Ralph and Karen's Tours

After returning from our fantastic Vietnam and Cambodia trip in late 2025 we had to put on our thinking caps to decide where to head in 2026.

Our friends at APT Travel Group came up with a fabulous option which we had not previously considered – a River Cruise down the Douro River from Madrid to Porto.

Countless wineries, Port houses and ridiculous food. What was there to consider?

It also tied in nicely with a road trip we had always wanted to do around the South of Spain so lock it in.

We’d bought flights with Etihad Airlines with a three day stopover in Abu Dhabi to check out the new Guggenheim Museum and UAE Louvre – how good?

Until….. unrest in the Middle East on 28 February meant the UAE was declared a “Do not travel” area by the Australian Government. And overnight the airline industry through the Middle East went into melt down, creating mass hysteria and chaos quite apart from the tragedies around this war.

We acted quickly and bought alternate back up flights through Asia as a “Plan B” to avoid flying through the crisis zone all the while hoping and expecting the drama would be resolved and over by our May departure date.

Wasn’t to be.

Our Etihad flights were ultimately cancelled in mid April providing us with a full refund and meaning we could then use our back up flights and proceed as “normal”.

And speaking of normal, spending $42 on one beer and o e glass of Prosecco at Sydney Airport is apparently normal 🤷‍♂️. And we do it every trip

These flights flew us via Bangkok where we are now, for a few days before heading to Madrid.

The flight from Sydney with Thai Airlines was painless and the cabin crew were fantastic. Afternoon departure on time arriving in Bangkok at around 9pm which was also on time. Flight duration of just over 9 hours which was certainly manageable with two good meals, and three movies.

Bangkok Airport is well set out but big. We pulled up at the furthest bay from Customs and Immigration which was a solid 15 minute walk – no dramas though as we were able to walk off the stiff old legs from the flight.

Being processed through customs and immigration was a breeze and took literally 5 minutes. Our bags were on the carousel when we arrived so a perfect arrival.

We were getting a taxi to our hotel so needed some cash, and we were happy to find plenty of ATMs in the arrival area. They do however have a nasty ATM fee that is unavoidable across all of Bangkok of approx $11 AUD so best to get a large amount of cash out in one go. Rookie error by me.

We normally are solid users of our cards when travelling but Thailand is still firmly on the cash bandwagon and fair enough. Taxis, street food vendors, markets and heaps of other places are cash only, so it’s good to have a few baht in your pocket.

Currency makes you feel like a millionaire 😂. 7,000thb is around $300 AUD and the notes are all nice and colourful.

The taxi system is excellent – walk out of arrivals and immediately see hundreds of green and yellow cabs lined up orderly in designated bays. Grab a ticket from the machine and you are allocated a cab telling you which bay and what the cab number is. Simple

Not so simple explaining where we wanted to go. Ahhh Google Translate saves our life again.

The driver immediately wanted to quote us a set price – a ploy we’d been warned about. We kindly declined and asked for the meter to be used. No objections from the driver – probably because we have a ticket with his details and a taxi council complaints phone number on it.

Old mate quoted us 600 THB (approx $25 AUD) and when we got to the hotel the meter was 325 THB ($13 AUD). I gave him 400 THB and he was stoked.

We are staying at Night Hotel Sukhumvit which is in a great central location in this crazy big city.

The welcome by staff was fabulous, friendly and informative – a complimentary room upgrade was accepted with thanks.

Unfortunately the rooftop bar was closed as it was now 10:30pm so we headed to our very nice and comfortable room to prepare for our first day of adventure in Bangkok

After a great night sleep we wandered down to your typical Asian Hotel buffet breakfast. And it didn’t disappoint.

Cereal, fruit, salads, cold meats, cheeses and the holy grail of the Asian breakfast delicacies. But where to begin?

Noodle soup with bbq pork, greens and pickled chillies. Take me now !!

Then any number of selections of dishes as well as your western options of bacon, any style eggs, pancakes, waffles and pastries to sink a ship. As well as fabulous coffee and fresh squeezed juices – today pineapple and ginger

Job done.

By 9:30am the temperature was sitting on 33 degrees c. It’s hot.

Our plan was to do the cultural thing and visit some of Thailand’s most important temples.

The two temples we wanted to see were close to each other so a short trip in a local Grab (same as uber) to cover the 7km distance was the way to go. An hour later our Grab arrived due to the insane local traffic conditions and 55 mins later we covered the 7kms and arrived at the Royal Grand Palace – lucky the car had air conditioning and Spotify music videos playing.

I guess in a city of nearly 10 million people and 20 million motor cycles traffic is going to be a challenge.

The Grand Palace was built in 1782 when the King of the tine decided the Capital needed to be moved to the left bank of the Chao Phraya River.

The Palace and surrounding buildings were to be the Kings residence as well as fortress and administrative centre of the Kingdom.

Well he did a pretty good job. The place is amazing and it’s hard to believe it was built 250 years ago.

The extraordinary detail in the buildings have to be seen – it’s breathtakingly beautiful

The photos don’t do it justice.

The temperature had crept up to a balmy 36 by now and it was challenging but we wanted to visit the nearby temple of Wat Pho.

It is a Buddhist temple built before Bangkok was founded on its current location and is among the oldest temples in Thailand. And it is magnificent. The actual date of construction is not know. But best estimates suggest the mid to late 1600s is the time period.

It has the most magnificent spires all made of ceramic tiles and all in perfect condition

The highlight is no doubt the gorgeous 46m long Reining Buddha” which is alleged to depict Buddha in has last stages of life when he was unwell. It is a masterpiece

No wonder it’s among the most important pieces of Thai history

We had done enough “templing“ for one day – in fact more than enough for many days – our culture bucket was full.

So time to head back to the hotel for a cool down in the rooftop pool and a couple of icy cold Chang beers – which was brilliant !

Our plans for exploring deeper into market life tonight were put aside as it was just so hot and exhausting travelling across town.

So we went for a wander around the local Sukhumvit neighbourhood. Even at 7:30pm the temperature was a sweltering 32 degrees.

Despite that the streets were packed. The main road is quite busy, lined with shops, markets, bars, more bars, restaurants and prostitution. We are certainly not naive but thought that the street girls (and boys) would be in the designated red light districts. Not so. And they seemed to be doing a roaring trade.

Even though the crowds on the footpaths were heaving at no time did we feel unsafe. It’s a really good, vibrant atmosphere.

We found a seafood restaurant- typical open plan with outdoor seating and more staff than you can imaging – music blaring haha ! Awesome atmosphere.

We had some Thai fish cakes, king prawns grilled with salt and fresh chilli, broccoli with oyster sauce, a large bottle of icy cold Singha and a Smirnoff.

The broccoli was a bit meh – but everything else was beautiful, fresh and tasty – and cost approx $40 AUD. It’s hard to beat that for value.

They have a draft German beer available and the keg had just run out so one of the young staff was re tapping a new keg. He noticed I was watching him efficiently going about his business so he offered me a glass of freshly poured beer to help him “test” it. He had one too.

Then he and I had another taste test. Mmmm just right ! How did he pick me to be his beer tasting test dummy? He was such a nice bloke.

I wonder if he’s working tomorrow night 🤔

A leisurely walk back to the hotel to end a fulfilled active day. And more of the same tomorrow.

Day three dawned sunny and hot. Surprisingly.

We had an early start today doing a full day tour out to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

We had an early breakfast and left our hotel just before 8:00am. We had another activity to do before the floating market.

After about an hour and a half driving through the rural areas outside of Bangkok, following the rivers and seeing the industry and rice fields and salt flats that are scattered all over the place we arrived at Banlaem Railway station to take an hour long ride on Thailands oldest continuously operating railway with a final destination of Maeklong Railway Markets

The train was basic, hard plastic seats, no aircon to deal with the 38 deg temps and 14 stops to make.

We arrived in Maeklong to see the train line runs right through the middle of the markets !

Last year we had a similar experience in Train Street Hanoi and we were blown away.

This time? Good grief! Theres not 15cm to spare either side of the train.

The railway line is a normal access path for the locals to get to and from the markets. It’s wild.

The markets have two sides – one with clothing, artefacts, homewares, clothing etc. the other side is the wet market and food market.

Some of that is brutal.

The wet market was crowded with locals doing what they do every day.

Now check out these pink eggs .. how cool do they look?

They get their colour from being marinated or soaked in a type of gunpowder 😳. The shells turn pink and the yolk turns BLACK and salty ! It’s a delicacy. Not for me thanks.

Another fantastic experience seeing how other cultures live and survive on a daily basis.

We left the railway market and arrived at Damnoen and boarded long tail boats for a 30 minute ride up the canals to the floating markets.

It was still horrendously hot but being on the water helped. We arrived at the floating market and it was surreal how the local vendors work from their houses and stalls along the canals, and then get into their own boats to trade with each other and the visitors.

After a lovely lunch and a couple of icy cold beers it was time to head back to Bangkok to end a fantastic – long and hot – day. Well worth the effort and time. A top day.

To finish off our short stopover before heading onto Spain we headed out for a nice dinner just down the road from our hotel.

We walked past and then Into a fantastic night market called SW1.

Loads of food being cooked in front of you, and typical market products – clothes, souvenirs etc etc. a very exciting atmosphere.

And then there’s a guy letting you fire guns at targets. Machine guns or pistols for 40 thb ($1.75 aUD) for 24 rounds. What?

So I had to have a go

In the middle of a market ! How bizarre. But that probably sums up Bangkok perfectly.

A great few days – tiring because of the heat but most enjoyable – and we have another couple of days on our way home in a few weeks.