After two days on the Mekong we finally got to Luang Prabang. We both enjoyed the cruise down the river, however by the end of the second day, we were quite anxious to get off the boat already. I thought we would be dropped off at one of the boat piers in town, but it looked like they had to let the tuk-tuk drivers earn some money as well as the boat finished its course a few kilometres before Luang Prabang. So there was no other way to get to town but to take one of the tuk-tuks. It was pretty funny system as we had to buy tickets for the tuk-tuk at some small ‘ticket office’ right next to the pier and only then we could get on the tuk-tuk. Not sure if they were ... read more

I was really curious how our train journey to Chiang Mai would look like and if the train would be anything like the hardsleeper I travelled with in China. Well… I have to give credit to the Chinese I’m afraid as my first impression about the Thai railway wasn’t the best. First of all the train looked pretty old and on top of that our carriage didn’t look like a sleeper at all! After a first quick glimpse around I thought that maybe we were in the wrong carriage! But then looking closer at the big compartment above, well… That was one bed then! We still needed another one though… After having a closer look at our two seats, well… I guess another bed could’ve been made out of them as well. One thing that was ... read more

Phuket wasn’t exactly on my list of top places to see, still my friend was starting her adventure there and besides that we had to make it to Bangkok from the islands somehow, so we thought we might as well do it from Phuket. We got there one day before my friend’s arrival so we could check it out on our own first. To make things easier we pre-booked a hotel a couple of days before and paid for the transport to the hotel on the boat as well so once we arrived at the port in Phuket, we were picked up by a van and headed straight to Patong. I can’t really say that Koh Phi Phi was peaceful, still there were no cars, motorbikes or tuk-tuks around (well maybe a few motorbikes?), so coming ... read more

Quiet Koh Lanta… veeeery quiet indeed! Our journey to Koh Lanta was quite uneventful but we surely managed to test all sorts of means of transport on the way! First a pick-up truck took us to the pier where we got our boat stickers, then the boat to Suratthani, then a bus to some very odd spot (in the middle of nowhere to be exact) in Krabi, where everybody was bombarded with accommodation offers for Krabi and Koh Lanta (unsuccessful offers unfortunately), then a car to some tourist office in Krabi, where they gave us another sticker and tried to convince us to book accommodation through them for Koh Lanta (this time successfully), then a van all the way to Koh Lanta (via a ferry to get to the island of course). It took us almost ... read more

Taking first small steps in Bangkok… Finally the day has come… I was leaving China and heading to another country, the country I have been looking forward to visit for a long time already and the fact that I was meeting my ‘boyfriend’ there (yep! think I can actually put a label on it now ;)) just made this trip a bit extra special! At the check-in desk in Beijing I found out that my plane to Hong Kong was delayed 1,5 hour. Well, it sure wasn’t good news as I only had an hour in transit in HK! Still it looked like 120 people were in the same situation so the plane would just wait for us in HK… Pheeeew… What a relief! As there was no chance there would have been another plane leaving ... read more

When we were leaving Datong in the morning things were looking pretty good – the weather was beautiful, sunny with blue skies (until now we haven’t been that successful with the weather, so were more than positively surprised!) and my stomach seemed to have settled for a moment (small bug it would seem, still decided to skip some meals just in case though – long journey ahead!). So full of optimism we headed to Jinshanling... Somewhere along the way we seemed to have run out of luck though as once we got to Jinshanling it was all misty and looked like it was going to rain any moment now… And it just happened so suddenly??? One moment clear blue skies, we drive into a tunnel, get out of it shortly after and it’s all grey and ... read more