I Love to Ride my Bicycle...

Bangkok is famous for billion ways of transportation such as car, motorcycle, tuk-tuk, pickup, BTS for just to mention a few. But mount a boneshaker in the traffic of Bangkok seems like suicide. So we did!

From Kim's father back in Germany we got the hint of a bike tour guide in the center of Bangkok. Let's make a quiz out of it:

What do you think is the nationality of the guy who starts a cycling tour business in Bangkok. Yea, just Dutch people can be so crazy and we love them for their craziness.

We booked the Co Van Kessel five hour Bangkok tour in the morning. Just a hint from us: If you don't like to bike in the burning sun of Thailand, stand up early that day and take the tour in the morning, it's great!

The tour started with a wormed path through the narrow alley of Bangkok's China Town. Our tour guide Noona did an amazing job explaining us various locations. But the tour is not famous for Bangkok's city, it is famous for visiting remote areas where usually tourists don't go. So we quickly crossed the huge Chao Phraya River and entered the quiet hidden plantations. From there we cycled through the fields to a small restaurant with one of the best Thai food experiences we ever had.

The tour offers an exciting shift from longtail boat to bike, so that it gets never to hot or exhausting. We need to highlight the great longtail boat transportation through the canal lifestyle of rural Bangkok. Yes indeed, this town deserves the title "Venice of the East".

Summarizing, we discovered remote temples, gained good luck by ringing a giant bell, got to know awesome people, ate fruits from the plantations we do not even know and saw the biggest gathering of catfishes in our life. If you ask us whether this tour is worth a try, hell yes!

Stay hungry, stay foolish,
Kim & Robert

Lumpini Park: Yes it's Green Here!

A really cool place worth visiting in Bangkok is the Lumpini Park right next to the Sala Daeng BTS Station. Usually you do find awesome green areas around but not directly in Bangkok.

With more than 500,000 sqm this Park represents the largest park in central Bangkok. We chose the primetime of the park at 8 a.m. in order to enjoy the nice morning breeze. At this time many people make use of the various sport possibilities around the park. Especially the morning Tai Chi and Yoga sessions are amazing to observe and if you don't mind the non-English communication problems you are free to join the groups.

An amusing aspect of the park was something I read before in a recommendation:

TAKE CARE OF THE MONITOR LIZARDS!

I mean, they are not aggressive at all, but - man - they are huge and everywhere. We were used to monitors from our trip to Kenia, but in the water of the artificial lake in the middle of the park we spotted a monitor with a length of at least 2.2 meter. So - mind your step, guys!

By the way, when you like to visit the park in the evening, we heard that some guys are doing impressive acrobatics there.

Stay hungry, stay foolish,
Kim & Robert

Surviving the Tourist Jungle of Bangkok

After thousands of new experiences and impressions of the Summer School, we are ready to start our exchange semester in Bangkok! Having discovered more of Bangkok’s surroundings than of Bangkok itself, we started with a quick “touri” tour through Bangkok’s old city by foot.

Starting at the BTS Station National Stadium, we got a quick tour through the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was a famous American entrepreneur in Thailand since he discovered the high value of Thai silk and exported it in the time from 1950 to 60. His house is full of impressive Southeast Asian art and furniture that he collected on his trips in Asia.

Afterwards, we took a nearby boat cab to the middle of Bangkok’s old city. This alone was worth an experience: the boat cabs just passed by the harbor stations in some seconds, so that you almost had to jump on the cap. Safely back on the ground, we went to one of the most famous temples Bangkok’s, the Wat Saket also known as the Golden Mountain. Built first by King Rama III in the 18^th century, the first attempt failed because of the soft nature of the hill’s ground. The current temple was built on the remains of the original one during the reign of King Rama IV and V. The 300 steps to the top were the most exciting part of this short temple climb. Unfortunately, the temple inside is covered with donation boxes and souvenir shops no one really expects to be at a holy place like this. Nevertheless, the way up to the temple and the view is worth to go there, many beautiful bells are waiting for you to be rung.

Our way continued via the famous Khao San Road - the so-called Backpacker Road - to the beautiful City Pillar Shrine. To have some cheap drinks in the evening, Khao San Road seems to be the place to be. But if you do not want to be reminded of Ballermann on Majorca, there are many nice Thai bars and clubs in the city center of Bangkok. From there we went on to have a look at the massive King’s Palace. The area is full of impressive buildings, but we decided not to join every single tour, but to enjoy the pompous style of its environment.

The time ran by, and we got hungry, so that we took again a nearby boat cab back to River City from where we walked along the riverside to the BTS Station Saphan Taksin. On the way, we discovered an amazing “hipster” café called the hobbyist. I saw the front of the café, and knew that we have to go inside to have a cup of coffee. But instead of a coffee, we took a hot milk with caramel and one with toffee nut flavor. Amazing, a café specialized in hot milk - and very delicious. Besides hot milk, the café also offers a wide variety of shakes such as Oreo or banana shake, all kinds of coffees, and some delicious dishes, like self-made pasta, and French fries. Instead of hipsters, many high school youngsters were sitting in the café doing their homework or just having fun, so that you also have the chance to meet local people here.

On this day, we were looking for local food, so that we went back on the street, into the smallest allays Bangkok’s. And there we found the best Pad Thai we ever had, cooked from a toothless old lady, with such efforts that it had to taste good in the end. We enjoyed the Pad Thai on the terrace of our bed & breakfast Repos Casa, where we stayed until we could move in into our new accommodation. At this little boutique hotel, we met the friendliest service we have ever experienced. They offered us a room upgrade free of charge since we were the only guests at this time, provided a cold welcome drink, and gave us lots of valuable tips where to go in Bangkok. The sister of the owner even offered us to teach Thai, so that we are still visiting this nice place to really get to know the local people and to be able to communicate with them, to some extent.

Stay hungry, stay foolish,
Kim & Robert

The Burning Little Island Koh Samed

After two first weeks of an exhausting Summer School, we were surprised with a trip to one of the most famous islands of Thailand, to Koh Samed. We traveled to the little island via speedboat. This 40 minutes ride on the ocean felt like riding a carousel.

In order to reach our beach resort Samed Villa, we needed to carry our baggage through the water above our heads. We were lucky that we just took a 20-liter backpack with us. Arrived on Koh Samed, a beautiful beach hut located only ten meters away from the ocean welcomed us.

Koh Samed is a nice place to relax for some days. Its bars and restaurants seem to be very local, you are sitting or lying on comfortable sheets while getting very delicious and fresh seafood on a small wooden table. Spa and wellness do not go short as well. However, we enjoyed the offer to rent a Kayak for 3€ for 4 hours and discovered some of its closely located neighbor islands. That was a great choice since these tiny islands were full of bird and sea life you can listen to forever.

On our second day, we took a walk through Koh Samed to discover its true self. Besides the huge mountains of waste we found behind the fences of all the beach resorts, hotels & co., the local huts and “gardens” looked very inviting and clean, but I did not dare to take a picture due to all the staring people.

At the evening, the little island was on fire: it did not matter where you went, you could observe amazing fire shows along the beach, performed by local strong men. They lit coconuts and threw them through the air, one or another came down between the visitors, but no one was hurt, so that they went on quickly. The fire shows lasted for around three hours, and it was just crazy which burning things they threw around the neighborhood, and we recommend you to inform you about the fire shows’ dates first before you go to Koh Samed. So, we would say Koh Samed is a little beach paradise where you can spend some adventurous days.

Stay hungry, stay foolish,
Kim & Robert