christmas in jomtien

Sunset at Dongtan beach








From one sleek modern airport to another. The new Bangkok airport is built in heroic brutalist style, with vast bridge-like trusses and fair face concrete everywhere. Unfortunately, unlike HK airport, it's already looking grubby (maintenance doesn't seem to have been thought through) and it's operating at full capacity and feels crowded just months after opening. It's also apparently 300 toilets short of planned, has a dodgy baggage handling system and many other problems - not sure why but you can bet that deposed PM Thaksin has something to do with it.

After a couple of days in a quiet guest house in a little soi (back street) in Bangkok I travelled down to Jomtien Beach to meet up with Ian, who has flown out from London to pursue a similarly lengthy (if rather more leisurely) trip.

Jomtien is sometimes described as the acceptable face of Pattaya. It's just the next bay along, linked by songthraews (small trucks with seats in the back that operate as shared taxis) that take about 10-15 minutes to get there. But it's a much quieter, smaller scale resort and at its northern end is a very nice beach (Dongtan) with no traffic and good sand and clean water. Ian booked us a spacious two room house in the Rabbit Resort, presided over by an American lady married to a Thai, who calls herself for promotional purposes Mrs Rabbit and is charming in that slightly edgy, highly controlled American way.


So it was to be a week of not doing too much except lying on the beach by day, exploring some of the more (and less) salubrious night-time offerings of Pattaya, with lashings of good Thai food washed down with Singha beer and those cocktails you only think of drinking beside a pool under a palm tree. You know the ones, with umbrellas and fruit and all that stuff.

Pattaya is worth a visit (as they say in Michelin guides) to experience the worst excesses of tourism. The famous Walking Street boasts some fantastic fish restaurants where you can select what you want live from tanks by the entrance and discuss with the waiters how you would like it. Forget about a menu. But, as the night draws on, it becomes a vision of hell (heaven to some): huge girly beer bars, karaoke joints, propositioning katoey, marauding drunken German beer bellied yobs and lobster coloured English slobs in soccer kit and flip flops. Neon flashing everywhere like the set of Miss Saigon and every place blaring music, taped Thai pop songs mixing with live copy rock bands, so many different numbers that it's just noise, a huge, brain thumping noise.


This place was a little fishing village once, until they built a Vietnam era American air force base and turned it into a R+R centre for the troops.


There are other diversions, more subtle, more calming, over which we can safely draw a veil; though it's worth mentioning the transvestite and gay shows such as Tiffany's, which is a Palladium sized theatre with three performances a night, fairly professional, and with more costume changes than Elton John's wardrobe. Later, the more intimate clubs in Pattayaland, featuring 'delicious divas and delectable dudes' kick in with novelty acts including naked fire eaters and erotic dancing.


Better to get back to the beach and listen to the waves lapping beneath the glittering stars. Christmas dinner by the beach. Bliss!

around the world in 80 ways update

Inside the auto- rickshaw (tuk tuk)






I'm up to about 30 so I'm going to be hard pressed to make 80 ways of travelling in the remainder of my trip as most of the easy/obvious options are used up. I've been fairly liberal in interpretation but, hey, I'm not trying for the Guiness Book of Records. For example, is a jeep different from a car? Is a taxi? Yes of course it is.
In approximate order of first use (place of first use in brackets)

1. Foot (everywhere)
2. Underground (London, Bangkok)
3. Taxi (Delhi)
4. Car (Delhi)
5. Airport bus (Delhi)
6. Light rail (Delhi metro/Bangkok skytrain)
7. Jeep (Jaisalmer)
8. Camel (Jaisalmer)
9. Autorickshaw (Jodhpur)/Tuk tuk (Bangkok)
10. Train (Jodhpur-Delhi)
11. Microbus (Bhutan)
12. Cycle rickshaw (Agra for about 200 m til I realised the poor boy didn't have gears)
13. Internal train (HK airport)
14. Funicular tram (HK Peak tram)
15. Passenger ferry (HK Star ferry)
16. Cable car (HK)
17. Bus (HK)
18. Jet foil (HK)
19. Trolleybus (HK)
20. The Escalator (HK)
21. Songthraew (Jomtien)
22. Motorbike (Jomtien)
23. Pick up truck (Jomtien)
24. Golf cart (Jomtien)
25. Waterbus (Bangkok)
26. Water taxi (Bangkok)
27. Car ferry (Koh Chang- mainland)
28. Swimming (forgot to mention above - everywhere)
29. Lift (ditto)
30. Travelator (HK airport)

hong kong

Hong Kong at night from my hosts' apartment

Welcome back to the first world! That's how it felt as I travelated through Hong Kong's airport, still immaculate after 8 years.


8 years! Hard to believe it's that long since I was here. Everything here is clean and it works. The immigration is quick, simple and friendly: unlike everything in India.


The airport express whisked me to Central then a 10 minute taxi up to Wallace's flat, high on the ridge above Causeway Bay. It was good to be meeting up with old friends after all those weeks on the road, and that evening I had a few cocktails and dinner with Wallace, Ken, close friends from when I worked in HK, and a number of their friends. Next day I was invited to a pre Christmas party and I was reminded why I liked HK so much when I stayed there - it's very much a work hard, play hard lifestyle. It became rapidly very clear that Wallace and his friends all worked long long hours and only met up when they could.


HK now seems much more prosperous than when I left - the economy is on the up and up and even areas like Wanchai which were slightly seedy have had a tidy up. More buildings, even whole new districts, have shot up, and the new ones are generally of a better quality (except that awful new Cheung Tower in Central). The nightlife too seems more open, and shows evidence of the new confidence that has arisen since the early years after the handover.


The flat where Wallace and Kevin live is huge even by HK standards and has a fantastic view over the harbour and to the hills in New Territories beyond. While I was there it was exceptionally clear and I've never seen the city looking more beautiful.

The morning after I arrived I took a walk up to the Peak. Though not far, the roads here are not really designed for pedestrians The footpath often disappears and the road, blasted into the steep sides of the rock, is narrow, so you have to dodge oncoming traffic.


The Peak building has had a makeover and just reopened, and was very busy this bright Sunday before Christmas. The views are stunning - a cliche but true. I caught the Peak Tram for Central then wandered down through the Park and the aviary to Admiralty. Lots of memories.


I also visited Kowloon-side in the early evening and saw the spectacular new light show. All the big buildings on the HK side take pert in this, in a coordinated son et lumiere with a soundtrack broadcast in the main Kowloon vantage points, like in front of the Civic centre (which has also recently been done up to good effect - all those pastel tiles have gone). There are lasers and intricate light displays on most of the buildings, including the HSBC and Bank of China, and these are all linked to provide an integrated display - an amazing achievement and quite magical.


On Monday I went to Lantau and tried the new cable car installed up to the Big Buddha and the monastery at the top. A sort of Buddhist mini-theme park has sprung up around them and this detracts from the remoteness you used to feel when the only way up was by foot or bus.


Also now on Lantau there's Disneyland of course, but it doesn't really have an impact from outside. I caught a local bus then the hydrofoil from Discovery Bay to Central, then the trolleybus to Causeway Bay. Not forgettig a trip on the famous Escalator that I used to catch down from my flat every morning, then back again in the evening (when the flow was reversed). All this emphasises how well organised HK is. You only have to stand at the kerbside and a taxi will screech to a halt. The MTR (underground) system continues to expand, and I was able to visit the two stations I worked on when I was here. The infrastructure seamlessly intermeshes with the fabric of the city with well planned links into the shopping malls and residential debvelopments that is just on a different level to say London. To say they are forced into this because of the density of development and the climate is missing the point.


So my stay in HK was very successful and quite nostalgic. I regretted staying for only 2 days and wondered why it had taken me so long to get back. My hosts were charming and helpful even in a very busy period for them, and no doubt I'll be back before too long.

doesn't time fly..?

Acutely aware that I haven't uploaded anything for weeks, so just to let anyone that reads this know, I have more to upload and will do ss soon, covering Hong Kong, and Bangkok and Jomtien in Thailand, and Bali.
This is the 'chill out phase of my trip after all, so you will have to indulge me.
<For those of you in the UK reading this, suffering from gales and winter storms and what have you, look away now> I am now on the island of Koh Chang, way down the Gulf of Thailand coast near the Cambodia border. I'm staying in a little bungalow right at the quiet end of the beach, in perfect weather, with little wooden restaurants down the beach where you can get a whole freshly caught grouper and snapper, barbecued or fried with chilli sauce, for 100 baht (£1.40). But I'm still working hard - on my tan! Ah well, shall I take another dip or have a massage on the beach - decisions, decisions!
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible