Christmas caught me finally

Friday was my last day at Ko Tao and I mostly spent it with shopping, some kind of late Christmas shopping for myself. I decided to complete my diving equipment so I won´t have to rent anything in my next stops. I bought a Buoncy Control Device (BCD = Tarierungsweste), a 5mm Neoprene Suite and some smaller toys. My BCD has many rings for connecting toys, I can attach my inflatable marker buoy, knife, compass, emergency pipe and drawing board to it and then look quite professional.... You know, Boys love toys.. Will make a picture with my complete equipment at my next diving place and post it here. One of the divers got an underwater camera, here you could see some ko tao creatures, a funny german whale, my first shark (bull-shark) and a moray:




Unfortunately I also had to buy a big bag, because these new things are spacey and I don´t have enough space left in my bags. Now I have to carry one very big bag for diving equipment only, one very big bag for the rest and a carry on bag with my laptop.

Trying on 5mm full length Neoprene Suits is not funny with these temperatures
here. The shop had Air Condition but anyway... And when these are new they are also not slippery. I had to put plastic bags over my hands and feet's to be able to get my hands through the sleeves . And then standing there with a red head and hearing some funny comments like "now you could release some air out of it" isn´t funny at all... I hate buying business suits but buying diving suits is even worse.

Greetings to the Taa Toh Lagoon Team http://www.taatohdivers.com and many thanks for the dive fun there:



When I arrived at Ko Samui I had 40kg bag weight now I am pretty sure to have 55+kg. I am really curious how much overweigth baggage charge I have to pay. The downside of all these shopping is that I´ve lost some traveling flexibility. From now on I have to use taxis or rented cars to transport my things. Bus or anything else would not work.

At night went to a Thai style restaurant where I had a Korean Style BBQ with prawn, octopus and meat. Luckily the hot and spicy sauces came by the side so I could control the spicyness.

On Saturday had to get up early to pack all my stuff and went to the pier to travel with the boat back to Ko Samui. Now is high season here, there are much much more people on the boat compared to 12 days ago. Went straight to the Airport in Ko Samui and check in my bags. I hoped to get an earlier flight to Bangkok but this was impossible, everything was booked out So I had to wait 6 hours. And my flight was also 3 hours delayed, so in total 9h grrrrrrrr. I was really worried to miss my connection flight, but made it, my bags arrived early at the belt and there where no waiting queues at the counters and security checks.

Finally Christmas caught me at Ko Samui Airport. There was a big christmas tree, an artificial one of course and they where playing christmas music the whole time, roundabout 10 songs and then start over from the beginning. I asked them to change, christmas was over, their answer: "no have, christmas and new year music together..." I got a little angry, always the same happy music while looking at the departure flight board and seeing my flight delayed 1h, then 2h then 3h..... and starting to calculate, if I could get my connection flight....



My stay in Thailand was very nice, I saw impressive buildings and art in Bangkok, had fun in Ko Samui with my friend and became an advanced diver in Ko Tao. The people here are very friendly and relaxed, the food is very good and the culture is very different than mine. I will come back some day and explore more of Thailand.
I am a little sad to leave but on the other hand I am glad to see my Aunts in Melbourne. This will be my first visit there, last time I saw them was 2005 when they visited Munich for the Oktoberfest.

Night dive

Thursday 27th was mostly filled with diving. First a fun dive, then a course dive where I did some navigation with a compass. Under water everything is different and its really easy to get lost. So you have to use different techniques to find your way: The shades of the sun, the knowledge of the geography, a compas, a depth meter, a boye rope etc... Did some calibration test, how long do I need for 30m with normal speed and how many fin cycles I have to use. Then did some compass navigation and luckly ended more or less at my starting point.
The hightlight of this day was my first night dive. Jumping into a dark water is a little scary, I also wore my head mask which silences any noise. This strengthened the impression of a silent and sleeping night reef. The reef looks totally different at night, only a few fish there, most of them hidden and sleeping. If you shut down the light.... which is a little scary too you see some glowing plankton but the funniest thing is swimming without light short above the reef. Then the movement of your fins is reflected by glowing particles at the reef.... this was coooool. We were also really lucky to find a sleeping turtle at the ground, this was also the first one, I saw here. When we swam back we saw here going up to breath. I also saw my first small octopus, my favorite fish. Its really funny to watch them moving around the reef. They are quite intelligent and could be also curious. A friend told me a story, when he was watching a bigger one, this one came close and inspected him, even touched his equipment..
At night went with the wife of the dive shop owner to a real thai restaurant, which was some sort of garage in front of the living room of the owners. The restroom of the restaurant was their private restroom ;-) We had 3 dishes, one little spicy for me, one medium spicy which I could not eat and one I even did not try because too many chili seeds. Even the Thais where breathing heavily, another indication for me not to try it.

Exploring Ko Tao and Dive course

On Tuesday 25th I skipped diving, had minor problems with my ears. Decided to rent a motorbike and to explore the island. This should not be very difficult, I had a map and the island is small. What I have learned.. if a road is marked with dots in a map its not really a road, here you see the proof:

Second lesson: The island is not flat, the highest altitude is about 400m and this means the roads are going up and down, which can be difficult and dangerous because of some slippery sand.

Stopped at a nice Thai restaurant for lunch with a great view:

Wanted to go to this bay after lunch but ended at another bay which was much nicer:



This one is called Tanote Bay and is an ideal place to do a beginners course for diving. It is only connected with a very bad road, if you stay there you stay there the whole time.....
Did some snorkeling there to cool down my body after this exhausting biking. Saw a big Trigger fish (Drückerfisch) when I swam around a rock and went very close. These fishes could be agressive and have strong teeth, you should take care, when you see them under water. No one wears a helmet here, only a few "falangs" (= foreigners). And its also left side driving... better not drink too much and always keep concentrated, there are some dogs running around as well.

Nearly all houses here have their personal shrine, which is refilled with fresh food and drinks daily. If you pass bye a shrine you should fold your hands and make a bow. This is a very nice one:


Found out, that Hugo, my house gecko which is also living at my bungalow is not alone, he has a smaller wife. Funny, I see him every night at one side of my bungalow. At the restaurant above I saw some very fast running ants and when I looked closer saw, that these ones are looking quite aggressive.







On Wednesday did 2 dives for my course, first one was planning a dive with different depths and second was buoyancy control. For that I had to swim through small rings without touching anything which is not easy. Had to swim head up, head down feet ahead, etc... You have to control your depth only with your breathing, if you mastering it you have the feeling of flying under water without gravity .... feels great...
These where my first dives where I have frozen, when I came back had a spicy hot noodle soup and went sleeping. After a nap felt better. Spent the evening at the beachbar updating my blog and learning some dive theory for tomorrow.

christmas and advanced diving

My christmas day started like all the other days. Some diving in the morning and then relaxing. First dive was my second deep dive (30m), one diver in our group had problems going down so we had to wait for him which is bad, because the dive time clock is running very fast at 30m... Went the third time to chumpon pinnacle, one of the nicest places. The best impression there were two big groupers (zackenbarsch) standing still at the reef edge and us swimming through a swarm of yellow striped fish. Second dive was bad, no visibility, lost one buddy team because one was running out of air and they had to go up, also lost my buddy... This was the worst dive so far.
These deep dives are very exhausting for me, slept long in the afternoon. When i walked up to my bungalow I felt like drunk, the shaky way amplified this feeling. The sense of balance of the human body is controled by the ear and the pressure at 30m is huge, I think my drunk feeling was a side effect of my deep diving.
Late afternoon I rented a motorbike and rode to the biggest beach here, where i spent the night first doing a nice beachwalk, then eat some freshly grilled red snapper with the nice view over the bay. The day ended with a nice cocktail at a beach lounge. Watched the scenery, some fireworks, some lighted balloons, very relaxed and easy christmas. Forgot the memory card of my camera, so i could take no pics, too bad, the bars here formed some beautiful sand sculptures with fire, hope to take some pics in the next few days.
I decided to do an advanced diving course in the next 2-3 days, my last days here. So this time is well spent and my further diving will be much easier because then I will be diving with advanced groups and with divers with experience. Its also cheap here, have to pay roundabout 160 euros for the course including all dives and I already did one of the 4 mandatory dives (deep).

I wish you all a merry christmas and hope you enjoy the time with your families and friends.

no christmas trees and fun with years

Yesterday I did 2 easy dives in the morning, nothing special, nothing spectacular. Now everything is running smootly. Collection the equipment, preparing everything, buddy check and go. Here you can see me ready to jump over board:



I was diving at shark island but no sharks there, the name comes from the form of the island. Its too shallow there and has not enough fish. At night my dive school made some BBQ at the beach. This was nice and only disturbed by a small dogfight. These dogs here are normally friendly and calm, I thought the fighting started because we had some food there.

When I look around my bay i noticed that here we have no christmas trees. Also I don´t hear christmas music and the weather fits also not to the christmas I know, so this year everything is different and this year no christmas for me.....

Thailand has a different counting of the years, for them this year is 2550. They started their counting with a king. So if you see something in the supermarket with an expiration date of 52 or 2552 dont be surprised ;-) Thai people are very superstitous, some things bring luck, some bad luck. They have many shrines in their streets where they sacrifice some food and drinks. I am quite sure that most of that will be eaten by animals. And if you walk with someone you sometimes have to cross roads because ahead is for example a corner of a house which brings bad luck.

Today did some snorkling at the neighbouring freedom beach, a very nice place which has a reggae bar. I am lucky not to have a bungalow there, reggae is not my favorite music and to hear that the whole day long.... I prefer my quiet balcony, where you hear some crickets and some birds. This is very different than Ko Samui, there I heard no animals, only the loud rotating fan.
Tomorrow I will dive again at the place where I saw my first shark, hopefully he or another one will be there again. I am also thinking of doing some special diving, probably night diving or early morning diving. At that time the underwater life is different. Fishes are also sleeping and you can see night-active fishes at that time. For night diving i have to get over some natural fears of mine because I have to jump into dark water and see only what is lighted with my underwater flashlight. In two days will be full moon, so it will be brigher than normal, probably I will do the night dive then. The water is quite nice today, look here at the green water. The two bungalows at the right are under construction, of course this place is not secured with a fence or similar things.

ko tao diving

On Monday 17th I changed islands, now I am at Ko Tao. Its about 2 h with high speed boat north of Ko Samui, a much smaller island without airport and a divers paradise. There are nearly 40 dive schools here and people all over the world come here for diving. Divers are cool and sometimes strange people. I stay in a funny bungalow resort, they have small bungalows here in a cozy bay which are connected with wooden pathways on stilts. They also go upwards and it can be slippery when its raining. Of course they are not secured and pretty narrow, so i have to take care, especially when its dark. Good that I brought my headlight with me.
My bungalow has a private balcony with a hammock and a nice view over the bay, especially the sunset here its great.



Inhabitant Nr. 3 of my bungalow is Hugo, a small gecko (20cm). He takes care of the outside walls and is active at night.


Did my first dive at a rock 200m around the corner. When we dived we saw a big nylon fishing net under water. First we thought that its a lost one and tried to collect it but then we found out that its active and connected to a fishing boat. My guide decided to go up and talk to the fishermen. He asked the Thai fishermen if they want to kill us? They were just smiling at us, I don´t know if they don´t understood us or not. I learned from that, that I have to buy a knife and keep it with me on dives, these nets can be very dangerous and if you stuck in there, its nearly impossible to get out.
On Wednesday was my big diving day, started with my first deep dive (30m). At that level many things are changing, for example you need more air and have problems with simple things. I did a simple pointing test with my instructor, which was ok but i failed with an easy calculation like (32+26):2
After that we ascended and dived round a rock. There I saw my first shark, a small bullshark (1,5m) He was swimming very elegant; its a shame that many of them are caught only because of their fins. My girl stayed at the boat and got seasick. Second dive was also a very nice one, we swam through some tunnels and caves.
Got back at 13h, went eating something at the beachbar and then I relaxed a "little" bit in the hammock. Slept roundabout 4hours!!, this diving costs really much power especially when you go deep and see many interesting things. At night we went with some people from the diveschool to a nice restaurant with thai BBQ and some relaxing music.
Thursday I did 2 easy dives in the morning, learned the theory and the important things to consider for deep diving and got my certificate. Stayed at home, it was raining short but very intensive. Good for updating my blog and writing some emails. The heaviest rain month here is November, then the roads are completley flooded, you even cannot go with bike, too high water.
Time to go to bed now.. tomorrow I will also do some diving...

tricky waves and fun with girls

On Sunday the weather was not so good, medium size waves, some wind, cloudy but still hot. In the afternoon i decided to go swimming, was a little tricky to get in and when i went out a big wave hit me and i fell down. Nothing happened, these waves are not so huge, but I underestimated their power. Afterwards did a walk at the beach and chatted with a group of 4 girls. We had fun I helped them to get in contact with walking-by"falangs", thats how foreigners are called here. Went eating with them at the food court, this is a place where you have many open stands with different food, you choose what you want and they serve it to a area, where you can sit. Opposite are some open gogo-bars, the girls from there also came to this food place. A funny place to sit and watch, we had much fun together identifying the true ladies and the ladyboys.
Then we went together to a true thai fun place, a karaoke bar. We got a separate room with a shabby sofa and selected some songs from a dictionary (of course everything was pirated, thats for sure because i only had to pay 2 euros/hour for the room rent). They persuaded me also to sing, so I had to select some and was not lucky because my songs had so bad quality that the picture was unstable and vanishes during the song. I am very bad with lyrics and need the text to sing. So I had to improvise during the time with the missing text. I was quite sure, that they had more fun than me. One of the girls was really good, nice voice, good performance. Of course they selected Thai music, I was not able to understand a single word. The lyrics where sometimes in latin letters but mostly in thai letters. The videos where very funny too, these Asian people have a different culture.
On monday went for breakfast in a fruit store, the fresh mangos here are very tastefull. I decided that I have spent enough time on this island and now its time to do some diving. The weather has changed, we had blackmoon last night. Now small waves and mixed cloudy sunny.
I was thinking about booking this resort: www.kotaoresort.com but ended up with this one: www.taatohdivers.com Much cheaper and looks also good. As I have written before, you can have everything in Thailand for every price category. In my case 600 instead of 3000 Bath, or 12 euros instead of 60. In this resort they have german speaking staff, also the dive guides speak german. I did all my diving in german, therefore i am not so familiar with the specific dive vocabulary and also not with the english fish names.
I will take the normal ferry to go there, this one is a little slower but much safer. There are some speed boats which are really fast, but not so safe and I prefer safety.

dive trip and election sideeffects

Yesterday I did my first dive trip with a boat. It had two decks, the lower one with the dive equipment and the upper one for the stay. It was crowded, 22 divers and 11 crew and guides. When I booked the trip, the lady told me its 1,5h hours but of course it was longer, over2,5h. Taxi pickup from my hotel was at 7.00h not my preferred time... The weather was not so good, it was raining and we had some waves. They offered sea-sickness pills onboard I only took one for lunch. I was not satisfied with the some things, for example one guy showed a damaged diving card with a missing picture and they let him dive. But of course its mainly everyone else responsibility. I was diving in a group of 4 with a guide. The guide had to bring one diver back to the boat after 15mins because he had blood in his mask. It came from the nose, probably the pressure under water was to strong. The diver did not see this and the guide was more scared than he. We went to a small rock which could be surrounded easily in 40mins. Bud we didnt make it because of the diver. And when we went to the other side i saw that my dive buddy was running out of air so we all had to go back. Lunch on the boat was difficult, I drank some salty sea water when we got out of the water and the boat was lying parallel to the waves. I tried to eat a little bit but felt not well. Then i decided to eat one of this sea sickness pills. Got better then.
The second dive was ok but also very short, 40mins. We saw nothing exiting, a blue dotted stingray, some morays, some barracudas. I was concentrating much on myself, keeping the altitude and checking everything. Then 2,5 h back with the boat and also 1 h with the taxi to my hotel where i finally arrived at 18.30h. Long day so far, eat a little and took a nap.

Afterwards wanted to go in the city for some beer.... but no beer at all, all bars were closed!!! But it was no bank holiday or any other special day... it was ELECTION DAY.
They are closing here all amusement areas when they held elections, imagine this in germany or elsewhere in the world. You can buy some beer in the supermarket and drink it in your room but all bars are closed. If we would introduce that in bavaria, probably the CSU would loose their majority because the people had to go with a clear mind in the election cabin.
And even worse, the elections here are long, from friday till sunday 18h. No party this weekend, poor me. :-( And there are other elections are on dec. 23th.These are the more important country-wide elections, hope nothing happens here. Thailand right now has a military government. Good to know this in advance...
Today the weather is not good, cloudy with heavy waves which reach the beginning of the beach bar. Will do a beach walk later with a headband and of course its a good time for updating my blog and get a massage etc... The other guys here in my hotel have no problem with the weather, they do their drinking games no matter whats going on...

diving refreshing

Today I did a diving course in the pool to refresh my knowhow. Luckily it was not so hot, so i only had to wear a shorty suit. Its amazing, how much things I forgot until i dived last time. This was in February 2007 in Egypt. After the course and the training sessions in the pool were finished, it began to rain heavily, no good timing....
When i did the lessons, everything went smootly and the memory came back fast. Now i know how good my education in Egypt was, here its not so detailed and cautious compared to the course of my dive club in munich. I had to buy a adapter for my equipment, here they have a different standard. I am also thinking about completing my equipment, because only two parts are missing, the suit and the jacket. The suit is cheap but the jacket is expensive. Don´t know what i will do, have to sleep about it. I hate to go shopping for business suits and go shopping for diving suits its even worse, imagine trying out some 5mm neopren in a hot enviroment directly under the roof. Believe me, the wet suite was wet from the inside after a couple of minutes.
For tomorrow I have booked a dive excursion to sailrock, this is a reef 1,5 hours with boat north from here, taxi pickup at hotel is at 7h in the morning, thats hard.... But for the nice things in life you always have to pay something; in this case getting up early is the price.
Today i had lunch at the main road, which is outside lamai beach, i had a soup, the main dish, a beer and a ice tea and paid less than 2 euros. At the beach i have to pay 1,5 euros for the beer alone...
On the other side its no problem to pay 12euros for a steak alone in some restaurants, thats thailand you can have everything here at every price level, its up to you what you choose. You can sleep at some simple beach huts for 3 euros/night or at a private villa for 3000 euros/night.
Here at the beach some small fireworks took place everyday and they also fly these lighted ballons with a fire inside. Very romantic, because the beach and the sky right now is very dark so these ballons can be seen for a long time and a long distance.
Time is running fast, now its day 9 of my trip and munich and germany is far far far away from my mind....

ko samui fun

On Tuesday i enjoyed a relax day. Hanged out at the beach, tried to snorkel but with a viewing distance of half meter not real fun. Tonight i will contact a dive school to see where its better. From what i have been told, Ko Tao should be one of the best places for diving. Its about 2h away with boat. Thinking about going there for some days. The water is very warm, about 27 degrees. Perfect for relaxing. Ko Tao should be more beautiful with nicer beaches, talked with some swedish guys who has been there.
In the afternoon i tried out first time in my life a jet ski boat -- wow. I got one with 145hp and the meter showed 65. Dont know of knots or km but anyway it was really really fast and I did not went to the limits. I waited until there have been no waves in the sea otherwise it would have been very bumpy.
Afterwards got a thai massage, perfect for relaxing after this "work". The timing was a little too late, because its was getting dark and the sand flies appeared. Very small flies which bite. And lying at the beach for the thai massage i was a good target for these insects. Too bad they have it here. Especially because at night the restaurants put some chairs and fire places at the beach for dinner. Looked quite romantic but without girl and with flies .......
The had some BBQ at my place with fresh fish and nice steaks. So far i was not dissapointed by the Thai food. The people here at my place are special. Some of them live here most time of the year, some come here for a power holiday: Alcohol, smoking, trash talk and girls.

I think i will come back some day but then for exploring the northern part of Thailand.
Have fun!

On Sunday i had to get up very early to get to the airport. 1 hour drive with taxi is normal, i was lucky because it was sunday morning and did it in half an hour.
I flew to Ko Samui with Bangkok Airways, they have a nice lounge with funny things to eat. It was something wrapped in green leaves, first i bite into the leaves but it was too hard so i unwrapped it and ... surprise surprise it was sweet rice with raisins.

After one hour flight I arrived at Ko Samui International Airport. My friend told me to took a minibus, then i will have no stress with the local taxi mafia. The streets are not so good here, I will also not rent a bike. The guys here told me, that here its very dangerous to drive: left side traffic, sand on streets, drunk drivers etc etc. Roundabout 400 people die here every year.

Finally arrived at Mui Bungalows, my stay. First i got a not so nice room, but was able to change. Its very hot so i had to switch on aircon up to the time when i sleep. Then during the night the fan is ok.

In the evening Ralph showed me the main attractions. Here in Lamai beach is one street with everything, shops, restaurants, food courts, bars etc.
The gogo bars are in side streets but also at the main road. The girls there only speak with you (hello welcome, come in hello hello hello), dont touch you. So i had no problems with them.....



Luckily the english "bye" is the same in thai and means a rough "leave me alone". It works perfectly.
The restaurants are nice. You see the fresh fish in ice water and can choose what you want. They grill it in alu foil and add any type of spices you want. I never tried the real thai food because i am sure my mouth would get fire.

On Monday i had a relax day, sleeped long then pool bar and a long walk at the beach. You can have all sorts of accommodation here from 3 euros a night to over 3000euros. I got a light sunburn because i forgot to cream my neck.

You see many single men here some with very small and thin thai girls some not. I have been told that if you want a girl you should check her first. Not every thai girl started her/his life as a girl. And the docs here are artists i have been told. Here are some girls from a travestie show, on the bars they have much more beautiful ones.


At night i went to a irish pub with some live music. The band started horribly but ended great.

I survived Bangkok!! Yesterday i visited the National Museum and the Golden Mount, which is a sacred hill with a golden temple at the top. From there you can see over the city, i wonder if there a days which show a clear sky. Its interesting to see the old traditional houses and the new skyscrapers very close together. From the hill i wanted to see another temple which should have been close, so i decided to walk... Very bad idea, i had to walk at a very small edge of a very crowded street and its not fun to inhale the exhaust of dozends of Tuktuks. And it was also very hot, my throat become sour. Many tuktuk drivers wear a face mask to avoid their own exhaust. I read in my travel book that on busy streets the air pollution is so high that it is really damaging the health of the people. This is one of the downsides of this city. A plus is the friendliness and I really liked the thai massage, tried out different ones which was really relaxing. Especially a foot massage after a sightseeing trip is vvvveeerrryy good. And of course i fold asleep and woke up snooring :-) This not only happens at the sauna of my sports club in munich!! The food is also very nice. I tried out the food from the street merchants even some strange things which was dry fish but looked like dry bat. Tasted like a very salted skin. It was grilled so i was not afraid to eat it. And i survided that without problems... They have very small oranges here and the juice is very sweet, never had such sweet orangejuice before.
In the afternoon i went to a big shopping area. This was really amazing. Inside i looked like an american mall, all the major brands have been there. The only difference are the people. The thai womens are worried about their skin. I saw cream with withener. And they use make up to look brigher. Outside are many streets with shops and the shops are sorted by the streets. I had problems getting back to the hotel, it was a little far away with heavy traffic and only the forth taxi driver took me back home. He offered me a very special flat price (300 Bath) i insisted on the meter and paid finally 60.
The bangkok airport is really huge and very new. On my way there i saw another parade for the kings birthday. Today is sunday, the birthday was 4 days ago and they still celebrate him. On the street i passed some arches which have been decorated with gold and pictures of him at young age. It is visible everywhere how the thais love their king. Big posters (very big!!!) and flags everywhere.
Thats it for so far. Byebye....

Finally I started my trip. Saying bye-bye to my mother and my family was a little hard......
If you ever think about what to take with you for such a long time.. i had the same problem and ended up with this:

I arrived at Bangkok at the day where the king celbrated his 80th anniversary (december 5th). And it was not only the king.... many many people around the streets. Nearly all of them weared yellow shirts, some pink ones. With this pic you could imagine how it was looking like:
These are the colors of the king. I was lucky to arrive early. If it would have been later I really would have been problems to reach my hotel. It is close to the place where all the ceremonies had happened.
Yesterday i wanted to visit the kings palace but it was closes. This happens when officals visit the king. And of course yesterday that happened. So I only was able to see the temple close to the kings palace. This one was very beautiful, it has a small green jade buddah inside. This one protects the monarchy and the kings family.
Today i visited the palace and some other temples. Its really amazing how detailed crafted and beautifull they are. I meet two guys from australia and we visited the temples together. We wanted to meet tonight again for the entertainment street Kaosan but i missed them because i stuck in the traffic with a taxi. The traffic here is really bad. You can either choose to ride a bike, this means to sit behind a driver. This is the fastest way to get from one point to another. But also the most dangerous one because these guys drive like crazy. They also have some special family bike as you can see here. Now a riddle for you: How many people can be transported with a bike.. Have fun counting:



Up to now i have not used them. The other possiblity is to use a TUKTUK which is a three wheel bike, the driver in front and a bank in the back for up to three persons... or up to 6 Thais :-)
The tuktuks could bring you to the place where you want to go but possibly with some stops at souvenir shops ....
I was lucky so far, no stops....
The last option is to go by taxi. This is good if you insist that they put on the meter. Very cheap. 1 Euro for the first 2 kilometers.
I saw nearly no trucks inside the old town. I really was wondering how all the supplies come to the houses.
On tuesday i did a boat trip with a long boat. This was funny. They charge for the boat not by person. I did it until i found 3 other people to join me. From the boat you see how people live in there houses. This is really interesting.Very small houses!! You also see some very nice temples.
Bangkok is very interesting for me. I never have been in asia and here many things are really different. The way they speak english is sometimes hard to understand. For example if they dont have the thing i want they say: No have..
That it so far.. Tomorrow is my last day here in bangkok then i will fly to Ko Samui to meet my friend Ralph there. Dont know if i will write something tomorrow, unfortuantly i dont have internet in my hotel so I have to write from an internet cafe.
Greetings to all of you!! Michael

Hi, this is the first posting with with a pic from me: I had no experience with horses.. this was a good one. Lazy and slow. It showed me at Araras Ecolodge, a very nice place in Pantanal Brazil (direct in the middle of south america). From there you can make horseback trips through the savanna. I was there at the end of the dry period, had no rain there for month. In january/february the horses and boats are the only possibility to make trips there because all is overflooded.