Bangkok, Ko Phayam

Now we are on a beautiful and quiet island. When we arrived in Bangkok we first headed towards the famous Kao San Road hoping to find a room for one night there. We stumbled in this crowded and noisy street from one hotel to another, always getting the same answer: “Full”. Finally we found one somewhere else and quiet expensive. Then we started exploring the near surroundings. To me at first sight Bangkok seemed like any other big city in Asia: A lot of skyscrapers, big streets, many cars….. Then you starting to discover the differences….
I try to look for something familiar – I mean I used to live here for a few months – nothing. Probably because I didn’t live in Central Bangkok and when I tried to remember how the streets looked like 10 years ago I remember only big streets, many shopping centers – that’s it.
After one day we took the night bus to the south: towards the islands. It took us 9 hours on a uncomfy and very cold bus to Ranong. On the bus it was just freezing: I almost got crazy by the thought I just needed to jump out the bus and I could feel the heat. So when the bus did his first stop we were so relieved to get outside just to feel some warmth. Finally we arrived at Ranong, at 5 am. We got off , stood there in the dark and were almost immediately surrounded by motorbikes and pickups who wanted to bring us to the pier. Then at the pier we had to wait for a couple of hours and it was really amazing: Seeing the sunset and the sea coming from the dark.
Then on the boat: The sea, the sun , islands and suddenly we got calm: The return to the paradise? ; ) The sun was reflecting in the water and it seemed as if thousands and thousands of mirrors were hidden in the sea, reflecting the sunlight. -
Here on the island we can watch everyday the sun falling down and its always breathtaking. The island is beautiful: turqise water, white beaches and blue sky.
And besides Coconut trees, Mango trees there are Cashew nut trees. The first time in my life I see Cashew nut trees. The Thai who showed us the trees and explained how they grow was quite amused by our curiosity.
We also discovered a beach where the tides where going so fast that you can almost see the change within an half hour. Then all the little crabs try to hide themselves. I was thinking if there were Koreans and Chinese they would have tried to catch all these crabs. Delicious. : )
You see we are enjoying our time here on this island where you have all the comfort of modern life (internet access, electricity and comfortable houses) combined with the “real” nature (everyone is longing for). Except the cockroaches who are making my nights harder. But because of them I was experiencing some beautiful minutes on the beach, so light because of the full moon and so quiet…….