Magnificent Ayutthaya!

Monday, May 18th 2009:
On that journey I had plenty of beach and nature so far- time for some sightseeing. Thailand's culture is very rich and there are plenty of choices when it comes to points of cultural interest. Bangkok has hundreds of temples, so do Sukothaiand Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya has a big advantage: It's very close to Bangkok. And of course it's much quieter than the vibrant capital.
The journey from Hua Hin to Ayutthaya turned out to be a long one as the train from Hua Hin to Bangkok needed unbelievable 5 hours for just 180 kilometers and another 2 from Bangkok to Ayutthaya.
This is the introduction of the wikipedia enty of Ayutthaya:
Ayutthaya (full name Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Thai: พระนครศรีอยุธยา, IPA: [pʰráʔ náʔkʰɔːn sǐː ʔajúttʰajaː]; also spelled "Ayudhya") city is the capital of Ayutthaya province in Thailand. The city was founded in 1350 by King U Thong, who went there to escape a smallpox outbreak in Lop Buri and proclaimed it the capital of his kingdom, often referred to as the Ayutthaya kingdom
or Siam. It is estimated that Ayutthaya by the year 1600 CE had a
population of about 300,000, with the population perhaps reaching
1,000,000 around 1700 CE, making it one of the world's largest cities at
that time.[1]
In 1767 the city was destroyed by the Burmese army, resulting in the collapse of the kingdom. The ruins of the old city now form the Ayutthaya historical park, which is recognized internationally as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was refounded a few kilometers to the east. The city is sometimes called "Venice of the East"
We had checked on the Internet for a nice guesthouse and chose The Lima Place as it had good recommendations.
So getting off the train we asked the Tuk Tuk driver to take us there. He offered to show us another location but since it was late already and we were tired sitting on a train we were not interested.On the wayI realized that what on the map looked like a walking distance from the city centre in fact wasn't.
At the gueshouse we were told that they had no elevator but a room downstairs. The room was big, no it was huge but lacked any charme. The beds were good though and we were tired so we stayed foe a night. The next morning I glimpsed out of the bathroom and realized we were in the middle of nowhere. Luck had a shower but the facilities were all too high for her, she must have felt like in a giant's cave:)
So we decided to check out. The Tuk Tuk driver gave us his mobile no. and showed us his relative's place. Suksan place was a nice simple guesthouse right in the city centre and the rooms were basic, but big and clean. And they were cheap! The owner Aus was very friendly and the minute I saw her I knew that I wanted to stay at her place.Luck's mood however was pretty bad and we had a discussion but in the end we decided to stay.
Her mood lifted again when Aus helped us to rent a small  but fine motorbike (Honda dream). I didn't think my balance was good enough to sit on a bike but Luck is a skilled driver and I trusted her. So in the following days we had a bike for ourselves and explored the city of Ayutthaya all by ourselves which was definetely more fun and saved money too.

Ayutthaya trip

♥Chris♥คริส | MySpace Video

back to civilazation

Friday,  May 15th 2009:

I had to prepare for the speed boat next morning. But this time I was prepared: I went to a pharmacy and spent a few Baht on pills against seasickness. If there is one thing that you can buy easily in Thailand then it's pills against  or for anything. I remember  once I bought some "diet pills" - actually it were amphetamines in a pharmacy next to the Full Moon Party 10 years ago....
Anyway, the pills did their job and the boat ride to Chumpon was smooth.Arrived at a pier and took a bus to the bus stop, another mototbike ride to another bigger bus stop anf bought a ticket for Hua Hin.
I was going to meet Luck there who came from Bangkok for the weekend.After an eventless journey of 2.5 hours I finally arrived. I took a Tuk Tuk to the Hotel that she had mentioned. Luck had bought a 2 nights for the price of 1 coupon at a travel fair in Bangkok.She was already waiting near the entrance:)
The hotel was pretty nice- first air-conditioned rooms I had seen since Bangkok.If I'm out in the nature I dont care too much about the room as long as it is clean but in the city it's quite important to me.
After taking a shower we went downtown to the walking street.
Hua Hin isn't a big city, not at all- but compared to the islands and Khao Sok it felt pretty noisy. I simply wasn't used to traffic anymore.
At the walking street we did some shopping and had dinner. God the food on the mainland is much better and more authentic than the westernized versions of Thai food at the beach.
On the weekend we explored Chopstick Mountain from where you have a nice view over Hua Hin before we took a slow train back to Bangkok on Sunday.

Ko Tao

Thursday, May 14th 2009:
Unfortunately Luck's long holiday was over and she had to return to Bangkok. So we decided to meet next weekkend in Hua Hin again, where she had already booked a hotel at a travel fair in Bangkok.
In the meanwhile I wanted to go to Ko Tao for a couple of days as I have never been there.
There was no ferry from Ko Phangan to Ko Tao so I had to take the speed boat. The ride was absolutely horrrible, I got seasick and was very relieved to have solid ground under my feet again.
I followed one of the touts and stayed one night at his bungalows. It was a nice one but for me being handicapped it was simply too far away from anywhere. I don't want to walk for a couple of miles just for a coffee.
So next day I checked out in the early morning and walked to the nearby Chalok Baan Kao. There were more tourists but alsao more facilities.I stayed at the Tropicana resort there. The bungalow was right next to the beach and reasonable priced. I met a bunch of nice Germans at a bar nearby and one day we spent a whole day together simply talking and drinking beer- lots of beer!
One of them used to work as a brewer in Thailand and was on holiday with his Thai wife. The other two were young students.
One of them gave me a ride on his ATV on the following day. For the small but hilly island of Ko Tao that's ideal for exploring the island. Another day I did a roundtrip on the boat around the islands but I couldn't do any snorkeling of course. All in all I had some nice, relaxing but not exciting and quite lonely days on the island and I was looking forward to meeting her again.

life is a beach!

Sunday, May 9th 2009:
We have been 1 week on the island now.Last Friday we left by minibus from Khao Sok to Surat Thani, which dropped us at a travel agency where we bought a ferry ticket to Ko Phangan. Had some lunch at the local market. A bus took us to the pier Don Sak which is about 1 hour ride from the town.
The ferry trip was slow and comfortable. It took about 2 hours from Don Sak to Ko Samui and another 30 mins to Ko Phangan. I worried that the weather might change. We were totally lucky with the weather in Khgao Sok, hardly anyrain, apart from a little rain the day before we left.
 But rainy season was knocking on the door and I remembered our last year's trip to Ko Chang where we had nonstop rain all the time. On the beach that is really annoying, you can't really do anything then. The sky wasn't that inviting...
The ferry ride gave the touts plenty of time to work on us. I have been to Ko Phangan several times and I knew were I wanted to go though. Most people go there for the famous full moon party in Had Rin and I wanted to be as far away from that as possible. Thong Nai Pan is a beautiful beach in the Northeast of tzhe island which matched these requirements. Only, it's hard and expensive to get there. It's the worst road on the whole island and they make you pay for it- so this is a place where you go and stay then once you are there.
I talked to another German couple who originally wanted to go to this beach too.

Thong Nai Pan
We decided to share a taxi to Thong Nai Pan. On the way there we befriended with the taxi driver, who told us that his wife had a Thai restaurant. Arriving at the beach we checked in at the bungalow that belonged to the woman who organized our taxi. We rented a rustic, simple bungalow right on the beach. I was surprised it was empty and quite cheap but at night I found out why: it was just next door to a beach bar!
After a short night and a coffee I paid the bill and checked out immediately. Last evening it was too late to go around and find a nice accomodation but now in the morning we could see everything clearly in daylight. Having seen a few resorts, some of them had free rooms although the full moon party was ahead we decided to stay at the lovely Dreamland resort. Since it was low season, the prices were more than acceptable and the room was 10 times better than the one we slept the night before.

Dreamland Resort
It was a one of their basic rooms for only 600 TBH due to low season but it had hot shower and was very clean:) They also served nice breakfast and a good Cappuccino there. For lunch and dinner we went to some other Thai restaurants on the road- I'm bored of these tourist-versions of Thai food mixed with burgers and sandwiches they serve at most resorts. The restaurant of our taxi driver's wife had excellent Thai food and good fish.

Luckily the weather got better and the sun came out on the third day so we had perfect beach weather. We usually got up very early to see the sun rise., which was worth that!.
They had a pool at the resort and even a poolbar. We went for a swim in the sea every day and once went canoeing to the neighbouring beach Thong Nai Pan Noi.

getting up at 6am and even 5:30 was hard but the beautiful sunrise on the beach was definetely worth it!



sun rise on Thong Nai Pan Beach, Ko Phangan(1)

♥Chris♥คริส | MySpace Video



sun rise on Thong Nai Pan Beach, Ko Phangan(2)

♥Chris♥คริส | MySpace Video

gibbon calls and elephants

Thursday, April 30th 2009:
Unfortunately Basti and Claudine had to leave on Monday to catch their flight from Krabi to Bangkok and then further to Hanoi. It was nice meeting them again and spending 2 and a half day together, especially in this very special place.
smiley bungalows lacked something however: Praiwan was on her business meeting at Ko Chang. Her staff tried their best but she's the hear and the soul of smiley's, always laughing, joking and making people feel at home in no time- I missed her. In fact I mainly always come back to Khao Sok because of her and her family.
Luckily the National Park offers a lot of activities: although I had lived several months there I had never experienced Khao Sok as a tourist, so this is what I did now being there with my girlfriend who had never been there. One day we went canoeing. The Khao Sok river can turn into a raging torrent in rainy season. You can cut your skin easily from the rapidly passing leaves. Beside, being handicapped I am a non-swimmer now. But I went down the river in a tube many a times, I know every turning of it. And in a canoe it's much easier anyway, I just have to sit in there and let the beautiful scenery pass by.

The water was low, very low. In fact I have never seen Khao Sok that dry. So the canoeing wasn't adventurous but it was still nice to see the beautiful nature.

The next day we went for a hike to the National Park by ourselves. I had done that a lot 10 years ago, but under my circumstances it was more of a walk than a hike this time. We left early at the bungalows and had a small breakfasat. Then we followed the road to the Park's entrance and from there the well beaten trail to the nearest waterfalls, which is about 4kms one way. Yet these 4 kms seem like 10 at least since it is very tiring walk. The humidity is unbelievable and made me sweat a lot. It took ages at my speed but finally we made it to the waterfalls. We hardly met any other tourists, neither did we spot many animals. But the sounds of the jungle were overwhelming, one could hear the call of the gibbon and the constant sounds of circades which was almost like an otchestra. When we finally reurned I was so hungry like I hadn't eaten for days.
 On Thursday I called Praiwan who told me that she was going to come today. She was on her way already. I asked her if I could do the elephant riding. I had doubts due to my bad balance but she encouraged me to try. And so I did. I love elephants, and the sight of this beautiful animal filled me with delight. I sat on one already, but that was 10 years ago and I didn't have a handicap that time.
Getting on it was easier than I thought but once sitting on it it was quite hard to hold on to it with only one hand. I decided to trust her, it was an experienced animal who went that way every day for about 25 years.

Riding through rubber plantations the trail got steeper and the elephant had to wade through deep water and climb some stones. It's incredible how surely they find their way matter what.

Elephant trekking @ Khao Sok N.P

♥Chris♥คริส | MySpace Video

travelling pics and videos

For those of you who are interested in seeing all my travelling pics and videos, here is the link to my Picasa gallery:
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lake tour!

Sunday, April 26th 2009:
Basti and Claudine had little time left before flying back to Vietnam and of course they wanted to see as much as possible. So we decided to do the lake tour this Sunday. The lake is the major attraction of the National Park.
Chieow Laan (Rachabrappha) Lake:
The park abounds in streams and waterfalls. In addition, since 1982, the park has been home to a 28 kilometre long lake, which at the time, formed behind the newly constructed Chieow Laan Dam.

When the dam was built, there was a major effort to save the animals whose habitats were flooded. This was achieved by evacuating them by boat and truck to other parts of the park.

Today, the edge of the reservoir provides one of the best places to spot wild animals such as hornbills, gibbons, barking deer, wild elephant and boar

. The lake and dam are known by two names - Chieow Laan and Rachabrappha. Staying at one of the floating rafthouses at the lake is an experience not to be missed.
Limestone karsts:
The majestic limestone cliffs (also called karsts), so emblematic of the landscape in this part of Thailand, were formed about 50 million years ago. They are also found along the sea coast of Krabi, in Phang Nga Bay, and inland in Surat Thani.

In China, karst formations are the main attraction of the Guilin region, the most visited part of the country because it inspired the famous Chinese mountain water scroll paintings.

At Khao Sok, these cliffs (known by the Thai people as the Guilin of Thailand) are adjacent to freshwater streams and rivers, and since the dam was built, they jut out dramatically from the water all over Chieow Laan Lake.

 It's pier is about 65 kilometers from the park entrance.After a small breakfast  a minivan picked us up at the bungalows and dropped us off 1 hour later at the pier  . I had done the lake tour several times before but it was my first time being handicapped to do it.It was fairly easy to get on the boat, I was quite surprised After about1 hour on the boat we reached the raft house and had lunch there. I was going to stay at the rafthouse, there was no way for me going into the caves. I had done it before, it's very dark, sometimes it's slippery and sometimes you needed to swim through the cave. Not acceptable conditions for me. Just 2 years ago a whole group of tourists drowned in the caves as they ignored the warning signs at the rafthouse and the park ranger's advice telling them NOT to enter the cave.

 When it starts raining the level of the water rises quickly in the cave. That's how they must have died. But we were lucky: the sun was burning and there was not a single cloud in the sky to be seen. So I stayed behind at the raft house and they went for the cave.

 That's why you won't see any pictures of me there.Nevertheless  I enjoyed being by the lake a lot.After almost 3 hours hiking and going through  the cave they came back with excited expressions in their faces.After another hour boat ride back and a small shopping tour at a market in  nearby town Takhun on our way home we arrived happily but tired at the bungalows in the evening. Being on the lake is an unforgettable day! We were quite lucky with the weather too: apart from not being able to go through the cave when it is raining a full day on the lake is not fun when being soaking wet.

meeting old friends

Saturday, April 25 2009:
Things change quickly, especially in Asia. So did Khao Sok. When I came here for the first time back in 1999 there were about 6 bungalow places and there wasn't even a paved road. Travellers used to come by public bus. Nowadays most people come with organized tours by minibus from Phuket, Pha Nga, Surat Thani or Krabi, there is more than 30 places to stay, the road has been paved of course and there are 3 mini marts. Some changes are quite useful; like there is an ATM now so one doesn't need to waste half a day to go to Takua Pa (40km) to get some money. I asked my host Praiwan about Internet and she told me I could use her wifi- quite comfortable! As for the speed I was pretty surprised : no highspeed Internet but fast enough to upload videos.
Luckily there is no 7/11 yet and they closed the Karaoke bar again that had been opened a couple of years ago. People still come here to enjoy nature's beauty and not to party. You'll find less English people here;)
People and nature are still the same- that's why I keep coming back. By the way, the pin on the map is wrong, it's not in Pha Nga province but still in Surat Thani province.
I walked up and down a few places and talked with some of my Thai friends. Most people know me very well there, not all know my name but everyone knows my face. Altogether I spent about 7 months in Khao Sok, most tourists just stay for 2 or 3 nights when they are on their way from one coast to another.
I just talked to some tourists at the bungalows when a truck came from the bus stop to drop off some more tourists. It turned loud now  as it was my friend Basti- the one living in Vietnam- and his wife Claudine. We didn't see each other for about 2 years. It was a great joy to meet them again now. My girlfriend and Claudine got along wvery well instantly. Claudine is from the Ivory coast . She speaks French and had learnt perfect German in the past years. Now she has to learn a new language again- at least English is easier. She has a very charming way and I think that's why the girls got along so well.
Basti and me had a beer. I had to do a recovery on my netbook, which is annoying anyway but being on a travel it is a pain in the ass. Luckily I had saved all my files on a memory stick too!
Later we decided to go for a small hike. They wanted to go to the water hole. It's a short way but there is no proper trail. For me being handicapped it was quite a challenge- in fact without my friends I couldnt have done it.Finally we made it to the water hole and I was sweating all over. It was obvious for me that I couldn't make this way back, I can't swim neither but I would have prefered crossing the river to going back. I had an idea- just across the river opposite the water hole there was a resort. I asked Basti if he could borrow some tubes there.The people over there knew me too and they gave us a canoe, so Basti helped us across the river one by one. We returned the canoe and had dinner at the Thai herb restaurant on our way back