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Nongtao Part 3: The People
We leave the elephants behind and head for coffee with Lazyman. Carmel explains to us that some of the villagers are known by Karen nicknames rather than their real name, including “Lazyman” and “Big Sister”. We are destined to meet both. Lazyman has a small fruit and coffee plantation in the village; we are treated to coffee ground from freshly picked beans and taken on a tour of the small garden. The coffee itself is delicious, and so, surprisingly, is the juicy flesh from around the coffee bean. But our visit to Lazyman is more than just to share a coffee. Lazyman is a descendant of senior Karen tribesmen and…
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Northwards to Chiang Mai
The evening flight from Krabi brings us to the 700-year old city of Chiang Mai, over 900 miles north of our previous location and some 3,000 feet higher. With a domestic flight and an airport so close to the centre, it’s a satisfyingly quick transfer and we get from aeroplane seat to hotel room in record time. From Koh Lanta to Krabi, the road trip by minibus, or minivan as it’s called here, had its own dramas, the driver continually pulling off the route to pick up more passengers and luggage even though we seemed already full to bursting. Each time we felt there wasn’t another inch of space, on…
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Bangkok: The Adventure Begins
It was the novelist Alex Garland who christened Bangkok “the centre of the backpacking universe”, and, by reputation, several other universes ranging from sex tourism to lady boys to diverse cuisine, are centred here. However, on the City Line train and MRT from the airport to the centre, it seems to us that Bangkok has become the centre of the face mask universe. Most likely the propensity of Asians for wearing protective masks in city atmospheres has been intensified by the Coronavirus scare, but whatever, most of the passengers are sporting one. An overnight flight from the UK means that it is late afternoon as we check in the hotel,…
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It’s 2020: Our Year Of Destiny Dawns
So we are now, officially, a retired couple, our working lives done and dusted and behind us. And with the New Year dawning today, it’s precisely four weeks until our dream comes true and we start our long term travels around the world. January 29th is the date on which the first leg of our travels begin, when we are due to arrive in Bangkok and set foot in Thailand for the first time in our lives. The last few weeks have been – well – different. With Michaela on midweek tours of the UK visiting family in Lowestoft, Birmingham and Gosport, my final spell of work was punctuated regularly…
