28th to 30th Dec. - Bangkok Nights

30th Dec.- plain back to Germany
2:25 am the plain took us back to Germany, from flip flop country to frost country

---------------------------------------------------
29th Dec. - last day
Kick start the day with a strall through Chinatown, friggin crowed, everything colourful and a bit strange. Completely loosing the time within the crowed.

































Some beers and thai food later, we grabbed a taxi to the airport at 11pm.

-------------------------------------------------
28th Dec. - Flight to BKK
6 hours ferry, bus to the Sura Thani Airport to catch our flight to the capital city. So we arrived on 4pm in Bangkok, checked in the cheap hotel at the trainstation again (650 Baht per night, 14 Euro) and immediately to shop at MBK and the Patpong night markets.

26th & 27th Dec. - Koh Samui

27th Dec. - Koh Samui, Raining day
07am -the rain pushing hard against our roof. But despite this fact we decided to do a beach walk to find a better place to stay for the next night - the last beach day!!! Oh my budda.

And after buying a London rain jacket for 20 Baht (40 cent) which also covered our rucksacks we went lucking in finding a free bungalow with a reasonable room rate dirctly at the beach 'Lamai Coconut Resort' - new room, TV, AC, hot shower beautifull (1500 Baht).








I just organized our way to the airport tomorrow moring and bought some funny T-Shrits, teaching the vendor some german sentences for a good price.












-------------------------------------
26th Dec. - Ferry to Koh Samui, Lamai beach
Back on Lamai beach on Koh Samui, after only 30 min ferry from Koh Phangan, we visited 4 hotels with the taxi service before deciding for one, and it was a b-choice, but clean and hot shower (Sea Breeze Bungalow, 1700 Baht).


At night, we went on the party beach 'Chaweng beach', finding everything but Thailand there. Horrible city, every then meters a tailer, wanting to drag you into his tailer shop, only Pizza and Burger Shops and - on top - twice as expensive as the other islands (Pat Thai - rice noodles with chicken 180 Baht). Allthough it was good to see, where 70% of the toursits stay on this island.

Summary: Chaweng beach and Lamai beach are no recommendable.

23rd to 25th Dec. - Koh Phangan, Christmas on Hat Yao Beach

25th Dec. - Exploring the island by motorbike.

Sounds nice huh? Funny thing was, that it started to rain at half way and we were souking wet, when coming back to our bungalow.
Anyway, it was and adventure. The good thing about the rain was that all the Thais seem to hide inside - they seem to don't like the rain, so the streets were empty.
























Back in our bungalow, we met a nice couple from Sweden and Norwey on there secound honeymoon. They were in the premiere league in drinking, we just rooky. Nice though.

------------------------------------------
24th Dec. - Diving & beach on Christmas 2008
We went out with Hat Yao Divers to a dive trip to Sail Rock, which is the most recommended dive spot within the Gulf of Thailand.

Perfectly organised, we did two dives with our own dive master around Sail Rock. Visibility 8 to 10 meter, but strong current, so even the fish were swimming forward. High light was, the under water chimney, which we entered at 18 meters and went up to 12 meters. Wow.

The other guest divers were two kids (6+8 years) and their father from South Africa, who have had about 40 dives already. Stunning, but cool. The fathers plan is to get them to the dive mater level when they finished with school, so they can travel the world earning some money with diving.













The oil massage afterwards at the beach was well earned.
















Christmas dinner at the beach, baracuda, mackarele, wine & letting a thai ballon up into the air afterwards, ended a packed day.

------------------------------------

23rd Dec. - Traveling from Koh Tao back to Koh Phangan & relax at the Hat Yao Beach

After checking all resorts at the beautifull Hat Yao Beach with Alex from Russia, we decided for Ibiza Bungalows, almost directly at the beach, hot shower, hamock outside, beautiful.

Just spending the rest of the day relaxing at the beach.

21. 22 th Dec. - Koh Tao, Chaenk Baan Hat - Freedom beach

Away from this cheep Crystal bungalows near the pier to a hot shower bungalow with and own private small beach. So we went to another beach, a few minutes with the taxi and checked in Freedom Beach Resort (south of Koh Tao).

A bungalow with a wonderful few on the Freedom beach, nice private and only 800 Baht per night (20 Euro).



The pills for Nadine show the first success, its starting to get better.

19th to 20th Dec. - Koh Tao - Advanced Open Water Diver

The Advanced Open Water Diver course was 2 days full of reading, training and diving. In a group of 4 students (2 Israely, 1 Canada), one dive master Iain and one dive instructor (Suki from China) we were trained 2 must and 3 optional skills.

My buddy Michael and me decided for:
> peak performance buoyancy - learn to balance better in the water
> dive navigation - use the compass
> deep dive (30 meters) - nothing special
> search & recovery - use and train search patterns to find things under water and bring them up safely
> night dive - dive with under water lights

So now I am Advanced Open Water Diver, which is the second level & allows me to dive down to 30 meters.









Nadines certifies to Open Water Diver (max 18 meters). Perfect, so now we can go diving together.

A pitty, that Michaels girlsfriend (Monique) skipped the practical part because she got scared of it all.

Anyway, we all had a good night out to celebrate our success. Too bad, that Nadine is having some stomach problems. So, we will see the doctor tomorrow.

17th & 18th Dec. - Koh Tao diving

18th Dec. - Koh Tao Fun Dive
I signed up for some fun dives this afternoon, so I hadn't to get up at 6:30am like Nadine and can explore the streets a little & of course write the blog.

Wonderful news from Germany, Christian bought an AC/DC ticket for me at Hockenheim ring in May. Fantastic - Thanks Christian.

---------------------------------------------
17th Dec. - Arriving in Koh Tao & starting dive refresher course

Pick up 07:30am, waking up at the right time was no problem, because a stuff menber woke us up at 05:30am - probably she was at the wrong bungalow. There is one this Thai can not do - they can not excuse, even when they are obivously wrong. Almost the same story which the meal - no Thai ever asked if the meal was good. - Anyway, service and price level of Cocohut (Koh Phangan) does not fit together.

Koh Tao is as small island, approx. 75km north of Koh Phangan, which took the speed ferry about 1.5 hours (10:00am). We were collected and guided diretcly to the Crystal diving resort, 2 min from the pier to fill out some paiper work with 50 other students and check in a small bungalow.

Nadine's theory course started right away and I did my 2 hour refresher course with Amy the diving instructor and Michael from Canada: refreshing our theoretical skills in a test, to prepare the diving stuff, underwater signs, regulator exchange, mask off under water etc.

Nice talking to Micheal, whos girlfriend also started the open water course today, like Nadine. They have traveled Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam before coming to Thailand. We waited at the beach in some nice chairs for the girls and had some beer.









No dought, that we went out together at the nicer capital beach with some english girls.

16th Dec. - Koh Phangan/ booking diving course @ Koh Tao

Waking up without packing in the morning is soo relaxing, the day started good. We went to the beach, had a swin in the refreching cold water and read some hours before we went to the famours FULL MOON Party beach 5 min. away from us. We are currently staying at the sunset beach, the party beach is called sunrise beach. It's much rugher sea, which 1m waves, a dirty beach and hundreds of very used looking bars.










We decided for a diving course in the neighbour island Koh Tao tomorrow with Crystal diving operation. Open water diver for Nadine and an Advanced open water diver for me. Accomodation, ferry and course inclusive will cost us 20.000 Baht (400 Euro) for the next 4 days.