Shrimpsvoices

So its that time of year footys finished and thoughts turn to summer holidays so wheres everyone off to this summer, I'm heading off to Italy next week for some r&r cant wait

Florida, might take in a Tampa bay match

Don't you just hate Hairdressers idle chatter

sat in my hotel room in vegas right now,the time is 10.05pm, bed soon got an early start in the morning

Thailand for 3 weeks
Not the tourist spots, out in the sticks, getting blitzed on rice whiskey everyday
with the "sticky rice" farmers

Filey in Yarkshire in a van with the wife 4 kids and a dog. not as exotic as the rest but hopefully fun

cyprus in 6 weeks, then once back get the final preperation ready for the MFC bus unveiling!!!

3 weeks to go for me and Doris.
Bandar Seri Bagwan first stop.
Brunei is a dry country, but a couple of days of culture will get us in the mood.
Then the ferry to Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Sabah. A couple of days by the South China sea.
Fly south then to Kuching in Sarawak for a week.
Then back to KK to wind down before ferrying back to Brunei, and home.

Loads of 'sticky rice' for us too!

Curly wrote:Not the tourist spots, out in the sticks, getting blitzed on rice whiskey everyday with the "sticky rice" farmers

Share your secret - whereabouts?

Mae Tah,
San Kham Pang district
100-200Km out of Chiang Mai
Wifes family from there, have a bit of land for retirement too.
Clean air, national parks, very rural Thailand, even speaking Thai there has communication
problems as the area has its own dialect and language differences, still I get by.
Great people and always some good laughs

Curly wrote:Mae Tah,
San Kham Pang district
100-200Km out of Chiang Mai
Wifes family from there, have a bit of land for retirement too.
Clean air, national parks, very rural Thailand, even speaking Thai there has communication
problems as the area has its own dialect and language differences, still I get by.
Great people and always some good laughs

We can see ya

Wow! that photo's about 5 mins walk from my father in laws farm.

Just a reminder for anybody thinking of booking a holiday , if you book at thomas cook in either lancaster and morecambe and mention you are a morecambe fc fan you will get a discount. Did it yesterday and saved about £70.

Curly wrote:Mae Tah,
San Kham Pang district
100-200Km out of Chiang Mai
Wifes family from there, have a bit of land for retirement too.
Clean air, national parks, very rural Thailand, even speaking Thai there has communication
problems as the area has its own dialect and language differences, still I get by.
Great people and always some good laughs

Awesome.
My favourite spot is Sanghklaburi, about 150 miles west of Kanchanaburi.
It's on the Thai/Burma border.
Not many tourists get that far off the beaten track, so it's unspoilt and stunningly beautiful.
Many of the folk there are Karen people who've been driven out of Burma by the repressive government.
Nonk Khai comes a close second, lovely countryside, and the mighty Meekong.

Peter wrote:

Curly wrote:Mae Tah,
San Kham Pang district
100-200Km out of Chiang Mai
Wifes family from there, have a bit of land for retirement too.
Clean air, national parks, very rural Thailand, even speaking Thai there has communication
problems as the area has its own dialect and language differences, still I get by.
Great people and always some good laughs

Awesome.
My favourite spot is Sanghklaburi, about 150 miles west of Kanchanaburi.
It's on the Thai/Burma border.
Not many tourists get that far off the beaten track, so it's unspoilt and stunningly beautiful.
Many of the folk there are Karen people who've been driven out of Burma by the repressive government.
Nonk Khai comes a close second, lovely countryside, and the mighty Meekong.

What transport do you use in these areas chaps?

Internal flights, quick but you miss all the action.
Trains: Overnight sleeper from BKK to places like Chiang Mai or Nong Khai. www.seat61.com is the place to look.
Train: 3rd Class only (mix it with the locals and their livestock) from Thonburi Station in BKK to Kanchanaburi.
Local buses. They go everywhere for next to nowt.
Death Railway from Kanchanaburi. Imagine them poor souls who had to construct the Burma-Siam railway in WWII.
River transport.
Pushbikes.
Motorcycle. I'm a bit too sensible these days, but they are plentiful and cheap. You just need to wear an helmet (few do!), keep your wits about you, and make sure you are covered by your travel insurance. They drive on the left (when they feel like it!).
Don't do tour groups, too restrictive.
Loads of websites to plan your journey.

Peter wrote:

Curly wrote:Mae Tah,
San Kham Pang district
100-200Km out of Chiang Mai
Wifes family from there, have a bit of land for retirement too.
Clean air, national parks, very rural Thailand, even speaking Thai there has communication
problems as the area has its own dialect and language differences, still I get by.
Great people and always some good laughs

Awesome.
My favourite spot is Sanghklaburi, about 150 miles west of Kanchanaburi.
It's on the Thai/Burma border.
Not many tourists get that far off the beaten track, so it's unspoilt and stunningly beautiful.
Many of the folk there are Karen people who've been driven out of Burma by the repressive government.
Nonk Khai comes a close second, lovely countryside, and the mighty Meekong.

Sounds like we've looked at a lot of the same places, Lived there for three years so was
lucky enough to have the time to travel around there a bit.
Loved Laos,fantastic place to travel around by boat.
As you said,a lot of the best places aren't on tourist maps, but you have to stay a while and
get to know the people if you want the most from your trip.

As said, Travel over there is easy, buses go everywhere and lifts easy to arrange, I did a lot of hitchhiking and got to meet some great folks ( just payed for their food when we stopped for a break or chipped in with the fuel cost).
Easier for me now as have family there, with spare rooms and pick ups/mopeds so getting around not a problem.
Great country,Thailand.

Peter wrote:Internal flights, quick but you miss all the action.
Trains: Overnight sleeper from BKK to places like Chiang Mai or Nong Khai. http://www.seat61.com is the place to look.
Train: 3rd Class only (mix it with the locals and their livestock) from Thonburi Station in BKK to Kanchanaburi.
Local buses. They go everywhere for next to nowt.
Death Railway from Kanchanaburi. Imagine them poor souls who had to construct the Burma-Siam railway in WWII.
River transport.
Pushbikes.
Motorcycle. I'm a bit too sensible these days, but they are plentiful and cheap. You just need to wear an helmet (few do!), keep your wits about you, and make sure you are covered by your travel insurance. They drive on the left (when they feel like it!).
Don't do tour groups, too restrictive.
Loads of websites to plan your journey.

Cheers for that. Iv'e been thinking about traveling for years but never had the chance before
-women,children,work and business

There is nothing to stop me now! (apart from money)

Thanks for the info.

Curly wrote:Sounds like we've looked at a lot of the same places, Lived there for three years so waslucky enough to have the time to travel around there a bit.
Loved Laos,fantastic place to travel around by boat.

We only had a couple of weeks in Laos.
Got a tuk-tuk the 20km from Friendship Bridge into Vientienne - wicked. Covered in dust when we got there.
Bit dodgy at night there with big smelly holes on the pavements.
Did the standard route from VT to Vang Vieng (VV), and then a few days in Luang Prabang.
Despite it's reputation we thought VV was a great place to enjoy.
Wish we'd stayed there a few days longer. No 'magic pizza' for me and Doris though. Plenty of BeerLao though.
Bottled out of the two day boat ride up to Huay Xai, and flew to Chiang Mai instead.
[/quote]

Curly wrote:As you said,a lot of the best places aren't on tourist maps, but you have to stay a while andget to know the people if you want the most from your trip.

It's on our wish list to linger in Thailand or Borneo for a few months.
Spent 4 years in Saudi Arabia though.
Did all the pubs on the first night!
And all the churches on the 2nd!!

why not stay in Morecambe lovely hot and sunny here at the mo

Peter wrote:

Curly wrote:Sounds like we've looked at a lot of the same places, Lived there for three years so waslucky enough to have the time to travel around there a bit.
Loved Laos,fantastic place to travel around by boat.

We only had a couple of weeks in Laos.
Got a tuk-tuk the 20km from Friendship Bridge into Vientienne - wicked. Covered in dust when we got there.
Bit dodgy at night there with big smelly holes on the pavements.
Did the standard route from VT to Vang Vieng (VV), and then a few days in Luang Prabang.
Despite it's reputation we thought VV was a great place to enjoy.
Wish we'd stayed there a few days longer. No 'magic pizza' for me and Doris though. Plenty of BeerLao though.
Bottled out of the two day boat ride up to Huay Xai, and flew to Chiang Mai instead.

Curly wrote:As you said,a lot of the best places aren't on tourist maps, but you have to stay a while andget to know the people if you want the most from your trip.

It's on our wish list to linger in Thailand or Borneo for a few months.
Spent 4 years in Saudi Arabia though.
Did all the pubs on the first night!
And all the churches on the 2nd!! [/quote]


How long did it take you to find a Bacon Butty?

Typical Northern B'stard, I went on the brewery tour in Vientiane! what a day out!
First time I went there (11-12yrs ago now) Draught Beer Laos was about 10p a litre,
A Beer to rival any Premium German lager, the head brewer learnt his trade in a communist
east-west exchange, learning about making beer in E.Berlin with trips to other east european
countries, they kindly gave him a good recipe to take home.
I always wondered though, what use would "pineapple/rice growing knowledge" be, to some guy from eastern europe, studying in Laos, to take home to Berlin?
Aaahh, those crazy Germans
Vang Vieng, great!
Floating down the river (and over the rapids!) in a rented (5p per day) tractor innertube!
Saw Laos P.D.R vs Vietnam in Laos international stadium, in Tiger Cup.
Laos lost 0-10 but the locals thought it was great having some westerners chanting and jumping about, another night on the Beer Laos! Gave a guy my Morecambe shirt and all his mates were asking him to sell it to them, tried to buy a Laos shirt but they didn't sell them.
Some people starting to go there now on fishing holidays, If you hook a giant Mekhong catfish
the whole village eats for a week!

Chang Mai is lovely. I didn't get the chance to get too far off the beaten trail (and would love to) but for anyone considering a 'self planned' trip to Thailand, it is very easy to organise for yourself.

Preferred Vietnam though! Hoi An is probably my favourite place on the whole planet (so far!). Food is stunning, imagine the best of Chinese and the best of Thai food and you are close to Vietnamese food.

Off to China in July for three weeks. Out there during the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century which will be interesting!

family booking holiday for end of August

Curly wrote:
How long did it take you to find a Bacon Butty?

No problem.
I was in the Diplomatic Service, with all the precious privileges that went with it.
We (the Embassy) used to receive a 40ft container every 3 months full to capacity with all sorts of goodies, but mainly 'pop'.
To get bacon on a regular basis we had to drive East, and then over the Causeway into Bahrain.
In Bahrain there is one supermarket which sells pork bacon, quite a popular spot for deprived expats.
When we bought it we'd give the assistant the nod and he would wrap it and label it as veal.
So when crossing back into Saudi you would be unlikely to get nobbled by customs. But as we had diplomatic number plates, diplomatic ID cards and diplomatic passports we were pretty much untouchable.
Apart from hotel bars Bahrain hasn't got a right lot to offer.
At weekends it was full of rich Saudis on the piss without the missus on the look out for the plethora of pretty Filipinas.

Curly wrote:
Typical Northern B'stard, I went on the brewery tour in Vientiane! what a day out!

Not surprisingly we did the brewery trip as well.
Been to a lot better though.

From the East to the West, me and the wife are going to Seattle and Vancouver.
A couple of days in Seattle and then onto Vancouver Island for 4 nights - to the Comox music festival and then back to Vancouver for 4 more nights and back to Seattle.
Never been before, so if anyone has any tips - I`d be grateful.