Author archive
6 October 2019
Getting going Today we travel from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. We had organised a hotel car to take us to the airport at THB160 instead of Grab’s rate of ~THB200, which was a surprise. With breakfast starting at 0730, we organised a pick-up at 0750 to allow […]
5 October 2019
Kim spent the day attending to pressing business from home while I did some admin. We didn’t feel like we were missing out on anything Chiang Mai had to offer. The idea of going to see elephants or patting tigers weren’t that novel at our age. After a massage in the evening, we went out […]
4 October 2019
Like yesterday, we only have half a day of sightseeing today dedicated to the sights around Chiang Mai. Actually, the one thing on the agenda was going to Doi Suthep temple on the hill out of town. With a leisurely start after 1000 by Grab we got there around 1100. The 300 step hike was […]
3 October 2019
Today I had planned a half-day of sightseeing by foot to nearby sights within Chiang Mai’s old city walls. First up was Wat Chedi Luang. It was home to the Emerald Buddha (now in Bangkok) and the largest structure in ancient Chiang Mai which consisted of a chedi (like a stupa I guess) partially ruined […]
2 October 2019
Our time in Thailand isn’t like my other travels. We have more time than usual and I can really take it easy. Half-days of sightseeing and even days of doing nothing! But today we have a bus ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai. We took the short walk from our accommodation to the bus […]
30 September 2019
Starting off After a day of rest, massage and organising yesterday, we have a full day sightseeing today. We had arranged a car for an excursion mirroring a typical tour by minivan. The minivan price was THB900 pp (THB1800 total) whereas we got the car for two of us for THB1000 + driver THB400 + […]
28 September 2019
Leaving Kuching Today we fly from Kuching to Chiang Rai. It was booked as an AirAsia Fly –Thru connection via Kuala Lumpur as KCH-KUL-CEI very cheaply. But the new route KUL-CEI was suspended soon after it was introduced so they re-accommodated us via Bangkok Don Mueang , KCH-KUL-DMK-CEI. It added about five hours to the […]
22 September 2019
Paotere Port Despite sleeping late last night, I woke around 0630. Today I leave the big country with 17,000 islands in the evening. With my flight to Kuala Lumpur at 1730, my plan was to do some minor sightseeing before returning to eat and rest till checkout. I wanted to revisit Makassar’s Paotere Port as […]
21 September 2019
Leaving Gorontalo After the bad sleep on the ferry, I woke at 0550 after nearly 9h of sleep. Not hungry, I spent some time writing before having breakfast around 0800. With my flight to Makassar in South Sulawesi at 1115 I thought I’d leave at 0900. With an estimated journey time of 45 mins to […]
20 September 2019
Back in civilisation There was some commotion as I stirred in the morning. We were preparing for arrival. I got up, walked around a little and we pulled into Gorontalo’s port around 0540. It felt like we were back in civilisation on mainland Sulawesi. With a 1h delay at departure, I had expected us to […]