Just keep swimming….

The report on our Thailand stay can be kept short. We spent an amazing time doing nothing except eating daily Thai Curry.

We visited mainly the east side of the country with its beautiful islands, Koh Phangan, Koh Tao and Koh Samui. Starting with Koh Phangan I had an encounter with a dessert-plate big spider (no kidding!!) which nearly made me sleep outside. 8 legs and 8 eyes - about half of it too much. The next day I also got to learn to know the baby of the big one which was still pretty big him/herself. Thailand obviously offers you a vast animal life!

Of course we visited the full moon party at Haad Rin. Paaaaakeeet, Paaaakeeeet Chip Chip! Meaning Bucket Bucket Cheap Cheap were sold everywhere - accordingly most of the tourists where rather pissed. It was a funny experience, since otherwise Haad Rin is actually quite quiet. One big learning there - if you see how many pee into the ocean there during the night, you will not go swimming during the day even though the beach is beautiful. Another Highlight was the visit of the Bottle Beach in the north. It is supposed to be one - or even the- most beautiful beach on Koh Phangan and is only easy accessible via long tail boat. The beach is nestled into a little bay and only very basic bungalows are available, which is actually a relief as in the last few years the most beautiful spots have been construction sites for big resorts. The cool thing there is - and funny wise nobody seems to know - to go swimming or snorkeling in the dark to see the sea sparkle. These are microorganisms that start to glow if they are moved in the water. So as we were snorkeling at night we felt like swimming through a sky full of stars - it was amazing!

On Kho Tao I learned to dive. Markus pimped his diving history with the advanced to avoid future discussions about the depth you are allowed to dive and I did the open water followed also by the advanced. It was a great experience and especially the night dive and the deep dive were pretty cool. So now I am well equipped to dive hopefully also on Galapagos for the Hammer Heads. Unfortunately we did not see any Wale shark on Koh Tao even though it was season.

In Kho Samui we definitely opted for doing nothing. We tried to visit some tourist attraction as for example the overlay - a stone formation in the 'mountaints' of the island and the Buddha Footprint. But even though we followed the map, we did not find anything. So we just enjoyed the beach!

Of course when we left the country for Hong Kong they did not want to let us on our plane, since our booking was stated as cancelled. So ones more we ended up with airport troubles. However with the help of some very nice people at the airport we managed to board the plane to Hong Kong and we also could ensure that our booking for the flight from Hong Kong to Kathmandu was valid. Well somehow I hope this flight troubles were the last ones.

Hong Kong was as usual very funny, very smoggy and just imagine - Burger King in Hong Kong does NOT accept Credit Cards!!!!

Cheers
Luzia and Markus