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Category: FEATURED CONTENT

Thailand Contrasts (2022): Days 18-19: Modern Art & Homeward Bound

23 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Europe, Featured Flight, Scotland, Thailand, UK

Bangkok’s MOCA Our final day in Thailand began with the familiar routine of hotel breakfast and showers, followed by the last packing of the trip. The main sightseeing objective today

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 17: One Night in Bangkok

20 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Although largely dedicated to relocation, today still managed to be reasonably interesting and enjoyable. Breakfast was a little different and considerably more colourful than usual as the hotel was hosting

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 16: Exploring Chiang Rai

17 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Into the City We only had one full day in Chiang Rai and we were determined to make the most of it. Sizing up our new destination compared to the

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 15: To Another Northern City

12 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Relocation After the customary (and rather nice) hotel breakfast at the earlier hour of 0715 and having then attended to showers and packing, we checked out of Le Méridien Chiang

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 14: Chang Moi

10 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Introduction Today’s plan, intentionally a little less ambitious than Tuesday’s, concentrated on the district of Chiang Mai in which our hotel stood: Chang Moi. Even so, we weren’t intent on

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 13: Temples of Chiang Mai Old Town

7 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Morning Today’s hefty programme – and indeed the next couple of days as well – got off to a good start with an inclusive breakfast at the hotel. This was

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 12: Onwards to Chiang Mai

2 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

The journey north Today began when Bruce’s phone alarm went off at 0444 and mine followed at 0445. (He has a penchant for using non-standard times!) We both knew that

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Days 8-11: At Leisure on Phuket

28 November 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Our room Our Phuket hotel, where Bruce had arrived on schedule on the first day of the new month, was the Hilton Arcadia Resort & Spa, situated at Karon Beach.

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Days 6-7: An interlude in Leiden, then onwards to Phuket

7 November 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Europe, Featured Flight, Netherlands, Thailand

Leiden Yes, Day 6 and I was still in the Netherlands – but on track to travel this evening! I had my usual Hampton breakfast before showering, packing and checking

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Days 3-5: Last few hours in Amsterdam … or so I thought!

7 November 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Europe, Netherlands

The reason why I’m treating this as a block of three days will become clear soon enough. Today started out well enough and initially ran as planned. After checking out

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 2: A full day in Amsterdam

7 November 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Europe, Netherlands

Breakfast, which was included in my hotel deal, consisted of typical continental fare, with the occasional nod to UK tastes that I largely avoided! After eating and showering, I caught

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 1: Getting started with a North Sea hop

7 November 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Europe, Netherlands, Scotland, UK

It was the most unassuming of starts to an intercontinental trip: a short hop to Amsterdam in Economy. Regular readers will know that this is not necessarily unusual for me.

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Thailand Contrasts (2022): Introduction

6 November 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Intro, Europe, Netherlands, Thailand

Although the Covid-19 pandemic certainly wasn’t over, 2022 finally brought a significant recovery in long-haul travel. Bruce and I envisaged one joint-venture extended trip this year, based on Thailand. The

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Diary Epilogue

20 April 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry

At this point, the sightseeing was over and all that remained was to get home. One of the reasons for choosing Paris as the end point of our intercontinental tickets

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Days 16-18: And now, a long weekend in Paris!

20 April 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Europe, France

Final Accommodation On Friday morning we relocated to central Paris for a three-night stay at the perfectly decent Holiday Inn Paris Montmartre. With just 54 rooms, it is one of

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Days 14&15: Miami Interlude and Return to Europe

10 April 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Europe, Featured Flight, France, North & Central America, USA

A few hours in downtown Miami I woke up after what felt like a short night, due to the combined effect of the 3hr time change the previous evening and

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 13: Transcon in (Some) Style

4 April 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

St Andrew’s Day brought the first steps in our homeward journey, initially with a short hop back down the west coast to LA, then with a transcontinental flight to Miami,

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 12: Gallery day

22 March 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

After breakfast this morning, there was some business to attend to: before embarking on our eastbound return journey to Europe the following day, it was essential to do more laundry.

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