Woke up to a sunny but chilly day: 49°F! The restaurant was semi-outdoors so everyone went back upstairs for more layers. What a difference from Bangkok. Today’s agenda consists of a 19km bike ride with a temple or two thrown in. We had to drive about an hour to Chiang Saen to pick up our … Continue reading SE Asia Day 9: Chiang Rai

A terribly early start of 5am this morning as we have a noon flight out of Bangkok to Chiang Rai. What with loading us & luggage into the longboats to take us back to the pier, and a 4-5h drive to the airport it meant getting up before the roosters. An exhilarating/scary ride with heavy … Continue reading SE Asia Day 8: Chiang Rai

The twittering of birds and faint hoots of howler monkeys greeted the dawn today. The river had calmed overnight so it felt more like sleeping in the hull of a ship last night rather than in a washing machine. We have a full day here in the jungle today starting with a visit to Hellfire … Continue reading SE Asia Day 7: The River Kwai

It took some time to escape Bangkok’s traffic but once out of the city we had open roads for the 2h journey to Kanchanburi. Stop 1 was the Death Railway Museum, which provided an excellent history of the horrors of the building of the Thailand - Burma railroad; made famous in the movie “Bridge Over … Continue reading SE Asia Day 6: Bangkok > River Kwai

Last day in Bangkok! Today is an unscheduled day, my only necessity is changing hotels to that of my tour which begins this evening. Since my Chinatown Food Market Experience was cancelled a few days ago I decided to explore that area this morning. I took advantage of the pleasant temperature to walk there, knowing … Continue reading SE Asia Day 5: Bangkok

Day 4, Tour 4. My last organized day tour in Bangkok and it’s “Experience Bangkok's Temples & River of Kings”. I’ve patted myself on the back again for choosing my hotel as the ferry pier is adjacent to my hotel so it’s another quick trip upriver to join my tour. A city of 12 million … Continue reading SE Asia Day 4: Bangkok

I still have a couple more days before my tour starts so for today’s outing I booked a full day Floating Market & Train Street tour. Unfortunately it had the very early start time of 6:30am; fortunately I booked my hotel mere steps away from the meeting point! A little van took us about 30 … Continue reading SE Asia Day 3: Bangkok

Jet lag was real this morning so it took a couple cups of coffee before I could start my day’s sightseeing. The agenda included taking the ferry upriver to Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. This is a Hindu temple from 1851 and it “symbolizes Mount Meru from Hindu cosmology which is considered to be … Continue reading SE Asia Day 2: Bangkok

My plane landed at 5am yet it wasn’t until 6am that I finally left the airport after putzing around getting money changed and trying in vain to find the Grab pickup point (~Uber). I finally hopped in a taxi and let him fleece me with a flat rate to my hotel. After so many hours … Continue reading SE Asia: Day 1 – Bangkok

This year’s birthday trip started with an amazing day at Disney thanks to Mike & Penny. We left home super early so as to enter the park near opening time and were fortunate to zip right up to many of the popular rides. Not having visited in ~10 years it was great to have experienced … Continue reading SE Asia Day 0: Disney!