It’s lunchtime somewhere, so a beer seems appropriate. When in Germany..

So, still here, 3 hour delay so far, new crew on its way, soon soon.

4.5 hours and the holiday can really begin x.

After a discombobulating walk around Kabukicho, not finding anything we wanted to eat and gradually getting more tired , went to a small restaurant in a block near us, was ok, nothing more than that, off to bed now.

Walked 11 km today.

Our old apartment block

Things have changed around here, a lot of the traditional shops have been demolished and replaced with the marquee luxury brand destinations, although the backstreets have remained untouched, and funky.

Next to Meiji Jingumae shrine,I’d, forgotten how impressive it is, not too crowded.

Hate at the entrance to the shrine.

Inside the main walls of the shrine

More walking, onto Shibuya still one of the cool & funky areas. You know it, it’s the one with the road crossing that thousands march across in all directions every time the lights change.

Chill

On a rooftop garden for a coffee break

Making friends.

Tired now, back to our nice AirBNB in Nishi Shinjuku, this is the country where you can buy most things from a vending machine, but this is the first time I’ve seen one dispensing meat ! Yummy

Waggu at the touch of a button

Still full from lunch, so skipped dinner, had a couple of craft beers instead

Walked 25km today !

View of the Rainbow Bridge

Another view

Cute dogs for sale in the arcade, priced at about ¥900,000 £4,500, nice but couldn’t eat a whole one.

Cute dogs for sale, no Marion !

Took the subway to Ginza, the upmarket area, used to be very old fashioned but much more trendy and interesting now..went into the flagship Muji, 8 floors, cool lifestyle shop, had an awesome food department, with lots of very Japanese snacks to nibble on.

Dusk in Ginza

Getting peckish, he’ll, we haven’t eaten all day..

Ginza at night

Typical Ginza street

Gyoza Restaurant for a quick bite and beer

Went to a traditional salaryman area, under the rail aches in Yurakuchou, busy busy, rows of small shops & shacks selling Japanese casual food. Perfect for after work drinks and bites.

Chow-chow gyoza

Started in a small Gyoza shop, probably sears 20 people, ate a couple of rounds of chow chow gyoza, bite sized snack, good with an ice cold brew.

Salaryman yakitori stall

Bit more waking, then onto a Smokey 焼き鳥, yakitori shack, grilled chicken on sticks. Have to be careful what to order, locals like the chicken hearts and liver etc.. we went pretty vanilla, I did mistakenly order a slimy squid dish..

飲みやすい酒 🍶,, Easy to drink sake ! There may be trouble ahead..

Food good, sake better, way to easy to drink. The area is good fun, everyone’s out for a good time, with cheap eats and drinks.

Didn’t affect me though

Oops.. let’s get out of here..

Outside the yakitori shack

Ahh

More Ginza at night

Walked 18km.

Must be to stop the trees from escaping.

Pretty

Can you spot me ?

Took the very efficient train to Akihabara, used to be know for its high tech gadgets but now more for manga and games.. found an old school soba shop, order & pay at the vending machine, the man freshly cooks it for you, very traditional, shop probably unchanged from the 50’s, ever seen ‘Midnight diner, Tokyo stories’ on Netflix ? Well it’s just like that restaurant. Very good tempura soba.

I must start remembering to take pictures of the food before I start

Stopped off for a nose around the basement food floor in Takashimaya in Shinjuku.

Sushi bento boxes

To prove they really do excist, here is a picture of a very overpriced Melon, used as gifts not eaten by the purchaser.

One melon, that’ll be £86 please.

Sweet red bean cakes

Nighttime, and it’s started raining, not prepared for this.. went 10 outside Tokyo to Sanganjaya, hip place, with trendy tiny \240restaurants, obviously all booked, bit of an oversight by me.

Cool street

Marion found a nice Gyoza restaurant, bit off putting early on, as we were sent up to the 2nd floor, where nobody else was eating, but soon filled up, wasn’t just us !

Best photo I could find..

Steep staircase, mind your head Marion.

Had time for a nightcap at a gin speciality bar,both went for Japanese made, mine was nice but Marion’s better.

Gin made from IPA grain

Hints of Yuzu

Made it home safely, bit cold and slightly damp, even with our ¥200 (£1) umbrella.

Walked 18.3km.

Traditional house amongst the new builds

Omotesando crossing

Walked for hours, brightened up later, just poodled about.

Korean restaurant in Shin-Okubo

Skipped lunch, so pretty hungry, Korea-town is only 20 mins walk from our AirBNB so let’s go.. Got lost in the maze of side alleys, all full of restaurants serving Korean food, lots of BBQs, the one we found came well reviewed online, looked cool outside, with lots of white lanterns.. Food a bit basic, nice but not really what we wanted, had Tteobokki & a kimchi pancake, good but you know…

Tteobokki

Got lost again on the way back, I say way back but really looking for a bar, discovered our way to Shinjuku proper, crazy busy..as always.

Searching for a drink

Drinks in a nice brewery in the middle of the madness, cool beer before bed.

Busy Shinjuku

Grr

Can you spot the dinosaur in the corner ?

Food food everywhere

Walked 17.8km.

Grandest Coffee ever

Boat ride to near’ish Chinatown, the largest in Asia don’t you know..

Very busy area, lots of food and snacks to buy/try.. always fancy dim sum but most offer all you can eat buffets, bit OTT for us.

Managed to find one doing smaller lunch sets, not the best we’ve had but ok..

A small selection

More vending machine madness.. \240 \240fried noodles, bao buns etc

A day of fun.

Walked and walked, next stumbled upon the Yokohama baseball stadium

Fore !

Highlight of the day, the Cup noodle museum !

Awesome

Didn’t know the Japanese did irony so well, make the inventor out to be a world hero, have a display with him next to Einstein, Marie Curie, Socrates, the Emperorand others, very funny.

Heroes one and all.

Now time to create our own custom version of a cup noodle, definitely not for kids..

Master pieces

In the evening we went to the kaiten sushi restaurant that we couldn’t get into on Sunday, not worth the wait, well designed but food only ok.

Sake monster at work.

Another stroll around Shibuya and time for a nightcap in a \240cool local Izakaya, you can’t just order drinks though, so a very tasty plate of sashimi was required.

Walked 21.5km.

Scallop, shrimp,bass,eel,egg,salmon,3 cuts of tuna

Need to walk that off

On the roof of one of the 3 market buildings they had garden, perfect for a few pics of the bayside.

Towards the East of the city

All this area is on reclaimed land, lots of space and not many people, very Un-Tokyo like..

Booked tickets for TeamLabs, a sensory interactive art exhibition. Was very cool, and busy, with tourists..you walkthrough various large rooms, barefoot and they have incredible lighting and mirrored floors walls and ceilings..

Next, you roll up your trousers and walk knee deep through warm water, again lightshows and mirrors, but also projected fish in the water.

Next another mirrored room, this time full of large blown up balls the again light up different colours and fade light and dark.

There’s no real time pressure to keep moving through the rooms, can still down or take plenty of Insta photos.

Nameste

Some people live to pose around here, not our bag baby.

Hold it..

Last room has flowers that gently float from the ceiling to the floor and back, again in a mirrored room.

Beauty.

And the beast.

At the 7th attempt, we got this shot without anyone in the background

The whole thing took 1 hour 20 ish, they have a new exhibition opening next month, would say this more felt like it needed updating a touch, still very good though.

Team Labs

One disappointment to another tonight looking for restaurants, the 2 we came especially to look for were both shut, eventually found an okonomiyaki restaurant, sort of a Japanese pizza, but made with cabbage..you cook it yourself on a hot plate in front of you.

Master at work.

Very tasty.

Small Mojito before bed..

One quick drink before home time, super sized Mojito please..

Walked 22.0km.

View of the Tokyo SKYTREE in the distance

Needed some coffee, let’s go Denny’s ! Family restaurant, actually pretty good, had a club sandwich to share and all you can drink bar..

Not in the Michelin guide

Asukusa’ Senso-ji temple is probably the most famous one in Tokyo, always busy, with lots of tourists dressed up in Kimonos.

You can see why it’s so popular, has all you’re looking for in a temple.

Also has a interesting shopping street leading up to the temple itself, traditional goods, tourist crap, & yummy snacks..

Hello sailor

Had a famous melon pan, melon flavoured sweet \240bread/ bun.. very nice, super soft and fluffy.

Melon Pan

Bit of a trek to the next stop, the TOKYO SKYTREE, tallest building, stopped off by the Sumida river for a few snaps.

Nice.

Asahi flame building

Poser.

Impressive building, not a lot to do around it so, enough for now, back home please.

See, told you it was tall.

Eventually found a day and time when our old favourite curry shop was open, Hendrix, used to come here a lot back in the day..

Curry, Naan & beer, perfect.

The same people run it as when we used to come, told them about when we lived here, they were really interested !!.

The place hadn’t changed a bit, our memories had though, neither of us could recall the setup correctly, silly old farts.

Memories

Harajuku shopping street.

Walked 13.5 km.

Tasty.

Time to kill, saw an old shrine near where you used to live..

Very pretty.

Coffee in a uber cool surfing lifestyle shop, great coffee, Marion asked for some milk, I thought they were talking the pi55 when it turned up, like something out of a dolls house..

WTF is that ?

Booked a self guided tour around the Olympic stadium, great day again, look at that sky, shame it’s blowing a gale and about 2 degrees!

Changed a bit since we were last here.

Impressive stadium, real pity it was the Covid Olympics & were behind closed doors, would have looked amazing.

Got to see the locker rooms, the flame touches, a few other things.

Torch bearers.

But the highlight was being able to go onto the track, allowed to run on 80 meters or so, , didn’t expect that, had a jog around a bit, took a few pics.

I could have been a contender.

No time constant, could just muck around as long as you wanted.

Jeez that hurdle comes quickly.

Run Forest.

Tour continued up in the stands, could see Fuji from the back of the 4th floor stand.

Flat top, Fuji of course.

Good views as you’d expect, the middle has heating and UV lights on it to get the grass to grow. I saw a team called Urawa Red Diamonds \240play here when it was the old stadium but it’s just the national side now.

Would have loved to see the Olympics here.

Planned a walk through the park home, but it closed at 4oc, we got there at 4.01 !

Saw Marion’s old gym, and where we used to go swimming, it was the gymnastics hall for 2020.

Cool, the outside is still mostly the 1964 design.

Wasn’t sure where to go tonight, chose Ebisu as they have a brewery there, wasn’t much cop, still found a decent Tonkatsu restaurant, it’s Pork fillet wrapped in breadcrumbs, serve with cabbage, rice and a tangy sauce.

Tonkatsu.

Messy

Walked to then around Shinjuku Gyoen (park). Super nice, has a traditional Japanese garden, a London plane tree boulevard, rose garden and large grass fields.

Tranquilityl vs the chaos outside

A nice Brazilian lady took these

Taipei pavilion

It rain so infrequently during the winter here, that the grass does dormant, foodie, actually feels quite spongy and healthy, just \240tan coloured.

Ahh.

Stopped off for a coffee and ridiculous pancake from a Hawaiian cafe.

I read fruit pancakes, not mountain of cream

Back to the izakaya in Harajuku, tricky menu to read but managed to order a few nice bits, tempura prawns, couple of plates of a ashimi, grilled salmon, pickled cucumbers, edamame, ice cold beers and sake.

Starters

1st plate of sashimi, prawn, tuna, sea bass, yellowtail & octopus

Saw Shiroko on the menu, sounded familiar to be but couldn’t work out why, so ordered it, was nice, in tempura batter, with a bit of salt. Worked out why I knew it, it’s fish sperm in the fish sack. Yumm..

Forgot to take pics of the other stuff

Sake goes down too easily

Way too easily !

Marion had a gammy foot so only walked 14.5km today.

A breakfast TaiYaki, fish shaped pastry with a custard filling.

Shimo was nice, full of youth hanging out on a Saturday, would probably be a good place for a night out.

Walked to Yoyogi-Uehara, bit quieter but just as nice.

Yoyogi-Uehara.

Lunch in a station restaurant, soba noodles with tendon.

Excellent lunch, for £9 each.

Back to Shinjuku, via Keio department store, the basement has amazing food.

Fish counter

Everything was beautifully presented, shop was full, guess 3oc on Saturday afternoon is peak time.

Blowfish anyone ?

More fish

Dried fish

White strawberries, just £20 a pack.

Ignore the no photo sign.

Cakes…

Omoide yokocho = Memory lane

This is the original Yokocho, they’re re usually narrow alleyways with tiny restaurants (see eating 6 to 12 people) serving yakitori, Odon, noodles and always selling cold beer and shochu (Japanese vodka)

Last supper in Tokyo for a while, tried to go to our old favourite Tonkatsu place again, however, still closed, very vague opening times, maybe just us.. went to a famous one nearby, old fashioned stale dining area, but service and food excellent..

Err, bedroom.

They’d set the sofa bed up as a bed upstairs, we kept it that way, good for lounging..

It had a very good Bathroom/wetroom, had a fan in the ceiling for warming the room, higher certified drying clothes, very convenient in a tight space.

In Japan you shower out of the bath, clean hair and wash your bits, THEN you get into the bath, to soak, not wash.

Japanese wetroom.

Rising sun in the land of the … well you know.. Just boarding to see our lovely little daughter.. had a stroke of luck, flight is full, so couldn’t get seats together, oddly Marion thought the same..

Ja ne Tokyo !.

Arrived safe, 9 hour flight, only 2 hour time difference, so feeling good..

Hana and Jacob picked us up, they look well, miss us loads obviously.

It’s warm, soo nice, felt like it’s been a long winter, can’t wait to get some shorts on..

They could be sisters.

Good sized apartment, bit older, a few creaks in the floor, but feels ideal.

Hana had already done a food shopping run for us, we’ve trained her well.

Walked 6.6 km

Blooming

Day one , straight the beach, weather looks \240a bit iffy the next couple of days.

Back to the beach.

Bus to Balmoral beach, super nice, water a bit chilly though, 🎻.

Back home, scrub up, Hana working today so Pizza for us, outside obviously, cheeky glass of wine as well..

Walked 12.4 km.

Harbour Bridge.

1 hour ferry ride to the Park. Headphones in & take in the views.

Different cruise ship every day..

Had a bit of a shocker, thought I’d just turn up and be able to hire a bike, however, nearest one 45 mins walk away. Anyway, eventually got one. Still cloudy and very humid, the Olympic park is a huge plot of land, looks a bit tired, especially after visiting the Tokyo one last week. Couldn’t get that close to any of the venues but good to get Ona bike for a while, cycled around 19km.

The main stadium

Somebody called Taylor Swift is playing here for 17 nights soon, shame we won’t be around.

Tithead

Meanwhile in some buildings across town…

Hmmm

Follow my lead..

Looks like a successful day..

Dim Sum.

Walked 19.8km, cycled 19km.

Looking back towards Central

Set off from Circular Quay, through the Rocks, to Barangaroo.

Barangaroo Reserve

Continued through Darling Harbour and onwards to the Sydney Fish Market.

Darling Harbour

Lobster roll for us, blowtorch used to char the Lobster.

Charred

Very tasty

Doesn’t look great, but tasted good

Good selection of fresh fish

Octopus anyone ?

Needed to rehydrate on the way back

Dinner with Hana, Jacob and Jenny, Jacob’s mum, tonight.

Hana booked a beautiful French bistro, L’Heritage, \240overlooking a Chowder bay around 15 drive from their house.

Barramundi fillet

Like many restaurants in Australia, you could bring your own wine, for a small corkage fee.Jad a great night, rounded off by Hana and Jacob picking up the bill, don’t you just your kids sometimes xx

Nice

Hehe

Not a bad view

Walked 13km.

Always a great view.

Boat ride takes 30 mins, and takes in the whole bay from Circular quay to the mouth of the harbour.

The restaurant from last night.

One of the few beach’s where you can hire sun beds,believe you should enjoy it as it is..The locals prefer to be on the sand or the grass of the embankment.

The said the sun would come out to play

Nice

Small dinner for us, at a great chain called Fishbowl, they serve rice salads with various toppings, all freshly made, very clean, good value and always with a high turnover.

Salmon salad

Harbour Bridge

Cheesy

Decided on Rose bay, as very few other did. Has excellent views back towards the city, can see the harbour bridge. Sea crystal clear, bit wind blowing towards us, so a bit of seaweed in it.

Rose bay

Wow.

Breakfast burritos at a small cafe in a cute gentrified alleyway, got to love the hipsters.

Deep.

Had good plans for the evening.

Dinner at one of the fun places from last time, Jimmy’s Falafel, buzzing small Middle Eastern place, with a 80/90’s hip-hop DJ, fresh salads and excellent falafel wraps…. However, the have expanded this size of the room, and it was poor, the room felt like a chain restaurant, with poor service, and average food, apart from the falafels, which were nice, although you can’t have them in a wrap in the main restaurant, only at the bar or in the other part of the restaurant 6 feet away ! Who knows who thought of that, anyway, very disappointing, 2 stars.

Ok, onto the next plan, watch the sails of the Opera house light-up, every migh, 9,9.30,10,10.30. Found a perfect seat at a noisy harbour side bar, ready and waiting.

Hmm.

They only light the Eastern sails, the ones facing AWAY from the Harbour Bridge, why ? I don’t know, so, we didn’t get to see it, next time.

Ont highlight, sitting looking at the Sydney Opera house and on comes Peter Andre song mysterious girl, doesn’t get more culturally Australian than that. Good night x

54 Huntington St.

Nice easy drive , through some proper hills over a national park.

Copacabana beach, 4 miles south

Captain Cook’s lookout

Terrigal looks pretty lively, might just be because it’s a Sunday in summer, we’ll see, lots of restaurants and a few bars, oh and a massive golden beach of course.

The new apartment on Ash road is very nice, big with 3 bedrooms, high ceilings, al the appliances you need.

View from the balcony in.

Oakberry açai

An old craggy formation

Been for a walk , looks good, taking a days break from restaurant food today, ‘home’ made avocado on toast tonight, swift scooner in the life saving club bar 1st..

Lovely

Terrigal beach , all the way round the bay.

Morning by the beach, topping up the tan, then went for a little run, twinged my calf, no good.

Another Açai berry yogurt for lunch.

Went to pick Hana up after her office party last night, could be messy..actually unfair, she was fine.. ish.

Nice Southern Indian meal.

Followed by a stroll.

Twilight clamber over some slippery rocks after a few beers, what can go wrong.. nothing..very cool.

Had to share the beach with 4 others, so crowded. Had a jog up and down the beach, calves ok.

Wasn’t hot around 24 degrees, ok to lay about in.. Wind picked up so drove to the next beach.

A bit of personal space please.

Went to Norah Head, Has a lovely lighthouse.

Norah head beach

Wow, the wind is crazy now, found a secluded spot, didn’t stay long, bit cool.

Walking back into the wind was horrendous, know now what it’s like to be sand blasted.

Hana of Australia.

Vietnamese restaurant in the evening, bit average.

Nice.

Bigfoot photobomb

Back in time for a quick Aperil spritz.

Marion still not 100%l, no no, we only had one Aperol ! So just Hana and I for dinner, good Tapas meal.

Mother’s daughter

Empty beach again

Look evil over there

Stayed nice all afternoon, we all have a few burnt bits.

Lebanese meal

Jacob arrives tonight, so quick dinner then home.

Wild beach

Weather didn’t really break, but we had a look at a few new beaches.Watched a few kite surfers, one was exceptional the other , erm, talked a good game, looked very tough, had a kite that looked way too big, struggled for about half an hour.

Lookout point

Friday night in Terrigal, gets busy with weekend trippers from Sydney, restful, went to a lovely one called Bellyfish, food very good, portions too big.

Bugs for Marion

Seafood risotto for me

Port belly for Hana

And Lamb for Jacob

Stopped for a quick cocktail on the way home at a rooftop bar, the skies opened for an hour and a half, we HAD to stay, tough.

Ahh.

Putty beach

Clouds broke, sun shone, wind still blew but was nice, stayed much longer than planned, oyster farm closing soon, will have to go tomorrow then.

Beautiful beach

Strong onshore winds have pushed these jellyfish onshore, ugly buggers, and every 6 inches all the way along the mile and half shoreline, scary. Didn’t go for a swim, did have a jog though.

Ugly

Errm, they’re Portuguese man o’war, very nasty.

View from the balcony

Another angle

No jellyfish in sight.

Terrifying raisins, scary sultanas

Not a awful view

Even better

Still have a suspect stomach, shared a few fish tacos.

Didn’t photo well

Squeezed in 1 small beer.

Beautiful day

This canyon is huge, with lots of great lookout spots, decent ones near car parking areas as well. Would think you could spend a well here doing some amazing hikes, finding unique places, but it’ll be all mapped and with paths.

It’s a long way down.

Lunch

Cool

Found a nice waterfall called Govett’s leap, you can see it in the background.

Hana and I hiked to the top of the waterfall, very cool, top of the cliff, seeing the water tumble over the edge.

This is the little waterfall

Followed by a swim, nice pool in the adjacent building which we can access.

George street Sydney, to buy Marion’s birthday present, an Apple Watch..

Lunch in the \240CBD district, delicious salad.

Back to Crows nest for a late afternoon walk, about 30 mins to Waverton, for this view, not too shabby. Surprisingly Sydney is really hilly, don’t know what you expect but a good workout.

Another weird thing are the wild turkey’s walking around everywhere

Why did the Turkey cross the road.

Another salad for dinner, Fishbowl again, wish they had these back home.

Had a great time in the evening , went for drinks with the in-laws, late night, lots of lovely wine drunk, fun fun fun.

Coogee beach

Did the famous Coogee to Bondi walk, it’s about 6km along the cliff tops & waters edge.

Fab views all the way.

Brontë beach

Bondi on the background

Bondi icebergs

Deserved some nice food after that, so went to Bill Graingers restaurant, well not his anymore, as he died in London last Christmas!. Anyway, he was the inventor of avocado toast and the modern Aussie brunch menus.

Great night, slightly spoiled by a first date next to us, with the poor girl getting a Gestapo style investigation into her day, so embarrassing.

Pickled Cucumber & Tahini

Shrimp linguine

Cod & raw salad

Chicken schnitzel

Nice hats girls

Nanu nanu, one for the oldies

Harbour bridge from the opera house

Now on-to china town via a tram ride

See the brown building between the tree and the flag, that’s where Hana works.

Sun’s out, getting hot now, stopped off at a dim sum cafe, a few pork balls and ha gau.

Nice, pork buns

Typical Chinatown snack restaurant

Went to Surry Hills, trendy , cool, continuous regeneration area, gentrification I believe it’s called.

Aussie street

Through the park in the central business district (CBD).

Hana is just tallest

These birds are everywhere in Sydney, a type of \240Ibis, appropriately nicknamed bin chickens, pretty gross things, always trying to nick food from anywhere and anyone.

Tropical

A special treat too, we’re eating at Cafe Sydney, Hana’s restaurant. Top rated in the city, based on the old customs house building in circular quay.

We had Cocktails in Palmer & co. as a warm up.

Hot

Queen of the castle.

In the bar of cafe Sydney.

Atmosphere was great, nice buzz, warm reception, very good.

Beautiful

Food exceptionally good as well, 15 Oysters to start, followed by some Morton bay Bugs, a sort of cross between a prawn and a lobster.

Great salad of tomatoes and buffalo burata.

Marion had Lamb, I had Big Eye Trevally (a sport fish, firm flesh, sweet taste.), Hana the steak. All excellent.

Hana organised a small birthday cake for Marion, but late but it’s the thought that counts x.

My favourite picture.

We had a great night, not just the food and company but to see that she’s soo well liked and respected by everyone in the restaurant, even though she is by far the youngest, she is looked up to. So proud.

It never disappoints, nice sand, calm’ish water (for Australia) and plenty of grass to sit on.

Hana unfortunately has to work tonight so we had a light meal, a couple of salads at a nice family run Greek restaurant, wish we’d come before, one for the list next time.

Back to the opera house, wanted to see the sail illuminated, but actually only a couple of the small ones were, disappointed. Still the whole thing looks good at night.

Should take the pictures when we arrive and it’s tidy, not when we’re leaving.

It’s an odd feeling, Thailand was originally going to be the main reason for the holiday, but when we found the interesting flights via Tokyo to Sydney and back via Bangkok, the focus changed to seeing Hana again, now that’s over and we have 5 weeks in Thailand ahead it has a slightly dejected feeling, silly really, will be great, but bs the other 2 stop offs we haven’t researched what and where we’re going , sure it’ll be great.

Bye bye Australia.

Hello Bangkok

I like that a 9+ hour flight feels like a hope over now !

Familiar view.

Nice view for a quick jog on the running machine.

Our first stay in a hotel this trip, so also our first real breakfasts, and what a good buffet this one is, fruits , pastries, eggs whichever way you like, western style food, Chinese, Indian, Thai, everything.

Fish ball moods for breakfast

They even made fresh Dosa’s , excellent ones as well.

Wait for picture Marion.

A day of pool, trip to the shopping centre, stuff..

Had a variety for dinner, small snacks and beers from a Izakaya in CentralWorld.

Followed by a walk to IconParagon for some more small dishes, Khao Soi & Moo Krob, was ok.

Lastly a nightcap at a rooftop bar near us, not flash, but lovely to sit up high and have a cold beer.

It’s a pretty area, lots of fruit trees, and backstreets with hardly any traffic, we hired a couple of bikes and set off.

Things you thought you’d never see.

Was all going well until Marion realised she had inappropriate underwear on, that’ll chaff.

Mangos covered with paper bags to protect them against bugs.

Found a beautiful cafe next to the river, had prawn cakes wrapped in tofu and coconut ice cream, yummy.

Says. Water monitor in the river, wouldn’t want to swim with these things, prehistoric looking.

Also , at the same time, an otter started playing on the deck, cuter, but still not keen on the swim.

A bit of Vaseline later….we’re off to Chinatown, seams like a theme, 3rd one we’ve been to on the trip !

Took a tuk-tuk, as is tradition, but slow and smelly to start, but fun when it gets going.

Noisy though, Marion’s watch kept warning us the area we’re in is too loud.

Not bad sized prawns.

Chinatown was busy as ever, good fun, we stopped at a busy seafood stall with plastic stalls and packed out tables on the street side. Great place, not place the fish, place the location, we actually had half a dozen huge prawns , prawn cakes, morning glory (spinach type greens with garlic and oyster sauce) and some rice, washed down with a couple of bottle of Chang.

The large lobster are 3,000 baht each,that’s about £66, cooked whichever way you like, for a group of you that’s good value because they are huge, but too big for just the 2 of us.

This is where we are.

Ahh.

Lobster & river prawns everywhere.

Luscious fruit

Squid

Had room for a tiny bit more,ordered a couple of dim sum and mango sticky rice to share.

Late cocktail and band

Another tradition for us in Chinatown is to go to this cocktail bar we know, watch 3rd rate band ruin a few western songs and enjoy a late night cocktail.

Taxi time xx

Bar besides the Chao Prao river

Not seen them before but at night on the river there were lots and lots of big river cruises going by, honestly must have seen 12 different boats, all looked horrendous, but if you were in a group you could make a good night of it.

Had a plan to go to icon Siam, a fairly new mega mall, cost $1bln to build, have a fab food court, beautifully set out, but time ran away from us and we got there way too late, ended up being a washout, eventually got back to the Izakaya for some snacks, but to be honest neither of us were that hungry.

Booked a car to take us from the airport to and across the ferry to our hotel.

Nice

It’s amazing, sitting on the ferry text a picture to the group on WhatsApp, and get a reply back from Conrad straight away, how can that work ? In the middle of the sea in the butt end of Thailand and can talk live time to someone in London, well I never, technology eh.

Touch more tanned

View from our hotel seafront.

First impressions for the car weren’t great about this place, but calmed down after a walk around, lots of nice restaurants close by.

Stumbled across a lovely beach bar , watched the sunset, actually stayed around for hours, had a few small that dishes for dinner, love this sort of place, so relaxed, still 26° at 9oc at night , smashing.

View from the breakfast table.

Had a relaxing day by the pool, went for a swim, managed 6 laps of the 65 m pool. The we went for a long walk along the beach next door.

Beach walk

Artistic

It’s a Friday, so it must be an Indian curry.

Ordered just veggie dishes, very tasty.

See what I mean about the pool

Joined a gym over the road, no a/c but plenty of fans, run was hard work in the heat, fans only slightly helped, knackered.

Prawns on pomelo spicy salad

Found a great sounding restaurant near the hotel, Thai food, but serving upmarket versions of the classics using local ingredients.

Summer rolls

Fish in sour curry

Rice

Khao soi

Mango sticky rice with coconut ice cream

The food and service were excellent, prices decent as well, we’ll be coming back soon.

Beast

Imagine the island is and oval shape, it has one main road circumnavigating it, but, at the bottom part of the island, from 6o’c on a clock face to 7o’c the road doesn’t join, probably due to the high mountains in the at area.

We choose to go North through the bust resorts on the west coast , up over the top to the quiet, jungles of the east coast.

Still have a some days where we don’t know where we’re going to go or stay, so investigate a few resorts and villas along the way, find a nice villa on a newish resort that makes the shortlist.

Fresh juice at the spa hotel

No beaches on the east coast, but came across a lovely spa/ wellness hotel, probably a bit too quiet for us, but stayed for a juice and it looked a nice hotel.

In a jungle setting

Hotel rooms in the jungle

Carried on south along the east coast, walked a raised pathway through a mangrove forest.

Back to the hotel late afternoon, quick swim to freshen up, 8 laps this time.

Thai local for dinner

Drove South along the West coast this time, extremely hilly, some very steep hills, glad we’re not on scooters! Much quieter this way, bit more laid back as well.

Stopped off at the fisherman’s village, sort of a wooden housing development on stilts over water. Had a pier and a lighthouse as well, wandered about a bit.

Plenty of tourist stuff to buy or places to eat, we had a coffee under cover overlooking the bay.

After found a nice beach, but on a resort and couldn’t find any sun beds, so moved on.

He’s the old wreck.

Right at the bottom of the island is a deserted hotel, that was coveted from an old cruise ship, now derelict but a tourist attraction. Bit spooky but was on a sexy beach and got some nice pics.

Reggae bar

Overlooking the pier and lighthouse was a cool reggae bar, double decked, good music playing, had a drink and a sandwich, would have been nice to be here at night, but 30 mins drive from us, so didn’t.

Lookout

One last stop, at a lookout not too far from our hotel, good views of the sea and surrounding islands.

Sunset drink at the hotel to cool down, swam 10 laps

The back to the flash Thai food restaurant, didn’t disappoint either, all very good again.

Cocktails

Bite size taste sensations

Hard to describe, green mango, peanuts,glass \240noodles, tamarind, chilli.

Aubergine curry

Rice

Crab parcel curry

Not quite ready for bed, so onto a bar with (barely) live music. Thai rum set with Diet Coke and plenty of ice.

Day of lazing by the pool.

Dinner at a local Thai restaurant, very good food actually, had a steamed seafood curry in young coconut shell, had pieces of the coconut in it as well, was very tasty.

Marion had Tom tan gun, prawn curry soup with lots af lemongrass, chilli & galangal

Free mango

Chilling during the day.. swam 10 laps

Beer and lime, a Mexican specialty

Excellent Mexican for dinner, I know, who would have thought there was such a thing !

Had fish tacos, with pickled onions, radish and other veggies.

Also some prawn tacos as well, but very good but as always a messy eat.

Had to go back to the upmarket Thai restaurant, was very good again, probably ordered everything we would have wanted now, after 3 visits !.

Blue snapper ceviche, nice

Scallops in brown garlic butter

Mantis prawns on rice, very good

This restaurant has been a good find and a bit of a surprise in what is essentially a tourist area.

Bye bye room.

Enjoyed Koh Chang but glad to be moving on, not sure I’d recommend the island as a bit too much like Phuket, Samui and alike. Nothing wrong just looking for somewhere a bit classier, like us 😁.

Room on top.

Boat was full, some might say overbooked, but journey was fine.

Arrived on no time, hotel taxi waiting for us, easy.

Not a bad 1st impression

There are no cars allowed on Koh Mak , so everyone poodles around on their scooters or jumps on a taxi, which are pick up trucks with parallel benches on the back, not that comfortable but do the job.

I have a good feeling about this place

Wow

Hotel is lovely,with fantastic classic deserted island vistas. Has big beach but a smallish pool.

View from our room

Our room couldn’t be further from the reception, don’t get me wrong it’s not miles, just a bit of a walk up the hill.

We’ve had a bit of a dilemma, have 9 days accommodation still to book and don’t know where to go, before going there, we thought we might go back to Koh Chang, but don’t fancy that now, here would be good but 2 and a half weeks on a small island might get a bit too much, so we’ve decided to return to one of our favourite towns, Chiang Mai, previously we were worried about the so called burning season, where crops are burnt over the north of Thailand, causing horrible pollution in the lower lying cities, like Chiang Mai, however looking at reports, this year looks ok, so we’re taking the plunge and going, 10th March til the 22nd. Found a decent Airbnb with a pool, that should suit us nicely.Have to surrender a flight and rebook but think it’s the right thing.

Got myself a bike to explore the island, £3 a day, not much choice and am a bit worried about it, it’s an ex electric bike but with the battery removed, still has the electric motor on the rear wheel, makes it really heavy and the motor causes some resistance to the spinning of the rear, lets see.

Day by the beach, had a good swim in what has to be one of the hottest seas I’ve been in.

Love a sunset

After 15 min walk, a bit off road, we came across a nice sunset beach bar, playing a few Ibiza tunes, perfect.

They had 3 super friendly dogs as well.

Later wandered along the main strip, nothing like Koh Chang, very quiet, and relaxed. Had a great Thai meal, nothing special just good quality food.

Moo Krob & morning glory for Marion, green tofu curry & a roti for me.

Taxi home, 50 Bhat each, £1.

The rain brings out the time snails

Koh Mak is a private island owned by 5 families, so they’ve kept mass tourism away, no big chain hotels , not even the 5 star ones you usually get. The families trade was mainly rubber, the place is covered with rubber plantations, they strip part of the tree’s bark away, leave a ridge at the bottom to guide the sap into a waiting pot, this collects and is the basis for making rubber.

Went on a bike ride, puddles everywhere, and the soil here is red so ended up pretty messy, managed 25kms on this beast of a bike.

We watched the sunset again, and had a casual early Thai meal. Got bitten by a couple of mosquitoes, they love a bit of me after the rain.

Fresh young coconut

Beautiful

Evenings a relaxed here, but discovered a nice boutique hotel with a nice restaurant, called by the sea.

Has a cool island life vibe, 80’s soul playing in the background.

Fried shrimp

Fish tacos

Great pomelo and spicy prawn salad

Fish burger

Food was great but ordered way too much, didn’t eat the burger bun.

Everyone just plods around, nobody is ever in a hurry, so scootering is very safe, roads are good as well, not many of them, but they’re good.

Nice beach

Another nice beach

Motored to the very top of Koh Mak, about a mile or so along a dusty track, following a sign for a beach, didn’t know where we were headed just following signs, was well worth it, came access a fantastic beach with a nice little bar/restaurant on it, had a drink to cool down.

Probably the best beach

Mango smoothie

There was a boat to take you across the water to another island, again didn’t know where we were off to just going with the flow.

Looked around, felt a bit like lemons, didn’t know where to go, but it’s sort of mapped out for you, the island is deserted but quite big, so they have these mopeds with sidecars on them that take you to the interesting parts. So off we went.

Went to the Northern tip, where the island tapers out into ever smaller islands, cool, but treacherous walking to the tips. If you looked into the horizon you could see Cambodia.

Then to the east, to a lovely shaded beach with a bendy coconut tree, other people here, so we took a few snaps and went back towards the boat.

Cool

What you looking at

Lots of ‘wild’ deer here, read they are unique to this island. Very cute. This place is called Koh Kradet.

Brave face

More scootering, then back home.

You can’t park there mate

Still, saw some good beaches again.

Looked for some nightlife in the evening, found somewhere but wasn’t that lively. Was run by a couple, she was Thai who spoke good English and he was Japanese, who also spoke good English. We had a good long talk about his journey to this tiny island, very nice meeting them.

Last beach sunset drink..been good here.

Dinner back at by the sea restaurant, good food again..

Prawns with aioli dip.

Pomelo salad with spicy shrimp

Fish fillet with crushed potatoes

Last look from the room

& from the restaurant

The hotel taxi

Danger man

45 minutes on the speedboat, pretty tiring, the a taxi to Trat City, 20 mile for £2 each, grim taxi though.

Trat is what we expected, not a lot, but feels like they’re trying to make the old town (where we’re staying) a bit more tourist friendly.

Found a few temples on our exploratory walk.

There’s a dragon, on the wall

Chinese influence here, also a bit of Muslim as well, typical of southern mainland Thailand.

Iced coffee station

Luckily we’re here on a market night, just next to our hotel, it’s not huge, but still good to see, lots of snacks and drinks.

This was at closing time

Our hotel is good, only has 2 rooms, but nicely done out, and the owner is sweet.

Old school Thailand

Hotel doesn’t have a restaurant, so sent a street away to another one, very slow but each got a huge plate of fruit each.

Had a quick walk around a temple nearby, the temple must have something to do with chickens because their everywhere here.

Flying back out of the smallest airport in the world, Trat , 2 flights in and out a day !. Go to Bangkok first , then a 2 hour stopover before flying to Chiang Mai.

If Disney did airports.

It’s gonna be a warm one.

Checked in fine, took a quick walk to Maya shopping centre to get some supplies and grab some grub.

Bling !

Cooling lemon iced tea at ‘see you soon’.

Booked a rental car, for Wednesday for 3 days.

An excellent mango smoothie.

Dinner at a restaurant next door to the Airbnb called Tilki. Great local food, both had soup, Marion ton yam gun, I had a cooling sour coconut one, very good food.

Rice in the shape of a bear ?

6 pots, hottest on the right then they move down one by one, til they’re done.

Chicken also available

Sunset over Maya

I have a car for a few days from tomorrow so we decided over dinner to book a night away tomorrow night in Chiang Rai, 200km North of here, funky temples and lots of mountains. Should be fun.

Northern Thai food, not sure what happened to the hair !.

Went to a northern Thai specialty restaurant tonight, but disappointing, both the food and the restaurant, can’t win them all.

Thai Hip-hop bar

The struggled to find a bar, ended up at a Thai hip hop bar, only ones there though, bit sad.

20km south of Chiang Rai is the amazing White temple. Unbelievably bling, all white and sparkling. On a pure blue sky day like today you need your sunglasses on all the time.

Checked in to the hotel, well, I’d booked for 2 weeks later ! However the hotel and Expedia were very helpful and sorted it out, embarrassing though.

Next temple time, the Blue temple now.

It’s, as the name suggests, blue, and plenty of gold as well, it’s fantastic but after the white one earlier, 2nd best, still great but the other one was tough to beat.

Chiang Rai town centre is very disappointing , actually a bit of a dump but found a lovely colonial building restaurant on the river bank about 10 mins from the centre. Khao soi for me, salad for Marion.

Covered myself in mosquito spray but surprisingly never saw any.

Lovely food and staff, great evening.

First up, a Big Buddha, really BIG..

Here early so, not too many people here.

For some scale !

We’ve seen some big Buddha’s before, but this one is huge..

Also has a Pagoda, you climb up inside, obviously it gets tighter every floor..

The Buddha has a lift inside, can go to the observation deck on floor 25, then look through the eyes !

View from the top

The Buddha park(?) has a temple as well, with white marble Buddha’s

After a good hour and a bit, we moved onto the Black Museum, a series of traditional style buildings that house cool carvings, paintings and dead animals.

A lot of the art are in in a Bali style.

Mean

Cute

Chiang Rai is a strange place, would recommend going for the temples and mountains but stay in a nice resort hotel outside town, maybe by the river, you’ll need a car to see the temples, as all of them are \24020-30kms from each other.

All done now, back to Chiang Mai, via the mountain range of Doi Muang, 3,500 feet up, very twisting roads up here, quite beautiful. You can stay on the cliff edge in either a chalet, tent or glamping type tent.

Long way down

Back home,just had a pizza at a lovely outdoor Italian restaurant with a terrible singer.

Ended up at a backpackers style outdoor bar, for one quick one.

Coconut cake

Kept driving up the hill, and came across more hillside pods/tents, look fun, but maybe a bit hot.

Mai Rim hills

Pretty high up

On the way back visited the botanical gardens, has a huge plot up a hillside, impressive collection.

Glass floor, very safe

There was a canopy walk, high amongst the tree tops, it’s built at the top of the hill so the views are excellent, the floor of the walkway way like a steel grate, so you could see thro, it also had glass panels for extra effect, but knowing Thai safety procedures, it was probably pretty safe.

Bloody tourists

Didn’t see much wildlife on our walk, probably pretty good in the evening.

Spent quite a while at the gardens, the greenhouses were interesting as well.

Poser

Get closer to the poison plants she said

A rose between

Beautiful

Chef Tao’s restaurant in the evening, we’d been there with the group last time, food was good, with frozen beer glasses, very nice.

Met chef Tao, he said he recognised me, but I get that a lot, probably just try to pickl me up. X.

Khao soi with katsu chicken, not the usual leg.

Big Big Shabu

Stopped off for another Khao Soi, this one is highly recommended by all the bloggers, and the Michelin guide.

Chicken Khao sou

Thai lemon tea, yummy

Smaller plate than usual, and a bit spicier, but probably the best so far, 2 Khao ski’s, 2 drinks, £2.10, not bad eh?.

Yumm

Saturday night is market night, all good, the usual offerings, yoga pants, scarves, food, tourist stuff.

Early snacks

Egg Roti and Chang

Ended the night at a bar at the start of the market, next to the South Gate to the city. Been before, but better than ever as the music offering has gone from 1 gig and a guitar to 4 different full bands, good night had, drank too much Thai rum, Tuk Tuk home

The 2nd band were really good, the type of music doesn’t describe well but they were a \240Tribal Jazz Improv, really good, digery do player, maracas player, duube player , tribal singer and a lead guitarist. Odd , but really worked.

One of the band members, another James May look alike

Sang-Son rum, surprisingly smooth

Tuk-Tuk home

After a slow start, Marion got onto the buying mode, bought some lovely stuff. All crazy cheap, and decent quality.. if only we had more baggage allowance for the flight home..

One of the favourites

Some of the temples are open and illuminated, this one was extra nice, quite quiet as well.

Not much food took our fancy so we just, had a couple of small dishes in a local restaurant, then a quick cold beer and a salad in a Japanese place overlooking the market, good to people watch.

Not sure what those thing on my shirt are, must be lights from somewhere

Marion’s diabetes gadgets keep falling off today, so casual plans for dinner, local Korean restaurant, excellent food, Squid Bipimbap for me, crispy chicken for Marion, with a kimchi pancake for shares..

A few pre food appetisers, spring onion kimchi, chillli grated carrot, picked diakon, and kimchi

Crispy kimchi pancake

Marion outside our apartment block

Started just outdo the city walls, at Wat Lok Molee, very nice, with some shiny golden Buddhas inside.

Next, to a slightly smaller one just opposite the last one, called Raja Montean, Buddha outside and in !.

Next door to that, is one of the highest ranking Khao-Soi restaurant in Chiang Mai, \240Khao Soi Khun Yai. Last time we came it had just reopened after their summer holidays, so was very busy, this time, we were early, wasn’t bad at all.

The food was great, slightly spicier and a bit coarser as well, it’s preferable to the smooth ones.

Back to the tour, in the middle of the old town is Wat Phra Singh Woramahawihan, the one with the big golden elephants around the temple, super shiny as the sun starts to break through.

Knackered now, sun out, very hot, came across a new açai berry fruit cup place, forgot how good these are..

Managed to get an hour by the pool in the afternoon.

Went to Nimman, trendy area about 15 mins walk from here. Lots of good restaurants and bars, lots with a Japanese theme to them, izakayas, sushi, ramen etc. but we chose to stay Thai, at a small local place with good northern Thai food.

Had prawns with tamarind, prawns with chilli and garlic and a salad with dip. All very good, but quite spicy.

The dip looks tame but is super hot, good bit hot.

Looks tame but has a kick.

Had a cocktail on the way home at the Sax bar, another place with a couple of live bands on, mainly covers but some Thai songs as well.

Had a bit of a surprise as well left, it’s raining ! Proper rain as well, with thunder and lightning, cool.

Tasty

Bit of pool time and then a haircut.

Out for dinner in another Michelin restaurant, again Thai food. Very nice restaurant, a lot posher than the usual.

Comes well reviewed

Had this for starters, it’s a blend of coconut, ginger, fresh bitter leaves, peanut, lime and chilli, you wrap it up in the lotus leaf and the betal leaf and pop it in your mouth, very refreshing and complex flavours and textures.

Pretty hub, which bits do you eat ? \240 All of it !

Close up

Also had a polmelo salad with dried fish garlic and chilli, again refreshing.

Pomelo and dried fish salad

Marion had a pork Tom yum in a brown soup, nice but could have been spicier, port super tender though.

Pork tom yum

I had a crab curry with ribbon noodles, again good with lots of crab meat, maybe a touch too spicy for the crab, but still good.

Crab curry

Also ordered a dip, came up much bigger than we had expected, only nibbled at the salad , bit of a waste really.

Northern Thai dip

Overall a very good restaurant, we wouldn’t get soo excited when ordering next time.

Happy people

Another electric Tuk-tuk home

Quick change into more casual clothes for a local drink, seen this place a few times always busy with young locals. Thai guitarist singing Thai songs, was good background music.

Idiot