Roadtripping Thailand:Central

We spent most of the day driving south through scenic farmlands and stayed overnight at Dan Sai. Back at the Mehkong, we loved the town of Chan Khan with it's wooden fishermens' houses, now mostly converted into guesthouses, shops and restaurants. We spent the night at the Mehkong Lodge in Nong Khai, a town that has lost all it's backpacker charm since they opened the Friendship Bridge across to Laos. We sat at a riverside restaurant and listened to what was possibly the worst live band we have ever had to endure over all the years of our quest for live music.The next day we had another long drive via Udon Thani and Khon Kaen to Khao Yai National Park; Thailand's premier wildlife area. It's a weekend playground for the in-crowd from Bangkok and for miles and miles around the park, you will find the most kitsch hotels and resorts imaginable with themes and names like Thames Valley,Chateau Khao Yai and Tuscan Hills, complete with a full size Tower of Pisa replica that looked like it doesn't lean!We visited a few wineries - Gran Monte and PB Valley - and found a number of great restaurants. We spent a day in the park, which had beautiful mountain scenery, but the only animals we saw were deer and monkeys in the camps. We did enjoy the birding. The highway south out of the Khao Yai towards Bangkok is wildly busy and slow-going, even on a Sunday morning and driving into Pattaya took ages. Pattaya is a huge city now with no beachy feel at all. I think it was an in place to hang out in the 60's and 70's, but things are pretty tacky now. There was a lot of litter on the beach and in the sea. There are still enclaves of Western retirees living in Pattaya but most of the tourists seemed to be from India and China. Literally hundreds and hundreds of Chinese groups troop on and off buses, walking in tight groups clutching their bags with one hand and their cell phones and selfie sticks with the other. We found a wonderful Japanese restaurant, Shakiraya 432, amidst a great many mediocre tourist places and we did enjoy the live music on Walking Street.My verdict - don't go! We left on a Wednesday, punching through the outskirts of Bangkok on various highways and found ourselves south of Hua Hin at Sam Roi Yot beach overnight. What a nice surprise - a clean beach and the wonderful Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park.
We spent a night south of Sukothai and finally cruised back into Phuket for two last nights of all our favourites - lunch at Song Pee Nong, sunset drinks at Sole Mio, music at Heroes Bar, massages at Ann's and dinner at Kalim@Home.

Chang Khan

Khao Yai

Pattaya

Sam Roi Yot

Patong