Thailand: Koh Samui

Little island in front of the Chaweng beach 

I arrive at Koh Samui after a long train ride and a boat trip which together sum up to 14h of travelling. My first impression of the island where quite mixed, the water around the dock seemed quite dirty and the little town at the dock side looked way to crowded. luckily, the dock town wasn't my final destination on the island. So I get in the cab and head towards the other side of the island: Chaweng, it's said to be one of the nicest beaches of the island, with coral reefs at the northern and the southern sides of the beach, and 6km of beautifully white sand in between.

So obviously the first thing that I do when I arrive at Chaweng is have a look at the beach. And I got hit by a slight feeling of disappointment, the beach was amazingly long and looked beautiful, but it wasn't kept clean. As I walked along direction north I encountered so many rash in the sand, from old flip flops with plants growing on it up to empty oil cans.

I continue my walk up north, and at one point you have these lovely islands in front of the beach in search of the coral that I heard of I walked for about an hour and decided to get something to eat before continuing.
Sadly enough, even after walking all the way up to the northern part of the beach and even higher, I found no coral reefs to snorkel around. I did find out that there are plenty of trips going to the national park for a day, but there was no possibility of snorkelling around the area.

Grandad's rock

This changed up my plans a little bit and the next morning instead of going on a snorkelling adventure I decided to rent a scooter together with a guy I met at the hostel to explore the island. I knew that going around the island would take a maximum of 45 minutes by car. So I decided to have a look at the two waterfalls at the southern part, and on my way there pay a little visit to the well known Grandparent rocks.
The Grandparent rocks are not more than a bunch of rocks, under which you can find two special ones: Granddad rock and Grandmother, and they have this name due to their shape, which, as you can imagine, look like their respective sexual organ.

Waterfall nr1 

The waterfalls where very nice to see, unlike those of Pai, they where full of water and and had quite powerful currents. The first one we visited was the waterfall 2, which required a little 15 minute walk to reach. But the walk was kind of the nicest part of the waterfall, which, at the bottom had a little natural pool where you could jump in (It was very crowded up there though). While the second one was very easy to acces, the waterfall itself was bigger and there was another natural pool here which was three times the size of the first one.

After the waterfalls we decided to have a look at the Big Buddha, at the northern side of the island, but before heading there I had to get some passport pictures for my Cambodia visum, so we decided to meet back at the hostel once I had everything. I went to get the pictures, and on my way back, Google maps decided to tell me that there was a short-cut from where I was to the hostel, of course, without thinking twice I take this short-cut and here is where the fun begins. The road i got on was a dirt road, and with recent rains it had transformed in a mud road at some parts, of course, I was already half way there so I wasn't going to turn back around. I gather all my courage and accelerate through the mud... Aaand I got stuck, I had to push the bike out and of course I made sure that everything around me was now covered in mud. On my way back I passed by a local house and asked if I could clean my feet a bit, the Thai laughed and the helped me with cleaning the bike. Of course, these things only happen when you are alone.

After the short mud adventure we head towards the Big Buddha in the north, and we notice that we will probably make it just in time to get tome nice pictures of the sunset. The Buddha was not really all that special but the sunset pictures I got over the sea where amazing.

For dinner we had a look at the night market, which in this place was more of a food market than a night market, you had one or two stands where you could buy souvenirs and similarities while all the rest of the stands where just food stands. Not that I'm complaining though, I loved the massive amount of options that I had for my dinner.

And I had to get a good dinner, because the following day would be a loong looong travel day. Leaving from Koh Samui at 12 in the morning and arriving at Bangkok at 6 in the morning the following day, just to get a bus there towards Siem Reap.
Lots of hours of sitting await me.

Thailand: Ayutthaya & Hua Hai

We get dropped of the bus at 5 a.m. on the main road. A hour away from the Ayutthaya centre. As soon as we get off the obvious tuk tuk driver approaches us and tells us that he will take us to the centre for just as little as: the same price that the bus to get from Chian Mai to Ayutthaya costs us. We decide to pass on the amazing offer and wait for a more local and cheaper way  to get into town.

The local bus driver drops us off at a seemingly cheap BnB, so we sit around the lobby for an hour until it opens and proceed to drop of the bags.

Ayutthaya used to be the countries capital in the XIV century until it got destroyed by the Burmese army in the XVIII century. And in 1991 it was declared part of the UNESCO world heritage.
We got lucky and reached the old ruins on time to catch a little glimpse of the sunrise.
But the ruins where still closed, so we had to sneak in through the back to be able to make pictures of the morning with the ruins, the old ruins make for an incredible view and some amazing pictures.

Buddhas lined up at Wat Yai Chaimongkhon

We finished visiting the central old city relatively quickly so we took advantage of the spare time to take a little power nap. After which we rented a bike to head over to the outer part of the city. We visited the floating market, but sadly enough it was just closing it's doors and afterwards we headed towards Wat Yai Chaimongkhon which is an impressive old temple that still stands and is still in use up to this day.

The next day would be our last day of travelling together, we took the train towards Bangkok just to separate once we where there I booked a train towards Hua Hai whilst he was staying one night in Bangkok in order to leave to Cambodia the following day

Hua Hai's little train station 

I arrived with an hour delay in Hua Hai, but still on time to go and explore the city, I knew that I couldn't make it to the beach any more but I walked through the city and paid a visit at the night market of the town. I especially noticed how touristy the town was, I thought maybe it was because of the Hilton and the Marriot hotels, but apparently it's such a popular holiday destination (even for Thai's, that regularly spend the weekends here) because of how safe the area is, it's a town that has ben favoured by the king throughout various generations as a place to spend the holidays, so there is constant surveillance in the town and there are big army ships patrolling the coast.

The next morning I didn't really do much other than go for a walk on the beach, something that I hadn't done in a long time, I met a few kite boarders but the wind was a bit low today so it wasn't the best day to head in the waves, they day went by without to much activity and I started planning my next stop, I had decided to visit Koh Samui, but when Paul told me a few great things about Cambodia I started thinking about heading there myself as well, so I would go to Koh Samui for a couple of days and from there on head to Cambodia.
So now I am here, in the train, I just got to see the nice Hua Hai station which is still conserved since it was built, and it gives a nice antique touch to the otherwise booming city.
And on my way to Surath Thani! where I will get on a bus towards the port and eventually head to the islands.

Thailand: Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai

After Pai we plan out our next destination: Chiang Rai, and after reading a few guides and blogs we feel prepared and decide to spend no more than 1 night in Chiang Rai, because lots of places state that there isn't that much to do besides the White temple and the black house.

But before heading to Chiang Rai we have a one night stop at Chiang Mai, otherwise we would arrive way to late in Chiang Rai to see anything. On top of that, it's Sunday! and in Chiang Mai there seems to be a very nice Sunday night market, so we plan towards that.

But just a few hours before reaching Chiang Mai it starts to rain slightly, we don't give it to much attention and check in in our hostel. We drop of the bags and want to head out to have a little drink but then we notice. The rain that we didn't pay attention to before had escalated into a greater storm and made it close to impossible to head out. To kill some time we decide to play a few games of pool and wait for the storm to blow over. Eventually the rain stops and we manage to catch a glimpse of the amazing Sunday night market.



The next morning catch the Green bus to Chiang Rai. It's cold so we are really dressed appropriately, I even had to get my wollen pull over. Once in Chiang Rai we check in in our hostels and don't really do to much more because of the bad weather. We end up hanging around a bit in my hostel meeting some more people and playing a bit of pool.
The sun sets and we head towards the Chiang Rai night market, a big disappointed if you compare it to the one on Sunday in Chiang Mai, but the cold might have added to this experience.

As soon as we woke up the next morning we had a look at the local transport to head to the White temple. The weather had become worse over the days and it was very, very cold today. With 2 pullovers we get on the bus and we still manage to feel cold. I have to say that the white temple is amazing though, and if the weather is nice it is probably something very impressive to see. But with the cold we didn't really appreciate to much of it, we rushed the visit a bit, and the main thing that we wanted to do: Entering the white temple, was something that we couldn't do, the inside of the temple was closed for an unknown reason. A big shame, because it seems that the inside of the temple is decorated with various western movie/comic characters.

The black house is something we ended up not visiting, because it was the other part of town, which ment more than an hour drive from where we were, and we really found it too cold. But it seems to be a museum of a local (rich) artist, that decided to expose his work in his own gallery due to the vandalisation of his pieces in public galleries. This is said to occur because of the style that the artist has, he seems to make art that is very death related, and it seems that the Buddhism community doesn't appreciate this to much.

On our way back to Chiang Mai we decided what our next destination would be: Ayutthaya.

Thailand: Pai

On my way to the market

I arrive at Pai around 4 p.m. and head towards the hostel to check in, after settling I head towards the tiny city centrum to meet Paul, and just as I reach the centrum I get to see how they are setting up a little night market, so as soon as I found Paul we went to have a look at the market.

The first stand that catches our attention is a tea stand where you can various kinds of tea served in a bamboo stick, and after getting the bamboo stick you can have it refiled for 10 bat. That’s like 25 cents!!

The best thing about the Pai night market is all the street food, probably 40% of the stands that you had on the market where just food, so many different things to try. You had Thai cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Indian and even Italian! There was a little stand serving lasagne and cannelloni. We end up getting a noodle salad which I think was Chinese style and something that looked like a pancake, but fried and served with condensed milk (sometimes even with egg, cheese, banana and condensed milk, just in case that you feel like trying a strange combination.

To end the night we find a little local bar that claims to do 16 different kind of mojitos, interesting, so we have a look, it ended up being 16 different kinds but all with almost the same flavour. Mojito with passion fruit that tasted a bit too much like a regular mojito because of the amount of mint used, and one with mango that didn't seem to be all that different. Anyway, the music was good and there was a nice atmosphere, which is nice.

The white Buddha 

The next morning we got up pretty early because Paul said that the motorbikes would all be gone by 7 a.m. which I later found out wasn't really the case. We got the motorbike and decided to explore the surrounding of Pai.

The first waterfall was kind of a disappointment, when we got there there was barely any water flowing down the river, a tiny bit of water following its path down the rocks. We continue towards a little natural park nearby, a park that would lead to the hermit caves, but after an hour drive we didn't seem to get any closer, and on top of that, the road was becoming a gravel road, so we decided to head back to have a look at the famous Pai Canyon, the so called Grand Canyon of Thailand.
But on our way there we got distracted by a massive statue of a white Buddha that we could see up in the mountains, so we absolutely decided to have a look there. The walk up to the top resulted being quite long and exhausting but it was well worth it once we saw the scenery available from up there.

We then continued to the canyon and with the views being this incredible we decided to come back for the sunset.


After the canyon we proceded to the nearby strawberry farm, which is something that I think is extremely over hyped, because all you could really see where a few miles of strawberry bushes, but people seemed to think that it was very special, because they where all taking tons of pictures.  

We continued towards the second waterfall as it wasn't too far from where we were, just to have a look at it. So once we got there, even though that we weren't expecting much, we still managed to be a bit disappointed, the river was dry, all we could see was a bit of water running of the wall, even less than on the first one.

So on our way back to town we take a moment to visit the land split farm. It once was a regular farm but because of a split that occurred in 2008 his land became imposible to farm, so the owner decided to make it a tourist attraction where he serves his own drinks and fruits, and then it's up to you to leave a little something to help the family.

By the time that the sun started to fall we grabbed a bear an headed towards the canyon. The view of the sun setting with the canyon on the foreground and the mountains in the background made it ideal to take some amazing pictures.
And on our way back we noticed the stunning full moon which gave some incredible pictures as well.
We ended the night in a very nice bar with live jazz music and Thai rum.

Madrid + Thailand: day 1

There we go, leaving for my two months of travelling on my own.

Plaza Mayor

I get dropped off at the trainstation in Alicante by my grandparents, because they had to go to Alicante anyway. There I find the people who would be taking me to Madrid, a couple from San Vicente which where going to Madrid and made a BlaBlaCar advert for it, the funny thing is, as we start to talk I find out that they are going to Bangkok as well, and decided, just like me, to spend a night in Madrid to have less of a hassle during they day of the flight.

Anyway, I get to Madrid and start looking for the hostel, which I found pretty quickly. I check everything in and decide to go and have a look around the city.

The weather was awful, it was raining slightly and cold, I wandered without a real objective in Madrid and found a few famous places, the Plaza mayor, the Basilica de san Miguel and a few more places.

Morning arrives and I get the underground to the airport, check in and go through to the gate, and look at that, another A-380, awesome, and even more when I find out that this one has wifi on board! you should have seen it, the whole upper floor was ment for first class and business, and it looked incredible, the first class had it's personal bathrooms with showers and everything, a masseuse, a bar, heck, everything you can imagine.

After travelling for 22 hours (with the time changes included) I finally land in Bangkok, I get myself a sim card to have internet during my stay (and use Google maps,, I'm not gona lie) and leave to my Hostal, I take the first underground from the airport to Phaya Thai, the centre, here I change to the SkyTrain and head towards my hostel. After dropping everything off and taking a much needed shower I head towards the city to explore, my plan was to go towards the weekend market, but I got distracted on my way, and heck, I would have time tomorrow to visit it. What I found especially amazing is how during the day you see tons and tons of souvenir and amulets shops. But as soon as the sun sets this changes drastically, every store that you see takes out a portable kitchen, some tables and starts serving food like any regular restaurant. After having a nice pad thai I head towards the hostel to get some well deserved rest.