globalwanderings

Touring Nakhon Si Thammarat province April 07. It is said that in the 1970’s a few hippies stumbled across Ko Samui and found paradise, with powder-white sands, clear turquoise water and gently swaying palms. Over the next 30 years this paradise was swamped with ever encroaching development. Now, there seems to be more concrete than sand. However, perhaps not surprisingly, just across the water from Samui there are beaches near the fishing village of Khanom, which are still in pristine…

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Bangkok to foreigners, Krung Thep to locals, City of Angels to people of the past, city of horrific traffic jams to people of today. You can read all about this amazing city elsewhere, for here is just an eclectic mixture of photos I’ve taken over the past few months. I’ve tried to avoid the typical tourist shots and hope to continually update this page as I continue my explorations. My first picture is fairly typical however, a shot of the…

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Around the outskirts of Bangkok there are many interesting nooks and crannies to explore. This page covers three: Chatuchak Market in the North, Ko Kred even further north and a walk around Thonburi, on the other side of the Chao Praya river to Bangkok, so close but yet relatively undiscovered. I’ve got another page: Bangkok wanderings which include further walks more in the centre of Bangkok. The first is Chatuchak Market, one of the biggest markets in Asia. It is…

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Khao Yai is Thailand’s oldest and also one of its biggest National Parks. At an average of 700m above sea level, its climate is reasonable pleasant all year round and as it is only 2.5 hours outside Bangkok it is also one of the most popular parks. We went up for a long weekend in February 2007. We got the bus to Pak Chong, the nearest town of any size, which is itself about two hours from Bangkok. From here…

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To many visitors to Thailand, their fondest memories come from Isaan, the North Eastern ‘bulge’ of Thailand. However, it doesn’t rate much of a mention in many guidebooks because of the relative paucity of grand Thai monuments – either man made or natural. Its charm lies in the friendly people and the more relaxed, traditional pace and style of life. That was exactly what me Jackie were after when we went for a week’s exploring around the area of Nong…

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I was told Ko Chang was the new Ko Samui, Presumably this meant it was a once pristine island on the downhill slope to environmental degradation caused by uncontrolled tourist development. Perhaps they meant it in a more positive light. I wasn’t sure. I went there Christmas 2006 to find out. There are in fact two Ko Changs (literally Elephant Island) in Thailand and probably more. I was going to the big one – down the east coast expressway until…

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We’d been in Thailand a month (Sep ’05) – all of that time in the steaming metropolis which is Bangkok. Although the wet season hadn’t been as bad as expected, our soi was still calf deep in water when we paddled off to our first holiday. We’d picked Ko Samet because it was fairly quiet, accessible and it promised to be one of the driest spots in Thailand in October. We were very pleasantly surprised – it wasn’t as developed…

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The feast “LOI KRATHONG” is an event that happens every year in Thailand on the full moon of the 12th lunar month (first full moon day of November). On the night of the festival in 2005 we headed to the river in Bangkok (the Chao Praya ) to see what the fuss was all about and to enjoy a riverside meal. NB – We also went in 2006 and I’ve added some more pictures. Throughout the evening we saw many…

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It was mid October in Bangkok. As per normal it was hot, busy and congested. In addition, the wet season was kicking in with a vengeance. We had a week’s holiday. We wanted to stay in Thailand but wanted to get away from it all and be as dry as possible. Generally the driest place in Thailand is Ko Samet, but we went there last weekend. We decided on Nan, an obscure province up north which had been a hideout…

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Overall our trip to Ko Samui was a little disappointing. It certainly wasn’t paradise island. Maybe at one time, but rampant overdevelopment have meant those days were long gone. As you will see from the photos the sand is still wonderful, but the backdrops of swaying palms have become construction sites and the green lush hillsides become bare red scars soon be covered with tourist developments. First the good news – the beaches are still lovely, some more crowded than…

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