Gosandra travels round the world

With one week only to traverse Thailand, I had to be stringent on the places to visit, and ended up deciding, that yes, beach would be nice, and bangkok is kind of obligatory.

From Kota Bharu after crossing the border I took minivans to get to Suratthani (seeing that the trains weren't running due to some rebel problems in Thailand's south), where I took the night boat to Koh Tao. Packed like sardines, but with mask and earplugs its quite ok.

Koh Tao is a very nice island, and I stayed at viewpoint resort, on the southwest corner of the island, with nice views over the bay and even to Koh Panggan, the party island. I spent most of my time in the water again, diving through some cool caves and snorkelling with sharks in shark's bay (guess where that name comes from).

After 3 days I had to move on and took the Seatran boat to Chumphon, and a bus to Bangkok. While waiting for my bus connection I managed to sneak into a thai party (since nobody spoke english and the thai language section in the guide book is only two pages), we communicated rather randomly, but there were speeches, dances, free food and free beer. what more do you need?

Arriving in Bangkok at 4:30 am is tough, especially with literally millions of taxi drivers around you who want to charge 100 baht for a ride of roughly 250 m (I walked). I didnt want to stay directly at Kao San Road, (backpackers paradise????) so i took a hotel room a bit off, but still close for the amenities. I indulged in the many temples of Bangkok, saw the Royal Palace, travelled along the river, saw Jim Thompson's museum (oh, if those silk scarves had been a bit less expensive...) and china town. In the evening successful sightseeing was concluded with a relaxing (???) Thai massage (I sometimes screamed) and some delicious thai food. mmmhhh.

Two days only, then I took off to meet Anne in Cambodia and check out the wonderful temples of Angkor.