Kirstie and Mike's honeymoon

Holiday: Our honeymoon
Main tour operator: Hayes & Jarvis
Local operator: Tourismo Aisa
Holidaymakers: Mike Mason and Kirstie Mendham (Mendy)
Wedding: 11th August, 2pm, The Manor Hotel, Crickhowell, Powys
Departure: Heathrow to Bangkok, 13th August
Chiang Mai to Cha Am: 22nd August
Return: Bangkok to Heathrow, 31st August
Exchange rate: 67 Baht = £1; 100 Baht = £1.50


Day 1 – Sunday 13th August
Woke up at 9:30am, jaded after three days of wedding partying. Jan, Lauren and Emily came round a few minutes after to a very sleepy Kirstie’s Mum’s house. Sarah, Lorcan and Dylan followed shortly after to wish us well on our way to our honeymoon.

Got back home at 3pm after much queuing on the M25 just round the corner from home. Out again in the taxi at 4pm on our way to Heathrow – good job we packed a week ago. We needed to be there really early because of all the security alerts these past few days. Makes us feel like Mum and Dad again getting to the airport so early. The airport wasn’t too busy given the problems – we’d checked-in and got through security in less than an hour – three hours to wait now for the flight. Nice posh meal for dinner at Chez Gerard – we are on our honeymoon after all.

After a couple of hours delay we were in the air on an EVA air 777. Kirstie sat by the window for the first time ever – must be going soft after getting married! Not a bad flight, even managed to sleep a bit which is unusual.


Day 2 – Monday 14th August
Arrived in Bangkok, still a couple of hours late, at about 5pm (11am at home). Picked up by Matthew in an old Volvo and taken to the Amari Atrium hotel in the East of the city. The local tour is operator is Tourismo Asia. Had a bit of dinner in the hotel and went to bed. Nice Thai meal – yum, we’re going to be really fat when we leave this country.

Day 3 – Tuesday 15th August
Up early for a 7:30am pickup at the hotel for a trip to the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Very impressive palace covered in gold leaf and shiny tiles. Each of the temples in the palace was built by different Kings. Each King built is temple in a slightly different style. On the outside wall of the palace there is a long frieze that explains the history of Buddha for the people to understand. There was a lot of restoration work going on, it looked like it was taking them ages to repaint and relay gold leaf and shiny tiles.

The Emerald Buddha temple is an impressively decorated building with detailed friezes around the walls. The Buddha himself is tiny – not very impressive after the buildup.

We left the rest of the tour group to walk around the city on our own. We found the big swing (a monument to an old Thai tradition), which didn’t have a swing in it, on the way to China town. This is a cool place filled with very cramped markets selling food, cheap electricals and dodgy DVDs & CDs. Found a really cheap place for spicy raman soup for lunch (only 240 Baht).

Next stop on our wandering (definitely not lost) tour was the flower market which is huge. It was very busy with people arranging and selling flowers – although we didn’t see anyone actually buying! There was a pretty big food market under the same tin roof.

Took a tuk-tuk to Pandip Plaza, a huge electronics paradise. Six floors of gadget heaven. Bought a new camera (Lumix DMC-LX1 – some of the photos in this blog were taken with this camera) and memory for not much dosh – the camera was cheaper than internet prices at home and the memory was about the same price as internet prices. The shop I got the camera from is called Bask Digital Company (http://www.bask1.com/) – we spent some time walking around trying to find the best deal – there was at least one Sony Vaio shop on every floor, sometimes two.

Back to the hotel in a taxi (the tuk-tuk just seemed too life threatening) for a bit of a relax. Dinner in the hotel again – still very nice: red curry in a hollowed out coconut.

In the evening we took a trip to the Calypso Ladyboy cabaret. Very strange – most of them you could tell they were blokes, but a couple of them had obviously undergone a lot of surgery because they were very convincing. I couldn’t look at another Thai woman for the rest of the holiday without wondering whether it was really a woman.


Day 4 – Wednesday 16th August
Up even earlier this morning for a 6am pickup for a trip to the floating market and rose garden. First stop was a sugar factory in Samut Sakhon where they make sugar out of coconut flowers. They cut the bottom of the flowers off and put a bucket underneath to catch the stuff that drips out. They then boil it and let it reduce and set into sugar. It was so nice I bought a big bag, along with a bag of salt. As we drove to the sugar factory we passed lots of fields where they evaporated sea water to collect salt – we saw a lot of stalls by the side of the road selling it. They don’t make much money for their efforts, only 1000 Baht per ton of salt.

After a short drive we stopped for a boat trip to the floating market at Damnoen Saduak. The boats were long and thin, seating eight, with a huge engine at the back and a long pointy nose. The driver never really opened up the throttle all the way, but we were still going very fast down narrow canals past people’s houses.

The floating market was amazing – two days into Thailand and this is what we were expecting to see – although not really used by locals any more, most visitors were tourists. There was a huge indoor, land-based market to the side of the canal selling crafts and food. We bought spices in the food market and I had spicy noodle soup in one of the local cafés – café is a grand word for a collection of plastic tables and chairs with a bloke and a woman cooking on a stall with wheels. On the way back to the coach I had a Blue Mountain expresso for 40 Baht in a coffee shop called “Good Gossip” – I’ll never get a Blue Mountain that cheap ever again I think. The market was the first place where they tried reasonably hard to sell us stuff – still not too bad.

Next touristic goody was a 2300 year old temple at Nakhon Pathom, oldest of the 30,000(ish) temples in Thailand. Quite impressively big pagoda (the bell-shaped central bit) covered in bronze coloured tiles. There were lots of statues of Buddha in various poses all around the temple, including a huge standing Buddha near one of the long, wide staircases leading to the surrounding town.

Around the corner from the temple we visited the rose garden – didn’t actually see any roses! It rained really hard while we had a buffet lunch. In the middle of the gardens was an entertainment centre with performing elephants, a python and an indoor cultural show. The show was based in a fake traditional village – there were dancers, sword fighters and Thai boxers. The show started with an odd man doing keepy-uppy – he was pretty impressive. They said this was a national sport that’s been performed for more than 500 years – bit strange really.

We headed back into Bangkok late afternoon, back to the hotel for a swim and dinner – third spicy Thai soup of the day – yum. We had our first Thai massage in the evening – every muscle pressed and stretched – roughest massage we’ve ever had. The girl kept laughing at me because I wasn’t relaxing – it’s hard to relax when it hurts so much!


Day 5 – Thursday 17th August
Early start again to head north for the touring part of the holiday. We could do with at least one lie-in on this holiday! Feel surprisingly good after the massage last night – thought I’d be really stiff.

Headed north out of Bangkok city (Bang means village and kok comes from the word for olive). The population of Bangkok is about ten million, population of Thailand is about sixty million with 94% of them Buddhists.

Our first stop was supposed to be the royal summer palace, unfortunately it was shut as the King’s granddaughter was staying. Instead we went to see the biggest Buddha statue in the country in Ayutthaya. They were restoring the statue so it was black instead of gold. The statues are covered in several layers of black lacquer before being covered in gold leaf.

Next stop was an old ruined temple where we saw Buddhist monks and nuns chanting. This temple has been ruined by time but still quite intact. The central pagoda had steep stairs to climb to the top – at the top there were lots of sleeping bats which made the place stink. In the grounds surrounding the pagoda was a large white sleeping Buddha covered in gold cloths. All the Buddha statues in the temple were wearing golden sashes – it made the old place look very lived-in.

The next temple in the town was also ruined, but this time by the Burmese. Even though the Burmese are Buddhist, they still destroyed the temple by burning it down and smashing the statues of Buddha. After a short rummage around the temple we returned to the royal summer palace to see if the King’s granddaughter had gone home. The buildings in the palace looked quite European compared to many other places we’d seen. The King who built it was inspired by his visits to Europe. The Chinese built a temple in a Chinese style as a gift for the prosperity the King had allowed them in Thailand.

We had lunch in Monkey City – Lopburi. The town is overrun by monkeys – they live quite happily with the towns people. As we got dropped off (in the middle of a roundabout!) we saw some kids playing with them by a fountain. We visited an old ruined temple, just by the roundabout in the middle of town, which was completely overrun by the macaque monkeys. Whilst I tried to take a picture of them, a couple jumped on my head - they liked shiny things. The monkeys in the temple and the town didn’t mix, they were separated by a road like two gangs.

For the rest of the day we just drove north towards Phitsanulok where we stayed in the Amarin Lagoon hotel. The Prime Minister had stayed the night before and there were still loads of military police around. First thing we did was jump in the pool after a long, hot drive. A lot of the tourists in Thailand are Japanese – this is a good thing as it meant there was sushi in the buffet for dinner. Tried another Thai beer: “Chang” or elephant beer – pretty much the same taste as Singha (Lion) and Tiger.

Early night – really tired. The five of us on the tour includes Eli from Kent and Scott and Melissa from New Zealand. Scott and Melissa are on their honeymoon too. They only arrived late last night so they were first to bed with major jet lag.


Day6 – Friday 18th August
Bit of a lie in this morning – alarm call at 6:30am. Buffet breakfast including Thai curry – yum – and the worst coffee I’ve ever tasted – yuk.

Back in the van and heading north again. First stop was a local temple in the town with one of the most beautiful Buddha statues inside (not my words). Outside by the temple, by the river, a couple were releasing fish back into the water – a Buddhist Karma ritual. We bought a little bird in a tiny bamboo cage for 20 Baht and released it into the wild – I made a wish as I let it go – such good karma. We tried lotus flower seed in the market outside the temple – tasted a bit like coconut, bought a bag for 20 Baht.

On the way to the next temple we stopped at a rice mill. We saw how the rice is polished and sorted by a huge steam powered polishing and sorting machine. The rice is polished once to remove the husk and produce brown rice and then again for white. The broken pieces of rice are kept by the farmer and the rice powder is used as animal feed. The husks are burnt to make steam to power the machine. We passed a lot of rice fields to and from the mill and it all comes here for sorting.

The next temple was part of a 700 year old historic park with many temples inside, ruined by time, but well preserved. The remains had influences from Hinduism and the Khmer in Cambodia. After a very hot visit we headed off on a long drive north to lunch. We ate in a purpose-built tourist eating stop – not bad grub, but I think the drivers and guides ate better.

After lunch, another temple with Cambodian and Buddhist styling. There was a cool wobbly rope bridge across a fast flowing and full river that we had a wobble across, accompanied by a couple of motorbikes! After the temple we headed north again towards the next hotel. On the way we stopped to talk to some rice farmers. There was an old guy pulling up and trimming the tops the densely packed young rice plants whilst six women replanted them more widely spaced in the next field.

The oldest girl was 70 – they have to work until they can’t work any more as they receive no pension. A little way along the road we stopped in a local food market.

We tried a few things including Durian (a soft fruit which is banned in a lot of public places due to the smell) and deep fried silk worms and crickets (they tasted really similar to pork scratching).

Further along the road we started to climb into the hills in the middle of a rain storm. We visited a hill tribe and saw a couple of old lasses with elongated ears with rings in them. It started to rain really hard while we were visiting them so we took cover under one of the houses where the water buffalo usually live.

On the wet and winding roads in the mountains we saw an accident involving a truck and a tanker. The tanker was being lifted out of a deep ditch by crane. Our driver drove a little slower for a mile or so until he forgot about it and slowly sped back up. The hotel was the River Lodge in Lampang. We stayed in little wooden huts raised off the ground in the middle of the jungle. We were surrounded by nature. In the evening, as it was getting dark and we were getting ready for dinner, there was a huge thunderstorm. It was so loud and close it made the hut shake. We celebrated being married for a week with the other three, a large buffet meal and a dodgy local band.


Day 7 – Saturday 19th August
Out of the jungle and back in the van. First stop for the day was another temple with an emerald Buddha, similar to the one in Bangkok only smaller. In the temple grounds there were lots of coloured sticks holding up the branches of the trees. The Buddhists believe that if the trees fall, it will be the downfall of the religion. At the back of the temple was a little shed at the top of some steps that only men were allowed in. There was a little hole in the old wooden door that projected an image of the pagoda onto a draped white cloth inside (pinhole camera). The old monks thought this was a miracle.

Next stop was an elephant hospital – Friends of the Asian Elephants, near Lampang. Most of the elephants brought here had injuries from landmines along the Burmese border. The hospital was the first of its kind in the world and is run as a charity (http://www.elephant.tnet.co.th/).

A little further along the road we stopped at another temple. This one showed the story of the Buddha in pictures all the way around the outside of the building. Matthew told us the story again. The temple had a really big gong that we all had a go a ringing.

Lunch today was at another tourist feeding place. Good Thai food prepared while you watch: fried noodles, spicy papaya salad and noodle soup. Matthew ate with us this time, no special food for the tourists.

We travelled further north for about an hour into Chiang Mai and visited a bunch of handicraft shops. The shops sell arts and crafts made by local people. We saw: an umbrella shop – where we saw them making them, silk shop, a huge jewellery shop, lacquered stuff, silver stuff and a carpet shop. We ended up buying quite a lot of things including a silk shirt and tie, a pink sapphire pendent for Mendy and a few presents. From the lacquer shop, we got a black elephant with gold leaf patterns and a picture frame for us to put a wedding picture in.

We stayed in the Chiang Mai Plaza hotel – very nice indeed. We all jumped in the pool to cool off as soon as we got there. After dinner (very good Thai buffet) we visited the night bazaar. Loads of the kind of stuff we saw in the handicraft shops, but much cheaper. Bought a few little lights quite cheaply. The place was really packed, mostly with Western tourists. Kirstie got some big baggy wrap around trousers in an underground part of the market.


Day 8 – Sunday 20th August
Not such an early start today. We visited a temple at the top of a hill (~1100m) overlooking Chiang Mai. Really good view of the town and local airport. Scott and I climbed the 307 steps right to the top of the temple whilst the girls got the funicular. Scott and I had to cover our legs with big baggy trousers to enter the temple – they obviously didn’t like our knees. Inside we saw a very bright golden pagoda and another small emerald Buddha. We also saw a monk blessing some locals. We got a bit blessed too as he splashed us with his holy water – obviously thought we needed it.

After the temple we went to a jade factory. We learned about different types of jade and saw the different colours: red, yellow, green and violet. They showed how it was carved cut and polished into figures and jewellery. Obviously they wanted us to buy stuff, but Kirstie and I just drank the tea and coffee and ate rice cakes whilst chatting to Matthew. Eli bought a little green elephant pendant and Scott bought Melissa a lilac and gold ring.

Free afternoon this today, so after lunch Scott and Melissa went for a Thai massage with Matthew and Kirstie, Eli and I went for a walk in town. It’s amazing how many of the locals want to tell you about what’s going on or give you a ride in a tuk tuk or taxi to show you around – they seem pretty genuine, even though you think at first that they want to steal your things. We found a huge local market in the middle of the old walled town selling snacky foods and arts and crafts, similar to the night bazaars. This stuff was even cheaper than we’d seen before. Eli got a painting of only 100 Baht. Took a tuk tuk back to the hotel after a good few hours walking around – Eli’s first tuk tuk ride – not as mad or life threatening as the one through the middle of Bangkok.

The centre of the town is surrounded by a big, thick brick wall. The town is over 700 years old, even though Chiang Mai means new town. In the evening we went to a traditional local meal and hill tribe dance event. We all sat at very low tables with our feet in a hole underneath. The food was quite nice, but a little plain. The dancing was pretty good, lots of girls dressed up in lots of different local costumes – the guys performed knife and drum dances. We had our first Mai Tai's, served in pineapples.

Day 9 – Monday 21st August
Up early this morning for an elephant ride north of Chiang Mai. It was quite a long ride in the mountains round some very windy roads with huge holes in them. As soon as we got there we got straight on an elephant via the happy room. It started raining hard soon after we got on them, so we had to hold on while holding an umbrella and trying to take pictures and filming the wobbly ride. The first thing the elephant did was walk through a fast flowing, flooded river and into the jungle. The camp photographer took a picture of us as we went past. The walk lasted about an hour through the jungle and along the river. Our elephant fell over as it slipped in the muddy marsh. That was pretty scary, and I don’t think the elephant liked it much either – we were kind of sure about his footing after that. Back At the camp we watched the elephants wash in the river and then perform for us: playing football, musical instruments and painting. You could buy their paintings on elephant dung paper.

Back in the van after the show and shop – heading north again to the Thaton River View restaurant. Another Thai buffet with the Italians that have been doing the same tour as us with the same travel company.

Next was a trip on the river Kok in a long tail boat. This was another of those little boats with huge engines, spraying cooling water up the air as the go. This time the driver opened it up and we went at what felt like top speed (~20 mph). The river was very high after the flooding, full of bits of jungle and flowing very fast. The driver was pretty good at navigating his way around obstacles and rapids – the boat drivers all lived along the river banks so know the area very well.

The river flowed through the Tonpsung district – our first stop was at one of the hill tribes: The Lahu. These people live by the side of the river in a very small village. They supplement their incomes by selling handicrafts along the path we walked. The stuff they sold was all made from brightly coloured woven fabrics – the same stuff found in the markets, but very cheap. The girls stay at home looking after the kids and making the handicrafts while the men farm in the hills. We saw quite a few rice fields along the river – Matthew pointed out a sticky-rice field that clung to the side of a hill rather than being grown in flooded terraces.

Back into the boat, next stop a hot spring. Sulphurous, steaming water at about 55°C bubbled up into a green pool. The locals piped a bit off into little pools that were cool enough to bath in. The main pool was hot enough to cook in – it smelled a bit eggy down wind though.

Next stop was another hill tribe village: The Musue tribe. We didn’t really see much of the village, we only stayed at the waters edge. There were two huge constrictor snakes in a couple of chicken wire cages close to where we landed. The locals made money by taking pictures of tourists holding the huge snakes – they were well heavy.

The boat journey lasted about three and a half hours and finished at the Dusit Island hotel in Chiang Rai. During the last part of the journey we were racing the Italians – we won! The hotel was 5* and built on an island in the middle of the river. We all needed a cool-off and jumped straight into the pool. We had another buffet dinner and then went into town to the night bazaar. Kirstie and I had enough of markets so we went once quickly round and then sat in a bar watching a local music and dance event whilst the others shopped.

Night cap in Scott and Melissa’s room and then off to bed. Last night of the touring part of the holiday.


Day 10 – Tuesday 22nd August
Last day of the northern tour today. Reasonably early start so we could see a few places before flying back to Bangkok.

First visit was to another hill tribe: The Aka. The women of this tribe wear black hats covered ion silver bells and medals. The amount of silver on the hat is a measure of the wealth of the family. These people are really pushy when it comes to selling their handicrafts to us. We’ve seen them in a few different places trying to sell stuff – we resisted. They did try to block the path to try and make us buy things.

The next tribe were called The Yao – they wear embroidered hats and skirts. These people are much more relaxed than the Aka. They waited for us to come and visit their stalls rather than following us around. We visited a primary and middle school in the village and bought some handicrafts from the kids to help support the school.

We got back in the van for about half an hour and travelled to the northern most point in Thailand: Mae Sai where there is a border crossing to Burma. There is a river dividing the two countries – people travel between them across a short bridge. We spent a few minutes looking around another market. It was a bit different to the others we’d been to as most of the stuff came from China. I bought some seasoned seaweed – only 50 Baht for 80 packets – bargain.

Lunch today was at the joining of Thailand, Burma and Laos. The countries are separated by three rivers – the area is known as the golden triangle. We were surrounded by dragonfly as we ate – probably because we were so close to the water.

Back in the van and straight to the airport. Scott and Melissa took a flight to Koh Samui via Bangkok and the rest of us went for a final night in Bangkok. Matthew and the driver had to drive the van back down to Bangkok – there weren’t enough of us for the tour company to fly him down. It’s a long drive. We were back in the Amari Atrium for the night. It was Eli’s last night – we took a taxi to a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms – the only restaurant in the world dedicated to birth control. Very good Thai food (Synopsis).


Day 11 to Day 19 – Wednesday 23rd to Thursday 31st August
In a car on the morning of the 11th to take us down to the resort hotel – the Regent, Cha Am. This is a low, sprawling hotel just by the sea with several restaurants and bars. We spent the week the week, being massaged by the beach, taking Thai cooking lessons in the kitchens, jet skiing and generally relaxing.