Snorkling the islands around KOH LIPEH (KOH HIN GNAM, KOH YANG, KOH RAWI, KOH ADANG)

Short sleep, early wake up. Well, a good start for a serious and l;ong day of snorkling :-) After getting opur equiptment we wenty out with the longtailboat. 3 Thai guides, but no one could speak English. But no worries, we know how to swim and use a snorkel. First dive was somewhere in the middle of the sea. You had to hold on to a rope because the current was to dstrong for even a good swimmer. All the other dives kept getting better and better. So many different sorts of fish. No sharks and turtles, but nice coral and fish. Sometimes swimming between hundreds and thousands of fish. When you stop breathing you can even hear them eat the coral. I'm still waiting for my underwatercamera to be ready again, some functions are working but the lens is filled with moisture. So no pictures of today :-( The snorkling went on and on for the whole day, starting at 08:00 and ending at 15:30. Just bring some sunscreen because you get burned! So I used it for the first time in Thailand.

We had lunch on a nice white sandy beach on one of the islands. It was green curry, but the most spicy one we ever had! I liked it and the local guides also showed us some really weird crabs. Stuart and Tene had pineaple to, I'm so happy I don't like fresh pineapple. What happened? Well after the next snorkel Stuart became very sick, looked like shit! We kept on snorkling. One of the last point was a rock in the sea with big eagles on it and flying around. This watet was a lot deeper so you could dive 8 meters with your snorkle. At some point the fish went crazy and starting to fight for food. The food was coming out Stuarty his mouth :-) Damn, this guy was really sick. So we went back. Also Tene became just a sick as Stuart.

So I went out alone tonight, because 2 people were throwing up all the time. While I was getting to the small village on ythe island a big tropical storm went loose, with lot's of rain and thunder, so I ended up at a BBQ with mud everywhere. After paying my food, one Thai girl put her phonenumber and a note in my bag and started to talk to me...she seemed okay but as I told all you people in Holland before, nothings happens with Thai girls :-)

Discovering the island KOH LIPEH

Woke up at 05:00 and took a swimand snorkle at 06:00, a good way to wake up. After that our first tropical and heavy storm in Thailand. Breakfast at the bakery...brownies and cinnamon rolls YEAH! Today I hooked uop with Tene. Tried to find all the beautifull spots on the island, sfter the storm was gone. We went swimming on white sandy beaches and chilled in some bars, and sometimes with a littlebit of dancing in the sun. The massage yesterday was so good, we wanted to take another one. This time oil and aroma full body. After eigth hours of chilling, walking and swimming we got back. We bought some bottles of SangSom Thailand rum and had a long funny night on the balcony.

HAT YAI - KOH LIPEH, finally to the islands

Minivan to Pak Bara, speedboat to Koh Lipeh. Starting of the season.These islands just opened in mid November. For the first time a rainy / cloudy day in Thailand for us. But after arriving after 1,5 hour at Koh Lipeh the sun started to shine. We took a longtailboat to the other side of the island, there was only 1 resort on the quit side of Koh Lipeh; Sunset Beach. We were just in time for a hut on the beach. And the name of the resort? You won't believe it... Porn Resort! Whahahaaa! So we just enjoyed our stay at Koh Lipeh as it should be, relaxing, good food, rum, a long Thai and oil massage, swimming, snorkling. I think we will stay here for a while. The island is not that big so it is easy to walk to the ther side af this little paradise.

Unfortunately the island is full with couples, so not really a good time for backpackers that want to meet new people. But who cares :-) We met a girl from Estonia named Tene and had a few drinks on our balcony with the seabreeze.

When you go out for a walk at night, don't forget to bring your flashlight. We even got lost with a flashlight. Most tracks don't have lights and most of the time there is no electricity.

KHAO YAI - HAT YAI, casncelled flights, noisy busses and boring cities

Set the alarmclock early...it looks like working again :-) We had to take a shuttle to the busstation, again a localbus but not a relaxing one. We got some free food and water, but there was a Thai soap playing so loud on the TV screen. And no soaps like in Holland, believe me... it should be hylarious for Thai but we couldn't understand a thing. The bus dropped us at the old Dong Muang Airport of Bangkok, but the bastard let us walk wit al our stuff for more that 1km, he shpould have dropped us at the entrance. Next they told us the flight to Hat Yai was cancelled because of technical problems...hell yeah, what's next? So just say you want your money back and then the put you on another flight that was already boarding and should leave in 5 minutes...so hurry up. The airport controls in Bangkok are not like in Europe...I just took loads of liquids and drinks in my back while it was not allowed, even visitation sucks :-) Finally we were in the air, got some snacks and my buddy and I were seperaded in the airplane. One Thai woman was so happy to sit next to me, she just gave me al kinds of gifts (food).

Arrived in Hat Yai, big city, known for the terrorrist attacks, violence en riots from the last few years. Thousands of people got killed here. Also Lonely Planet from 2007 advised us to avoid this area. Why did we choose this place?? Well I still don't know... We took a limousine (it was just a minivan) and this driver was pretty fucked up, maybe he should look for another job? Got tho a crappy hostel called Cathay Geusthouse in the middle of the shopping center. Cheap and looked like a horrorhostel :-) Did some shopping and decided to leave this place as soon as possible. We arranged some bus and speedboattickets to Koh Lipeh. Stuart wanted to buy a small notebook but don't expect that you can buy these things in Thailand in normal shopping areas.

No special evening this time, weird people in the guesthouse, no good atmosphere at all...sorry guys for telling you this story ;-)

KHAO YAI NATIONAL PARK, monkeys, snakes, waterfalls and a broken camera

Today we are doing a jungle hike again. Leaving with 2 cars for a 12 hour trip. After a 1 hour drive we got to Khao Yai National Park, just few hours from Bangkok. First walking down the Jungle for 3-4 hours, no tracks, just jungle. Bring some good hiking shoes. You will also get some special socks from the tourguide because of all the leeches in the Jungle. Those tiny little blodsuckers that will dance on you skin like little worms. During the walk we spotted wild Gibbons, pig tailed Macagues, black giant squirrels and ... snakes! We spotted lot's of monkeys, but not that many snakes. They also promised scorpions, hornbills, jackals, martens, porcupines, waterdragons and stuff like that, but unfortunately we were not that lucky. After some bushwalks we had lunch and had my favorite dessert; palm sugar. We went to the Hew Suwat waterfall, the one that was used in the movie 'The Beach'. Looking at it was not that special but swimming in it was fuckin' fantastic! The signs with 'No Swimming' were useless. The girls in our group started to scream all of a sudden...there was a snake. It was not that big so me and some other guts hold the head between our fingers and tried to scare some people. I really want to show you some pictures of this beautiful waterfall but shit...my new digital underwatercamera is broken! Just after 3 weeks...there was water in my screen while I wasn't underwater. Damn... So I have to keep this experience in my mind and tell you all about it in the future.

The hours following on this adventure were filled with searching for wild elephants. Just when we spotted a nice sunset, a big male elephant came right out of the bush and started running toward us in the road. So cool!

Everybody was tired after this long day. Stuart went to sleep but you know...I'm always in for another drink and new people. A new group of people arrived from Bangkok and together with Edwin and some coll Belgians we decied to get out for a few beers and whiskey. And since this night I found out that the 7 Eleven doesn't sell alcohol after a certain time :-( But we are Dutch and we never give up :-) So we went on a search for locals and they wanted to sell us some drinks for a good price. Again it was a cool night with lot's of tips for the rest of my trip.

Oh and many thanks to Joe from Green Leaf Guesthouse. The first Thai that knows really good English and he helped with everything, using his homecomputer for booking the flights and so on.

KANCHANABURI - Pak CHONG - KHAO YAI, local busses and blocked toilets

Woke up because the longtail speedboats where having a race on the river. Today a travelday. 2 local busses to get to Pak Chong, just north from Bangkok. The Thai people are still surprised seeing people like us in their local busses. We we betweens loads of schoolchildren in packed busses. The taxidrivers are getting more agressive, they even come into the bus and grab you...well it's just a mather of time to loose my... :-) Oh sorry, I'm in the chill mode again. In these 1st and 2nd class busses I had a really good sleep.

After a pick up we arrived at Green Leaf Guesthouse. It looks like shit from the outside, also very very basic from the inside. Cheap room and yess it finally happened... After a good shit on the toilet I blocked it...whahahaa. One big smelly mess, but the Thai staff fixed it after getting angry because I walked in their living room with my shoes on...not good :-)

But the food and the staff were suprising. Really good!

KANCHANABURI, 7 levels of waterfalls

Got to the busstation of Kanchanaburi, made a deal with the taxidriver to take us to the Errawan waterfalls voor 700 Bath. The bus was already gone and otherwise we had to wait for an hour for the next one. The busses go back from the waterfalls at 16:00 latest. So we decided to take the taxi. He would wait there for us till we got back from the track.

The track consists out of 7 levels of waterfalls. The 7th level is woth the walking! So beuatifull, you see were the waterfall starts. Be aware of the macaque monkeys, the started stealing our candy while we were watching the waterfalls. I had my bag open and uncovered, so lucky me this time. Bring some good hikingshoes, you really need it for some levels, especially the last one. On the way back we went for a swim on the second level. After 4 hours we got back to the taxi! Damn, the man was not looking happy :-) We took some French woman with us because she got stuck there and had no transport back.

When we wanted to get our laundry, this stupid woman did't gave back everything. She lost my special bag. Instead of that she gave me a plastic bag from Jumbo Supermarkten. Well thanks! So now is the first time I think back to my old job in Holland...Paardekooper how are you doing over there?! ;-) In the evening we had some drinks again at The Hut.

AYUTTHAYA - KANCHANABURI

Travelday from Ayutthaya to Kanchanaburi, 2 local busses, 5 hours of relaxing in chrome busses with huge soundsystems. Just a good way to get some extra sleep. Arrived in Kanchanaburi, after checking a few guesthouses we decided to go to Bamboo Guesthouse. The place looks amazing! Just a basic bungalow floating on the river, and that voor 200 Bath a night. The people are not that friendly but who cares, this location is fantastic. Just next to the Bridge over the River Kwai. We walked over it like many other tourists, not easy to get a picture without them.

We took a speedboat and discovered the different nightlife of Kanchanaburi. Hundreds of karaoke boats and discoboats. Many people rent a big floating disco for a night to have a crazy party. Later on we just went to The Resort to have some dinner. After asking for another round of cocktails they didn't wanted to help us anymore. These people think that we don't want to pay...and then the police arrived. Luckely they were only coming for a few drinks too :-) Just checked some other bars like The Wild Life and The Hut, not really special, but Edwin had a Chang-over the next day...