TravelStream™ news feed for member astons on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/astons en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:33:26 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/2/1207960800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/2/1207960800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/2/1207960800/tpod.html Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:33:26 -0400 A whale! of a trip to the Sea of Cortez and Mexico.

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Palenque, Mexico

11th April to 14th April - Jungle & Temples


We arrived at Villahermosa Airport and stepped out into 40 degree heat and about 80% humidity - imagine very very hot and sticky and double it, whew.

We went straight into a tour of the archaeological museum which was a mixture of outdoor zoo, interspersed with ancient artefacts recovered from the various temples hereabouts. It was a lovely setting and all very interesting but we were all melting in the heat and glad to stop at a riverside restaurant for drinks and a snack. This area was badly flooded back in November last year and there is evidence of it all around. Here in Mexico, as most places in the world, the talk is of weather anomalies and how things are changing. At this time of year is should be at least 6-8 degrees cooler and they would normally only reach these temperatures in July / August.

It was a two hour drive to our hotel at Palenque - Derek and Peter were dreading what it would be like as it looked very rustic on the internet, after Creel, Jenny and I were not in for any more "rustic" It didn't look too promising at first, but it turned out to be ok - bungalow style rooms set in very lush tropical grounds.

Next day, the trip was to temples not far from Palenque - they were impressive and in a lovely setting but I have to say I didn't think they had the same impact as Ankor Wat and it's surrounding temples which I found absolutely awe inspiring. We climbed loads of steps to some of them and the palace complex was interesting but as with all these tours it gets a bit seen one, the others look the same! We then set off for an hour and a half journey to a waterfall. The terrain changed almost immediately and what had been flat quite ordinary countryside changed to steep dramatic jungle. The road wound up and up, snaking around steep bends - we were beginning to think we were never going to get there! We had lunch then walked alongside a series of cascades which were a beautiful turquoise blue. Unfortunately, for Jenny and I, the heat and humidity at this time of day got just a bit too much, and we chickened out about halfway and left the men to finish the climb to the top,

I have to mention at this point that all through the holiday we have all been on tender hooks waiting for the arrival of Julie's baby which by this point was two weeks overdue. Jenny had news that she was going in to be induced that day but as with the majority of this holiday we were out of telephone contact again. We set of for the journey back from the waterfall, as we got nearer Palenque and picked up a signal again, the text messages started rolling in - It was a little boy, Leo, 8lbs 11oz! He had been born about 3 hours before but of course no one had been able to get through on the phone. Mother and baby were both fine and Peter and Jenny had their granddaughter sandwich! There were a few glasses of wine drunk that night to wet the baby's head!

"CONGRATULATIONS JULIE & DAVE, A LITTLE BROTHER FOR POPPY"

With much relief we continued our tours the next day with a visit to Bonampack a temple complex about 2½ hours drive away. We had a different guide today - Ignacio - he was just a little bit on the effeminate side, mincing around with a lovely blue umbrella to protect him from the shade, but very knowledgeable and quite passionate about his subject. He was prone to suddenly standing in silence to absorb the karma! We were very lucky as it's not really tourist season yet and most of the places we visited, we had almost, or totally to ourselves which of course helped the "karma" enormously!

The next visit, to Yaxchilan, was another 1½ hour trip by minibus then along the river that forms the border between Mexico and Guatemala. It's deep in the jungle and can only be reached by boat. This was similar to the others and very impressive, but why did they always build these temples at the top of enormous flights of steps? The heat and humidity were completely draining and we were not sorry to get back on the boat and cool off for the hour trip back up river. Then it was a late lunch and another 2½ hour trip home. It had been a long day; we were up at 5am and returned just before 7pm.

All day the rain had been threatening and that evening it started - in earnest! As you would expect in these parts it was torrential tropical rain that just doesn't let up and as I am sitting here typing this, while waiting for the taxi back to the airport, 15 hours later, it is still raining as hard. Everywhere is dripping and steamy - I don't think the jungle is for me!


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Los Mochis, Mexico

6th April to 11th April - The Copper Canyon

After nine days in the whale soup it was a bit of a shock to be back to civilisation. The next step of our journey entailed crossing to mainland Mexico via the Baja Ferry. We were a little apprehensive when we arrived at the ferry terminal, it was definitely not a tourist route, and the place was swarming with what I can best describe as itinerant workers and their families. Loads of kids and even more luggage, the place was littered with piles of those huge, square, check, plastic zip up bags, nylon sacks of clothes, taped up card board boxes, the odd DVD player or kettle - they were obviously travelling to the mainland with all their worldly goods.

The ferry itself was a pleasant surprise - we had expected little more than a rusty hulk but it was similar to our cross channel ferries, if stuck in a seventies time warp. When we saw the melee at the terminal we opted to spend an extra £38 for a four berth cabin so at least we would be guaranteed a space of our own. It was well worth it, if only to get away from the incessant music that blasted out in every seating area. It was quite amusing though - Pete / Jen / Derek and myself in four bunk beds, in a tiny cabin, inches from each other - we decided it was like Home and Away Club with men!

We spent one night in Los Mochis before being driven to El Feurte for a night where we were catching the train. El Feurte was a lovely town, established in the 1500's. It had a lot of nice colonial buildings and a very pleasant square in the centre. The next morning we were transported to the train station which was a rickety wooded platform in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately there was a large group of Americans travelling on our train and the ensuing embarkation was a bit chaotic to say the least. Still the journey to Divasadero was spectacular and had some interesting trainy bits like looping the loop, backing into sidings to let the longest goods train I have ever seen pass and going round very steep, tight bends. If we thought embarkation was chaotic, disembarkation was even worse - a tiny wooden platform, an assortment of battered vehicles and sqillion suitcases being dragged through the dust and grime.

The hotel had a spectacular location, perched like an eagles nest right on the rim of the canyon. All the rooms looked out over the view and had a balcony to enable you to enjoy it. Unfortunately it was a "rustic" in décor and only geared up to the mass tourist market - one sitting for meals, no choice, that sort of thing. Still its location made up for its shortcomings and we had several very interesting and beautiful walking and driving tours around the canyon.

The following day we were to board the train for the next stop, Creel. When we heard from our driver that it was actually only 35 minutes away by car (1 ½ hours on the train + another 1 ½ hours waiting time as the train was habitually late, + that awful scrummage with the luggage) we negotiated to be driven door to door and we arrived unstressed, about 2 ½ hours before the pack.

We had been warned that Creel was a one horse town and by Jove they were right. To cap it all the hotel we had wanted to stay at was fully booked and we were booked into another which we were assured was *** at least. Well it was the biggest dump and Jenny and I were not happy bunnies. Just to cap it all, the bar had no gin, no wine no anything except beer and coke! We negotiated a long trip out the next day to get away from it all.

Considering Creel is such a dump, the surrounding countryside is stunning. It's just a few miles from the main rugged canyon, much greener, loads of trees and interesting rock formations. We visited a Temara Indian reservation including some families that live in caves, a lake, a waterfall with no water and a Jesuit Mission. We returned to Creel for lunch and then on the train for the last time, a five hour journey to Chihuahua.

What this journey lacked in spectacular scenery as were almost out of the canyon now, it made up for in human interest value. The foothills gave way to bigger fields and much more livestock (some of it dead by the train tracks!) there were ranches and people on horseback. That in turn rolled into huge fertile plains which seemed to be devoted to fruit growing. I love these sorts of journeys; you spend all your time surmising what crop is what? Who's going where and why? What's going on...... before we knew it the countryside gently gave way to suburbia and the train arrived at Chihuahua, without a hairless dog in sight.



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Sea of Cortez, Mexico

28th March - 5th April - An amazing once in a lifetime experience!

I decided to do just the one blog to cover the period on the boat as the days soon fell into a familiar pattern. At first light Swanny would be up, have his swim and do a few jobs before starting the engine, lifting the anchor and gliding out from wherever we had moored for the night. That was the signal for the rest of us to surface and have a cup of tea on deck as we heard what the general plan was to be that day.

The early starts were well worth it, as often the sea was silky smooth - perfect conditions for seeing a blow or a glint of sun on a blue's back, also the sunrises were often spectacular, bathing the surfaces of the barren, sculptured coastline with a pink hue.

Sophie our cook would rustle up breakfast and then the watching would start in earnest. Hardly a day would pass without what I nicknamed "happy hour" this would be an encounter with either common or bottlenose dolphins - not just one or two, but hundreds and hundreds of them would appear on the horizon and as the boat got closer they all seemed to rush to join it. The boat would be surrounded by a seething mass of animals under the bows, alongside and surfing the wake at the back of the boat. This would go on for 40 or 50 minutes the dolphins obviously enjoying it as much as we were. Without fail if you looked around, everyone had a great big grin; they were such incredible fun to watch. You could lie on the trampoline at the front of the catamaran which is only feet from the water, clap and the dolphins would leap into the air in front of you. Sometimes they would find fish and a feeding frenzy would start. Immediately as if from no-where, pelicans, frigate birds, gulls would appear and join in, diving into the water like missiles as the dolphins jumped and lunged in the water.

Every day the experiences were different, and in total we saw an impressive list of different whales, including blue, fin, humpback, sperm, bryde's, pygmy sperm, minky as well as mobula rays, seals, several sharks and of course the dolphins. There were some real once in a lifetime highlights - the very first time we saw a blue whale lying just under the surface and coming to terms with the enormity of it - between 80-90 feet long (longer than 2 articulated lorries) was incredible. We split our time between the catamaran and the panga (a small local fishing boat with a fast outboard engine that we towed) and some of the closest encounters were in the panga.

One morning we went out in the panga and saw a humpback breaching - Swanny was right there in seconds and we had the scariest experience initially as it breached time and time again, only feet from the boat, sometimes it would come up and roll over and over, slapping the water with its massive fins - we soon realised there was no aggression in his display, he was a juvenile just looking for someone to impress! For over an hour this display went on around the boat - he never strayed more than a couple of hundred feet from us and most of the time was right alongside. We all decided he was a humpback on crack as his displays were completely nuts. After my initial nervousness I sat back an enjoyed an experience not many people will ever be lucky enough to have. Even Swanny had never been that close to a breaching humpback in the little boat. The strangest part was when he went down with one of those amazing tail flukes you see pictures of - sliding silently under the water and we were left bobbing about on the surface in total silence waiting for the explosion of water as he surfaced and launched himself into the air - somewhere!

Other special memories are of the blue whales "blowing" as they surface. You can see a blow over 10 miles away and one day we had a blue surface several times getting nearer and nearer the boat until it finally dived, broadside, under us and we were looking down its blow hole which was enormous, probably 4-5 feet in diameter. Another day we were right next to a mother and calf which was lovely.

Our other favourites were the sperm whales; several times we came across 30 - 60 of them at a time, many of them with babies. They are "Moby Dick" the classic whale with the huge bulbous head, they float on the water looking for all the world like giant logs - until you get close up - and close up we got! We were floating so close in the panga that on several occasions they were touching the boat or they would fluke right next to us and amazingly their tail would just glide along the edge of the boat without a splash as they disappeared under. Another time we were next to a mother and baby and the mother dived so the baby came right alongside us as if we were a surrogate. Once, Derek got into the water and managed to swim quite close, seeing all that lay beneath the water as well as the small proportion we could see above.

So the days went on, one spectacular sight after another, we were out at dawn and often still watching whales as darkness fell. No one could be more enthusiastic than Swanny - he was almost always the first to spot something in the far distance and would let out a yell of "there she blows" or "I see you, you sexy mollusc" and off we would go again.....

A special note for Tim & Tricia - we were very impressed with the catamaran, ugly it may be but it was an incredibly roomy and sociable boat with the galley on the same level as the deck and decent cabins for everyone. It was also run shipshape, tea at dawn, breakfast at eight, coffee and biscuits at eleven, lunch at one, tea at three, gins at six and dinner at eight - whale sightings permitting of course.

Well this has been a long blog but it cannot even scratch the surface of what we saw or the experiences we had - the pictures will give you a flavour but the best memories are in our heads - it was a sad farewell when we had to say goodbye to some of the characters we had come to recognise. Knuckles and the naughty girls (a huge sperm whale with a really knobbly back, and his entourage) the chuckle brothers, two young sperm whales who would play silly games rolling along the side of the boat and especially the crazy humpback that had given us the memory of a lifetime.


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La Paz, Mexico

26th March - Mexico City to La Paz


A 2 ½ hour internal flight brings us to La Paz which is another hour behind UK time.

La Paz is a really nice town, not nearly as "touristy" as I imagined it would be. The seafront is newly renovated, clean and attractive and no real evidence of the straw donkey and sombrero culture I thought we might find in this seaside town. By the time we had done the journey from the airport to the hotel we had seen turkey vultures, osprey and frigate birds - it's looking good.
Left aligned photo tag: After some lunch and a margarita or two we had a few hours R&R before heading into town. The majority of people around seemed to be locals, perambulating the seafront, and driving up and down (slowly) in their vehicle of choice. This mainly seems to be huge pick up trucks with engines that purr with a low throaty noise that hints at the massive power under the bonnet.Right aligned photo tag:


We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours in a seafront bar watching the world go by. There are absolutely loads of police, both in Mexico City, and here. I think it must be some sort of job creation scheme because most of them don't appear to be doing a great deal. There are different categories, state police, traffic police, tourist police, police in cars, on bikes, riding "cyclo's" and on the seafront, police on quad bikes. They all seem very young! They also carry guns and whistles, the latter they use with alacrity, the former do not seem in the least menacing.

As everywhere in the world, the traffic and pedestrians along the seafront were managing just fine until three tourist police turned up (one to work the other two to watch) he was determined to see everyone across the road - blowing his whistle every couple of seconds to stop the traffic - very entertaining!

The tale of the wandering minstrel! - WE were sitting having a drink, minding our own business when a Mexican minstrel decided to serenade us. Two bars of guitar music and a "croon" later he stood waiting for some money. Derek rummaged in his wallet and produced a handful of coins which he gave to him. After pointedly counting the coins several times, the minstrel ceremoniously plonked the coins back on the table and walked off. We had unknowingly given him the grand total of 12p - how ungrateful is that!
Left aligned photo tag:
Right aligned photo tag:


We have been playing a new game - "spot Swanny" our naturalist guide on the boat which we pick up tomorrow. We all have a mental picture of him - early 50's with the look of a slightly aging hippy, weathered sea dog! I bet we are all completely wrong but tomorrow we will find out··.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/2/1206491580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/2/1206491580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/2/1206491580/tpod.html Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:38:32 -0400 A whale! of a trip to the Sea of Cortez and Mexico.

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Mexico City, Mexico

Day 1& 2 - Monday 24th / Tuesday 26th March

Uneventful, if a long and boring flight yesterday, as the on board computerised entertainment system was not working, so thanks goodness for the IPOD and a book! Still the upside is that we all got £50 on board shopping vouchers. Arrived in Mexico City at about 6pm but it took a further hour to get the luggage - the Spanish manyana culture is already in evidence.

We were met by our guide Maria and taken to the hotel which is modern and anonymous but in a nice area and has every thing we need. After a quick snack we retired as by now it was almost 3am for our body clocks.

Today it was up and out by 9am for a tour of the city. Maria met us and we went to the historic centre where we parked and walked for several hours. It was good having a guide as she took us into a lot of buildings, which are now hotels / restaurants, but were important and beautiful historic buildings in the past. We would never have known what lay inside and would probably not felt we could just walk into many of them.

Mexico City has the third largest square (after Tiananman Square and Red Square) surrounded by a beautiful cathedral and palaces and government buildings - the only problem is that the city is built on what used to be a lake and many of the buildings are subsiding badly. The evidence is quite easy to see and in the cathedral there is a huge pendulum hanging from the centre of the ceiling depicting just how much it is leaning. They are trying to repair the damage and there is a lot of sophisticated measuring equipment in evidence.

Part of the problem is being caused by the huge influx of people coming to the city to try and find a better living (there is now a population of 20 million in the city) the infrastructure and water table are being seriously compromised and the general feeling is that it is a city running out of time.

After a very pleasant lunch we finished the day with a visit to the Museum of Anthropology where we learnt probably more than we wanted to know about the Mayan / Aztecs etc...

Conclusion - Like most big cities, Mexico City is a city of contrasts, run down areas nudge shoulders with beautiful wide boulevards, lined by jacaranda trees and impressive monuments. The jacaranda trees were in bloom and stunning (took one or two pictures!)

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1171944840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1171944840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1171944840/tpod.html Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:48:43 -0500 A tour of Thailand, Vietnam. Laos & Cambodia

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Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

A new day - a new guide....We were picked up this morning by Seng for a tour of Vientiane, including a couple of temples and markets.

First stop Vat Sisaket (in Thailand, temple is Wat, in Laos Vat) this is the oldest temple in Vientiane and a marked contrast to most of the other temples we have seen. Instead of the usual highly decorated gold structure, this is charming old building with cloisters around it that could pass for the Alms Houses in Wotton! From there we visit Vat Phra Keo which was once a royal temple and is now a museum. Finally That Luang Stupa (A stupa is a shrine to the spirit of Buddha) which was very big and very gold.

There is a strong French influence in Vientiane, the city is dissected by a long straight road in the centre of which is "The Arc de Triomphe" this is a copy of the real thing with a Laos twist! We climbed up inside for a magnificent view over the city. The French influence is also very evident in many of the restaurants in the city. We lunched at one called Na Dao and had a rare European meal. Tomato salad with olive oil dressing, Derek had braised duck with olives, I had fillet of carp with mushroom sauce, chocolate cake to finish. It was very good and made a nice change. (At £3.40 per head amazing value)

In the afternoon we visited the day market which sold just about anything from a bale of silk to a mobile phone, then onto the local food market. This was absolutely fascinating, if not a little macabre in the meat department! The fertile plains around the Mekong provide the most wonderful selection of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs which were all on display - extravagant flower decorations were also on sale, usually containing marigolds (orange being a very special colour here) and often using intricately wrapped banana leaves as a vase or stand. However the fresh meat stalls would turn the stomach of even the hardiest soul - every "bit" of the animal is for sale, worse still is the smell and the flies. Boiled, flaccid white chickens are lined up on the tables and literally sit there in the heat, covered in bluebottles - why don't these people get food poisoning? Another delight was the vast plastic bowls of fermented fish swimming in a soup of dark brown sludge. I can only hope that only local people shop for meat at these places.

Next we walked from the centre down to the banks of the Mekong, the water is very low here and for the most part the river bed was dry - in the far distance, on the Thai side of the river, the water still flowed - just. Back to the hotel for a couple of hours reading our books by the pool before going off to a local restaurant for a Laos meal accompanied by traditional dancing. Finally a walk home "of course I know the way" famous last words from Derek as we tramp the back streets of Vientiane! We resort to finding another hotel where they spoke just enough English to give us directions (back the way we had come or course) and were quite relieved to eventually see the Settha Palace hove into view!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1174324860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1174324860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1174324860/tpod.html Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:10:21 -0400 A tour of Thailand, Vietnam. Laos & Cambodia

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Bangkok, Thailand

We arrived back in Bangkok from Koh Chang and checked back into the Shangrila. Just enough time to shower and change before walking to the Bangkok Sky tower for dinner.

The restaurant is on the 65th floor - basically the roof of the building which does have a rather strange Romanesque dome on top. You walk out of the lift - eventually - and out onto a huge open air platform. On one raised area is a Jazz group and singer and on another, a glass banister-ed area for drinks. All around that on the rooftop are restaurant tables. Needless to say the view is breathtaking and it was pretty blowy, but warm wind of course.

The menu was superb - the food ever so slightly disappointing, but still very good. It's certainly not cheap though, especially when you have got used to eating fantastic food for peanuts. None the less, as a last night celebration it was certainly very spectacular.

After dinner we just had time for one more trip to Bangkok night market which is open until midnight. I was getting the shakes at the thought of this wonderful, cheap shopping coming to an end!

When we eventually got back to the hotel - guess what, our bed was turned down with a floral arrangement and card wishing us a happy honeymoon stay! Our holiday ended as it had begun......

I wonder if anything has changed in Wotton?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1174013340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1174013340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1174013340/tpod.html Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:00:45 -0400 A tour of Thailand, Vietnam. Laos & Cambodia

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Koh Chang, Thailand

Few days R & R on Koh Chang - Thursday spent swimming, reading etc...not much to report!

By Friday we were already getting restless feet so decided to hire a car - well the nearest thing, a pick up truck, from a little tour shop just outside the hotel. I think it must have been the guy's own vehicle as it was full of rubbish tools etc but for £22 for 24 hours why grumble!

A tour of the island mainly consists of following the one road around the island which varies from two lanes of well surfaced tarmac to non existent, subsided, stony, dirt tracks. The island is very mountainous so it does at least make it interesting and the far side of the island from where we are staying is very much quieter - the odd fishing village, a "marina" consisting of 3 boats and agricultural areas. There were several waterfalls marked on our map so we cut off on a very treacherous road to visit one - unfortunately after a 15 minute climb on foot to get to there, it turned out to be a waterfall with no water. We should have thought about that because this time of year there isn't any water anywhere!

In the evening we used our mean machine to go into the "town" - a collection of tatty beach type shops etc...in search of a restaurant for dinner. We had just made up our mind there was nowhere worth considering stepping foot in when we spotted a sign to a beachfront restaurant and decided to see what it was like. There was a whole new world through there - no wonder the town had looked so desolate and unprepossessing - everything happened on the beach. There must have been at least a kilometre of beachfront restaurants with tables actually on the beach. They all seemed to offer much the same - a fantastic array of raw fresh fish, seafood, kebabs which you chose and they BBQ'd for you complimented by salads, jacket potatoes etc... it was a wonderful setting and really good food.

Massive chicken kebab / Sheet of BBQ ribs / humongous prawns / Jacket Potato / salad / garlic bread + two cocktails and a beer for £14 how good is that.

Saturday was Derek's day to do something "exciting" so he booked onto a one day diving taster course. Off he went at 8.30 and had a great day snorkelling initially, then had paddi instruction before doing a 45 minute dive. Needless to say he really enjoyed it. I chose to spend my last day reading, blogging and relaxing.

Final Thai meal of the holiday tonight as it's back to Bangkok tomorrow and we are booked to go for a meal at the Bangkok sky tower (65 stories up) which is European food before we fly home on Monday morning...............

Looking forward to seeing everyone now and just want to get the last bit of travelling done but this must be the first holiday that I can honestly say I wish it was just beginning again.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1174112520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1174112520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1174112520/tpod.html Sat, 17 Mar 2007 22:49:44 -0400 A tour of Thailand, Vietnam. Laos & Cambodia

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Koh Chang, Thailand

We drove the 4 hours to the Trat province to catch the ferry to Koh Chang as we had decided that 5 internal flights were enough and it would be a good way to see a bit more of the Thai countryside. We had not reckoned on our guide who talked non stop the whole way - not to us but to the driver. He managed the obligatory question "what football team do you support?" but that was about it.

It got worse when the car started to get terribly hot inside and finally cruised to a halt at the side of some fairly god forsaken highway. It was of course midday and scorching hot. It appeared that some wire had come off something so the air con stopped working quickly followed by the engine. We stood at the side of the road while the guide and driver fiddled about under the bonnet with the tool kit. After about 20 minutes they got it back together but the car now had a flat battery and wouldn't start. The driver went off and managed to borrow some jump leads and the Gods must have been looking down on us because another car, from the same tour company, came by and stopped, so he was able to bump start it again.

We continued on and finally caught the 2.30 ferry to Koh Chang. Not sure what to make of the Island - a bit disappointing really, quite tatty and very much geared up for youngsters, backpackers and aging hippies, none of which categories we fall comfortably in. That said, once inside the Amari resort where we are staying, it's certainly very classy, but beach resorts are just not quite our thing. The first room we checked into was beautiful but was at the back of the hotel and had a lousy view and background construction noise so we (Derek) negotiated an upgrade to a huge stunning suite that looks right out over the pool, gardens and beach. That's more like it! I will probably spend the next three days sitting reading on one of my two balconies!

We decided there didn't seem to be much food wise that would appeal outside the resort so we ate in their well renowned Thai restaurant which was very good.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1173768960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1173768960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astons/aston-indochina/1173768960/tpod.html Sat, 17 Mar 2007 01:59:44 -0400 A tour of Thailand, Vietnam. Laos & Cambodia

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Bangkok, Thailand

Free morning before heading to the airport and our flight to Bangkok. We had a walk to the market and around the town before going back to tackle the great suitcase sort.
We managed - just - to get everything in, but are probably travelling about 35 kilos overweight now. The cost is not a problem, it's just the weight of the bags, but as we don't have to manhandle them ourselves it's not too bad.

At the check in desk a charming supervisor almost apologised and asked if it was ok for her to charge us for 8 kilos of excess baggage (about £3) - we didn't argue! Short flight in a prop plane and we were back in the Shangri-La in Bangkok. Strange feeling of Déjà vu and I kept thinking how nice it would be if we could set off and go round again! As we had not ventured out at night on our last visit, we thought we ought to see what Bangkok had to offer, so we caught the skytrain (by far the best way to travel around the city - clean, fast, but sometimes you have to play sardines) to one of the massive shopping plaza's where we lost ourselves for several hours. We finally emerged about 9.30 and decided to head back to the hotel district where we had seen some suitcase shops - yes we needed another one by now - and have a meal.

We have eaten many nationalities of food this holiday, except Indian, so we put that to rights and had a superb Indian meal opposite the hotel. The proprietor went to great lengths to tell us that this was true Northern Indian cuisine and not like the restaurants we have in England which are all run by Bangladesh people. I have to say it was very good.



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