Go with Brian

Tag: Thailand

  • Endex

    Backpack packed and ready to go

    Just have to wait for the bus to airport now, back to heat wave UK tomorrow.

    Final mango and sticky rice at the airport. Love this stuff. Was starving so forgot to take pic before tucking in.

  • Lumpini Park and Hollys expensive tea

    Quite a good choice at the breakfast buffet, something for everyone. Asian, Western, Middle Eastern and Indian.

    Had pork and shrimp congee and a freshly cooked omelet. The green stuff is Guava juice. Black stuff is coffee.

    Had a swim after breakfast and then headed out for a walk to Lumpini Park, about 2 miles away but ended up walking around for about 6 miles. Which is ok in UK, but in 28 degrees and humid Bangkok it is a bit draining. Big red face and buckets of sweat,,, nice. The park is surrounded on all sides by really busy roads but once inside there is no traffic noise and is a good place to spend some time. Lots of people exercise here in the mornings and evenings, and there are always bike clubs racing around the perimeter tracks. There is an outdoor food court for cheap eats, although not sure what time it starts. Was closed at mid day except for places to get a drink and snacks.

    Not many big lizards around today, saw this one and one in the bushes I got a vid of which was a bit bigger, waited a while but it wouldn’t come out. Can’t transfer video from the camera to the tablet though. The park was getting a bit overrun with lizards, so a few years ago the authorities set out to thin them out by catching some and taking to a lizard rest home somewhere. Or to get eaten, whichever ending you like best. Plenty of little turtles about.

    Can’t argue with that.

    It was hitting 30 degrees when I decided to head back so got the underground to get back to the hotel area. Cost 23 baht which is about 55 pence. There are always plenty of taxis about and they are cheap compared to UK but the metro , sky train and the river/canal boats are the best way to get around Bangkok, they are cheaper, quick and you don’t get stuck in traffic.

    10 minute walk at the other end so stopped off at Hollys Coffee shop to cool down. Peppermint iced tea and coconut cake. Bit expensive for what it is, £6 with tax and service charge. I know it is the city centre but Holly you need to adjust the prices.

  • So why the blog.

    So why the blog.

    As I am a kind of solitary individual and not one given over to public outbursts of my thoughts or  feelings this does not really come very naturally. Apart from a nice smile and a fake pretence that I am interested in what people are saying to me my social skills = zero and my writing skills = zero.

    Anyway in conversation with work colleagues about an upcoming holiday in April 2018, it was mentioned about creating a blog to upload pics so they could share whatever “adventure” I may have. It sounded like a good idea. Thanks Holly as I have now been glued to my pc, tablet and phone checking out various blogging platforms over the weekend instead of clubbing and raving as I normally do.

    Adventure may be too strong a word to describe what I would actually do on a couple of weeks holiday. Also I am not a great photographer and tend to forget I even have a camera on me most of the time.

    At this stage apart from buying a flight to Bangkok I am not 100% settled on where I will go. First instinct was to go to Vietnam to take advantage of the visa exemption rules currently in place, which I believe ends in June. Being a kind of lazy person who cannot be arsed with too much paperwork hassle the idea of 15 days visa exemption appeals to me

    However when i was looking at hotels on Expedia I still had a search listed for Siem Reap, Cambodia. I visited there last year and it came into my head that I have unfinished business in Cambodia, as well as it being cheaper :). My brother died on the first day of my holiday last year and although my mum was ok about me staying on rather than flying home early,  I did not really get to see as much of Cambodia as I wanted to.

    Right now it is probably 90% going to be southern/central Vietnam, starting in Ho Chi Minh city then onwards to Dalat, Nha Trang, then maybe down the coast to end up in Vung Tau for a few days before flying home. We will see what actually unfolds in April/May, as any soldier or ex soldier will tell you – no plan survives first contact.

    I don’t know too much about Vietnam, main influences being news bulletins from the 70s’ about the American war, the Top Gear road trip and the limited Vietnamese food I have had in other countries such as Laos and Thailand.

    Research so far on You Tube and other platforms is actually giving me the buzz for travel again, sometimes the anticipation of going somewhere new is better than the reality but I think not in the case of Vietnam.

    Hopefully I will not get too influenced by the hordes of social media “influencers” out there with their perfect views of hotels, nightlife, scenery, food etc.  Have you ever wondered why nobody ever ever dribbles or drops food down their shirts/vests/bikinis on travel Vlogs ?

    I do not know Vietnam but I know SE Asia, it is chaotic, fantastic, where anything can happen and I for one am always dropping food off my chopsticks. I cannot be the only one.