Picked up at 7.30 am, fortified by stir fried noodles, by a driver who thinks they drive on the right here especially around steep bends and a guide fluent in German with a little Thai/German accented English who passes some of the 2hr drive showing us pictures of his 60 chickens and cockerels, bred for decorative plumage, which sell to rich Thais for £40 - £3000 as live ornaments. He insists the neon pink eggs and chickens are real and not, as we cynics suspec...

A one hour flight south to Phuket and a preflight sticky rice snack is provided in the free economy lounge, lunch served swiftly en route, chicken with sticky rice and rice pudding dessert. With the pressure of the descent on landing I literally felt sticky rice was coming out of my ears. Khao Lak, one hour drive north on the west coast was devastated by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami with a small museum and police patrol boat washed 2km inland left as a memorial. ...

Back in Bangkok we made several day trips, one day inland to the atmospheric ruins of the previous capital at Ayuthaya, sacked by the Burmese in 1767 and the Summer Palace, a beautiful park and a curious mix of east and west building styles, delightful despite hordes of Thai school groups, their teachers using megaphones to address them. Very early starts are essential as by 10am the heat is draining. This guide was like talking wikipedia but we managed to slip ...

Back in Bangkok we made several day trips, one day inland to the atmospheric ruins of the previous capital at Ayuthaya, sacked by the Burmese in 1767 and the Summer Palace, a beautiful park and a curious mix of east and west building styles, delightful despite hordes of Thai school groups, their teachers using megaphones to address them. Very early starts are essential as by 10am the heat is draining. This guide was like talking wikipedia but we managed to slip a...

There's a well known Bangkok scam where a tuk-tuk driver (a tuk-tuk is an open sided 3 wheeled taxi which makes a tuk tuk noise but we have not yet tried as they are near the bottom of the motor vehicle feeding chain in the driving chaos of the city but most open to the pollution of the traffic clogged-streets) or other helpful local smilingly tells you that wherever you want to visit is closed today but for 40 baht they will take you somewhere better. We encount...