The North

On arriving early in Chang Mai, we headed to get a bike for the drive to Pai. We had heard that it is horrible on a bus and Kate had driven it with a company transporting your bags for you. Unfortunately, the early train is too early and so we spent quite a while sat on a pavement waiting for the office to open. The glamour of travel! It was worth it though as the drive up was beautiful despite the hair raising bends- all 762 of them! The hotel was lovely and Pai itself very chilled. We had a great first night chatting with people over street chicken (best ever-KFC had better watch out), listening to a father/son band and then, on Callum’s insistence, joining the 20 somethings in a lively bar. It was fun and we were “adopted” by some young Danish girls who wanted to know all our plans.

The next day, we pootled about visiting a canyon (Callum was very under-impressed) and a lovely bamboo bridge that was built over a field for the monks to walk on. We were accompanied by a lovely dog and the temple was so serene. It was our favourite things there, along with its puppy, which we really wanted to bring home.

The drive down to Chang Mai was not the lovely one we had been expecting. Over breakfast, we had torrential rain which became drizzle but never stopped so we bought rain ponchos , dropped the bags and set off for a very long drive. It had taken nearly 3 and a half hours but we think we may have the record for the slowest ever on the way back. Many of the roads say “slippery when wet” which is not ideal on hairpin steep bends with an anxious passenger on the back. It drizzled/poured all the way down but our only injury was a static one when I got caught up in my delightful poncho and fell over much to Callum’s hilarity- jolly sore!

We stayed one night in Chang Mai where we had planned to visit the Saturday night market. We’d been there 4 years ago with the kids and had to leave as it was so claustrophobic and insanely busy. This time, there were very few stalls and it was really quiet and a bit sad. Probably the starkest pre and post COVID difference we’ve seen.

The next day, we got a bus to Chang Rai to arrive for the Saturday market (which didn’t happen). We knew there would be a lot of temples but even Callum enjoyed them. All of the ones we saw here were new or still being built. They were quite amazing and all very, very different. The White Temple, which we had saved to last thinking it would be the best, was definitely the least religious (having superheroes inside) and seemed to the only one without any monks or people praying which was pretty strange. We felt it was so touristy and it didn’t really have an atmosphere at all. Even the toilets were created for effect which were a very stark contrast to many we have used over here.

Wat Huay Pla Kang with the huge Goddess of Mercy (Guan Yin), a temple and pagoda, was amongst the top ranking of the many we have seen. It was only finished very recently after just being a hut for a monk in 1997. You could go inside to see intricate carvings all in white as well as visit the other parts. There was a lift to take you up and we were saluted in and out of it by the uniformed lift attendant which perplexed us somewhat (so much was both saluted back😂-awkward!)

We also went to very strange museum Baan Dam Museum which houses exhibits from a famous controversial artist Thawan Duchanee. There were many strange thrones, crocodile skins, skulls, , paintings and rude objects. It was certainly a change from the temples!

For our last stop in the north, we headed to Lampang the closest town to the Sky Temple or Wat Chaloem Phrakiat Phrachomklao Rachanuson. This is a new temple/ pagoda which was begun in 2004 on a mountain. What makes it amazing, is the monks carried everything up by hand to build it and it was quite a climb even with the stairs. We were quite amazed by it despite the views not being good because of the burning.

Koh Tao

We left the north with something of an epic journey. We spent the majority of the day having a massage and wandering around the small town of Lampang before boarding the night train. It was a very much rougher round the edges experience than the first one with the carriage doors were left open all night so it was very noisy. Not much sleep was had. We had the first disaster of the holiday when I left my kindle on the train too. Jan without a book is not a good thing! Next, we boarded a plane to Surat Thani and then a bus and 2 boats. We were well stickered and shuffled around from one bus to another whilst lots of Thais had discussions about numbers but we arrived just after lunch to a beautiful, sunny island.

We have spent all week pottering around to different beaches on our moped. The snorkelling was been better than expected; we both swam with a turtle and I swam with a shark as well as some large trigger fish. Their huge teeth and open mouths always make me give them a wide berth. It was also exciting if off-putting when you look to the side and see a shark next to your shoulder that is about a metre long! There were many shoals of other fish large and small too. We felt it was much better than the Similian Islands but not quite up to Egyptian/Maldives standards. We know, we’re spoilt!

A few times, we met up with Kate and her friends (Dorinne and Pleun- great girls) for a drink or food which was lovely especially hearing all about the plans for Bali next. Because it was Songkran whilst we were there, we took part in the new year celebrations which were certainly something different. I was cleansed by a nice lady with a little formal ceremony going into a restaurant, however, when we were driving about, we got well doused with buckets of water and shot with water pistols/ blasters. We did retaliate too -it was great fun to be on the back of a moped with a water pistol in each hand shooting random people. In the evening, we went down to the beach which was quite rowdy by sunset with lots of well-oiled people who had been clearly celebrating for sometime. We had a few drinks ourselves and watched a great fire show before attempting a very long, very tipsy climb up to our hotel.

Last 2 islands- Phangan and Samui

Our week on Koh Phangan has definitely been our laziest of the holiday. We stayed on a lovely beach with just a few massages and restaurants – there was nothing else we needed. We only had a scooter for one day but visited some lovely bays with some great (unexpected) snorkelling.

On Koh Samui, we were a bit more active- it would have been hard to get much lazier! We’ve been here twice before so have done quite a bit but we’d never seen a cabaret here so we decided to stay in Chaweng so we could see one. The town was a shadow of its former self and unfortunately the beach quite littered with rubbish so we only stayed here 2 nights. The show was quite entertaining and had only reopened a few weeks before. Luckily, we were on hand for Kate’s “Thai tattoo” (scooter accident and injuries) and we were very grateful just to be able to apply some antiseptic to her grazes other than have anything more serious happen. We did see a really bad accident on our journey back which brought home quite how lucky she/we had been.

We moved several times in Samui and were lucky with all our hotels. The upgrade to our own beach villa was a particular favourite. We saw quite a bit of live music here too which we really enjoyed. I finally got Callum to visit some waterfalls which we’re pretty impressive as well as a little secret Buddha garden. We had quite a bit of rain here and so got very wet on a few occasions both on and off the bike. Our last temples were impressive too with 2 lots of large Buddhas.

So that was Thailand though there are a still places we didn’t get to so we will be back but, for now, we’ve had a fab time with lots of laughs, great food, massages and views.