An early start today, up at 4.50am, leave to walk to the street where the locals give alms (food & offerings) to the Buddhist monks. Naa has a spot sorted for us, bowls  or better described as baskets of sticky rice and a chair fit for a 2 year old, but we have to sitting. The ritual roughley – Before they arrive, you put a scarf over your left shoulder under your right armpit, you pick your basket up, say a little prayer, they as they have their bowl in front of you you put a small handful in their bowl which may have money or other food in it. You stay quiet, be respectful of the event, this is their food, thy do this every day but today is a special Buddhist day so lots of people are out. They do a few laps and a few of us haven’t got rid of all our rice so we wait for another group of monks to walk past. Its a very quiet serene event and I’m glad I got out of bed early, not normal for me I have to say.

We walk to early day markets down near the river, all the local food is cooking, there is a “wet” meat market as well as fish, vegetables and herbs and spices of all sorts, hardly a tourist in site.

Breakfast at the French Bakery, an almond croissant with an iced cappuchino with the local coffee beans hits the spot. We walk back to the hotel about 7am and rest until 8.30 when we leave for the jungle.

About 30 minutes drive out of Luang Prabang is Mandalao Elephant Rehabilitation Park. It’s run by some Lao locals but setup by an American guy probably early 40’s, to get elephants out of logging camps and tourist parks where they are ridden every day. The saddles affect their reproductive functions and the Lao elephant population, once land on 1 Million Elephants now only has about 5,000. So they own 400 hectares, have to buy the elephants usually old tired females usually at the end of their breeding time but probably not going to reproduce anyway, cost $20-$25,000 US each. They then work on getting the females back to health and fitness and release them to the National Park in groups. The staff are mostly ex mahouts so they know elephants pretty well. The American guy turns up at lunch and is very grateful for Intrepid’s business, he’s an interesting character. There are no chains, no ropes, no hooks, no work, only care and food for these fantastic beasts.

We have to get a narrow boat over the river to were the elephants are, the river is rocky bottom and flowing freely. Fist thing we do is feed 2 elephants with banana’s, then we walk into the jungle with them and their carers, the elephants decide where to go, nobody leads them. its hot and humid, again, but a fantastic day. The elephants return to the river under their own steam to bath and cool down.

We get the boat back over the river and have magnificent lunch prepared by their staff. The elphants are still over the river playing in the water.

Its been an early start so the afternoon is a chill down in the air con for us, some go walking, some go for a massage, some for a beer.

Tonight its dinner at a very nice restaurant then TMM and I head to the markets, but my feet are swollen with the heat so I return home to pack the bag, newly laundered clothes will give my bag a bit fresher smell.

Tomorrow we leave Luang Prabang, we’re heading overland throught the limestone karst country to Vang Vieng, about a 7 hour drive over some pretty mountainous country.

Cheers Ciao and Sayonara from Luang Prabang – Paulo

Today we did one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done and seen one of the nicest natural things I’ve seen, but more about that later.

We’ve been resting for the last few hours after a busy morning starting at 7.30. Just a heads up, I got through my headache, it can be caused by only one of a few things as I haven’t had headaches much since I stopped drinking wine. 1. The malaria tablets are causing them 2. The heat and humidity is causing them. 3. Something else eg constipation is causing them – rule this one out my friends “The Bowel Queens”, things are moving ok. I spoke to Naa and she asked if I was taking the malaria tablets, answer is “yes”, she said that if you drink the Thai or Lao beer or other beer as well with the tablets then a lot of her travellers have headaches and belly problems. Her advice is that where we have been and are going is malaria free and we should be comforatble not taking them. TMM (remember him?) he stopped this morning not knowing this as he’s been feeling pretty off, me, I took mine this morning and I’m stopping tomorrow and not having a beer today.

So, what happend today? We start by immitating Bruce, our disappearing, non compliant, ignorant fellow traveller by not having breakfast at a French Bakery and not with the others at the hotel. The bakery has lovely looking breakfast pastry, we both get 2 pastries and a coffee but I end up with 2 coffees ( I order an iced coffee – brilliant over here in the heat). Ambitions outweigh our ability to consume this much food and 2 strong coffees gives me a bit of a buzz. My eyes are pilsing, apparently this is local coffee and higher caffiene content. We waddle back to our hotel ready for the 8.30 walk to the local markets near and on the river. Some men are playing boche in a clearly marked area on river bank, think money might be on the game as its serious stuff. It’s very competitive.

Its a lovely walk, I see some lovely hand stitched aprons, might see about getting one for The Navigator so she cooks me more cakes when I get home (price is 50,000kip = $5) We stop at a Budhist temple and three novice monks are knocking lychees or nuts out of a tree and eating them, just being boys, which is all they are.

Next we leave with our swimmers and hats and head to go to Kuang Si Waterfalls about 35 minutes out of Luang Prabang, its also a sanctuary for rehabilitating bears to allow them to return to the wild after being injured.

The falls are spectacular, nicest waterfall I’ve seen yet anywhere. We go swimming at level 2 where we linger for ages. The water is clear, clean, bluey/green (to my colour blind eyes) and coolishly refreshing, we don’t want to leave. We all exit the water feeling so much better, like a different person. The place is well worth the visit.

Lunch in the resturant in the park is an exercise in patience, service is crap but the people nice, they get the orders wrong and it takes ages to come. I order a papaya salad (tiny spicey), I can’t eat it, my lips and tongue are dancing and almost numb, my nose is running and my eyes watering. Naa thinks I’ve ovecooked the theatrics and tastes it (she has the Thai tolerance for really spicy food) she immediatly spits it out, its too hot even for her. My spice tolerance is at best middling, I like small medium amounts but this has been atomic level spiced. Looks like I needed the big breakfast after all.

Next we stop at a buffalo research centre, focused on improving genetics for the Loation herd, they raise money by selling buffalo milk icecream. Its a nice icecream.

A 2 1/2 hour rest is on the cards, I’m weary but no headache so that’s pretty good so a shower and sit in the air con and chill is the go. Tonight is dinner together at a nice place near the river and we’re off shopping again I think.

Dinner is a a very nce restaurant, a pork and rice dish with a watermelon juice costs me 65,000 kip $6.20. A quick walk to the markets and a 1 hour massage finish the day pretty well

5.10 am start tomorrow to go see the monks collecting their alms so ciao for today – Pauolo

6am, its a misty morning over the Mekong, the Pak Beng roosters are crowing, pointy little river boats zoom up and down the river in the cool morning air and a few scooters zoom around doing morning jobs. Yesterday afternoon this place was steaming hot, its in the jungle, its ever so poor but children and adults seem happy and cheerful, but it must be a struggle.

TMM has had to solve an engineering issue, he woke up at midnight because the shower wouldn’t stop running, the tap wouldn’t tur off so he cable tied a pen to the tap to hold it closed. He lives up to his name as The Maintenance Man.

Breakfast is at 7 in the open air dining room looking over the Mekong, scrambled eggs, beautiful little dumpling looking things with sweet potato and potato in them, filter coffee and french bread, its delicious.

8.00am we’re on the boat and heading off down the Mekong. Yesterday was about 150km on the river, today is a bit further. Overall we spend about 300+km of the Mekong.

Initially the mist is still hovering over the mountains on either side of the river, but later it warms up, steamy monsoon warm/hot but probably only 28-30degC. A euchre game gets going, Ginger and I organise a music trivia competition which goes on forever and we find out how big Aussie Dave’s trivia brain is, its enormous, he blows everyone out of the water, even the bonus questions. Its mad how much he knows and he makes me feel like I hardly know any useless information at all, and here I was thinking I had the useless information game sewn up.

Lunch is a lovely vegetable soup and a fried chicken and rice dish – TMM (remember him?) thinks its pretty good, strange that. He’s been quietly sleeping up the front of the boat all morning and surfaces for food and drink. Naa makes a dessert up, banana and a sweet coconut milk sauce, its pretty good.

The afternnon is siesta time again, it is hot and the conversation dies down as people sleep, listen to music, or just rest and watch the jungle and mountains as we push down stream towards Luang Prabang. We should arrive about 4pm

We arrive at Pak Ou Caves, where the Ou River joins the Mekong, its 34deg C and about 90% humidity and probably the heat and sweat temper the shortness of the stay. But it is quite old, lots of memorials in the shallow cave in the limestone mountain.

A storm is brewing over Luang Prabang, there is lightning, wind and rain so the boat pulls into the jungle covered cliff which is the river bank for half an hour to let it blow away. We finally reach Luang Prabang, head into our hotel in the old World Heritage area near the river. It is lovely, leafy, crumbling, a mix of Laotian and French architecture. Our Hotel is Luang Prabang Legend Hotel. The rooms are spacious, good air con, good wifi, good bed, good shower, a welcome respite for 3 nights.

A short break and we head up to the night markets for dinner, one of the most expensive places in Luang Prabang and a long neck beer and a Ka Pao meal cost 65,000 kip (About $6.20 AUD). We walk through the markets and TMM gets sidetracked looking at and buying stuff, he’ll never want to make a comment about me or his Aunty about shopping ever again. I buy nothing but I might tonight, the markets are quite different to Thailand, more local stuff, hardly any knock off stuff. I like it and its ever so cheap, even compared to Thailand.

A return to the hotel through the safe streets about 9pm. I decide to finish the days blog but a headache hits me, not sure if its the heat or the malaria tablets or what. The Bowel Queens (you know who you are) will be happy to know things are good so it shouldn’t be that causing the headache.

Next day – Things are ok, paracetamol does its job and I feel better.

A short comment on what i feel about Laos after a few days, it’s poorer than Thailand but the people seem to smile a lot, children seem very happy playing in the streets and the markets, there is a genuinley nice comfortable feeling in this place. The old town of Luang Prabang is beautiful.

Ciao from Luang Prabang – Pauolo

An early start this morning, TMM (remember him?) has had a rough night, so I leave him with panadol and go downstairs to the open air bar area looking over the Mekong for breakfast. Its warm and humid, the instant coffee and sweet toast with a fried egg revive me enough to head up and do a quick repack of my bag.

8.00am and we’re on the bus to the border crossing, first we exit Thailand with stamped passports (love to have them stamped), then onto a bus that crosses a huge bridge financed by the Chinese to the Laos side. The process on the Laos side is a bit slow and laborious but after handing over visa applications with passports, getting temp checks, showing the Vaccination Certificate (they are very thorough with that – in Thailand nobody looked), then getting our passports back with the visa pasted in stamped, initialed, rechecked, photgraphed, fingerprinted, everything except having a strip search, we’re finally in Laos. We meet Sak our Laos guide, we still have the tour leader Naa running the show.

A short bus ride up to where the boat is moored on the Mekong, looks a little rough on the outside but inside its open, all nicely laquered, clean toilet and kitchen, sitting under cover on the river is like the air conditioner is set on the perfect temperature. Its so relaxing, as we wind our way slowly down the Mekong, through the whirlpools, dodging the occassional rock rapids. Small pointy boats with outboard motors piled with fishing nets scream past us, the river is like a highway and clearly drives the life of people who live on its banks.

Everyone has settled in, and chatting, I’ve all spread out over one cubicle by myself sorting out my camera gear when Naa comes up and says its time to do the memorial for Tim. She has split all the flowers up into petals, put them in a beautiful silver bowl with the little container of Tim’s ashes sitting in the middle of them. She lights some insence and says a Buddhist prayer then invites everyonedoen the front of the boat where she says some lovely words about Tim being here with us and then asks me to put the ashes (I keep the container with a few ashes for other things) into the flowers and put them into the river. I put his ashes and flowers into the flowing river and see them float away, Dale puts some in then everyone on the boat comes and throws some of the flowers and ash into the river. Very moving little ceremony. Naa is such a gem, so thoughtful and so genuine. I say a few words beacuse it was so nice that everyone helped with it. I decide to read a poem that I had written called “Nothing Lasts Forever”, almost bring me undone, not sure what happened but I promise not to repeat it. The are no photos of the service, only videos

Nothing Lasts Forever

Don't waste time wondering is my little tip,
Nothing lasts forever so just appreciate the trip,
Get on the road or start whatever it is 
That pushes your buttons and makes your brain fizz.


Me, I like many things but to travel to places far away,
Gets me excited to leave my home and garden of clay,
Go to mountains in Laos, land of the green paddy field,
And to the hills of Cortona where Tuscan secrets stay sealed.

Nothing lasts forever, so I put my thinking hat on,
I need a coffee to stimulate and move my thoughts along,
As I sit in the cafe sheltering from rain and frozen air,
My thoughts drift to far away places as I rock back in my chair.

To Switzerland, Scotland, England, Croatia and Wales,
Be a tourist, a traveller, soak cuture, eat their food, drink their ales,
Talk to locals, smile with them and laugh at their jokes not so clever,
Do it now while you can because nothing lasts forever.

And think about where you live, adventure home grown,
So much to see from beaches to deserts, together or alone,
Pack the bags, mortgage the house to finance the cost,
Because nothing lasts forever, there's no time to be lost.

Paul Reid – July 2022

It’s very chilled, you can buy a beer (Beerlao brand now) or a soft drink, there is jungle and some crops on both side of the river, children swimming on the banks waving to us from shade of the family boats, water buffalo grazing on the banks. We stop for the boat owner to check in with officials at one point and a guy comes on selling bunches of lychees for 10,000 kip (Laos currency 10,400kip = $1AUD), we buy some but we mostly only got 100,000 kip notes from the ATM’s at the border.

Lunch is a gourmet delight, about 4-5 main dishes with rice, stir fry veggies, fillets of fried Mekong fish,a mildly spicy noodle dish, 2 curries like a mussaman curry, and juicy ripe paw paw for afterwards. After lucnh the boat goes quiet, its siesta time. And, I think that this is exactly the experience that we were thinking about when we signed up for this trip and the key word in the name of the trip was “Adventure”.

The afternoon goes slowly, its hot and humid and the only breeze is because of the boat moving, so we’re all a bit sweaty and weary by the time we pull into Pak Beng. Our guest house is nice but very basic rooms with a strange setup for the bathroom BUT the air con works a treat.

We walk around the village, its very poor and covid has knocked their business community around significantly. A hill tribe market is a subsistence market, no tourism about it, its trading food for food basically.

Dinner tonight is at the guest house, most of us go for the local Laos food, either buffalo or pork larb with sticky rice, TMM has fried chicken with rice, but it is very tasty.

Tomorrow we’re on the boat again at 8am heading for Luang Prabang, time to hit the sack and catch up on some rest time.

Ciao from Pauolo in Laos

Breakfast is around the corner at a French bakery, pancakes and coffee, pancakes good, coffee is crap, thats deuce. We could have had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel (80 baht) but we chose to go to the alternative so we can only blame ourselves.

8.30am we load up 2 mini buses, with 7-8 people in each bus and head north out of Chiang Mai towards Chiang Khong on the Mekong River and the border with Laos. We go through mountain passes, through river plains, if its not jungle it’s got fruit trees, vegetables, or cannabis planted in it. We stop for a toilet and coffee break at a modern building thats sort of a packing house for coffee and nuts, with a sideline vertigral integration into selling cannabis plants. The “grass” plants were about 15-20cm high, healthy and in black pots with Thai writing we couldn’t work out the price. News flash, he just looked at the photo and it says 35 baht for 1 plant or 100 baht for 3 plants. 35 baht is about $1.50 Aussie and 100 baht is $4.00.

Workers are in the rice paddies planting, and the further north we get the less signs there are in English. Our bus is quiet, we have Mat, Dave from Florida, one of the Irish boys, Valentin and Barbara (Germans) and us with Naa up front with the driver, the other bus has Bruce and Aussie Dave, and apparently they both hold the talking spoon. Thank goodness I’m not on that bus.

A lunch stop at the White Temple is a welcome pit stop for me, the coffee from the other place has broken the seal and I’m squirming to escape and release the pressure. The White Temple at Chiang Rai was built by a wealthy bloke using his own funds, its magnificent and it a blinding white, with some mirror tiles blended in to give it some sparkle. The toilet is world class, no squat toilet for this place, not that I could see anyway. There were a few monks around in their saffron robes but I’m guessing the bloke who built it collects rent from the many stall holders, restaurants and shops to defray the expense of maintaining the temple and its grounds.

We reach the Mekong and our hotel about 3pm, its right on the river which is massive and flowing strongly, all rooms face the river and the other side of the river is Laos. I can hear a rooster crowing from Laos. The rooms look nice but the bathroom is basic with a fuse box that must turn the hot water on and off as TMM feels he needs a shower before we go on our orientation walk about 4pm, and he comes out saying the water is very cold. BUT, I fix it for him later on, no comment but I thought a Maintenance Planner at a mine might know how to get some hot water out of a weird machine then adjust the spray so it feels like a shower and not a pressure spray.

We walk into Chiang Khong village, through it to their temple, through the temple back to the river then back to the hotel for a beer at the bar downstairs looking over the Mekong. Its quiet, apparently we’re the first Intrepid trip into Laos since it opened up about a month ago, Covid has impacted these river towns on the border between Laos and Thailand.

This area is part of the Golden Triangle, where huge amounts of opium was grown and traded. There are a lot of big houses this side of the river and in Laos that we can see over the river, I’m guessing it’s residual capital left over from the drug days. I’m enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of this place.

The Mekong is huge, and the river is high and flowing pretty fast so I’m guessing we won’t have to get off the boat and go by road in any places. The hotel is basic but ok, the views from the rooms is sensational. Tonight we are eating at a little restaurant up the road from the hotel that overlooks the Mekong River.

Dinner tonight is the group minus Bruce, not sure where Bruce is but nobody seems surprised. We are at a restaurant looking over the river, there is 14 of us and another small group of 2. The food is renowned for its Mekong River fish dishes so I have to try one, and have a mid spicy Mekong fish stir fry. Its delicious but my lips and tongue are dancing for a while after I finish and the Singha beer largy fails to cool it down, only time does that. TMM (remember him?) , has a chicken rice dish with a dipping sauce, and remarkably it looks a lot like chicken fried rice, but I could be wrong. Although to be fair he’s been pretty adventurous with his food today. We are sitting near Mat from Melbourne tonight, TMM rolls hand grenade after hand grenade under him about Victorians, I’d say the end of the night its 1 set apiece in a 3 set match.

Naa tells me she has organised flowers for a little ceremony tomorrow to put some of Tim’s ashes into the Mekong. I didn’t expect it, all I asked her the other day was, was it appropriate to leave some ashes at the temple above Chiange Mai. Its very nice of her and hopefully the group don’t mind the interruption to the boat trip. After the 400 baht dinner for two with drinks ($16) we walk back along the banks of the Mekong. Its very peaceful here and we’re all looking forward to getting over the border into Laos tomorrow and on the Mekong River for two days.

Ciao for now, leaving for Thailand heading for Laos. Paulo

I still haven’t had a chance to do the YouTube thing with the video from my GoPro. The video is clear, I have it on 2.7k not 4k as the files are so big on 4k, and I have shot a lot of my legs and the ground when I’ve forgotten to turn it off. The camera mode I have set on ultra wide, then I use my proper camera for normal format shots and special effects stuff, a bit cumbersome but I like the photos.

The GoPro is small light and easy to use, although I still can’t do a quick changeover to timed shots v instant shots, my fingers are too stubby. If I could I would use a digital SLR, I have a reasonable but old Canon but its too heavy and too large and I carry soo much crap (that I don’t need) so it gets left at home.

The Group we are travelling with is great, a real mix. The group consists of;

Naa – Our Intrepid Tour Group Leader. She is a youthful 61, former teacher who prefers travelling and leading groups for Intrepid. During Covid she taught prisoners in the Bangkok gaols. She is married, her husband is 70 and retired and she has 2 daughters who have educated and I’m not sure if they have any other family.

Dale aka as TMM (The Maintenance Man) & me – Pauolo.

Valentin & Barbara – a 30ish couple from Germany on their honeymoon. He works in German politics and she is almost trained to be a psychologist – I think she would be a good one.

Mat – a chatty 30ish computer IT engineer from Melbourne

Dave – a 40ish mats teacher from Florida USA, leaving teaching and moving to work in computer science when he gets home.

Dave 2 – a 61 year old single guy from St George in Sydney, still working, a well travelled knowledgeable bloke with a head fullof trivia.

Bruce – a 70 year old guy also from Florida, sounds like a New York accent. Very independent and I would say a unique personality.

Ange & Georgia – Mother and daughter from Perth travelling together, Ange is a copper probably mid 50’s and Georgia s about 30 and I think works in disability services.

Robyn – a friend of Ange & Georgia. Now single woman who won’t disclose her age, good on her, but I reckon she’s about mid 50’s. Shes a Grandmother that doesn’t like children, but I reckon she’s probably a pretty good granny, and good fun to have around.

Ginger – a 50ish single Canadian woman who currently lives in Malaysia, I think a teacher as well. Very organised and pleasant to talk to, well travelled woman.

Mark & Ben – two young blokes, brothers, from Dublin, one just finished uni and one just finished high school so they are Intrepiding around Asia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, India and maybe a few more places. Pleasant young fellas who fit in well with everyone.

That makes 14 travellers.

Today, in the morning we split into 2 groups and Bruce. We don’t know what Bruce is doing but he’s doing it, we may not find out what he did, his answers tend to be obscure. One lot go to a cooking class, which they love and they ended up cooking their own lunch. TMM and I were with 5 others and we go out to the paddy fields where they are planting rice, then to a local temple which is all made by the local Buddhist community, tin on the outside and silver on the inside. Men only are allowed on the inside. Should be more places like that I reckon, Nah just joking. It is a stunning beautiful place. I leave a bell hanging outside the temple for Tim. The locals are also the craftsmen and women who make the bits and pieces for the temple as well as little stuff to sell to raise for building and maintaining the temple. It would take a fair bit of Silvo to polish it I reckon. Next is lunch at a place that is a local restaurant that only does a chicken and rice dish with dipping sauce and broth and onion soup. Surprising but TMM eats the chicken and rice dish with the dipping sauce, BUT, it does look a lot like chicken fried rice. We then go to a local market, lots of stuff, good quality, really good prices, TMM buys more stuff but I refrain, discipline is the order of the day.

This afternoon is a chill afternoon, the monsoon weather is building again, its steamy and dark clouds are building in the south. Tonight we are going to a local cultural event. Some of the group go for a swim at the hotel next door, some go for massages. I’m sitting out the front of the hotel in the smokers area in the shade, listening to the birds in the jungly gardens and watching the storm build.

Team meeting before we leave for the cultural evening to sort out visa paperwork for the crossing into Laos the day after tomorrow when we get on the small boat on the Mekong. Naa gets it all sorted, collects money for laundry done today, collects money for tonights event, I’m not sure how she keeps it all sorted.

6.30pm and the storm breaks, its absolutely pissing down as we contemplate the ride to the event in the back of a truck with seats, a sort of big brother tuk tuk. There are 15 of us in is, squeezed in like sardines in a can.

The event is well supported by a mix of people and we sit down to a lovely Thai meal and some Singha beers. The dancing is all Thai traditional dances, mostly women and some men. The women look sensational in their traditional clothes with their long fingernails that seem to float through the air as they slowly dance. Its a lovely night, finished with a quick walk to the market and a foot massage.

Tomorrow we leave for Chiang Khong, further north, via Chiang Rai where we are visiting a couple of things.

Ciao from Chiang Mai – Pauolo

Chiang Mai started its existence about 700 years ago as the capital of the kingdom of Lanna. its a cultural centre, digital hub, expat retiree haven, with a population of about 130,000. The country around Chiang Mai is mostly mountainous jungle with some flats that a sown down to rice. As well as an overnight earthquake magnitude 6 in Myanmar (Burma) which is not far from here and a magnitude 4 in Chiang Mai. There has been rain, streams are running strongly with a foamy creamy look about them.

The nights sleep was a bit fractured, but started with the porters making the beds up at 8pm. They had a bed made in about 2 minutes then you have no option but to get in your little cubby house and read, sleep, eat chocolates or all three at the same time. The people on the top bunk (TMM is one) complain that the cabin light shines through their cabin curtain and keeps them awake.

Daylight arrives and its a grey looking day, farmers are out planting rice in the paddy fields, a bloke without a shirt is trimming a jungle vine from his front fence and the traffic at intersections gets busier the closer we get to the train station. The train station is a long way from the old walled center of Chiang Mai where we are staying in the People Palace Hotel. To be fair its better than the Peoples Palace in Pitt Street in Sydney that I once stayed at when we went to Sydney for the State Rugby League Carnival. After the shuttle buses drop us off looking bedraggled and sleep deprived, we have a breakfast of toast and coffee and leave our bags in Naa’s (Intrepid Tour Leader) room as we can’t check in yet.

The shuttles then take us up a mountain, steep and winding to Wat Phra Doi Suthep, a 600 year old Buddhist temple, its 1050 metres above sea level with 330 steps upwards from the car park to the temple, some walk and others take the lift. I’m nearly 67 but I figure I’ll try, if I fail then the instructions are to burn me there and fly me home in a box, But as fate would have it I survived, just, I was last up, my heart was pounding and I was sucking air like turbocharged v8 with a blocked air filter. Howvere the walk up is impressive and the temple is super impressive.

After this we return down the mountain to our hotel where we can now get into our rooms and have a shower and freshen up after the overnight train trip and the sweaty morning at the temple. Its exhausting this tourist travelling stuff.

For TMM ( remember him?) has his first fair dinkum Thai dish away from his normal chicken fried rich, although it has a Thai name it does look awfully like chicken fried rice but I say nothing and allow him his victory and take a photo to put on Facebook so in years to come he can lie about the fantastic Thai food in Chiang Mai. I’ll say nothing more.

After lunch we walk, for ages and Google maps have to find us a track home. Some of the others went off on a 30km pushbike ride, but we’re smarter than that and know it when we see them return later lathered in sweat and red faced.

Tonight we find a night market not far from the hotel with a great food area. I have a stir fried squid with a salted egg sauce, it is so bloody good, washed down with a Singha beer, TMM has the usual chicken fried rice but he tells me its a good one.

I had a foot massage earlier in the day and tonight Dale went to a flash spa for a massage, mine cost $8, Dale’s cost $20.

Tonight a tropical storm descended on Chiang Mai, it absolutley bucketed down, the streets were almost knee high with flood water and I got soaked as I was walking back to the hotel from the markets. The 59 baht rain jacket from Bangkok paid its way tonight.

Tomorrow we’re doing a tuk tuk tour of Chiang Mai, some are doing a Thai cooking class after lunch, some of us aren’t, some are going white water rafting (not us), is there a picture forming here? Tomorrow night we are all going to a local cultural night with food and Thai dancing.

Ciao from Chiang Mai – Pauolo

I’m writing this as we rattle along at a comforatble 100-120 km/hour on a train, sitting in my bed, just like a well made cubby house. Listening to a blues playlist I put together, more obscure music with new versions of classics like When The Levee Breaks thrown in. We left Bangkok at 6pm and arrive in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand at 7am.

A relatively early start today, for us anyway. Today was an Intrepid paid breakfast at the hotel but their breakfast box is crap so we go to the small convenience shop next door, it has some chips and savoury rolls BUT most important of all they have a small espresso machine. I buy a custard roll and a cappuchino thats strong and full of flavour. Cost 100 baht. We walk a block and get on a local bus to the grounds of Wat Pho where we see the reclining Golden Buddha, he’s a big old gold long lieing down bugger, 46 metres long and 15 metres high built 5-600 years ago. The feet are beautiful, black onyx it looks like with inlaid mother of pearl. The other pagodas around him were built n the 1800’s. Its pretty impressive although I think I like the Emerald Buddha and The Grand Palace better.

The next thing is we split into 2 groups and get into long tail boats and explore the klongs (canals) of Bangkok. Its like Venice, canals everywhere, crumbling in a lot of places, stunning moern architural design with piers onto the klong in others. Some houses with rotted stumps slope into the water, you could fall out of bed and roll into the canal if you weren’t careful. We feed some catfish in a sanctuary area, big fat hungery suckers with enormous catfish whiskers who fight and wrestle for the bread we throw them. Probably end up on dinner plates at some stage.

Then its back via the local bus to near the hotel where Naa (our tour group leader) helps me negotiate to get the battery repaced on my watch. My watch is Tim’s old Rip Curl Surfers Watch that I resurrected from his draw, so now ehen I travel I travel with one of the many nice watches he owned. I’m also carrying soem of his ashes that I’ll leave in the Mekong River in a few days time. His ashes have a home in Dubbo but The Navigator and I deposit small amounts in rivers around the world. So he’s still travelling with us when we travel.

A nice break this arvo, pack up the room, two young Irish guys on the trip share the room so that we can freshen up before we head to the train at 4.30.

The train is quite long, about 16 carriages and we’re in 2nd class which is quite nice. First Class looks super nice as we walk past. There are seats that convert into double decker beds, firm but better than a swag on hard rocky ground. We eat the food we brought onto the train,there is no catering no is alcohol allowed on the train. Too many f….wit tourists over doing it we are told, fair enogh I reckon. The train guards carry glock pistols on their hips, I figure I’m being compliant tonight. at 8pm the crew come through and make up the beds and it gets quiet very quickly.

I’m looking forward to seeing and getting to know Chiang Mai over the next few days.

Ciao from train in middle Thaland – Pauolo

Almost forgot, yesterday having breakfast at Macca’s we noticed white sheets with Thai writing facing the huge roundabout at Democracy Monument. The police turned up, got their photo taken with the signs, clearly it’s not saying confrontational stuff like “Thai Police Are Pigs”, but maybe they say ” Aussie Blokes – eat Thai food or go home!” . Why do we eat Maccas for breakfast? Because Hotel Siam Champs Eleesee don’t really do a decent breakfast, and Thai breakfasts don’t do it for me, or TMM. Yet.

Today we have a tour booked via Trip Advisor yesterday – Cost $47 each, to go to the railway market south of Bangkok and the Damenoen Saduak Floating Market. The mini bus turns up on time and the trip is consolidated somewhere near Chinatown to 10 people. There are no other Australians, and Dale is the second oldest on the trip (figure that out), there are couples from Italy (Rome), Singapore, Spain, Germany and I think England. Its a long drive out of Bangkok and a short coffee stop at a roadside stop where we get robbed by Starbucks for coffee and muffins, then onwards to the train station to get the train to the markets where the stalls are on the railway track,

The old diesel train picks us up and we are close to the Gulf of Siam, so there are salt beds everywhere across the lowlands of the coastal plain as well as fish farms. as we roll into the town the stall holders pull their awnins back and the train rolls through the market to the station. Fascinating, and most of the stalls are proper local food stalls selling vegetables, fish, spices as well as the usual poo pants etc to sell to tourists. Its still steaming hot but worth the time just to see this.

The next stop is the Damenoen Sabuak Floating markets, not so busy now as Covid affected the tourism part of of the market. The coconut icecream from the lady who pulled her boat int our boat is beautiful, worth the 60 baht cost.

The trip back to Bangkok in the airconditioned van is very quiet, everyone is sleeping, Thailand siesta time. We arrive back at the depot near the Bangkok Riverside shopping mall, like IconSiam over the river only artier and a bit cheaper. We procure a local ferry for 16 baht each to get us back to Phra Athit pier, then its a quck walk back to hotel, interrupted only phone calls from Dubbo and a stop at McDonalds for an ice cold soft drink.

Our tour group meets at 6 for a meet and greet and to get some administrtive stuff out of the way. Its a big group of 14, from Perth, Melbourne, Germany, Sydney, Dublin, Florida and of course Dubbo and Cobar. Our tour leader is Naa, a lovely Thai woman who is 61 but looks younger and used to be a school teacher. Dale and I pinpoint the troubled ones early and will work a plan to minimise exposue to them.

As we prepare to go to a dinner as a group the storms finally break, after days of buid up it pours down for hours and is still raining ith lightening and thunder.

There has been some comments from my fellow traveller about the status of my memory at times, small important things (to him) mainly, useless stuff I can remember. I remind him of his genetics and that he has missed the target more than a few times. Conversation discontinued.

Tomorrow we see some more of Bangkok and tomorrow evening we are on the overnight train to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand

Ciao for now – Pauolo

• Some Observations On Thailand and Bangkok in Particular;
• Its HOT this time of the year, we knew it was going to be hot but it has caught us by surprise how f….g hot and humid it is.
• Bangkok isn’t that busy, in places like Siam its busy but not as usual, the old town area is pretty quiet.
• Lot of people travelling, families with children, but not many Aussie accents, plenty of English, German, Scandinavian accents though
• Its pleasant on the river cruising past the barges and long tail boats.
• Its easy to orient yourself BUT it takes a few days to get the hang of travel via the klongs (ferry), the road via tuk tuks (negotiate a price before you hop in & no shopping centres jewellery places etc), the BTS Skytrain 140 baht for a day pass (cheap airconditioned travel), the river – local ferry or tourist ferry at 150 baht hop on hop off is good value)
• The klong ferries are a hoot, well worth the anxiety that you have no idea where you are going nor where you’ve arrived at.

Now today was going to be an easy day. But first thing is that its Genelle’s (aka The Navigator) birthday – so after breakfast at our favourite Maccas and a walk via the local markets on our way to the Phra Atchit Ferry Station to get on a hop on hop off ferry, I call her from the ferry on the Chao Praya River.

Another observation, TMM (remember him) seems like he’s transformed into a shopper for girls stuff, he’s forever checking out jewellery, poo pants, dresses, hand bags, shoulda brought The Navigator. Any way enough of that, he’s got the pricing sorted, seems to know what he wants and has the patience and smarts to say that he’ll wait until we get back to Phuket to do his shopping but I know he’s purchased various items that he’s been under instructions to buy. Lets see how much girl stuff he can stuff into that stonking great bell he bought, maybe he’s buying stuff to protect the bell?

We do a full lap on the ferry, all the way up to Saphin Taksin Skytrain Station or Sathorn Pier I think it is and back then proceed back again but stopping at the Icon Siam shopping centre. This place is as upmarket as you get, the shops are Bulgari, Versace etc and expensive food. Unfortunately lunch was Korean (in Thailand ????) we ordered too much and it cost us $20 each, highway robbery in Bangkok, the dearest food I’ll be buying in the 4 weeks I’m away by a long shot, still TMM actually ate Asian food, thats a win.

Its been very pleasant sitting on the boat, with a breeze in your face. We head back to Wat Arun, an old temple on the western side of the river, Dale is on the phone to Cliff and Jenny while I’ve been accosted by an over judicious gate keeper wanting the 100 baht entrance fee, I said I wasnt going in and just was looking at it from the outside, he said you can’t, you have to leave. I’m not sure what planet hes from but I can’t unsee it just because I’m being told to leave, there are f..wits in every country. But Dale finishes his phone call and decides to pay the money and go in, as a matter of principal I don’t go and sit 2 metres from where I was accosted by the gatekeeper and look at Wat Arun as much as I like (I have been there before years ago, didnt need to see it again anyway).

The ferry drops us back at Phra Athit pier and we walk through the Bang Lamphu area towards Khao San Road and in particular Rambuttri Alley where there are a lot of nice restaurants and no doof doof music you get in Khao San Road. A few beers at a quiet bar with crappy service from gum chewing, mini skirt wearing waitresses, Dale goes shopping for girls stuff and I get a massage, my back has been killing me. Walking and standing on concrete has knotted the right side, the masseuse pops and grinds the knotted area and it now seems ok.

Tomorrow we are leaving at 9am going to Damnoen Floating Market out of Bangkok and the markets where the trains come right through the middle of the market. Looking forward to that. Tomorrow night at 6 we meet the Intrepid Tour Leader and whoever else is in the group we’re travelling with.

Cheers for the day, ciao Pauolo.