Battambang. February 27, 2014.

Thursday, February 27th

Goodbye Thailand - Hello Cambodia!!!

We left our border hotel in Aranyaprathet relatively early, and, after getting a coffee and spending the last of our Bahts on fuel, we headed towards the border. The whole process of leaving Thailand and entering Cambodia was easy and took about 1.5 hours. Details can be found in the Logistics Section of our blog: Leaving Thailand and Entering Cambodia.

And there we were: in Cambodia!

Our first port of call was Battambang. The road was good in most places, but every so often it would sort of disappear and major pot-holes would appear. Along the way we were overtaken by about 9 overland vehicles cruising in convoy, quite a bit faster than us. Apart from our future travel companions in China, we did not see any overland travelers during our 2 months there. In contrast, we were in Cambodia only a few hours an we already had seen some. They had Swiss and Italian license plates, all in various forms of Toyotas and all with roof top tents. They were not the friendliest of people and we had to work hard to get a wave out of them. After looking them up on the internet, appears that their itinerary includes Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia all to be completed in 3 weeks, no wonder they were moving fast. And it is not clear if they actually own there vehicles, or they are supplied by the tour company. 

Battambang is our kind of town. It was not long before we had found a hotel (Banan Hotel) and were out on the streets getting a feel for the place. The first surprise was getting money from the cash machines: they dispense US dollars. Then we discovered the town runs on US dollars. Well, that makes things easy. The second surprise was the price of beer. During happy hour beer is 50 cents a glass or $2.50 a pitcher. Well it was hot and it is important to try the local brew, so we did.

Battambang Urban Sunset.

Friday, February 28th.

That morning we explored 3 sites in the vicinity of Batambang.

First we drove to Phnom Sampeau: a temple and limestone caves situated high on a hill, and thus providing great views of the surrounding area. It's eerie and serene at the same time: the caves were used as slaughter chambers by the Khmer Rouge; and there are buddha shrines.

Next we went to Wat Banan, known as a 'mini Angkor Wat. It's a 12th century temple with 5 towers on a 400m hill.
Lastly (and totally by chance as we had given up trying to find it and were on our way to our next stopover point) we happened upon Wat Ek Phnom (11th century), not as grand as the famous temples, but worth stopping at.
At the first entry point we bought a US$3 day ticket that gave access to all 3 sites.

For lunch we returned to Battambang before driving on to Sisophon.

Phnom Sampeau.

Wat Banan.

Ek Phnom.

Pattaya and to the Thai-Cambodia Border. February 24-26, 2014

Monday, February 24th

Back in Thailand after our flight from Belgium. Landed at 6:30am and headed immediately south to Pattaya and our Junior Suite at the fabulous Amari Orchid Hotel, where we promptly crashed for the rest of the morning.
That evening we had a lovely dinner with Sarah and Brendan at Mantra Restaurant. Probably our last fine dining experience for a while.

Tuesday, February 25th

With 2 pelican cases less to stow in the car (they were left in Eeklo) packing and organizing the car was easy that morning. We set off around 11am and towards Chantaburi for the night. We didn't feel like doing anything really; checked into The Kasemsarn Hotel, relaxed and went to bed early. Still getting rid of some jetlag (and a good previous night out).

Wednesday, February 26th

Last day driving in Thailand so we took as many smaller roads as possible to get to Aranyaprathet, the border town. Checked into the '@Border Hotel', which is about 1km from the border, so we were ready for the crossing the next morning.

Thailand, it has been fantastic! We planned to spend 5-6 weeks and ended up staying 2 months. We love you!

Unexpected trip to Eeklo, Belgium. February 18-24, 2014.

We traveled to Eeklo, Belgium, to attend the funeral of my beloved aunt Annie, who passes away rather suddenly. She will always have a special place in my heart. And I will miss her.

It was good to catch up with family and good friends.

Meanwhile my mum was in hospital for previously scheduled, minor surgery, so we took the opportunity to visit her twice a day while there.

Stephen with Nico from
Landrover Vernaeve.

We contacted Landrover Garage Vernaeve in Gent to pick up some consumables for the car. We'd rang them on Wednesday and they had our things ready for us on Thursday. We handed out some cards with our travel blog and hopefully we'll have a chance to stop by there when we get to Belgium with Sterlin in October.




PS: February 26.

Stefaan (my brother) kept me informed of our mum's condition and after a some additional minor surgery, all is now well and we are looking forward to her going home in the next few days.

Bagan. February 15-18, 2014.

Saturday, February 15th

The train to Bagan was special. Hard to tell exactly how old the train carriages are, probably from the 50's or 60's. It sort of had an old world charm, until the train started moving. And it moved! Not only forward, but just as much from side to side and up and down. This was going to be a long 18 hour journey.

Best not to buy water from unofficial 'vendors' at any station.

It was not long before we settled in and once we escaped the city limits we got to see a little bit of rural Myanmar life. As the sun was fading many farmers were hand watering their meager crops with buckets of water slung over their shoulders. There were fires everywhere, presumably the farmers were burning off to prepare the field for the next planting. We saw ox driven ploughs and the occasional tractor. And lots and lots of plastic rubbish.

And yes, at every crossing there was a man with a green flag.

Sunday, February 16th

We arrived into Bagan about an hour behind schedule, not bad considering. Finding a reasonably priced taxi was a bit of a challenge and we finally agreed to the rather expensive $10 USD fare being asked. It was about 10kms to the hotel, and along the way we started to get a taste of the vast temple scene around Bagan. From the 9th to the 13th century the locals went on a bit of a temple building frenzy and built over 10,000 temples, pagodas and monasteries of which over 2,000 survive today. We also had to pay the $15 USD per person regional entrance fee.

The Ruby True Hotel was delightful. It was located a little outside Old Bagan town. We rented a couple of bikes and headed to the famous Irrawaddy river for lunch. I was still feeling pretty weak and food was not high on the agenda. After lunch we researched the boat service to Mandalay for later in the week and went for a short ride around the nearby temples. We watched the sunset over the valley, very nice.

Once back at the hotel and with Internet access we got the news that one of Caroline's favourite aunts back in Belgium had passed away. This was a bit of shock. We immediately started to work out how to get back for the funeral service. The real challenge was to getting away from Bagan, and we needed a local travel agent to help with that. The travel agent would open at 9:30am the next morning. In the meantime, United had award flights back from Bangkok and Air Asia had flights from Yangon to Bangkok, so it all looked promising.

We had a very nice dinner at our hotel and Caroline toasted Tante Annie.

Monday, February 17th

We rented electric motor-bikes and headed out for a little temple viewing before the heat of the day. It was a little rushed as we also wanted to be at the travel agent's when they opened, which we were. The good news: there were seats on the evening flight to Yangon and all going well, we would make the 9:30pm connection to Bangkok. We spent the late morning organizing everything on a very slow internet that keep dropping out. But we managed to email everyone we needed to and even make a few Skype calls to send along our condolences.

We could not make the connection to Europe that night, so we needed to overnight in Bangkok. Brendan kindly reserved us a room at the Amari DMK Airport hotel. We also decided that it made sense to head back to Pattaya and get some "unneeded" things from the car which we could take to Belgium and leave there along with some "needed" things like European passports, shoes, fresh and warm clothes.

We did not have enough money to buy the air-tickets to Yangon, and the nearest ATM was 15 kms away. It took 3 ATM machines, but I finally got cash together for the airfare. Turns out Myanmar travel agents do not accept credit cards. With the air tickets issued we could relax a little. Caroline booked the United flight but we failed to secure the Air Asia flight as their website would not accept our Visa card and we had left our American Express card (for security reasons) in Pattaya, silly us. We would have to sort this out at Yangon airport.

The staff at Ruby True Hotel were very nice helping us out with taxis and advice. At 4pm we said goodbye to them and headed to Bagan airport. Our flight was a little delayed, but we made it to Yangon and were able to secure a connection to Bangkok on Nok Airlines. Around midnight we finally made it to our hotel. But we were in Bangkok, so everything else was easy now.

Tuesday, February 18th

After breakfast we got a taxi for the day, to take us to Pattaya, wait 3 hours while we organized things and then bring us back to Bangkok Airport. Once at Pattaya, we had a nice lunch with Brendan and then spent a few hours in the heat of the day working out what we should take back to Belgium. I was really suffering with my stomach bug and the last few days of being sick were catching up with me. I think I was getting a little dehydrated. Once back in Bangkok, things got easier. We settled into the airline lounge before the 12 hour flight.

Everything happened quite quickly, but we felt really good about the decision to head back.

Yangon. February 11-15, 2014

Tuesday, February 11th

Waiting to check-in for our
flight from DMK Airport

Travel day today. Up early for maybe our last western style breakfast for a while. Brendan was awefully nice to give us a ride to Bangkok's new airport, where we got a free shuttle to Bangkok's older airport and our flight to Yangon. Turned out to be a very easy process indeed. 

We decided to travel super light. I am so impressed with Caroline. Our combined luggage weighed in at a massive 12kgs (or 26lbs for Americans).

Why did we fly to Burma as opposed to drive in our beloved Sterlin? At this point in time it is impossible to take a privately owned car into the country, unless as part of a government approved transit convoy. So hence the 'traveling light' and by air. We didn't even bring our laptop, so all blog posts in Burma are done on IPhone/iPad. That goes for the photos as well. 

Immigration in Myanmar was a breeze and a delight. We got the warmest smile from the immigration officer on arrival.  The baggage claim hall proudly contained an ATM machine, and we loaded up with Myanmar Kyat. No black market for us. Customs was virtually non-existent. Our man in Yangon was waiting for us holding a sign with "Stephen +1", so no chance for any confusion there. Turns out our chosen hotel was popular on this flight, with 15 guests ultimately being rounded up and bussed into town. About an hour later we were happily checked in and ready for food and beer, which was easy to find. We hit the night streets to get a feel for the place. This is definitively a developing nation and the many years of isolation have left a mark. But the streets were vibrant and full of people including women and children. 

Arriving at Yangon in Myanmar.

Dinner and a beer at our Hotel. Not bad.

Wednesday, February 12th

Had a very nice Myanmar breakfast of noodle and salad. We had to change hotels as our initial one was fully booked for the next few days, so first task of the day was locating our new hotel and checking in. Taxis are everywhere here and quite cheap, so it was not long before we were resettled. Our first hotel was more of a backpackers with a younger crowd, now we are definitively more midrange. And this new hotel is a pleasant upgrade. But double glazing would have been nice against the constant street noise.

Chicken anyone?

The morning was foggy and cool. And the best time to explore, so off we went in the direction of the train station. Along the way we continued to take in the life of Yangon. People chew betelnut and consequently spit everywhere and generally when you least expect it. The other new experience was these cords with clips hanging down over the street, and it took me a while to work out that these are for hauling food up to the apartments above. Money and order sent down, food sent up. There aren't really footpaths here and avoiding holes above the sewer system is a must. And although taxis stop for red lights, they don't stop for pedestrians, and are by far the most dangerous thing around. There are street food vendors and fresh produce markets everywhere, but we have yet to be brave enough to try their offerings. Hygiene standards are not nearly as good as Thailand. There are many shops selling the latest electronic goods, including cell phones and tablets, which seem to be commonplace with the locals. As are fancy Land Cruisers. A telephone or two on a small table is also a common sight, and presumably can be used to make calls for those without a cell phone. Only seen the occasional Internet cafe, but I am sure they are around. And of course there are people selling old tools, books, plumbing stuff and trashy junk.

Food acquirers. Hanging down
from the upper apartments.

Hardware store.

Traffic is a noisy and chaotic affair with a mix of very new and very old cars, basically any type of car they can get their hands on. As a consequence most cars are 'right hand drive' in a country where they drive on the right side of the road. Very noticeably absent however (in Yangon) are motorcycles or any kind of 2-wheeled motorized vehicle. The rumor goes that 'some' years ago a motorcycle hit a high ranking military car and they got banned ever since.

Yangon street.

But our second task for the day was to inquire about a night train to Bagan. As much by luck as by good planning we found the booking office and the friendly agent who sorted us out. We now have a shared 1st class sleeper compartment leaving in a few days. The bus is twice as fast, three times as cheap and probably more comfortable, but we are looking forward to the romance of train travel. And with some luck we may get some sleep.

The Central Station is not much to write home about. In former days it was probably pretty grand. In fact I am sure 100 years ago this whole town was quite the place. Unfortunately now it is very run down. We wandered into more a slum area, which really shows how bad it is for some here. We were a bit of a curiosity for the locals.

Coffee shops are hard to find. Well coffee shops selling the type of coffee we are used to. But after wandering around we did find one, and it was good just to sit down and relax for a while. Once back at the hotel I crashed and enjoyed my little afternoon nap. We had plans of going to the big Pagoda at sunset, but we decided to delay that a day.

Thursday, February 13th

We woke at 6am to the sounds of horns tooting. Charming really.

Before lunch was the National Museum which actually was not too bad. Gave a great overview of the country and a taste of Myanmar including royal history, ethnic groups, natural history, paintings, Buddha etc. Funny thing, pretty much all of other visitors were western tourists. We walked back to the city and had lunch and coffee at the coffee shop we found yesterday.

Then went on an early afternoon walk of the city, taking in Sule Paya, Mahabandoola Garden Park, City Hall, the former Imigration Office, Bapist Church, High Court Building, and then in the direction of more the Yangon River to poke our heads into the Strand Hotel. Taking a taxi back.

The taxi was a good move, as Caroline decided at this very moment to become suddenly ill with some type of stomach bug. So the evening was spent holed up in our hotel room. No Pagoda today after all.

National Museum

Yangon City Square

Friday, February 14th (Valentine's Day)

Caroline still not feeling great, so we took it easy. Caroline is however on the mend and will be good to travel tomorrow.

Continued by Caroline. In the late afternoon we ventured out to Shwedagon Pagoda. We took a taxi there and back as I was still feeling a bit off-ish. We were dropped off at the 'Foreigners' Entrance', paid our money, took our shoes off and went onto the Pagoda grounds. Truly amazing place. As sunset hour was getting closer more and more people filed in, locals (mainly to pray) and tourists (mainly to snap pictures) alike. We walked around a few times and sat down to watch the colors change and enjoy the place. Around sunset thousands of little candles were lot all around the main pagoda which looked really beautiful. We would have loved to have stayed longer, but I didn't want to push my luck.

Sunset at Shwedagon Pagoda

Dusk at Shwedagon Pagoda.

Saturday, February 15th.

Turned out Stephen developed a stomach bug during the night. As the main event for today was taking the overnight train from Yangon to Bagan, we stayed in the hotel till check-out and then onto the upstairs restaurant to chill. Stephen wasn't feeling too well so that was the best course of action. I seemed to have just about recovered, just felt a bit exhausted still.

Pattaya. February 8-11, 2014.

We left the Khao Yai NP and this time opted for 'fastest route' to our next destination, which put us on highways (with even more manic drivers, truck and others). Also, somehow we found this part of the country not as appealing as what we've been driving through till now. Not sure if that was solely due to the highways... but even the townships we drove through didn't do anything for us. Stopped for coffee along the way.

Mid-afternoon we arrived in Pattaya and checked into the Amari Orchid Hotel. We were taken up to the Executive Lounge to check-in and then shown to our room.... well duplex suite actually! One level consisted of a living and dining room, with desk area, semi kitchen and powder room, the upstairs of a bedroom with sitting area and open bathroom with separate bath and shower.... You'd think I was personal friends with the GM :) Thank you Brendan Daly!!!!

And basically Brendan and Sarah Daly are the reason we came to Pattaya. I've known them since my Sheraton days in Sydney and it was so good to see them both again. We had a lovely dinner on our second night here, and are planning a reprise in about 2 weeks.

Sterlin will stay here in the parking lot while we are off to Birma/Myanmar for 2 weeks on Feb 11th.

Stephen, Henry and Brendan.

Caroline, Hannah and Sarah.

Kop Kun Krab

Khao Yai National Park. February 6-8, 2014

Thursday, February 6th

The morning started with a failed search for the local Starbucks. We may have found the mall with the Starbucks, but it did not open until 10:00. So we pressed on without breakfast or coffee. Which in hindsight was not the best idea, as the road south to the famed National Park was a bit of a nightmare. A dual carriage way of crazy truck drivers who have trouble staying in their lanes.

As we approached the Park, the road narrowed and the number of roadside hotels increased. We decided to stay in the Park, in one of the park run bungalows. We considered camping, but the threat of annoying monkeys put us off that idea.

We went for a short hike on a trail near the visitor center, which was nice and easy. Later in the afternoon I went on a longer hike by myself in search of wildlife as Caroline relaxed. The only thing I spotted was wild pheasant. But it was great to stretch my legs.

Dinner was cup-o-noodle soup cooked on our camp stove. Monkeys and deer took an interest in what we were doing, or maybe it was the smell of the food, not sure. Ants also joined us for the night. We fell asleep to the ruckus of the forest on our very firm beds. 

Typical!

Many hours behind the wheel. Important to stay relaxed.

The "wild"-life of Khao Yai NP.

One of our dinner guests

Friday, February 7th

Up early-ish for a longer walk with Caroline. Trail was advertised as an easy trail along a concrete path. Well there was no concrete path, and a little more challenging than expected, but still very nice. The only wildlife we spotted were butterflies. After the walk we did a small driving tour in the mountain forest taking in a viewpoint and seeing no wildlife.

Like yesterday, we had a late lunch at the cafeteria. And relaxed most of the afternoon, until we decided at the last minute to go in search of wildlife at a waterhole at dusk. The walk along the trail in fading light was a little scary, as the park has tigers. But we safely made it to the waterhole and back without been eaten. And saw no wildlife at the waterhole, but heard frogs and saw a few birds. As we were in the car, we did an impromptu night safari. Sterlin finally got to use his spot lights. We drove around for several hours and saw deer and a squirrel. Ok, maybe it was not a squirrel, as it was about 200 meters away, but it was something very small, like a squirrel.

I managed to drop our backup hard drive, destroying it. That is the second hard drive we have lost of this trip. Fortunately we have not lost any photos yet! But we need to buy some more hard drives.

Dinner was cup-o-noodle soup. Also forgot to mention, the park is dry, so no drinks for us. Deer visited us for dinner but the monkeys stayed away. The ants found our toilet bowl interesting for some unknown reason. The forest was just as loud as the previous night.

Beautiful Butterflies.

Scenes from "The Beach" were filmed at this waterfall.

Saturday, February 8th

The monkeys visited Sterlin during the night as we saw their footprints all over the car. It was time to leave and we planned to see elephant as we drove out of the south exit of the park. Regrettable, we did not see any. Chatting to other tourist, we were not the only people not to see elephant.

Phimai and Nakhon Ratchasima. February 5, 2014

Wednesday, February 5th

Said goodbye to the lovely owners of P. California. They made us feel very welcome, almost like staying with family. Before heading out of town, we went back to the coffee spot we found yesterday. We were greeted with big smiles.

Sterlin, with his California plates, caused a bit of excitment!

We had a short day today, which allowed us to get a relaxed start and to take a back road route to Phimai. Whenever time allows we prefer to stay off the mayor roads... too many manic drivers, trucks and others. And it's just more fun.
We reached Phimai around lunch time and headed to the Historical Park in the heart of town. The site is one of the most important religious sanctuaries in the Khmer style found in Thailand. Most of it has been restored by the 'Department of Fine Arts'. After our visit we enjoyed a latte, waffle and strawberry smoothie in a coffee shop across from the car park.

This time we set our GPS to 'fastest' as opposed to 'shortest' route (the latter is the back roads setting) and hit the highway, full of manic truck and other drivers, towards Nakhon Ratchasima (Khorat). We checked in to the San Sabai House and the place was absolutely spotless. Another winner it seems.

Kitchen.

After relaxing for a few hours we went for a walk to the town center and we found a local food place. A family was eating there and promptly got their young daughter to help us, in English, with ordering food. Some laughs and giggles later yummy food turned up on our table :). Stephen continues to order spicy dishes that make his ears steam, but he enjoys it!

Our evening eatery.

Nang Rong and Region. February 3-4, 2014

Monday, February 3rd

It was meant to be a short drive to Nang Rong along fast roads. Instead we started late, eventually found the Starbucks, visited some temples which weren't really on our way, took a route that was about 90 kms longer than it needed to be (by accident) and finished the day's drive on Thailand's slowest major highway trying to make sure the crazy Thai drivers didn't kill us. Needless to say we had a great day of travel and really enjoyed all of the scenery along the way.

We stopped and had lunch at Prasat Sikhoraphum which is a small but very nice Khmer era temple with an impressive lintel. Every temple needs a draw card, and the carved stone lintel is the big deal here. Also stopped at Prasat Muang Thi to see 3 small phrangs making up this tiny site.

After our temple visits we hit slow traffic with over-zealous Thai drivers trying to out-do each other with crazy overtaking moves. After 340kms I was ready to check into the first hotel we could find. As luck would have it, we saw an aging sign with directions to our preferred choice of hotels. Good luck indeed as this hotel was not coming up on our GPS and otherwise we'd have had no way of finding it. It was not long before we were checked in and sensation was returning to my bottom (which was numbed from the many hours of driving).

The home cooked dinner was wonderful. We will be staying two nights I think.

On the logistics front: we just booked some award tickets for our flight home. Hard to believe in 10 months we will be flying back to San Francisco. At least booking this early means we get super saving tickets, so don't need to blow too many miles on the flight home.

Prasat Sikhoraphum

Prasat Muang Thi. Can you see part of Sterlin
in the background?

Tuesday, February 4th

There used to be an extensive system of 6 roads leading out of the Khmer capital at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, one of which headed north-west through Phanom Rung and onto Phimai. Consequentially there are Khmer temples that lie on this reasonably straight line that was once this transportation link.

Today we visited Phanom Rung Historical Park which is apparently one of the more impressive ones. And it did not disappoint. We were up early to beat the heat of the day and therefore also beat the tour buses. We practically had this magical place all to ourselves. The temple complex is situated upon a spent volcano and also claims to be the largest and best restored Khmer style temple in all of Thailand. Thus it was one the must-see list. We wandered the grounds taking it all in. It will be interesting to see how Angkor Wat compares.

About 8 kms away was Prasat Muang Tam, another 12th century Khmer style temple. Ok, not as impressive as Phnom Rung, but still worth the visit. We were still ahead of the tour buses and apart from the man in the pink shirt trying to get into all of our photos, the temple was also pretty empty. Last up for the morning was Wat Khao Angkhan with its 29m golden reclining Buddha and nouveau Khmer style main building (circa 1982) surrounded by hundreds of people-sized Buddhas.

We didn't explore Nang Rong town itself but did manage to find a great little coffee shop alongside a noodle restaurant where we had a very nice lunch. Ordering involved hand waving to avoid the dish being too spicy. The afternoon was spent relaxing and updating the blog.

Caroline managed to wrangle a free cooking lesson from the hostess of our hotel and was soon preparing my Green Curry Chicken and her Lemon Grass and Coconut Tom Kha. Both quite delicious. 

Arched Gateway of Phanom Rung

From Phanom Rung

From Phanom Rung

From Phanom Rung

From Phanom Rung

Entrance of Prasat Muang Tam

The kids practicing their English on Caroline.

Sterlin at Wat Khao Angkhan

Buddhas at Wat Khao Angkhan

Ubon Ratchathani. February 1-2, 2014

Saturday, February 1st

The drive out was not as bad as I remembered it from the day before. 90 minutes after setting off we regained a sealed road and glad for it. The road still had pot holes but we weren't going to get stuck. We made a b-line to Ubon and once we arrived proceded to drive aimlessly around town looking for hotels and a non existent Starbucks. common sense prevailed and we headed to the Top Choice of lonely planet and we happy to checkin and shower. Although we have been in Thailand for almost 2 months now, navigation is still a challenge. There are multiple names for every place and more often than not places are not where they are meant to be. We were both extremely hungry. And it did not take long to find food and coffee.

Around 4pm our street started to transform into the Night Markets, and by 6pm was in full swing. As the sun went down and the temperatures became bearable, we emerged from our room to wander the streets some more. Many people were on the streets celebrating the Chinese New Year, making much noise and generally having a good time. We must have passed half a dozen Wats with festivities. The neighbourhoods we wandered through all felt a little rundown, and in other cities we would have worried about our security in such a situation. But here it all seemed fine. Caroline was craving steak and we Eventually found a western style restaurant that did serve steak, but we ordered pizza and beer instead.

In summary, a relaxing travel day without any temple visits.

Sunday, February 2nd (Election Day)

The Thailand political situation is in a bit of a mess. The duly elected but maybe self-serving government is under pressure from the People Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) who wish to reform the current democratic system by forming a government not elected by the People. So, today is the day the people against the current government try to stop people voting the current government back into power. All the controversy is playing out in Bangkok with the rural regions mainly unaffected by it all. Regardless, today was a good day to keep a low profile.

Over breakfast we got chatting to a couple from Kansas who are seasoned travelers around South East Asia, Laura and Jim. We traded stories and got some sound advice on Burma / Myanmar.

Ubon seems to have a temple on every street corner. Not really, but there are certainly lots and lots of Wats here. We decided to drive to some of the outlying temples leaving the nearby temples for later in the day once it got cooler. First we visited Wat Phra That Nong Bua; amazing. A 55m modern Chedi covering a much older and smaller Chedi. All brightly painted in white and gold and quite impressive. Next up was Wat Ban Na Meuang with a temple or boht sitting on a ceramic boat. Not very impressive. Stopped at Tesco to pick up a box matches, a most important item if you ever plan (or don't plan) to go camping, making the difference between a hot meal and not. Found a nice Japanese restaurant and Carline got her steak craving out of the way.

The afternoon was spent in the hotel planning our Burma / Myanmar trip. It was too hot to visit temples anyway. And booked a flight from Bangkok to Yangon and a return from Mandalay back to Bangkok. We will also visit Bagan probably via a combination of plane, boat or train, and will decide once we are on the ground. We have 12 full days in Burma / Myanmar to get a taste of the place. Also sorted out some hotels to stay at. We were pretty excited about this side trip which became so much more real once we booked the flights in and out.

All the pubs we closed for Election Day, so we had a few quiet beers in our hotel room to celebrate our afternoon of planning.

Laura and Jim.

Wat Phra That Nong Bua

Detail of Wat Phra That Nong Bua 

Caroline seeking her fortune

Entrance to Wat Ban Na Meuang