The flight to Berlin passes by so quickly, it feels like stepping into a device that pretends to be an airplane and has all the usual equipment and gadgets, but just for show, and really beams you to your destination. Quite convenient that they also figured out a way to make people fall asleep once the plane is 'in the air' and wake them up again once it is 'about to land'. I take the train to Warschauer Straße, and once I step off the train and walk across the bridge to Friedrichshain, I get a strange feeling of being on the road, but not quite the way I'm used to. I'm still in the same country, I share the same mother tongue with most people, and, despite the multicultural-big-city flair, it still feels like Germany. ... read more

The bus driver puts pedal to the metal as we get closer to Ubon Ratchathani. One of the tyres to the right side of the bus has just blown, and maybe in accordance with his logic we have to go as fast as possible to reduce the time during which an accident could occur. Fine by me. So far the trip has been a pretty easy one, no delays in the morning, no hassles at the border. When we arrive at our destination, we get on a sawng thaew, and for the first time I'm really happy to be back in Thailand, for we are not at the mercy of greedy tuk tuk-mafiosi. We pay 20 baht each for the trip to the train station, same price as the locals. We buy two train tickets to ... read more

We take yet another tuk tuk to the bus station, conveniently located 11km outside Luang Nam Tha, where we hop on a local bus to Pak Mong. Surprisingly, the bus, which looks rather run-down from the outside, is a lot more comfortable than the touristy 'VIP' buses and the minibuses we've been on. You got more leg room, the seats are tolerable and don't lean back, which means you won't be bothered by a person in front of you invading your private space, and there's no annoying tourists on the bus, only us and two solitary backpackers who blend in quite well. The local hilltribers don't seem to be taking the bus all too often, for after about 20 minutes the first one to throw up is a middle-aged lady, mainly over herself and into the ... read more

From Sukhothai, I take the bus to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second city. I end up doing a whole bunch of nothing there, despite or maybe precisely because of the broad variety of hedonist activities on offer. You can do river cruises, trekking to minority villages, rock climbing, white-water rafting, abseiling, mountain biking, meditation and massage courses, cooking classes and visit elephant sanctuaries. I feel intimidated by the choices and the multitudes of travellers, backpackers, flashpackers, tourists and luxury seekers taking advantage of them. I spend a few days in the city mainly exchanging money, going to the night market and planning my onward trip, before evacuating myself to Chiang Rai. My host Félix, a Quebecois, warns me not to take the tourist bus. "When they see your farang face at the bus station, they'll want to ... read more

The only way to leave Koh Tao for Chumphon at a reasonable time is to take the touristy speedboat, and grudgingly I buy the overpriced ticket. At the pier, hordes of pale-skinned, tan and sunburnt Westerners are waiting to board, most of them looking exactly like the crowd I would imagine on Phuket or Koh Samui. As the boat starts racing towards Chumphon, many a face turns ashen, and as the first chicks start puking into plastic bags, I compliment my strong stomach, put on my headphones, and listen to some grindcore, the perfect soundtrack for this occasion. In Chumphon, I hop on a local bus to Phetchaburi, where I arrive about four hours later. Or rather, I'm being dumped at the roadside in the dark, far away from the city centre, discombobulated and pissed off ... read more