Travelogue
Ayutthaya by Train - 29 June 2025
I’ve been to Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (or just Ayutthaya) before by road on a tour booked out of Bangkok’s less than salubrious Khao San Road, the backpacker mecca (or ghetto as some refer to it), the area that made a living out of the “little yellow bible”, Lonely Planet’s guide to Southeast Asia, the original budget guidebook. This time I went by train from Bangkok’s Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, the largest train station in Southeast Asia. Despite the shiny new facility, Thailand’s flagship piece of rail transport infrastructure, my train went from across the road at a side station, which was of an altogether different era and looking like it belonged, not to Thailand’s capital, but to a small town in the sticks. Bangkok’s new masterpiece train station is also known by its former name Bang Sue Grand Station, which became the central rail hub for most long-distance trains in 2023 largely replacing the wonderful Hua Lamphong train station, an architectural masterpiece built in the Italian Neo-Renaissance style. While Hua Lamphong has history, character, and style, Krung Thep Aphiwat has absolutely none of any of these. Hua Lamphong was opened in 1916 having taken six years to build, and was inspired by Frankfurt’s Hauptbahnhof and Torino’s Porta Nuova railway stations. Even the new station’s name isn’t that sexy. Sathani Klang Krung Thep Aphiwat which translates in Thai as “Utmost prosperity of Bangkok central station”. It was officially opened in May 2021
Jomtien Beach - The Quiet Neighbour - 15 May 2025
Jomtien is the quiet junior partner of its noisier more crowded neighbour, Pattaya. It caters to those not wanting the nightlife, the traffic, flashing lights, pumping music, and the crowds. It’s a second home for affluent Thais wanting to escape Bangkok 100kms away for holidays and at weekends. It’s home to expats who retire for the warmth, the
Trat - The City of Half-a-Hundred Islands - 14 April 2025
The road from the Cambodian border to the eastern Thai city of Trat is a great drive. Vehicles in Thailand drive on the other side of the road (the UK side) from Cambodia where I’d come from, so closest to you on the left (the passenger side) are the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Thailand and to the right, the hills and jungle of the Cardamom
Phnom Penh to Koh Kong - 8 March 2025
Roads in Cambodia have come a long way since my first visit in 2004. The main land entry point from Thailand at Poipet for example, was along a dirt road badly rutted, virtually impassable in the wet with rudimentary one-lane bridges comprised of bare metal frames laid roughly across waterways. Vehicles inched on to them one wheel at a time
The Road from Koh Kong in 2006 - 22 January 2025
I’ve traveled the road between Koh Kong and Phnom Penh several times over the years in both directions starting in 2006. The first time was from the Thai border to Phnom Penh in a Cambodian taxi the durability of which was testament to Toyota’s engineering skills. Last month I made that journey again in the opposite direction starting in
Kampot and Kep - Salt ‘N’ Pepper - 20 December 2024
I’ve been to Kampot in southern Cambodia a few times over the years but this was my first trip back there since the pandemic. I was interested to see what had changed and more to the point what had not, because Kampot has historical charm that you wouldn’t want to see gone. What you would want is that charm maintained and hopefully restored in
The Aswan High Dam and the Temples of Philae - 10 November 2024
The city of Aswan in Upper Egypt is home like many of that country’s cities to much ancient history. Aswan though has something different, something other Egyptian cities do not have; a monument of more recent times which, like those from antiquity, is an equally awe-inspiring feat of engineering. I find some examples of engineering fascinating
The Valley of the Kings and George Bush - 1 September 2024
My first visit to Egypt was to the Sinai Peninsula a journey down the coast as far as Sharm El Shiekh. The second trip a couple of years later was across the Suez Canal to the largest city by population in Africa, Cairo (if you count its neighbour Giza) and from there south to Luxor one of the oldest most continuously inhabited cities in the
George of Tahir Square and the Pyramids of Giza - 28 June 2024
The Suez Canal is just 193kms long and one of the world’s key waterways, a strategic asset, and also a choke point, a bottle neck. The canal connects the “Med with the Red” seas and separates two continents, Africa from Asia. The canal saves maritime traffic the 8900kms journey around Africa which takes most ships on average about 10 days, quite
