Don Chedi Memorial Fair 2026

I heard about the Don Chedi Memorial Fair on Facebook and it was supposed to have a battle reenactment with Elephants. It sounded like fun so I headed up to Suphanburi.

I was about 20 kilometers from my hotel when I realized I didn't bring my passport. The hotel asked for my passport when checking in but accepted my driving license and a picture of my passport I keep on my phone.

I had a bit of rest in my hotel and then hopped on the bike for the 30 kilometer ride to Don Chedi. I was in Don Chedi about this time of the year last year. I was there in the day time and even though all the stands were around the Chedi I didn't even think about attending the fair when I was there last year.

My main reason for being at the fair was to see the battle reenactment with Elephants. It was not obvious where this would take place when walking around and I was calling it close on time since I thought the show would start within 20 minutes of arrival. I started trying to ask people where the battle reenactment was but I have no idea how to say this in Thai. I typed in battle reenactment with elephants into Google translate and then ask people "Do You Know" and show them the translation in my phone then ask "Where".

I mostly received baffled looks in return but Thai people don't like to say they don't know something so would point in a direction and off I would go. I asked one lady and she told me she knew about it but that they were not doing it today. I asked if it would happen tomorrow and she said yes. I asked where and she pointed in a direction so off I went to see if I could find the venue.

I never found a place that looked like it was set up for this type of show so kept trying to ask people. A second person told me no show today but tomorrow so at that point I gave up looking.

I got something to eat and drink at one of the many food stands then made another loop of the Chedi.

After giving up on finding the battle reenactment with Elephants I uploaded the following short of the Chedi and the fair. The Chedi was pretty with the lighting on and around it.



I maybe should have stayed another night and attempted to find the reenactment the following day but I had plans to visit a friend's house the following day. I checked out of the hotel and headed home to retrieve my passport so I could check into hotels without a problem in the following days and then rode back up the same road to visit my friend.

Sometimes travel doesn't go the way I hoped but always keeps life interesting.

Pilok (ปิล็อก) About Time

I have some places I should have visited a long time ago but I just never get around to doing it. Pilok (ปิล็อก) is one of those places. I decided I need to get out and hit the road and enjoy a bit of the cooler weather that is so unusual in Thailand.

I hopped on the bike and headed in the direction of Thong Pha Phum (ท่าขนุน) where I planned to spend the night before visiting Pilok. On my way I first made a stop at Wat Phutakhian (วัดพุตะเคียน) and snapped a couple of pictures and then moved on up the road.

My next destination was the Thai-Burma Railway Memorial but I had a bit of a problem finding it. I followed google maps and found myself at a hotel or resort looking out over the River Khwae Noi. A really pretty setting and nice looking resort.

After wondering around the resort for awhile I decide I was not going to find the memorial so hopped on the bike and as I was riding out of the resort I saw a sign for the memorial. I think the memorial could use a lot of maintenance with a lot of the exhibits in very bad shape but I got a couple of pictures of the train that had grabbed my interest in visiting this site.

After leaving the memorial I rode past the entrance to Hellfire Pass. I am ashamed that after living in Kanchanaburi for over 2 years I have not visited this site but I was not ashamed enough to make me stop and visit it on this trip. I will visit it at some point but for now it will remain on my to do list of places to visit.

I continued on to Thong Pha Phum (ท่าขนุน) and found the hotel I planned to stay in for 2 nights. It being a Wednesday I didn't think there would be any problems getting a room for 2 nights and they did have a room for Wednesday but were fully booked for Thursday. This hotel was full of people on bicycles, there appeared to be about 2 bikes for every room in the hotel. I assumed I would be seeing a lot of riders the following day on the rode to Pilok but did not see a one.

Pilok (ปิล็อก) is a town in the mountains at the border of Myanmar and is surrounded by Thong Pha Phum National Park. I think of Pilok as a tourist town but think it is also one of those places that fits the saying "It is not the destination but the journey that matters". I think most people that visit Pilok do it more for the 67 kilometer drive from Thong Pha Phum with it's 399 curves than for the town of Pilok itself.

I have considered riding from home to Pilok in one day and staying there but decided not to do this. I have heard it can be hard to get a room in Pilok and the town does not have power all the time. I have also looked online and the prices of rooms are about double what I pay in most of Thailand. I decided it would be better to just visit Pilok as a day trip from a cheaper hotel with power all the time.

I rode route 3272 with all it's curves stopping at a couple of viewpoints on the way.

Once in the Pilok area I rode up to the Nern Chang Suek Viewpoint (เนินช้างศึก) with the border of Myanmar above the parking area. The views and the pictures were not that great because of the haze which I believe is due to the start of the burning season in Southeast Asia.

My bike in the parking area at the viewpoint.

Following is my picture of the hotel area in Pilok.

After the return trip through the 399 curves I filled the tank and made a left heading north going to Sangklaburi (สังขละบุรี). I have been to Sangklaburi about 2 years ago and have seen most of the tourist attractions. I thought I would check into a hotel drop my bags and head to Three Pagodas Pass to buy some cheap booze but all the curves through the mountains had worn me out. I found a local market got something to eat and called it a night.

I didn't really have any plans of things to do or see in the Sangklaburi area but thought I could find something to do so asked if I could stay an addational night at the hotel in the morning. Unfortunately the hotel was fully booked for Friday so I would have to move to a differnt hotel if I was going to stay in the area. Since I didn't have anything specific to see or do I just rode over to spot where I could see the Mon Bridge and snapped a picture and headed home.

I rode back down route 323 that I had rode up the day before between Sangklaburi and Thong Pha Phum. This is a pretty ride and I think I enjoyed this road more than the road up and back to Pilok. It is a lot of curves but not as sharp and it ride this road a higher speed so was a fun ride.

Route 323 goes all the way to my home town but when I got to Thong Pha Phum I stopped for a cup of coffee and decided I wanted to get off the highway and try a different route. I found route 3089 on the west side of the river where 323 was on the east side. I decided to give this a try and google maps kept wanting me to take 323. I ended up adding stops to my route every 20 kilometers or so to stay on route 3089.

I enjoyed riding on route 3089. Not much traffic and a few pretty views from the road. I did have to make a lot of stops to remove stops and added a few in as well. I crossed over the river at Mae Nam Noi Bridge and it had a really pretty view down at the water. I really should have stopped and taken a picture from the bridge but didn't. I also didn't know that I had saved this bridge in my google maps until later when I was retracing my route.

I took a couple of more detours on the route to get home and arrived home about 7 hours after leaving my hotel in Sangklaburi. It was a good day on the bike but taking the long way home about doubled the time that google maps said it should take me to get home.

My 2025 and 2026 resolutions

Looking back on 2025 as it came to a close. I think 2025 was a good year for me even if I failed on a number of resolutions.

You can read through the 50 posts I have made throughout 2025 on this blog or view my 2025 YouTube Video Playlist that is most of the videos I have published in 2025 to know what I did over the year.

It was not all good I had a case of the shingles which put me out of action for about a month and was not something I enjoyed or want to repeat but I recovered and am back to enjoying life.

I have done a yearly resolution on the number of books to read in a year starting the year after I retired. In 2025 I added a number of other resolutions for the first time. I did this really just to try and keep me busy doing some new things and not so set in my normal day to day life.

I started to take some Thai classed at the end of 2024 so set the goal of taking at least 40 lessons in 2025. This resolution I failed. I took 15 classes and then decided I needed a break and would start again after Songkran but never ended up starting again. I am not sure what I will do with this resolution for 2026 but need to get back to sometype of daily study.

I kept the book reading resolution but reduced it from 50 books a year to 40 in 2025 and finished 43 within the year. I am keeping this resolution at 40 books for 2026.

I made the resolution to visit 10 provinces in Thailand that I had not seen in the past. I had passed through a number of this in the past but had not spent any time in them looking around. I visited the following to complete this resolution and posted about my travels throughout the year.

1 Uthai Thani

2 Tak

3 Kamphaeng Phet

4 Phichit

5 Nakhon Sawan

6 Chai Nat

7 Nan

8 Uttaradit

9 Lamphang

10 Phayao

My 2026 resolution will be to visit the remaining provinces so I can say I have seen all 77 provinces that make up Thailand. I will post about these new provinces if and when I travel to them within 2026. All these new provinces in 2026 are in the south of the country so will require a long motorbike ride.

I decided I wanted to move from near the center of the city of Kanchanaburi closer to what I call the tourist street. I made moving a 2025 resolutions. I talked a little bit about the move in the post All Good in Kanchanaburi back in March.

I am very happy with were I am currently living so have no plans to move in 2026.

I made visiting the Rocket Festivals a resolution and posted a number of blogs on my time there this year. I will keep this resolution for 2026 but have made the resolution to visit two specific locations that I have not seen the Rockets at before. I think I will also visit a number of the rocket festivals I visited last year as well in 2026.

I had the 2025 resolution to go to one of two different festivals I had not attended. I visited the Ghost Festival and have added the other festival as a 2026 resolution.

I made a 2025 resolution to visit a country I had never been to before. I failed this resolution never leaving Thailand in 2025. I have made this also for 2026 but think it may also be a fail, as it is a low priority for me. I look at going to a new country and it sounds like fun but I am happy zipping around Thailand. My last new country was Nicaragua back in 2018. I traveled around the US with a car and have had a motorcycle for most of my time in Thailand. If I visit a new country it will mean using public transport again and that is just not as appealing as it once was.

I seem to get in rut of always going to the same places for meals or coffee. I find a few places I like and just go to those same places all the time. In 2025 I made the resolution to try 2 new places a month to help get me out of this rut. Sounds like something really simple to do but I think I sort of cheated to mark this as completed. I had one month where I visited 2 bars I had not been in before and counted those as my new places for the month. The month I was sick with the shingles I only visited one new place and made up for it the following month with 3 new places.

I am not sure the new places resolution has really accomplished what I wanted it to do. I have tried a lot of new places so that is good and a few of these have become my normal go to places but I think I have dropped some of old normal go to places. I will just have to keep trying to add new places in 2026 but will not say it is a resolution.

I have not made any major changes from my 2025 list to my 2026 list of resolutions. I did add the Plow Field Good Buffalo event to the list just as a reminder to keep looking for when it is happening. I was traveling in the North of the country when it took place in 2025 and would like to attend it in 2026. This event is a bit hard to find out details so adding it to my list will make me check for event details as I update my resolution list monthly.

Thanks to all of you that follow me on my boring blog and watch my crappy videos on Youtube. I hope you find happiness and health in 2026.

Old Farts Hospital and School Visit

I am a member of a group in Kanchanaburi called the Old Farts. The group tries to do some good for the areas children. Once a year the group goes out to the local public hospital to give away some toys to the children and then goes to a local school and buys all the kids a bit of ice cream.

Follow is the clips I took from this years visit.