October 21st - From Ro's brother,Nevs, house in Bangkok we make an early start for the 1hour flight south to Krabi.The resort we were staying at is on a peninsula that can only be reached by a 15 minute ride in a long tail boat.These were propelled along by a car engine with a very long shaft. The next three days were spent swimming, snorkelling & kayaking in the clear, warm waters around the Railey Bay Resort and nearby islands. On one occasion a quick retreat back into the boat was made after the sighting of a sea snake(which apparently are very poisonous) heading in our direction.
October 25th - After less than 10 hours back in Bangkok we took another 1 hour flight, this time north to Chiang Mai. The city of Chiang Mai is quite small and very walkable with a lot of Thai temples some dating back to the 1200's. We took 2 trips during our stay, the first was a long drive up to the Golden Triangle which is where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma all meet and famous for its trading in the past of Opium. We took a longboat up the Mae Khong river and spent about an hour in Laos at a local market where you could buy very cheap cigarettes and local whisky with a snake preserved in the bottle - both of which we passed on! On the way back to Chiang Mai we stopped at two very different mountain villages where many of the locals were dressed in traditional dress. The second trip we took was a shorter one to an Elephant camp not far from Chiang Mai. As you can see from the photos the elephants were proficient at all sorts of useless skills! However without these camps and the tourist money that is injected into them the elephant population in Thailand would be severely depleted.
October 30th - We drove South of Bangkok for 2 1/2 hours to the resort of Laen Mae Phim near Rayong. Saturday night was spent in a house owned by a friend of Nev & Meows with a party on the beach in the evening with their friends,to celebrate their birthdays. Nev & Meow had to return to Bangkok on Sunday evening but we spent the following 4 nights in a small hotel in the town. The town had very few other Western tourists and we were lucky that the restaurant we chose to eat in had the menu in English as well as Thai otherwise it could have been very interesting. We were able to buy an excellent Thai meal including beer for around 5 pounds.We made an excursion on the local bus to a nearby town (25p for around 16 miles!) and then took a 30 minute trip on a ferry to the island of Ko Samed where we spent a pleasant few hours on the beach.
Nov 6th Went into Bangkok for lunch in the Emporium Shopping Mall, suzanne we very pleased as she had her first pasta for 2 weeks. The we went by skytrain to Jim Thompsons House. Jim Thompson settled in Thailand after WW2, he reestablished Thailand as a major silk producer(see www.jimthompsonhouse.com). In 1967 he "went missing" in the hills of Malaysia never to be seen again. In the evening we went back into Bangkok to a bar called Radio City they had a resident band with guest singers.
Nov 7th Went to the British Club for a swim and lunch, they had a very nice 25m pool. We had to leave by 3pm as they were having a Guy Fawkes Night firework party. WE went onto the Oriental Hotel which is by the river to see the ferries and long tail boats, the fish were jumping all around.
