The train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai is a great way to see more of Thailand, but depending on your travels it’s not always the best way. With some planning by picking the right trains, you can save money and see some of the highlights of Thailand. Bangkok to Chiang Mai – train, bus, or […]
Notes on Pattaya: The beach of Bangkok, and thoughts on retirement
I’m usually immune to click-bait listicles, especially when they just arbitrarily rank cities. One list that I will always stop to read though is Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index. For the 2018 list Bangkok was number one again, which was not a surprise. What was a surprise was to see Pattaya checking in at #18. […]
View Bangkok from the King Power MahaNakhon Tower
King Power MahaNakhon is one of the most visually distinctive buildings in Southeast Asia. Up close it looks like a jumbled mess with pieces of the building missing. From a distance though it all makes sense. The missing pieces resemble pixels that are spiralling around the building. The building was completed in December 2016, and […]
The remote mountain magic of Mae Hong Son
Mae Hong Son is in the far northwest of Thailand. So far northwest that it’s just a few kilometres from the Myanmar border. There’s no way to get to Myanmar from here, and it’s not on the way to anywhere. It is though on the way through to somewhere via the Mae Hong Son Loop. […]
Pai – The Shire of Thailand
Pai is in the mountainous northwest of Thailand, about 140KM from Chiang Mai. As a frequent visitor to Chiang Mai I’ve heard all about Pai, yet I had never been. I can trace my reluctance to visit down to the arduous road journey by minivan, and by hippies. On one of my early visits to […]
Chiang Mai trip report – the provincial powerhouse of Southeast Asia
Every time I return to Chiang Mai (which has been often) I marvel at how hard this inland provincial city punches above its weight. After thinking about this I looked at a map of Asia, and I can’t think of a non-capital city (and not a port/coastal city) that has as much to offer as […]
Notes on Macau – Where US casinos and Portuguese heritage meet
When I was in Hong Kong I visited the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which meant a trip to Macau. I was in Macau unexpectedly last December so I didn’t expect to be back again the following December. I like visiting Macau, even though I’m not into casinos. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Historic Centre […]
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge – 3 bridges and an undersea tunnel on the world’s longest sea bridge
The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge opened in October 2018, making it possible to travel directly by car or bus from Hong Kong to Macau. The HKZM bridge is an overseas highway with three cable-stayed bridges and an undersea tunnel, so it’s not technically a continuous bridge. However you classify it, at 55-kilometres long it’s the longest […]
Hong Kong West Kowloon – The railway station of the Hong Kong – Beijing high-speed railway
The Hong Kong West Kowloon Station is the terminus of the Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong high-speed railway. With the opening of the station in September 2018, it’s now possible to travel from Hong Kong to Beijing in one train trip. Construction began in 2011, which is about the same time that I became a regular visitor to […]
SanVa Hotel – The last guesthouse in Macau
Hotel Name: SanVa Hotel Address: 65-67 Rua da Felicidade, Macau, China. I stayed at the SanVa Hotel in Macau. The SanVa isn’t listed on hotel booking sites, and I only knew about it as I have been here before. I was travelling around China for two months, and I went to Macau to reset my […]
