Monday, March 19, 2012

Dad's blog on Thailand

Well Dad has left me some notes on Thailand for the blog.

Weight: Neither lost nor gained any weight. Three decent Thai meals a day and not the usual high mileage on this trip so not surprised.

Accommodation:  25 hotels or bungalows. Average price was £10.00 for the room, ie £5.00 each.

Travel: Took three train journeys, one bus and four ferries.  Next time would leave my own bike at home, as nearly everywhere you can hire a bike for 200 baht (£4.00) a day.

Flight: Singapore airlines were very good and food was excellent. Heathrow - Singapore - Phuket. Cost £590 return. Would have worked out cheaper if flown to Bangkok.

Bagage Allowance: In the hold 20 kgs and the bike weighed in at 19.5. The rest of the luggage was just one pannier and that weighed in at 7 kgs. Definitely travelling light this trip !

Cost of Holiday: £720 for all the accommodation, internal travel, food, daily spends, a couple of beers a day and he trouble fighting off the offers of the odd Thai massage on those old legs :)

Mileage: 1200 kilometres (around 750 miles). Not a high mileage trip as quite a few days were spent travelling and sight seeing. Could have spent longer in all the place travelled through as there was so much to do and see.

The machine (bike): Very little trouble with the bike on this trip. Roads in Thailand are of a good standard with no frost to make pot-holes. Roads had a good hard shoulder for biking. The Thai drivers are a bit mad but majority of the time felt safe on the road.

Travel Guides:  Took the Rough Guide to Thailand and the Lonely Planet. For travelling independently probably the Rough Guide was the better choice.

A couple of mentions ..,. Dave King my cycling partner on the trip. His expertise on mobile phones, GPS and Skype couldn't have been better. Nathan Smallman who lived and worked in Thailand for a year in the Pottery industry for his help in picking a few places to visit

Lastly thanks to Kendal, my great daughter with out her there would be no blog and no base camp manager ! In the last month there have been over 2,000 hits on the blog (a RT from Mark Beaumont helped), so thanks to everyone for taking an interest and following me on my trip.


2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great trip Jack. Thanks for sharing your journey on the blog, it's been fun. Looking forward to the next one!
    By the way, how 'odd' was that Thai massage? ;)
    Angi

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  2. Sounds pretty amazing again. Big thanks to Kendal for keeping us all informed of your antics.
    Glad to have you back though!! Look forward to hearing your tales.

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