Category Archives: Explore

One of the great things about retirement is that if you want to go on a trip….you just go on a trip! Anytime is a good time! A couple of days ago we decided to take our first overnight scooter trip.  After looking around at possible destinations within a fairly easy drive from home, we set our sights on Chiangrai, a city of 200, 000 located about 200 km north of Chiangmai. It is the most nothern big city in Thailand and lies in the flat alluvial plain of the Mae Kok River, a tributary of the Mekong. It seemed to be a very direct route and close enough for a quick, two-day getaway. As always, we planned the trip about one hour before we left, including booking our room! The nice thing here is that all you ever need to throw in the backpack is an extra t-shirt and underwear for each day away. It’s always sunny and it’s always hot! So after our five minutes of packing, we were on our way out the door! Read More

It has been a month since our big group of family visitors left and I am finally getting around to writing about the Lanta Resort, our destination on Koh Lanta for a little R and R while they were here. Oh, excuse me, I guess every day is R and R for Nancy and I here in Chiangmai!  We spent three or four days there and I definitely left with mixed feelings about the place. In spite of its shortcomings, we all had a great time for the few days we were there. Read More

It has been over a week now since our pile of relatives from Canada left and returned to their snow-covered homes. None of them were in a hurry to return after spending a couple of weeks in this warm paradise. Well, maybe not so much of a paradise if you are living in downtown Bangkok these days, but here in Chiangmia, life goes on as usual. While they were here, we headed south to Koh Lanta for a few days.

Koh Lanta is a 25 km-long island off the Andaman coast of Thailand, south of Phuket and Krabi. Renowned for its long beaches, quiet seclusion, and natural beauty both above and below the water, Koh Lanta is a beach lover’s and scuba diver’s paradise. We stayed at the Lanta Resort, which I will write about in a later post. It had its pros and cons but a good time was had by all as we wined, dined and enjoyed the warm water of the sea.

The closest town to the resort is Saladan, a small, quaint village that was about a ten-minute ride away by songtaow.  While having lunch at a small oceanside cafe, we struck up a conversation with the owner. We mentioned our interest in kayaking in the area but told him we had only seen all day programs. We really only wanted to spend a morning or afternoon on this type of thing, not the entire day. After chatting with him for a few more minutes, he said he could put something together for us for a few hours for the equivalent of about $25 each. Sounded like a plan and we agreed to meet him at the resort the next morning.

Mr. Pharm showed up at 9:30 sharp the next morning and we all piled into the back of his pickup for the short journey to Saladan.  Before we knew it, we were on a longboat headed out to sea. These boats are all over the place in Thailand. They have huge outboard engines with a propeller attached to a very long shaft that is held about 45 degrees to the surface of the water. We had two guides, neither of which spoke a word of English. The only thing we knew is that we were going to see monkeys and we would spend an hour kayaking somewhere! This was not a high-end tour! Read More