Day 18 of my Transit Holiday – Day 1 in my new home!

Welcome to your new home…

Stayed the night in: BackPackOz

So here we are – another continent, another hemisphere – and I really like it!

I realized for the first time that I am somewhere far away from home when I saw the sunrise from the plane at the time we were approaching Adelaide airport – it just looks different here. I was fetched from the airport by a nice guy with a Chrysler 300C (a service of the university!) and brought to my youth hostel.

I went to the university and got my welcome package and a lot of information…how can these people be so nice and friendly all day long!

I took a look at the university and the city, but I was so tired that I had to go back to the youth hostel and get some sleep!

Day 17 of my Transit Holiday

Qantas and their understanding of “Confirmed”

Singapore somehow bored me so I just walked through the city, took a lot of pictures and waited for my shuttle to the airport to start in a new era!

So far everything went fine, my shuttle came and I was at the airport in time. I queued up at the check-in and gave the woman my passport and booking reference etc. – but somehow she couldn’t find my ticket…tried again but failed! So I had to go to the cusomter care of Qantas and after some research I was told that my ticket was not issued, because of a problem with the credit card…nice to know this so early at that point! An E-Mail had been sent to me but obviously never arrived (anyway it’s not a good idea to handle things like that in a one-way manner – should be made in a message/confirm-manner – or would a pilot land if he just knew he told the landing gear to get out but it hasn’t confirmed).

I asked the guy from Qantas why my booking reference states “confirmed” if it actually isn’t – and after a little discussion he shared my opinion that this is bullshit and should be called somewhat like “Pending” or “Credit not yet received” but definitely not “confirmed”. Anway – beeing right would not bring me to Adelaide so I asked my “friend” what to do now. So, he booked a ticket for me for the 7. February. But I definitely don’t want to stay in Singapore that long, so he put me on standby for my “booked and confirmed’ flight (which was fully booked!). So I had about an hour in uncertainity in which I searched a Qantas mascot to punch up…didn’t find one…but luckly someone didn’t show up (thanks dude!) and I had a seat on that plane.

Thanks Qantas…that really sucked!

But anyhow, could have been worse: I was on my plane and looked forward to arrive in my new home!

Day 16 of my Transit Holiday

Hello Singapore!

Stayed the night in: Inncrowd (Little India)

Once more a transit day – I had to catch my flight at 16:35 so we only chilled at the beach and had lunch together. After that I had to say good-bye to Anja, Jacki, Chris and Harold because I left to Singapore and from there I would go further to Adelaide – so farewell everybody and hopefully see you soon!

I arrived again at Changi Airport, Singapore in the evening got on the train to the city and tried to find the youth hostel Nick had recommended to me – after a while walking I asked a taxi driver which didn’t know the Inncrowd, but knew a place where a lot of backpackers are staying – after arrival at this place I saw it was the Inncrowd! No more professionals in the taxi business…

After check-in I only went out to get dinner and went to bed afterwards…

Day 15 of my Transit Holiday

Goodbye Koh Pha-Gnang – Hello Koh Samui

Stayed the night in: Best Beach Bungalows

After once again looking like a jerk with this trunk at the beach, we (Harold, Chris and me) set over to Koh Samui and checked in at a Bungalow at Chaweng Beach and of course headed immediately to the sea – in the evening we met with Anja and Jacqueline, who were staying after their long travel on Koh Samui. Then we dived into the Koh Samui nightlife went first to a bar, then to some clubs and finally to a “In Bed with SPACE” beach party (you never get fed up of beach parties…).

Day 14 of my Transit Holiday

Last day on the party island

Stayed the night in: Serenity Bungalows (Mello Mountain Bungalows)

Yes, the visit to Koh Pah-Gnang might seem quite “useless” – but I had that  am doing everything right…
This night we met two girls from California and two from Ireland, who met each other on the bus trip to Bangkok, at the Mellow Mountain Bar and went a little partying with them on the beach and ended up again at the Mellow Mountain Bar – compared to the three nights before this was just a relaxed night out…

Day 13 of my Transit Holiday

Just chill…

Stayed the night in: Serenity Bungalows (Mello Mountain Bungalows)

The same procedure as every day…I mean we planned a couple of times to do a boat trip around the island, but it would have started at noon and we never managed to be up so “soon”.
This night the place to be was the Dark Moon Party (there are Full Moon Parties at the sunrise beach, Half Moon Parties in the jungle and Black Moon Parties at another beach) – so there we were at the impressingly decorated beach with lots of blacklight and loud trance music (definetly not my favorite, but you get in the mood quite fast). The DJs played until the sun came up and beyond – after breakfast and buying some new flip-flops I got to sleep at 11 am – once again a crazy party…    

Day 12 of my Transit Holiday

Just chill…

Stayed the night in: Serenity Bungalows (Mello Mountain Bungalows)

Well, there wasn’t really much left of the following day – just laying in the sun at the beach, jumping in the water..and at night there was a Pool Party – the kind of pool party everybody thinks of: big dancefloor, great DJ, luxury pool, music everywhere and everybody jumps into the pool later on! I really like this island…

Day 11 of my Transit Holiday

Koh Samui – Welcome to paradise

Stayed the night in: Serenity Bungalows (Mello Mountain Bungalows)

After arrival on Koh Samui I directly headed to the pier to catch ferry to Koh Pha-Gnan after arrival on Koh Pha-Gnan I went to the Sunrise Beaach of Had Rin where the famous Full Moon Parties take place. This beach is amazing – perfect sand, blue, clear water and is stylishly surrounded by cliffs. But there I had, for the first time, a problem with my trunk: my choosen bungalow could only be reached by walking along the beach – so I had to carry my trunk all the way down the veach and up the stairs to the “mellow mountain” – I must have looked like a total jerk, and my only thought was that if they would have no free room I would definitely kill somebody! But everything paid out in the end – I surely got the best bungalow on the whole island (Number 11) – ok, it was ratty, but I had a wonderful view out to the sea and over the whole beach, from my balcony with a comfortable hammok. Just like arriving in paradise. After the hazzle with the trunk I was dying to jump into the waves, but also I was hungry – so I went to the Mellow Mountain bar where the people were kind of very happy. There I met Sinead (like Sinead O’Connor) from Ireland. She joined me for a little swimming in the sea, showed me around and told me how things are going on Koh Pha-Gnan and in the Mellow Mountain Bar, which is famous for its special shakes – which aren’t tasty at all…
After having dinner I went to the Mellow Mountain Bar where I met Harold and Chris, two guys from Canada. We came into the mood at the Mellow Mountain Bar and then went down to the Beach, where obviously was a big party going on, a crazy party – and I really mean crazy!
When I first walked along the beach I was asking myself for which purpose the bars/clubs at the beach need these huge speaker systems – now I know the answer: at night they pump up the volume so loud that you can propably hear it on the the other islands as well. They have some fire shows going on and later at night the (drunken, stoned, etc.) tourists even take part in it (they all burn themselves a little – but I expect most of them even don’t feel anything…). The party continous till the next morning (which is nice because we are at the “Sunrise Beach”) – and I have never seen such a Party going on!

Day 10 of my Transit Holiday

Just a transit day

Stayed the night in: T.K. Guesthouse

After once again sleeping until noon, we checked out, walked through Pai a last time and took our bus back to Chiang Mai. There we split up, because I had booked  flight to Koh Samui and the girls travelled there by bus and train. In Chiang Mai I just went out for dinner and made a short stop at Julie Guesthouse, because I had to stand up early the next morning to catch my flight.

Day 9 of my Transit Holiday

Let’s go for a ride

Stayed the night in: Duang Guesthouse

We met with Pauli and Daniel to rent some scooters to visit some waterfalls and hot taps. Riding around with these scooters was a lot of fun so we spent the whole day driving around. In the evening we went to “Let’s WOK with T” as we promised, got a great meal and had a really good time there. T describes his situation as beeing stuck in Pai…since five years! He is a really nice guy and likes to met people and to serve them with good food and a nice atmosphere at his house (easy, easy). After dinner we went to a guesthouse outside Pai where they had a reggae party going on – after having some drinks and chilling out there we moved on to the ting tong club – a really nice house-club in Pai. After they stopped playing music we went to our bungalow sat on the veranda and said finally said goodbye to Katja and Vanessa as well as to Pauli and Daniel because they would stay in Pai for the reggae festival and we had booked our bus back to Chiang Mai for the next day.

Day 8 of my Transit Holiday

Pai – Chillout in Northern Thailand

Stayed the night in: Duang Guesthouse (Got our own nice bungalow)

After the last night the 4 hours bus ride to Pai was a real rollercoaster because it went up and down the hills with lots of sharp curves, cows and risky overtaking. But Pai was worth it – it was suggested to me independently by Sam and Nick so I knew there must be something special about it. Pai is kind of a big village surrouned by mountains and Jungle – but what makes it so attractive is the chilledout atmoshphere and the really nice people (and the reggae festival which is very popular there). Pauli and Daniel arrived shprt after us but were so tired that they directly went to a gueshouse for sleeping. We were quite tired too, but decided to take a short look around. And as we passed some bars a friendly-looking guy called “T” invited us to have a beer (he invited almost everybody who was passing the street, so we had a funny group together). There we also met two girls from switzerland, Katja and Vanessa which have been in the same bus to Pai as we. The bars in Pai have to close short after midnight and we were to tired to move on to a club or a bar outside Pai – so we went to our guesthouse to catch some sleep. But T invited all of us to come to his house the next day to have dinner. Careful as germans are we were first not sure about this invitation, but he told us he is running a Thai cooking school and therefore has always a lot of food left when he got a class. So we promised to be there.

Day 7 of my Transit Holiday

And now let’s get some action

Stayed the night in: T.K. Guesthouse

The second day out there in the jungle began with some elephant riding – these are really massive animals – continued with some white water rafting and finished with a chilled out rivertrip on some tied together bamboo.
The jungle trek was amazing, but we were told a little more than we actually got – but in the end we got some money back because of that. I would have preferred to get all that we got told, but anyway the jungle trek was a lot of fun.
Back at Chiang Mai the jungle crew (Anja, Jacqueline, Camillo, Pauli, Daniel and me) went out to explore the “wild life” of Chiang Mai. We started off at a reggae bar with a great live band and stayed their until the band finished and then continued to the inner city. We wanted to go to a placed called “Spicy” but on the way we met a guy from Switzerland with a scooter – I asked him if I could go for a test drive and did so – yes, actually not the best idea but everything went fine – he was just a little upset because of my driving style, but I think driving like the locals is the best thing to do. I then lost the others because I went to another club on the scooter with the swiss guy (I don’t know his name, but for me he looked like a young DJ Bobo). Things were working out fine there, but somehow I lay down and immediately fell a sleep (the trek just finished that day so I was really tired after all). As I woke everybody was gone (don’t trust no swiss DJ Bobo lookalike…) and the place was completly dark. Only two small dogs were around me – so I started searching the exit but couldn’t find it – finally the dogs led me to a couple which had their home in this location. After beeing totally shocked they showed me how to get out (a really hidden exit, because they have no real doors only a big entry which they block at night. Out on the street I walked in the direction I supposed the hostel to be and was standing in front of it only some time later. But I had no key and no one heard my knocking – so my last hope was the window next to the door which I managed to get open quite easy, climbed in, fell on my bed and again immediately into sleep.
What a night…

Day 6 of my Transit Holiday

 

In the jungle the mighty jungle…

 

Stayed the night in: At a Hilltribe in the jungle

We were fetched from our hostel by a windy bus and fetched up some more people with jungle fever: Pauli and Daniel (two guys from Santiago de Chile), Bim and Thomas (from Amsterdam), Camillo from Italy, a group of french, two from Slovenia and another lady from the Netherlands. We were split later on so we didn’t get to know everybody so well but especially the two guys from Chile accompanied us for a longer time.
So the first day was all about trekking – but don’t think there was no action, because safety first may hold true for Germany but here things are a little bit different. The jungle was quite impressive but pittily the promised waterfall was dried out because of low water. Nevertheless it was a lot of fun. In the evening we arrived at a hill tribe to stay overnight and have dinner, having a camp fire and watching the stars. We were split up into two groups to sleep in different locations – the two guys from Amsterdam managed to organise some rum and coke on the way to the jungle, so we joined their site to have a chilled out evening with some SamSong (Thai rum) – but getting there was a hard night trek and I was just wearing flip flops – seeing the path I went down the night before at te day after got me a little bit into thinking…
By the way, did you know that the hilltribes took some 0pium to feel better when they had an injury, because the next hospital/doctor was so far away.

Day 5 of my Transit Holiday

Looking for a Jungle Trek and meet with two girls from my hometown

Stayed the night in: T.K. Guesthouse

I started my first “fresh” day with a Thai breakfast (a soup with pork) and  took a look at the city while searching for a goos jungle trek. After that I met with Anja and Jacqueline who are living in the same small village as my family does and happened to do a half year world trip with the same beginning as my Transit Holiday – what a coincident!
We later checked in at the guesthouse I was staying in and booked a jungle trek for the following two days. So we had a relaxed evening and went sleeping early to be ready for the trek.

Day 4 of my Transit Holiday

Sightseeing – at least one temple must be seen

Stayed the night in: T.K. Guesthouse (Julie Guesthouse is better for meeting people, but was full – this is right aroung the corner)

After beeing somekind of awake I went to see the Grand Palace and afterwards tool a bus to the airport to catch my flight to Chiang Mai.
After arrival at Chiang Mai I tried to sleep at a normal time because I knew I would do a Jungle Trek the day after tomorrow and didn’t want to fall off or something – so nothing special that night.

Day 3 of my Transit Holiday

Chill-out in Bangkok

Stayed the night in: MyHouse Guesthouse

After the last night the day began with a cold shower (we had no hot water anyway) and promised to get very relaxed. Sam and I walked a little through Bangkok, along the river and took a look at the university. In the evening Sam catched his bus to Khrabi and I had a drink at the hostel and met Nick from Ireland and Lars from Germany (who lived in the same street as a student collegue of mine from Schwäbisch Hall). So we went out for a drink – here we go again, the same procedure as every night.

Day 2 of my Transit Holiday

Things are getting much better…

Stayed the night in: MyHouse Guesthouse

My seat on the plane to Singapore was next to a really cool surfer-dude from South Africa named Darian. He arrived in Doha with the believe he had a short stop-over of 3 hours when he found out that his connection-flight would not leave 2 pm but 2 am – yeaha. His strategy to get over this time on the boring airport was to get some Heineken and some ice and to drink one after the other with some guys in the same situation.

My only three hours stop-over in Singapore then turned out to be great: a friend of Darian whose father lives in Singapore came to fetch him (and his three surfboards). Because his father is a pilot for Singapore Airlines he lives close to the airport – and he asked me if I don’t wanna come with them for a beer have a shower and jump in the pool – what can you say about that! Again: many thanks, dude!

In the evening I arrived in Bangkok and directly at the airport got to know Sam, a relaxed guy from Australia who has already been in Bangkok a couple of times. So he knew a good guest house near the Khaosan Road where we checked in. We went out for a drink and the city turned out to be really amazing. We went from one bar to the next and the “gang” grew steadily some girls from Australia, guys from Ireland, some Canadians and so on. We lost ourselves at a club, but somehow I finally managed to get back to my hostel (guesthouse). Great night out.

Day 1 of my Transit Holiday

 - Attention: Jesus is crossing!

Doha, Qatar – A nice place to be…if you like construction sites

Stayed the night in: Doha Airport Quiet Room and on the Plane

The cheapest flight I found had a 20 hour stopover in Doha, which at that time I thought would it even make more attractive. But now I know there are cities which look nice at first sight but turn out to be crap later on! Qatar Airways is really good and the flight was cheap – I even had four seats for my own, because the plane was only 50% booked (thanks to the woman at the check-in for changing my seat as I was the last person who checked in – I know…I am always late!) and so I could lay down and sleep during the flight. After arriving in Doha in the morning I finally got my 25 Dollar Visa from the unfriendly and unhelpful airport crew I went out of the airport to take a look at Doha. I asked some people and were told some sights to look at. I started at the “beach” which was actually a promenade (I suppose they are fed up with sand, because of their history) which was nice to look at but arriving at the city centre was really disappointing.

There were about 30 to 40 skyscrapers but none of them was finished so there were only construction sites and a lot of noise. The only thing you could go to was a huge shopping mall – yeah. But getting somewhere in the city centre was a mess because you had to walk around the construction sites. So I decided to stay at the promenade and enjoy it as much as I could – but the promenade was dead too – hardly any people and no nice bars or stuff like that.

Luckily there I found three guys from cologne who were on their way to India and in the same situation as I was. So we could at least spent the time together. One of them even had a guitar with him which really saved the day. So, many thanks to Andy, Berthold and Christian for shortening this much too long stop-over. I really hope other arabic countries offer more and are more friendly.

Day 0 – Leaving on a jet-plane…

Stayed the night in: On the Plane

Finally the day of my flight arrived. There were a lot of things to do before leaving apart from the preparations. So I had no time to think about what will await me out there. I just brought everything in it’s right place, packed my bags and left. Leaving beloved people is never easy, but when you know you will be back sometime then it’s not that hard. I left from Munich where my brother is working, so he brought me to the airport and at 10 pm my plane left – here we go…