Thailand 2025

Gulf Island Getaway

25 February 2025

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Categories: Travel

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.

This very elaborate hotel seemed abandoned

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.

Choeng Mon Beach (the resort on that island across the sandbar looks nice)

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

9 February 2025

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Categories: Food, Travel

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.

Pai Canyon: rather than a canyon it’s a series of sharp gullies off these eroding ridgelines

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

31 January 2025

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Categories: Travel

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!

28 January 2025

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Categories: Travel

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 a hot one with not a lot of shade

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.

Gulf Island Getaway

Pai Go

The Great Green North

A show with everything but Yul Brenner!

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