Day One:

31st March, 2008:

Touchdown at Bangkok international airport: a place that is to become familiar to us as we keep returning to it; a transport hub for our journeys. Bangkok sits at the centre of a multitude of travel routes, both modern and from ancient times. Canada Airlines jets sit lined up beside Dash 8 prop craft from Lao airlines.We are about to find out just how much of the past and the present is interwoven within Thailand: how abject poverty sits nudged up against the grandeur of royal palaces or the spiritual hope giving of Buddhist temples.

Luckily there are no problems with arrivals and baggage. The Thai heat hits us like a warm blanket as we emerge from the terminal building scurrying toward a vintage Merecedes "limousine:" the first in a series of such transport options. We rush along freeways toward central Bangkok, our route paralleling a road servicing smaller and more squalid homes: buses open to the elements, scooters carrying entire families and toll collectors with facemasks.

There is no blue sky here: just a tinge of grey and an enveloping smell of diesel and dichotomy.

We check in to the Holiday Inn, in Silom Road..or Thanon Silom.

The Thais have a system where all major roads have a number of minor streets or laneways running off them which are called "Soi' and a number. Therefore, you can be looking for Soi 13 Thanon Silom which describes a lane or alleyway running off the main street. It's OK, unless you can say it in Thai or write in the Thai alphabet, no-one here knows where it is either !!

We collect a card from the Concierge which has a number of common destinations printed on it. You tick the box next to your preferred destination and then show it to the cab driver who is able to see the Thai version which is printed beside it.

Lesson One: Meter taxis actually work out cheaper than Tuk-Tuks, and, because the fare is according to the meter there is no haggling involved. We learnt quickly to negotiate the price with Tuk-Tuks etc before getting in, and to insist that the meter taxi drivers turned their meter on..even if it was "broken" ..Funnily enough, those 'broken' meters had a way of fixing themsleves when arriving at a hotel pick up!

Lesson Two: Despite what appears to be bedlam on the streets: with motorscooters, cars, buses, tuk-tuks etc etc all competing for space, it actually works well. It works because there is little road rage. People accept that everybody will weave in and out and run red lights, push their nose out of narrow Soi, but there seems to be none of the yelling and anger which characterises a Sydney peak hour.

It was cute to see Thai women, all dressed up from a day in the office: short skirted and high heeled, sitting calmly on the back of a motorscooter riding sidesaddle! and weaving though the lines of clogged traffic.

It was not unusual to see Mum and Dad and two children all perched on the one scooter, sandwiched on and carrying a bag or two full of goodies from the market.

It had been a big day! We reminisced about the great time we had at our wedding and looked forward to the adventures ahead.

We caught our first Tuk-Tuk to the Night Bazaar and began a journey of discovery of the land of a million imitations. Breakfast at Tiffanys was probably never meant to conjure up images of acres of silver trinkets in market stalls.

Day Two:

Tuesday April 1st 2008

Yes, it does get hot here in April!

We decide to get some of the tourist trail stuff out of the way and set off toward the river to catch some form of transport to the Royal Palace and the Reclining Buddha.

After a retreat and reconnaisance into The Oriental hotel we meet our first tout who manages to line us up for a canal tour on a long-tail boat. It actually is a great way to see some of the contrasts of Bangkok which was once considered the "Venice of the East" due to its extensive canal system.

But: no romantic gondolas here! The longtail boat is an amazing hybrid of traditional timber boat and a recycled car engine, mounted on a swivel in the stern with the tailshaft elongated and fitted with a propeller. If you can imagine a surfboat with a motorized sweep oar at the back its getting vaguely close!We set off down river and past barges which are being towed up river toward Ayuthaya which we will visit as part of our first cycling adventure. Funnily enough, our longtail boatman just happens to stop so that a woman in a small boat can sell us some cold water and offer some other bits and pieces which she has for sale. We wind our way through canals on the Western side of the main river: in the Thonburi area. Thonburi was the choice of King Taksin for his capital when he managed to drive the Burmese out in the late 18th century after they had destroyed the ancient capital further up the river at Ayuthaya. Later in our trip we will see the camp where Taksin trained his warriors in readiness for this battle. All of this was taking pace around the time that plans for the First Fleet were well underway!! Taksin also left the great legacy of Wat Arun: the Temple of the Dawn..built in the differing Khmer style, on the western bank of the river. After paying a "landing fee" at the wharf, we walk to Wat Pho, to see the massive 'Reclining Buddha.'The heat swells all around us and the conglomeration of smells from street hawkers selling all manner of foods and trinkets is everywhere. There is a constant whiff of sun affected seafood and rotting vegetable matter in this area.We walk on, ignoring the touts who try to tell us that the temple is "closed today..I take you to better place!..." The reclining Buddha figure indicates that the Buddha has reached the stage of final rest..or Nirvana. There will be no more cycles of reincarnation. There seems little doubt that Buddhism and its temples are absolutely fundamental to Thai life. Maybe the sense of hope they provide is solace for those who seem to live in such a precarious relationship with well being. But, maybe that's a Western paradigm talking. Less than 3 kilometres from the magnificence of Wat Pho, home of the reclining Buddha image, and the Royal Palace, many Thais still live alongside the canals as they have done for centuries.We see, outside the Royal Palace, the first of a number of signs which bring a chuckle or two. I guess the advice offered at the end of this one is probably applicable the world over ! We decide that the best way to deal with the mid day heat is probably to retreat to our air-conditioned room, so we hail a passing meter taxi and head back to the Holiday Inn to rest and recover before a shopping expedition to MBK, which is a large complex selling all manner of things.

We end the day with dinner in the ubiquitous 'Irish Pub' which is located in the Holiday Inn complex, watching a Thai band called "The Better" who perform a Beatles covers show, complete with Beatle haircuts and grey suits. It's onto our bicycles tomorrow for the first of our 'Spice Roads' expeditions.

Day Three:

Wednesday April 2nd, 2008.

We are up bright and early for a 7am pick up at our hotel: met in the lobby by our guide for the day who introduces himself as 'Noi'  We get into a minibus which has already been loaded with bikes and eskies full of water and food and head north out of Bangkok, watching the day stretch and waken; workers buzzing on scooters toward their day, street vendors steaming breakfasts to be eaten on the way to work and teams of workers dressed in the uniform of their plant waiting patiently for the next bus to lumber along. We travel northward for around an hour, heading toward the ancient capital at Ayuthaya which has an amazing history. Our first stop is the large Wat, or temple pictured at the beginning of this post. Noi tries to explain to us some of the significant aspects and we watch the nuns go about the business of tending the area.We climb the steps to the main 'Stupa' and look at the place where the holy relics would have been stored prior to the temple having been ransacked at some stage in the past.

Noi leads us around the temple in a clockwise direction, explaining to us that this is the positive, or life-giving direction. We recall that we moved around the Reclining Buddha in an anti-clockwise direction..as this is the direction when there will be no more cycles of life. We reflect in the significance of the concept on Yin and Yang: that we can only know darkness through an awareness of light; of contrasts between life and death, right and left, dexter and sinister, good and evil.

There is a sense of awe in imagining the work which went into the firing of the millions of clay bricks which have been used to build these temples, the transport of them to the site and the rendering of them to create the smooth finishes. The antiquity of the build environment and the extent to which the past provides such a firm footing for the present existence is a theme we will see repeated throughout our travels.We are jerked back to the present by the sound of one of many small pick up trucks fitted with loudspeakers and election posters which ply the streets urging people to vote for a particular candidate in elections which will be held soon at district and provincial level. We now begin our first day of cycling with a quick ride across town to the world heritage site of the ancient capital which was destroyed by invading Burmese armies in the 1700s after being a massive and fabulously rich city for centuries.

We move around the massive site, seeing what is left of the temple buildings and the gates which are built with differing heights: the slave gate deliberately low so that slaves would need to enter the compound stooped in deference.

Visiting the temple housing the Buddha image, we make sure that we comply with the request on the sign !

Setting off on the main part of our cycling trip, we cycle through the world heritage listed area of Ayuthaya, past canals designed to provide water for drinking and crops, now teeming with that fluorescent green of algal bloom; across a bridge over the main river and a look at the Wat which Taksin built in Khmer style on the southern banks of the river, just to show the Burmese who had won the war!

Our cycling course takes us south through backroads, past fields and paddies, buffalo and many locals who hare past on scooters shouting all sorts of things which we take to be probable chiacking at our silliness for pedalling bikes in about 38 degree heat !! As it says at the head of this post: "Only mad dogs and Englishmen, and Aussie cycle tourists, go out in the midday sun!"

Pausing beside the river we are grateful for the little cotton flannels which have been soaked in a spirit and kept cold in the esky. We feast on cold mango and watermelon and drink cold coke as we watch the barges being towed upriver and dropping their tow lines opposite a loading area on the Eastern shore. This is superphosphate; offloaded from the barges with a large machine in readiness for distribution to rice farmes for use on their crops. The barges, freed from their burden rise higher in the water, bobbing almost, unlike the hippopotamic wallowing of heir still laden peers. The barge people call and go about their business, obviously living on board and probably recreating the daily routines of parents past.

Back on the bikes and a short cycle to a river crossing point where a lighter (motorised punt) nudges the bank and we all ride up the ramp: trucks full of timber and women full of chatter. Large clumps of river weeds float past as we push upstream against the current to land us on the opposite bank, ready for the final leg to our lunchtime riverside restaurant.

Noi chooses food for us and we tuck into a meal of sweet and sour pork, fish and shrimp at the restaurant which is an old boat moored at the river bank with open sides. It is obviously popular as a number of large groups come and go, including some workers from one of the growing amount of higher tech industries located not far away.

Our food is cooked in an open kitchen where braziers full of glowing charcoal stand ready for the woks which will do most of the cooking. The aroma of sun affected fish scraps and the acrid charcoal makes for and interesting combination, while in the toilets, lime quarters are put to interesting use as de-odourisers in the urinals.

By now the midday heat has wrapped itself around us and we enjoy a short ride in the airconditioned van to the Summer Palace at Bang Pa. We have cycled about 27km and now enjoy riding around the palace grounds in a golf cart, marvelling at the lovely grounds and the fine pavilions, including one donated to the King by the Chinese, and the wonderful topiary including a herd of green elephants!

This Summer Palace was largely built for King Rama V who is seen as the king who assisted the modernisation process for Thailand in the late nineteenth century: travelling to Europe and returning home to re-create some of the building styles and ideas he had seen, including the sending of his son to England to be educated at Oxford and to train at Sandhurst.

In keeping with Buddhist respectful practice, Lynette is loaned a skirt to enter the palace properly dressed. Roger's shorts are long enough to cover his knees so this is OK. We also remove our shoes again and place them beside a collection of saffron coloured thongs belonging to a party of visiting monks who are also on the tourist trail

Just as Meiji, in Japan had recognised that the way forward was to study the ways of the West and to choose the best from it so Rama V appears to have embarked on a similar path in Thailand. This sensible understanding of the need to avoid re-inventing wheels sees Rama V held in high regard by the Thai people to the extent that we saw a shrine to him in a roadside restaurant on a later bike trip, freshly tended with fresh roses in his birthday colour.

He is often depicted in Edwardian style poses, complete with a bowler hat !

We climb back aboard the mini bus and head back to Bangkok to rest before venturing out to, of all things, a Lebanese restaurant near the Patpong markets before a well deserved sleep!

Day Four:

Thursday 3rd April

One of the really great transport options in Bangkok is the Skytrain, an elevated rail system which uses fast, quiet and efficient air-conditioned carriages travelling bove the traffic of the city. The system will be extended by December 2008 all the way to the international airport with express services expected to run at around 160km per hour with the facility at the central station for passengers to check their bags in which will then be transferred to the intended flight on the same Skytrain.

We visit Siam Square, another shopping area and find some nice clothes on special. It's then off to Sukhumvit Road for a look around the busy streets which are bursting with backpackers and ex-pats before a lunch at an Indian restaurant. A meter taxi takes us back to the hotel where we rest before making teh first of our Sofitel signature dinners at the V9 restaurant on the 37th floor of the Sofitel Bangkok. We think of Adrian and Jenna and know that they would be interested to see how the Sofitel Bangkok compares with the Sofitel Sydney.

Lesson Three: Wine is comparatively VERY expensive in Thailand.

After dinner we discover that Elvis impersonators come in all nationalities as the show band at Radio City, beside the Patpong markets launches into a set of Elvis numbers and a Thai Elvis complete with sideburns and the jewel studded outfit belts out the numbers before taking a break to give up the stage to a Thai Tom Jones !!

Tomorrow we head for Chaing Mai, so it's home to pack.

Day Five:

Friday, April 4th, 2008

There is a sense of anticipation to visiting a city which dates back beyond the time of the crusades, with its major establishment taking place in the late 1200s: not that long after the signing of the Magna Carta.

We have a leisurely check out and transfer to BKK airport and the flight to Chaing Mai goes smoothly, to be met by our tour host, who introduces himself as "Lucky" and presents us with garlands of Jasmine as a welcome to Chaing Mai. Lucky whisks us away to our hotel and checks us in and we are soon settle din our room looking north west to the mountain which rises to a height of around 1650 metres and upon which we can see the temple at Doi Suthep.

Lucky's flamboyant manner, floral shirt and apricot pants, along with his bouffant and blonded hairstyle lend to him the nickname of "Beau Thai."

We set off to explore, and visit the oldest Wat, or temple in town. We see why were warned that Chaing Mai is hotter than Bangkok but enjoy the chance to see the inner part of the old city which is basically a large square, with each side about 1 km long . Remnants of brick walls remain and the moats which were built around 1800 as part of the city defences surround all four sides of the main city centre.

The layout makes the city easy to navigate around and, after our visit to the Wat, we head back to the hotel to hide for a while from the heat.

We venture out later to visit the night bazaar which is near our hotel and listen to the sounds of a Thai acoustic guitarist doing Bob Dylan covers! before dinner at a local restaurant where the hostess is ecstatically photographing the head of a major brewing company who has just honoured her restaurant with the attendance of his party. Large concrete tanks set in the floor are full with crayfish and other seafood will all answer the call of the restaurant menu as required. We find that most local Thai dishes cost between 100 and 200 baht ($3.50-$7.00) Bottled water is 7-20 baht depending on point of purchase.

Beer can be bought almost anywhere and is sold in 330ml bottles and cans and 640ml bottles. The major local brews are Chang and Singha. There are more brands available including Leo and Cheers and a lovely beer called Klosters which was harder to get and was another European brew made locally under licence.

330ml of Chang and Leo was selling for 25 bht at the 24 hour 7-11 stores while Singha was generally about 31bht. Heineken is the other common beer, made locally under licence, and selling for 38 bht for 330ml bottle or can. Basically, beer bought this way worked out at around $1 AU per 330ml bottle or can.

640 ml bottles were comparatively cheap and the local Chang beer also carries a kick with an alcohol content of 6.4%, compared with Singha and Heineken at 5%.

Prices for beer served in restaurants tended to double or triple above these convenience store prices and some places you

didn't have the option of buying a large bottle as they clearly gained a higher margin by selling more smaller bottles at a greater mark up. It wasn't unusual for a large beer at a local restaurant to sell for around the same price as one of the local dishes.

Walking back to the hotel we visit a bar advertised as a Karaoke bar and discover that there may be other entertainments on offer besides singing!!

The night doorman at the Chaing Mai Plaza earns another nickname. He has a good natured and upbeat manner and truly is "Thai Phunk."

Day Six:

Saturday, 5th April, 2008

We decide to try our first motor scooter adventure and hire a Yamaha 120cc automatic. These things have no clutch or gears so it is simply a matter of twisting the accelerator and keeping the thing upright. The bike costs 300 Thai baht to hire for 24 hours. There are cheaper rates available, but this one was close to the hotel and the shop offered decent paperwork and what appeared to be a business-like manner. (300 baht equates to a bit over $10 Australian) Everybody rides scooters here and we find that it is a great way to get around; the breeze actually helping to cool things down a little. We head off, following our nose and the river upstream, discovering a major stadium complex and then the University and Chaing Mai Zoo, along with a local waterfall where Thai families were flocking to dangle feet in the water, drink local beer and generally try to keep cool.

We head up the mountain on our trusty bike, stopping at a roadside coffee stall.

Lesson No 4: It is VERY DIFFICULT to get anything approaching a good coffee in Thailand.

It is about 16 km up to Doi Suthep where we opt for the cable car up the final part of the climb rather than the flight of 300 stairs flanked on each balustrade with a long dragon.

The temple at Doi Suthep is on the site of an ancient hermit's cave. There is also a wonderful story that a king in ancient times mounted some sacred Buddha relic upon and auspicious white elephant and let it loose. The elephant trundled its way to the top of the mountain, marking the site for the temple and then died, its very sacred work having been complete.

The temple offers beautiful views, magnificent buildings and a group of children performing music and dance behind a sign which invites donations "For their education." It has been clear in many ways that people in Thailand value the opportunity that access to education provides, and I can't help wishing that we could generate a similar understanding of the great value and chances we offer within our public education system in Australia.

Our ride back down the mountain goes without a problem and we manage the traffic along Chaing Mai major thoroughfares and through the centre of town despite what appears to be an absence of any real road rules. Lynette is a great pillion passenger and we arrive back at our hotel very hot due to the sun and the heat rising from the road surface which is by now sweltering in the almost 40 degree heat.

We swim in the hotel pool and spend the rest of the afternoon recovering from some mild heat exhaustion.

For dinner we visit a restaurant along the eastern moat, on the Moon Muang, called the Jerusalem Falafel restaurant where we check out the mezza offerings and watch a local ride by on an elephant!

An after dinner ride on the eastern bank of the river finds us at the Tara Bar where a good band is playing and the breezes off the river provide a nice atmosphere. We hear the first of many renditions of Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight' which is clearly some sort of popular favourite in Thailand.

Day Seven:

Sunday 6th April 2008

We spend the day getting over some of the heat extremes from the day before. Lynette has a bout of tummy sickness and we take refuge at an internet cafe and Lynette finds a local spa where a massage and some pampering helps recovery. Roger finds another "Irish Pub" run by a Canadian and staffed by Thai locals. We book an air-conditioned car for the following day and make plans to explore the countryside north of Chaing Mai.

Another excursion to the Night Bazaar sees us eating dinner in the outdoor equivalent of a food court and listening to a duo perform covers of Simon and Garfunkel numbers and another version of "Wonderful Tonight."

Day Eight:

Monday 7th April, 2008

Our hire car is delivered to the hotel. The hire rate for the 24 hours is 1300 baht..($40 odd AU dollars), and is a Toyota Vios, which is a popular model here and about the same size as the Corolla. The air conditioning works, and we head North.

After travelling for some time we decide to leave the main road and find some lovely views across farming lands, and follow some narrow back lanes to find an isolated temple which we visit, having first checked with a nun that it is OK to do so. The temple is surrounded by a moat and we move around inside, shoeless and admiring the scenes which appear to relate various stages of the enlightenment of Buddha.

There are also inscriptions on the walls and some of these have an English translation scrawled below. There is one which says "When money talks, wisdom is silent"

We see again the Buddha images which represent the seven days of the week and make mental notes to find out the days of each our births.

It is quiet and peaceful here, and the richness of the surrounding fields wells all around. We bathe in the serenity and then drive quietly off toward an elephant camp we saw signposted from the main road.

The hills narrow around us and the river appears, with tourists sitting on log rafts being guided downstream while a little further on florid faced tourists sweat and lurch on the back of elephants and in trundling bullock waggons. Another detour along narrow rural lanes with views of thatched villages and we return to the road northward, looking in vain for any signs with an anglicised version of place names which might help us to make reference to the map we were carrying.

Turning to travel East, we wind through mountains and past villages until rounding a bend and being confronted by a barricade and a couple of army soldiers who wave us through after we slow and smile.

We find the town of Phrao and a sign to Chaing Mai and turn toward the South again. We stop for a toilet stop at a 'Gas station' and find that rubber thongs are provided outside for wearing into the toilet: a blue pair outside the gents and a pink pair for the girls! These are typical Thai toilets of the "squat and deliver" variety.

Our journey back to Chaing Mai is a masterpiece of Lynnie's navigation with stops along the way to watch groups of Thai people cooling off in another waterfall park and to buy bananas at a roadside stall.

We return to the hotel and get ready for our next "Sofitel signature" dinner at the Sofitel Chaing Mai to which we travel in a tuk tuk.

Dinner is nice, and we set a hot air wishing balloon aloft beside the river before heading back to our hotel and getting ready for an early departure back to Bangkok the following morning.

We'll overnight back at the Holiday Inn before setting off on our three day cycling tour southward toward Hua Hin on the upper gulf of Thailand.

Day Nine:

Tuesday, 8th April, 2008

We fly back into Bangkok on a 747 and transfers go according to plan, seeing us checked in again at the Holiday Inn Silom by midday.

We choose a meter taxi and travel to The Deck restaurant for lunch. The Deck is part of a boutique hotel on the banks of the river near the Royal Palace and opposite Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn. We really enjoy the meal of pork laksa and chicken. We watch as barges float by, loaded so that the water laps above their gunwhales.

Lunch enjoyed, we walk to the wharf and catch one of the river express boats downstream to the wharf at The Oriental hotel: a great way to get around with the fare a princely 15bht ! and the journey quick and effortless: the sound of the deckhand's whistle signals to the boat captain are shrill and effective as the captain quick works his fore and aft throttles to nudge the boat in against river pontoons.

We spend the afternoon back in the air-con, unfortunately on the very day that the hotel's "Movie on Demand" option decides to stop working. It is nice to stretch out and relax for a few hours, knowing that we have an early pick-up tomorrow morning and three days of cycling ahead.

A look at the local information finds a restaurant which advertises an acoustic band and the cab driver gives us excellent service by locating the restaurant at the end of one of the long 'Soi' which run of the main road. The restaurant, "The Urban Bar," provides great service and the band is good, with a good female vocalist. They finish after the obligatory version of "Wonderful Tonight." and we grab another cab back to the hotel. Lynette is unwell and we query the decision to try the shrimp paste with lunch.

Day Ten:

Wednesday, 9th April, 2008

Overnight, Lynette's condition has worsened and she is decidedly "crook" when we check out and are picked up by our bike tour operator who introduces herself as "Nee."

For this bike tour we are joined by a 19 year old woman from Seattle, whose name is Shannon, and an Aussie couple from Turramurra: Patrick and Wendy. This cycle trip, and the one to Ayuthaya, have been booked with Spice Roads who have been arranging these sort of tours throughout South East Asia for many years now. We were able to book online and found their organisation smooth and friendly. The bikes were well maintained and repairs were not a problem in the case of an unexpected puncture.

Shannon is already in the van and we head to Kho San Road to pick up Patrick and Wendy before driving an hour or so southwest of Bangkok to the Damnoen Sanouk Floating Markets where local producers sell all sorts of produce from small boats in the canal.

We then travel by longtail boat through the canals where centuries old practice sits beside satellite technology: windlasses raise wooden boats from the canal beside thatched homes complete with satellite cable TV dishes !

We join the main river and alight to pick up our bikes.

Lynnie is still very unwell and chooses to travel in the back up vehicle, lying in the air-conditioning while we head off behind Nee through what seems a labyrinth of local roads which wind through plantations of coconuts, lychees, mangoes, pomeloes, dragon fruit and asparagus.

Nee explains that these plantations have been in the same family hands throughout generations and it is clear the the vast extent of canals and irrigation ditches has been critical in sustaining this rural way of life.

Stacks of freshly felled coconuts await the factory truck and locals shout friendly greetings as we cycle along getting to know each other and enjoying the sights and sometimes shade form various trees.

We learn to be cautious around the dogs which prowl along the roads and see significant similarities in some of them with dingoes.

We take an break at a Catholic Cathedral which seems out of synch with the hundreds of Buddhist temples we have passed but which underscores the various influences which have impacted on Thailand over the years.

Nee shows us her particular way of dealing with the heat and looks like an amalgamation of Buddhist and Islam !

By the time we stop for lunch at a riverside restaurant we have cycled 32km. Lunch is relaxed and then it's back on the bikes until we arrive at the former military camp where Taksin trained his warriors prior to taking Ayuthaya back from the Burmese and installing himself as king at Thonburi.

We visit the temple which is gripped tightly within the roots of a large spreading tree and try fresh lychees offered to us by a local woman before cycling the final leg of our first day to our canal side "homestay" hotel where we crank up the air con and enjoy a cold beer before dinner at another local riverside restaurant. Todays trip saw us cycle for 47km which is a pleasing effort with the temperature constantly in the high thirties.

All of us are in bed early, except for a group of Thai men who return home to the hotel at about midnight and proceed to sit up most of the night drinking whisky and talking loudly.

Day Eleven:

Thursday, 10th April, 2008

The community around our overnight hotel comes to life: the river and canal providing transport, fun and a place to bathe !

We climb into the van for a trip further south toward Pretchburi and then west into the Kaeng Krachen National Park which is the largest national park in Thailand.

We visit the Kaeng Krachen dam and then have lunch at a roadside "restaurant" before checking into our riverside resort which turns out to be a lovely oasis.

Wendy and Lynette decide to spend their afternoon by the pool while Shannon, Patrick and Roger set off at 3.30 to cycle the 27 km to the dam wall, mostly through pineapple plantations along roads which have some small hills and a couple of sharp rises.

We top the dam wall and watch the sun set to the west across the lake toward the border with Burma, before rushing down the hill to the waiting van and transfer back to the resort and a lovely Thai dinner. We have covered another 29km today.

Day Twelve:

Friday, 11th April, 2008

After breakfast we climb into the van and travel south again to Khao Sam Roi Yot national park on the coast south of Hua Hin.

All of us hit the bikes and we head northward, cycling mostly along roads beside the beach with some sections through small villages where the stink of squid drying on racks in the sun assaults our noses.

We stop for water and fruit breaks and are grateful for the wind which shifts around to our backs. We pass through areas where resorts are blossoming, past temples getting ready for the Songkran festival and past fishing boats and sections of deserted beach, looking out east across the Gulf of Thailand.

The breeze is of little use in the final sections, as the midday temperature climbs higher and we push on to finish our 37 km journey around 2.00 when we stop for "fast food" from a roadside shop..fast food in this context is a variety of fried rice and stir fry done in the wok and, well, fast!

After lunch, we farewell the rest of the group as we are dropped off at our resort just south of Hua Hin, near Khao Takiap.

We check into the Wora Bura Resort and are once more grateful for Lynnie's research as this is a lovely resort with large well appointed room, beautiful pool and grounds and a chance to luxuriate after more than 110km on the cycle in Thai summer heat.

The resort is evocative of the style we imagine of the Malay Peninsula and British Empire style. Buildings combine pleasant tones of timber and the grounds are immaculate.  Within walking distance the usual conglomeration of shops offering bike hire, laundry and internet abound along with a 7-11 store which is by now becoming a reliable source of low fat milk and cheap packaged beer. The option of walking back from the shop along the beach with a breeze off the Gulf of Thailand makes for a pleasant choice.

We relax before trying the terrace restaurant at the resort where a duo uses computerised backing tracks and lots of reverb to churn out syrupy dinner music.

Day Thirteen:

Saturday, 12th April, 2008

Hua Hin is situated about three hours south of Bangkok, on the upper Gulf of Thailand. The King sometimes visits and stays at a summer residence, following in the tradition of King Rama VI who built a summer palace north of Hua Hin.It is the beginning of the Songkran festival time in Thailand which is the traditional Thai New Year, set for April 13th every year.

Songkran is a time for movement from one year to the next, for the cleaning of family homes and for the anointment of elders with scented water as a mark of respect. Families try to get back together and the 12th, as the day before the main day on 13th is used to make preparations. Homes are cleaned from floor to ceiling and the Buddha images are cleaned.

We are up early and set off for a walk along the beach to pick up a few things at the shops. A tall Buddha image towers above the Southern end of the beach at the foot of Khao Takiap. Khao means both 'hill' and 'rice' in Thai and we wonder whether this reflects the practice of serving rice as a small 'hill' on the plate?

We decide that after three days of backroads, heat and bikes, a few hours around the pool will be time well spent. We didn''t count on the shade umbrellas not having any UV protection however and manage to trap a few more rays than is probably healthy, but it is lovely to sit beside the pool and get into some reading and relaxing.

The resort staff begin the Songkran celebrations on Saturday afternoon with a fun procession through the resort grounds, with much drumming and cheering, dancing and waterplay.

The Buddha image is carried shoulder high to a special platform overlooking the sea and much merriment marks the beginning of the Songkran fun which also seems to act as a pressure release valve from the constant and stifling mid summer heat. A mixture of powder and water is smeared on cheeks and clothes.

We catch the hotel shuttle bus into the town of Hua Hin later in the afternoon and find a motor scooter for hire and set about seeing a bit of the waterfront at Hua Hin and checking out some of the rows of restaurants and shops which pitch much more to the tourist market.

We then rode back past our resort and to the top of Khao Takiap before finding a beachfront restaurant and enjoying another very reasonably priced meal.

Tomorrow we plan to ride northward and have a look around.

Day Fourteen:

Sunday, 13th April 2008

We are up and out on the motorbike reasonably early, trying to beat the heat. Riding Northward through Hua Hun we see that the Songkran fun has already begun, with pickup trucks browsing the streets, full of young people and armed with huge drums full of water and enormous water pistols. Other groups have set themselves up by the side of the road with drums of water, hoses and buckets and proceed to throw water over anybody who comes near enough.

It's evident that even at this time of day the Chang beer is being added to the mix and everywhere huge speaker boxes are dragged outside to pump out Thai pop as the day heats up. One pickup truck is already marooned on a large median strip surrounded by young men attacking bottles of whisky with gusto.

We ride about 20 km Northward to Cha Am which is clearly a beachside suburb catering predominantly for Thai holiday makers, many of them no doubt escaping to the coast for the holiday weekend from Bangkok. Acres of umbrellas and deckchairs line the beacjh to the North and South and whole families hire inflated inner tubes to frolic in the small waves while groups of youths roam through the streets dousing anyone in the way.

We ride along the beach and manage to only get mildly wet; although Lynette has her faced daubed with some of the powder and water mixture.

We return to the highway and ride South to the restored summer palace built on he shores of the Gulf by King Rama VI

Many Thai families are visiting the palace and queuing up to bathe the Buddha image as an observance for Songkran. We are helped by a charming young Thai man who is keen to practice his English and who tells us that there are three seasons in Thailand: "Hot, Very Hot, and Very Very Hot!"

A ride further South to the current King's summer palace in Hua Hin finds us met at the gate by an armed soldier who tels us politely but firmly that there is "No Entry/" As we take note of the soldiers patrolling the grounds we figure that maybe the King is actually in residence for Songkran.

The trip back through Hua Hin is a gauntlet of waterworks. We find a backstreet and avoid most of the mayhem.

During Songkran this year, over 400 people were killed on he roads and it is easy to see that the effect on a motorscooter rider of being hit with a full barrage of water while riding at about 60km per hour down a main road would be very dangerous, not to mention the possible collision with another vehicle if swerving to avoid one of the large number of water ambush points. Everybody takes it all in good humour, but we are pleased to reach the safety of our resort: peeling off our soaked clothes and laying out bags and belongings to dry.

After resting we decide that Roger should run a solo mission back into Hua Hin to return the hired motorscooter after collecting our washing from a local shop where, despite the national holiday it is still business as usual if there is baht to be made.

The run into town is reasonably uneventful and return to the resort is via an old dual cab pickup which is being run by its owner as a 'taxi'/ This was also an opportunity to check out a wine shop in Hua Hin, where bottlles of Australian wine which would retail for around $14 AU were on sale for around 1500baht, or roughly $50 AU.

We grab the resort shuttle bus into town again to make another Sofitel signature at the Sofitel Hua Hin which is located in the grand restored Railway Hotel which is magnificent, complete with topiary animals romping on the lawns.

We need to be up before 4am for our transfer to BKK airport, then onto Phuket for the real honeymoon part.

 
Day Fifteen:

Monday 14th April, 2008

A pre dawn picking between the post Songkran detritus of dogs and drunkedness sees us flying northward toward Bangkok at 5.05am in a legendary Volvo with a driver who sounds like he either had too much Songkran celebrations or some form of irritable gastric problem. With much flashing of headlights and breakneck driving we complete the anticipated 3 and a half hour journey in a bit over 2!! No traffic !! BKK airport again..internet lounge then flight to Phuket with the great Euro and Aussie holiday exodus. Another vintage limousine transports us to near Nirvana.

Lynnie's countless hours of internet research have paid off and we find ourselves in a sea view room at the Marina Phuket at the south end of Karon Beach.

Check it out at http://www.marinaphuket.com

You can actually see a live web cam view of the beach which is about 100 metres from where we are staying. The camera is mounted just under the eaves of 'The Rock' restaurant which is the main restaurant for the resort. This morning, 15th April, Lynette and I went for a walk before brekkie up to the lifesavers' tower and back, then dived in and had a swim. Great to see clean water and nice sand,

The view in the picture to the right is from our walk.

We are staying in one of the cottage style buildings you can see with the terracotta coloured rooves up on the headland. Ours is about second from the right in the top row.

We have an ocean view room, complete with an inbuilt plasma system which also serves as the monitor for a Mac system running OS X and a huge array of iLife apps!! Music, movies and more. Internet access is 24 hours and FREE !!

This blog post is being composed using the wireless keyboard and mouse while lying on the chaise lounge and alternating between views westward out across the Andaman sea...how long are we here ?

Oh, and did we mention that we are streaming Triple J live across the internet ? Interesting to hear Rosie's super request coming to us during our afternoon siesta session..3 hour time difference works well in some ways !

We hire another motor scooter for the duration of our stay on Phuket Island and find that this is a great, and cheap, way to get around, albeit much more dangerous than either Hua Hin of Chaing Mai, and we see lots of fellow tourists doing crazy things on bikes on roads where 'taxis' and tuk tuks compete strongly for business and road space.

We use the bike to explore a lot of the southern part of the island, with a lunchtime excursion one day to Cape Panwa and a great local restaurant called the Beach Bar.

Phuket is a large island, and our resort is located at the southern end of Karon Beach

Our time on Phuket sees us having the chance to really relax and unwind and we take the chance to get around to see as much as possible.  These fishing boats at Patong were characteristic of so many around the beaches.

Green garden waste recycling !

We are about to have lift-off at Kata Beach

People find all sorts of ways to adapt and modify !

There is a ban on the sale of booze during voting time !

Fishing boats wait for the tide - Kata Beach

The Bob Marley bar - Ban Tao beach

Lunch at Indigo Pearl - Nai Yang

Rubber plantation - northern Phuket island

Karon sunset from our balcony.

Lunch at 'On the Rock' restaurant - Marina Phuket, Karon

Blowing the diet !!

Ready to head home.......

Goodbye BKK!

Anzac Day dawn across Australia, and home to Sydney under a sullen sky.