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Tiz and Marino's El Camino de Santiago - A look back

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We left our home, family and friends in Australia not all that long ago to experience living in various countries in Europe because we could, and we didn't want to look back in the hopefully distant future thinking "If only we had travelled more ....", or similar.  In our very vague plans we thought starting off with a walk across Spain, more often referred to as El Camino Francés by those with a more religious bent than me, would be a good idea. We are both fit, have walked longish distances regularly for quite a while, well equipped and had looked at and read a lot of information about the Camino. We felt well prepared.  We were not. No-one, NO-ONE, is fully, or even close to well enough, prepared for their first attempt at the ¬800 km walk. You are better prepared after your first attempt at the the full walk, and even then the Camino has a bagful of surprises, some good and some disastrous, in store for its attempters.  The people we came across that were thwarted at ...
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Sunday 8th October

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I'm sitting in an apartment in Santo Domingo de la Calzada drinking ice water avoiding the searing afternoon sun and finally getting around to jotting a few thoughts and stats on a very important, albeit shortened, part of a stage Tiz and I had planned to start off our hopefully long adventure. But, I'll go back a bit, briefly, to the pre-Camino part. After spending a fruitful five weeks in Hua Hin, Thailand, we set off for Paris, for three days.  We covered some of the ground we had in previous visits, walked the route of  "C'etait un Rendezvous", here is a very short clip of it , and if you are interested in the making of this iconic video go here . We spent some fun time with Duncan and Clare, whom we had previously arranged to have dinner with at L'Annexe Restaurant in Montmartre. They introduced us to a camembert called Coeur de Lion, which although relatively inexpensive and available in supermarkets, was exceptional.   We then flew to Barcelona and had ...
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Tuesday 12th September

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It's been a while since I wrote in my blog but life here moves slowly and there's not much to report. I've taken a few photos that will interest me in time to come and here they are. Thursday 31st August                                  We did a little shopping and amongst what I might call "snack beverages", next to the coconut water, where the inevitable range of cannabis drinks. We bought these two for ~AUD1.90 each. They both tasted like they were based on lawn clippings. By the way "roselle" is Thai for hibiscus, and no, there was no euphoric effect whatsoever.  That night we decided to eat at the little Indian restaurant, Karan Cafe Indian Food , based in our complex. We rarely see anyone in there and we wonder how they, like the multitude of the other seemingly always empty eateries, manage to survive. We had three non-English speaking guys hover around us as soon as we entered. One was defi...
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Wednesday 30th August

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 Monday 28th August We   went for a walk to Makro, the big western supermarket at the other end of Hua Hin yesterday. It's only 9.5kms but with the temperature at 34°C and 80% humidity it felt like a real workout.  An hour in the pool, when we got back, was just what we needed to cool down. One of the standout sights for the day was ...  The amount rust was incredible. The amount of bodywork that wasn't  there was even more incredible. When we were in Cha Am in 2019 there was a ute that delivered the salt water to the foreshore fish vendors and eateries  display tanks and I thought it was hilarious at how eaten away it was, but this unit is used as a tradies daily around town.  Road rules in Thailand are odd. Things like roadworthiness, having a license, wearing helmets, all of which are actual rules, seem to be more like suggestions.  For those that are wondering what the weather is like here around August Admittedly it's a couple of de...
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Saturday 26th August

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Thursday 24th August  Thailand is a land of very diverse cuisines, without looking outside of it own borders. But we all have our favourites and, the polar opposite, foods we really dislike.  Coriander, a staple ingredient in Thai cuisine, is one of those tastes/flavours that polarises people. It's difficult, and relatively expensive, to get a dish here in Thailand that doesn't have coriander, in one form or other, in it.  Much the same goes for chili (พริก - phrik, pronounced as pri). There is a term in Thai (ไม่พริก -mâi phrík pronounce mai pri) which translated literally means "no chili" and is often used by farangs (westerners) that feel they have learnt a little Thai and can get a message across to the Thai wait staff or street vendor they are ordering food from.  From our experience this term is most often simply ignored or the meal you are eventually given  is taken down a notch, from 10 - being "It's going to blow your head off AND set your arse on fi...
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Tuesday 22nd August

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 Sunday 20th August 5:00pm I was thinking of what I have read on the internet in preparation for trips overseas. The one solid truism that has been confirmed and reaffirmed, ad infinitum, is that this medium delivers the user "a diarrhea of words and a constipation of useful and valid ideas". To balance one against the other I hope that my offerings under the "Lessons Learnt" banner are going to clear up a few unknowns and misconceptions. Please bear in mind that I write about my "unknowns and misconceptions", not yours. Lessons Learnt #1 What ( name of the person that "knows") told me about flights What you are told about what happened to someone, anyone, on their boarding a flight with luggage isn't worth relying on if it deviates from the rules as set on their website on the day you are going to fly. The rules, from what I have observed, are applied ad hoc. Airport's security works in the same manner. My advice is follow to rules and i...
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