Thursday 27th August to Thursday 10th September, 1998. We went to Chiang Mai on the bus for 3 hours and saw the road we had walked on, with great interest. What a long way! We found a superb guest house “The Souvenir” as Ben’s guest house was very hot & stuffy in the room and we also fancied a change and to be closer to “Good Morning Chiangmai” offices in Anusarn Market.
We met Khun Lek and she interviewed us for the Chiang Mai News and Thai Rath Thai Newspapers and they both published articles about “Walking For Thailand” in early September. We also met her husband Irish Alien Adam. Khun Lek is the Founder and Director of “Elephant Nature Park” in beautiful Mae Taeng Valley:
http://www.elephantnaturefoundation.org
We received an email from Khun Jean at BBDO Advertising Agency in Bangkok, who had Adidas as a client; re future sponsorship for our walk based on the Bangkok Post article published on 9th August. I arranged for David Hardy to meet Khun Jean as he was going to Bangkok, but David had a motor cycle accident and broke his collar bone. Very nasty and painful. I visited David in hospital and the meeting with Khun Jean was postponed. We met Jerry from USA, who very generously gave us $100 towards our walk costs. We returned to Chiang Rai on the bus on Saturday 5th September.
We rested in Chiang Rai and met Jon and Jang Dee at the New Moon Pub. Jon was the Marketing Manager at Le Meridien Hotel at Baan Boran at the Golden Triangle, which by the way you can find this hotel and many more Expedia hotels online The General Manager, Duncan Jamieson, invited us to visit Le Meridien Hotel on the first evening of when we start our walk from Mae Sai, as guests of Le Meridien Group. We planned our re-start from Mae Sai, at the border Immigration checkpoint around this very generous invitation and great example of Northern Thailand hospitality.
It rained constantly in Chiang Rai and was cold and miserable. We decided to stay for our “wet season” break in the “Rose of the North” to be closer to David Hardy and his team and some better and warmer weather. Chiang Mai had a garbage disposal problem and had been nicknamed by some wag “Nose of the North”…
Yours truly,
Escati Tiger Team Walking For Thailand – “Thailand’s World Champion Walkers”.
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Great job Dennis! Your blog is very informative for someone like me who just moved to Thailand. Keep it up.
Interesting view of living history in Thailand, Dennis. You capture the subtleties of Thailand that you saw on your walk years ago well, and I can see them still today.
Dennis was an inspiration to many people
I met him on one of his walks in Songhkla in 2000
We managed to to avoid the terrible flood in Hat Yai at that time.
He was a very interesting man to talk with, i bumped into him again in Hat Yai
in 2005 and we both recognised each other after all that time.
He was a nice guy ,funny and genuine too.
Enjoyed the Bloggs as many people did .
Thank-you Dennis, many people, i’m sure, will miss you.. your walks.. and your stories.Rest in Peace.