Koh Lanta & Koh Lipe

Wednesday 12th March

Find it satisfying to jog in the morning before the sun rises, and this jog was a lot easier than the last one on Phi Phi island.
We booked a cooking course at Lanta Thai cookery school the night before, and after a little misunderstanding where to pick us up, we got to the class. We were the only two persons receiving lessons this morning, and that suited us perfect. We could choose 4 dishes, between 10 different choices, and we got to make some of our favorite Thai dishes, like tom yam soup, pad thai, stirfried chicken with cashewnuts and green curry. We started out with information about the thai vegetables and we then prepared eveything for the dishes.
We didn't eat breakfast so we were starving after something to eat, and we both got pretty full after the first dish, the tom yam soup. We learned about thai cooking culture and made some delicious dishes during this class. Definitely some food that we will be making at home, when we get back to reality again. The class was good value for the money, we got some big portions of all four dishes and had leftovers for the rest of the day. After class we got transferred back to our nice bungalow and had a nap. It had been a tiring morning with jogging and to much food.
Later on we rented a motorbike and drove to Ban Saladan to confirm the diving liveaboard trip, the following morning.
Koh Lanta have a animal wellfare organisation, and their objective is to relieve animals from suffer and pain, with sterilisation and care. Most people there is western volunteering for a month or more. It has become a tourist attraction to see and walk the dogs and/or cuddle with the cats. Many people adopt an animal from here, or make a donation to help rescue more animals. We're low budget travellers, so we just took two of their dogs for a walk.
Somehow our motorbike locked itself, when we parked it, and we couldn't start it again, we borrowed a phone from the wellfare center and got a hold on our hotel. They immediately send a guy to fix the motorbike, but without any luck though. Eventually he gave us his motorbike and we returned to the hotel. Then he was left with the broken keylock and waited for assistance, but our problem was solved + we didn't pay for the motorbike. The night went by with blog and our food leftovers.

Tom yam soup

Phad thai with chili and crushed peanuts

Green curry

Stir fried chicken with cashewnuts

Walking the dogs

Thursday 13th March

We got our stuff together and was picked up by Manta divers at 8am. We sat up our diving gear in the shop by the pier and went on the liveaboard trip. The boat normally fitted 14 divers, but we were only 7 divers on board, so we had plenty of space. We got our own room with two soft bunkbeds and aircondition.
Every other diver on the boat was 20-30 years older than us (a couple from Flensburg, a couple from Austria and a weird french guy). Apparently there would be a lot of german speaking, since one of the divemasters were german aswell. Luckily our divemaster was our age, Asian and spoke great english. So at least I would have someone to communicate with.
During the day we went for 3 dives. Thailand have the best divesites that we've seen (can only compare to the Philippines though), and it's just fantastic to see all the colourful marinelife. So one thing is certain: all the god damn tourists in Thailand haven't ruined the divesites!!!
Diving gives us a feeling that is hard to describe - it just amazing and we feel so lucky to be able to do this. Our last dive was a sunset dive, and they're some of our favorite dives, cause that's when the fishes are really active and is starting their hunt for dinner. We usually see a lot of schools at this time, like big schools of barracudas, tunas, trevallys or snappers.
In the night we had a excellent buffet dinner and hang out with all the old ones, haha. It was really funny cause this one guy from Austria just assumed that eveyone understood his language (he almost didn't speak english), so he would tell a joke to me, and burst out in laugh, and I would look like one big questionsign. Funny guy with the typical Austrian attitude and look.

Cabin with seaview, at the live aboard boat

Our divemaster giving information about the divesite

Dive video day 1

Friday 14th March

We got up quite early to do our first dive, the sunrise dives is also great dives with lots of active fish. 

On this divesite we would be able to see manta rays, and Erik's disappointment started to show when the dive was finished and we hadn't seen any.
We had a big delicious breakfast, before it was time to dive again. Already on our descending to the next dive, Erik discovered a manta ray, and after swimming along a rock there was more mantas to discover. We got a bit concerned the first time they got close to us. A few times they just swimmed right towards us and in the last second they changed their direction, and we had to be carefull not to get hit by their wing. It was so amazing and fantastic, they're really curious so they kept swimming around us, dancing with us, as our divemaster called it. To experience this was a huge satisfying feeling and our mission was completed.
The second dive was just as awesome, we dances with these huge water birds again, for over an hour. Back on the boat everyone was so happy and overwhelmed after two great dives with manta rays.
It was actually cooler than diving with the sharks, this was more intimate, cause they stayed around us for such a long time. We had 3½ hour boatride back to Koh Lanta again, we went for a nap, totally satisfied and with new energy to explore more of the world.
It was late afternoon, when we hit Lanta pier, so we didn't bother spending too much time finding a neat room. We were gonna leave the next morning anyway. We found a cheap but digusting place to stay near the pier, the swedish guesthouse. The sheets were dirty, and filled with gecko poop, so we had to ask for clean ones, but the room was filled with geckos, so the poop kept coming. To survive we had to make sure not to sleep on our back with our month open, but other than that we were fine.

The common area on the boat

The swedish coloured house is where we stayed for the night

The most unsafe bridge that I have ever walked on

The fantastic bathroom at the swedish place

The disgusting and messy room

Dive video day 2

 

Saturday 15th March

In the morning we booked a boat to Koh Lipe, 6½ hour and 2800 bath poorer. The weather changed to be more cloudy and rainy. Arrived on Koh Lipe in the afternoon, and it took us a while to find South Sea bungalows, the island is more crowded than we assumed, and it's really dirty aswell, they have a hard time getting rid of their trash, cause they're so far away from the mainland.
Eventually we found South Sea and they had a bungalow available, all though a bit expensive compared to what we got, we payed 500, but it was only worth 200 bath. Concidering that we were on Koh Lipe it was a good deal, since everything is quite expensive there. We had an outdoor bathroom filled with frogs, that we had to get rid off before we could shower, and after spraying water at them, they didn't seem to come back in again.
Went for a jog and a walk into town, here we met Tom & Verity (an english couple that we met shortly in Krabi and mailed with a few times). We went for dinner with them, and it turned out that they were gonna travel the same way as us, for the next couple of weeks. So it was easy to keep the conversation rolling.

Our cute little bamboo hut

 
Sunday 16th March

We both didn't sleep well, the matress in the bungalow was hard as a rock, and had woken us up a lot of times during the night. Went to sunrise beach and enjoyed the wind, sun and the wavy sea for some hours. Early afternoon we went to OMG sportbar to watch the first Grand Prix of Formula 1. Erik had been excited for weeks, so he was uncontrollable at this time. He watched the grand prix and drank beers, while I was napping in one of their hammocks. It was a celebration day for Erik, since Kevin Magnussen got a podium position.
We had an even worse night this night, the hard matress was just killing us slowly. It was so painfull at last, that I reckon it would have been more comfortable to sleep on the bamboo floor.

Watching Formula 1

Monday 17th March

We crossed the border to Malaysia with a 1 hour boatride, for 2000 bath. Got to Langkawi island around noon, and then we had a typical asian experience.
The boat company who said they would take care of everything with the immigration still had our passports, so when we enterered the harbour, they brought all 120-140 passport to the immigration office. And from there it got chaotic, apparently the boat company only took care of the stamp out of Thailand. So now we all had to wait to get our passport back from two of the malaysian immigration guys. Some had to catch a flight and were in a rush to get a taxi to the airport, and it took ages before people got their passports. The immigration office only had two open counters, so when people had got their passports they could place themselves in the long and slow line in front of one of the counters. So typical asia, never well organized and always making a confusing situation out of nothing.
Western people are use to living in a civilized and organized part of the world, but even for us, these things keeps on surprising us, even though we've experienced it all the time during the last 6 month.
We have adapted to some asian habbits though, never getting our food at the same time, aswell as waiters rarely clean our tables for plates, cutlery etc. after we're finished eating and only provide tissues if we ask for them. It has become normal for us never eating together, these places you eat when you get your food, cause you never know if, it's gonna take 10 or 60 more minutes with the rest of the food.
Well, after getting our passports we arranged a minivan that drove us to the part of Cenang where we read there would be a good opportunity to find a cheap guesthouse. Cenang town didn't catch our attention at all, it was a boring and expensive little beach town. Went for a jog and we were lucky to find a great and cheap place to have dinner, and we spend most of the night in our room which had a excellent wifi connection.

Sweet little kid playing on her dads motorbike

A true paradise beach.. Bye Bye Koh Lipe..

  

Krabi, Railay beach & Phi Phi island - Thailand

Friday 7th March

We got picked up at the hotel at 8am, and got transferred to Ao Nang, where the boat was waiting for us, a longtail boat that fitted around 20 people. We got a spot in the sun, and we were lucky (or unlucky) to get the spot where all the water sprayed in aswell. It got a bit cold in the end, but we could look forward to some time for relaxation on stunning beaches. First we visited Lading island, then Hong island and the lagoon. Unfortunately the remote and undeveloped beaches from the pictures in the brochure, was several years old, and is now, ruined by too many tourists, and we were some of them. Hmm... All right we just needed to relax, so it was okay, and the trip was only 400 bath, so all good. We got back in the late afternoon, and for the first time in 6 months I got a sunburn. Damn it!
Had some tasteful food at our hostel 'Good Dream', and went to bed early.

Not really a remote and untouched beach

Chinese people can't swim, so this is how the retards look like when they're on a beach

This is how cool I look like...

..and this is my lovely boyfriend

One of Ao Nang beaches 

Hong beach

Saturday 8th March

Today we went rockclimbing on Railay beach, I read about this wonderful place months ago, and I never stopped thinking about it, so we had to go and check it out. Apparently it's the best place for rockclimbing in Asia, and no wonder. This place was really stunning, had a stunning beach and some seriously good rockclimbing routes, for all levels. The beach is surrounded by mountains, located on the mainland, and only accessible by boat. It's the most untouched and undeveloped area we have visited in Thailand, and yet there's still some tourists there, but it's not overcrowded and ruined (yet). Definitely a place that's worth visiting again, we were surprised and amazed over this place.
We had a fun, challenging and exhausting day with rockclimbing, the afternoon we spend on the beach, just resting our old used bodies. We went back to Krabi late afternoon, and had a quiet night at the hostel.

Pretty scenery 

This is NOT only tree meters above the camera guy, this climb was 18 m. and I'm almost on the top here

The monkey here is around 28 meters above sea level

The stunning view from the top

Railay beach is pretty amazing

Railay beach

Krabi & Railay video

Sunday 9th March

We checked out at 11am, had a transfer to the pier of Krabi and from there we took a boat to Koh (= island) Phi Phi, 250 bath. Arriving at Phi Phi without any booked accommodation is quite easy, cause at the pier they have all hotels and guesthouses advertising with info and pictures. Wonderful idea. Phi Phi is a partyplace, and we wanted to stay away from all the noise, so we got a room at RS guesthouse for 700 bath. We went for a walk in the little town, all streets are narrow walking streets with souvenir shops, restaurants and bars. The only thing running on wheels is their luggage transportaion, like a big wheelbarrow, no motorbikes or car noise in the town.
We had dinner at Cosmic, a very popular place with reasonable prices and big portions. Just as we like it. 

In the evening I had a little battle with a spider - watch the video further down.

Pineapple with ham, prawns and rice - Yummi

 Lisbeth vs. the spider

Monday 10th

Today we had been away for 6 months, so it was time for some celebration. We started out with a morning jog, that turned out really annoying, cause it was very warm already at 7am, and we got lost several times in all those small streets. We then had breakfast on the beach and a little resting time, before we went for a hike to the viewpoint. Phi Phi is actually two island, they're attached to each other by a big sandbar, and from the viewpoint we could see both the northern and southern bay, a stunning view, worth the effort to hike up there. We finished the day with a nice dinner, and with each our bucket we joined the young crowd on the beach, watching fireshows, dancing and having more buckets.

The first ones on the beach this morning

View from the top of Koh Phi Phi

Happy travellers

Sipping strawberry daiquiri

This starnger is enjoying a big bucket of mojito

Fireshow

Tueday 11th March

I was worth nothing when we woke up, apparently those buckets had been really strong (and many). We wanted to travel to Koh Lanta, and book a live-aboard trip, so we had to get out of bed and drag ourselves down to the boat on the pier, luckily only 1½ hour boatride to our destination. We booked a bungalow in advance through a guy on the pier of Koh Phi Phi, so we avoided all the hassle when we arrived on Koh Lanta. A fixed tuk-tuk brought us straight to our big and clean bungalow, Palace Hill, near Hat Khlong Nin, actually a neat place compared to what we're use to, but also 200 bath more expensive per night.
We had free access to a swimming pool, located in a resort on the beach, and spend most of the day there.

Our little hut on Palace Hill

We forgot to take a picture of the nice pool and the beach, so this is what you get

 

Charming Pai, buzzing Bangkok, family goodbye and frustrating Suratthani

Friday 28th Feb.

We had a hotel pick up at 11.30am, got transfered to the minibus that drove us to Pai (180 bath). Helle & Jan is only here for 2 weeks, and we didn't want to waste time on walking around and looking for hotels, so we booked a hotel in advance, Fai Vieng Pai resort. Got 55% discount on the webpage, so we got a neat place, in the bottom of the mountains, with a nicely decorated garden, a porch, a homely enviroment and no noise from the town and hardly no traffic. In general a good place for some lazy days.
We had free shuttle bus to town, so in the evening we went there. It had a very relaxed atmosphere, a lot of young backpackers, and a lot of Bob Marley types was hanging around the different bars. A lot of small intimate shops and even more food stalls. A big backpacker mekka. We slendered around the town and had a great dinner.

Free shuttle tuk-tuk from our hotel in Pai

Once again a really nice room, sponsored by Helle & Jan

This time even with a porch

Saturday 1st March

Bicycled to town for lunch, then spend most of the day at the nice resort, enjoyed the beautiful mountain view, the weather and the free wifi. Just a relaxing day with no stress and nothing that we needed to accomplish. In the afternoon we went out jogging, a hot and humid experience, but felt amazing afterwards. We visited a steakhouse at night, and slendered around the street market for accessories to Helle and Jan.

Another nice dinner in Pai

Sunday 2nd March

Today we didn't do anything, just like yesterday... But we didn't finish it...... 

The weather was unbearable hot, and we sure missed a beach or a place to cool down.
At night we had dinner at the different street stalls around Pai. There's a lot of constructions going on, both inside and outside of town, no doubt that this charming little town is a fast growing one. Even now it's more popular than Chaing Mai, specially by young travellers. Unfortunately the communication with the locals is quite hard, and we experienced several times each day, that they say yes and nod their heads, to whatever we said, and 100% of the times they DON'T know what they agreed to or said yes to. For example one time I ordered food, and before I was done with my order, the waiter already said okay.. So freaking annoying. That's why we've started to speak really loud and clear to them, and always repeat the order, cause otherwise they really dont have a clue of what we're saying.

Our hotel again, just outside the town, but also just next to the mountains.

Monday 3rd March

We checked out and went into town to get some breakfast, then we took a bus from Pai to Chiang Mai (150 bath). Later on we had a pre-booked train ticket to Bangkok (650 bath). It was a sleeper train, and we travelled at night, so the 16 hours didn't feel that long. There was an asian stand up toilet, which got pretty disqusting in the end. The beds were more comfortable than in the trains in China, but the trainride itself was more bumpy and lively. Helle and Jan had the two lower beds, and they complained about the heavy diesel smell from the engine, it had woken them up a few times during the night. Lets just say it was another experience, and we got to Bangkok safe.

Probably not the type of train Helle expected when we booked the tickets

For us = A luxuriuos train. For Helle & Jan = A nightmare ride!

Tuesday 4th March

The trainride had been a bit tiring on all of us, but it was cheap and something else than if we just had taken a flight. We pre-booked a room in Bangkok, at Nasa Vegas hotel, near the airport link, easy for H & J to get to the airport the next morning and that was basically why we stayed there. We went to visit the duty free mall (again, last time was during x-mas). And again we filled our stomachs with all the free candy and dried fruits they provide in there. Just as good as last time. It was last day with H & J, so we enjoyed it as much as possible. Watched 'The Hunt' (Jagten) with them, and went for some street food at night.

Relaxing in the outskirts of Bangkok

Everyday scene in Asia - even there's a lot of poverty, there's also new phones and tablets everywhere

Wednesday 5th March 

In the morning we followed Helle & Jan to the airport, and waved goodbye to them. Soon we were back to the basic fan rooms and cold showers again, so we enjoyed our last few hours in the decent room at Nasa Vegas.
Had booked a train to southern Thailand leaving at 6.30pm, and the day went by with getting our last Hepatitis vaccination, and relaxing in Lumpini Park, which is another area that has been overtaken by all the protesters. We were lucky to find a free spot, near a lake, and had a few hours relaxing/waiting time here, before the train was departing. Unfortunately there was only sitting seats left, when we booked the tickets, so we could look forward to a long and exhausting night, almost 13 hours in hard seats, before we would arrive in Suratthani.

Goodbye hugs...

Relaxing in Lumpini park before a REAL nightmare train ride!

Typical Thai protester

Thursday 6th March

Suratthani train station is full of touts and scams, so we walked back and forth a few times before we decided which scam company to choose. Even the local bus that we tried to get on was scamming us, so we went back on the street again. We were in a few arguments with different people, trying to tell them that this is not a nice way to treat tourists, and it dosen't make tourists want to come back.
One thing was sure we were getting ripped of, and couldn't do anything about it, cause every company there, is scamming the tourists. Damn it! We got on a minivan to Krabi for 250 bath each. Got dropped off 5 km outside Krabi town, was annoyed of the misleading informations, but took it easy. Started walking into town, when a tuk-tuk driver picked us up, and brought us to Krabi.
We found a cheap room quickly, and had a look around town. We planned to do a one day boattrip to visit different nice beaches. After 2 weeks with no swimming and suntanning, we would appreciate some beach time. A ½ day of rockclimbing was also on the schledule, actually the reason why we made a stop in Krabi. Went for a jog in the afternoon, and booked the boattrip at night.

Monument in Krabi