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.












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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

14th & 15th Dec. - Koh Samui & Koh Phangan

15th Dec. - Koh Phangan - Cocohut
A windy morning, a hang over and the hot shower doesn't work. Bad start into the day, no wonder that it started raining a little as we left Koh Samui with the ferry.

We staight went to Hat Rin, the party beach into a super nice place The Cocohut --> http://www.cocohut.com/


We will stay here for a two days, paying half the price for our bungalow as normal! Great deal. The israelian resort. Never seen travellers from Israel before on the trip, and now 90% of the guest are from this country. Strange but ok. I have to go swimming & check out some films in the evening at the central place.















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14th Dec. - Koh Samui, Party beach Lamai
Croweded place, girly bars, unfriendly. One night is enough, just to have a good bed after 9 hours travelling from Phuket town with bus (5h) and boat (2h) to Koh Samui.

The only good thing was that we have met a german couple from Stuttgart, which whom we had some beers on the beach.

12th to 13th Dec. - Raya Island = Paradise Island

After one night at Kata beach in Phuket, we went to Raya Island. The pure paradise island, 30 min south by speed boat. Cristal clear water, palm gardens, colourful fishes surrounding you in the water - so perfect to be there.

We rented a paradise bungalow in the low price segment (1500 baht per night) direclty beside the 20.000 baht homes.










A little more expensive than our last accomodations, but definitly worth it. Snorkling, and relaxing at the beach with iguanas and eagles been guests in the reastaurant aswell.






13th Dec., afternoon, we were collected by the speed boat again and tried to get a bus to the other side of the island. Right now we are staying on the Andaman See side and want to go to the Gulf of Thailand side, which is supposed to be a little bit colder, but has not been explored by us right now.










Pitty, the last bus to Sura Tani left at 3:30pm already, so we had to stay in Phuket town for a night. Not a really spectacular place to be but cheap - 300Baht per night, near the center and the night market.

Got a haircut for 100 Baht (2 Euro) by pointing at a photograf, she knew hot to cut my hair. Hairy story, but a good ending.

11th Dec. - Kata, the surfer beach of Phuket

Back in civilisation, with telefones, internet, shops, cars and hot showers, we will spent one night at the surfer beach of Phuket - Kata beach.










Main action of the day will be to find a cheap way to stay the next days on Raya Island. An small island south of Phuket, which the most beautifull beaches ever seen. This island should really be called paradise.

Our advantage is, that the youngest political issues lead to an extrem decrease in tourist numbers.

09th & 10th Dec. - Koh Yai Noi extrem relaxing

10th Dec. - Motorbike to Paradise beach
As this island is a very quitet one and fare from civilisation, we had to rent a motorbike to get to the next beach for swimming. The tide is so low during daytime, that on all beaches on the east side of the island swimming was impossible.

1 hour cruising the jungle on dirt roads with our motorbike and we arrived at paradise beach. It was worth the wild travel - name is programm, and we spent the whole day there.

















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09th Dec. - Nadine arriving in Phuket
Nadine arrived in Phuket at 07:30am, including all baggage! Perfect and we went off streight away to an island between Phuket and Krabi - Koh Yai Noi.

08th Dec. - relaxing at the beach in Hat Kamala (Phuket)

After 11 hours of rain & sleep, I am feeling powered up again, ready to start a relaxing beach day on the calm Kamala beach. Of course, I got a friggin sunburn.






closing the day with brandy coffee with a irish worker on an offshore platform, who spends 60 days in Thailand, after 60 days work.


Really looking forward to meet Nadine tomorrow.

06th & 07th Dec - Hua Hin-no way, so streight to Phuket

07th Dec. - Rain in paradise

07am after 10h in a chillie bus I arrived Phuket city - with a cold. Deciding at the station where to stay, I took a Tuk Tuk to the market where a local bus brought me to Hat Kamala (north west).







The beach, finally arrived but raining. Despite the rain I spent some hours under a sunshield on the beach, having tea and spring rolls.














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06th Dec. - Hua Hin - no way, get away from here

Getting up early to get the first train to Hua Hin, to get into contact with the sea the first time during this journey. 4 hours train for 200km and I have arrived 1 hour later as scheduled in Hua Hin, the summer residence of the king. >> thai timetable

My colleague collected me, directly going to the beach. What a disappointment, cold stormy sea, 0.5m high waves, nobody in the water and the rest of the 4 m beach was totally occupied by food vendors.



I decided to take the next VIP bus to Phuket, reading at a guesthouese pool while waiting until 9pm.

05th Dec. - Kings Birthday in BKK

After traveling all day yesterday, I have arrived in BKK this morning at 06am, already 26C.

Discovering Chinatown. Spending all day with millions of Chinese people, walking from 'hello kitty' street to X-mas accessories,







doing a left into 'strange food' street and a right into dvd and rolex road.







At night I met Christoph, a colleague from Stuttgart, having diner and beer around Siam Square (the mega shopping area). Great to meet him.


>> pink & blue christmas tree, perfectly mirrowing the thai sence of colour

2nd to 04th Dec - White Water Rafting from Pia to Mae Hong Son

04th Dec.
Traveling is always an experience, especially with the public transport busses. 3,5 hours for 100km in a crowed bus, doors open, Thai pleople sitting and standing everywhere. Hell driver at the wheel, so there is a reason why bags are handed out - they are used permanently.

Just got back to Pai to but some videos on my iPod to prepare myself for the upcoming travel (25Baht per video) from Pai to Chiang Mai (3.5h bus - 150 Baht) and further on to BKK (10h bus - 558 Baht).


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02nd & 03rd Dec.
Two days of wild white water rafting have been fantastic. With a group of appr. 11 people + guides we rafted down the river from Pia to Mae Hong Son. Operating by THE Rafting king of Thailand Guy, the Frenchman. 21 years ago he was the first to start rafting in Thailand, that is why he is listed in every traveling book.

1 day: briefing, wests & helmets on, paddel straight and ready for 25km rafting in the jungle. Spending the night in a very basic camp in the middel of nowhere, even my thai-phone does not have service there. Camp fire atmosphere, Thai-schnaps, drunken people shooting - great night under a million stars.







2 day: waking up under the bamboo roof, only covered by the mosquito net, the night was BASIC. 35km of rafting are waiting for us. Great, but damn hard to get into the super cold water in the morning. Anywhere, I am in the boat with Lun the guide, Adam (Aussi), his wife Monica and there sister Andrea (Canada). A fantastic but cold ride through the jungle water started, only passing by buffalos, birds and monkeys within a great banana & teak tree landscape. Today the risk level goes up to level 3 (out of 7). Splashing, soaking wet but a big smile on, we went on through - just getting smashed out of the boat at the 1.5m jump. The boat tipped over, everybody when in the fast river getting rescued from the other 2 boats (nobody injured).







A great trip but also enough for now.

btw: we have been accompanied by an US filmer (Erik Rist) doing a promotion video for the Thai Adventure Rafting company of Guy. Bad luck, that he didn't film us flip over. Maybe we see a you tube video of us anyway.

Half of the group decided to stay in Mae Hong Son after the trip, so we went into Friends guesthouse (3x Aussi, 1x UK, 1xFrance), had some diner & a well earned 1h oil-massage.


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Political situation:
Bangkok situation cleared up, prime minister and this parliament resigned. Hoping that this situation will last and the next government fulfilling the premises of the demonstrators, who fought one year for this moment.
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01st Dec - Pai biking

being biking in Pai, seen huge canyon, farmers working on there fields by hand, hot spring where they cook eggs in etc.

It has been a beautiful day out in the south of Pai, with at least 15 km biking in the sunshine.










That is what they always talk about here, a hippie styled, remote area, a chill out place, that obviously attracts some specific kind of travelers. You will find those playses outside downtown Pia but not inside anymore.



>> Chilled out in the hammock by the river until sunset.







Just as it starts to get dark, as well the cold is coming with huge steps. Needing long trousers, sweaters and jacket (if available). Today I have bought a head just to get bye.

30th Nov. - Traveling to Pai

Traveling day - from Chiang Rai to Pai with a stop over in Chiang Mai. It took me two bus rides with each 4 hours in a crowded thai bus to go to Pai, but it was definitely worth it. Pai is very nice holiday city in the north west of Thailand, mostly frequented by Thai people. Lot's of bars, guesthouses and tour offers (trekking, biking, rafting).










I have just decided for a biking tour tomorrow and a two day rafting tour for the day after. So I am looking forward to start quite active into the December.

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Both BKK airports are still blocked.
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28th & 29th Nov. - Jungle trekking to hill tribe

28th & 29th Nov.

Living in the AKHA River house, I have decided for a 2 days AKHA Trekking Tour in the jungle 25km north of Chiang Rai (lonely planet TIPP). Starting at 10am after a quite noisy night, sleeping in my sleeping bag --> A 3 Euro room, is a 3 Euro room.

Starting off with at long tail boot on the Maekok River for one hour through wonderful jungle and farming landscape to a very touristic but nice snake and elephant farm.

Was too scared to touch the 7m python, but riding an elephant through the river is a little adventure, which was fun.

So the trekking started and, of course, my 4 group members have been really well prepared (zip trousers, waterproof shoes etc. I went in jeans and polo.

After already 4 hours up- and down hill on no roads, we reached the YAO tribe hill house, where we stayed the night at approx 1.500m above see level. The Yao tribe are self supporters with bamboo, bananas, rice and maise. They are no Thais and speak an own language in-between of chinese and north thai. Electricity is coming from batteries charged from solar panels, which have been sponsored by the government. We do not have to talk about running or warm water. We have been the only five tourists in the small village, eating and "more or less" talking to them. --> "ABBOO G CHAN"- meaning hello and thank you.

Sitting around the fire place in the house, we enjoyed some tea and cooked bananas. And again I met a nice group of people. A couple from the Netherlands (Hilda& Wulter-3 months tour), Claire from UK (one year world trip) and Pierre from France (6 months + trip). Exploring the small bamboo stilt house city (15 houses), finishing the day with some french card game and sitting together.



Four blankes, one T-shirt and two sweaters and of course jeans could not keep from getting very cold at night.

Getting up was so easy with a refreshing shower, bringing you from 0 to 100 in no time. We started right away for one day more jungle trekking, stopping at waterfalls, rice fields and wonderful view points. Definitely a trek to recommended. Gorgeous.

Being back at 4 pm, longing to a shower, checking in in another guest house (jansom house). 10 Euros a night, downtown with own hot shower, perfect to get rid of that jeans I have worn now for over 24 hours.

Main street in used for a special city market and closed for vehicles (of course not for motorbikes) promises to be nice.





>> try something new!

26th Nov. ill in bed, 27th Nov. up to Chiang Rai

27th Nov.
New day, new chances. After 24h in bed and some stomach pills out of my very substantial medicine pack everything is all right again. Breakfast is still in, and I have taken the first bus to Chiang Rai at 09am. Being now, 900km north of BKK, living in a very cheat guesthouse of the Akha tribe (Akha river house) for 150 baht (3 Euros) a night and thinking about which trekking tour I should do.
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Receiving bad news from BKK: demonstrators shut down both airports in BKK since 26th, 03am, police will not interfere. So it's closed for an indefinite time. Damne it.
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26th Nov.
probably the receipt of eating at a street vendor. I have spend the hole November 26th in my room, between bed and toilet bowl - pitying myself.

I only got up to rent the room for another night and for some toasts+water.

bloody bad day.

23rd to 25th Nov. BKK and Chiang Mai

25th Nov.
After the last night, I stood up at 2pm and startet the day slowly with strong thai coffee in a vegetarian restauerant (noticed it too late), so I had noodles with seaweed and loads of green stuff. - if it makes you look better, why not.

The next hours I walked the city of chiang mai, visiting 4 to 5 temples (as advised in lonely planet), closed with an one hour thai massage. God, I was so relaxed.

In the evening I met Charlie from Cornwall at the entrence of our guesthouse (12 Euros a night). We got along very well, thought he is 10 years younger than me. We ended up taking a midnight snack at a street vendor including some beers from the 7 Eleven next door.

"there is always the option for another one"


Great night talking + creating a blog within 3min, Thank you Charlie

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24th Nov.
Highly expecting the call from the baggage service at the airport I checked the best flights to Chiang Mai today on the internet.
9:30am they called me, informing that my bag will come with the 12am flight from Dubai. Perfect start into the day.
I took the bus to the airport (150Baht), booked a flight at 2:15pm to Chiang Mai with Thai Air, collected my rucksack at 1pm just to check it in immediately afterwards.

Off I went to Chiang Mai, one day later than expected, but on business class.

Taking the guesthouse Jacky Tour for 500Baht a night (12 Euro) I decided for the night safari at this day. The tour was gorgeous (6pm to 10pm). Never before I saw so many wild animals very very very close to me. For example 4 out of 200 white tigers worldwide. Check out this link for more:

http://www.chiangmainightsafari.com/en/home.htm

Of course we had to take a picture stroking a tiger after the tour. Hey, when do you ever get the chance to stroke a tiger for 250baht (5 Euros)??











Beside of the tour, also the other participants were great. 2 swedish guys, one english and one japanese girl. As we got along very well we decided to go for a beer afterwards.










































That was really great to meet you Yuka and Rob.
We signed our tiger pictures and had good fun in a very touristic bar "chiang mai saloon".


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23rd Nov.
After 22h of traveling, I arrived in BKK airport. A pity, that my baggage didn't come with me. I should have known it when checking my backpack in as "oversize baggage". As this has happened to me once before I luckily had the basic things in my hand luggage. Anyway, this really was not the start I have had expected.

So I signed some baggage papers, negotiated some compensation payment and got on the bus downtown, to Kaoh San Rd. And immediately I was reminded why I didn't like that place that much. Checked in the nearest guesthouse (pannee lodge) to the bus station and got on the Kaoh San Road which was of course packed with drunken tourists at 8pm.

In a garage near Kaoh San I took my first Singha and Thai food. Recovering a little. In another backyard I found a small thai restaurant with some tourists. Talking to an US tourist who also got to BKK after Laos and Kambotscha, unreal things happened, as they only can happen in Thailand:
A baby elephant walked bye, feeding for 20baht. The colleague from the US of course did it. Right after that, at approx. 10pm the waiters began singing happy birthday and also invited us to join eating the birthday cake -- 22pm!

So these little scenes compensated a lot, now I knew I am in Thailand.