leaving on a jetplane

Thursday, April 16h 2009:
better late than never! Finally I found a nice website to write a travel blog and to share it with my friends on myspace, facebook and twitter-followers.
So this is my blog about my last years travel to Thailand.In thefuture I'll write on the blogs during the travels and not afterwards...
 It was my 6th travel to this amazing country already and I was better prepared than usually. I had already done a booking for the night of my arrival at my favourite guesthouse in Banglamphu, the Lamphu House.
I was lucky being able to fly at all that time: A few days before my departure I fell badly on the floor: I have to explain at this point that I'm handicapped since I had a stroke back in 2002 and that I would not have been able to travel with a broken arm, although it's good-for-nothing. But luckily it wasn't broken- I had it checked at the hospital. Very much relieved I followed the news in Bangkok. Situation was pretty bad. All of a sudden there were riots in the streets of Bangkok, 2 people died and the ministry of foreign affairs didn't warn but suggested not to go if it is not necessary. Of course it was a necessity as it was a matter to my heart  I was going to see my Thai girlfriend after 8 months again.
Having things cleared things with the ministry of foreign affairs and the insurance I decided to go and not to get in trouble.
Mom drove me to the airport, she always does.The flight was quite ok, 6 hours to Dubai , a 3 hour stopover there and 6 more hours from Dubai to Bangkok. Being a smoker not having smoked for more than 15 hours is unbearable for me. So at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, first thing to do was to go for one of these nasty smoker cabins. I intended to take a taxi from the airport straight to my guesthouse and met another German guy in the smoker's cabin, who overheard my conversation and suggested to share the price of a taxi- even better!
It was his first travel alone and first trip to Asia, so being an experienced Thailand-traveller I decided to guide him a little bit around in the first days.
45 mins later we arrived at the guesthouse that I had made a booking for already and Peter decided to stay there as well for the first night. The guesthouse is only 5 mins away from crazy Khao San road, but it's quiet and the superior rooms are quite nice. Got a balcony, which is hard to find in Bangkok at this price. Having checked in I bought a Thai SIM card for my mobile so I could call my honey and my Thai friends at low cost. Peter also bought one so we could stay in touch on our travel. Now it was definetely time to have a beer: we had a stroll to Khao San road, where they were still celebrating Songkran, Thai New Year and the beginning of the rainy season. For this occasion it is custom to splash each other with water. When I had my first beer I was already soaking wet. Unbelievable there had been riots just around the corner only a few days ago...
I had almost forgotten how hot and humid Bangkok is and drinking a beer turned my lights out, I had another one with Peter at the guesthouse and went to bed early- I was feeling tired after the flight.