Christmas in Thailand (Khon Kaen and Bua Daeng Resort)

 

Cycle Route Khon Kaen to Nong Bua Lam Phu 

We arrived in Khon Kaen on the 23rd of December and would be staying for 3 nights. After four days of fairly tough cycling we were both really looking forward to a relaxing couple of days.

Our first Christmas away from home and so it was bound to feel a little strange. Being on the other side of the world amidst a totally different culture and climate I had even wondered if it might almost pass us by. In fact as it happens, although they don't officially celebrate Christmas here in Thailand (or Cambodia for that matter), they do seem to enjoy the build up as much as we Brits do. Christmas music has been playing everywhere since the start of our trip and there are Christmas trees/decorations in most hotels and lots of the restaurants too. We've seen lots of people (teenage girls in particular) wearing santa hats and festive head pieces and the children looking very cute indeed all dressed up in their santa style outfits 🎅 

We had a few zoom calls arranged with friends and family to look forward to on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day and other than that our main priority was finding some nice restaurants. Afterall Christmas dinner really is the main event for everyone isn't it and we definitely didn't want to miss out on that 😉

The number one restaurant on trip advisor was called Season 27 and everyone seemed to be raving about it. It's a rooftop bar/restaurant - on the 27th floor of the building. It reminded me of some of the more stylish venues London has to offer and we both agreed it seemed like an excellent choice for Christmas day. When we tried to book though it transpired it was closed on Xmas day and the only table they could offer us was midday on Christmas Eve. We accepted without hesitation! 

I was hoping we'd be able to scrub up sufficiently and that the other guests wouldn't be so well dressed that we'd stick out like sore thumbs!! Khon Kaen is definitely not a tourist destination and I was already feeling somewhat under dressed in my pink sundress 🤣

We dressed as best we could and I think we just about got away with it! The restaurant had a lovely relaxed atmosphere with excellent, but distinctly unfussy, service. We were presented with a set Xmas menu which, at £17 for 4 courses, seemed excellent value for money. They were really accommodating with Max's gluten intolerance and the chef made a number of adaptations for him. The entire meal was beautifully presented and absolutely delicious - each course was ample but we left feeling nicely full rather than totally stuffed. We were agreed that the particular highlight was the salmon gradvalax starter (and I'm not even a huge fan of smoked salmon!).

We opted to sit outside rather than inside and although it was abit breezy at times the setting was really beautiful. We really were delighted with our choice 🤩

What a fabulous (rooftop) view Max had 😉😂

My first glass of red wine on the trip so far - worth every penny of the £10 Max keeps reminding me that it cost 😂

Steak with peppercorn sauce, truffle chips and salad 

Mixed berry cheesecake for dessert 

On Christmas morning we wandered out to find a nice little cafe for breakfast. I'd browsed a few on Google but it was quite tricky to gauge from some of the reviews. Since there aren't really any tourists in Khon Kaen, when checking out the reviews they're primarily written by locals and so, in my experience, you have to read between the lines a little more than usual. Anyway I plumbed for one about a 15 min walk away from the hotel in the end. 

The city centre isn't very pretty, it's quite chaotic too and the pavements leave alot to be desired. That's been a fairly common theme everywhere we've stayed actually and you certainly have to watch where you're going all the time! We walked along the main road for a while and then turned onto a quiet little side street which could almost be described as a leafy lane! 

From the moment we walked into the cafe I had a really positive feeling and we got a lovely warm welcome from the young Thai waitress who served us. The brunch menu was really appealing and I really struggled to choose but eventually settled on a breakfast burrito, an americano and a fresh mango juice. Max went full American breakfast with some non gluten adaptations which they were very accommodating about. The guy running the cafe was a very happy chap - lots of energy, enthusiasm and joie de vivre - it was  evident all his staff really loved working there with him. We soon got chatting while waiting for our breakfast and before long had heard most of his back story. Originally from Lithuania he'd lived in the UK for 11 years and then, during lockdown, decided to move to Thailand (I'm guessing his very glamorous looking Thai bride, who floated into the cafe briefly at one point, had some bearing on this decision 🤔). When we told him where we'd cycled (over 500 miles!) from, and where we were heading, he was absolutely gobsmacked and exclaimed that he was so proud of us 😍. He also raved about Vietnam and the food in particular so now we're looking forward to that leg of the trip even more than we already were!

It's so nice to chat to local people like this and really inspiring to hear about the often unusual paths they've carved out for themselves. As we left the cafe (after an absolutely delicious breakfast) his parting words to us were "go make some memories guys" and I thought to myself "well we've just made another pretty special one right here 😊 ". 

I loved the decor and the Christmas music was fairly tasteful too 😍 

The scrummiest breakfast of the trip so far 😋 

Food was definitely going to dominate today's proceedings and Max, having decided he wanted curry for his Xmas dinner, had managed to locate one just outside the city centre. It was a bit too far to walk but only a short drive away so we booked a taxi for late afternoon to take us there. It wasn't a bank holiday and everywhere seemed open as normal. Nevertheless, when the taxi dropped us off, the first thing I noticed was a sign at the gates which read "We are closed every Monday". It certainly looked pretty deserted so our hearts sank! I spotted an "open" sign on the restaurant door though (and on google maps it was also showing as being open) which made me want to double check and then a lady appeared from nowhere. She didn't seem to speak much, if any, english but after a bit of a struggle it turned out the restaurant was open afterall! She even seemed puzzled by the question and certainly oblivious to the sign on the gate contradicting the reality 😂

She showed us into the restaurant - it was a really lovely setting and rather ornate too! What's more we had it all to ourselves. Soon we were tucking into a fab meal - as usual we over ordered but managed to do a pretty good job of polishing it all off anyway 😀 

After we'd eaten we wandered outside - the restaurant was set in a lovely garden area. It's funny how these places seem to exist like little oases in the midst of a very built up (dare I say, ugly) city like Khon Kaen! 

Max is in curry heaven 🤩

The grounds of the restaurant were lovely

Back at the hotel we had a couple of zoom calls with our families. It was lovely to see/speak to everyone and made us feel quite emotional. I'd had the same feeling on Christmas Eve after we'd chatted with Jane, Jacqui and Kerry 🥰

We watched abit of festive telly and turned in for the night quite early as we were on the move again in the morning. I'd given Max some grief about this, pointing out that only two days off at Christmas was less than I'd get if I was still working 😂. Once I realised where we were heading though I soon perked up - it looked like a beautiful luxury homestay, the thought of which would hopefully keep me going for the 60 mile cycle required to get us there 🤞

We left Kohn Kaen early the next morning and it was probably our busiest (and hairiest!) exit yet. Khon Kaen is the fourth largest city in Thailand and it's very sprawling so it seemed to take an age to leave it all behind! It was a normal working day and it felt like we were slap bang in the middle of rush hour! At one point we even got stuck behind the binmen - that can't be a very pleasant job in this heat but they waved at us good naturedly as we passed by. 

Today's ride was another tough one. Despite two days off I was still quite sore and felt it as soon as I got back on the tandem 😫. Max had proclaimed on a zoom call with my family that the landscape was "as flat as a pancake" but he spoke too soon as there was actually a fair bit of undulation today! I dug deep though and for the last leg we found ourselves on some lovely side roads and countryside. We turned on the music to keep us going and I even managed to take a few videos 😉

We arrived at Bua Daeng Resort around 1pm so a tad early but they welcomed us with open arms and blew us away with the most beautiful setting I've seen so far. Wow!! I felt sure this place was not going to disappoint 😀

It's hard to sum up or even do justice with photos how beautiful the resort was. Suffice to say though that the couple who own it have created their own little piece of heaven. I certainly wondered whether I'd died and gone to heaven when I first arrived 🤩

I wanted to pinch myself as we walked up the drive 

Our room 🤩

I would never tire of this view 😍 

Or this one - the view from our bedroom 

After being shown to our room (which overlooked one of their lakes covered with red lotus flowers) we were soon tucking into the most delicious home made Thai lunch. Pad Thai for me and Massamam curry for Max. We polished it off no bother and didn’t doubt we'd be doing much the same when we sat down again in a few hours time for dinner 😂

Pad Thai and Massamam curry 😋😋

The grounds of the homestay were absolutely stunning too. So many individual areas all beautifully landscaped and with lots of little details and finishing touches. With only a day to spend there I kept wanting to move around to enjoy every aspect of it! Top of our list had to be sitting up at the rooftop bar to watch the most amazing sunset. The view was totally spellbinding 🤩. We chatted to the owners while soaking up the view, listening to their back story and the challenges they'd faced (again in lockdown) to make their dream a reality. Rob was Dutch but had lived in Australia most of life before coming to Thailand. Again his beautiful Thai bride (Khun Ae) seemed to have led him here. Well they've certainly created something very special indeed ❤️. 

Perfect place to watch the sunrise - beer in hand 🍺 

Jane - this one's for you 😀

Massamam curry and Penang curry 😋

Such an idyllic setting 🤩

We were welcomed at dinner by the Belgian family that we ran into earlier in Surin. They are travelling the world on partial tandems. The hotel had sent a van to collect them before Xmas, as they were tired out. Carrying two children and all of your luggage must be tough. We hope to come across them again in Laos and to get a closer look at their tandem bikes (Max isn't sure if they are electrically assisted). 

I'd spotted on Google maps that the main tourist attraction nearby was a large lake famous for it's red lotus flowers. Khun Ae was very helpful in telling us the best time to go etc and as it was only 3km away we planned to get up at sunrise the next morning to cycle there.  Although we were heading off to our next destination it was only 20 miles away so we'd have plenty of time to come back to the resort, have a leisurely breafast before setting off again mid morning. 

Wow, it was so worth it!! It was a lovely cycle ride down quiet roads - beautiful scenery and the sun rising behind us. We arrived at the lake at 6.30am - supposedly the optimum time to take a boat ride onto the lake to catch the sunrise and following that see the flowers all lit up by the morning sun. It really was quite breathtaking and again difficult to do justice in the photos (despite the huge amount we took 🤣🤣). I'd definitely describe this as one of the highlights of our trip and perhaps even more so because it was quite spontaneous. 

The little jetty down to the lake. Touristy yes but not overly so 

Once the sun has risen the flowers are illuminated -  the most brilliant pink hues 🤩

Pink flowers as far as the eye can see 

Obviously there were a few other boats out on the lake and I'd noticed some girls were having their photo taken while posing at the front of the boat. I couldn't resist having a go myself but as usual Max had other ideas 😂😂. 

" A total eclipse" said Jacqui Holder 😂

I should have worn my pink dress 😂

I wasn't going to share these photos but once I'd got over myself I could see the funny side 🤣🤣