Tag Archives: Thailand

Malaysia – Thailand- Koh Phayam

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Last hotel in Malaysia: Hotel 99 Sepang. Chosen just because it’s close to KLIA.

Transfer :

  • Ferry from Pangkor to Lumut
  • Bus from Lumut to KL sentral bus station
  • walk to KL sentral for KLIA express
  • KLIA express to Salak Tinggi
  • Grab to hotel

I booked the cheapest room category and here is what we got offered

And no window.. so finally we paid 30 Ringgit more and moved to a better room.

For food , we had a lot of options, nevertheless it was (again) the most worst we had chosen. MarryBrown. A mixture of KFC and something else. Bad taste, freaking atmosphere. As the only foreigners we have been starred by all local people.

Our advice: don’t go there.

Set the alarm clock for 4 am. Wasn’t able to sleep but Grab was waiting for airport transport. Immigration and security check was fast so we had an early coffee at the lounge. first one after a couple of days. Air asia provided a full self service check in even for luggage. But hey it works. 2:10 to Bangkok , DMK. Since we calculated 3 hrs layover already enough time for breakfast at Miracle lounge. The Coral Forest Lounge was nice but a little …. well, small but nicely organized. Landed at DMK , passed immigration easily and got prepared for the flight to UNN. Ranong welcomed us back with rain and a cloudy sky. Pons place picked us up and the speed boat left somewhere in the fishermen’s village. Just because of low tide. Even the island didn’t shed any sun rays…. but we had a warmhearted welcoming at JJs. So nice to see them again and be here.

Koh Phayam has healing powers….

Korat – Nakhon Ratchasima

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Biggest city in the Isaan and its gate as well. Foreigners not seen here so often and it may happen that people can’t stop looking on you. Hotel is quite good , Romyen Garden, only a pool is missing :)

Experience: go to a food stall where nobody speaks a language you speak and with a Thai menue only and get the best Tom Yum Kung / Gai ever.

And more and more coffee shops opened. even here in Korat, which is definitely not a tourist city. May be a new coffee culture is going to be established ? Looks like.

  
Amazon coffee shop close to our hotel.

Topic for today , bus to Pak Chong and take the famous Kao Yai national park tour.

back@home

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After 13 hours flight we are back home. Airline was good the flight times are very comfortable we had just two hours stop over in Muscat which is enough for shopping, coffee and a smoke. Back here we were shivering but spring will come soon. Went to bed early and slept very well in my own bed. Vacation was really amazing (or shall I say awesome :) …) and because of Sunday we have a whole day to relax, meet our friends and start into the daily business tomorrow. Next trip ? Who knows. After the good times with the canadian buddies a short visit in the land of the maple leaf would be very welcome. Let’s see if we can arrange this. Keep you informed as I always do.

Bangkok – again

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Back at Bangkok we we shocked about the temperature. We left Payam with 35 degrees and arrived 6:00 am with rainshowers and 20 degrees. It was a great week at the probably most beautiful island in Thailand, we met old buddies and had a lot of fun and also silence and relaxing. There was no Payam blues this time and we are sure that we’ll back as long as the island is the same as we would like to see it…….
The ride was relaxed within the VIP 24 bus and also the staff at Ballys studio was very kind and gave us a room at 8 am. First topic – tailor. As you may can imagine we had two nice weeks with a lot of good food and I guess all of us increased our weight :) But anyway the new suites and clothes fit and we were happy about that. Bought our BTS daypasses and went for shopping at MBK. So two days left for doing a kind of business and we’ll see us soon in Germany.

Koh Payam – 10th anniversary

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10 years ago since we came first time to Payam and to Bamboo Bungalows. Long time I guess. A lot of things changed during that time. Even we didn’t come every year we saw the development and growing of the island. And of the Bamboo as well. Instead of simple bamboo huts they have nice bungalows made of stone and power by solar. As we arrived at the pier I tried to buy tickets for the speedboat which goes frequently since three years. It was fully booked. So I bought tickets for the slow boat and what a surprise also the slow boat was full with people and stuff for the island. Unbelievable. I told the old story again when we went by a normal longtail boat to Payam with four people on it. So you may know how it is changed. More people more business more resorts on the island. No longer daily beachvolley ball (seems that there are not longer “highly sports motivated” people…) or may be it’s because guys like Tim or Chris didn’t come the way. I must correct myself the new court is just few meters from here and I’ll join the game later on. I got a massage by Oi and she was able to fix the pain at the back of the neck. She told me to tell the guys at the massage studio in Bangkok (not sure if I would like to go there again…) “if they don’t know what they’re doing than better do nothing…” I guess she is right but how to find out in advance if a massage is good or not ? Anyway I suggest go and get a massage from a place where you know excactly that it is a good one.
12th March
Topic for next days as mentioned twice is doing nothing. We went out for a coffee yesterday and while we were sitting and having a strong italian-style coffee we were able to watch a marriage of butterflies. I tried to take pictures but either my camera is too slow or my eyes are too old. Tonight we will have dinner with Tim and we are looking forward to hear his stories and talked about old times and what’s new on the planet.
Yesterday an earthquake and based on that a tsunami hits Japan. Unbelivable. The world is not that small as we might it to be…..
13th March
What a surprise… while we were playing volleyball the J-man appears!!! So we agreed that he comes to the place where we will have dinner. So I told Mandy I have a surprise for her and she was really surprised when J-man appeared. We had great and cheap food, Tom Yum soup and Masaman curry and fried basil with garlic and pepper. And as a desert J-man ordered banana pancake! As in the old times when we ordered five mins before they closed the kitchen pancake and/or banana fritters. We were talking about a lot of things and sometimes it seems that we tried to turn back the wheel of time. All guys at the same table, sharing food and stories. Great. I felt very comfortable with this and Mandy as well. What a nice evening.
14th March
Had a great dinner at Ois place.We got an invitation for a private dinner with Tim, Ian, J-man and Annie and it was really awesome food. And it was like in the old times sitting around and talking about journeys and travels.
Just to let you know what is most important business at Payam. Food, massage, sundowner cocktail… just smooth and relaxed.

Sukothai – craddle of Siam

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Sukothai. Craddle of Siam in 13th century. We arrived by bus from Chiang Mai and we all were a kind of lucky that we had left this busy place. Guys from J&J GH picked us up from bus station so it wasn’t that difficult to find the place. And it is beautiful here. Couple of bungalows stand around a small green. Because they moved to this place couple of months ago there is no swimming pool but we can use again a pool in a hotel which is closed to here. We went there and after two hours when the sun goes down we walked to the night market to have dinner. Very tasty and a lot of curries and appetiziers. Only disadvantage here in Sukothai is that after dask billions of small flies come out. They don’t bit or anything but it is not a nice thing to have them in your food or in your glass of beer. We agreed to a tour through old Sukothai for next day and went bedwards.
Today we started the tour with our private Tuktuk at 8 am to avoid the heat in the aftnoon. The entrace for the main area was free today may be why they built up a Muay Thai boxing stadium inside. The old wats and temples, stupas and chedis are in same condition as we saw it years ago. I guess that more roads were built up but not sure. Anyway the whole area is very well maintained and everywhere people cleaning ways or cutting trees. Maybe a kind of meditation…. We were impressed by the size of old Sukothai and of nit’s wats. First to see was Wat Mahathat which is one of main temples here. I don’t wanna tell you the names of the other places we visited because we spent there around four hours. It was amazing and breathtaking and it was so quiet here that we found our time to talk to Buddah. On the way back, it was 1 pm, also nthe wind was hot during the ride. What to do after arriving ? Switch aircon on (yes we have a working aircon…) take a shower and go for a rest….next destination Koh Payam

Chiang Mai

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Chaing Mai. We were here 10 years ago. It was a busy place at this time but it wasn’t so overcrowed as it is today. The guesthouse we had choosen in advance is not bad but if I’ld stay longer than two nights another guesthouse would be probably better. But for us the first really relaxing days. Doing nothing than laid back business. Means sitting and having coffee (more real coffee shops than Bangkok I guess…) or good and cheap food as well as traditional massages. In the street where the guesthouse is located it goes like this .. guesthouse.. bar .. massage ..guesthouse .. bar .. massage. Ok you got the message ? Fine. I need my in-ear headphones to get a sleep. But only two nights. Most important to visit the Doi Suhteph temple. It wasn’t that spectecular as we thought but it is one of the most important Wats in northern Thailand. I bought my “worship package” (contains two candles, a lotus flower and three insences) for 10 baht and talked to Buddah. Well let me see if it was a good conversation. Ladies are happy because of very valuable massages and I hope that the pain I have since my first massage in Bangkok becomes better and I feel well again. Notice : not every smiling thai woman is able to do a good and correct massage. Tomorrow we’ll go to Sukothai which is also a former capital of siamese kingdom.

Pak Chong – Ayutthaya

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We went to Ayutthaya by ordinary train, 23 thai baht (50 € cents) and it was fun. A lot of people in and every second another offer for cold drinks, food or snacks. Ayutthaya was a former capital and was destroyed by burmese troops in 1767. This will be never forgotten by thai people. We chartered a Tuktuk for a roundtrip through the ancient city. It’s more comfortable than walking around during in the heat of the day. It was interesting to see the old buildings and ruins some of them were rebuilt to demonstrate how the life was in former ages. At 21:01 pm the train to Chiang Mai leaves which was our next destination. With a little delay we started the ride to the north. 12 hours by train. But no worries it is a so-called “sleeper” :)

Bangkok – Pak Chong – Khao Yai

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Bus to Pak Chong which is the entrance to KhaoYai Nationalpark was cheap as we remembered. 10 km before Pak Chong the clutch was broken so we hqd to wait for another bus but we were lucky and reached Pak Chong in-time. While we were ordering a coffee the Greenleaf car comes around and picked us up. And we were surprise about the bunch of people here. New rooms and everything bigger, better, more. The afternoon tour started at 3:30 pm and we joined it. Spectecular to see was the flight-out of the bats, 3 millions of them flxing out every day at dask for hunting. Back at the guesthouse I was talking to the guys about former times and after having a beer we went bedwards. Next day to full trip…..