Hello
Almost a month has passed since my last posting. And in these days I’ve been to rather many places. More than I originally intended, when I planned to have a rest for while.
When I arrived from Cambodia I wanted to stay a week or two on a nice and quiet beach. According to my guide book Koh Chang is such an island. But when I arrived at «Lonely Beach» in the far south of the island, I found that it is not so lonely anymore. First I had troubles to find accomodation, because it was high season anyway. Then I found out that this island has mutated into a party island very much. I rented a motorbike the next day to find out, if there were other beaches more quiet, but I couldn’t find any with bungalows or a guesthouse. There was a nice and not crowded beach whithout loud music, where I spent some hours this and the next day, but then I decided to move further.
Not to far and on the way to Bangkok is Koh Samet. I hopped on a boat and crossed to Koh Samet to find out that this island indeed is quieter but still very crowded. As on Koh Chang the prices were very high. On Koh Samed many beaches are only accessible by boat. Strolling around was therefore a little limited. I spent a few days there, got some sun tan, but as the weather changed I decided rather soon to continue my travel to Bangkok. A german couple, that didn’t want lose to much time on buses asked me to share a taxi for a little money and so I got a fast, comfortable and cheap ride to Bangkok.
In Bangkok I emailed my friend Steven that I’ve arrived and we had dinner together the next evening, and the evening after … He knows some nice places to eat or to have a drink, which not every tourist would find.
I met Steven, a Scottish man, in Myanmar (Burma) some years ago. We then traveled a bit together there and in Thailand. He’s been teaching English in China, Korea and Thailand for some years and right now he does that in Bangkok.
While Steven had to work during the day I strolled around in Bangkok and went to some big department stores. I planned to do a Thai massage course at Wat Pho as well. When I went to the office to inscribe I was treated like an idiot. My questions on how this course looks like etc were not appreciated. I had to fill in a couple of forms and was asked to provide two photos. As I always have a couple of photos in my pocket, I passed them over the desk. The girl then looked annoyed at me and pointed out in a arrogant way, if I can not read that the photos have to be two inches in size. This course is not at all cheap, so expect a little more friendliness and understanding. Now I got angry, took the forms and teared them up in two parts, sayed ‹goodbye› and left. There are similar courses in Chang Mai as well, and if time permitts I might do one there in a few weeks.
It is said that Thailand is the «country of smiles», but till then I experienced something else. I wanted to meet Silvio again in Bangkok, but what should I do until he arrives from Laos. Steven suggested to go to Kanchanaburi and Sankhlaburi, close to the border of Myanmar.
Kanchanaburi is famous for the Bridge at River Kwai. It is a rather touristy city but sports some nicely located guesthouses overlooking the river. Steven joined me for the weekend and we explored the town and the Erawan waterfalls in a national park some 50 kms in the north on motorbikes. As we are in the dry season the waterfalls were again not so spectacular as they probably are in summer. Still it was a nice climb to the 7th level and we had short swimm as well in one of the pools.
As Steven had to work on monday he traveled back to bangkok on sunday evening, while I continued to Sangkhlaburi the next day. This town is another 4 hours in the northwest of Kanchanaburi and very close to the burmese border. I hired once more a motorbike and explored the environment of Sangkhlaburi. There is a famous pagoda and a temple and the longest wooden bridge of Thailand, crossing a branch of a lake and leading to a mon village. Further away is the Three Pagoda Pass, which is more a boarder town that has three rather tiny pagodas in its main square. The border to Myanmar is closed there. But the ride on the motorbike to this town was very nice.
Even it was not an escape from the tourists, I enjoyed these four days very much! It was very relaxing and the landscapes are very nice in this region. And it was there, where I’ve found the smiling faces again.
A long distance bus brought me back to Bangkok and dropped me off somewhere in the north of the city. A bus terminal, rather far away from the center. In a combination of taxi, skytrain and boat I found back to my hotel. After the bus ride of 8 hours this took me another one.
The next evening Steven again joined me for dinner. And Silvio arrived from Luang Prabang the same night. The following day Silvio and I visited the Royal Palace and Wat Pho. I’ve been to these places already twice some years ago, but they were worth another visit anyway. Only I’ve never seen so many people in the Royal Palace before. It was so crowded! The reason is, that in january the kings sister died and he allowed Thai people to pay their respect to her in the Grand Palace. All Thais were wearing black and white dresses. Wat Pho was quieter. It is a holy, but as well a very touristy place.
While Silvio went on a loooooong shopping trip the day after, I explored Wat Arun together with Steven. We had also a break in the Lumpini Park. They were watering the greens there and it was a funny game to cross a small island without getting to much wet. Finally, my last day in Bangkok we just strolled around, brought Silvio to the airport shuttle and said goodbye. He had to return to Germany.
Myself I took a night bus to Khao Lak, which is further south (200 km north of Phuket) and which is the starting point for scuba diving tours to the Similan islands. Uslae, a friend of mine is friend to the co-owners of the «Sea Dragon Dive Center», so I went there and booked a 3 day/3 night dive trip to these dive sites. As I had not been diving for some years I had to do a refresh course first. The day before leaving to Similan I explored the beaches around Khao Lak a bit and went to a tiny waterfall.
The dive boat was very comfortable and the diving was very nice. The variety of fish was huge but the corals were rather disappointing. I’ve been to the Similans 14 years ago on a sailing trip but went only snorkeling then. But I remeber having seen much more beautiful and colorful corals than I’ve seen on these dives. The group I’ve been diving with was great and so was our dive master. And the food was just absolutely amazing. I ate a lot, as I always was very hungry after a dive.
When entering Thailand I got a 30 days visa only, so I had to move south soon to get out for a short period. I decided to go to Malaysia. A minibus brought me to Hat Yai and a local train to Sungay Kolok at the border the next day. Crossing the boarder was the easiest so far. For
Malaysia it is not even necessairy to fill in an immigration card anymore and I got a 90 days permit without any visa formalities. I’d wish the other countries would follow this example! It makes crossing the border so much more convenient!
I’ve not been to the Taman Negara National Park when I traveled Malaysia 13 and 14 years ago, so I decided to take the jungle train to get there this time. This will be the case tomorrow …