Thailand has lost their beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the Nation has entered into a year of mourning. Black is now virtually the only colour on display in the shop windows and market stalls. We were surprised by the enormous crowd of grieving citizens in the vicinity of the Grand Palace today. We were told that this is a daily event.We have spent the last two days ...
Ruth: After three and a half months of cycling across Europe we came home for a month to relax and reconnect with family and friends. It was one of my most luxuriously lazy months ever, but just what I needed before heading off again. Now we are sitting in an airport waiting for the first of three flights that will take us to our final ...
Ten Good Reasons To Cycle In ThailandTotal Distance Cycled: 1640 km Day 1 Bangkok to Ayutthaya: 60 kms by train and 17km by bike to AyutthayaBaan Are Gone Homestay across the water from the main town but a short ferry ride across. Very friendly place with great food, rooms and sunset boat tours. Air conditioned room was 640 bhat.Day 2 Ayutthaya to 10 km before Singburi ...
Trip SummaryWhether you are in the center or way out in the burbs near the airport, it is hard not to be struck by coexistence of the old and new worlds in Bangkok. We are spending our last night and day out near the Suvarnabhumi Airport in order to avoid some of the transportation chaos caused by the protests in the center. Wherever you are in the world, hotels ...
Trip SummaryRuth:Instead of spending our last few days in Bangkok we have taken a side trip to Khao Yai National Park. It is a spectacular place and one we will definitely return to when we have more time.Photo courtesy of Wikipedia, but we did see four Great Horned Bills in a single tree and through the binoculars they looked just like this.Yesterday as we cycled ...
Trip SummaryWe are now in our last week and have to make some tracks toward the airport. Today we are spending 7 hours on a train heading south before we take our last excursion to Khao Yai National Park. We are stopping tonight part way down at Lopburi so we can have one more peek at the monkey infested temples before heading further down the ...
Trip SummaryRuth: Somewhere at around the 35km mark I realized I was pedaling. Our ride down from the National Park was wonderful even if I cost us both a set of brake pads. We stayed up high on a ridge for 11 kms before plunging down to the valley below. The remaining distance into Phrae was either flat or slightly downhill, making for a fast ...
Trip SummaryWe are staying at Khun Sathan Homestay at 1377 meters at the National Park of the same name. Our hosts are a Hmong family who have welcomed us as honoured guests. The spreads of food that they have prepared for us are large even for calorie deficient cyclists!We have a very rustic bungalow that is more like camping than anything else. We will have ...
Ruth: This morning we visited Wat Phumin, Northern Thailand's Sistine Chapel. The temple was built in 1596, but it was during it's restoration in the late 19th century that Thai Lue artists painted the now famous murals. These murals are noteworthy not only for their Buddhist content and their depictions of daily life but also for their political and social commentary from the Thai Lue ...
Gordon: We booked a night at the Phu Lang Ka resort only because it was the sole accommodation we could find at a convenient distance from where we stayed the previous night. The few comments on the internet were not encouraging: "time has not been kind to this resort", "costs 50 percent more than comparable resorts", and "difficult to find staff to provide food or ...