I am completely in awe of how intrepid you are!! And I love the way you recount these incredible adventures as though they were like a trip to the supermarket. Even more I love the way you make friends along the way! May your travels continue and also your willingness to tell us all about them!
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Thank you, Gretchen! The boat trip back to the mainland was not that bad, though the open channel spots did get a bit interesting at times. We were in the lee of the islands most of the time, it was just when we were exposed to the wind and rollers that it got rough.
I enjoy writing about my travel, my photography and my meals. It helps me remember what I did even better than the old journals I used to keep during my travels. Last month I dug through some of my old travel photos that I took back in 1994, 1998 and 2002 and I wish I had written something to remind me of the places I went and the people I met. The photos help but the written word is crucial.
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Love seeing and reading about your adventures down south. With regard to pork, there are usually Chinese communities with deep roots in every Thai provincial capital in the south (just as you find in Malaysia). I haven’t spent much time in Trang and don’t know the food but the pork stew looks like the Phuket dish Moo Hong.
I too was seduced by a massaman curry decades ago on my first trip to Thailand in a small Thai family oriented resort a few miles from the coast in the south. The paste was pounded out by a Thai grandmother and remains among the best I’ve tried. If you are on Phuket, try and score a (difficult) reservation at Ta Khai, the rosewood’s main Thai restaurant. It’s all outdoors with beautiful views. Instead of hiring a chef with experience in hotel kitchens, they hired an older couple from a simple local sit down restaurant after spending weeks trying similar hole in the wall and simple village spots around the island. The food has a soulful homey quality backed by high quality ingredients. Their massaman (dry style, with a coating of semi-thick curry sauce) is the most spice forward and vibrant one I’ve had. Just edging out the grandmother’s. Unfortunately the Rosewood itself is $$$$$$ but you can still book the resto separately.
If you get a chance Ko Tarutao off Trang’s coast is a fantastic national park with great marine life and beaches.
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Thank you for the heads up on Ko Tarutao! I spent some time on Ko Lipe way back in the day but did not get to dive or snorkel at Ko Tarutao. I have heard great things about the sea life there but I have not had a chance to check it out yet.
There are always so many places that I want to get back and see!
This trip is a short one, but I will probably be back in January.
I just pulled up some Moo Hong photos/reports and it does look very similar!
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Another trip report that transports the reader to your destination. Thank you for the great writeup and gorgeous pictures. Thailand is truly beautiful. I need to go back 
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What a great adventure! Bravo! 
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I arrived in Bangkok from Trang on the 26th and took a taxi from Don Mueang to Baan Wanglang Riverside on the Chao Phraya River. Very friendly staff checked me into the hotel, we got into a discussion of cafes we each wanted to go to and I pulled out my phone so we could look at my Google map. Good fun. My room overlooked a flooding river, tons of green foliage flowing down, and as the tide returned, up the Chao Phraya.
My first bite was at Khun Daeng the next morning for their Egg Pan with toast, egg and two types of pork sausage. Very good, though mild, sausages!
Then I was off to Chinatown where I played the tourist, photographing beautiful old buildings that exude character. One stood out for me, with what has to have been plaster faux sculpted detail around the upper floor windows/doors. Beautiful old building!
Then I stopped in to Ek Teng Phu Ki for my favorite coconut egg custard toast and Ceylon Milk Tea, iced. Love this place, and the upper room is kind of air conditioned.
Stopped by the lady that sells durian and again I got a sweet custardy fruit she claims is durian that is great, but does not smell like durian. I am confused.
But the highlight of the day was the Green Curry with Fish at The Original Mae On’s Curry over Rice. Call me crazy but that fish eats like chicken it is so firm, but the curry and the egg on the side are simply delicious. One of my all time favorite dishes in Bangkok.
Then it was home to Wanglang and the river at night.
The next morning I took the Sky Train to the river, then the Chao Phraya Express boat to Phra Arthit and walked to Khao Kaeng Ruttana. Which is a bit of a trek in May. Anyway, I went down the alley to KK Ruttana and it had 20 or more trays of curries, half of which looked good and the other half looked truly outstanding. I look like a pretty milkbread sort of tourist so the owner kind of warned me that the dishes were spicy, but I saw a red curry that looked outstanding and another tray of red eggs that Peter thinks may be Son in Law Eggs. Both were simply outstanding. And the owner was right, they are spicy. I was prepared, though, and was wiping sweat off my brow with my huge bandana from the git go.
Loved this place. Want to go back. Instead, I ate at a place close to my hotel.
And went to the wrong cafe.
And had mediocre wontons and poor shrimp at Chuan Aroy on the River. Have you ever been served shrimp that have been cooked so long the shells mesh with the shrimp meat, so you cannot pull the shells off? I have now. I tried eating the shrimp and the shells as a crunchy sort of repast. Not optimal.
But I went up to the 5th floor bar at the hotel and had a rather poorly made but very cold Highball. Back to my room as the sun was setting.
The next day I tried to get two types of curry at the curry place up the alley from my hotel and ended up with two curries and one chicken foot. Not sure how the chicken foot ended up in the dish. Worse yet, the chicken foot was overcooked. Not a bad meal, but I think it would have been better over rice than over noodles. So I went to the sushi place next door and got a Sushi 6 pack to go.
I ended up moving across the river to the Rembrandt off of Sukhumvit Road the next day.
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More deliciousness (minus the mediocre meal)! Thank you for sharing.
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Great photos and story telling as usual! Did you switch hotels because of location? I checked the Rembrandt’s website and I’m amazed at how affordable it is for such a nice hotel, like $200 a night for a room with a terrace and tons of extras included! Nice!
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I have been staying at the Rembrandt for 20 years because of its location and its staff. But there are other options and riverfront is very cool too. So over the years i have been staying a few days each at Rembrandt, then Live Zen, then Lancaster and now Baan Wanglang. Each has features i like.
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You definitely do not post too much. I really enjoy your posts and love that you include animal photos!
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What @TheLibrarian28 said!!!
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Thank you both for your kind words! I appreciate them a great deal!
And I have just one more post about my last couple days in Bangkok. I gamble on shoulder month travel dates a lot, mostly because I do not like crowds of tourists. And most of the time it pays off and I still get decent weather. This trip I got the rainy season and the hot season a bit more than I had hoped for, but even that had its good points. One of my first meals on the Sukhumvit side of town was going to be at Thai Noyim in the Ploenchit neighborhood just over from Nana, and Sukhumvit where I was staying, but they were jammed and the wait was going to be long so I went to another cafe next door that I like, Mae Mali - Ploenchit. I had no idea how the place got its name until this year when its namesake, a hippo in the Chonburi zoo, celebrated her 59th birthday. The local newspapers had an article about the zoo breaking out the watermelons for Mae’s birthday party!
One of Mae Mali’s (the restaurant) best dishes is an app, Crunchy Cucumber Salad, a kind of a Szechuan salad, but with Thai chilis. Delicious! This time it was a bit wilted, not quite as crunchy, but it was still pretty good. Then I had the Spicy Pork Salad which was outstanding.
As I walked home then looming clouds turned into a pretty torrential downpour, an older woman near the Ploenchit Market saw me walking and getting wet and gave me an old, slightly beat up, umbrella. And I carried it with me all the way home to Montana and intend to keep it forever. It was a nice act by a good person, so I gave her a very deep wai and she laughed and wai’ed me back like I was a high status person or an elder. Which made us both laugh. And I was mostly dry when I got home, except for my left shoulder. It is a Thai sized umbrella and I am most definitely a Western sized guy, so my left side stuck out a bit when I was not paying attention. LOL!
The next day was another scorcher, even the dogs were just laying about and waiting for sundown.
I also hit Ten Suns for their beef noodle soup, incredibly rich and delicious!
And I made it down to Chinatown to hit one of my favorites, Sui Heng, for their Hainanese chicken. I was working on my third meal of the day so I kept it pretty light, but with a Coke in a tin cup of ice, it was a very nice meal indeed!
On a hot day, I was thinking cold beverages, so I went to Rung Rueang. I love their fresh squeezed orange juice on a hot day. And their Michelin Award (Bib) Tom Yum with soup and Ba Mee noodles is still one of the best bargains in travel at just $3USD for a large bowl and an OJ.
Another cold drink bargain is the 180ml Birdy Robusta Zero sugar coffee can! I had it with a sushi meal earlier in the week and forgot to mention it. It is just 17 Baht or $0.50USD. That is supposed to be 50 cents… I really enjoy the Robusta beans, perhaps more than any Arabica coffee. Robusta beans are in some ways better for the environment because they require less care plus they grow at lower altitudes and make a great crop for farmers in less developed parts of Thailand. I believe that more than 90% of Thailand’s (and Vietnam’s) coffee is Robusta even though coffee shops will claim that the local coffees they serve are Arabica, due to the perception that Arabica is best, even though the coffee is fairly obviously Robusta, even to my untrained palate. Because Robusta has a rich, almost earthy, flavor that is hard to hide. And it usually has more caffeine than Arabica, not that that is the reason I like it so much. 
But Birdy Robusta is one of my favorite drinks in Thailand.
On my way home I spotted an orchid just hanging out under the Sky Train by the bus stop, so I waited for a train and got distracted. Missed the shot of the locomotive by a second or two, but I still like the photo.
It was still too hot so I ducked into the Emsphere mall to cool off and saw that they had changed the decoration, again. I love the in your face color and vibrance of this place. The food is Gordon Ramsay type mall food, good but not great, but the ambiance makes it worth visiting over and over.
Thailand is a special place. The people are very warm and the food is great. I wandered a good bit and somehow ended up at an old watering hole, Madame Musur, on Ram Buttri Alley, near Khao San Road. I sat in front of a fan with a cold beer on ice, watched the travelers walking by. Took me back, that did.
But that it is it for Thailand this year. I won’t be back until the beginning of January next year.
I think.
I took a taxi to the Suvarnabhumi airport during the day time, and this time my song was Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover. The slow intro building to the addictive parts at the 2 minute mark make this one of my favorite guitar solos of all time. I listened to all 6 minutes three times on my way to the airport. The third time I listened to it the cab driver was looking at me in the rear view, maybe because my head was bouncing around in time to the music so I took out my air buds and played it on my phone’s speaker. When the refrain kicked in he was nodding his head in time to the music, too.
It sounds kind of crazy but I kind of miss my 3am taxi trips when I enter and leave a country. There is nothing quite so sure to make you feel adventurous as traveling through a sleeping city in the dark of night, far from home, friends and family.
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There was a stretch, circa 2004 to 2012, when B and I went to Bangkok 1-2 times a year, either to visit elsewhere in Thailand or to transit through to somewhere else in SEA. Your reports make me and B long to take Spring Onion (although he and B will wilt; I love the heat and humidity).
ETA: We’re both excited and apprehensive about seeing the changes. Although we went at a time when tourism was booming, there was still an innocence that we think will be long gone, if that makes any sense.
The dog photo made me laugh out loud—thank you!
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You should all go! I bet they would love it.
The funny thing about heat and humidity is that if you just relax and accept it, you forget that you are sweating profusely and your clothes are drenched. It is like walking in the rain, once you are kind of wet, getting soaked really is not that big a deal.
But being able to return to your hotel or AirBNB and relax in AC and a shower is kind of nice, too.
Which reminds me, I need to complete my web search for linen summer travel clothes and buy me some cooler travel togs…
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Thank you for this absolutely wonderful final report of a fabulous trip!! Any travel planned between now and next January?
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I wish I had that zen mindset! I absolutely hate humidity, especially when I have to wear proper clothes for sigthseeing, etc., and can’t be practically naked in the water 
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I have a couple in the works but nothing definite. I have been wanting to see parts of Nova Scotia this summer, then return via Montreal on Via Rail. Take 8 days there and see just 3 towns, based in Halifax for the flight arrival and the train departure.
I also want to return to Spain, maybe San Sebastian, and take the Spanish language class I managed to avoid in Malaga earlier this year. This would be a summer trip, as well, so Malaga might be a bit too hot for me.
Kenya for a safari is niggling at the back of my mind, but so far the single supplement drives the price through the roof. This would be best in June/July/August for the Great Migration, so I am way late for that. Maybe Jan/Feb will work after Thailand in January 2026.
I really want to get back to the DC Metro area and meet my new Grandniece. And I miss my friends there as well.
I have a family reunion here in Montana in mid-August so I want to be here then.
So I have a bunch of “want to go’s” and no real plan yet. But I may roll a combination of DC and Nova Scotia into July.
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I hear you about living in heat! It takes some getting used to and it is always an irritation to start. After a while, usually I get used to it, but a few years ago I left Thailand weeks early because I just did not want to put up with the heat and humidity. Then i ended up in Greece a few weeks early and it was windy and very cold. So I jumped out of the frying pan and into the freezer.
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I’m sorry you’re leaving. I’ve really been enjoying your posts. Where are you taking us next?!
P.S. Just read your answer above. I look forward to reading your reports from wherever you end up going!
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