Christmas and New Year's in ☀ ~ THAILAND ~ ☀

Happy New Year everybody!!! Wherever you are in the world, I hope you started 2014 with a big smile on your face - as I did :) I just came back from an amazing vacation in the world of palmtrees, white sandy beaches, cristal clear water, bargaining and spicy food! In the following you can read about our experiences in the tropical paradise named Thailand.

Already the way to get there was an experience! In 20 hours we had to change planes 3 times (everytime with our suitcases) and even the airport in Shanghai once. And each time we were afraid to miss the next flight because the schedule was as tight as it can possibly be! Even more relaxing to land in Koh Samui waiting for a pick-up service which didn't show up. Nothing to worry! We just called the friendly receptionist named "Tanyaporn" (seriously, how can you name someone like this??) whose English I simply couldn't understand and waited if she understood the 5 times I repeatedly said "airport" and "pick up". Finally the small van came for us and only stopped once on the way (the driver had to get some "material" for a construction?!) until we arrived our first accommodation: Samui World Resort. This would be our longest stay in one place and also the location for Christmas, so we were really happy when we saw the neat bungalow park which looked like a "tidy jungle" with many palm trees and beach access.

Our spacious cabin for four nights

Only the fact that I was eaten up by mosquitos every day cast a tiny shadow on our stay. The nights were hot, short and filled with the buzzing of the mosquitoes but the days were simply awesome!!!

We could relax at the pool (the beach was a little too windy and small because the water came very close to the edge) and would drink some freshly prepared smoothies/fruit shakes.





In the evening we went to have dinner at the Bamboo Grill&Bar which is run by our "friend" Matze hehe. A German who decided to live in Thailand and opened his own restaurant serving German dishes. He is kind of known in Germany because he was on TV in a documentary called "the emigrants" (Die Auswanderer).

Luckily on our first day we found out that his restaurant was right around the corner from our hotel (15 minutes walk). Finally we could eat our long craved for Currywurst!!
It was really special to be around other Germans (as they are really rare aka non-existent in Japan) - and there were ONLY Germans at Matze's restaurant. The menu was in German (and English) which made us feel really welcome. So after a nice meal we decided to join Matze also for his advertised Christmas dinner which should be duck with special potato dumplings (Knödel) and red cabbage! Yum yum yum






On our second day we did some sightseeing: the golden Big Buddha and Chaweng beach. Nothing much to say about it, just see the pictures:

A market we passed on our way...didn't look very neat or hygienic

And I don't know why they sell frogs...

The big spiky fruit is the Durian, aka stink/vomit fruit. We were not brave enough to try it.

Our beachfront hotel restaurant

We enjoyed the nice, right-on-the-beach hotel breakfast with fresh fruits everyday except one where we had to leave early for our day trip to Koh Phangan, an island very close to Koh Samui which is famous for its full moon parties (which are held every day no matter what the moon looks like).
We were picked up by the ferry shuttle service which brought us on a spectacular ride (no seatbelts on a potholed road) to the pier. The ferry was quite an adventure (and it shouldn't be the last one). When we arrived we decided to take a taxi to one of the supposedly most beautiful beaches but first we wanted to get away from the shouting and obtrusive drivers ("Taxi HERE, come with me! Where do you wanna go? Come here! cheap! where you go?..") and have a look at the map. An other driver came toward us showing a price table and after a little bargaining we thought we got a good price to go to the other end of the island - Mae Had Beach. We soon realized that there was nothing much on the way - no shops, no supermarket, no big resorts, nothing. So we would have to stay at that chosen beach for the day. The driver offered to come back for us in the afternoon and we agreed on a pick up time. He warned us that if we shouldn't be there, there would be consequences, so we were like "yeah of course we will be there! Sure!" Unfortunately the day was a little cloudy, very windy and not as warm as expected. Nevertheless we had a great time at the beach just relaxing and wandering around.

I have never seen so many wild dogs as in Thailand!

 When we were tired of sitting around and doing nothing we decided to go back earlier as planned. The taxi from the beach front resort offered us even a better price than the one our driver had told us. So we decided to leave and take a walk in the "city center" instead while waiting for the ferry. When we were heading back to the pier a motor scooter came quickly closer stopping by my side...our driver! He started shouting at us while we were just continuing to walk "Where were you? I wait for you!! What? Why you did that? You said you come! I drive all the way for nothing!! I care for you!" I apologized that we wanted to leave earlier and even got a better price but he wasn't interested. His rage was overwhelming and he couldn't stop following us around shouting at us in front of the other tourists waiting for the ferry. "I went looking at the beach for half an hour! where you are?! I care for you! You give me half price now! Give me money! I drive long way!" It was quite embarrasing but after apologizing again, we tried to ignore him. He threatened us to call the police, that we wouldn't leave the island, that we had to stay there one night because his friends from the ferry wouldn't let us on board. At first we thought "yeah come on, empty threats, we have tickets, what should happen?" The man barked something in Thai into his walkie-talkie and one of his friends came to first listen to him and then take him by the shoulder guiding him away from us. Was this a good or a bad sign?? We didn't know. It drove us nuts! Leading us to think that maybe everybody on this small island would actually be "friends", even the policemen and the ferry men, and were afraid of having to pay bribes to get on the ferry or worse: being thrown into prison. We didn't even have our passports with us not to mention the phone number of the German embassy. Well, we hoped the ferry would come soon, but our prayers were not heard. It was over an hour late! An hour of anxiety and fear what could and what would happen! We had each a 100 Baht bill in our hands when queuing to get on board but.....nothing happened. YEAH! What a relief! Adrenaline going back to normal. Relax. Everything will be ok. At least we will never forget this story, let alone the island Koh Phangan.

Next day: Christmas day!

We spent the day at the pool and enjoyed various delicious drinks until we had to get ready for our "big night out" at Matze's Bamboo Grill&Bar! Yay! So this is how we spend our unconventional Christmas far away from home:

Our delicious Christmas dinner

On the next day it was already time to say goodbye to Koh Samui, so we enjoyed the pool for a last time and off we went to the ferry pier again, only this time with all our luggage, to go to Koh Tao. The smallest of the three famous islands in the Gulf of Thailand.

Goodbye Koh Samui! 

Goodbye BoPhut beach! 

Goodbye World Resort! 

Goodbye Matze! 

Maybe see you again one day...you never know

The ferry ride was horrible! And the name Lomprayah will forever be marked in our brains. It's the name of the ferry operating company. The sea looked calm and quiet when we started the 2 hour ride but as soon as we reached the open water it became a horror trip. The fact that they played cheerful music all the time didn't help to make people stop vomiting and it also didn't help to overplay the loud bangs when the boat hit massive waves. I felt like being on a rollercoaster only that the end was nowhere in sight. When a cover panel came down from the ceiling with an ear-shattering crash it made us all cringe. It actually was the first time of my life that I was afraid to die. And I've already done skydiving and went snorkeling with sharks (well harmless reef sharks but you get my point)! Seriously, I made plans what happens if the boat capsizes: I stared at my life jacket, ready to grab it any second, I watched the position of the sun so I'd know in which direction I had to swim and I would only take a bottle of water and my passport with me. Crazy right? But I was soooo relieved when we finally arrived the island alive. As were all the other passengers. One had to be carried out and put in a wheelchair! The next shock came when we saw how our bags were thrown overboard. There was a huge gap between the ferry and the pier so it took our last nerves not to go there and just scream. Ok, everything went fine, our hotel shuttle was waiting, ready to bring us sitting in the back of his open pick-up truck to our next resort. The beach and the hotel facility compensated for the torture.

But the joy lasted only until the evening when we got first the wrong food, then rotten mozarella cheese and had to pay for it (even if we told them and we didn't eat it) and then finally found out that there was a rat (or some other gnawer) living in our wooden ceiling construction keeping us up all night - along with the mosquitos of course.

Ok enough complaining! Other than that the island was beautiful and we enjoyed our days there a lot!

On our way to Freedom Beach

View on Chalok Ban

Sairee Beach

Sairee Beach

We were afraid to get on the ferry again, but we had to :( Next stop and one day travel by ferry and bus to PHUKET. Everything went fine. Way better than expected. Our hotel was nice and directly located in the party district Patong. We went shopping until our feet feel off because everything was soooo cheap! And I think we really saw ALL of the market stalls. And let me tell you, there are many!! Handbags, shirts, souvenirs, purses, sunglasses, suitcases, bikinis, even electronic equipment. Everything. "Come inside! Have a look Miss! Cheap cheap! what do you need? New handbag for you M'am? come lookie lookie cheap cheap" We also went to see another big Buddha and spend a day at the beach which gave me finally the impression of Thailand that I had expected: tourists everywhere! Old fat Russian men being "treated" by Thai women, young Europeans asking us to join them for the night's best party, Asians renting Jetskis to have some fun and many beach vendors to sell you more sunglasses even if you already have five pairs lying around...

Party party everywhere...without us

Oh and the Thais LOVE their King! Pictures of him everywhere

Buddhist monks meditating in a hall beneath the Big Buddha

Patong beach

And then we took the airplane (Thank goodness!) to our last destination: Bangkok! Yay! We had a nice hostel with a 3-bed-dorm for ourselves but no bunkbeds yippieh! The staff was really friendly and could give us some good advice what to do during the day. First, we were a little bit afraid of the riots that had been going on for weeks but we were lucky! Apparently New Year is a sacred holiday for the Thais so they stayed home and we didn't see anything terrifying at all. But we saw two nice Buddha statues (again), the palace (from the outside), some markets and had a spectacular NYE watching the fireworks from a hotel private pier at the riverbank followed by dancing in a rooftop bar with a fantastic view on Bangkok's skyline by night! Hope you all had great fun aswell!

Grand Palace

Wat Pho - lying Buddha

46 m long and 15m high

Fresh fruit everywhere

Wat Traimit

Lumpini Park

Kao San road

New Year's dinner at an Italian restaurant

Fireworks at the Peninsula Hotel

In the CLOUD 47 rooftop bar

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!! I wish you and your families all the best for 2014! May many of your wishes become true and may luck, health and joy be on your side!