The first weeks – not study yet;)
Oi. I wrote this on June 22, guess I forgot to post it. Sorry.
Alright, here’s some news, finally. I am, in fact, still alive. Uni has started last week so that may serve as an excuse for not writing. Even more so, we enjoy the company of our first Couchsurfers. Just before leaving for the South I changed my address and am now receiving requests every day!
So what has happened so far?
First week I spent in Bangkok, (successfully) trying to grasp the vibe of this place. People say it takes about a week to start liking Bangkok. And it really does! 7
Week two I finally left for some nature. Went to Sukhothai, which is a town about 6 hours north of Bangkok with lots (really lots) of old Wats (Temples). It used to be the political center around 1300, a time at which Europe was still deep at its middle ages. Also I had an awesome guest house. Bamboo huts sitting over a rice field. Just so relaxing. If there hadn’t been all those mosquitoes …
From there it was up to Chiang Mai. Everyone who goes north goes to Chiang Mai, and honestly, I didn’t like it very much. Just a big city, with, indeed, a few hills around – but that’s it. The city itself is quite flat and crowded with cars and people. I did meet up with Aut here, so we spent the night and went on further to Pai the next day.
Pai is a nice place just in the mountains, a village full of travelers indeed, but in a nice and relaxed way. It is a much better place to start a trekking tour as well. Which is what we did, after discovering the surroundings by bike the first day. And this is what it looks like:
You see – hills and waterfalls and nature. And lots of bars and restaurants waiting for the traveler’s to spend their nights. The night air in Pai is actually remarkably cooler – something you cannot take for granted in Thailand (I am writing this at 11pm and it is still 28 outside). A day later, I had to return to Bangkok as Jonas was about to arrive (actually, he had already) so he could move into our apartment.
Well, the following days we met up with Sutisa, our always helpful coordinator at university, got all the paperwork done. Checked which of our chosen courses are actually being offered. Soon all that was done and our flat looked a bit more like people are actually living in it (though the fact that we rented a furnished apartment didn’t make this a very big task).
Time to go South – got on the night train to Krabi Suratthani, a place where you find some very helpful annoying people who make sure you take the right their bus to your destination. Hasn’t happened to me any other place though, to give credit to Thailand!
Well, look at those pictures – that’s more the Thailand you have imagined, isn’t it? Hat Ray Lee is a peninsula, one that, according to my guidebook, used to be just extremely beautiful with all the little rocks in the sea, the big rocks but on land and the beaches around all that. Further the book said it was now just overrun with people enjoying the beauty of it. Well, not so beginning of June, where people believe it’s rainy season (true) and it is raining all the time (not true).
I finally tried rock-climbing, which was fun but also very exhausting when you use your arms instead of your legs (as I did). Went to a lagoon (not blue, contrary to popular belief, rather muddy), but surrounded by rocks which involved some fun climbing parts. Got bit by some jellyfish while trying to swim around a cliff at night (trying to save a 45min hike). Visited bats in a cave (last picture).
Sorry, this is more just listing what I did, sorry, will write more in separate articles later! So from there we decided to continue to Ko Phi Phi, the island popular from LDC’s The Beach. Yes, it is very beautiful, for a few days, but I don’t want to imagine what it’d be like in High Season. We went on a one-day snorkeling trip. The first time I’ve done that and didn’t expect toomuch, but it was awesome! It’s like a different world under water that you just can’t see without those plastic glasses!
No underwater camera was available, so only water from far up above;) Actually, on Raylee we had been paddling around on the sea – I had to realize that two plastic bags are not a sufficient protection for a digital camera. It started to work after drying for two days, but eventually the salt started its work, turning off the flash, the display and later autofocus (which is when i decided I had to get a new camera) …
Finally, after lots of days near the beach, I needed more nature – Khao Sok National Park has rainforest and marked paths, so you don’t need a guided tour. I took a boat to Phuket, didn’t like it and immediately switched to the Bus going North, ended up in Takua Pa, a little but once-important town with nice people and no busses east after 5pm. Local kids at the internet cafe enjoyed reading my mails with me while I enjoyed practicing the few Thai words i could speak yet. I was surprised at how efficient I became answering mails that day, with someone watching every action of mine … !
Khao Sok was great, though too little time. Almost empty though, had all the forest to myself. Still, except for a giant turtle and a giant number of leeches (mental note: when they sell leech-protective socks, they probably don’t do it just to make money …)
From there, after two days, I took the night bus back to Bangkok. Not a good idea, I am sure the landscape is breathtaking, there must have been a lot of hills and mountains around us. Unfortunately it was dark and I could just feel all those curves which our bus driver took without making much use of the brakes … I felt very rested when we finally arrived at 5am;)
Now university is about to start on Monday, wow …
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