Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 12

We arose at silly-o'clock on Friday morning to catch our 6am bus, Bangkok-bound. Our guesthouse provided us with a take-out breakfast, and we sat waiting for the half-hour late bus. We'd previously booked what we thought was an air-conditioned direct bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok. What we were met with, however, we a different story. Luckily, we were among the first to board, so we got seats. The later arrivals were not so lucky. The were crammed in the aisle of the grotty little bus, along with the backpacks and suitcases that didn't fit on the pile that had accumulated on the back seats. That's right, the bus didn't even have a baggage hold. We stopped off before reaching the Thai border to get stickers which determined the next bus we'd be taking. Eventually, reaching ... read more

To get to Phuket we had a 2 day journey - from Pai to Chang Mai by minibus – train from Chang Mai to Bangkok – overnight train to Suran Tani then bus to Phuket. The first few days we stayed in Phuket Town which there wasn’t an awful lot to do there. So we rented a scooter and drove to a few beaches around Patong – the drive over the mountain was fun with lovely fews over the town and beach. After a few days we moved over to Patong to be closer to the beach and this seemed to be were all the night life was. We did all the normal things – hit the main strip for a night out – watched all the ladyboys and the dirty birdy old men with their ... read more

First things first - Koh Phi Phi is not a quiet, undiscovered island. It is full almost all the time (especially in high season from November-April) and as it is so small can feel quite claustrophobic. Loud parties on the beach go on until 4am every night (in 2011 there were only 3 parties a week which went on til 2am), and the village doesn't close down until 2am (previously mid-night). Accomodation, for the standard you get, is expensive compared to other islands in Thailand. Locals appear to be less friendly and more greedy than elsewhere we have been. However, it still has beautiful beaches, good restaurants and stunning views across the ocean, as well as a great traveller vibe which is why we chose to come here. We took a 2 hour ferry there from ... read more

The writing has been very difficult for me since leaving South America. I guess it has different reasons, for one, I do miss South America a lot and cannot open my heart to Asia because of that, the second, things I see repeat themselves, of course its all different in some way or another but overall the markets, the contraries, the beaches, even the way the people look remind me of SA and number three is that travelling is a hard job. believe it or not :) However I think I have some motivation to continue writing not as sporadic as before... will see. Daniel and my father came to visit. They left today and Im alone again, for the first time since mid-december. It feels strange and I have to get used to it again, ... read more

Es ist geschafft. Ich habe 6 Monate im verrückten Asien überlebt. Was für eine Zeit. Was für eine Erfahrung. Diese vier Sätze sind wohl diejenigen, die mir am meisten im Kopf herum schwirren. Ich bin im Moment selber noch nicht in der Lage dazu, überhaupt ansatzweise zu realisieren, was ich in den letzten Monaten alles erlebt habe. Bevor ich nun zum abschließenden und zurückblickenden Teil meiner Reise komme, hier erst noch ein paar Infos der letzten Tage. Den letzten Blog schrieb ich von der schönen Insel Koh Rong in Cambodia, von wo aus wir in einer 13 stündigen Busfahrt von der Küste in den Norden nach Siem Reap zu den Tempeln von Angkor fuhren. 13 Stunden – da könnte man in deutschen Verhältnissen mal locker von Waldshut-Tiengen nach Dänemark fahren – nicht so in Kambodscha. Die ... read more