TOPAZ 2024 Thailand

18/01/2025

Topaz 2024 have met for a debrief weekend . Fun and friendship in abundance.
We have reflected on our adventure and are working on our newsletter article and our presentations . We have a few photos to go through . Karen and Sue took over 2500 each !
We have dipped in and out of the Foxies 24hour singalong as well.
Photos below our our first weekend last March and this weekend.

07/12/2024

Hi all
I am at the end of my week with my family having done Pia, Chiang Mai and Chaing Rai. We have seen and done some brilliant visits and I’d recommend this area again when you visit. 2 things stand out, washing an elephant and boat trip to the Karen’s.
See you at the airport tomorrow, Maggie, hope you’ve had a good time too.

02/12/2024

Today was a very early start leaving at 6.30am. We were visiting the museum of the bridge over the river Kwai and the death railway.
We first visited the cemetery at Chungkai to see the British and Dutch war graves which was quite emotional.

We then went onto the death railway and walked along parts of the bridge before taking a train ride over the river Kwai. Notice the sign says ‘Jeath war museum’ it is not a spelling mistake it stands for Japanese, English, Australian and Thailand museum. It was a lovely day although quite thought provoking and emotional at times.

01/12/2024

Today we travelled from Chiang Mai to Hau Hin, a short one hour flight. We treated ourselves to a nice beach side hotel for our last few days. The hotel is amazing and only £30 per night 😊 Got to have an early night as we have a 6am start tomorrow for a trip to the bridge over the river Kwai memorial site.

01/12/2024

Yesterday went to Kanchanaburi. Visited the cemetery, museum , had a boat trip and then on the train. Brilliant guide and lovely lunch.
Today I visited the weekend market at Chatuchak. Very busy and if you thought about it you could buy it here!!! Off to Chaing Mai tomorrow.

30/11/2024

Today was a day of contrasts. We started in the long neck village, this is where refugees from Myanmar live and make trinkets for tourists, we tried in the rings around our necks, not comfortable at all. We then stopped at the hot springs for a paddle, from there we went onto the beautiful white temple which glistened in the sunshine, followed by the blue temple dedicated to the sea and sky and finally contrasted by the black museum which could have been a scene straight from game of thrones. Our final trip of the day was a boat ride along the Mekong river at the golden triangle where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet and have formed an alliance to grow grain and vegetables instead of o***m poppies. A very long but interesting day.

29/11/2024

We went to Doi National park to see the magnificent waterfalls and we’re lucky enough to get a picture of the rainbow. We then went onto Karen’s village where the locals have successfully swapped growing poppies for cannabis to growing coffee beans the proceeds of which support the whole area. We went onto the highest point in Thailand which was significantly cooler than we have been used to lately as we were so high up. Following that we went to the king and queen pagodas, built in the 1980’s with the assistance of the local airforce, the views and gardens were amazing but there were lots of steps.

28/11/2024

Down here in Bangkok I went exploring yesterday. Walked to Lumphini Park, stopped at a Starbucks on the way, and saw the Monitor Lizards. Lovely green space in the centre of the city with lakes and pedalloes. Then tried out the skytrain to go to Jim Thompson house. He set up the Thai House of Silk and his silk was used in the Broadway musical, The King and I. Then back on the skytrain to go back to GGAT. Great day.

27/11/2024

A slower paced day today after a lovely long sleep. We visited the Wat Phra Singh temple in the centre of Chiang Mai, the monks guarding the temple looked very real. Then Maggie and Jo took a red taxi to the airport to collect Jo’s suitcase which did not arrive with her flight yesterday. We spent the evening walking around the night market where we had street food for dinner, we didn’t fancy the fried beetles and scorpions on a stick so settled for barbecue ribs and belly pork with spring rolls, delicious 👍

26/11/2024

After saying farewell to our lovely guiding friends in Surin, we travelled on the overnight sleeper train to Bangkok, arriving at 5am. We had a chance to shower and change then some of us when to Wat Pho the temple of the reclining Buddha while waiting for our afternoon flight to Chiang Mai to start the rest of our trip as tourists with a little bit of much needed rest and relaxation included before returning home.

26/11/2024