Travel photos and journals from across Asia [1997-2024]
We opted for some luxury after a week in a tent and stayed in a decent hotel on the lakefront. Phayao has a very laid-back feel to it and a marvelous lakeside boulevard with seating, flowerbeds, and plenty of shade trees. By late afternoon the locals gathered there to flirt,…
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From here it was a drive west out of Nan province and into Phayao province to the picturesque Phu Langka viewpoint. This is another spot that has become wildly popular with Thai weekend warriors and hi-sos so there was a lot of pricey accommodation up on the mountain. The reason…
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The ‘Pua Nam Sai’ campsite on the Pua River is also a very popular weekend spot, but as has been the norm for this trip, we were the only couple there during the week. The owner was nice enough to keep the kitchen open so we had enough to eat…
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This was when the trip started to get interesting with a drive on the now famous 1081 mountain road to Sapun, a quaint mountain town also growing in popularity after featuring on Thai TV and social media. The road, which was pristine and would have been awesome on a motorcycle,…
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We only had one night at the ‘Rai Pah Suk’ campsite due to the lack of food and power (we’d assumed there would be something going on at this otherwise popular spot) and drove down to visit the Sao Din Na Noi paleolithic rock formations the next morning. After a…
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After a few perfectly relaxing days (aside from the all-morning roosters) we drove north again to Phrae for a hotel stay, a decent shower, some laundry, and to restock on camping supplies. Most Thai provincial towns are homogenous, once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, and Phrae was no…
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The following day we drove to Chainat to visit family but ended up staying across the river in Uthai Thani province. Both areas are very rural with very little to see or do but we did visit the most blinged-up temple I have ever seen – Wat Tha Sung, otherwise…
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The climate in Thailand has become progressively worse in recent years with hotter, longer dry seasons and wetter drawn-out rainy seasons often lasting months on end, not to mention the new smog season when air pollution is hazardous across most of the country from February to May. For that reason,…
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The New Year camping session was the perfect escape for a few days. No phone signal or WiFi which meant no Covid news or conversation which was pure bliss after having it rammed down our throats for the past two years. Unfortunately, Thailand’s draconian lockdown measures did not seem to…
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The second half of 2021 has been no better than the first in terms of traveling or freedom of movement. Thailand started to get its Covid numbers under control and it commenced its vaccination rollout during the third quarter. I managed to get 2 shots of Pfizer in September courtesy…
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The year 2021 has been a total write-off in terms of traveling. It has been more than a decade since there hasn’t been at least one OTRA entry in a given year for a road trip somewhere. The Covid-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 is still ravaging most of…
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We decided to stop in the Loei Palace Hotel for two nights since it had a big pool and was relatively luxurious. We’d been on the road a week and every night stayed somewhere different so needed a little down time. The town is a traffic clogged little place with…
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I had read up on this place as it is one of the most popular national parks for Thais and somewhat of a pilgrimage to make the climb. Relatively unknown to foreigners, Phu Kradeung is a 1,300 meter high mount with a mesa spanning 60 square kilometers. There are no…
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October is our month for road trips and it was time to find somewhere in Thailand we had yet to visit. Usually we head south due to our proximity to it but this time it would be a journey north into two provinces I had yet to visit; Phetchabun and…
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Soon it was time to get on the road again and into our next province. I wanted to head into the relatively unexplored Satun province but democracy overruled me and the majority voted for Krabi since half of our party had never been there. Krabi The first thing you notice…
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