sawadee khrap to everyone!

Now that we have settled and got use to the way of living here in Thailand
- are here our first experiences and impressions.

After a 1,5 hour delay leaving Munich + 4 hour stopover in London and an 11 hour flight we finally arrived savely at the airport in Bangkok. With the Airportbus to Kaosan Road (which is the Backpacker/Tourist Road) we walked around and found our first Guesthouse the "My House"! A very simple and cheap place! We have hardly sleept the first nights because of the humidity and jet lag.

The next 2 days we got around Bangkok with a Tuk Tuk. The "firendly" driver took us to a few sights like the Big Buddha, the Lucky Buddha, The Golden Mount and a few Tempels. He also took us to a few jewellery and suit stores. We didnt buy anything but he got free gas! :-) And than he drove us to Natasha. She works at the TAT = Tourist-Travel-Office. She offered us a trip for not too much money. Which we accepted! --> read more, see more

Bankok is a very huge, crazy, a little dirty and hektik city. But everything fits together somehow, especially the trafic and the Thai-people are very friendly and are always smiling.

As you can see on the pics --> we didnt have to nice weather in Bangkok but is very hot 24h!!!

Our trip started August 15th. With a VIP Bus we left Bangkok at 7pm and drove the whole night through. At 5am - finally asleep - we arrived in Surat Tani and a Thai Lady in her PJs woke us up by yelling "evry botty get out". So we got out, grabed our Bags and walked over to her "house, home, travel office, garage, restaurant", well all in one. Than she gave us the boat tickets - she put stickers on our shirts. At 7am a Pick-Up-Truck-Taxi took us to the "Harbour". Than on a boat for about 2 hours to the ...

From the Pier a Pick-Up-Truck-Taxi drove us to our Resort "Coco Palm Beach". A very luxury stay compared to the "My House" in Bangkok. From our bungalow less than 100m to the beach and with the restaurant and the bar right at the beach. So we had to have breakfast every morning right at the beach. Very relaxing :-)

To get around the Island we rented a scooter for the next 4 days. We saw many beaches, another Big Buddha, a waterfall and elefants. The best beach is "Chaweng Beach" but thats also the tourist beach. Every two minutes: "hello ice cream?". No thanks... NO THANKS!!! the one night we ate at Pizza Hut, just to have NO RICE. Mmmh that was good! And on the last night we tried a Thai BBQ - different! August 21st we packed everything, had breakfast and went to the reception wannted to check out, but the lady thougt we would stay one more night. But no! So she organised a taxi which took us to the pier for the boat trip to .......

Koh Phangan
After 1,5 hours we arrived at the harbour of Tong Sala. Not far from that town was our next resort the "Weang Thai Resort". Our bungalow had a minibar, TV - Satelite, with one queen size bed and one smaller double bed. The pool was right in front of our door and to the beach 20 meters. The first day we also got a scooter to get around. Every day we tried to go to another beach but with these roads is was'nt that easy. Driving on the streets of Koh Phangan, especially two people on a scooter is almost suicide. Some streets are so extremly steep that we almost didn't get up the hill - we got slower and slower till we alomst fell over. In some curves there is sand on the street and some streets are even unpaved + very steep. But with Mike's longtime experience in driving motorcycle nothing happened. We just had a flat tire for the second time like on Koh Samui. The beaches on Koh Phangan are more beautiful than on Koh Samui. Less people and nicer sand. The beach "Had Yao" (west) was the most beautiful one and has sand like powder/Flour/Mehl. The only bad thing about both islands and this time of year is the ebb (Ebbe). During the day the water is very low and you can't swim everywhere.
The third day we went with Marsha and Robert to the Black Moon Party. A party right at the beach with black light and techno music. We had a fun night. but the music was'nt ours.
Up to the last night at the Weang Thai Resort everything was booked in our trip package from Natasha, so from now one we were on our own. We needed a ticked from here to our next destination ...

Krabi August 25th
On the boat trip and bus trip to Surat Tani we met Tamara and Florian from Austria. The bus drove 1,5h and had a roof but it did rain in somehow. In Surat Tani we had to say "Goodbye" to Tamara and Florian because Diana and I took the Minibus to Krabi. After 3 hours of listening to loud Thai-Pop-Music (HEEEELLLLLPPPPP) and believing to die every minute, because the driver drove like a crazy we finally arrived save at the guesthouse the K.R. Mansion in Krabi.
The next day we went horse back riding on the beach and got a ticket for the next destination...

Koh Phi Phi (=the Island were the movie THE BEACH was shot)
On the way there we meet Katharina from Germany. She was very nice and gave us some good advice about Australia. On the Island we also met Ali from Canada, Joerg, Kathrin and Nick from Germany. We all went out and had a lots of fun.

With Kathrin and Nick we went on a 1-day-Boattrip around the Islands. That day was the best during our time on Koh Phi Phi. The weather was perfect! (on all the other days it was cloudy almost and on the departure day it rained - just like ervery last day we were) We went snorkeling! Got to see "little Nemo" in real and all the beautifull things that nature and the ocean has. Mike even got to see a shark. NICE! We passed "THE BEACH" Beach and stoped for 1 hour at a small Island called "Bamboo Island" which was like "small paradise".

On Koh Phi Phi there are a lot of young Party people. So you can find quite few clubs, pubs and discos and some crazy bar's like the "Hippi Bar" and the "Reggae Bar" where there is always some "weird" smoke in the air! Standing on the beaches and looking out on the ocean you can't miss the sheer rock walls on each side which are just so extremly impressive. There are also some small simple made Bamboo huts to live in, very cool. walking around the Island you can still see some damage from the Tsumani. August 30th 2006 the day we left Koh Phi Phi for Bangkok. So once more with a boat back to Krabi - with the bus to Surat Tani and than the whole night through back to Bangkok.
Back in Bangkok!
After walking around for 2-3 hours we decided to get a room and slept from 7am to 12am. Thank god at least some sleep.

We met Tamara and Florian (the 2's from Austria) at 7pm, after spending the day in Bangkok because we had booked the same night-train which should be in Chiang Mai on Sep. 1st at around 9am. But the train stoped at 4am. What's going on? Well we had to go on with a bus for the last 5 hours. Why? A few days before it had rained straight for 4 days so some parts of the tracks were flooded. Perfect the next night without a pleasent sleep! But we made it to Chiang Mai on September 1st 2006.

Still sleepy we got out of the bus and what else should we expect ¡V Thai¡¦s standing there, wanting us to go to there Guesthouse ¡V annoying!!! So we chose one with a pool and which didn¡¦t charge us for the ride. After catching up o some sleep we went to the town center which is surrounded by the old City Wall. Later on we met up with Tamara and Florian. Also the next day we spend with them ¡V their last day. So we had to say goodbye to them f¼ but we had a great time and really enjoyed their company. On the 3rd day we booked a 3-day-trekking-tour at the Ginny¡¦s Place which is owned by Tee. She is really friendly and we also stayed at her place after the tour. The rest of that day we walked around town and looked at some temples and after dinner we packed our stuff for the trekking tour.

1st day Trekking-Tour

After Breakfast a guy picked us up and drove us to Tee¡¦s place. We unloaded our big backpacks and picked all the other Trekker¡¦s up + our tour guide. After a 3 hour drive and a stop at one market we arrived at our Start camp where we had lunch. Yummy!!! And than off we went into the jungle.

started off quite easy. But the path got narrower and very steep. We also had to cross a creek a few times. 2 hours and still 1 to go. Than it started to rain for a while and the Tour guide showed us where the village was.

All tired out and completely wet from sweating we finally made it to the village. YEAH!!! I was the only one who took a shower (pouring water from a big bucket over my head) we had dinner. Than all of us sat at the campfire singing songs, playing guitar. Around 10 pm it was bed time.

2nd day Trekking-Tour

We slept quite well and were woken up at 7.40 am. After Breakfast we had to say goodbye to 4 Trekkers. They had booked the 2-day-tour. So the six of us were left. Thank god it went downhill today fº. 2 hours went by and we arrived at a waterfall. Spending 2 hours there with jumping in the water, laying in the stream and having lunch which we ate out of hand made bamboo dish.

Than we had to leave the beautiful place and walked for about an hour to a Jungle Camp. We ate dinner and played a game. Than fell into bed.

Very exciting, a little scary but a once in a lifetime experience. Just like following the white-water-rafting and the bamboo-rafting. After lunch our Trekking-Tour ended and we were driven back to Chiang Mai.

Australia

To arrive in Sydney, Australia was like arriving in Paradise. The temperature was about 22C, it was not humid, polluted, loud or dirty. A very nice airport clean, fresh air and people you understand, plus signs you can read. Wonderful!!!
The Airportshuttle drove us to EVA¡¦s Backpacker hostel in Kingscross close to down-town Sydney. very nice!!!

The first week we explored Sydney, tried to find a decent car, met my good old friend Tobias from back home and his friend Paul. Went out together to the Bondi Beach and Bars.
The 2nd week we contacted a very friendly family (Remzi, Sherry, Nurije & Jimmy) whom we know from people in Munich. They helped us buying a car. Let us stay at there house and treated us like family members.By the way THANK YOU VERY MUCH to Remzi & Family!!!

2 weeks went by and after getting all the Car-paper-work done and a car inspection and over a little problem with the car, we started our Australia tour on

The two weeks there we relaxed at the pool, went swimming in the ocean and used the Whirlpool next to our King size bed.
We also went down town Coffs Harbour which is a really nice Town. Diana bought a Bikini, Mike some new Shoos and we also bought some camp equipment for later on our trip.

Our next Stop was the Gold Coast....