Food and drink

Visitors to Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo between July 14th and 24th should pop along to…

Ariyasom Villa is one of our favourite hotels in Bangkok and is one of the…

Rick Stein did us a massive favour by doing a programme that focused, almost exclusively, on the area that we specialise in. Apart from Laos, all our bases were covered – Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia and of course, Thailand. A big ‘thank you’ to Rick then, as we saw a definite increase in inquiries from the sort of people keen to do something a little different and sample the true flavours of the region – something which we can deliver!

Our visit to northern Thailand was rather short and fleeting. We arrived in Chiang Rai from Laos and were pretty knackered after the Gibbon Experience and so did not do anything too energetic. Chiang Rai is a fairly sizeable Thai city and although a fair amount of tourists pass through, it retains its ‘Thainess’ more than Chiang Mai. We spent a couple of hours at the White Temple just outside town and this is well worth a look. Ben, who is a little on the temple averse side, really enjoyed it. Strangely enough, it is white and in the sun the mirrors that have all been painstakingly hand cut and stuck on shine brilliantly.

I’m in on way to New Zealand via Singapore and I have a 24 hour stopover. Keen to remind myself od the flavours I remember, I asked a friend who was brought up in Singapore and returns often to tell me what to eat given 24 hours in Singapore.

For years intrepid backpackers (our co-founder Tom Armstrong among them) have raved about the quality of Beer Lao, the locally brewed beer served throughout Loas but rarely found elsewhere.