Chiang Mai November 2012

Getting there

3 options, bus, train and plane. Bus and Train are cheap, but take forever! If you're on a relatively short trip then flying has to the way to go.

Air Asia seems to be the main provider, although there are others. Prices are changing all of the time but we managed to get a return trip for 3500 BHT each but I'm sure you could get it cheaper.

Try and visit Chiang Mai during Loy Krathong - amazing lit up  displays everywhere

Hua Hin - 10th to 12th November

Weekend trip to Hua Hin

This blog update is seriously overdue because my new shiny Samsung computer freaked out on me and has only just been fixed.

It was a few weeks ago now, but here's a quick overview of our recent trip to Hua Hin.

Khao Yai National Park 12 - 14th September

Khao Yai National Park

Setting off from Victory monument

So, after a few weeks staying in central Bangkok I thought it was time for a change of scene. Several of my colleagues had told me about this great national park called Khao Yai only a couple of hours away from Bangkok so we decided to get some country air for the weekend.

Cup chandeliers anyone?

Modern Cafe Design

Since being in Thailand I've been into several bars and cafes where I've really been struck by the innovation and creativity of the internal decoration.

There has been a lot of variety but cup chandeliers must be the "in" thing at the moment as I've seen them (in carious configurations) in shopping malls, cinemas, small cafes and restaurants.

Either they are currently really fashionable or someone has made a job lot of them and is now selling them all over Thailand...

Glass cup Chandeliers are really popular here

Me-O and funny adverts

Me-o definitely had some memorable adverts playing on the BTS system during the morning commute

Gotta love the advertising here in Thailand, there seems to be a real focus on making adverts fun and the vast majority of them are cartoon style.

If you do a quick Google for "Funny Thailand adverts" you'll find hundreds of examples

http://www.examiner.com/article/thailand-s-top-5-funny-tv-commercials-they-re-hilarious

7th October - A day out to Wat Pho

Sunday 7th October 

After waiting in a lot this weekend for the tropical storm Gaemi to come down and flood Bangkok (thankfully it didn't) I bravely ventured out to a temple that I've totally managed to miss when I went to the Grand Palace.

6 - 9 September

9 September

Abi's last day in Bangkok - for a while

Got up far too early for a Sunday to take Abi to the airport. Lots of long faces between us, but hopefully she'll be back in just over a month and there's a lot to throw myself into at work.

8 September

Abi's last big push on the shopping front. 6 of us met up at the massive local market to shop until we dropped. Abi managed to pick up a lot of her souvenirs on this mission so if you got something from her it may well have been picked up on this day

7 September

Abi and Andreas' wife An all meet up for a final lunch in our favourite corner restaurant near work

Our last big meal out on the town before Abi heads - chips from The Secret Recipe cafe. Neither of us were really hungry so it just seemed like the best thing to do. Somehow the bill managed to be 10 though, not really sure what happened there...

6 September

Girl power night tonight. Abi, An, and Mam all had out to be pampered and massaged at a highly recommended place. The boys stayed back and drank beer, ate Pizza and watched Men in Black 3. A highly successful night all around, maybe except for the quality of Men in Black 3 :)

Ayutthaya

5 September 2013

Here's a very short (read lazy) write up of a recent trip to Ayutthaya from Bangkok.

One of the most famous sights in Ayutthaya

31st August - 4th September

3 and 4 September

Dinner out with Maria, a fellow intern at Ecpat

1 September

• China Town tour
• Saw a Gold buddha
• Pizza :) Abi managed to find one that was even Dairy free - result

31 August

• Abi goes slightly mad shopping, buys lots of cute things at Terminal 21 mall
• Main purchase is Phi Naaam, a very cut cat
• I think there was also a bag purchase and various buttons and stickers, but I lost count after a while :)

20th - 30th August Koh Samed

Koh Samed

Koh Samed

30 August

Saw new Brave movie in 3d - it was very good

25 - 27 August Koh Samed trip 

• Koh Samed trip - a great chance to get away from the city for a while. Highly recommended escape from Bangkok as it was only a 3 hour bus journey 
• Fireshow on the beach - very cool 

During our time on Koh Samed we went to a Floating restaurant, just near to the shoreline which promised fresh fish meals and an unusual dinning experience.
It's difficult getting out to the restaurant at certain times of the day so the restaurant has a shuttle boat service that will come and pick you up if you cannot get at the floating pier. Luckily, the time we went to eat we just about managed to get on there.

Once you're in the restaurant you immediately notice that there are no chairs, just cushions to sit on and that each table in the restaurant is Glass topped. When you look again you can see that underneath the glass table it's a sheer drop into the ocean through holes that have been cut in the floor to watch the fish. 

We really enjoyed the meal and the ambience of the place, even though we were quite high above the water I kept having visions of a massive fish diving up to take a bite on my toe! Luckily though, that didn't happen.

The next day we walked along the beach, and I managed to catch Abi looking ever so contemplative

If you like empty beaches visit Koh Samed in the off season - lovely to get a beach all to yourself

• One major touristy beach 
• Nice empty beaches 
• Hundreds of motorbikes 

22 August

Intense workshop on new Salesforce system and e-learning system. Use the office whiteboard to maximum effect trying to capture all of the input and output flows associated with the Salesforce system. We made good progress, but there's a lot more to do!

21 August

Heads down day preparing for workshop on Wed

20 August 

• Adventures with VPN - trying to get UK TV to work with mixed results. Looks like I'll have to watch more Thai TV going forward 
• San Francisco trip confirmed - awesome

Lumphini Park Visit

2nd September  - Lumphini Park Visit

Grand Palace/พระบรมมหาราชวัง, Bangkok

19 August

• Grand palace, very impressive. Jade Buddha most venerated in Thailand
• Soldiers with millions of medals sweeping up and making coffee, very odd
• False teeth and dentures for sale, why ?
• Girl wearing glasses with no lenses, fashion crazy or what

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace

16th - 19th August

18 August

• Washing adventures, it got monsooned as quickly as we could dry it, one step forward etc
• Market adventure (Chatachak), lots of pets for sale, got monsooned again (when in Thailand)
• Watched Atlantis - hmmm, not brilliant
• Saw security guy asleep at block, felt much safer haha

Abi very pleased with button purchase at market

17 August 

• First Friday feeling!
• Night out with Andreas and his family and Mam
• Eating out around "Nana" BTS station in an area called Sukhumvit

16 August - yep, work again

• Long meeting in morning
• Might go check out the tallest building in Bangkok for food later on - we did, and it was cool although we kept getting shoved back inside in between raining spells so we didn't get as many photos as we'd have liked. There's another tall bar called Banyan Tree which we'll have to go check out as well.