Mike 1. April 2011
Finally – DIVING!!!! J I may sound like a scuba freak and I admit, I really, really like diving! In the water, below the surface it is a different world: tranquile, silent, mostly peaceful (in my romantic view), yet at the same time forceful, filled with a power that you can feel in those moments where you get into the surf or at shallow depths, feeling the waves moving you gently, yet powerful.
Mike 28. März 2011
So here I sit in my hotel room on Phi Phi Island, the netbook on my lap and listen to Mr. Bojangles. The room is “functional” and clean, though nothing in particular. Around me, spread out on the bed, my electronic equipment: loaders for iPhone, Netbook and some other stuff, I just took out of my backpack to continue my impressions from this journey. Next to me my brand new 10-l watertight seasack, matching my watertight Ortlieb pack I chose to travel with (I had to bring my diving equipment somehow safe and at the same time light weight). Next to the door hangs my watertight and brandnew watertight Poncho, matching in colour my wonderful “MA 48 Softshell” (thanks my friends from DSA, this one is for you 
).
What do you mean by I talk all the time about “watertight”? Oh, yes, you are right, indeed. Watertight. Everything needs to be watertight these days. Because water is everywhere. It’s coming down from the sky: Liters, gallons, tons. It comes pouring from the roofs, from the hills, from the trees. And water is on the pathways. It is on the small streets here in Phi Phi Don. It is even in the air, so densely as if it was fog. And it all runs into the sea.
The sea. The place where I should be now. Or at least have been for the last few hours. Be in there for scuba diving and see the famous Phi Phi underwater world. That’s why we came to Koh Phi Phi. 7.15 AM was the meeting time in the diving centre. Extra early to be earlier at the dive spots than all the other diving centres here, to have a chance to be the first ones and as such for at least some time enjoy the subsea world without hundreds of other divers. The signs looked good: 5 or 6 other divers inscribed for today, Lupo and me. Fairly few for a place with so many dive centres, though the more favourable for those who are here.
But no diving today. We already feared that news when we stepped out of our rooms at 7 this morning: Heavy rain and strong winds, forming quite some waves in southern bay here. And at the diving centre they unfortunately had to cancel today’s diving. Strong southern winds made safe diving impossible. Usually they have either western or eastern winds so that at least one side of Phi Phi Leh (the smaller island here) is diveable. But not today. Not this month. Folks from the diving centre tell us they can’t remember any March with so much rain than this one. And the forecast does look the same same: Rain and winds for 2-3 more days. Exact the time which we have to dive before we need to catch our flights, Lupo & Flora back to Bangkok and I to Kuala Lumpur.
So what else is there to do than sitting in the room, writing blog articles and listening to Mr. Bojangles?
P.S. Don’t worry, I brought along some more music. Gene Kelly’s “Singin’ in the Rain” for example…
Mike 21. März 2011
A royal day out in the deepest sense of the word. Today it is the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaeow, Wat Pho, before we meet Carrie, an AIESEC friend of Lupo and later on dine out with our hosts Kenny and Daniel in the “Lobster”.
After a rather quick journey in the taxi (less than 1 hour – that’s good for Bangkok, believe me!) from the Sukhumvit area to the Grand Palace (and around 120.- Thai Bhat, so don’t be fooled by taxi drivers who ask for the double as a fixed amount) we see the area from the outside in all its grandesse. Just to see the temple roofs stretching out towards the sky, fenced by white fortress walls is impressive – especially if you see it first time. Weiterlesen »
Mike 20. März 2011
First Day out after a good night’s sleep. Daniel, one of our hosts, insisted on taking us to the Chatu Chak Weekend market in person to explain us everything. So there we go: 3 Austrians and one Thai in a car, heading for the north, about 45 minutes – or is one hour? Time just passes so quickly, since there is so much to see even on the road. Temples hugged in small spots between the lower houses, new skyscrapers being built everywhere and a highway that – different from other places I have seen – runs in harmonic bends between the houses a few floors above ground level. Somewhere under us the normal streets with their cars, their buses, motorbikes and their tuktuks (which have reduced in number considerably since my last time here) and their millions of people on the street, many of them offering their food and other stuff at their various street kitchens and food stalls. Sunday and shops/restaurants/businesses closed? A concept that is fairly unknown to this part of the world.
Mike 19. März 2011
Nightview from Privacy Suites Rooftop
Back to Bangkok it is. Bangkok, or Krung Thep Mahanakhon as it’s native name is. The City of Angels. That translation of the native name appeals to me much more than the translation of “Bangkok”: “Village in the plum woods”.
Man, I haven’t been here for “only” five years and it seems to have changed quite a bit in the meantime.