HERE AND THERE

I have been looking forward to writing this post. It's got sticky rocks, plenty of elephants and some seriously interesting food. Our guide's instructions were to wear shoes that can get wet. Our feet were wet the entire day! Bua Thong Waterfall (also called the Sticky Waterfall) is about 60 km north of Chiang Mai. It's a beautiful place up in the hills, very popular with tourists because the rocks in the waterfall are 'sticky'. The rocks have a rough surface caused by a mine

We are getting the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, an 11 hour journey. Not overnight — we chose to do the daytime trip so that we could (a) see the changing landscapes and (b) have a rest day after our busy Bangkok time. It worked really well on both counts. Chiang Mai is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second-largest city in Thailand by population (about 1.2 million). It is 700 km north of Bangkok in a mountainous region. T

We've headed about 80 km north of Bangkok for the day, to the historic city of Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (I do love visiting UWHSs.) Ayutthaya flourished for about 400 years, between the 1300s and 1700s, as the capital city of the Siamese Kingdom. It was built on an island of rivers, far away enough from the sea to prevent warships from other countries reaching it easily. At that time Ayutthaya was one of the world’s biggest cities, with sophisticated technolog

One member of our travelling party (not me) is a keen market-goer so today it's train market and floating market day! Okay, I have to admit, they're fun destinations. We start at Ban Laem Railway Station, about 80 km south of Bangkok, in a little village where even the dogs take it easy. We travel about an hour by train to the Mae Klong Railway Market. The market stalls are laid out next to the rail lines. When a train enters the market, stall-holders have to pack up their go