Asia

Chiang Klong

2009-02-16T01:20:31Z

Valentines Day in Chiang Klong

Arrived in Chiang Klong today after an 6 hour drive. Gone back to the cheap accomodation and the rats. I'd feel lonley without them. Especially on Valentines day :-)

I want to go to Laos tomorrow, but who knows if that will work. It is Saturday today and I have no Idea how this Village will look during day time.

I'll see and I'll tell you.

Happy Valentines day

Chiang Klong remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Chiang Mai

2009-02-16T01:15:30Z

Chiang Mai is a cute city. You have all the good things from Bangkok without the bad things from Bangkok that are basicly the air pollution, the noise and the annoying tuk tuk drivers (tuk tuks were available, but less annoying). It is even cheaper than Bangkok. Internet was available for 30 Euro cent per hour. Loads of nice restaurants and if you want to get somewere you just wave to one of the songthaew and they bring you around for 20 Baht per person.
Plenty of markets. 3 second hand bookstores each street... (paradise for me) and lots of activities to do such as climbing (no thank you) kayaking, hiking, elephant riding, wild water rafting, ah, well enough to keep you busy.

Spent 3 night there with Ariane, then she left my flying back home to Germany :-(
And another 3 nights basically because I was not able to get a bus ticket to Chiang Klong.
I went for a luxury apartment this time. With all those fancy things like hot shower, flushing toilet, balcony overlooking the roors of Chiang Mai

and even a cupboard. Had to spend 5 Euros each night ;-)

Finally I managed to get the ticket for the bus...

My bag and me

Chiang Mai remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Back to Bangkok.

2009-02-16T01:18:35Z

We were sick of the islands. Especially after climbing, we wanted to go far, far away from the south. And here we are. One day shopping. It's quite amazing. BIG! Not allowed to take pictures unfortunately. 7 floors, at each floor you were able to spend 3 hours.

MBK shopping center, thats how it is called. And just in case you do not have enough: There is another one next door, Siam shopping center. Not that big though.
One day doing nothing but reading.
And one day taking a tour to the floting markets. They are for tourists only. Too overpriced as well.
We all know that we have to bargain down to something like 40% of the initial price, but as an example: For a small elephant they asked for 900 Baht. At any other market, the initial price for the same elephant is 200 Baht.

We visited a tempel as well, big, famous tiger temple. You could pad the tigers there for free if you would line up for 30 minutes. We didn't want to and went just walking around and found the place were the tiger babys were. Padding for free as well, but no queing up.

Bambi and me

We also went to the cinema as we were told that Bangkoks cinemas were amazing. However, beside being really cheap (2 euro) we couldn't find anything that is different from those cinemas at home.

We have gotten used to going by taxi. Its so cheap. For half an hour drive, or better, half an hour traffic jam, you pay not more than 2 Euros. Thats already including tip, and it is the most I have ever payed to a meter taxi. So always ask for meter and never go with a tuk tuk.

Night train to Chiang Mai. Nothing new, we know the train thing already.

Back to Bangkok. remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Krabi 2

2009-02-13T14:39:27Z

well, after we had arrived at Hat Ton Sala and checked in at this disguasting place, we went to find a climbing school of which we found plenty to sign in for a 3 days course.

If somebody is into climbing, Krabi is probably the paradise for this person. However, after 10 minutes of climbing, I found out that I totally hate it.

The course started with some generall information, we got taught how to belay. The belayer is the person who stays at the bottom of the rock and holds the rope and takes care that the climber doesn't fall. If so, he tensens the rope so the climber can comfortably sit on it.
Everybody had to belay everybody. So if it is your turn to climb und on the other side of the rope is somebody who has learned to belay just 5 minutes ago, it doesn't make you feel safe.
However, you climb and your aim is to reach the top of the rock. Well, not the top of the rock, but the top of the rope. At some point the rope goes throug a ring, and that is called top rope. And the climb is called top rope climbing.
As I said, your aim is, to get to this ring. You have to go there, if not, you lose. Thats what the instructors say. You are here to fight yourself (istructors words, not mine). And for sure it is a fight. Somewhere in the middle of the rock, you usually lose your power. (Where you loose it depends on your level of fitness (mine is very low..) but you will lose it) And there you stand, or sit on the rope and want to come down, but your instructor won't let you because he wants you to fight yourself. Its a war between you and yourself (so they say) and you must win. (Shouting down that you have no desire for fighting yourself doesn't help). Then he starts shouting: right food abouve your head.. He won't let you get down (you do need the belayers help to get down) and so you have to continue. However, at the top, you would feel great if you had any power left.

This is Ariane climbing. It was her first climb, befor my first climb, when I still had power to make a picture.

I have no pics of myself as I was busy not to die.

On the second day we did lead climbing. This means you go up the climb first and put the rope into the holes in the wall. You are not safe until the first station, if you can call it like that (we learned the expressions, but well, as I decided not to climb ever again, my brain decided to not remember those words) You better not fall then. But its not too high. So you climb to the top, where the ring is, hang yourself on it with something called safty sling and you hang there. There is nothing to hold on, you just hang there because you need your hands as you have to put the rope through the ring and make some knots because it has to be safe of course. If you make a mistake with the knot this time... well, uups. Good bye. But the instructor watches from the bottom. Anyway will you not make any mistakes. Its your life depending on this thing. Once you have done this, you are finished and can come down.
You do the first lead climb with an extra safety rope, and you don't need to do it without saftey rope if you just start screaming and crying loud enough :-) But in general, people do it. (I was the only coward)

Third day we learned upsailing down. Ariane didn't do the 3rd day because she got hurt and was not able to use her arm any more. Upsailing down is cool, but I was scared all the time. I now know that things like bungee jumping are probably nothing I would enjoy.

So, thats it about climbing I guess. Later the last day I gave my istructor a tip and he was so happy that he hugged me 3 times. That's cute, isn't it?

Thats him, climbing. They do this show-climbing every evening. Quite amazing to watch. They are like monkeys

Krabi 2 remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Krabi

2009-02-10T05:33:23Z

So, we landed in Krabi. Found a nice accommodation, did nothing but running around and eating and some internetthings on the first day. On the second day we went kayaking in the morning. This is really cool. It was for both of us the first time and we enjoyed it a lot. Met some monkeys which ended up climbing on our heads when one guide put some pineapple on us. Here is one of the monkeys.

And that is us.

Later that day we went to cooking class. I learned how to cook Green Thai Curry, including the Curry Paste, Pat Thai, Tom Ka Gai, Papaya Salad, well all the important Thai dishes.

Me, cooking

The instructor was too cute. Imagine, she has 3 cooking classes each day, 6 days a week. And she has been doing that for 3 months now. If I was her, I would probably kill myself. She tld us, that on her free day, she goes.. guess what: climbing! This climbing thing is a chapter itself. Read more about that later.

So we did that course and it was great. And if I say that, you can for sure belief it as I totally hate cooking. The only problem was that we had to eat everything we cooked. And that was a lot. 6 dishes altogether. Beginning with the Tom Ka Gai soup which is normally enough for one meal already.

We could roll home that day.

Next day we left to Railay beach by longtail boat. This is the famous beach for climbing. As it is too expensive there we went to another beach, called Ton Sala or something like that and checked in at a resort, recommended by the Lonley Planet. It was the worst place we have been so far. The bungalow was sooo dirty and totally broken, we were scared to break trough it. After 2 nights sleep or lets better say after two sleepless nights we changed to a cute place, Jungle Hut Resort, 50 Baht cheaper and clean, just about 500 stairs to climb and not too many rats and no monkeys either. We were told that at some Resorts over there we must not leave anything outside or leave the window open during the night because things get stolen, not by people but by monkeys. They even sell slingshots in every 7/11 over there because you have to be really tough with those monkeys.

I couldn't be bothered to make any pictures because I was so tired and exhausted from climbing that I tried not to move a single toe in my "spare time"

Next entry about climbing

Krabi remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Koh Tao 2

2009-02-10T05:28:44Z

I forgot to show you one really important pic from Koh Tao
One of the waiters of our Restaurant, cleaning his feet during his shift in the opend restaurant, next to the guests with a toothbrush

And my open water diving card

Koh Tao 2 remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ko Tao

2009-01-27T13:09:36Z

We left around 11 am to Ko Tao. On the boat we met Yu, who is a shop girl from AC Resort/Phoenix Divers.
We met about 100 more shop girls, but we liked here most so decided to go with her. The prices
were pretty much the same everywere so it didn't really matter. They offer open water corse
including 4 nights accomodation for 900 or 9800 depending on what company we want to learn diving
with. I went with SSI, not because it was cheaper but I just liked it more.
I found out later that it was the right desission.
We made a brake and thought of starting the diving course the next day.
Thats me having my lunch

and thats the view I have while having my lunch

The next day, Ariane got problems with her ears, so she couldn't go diving. I started on my one
and met Richy there. He's Austrian, from Salzburg and turnde out to be quite funny.
We became buddies (that's how your diving partner is called)
Thats Richy having his noodle soup

We were only two in the group but had 2 teachers, so one each which was cool because every time we
went down, each of us had his own instructor training the scills with us.
We enjoyed it so much, we started the advanced open water course after passing the exam on the
first open water course.
All together we went for 10 dives. Thats me in my diving suit.

We had one day off to relex and so, but what did Richy and Ariane do? They took my up to a mountain by food during the midday heat. Thats the view point

Them, discussing the way back

and the way back home

Thats me in the diving suit

And thats Richy and me on the boat

And thats one of the instructors (non of ours) climbing up on deck.

Thats on the boat.

Oh, and those are the cigarettes. Different warning than ours. The put picktures of all kinds of
cancer on it, or bad teeth or whatever disguasting pickture.

All together we stayed 7 nights on Ko Tao. I don't have so many picktures because I was busy diving
all the time. This is quite tiring.

On monday, the day of my last dive, we left in the evening by night boat. They put some matresses next
to each other in two rows. And people just lie next to each other, without nowing each other.

Thats the boat

and hats us on the boat.

We slept much better than in our bungalo at AC Resort.

Now we are in Krabi. Will go kayaking and to Thai cooking school tomorrow.

Ko Tao remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Koh Phangan

2009-01-20T07:23:04Z

We went to Sarisas place after a funny women on the train gave us this recommandation. First I was disapointed because there is really not much to do or to see. Only one massage place to choose from :-)

Later, when I had my first Coconut shake

I started appreciating the place more. We didn't do anything speacial that afternoon, went for our first swim, checked out the facilities and well, went to bed early.

Next day we rented a moped and went to see whatever we can find. We found an elephant

at a resort were they organise this elephant riding tours. We decided spontaneously to do this as we found that the were treating their elephants well.
Its fun sitting on such a big animals head. Shaky and well, it has this funny hair on his head that stick into your bum and as it always wants to eat so it moves his head from the right side to the left side and back to the right side and you get scared falling off, especially because you cannot stop laughing.

We were actually looking for waterfalls, but as the elephant trecking hasn't brought us there we went on with our moped and found a national park were we hoped to find our waterfalls. We endet up climbing an official way which would never be official in any place in Austria

hadn't found any waterfalls that were worth taking a picture of it and went back after hours of climbing. You really should be in a good shape for this. I am not, so I found it quite hard.

Later we went to Had Rin, which is this party place. Had a look around and went back home because it had gotten dark already and as I am not so much used to driving a moped and driving on the left and we were not in the mood for party anyway, we went back home. However, there is not much you can do wrong driving a moped I guess. It was my first time on a moped. They didn't even ask me for a licence or something like this. Just gave me the moped, explaind how it works and off we went, with not helmets and well.. as I say, there is not much you can do wrong.

Next day we went back to Had Rin in the morning to get a special Reiki treatment. I have always wanted to check it out and where if not here? So, this was quite interesting but it took us the whole day to find it. In the evening we had a coconut milk shake at the place were I was 4 years ago. It was not the same any more and thai people in Had Rin have gotten really unfriendly. We did some shopping as well and we felt so uncomftable, lunch was bad as well and we were sooo happy for landing in the north. We went home quickliy and enjoyed our last dinner in a restaurant next to the see of which I will put a photo here soon.

The best thing are always the so, so, so friendly Thai people. You want to put them into your suitcase and take them home with you. Those places which are too tourisity, people can get annoying though.

Koh Phangan remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Bangkok 3

2009-01-20T06:16:04Z

Got up quite early (10 am) to check the prices and tickets for Koh Phangan. To get there you need a joint ticket, train, bus and ferry. We were lucky as the train was so busy they organised one more rail car.

The train is quite funny. First you sit opposite each other, like this:

later a man comes and prepares the bed. Everyone has his own curtain and the great thing is (for me especially) that you cannot fall out of the bed because you have some band keeping you where you belong to.

The beds are quite comfortable. I slept like a baby, Ariane didn't find any sleep at all though.

After a long, long journey.. after the train comes the bus, then the ferry and later you have to find a cab that brings you were you want to stay at the island.

There is no such thing as public transport but you can get those comfortable taxis:
Me in it and me looking out of it:

We went to Chalukam which is in the north. The south is where all the travellers usually go because thats the place where the famous full moon party and the not so famous half moon party and plenty of other parties are.

Bangkok 3 remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Bangkok 2

2009-01-20T05:54:56Z

Hello everybody,

you wouldn't believe how hard it is to write a travell blog.
Well, lets start at the beginning.
After arriving, it didn't take me more than 10 minutes to meet Ariane. We agreed to share the room for the first night in order to safe some money. We went out doing what people do their first day in BKK, having Phat Thai for 40 cents and 70 minutes Thai massage for less than 3 euro and some shopping.
Next day we got a Tuk Tuk that drove us around the whole day for 20 bath only (40 Euro cent).
That's us at the back of it

and thats me next to a tuk tuk.

After bringing us to places we didn't want to see he kicked us out somewhere in the middle of nowhere. But we found our way back though and to see some of the tempels, China Town and even some turtles

Later this day we had a one hour + 10 minutes foot massage which was really great and which we really deserved.
I got my hair done

and went to bed at 4:30 in the morning, looking forward to the next day

Bangkok 2 remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Bangkok

2009-01-14T19:39:05Z

Hello All,

finally, I've made it here. No pictures yet, because it is too much work for too little time (you know, I will only be here for 3 months)
Anyway, here is a short update: After arrival it took me not more than 10 minutes to find my first roommate. We are sharing a room for about 3 Euro.
Bangkok is nicer than I had it in my memory. Got a 70 minute Thai massage yesterday and a foot massage today for 3 euro each.
Will go to Ko Phangan soon for a few days. After this I'll check out the diving facilities isn Ko Tao.
Pics soon.

Bangkok remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Starting the countdown

2009-01-07T01:39:45Z

Hello again,

I am still at work but have only 2 days left so I'm getting excited.

Here is a picture of my future ex-workingplace.
I'm looking forward to it allthough I have to admit that I have felt comfortable here most of the times.

Ok, I just wanted to check out the thing with the pictures. Now I know how and that it works.

Next Entry will come from Thailand.

Starting the countdown remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Still at home

2009-01-06T03:49:58Z

Dear All,

here I am, writing my first entry. I'm still at home in Vienna, waiting for the time to pass and my journey to start.
This entry is just to check out the blog, try if it is accessible for all my friends and family.
I've decided to write in English - sorry Mama, you have to get Papa to translate it for you. I just thought at least it is half-readable for everyone. In case it is not, I am really sorry for my bad English.

So, here is my first picture. Not so exciting and just to check out how and if it works.

In case you can't see anything: It's me packing my backpack. It was made in Cuba 2 years ago.
It fits because getting prepared for my trip ist the most interesting thing I am doing nowadays.

Once it gets exciting I will let you know through this blog and I promise you better pics.

Still at home remains copyright of the author Sonja H., a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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