Too Hot

In the middle of this month we have the Songkram holiday. Many manufacturers will be closed for a week and some longer. This is the festival where everyone throws water over everyone else. There's a good reason for this, it's also the hottest time of year.

The last couple of weekends have seen busy roads as Bangkok inhabitants try and escape to somewhere cooler. I went west across the river on Sunday but even an early start didn't save me from the traffic.

It's with interest then that I see in the local paper that Laos has just completed the work on its Route 3 which is the last section of road needed to make it possible for us to drive from Bangkok to Kunming in China's Yunnan province. OK it's not a weekend's drive, but with two weeks off covering the Songkram holiday you could do it and get the benefit of the cooler Yunnan temperatures.