When I heard on the radio that the best way to help Thailand recover from the devastating 2004 tsunami was to take our vacation dollars there, I was all in. My friend Joe’s wedding had left breadcrumbs for us to follow. We made reservations at the same hotel in Chiang Dao, Northern Thailand.
The flight from Austin went through Houston and on to Tokyo. We had a five hour layover in Tokyo and an additional nine hour flight to Bangkok. The flight is mostly a blur except for being squeezed into a cramped three seat row and a total travel time of almost twenty-four hours.
In Bangkok we hired a tuktuk driver to tour us around the city. It’s a hopping place and we could have spent a lot more time there, visiting temples, getting massages and eating amazing food. After Bangkok the plan was to take the train to northern Thailand. We had reservations at the same B&B that our friend had stayed at for his wedding. All good, except when we went to buy tickets, we discovered that the trains were on strike.
In case you wondered, we are not high dollar travelers. We fly in the cheap seats and as long as hotels are clean and safe, we’re good. We were bummed to find out that the trains were unavailable but when the travel agent recommended the overnight bus, we though, why not?
The overnight bus could be a blog post in and of itself. Imagine a double decker hotel on wheels. Seats recline and stack and other than a bit of snoring, we slept like babies rolling down the highway. What an experience!
We arrived at Chiang Dao around 7:00am. Nothing was open and there were no taxis to be found. We also had no idea how far our hotel was. Little did we know that it was the beginning of one of the most amazing days of our lives. Stay tuned.
https://www.chiangdao.com/thailand.pdf
DOS TORTAS
the adventures of dos tortas 
Great little post and an incredibly fascinating story Afish, thanks for sharing this with us!
Reminds me of wonderful time I had with my wife in a teeny tiny South Asian hidden gem of a country, Sri Lanka.
It was an incredible experience from people to places to architecture to all the experiences that we’ve gathered, such a magnificent place to be and it was an one for the memory vaults.
You can read the full story here,
https://sachsattic.wordpress.com/2022/08/21/trincomalee-sri-lankas-hidden-gem/
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This was the third installment with more to come. We have friends living in Shri Lanka. Awful time there now.
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Looking forward to your next post.
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The trip to Thailand had been rolling around in my head for awhile. I needed to get written down.
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Can’t wait for the final instalment! 🙂
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