We were introduced to our 2 local guides Hemu and Bipen. Bipen is the brother of one of our last guides from 2018 and all the guides come from the villages we visit. They have an amazing knowledge of their area, wildlife, flora and fauna and are lovely and charming with it. The walk started the next day, up to the viewpoint of 2,500 metres. We could just see the peaks above the clouds. The first 100 steps steal your lungs but then it gets better.

We then walked to a village called Gonap. They have refurbed the simple accommodation and now have en-suite bathrooms. All the villages have a guesthouse with 3 twin rooms, a lounge with a dining table and comfy armchairs.

We were greeted with a drink of juice and later ate a simple dinner of organic vegetable curry, chipatis and daal. Because the monsoon has just finished (mostly) the mountains can be shrouded in mist, and were, so the next morning we got up early, 5.30 before sunrise and went to the village viewpoint to see the majestic Himalayas.

We climbed up to the viewpoint again in the evening and a huge thunderstorm passed over and we sheltered in a hut for an hour, all good fun.

After breakfast we walked in the forest, passing villagers taking their animals to graze amongst the trees. Cows, oxen and goats led by brightly dressed young village women.

The plants along the paths are beautiful, Himalayan balsam, turmeric growing everywhere with big fronds of red flowers, no wonder all the early botanists came here. Delicate plants with tiny flowers everywhere in the banks.

The scenery, rolling hills and mist clad mountains. The pictures really don’t do it justice. The smell of the pine trees and pine needles crunching underfoot, on the narrow forest paths the clean fresh air is a real treat for the lungs like a spring clean. It took us all a while to get used to the thin air and steep climbs but it was worth it!

Lunch and dinner is always the same. Organically grown local vegetables from the village, chipati or puri, rice and daal. Simple healthy food. Omelettes and porridge for breakfast, as much as you can eat.

After lunch we went on a village walk. Passing burgeoning sweet lime, and lemon trees and many different crops including towering marijuana plants which they use in many different ways. The stems for making rope, the seed to add to food ( it makes a very interesting chutney) and for next years crop and of course they make hashish from the plant tops. The pungent smell was intoxicating as you passed through them down the many village paths.

They also grow cabbage, sweetcorn, cucumbers, chillis, potatoes and many other vegetables. They are very self sufficient. Dahlias and other well known plants grow like weeds it’s amazing.

There are always lots of baby goats and animals to cuddle on the way.

The villagers are shy, friendly, hard working people especially the women who appear to do most of the hard work. It’s a very natural organic way of life and a real community although most of the young people leave to work in the big cities especially if they have had any education.

We went in a primary school which had only 3 young children..

Its the village walks in the afternoon which we really enjoy the most. Observing village life unfurling , women carrying enormous bundles of feed for the animals freshly cut from the fields. Washing clothes and caring for their children, milking the animals which live below the houses while the menfolk seem to sit about chatting…

The next morning we walked to the next village about a 3 hour walk and our main rucksacks were there before we were, we only carry our small bags.

Speaking to an ex soldier he wanted to know how old we were and our jobs he asked us what we thought his age was. He was 70 but looked a lot older, gnarly and bent double, it’s a hard life. He thought I was 45, I’ll love him forever!

There was a guy mixing paint from pine resin, which they collect in the forest, they just add colour which was a lovely mauve.

We had to check for leeches on our next walk as the land was still wet and we were crossing streams. We had salt sprinkled on our boots and socks by our guides. Stopping occasionally to pick them off, they still got in our boots and socks, yuk! Ingrid had one between her fingers and was huge…nasty things.

Another big thunderstorm came growling through the mountains you can feel it deep in your abdomen, the intense rain made the air taste amazing. Loved the hammering of the rain on the tin roofs. Good time to read my book.

We had another forest walk, monkeys, black faced langurs bouncing through the trees collecting and eating mushrooms which are prolific. The white mushrooms are poisonous to humans but our guides were picking the yellow oyster looking mushrooms for their lunch or the tasty pakoras they serve us every afternoon after our walk.

We saw griffin vultures and black eagles, woodpeckers and lots of colourful birds. There are barking deer, wild goats all a good meal for the local leopards which also take the local village dogs. Porcupine quills litter the paths.

We walked around the village. We met Mr Singh the carpenter who brought all his woodworking tools out to show Chris.

We then carried on around the village and looked at all the veggies, you really could grow anything here. We spoke to 3 women and took their photos and the shy children eventually came out with their mum. One of the women invited us to her house for tea. Lots of photo opportunities. Everyone is happy to have their photo taken.

The next day a gruelling 5 hour walk to the next village Risal. The walk up was hard enough but the walk down was more than challenging, 9 kilometres in total. One of our guides Bipen suddenly clutched his middle and cried out in intense pain, we had to ring the hospital and we were fortunately 30 minutes from a road so he could be taken to see a Doctor by taxi. We had to carry on without him and were all worried about him.

The path was all broken up and was slippy from the rain and rock strewn, everyone slipped at some point. It was daunting and made everyone jittery and quiet. We were all delighted to get to Risal and to a warm welcome from the friendly villagers. Better still we found out Bipen was ok and had been treated for food poisoning and was there to greet us.

We arrived in Delhi after an uneventful flight and we were picked up and taken to our colonial style hotel called ‘The Colonels Retreat’. We have stayed here before and it’s a comfortable hotel with great food and service.

We went out for a wander round the local shops and market, had lunch and stopped at an interesting building, a Jain temple close to the hotel. It was a huge domed building in a garden with statues of animals in the gardens and an impressive elephant arch.

Inside the building there was the whole cosmos painted on the ceiling with all the stars and planets and Indian deities and gods in arches all around the walls.

It had an impressive echo….it was strange and very beautiful in a way only the Indians can do.

We chilled out for the rest of the day as the next morning we had booked a cycle tour in Old Delhi. It was an early start, the taxi came at 5.45 and we met Tenzin our Tibetan guide who sorted out bikes and gave us a quick run down of the tour. People were sleeping on the streets and shop doorways it’s always shocking to see the poverty in the cities. We set off and the first stop was a Shiva temple.

He gave us a brief history of Old Delhi and we set off dodging workers pulling and carrying unfathomably heavy loads, cows, horses, motorbikes and all manner of things. Smells of food cooking, spices, and decomposing rubbish assaults your nostrils and it was a joy to get to the flower sellers.

The tiny alleyways in old Delhi a warren of activity as the city awakes. Men washing themselves in bowls of water, people with large containers of cows feet they were cleaning for sale, meat from which I have no idea what animal or even which body part it came from around every corner. Hollowed eyed men staring from doorways at 5 cyclists picking their way through the rubbish strewn streets.

Many porters and workers looking for work standing on the roads and many poor people waiting, sat on the street waiting for food handouts. There were doctors giving free surgeries on the street for Ulcers in one line, another treating jaundiced patients in another long line, all for free. Everyone should come and look at this and maybe they would realise how good their own life is…

We visited a havelli which were owned by wealthy, mostly Muslim traders, women had a separate entrance and lived upstairs. There was a stage where they brought in dancing girls for the menfolk for their entertainment and in their heyday were very beautiful ornate buildings. Most of them now have been turned into retail downstairs but you can still see remnants of their former glory.

Chandni Chowk in the centre of old Delhi has a mosque, a Jain temple and a Hindu temple. There are people everywhere even at 6 in the morning.

We had a walk around the spice market where most traders sleep and work in their small shops bundling huge quantities of spices in burlap sacks and sew them closed. Different stalls, different spices. The aromas of all the different spices are pungent, you can almost taste them hanging in the air. Skinny young men heave these sacks on trolleys and must be incredibly strong and earn very little for their hard work.

We were ready for a drink, Masala chai, India’s spicy tea. The best is on the street served in little paper cups it was so good we had 2. They even pulled up a trolley for us to sit on and gave us biscuits.

We then went for breakfast. We had a large puri ( big puffy bread) and a bowl of chick pea and potato curry, they came with more if you finished, I had 2 of everything, delicious.

The final journey through all the tiny streets was entertaining dodging bikes, people, cows, trailers laden with goods to return to our starting point. We jumped on the metro back to our hotel. Loved every minute of it, it’s haunting, interesting and strangely beautiful, an unmissable experience.

The following day we were up early for the train from Delhi to Kathgodam in Uttarakhand and then a 4 hour taxi ride to Binsar wildlife reserve and the Khali Estate to a warm welcome with the red tiki on our foreheads, petals on our hair and a bunch of flowers.

The house and now wildlife reserve was the British commissioners house for the region of Almora built in 1863. Our accommodation is round houses in the garden with a view of the mountains. Now we are excited.

We left Koh Yao Noi. We got the fast boat to Krabi then a truck taxi to the bus station in town and onto a mini bus to Surat Thani, a large university town 4 hours away. We booked into a hotel for the night. This is a gateway town for getting to some of the islands like Koh Samui.

The next morning we had a train journey of 5 hours to Prachuap Khiri Khan, a beach resort with 3 white sandy bays and a good small boat fishing industry hence a vast array of amazing fresh seafood. It’s right next door to Myanmar literally on the narrowest part of Thailand where the two countries meet.

The nicest of the three beaches is on a working airforce base where you are allowed on the beaches but you have to sign in and drive through the working base and over the runway. It’s called Manao beach.

There are deckchairs under shelter which you can rent for the day for 50p food and drinks, ice cream all served to you. It’s very laid back and a very quiet lovely beach. Because it’s a ‘Thai’ resort food, drinks and accommodation are inexpensive.

There are dusky spectacled langurs which live on the airforce base and are very sweet and gentle. You can hand feed them fruit and nuts. They open your hands to see if you’re holding anything. Some had babies…we go every morning it’s so lovely.

There is a walking street market with fantastic food

It attracts a lot of Thai people from surrounding areas and even from Bangkok for the Friday and Saturday markets by the seaside. Everyone buys food and then sits on the sea wall on the promenade and eats ( it’s a national obsession) always eating, any time….always hungry.

The temple on the hill is called Chong krajok mountain and is at one end of the promenade. It has 400 steps to the top. You have to pass hundreds of macaques on the way up, most ignore you but some are aggressive and snarly…great view from the top over the whole town.

We are in our last few days and we would definitely come back to Prachuap. It has been great fun and as always amazing food and kind friendly people who have made this trip memorable. We have seen old friends and made a few new ones, travelled over a thousand miles on a small bike. I have read 14 books and now feel fully ready for our journey home…..

A 2 hour flight to Phuket from CM and off to the port for a boat to Koh Yao Noi. It takes 45 minutes in a newish looking boat. On the list it said 300 baht (£7) for speed and 200 baht long tail. Speed it was.

3 big engines on flat calm water. 15 people on board. Almost 60 miles an hour, it flew, smooth and fast past some of Thailands most iconic water landscape. Dense jungly Karste mounds pushing haphazardly out of the sea, bathed in a ghostly haze. Only needs James Bond popping up with his jet pack….

The island is really small. Only one seven 11, a market and a few Thai village shops. A handful of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants. It’s predominantly a Muslim island, there are several mosques and we happen to be right next door to one in our bungalow.

The owner of the bungalow is a charming young woman called Cha. She comes to chat every morning and brings water, fruit and good cheer. 5 times a day they do a call for prayers, even the one at 5am is not a problem. The Iman has a lovely gravelly voice and I find it quite soporific, and go straight back to sleep.

We have friends just arrived on the island, 25 minutes up the coast on a road which is slippery mud, steep inclines and drops, deeply rutted, boulder strewn and so precarious that even the locals don’t like to travel on it! I just close my eyes and hope for the best. Chris is very good on the bike thank goodness! It’s lovely to see friends, we had been counting down the days until they’re arrival and it’s been well worth the drive.

They are staying on a private hillside leading to a beach and in the gardens they have the smallest of the hornbill birds, called oriental pied hornbills. They are everywhere on the island and numerous. So are monitor lizards, monkeys, and an assortment of wildlife. The resort is remote and almost (we got there) inaccessible! It’s very exclusive and gorgeous. Grateful to share it with them. It’s called Paradise and it is…

The boys went scuba diving near Pi Pi Island for the day.

We girls stayed on the beautiful tropical beach with a bottle of Prosecco, lovely

The bungalow we are in is right next to a rubber plantation and surrounded by lush jungle with banana and coconut palms and all sorts of tropical plants. The cicadas, hornbills, insects, birds, geckos all kick off at sunrise and sunset. It’s a rising crescendo sounding like electrical humming then squeaking and chirruping like an eclectic animal orchestra with random soloists joining in, frogs and tokay lizards (which shout their own name and sound half dog, half frog!) and goodness knows what! Layer upon layer of sounds, it’s mesmerising and really quite loud. It goes on for ages twice a day.

It has rained most days. Tropical rainforest rain, heavy with lots of thunder. First comes the wind…We got caught out on the bike and were absolutely drenched in seconds. Lots of ‘ows’ as we were peppered with rain that felt like bullets. It does cool everything down quickly, it can get really steamy.

The island has lots of rubber trees, pineapples and fishing boats, it is very rural. The people fish and some look very poor. There are lots of Burmese working the rubber plantations and the restaurants. The islanders have suffered with the lockdown like many tourist spots. At least they have many natural resources and they all grow vegetables and have chickens. Strangely not many dogs but hundreds of cats and we seem to have the only dogs on the island, 5 dogs which latterly have been sleeping under our bungalow. When the Iman sings so do the dogs..they are very sweet and good natured. The islanders don’t seem to like dogs so if the dogs think you might like them they get really giddy. This one almost takes off with its helicopter tail.

We are leaving on Friday, taking the boat to Krabi and then a bus to Surat Thani where we stay the night. We then travel 5 hours on a train to Prachuap Khiri Khan a Thai beach resort very close to Myanmar to meet up with friends from Chiang Mai. It has been fun.

The flower festival in CM is our favourite event, always the first weekend in February at the end of the cool season. Sadly this year there will be no parade which is our very favourite part. We loved watching all the decorated floats, marching bands, kids, everyone in their National dress in a parade that lasted at least 4 hours and was great fun and a real spectacle. There will still be a beautiful floral display not just in the park where it’s normally held but now in another venue as well near the Town Hall outside the city next to a very large lake. There was no flower festival last year at all so we should be grateful.

We arrived early for the flower festival at the Town Hall it’s on for 15 days. At every event now your vaccination certificates are checked and your temperature taken.

We came back later in the day for the sound and light extravaganza on the lake, fairy lights everywhere.

The original venue, the park inside the city was on for 3 days. We went early again as rain was forecast. There wasn’t a parade but there were beautifully decorated floats outside the park, the floral aroma of millions (literally) of flowers, lingering in the warm still air. The skill shown was outstanding.

Inside the park was just as beautiful, hordes of workers had spent 2 weeks planting and building the tunnels and features. We kept going for sneaky peeks through the netting…

As we were there so early the bonsai, bromeliads and all the other exotic plants were still being judged in the competitions.

Glad we went early. The heavens opened. Coming from Manchester we think we ‘know’ rain but this was biblical in it’s intensity. The noise of the water ever increasing, the black grey sky lit up by lightning and soon after booming thunder vibrating through your body, rolling through the mountains. At least they won’t have to water anything for a while.

We are leaving CM today and heading south. White sands and azure water for the next month, meeting friends, can’t wait.

We’re off on an Elephant hunt. Not a Victorian style hunt but a ‘shower them with love’ hunt. When the pandemic started and Thailand closed down to tourists a lot of the elephant camps had to close so some mahouts walked the elephants back home to their villages, some many miles away, it took them weeks. Many have not returned. About 30 minutes out of CM in Mae Rim north of the city there are a quite a few touristy elephant camps. We have passed them a few times and seen only one elephant. Their deep musty aroma once in your memory is unmistakable.

Animal welfare has improved immensely in CM mostly because of pressure from western tourists. They objected to cages on elephants backs for riding, the hooked stick the mahouts use as control and these things are now better. Not all of Thailand is like this. In the ancient capital Ayutthaya, near Bangkok, we visited a few years ago and they had elephant parades, hooked sticks, cages for riding….

It was all Asian tourists that wanted this, 4 people riding on a cage, asking the mahouts to make the animals do tricks. I wasn’t happy at all.

The best ethical Elephant Camp in Thailand is close to CM and even now has a 2 year waiting list to visit or volunteer (you pay handsomely to volunteer). All 75 elephants are free to roam within her land and the woman who runs it is very famous and admired for her work, her name is Lek Chailert. Would love to visit it’s called Elephant Nature Park. All the resident nellies have been rescued from logging and abusive, sad situations all around Northern Thailand. There are lots of videos of her on YouTube.

It’s normally on the way back from Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest mountain, that we see elephants in a place called Mae Wang. We ask the mahouts if we can take a picture and say hello. The last few years it has been after they have finished with tourist groups, later in the day. We especially like an elephant called Vasi, she’s so sweet.

We drove to Mae Wang, heart of Elephant country. Lying in a valley with a broad flat sandy river meandering under bridges and through densely forested areas. It’s very pretty and pretty wild!

We passed a couple of empty corals fearing the worst. Then a couple of miles further on we could smell them before we saw them. We drove in and were invited in to feed the elephants some bananas. This wasn’t where we were expecting to see them.

It had changed ownership from when we’d last called in there, friendly and professional. They had a coffee shop and restaurant overlooking the river with rafters passing beneath us, great spot and good name. It’s called Coffee with Elephants. Behind the coffee shop was another coral with a mother and calf. Took some sneaky photos.

Further into the mountains our favourite elephant, to our delight, was in residence. So we knocked on the mahouts dormitory door, nothing…. 5 minutes later he turned up on his bike and when asked said yes we could take some pictures. He went and got an enormous bunch of bananas and we got to see Vasi.

We were so happy, my heart melts when I see her. We’re sure she remembers us, maybe wishful thinking on our part, we did have food! If you blow up her bristly muddy trunk she responds with dreamy looking eyes then blows back. If you had a hat on it would be gone. It’s a very joyful game. She likes to touch you and is very playful.

Chris got a full face snotty snorkel kiss, he couldn’t have been happier. Happy, happy. It’s always a real treat to get so close to them, we would have felt really glum if we hadn’t seen her and all the other nellies. It’s always a highlight of our trip.

A few years ago we drove the bike from CM to Lampang. It was a nightmare journey on a busy 3 lane superhighway with double sized trucks thundering past feeling very vulnerable on a small bike. We had found out you could put the bike on the train so enquired at the main train station in CM. It seemed easy. Train leaves at 6.30am, arrive an hour earlier bring your passport. 600 baht for bike and 45 baht each for train fare. We got up at 4.45 drove to station and they said you need your green book which is the log book. We explained it was a rental bike and they said NO cannot. Plan B was either don’t go or take a different route. We decided to take the bike the scenic route. Leaving at 6 it was teeth chatteringly cold as we drove up to the next mountain, Doi Suket. We passed the hot springs, it was tempting to stop! We thought we could stop for a coffee after an hour or so, nowhere was open. We passed a big group of elderly Thais with wobbly push bikes loaded with luggage going camping, the roads so steep their legs were pumping furiously one of them with an actual kitchen sink…

The road was amazing. More twists than a Chubby Checker summer and deserted. It was cold but we pressed on driving up steep hills and deep twisty drops. We eventually found a coffee shop in a coffee growing area. Growers were raking out the freshly harvested beans on big tarpaulins and all by the roadside large low tables were full of coffee beans in their varying stages of drying out.

The unmissable smell of woodsmoke lingered in the air and the smell of roasting coffee tantalising. Warmed by the dark, strong nectar we carried on.

We play ‘what’s that smell’ in the mountains. Dry leaf smells, herbally aromatics, food cooking, medicinal, animal, citrus it changes around every bend. The roads have ochre coloured steep mountain banks with tree roots, bamboo and saplings on the side of every road with deep gulleys to stop the water in the rainy season washing the road away. In these banks are holes, some inhabited with birds, occasionally snakes and spiders mostly funnel webs but sometimes tarantulas.

Chris likes to have a nosey about. He found a tarantula in its nest and when he put a stick just near the hole the spider came out like an angry jack in the box…..made me jump!

We came to a viewpoint and you could see for miles over several mountain ranges as far as Laos, misty mountain tops and valleys just rolling away, endlessly.

It was a 3 hour journey and when we eventually dropped down into the verdant green valley, the vista opened up and the suns warmth penetrated our many layers the heat bouncing off the long open roads.

The valley grew corn and rice, workers in the paddy fields had big bundles of rice plants in their hands which they threw into the water, perfectly positioning the rice like dart players. Big smiles all round.

There was a teak temple in the village, very simple

We found our bungalow accommodation and dropped off our rucksack. It had a perfect view of the big ridge where we were headed to Wat Chaloem Phra Kiet, the temple of the floating pagodas. One of the most impressive temples in Thailand.

We set off across the rice fields and eventually found the temple road. About a third of the way up was a ticket booth and a very friendly thai girl advised us what to do. Her name was Nut who was with her brother Dao visiting from Lampang. We bought a ticket which included a ride up a very steep road in a pick up truck. Chris and Dao sat in the back with 6 visiting friendly monks and we sat in the cab at the front, not allowed to sit with the monks. They drop you off and then there is a 840 metre walk up to the top. If you go, do it in the morning before it gets too hot..it was steps all the way up.

The temple comprises of a golden pagoda, a prayer hall and white stupas that sit precariously on limestone pinnacles like Christmas decorations. Huge gongs and bells rung out, the monks having fun ringing everything, giggling and enthusiastic. Whenever we crossed paths they wanted to chat.

The view from the top was amazing, you could see for miles. We stayed with our new Thai friends who were good fun and spoke good English. The ridge itself is limestone karst, some of the rock is sonorous, if you hit it with metal it rings like a bell.

We headed into the small town and found a noodle soup shop. Tom yam with extra dumplings which was really tasty. We then returned to our room for a shower. Later on, ravenously hungry (it was all the exercise) we went looking for somewhere to eat. It was a disaster, nowhere was open. We drove round and round the small town, the villagers were looking at us suspiciously, almost dragging the kids away as we had been circling like Apaches on a mission! We ended up buying fried chicken and sticky rice off a roadside vendor and returning back to the room. We never imagined you wouldn’t find anywhere to eat in Thailand but there were no tourists and obviously little money. We’d been spoilt by CM.

We slept well, the kind friendly owners brought us coffee at 8. We decided we would take the same road back through the coffee growing area and beautiful mountain roads but leaving later in the morning when it wasn’t as mind numbingly cold. We stopped in a very trendy coffee shop on the way back before returning to CM. It was a 200 km round trip, that night we slept like babies

The air is surprisingly clear, the mountain is in full crystal view. It’s normally this time of year the haze appears from a combination of road pollution and the burning of the fields in the mountains, but it’s not started yet. We decided to go up and over the mountain. The road is beautifully smooth with outrageous cambers and jaw dropping turns. We dodged sleeping dogs on the roads swaying on the little bike beside eye watering, boulder lined vertical drops. Fortunately the road is still quiet, not many tourists or their demonic vehicles, tour buses and local taxis. It’s exhilarating. We pass our once favourite temple half way up

and drive past the blingy main temple on the top. We have visited this temple many times.

Suddenly feeling the chill on the sunless roads, the trees like green giants cutting out any light lining the route up to Bhuping Palace, the Kings residence in CM.

The roads narrow on the approach as we pass the Kings helicopter pad and we stop for a hot coffee outside the palace and let the full adrenaline rush of the journey dissipate. We avoid the palace which we have also visited often and go to the lookout over the city. We are at 1676 metres.

There is a Hmong village a few miles further on. A sign says something in Thai on the road, which we ignore and end up after a short while on a dirt track, they are redoing the road surface. I hate off roading with a passion, Chris is in his element dodging big wagons and road workers with inches to spare, ridged wet craters, no barriers on this road just endless drops to oblivion, AARGH. This road seems suddenly busy with cars, tyres perilously near the edge overtaking concrete mixers and other vehicles on a narrowing road. The turns in the road so sharp there are signs to sound your horn before continuing. Getting too old for this……We arrived at a coffee shop in the village overlooking coffee plants and cherry blossom in a deep valley, trying to drum up the enthusiasm for the journey back. AC/DC springs to mind..Highway to Hell.

The trip back was much easier, hallelujah

The sky is very clear at night. The alignment of the planets, a once in our lifetime occurrence is in full clear view. The next time this happens is in 130 years. Chris took a few pictures. Here are a few shots of the moon and some of the planets. Jupiter with some of its moons all in a line and Saturn. Fabulous to see.

It gets to this point in our travels when we both get a bit a bit bored with standard Thai food twice a day. We were invited with friends to a new Japanese restaurant. It had everything on its menu. Sushi, sashimi and an endless list of foods I had never heard of. It was exquisite.

Now the New Year holidays are over it feels safe to travel further afield on the roads again. The road deaths over the holidays are shocking mostly from drink driving. We are planning a road trip and an overnight stay in Lampang province to see a spectacular temple high in the mountains and enjoy the amazing scenery and roads Northern Thailand has to offer. To be continued…

New year in CM. We went out early for a simple Thai meal and then came back to the balcony at the hotel, loaded with drinks and snacks to enjoy the festivities from our lofty position looking towards the mountain. Fireworks started early, spasmodically, but at midnight the firework display was immense. Huge balls of colour, the sonic bangs slicing through the warm dark night, one after another all over the city, a psychedelic explosive extravaganza. Fantastic.

A trip to the Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden was on the cards and we left early, wearing jackets in the cool morning air. It takes 30 minutes, I get in for free now, I’ll take all the concessions I can get! The park is 6,500 acres of prime forest, the gardens immaculate and the grass manicured like a bowling green, flower beds as far as the eye can see. We head straight to the glass houses which were slightly disappointing compared to previous visits but then nothing is as it was….I think the gardens have been closed until recently but I’m sure it will return to its former glory. Still amazing. My favourite glasshouses are the bromeliad (air plants) and the cacti.

The walkway which is the longest in Thailand follows the tops of the trees with a view of all the surrounding mountains and jungle. It’s named after the Flying Drako Lizard only found in CM. You need a head for heights standing on clear glass and an enormous drop….great to see some of the indigenous Thais, the Akha out and about in their colourful national dress and state of the art mobile phones!

The zoo in CM is at the base of Doi Suthep in the foothills. I know zoos aren’t ‘fashionable’ or very eco but this one was started for all the right reasons many years ago, looking after injured animals from the surrounding jungle and forests. They were looked after by tribal Thais and it got bigger and bigger. The Thai King gave a large chunk of land to the state and it is one of the best zoos I have been to, mainly for its natural surroundings, warmth and huge enclosures for the animals. It’s a great 3-4 hour walk and you can buy food and feed the animals, it all helps. It’s very reasonable (compared to the UK and Europe), £3.50 for 2 of us. My favourites are the binterong, red panda and the fenic fox. I also had a long conversation with a couple of parrots and was attacked by an aggressive pheasant much to Chris’s amusement.

The coffee in Thailand is second to none. It’s grown extensively in the mountains especially in Chiang Rai in the North and coffee shops are everywhere.

An organic coffee costs less than £1, I have become addicted to Iced coffees and have at least 2 a day. There is real skill with the preparation and presentation and we especially like a young guy whose family grow the coffee organically and roast it, he serves it from a roadside hut with a glass of water and a charming likeable manner. Costa and all the other ‘known’ coffee shops could learn a thing or 2 from these guys.

Huay Tung Tao reservoir is about 15 minutes out of town. It is 100 baht to go in as a foreigner or 20 baht as a Thai. I keep trying to tell them I’m Thai but they won’t have it….people fish, there is a zip line if you need an adrenaline boost and long lines of cute reed thatched huts just hanging on the waters edge.

You can have food and drinks brought to you as you dip your feet into the cool waters with a view of the green, lush mountains. You can stay in huts overnight and there are still huge straw animals which have survived the rainy season surprisingly, always good for a photo op, grrr

Travelling in times of covid is tricky as you’ll know if you have been abroad in the last 12 months. Thailand is not easy at the best of times. It took a full day of booking flights and insurance before you could apply for a visa and permission to travel. Booked tests in the UK and hotel for quarantine in Bangkok. Lots of paperwork to do but not impossible

We flew to Doha and then to Bangkok. Getting off the plane the heat haze bounced off the concrete prickling the skin. Different aromas and food smells pervading our nostrils, my tastebuds were twitching in eager anticipation. We’ve arrived. You have to wear a mask everywhere now, it’s still the ‘land of smiles’ but now ‘smiley eyes’ Even the customs guy said ‘welcome’ We were picked up and taken to our quarantine hotel. The traffic in Bangkok is really crazy like a 70’s video game glad I wasn’t driving..we passed the PCR test and stayed in a nice hotel.

We jumped on the sky train the next day to the airport and back to Chiang Mai. Woo hoo.

Little has changed in our small Thai village, things here are fluid anyway but luckily all our favourite places and friends have survived. First things first, iced coffee and food glorious food.

Hotels and condos are all much cheaper some 50% less than they were 2 years ago but that will change as it gets busier. Our hotel is now £125 a month, free coffee and bananas, linen changed and room cleaned weekly. The only problem was a new steak restaurant had opened and they thought that angle grinding, welding and hitting metal at 2-4 in the morning was ok as they were moving in. They are also part of a band who also practiced from 2-5am and they got very drunk and very loud. We decided we couldn’t stay any longer. The owners were devastated as we were but no one would say anything to them. It’s the Thai way, they don’t like or do confrontation so sadly we had no choice, we hadn’t slept properly for 10 days and I was starting to get into full on killer mode! On the plus side we moved to the other side of the village and are now in 3* luxury and exploring new places. It’s £56 a week, not quite blown the budget…

We have rented a new motorbike it works out at £2.25 a day we bought new helmets as the ones the rental company supplied fitted like a bucket on a stick! Now we’re ready to rumble.

Wat Umong, just 10 minutes out of the city, dates back to the 13th Century and consists of a range of old ruins, meditation tunnels and a large unpainted stupa. The temple complex also has a monastery so there are always monks walking almost gliding around, circling the stupa in prayer. It’s the most peaceful and tranquil of places, with a huge shimmering lake set in a forest full of chirruping birds and wildlife. Bliss.

We have walked the monks trail to our favourite forest temple half way up the mountain, Doi Suthep which overlooks the city, it’s called Wat Palad. It takes about an hour to walk up. When we first found the ‘secret’ temple 8 years ago it was slightly rundown and overgrown and lovely for it. It’s now had a lot of work done and for me it’s losing its charm. As we were leaving about 8 tour buses arrived, can’t really call it the ‘secret temple’ anymore…things change, progress apparently!

The walking markets are quiet, great for us but not the stall holders.

Also visited Jing Jai farmers market.

The temple we visit in the mountains is completed and looks fabulous.

We have done our favourite tour on the motorbike drinking in the Thai sounds and life just cruising around the mountain. We bought sweet oranges off the roadside vendors 60p a kilo which are now in season and we are absolutely delighted to be back.

Happy New Year or as they would say here ‘sawadee pe mi’ 🙏