conservative with my time estimates as it turned out my ferry was in the absolute opposite end of the port and I must have missed the map that said so and/or the sign that pointed to the shuttle bus that arrived at the ferry just as I’d hoofed it around a ferry terminal probably 4x the size of anything I’ve seen at home. Eventually I got there though, all of 15 minutes before final boarding, plonked my luggage in a rack and found my seat just as the rain finally came back and started lashing the deck. Small favours. As much as I would have loved to spend the day staring out the window at sunny seas and islands in the end I was a bit dozy through the first part of the voyage anyway and better to have rain on a travel day than it forcing me inside while at a destination.

After a couple hours we started intermittently docking at islands before Santorini. Despite the looming low clouds each one looked gorgeous and inviting. They also looked incredibly dead people wise. I’d been warned by my research that the islands were quiet in low season. While in July and August there are multiple ferry options, high speed directs, inter-island bounces etc we were firmly in one slow boat a day territory at the end of February.

One of the en route Islands, Paros I think?

For those who don’t know the island of Santorini (or Thira for the actual main island I gather) is one part of a formerly quite large island that blew its top in ancient times and the modern ‘Santorini’ is mostly build on one part of the Caldera rim. If you’ve seen images of a greek island with white towns built on what seems like impossibly steep cliffs it’s a good chance this is it. I’d gone back and forth a few time on whether to spring for one of the ‘Caldera View’ suites and in the end had decided to save my money and spent it elsewhere. I’m glad I did as the weather was ‘fine’ but rarely super sunny and I was unsuccessful in getting one of the really quality sunsets they’re famous for while there.

The Rim Path

One thing that isn’t dead is the taxi industry despite the time of year and they want pretty extortionate rates to go anywhere on the island. As a solo traveler I cab only when necessary and it definitely wasn’t here with a modern motorcoach bus transfer available to my home base (the capital Fira) for only 2 Euro. The ride up was a pretty impressive zigzag up the Volcano’s rim and across some of the fertile lands at the top until we arrived in a village of white washed buildings, hotels and tavernas/restaurants… all of which were closed completely.

I exaggerate only slightly. I’d guess at least 95% of businesses were firmly battened down at this point which was more intense than I was expecting closure wise. To be honest more than a few of them looked like they maybe hadn’t been open since Covid Lockdowns but my hotelier said most things had reopened. The sheer number of places that were completely stripped out was shocking though. As my time on the island went on I did see some of these businesses being sandblasted/repainted and I gather some of this activity was for the start of April (Orthodox Easter being their first busy weekend.) Compounding the frustration was the fact that most of these business do not update their business hours for offseason on their website if they have one or on google. It was pretty frustrating. You know a place is dead when their McDonalds (incidentally the first one I’ve seen this trip) is closed.

My (cheaper) hotel was on the secondary road and I clattered down the crappy pavement after the sidewalk gave out until I found a tiny sign and a steep ramp down. I’m a little afraid I may murder my suitcase with all these cobbles (yes I skipped the old reliable backpack this time as it didn’t seem necessary.) Thankfully it was a lovely little place with a number of suites scattered around a neighbourhood and I was shown to a little second floor unit with a balcony terrace and a comfy bed. Unfortunately he more or less confirmed nothing was running excursion wise either though he told me to check at the travel agency where they confirmed it. At this point I was starving so I pretty much immediately went back up to the main road, found one of the few things open was a soulvaki place (gasp!) and chowed down on a pita. Properly victualed I began exploring the internecine pathways of the town, pretty much all lined with closed down jewellery shops, souvenir stores, snack bars etc. Restaurant wise there were two souvlaki stands with outdoor seating, an asian fast food place and two not great looking sit down chinese places. When things got a bit busier a day or two later it was mostly chinese nationals I saw so perhaps the latter still being open isn’t surprising.

Snaking my way down towards the caldera I could help but gasp at the view. It’s truly breathtaking and probably wild if you’re afraid of heights. You look out towards the other islands that form the rim while in either direction beside you stretches an absolute hodgepodge of bulbous buildings jutting out over the edge like cliff sparrow nests. (Empty) infinity pools are everywhere the better to enjoy the sunset with your traveling companion. Whether you QUITE get that luxury experience from the photos when there are other balconies inches to your left and right I don’t know, especially since in some the cheaper ones near the top you also have schmucks like me who can just lean over and look past your balcony to the sea.

The dock right below the town apparently is often clogged with cruise ship tenders and there is a cable car and a long set of 500+ stairs often covered in donkey dung. Apparently you have the option to have a ride part way via donkey as well. A lot of the deliveries are done by teams of donkeys as the narrow paths aren’t accessible even to carts. I chose not do do the 500 stairs as the cable car wasn’t running if I decided I wasn’t up to coming back up.

That first evening I walked most of the way to the next town up cliff-side path (it goes about 9km to the last town on the island) before snaking my way back through the alleyways since the heavy cloud was not cooperating for sunsets. As there was basically nothing to do at that point I walked back, decided to skip a gelato (regrets as this was the last time it was open during my stay) and headed back to my room for a movie and a think. I’d purposely kept things flexible here in case I’d wanted to extend things on the island but instead it seemed time to work out when/how to leave.

This is when I discovered the ferry strike was going ahead for the day I’d planned to leave. Long story short nothing was sailing on the calendar day I wanted to leave. There was a ferry starting from Athens (Piraeus) just after midnight, arriving at Santorini around 5 am then going onward to Crete the following morning. Unfortunately that basically made my options to be “get a hotel for another night and leave at 4am, pay a middle of the night taxi+luggage+time surcharge on top of the ferry fare and get to Crete probably wrecked again. Alternatively since the air traffic controllers were not on strike after all (they’d planned to join in) I could fly. Unfortunately again because low-season there were no direct flights at the moment… I dithered about it for the next day but then yes I booked a flight back to Athens to then turn around and basically fly back over Santorini to land in Crete. Wasteful as hell but I wanted to make sure I got out of there without wasting another full day, especially if the strike had delayed that ferry further.

Oia – from the point

Still before that happened I hopped a bus over to the end of the island the next day. If Fira is the pretty girl Oia is the supermodel. It’s DEFINITELY that white washed walls/blue roofed village you’ve seen on a greek travel poster. Felt like I was in an off brand Mamma Mia sequel where they didn’t want to pay the extras. I spent a few hours wandering around the various paths, marveling at how many hotels were just closed completely with many looking like they needed two months work to be opened again. Store wise there was a bit more open here, mostly souvenirs and a couple women’s clothing/jewellery shops. Pretty much everything on the island is pricey but I guess the Oia folks know everyone is coming there for sunset no matter where they’re staying on the island, even in the off season.

I ended up spending a couple hours on the tip of the point at a small fortification getting snuggles off and on from a very affectionate cat and reading a book in the sunshine. It was a lovely day, I just would have really loved to be able to take a cruise around the islands too while I was there (and dive some of the volcanic caves.) Despite sitting there enjoyably for hours as it began to get busy for sunset I climbed further into the hotel neighbourhood figuring I’d be able to find a good vantagepoint that was less busy given they were all closed. I found an excellent balcony… but it was eventually ruined by a french couple who both kept hacking up a lung/sniffling until I retreated for my health… then by a large cloud bank rolling in just before sunset. I grumbled as I caught the last bus back to Fira, grabbed some food then booked my flight(s) out.

I realize that I neglected to mention the one new thing I’d found open after the first night which was a delicious bakery hidden in the bowls of a building behind a pretty bad looking bar and a closed fish spa. I’d seen a girl walk out with a koulouri (greek sesame bagel thing) and had wandered into the darkness and come away with a delicious ham and cheese pretzel. The next morning (my luggage left with my hotel man) I grabbed a feta pastry and took another bus, this time to the Akrotiri historical site. This is an ancient town buried by ash not unlike Pompeii with the note that most of the inhabitants evacuated here. It’s a neat site with a full canopied building over everything and excavation ongoing. It’s also right by the sea so as I waited for my bus back I stuck my feet in the water for the first time this trip. Chilly but no worse than home in the summer.

Akrotiri archaelogical site

With that though, Santorini time was over. A quick bus back to Fira, the long trudge to and from the hotel to get the luggage and another bus to the Airport and it was time to go. Have I mentioned I went through like 4 books while there? The flight was mildly stressful as we started boarding late and had to take a bus out to the plane so I started sweating my connection, especially when while disembarking I got stuck behind a woman who insisted on opening her carryon to put away her coat and blocking the entire line. In the end I had to run through the terminal as it was already marked final boarding when I got inside (our plane being parked at the ass end of nowhere and me again missing the first bus back to the terminal.) Still, I made it, got on another absurdly short flight and took another bus to the old town of Heraklio (Iraklion) the capital of Crete! More to come.

PS I don’t want to seem super down on the island. It’s a beautiful place and I don’t doubt the stories about how it gets massively OVERcrowded in the summer but I would have loved even slightly more in between. It seems like October might be the time to visit while things are still running and the seas are warmer but after the crush.

Hellenic Adventure 2024

Me by some historic building ;)

Hey, it’s the Parthenon!

It’s adventure time again, hello all 10 people that read these travelogues. I know some of you cringe a little bit with how seat of my pants I sometimes travel and to you I apologize because this trip has definitely had some of the lowest planning effort of any of them. There were a variety of reasons for this but it mostly came down to not being comfortable booking a trip until the last minute then randomly deciding to go to Greece after flights for my initially planned revisit of Thailand doubled in price. Greece has always been on the list to visit but I’ll be honest this trip basically came down to seeing what was a decent price over a period I could fit between on call weeks and here we are.

So hey, Greece! Souvlaki! Zorba! History! Windex! (scratch that last one, I bought travel health insurance.)

My flight out was actually at a sane hour and included a long enough layover at Pearson that I didn’t have to sprint down the latest convoluted path between domestic and international. I’d been happy to see that my randomly assigned seats had all been acceptable and I didn’t have to shell out extra money for seat selection… was less enthused when I got a text 30 mins before boarding Toronto to Munich that my seat had been changed. It turned out I’d worried for nothing though as I ended up getting moved into Economy preferred for free and had a row of 4 to myself. Always nice for the overseas hop. Turns out the flight was about half empty. I was surprised but I wasn’t going to argue. As usual I didn’t sleep more than a few disjointed 15 minute periods and was running on fumes by the time I made my way through EU customs and over to my next gate.

In the end I didn’t nod off at the gate either, partially through worry they’d change my gate and I’d miss it as the signage/announcements in the area weren’t very good (decidedly un-German of them…) and partially due to the strange man who sat down across from me after about 30 minutes with a large produce bag full of ripe bananas… slowly eating at least 6 of them over a relatively short period of time. Eventually we boarded and again had an empty seat next to me this time, not a bad round of airplane luck.


I’d done enough research to know the cheapest way into town from the airport in Athens was via the subway built for the Olympics. For the record, when available airport trains are the best. Even if you have to take a cab for the final hop you get a nice introduction to the mood of the city you’re visiting. The Athens one is particularly handy as it’s just a spur station on one of the main lines and as such took me straight downtown.

The busy old town neighbourhood not far from my hotel

I was less enthused about my hotel’s directions which basically just said exit at one of these four metro stations then “you can enter off such and such a street or alternatively ‘this other street'” which isn’t the most helpful when it’s a) dark b) greek alphabet signs most of the time c) you haven’t been able to buy a local phone card yet. In the end I bit the bullet and used a day of rogers roaming to get through things. Just as well. Both entrances were terribly signposted, I’ll try to snap a pic when I’m back in Athens later but essentially it was a small van sized archway into a corridor on the right and I just happened to look up far enough at the right moment a scooter went by and illuminated a dirty plastic sign way up on the interior wall. (The gps tried to send me through another business on another block.) Luckily when I found got into that courtyard there was a bright modern sign showing the way to a tiny but sparkling clean hotel with a great location.

Wasn’t expecting to get such a great view essentially just off the plane.

Given that it was about 7pm local at this point and I’d been up something like 32 hours I did the sensible thing and (almost) immediately went out for food knowing that I’d crash when I crashed so fueling up first was the best bet to make that sleep beat any jetlag. I was kind to others and showered off a full day of travel first with a solid 20 minutes under a surprisingly nice waterfall shower but then got dressed and hit the streets. Heading south towards the Acropolis (into what was clearly the happening area) I peered down alleys for likely spots for a bite. Pretty much every cafe I saw was packed and I really wasn’t looking for a big roast meat and potatoes type fill up so when I stumbled across a place called Zeyroun I was sold. I later found it listed in multiple food guides to the city.

It might have been sacrilege to not start out with a greek meal my first night in Athens but instead I had a Zeyroun wrap which reminded me of an Iraqi dish I had once but forget the name of. It was a mildly spicy ground meat and tomato and za’atar blend baked into a crispy flat bread. The cook then freshly resizzled it, threw yoghurt and baba ghanoush and some other goodies on it and brought it out to me at an outdoor counter seat. The flavours were both familiar and exotic and I absolutely devoured it, belately remembering I hadn’t eaten since the overseas flight and not much of that (because Air Canada.)

For the issues I’d had finding the hotel it was immediately clear that I’d have no problems finding my way back as just downhill the cross street turned into a pedestrian only lane that led directly to a view of the fully lit Acropolis and that was was full of people having a fun friday night. My one semester of Russian now coming back to me and helping me decipher the Greek alphabet a bit (cyrillic being essentially a superset of greek iirc) I memorized the name (as most of you know I’m a memorize the map/learn the lay of the land/screw gps person) and set off to explore as long as my fuel lasted.

The tiny Orthodox church surrounded by the pedestrian shopping/eating district.

It wasn’t super long, another two hours I think but I walked up to the lower wall of the Acropolis mount, explored a few snaky lanes and large church plazas and made my way up to the Greek Parliament and watched a changing of the guard. In the main square I listened to two incredibly talented street musicians doing old rock standards then gave into the inevitability of sleep and started heading back only to find one of the best pianists I’ve seen in recent years hammering away on an organ on wheels. Since she was conveniently close to a gelato stand I grabbed a cup and found a step to perch on. Hanging out watching street musicians has actually become somewhat of a trip opening night tradition for me on my travel adventures and this one will be a hard outing to beat.

Still, it was a tired tired traveler who got back to the hotel and climbed into bed after just barely remembering to take off socks and set an alarm for the next morning.


Come morning I made the lovely/terrible discovery that even my little mid tier hotel’s feta was going to make going home to domestic brands very sad. Even for a euro breakfast bar it was a bit odd but delicious proper greek yogurt with drizzle of honey and some granola + some charcuterie was hard to say no to. At some point during the trip I’ll succumb to the lure of an sausage egg mcmuffin though.

While browsing one of the books before getting out of bed I realized I’d inadvertently done the first 3rd or so of Rick Steves’ Athens city walk so after trying and failing (due to shop hours) to get a traveler SIM card for my phone I set out to finish that listening to the guide. While I find Rick’s stuff does lean a bit ‘older crowd’ it was nice to get some cultural background to some of the things I was seeing and I do think his major city/capital guides are great.

This trip took me back down into the plaka ‘old town’ section and along past several churches including the home metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox faith, down to the ruins of Hadrian’s arch and a look through the fence at the remnants of the temple of Olympian Zeus. Several sources had pointed out the view of the latter from the fence line wasn’t much worse than paying the admission and you’d also get a better overhead view of the site from the acropolis.

Athens is kind of shockingly compact, at least in terms of things that appeal to tourists. The fact that most of the history is SO old and that the city dwindled away to relatively nothing for some of the intervening years means almost everything that most people are dying to see is clustered around the Acropolis. I plan to expand my horizons a bit upon my return at the end of the trip but to be honest I didn’t have to do anything but walk until I headed to the ferry terminal to head to the islands.

As I listened to the audio guide I got a better feel for some of the winding lanes I’d traversed the night before and some of the pre-trip neighbourhood discussions felt a bit more real. One of the most interesting was “little Analfi” a tiny neighbourhood built for craftsmen from that island right under the acropolis wall and bearing convincing resemblence to the kind of homes you expect to see in a greek islands setting. Many of these ‘island cottages’ are apparently now owned by well to do Athenians who want a downtown pied-à-terre. Very neat however as at points you’re squeezing in the narrow path between two bright white walls and expecting to walk out into the set of Mamma Mia only to look up and see the Acropolis looming overhead.

Eventually I snaked my way through the market streets and made my way into the Ancient Agora site. It’s a surprisingly small area and almost entirely fully ruined, especially compared to the Roman forum but it was impossible to forget that many of the roots of democracy started where I now standing. (cue Kent Brockman.) Some parts of the area have been reconstructed, others could probably use a little more TLC but with some imagination you could still visualize just how impressive this must have been 2500 years ago.

As I exited the Agora and made my way back to Monastoriki Square I had a decision to make. I was dying to see the Acropolis mount itself but I’d discovered the winter hours were far more limited and I wouldn’t be able to go up just before sunset as I’d hoped. At this point I’d walked a ton already and I’d have to hustle to get to the gates in time to have enough time… add in that fact that I’d have to climb to the top on my defective and tired feets and it felt like a coin flip, but in the end I couldn’t wait. I’ve been wanting to see the Parthenon in person forever and it felt wrong to wait another day.

No doubt the first of many

In relatively recent times most of the roads right around the mount have been converted to pedestrian only pathways and making my way up basically meant passing a giant flea market of vendors and restaurants before reaching the entrance to the ‘park’ itself. I mean you’ve all seen pictures, it’s definitely a bit of a climb (especially for a prairie boy who doesn’t see hills too often) but wow is it worth it. Reaching the Propylaia (entrance gate) was incredibly cool but as I emerged onto the top of the hill and saw the Parthenon and Erekthion I was blown away. This definitely wasn’t one of those ‘man I thought it would be bigger’ moments. I wrote a couple papers on these buildings in university (and the ‘Elgin’ Marbles) and seeing them in person was definitely one of those damned Plamandon life list things I can cross off.

Some famous temple…

As I walked around the site it somehow felt more real than other ancient places I’ve been. You’re walking where some of those big names you learned about in school days actually walked. All of those cobbles are smooth and slippery because people have been coming here for a shockingly long chunk of human history. Even in the dark times for Athens this has been a special place. If only the damned Venetians could have kept from blowing up the Parthenon. I’ll let photos do a bit of talking here as it’s been a few days and the history nerd in me could still go on ad nauseum here. Let me just say that the architecture is still gorgeous and impressive and even the scaffolding and crane of the ongoing restoration didn’t diminish that (though I’ll have to go back and see it again if they ever finish the project.)

As I saw the staff preparing to herd us out at five o’clock I had definitely drunk it all in, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I pay for another admission when I get back to Athens. If nothing else there are some lovely views.

My feet were absolutely done as I made my way down the steps. For those who don’t know my grandmother and mother handed off terrible arches to me to the point where I need orthotics and standing on uneven or hard ground can get pretty excrutiating relatively quickly. The combination of a ton of walking and the rest had left me in need of a rest so I climbed nearby Mars/Ares Hill and sat to watch the sunset. Unfortunately I ended up swarmed by a tour group of elderly folks some foolish guide led up there to repeatedly trip and fall. Regardless we were thwarted by some suspiciously rainy looking clouds rolling in before sunset (this has become a theme.)

Ares/Mars Hill – pre-octonegarian invasion

I’d managed to grab my first (amazing) souvlaki wrap from souvlaki row earlier for lunch so I wasn’t exactly aching for food so I walked a bit further and made my way back to the hotel, had a shower and flaked out for a bit… I just wasn’t expecting to nap quite so hard as I did… which led to me exploring the very cool Psyri neighbourhood for dinner at around 11. I ended up passing an american style barbecue joint and while I rationalized it (correctly it turned out) by imagining I’d have less choice on the islands and might not get a break from greek food for a bit… to be quite honest I mostly just thought the guy on the street eating a brisket sandwich looked like he was really enjoying it. Final verdict was a solid A brisket, the fries were very disappointing though. As a Winnipegger who enjoys his greek burgers and fries back home too much, the fact that most fries I’ve had here have been undercooked and sad is disappointing. Perhaps that was why they only won “11th best” bbq in europe.


The next morning armed with a store address I managed to snag a SIM card and moved back over to the parliament square to see the full changing of the guard ceremony. Honestly while neat it was a bit underwhelming from the distance I had to stand so I ended up leaving before they’d fully cleared the area and made my way to the Acropolis Museum. This is a fairly new museum that contains many of the finds from the mount and surrounding areas and is absolutely fascinating. It’s an interesting combo of finds from around the acropolis and a dedicated geometrically offset floor that does an exact layout of the parthenon, reproductions of the friezes and the pediments and a whole bunch of brit-shaming. I imagine most people are familiar with the Elgin marbles but whatever your feelings about Elgin taking them in the first place being in that lovely gallery with a sightline to their ancestral home it’s pretty clear where they should be now.

Kind of frustratingly because of the limited winter hours I didn’t really have time to fit in another museum that day once I was done. I don’t really get why they chop back from 8-8pm all the way to 9-3:30. Since the changing of the guard was at 11 I couldn’t have really been there any earlier either. At least stay open til 5, it’s not like the rest of Athens seems to do the siesta thing much. In the end I spent the rest of the day doing the entirety of the round the acropolis walk, browsed some shops (though any purchases will wait til I return to Athens) and people watched.

One thing I did love was getting to snag what was apparently one of the best galatabourikos in town. House made phyllo ballooned and filled with rich thick custard. I learned how to make one from dear departed friend Jim Pappas and his wife Barb’s greek cooking class eons ago but it’s kind of a pain to make so it’s been forever. This one was simultaneously flaky and rich and melt in your mouth and I devoured it all. Cheers Jim, thanks for introducing me to this tasty treat all those years ago.

One thing I notice on every visit to Europe and particularly in the mediterranean countries is how many more people smoke than in North America. Greece seems to take it to a new level though with many people seeming to love to stand in a cafe entrance and smoke as though the wind blowing across the square wasn’t just filling my face and ruining my snack. One friend I mentioned to says this will get worse out of the capital as well as enforcement of the indoor ban gets lax.

Dinner on the edge

With that my time in Athens had come to a close (for now.) I’d purposely scheduled a shorter stop up front on the trip knowing I could do some more when I come back for the flight home. For my final meal I climbed back up the hill to a little taverna I’d passed the first night, got a table by the stairs overlooking the old quarter and had a delicious little crock of baked feta smeared all over grilled pita and accompanied by another lemonade with honey and ginger.

I went to bed happy but sadly knowing I had to be up at 5ish to catch the ferry on to my next destination.