KAMPHAENG PHET - CHANG MAI

Woke up at 05:00 to see the sunrise where mr. Charin talked about. It was so good, just as promised. Then the locals got a seperated breakfast from us, this was stupid but okay..we wanted to join them with spicy Thai food. Instead of that we've got the standard toast, yoghurt and fruit and eggs again...

AFter we went to one of the caves of the National Park. This isn't a touristical area as you might expect, all signs are in Thai. The cave was small and boring. But I climbed in some small holes to check out the bats...they called me Batman after today :-) After the cave we went to a s mall waterfall with hundreds of beautiful coloured butterflies, you have never seen this before! Took a swimm with the locals in the refreshing water and stayed there for an hour. Some of the locals are still drinking wiskey anduse Red Bul;l (the local brand is M50) for the hangover. Thai lunch and heading back to the guesthouse.

Jumped on the bus to Changmai after bargaining for it. It took 3,5 hours with a 1st class bus. So we had to call a guesthouse in Changmai before arriving at 23:00, most of the receptions are closed at that time. But what a trip, this bus was freezing! Using 2 shirts, a sweater, 2 blankets and putting the curtains in the airconholes...it' s still not enough.

KAMPHAENG PHET, historical park and local party on the farm

In the morning we rented cheap bikes and visited the historical park of Kamphaeng Phet. This town has many ruines of Khmer styled temples. Don't expect too much, most of them are just a few stones between the trees. For entrance to all the ruines you pay 150 Bath.The ruines with the buddhas and the one surrounded with 56 elephants are worth a visit. Bicycle is the easiest way to visit them. On the other side of the river there are also a few ruines that are free of charge.To visit all the towns ruines you need about 3 hours. And from now on a First-Aid_kit is standard in the daypack, one of the stupid stones destroyed my big toe...

In the afternoon we went with guesthouseowner mr. Charin to his 2 day party on his agro-farm. Just 1 hour away from Kamphaeng Phet, near one of the national parks. On our way to the farm he bhought some delicious fried potatoes, pumpkins and bananas. We stayed there with 40 locals (friends of the owner) in all age groups. Just a few of them could speak English. But we had such a good time hear, all sort of games, Thai barbeque, beers, whiskey, buckets, fireworks, camping, karaoke , you name it... Before the party started we checked the area around the farm, it's such a nice place. Beautiful gardens, stone and bamboo huts, just next to a quiet lake. We took one of the boats, but it was not that stabile. Mr. Charin was also building a funny concrete house that looked like a tree. We just enjoyed the views while laying in the hammock.

LOP BURI - KAMPHAENG PHET, monkey time!

06:30 loud banging on the windows...Monkey time! Yes, the little creatures are everywhere. Climbing and playing in the windowbars. Climbing the electricity poles, phone booths, ruines, cars, everything. So let's go outside. Visiting the ruines around the hotelarea were we stayed, the trainstation is just across the road. All of a sudden Karien was screaming...'The monkeys are climbing on you!' Hahaaaa, this is so cool. After a long morning between hundreds of monkeys and visiting market and the ruines of Lop Buri we jumped at the back of a taxi to the busstation. We wanted to visit the former palace of King Narai, but it was closed because of a huge renovation.

The bus to Nakhon Sawan was leaving in just half an hour, after 3 hours we had to jump on another bus to Kamphaeng Peth. Suprisingly that everything went fine today, because none of all the Thai we spoke to could understand English or speak it.After 2 hours we were there, just before it's getting dark. We called Mr. Charin from Three J. Guesthouse (Lonely Planet) and he picked us up from the busstation. Just a warm welcome to a nice and cheap guesthouse with all facilities. He also invited us for a Thai party on his farm with 40 Thai. We gonna do that for 2 days. Looking forward...

HUA HIN - LOP BURI

In the morning it was time for monkeymountain and beach at Khao Biaki. Monkeys attacking peiople with food, throwing stones and stealing your stuff. Okay, and we are going to Lop Buri, the ancient town knowns for it's aggressive monkey population.

Trip was planned for 6 hours, it became a little bit more. The bus dropped us at the wrong busstation in Bangkok, Southern instead of Northern. So we chartered a minivan for just 35 Bath to the other station. But a short distance took ages. One big trafficjam in Bangkok. We had the 2nd class bus to Lop Buri, and had a quick snack at the busstation. I was lucky, the 7 Eleven gave back change too much :-) So today all the transport was free. The bus stopped somewhere and was just waiting for an hour till it was full.

We arrived around 21:30 in Lop Buri, no tuktuk, no taxi, nothing. So we walkked to a bar and some local peoiple invited us to stay at their home. I already said okay, but Karien was a little bit affraid. The guy gave us a ride to the hotel and we went to a small bar. In the evening no monkeys at all, big story? Well, see what happens tomorrow...

HUA HIN, londistance motorbiking to Khao Sam Rou Yod National Park

Motorbike for 250 B, and hundreds of km's of highway. We were sleeping too long to see all the stuff in the Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park. Beaches were ugly and the Siam Cave was just okay. We missed the other 2 caves because it was getting dark already. Just bring a torch and good walkingshoes for the caves.

On the way back we stopped at a huge local market with so many good Thai food. I start to love the food. Many spicy dishes and pancakes and sweet stuff. After a few times almost get killed on the highway (so many dangerous people on the road) we just wanted to check the rich people in the big Shopping Market of Hua Hin. Lot's of expensive cars in front of it. Pretty boring though, just want to do some Jackass acts in the mall...

The night activity was the nightlife bar area of Hua Hin...well, John already told us about the majority of women in this city. He was right, at least 20 girls for every man in this area. Looked a little bit like the red light district of Amsterdam, but without windows. Old men spending their money on dancing Thai girls. We just wanted to see what happened and had fun looking at al the moves. We had to bargain on the cocktails, they are so expensive over here. After all the laughing and mysterious dark bars it was enough for today...

CHUMPHON - HUA HIN

Woke up at 05:00 in the freezing dorm of the nightboat. Just arrived, took a taxi to the trainstation for 50 Bath. And we got traintickets to Hua Hin for just 49 Bath! Wow, but we discovered why it was so cheap. It was leaving after one hour and it was a 3rd class stoptrain. So it took 5 hours to get there...it stopped everywhere. Some trainstations just looked like busstops. But is was fun to be between under only local people again. Adults and kids that are really happy to see you. It was so crowded after a while, people everywere. Standing, sitting, almost hanging out of the windows. It was just like one big riding local market, all sorts of Thai food and snacks very minute. We tried so many things and it tasted good! I'm feeling hungry again while writing this story... After 5 hours we arrived, but there was no possibility to get our backpacks out of this crowd. So the locals helped us and threw our backpacks out of the window! Thanks guys :-)

We made a reservation for Pattana guesthouse. The images on the internet looked nice with all the teak buildings and huts, but inside is was modern and not that good. In front of the trainstation John de Koning talked to us and recommended us his King's Home guesthouse. We took a look at his place (walkingdistance from the transtation) and loved it. John is a Dutch man living in Thailand with his family. The place is filled with all kinds of old stuff (furniture, paintings etc.) from all over the world. It just feels like your back home at the grandmother... There is a small swimmingpool and free breakfast. We had had a luxury massage douchecabin in the middle of our room (including radio). Just for 600 Bath a night.

The is also a massive TV upstairs with loads of DVD's. So we baught M&M's, chips, candy, chocolatecookies and drinks for a movienight. But after 5 movies we stopped. Everytime there was something wrong with the DVD, it crashed, stopped, sound or subtitles stopped and so on...

KOH TAO, Deepdiving Adventure

Early briefing for the Deep Adventuredive today. 45 minutes to the divespot near Chumphon. Jumped in for a 30 metre deep dive. Problems with the regulator, Not only air is coming through, also a little bit of water, so big problem. Visibility is just 5 metres. Problems with the weightbelt as well, the metal clip has been broken. Freaked out a little bit when the instructor and the rest of the group were out of sight. Just stopped at 10 metres and decided to go back to the surface, I don't want to take a big risk. Just starting to get problems with the ears so pretty fucked up... My buddy Kent stayed with me. The rest of the group came back to the surface. I was not feeling okay about this and decided to stay on the boat. The second dive was a fundive of just 16 metres, this was okay with a visibility of 5 metres again.

Ozzie, the instructor were I booked the tour with, told me to ask back some money. But he was not back in time at the office, so now I can't get a refund. But if I come back again (maybe in February/March) I will get some free dives. Deepdiving here is 1.700 Bath and fundiving is around 900 Bath.

Still thinking aboput where we are going to tomorrow. We went to Hangyuan Island, taxiboats cost around 300 Bath for 2 persons. But better make a deal with them to pick you up again for a good price, because we were almost stuck on the island and they asked us a high amount of money to get back to Koh Tao... and you have to pay entrance fee for the island as well. o if you are a good swimmer... :-) The views on the island were great and you can walk between the 2 small islands on a bench of soft coral / sand.

In the night we will take the nightboat to Chumphon. Leaves at 23:00 and arrives at 05:00. It looked like an old warship. And it was a boat filled with empty plastic bottles, Chang-bottles and garbage. One big dorm for 50 somewhere around 50 people and 2 smaller ones for 6 people. We took our matrass and slept outside under the stars on the upper deck of the boat. Enjoying the rum and cokes. A good sleep on a soft matrass. After a few hours the rain started and we went inside the smaller dorm...the airco was running so hard, it felt like a fridge inside the dorm. Leepingsbags for the cold was our only option.

KOH TAO, motorbiking

Finally a sunny day again. Rented 1 motorbike for 2 persons. Bad choice after experiencing the steep roads and rough tracks. The island sucks. No beautiful spots at all. Some bays couldn't be reached because of the roadworking. The Caves were closed, the Whale Skeleton was too bad, just a small ugle thing rotting aways in a dirty bar. After some rhough tracks riding on my own (with someone at the back it was not possible) we went to the beach for a swim.