Jan Ford's World

Thursday 18th September 2008 Anantara Resort is in the North of Thailand. Across the Mekong River is Laos, to the left in Shan State, Mya...

I let Sindy at Wexas talk me into the following:- MAHOUT ELEPHANT TRAINING COURSE Learn to bathe, feed and care for an elephant. Pick up ...

Tuesday 16th September 2008 This is what the itinerary promises:- Transfer - hotel to Yangon airport: Road To Mandalay staff will meet ...

In which I say farewell to Inle Lake and return to the Strand Hotel. Up at 5.30 a.m. It’s dry and fairly warm but still rather overcast. I ...

Breakfast, pick up at 08.30 a.m. and this time, we’re off to Kakku, in the Pa-O part of Shan state. Half an hour on the boat to Nnyaung Shw...

Saturday was equally tiring. Breakfast then off at 9.00 a.m. by boat to a large market near the southern end of the lake. An amazing experi...

Up around six, buffet breakfast, check out, meet Mr. Win and set off by car to return to Mandalay International Airport, about 1 hour's...

Here's what happened on Thursday:- I got up around six, going down to breakfast around seven. Fairly standard buffet breakfast but wit...

I slept very well, woken by a Morning Call from the Hotel at 5.30 a.m. (a few minutes before my back-up travel alarm went off). A nicely-pr...

Dinner at the Western Park Chinese Restaurant, Yangon. Last night I slept soundly, if briefly, for I'd booked an alarm call for 4.0 ...

The 'River of Kings' in Bangkok, adjacent to the Oriental Hotel. My flight from Dubai made a straight-in approach to runway 19R, ...

Here we go again! It’s one o’clock on a Sunday afternoon and I’m at Birmingham Airport. I haven’t flown from Birmingham since my almost-dis...

'Dai Station' reads the local paper's report on 'Ivor'. In my previous 'Ivor' post in 2008 , I described how...

Rob, Sam, Andy and Dai Station chatting before the shuttle departs. Following a succesful visit to the Battlefield Line in July and Augus...

It's never been so easy to travel, for which many of us are grateful. But I can't help feeling that a certain elegance and exciteme...

What is an 'Organathon'? It's an organ marathon. Brewood Parish Church, Saint Mary and Saint Chad, has an electrically-operat...

The Peak Rail 1940s Weekend has become a very important feature of the year. Not everybody is in favour of re-creating scenes from wartim...