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.