Journals

Historic Luang Prabang

Feb 14, 2018

Luang Prabang is a small historic city in northern Laos where Nam Khan River flows into mighty Mekong River. The historic center of the city is situated on a peninsula formed by those two rivers and is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site. Even though the city has become very touristic in its center with excellent dining opportunities and boutique hotels, it was still a calm place and a good way to start our visit to Laos. Luang Prabang is surrounded by a mountainous scenery, so there are also attractive sights outside the city limits, such as the Kuang Si waterfalls or limestone caves.

A Bad Start in Luang Prabang

I personally did not start in a pleasant way in Laos. After already having had some stomach issues back on Koh Rong in Cambodia, as soon as we arrived in Luang Prabang, things got worse with diarrhea, fever, and shaking. I think the source of these problems still point back to Cambodia.

As we have been travelling in countries with all kinds of tropical diseases (e.g. Malaria or Dengue Fever), I could not just sit it out as I would have done in Switzerland. So I had my first hospital visit on this trip to get a blood check. Luckily, the results were negative for all the tropical diseases, but I had some bacterial issues. A pack of antibiotics accompanies with some other medicine however brought my body back on track within two days, which was good as there is really excellent cuisine in Luang Prabang.

The whole visit to the hospital and the medicine cost me around $50. Back home in Switzerland, probably even shaking your doctor’s hand costs more J But I have to admit, the medical facilities back home are also much better, but for a simple blood test, they were sufficient.

The Historical Center

Luang Prabang’s historical center is really small and can easily be visited in one day on foot. Apart from numerous temples and pagodas, the royal palace, and all the small colonial houses, the city center impressed us with its beautiful location with the Nam Khan and Mekong River flowing basically around the old town on three sides. Every night, there was also a night market along the main street, however, the displayed goods were basically the same all over the place. Many things that looked like hand-made turned out to be industrially produced on a closer look, my guess is in neighboring China.

Kuang Si Waterfalls

It took some convincing from Ilinca’s side to travel 1h by Minibus out of town to see Kuang Si waterfalls. Reasons are that I did not expect them to contain lots of water due to the dry seasons, and because I have already seen many nice waterfalls during my travels. But I am really glad we decided to go, as it is a cascade of several waterfalls embedded in dense forest, with numerous natural pools to go for a swim. In addition, there was even a small animal rescue park where they take care of rescued bears.

The only catch with Kuang Si waterfalls is, that other tourists also know about it. I have read on blogs before that the noise of the tourist groups that get transported there every day ruins the wonderful atmosphere. To avoid the crowds we tried to be there as early as possible. We arrived there at 8 in the morning and there was literally nobody there. Wonderful! Not only is it nicer to take pictures of the waterfalls without dozens of people on the picture, but also is the morning light perfect. We spent in total three hours at the waterfalls and the adjacent bear rescue center. When we left at 11, the place was completely overrun by tourists. I am so glad we managed to get out there so early.

The Cluster Bomb Museum

During the second Indochina War, American Forces heavily bombed Laos in an attempt to cut off the supply routes of the Vietcong. Many of these routes led through Laos. Apart from using Napalm to burn down and Agent Orange to defoliate the trees, the Americans also used Cluster Bombs to destroy large areas of land. Cluster Bombs are bomb shells that contain hundreds of so-called bombies, each of which causes damage in a radius of 30m when hitting the ground. In mid-air, the Cluster bomb opens up, spreading the bombies over an area of two to three football fields. The long term problem with these cluster bombs was that about one third of the bombies did not explode on impact, and hence just like landmines are a big threat to everybody working in agriculture, because these bombies may explode anytime when being hit.

The UXO museum (UXO = unexploded ordnance) in Luang Prabang gives a lot of information about this huge problem of Laos, that I have to admit, I was completely unaware of. And it also shows movies of people who got killed or seriously injured while trying to make a living on the countryside. There is international help with the removal of these UXOs, but so far only half a million UXOs have been disarmed and destroyed. Around 78 million are still out there, and locating and destroying them is an enormous effort. Until then they pose a big threat to the Lao population and it is one of the reasons why Laos is developing so slowly.

Going South to Vang Vieng

Due to my illness, we spent in total 5 nights in Luang Prabang, which is more than enough. Now we are heading south to Vang Vieng, which is a 7 hour bus ride away. Most of the roads will be in the mountains, so I expect some nice views and a most likely uncomfortable bus ride.

Relaxing in a Perfect Beach Hut on Koh Rong

Feb 9, 2018

Only 20 km off the coast from Sihanoukville lies Koh Rong, a laid back small tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand. It is a very calm and peaceful place and the three days we spent there in a simple beach hut were some of the most relaxing at all on my whole travels. And the weather gods were also on our side.

Staying in a Beach Hut at 4k Beach

There is not too much choice when it comes to accommodation on Koh Rong. There are a few fancy places for absurd prices (I saw a villa for $5000 per day), but most of the accommodation offered on the island is rather simple. But that’s exactly what I was looking for. So we found these cute beach huts at the 4k Beach on the South East coast of Koh Rong. The bungalow was built on stilts and made out of wooden boards. This meant that it was by no way sealed, and I heard stories that during heavy tropical rain, it can happen that the hut is leaking and the bed gets wet. There was also no hot shower, and the electricity on the island was sometimes not working. We could hear funny animals sounds (that we were unable to identify, my guess is: frog) during day and night. As I said, really simple conditions, but incredible romantic and beautiful.

I guess the name of the beach comes from its length (although it seemed shorter), but that’s really not important. What’s important is that since there is so little accommodation at this beach, it basically felt like we had the beach to ourselves. There were no noisy tourists, no loud music, no jet skis, parasailing, and so on. We could listen to the sound of the waves and the wind the whole day, and due to the open bungalow, also the whole night. It was really somehow too good to be true.

If there is one thing that I should complain about, it was to quality of the food. I don’t mind eating simple meals, but after having a fish soup one evening my stomach strongly protested, and since that day, I had more or less digestion problems. While I think it is perfectly ok for the beach huts to be simple, I think the kitchen of our beach hut resort should have taken better care of the hygiene. Sometimes there were dogs walking in the kitchen from the beach, etc. And along the beach there are not too many other food options available either.

About the Island

One day I went for a short run to the interior of the island, and there things are even simpler and less developed. Again and again though there were new bays with remote beaches, some cliffs, deep blue water, and peace. There is only one tourist village in the south of the island where there are beach parties twice a week and that’s where most of the noisy tourists stay. Apart from the bass of one of the parties during our first night, we did not notice anything from this village. What really surprised me on Koh Rong was the excellent mobile network at 4k Beach. We had high speed Internet that was faster than in most places in South East Asia that we had visited. Oh, I guess this would be a nice place for digital nomads.

Moving on to Laos

I guess I could have stayed on this island for another week easily, but as we want to see more places on this trip, we decided to move on to Laos after three nights on Koh Rong. I will miss Koh Rong and it was a forgiving end to our overall very mixed experiences in Cambodia. I hope I’ll make it back here again one day. And I also hope that Koh Rong will remain as underdeveloped for at least another decade and not fall to mass tourism as Sihanoukville did.

History, Culture, and City Life in Phnom Penh

Feb 3, 2018

After having visited Seam Reap, a highly touristic city without any charm, and Battambang, a much less touristic city but again without any charm, we were really looking forward to moving on to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. We were expecting a good mix between history, culture, and modern city life. But looking back, Phnom Penh did unfortunately also not live up to our expectations and we were happy to leave the city after three days.

The Genocide Museums in Phnom Penh

After having seen the Killing Caves in Battambang, we were slightly prepared to what we encounter when visiting the infamous Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields museum in Phnom Penh which remember of the genocide that happened in Cambodia only 40 years ago while the Khmer Rouge were in power. I don’t want to go too much into history in this blog post, but for everybody who is interested in learning who the Khmer Rouge were and why they killed millions of innocent Cambodian citizens, I can recommend reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge .

As a short summary, the Khmer Rouge was a communist movement that developed in the late 60s and with strong support from China and northern Vietnam wanted to impose a pure communist system on Cambodia. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge’s army entered Phnom Penh and overthrew the corrupt military dictatorship. In a first step, all people were driven out of the big cities, incl. Phnom Penh and were forced to work in agriculture in order to make Cambodia a self-sufficient country. In the following 4 years, people with different views or which the Khmer Rouge suspected of being threats to the political system, were arrested, tortured, and executed once a confession has been signed. And the prisoners were tortured in the worst ways imaginable until they signed a confession of their crimes they did not commit. There was basically no way for a prisoner to get out again as from the regime’s point of view, it is impossible that they imprisoned someone by mistake. And worst of all, once a victim signed a confession, all its family members were imprisoned as well.

Although there are now exact numbers, it is estimated that 1.5 – 3 million Cambodian citizens were killed during the four years of genocide, and it is only thanks to the Vietnamese that defeated the Khmer Rouge in 1979 that this number is not even higher.

Tuol Sleng Prison

Tuol Sleng was only one out of many prisons over the whole country. It was established in a former school complex where the class rooms were transformed into prison cells and torture rooms. Up to 50 prisoners were locked up into a single class room whenever they were not being tortured. Nowadays it is a museum that displays the unfiltered truth of what was happening here during the years of the Khmer Rouge, the torture chambers, the tools, the prison cells, and the pictures of thousands of the victims that were found in the archive once the Khmer Rouge’s soldiers were driven out of town by the Vietnamese in 1979.

The Killing Fields

Once a prisoner has signed his confession, he was removed from the prison with dozens of other prisoners during the night, transported secretly outside of town to a place that is now called the Killing Fields. There, the prisoners were brought to the edge of a mass grave and beaten to death with primitive tools such as hammers, machetes, bamboo sticks, and so on. The reason was that bullets were too expensive and would make too much noise. Afterwards their body was dumped into a mass grave. Some of them held up to 450 bodies.

When the Killing Fields were discovered after the liberation from the Khmer Rouge, all the mass graves were exhumed, so nowadays the graves are mostly empty. But during heavy periods of rain, some bones still make it to the surface. In memory to all the victims killed here, a pagoda containing hundreds if not thousands of skulls was erected on the site.

The Royal Palace

The cultural highlight of Phnom Penh is the royal palace which is located east of the city center at the Mekong River. On 17 hectares, there are numerous beautiful buildings such as the throne hall, the Moonlight Pavilion, the Silver Pagoda, and a few more. As the king also resides in this area, some parts of the Royal Palace were closed to public. What I liked a lot when visiting is that the palace is by no means as overrun as Angkor Wat near Siem Reap or the Royal Palace in Bangkok. One of the reasons might be that the admission fee for the temple was $10 each, which seems a little overpriced for what it had to offer. But nevertheless, I do not regret having visited the palace.

The National Museum

Now we get to the cultural lowlight of Phnom Penh. Having visited the beautiful National Museum in Siem Reap a few days ago, we thought that the capital’s National Museum has at least as much to offer. Unfortunately that was not the case at all. First, when arriving, we saw that the admission has just recently been doubled to $10 (excl. audio guide). And second, I have never ever seen such a poorly maintained museum before. It was dirty everywhere inside, and as it was an open air museum, birds flew through the museum and released their excrements on whatever was underneath. Nobody in the museum seemed to feel responsible to clean the descriptions of the exhibition items from the bird shit, the floor was dirty, and the exhibition items themselves were also only in mediocre condition. What a shame. As taking pictures was forbidden inside the museum, you just have to believe me on that.

Phnom Penh as a City

Apart from the few attractions above, Phnom Penh is really nothing special. It is just another big cities, and not a particularly beautiful one. The food was very good in general, we got to enjoy some Moroccan, Indian, and local dinners while we were there.

But traffic was just insane. There is traffic jam everywhere, people driving as if there were no rules, and worst of all, even when walking on foot, it was dangerous as the whole sidewalk was parked with cars and motorbikes and hence we had to walk on the streets every now and then. So in the end we always hired a Tuk Tuk for getting from one place to another. Not because of laziness, but for safety reasons.

Also, there are some safety concerns when walking on the streets in Phnom Penh. When we arrived in Phnom Penh, our driver warned us about bag snatching that has become very popular in Phnom Penh. Bag Snatching means, that two people on the motorcycle drive next to you, grab your bags, with force if necessary, and drive away with it. As people tend to hold on to their bags, in addition to the loss of valuables, there are regular injuries of the victims due to being dragged behind the motorcycle. Luckily, Ilinca and I have not been confronted with it, but some friends we met the same day reported that they observed that someone almost had his phone ripped out of his hands on the street. And on the same day, my friend’s kindle had been stolen out of his back pocket.

After hearing all these stories, we were both not enjoying Phnom Penh that much anymore and we were glad to leave the city again after three days.

Bats, Wine, and Temples around Battambang

Jan 29, 2018

After Siem Reap, Cambodia’s tourist magnet, we wanted to visit a less touristic city, so we decided to move on to Battambang, Cambodia’s fourth largest city and an absolutely ordinary city without any highlights. It was ordinary to such an extent that we did not take our camera even once into the city. That does not mean we hated the city, it was interesting to move around in a city where many Cambodians live and observe their lifestyle. It’s just not very picturesque. Luckily the surrounding area has a few things to offer such as numerous temples, one of only wineries in the country, and most excitingly a large cave system where millions of bats live during the day and fly out to hunt every evening.

The City of Battambang

With a population of around 150’000, Battambang is not a huge city. However, taking into account the whole province, it is more than one million people, and therefore there is always a lot of traffic in and around the city. And as in other countries in this region, the traffic is unorganized and riding a motorbike requires a lot of attention because red traffic lights seem to be only a recommendation here and there are sand patches and pot-holes everywhere. And even when driving carefully, it is not completely without risk, especially at night.

The Caves at Phnom Sampeau near Battambang

For me the main attraction close to Battambang were the caves in Phnom Sampeau, a huge limestone rock in an otherwise flat area of Cambodia. There are several caves at Phnom Sampeau, and while the cave system is by far not as extensive as in Mulu National Park in Borneo, they are still impressive to visit.

Bat Exodus at Bat Caves

Imagine one million bats that get hungry in the evening and all of them exit their caves in which they stay during the day within 60 minutes. If you break this number down to seconds, that’s around 300 bats per second. I have no clue if there only live half a million or several million bats in this cave system, but the following video gives you a good impression of the steady stream of bats that start flying out of their cave at around 17:30. Ilinca and I left after 30 minutes, but a local guide told as that it takes up to one hour for all the bats to leave the cave. The voice in the background is from the Buddhist prayers of a nearby village.

Together with the bats, also an awful smell exits the cave. And as we were standing only about 20 m from the cave exit, we got a good portion of it. But this was secondary, as it is really one of the most amazing spectacles of nature that I have ever seen. And since bats feed on mosquitoes, they contribute a lot to the well-being of the people living in the villages around there.

Massacres at Killing Caves

Some of bat cave’s neighboring caves are known as the Killing Caves, because during the genocide in Cambodia in the late 70’s by the Khmer Rouge regime, the caves were used to dispose of thousands of slaughtered citizens. After executing the victims at the rim of the caves, the bodies were thrown down into the caves. Nowadays, a memorial and a reclining Buddha incl. a glass vitrine of skulls that have been collected from the caves reminds visitors of the cruelties that the Khmer Rouge regime committed. I will write more about the Khmer Rouge regime after my visit to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital.

Wat Phnom Sampeau

On top of the limestone rock that contains all the caves is a small pagoda. While the pagoda itself was not really that stunning, the location on top of the rock was very beautiful and the numerous monkeys also added to the atmosphere.

Cambodian Wines

I learned once in a wine seminar that the tropical climate is not really ideal for growing grapes and producing wines. That’s why I was very surprised to find a winery close to Battambang. As we were passing there anyway on our way to some temples, we went for a wine tasting.

We had been warned by our guidebook that the wine is not comparable to high quality wines, and I partially have to agree to it after having tried their red wine. However, it is also not undrinkable, and as with every wine, the more you drink, the better it gets.

I was briefly thinking about buying one bottle as a souvenir and for drinking later on the trip, but at a price of $15 per bottle, the wine was definitely not worth it. In Europe, such a wine would cost at most $5.

Some more Temples

During our day outside Battambang we also visited a few lovely temples. But after having been to Angkor Wat, none of those temples were really impressing to us. Maybe we should have ended our visit to Cambodia at Angkor Wat, and not start it there…

Next Stop: Phnom Penh

Two days in Battambang are really enough. We think we have seen everything that there is to see around here, so we are looking forward to moving on to Phnom Penh.

Ancient Temples and Cities in Angkor

Jan 27, 2018

Our first stop in Cambodia is Siem Reap, which is the gateway to some of the world’s most impressive archeologic temple areas. The most famous of the temples is Angkor Wat, but there are hundreds of temples in the area that spreads over 200 m², and couple of those temples are at least as impressive to visit as the tourist-infested Angkor Wat. The setting in the middle of the jungle makes the visit of the ruins especially beautiful as most of the temples are embedded and sometimes even overgrown with trees. Ta Prohm even was the setting for the two Hollywood movies Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones – Temple of Doom.

Angkor Wat

The temple of Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious building, and its dimensions are truly impressive when approaching the temple through its west gate. And seeing (and photographing) the sun rising over the temple is one of the must-do activities for every tourist. As I am a passionate photographer myself, Ilinca had no other choice than to get up at 4:30 in order to reach the temple at around 5:30. This is one hour before sunrise. In the dark, thousands of people were gathering around the small artificial lake in front of the temple to get the best shot(s) of the temple during dawn. I had to squeeze myself somehow in between all the tourist to also take the mandatory pictures. Interestingly, most of the tourists disappeared from the photo site 5 min after official sunrise because their tour continued to the inside of Angkor Wat. The most beautiful moment however was about 15 minutes when the sun was rising behind one of the temple’s towers. Well, good for me and the other patient photographers, as there was suddenly a lot of space for taking the best pictures of the day. Even though I usually hate big gatherings of tourists, I’m glad I could jump over my own shadow for this one, as it was really a very special atmosphere.

Later during the day, we then also visited the interior of Angkor Wat when most of the tourist groups were already visiting other temples. However, from a close-up view, apart from some nice mural reliefs on the outer walls, Angkor Wat was not that impressive at all as the temple was not in the best condition anymore and it was still quite full of tourists, some of them climbing the temple to take pictures, etc. So it is not a crime to only enjoy Angkor Wat from the exterior and rather spend more time inside the smaller temples in the area.

Angkor Thom Temples

Just like Angkor Wat, also Angkor Thom was actually one a whole city, but because only the religious buildings were built from stone, the rest of the settlements decomposed much quicker, so nowadays only the temple ruins are still visible. And Angkor Thom was actually much larger than Angkor Wat, and there are several temples to be found. The most famous of them is Bayon Temple with its around 200 rock faces and about 50 towers. Also there are many mural reliefs to be found on the temple walls. Being the second most famous temple, Bayon Temple was also overrun with tourists, but definitely worth the visit.

Another temple inside Angkor Thom is Baphuon, known for its very steep stairs (that prevents tourist from climbing it). Baphuon is by far less interesting as it is mainly a huge rock pyramid without lots of decorations on it.

Ta Prohm Temple

Being the setting for two Hollywood movies, this small temple in the middle of the forest was literally overrun by tourists and several times we had to queue to simply walk to the next section of the temple, not even mentioning for taking a photograph. But again, it was worth the visit as it is really amazing seeing nature claiming back its territory, which is visible by the many trees that actually grow on top of the temple’s walls.

Smaller Temples in the Area

Most tourist groups restrict themselves to the three previously mentioned big temples. That makes visiting the smaller but sometimes equally stunning temples a pleasure. The first one of them is Preah Khan, which also used to be a whole city and from which at least the foundations walls and a few halls were still intact. Same as in Ta Phrom, nature is also trying to get back its land and the combination of trees and ruins is wonderful.

Neak Pean Temple is located on an artificial island inside a large artificial lake. The temple itself however is not that impressive compared with its many neighbors.

Ta Som Temple one was my favorite, as it has the nicest view of a tree overgrowing the gate to one of the temples. In addition, this temple does not seem to be on the list of favorites for tourists, so there were almost no tourists around during our visit.

East Mebon and Prae Roup were two more temples that we visited. They are nice, but not that special again.

About Siem Reap

The city Siem Reap itself has nothing special to offer and it is a shockingly touristic city without any charm. As in Thailand, there are massage shops, bars, restaurants, hotels in all categories and everything that makes the tourist happy. The only reason to stay in Siem Reap are the temples nearby. So after we were done visiting the temples, we soon decided to move on to Battambang.

Diving and Relaxing on Koh Tao

Jan 23, 2018

Last November in Cairns I gained my first scuba diving experience by getting the Open Water Diver certification, together with 5 wonderful dives at the Great Barrier Reef. Then in New Zealand I extended my diving experience by two more dives at Milford Sound. With only seven dives, I did not feel confident enough and I wanted to build up some more experience. Therefore I signed up for the Advanced Open Water Course in Koh Tao, an Island not far away from Koh Samui where Ilinca signed up for a yoga retreat at the same time.

About Koh Tao

Koh Tao is a very small tropical island with lots of hills, forest, rocky cliffs and isolated beaches on its eastern side and two large beaches on its western side. While there are just a few hotels on the east coast, the west of Koh Tao is very touristic. Compared to Koh Samui however, it’s not high end resorts and spas that dominate the island, but it’s much more laidback and you meet thousands of backpackers in their early twenties enjoying their time at the small villages, the beach bars and the nightlife. Even though it’s been a while since my twenties, this is still my preferred travel style and reminded me a lot of my time as a backpacker in Brazil around a decade ago. If there is some downside to Koh Tao, it’s that most of the remote beaches are private and hence you have to pay to access them.

Our Stay in Koh Tao

The original plan was to stay in one of the hostels, at least for the time that Ilinca was on Koh Samui in her Yoga retreat. But then I discovered some wonderful small villas build on top of one of the hills with a magnificent view over the eastern beaches of Koh Tao. The only problem with these villas was the steep price. But as I really wanted to stay there during the nine days in total, I saw it as a challenge to negotiate the price. And it seems I am still in possession of some of my skills that I gained during my time in my startup. In the end I got the villa for half the price, and not much more expensive than a nice private room down in the village. Wonderful!

And the villa was no disappointment at all. From the terrace we could observe wonderful sunsets, observe the movements of all the boats in the bay, and sometimes even spot the mainland that is about 70 km away. And in addition, it was very quiet at night. If there is one thing I could complain about (although it is rather funny than a complaint): They advertise the villa as a luxury villa, but almost all the furniture and the kitchen were bought from IKEA. While I don’t mind IKEA in general, some things I would never buy in IKEA, such as the ugly and very uncomfortable couch or the uncomfortable dining chairs made out of plastic. But having rented the villa for half the prize, this was no big deal at all and I enjoyed every single night in the villa.

Diving Adventures on Koh Tao

In order to get some more routine and experience in diving, I was mainly busy with diving during my days alone on Koh Tao. I first got my Advanced Open Water Certification, and then added four more days of diving on the various sites around Koh Tao. In total I did 18 dives in 7 days, leaving me now with an experience of 25 dives. In addition, I am now also allowed to dive to a depth of max. 30 meters instead of only 18 meters. It might not sound like a big difference, but at many sites, the really interesting parts are below 18 meters and are now accessible to me.

Koh Tao turned out to be a perfect place for getting more diving experience. Most of the dive sites can easily be reached with a 30 min or less boat ride (and the boat was not very fast), giving me the possibility to go on three dives every day. And the variety of sea life is just amazing. Here a short list of animals that I remember: Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray, the much larger Jenkins Whipray with an estimated diameter of 1 m, an eel, scorpionfish, huge groupers and titan triggerfish, enormous schools of up to 1m long barracudas, and much more. The most fascinating moments were when I was basically surrounded with fish and integrated into the school. Wherever I looked, there were colorful fish floating gently next to me.

Unfortunately I did not have an underwater camera equipment, so I can only share a few pictures from the dive boat.

If you want to get an idea what it looks like underwater, I can recommend this movie:

Next Stop Cambodia

As our Thai entry stamp expires after 30 days, we decided to move on to Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat, one of the largest temples in the world and then start to explore more of Cambodia. As we have not seen the west coast of Thailand yet, we might however visit Thailand again in March.

The Two Faces of Koh Samui

Jan 14, 2018

After spending almost two weeks in the north of Thailand and in Bangkok, it was finally time to get to see some of the world class beaches that Thailand has to offer. We chose to go to Koh Samui. While Koh Samui was still an insider tip two decades ago, the island now has an international airport and countless resorts, an excessive restaurant and nightlife scene and everything else that comes with mass tourism. This all concentrates along Koh Samui’s east coast where the most beautiful beaches are located (according to some travel guides). At the same time however, Koh Samui still has its beautiful and remote places on the West and South coast and in its interior. During our stay, we got to see both faces of Koh Samui.

Our Small Little Villa

As we only booked our hotel the day before arrival and we were between the peak holiday seasons, we got a huge discount on a small villa in a hotel on the quieter North Coast. Apart from the bathroom that was probably at least as big as the bedroom, we also had our small private pool outside. So we could spend five relaxing nights there and drink mango juices and cocktails at the bar that was directly facing the sea.

Mass Tourism at the East Coast

We were warned by friends ahead that Koh Samui is very touristic, but what we encountered along Chaweng Beach and Lamai Beach exceeded our worst imagination. The otherwise wonderful beach was completely overcrowded by people, the resorts and bars literally came down to the water, and everywhere was music. And the streets behind the beaches were not any more inviting. International chains like Burger King, Hooters, and Hard Rock Café were trying to attract customers, twilight massage shops are looking for customers, and every 10 meters someone tries to sell you something. Ilinca and I were really glad that our hotel was on the north coast where everything was a lot more relaxed and we could simply jump on our scooter and leave these awful places.

Tropical Paradise Elsewhere

Luckily the mass tourism concentrates around the airport. Once we explored the mountainous interior of the island or the West and South coast, we got an idea of what Koh Samui must have been before the tourist dollars transformed it. Especially the beaches on the South coast were some of the most beautiful beaches I have seen so far all over the world. A wide band of white sand going gently towards the shallow ocean, and behind the beach palm trees. And most important of all: You almost have the whole beach to yourself. I really don’t get why tourists prefer the mass tourism to this paradise, but I know that next time I go to Koh Samui, I will stay either on the South or the West Coast.

Conclusion

Koh Samui is definitely still worth a visit if you know where the beautiful spots are. And even though two out of the five days the weather was everything else than pleasant, there are still plenty of things to do on the island. The next stop for me will be Koh Tao, a much smaller and laid back island around 50 km north of Koh Samui with world class scuba diving.

In and Around Chiang Mai

Jan 9, 2018

There are two reasons to visit Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. The first reason is the square shaped old town that used to be surrounded by a city wall and a moat, parts of which are still visible. Inside the old town, there are many Buddhist temples to visit and many nice cafés, restaurants, and massage salons. And every Sunday night there is a huge market that fills out almost half of the old town. The second reasons why someone would go to Chiang Mai is the huge offer of activities nearby. Being situated in the mountainous north of Thailand, there are rivers for kayaking and rafting, trekking opportunities, elephant sanctuaries, cooking classes, and other touristic activities such as Zip-Lining, mountain bike tours, etc.

After having seen dozens of temples in the past few days in Bangkok and Ayutthaya, I felt like getting active in Chaing Mai. I did not visit a single temple in Chiang Mai, instead I went kayaking on rivers for two days, took a cooking course with Ilinca, and visited an elephant sanctuary. For those who would like to know more about the city and the culture of Chiang Mai, please read Ilinca’s blog (http://heretoelsewhere.com/chiang-mai-cooking-thai-food-chatting-buddhist-monks-encountering-kinds-animals/).

Kayaking in White Water

Back in high school, some 17 years ago, I used to take kayaking classes for two summers and I always enjoyed this activity because it is a good workout, and the same time you get to see the river banks from a new perspective and it was also very refreshing activity. Since then, I neglected this sport and only went kayaking a few times on lakes or on the sea in Australia or New Zealand, but this is by no means the same. So when I saw in Chiang Mai that there are kayak tours on rivers available, I did not need much time to decide that I want to get back into it.

The first day I booked a guided tour on Chiang Dao River. It was an easy tour on a mostly flat river with only one small rapid, but that was good to get the river feeling again on the kayak. In addition, the scenery was very beautiful as the river went through the jungle.

On the second day kayaking I wanted to work on my technique. One of the dangers when kayaking on a river is that the rather small kayaks flip over in rough water, which leaves me head down in the water while still being inside the kayak. Obviously, this is an unpleasant situation and there are two possibilities to reach some oxygen again. Either I perform a so-called wet exit, meaning I pull up the neoprene cover of the kayak and dive out of the kayak and swim to the shore. This is easy in calm waters, but in rough waters, the second option is much safer: Roll back to the surface while staying inside the kayak, i.e. by flipping the kayak again but while being head down in the water. This so called Eskimo roll I have never done before, so day two of kayaking was basically a full day of training with a private instructor to roll properly in the water. While a lot of water was swallowed in the beginning, during the day I succeeded more and more often to roll back to the surface. And when going down an actual white water river (Mae Tang River) in the afternoon together with my instructor, my kayak flipped accidentally, and I could use the roll for the first time outside the training environment, and it worked out just fine this time. Another time I did not manage though so I had to perform the wet exit.

I guess I need a few more days of training for rolling confidently in all situations, but that day was fun and after being in the kayak for almost 5 hours, I was dead tired in the evening. If you want to know how kayaking on Mae Tang River looks like, this video gives you a small idea: https://youtu.be/ddrLm2sw4Qc

Feeding and Bathing Elephants

The elephant is not only the national animal of Thailand, but it is also a big tourist attraction all over the country. While elephant riding is unfortunately still very popular in Thailand, in recent times there are more and more elephant activities from which the elephants do not suffer that much, such as trekking with elephants, taking them for a bath, or simply feeding them.

During our stay, we also visited one of those elephant sanctuaries. We basically were preparing food for them and went with them to the river where they enjoyed a good bath. It was really nice being close to these gentle giants for an hour. Most impressive about them was their huge appetite. They were basically eating all the time. When we were not feeding them ourselves, they were feasting on leaves that they either received from their owners, or they just took from the next tree when walking through the forest.

Even though elephants now have a much better life than when they had to carry tourists on their back, I think it is still questionable to make them such a big tourist attraction. While some sanctuaries actually take care of rescue elephants and offer them a good environment after their hard work on farms, others, like the one we visited, breed elephants so they can make money with them, they don’t have any other purpose.

Cooking Thai Food at Cooking Class

Both Ilinca and I really enjoy Thai food, even though sometimes we get caught by its spiciness. While we also cook Thai food ourselves back home (mainly red curry), we wanted to extend our knowledge about Thai food. The best way to do that is to sign up for a cooking class.

The class started at the farmer’s market in Chiang Mai where our teacher showed us all the different vegetables, sauces, and ingredients required for the various dishes we were about to cook. Most interesting was the rice: There were at least ten different kinds of rice to choose from. While some of them is sticky and used often for desserts here in Thailand, others are the rice you serve with curry.

After the market we drove up to a farm a bit outside of Chiang Mai and started preparing our meals. We learned how to prepare spring rolls, Coconut soup with chicken (Tom Kha Gai), stir-fry vegetables and meat, a red curry with shrimps, papaya salad, and sticky rice with mango. It was interesting to see where all the spice in Thai food comes from. Not only are there chilies in the curry past, but when cooking the meals, more chilies are added. As we decided on our own how much chili we put in the food and could compare with how much chili the teacher put in her meals, we got a bit of a reference on how spicy the real Thai food is (as compared to tourist level spiciness).

Summary about Chiang Mai

Staying in Chiang Mai was really nice, especially after busy Bangkok. The city center has a lot to offer for tourists, and around Chiang Mai, there are plenty of activities to perform. But reaching these activities always required a transport as most of them were a 1-1.5 hour drive out of the city. And for returning to the city center, even more time was required because of the notorious traffic chaos around the city center. And usually these transports were in very uncomfortable mini buses. So in addition to the activities themselves, the car rides contributed a lot to the tiredness every evening. Luckily there are plenty of massage salons to relax a bit after these activities.

Temple Overdose at Ayutthaya

Jan 4, 2018

After five days in busy Bangkok it was time to get out of the capital, so we rented a car and drove north to Ayutthaya, the former capital of the Siam kingdom. The center of Ayutthaya is one big archeological site with numerous palaces, Buddhist temples, and statues. Unfortunately, the city has been partially destroyed by the Burmese in 1767, so what we got to see were more or less well-preserved ruins. Nevertheless, it was very interesting walking through all the parks and visit temple after temple, and because all the sites were so wide-spread, the tourist masses also distributed themselves over the sites.

After having visited 4-5 temples, we got a feeling of saturation so we did not visit every single historic building, and because we already had booked a flight that evening up to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, we returned after lunch to the airport with our rental car.

Temples, Rooftop Bars and Food Culture in Bangkok

Jan 3, 2018

After our two week Christmas break in Europe with a total climate shock, we are now continuing our travels in Thailand’s capital at temperatures that have almost become the rule for us during the past months. We chose to continue our travels in Bangkok because we both wanted to celebrate New Year’s evening in one of Asia’s most exciting cities.

First Impressions of Bangkok

Apart from two transit stops in Bangkok of very short duration, it is the first time both Ilinca and me actually make it to the city. And I was really surprised that the traffic situation was excellent on our day of arrival. As it turned out, this was only because it was an early Sunday morning. After my whole stay in Bangkok, I confirm also Bangkok, just like any other South East Asian city I’ve visited (except Singapore) has a traffic problem, but I have seen worse, e.g. in Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur.

Old Town of Bangkok

The old town of Bangkok really is quite different from its more modern neighborhoods. It is home to many of the cultural attractions such as the king’s palace, many temples, and museums. And all the small streets with its cafés, small shops, and restaurants, have its charm.

Going Out in the Old Town

Khao San Road is most likely Bangkok’s most famous road. During the day, the road is more or less calm with massage salons, restaurants, and some of street vendors. In the evening the street fills rapidly with tourists and at night there are many bars and discos attracting passing tourists with loud music and smiling Thai girls holding the menus. I guess it must be a great party location for younger and near deaf people, but for Ilinca and me, the music was way too loud. Besides, we are both still suffering from the jetlag these days.

However, only one or two blocks away there are other small streets with street food stalls and small restaurants, but without the noise from Khao San. After a tasty and spicy dinner from one of the food stalls, we had a fresh mango for dessert and later on a drink at a small café in one of the streets. We really enjoyed being outside in the pleasant temperatures in the evening (around 28° C).

The Grand Palace

Thailand is a monarchy, and as in other countries, there is at least one big palace for the king. This is no different in Bangkok where the former official palace of the king is located. The whole palace complex is very impressive and contains its own temple named Wat Phra Kaew, several former administration buildings, and of course the former residence of the royals. Especially the temple was very beautiful, even when parts of it were obstructed by construction work. Especially the murals (wall paintings) that were painted on a covered walk around the whole temple complex were very beautiful.

I was really impressed by the dimensions of the whole complex, but the masses of tourists that were flooding reduced the whole experience a bit. There were queues everywhere, when entering the palace, when buying the tickets, even when entering the temples and for taking pictures. After one hour of visiting, we were happy to leave the complex again.

Other Temples

Right next to the Grand Palace is a temple named Wat Pho. It is probably the most impressive of all the temples we have seen in Bangkok, and there were already a lot less visitors there, which made a visit much more pleasant.

There are so many temples in Bangkok’s old town, that it is almost impossible to visit them all. Ilinca and I visited at least 3 more and less know temples, and all of them were beautiful, but the more Buddha statues we saw, the more repeating each visit became. So I guess we had a slight overdose of temples in Bangkok, but for sure we will visit plenty more temples during our next weeks in Thailand.

Modern Bangkok

Modern Bangkok is a big contrast to the old town. There are sky trains and a metro, fancy hotels, shopping malls, and all the other conveniences you can find in a modern Asian metropolis. One thing modern Bangkok is really known for are its rooftop bars that provide a wonderful panorama about the vast dimensions of Bangkok. So one evening we also went up to one of these rather pricy roof top bars, but it was well worth it. Apart from the view, it was a welcome occasion to relax a bit and get out of the steamy and hot climate from down in the streets of Bangkok.

As we happened to be in Bangkok for New Year’s Eve, we decided to spend that evening at Asiatique, a shopping and entertainment complex directly at Chao Phraya, the main river that flows through Bangkok. It was an interesting experience. First we had a dinner in a small Indian restaurant, and then we sat at the river board with thousands of locals and tourists from all possible nations. And right at midnight, we could also enjoy some fireworks over the river. They were not the most impressive New Year’s fireworks I have ever seen, but it is the first time I could watch it in shorts and T-Shirts in tropical conditions. This made the whole experience very special.