From Siem Reap we flew to Koh Samui where I completed a week long fast at Spa Samui, had three hour massages, sociable saunas and took walks on the beach at dawn

Barbara, not wanting to take part in a fasting/cleansing programme was at a bit of a loose end but she gamely ate her way through the surprisingly good and very healthy menu, now that's friendship

Bangkok 

It was a fabulous time to be in Bangkok where they were  celebrating the King's 80th birthday as they had been all year.  Everywhere was covered in royal yellow, swaged with blue, pink red or purple 

Flags flew from every lamppost and building, bunting hung over streets, every few yards along the major streets were larger than life portraits of the King and Queen 

Bangkok Air once again peeked our interest with an article on a birthday tribute to the King from the people of Russia.  There had been a  Royal Gala  performance by the Mariinsky Ballet Company the previous evening to be followed by two more sold out performances for the general public.  We dropped our bags at Pannee Lodge, a tiny boutique hotel on the edge of Kao San Road and set out to see just how 'sold out' they were

Bangkok Air once again peeked our interest with an article on a birthday tribute to the King from the people of Russia.  There had been a  Royal Gala  performance by the Mariinsky Ballet Company the previous evening to be followed by two more sold out performances for the general public.  We dropped our bags at Pannee Lodge, a tiny boutique hotel on the edge of Kao San Road and set out to see just how 'sold out' they were

                                                                    Jim Thompson's House
Jim Thompson founded the  world famous Thai Silk Company and was rewarded with the Order of the White Elephant for his services to Thailand.   Little has changed at the house since he went for a jungle walk in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia in 1967 and never returned.   His fate remains a mystery

The 'house' completed in 1959 is a complex comprising six traditional Thai-style teak houses,  purchased and brought to their present home from various locations