And yet again hello,

Today we split up: I would go mountain biking while Kevin will try some diving. We got up around 8, which was too early to get breakfast in our resort and so we looked around for a different place. The bamboo restaurant was the first one that we saw open and thus we went there, the price/quality is really bad so I was still hungry but I would have another breakfast on the way. Back in our resort there was some life going on and I got a lock for my bike. After just 3 minutes biking I realised that the beach is the lowest point of my trip and that the hills are really steep around here but up I went! A bit further I went off the road towards a hotel with a beautiful view, again I realised that viewpoints are always on the hill and thus up I went. This time it was really steep and long, I needed a break… I almost gave up but then I saw the first house and well I have to say it was totally worth it: up there I had an amazing view over the private beach of this resort (I wouldn’t go there, you are all sweaty if you have to climb all the stairs up to this hotel), an island only attached to the main island at low tide, some mountains that are a bit higher than the one I was standing on,… Time to go down and go to the next town, this one is a bit bigger so I found a nice local restaurant with a special dish. It was boiled noodles with 3 different sauces, but the sauces had to be mixed. They didn’t understand the word spicy and just said no to all of them. Well there was one which was really, really spicy, so my mouth was burning while I continued further into town. A seven eleven caught my eye and I went in for yoghurt to cool down my burning mouth and bought some water. My legs were getting lazy so it was time to get up a hill again; there was a sign to Khao (mountain) Ko viewpoint and bar: looked interesting so I followed the dusty path which became a rocky path which became really steep, which ended in the middle of nowhere so I left my mountain bike. A small trail covered by plants lead further upwards and after another 20 minutes walking I saw a bar and yes there was someone who served me a cold sprite. The bar had indeed a nice view over some beaches and some other small islands. Enough rested and I could go down again, I don’t like going down with a bicycle, it was pretty scary but I made it. The next stop was a Chinese temple with another nice view. I went further but after a while I got tired of the main road and turned left onto a small trail. Bam, the sound scared me a little, but made me curious so I went towards the sound, bam, I drove a little faster, bam … Then I saw it: an old woman was picking coconuts and the bam was the sound of them falling on the ground. I asked to take a picture and she agreed with a smile, a bit later she asked if I wanted one. Well, a fresh coconut never killed someone (or maybe if it would fall on my head) so I agreed and she threw one to me. I said I couldn’t open it so she yelled to someone who came running towards me with a big knife and cut it open. Then she gave me a straw and oh it tasted good, when I asked how much I owed her she just replied ‘free for you, you need water for cycling’. I gratefully accepted and finished my coconut before moving on. I drove around on different trails trough the jungle for a bit more than an hour before ending up at a dead end with a house. People were eating there and asked if I were hungry, well I was and they invited me to join them for lunch. It tasted very good and when I asked how much I owed them they replied ‘free for you’, coincidence? I was happy and continued to a national park, no vehicles allowed so I went further on foot. The first stop was a waterfall, but it didn’t rain the last couple of days and thus there was no water, pretty strange to see a sign waterfall and then just see rocks without any water. Next stop was another waterfall and yet again it was dry so I moved quickly to the viewpoint, this was the best viewpoint of the day. A couple of rocks created an open space from where you could see half the island and the maritime national park (something like Halong Bay in Vietnam). Impressive! After the national park I went to the two busy beaches where I asked for information about kitesurfing, wakeboarding and how to get to Bangkok tomorrow. It was now around 5 and I was 10 km and a couple of mountains away from our room so I had to go back… I had an amazing day but I am very exhausted now!

04-09-2010, 13:19 geschreven door zoriander  

Dear readers,

At 4.30 am our bus arrived at Chumphon where we had to wait until 7 to board the boat to the islands. We had a speed-catamaran which flew over the water while passing some small islands. After about an hour we arrived at the first island but almost immediately we left again for the next one: Koh Tao. Here it took a bit longer since there were a lot of people getting off and other people getting on the boat. After a bit more than an hour we arrived at our island: Koh Pha Ngang, there were less people getting off here but enough so that we could bargain for the taxi. On an island everything is more expensive, especially transport: normally a songthaew is between 20 and 80 baht each for a ride of 10 km. Here they all said 200 baht and it was very hard to get a discount until we were with 6 people going to about the same part of the island and he wanted to go for 100 baht each. The driver took a racing class when he was young: with our backpacks just lying loose on the top of the car he was driving crazy. Every turn I though that the backpacks would fall off, but no, he even went faster because nothing happened. Soon we arrived at Haad Salad, where we found a cheap resort with nice rooms called Smilebeach resort. With that name there can never be a problem and so it was: the rooms are basic but clean with a fan and a decent bathroom. After lunch we went to some shops where I reserved a mountainbike for the next day, Kevin bought swimming pants and together we bought a Frisbee to play in the water. And then it was time for swimming! The beach here is amazing, the water is sooo clear, the sand white and it is refreshing. The beach could be taken directly out of a commercial, the only problem is that the water here is really salty and your eyes hurt after a while. Kevin was really tired and took a nap before dinner for about 1.5 hour and directly after dinner. He was not feeling well… I had time to catch up with the ‘diary’ for the blog and could then go to bed as well.

03-09-2010, 04:42 geschreven door zoriander  

The 29^th we crossed the border again into Thailand, this wasn’t as easy as it was supposed to be. The 28^th we booked a bus ticket to Bangkok with pick-up at our guesthouse. Apparently the one that had to pick us up didn’t know the guesthouse and just went back so we were waiting. Finally we called to ask where the pick-up had been and they told us to come to the office so we would leave from there. The bus we should’ve been on was already gone and we were pushed in another one, for us not really a problem. We met a nice Cambodian woman who was studying for her drivers licence while she was on the way to the Bangkok hospital. She gave us each a fireball (candy) to try, the name isn’t stolen: it was a spicy candy and Kevins’ face showed weird shapes and turned red from time to time. At the border we had to wait for quite a while and after we were trough we had to wait for some more people from another bus. Then after a short walk we were pushed into a songthaew with way too many people. But it was just for a short ride: after 10 minutes we were dropped of at a restaurant where we had to wait for yet another group but at least we could have lunch!

The second bus was rather slow and it took us really long to get to Khao San road in Bangkok, in total we travelled 12 hours while the ride from BKK to Siem Reap was ‘only’ 8 hours. We went back to our previous guesthouse and were followed by 6 more people who needed a guesthouse. I didn’t get any reduction for bringing them there :(.

The 30^th was a morning to plan the next part of our trip, we chose to go to Koh Pha Ngang by bus and boat. We would leave the same evening but for lunch we had an appointment with Supinya and Patchara. We had barbeque at BarBQ in Siam and for desert we went for 2 big ice-creams, in total 17 scoops and chocolate fondue and some fruit + whipped cream of course. Kevin’s favourite meal from the entire trip… Then we went to a barber shop to get me a new haircut and afterwards we sang Karaoke! A fun day in Bangkok but we had to rush through traffic jam in order to get to our bus in time.

03-09-2010, 04:27 geschreven door zoriander  

Hello there,

After a long night sleep we decided that we were going to the landmine museum 30 km outside of Siem Reap. We arranged a good Tuk Tuk taxi: he took over a lot of other tuk tuks and we got there in about 30 minutes. The museum itself is impressive, educative and shocking; very shocking. It was established in 1997 by former Khmer Rouge child soldier Aki Ra. After fighting for the Khmer Rouge, he changed side and fought together with the Vietnamese and Cambodian army. After the war he began to de-mine, he is now very skilled and the museum has 50.000 decommissioned weapons. All cleared by himself, he says that he had cleared around 300 mines in one day. There is also a video that shows how he defuses mines and other explosives; he uses a wooden stick and a knife, very impressive and completely crazy! Another part of the museum contains army stories and stories from children that live in the relief facility which is part of the museum. There are stories that are really chocking but I won’t go into that much detail here; if you want to know them, you’ll have to go and visit the museum or you can send me an e-mail and I can share some of them. There is a sketch of the wooden stick method on photo.

03-09-2010, 04:24 geschreven door zoriander