Uvala Ježinac, Beach, Split, Croatia

Uvala Ježinac Beach

Split, Croatia

The city of Split has the distinct benefits of a range of beaches nearby. They are sadly rocky shores rather than sandy but the water is a beautiful hue and the water quality very high. 

Diocletian's Palace Tunnels, Split, Croatia

Typical tunnel shot

Diocletian's Palace Tunnels

More information: http://www.diocletianspalace.org/

The Dioceletian Palace in Split is an incredibly old building, first constructed around 295AD.

These tunnels mirror the upstairs layout of the original palace in a largely untouched way, whereas above ground construction has replaced/removed walls and distorted the original shape.

The Museum of Broken Relationships - Zagreb, Croatia

The Museum of Broken Relationships

"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?" is a lyric from a song of the same name by Jimmy Ruffin (also covered by other groups but we won't dwell on that). 

In Zagreb, Croatia the Museum of Broken Relationships may have an answer to that.

Erawan Museum, Bangkok

Erawan Museum, Bangkok

Slightly off the beaten track the Erawan Museum was founded by Mr. Lek Wiriyapan who had a dream of building a museum that celebrated the faith of Buddhism so that future generations could continue to learn about it.

The main feature of the museum is the fact that it is housed in a huge 3 headed Elephant, which has to make it one of the more unusual buildings in Thailand.

Not many museum sport a 3 headed Elephant on the top.

Malaysia - Penang, Cameron Highlands, and Kuala Lumpar

Mini tour of Malaysia

Another chance for a change of scene from Bangok, here's a quick write up of a recent mini tour of Malaysia.

Koh Samui trip

Koh Samui

One of the big challenges of living in Thailand is choosing which island to visit next. With several hundred of them to choose from ranging from well developed destinations back to empty beaches there is something for everyone.  Koh Samui has long been a favourite destination for travellers so I thought it was definitely time to visit there myself.

Setting of from Surat Thani - Samui is just on the horizon

Benjakiti Park, Bangkok

Benjakiti Park

Now that the weather is cooling here slightly in Bangkok it's much easier to do more physically active outdoor activities. This weekend I followed a recommendation on another travel blog to go rent a bicycle and do a few laps of Benjakiti Park in central Bangkok.

2km circular bike trail around the lake was excellent

South Coast Road Trip in a VW Campervan called Mango

Iain Clements & Abi Hesketh-Roberts June 2013

This post is a bit of a departure from my usual Thailand adventures as I took my summer vacation back in the UK this year.

Abi and I recently ticked a long awaited holiday item list by going on a mini road trip along the south coast in a classic VW Camper Van called Mango. We just made a note of some of the places we stayed along the way and some other information about the trip.

The Van

Mango, rented from RetroCamperVans in Guildford

http://retrocampervan.com/

Mango by Beach huts in Studland Beach

Buy a house or a 2nd hand BMW in Thailand

How much is that car?

A colleague of mine in the office recently commented that cars are madly expensive here in Thailand. I hadn't really thought about this before, but then I saw an advert for a used 2009 BMW X3 for a "bargain" 2.2 Million Baht!

[Source: http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/bmw-x3-new-2009-04-16]

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

An easy day trip from Bangkok to the most popular floating market.

Main entrance

Morning visit to Wat Arun

Wat Arun

One website I checked out recently stated that there are over 31,200 temples in Thailand :  (http://www.watarun.net/).

A couple of weekends I finally made it to one of the best know, Wat Arun, or the temple of dawn located on the south side of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, opposite to the Grand Palace.

Full profile on Wat Arun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Arun

Wat Arun, a very impressive site

Birthday trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia

Siem Reap

To celebrate turning 32 this year Abi and I took a short hope across from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Here's a quick write up of our trip.

Angkor Wat site

Koh Chang escape April 2013

Koh Chang

Paradise, just a 5 hour bus journey away

So, after a few weeks stuck in Bangkok it was time to escape to an island again for the weekend. Having a long weekend for Chakri day here in Thailand was a good excuse.

I've been here for a few months now and I've only visited 3 leaving about another 1,400 to visit apparently (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_of_Thailand).

Getting there

So, getting to islands is always going to come down to a choice between time and cost. For about £50 - £80 GBP (depending on when you go) you can fly down to an airport in Trat with Bangkok Airways and drastically cut short your travel time or for £5 you can take a 5.5 hour bus journey and then the 1 hour ferry crossing to Koh Chang.

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 :)