Thailand 2025. Day 32. I am back home!

I had a restless night, no doubt already in travel mood, so by 7 am I was out walking to the skytrain (what I have been calling the metro, although it is above ground). The metro was packed, which made me and my backpack very unpopular. But it was a short ride of only seven stations. I then transferred to the rail link to the airport, which only took half an hour. 

Fortunately Cathay Pacific didn't give me any pushback when I checked in, and armed with my boarding passes I found a place to have breakfast and try to spend my last bahts (I ended coming back with the equivalent of US$ 20, as I did with Indonesian, Sri Lankan, and Indian paper money).

The flights were mostly on time. It took two hours to go from Bangkok to Hong Kong, a three-hour layover, and then 12 hours to go from Hong Kong to San Francisco. All along I had been worried that someone was going to look at my passport picture and say "Hey, you are not the same person as the hirsute guy in the passport", but it never happened. Mostly I scanned my passport and then faced a camera that did some face recognition and approved me. Even entering the US it took me less than 5 minutes to go through immigration!

I took BART from the airport to Pleasanton, where I had to wait for one and a half hours for DJ, who came to pick me up after a long day at work and a two-hour lacrosse practice with the brand new Turlock City League! He then brought me home, where I arrived after nearly 24 hours of traveling. It was 11 pm, but I was wide awake because I have 12 hours of jet lag to adjust to.

So I am home, safe and sound, ready to tackle the problems of daily life. Thanks for worrying about me and I will get back on blog writing mode next time I go gallivanting around the world.

Finis

Thailand 2025. Day 31. My last day in Bangkok

I have decided to break through the urban ceiling by devoting today Sunday to stroll in the equivalent to Golden Gate Park. Here it is formed by two parks adjacent to each other: Chatuchak Park and the new Queen Sirikit Park. The latter was rededicated a year ago, on the birthday of Her Majesty, as an environmental sustainability demonstration park. I was there by 9:30 am, so I caught a good deal of the morning joggers and sport enthusiasts, which a couple of hours later were replaced by the bird watchers and the bicycle riders, and by early afternoon the young couples.

The parks are beautifully tended and have many contrasting mini-landscapes, including a couple of lakes, a meandering stream with peripheral islands, all sorts of flower beds, and a part dedicated to demonstrate irrigation and other agricultural practices.

An important feature of the park complex is a Center for Environmental Education, which in the lobby has a very interesting sets of displays about the environmental issues Bangkok is facing today. It was very interesting to me because these are the types of issues I cover in my Environmental Geology class, which meets for the first time in four days!

To start with, they acknowledge that Bangkok, with 10 million inhabitants, is short in green spaces, with an average of 5 m2 per inhabitant, when the desirable goal is 10 m2 per inhabitant. The municipal authorities are busy looking for land that can be bought and repurposed as parks, and for private partnerships to increase the number of trees and grassy spaces.

Being by the banks of a river, Bangkok has been flooded several times (five times in the last 20 years). The flood of 2011 was particularly severe and affected about 50% of the surface area of the city. The problem is that Bangkok is a coastal city, with gentle slopes that do not promote efficient surface drainage. They are also struggling with issues of subsidence because of the rapid growth of the city and groundwater extraction.

Water supply is another big issue, and they are actively pursuing water conservation programs and water recycling technologies. According to the panel, wastewater is being generated at the rate of nearly 200 liters per day per person, which puts water consumption at slightly more than that. That is a high rate taking in consideration the fact that public water use for parks is likley to be low.

Municipal solid waste is another big issue, with plastic waste being generated in huge amounts every day. They are trying to promote reduce, reuse, and recycle, as well as diverting some of the waste to waste-to-energy power plants (but landfill is still the main tool used to manage solid waste).

Energy generation is still dominated by oil-fueled plants, although the country has considerable hydroelectric resources. Transportation is still based on diesel and gasoline, although from time to time you see a Chinese electric vehicle. Air pollution issues can be significant. Traffic jams take away an hour per person every day. The metro system is somehow limited and not very cheap, with charges varying depending on the distance traveled.

Somehow depressed by the challenges that a big city faces (but inspired to get my class going in just a few days), I took another long walk through the park before coming back to my hotel to prepare for a day of travel tomorrow. I am departing at 12:30 pm from BKK to Hong Kong (a 3 hours flight), a 3 hour layover, and then a 13 hour flight from Hong Kong to SFO. 

Thailand 2025. Day 30. My second day in Bangkok

Bangkok has an enormous concentration of Chinese and accordingly one of the largest and most colorful Chinatowns in the world. There is a whole boulevard that has been taken by Chinese shops and temples, and this boulevard curves in and out to simulate the form of a dragon. I started my day by walking along Chinatown, fascinated as always by the variety and curiosity of objects that are offered for sale in the small shops that line the street.

After a considerable wait I took the next round of the tourist bus all the way to the Royal Palace and the National Museum. I felt no need to pay the fee to visit the Royal Palace, which seems to be covered in gold leaf down to the smallest corner. Currently the king is part of the Chakri Dynasty, which started in 1782. The names of the monarchs are quite complex, but they have simplified it by calling themselves Rama. I believe the current king, who ascended in 2016, is Rama X. The monarchy started as absolute as they come. King Rama IV (Yul Briner in the King and I) was a reformer that opened Siam to Western culture. His son Rama V and grandson Rama VI did much to modernize Siam, slowly introducing the role of cabinet ministers. Eventually, in 1932, a quiet revolution took place and the the monarchy was transformed into a constitutional monarchy, where an assembly draws legislation that the king, as Head of State, approves. The executive power is under the hands of a Prime Minister. But to judge from what you see around, the king and queen are immensely popular and their photos are displayed all over the place.

The National Museum was a good mix of displays that walked you through the prehistory of Thailand, and the muddled growth of independent kingdoms from the 6th through the 18th centuries. I enjoyed seeing the aerial photographs of impressive medieval sites, a couple of which I had actually visited. There is an overwhelming number of Buddha statues of all conceivable sizes and styles, as well as multi-headed cobras, fantastic animals, and representations of the elephant god Ganesh. A good two thirds of the museum are devoted to display objects from the royal house, including enormous funerary carts covered in gold leaf, saddles for the royal elephants, vestments, weapons, and other impressive royal regalia. I spent about one and a half hours in the museum, and then had to wait another half hour for my ride to come along.

My last hurrah was a stop at one of the mega-malls, which from the outside looks like a giant glass box, and in the inside is six floors of top notch brand stores. The ground floor is an immense food market, where one can find all imaginable Thai dishes offered in the way a street market would offer them (but in a much more ritzy environment). I did my visit in much less than an hour, and then wasted another hour waiting for my ride because traffic congestion was fierce. I am pretty much done with the city now, so tomorrow I will have to look for a quiet alternative for my last day in Bangkok.

Thailand 2025. Day 29. My first full day in Bangkok

My first full day as a tourist in Bangkok was pretty interesting. I took the metro to downtown (a very poorly defined downtown) and bought a two-day pass for the hop-on hop-off tourist bus, to which the company added an additional day as a bonus, so now I have a way to move from point to point inside the city.

First I did the whole circuit, which took about 2 hours, and confirmed my opinion that this is a huge city, mostly built for cars and scooters. The interesting stuff seems to be inside warrens of small streets, so it is hard to see from the bus. The narrative tells you about this temple or that palace, but they are buried amidst the tall buildings.

The formal city of Bangkok is on the left bank of the Chao Phraya River, but the megalopolis extends for a long distance across both banks. The views from the river crossings are very impressive.

After the circuit I stepped down from the bus to visit Chulalongkorn University, which is the main university of Thailand and the one all students aspire to be accepted to (there are dozens of other universities, of course). It was a very handsome campus with a big grass-covered quadrangle that is a big relief to the eyes. Then I had to hustle to catch the next bus. In theory the buses come very 30 minutes, but with the traffic the schedule becomes a bit unpredictable. I know because after I stepped down for my second foray the following bus took nearly an hour to arrive.

My second stop was at the Temple of the Gold Buddha, famous because it hosts a solid gold Buddha that is invaluable. It was hidden under plaster that had been gilded but because of its great weight it slipped when it it was being moved, cracked, and the inner gold statue was discovered.

By then I was flagging, so I just enjoyed the rest of the ride, promising to myself that tomorrow I will visit the National Museum and one of the Mega Malls.

I got off the bus at the site of one of the night markets famous for being party central during the night. It was too early for the action to begin, but I thought I could take a look at the preparations while walking to the metro for the ride back. I had not gone more than a few steps when I was accosted by a tout, which in typical friendly fashion inquired where I was from and what was my name, and then grabbed me by the elbow to come see his bar. We walked through the maze of streets where the vendors were unpacking their wares until we got to a dingy stair that led to the bar, where there was a stage with a bevy of beauties who were ready to give me a special Thai massage to make time for the bar to be able to start serving drinks at 5 pm. Somehow I extricated myself promising to come back with my friends the following evening. And here I was thinking that my white hair protected me against all evil!     

Thailand 2025. Day 28. My arrival to Bangkok

All that relaxation I had achieved by driving through rural Thailand evaporated in a big fiery explosion as soon as I reached Bangkok! This is an enormous city where the cityscape of skyscrapers extends as far as the eye can see. Much more like Los Angeles than San Francisco, and like LA it has an incredible maze of highways, bridges, overpasses, elevated causeways, and toll booths. Unfortunately the maze is too tight for the Google Map Lady, who from time to time forgot to mention a key intersection such that I took a left when I should have taken a right. Everyone of these screwups dumped me in heavy street traffic that I had to navigate through several turns before I could get back on the speedway to the airport (and had to paid the toll again, grhh).

Eventually I made it to the airport, where I wasted another half hour looking for a gas station, and returned my trusty steed. I am back at being a pedestrian (:

The way to move between the airport and the city is the 65 baht (US$ 2) fast train, but from the arrival station you are on your own figuring out how to access the metro. Fortunately the rail ends at the green line, which is the one I needed to get to my hotel. In Google Maps it looked like a short walk from station N10, but in reality it was a good kilometer under the sun, lugging my backpack. Unfortunately I will have to walk this one kilometer back and forth to the metro, because once I am at the station I can go anywhere in the city.

For the first day I limited my activities to a walk through my neighborhood, where I was hoping to soak in some of the local color. For the most part, however, I had to deal with a jungle of steel and glass behemoths, which reminded me of walking through Hong Kong or the San Francisco financial district after hours. Clearly there is a lot of money in Bangkok, and the corporations have spared no expense building their corporate palaces. 

I did follow a small canal boarded with simple dwellings. Most of them were just a door on an uninterrupted wall, but some had taken the time to place some planting pots along the wall, as if creating their own small gardens. Gardens is something I think this city desperately needs.

Thailand 2025. Day 27. The end of the road trip

Well, today is the last day of my road trip and I wasted it away by driving 300 km to the environs of Bangkok to be close enough to BKK to deliver the car tomorrow, while still enjoying the calm of the countryside. Most of the day I simply drove through ag fields and irrigation canals, which made me feel just like at home.

I found a very comfortable hotel out in the sticks, where I have to do the cleaning up of all the stuff I have accumulated while I had a car: plastic bags, wrappers, five bottles of water, munchies, etc. After I return the car I have to take the intercity rail to Bangkok and get in the metro, so I cannot be carrying much useless stuff in plastic bags.

Today in the afternoon I want to relax, because once I hit the big city I am sure my three days there are going to be pretty hectic. But first I need to find a barber because I am looking like a wildman ... Well, I did find a barbershop with two lady stylists. The two youngsters ahead of me had big heads of hair and were clearly going for the mop look, so my girl seemed to enjoy the challenge of engineering a close hair cut and a beard trim. She did a great job, but on final inspection decided to tip my head back and gave me shave! She was so pleased I had no heart to burst her bubble, but I feel naked without my beard. Oh well, it will grow back and I will have some stubble once I land in California.

Thailand 2025. Day 26. Thailand's archaeology

Lots of driving today as I headed north, with the goal of visiting a couple of significant archaeologic sites. Throughout central Thailand there is evidence of prehistoric human settlements, and the historic record starts with the expansion of the Khmer empire from Cambodia to the north (circa 7th century AD). By the 12th century there were major military outposts such as Kamphaeng Phet on the banks of the River Ping, and Sukhothai on the flood plain of the Yom River. These outposts were likely to keep the border stable against incursions from the folks in Burma, but eventually they became powerful entities in their own and sometime in the 13th century the princes declared themselves independent from the Khmer empire, in what is called the Sukhothai period of Thai history, which many consider as the birth of the Kingdom of Siam.

Kamphaeng Phat is found among the woods, which may not have been there when the site was originally established but nowadays give it a certain mystic quality. Most of what can be seen are temples built with laterite bricks, but in some of them you can still see the stucco that covered the brick work, which when painted most have given the site a very impressive aspect. I am sure that many of the low structures seen between the temples were dedicated to the civil administration of the site, with the people living in thatch roof structures in the surrounding area, just as was the case in Mesoamerican sites. 

Sukhothai is beautifully developed with many ponds and green areas, and given its serenity I would not hesitate to call it one of the great religious centers of the world. It is a very large site, so I saw much of it from the hop-on hop-off tram ride I bought (in retrospect, perhaps it would have been better if I had rented a bike to move around it). Once again, what is exposed are laterite brick structures (walls, stupas, colonnades) with a few monumental sculptures of Lord Buddha (the main statues have been removed to the museum in Bangkok). Unfortunately the local museum closed early and I couldn't stroll through it.

Tomorrow I need to head south and get close to Bangkok. I will try to make my approach to the big city slowly and stopping here and there to visit sites of interest. For example, I forgot to say that my first stop today was at one of the many caves, Hup Pa Tat, under the recommendation of my hotel host. The cave part was very short, but it led you to the inside of a deep and very wide sinkhole where a moist microclimate had led to the development of a luxuriant vegetation that climbed toward the light in the form of incredibly tall trees and shrubs that clung to great height on the steep walls of the sinkhole. It was an awesome sight. 

Thailand 2025. Day 25. The Mon love bridge

I have painted myself into a corner, for the farther north I go the more jagged the mountains and the fewer the roads. After looking at my very few options I decided to go back the way I had come and then cut to the east, toward the lowlands.

But before heading back I had a moment of cultural experience at the Mon Bridge. This is a real trestle bridge, about 500 m long, that crosses one of the branches of a large reservoir to join a small Thai town on one end with a Mon town on the other end. The bridge looks a bit rickety and has had to be rebuilt a couple of times. The locals have bestowed on it the magic of being a love bridge and a friendship bridge between the Thai and the Mon. Lots of couples come here, dress in red and white sarongs, get their faces painted, and then cross the bridge to earn merits and strengthen their love. There are many kids dressed in colorful sarongs, who balance on their heads stacks of aluminum pots (all tied together) to pose among the happy couples. The shores of the reservoir are occupied by many cabins and house boats, so one can make a week out of the visit with the whole family.

The drive was long and pretty and eventually I reached the lowlands, which are a rich agricultural area with lots of sugar cane plantings. I had never thought of Thailand as a sugar producer, so imagine my surprise when I found out that it is the second largest sugar exporter in the world!

I am back heading north because there are a couple of historical parks I would like to visit, but I am going to have to sleep on that plan because I only have two more days of car rental to explore central Thailand. Today is Monday August 11, and I have August 12 and 13 to do what I want, but by mid-morning on Thursday August 14 I have to be back at Bangkok International Airport (BKK) to return the car.

At mid-afternoon I reached a convenient place to spend the night, and to my great delight saw there was one of those enormous night markets going very close to the resort. I went there to admire the many stalls and salivate at the delicious offerings of food, which included fried maggots, quartered frogs, pig tails, all sorts of sea food, and the best produce ever. Ah, if I only had a kitchen. Fortunately there was also plenty of cooked food, so I was able to put together a meal to take to the resort that included a yummy salad with a black 100-year old egg, noodles with sea food, a sausage, and a tray of duck neck pieces. I sure am going to miss the Thai markets.

Thailand 2025. Day 24. Visit to a part of the Death Railway

I ended pursuing further my education on the Thai-Burma railroad (the Death Railway) by visiting the Hellfire Pass memorial museum and historical park. Hellfire was close to the top of the middle of the route between the two end stations, and was chosen by the Australians to erect a memorial monument to all the prisoners of war who toiled under inhuman conditions to construct the railway.

To get there I had to go about 100 km into the mountains, where I found a very modern facility with an interpretive center and all sorts of young people preparing the visitors for either the 500 m walk along the railbed to the monument itself, or the extended 2.5 km walk along the alignment to see the cuts made by the indentured labor, the places where embankments as tall as 10 m were built, and the deeper stretches that were covered by trestle bridges (now long gone). The whole alignment had been abandoned after the end of the war and had been reconquered by the jungle. It was not until the 1970's that a group of Australian volunteers conducted a survey of the area, located the old alignment, and the coordinated effort was made to expose 3 km of the route for visitors to walk as a living history lesson.

The cuts are the most spectacular portion of the recovered route. They were open by drilling dynamite holes with hand methods (hammer and bar bits), where one man would wield a 7 pound hammer to hit a bar held by another man, who would rotate it after every impact to make the hole advance. The railroad was built between October 1942 and December 1943, during which time the indentured crews built 600 km of track. The cuts, or passes, were a few hundred meters long and up to 25 meters deep, and even though they were cut through recrystallized limestones they were the nightmare of the construction crews. From August to October 1943 the Japanese engineers, pressured by their high command, established the Speedo work regime, under which the crews had to labor at the cuts for 16 hours, and then walk several kilometers in the dark to their encampments only to start all over again the following day. And all this while the Japanese overseers kept repeating the mantra of Speedo! Speedo!

The embankments were another Herculean task, where rock chips and soil had to be hauled to the low points of the route to backfill them to form embankments up to 10 m high. The broken rock from the cuts was often hauled to the low spots for this purpose.

There were many dozen wood trestle bridges built across the largest spans, and one steel bridge (the Bridge over the River Kwai). For the wood bridges the lumber had to be cut and transported to the bridge site, sometimes with the help of elephants, foundations had to be built, and then the trestle constructed. One of the bridges collapsed three times during construction and was dubbed the Playing Cards Bridge.

Interestingly, the Australian POWs are remembered for their good humor and camaraderie. Everyone had a mate, and although many of them died from emaciation or disease the story tells us that nobody died alone, with a mate always by their side.

Besides learning about the ordeal of the POWs it was good for me to go for a 5 kilometer walk through beautiful forest and with fabulous views of the valley of the River Kwai. The mountains I see in the horizon are Myanmar!

Moving farther north into the mountains I stopped at a hot spring that is obviously very popular among the locals because there were hundreds of people there. Silly me but I don't have a bathing suit and had to content myself with dipping my feet in the hot water of the pool where at least 20 people were enjoying a full bath. There are two hot water pools, right on the banks of a cold water river, so clearly the thing to do is to get all warm at the hot spring and then jump into the cold water to cool down. Fun!

I drove past a couple of large reservoirs and any number of national parks. So far I have not been quite convinced that a visit to a national park is a good investment of time or money. All of them seem to have a waterfall, but there is precious little information about other trails worth visiting. I will have to try next time I hit one in the early morning.

Thailand 2025. Day 23. Bridge over the River Kwai

A comparatively short drive of 150 km brought me to the River Kwai, where the infamous bridge was once built. Much to my surprise the location is a hot tourist destination with the traditional assortment of hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. The Bridge over the River Kwai was really two bridges built between 1942 and 1943. One was the wooden trestle bridge depicted in the movie, whereas the other was a concrete piers and steel arched trusses built for the Thai-Burma railway (aka The Death Railway). Why a bridge over the River Kwai? I pursued this question by visiting the World War II museum near the bridge.

The Japanese took over northern China and Southeast Asia in a remarkably short time, but were stopped in southern China by the army of Chiang Kai Sek, and in the border between Burma and India by the English army. Not being able to supply the attack on India from China, the Japanese started by supplying that effort through shipping from Singapore to Rangoon (Burma's main river port, now called Yangon) through the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, but that route was soon compromised by naval warfare. Then they came up with the idea of supplying the Indian war front by land from Bangkok through Thailand and coastal Burma to Rangoon through a railway. The railway would have to cross the mountains of central Thailand and had to be built by hand since heavy equipment could not be moved into the remote location. The railway was built between 1942 and 1943 with 60,000 POW "workers" (mostly British, Dutch, Australian, New Zealanders, and a few Americans) and 200,000 "hired" laborers from Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia. Working conditions were miserable, malnutrition and disease were rampant, and the death rate was above 20%, which amply justifies the moniker of Death Railway. 

The railway Bridge over the River Kwai opened in December of 1943 and operated until 1945, when it was destroyed by bombing. The wooden trusses bridge collapsed on a couple of occasions in the same time period.

After Japan surrendered in late 1945 the line was interrupted between Thailand and Burma. Myanmar decided to dismantle their half of the railway, but the Thai government took over their portion of the line, which continues to operate to this day. In fact, tourists crossing the bridge are warned that if the train comes they will need to clear the tracks, as it happened while I was having  lunch at one of the riverside cafes. 

Thailand 2025. Day 22. Starting on my way north

My muse seems to have abandoned me and I keep forgetting the little details that show I am in a completely different country. Yesterday morning, for example, I was drinking a cup of coffee and looking out of my second floor balcony at the narrow street that climbed up to the guesthouse when I saw a group of mendicant monks, neatly walking uphill on a file and carrying baskets nestled in the ample folds of their rust colored habits, who were stopping at each of the houses to collect the offers of food that the homeowners had for them on small folding tables. I was too far to see exactly what the offers were, but they looked like packets of rice and colorful fruit. I imagine the monks visit this street on fixed days and times because the homeowners all seemed to be prepared and waiting at their doors.

When I mentioned the undeveloped bays I visited in the afternoon I forgot to mention that there were no people but the shores were home to several bands of monkeys. They were medium size monkeys with long tails but, alas, like all other Asian and African monkeys they do not hang on the trees by their tails (this behavior is only seen in American monkeys), instead preferring to seat on the middle of the road or forage through the forest floor.

I am now on my way north, driving out of the southern peninsula into central Thailand, where I will spend the next five days. To break the monotony of the long drive I stopped at some hot springs, where a minimal development effort had been done in terms of a few shops, a massage parlor and, after a walk of 500 m, a concrete trough with tile sides that had been made so the visitors can sit and put their feet in the hot water (similar to a Japanese onsen foot bath). Fittingly, the only other people there were two couples of Japanese tourists.

The weather has been good, with pretty substantial squalls during the late afternoon and evening, which I have enjoyed inside the dryness of my car or my comfortable hotel rooms.

Thailand 2025. Day 21. Back to the east coast

Today I Ieft the west coast and cut across the flatland to the east coast. In the distance I could see small hills of limestone sticking out of the surrounding plains, but for the most part the landscape was quite monotonous. Irvan will be pained to learn that a lot of this flatland is being developed as palm oil farms, although most of the plantations seem to be quite recently planted. I recall seeing vast palm oil plantations in Malaysia, which 20 years ago looked like an old and mature palm forest, and now Thailand seems to be following on the footsteps of its southern neighbor.

Once I got to the east coast I enjoyed the visit to several bays. They are peaceful and beautiful, and I am surprised to see they are not really developed. Surprising in a country that is so appealing to expats and digital nomads. For example, I would have expected to see many sailboats gliding through these picturesque bays, but I saw none at all. May Thailand preserve this natural beauty for many years to come. 

Thailand 2025. Day 20. Phuket and Phang Nga Bay

Back on the road at an early hour, without a clear idea of what I want to accomplish today. I think I should get to Phuket Island, and from there turn around and head back north. 

After about 100 km I crossed the bridge that joins Phuket to the mainland, and found a fairly developed area that reminded me a lot of the San Francisco Peninsula. The island has many attractive bays and beaches, and I would not hesitate to call it the hub of tourism in southern Thailand. There are all sorts of resorts and fancy restaurants, plus plenty of offers for boat cruises in the Phang Nga Bay, diving, zip lines, and all the other things that tourists like to do when they are by the beach. Old Town Phuket is a regular tourist trap full of color and enticing displays.

A boat cruise in Phang Nga Bay was really attractive to me, because the bay is dotted by limestone towers that form phantom-like craggy islands that boats can weave through. However, I would have to stay two nights in Phuket and pay more than US$ 100 and that seemed just a bit too much. Instead I booked a stay near the apex of Phang Nga Bay, hoping that I could get a better deal at a more rural location, but the good rates are reserved to groups of 8 people, and being a solo traveler I cannot take advantage of group rates. Lástima :(

Thailand 2025. Day 19. Moving west to the coast of the Andaman Sea

I left Chumphon early in the morning, and started on the 300 km trek across Thailand, from east to west, to get to the west coast. I feel a bit disappointed that the trip has now evolved into a simple road trip from A to B. There are distractions along the way, but the road signs are so poor that I have to think twice about deviating from the main road to go see a waterfall that I might never find. There are of course any number of temples, but by now I have visited enough to make me an honorary Buddhist. Now, as I move south I am getting closer to the international border with Malaysia, which is a Muslim country, so I am beginning to see mosques here and there. Obviously some of the folks from Malaysia have "diffused" into Thailand.

My goal was to reach the Andaman Sea, so I made a reservation at a home stay shortly after the road started paralleling the coast. My host was a young surfer dude who had moved from the mountains of Chiang Mai to be at the coast, and who built three rooms on the second floor of his house for fellow surfers to stay at. The room had a futon in it, a fan, and little else. Because I didn't get a chair or a table I skipped writing the day's reflections right then and there.

I only had to cross the highway to be at the shore, A belt of conifers provides some shade and then you go straight into the beach, which is warm, clean, and beautiful. The breakers were really small, however, so I later learnt that my surfer friend has to go toward the rockheads at the sides of the bay to do his surfing. 

I had a delicious dinner of a giant fish braised in lemon grass stock, which I honored by not leaving anything but bones and a few sprigs of cilantro behind.

The Andaman Sea gets its name from the Andaman Islands, which if memory serves are the northernmost islands of the Indonesian Archipelago. The shores of the Andaman Sea were hard hit by the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, which caused much destruction in this part of Thailand. As in other of the places I visited, the recovery of the vegetation and the people has been truly spectacular, although the inhabitants are aware that such an event could be repeated in the  future.

Thailand 2025. Day 18. Moving south along the tail end of Thailand

I left Cha-Am early but didn't get very far because I got to the town of Hua Hin and stopped to look at their water front. There is a royal palace here (the royals have palaces distributed all over the country) and around it is a comfortable modern neighborhood with a pleasant coastal park. In the other direction there is a commercial area where one can buy all that is needed to have a good day at the beach.

I am trying not to hurry down the highway, even though today I have the plan of covering 400 km (in retrospect, it was too long a distance; 300 km would have been better), so as I drive I am keeping my eyes open for places to stop. One of them is a small massif of limestone by the coast, which has been designated as the Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park, whose main attraction are a number of caves. The main one is the Phraya Nakhon Cave, which is up on the cliff and offers inside views of a series of sinkholes formed when the roofs of very tall caverns collapsed in. To get there you either follow a mountain trail 800 m long, or you take a boat that ferries you around the massif and drops you off at the base of the cliff. From here you walk up a series of very steep stone steps for a distance of 400 m. There are all sorts of signs suggesting a careful evaluation of your physical condition, which I foolishly ignored. 

It was a brutal hike. The temperature was balmy but I sweated like the proverbial pig and had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other as I negotiated the 1,000 stone steps. I was not the only one huffing and puffing but that is a very weak consolation. Eventually I got to the rim of the first sinkhole and was really impressed by the scale and beauty of the steep-sided depression, whose flanks have been colonized by all sorts of bright green vegetation. The second sinkhole is just as impressive and an immense tree has grown within it and soars high toward the sun that pours in from the collapse opening at least 100 m above the level of the ground. The third sinkhole is smaller and darker, but one of the kings ordered a temple erected within it so it makes for a very interesting composition.

By the time I got back I was drenched ins sweat and thirsty for a cold beer. Rats! They don't sell alcohol inside the national parks :(

I promptly got on the boat, landed in the main portal, got in my car, and rushed out of the national park in time to stop at a store and buy a cold beer just before the 2 to 5 pm suspension of alcohol beverages.

My final stop was at the Khao Chong Krachok bay, which is a super cool bay with a great waterfront and a lively town supporting it with all sorts of shops and restaurants. Perhaps on the way back I will plan to spend a night here to enjoy the vibes.

By then I had been moving too slowly and figured I still had 200 km to go to get to my planned overnight at Chumphon so I better do some steady driving. I am still by the Gulf of Thailand, but tomorrow will cut to the west to get close to Myanmar and from there drop to the coast of the Andaman Sea, on the west side of the skinny tail of Thailand.

Thailand 2025. Day 17. The beach and the nearby hills

Bright and early in the morning I went for a walk along the beach. It is a very nice beach, with a strand shaded by pine trees, seating for a very large crowd, and all sorts of amusement opportunities for tourists. As it happens this is not the tourist season, so the facilities seem oversized for the few of us walking the beach. Unfortunately I am not much of a beach comber so after going for a kilometer I headed back to my little car. 

I drove parallel to the beach for a few kilometers, admiring some of the big resort hotels, but then was kicked by construction to the main highway, which I followed to the south until I reached the Rajabhakti Park, a monument to the seven very important kings of Thai history, who are represented with angry faces in seven enormous bronze statues. Nearby I walked along the shaded shore of a small reservoir that led me to a coastal monastery and a fishermen's cove. All very quaint.

From there I headed west into the hills, which are a much tamer version of their cousins in the north, but nonetheless very green and pretty. Eventually I made it to the Kaeng Krachan National Park, one of the jewels of the national park system, well known among birdwatchers and butterfly enthusiasts. The core of the 3,000 square kilometers park is a wildlife preserve where elephants, tigers, gibbons, bears, and all sorts of large birds can live protected lives (alas, I saw but a few butterflies during my visit, probably because I stuck to paved roads).

I took another stroll along the beach when I got back home, and had a delicious  dinner of papaya salad with shrimp and a pan-fried fish with Thai spices. It was way too much for a single meal, so I will have the rest of the fish for lunch tomorrow.

Thailand 2025. Day 16. Arrival to Bangkok and the Gulf of Thailand

Travel days are not very exciting, particularly when your flight leaves in the early afternoon. That cuts the day in half, so you cannot really enjoy the morning. We did have breakfast together, but after that it was time to checkout of the hotel, say goodbye, and head for the airport. The wait was long and boring, the flight was uneventful, and the only thrilling part started with finding the auto rental booths, renting the car (a Toyota sedan), and navigating out of the airport. I wanted to get out of Bangkok as soon as possible, but that is easier said than done because the urban tentacles extend at least 50 km away from the city in all directions. I had to take a toll road, in which I successfully managed to chose the right lanes to do manual payment, and slowly got up to speed on the left-hand traffic. The roads here in Thailand are very good and the drivers are not as insane as in other of the countries I have recently visited so I had no problem adjusting to the flow.

For the next few days I will be in southern Thailand, where the main attraction are the beaches. I am going to have to force myself to take it easy and relax. My first stop is at the Cha-Am beach, on the Gulf of Thailand. I chose it at random as being the closest beach area to the airport, but even then it was 165 km away, so I got here after dark. It has a nice tropical sense to it.

Thailand 2025. Day 15. Rest day in Chiang Mai

A full day to prepare to travel forward ends being way too long. Last night my hotel room looked like a Chinese laundry, with all clothes hanging from every available protrusion to get the accumulated dampness out of them, but by the morning they were ready to be rolled and put inside their plastic bags and then stuffed in the back pack, which would take less than 10 minutes. My buddies Karen and Pat have a harder task because they have been buying all sorts of souvenirs and now feel they need to buy an additional piece of luggage to fit in all their purchases

Leaving them to it, I got on my bike and headed toward the river east of downtown. On the way I visited a very old temple, Wat Lok, and parallel to the river the flower market, which happens to be the front of the overall market district where I spent a delightful hour wandering through all sorts of stalls.

I then followed the bank of the river to the south until I got out of the city and into the surrounding countryside. The sun was shining and I was not in any hurry, so I enjoyed meandering along the levee road and looking at small riverside communities. Several of these communities keep fish farms along the margins of the river and their lives appear to unfold with little effort.

I caught sight of a detour that promised to take me to a wood carving village, only four kilometers away. OMG, the town seems to be an endless row of workshop fronts displaying the most amazing figure carvings and wood furniture. My favorite was a shop that had dozens of large elephants (maybe half of real size) and rhinoceros. I need to let World Market know about this village, so they can buy entire containers with these exquisite carvings.

On the way back to town I stopped at a mall to use the bathroom, and was able to ascertain that malls are the same the world over.

Tonight I get to say goodbye to my young and adventurous travel companions. They have been so sweet, adopting me as an old uncle and always attentive to provide a helping hand or shoulder. Pat is an experienced rider, so for the last ten days he took point on all our adventures. Together with Karen they did a lot of the planning so I was able to acquiesce and follow their lead. It has been a real privilege spending time with them. 

Thailand 2025. Day 14. We made it to Chiang Mai

Well, we made it. It was a long riding day (for us) with 190 km to cover, but we started early under a light drizzle. Our assumption was that the rain would hold over the morning but, alas, that was not true. We did have to break out the ponchos but had nothing like the blinding rain of yesterday, and by the time we came out of the mountains, about half way of the day's route, the weather turned balmy and we shed our protective covers.

Dry roads are also warm roads, to which we would have to add increased traffic, so with 50 km to go we started yearning for the mountains we had left behind. Eventually we got caught in Chiang Mai traffic but by 2:30 pm we made it to our hotel, with one day to spare for washing clothes and airing our damp backpacks. Tomorrow we have errands to run, but for today we can relax and celebrate a successful cruise through the mountains of northern Thailand. 

Thailand 2025. Day 13. Will this drenching rain ever quit?

Tonight's will be a very short entry because I am running out of ways to convey that riding a motorcycle under pouring rain is the pits. The rain today was sporadic but, on a scale of 1 to 10, there were times that it dumped on us with an intensity of 12! You were pretty much blind, and in spite of the poncho you could feel the water trickling into your neck, chest, and all the way down to your drawers. Talk about the WBMC!

To add insult to injury a car passed me as I was going through a puddle and sprayed me with dirty water from helmet to boots. I hope he reincarnates as a slug!

We have not had many mishaps during this trip, although Pat got a flat tire yesterday (to our good fortune it happened in town, just a few hundred meters from a tire repair shop), and my starter stopped working today (but I can kick start the bike). 

So all things considered we are doing well. Today we had to ride hard because we were 350 km from Chiang Mai and we had to cover at least 160 km today. That will give us two days to get to Chiang Mai, with just enough time to return the bikes and catch our connections to our next destinations on the third day. Clearly we have not left ourselves enough of a margin of safety so let us hope no further trees fall across our path. 

Thailand 2025. Day 12. Mere playthings of the elements

The day started normal enough, a bit cloudy but with no rain, so we started on the easy 100 km run to Mae Hong Son. Feeling we had lots of time we took a short detour to visit what could be described as the mini-Bryce Canyon of the area. The valley of Pai must had been an intermontane basin filled with hundreds of meters of alluvial sediments. The basin was then uplifted (or a new drainage outlet was established) and the basin fill was deeply eroded to form a net of steep canyons separated by narrow sharp ridges along which the adventurous traveler can move "floating" over the jungle landscape. Pretty but scary. 

Getting back on the road we saw, for the first time in days, sunshine filtering through the foliage. Oh, my word, riding under sunshine is such a fabulous feeling. The road was dry, the curves were just right, and we much enjoyed what we though this last week was going to be all about. 

Outside of the Valley of Pai, which look radiantly pretty, we entered a karst terrain marked by tall limestone pillars, broad sinkholes that have expanded to form broad valleys that embrace colorful peasant villages, and of course any number of caves. We chose to visit the cave called Than Nam Lod, literally the cave a river runs through. Maybe not on the scale of the subterranean rivers of Mexico, but a pretty neat phenomenon where a good size river is lost into the entrails of the mountain just to come back to the surface a kilometer away. The cave one visits is a shelf above the level of the current river, but clearly was carved by the same river at a higher stage. It was a very wet cave, so the formation of stalactites, stalagmites, columns formed when they meet, and stone curtains was very active. Unfortunately the road was very slippery, and I lost my balance once and got muck all over the seat of my pants, after which Pat had to lend me his strong shoulder to prevent further mishap. 

We continued our spectacular ride, thinking foolishly that we were going to have a full day of dry riding, when our fortunes suddenly changed. The road went through a narrow cut in the mountains that acted as a wind tunnel, so all of a sudden we were faced with very strong head winds, backed by an ominous wall of very dark clouds. Branches were flying all around us, and we had to think hard about keeping our balance. We were riding about two minutes apart from each other, with Pat in the front, Karen in the middle, and me last. Karen then spotted a black dog sitting right in the middle of the road, as dogs tend to do here in Thailand where they think they have the right of way. So she slowed down to go around the dog when CRASH, this tree came down across the road and hit right in front of her, right where she would have been had she not slowed down for the dog. When I got there, two minutes later, she was still hyperventilating at the narrowness of her escape. Traffic was of course interrupted, but in a few minutes there were a group of men wielding machetes and hacking at the branches of the tree until it became light enough that with the combined efforts of all of us we were able to shift the tree to the side and continue our journey. 

Then the water spout hit, and in no time whatsoever we were drenched to the bone. Karen and I passed Pat, who had stopped to put his poncho on, but after a kilometer or so were stopped by another enormous tree that had been torn by the wind and laid across the power lines and the highway. Out came again the machetes, but this was a big teak tree and was not to be moved until cut with a chain saw and dragged with a truck (which eventually is what happened). Motorcyclists are not as patient as that, so several pioneers just took up a small trail upslope, cut across the top of the tree, and then slid their way over the mud on the other side. We were a bit slow to follow suit, so by the time we went for it the track was a sea of mud where both Karen and I slid wildly but managed not to fall.

Another 30 km of rain riding finally brought us to Mae Hong Son, where we reached the Crossroad Guesthouse and warmly cheered Karen on her many accomplishments. When we started the ride she was a rookie embarking on her first long-distance motorcycle adventure. Now, with over 1800 sharp curves to her credit, and having faced monsoon rains, muddy tracks, and a close brush with death by a falling tree she is one savvy rider. And throughout all of this she never lost her smile! Brava!

To wrap up an exciting day, our hostess Pom, a petite Thai woman, offered a cooking class that would enable us to prepare our very own Thai dinner. We jumped at the opportunity, together with a Dutch family with two kids, and under her direction prepared a tasty cucumber salad with egg, a tom yum soup, green curry, and a pumpkin stir fry. We were at best sous-chefs, in charge of peeling, cutting and dicing, but she went through every step of the process, adding a squirt of this and  a dash of that until the right flavor was reached. What a fun fabulous dinner to celebrate a crazy day!

Thailand 2025. Day 11. Caves and landslides on the way to Pai

First of all we had to visit the Chiang Dao Cave, which is one of the main local attractions. The cave opens at the base of an enormous tower of limestone, a good 500 m tall and is likely very long and anastomosing, although the visitor can only see two of the branches 500 and 750 m long. The first one is the illuminated path, which has been used to construct a good dozen shrines to Buddha and other related icons. The mythical animals represented in these shrines include a particularly fearsome 5 to 9 headed dragon. For the other path you need a guide, which in our case was a sweet middle-age lady carrying  a hurricane lantern, who did her best to show us fancy forms in the stalactites and stalagmites of the cave, and the rookeries of bats found in some of the deeper galleries. We also saw a couple of really creepy spiders, almost the size of a hand.

Once we hit the road we found that the rain was a lot less annoying than it had been yesterday. Or maybe we are getting used to riding in our ponchos. In any case the respite was welcome because we had some high mountains to cross and it is a lot easier to navigate them when you can see where you are going. The road followed a valley cut into thick terrace deposits, which are not very stable, so we saw a lot of landslides. As we went past by them I couldn't help but thinking that this is a place where engineering geologists and landslide mitigation crews have their work cut out for them every day of the week. There were places where half of the road had been taking away by the collapse of the ground into a deep ravine, which is going to require a major bridging effort to keep the road to be cut out completely. In one case an upstream failure had completely blocked a creek, which had then spilled over the tarmac spilling mud and water as a torrent that we had to cut across.

We stopped and stretched our legs by walking to a waterfall tumbling over a tilted sequence of sandstones and shales. It was very pretty but the water was very muddy.

We found hard cold rain as we crossed over the misty mountains before coming down into the valley of Pai, a particularly idyllic spot that has found great favor with foreign visitors of the lotus-eating kind. It is almost a throw back to hippie years but with a younger generation. Marijuana is legal here in Thailand, but there are many signs that say drugs are illegal and their use carries heavy fines. 

We had a browsing dinner at the food market, greatly facilitated by the lady who fixed us salads and provided us with plates and sporks to eat them. I added to it a grilled catfish I bought at another stall (very delicious) and a nutella and banana crepe. 

Thailand 2025. Day 10. The WBMC rides the monsoon to Chiang Dao

Rain, rain, and more rain! We went through some very pretty country today, parallel to the border with Myanmar, but had to deal with moderate to strong rain for most of the way. Our ponchos and water pants turned out to be water-retarding rather than water-proof, so pretty soon we were drenched to our inner selves. Right then and there Karen, Pat, and I incorporated as the WBMC or Wet Butts Motorcycle Club, trying to find a silver lining to our wet predicament. Just as we were feeling sorry for ourselves a group of 10 big touring motorcycles passed us and, seeing that misery loves company, we found some consolation on the fact that those folks had payed close to US$ 5,000 per person to come enjoy riding the many curves of the Thai roads, but were still stuck with riding under the monsoon just as we were (but we paid less than US$ 150 per person to rent the scooters). 

Out goal was to reach Chiang Dao, but half way there, at Fang, we were so wet and cold that we consider stopping there for the day. Fang is at the end of a long valley and we were experiencing a deluge. What then could we expect once we reached the mountains, which we had to surmount to reach the valley of Chiang Dao?

Speaking of valleys, we have been going through a type of basins and ranges, where each of the small watersheds is home to a different ethnic group. Sorting themselves by watershed means each group has some flat valley land to cultivate rice (or corn, although we are not sure what they do with it), and mountain slopes to cultivate orchards (or in the past fields of poppies), harvest wood, and build their houses. It is a real lovely setting, particularly when the sun is shining.

Fortunately we decided to press on, and it was a really good decision because once we reached the mountain pass the rain stopped for half an hour, which gave us the time to enjoy going through the curves on a comparatively dry road surface. It was a real fun time, so when we reached our hotel in Chiang Dao we were in much better spirits. 

Thailand 2025. Day 9. Riding in the rain around Chiang Rai

Taking advantage of the morning lull in the rain we went to visit the White Temple (Wat Rong Kuhn) a few kilometers south of Chiang Rai. This temple started a few hundred years back as a small structure by the banks of a muddy river, and collapsed a couple of times, only to be rebuilt in slightly higher ground. In its last reincarnation it occupied a couple of acres of land, and in the late 1990's attracted the attention of artist and entrepreneur Calrmchai Kositpipat, who bought twenty acres of land around the temple and then reconstructed it, at his own expense, as a piece of modern art. I am not sure how Buddhist temples are managed, but I believe it was important that it was a pre-existing temple, with an abbot, to assure the new temple would have religious "credentials". Carlmchai must have been like a Thai Walt Disney, full of ideas and energy to develop, and is represented in photos throughout the complex directing operations with his ever-present red walkie-talkie.

The end result is a gleaming art of modernism that shines gloriously in its whiteness, assisted by many mirrors and dangling medallions of shining aluminum. It would be the antithesis of Faby's "Baseball Moms Against White Uniforms" because every ornate sculpture gleams in spite of the diesel fumes and dust that plagues every public monument.

The complex includes a school and atelier for plastic artists, who have designed and executed a sophisticated rendition of hell, with many hands reaching out for the light, and a bridge to enlightenment protected by fierce angels (or demons?) armed with flaming swords. The temple itself has many futuristic renditions of space capsules rising toward the light, but of course has the central figure of Buddha as its focus. The artist even constructed a tower for hosting the relics of Buddha, although it still remains tightly closed because no one has placed any relics under its care. Definitely a worthwhile visit.

Afterward we headed north, with the intention of visiting the Golden Triangle region, where the three countries of Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), and Laos meet. It is a lovely country crossed by many rivers, so for a good while we followed a levee road that reminded me very much of the levees of the Sacramento River, crossed beautiful rice fields, and rolled over hills covered with fruit trees and a new crop of coffee plantations. Unfortunately the pesky rain kept following us, which took something away from the pretty ride.

All the way to the late 20th century this region had been a major producer of opium or black gold (hence the name Golden Triangle), from which morphine and heroine are distilled. At least in Thailand that source of income has been replaced by a growing coffee industry, but the hills still get covered by dense fields of poppies so some drug production is probably still happening. The border town Golden Triangle is located where the Mekong River forms the boundary between Thailand on the west and Myanmar and Laos on the east (funny accident of geography because Myanmar is to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, and Thailand to the south). The Mekong is a mighty river that starts in the Himalayas and then flows along the east side of the Southeast Asian peninsula to end entering the sea in southern Vietnam. Here in the Golden Triangle it is wide, very swift, and the home to the 200 kg Giant Catfish, which can reach lengths of 2 m.

At the Golden Triangle we also visited the Opium Museum, which in a very entertaining manner describes the natural history of the opium poppy, the details on how the opium gum is scraped from the fruit, and the murky history of its processing and trade over the centuries.

Back on the road we went back to Chiang Rai, always under a light rain, where we got in time to drink a beer before going out to wander through the Waking Street and its many fascinating vendors, and to the Food Bazaar, where we had a dinner of Hot Pot. Basically, a brazier with a boiling clay plot of broth is brought to the table, together with a tray of veggies (cabbage, mushrooms, basil, and noodles) and a tray of assorted meats (pork, chicken, shrimp, calamari, fish, beef), and you add whatever you want to the hot broth to cook your own hot stew. It was very delicious and I will have to try to recreate it at home with my Donabe pot.

Thailand 2025. Day 8. Chiang Rai or drown

Determined to beat the rain we skipped breakfast and took off like bats out of hell in the direction of Chiang Rai (180 km away). Part of this road we had done yesterday, so we knew the road was in good condition with curves properly angled to reach 70 kph on dry road. Once we passed the point we had turned around yesterday we got hungry and had to make a stop at a flea market to get something good to eat for lunch.

Unfortunately after that delightful pause, at about half way, the road became much more deteriorated. The royal highway crews were hard at work constructing a new wide road, but for the time being we had many detours and rough road stretches. Then it started to rain and the detours turned into mud courses where our scooters had to play the dual road of dirt bikes.

All is well that ends well, however, and we came into Chiang Rai during a halt in the rain. I recall this town as having some fabulous temples and I hope we will get to see some of those tomorrow.

For the afternoon we took a rest from the bikes and went for a walk in the downtown area. It was full of life as high school students were finishing their school day and spreading all over town. We saw the gilded town clock at a roundabout in an avenue marked by gilded street lights and a park with silvery shrines and scenes from the life of Lord Buddha. Overall a cute town.

Thailand 2025. Day 7. A failed escape attempt

Breakfast was a feast for the eyes and the nose, at one of the Farmer's Markets, where booths offer a fabulous variety of fruits, vegetables, fresh seafood, and lots and lots of cooked delicacies. At the end I settled for a sliced breast of duck in a chili sauce and a plate of mango with sweet sticky rice. Karen and Patrick went for a veggie stir fry accompanied by sweet pickled garlic. Delicious!

The sky was overcast, but holding, so we took off with the idea of doing a loop from Chiang Mai to Phayao to the northeast, and then cut to the south to Lampang back to Chiang Mai, but it was too ambitious a plan. By the time we reached Phayao it was getting to noon, and starting to rain and we were faced with another 4 hours of riding to complete the loop back to Chiang Mai. So, after having lunch with a group of smiling ladies that fed us like we were their starving children, we headed back the way we had come.

On both the way in and the way back we passed the Wang Pa Pao hotspring location, where the main attraction is a continuous geyser that throws hot water a good 10 m unto the air (I suspect it is a pumped ""geyser" because of its regularity). You can buy a small basket of four eggs and cook them by immersing it in the pool around the geyser, or have a coffee while you soak your feet in a trough filled with hot water. You can also rent a small cabin and take a thermal bath. An abandoned temple show that the place has been used for mineral bathing for many years in the past. 

Thailand 2025. Day 6. Back to Chiang Mai

OMG, what a way to rain! It is coming down as a curtain, so our plan to continue unto Mae Hong Son (180 km away) seemed rather daunting. We talked our way around and around it, but at the end it seemed that it would be more prudent to go back to Chiang Mai, which is only 65 km away. It is a bit disappointing because we had mapped a glorious itinerary of mountain riding all over northern Thailand, which now we will have to break into short  "jabs" from the central hub of Chiang Mai.

Before our departure there was some unhappiness amongst the elephants on the other side of the river. Now and then we had heard the gentle trumpeting that a Mom makes to call her calf, but this time we heard a veritable cacophony of deep growls and roars. What is going on? My guess is that the handler was telling the elephants to cross to the other margin of the river, which by now was pretty swollen, and the animals were complaining about getting wet. At the end they crossed, and the growling stopped, but for a short time there I thought we  were going to witness a real rebellion.

It was quite a wild ride back to town, and we got a thorough soaking, but by noon we had reached our hotel, and two hours later were able to check in and start the process of drying things out. 

We rewarded ourselves with a fabulous meal that included, rice and curry, papaya salad, steamed squid in a spicy sauce, stir fry vegetables, the signature noodle dish of the region, and a delicious pile of glass noodles and mushrooms. It is hard not to go for the old favorites when there are so many new dishes that you know are going to be absolutely delicious.

Thailand 2025. Day 5. Riding to the top of Thailand's highest peak

We woke up to the gentle tapping of an elephant at the door of the room. The keeper had with him a basket of cut sugar cane for us to feed the elephant breakfast, which was super cool. The tip of their trunks is very sensitive, and gently curving the trunk around the proffered sugar cane the elephant simply tosses it inside her mouth to happily grind it using her massive molars. 

Today we were bound for adventure, to make up for yesterday being such a sedate day. Pat has a master plan that today will take us to the Doi Inthanon, which at 2,500 m amsl (about 8,500 ft amsl) is the tallest mountain in Thailand. The peak is inside the national park of the same name, which is one of the pet projects of the Thai King, who is a progressive monarch that supports a lot of infrastructure and educational projects. The ride was spectacular but very challenging because the mountains were clad in mist, and as soon as we reached that level we started getting very wet. The broad-leaf forest gives way to a weird mixed conifer and banana trees forest, which in some canyons are replaced by giant ferns. There is water everywhere, and many creeks form pretty waterfalls as they run over the landscape. The Thai Highlands are a group of north-south oriented ranges that were uplifted as India (to the west) plowed its way under Asia to form the Himalayas. When teaching students to draw the plate tectonics map of the Earth I typically follow them as a type of transform margin that connects the Indonesian trench with the Himalayas obduction margin.

The higher we went, the wetter it got and the colder. By the time we reached the summit the temperature was down to 14 degrees C, although with the wind chill it felt like it was almost freezing. To think that a couple of days previous we had almost melted at Chiang Mai.

The ride back was a bit scary, because the slopes were steep and covered with water, and we had to ride our brakes. It was also hard to see, with water collecting on the visor of the helmet and my glasses fogging with condensation. But we made it down at the end, just in time to grab something to eat and move into our new room (River 9), on a very precarious slope overlooking the small stream that runs through the community.

So, the way this eco-lodge works is that a whole community has pitched together to build three clusters of guest rooms (8 to 10) at each of three localities. Last night we stayed at the Garden locality, near the rice fields, and this night we are staying at the River locality. The neighbors of each locality provide the tourist support in terms of maintaining the cabins, bringing breakfast to each cabin in the morning, and bringing the elephant to wake you up (I believe each section has two or three elephants trained for that purpose). Outside of that you are pretty much on your own, but everyone in the community smiles and would gladly answer questions. Pat and Karen went down to the river to play in the water, but I stayed back to try to dry things out before the rain got going.

Man, did it rain and rain all night long. There is a mass of moist air moving west from Vietnam, and we have a weather advisory for the next three days! 

Thailand 2025. Day 4. A jungle retreat

We headed out of town, to the west, for about 50 km, which by now feels like a short jaunt. Our goal was the Chai Laid Orchid Eco Lodge, where we were going to try a low carbon footprint in a jungle setting for a couple of days. The outfit offers a few rustic bamboo cabins in three clusters: garden, mountain, and river. For the first night we will be in the garden section, but for the following day we will be moved to the mountain section due to some sort of screwup with the booking.

The garden section faces the rice paddies and at the beginning we got "the best cabin" in the place, which was very roomy and included a giant bathroom with a lovely wooden tub that I promptly submerged myself in. It is hot, so the trickle of cool water was perfect to get into the spirit of relaxation. This was the perfect follow up to the brutal massage I got yesterday! After half an hour I got out and was drying out in the jungle breeze, wrapped in a towel, when one of the young hostesses came to tell me that they were going to move us out of the shared room to two separate rooms. Something about the owner of the property  offering us a swap because he had decided to come and stay, and he wanted his own room. Mondo bizarro but we made the swap.

Meals are served at the main location, which is quite a distance from the garden section. We had a tasty pad thai for lunch, and that gave us the opportunity to see mama elephant and her two kids. Baby is totally cute and takes plenty of naps, so Mom cannot go very far without having to constantly establish contact with her trunk. Baby loves water and is always ready to play with their keeper when he turns the hose on him. Junior, on the other hand, is a scattered teenager that appears and disappears at random and is always looking for food. The elephant family is a big plus for the lodge, and elephant viewing or bathing is a big draw of tourists to the region. Elephants are, alas, all domesticated, and the humans are responsible for feeding them and keeping them safe and comfortable.

Overall a quiet day spent in jungle meditation.

Thailand 2025. Day 3. Roaming north of Chiang Mai

I am back at 50% strength :) I am still tired, but the antibiotics are having an effect and I can start thinking about food again. 

Pat, Karen and I have now rented scooters, and right away headed north to test them out. Our first stop was the reservoir of Luang Nuea, which is nestled on a low knot of mountains and provides potable water to Chiang Mai. We stopped at a small eatery by the side of the road, where I risked some catfish soup (delicious with its lemon grass flavoring) and the others had a big grilled fish coated on a multicolored salad. 

We then proceeded across the mountains to the Buatong Waterfall - Chet Si Fountain National Park, which should be the poster child of serenity and quiet beauty. It is a woodland forest with shimmering leaves, and the top of the watershed, so there are all sorts of creeks running through it. The Buatong Waterfall (aka the Sticky Waterfall) is really water spilling over rounded outcrops of rock, where the running water has created many little ridges of travertine that give excellent traction. I was too pooped to go down and climb through the "waterfall" again, but the others did it and declared it better than a Disneyland ride and very refreshing.

The other point of interest is the Chet Si Fountain, a natural spring of crystalline water that fills a small pool or rock, maybe 10 m wide and 5 meters deep, which in turn forms the creek that tumbles over the Sticky Waterfall. It is a sacred place because, according to legend, the spring formed to provide water to the princesses of the realm, who were in hiding from some invading enemy. Crazy Pat had lugged with him a small watermelon, which we enjoyed in the fresh of the forest by the side of the spring.

Round trip we may have made a 125 km trip, which was perfect for a starting day. We were eager to get back to town because today is Sunday, the day of the big Night Market, and we didn't want to miss that. The market takes over one of the streets and a couple of courtyards of the old town center, and is a dazzling display of color, aromas, and temptations to the shopping tourist. Food was at the top of my list, and I delighted on the colors, varieties, an delicious aromas wafting from the different booths. I indulged in some rice with pork, and on a spicy papaya salad, but it turned to be too much to my emaciated stomach -- I should have tried the grilled squid as well :(

On the way back I was lured by the offer of a shoulders and back massage. I had been considering a massage for a couple of days now, because I am aching all over, but what can one of these petite women do to try to soften an old goat? I need a Tongan man to give me a massage. Be careful for what you ask! My masseur was a wirey man in his 40's with the pointiest elbows one can imagine. He proceeded to use said pointy elbows to knead the hell out of me, from neck to ankles, during an hour of pure torture that I am not likely to forget anytime soon. When he was done so was I, with barely enough strength left to crawl into bed.

Thailand 2025. Day 2. Still limping in Chiang Mai

Remember that scene in Hunger Games when Catniss is sitting on a branch, bleeding from a wound on the leg, when suddenly this little parachute comes out of nowhere bringing her the tube of medicine a sponsor had sent her? Well I experienced something similar when pulling my backpack out of the baggage storage cabinet at the hotel this small box fell into my hands. It was a French, slightly weathered but brand new package of amoxicillin! Precisely what I need to fight off this nasty stomach bug that has been pestering me for several days now! (The baggage cabinet seems to have collected items left by various travelers over the years, so I don't feel bad for whoever left it behind a month ago).

I am still operating at only one fourth of my regular strength, but did my best to be a good tourist and wander the streets of Old Chiang Mai, which has become quite the mecca for tourists young and old. The temples shine in their gold trappings, inviting the passer by, the food stalls are colorful and tempting in their variety (for someone with a sound stomach that is), boutiques and antiques shops are everywhere, and all folks seem to be having a good time. It is very warm and humid, however, and that saps your strength in no time whatsoever. 

I napped for a good time during the day, but in the early evening a couple of friends encouraged me to accompany them to a dinner-show at the cultural center, where things started with a beautiful buffet. I recoiled in horror but my friends encouraged me to get some nutrition in me (rice, vegetable soup, fried chicken, and fried pork skins - why not, let's live dangerously).

The show started with some percussion music led by a cool xylophone, grew into larger and larger drums, and was eventually put in the hands of some handsome and gracious ladies, who for one of the dances wore 6-inch long nails. Dances are slow and graceful, but there was a festival dance where they were joined by a goat (two people in the costume) that was quite lively.

My new friends like the idea of renting motorbikes and exploring the county, so we will do that tomorrow. 

Thailand 2025. Day 1. My limping arrival to Chiang Mai

The flight from Kochi to Bangkok went by in a doze, and when I got there I had to go through immigration in just a few minutes before I ran to my connecting flight. I had to do some "mining" for information hidden in my iPad, but I managed and made the flight with room to spare.

Reaching Chiang Mai I was amazed at how much the city had grown and modernized since I was here 20 years ago. My level of exhaustion was pretty high now, but after reaching my hotel at 10:30 am I went out into the hot and humid morning to go shopping for a cell phone.

This is a party city that wakes up late, so a lot of businesses were closed. However, with the help of young people, who here have an excellent level of English, I eventually reached a mall, which had a cell phone store.

I debated for a moment what type to buy, but knowing how many pictures and contacts I had already vested on Apple I ended getting an iPhone 13, which the young woman did her best to help me setup. But the stupid double authentication procedure expected for me to have my old phone (alive) to proceed with the update. She suggested I could do it with an iPad or an Apple computer, so I went ahead and bought it, threatening to come back if I couldn't figure it out on my own. She smiled benevolently and assured me she would be glad to help me. "Wait", I said as I took possession of the phone "Where is the button?" She then went to display an unusual level of patience showing me how different  types of swipes caused the phone to do different things. This is going to be a steep frustrating learning curve.

I got to the hotel dropping from sickness exhaustion, but managed to get enough of the basics downloaded from the cloud to get me going.

Now Ronnie is the only person on earth without a cell phone (and may he prolong as long as possible his independence from this electronic nightmare we have created).

As soon as I was able to check into my room I crashed down and didn't wake up until midnight.

India 2025. Day 9. My last day in India

My last day in India has been less than spectacular. I did wake up dry, as did most of my clothes thanks to the efficiency of my hanging system. Also, the morning was dry and the sky didn't look particularly loaded with dark clouds. Maybe the monsoon is giving me a break. 

However, I was miserable because my stomach troubles persisted, which affected both my energy and happiness levels. Furthermore, although I had chosen the coastal route this turned out to be one of those urban tendrils where what used to be a simple coastal road has turned into a little maze of twists and turns. Thank God for Google Maps. The general direction was clear but the little wiggles to stay on route would have been impossible without the Google Maps arrow pointing the way. And then, quite suddenly, the screen on my cell phone went suddenly black. What!? My efforts to revive my phone were useless. It was dead as a door nail. All of a sudden I felt the sound grip that technology has on all of us, and how when that grip lets go we are completely screwed. In a previous life I would have a paper map to back me up, the details of the flight I will be taking later tonight, the number of the Thai visa I will be using, or the hotel reservation for the first day in Thailand. Now I had nothing!

Ronnie and I are now the only people on earth without a cell phone (:

OK, first things first. Switch to "by feel" mood to continue the last 100 km of the trip, deciding on whether to follow the left fork or right fork of the road just by gut instinct. Could not really rely on traffic signs because there are none. Then I started following the alignment of a new toll road, which I figured it would have to lead to Kochi, and avoid the worst of the weather by hunkering under the elevated overpasses. By some sort of miracle I made it into town, past a couple of landmarks that reminded me of places I had seen over the last few days, and with the last of my energy I made it to the scooter rental place. Success.

I spent some time dozing on a coffee house, and then my tuk-tuk rider brought me to the metro, which took me to the end of the line, from where I took a bus to the airport and faced the many issues associated with entering the airport without an online digital boarding pass. I did have my iPad, so I managed to mine an old email showing the confirmation code, which with some fast talking allowed me access to the inner sanctum and eventually I had a hard copy of my boarding pass in my hot little hand. 

India 2025. Day 8. The real monsoon catches up with me

Turns out that the place where I spent the night is atop the famed Cardamom Mountains, near the intersection of two large lineaments that, in the back of my home stay, brought some handsome coarsely-crystalline gneisses to the surface. My plan today is to ride down to the Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary, a rugged peninsula surrounded by the waters of the Kulamavu Reservoir, where some of the last Tamil tigers and herds of wild elephants are protected.

I had a good start. Last night it had rained (and now I have a great respect for wet pavement), but despite the overcast the morning was dry. I had about 50 km to go to the Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary, but again got the most complicated route to follow according to Google Maps. I think I finally figured out that to shave a minute here and a minute there it sends me through short cuts between the meanders of the main roads, which is cute in terms of seeing the country, but pretty harrowing in spots. There was a stretch that ran on bumpy bare granite, better suited to Ronnie's dirt bike than to my Yamaha and its sleek seat.

On the way I saw some beautiful forests of a tall tree with a very straight trunk, and hanging from the trunk, like beads, big duos of Jack Fruit. Inevitably I would get to an intersection where the map was unclear, so I would ask a local a very simple question, pointing to the left fork "Is this the way to Idduki Wildlife Sanctuary?" A simple yes or no question. But Indians are friendly people that don't like to give yes or no answers, and they would break into a long tirade in Tamil that probably went like this: "Bless you sir for wanting to visit the refuge. It is still a long distance away. But you will have a chance of seeing a beautiful waterfall on the way. However, you must be aware that a man-eating tiger has been seen lurking around the waterfall. May God protect you in your journey." No luck getting the answer to my yes/no question, so I just drove on unto the unknown. Many (or most) people here are Catholics or Christians, with a spattering of Jehova's Witnesses, and some other sects. They live in handsome small ranchettes, which, although somehow scattered seemed too many to share the land with elephants.

Then I reached the entrance to the sanctuary and was told by a polite but firm lady game warden that no entrance was allowed. Too bad because it is indeed an idyllic virgin forest with plenty of small streams, a pretty "water spill" over slabs of granite, and the luscious vegetation that I would like to see around me if I were an elephant. I was even hoping to see a glimpse of the man-eating tiger. After giving me the time to enjoy the surroundings, the lady game warden pointed to the road and the big misty mountains in the background, and sent me on my way.

The misty mountains ... they looked very tall and forbidding, and of course shrouded in a mist that never goes away. And here I made a big mistake, and instead of donning my poncho boldly went where no man has gone before. On top of the mountains I saw vast tea plantations, which when sunny must be a joy to behold. With the drizzle they appeared to be interminable as I climbed and climbed, while the drizzle turned into a light rain. Too late for the poncho now, and by the time I reached the mountain pass I was thoroughly wet. Then came the ride from hell, as I descended the narrow winding mountain road for 50 kilometers of slick asphalt under a torrential rain. I attempted to stop on a couple of occasions, still under the delusion that strong monsoon squalls only last  15 to 30 minutes. Nonsense. A real monsoon downpour can last for hours at a stretch. So I resumed the downward journey, shaking my head at the fools that went full speed, cutting the curves, and leaning into the curve at an angle that could have caused them to slip. I was definitely driving like Grandpa Fiddles, so it took me a long time to reach the coastal plain, and from there go another 50 km to my lodgings for the night. Fortunately the air temperature was balmy, so being wet to the bone did not seem too bad.

I was expected at my hotel, and managed to bring the bike in in the covered garage right away. And then I realized the extent to which I was drenched, from head to toes, for anywhere I stopped I left behind a puddle of water. The reception was on the third floor, and I left a wet trail from the garage, to the elevator, to the lobby, to my room. The fellow in charge was flabbergasted by this apparition of the Monster from the Green Lagoon, but made his best to make me comfortable, helped me to order dinner in my room and two tall Kingfisher Beers, and then left me to dry out on my own while he went to mop dry the trails of my passage. 

The sleek seat cover of my Yamaha has turned into a big liability, because instead of being able to rest the weight of my back pack on my seat, I end bearing it on my shoulders all the time. I am bushed from the strain of the ride and the load on my shoulders :(