Bangkok Sights and Favourite Haunts

Visiting Bangkok is like coming home. It's great to visit familiar places and remind yourself about what you love that gives this city character. 

Downtown Bangkok is becoming more western as traditional buildings are taken down to make way for malls, office blocks and residential apartments. 

So, I got my walking shoes on and got out and about to explore old haunts. 

Morning walk around Benjakiti Park

Erawan Shrine

Street carts

Spirit Houses

Waiting to catch the klong taxi

Orchids at the flower market

The Giant Swing

Thai fruits

Vegetable market

Long tail boats on the Chao Phraya

Skytrain, signs and overhead wires

Buddhas for sale, any size. I refrained from bringing one home.

Interesting sights on the road

Hanging on tight while Mum drives 

Temples, of course

Farewell to Thailand, in the meantime, with 'Churning the Ocean of Milk' sculpture at Suvarnabhumi airport. 

Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar

Well, here I am in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, about to begin a 2-week trip. 

Tucked between China and Russia I'm looking forward to experiencing this land virtually untouched by human development, visiting remote areas with a nomadic culture far from western facilities, exploring nature and being out in vast rugged expanses.

An immense country with a population much less than ours at 3 million, but nearly 6 times the size.

Statue of Sukhbaatar in Chinggis Square who helped make the revolution for an Independent Mongolia. 

Three statues in front of the Government Palace. Chinggis Khan in the middle, his son Odegei to his right and grandson Kublai on his left. 

The capital, commonly known as UB, is a city of 1.2 million. It is one of the cleanest cities I've ever been in. Although busy, the traffic is calm with very few tooting horns. The buildings are a mix of grand Russian style structures, modern office and apartment blocks, local corner shops selling basic items and small shopping mall style buildings, single level houses in the suburbs and gers poked anywhere as a permanent or temporary dwelling. 

View from my hotel room. 

Stock Exchange 

Local shops 

Ger shop

Temples, of course

Very large pipes carry hot water around the city from coal fired energy plants. 

Street sculpture 

Hauraki Rail Trail

The girls and I did this trail over 2 days, 6 weeks apart. It's mostly a flat 98km ride on the Hauraki Plains following historic railway lines, passing relics of gold mining days, through the Karangahake Gorge including a 1km tunnel, riverside and over farmlands.

Getting Ready

Waihi to Waikino on the open carriage of the Goldfields Heritage Train.

Bikes loaded up.

The 1km Karangahake tunnel

            Some interesting signs

A touch of autumn

The infamous L&P bottle

Street art in Te Aroha

One of the many long straights.

Such a choice of delicious cheeses at Matatoki