We have enjoyed our summer in North Wales and are now in our last week. We took a trip on the bike to Barmouth in mid Wales. We originally were going to stay a couple of nights but accommodation is very hard to come by or very expensive so just a day trip until later in September.

Barmouth is about 30 minutes past Harlech. As you approach there are big flat sandy grassland areas between the cliff faces and the road with enormous caravan sites, cheek by jowl as far as the eye can see. Driving into town it’s reminiscent of Rhyl: dodgems and waltzers, ice cream parlours and fish and chip shops. It improves immensely when you get to the beach. It’s a deep wide sandy beach with sand dunes, and it’s one of the prettiest beaches I’ve seen in Wales.

The harbour at the estuary opening is overlooked by Barmouth Bridge.

Barmouth Bridge, or Barmouth Viaduct is a Grade II* listed single-track wooden railway viaduct across the estuary of the Afon Mawddach near Barmouth, Wales. It is 820 metres long and carries the Cambrian Line. It is the longest timber viaduct in Wales and one of the oldest in regular use in Britain. It was closed due to repairs.

We sat on the beach with a sandwich and coffee watching the kids having donkey rides and jumping around on the trampolines. The accents were more Birmingham and the Midlands unlike Abersoch which has more visitors from the north west.

The town is a typical happy seaside town. Lots of cafes, bucket and spade shops and many a dippy hippy emporium selling incense and Indian happy pants. I liked the vibe.

Beautiful 3 storey stone houses back up to the cliffs, it has obviously had money in its past. There are plenty of coffee shops and places to eat, moules frite on the harbour doing a roaring trade.

We stayed a few hours and then decided to ride up the estuary towards Dolgellau. The scenery was lush and green with beautiful houses hanging on the edge of the water, tall trees and rock formations hiding the immense view. A red kite landed in a tree as we passed, glorious. It’s a very pretty part of the world.

Our garden has been abundant with fruits this year. Gooseberries, rhubarb and black currants. Lots of pies, compotes and crumbles adding to my expanding waistline. There are damsons at the bottom of the drive but you have to be quick or the passing fruit pickers nab them all. The apple trees have suffered a bit this year with intense heat then lots of rain (too late).

We have found more slow worms in the garden compost heap and a clutch of snake eggs, undoubtedly grass snakes.

Chris has been filming but we haven’t seen them hatch yet. We had lots of baby rabbits…but no longer, the culprit was a fox who showed up on the films, they were disappearing by the day. Life is cruel..

As the water has been warmer I have been swimming, not usual for me in the Welsh waters. We have been in a couple of times and it’s been fun, certainly makes you feel alive…

Just a recap on Bear Grylls and his island. He now has his ramp in place and the big construction barge has been towed back to Milford Haven a 48 hour journey. He always arrives by helicopter for his summer holidays. We saw him leave the island with his 2 children on his Sealegs boat and someone took a picture of him collecting his Waitrose shop from a van near the harbour. He obviously doesn’t just eat leaves and berries…..

St Hywens church in Aberdaron advertised ‘Evensong, Rachmaninov by candlelight’ it sounded appealing so we went.

We entered the church to be greeted by the friendly female vicar taking the service. As it started the candlelight and the beauty of the 12th century church came into its own, it was very atmospheric.

The quietness of the congregation, the soft lilt of the vicar’s voice and the music sang by a Russian military choir was sublime. I’m not religious but felt soothed, almost meditative. Very pleased we made the journey it’s a beautiful, simple church in a spectacular location. The vicar explained that all through the centuries older, dying monks made the pilgrimage to Bardsey island to die and to be resurrected. You could feel the history of the building in your bones

We have done lots of this…

And this. It’s been fun

Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1888-1978) was the visionary architect of Portmeirion village in North Wales. He inherited his fathers house, Plas Brondanw, sitting high above Porthmadog in 1908.

He served in WW1 and was awarded the Military Cross. He was an advocate of rural preservation and helped establish many National Parks, drawing the boundary for Snowdonia national park. He was closely related to Owain Gwynnedd, Prince of North Wales and returned to his rightful kingdom from Northampton where he was born.

The gardens at Plas Brondanw are not very big but beautifully formed. The turquoise colour which is evident all over Portmeirion is also in the gardens.

His eye for classical form with arches, long passageways with a sculpture on a plinth, ponds, long borders and fruit trees, pleached high hedges, something taking your eye on every corner.

Everywhere you turn is something in the distance pulling you in. If you love Portmeirion, these gardens are a must. A jewel in his crown. If you do go, there is a castle folly on a trail outside of the gardens up on a hill, which is well worth the climb. It has an outstanding view and could be easily missed. There is a fantastic quarry garden on the trail back down.

The gardens are 45 minutes from Abersoch. There is a cafe and if you buy something the parking fee of £2 is returned, at time of writing, entrance to the gardens is £5. We went with friends, Trish, the Bowdon version of Clough Williams-Ellis, was entranced by his clever use of planting and vision and I can easily see a turquoise moment coming on….

His classical yet quirky style is very evident in this beautiful house and gardens. As he was working on his gardens in the 1920’s he was looking for the perfect spot for his big project. He found and acquired, for £5,000, a run down hotel on a balustraded terrace on a local hillside. He had been looking world wide for a site yet found the perfect spot 6 miles from where he lived. It sat on a harbour surrounded by an overgrown neglected wilderness overlooking the Dwyryd estuary. It became the magical kingdom of Portmeirion.

Portmeirion is just past Porthmadog. I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. The entrance fee is £15 or you can buy a yearly pass for £30, a bargain. The large castle like restaurant at the entrance has a deal. If you have 2 courses for £25 you then get free entrance to the main site.

It’s fairy tale like entrance, all chalky pastels and arches, turrets and statues is a complete sensory overload.

He started building the site in 1926 and it took him over 50 years to complete.

He was a great recycler and salvaged interesting artefacts and structural bits and pieces from old buildings and demolition sites all over the country. The colonnade in the centre was from a 1760’s Bristol bathhouse.

The mermaid railings which are all over the site came from the Liverpool sailors home.

I love the fact it is so eclectic with Siamese dancing Apsara’s on unbelievably high Ionic columns, life size chess boards, a building that looks like a cathedral all weaved together into a mystical pastel hued kingdom of joy.

A boat that had been sunk in the estuary was cleverly reinstated on the edge of the harbour.

Frank Lloyd Wright the famous American architect came to visit him in 1956 and interestingly was also of Welsh heritage, his mother’s family had emigrated to the US in the mid 1800’s. They met at Portmeirion after he had been awarded an honorary doctorate from Bangor University. I was blown away by the photo of them both together. He died 3 years after visiting aged 91.

To understand the true measure of his accomplishments you just need to look at how often it’s on TV programmes, film sets, music videos and how much its loved. Some of it is well built and other parts of it are glorious fakery. If ornamentation, quirkiness and colour is a crime in architecture then he is guilty as charged. For the many thousands who visit and love its escapism, colour and humour he will never be forgotten. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and will come again when it’s quieter in the autumn. If you do come make a picnic, take your time. Or buy lunch there are cafes and places to eat. Bring your walking boots for the forest walk or walk the coastal path. Stay and soak up the atmosphere, there’s nothing quite like it.

Country life once said of Portmeirion “a pirates lair, drawing together romance and baroque with little bits of Italy, Cornwall and Wales too” If you have never visited you really must make the journey, it’s magical and he was without doubt a true magician.

He died in 1978 aged 94. 20 years after his death some of his ashes were loaded into a marine rocket and it was launched in a New Years Eve firework display over Portmeirion and the estuary according to his wishes. Now that’s the way to go……

Harlech Castle is a grade 1 listed medieval fortification which was built by Edward1 during his invasion of Wales between 1282-1289. It’s an hour’s drive from Abersoch. You follow the coast road past Criccieth and through Porthmadog. It’s a fast quiet road and it was a spectacularly good sunny day, an amazing blue sky and full ocean vista. In the distance the fairy tale like Port Merion clinging on the hillside all, turrets and pastels. That’s on the visit list too. Awesome. We went on the bike and arrived for our pre booked slot of 11am.

It is a very steep and windy road up to the castle.The entrance fee is £7 and is very well organised with lots of very helpful, friendly staff on hand. It has parking, a cafe within the grounds and the ubiquitous gift shop.

The castle was built in 1272 by Edward1, the King of the castles ( he built most of the castles in Wales) and it took 6 years to build and cost £8,000. It sits on a rocky crag high up overlooking the dunes with the magnificent Snowdonia range of mountains as a backdrop and looking right back at Abersoch over the bay.

You can walk the top ramparts and see where all the rooms and different floors would have been with the fireplaces. There are the four corner turrets, a well, a room full of stone cannonballs (ouch) and big open spaces.

At the entrance are four towers with the arrow slits and killing corridor where they poured the boiling oil and fired their bows once you got in..but you didn’t leave!

There is, just outside the castle walls, a very, how shall I put this, interesting modern statue. From the high ramparts I thought it was a cow with a human figure on his back but no, not quite…when we came out of the castle and looked at the statue it was an emaciated horse with a man, no arms or legs with a dead body sort of draped over the back of the horse and human limbs where they shouldn’t be. It was unusual and gruesome but historic..

The town of Harlech is really narrow, squiggly roads and quaint tiny houses and shops all intermingled. Some were at an elevation a mountain goat would struggle with! One of the roads has the title of the steepest road in the UK. It was a hot sunny day and the numerous ice cream parlours and cafes were doing a roaring trade.

The song ‘Men of Harlech’ was written in the 1460’s here during the longest siege (7 years) in British history between the Lancastrians who held the castle, from the Yorkists. The song described the events that took place. It was an interesting day out we enjoyed the castle and the town.

Plas Glen-y-weddw is a Victorian gothic styled mansion house near the beach in Llanbedrog, the next bay up from Abersoch. It was built in 1857 by Sir Love Jones Parry of Madryn and was never lived in, it was built for his wife but eventually just housed all her art.

It has a spectacular Jacobean style staircase and beautiful stained glass

It is now an art gallery with an in-house cafe and bakery and some accommodation set at the back of the house. It’s set in beautiful grounds. We went to an open air cinema showing of Grease a few years ago with the sea in front and mountains in the background. I was really surprised that Chris, having known the area for 40 years, had never been before. The gallery houses ever changing exhibitions of local and well known artists in many formats. Traditional art, ceramics, wood exhibits it’s eclectic. In the summer they have outdoor concerts, art workshops, craft fairs and other activities, it’s well worth a visit.

Cakes look and are scrumptious, perfect fuel after a walk along the wooded paths overlooking Llanbedrog beach.

The Llyn Peninsula in North Wales extends 30 miles into the Irish Sea south west of Anglesey and past Caernarfon. It originally was travelled extensively as the last leg of a medieval pilgrim route to the Abbey on Bardsey island close to Aberdaron and there are many wells along the route dating from pre-Christian times. It has beautiful sandy beaches, small coves, surfing beaches and bracing headland cliffs all preserved and maintained by the National Trust. It is here we are going to spend our summer.

Abersoch is where we stay in a house that belongs to my husband Chris and his sister. It’s a 10 minute walk out of the village, 5 minutes to the beach and perfectly placed for a quiet relaxed holiday. We are very fortunate to have somewhere to go in the pandemic when we can’t travel abroad so easily.

We bought an old motorbike this year which now lives here so one of our first trips out was to Aberdaron opposite Bardsey Island and about as far as you can go along the peninsula.

It was exciting to get down some of the smaller lanes which criss cross the peninsula and are too small for our normal transport, a big van! I feel so much more connected to the surroundings on a bike and see much more, pretty farmhouses tucked away and life in general, not just stuck in an air conditioned tin box. It’s a beautiful rural, rolling landscape. It took us 30 minutes from Abersoch. It’s a pretty town with a lovely 12th century church, St Hywyn, whose origins go back to the 5th century and very connected to the abbey on Bardsey.

Just out of town on the headland are old naval gun emplacements and a lookout from WW2 on a bracing and windswept cliff top with fantastic views. The main trade in this area was fishing and mining. Old lead, copper and tin mines are evident all over the peninsula. The small lane to our house was an old narrow gauge railway which took copper off the headland during the 19th century.

We also visited friends Wendy and Claire in Morfa Nefyn which is a very pretty beach with a great pub on it called the Ty Coch. The house is right on the beach with a perfect, panoramic sea view we had drinks and snacks and a lovely afternoon chatting and catching up.

Abersoch is a great place for water sports, a lot of people have boats of all varieties, paddle boarders, jet skiers, wind surfers all love it. It’s a very sheltered bay perfect for boating and swimming.

We have a boat and love to go fishing. When we catch fish, mostly mackerel, we fillet and smoke them. I make fish cakes and pate which always goes down well.

On one of our fishing trips Chris caught a gurnard, bull huss and a thornback ray. He always flattens the barbs on the hooks so they are easily retrieved and they were all gently returned to the water. We only keep what we will eat. It was an interesting days fishing and we always come home tired, windswept and feeling good.

There are a lot of visitors to our garden. We have had 4 generations of pheasants who visit daily bringing their latest brood every year. Phil, Fred, Fernando ( can you hear the bells) and lastly Finlay. There is a theme here…

In the garden we have owls, woodpeckers, green finches, goldfinches, various tits, a pair of ravens ( Ron and Rosie) and Steve the seagul who knocks on the back door occasionally and many other varieties of birds. We see buzzards and then there are all the aquatic birds a lot of which roost on the islands and cliffs off the coast. Not to mention the numerous dolphins, porpoises and seals. It’s a fantastic place for wildlife

There are foxes and hedgehogs and even grass snakes, adders and slow worms in the compost heap.

Chris has built a nature camera out of a raspberry pi so it’s not just daytime we can see what’s wandering about the garden but at night too.

Bear Grylls the TV celebrity ex army survival man has bought one of the 2 islands just off the coast in Abersoch. It is the island with the lighthouse on, which are now all unmanned.

He purchased it a few years ago and comes every year for the school holidays with his wife and 2 boys. At the moment he is having a new ramp fitted to the edge of his island, at enormous expense, so he can drive his amphibious boat straight out of the water onto his island. The construction platform ( like a flat barge) was towed out and the four legs were lowered down to the seabed and the platform raised out of the water to work on.

The divers, engineers and workers get shipped in and out daily. He paid £90,000 for the island and has probably spent way way more on the work he’s having done. You do see him around occasionally in the village and when he gets flown in by helicopter. Friendly by all accounts.

The other island next to Bear’s was bought by Carla Lane, the writer of Bread (and lots more) in the early 90’s. The previous owner had put deer and sheep on the island but they had no access to water. It wasn’t long before the deer attempted to swim back to shore and many of them drowned. Carla Lane purchased the island and handed it over to a wildlife group who shipped water in and looked after it but eventually they brought all the remaining sheep and deer off the island. It’s still owned by Carla Lane’s family.

The adventure continues….

We talk about food more often than anything else on a daily basis. We make our own breakfast but still eat out twice a day over 3 months (180 meals out) so it’s a real problem; which eatery of the few hundred, literally within a square mile shall we go to, what do you fancy? Noodles, rice or western? We generally prefer Thai food, the small local chefs in our village who can knock up amazing food, freshly cooked, from scratch at lightning speed for very little money, on average just over a £1 meal. We often eat here in the evenings.

We like morning glory; it’s like skinny kale stir fried with chillies and garlic, yum. Tea leaf salad from Burma is also delicious…

So if you wanted to push the hungry boat out a meal each; Penang/green curry and rice, vegetarian/chicken pad Thai and a big vegetable side dish for less than £3 for 2 people.

Fresh and healthy. If you have meat or fish it’s small portions of only 50g or so. You can eat much cheaper than that if you want to eat on the street food stalls or markets. 50p a meal.

I have eaten more noodle soup this year than ever before and at the moment my favourites are;

Beef Khao Soy; succulent long cooked tender beef, spicy beefy stock with egg noodles, bean sprouts and crispy noodles on top. Served with pickled veggies, lime and onion. From our local market.

‘Noodle soup with choice of noodles, rice or egg, wide or skinny. char Sui pork, pork balls veggies and bean sprouts.

Tom yum soup with chicken or prawn. Noodles, bean sprouts, peanuts, veggies, chilli. Our local eatery makes the best and have shown me how. I have also made my own under their supervision.

This dish incorporates all the umami flavours. Sweet, sour, spicy, salty and bitter. My mouth is watering as I write. Santitham Breakfast was our favourite place to eat, great quality food and lovely people.

Pad Krepow chicken or pork cooked with holy basil and chilli, one of my favourites especially with a fried egg

Succulent pork leg with rice and steamed kale/greens. With every rice dish you get a bowl of broth.

Roast pork in cubes with deep crispy dry crackling, really spicy with shallots and mint. It’s called Lab Moo grob and is very gorgeous but can’t sensibly eat too often. Som Tum which is unripe papaya, shredded with chilli, lime, peanuts, bean sprouts, long beans and tomatoes, hot. Chicken and cashew nuts

They also sell huge chunks of pork cooked like this at all markets, it’s a real staple. So is pork crackling it’s a specialty of Chiang Mai.

Whole baked salt crusted fish (tilapia)

Fish in every way as well as crab, prawns, squid every seafood and shellfish you can imagine. Tentacles and claws peeping out at you…

Fruit is abundant and cheap. A big bag of prepared fruits; pineapple, melon, green guava are 50p with a small bag of chilli sugar to dip it in, I’m hooked; dragon fruit, mangosteen, jujube a whole host of tropical fruits are available on every market. The sweetest oranges, avocados, bananas piled high everywhere.

We are in our last week in Thailand. We’ve done the flower festival

seen many friends and been out for dinner with all of them. Stayed out in ‘rice world’ with our friends David and Nuy. 10 pin bowling, there were 9 of us it was good fun. We visited the Botanical gardens

drove out into the mountains and saw elephants, lots of them, it’s been fab.

We meet more people every year, it’s highly addictive. The hotel we stay in has many long stay guests, it’s a bit like The Marigold Hotel, we have made many friends from all over the world. The people, food and climate is amazing. They are very honest, honourable people you can leave things; bags, phones, purses anything on a table and wander off for 20 minutes and it’s still there when you come back. There are a few downsides; the pollution is getting worse in January and February. The traffic is chaotic. Our small Thai village is getting popular and gentrified, we now have 3 bars opened very close to the hotel so it’s not the quiet enclave it was. Things change a lot! It won’t stop us returning but we may only come for a month in November or December then escape to Vietnam and go backpacking again, travelling light on maybe a bigger bike. We feel we need a new adventure and to get out on the road somewhere new. The adventure continues…

The 44th Chiang Mai flower festival is held on the first weekend of February, the end of the cool season when all the plants and flowers of Thailand’s northern growers are at their most spectacular, the climate is perfect. It’s held primarily in Nong Buak Hard Park in the south west corner of the old city just inside the moat.

We had been travelling high in the mountains on the bike and the poly houses were bursting at the seams with flowers and plants, a riot of colours and aromas, ready for the festival. The damask rose is only grown in Northern Thailand and is the symbol of the festival and Lanna culture and tradition the festival is also known as ‘the flower of the North’.

It is a 3 day event but our favourite part is on Saturday morning an enormous parade. The moat road is closed from Thae Pae Gate to the park and all the bridges across the moat, lamp posts and everything else have amazing flower displays. We weaved our way into the city parking the bike just behind the park and sat outside a big hotel on the moat road who’s staff were giving out free juice and fried bananas which were delicious, bonus.

We could hear the parade approach in the distance and a frisson of excitement grew amongst the people sat with us, the sound of the different bands, brass instruments and drums rising above the hum of the gathering crowds; beautifully decorated floats arrived both with traditional and modern floral displays and many many smiling faces.

Marching bands, hill tribe people in national dress, thousands of people taking part. It must have taken an enormous effort and weeks to prepare. There were Traditional Thai dancers giving out flowers, musicians playing and cars with beautiful entrants for the Miss Chiang Mai Flower Festival. Thailand is a very gender liberal country with a full LGBT spectrum represented in the parade and the crowd, its fantastic to see no discrimination and a fully inclusive society happy for everyone to live how they want.

The parade frequently stopped and there were great photo opportunities. Where we sat is almost where the parade turns into the park, the end of a long hot walk in 35 degrees and many hours after they started on their journey. Some of the kids looked exhausted and were losing their smiles, many stopped for a drink where we sat.

The parade took well over 2 hours and snaked enthusiastically around the city eventually ending up in Nong Buak Had public park. There are displays, best plant competitions, agricultural vendors, plant sellers and the best orchids and bonsai I have ever seen.

The Chiang Mai flower Queen is chosen later in the day. It’s a party atmosphere with music, children, picnics and lots of jolliment. Even the policemen are friendly.

Inside and outside the park you can buy food and drinks and everyone is up for a good time sitting around the lake. Thai people really know how to have fun and are very inclusive and want to chat if you sit near them.

The local authority spend 2 weeks preparing the park, it is beautiful and in the evening it has thousands of fairy lights amongst the floral displays, waterfalls, fountains and walls of exotic plants.

We always go back for the evening to just sit and feel like we have arrived in a fairy grotto, it’s a feast for the eyes and senses. The thousands of Lilly’s are intoxicating in their fragrance. It’s our fourth year and we love it! It’s the highlight to our stay in Chiang Mai.

Economically it is good for the city and attracts thousands of people. This year was different though; the corona virus had put a real damper on the event with no Chinese tour buses or Chinese tourists allowed overland into Thailand and the Thai government is really tightening up on Visa’s to enter Thailand generally. The Thai people I’d spoken to seemed really paranoid about being in crowds because of the virus and sadly a lot of people didn’t attend….it was still a fantastic weekend. It is a great advertisement for the friendly hospitality of the Thais and the city and the abundance and beauty of the flora and fauna of this amazing nation. Roll on next year..

”Where flowers bloom so does hope”

Lady Bird Johnson

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights they close all the big roads around the lake in the centre of the city and it is full of people playing music, ballroom dancing, roller skating, zumba, young dance troops, street artists and a plethora of different activities.

It feels like the whole city are out and about in the middle of the big roads, eating and walking, chatting on benches it’s brilliant a real party atmosphere. There is a palpable feeling of enjoyment and freedom, people revelling in being out, tourists and locals, rich and poor alike having fun. It’s the hub of the city. There is also a walking market nearby and a street aptly named ‘beer street’ which is manic but good fun.

We have walked for miles and seen every museum in town. They are very inexpensive costing mostly about £1.50. The National History Museum had some very early artefacts 4000 years old and a good selection of items from every period in their history.

The revolutionary Museum had lots of interesting documents and pictures. We also went to the infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’. The prison was built by the French in the 1880’s where they imprisoned the locals for plotting against them ( there is still a guillotine) and latterly the captured American pilots which they say they looked after better than their own people!

The language they use in the museums is extraordinary. Everything is ‘imperialist puppet soldiers’, ‘colonial terrorists’, ‘oppressors’, ‘the struggle for national independence with the struggle for the rights of the masses oppressed by the exploiters and the feudals’. Ho Chi Minh said that he wanted to combine the patriotic feelings of the people with the need for freedom from social exploitation. As communist leaders go I think he was ahead of his time and an honourable man, well travelled and intelligent. The propaganda machine was in full swing. It makes for very interesting reading.

There is a railway line which runs right through the middle of the city. People live alarmingly close to it and kids play between the tracks and cafes sell food, when the trains come they pick up the tables, kids and anything else. They are now stopping the trains in the day and they only run after 7pm and not at the weekends. They also stop tourists from wandering aimlessly along the tracks and police guard the lines.

We walked from train street to see Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum which is a huge impressive building on an enormous piece of land guarded by ultra strict soldiers in white uniforms with big guns.

They open the tomb for a short time every year and the queues are miles long. It’s very different to the beautiful French Colonial styles that surround it. In the grounds is a one pillar pagoda and a beautiful small temple, it’s a real mix of cultures and styles, old and new.

Because of the French influence they have great bread and patisseries, baguettes they fill with pate and pulled pork, coriander, cucumber, peanuts , veggies and a couple of sauces the bread warm and crusty they are called Banh Mi and are delicious.

Their national soup Pho has rice noodles, beef and greenery, flavoured with ginger, coriander and slivers of spring onions is also very good and is eaten anytime of the day.

Along with translucent spring rolls, barbecued meats and many variations of noodle dishes the food is great and if you want to eat like a local you sit on the tiny stools on the pavement and eat. It’s very cheap. There are plenty of high end restaurants and lots of choice if you want a full sized chair…

They have a strange thing in Vietnam. People ride round on push bikes that have a recorded message blasting out. There is a woman who does a big loop around the hotel late at night, just as you’re dropping off to sleep, every night and it sounds like ‘I’m so alive’, (it obviously isn’t). She doesn’t appear to be selling anything but to be honest if she doesn’t find another route soon she won’t be alive for long….deep breaths, be mindful…

On our last night there was a huge free concert with bands playing and great music, the crowd were up for partying. It was a fantastic ending for our trip.

We enjoyed Hanoi, it’s chaotic, not very clean but the people are friendly. The sights and smells, the traffic and just the rhythm of life in Hanoi is exciting. It’s more edgy than Thailand you have to be careful with your belongings and be a bit more street wise, some traders will try and charge you more if they can and the money all looks the same, it is easy to get mixed up. If you go in January take warm clothes it can be cool in the evenings but it’s perfect for walking around the city. Having said all that we will definitely return and want to see a lot more of the country.

Hanoi, located on the banks of the Red River is a city of broad tree lined boulevards, weathered colonial buildings, lakes and a great place to explore on foot. This French-colonial city is also known for its delectable cuisine and vibrant nightlife, is small and compact, historic and charming.

We are excited to be here and looking at Vietnam as maybe our new winter getaway, it’s a toe in the water moment.

It’s a 2 hour flight from Chiang Mai, a new route which means you don’t have to go through Bangkok, it’s cheap and convenient. Needing money we found an ATM at the airport and we jumped on a no 86 bus which cost us 35,000 dongs (about £1.30) and took us on an hour’s ride to the centre of the city.

We booked a boutique hotel near the cathedral in the old quarter of town, it took some finding in the narrow streets of the old quarter but it was all easy in the scheme of things.

The city was buzzing with people and traffic and heavily overloaded motorbikes, everyone we met were all very friendly and helpful and spoke good English. There are things that are a must do, things to eat and places to see. Near our hotel was a craft beer bar with live music, it would have been churlish not to go on the first night….the hangover wasn’t desperate but it did slow us down the next day, why, oh why, oh why!

There is a large lake Hoan Kiem Lake 5 minutes walk from the hotel with a pagoda at one end and coffee stalls and benches all the way round. It takes about an hour to walk around it, that sorted our hangovers out. The lake is the place to be in the evenings and if you sit down local students ask if they can speak to you to practice their English, they are charming and polite.

We decided to just explore the city on foot and walked to the Vietnam military history museum about a 30 minute walk.

Crossing the roads here is exciting you just have to take a deep breath and step out, don’t stop or hesitate or you might just get run over, just keep walking and they go round you. Fortunately we have had lots of practice in Phnom Penh but it’s still daunting.

The museum was interesting. The Vietnamese were invaded and occupied by the Chinese for a thousand years and then the French subjugated the population in the 1850’s. The Japanese then removed the French in the 1940’s and the Allies threw out the Japanese, no wonder they went for communism. Then in the 1960’s the Americans arrived….. There were some great pictures and artefacts on display and plenty of seriously over the top propaganda. To be expected.

We didn’t realise the museum closed for lunch so we looked around locally and found a little eatery who said as we arrived they had run out of food. Looking at our disappointed faces said they would rustle up some sticky rice and Vietnamese sausage, gave us free tea and were very charming. We are impressed how many of them speak good English, they were lovely.

We then returned to the museum to see the last few exhibits. Tanks, planes, helicopters, SAM missiles it was unbelievable the hardware they had on display.

The Old Quarter is a bedlam of busy streets packed with shops selling all kinds of goods, each of the 36 streets named for its primary goods or service.There is a street which just sells glasses and one that sells silk, another with cloth and haberdashery a whole street that repairs motorbikes, chicken street, it’s fascinating. It’s neither quiet nor clean but strangely odd and engaging. There are pavements but you can’t walk on them they are full of parked motorbikes or food stalls, fruit sellers you mostly have to walk on the roads…

There is still a lot to see it’s an interesting city. The adventure continues..

The Jing Jai organic farmers market is held on a Sunday just a few minutes out of the centre of town and outside the moat. It’s a thriving market with locals and tourists enjoying the healthy food and artisan atmosphere.

Most sellers now are all organic and plastic free and wrap the fruit and veg in banana leaf and natural fibre string. The salads are delicious and almost look too good to eat..

There are many food stalls, very smart clothing sellers, sewing cooperative goods and makers of all sorts of things, different to your normal Thai markets.

There is more space, musicians playing in a couple of locations and lots to see with seating around to eat or watch the comings and goings.

Good coffee and small artisan bakers and producers abound, there is lots of lovely food, yum.

We wanted to get out of the city and away from the influx of tourists arriving for New Year. We decided to drive up into the mountains, unfortunately everyone else had the same idea and we ended up in at least a 30 mile traffic jam which is not a problem on a bike as you can weave your way through, Thai style. We took a wrong turn and noticed lots of people all going somewhere all in their finery.

We came across a Hmong festival with people in all their various National dress, it’s different in every village. There were thousands of people.

There were 4 other non Thai tourists there as surprised as we were at our good fortune. It was their New Year festival. The colours were amazing and the people are good natured and very welcoming. They like having their photos taken, well mostly.

This last picture of throwing a black ball to each other is a dating ritual….allegedly!

Thunder started rumbling deeply across the darkening valley so we decided to leave, not fancying the wet long ride home. It would have been fun to stay, we were invited but it might have got messy. The party was starting, the beer and whisky was piled up and food on the BBQ…….Next time!

Sawadee pee mai ( happy NewYear) Kha

Travelling from Chiang Mai by motorbike to Pai 90 miles away, do we go the normal main road route with its 762 twists and turns pursued by mini buses who seem to hunt in packs? It takes 3-4 hours and the mini bus drivers get paid per trip not by the hour so they don’t hang about; Or go the incredibly scenic long route, almost twice as far but hardly any traffic and recently made tarmac all the way, driving through tribal villages and strawberry fields? Yes the long route won. Misty mountains early, 7am.

Villagers tending to children and animals, movement from every corner, not rushing just doing. Monks ambling serenely along looking like they are smuggling drums under their orange robes and dogs looking hopeful into open doorways. An easy pace of life unfurling on a cool misty morning.

There are lots of long stretches of road in the forest with narrow ridges, windy yet tranquil with no villages or people just the odd farm vehicle full of cabbages or other greenery off to market. We eventually stop for coffee and then a few miles further at a viewpoint. We are captivated by the mountains stretching for miles like a long misty ripple.

A car full of monks stopped and took out their latest iPhones and took lots of pictures, and asked us to take pictures of them. Monks on tour, well I never!

We arrive in Pai seven hours later, no stress but a very flat bottom…As we start to descend from the mountain roads towards the Pai river the land stretches out into a wide river valley. The trees, land and plants changing, hot springs erupting on the roadside and fertile fields full of rice, cows, corn and other crops. A welcome sight from the enclosed steep mountain passes.

We arrive at our guesthouses, slightly out of town towards the big white Buddha on the hill.

It’s a quiet spot, away from party central which Pai has become. It’s a rustic bamboo hut, just one up from camping Chris says with a big comfy bed and mosquito net.

Wandering around Pai it has changed from 6 years ago but I don’t think for the good, it’s like hippyville does Disney. It’s become very commercial and has lost its friendly soul. There are some seriously strange people wandering about, I like strange but not when they are trying so hard..it’s a great place for people watching though

Love the travelling cat

All the stalls at the evening walking market now sell avocado everything, paleo, keto salads, vegan wraps lots of alternative foodie things and very little Thai food. There are hundreds more places to stay but it was very quiet. I don’t mind change it’s inevitable but everything that was quaint and cool and Thai has gone. It’s full of Rastafarian, pastafarian and trustafarians (wealthy and white, dreadlocks with a trust fund), it has lost its charm. Oh well.

The surrounding areas haven’t lost their charm, we went up to the viewpoint overlooking Pai. You have to travel through a few Yunan (Chinese) villages to get there. It’s a great view of the whole wide flat verdant valley across to the big White Buddha.

There are hot springs, very hot at the top and cooler downstream to bathe in and a few hours out of town the ‘spirit caves’, the caves of Lod which are amazing and a must see. You enter the cave system by boat

There is a Canyon which has narrow ridges and is an interesting if not a slightly scary diversion. It feels like you are tightrope walking with huge drops either side. We got there early before all the tour buses arrived and had a good scramble about. There are no railings or safety anything so you only go as far as you dare…

We were invited to eat with the young owner of the guesthouse Milk and her parents (they live in Belgium) who were visiting and we had got friendly with. It was a very nice night with lovely home cooked food. We took this picture before we left complete with very friendly cat and dog.

A great sunset restaurant looking back towards the viewpoint

We enjoyed Pai for all its changes but won’t be in a rush to return.

Happy New Year. May the year be happy and healthy and brimming with joy.