10-24-2008
|
#1 (permalink) |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Cologne, Germany
Posts: 9,870
 |
Another trip to Thailand (Bangkok + Phuket)
I can't really believe that I have only 3 more days to go till I finally go on vacation. I've been travelling so much in the past 10 months that I haven't been at home a lot and especially the past 3 weeks have been very tiring with 4 trips in 4 different european cities/countries. Can't wait to go on vacation. I DO need it.
The planned schedule is to fly to Bangkok on tuesday where (due to time zones) I will arrive on wednesday. I have booked a walking tour on thursday to the Kings Palace (I was soooo impressed 2.5 years ago that I really wanna go back to that place). Not sure yet what I will do with the rest of my time but I know I have to go to the Hard Rock Cafe (not for Mr. Bumper though  ). I am in a hotel close to the river so it is easy to go to places that are worth a visit without being stuck in the horrendous traffic in Bangkok.On friday evening I will fly over to Phuket where my friend and dive-guide Monique will come to get me at the airport. I intend to go diving with Monique again but have not yet made any decisions on where to dive. I might go on a dive boat to the Similan Islands again but I might as well not do that. What I really want to do is go to Ko Phi Phi (hopefully diving but with a visibility of 9 ft. this isn't really worth doing it) where the film ' The beach' with Leonardo de Caprio was filmed, visit Kho Phang Nga (one of the James Bond films had a scene there) and do an overnight trip to Khao Sok National Park. Since I NEED to wind down and relax I have decided to not plan anything but to decide only once I am there. I will stay in the small town of Kamala which is not as touristy as most of the villages on Phuket although the 'famous' town of Phuket is only a few miles away.Stay tuned... in Bangkok I have internet in my room but in Kamala there are internet cafes ( I think ).Andrea |
|
|
| register to remove these adverts | |
|
10-24-2008
|
#2 (permalink) | |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: santa ynez
Posts: 7,380
|
Quote:
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
10-27-2008
|
#5 (permalink) |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Cologne, Germany
Posts: 9,870
|
Well, so I AM officially on vacation now. I think I'll have to send 3 or 4 business emails tomorrow morning that I forgot today but at 1:30 PM my taxi will arrive, at 3:15 PM I will take off towards Munich and from there I will take off at 9:50 PM to Bangkok (what the heck made me book a flight that has me waiting 5 hours at the airport in Munich???
 ). Whatever... I am on vacation and that's the only thing that counts... 
|
|
|
|
|
10-29-2008
|
#9 (permalink) |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Cologne, Germany
Posts: 9,870
|
Well, so now I am in Bangkok. Flight was uneventful (except of the few holes we fell in when landing). Slept most of the time which is not really a good sign since I don't feel all that well. Was at the hotel around 4 PM Thai-time. Like my room it is very big and the funny thing is you can open a window to the bathroom. Had something similar here in Bangkok 2 years ago.
Have walked around only half an hour to find out where the meeting point is tomorrow morning. I hope I will make it through the day. What I once again saw during this short walk is that a lot of the 'everyday'-life happens on the street. With women cooking everywhere etc. Not what I am used to. Haven't taken lots of pics but tomorrow I will take lots and lots at the King's palace!
|
|
|
|
|
10-30-2008
|
#13 (permalink) |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Cologne, Germany
Posts: 9,870
|
Downloading pics right now they might follow later today...
After a dreadful night with light fever I made it through the day today. And it was great... We met at the express boat station, it was Mai, our guide, a couple from Austria, one from stuttgart and myself. We went with the express boat first and when we went off we first visited the flower market. They do sell lots of beautiful flowers, but the bright blue ones are coloured... Love the orchids. They even had roses carved out of soap. After that we came to a vegetable market where they had spices as well. It was interesting as they sold all kinds of food. I even have pics of the food of 'kitchens' on the street.After that a row of temple visits started. In the first one I forgot that your feet are never to be pointing towards the budda but Mai let me know immediately... *ooops* She explained us a lot about buddas but it was too much so I couldn't really listen the whole time. And sitting on the stone is not very comfortable either. From there we went to a second temple with another budda and inside there we suddenly heard a loud noise outside and it was RAINING... looks like the monsoon season is not really over yet. We waited for about 20 minutes and then it was over. We walked over to the lieing budda (or is it the lying budda? I always forget....  ). I had seen that one before so I was not really impressed. After that we got into two tuk tuks and took a drive from hell to the restaurant at the river shore where we ate some thai food. Curry, fried chicken, sweet-sour fish and some vegetables and of course rice with it. Going by tuk tuk we saw some protestors near the king's palace. When we came back after lunch, they were gone. Mai told us that they appear at different places every 2 hours or so....The King's palace was as impressing as I remembered it. All these colours and gold and different styles of building. I took lots of pics again (this was why I brought my new lense in the first place....). We had a special occasion there as well as some soldiers were practising for a funeral. The sister of the thai King died in January and she will soon be cremated. So the soldiers were there to practive for that. It was interesting because while the guys in the first rows were fully concentrated, one of those in the last row had his finger in his nose most of the time....  We saw a several groups of people dressed in black and we heard that they had been praying as preparation for the cremation as well.After the King's Palace we took another tuk tuk to Khao San Road (I think this is the name). It's the tourist center of bangkok. You can buy all kind of stuff there like driving licenses, student certificates or whatever your heart desires.... (I think most of the tuk tuk drivers bought their license there....  ).From there we went through another monk school and then to another temple but we didn't wanna go inside any more. Too many buddas already.... then back to the boat and while we were going back to our starting point of this morning, the thunderstorm started. There are so many sales stands everywhere but none that sells umbrellas... I didn't have to go far to my hotel but further to getting wetter than wet the streets are flooded too. I could have swam to my hotel. And one funny thing: Mai had an umbrella with her but she opened it only when the sun was shining. When it was raining she kept it closed and got as wet as we got. Now I am in my room, pics are still downloading and will post some probably later on... |
|
|
|
|
10-30-2008
|
#15 (permalink) |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Cologne, Germany
Posts: 9,870
|
Here are a few more that show the traditional Thailand. On the one with the flowers you have to look real hard to see the turtle (if you know it's a turtle you see it), the last one is from a monk-school, one is a painting outside a girl-school showing the girls in their school-uniform, one are just sweets and the first one is on the river.
Btw. there was one episode in a temple yesterday that was really funny: we stayed there for quite some time while Mai told us everything about buddhism and while sitting there I had time to observe people come in and pray and buy donations for the goods. The usual issues they buy are the 'stinking'-sticks (can't stand the smell), a lotus-flower and a small piece of gold. They light the sticks, pray, put the sticks in a sand-filled bowl, the flower in a vase and put the gold on a budda-statue. After they wer gone, the guy in charge went to the flower vase, got the louts-flowers out and put them back in the stack from which people could buy donations.... talk about being economomic...     
|
|
|
|
 |
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
Have a blast!! Can't wait to see the pics!
