A Thailand Trail. The background and advance plan.

If the truth be told, it's all Melvin Bragg's fault, the omniscient presenter of "In Our Time". On Thursday 23rd June he hosted a discussion on Radio 4 entitled "Angkor Wat". I was hooked. Here was a place that I had to visit. Angkor Wat is, of course located in the north west of Cambodia which is fairly adjacent for Thailand and all the delights that country can offer to tourists. In fact all bar four days of the planned holiday will be in Thailand so I propose to start with some general information on that country using the UK as a comparator. They have similarly sized populations, but at 200,000 sq miles Thailand has roughly twice the land area. The United Nations have devised their Human Development Index which attempts to measure how "civilised" a country is according to various measures like levels of education, health provision, income, life expectancy, happiness, etc, etc. Norway has consistently come top of the list for years. Thailand is 66th and UK is 18th out of a total of 191 countries. At 66th, Thailand is considerably more developed than its neighbours with Vietnam at 115, Laos 139, Cambodia 146 and Myanmar 149.

The flags of both countries use the same three colours, red,white and blue of course. 

 

The Union Flag represents the three countries that form the Union. Wales is not represented as it was already colonised at the time the first Union Flag was designed. In the Thai flag, shown above,  the colours are symbolic, red represents the people,  the white, religion and blue, the monarchy. Speaking of religion Thailand is 94% Buddhist, 4% Muslim, 1% Christian and the rest composed of various oriental religions. 

Atheists registered as 0.003% of the population so I might be struggling to find like-minded people. 

Both UK and Thailand are Monarchies with interesting parallels. Constitutionally the UK is a monarchy and Parliamentary democracy whereas Thailand in the late C20 has swung between democracy and military rule with at least 12 changes of constitution and several coups. King Rama lX who died in 2016 reigned for 70 years and 126 days and was then the second longest reigning monarch in history (the longest being Louis XlV). He was pipped into third place by UK's Elizabeth ll when she died in 2022. Here is the present King. One has to be careful what one says because they have quite strictly enforced lese- majeste laws with prison sentences of between 3 and 15 years, (Not sure how Harry would fare if the roles were reversed).

Climatically, Thailand can be said to have two seasons, hot and hotter! Officially however it has three. The hot, from March to May, the rainy season from about June to October and the "cool" November to February. We'll be there for a month, the last two weeks in January and the first two in February. We can expect highs of 30 and lows of 20.

For about £2,500 per person you can buy a holiday called The Thailand Triple. This consists of a week split between Bangkok and Chiang Mae in the north west and a week on an island in the south west. This mirrors some of what we have planned but we are also adding several day trips from Bangkok and the visit to Cambodia to include the Angkor Wat complex and Phnom Penh. This will take four weeks and should cost well under £1500 each when all the bills are added up. 

Above you can see a downloaded image of part of the Angkor Wat temple complex. A visit here is a major driver for the holiday. 

We will,  by and large be staying in hotels which are remarkably good value. We are not talking bamboo with en suite gecko here, but properly built concrete and carpets. Room prices vary between £10 to £150 per room per night. I set a budget of about £35 which gets you a room and breakfast.  The rooms that I have booked are equipped with a large bed, fridge, flat screen tv, air con, wifi and a seating area. The hotels have outdoor swimming pools with sun loungers and spa facilities 

The exception to this is our accommodation on Ko Samui. This is a beach resort on an island where we will be staying in a bungalow for a week. 

If you want to find out some more details of how the holiday unwraps or even unravels then keep an eye on this site. I shall be posting blogs every few days with the occasional nudge on Facebook. 

An Awesome Aviation Adventure 30th July 2022

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of............

so wrote John Gillespie Magee in 1940. This is the start of his sonnet which has been adopted by several Air Forces around the world. Apparently it was hypoxia that influenced his hyperbole that finally had him touching the face of God. He was an Anglo-American who flew in the Royal Canadian Air Force and sadly died in a mid-air collision over Ruskington aged 19. He is buried at Scopwick. I have subsequently photographed his grave which you can see below. 

All this I learnt at the excellent "We'll meet again" Museum at Freiston near Boston Lincolnshire. The main reason to visit was to experience flying a WW2 Lancaster Bomber whilst I say "experience" that was exactly what I did. Out of over 7,000 built there are only two of these iconic aeroplanes left in air-worthy condition and flying regularly. One in Canada and one (the City of Lincoln) based in RAF Coningsby with the rest of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Clearly I wasn't going to get my hands on either of those so my experience was to be virtual.

Now all this was thanks to an invitation from David and Janet Smith who had already taken a party to the museum and realised that there was the possibility to fly, indeed David had booked in, so I agreed to join him and caught the next plane, as it were.

Just a few more words about the museum before I go on to talk about the flying. I most highly recommend that you make the effort to visit yourself. It thoroughly repays the £6 entrance fee (£40 more if you want half an hours flying). We spent an effortless four hours there. The owners Paul and Linda are supported by a number of very knowledgeable and enthusiastic volunteers who not only keep the place spotlessly clean, provide excellent catering and spout information like geysers.

This is what the others see of me when I'm flying, not too impressive I hear you say, but it's not at all what I see, hear, or feel. First of all this is an original Lancaster cockpit that I am sitting in. Secondly you can see Paul behind me who is looking at the screen to his left and will be talking me through the flight. There is also a screen on the side of the plane which the audience (Helen, Jan and David) can also see. They can see exactly what I see when I look straight ahead into my headset which is giving me my reality.

I offer you this shot next because although I am already flying, it shows the cockpit off well. All the dials are functioning and relate to exactly what I do as well as where I am, speed, elevation etc. As you look out of the window the ground below is how it is . You can see the cars travelling on the roads but you can't quite see the people waving up to you!

Shortly after take off from RAF Coningsby, we are flying over Boston, passing south of the Stump but quite close to it. There might be some complaints about that! The River Witham is visible as it makes its final journey to the Wash. What you can see in the distance is the Lincolnshire coastline so we are flying east and turning north to follow that coastline up as far as the Humber Estuary.

Banking over the fertile land of Lincolnshire. There is some low cloud head ahead and I was warned by Paul to keep below it as it is very disorientating if I attempt to fly amongst it.

A good view of the coast. Here we are north of Skegness flying steadily at about 5,000 feet and 220 miles per hour.

Now flying west into the sun and straight up the Humber Estuary. Both the north and south banks can be seen in this shot.

We are now turning to loop back over the estuary, the Humber Bridge and Hull before lining up for our landing at Humberside Airport. Of course I was keen to fly under the bridge, but Paul said this was a definite No No. Not only could I wreck this beautiful plane, but we might bring the bridge down and Paul would definitely lose his precious pilot's licence. Hey ho, we'll just have to be boring!

Kind of a spooky double image at work here. It's a bit like breaking the fourth wall in the theatre. Miles away, Helen, Jan and David are looking at the screen on the side of the fuselage back at the museum. All these images were taken by Helen on her camera phone. That screen has picked up the reflection of that audience with the result that we have ghostly beings looking down on the Humber Bridge, or are we in the plane looking through a curtain to reality? What is the real reality? Is anything real? Help!

Just to show how you can turn your head and look along the wing to check that the engines are all running smoothly and not on fire. In a short time I will have to look and check that the undercarriage has deployed successfully. You can actually see the wheels coming down and locking in place.

Dead centre of the screen you can see some water, which is I think the River Trent and just to the left of this is a white strip pointing to about ten o'clock. This is the main runway at Humberside Airport and where, I hope I am going to land this aeroplane. Watch the sequence of shots as I close in on it.

I'm not quite lined up and more worryingly rather low. When landing this plane it is important to make light feathery movements and try not to do anything sudden or substantial. I now do feel really nervous and in my head I know I am going to be responsible for the success of this safe landing.

OK, This is a little better, I've managed to gain some height and we are a little squarer. Maybe this is going to be alright after all.

Nearly down and great relief all round.

Although it doesn't look it, we are down on the runaway and stopped. The lights in the distance are the end of the runway.

This is what I need to show to the Wing Commander of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight when I try to convince him that I am a fit and proper person to take the controls of the City of Lincoln at the next fly past.

Some thanks; to Helen for taking the pictures (you will get to fly next time), to David and Jan for the invite and subsequent hospitality, to all the staff at the "We'll meet again" museum and finally to Paul whose safe hands and eyes allowed me to "slip the surly bonds of Earth". 

Chilling out in the Canaries 11/3/2022

 Round and round the rugged rock, this blog is the story of a driving trip all round the circumference of Gran Canaria. Rather than running ragged rascals, we drove our hired Renault Clio along what at times were pretty hairy roads. The road was being improved particularly in the north west quadrant. Nearly the all the west side is less developed and much more arrid as the pictures show. I'm afraid that this is going to be more of a picture gallery than a blog. This was El Risco, our first stop where we enjoyed a coffee and almond cake. 

A glimpse of the new tunnels under construction rather disappointingly removing the views, hairpins, danger and fun all in one fell excavation. 

And now the new view inside the recently finished tunnel. 

They have left some of the old road which gives access to this really remarkable viewpoint. It is called La Balcon and I don't need to explain why. In the foreground you can see ox-eyed daisies, which seem to survive anywhere. We are on the north coast here looking east towards a distant Las Palmas. 

Here we are looking straight down about 400 metres to the shoreline. 

This is the equally impressive view to the west. 

This picture is almost surreal. Arising out of the sea cloud is the mountain of Telde, remember, that third highest volcano in the world and also Spain's highest peak. It is over 40 kilometers away on the neighbouring island of Tenerife. 

Here you can see how this precipitous viewpoint is constructed using that wondrously adaptive material, plate glass. This picture also demonstrates that phenomenon I call the "Harry Worth" affect. You have really got to be over 60 to remember him and his shop window. 

Helen demonstrating her head for heights. Although it looks to me that her eyes are shut. 

I warned you that I would tell you some more about bananas, well here we go. Firstly that vast area of white is the polytunnel netting that I referred to in the first blog. It acts both as shade from the excessive sun and protection from the winds. The variety grown here is Dwarf Cavendish which grows only about 3 metres in height. The fruits are half the size of the Caribbean or South American varieties and they do pack more flavour and sugar. if you live in England, go to ASDA who stock them and try them for yourself. Besides the bananas notice how little other vegetation there is. 

You can just see the road in this shot but you are often left wondering where on earth the road goes next. I featured this picture with climbers in mind. The cliffs ahead look to provide some excellent routes, I wonder how many have actually been climbed. 

If I knew more about the geology of volcanic regions I would be able to write reams describing the rock formations below. As I don't, I won't. 

Here is one of the classic views on the island. Start with the sky and drop down, that's Teide again, the highest peak on Tenerife. Now it's more like 50 kilometres away. Then you see the sea cloud again. To the right is the town of Artenara. This is another centre of activity with the historic peoples of the island. We then look across the Crux de Tajeda with Pueblo Tajeda just visible in the bottom centre. 

Pueblo Tajeda has been described as Spain's prettiest village. It certainly has a very impressive setting. 

Here we are in the main street where we enjoyed melty but tasty ice cream. 

The little port of Puerto de Morgan is a delightful little resort with a parade of restaurants facing a sandy beach. There's a classy marina and a beautiful old collection of houses and narrow alleyways decorated with tropical flowering plants. 

The square with restaurants surrounding the bandstand. 

Turn around 180°and you are facing the marina. We liked this place so much that we returned to spend the day there later. 

You are looking at a golf course built in the middle of a desert. I hate to think how much was invested to create this oasis.  A slice or a pull will leave you trying to play golf in a quarry. 

Our only real view of the Dunas de Maspalomas. This 1000 acre site has been a nature reserve since 1987. We found this area around Maspalomas very user unfriendly.  The main problem was just trying to get out of the car. The difficulty was parking when every conceivable space was already occupied and there was a constant cruise of cars looking for that none existent place. So the dunes may well be a great visit but you will need ask someone who managed to get their feet sandy. 

We eventually managed to park near the shopping centre. After a walk round the shops and along the promenade I took a couple of shots in the fading light. 

As ever I like to try to finish with a sunset. This resort is on the south west quadrant so the sun is going down just around the corner. 

Chilling out in the Canaries 8/3/2022

 Our location in Playa del Hombre means we really have to have a car in order to get the best out of this holiday. In Gran Canaria there is really only two choices. You head to the hills or you head to the beaches. Today it's the former, indeed you can't get higher than the highest peak on the island Pico de las Nieves which stands at 1,949 metres. By coincidence this happens to be the same numbers as my birth year. 

Although relatively small (the circumference is 235 kms) the island displays a remarkable variety of landscapes. Ar  id larval desert that only supports stubborn socially isolated cacti and the odd lizard if your eyesight is quick enough to spot that tail-flicking movement, is juxtaposed with lush verdant slopes supporting a cornucopia of agriculture. Clearly the answer lies in the microclimate. Ironically the bananas seem to be grown in those really dry areas. Presumably these are the sunniest ie cloud free districts,but more of bananas later. Let's look at some hillside farming. Terracing is of course essential with slopes like these and many are decades if not centuries old,

Some handy clouds here to support my theory. Talking of cloud, we encountered these in abundance at the top of Pico de las Nieves. Unusually we could drive right to the top and the reason why is that the summit is shared with a military base hence the road was constructed. If you have ever wondered who is watching you, well it's everyone, but also someone on the top of this mountain. 

Seconds later the view becomes this. 

And in a few more seconds..........

And if you are interested in seeing the military base, look quickly as it's a restricted area. 

The next view point was also affected by cloud cover. This is the Caldera (crater) de los Marteles. It is 80 metres down to the bottom and 550 metres across. The landscape was created by an explosive phreatomagmatic eruption or for the layman when larva comes into contact with underground water. It occurred about a million years ago. The crater has a flat bottom and weather permitting you can see the geometric lines of ploughing showing that agriculture has been a traditional activity on this relatively flat land. In Wales it would have been a rugby stadium. 

We continued downwards heading for a ravine type valley which has been inhabited constantly since the first indigenous peoples arrived on the island. The location represents the greatest density of archaeological sites spread along both slopes of the ravine among which troglodyte habitats abound, under escarpment ledges and on hillsides. It is considered to be one of the most stunning cultural landscapes in Gran Canaria. This troglodytic lifestyle has persisted even up to the present day. 

The caves are clearly visible in the rock cliffs. As well as habitations the caves were used for storage and burial purposes. Access to many of the caves is very difficult and the remains of ancestors still remain undisturbed where they were first laid to rest many hundreds of years ago. 

This historic landscape has not however remained static. It has evolved and adapted to present day living. 

Meet our friend, the present day troglodyte and his humble abode. This is his washing up area which has running water..

The cave is also supplied with mains electricity for lighting and the television (He was watching Death in Paradise when we called.) Some of the homes ran on portable generators. He earned a few Euros each day showing people round his home. Below you can see his hallway, the green door leads through to the bedroom/living room. 

He had a few "museumy bits" to illustrate his story. 

Above is his double bed that he shared with his senhora until sadly she died of a brain haemorrhage. Now he shares a single bed,  cut from the rock face, with his little dog, if you see what I mean. We moved on to another place where life has stood still. 

Aguimes has become the best example of a Canarian hill town. The streets of the old town exude a gentle,  relaxed, timeless atmosphere and carefully positioned street statues and sculptures add a series of surprises to a visit to the old town. 

There had been a festival of sorts taking place earlier today. We encountered a group of women in the square who were still determined to enjoy themselves singing and dancing. 

Some of the surprises are bigger than others. Why the nude cellist? It brought to mind that famous quote by Sir Thomas Beecham "Madam you have between your legs an instrument that can give pleasure to thousands but all you can do is scratch it. "

Who can resist a camel ride when it's on offer for free? Certainly this beast was much easier to mount than Helen's last one in the Thar Desert in India.