Thailand Fling – Part 5… Mud, Sweat and Piers Koh Muk, Thailand December 2022 Our next port of call was the tiny island of Ko Mook or Koh Muk. However, we soon learnt that it should be re-named “Ko Mud” as the lanes that traversed it rapidly turned to quagmires in the torrential rainstorms that …
Thailand Fling – Part 4… Laid Back in Lanta Ko Lanta, Thailand November 2022 The transfer by speedboat to our next destination wasn’t quite the jet-setting “James Bond” style entrance I had imagined. Although offering a much faster journey than the 2 hour longtail boat alternative, I grew quite concerned at the number of passengers …
Thailand Fling Part 3…Ferry Tales Ko Yao Noi, Thailand, November 2022 A disappearing island…well, that’s what it seemed to be when sitting looking out to sea from our balcony. Some days it was there, but when the clouds moved in and the heavens opened, it faded into the greyness. We were intrigued, and after a …
Thailand Fling Part 2 – A Change of Plans Klong Muang, Thailand October 2022 The pace slowed down further as I finally succumbed to the cough and cold that Ian had been nursing since before we left home. Dosed up with various local remedies (amazing what you can buy over the counter here…), I was …
Thailand Fling…Part 1 Krabi, Thailand October 2022 First Stop…Paradise! Here I am at another of life’s “crossroads”, this time at the bus stop on the corner waiting for some “reasons to retire” when, like buses, several come along at once: Surviving Covid and its fallout Turning 60 (I know!) while still enjoying reasonably good health …
The Way to San Jose… Costa Rica January 2022 ..felt like a very long way, after navigating the queues to check in at Gatwick, having to re-scan our vaccination certificates on arrival, and then Ian losing his spectacles while waiting for our bags. What with the 6 hour time difference and a very bumpy 3 …
Break for the border… La Fontañera, Spain October 2021 “I’m positive!!”…in different times, the words uttered by my partner would have been met with delight and encouragement, but they were NOT what I wanted to hear the morning we were expecting our COVID PCR results. We had just spent a very relaxing and enjoyable week …
Raining Cats and Dogs… Istanbul, Turkey Oct 2020 The rain had eased a little the next morning so with aching legs, we rode the “Tünel” – a historic subway funicular built in 1875, making it the world’s second oldest underground urban rail line after the London underground. The line consists of only two stations, the historic …
Drop Dead Gorges Ihlara, Cappadocia, Turkey Oct 2020 Grateful for once that we’d chosen Dan as our nominated driver, we wound our way down the narrow lanes in our rented car and set off for a road trip to the Ihlara Valley. My impression of Turkey as a cultured but economically underdeveloped country was quickly …
Drier Straits! Istanbul, Turkey Oct 2020 After a very early start, we bid farewell to Ian at Istanbul (he was due to return to work so travelled straight back to London to quarantine!) and took the coach through the traffic into the city. Constantinople, as it was called back in the 30’s, had always sounded …
