The world I see.

My way into Cambodia was really interesting and exhausting. I booked a combined bus and ferry ticket from Don Det to Siem Reap (29$ way too expensive). There I met Roel (Dutchie) and Mack and we sticked together until now. And now the adventure begins! We crossed one of the most corrupt borders in the world. Evidently. It started by getting out of Laos. In order to do that you’d have to get a stamp from the immigration which is usually free but over there you had to pay 2$. I was asking for a receipt but they just handed me my passport back without the stamp, so I just ended up paying. We even met some people who were arguing with the officers about the fee for over an hour but they refused to give them a stamp. No stamp means no chance of leaving Laos. We made our way out of Laos after a bit of cursing and grumbling into no man’s land and limboed under the barrier into Cambodia! The next scam was at the cambodian immigration: 35$ visa instead of 30$. Well done officers, you were making a very good first impression of Cambodia. Didn’t mention the best thing about that day tho. After that pain in the ass border crossing (took us like one and a half hours) we had to wait for our bus in the heat in the middle of fucking nowhere. This happened again after a two hours bus ride for the next city and then we ended up in a minivan all squeezed together. Some people didn’t take the whole ride as relaxed as others which led to a french guy shouting at our driver because we arrived in Siem Reap a couple of hours after the estimated time. Relax man, we’re in Asia…

Siem Reap was a shock at first. After the peaceful environment on Don Det the crowds an masses of tourists were overwhelming. Arriving there at night made it even worse cause everybody was out starting to Party at the famous Pub Street, so we called it a night.

The next day Mack, Dutchie and me did some exploring in the city and planned our trip to Angkor Wat. I met Ben again and we headed to a pool party at the Flashpackers Hostel and ended up in Pub Street.. Funny night that ended with drunken people stumbling back to their Hostel and my friend messing with the TukTuk drivers by twisting the whole game and asking THEM if they need a ride. They were left speechless which was a nice change cause they didn’t follow us trying to get money out of the drunk white people.

Too hungover to go to the temples of Angkor in the morning we decided to start our exploring in the evening. Rented some bikes and cycled all the way there to enjoy the sunset at the temple complex. Two hours later we cycled to the village nearby where we ended up in a Guesthouse that supports the local teachers and school had some real Khmer food and started our journey early the next morning. Early means 5 o’clock which is way too early in my opinion but we couldn’t skip the famous sunrise at Angkor Wat, right?

Before I start telling you our journey I wanna educate you a little bit ;) tbh, I had no clue what the Angkor temples are, why they are there and since when. So i started reading because I was too greedy to get a guide. This is gonna be a very very brief history lesson! First of all the temple complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is constantly in restoration at the moment. The EXACT dates of when it was built are still unknown. The Angkorian period started in 802 AD and ended in 1432. During that period the Angkor temples were built. The Angkor Wat temple and many others were built during the reign of King Suryavarman II (ruled between 1113 and 1150 AD). The temple complex was the capital of the Khmer Empire and it’s said that there were more people living there than in the modern London. Fun fact: Angkor Wat was originally dedicated to Vishnu, the Hindu God. It was converted into a Buddhist temple in the 14th century which means they added a loooot of Buddha’s. The second name you’ll have to know is Jayavarman VII. He built Angkor Thom, Bayon, Ta Prohm and many other temples.

To be honest, I was really disappointed by the famous sunset. It’s probably the season tho, but the sunrise is not as magical as everybody says it is. Go for the sunset, it’s way better! The sunrise itself was witnessed by hundreds of tourists maybe even thousands and each and every one of them went inside of Angkor Wat eventually. We followed the masses inside and were a bit disappointed, again. This specific temple (the most famous one and probably the one with the most visitors) looks amazing from the outside. But once you go in it kinda loses the good vibe. Could also be because you will never be the only person in that temple, but the architecture and details in other temples were more beautiful.

We decided to avoid the crowds after that and do the temple tour the other way around. Started at Pre Rup, a temple on the big circuit. And luckily we were three out of 7 people visiting this temple which means enough time and space to explore in peace and quiet! I really liked that one, we reached it at the perfect time and it was kinda taken over by nature with flowers in most corners.

Our next destinations was the famous Ta Prohm also known as the Angelina Jolie temple from Tomb Raider. One of the most popular temples of the whole complex and I get why. This one is amazingly beautiful, it’s more ruins than temple at the moment but as it is more or less in the jungle there are huge trees growing in/on the temple and nature is completely taking over which makes it kinda magical. You can walk around in the complex and get lost in its beauty and details. Sadly this one was rather crowded but it gave us the opportunity to listen to some tour guides again (yes, we did sneak up behind the groups and listened to their stories). One of them (now my favourite one) pointed out one specific tree at the temple, started laughing and said it looks like a butt. Cheers to you, made my day!

The next stop was at the Ta Keo temple. Not the most special one but definitely exhausting to climb! From there we went a bit off-road and discovered a nice ‘viewpoint’. Ride there was really adventurous and fun, I had to duck under branches or ride on bamboo bridges a couple of times. All of us were so glad we rented Mountainbikes and not regular ones!! We thought we deserved a break from the biking and exploring, sat down at the viewpoint and met a really sweet dutch couple with their guide. He gave us some advice how to proceed further with our temple exploration so our next stop was Preah Khan, a temple hidden in the depths of the jungle. Perfect for us cause that meant it wasn’t crowded at all. In my opinion this was one of the most beautiful temples in the whole complex. Standing in the centre of said temple you felt like you’re looking into a mirror cause the architecture was so symmetrical!

I know I’m just mentioning some buildings you probably never heard of (except for Angkor Wat) so I’m just saying our last two temples were Bayon (temple of faces), which had a lot of hidden messages inside you wouldn’t notice unless you have a guide telling you (or overhear someone else’s guide) and Angkor Thom. Both very very beautiful and way more destroyed than Angkor Wat. 

Shortly before we left we witnessed a monk giving a monkey a can of beer. And he ENJOYED it!!

Too exhausted to drive all the way back we did something fun: holding on to TukTuks while riding our bikes. It was incredibly difficult sometimes to hold on but it was worth it. Yes, i know. We’re lazy… but I wanna see all of you exploring Angkor Wat by bike and not be lazy afterwards!

That night (btw out last night in Siem Reap) was a crazy one! But some stories are better untold ;) The following morning or rather noon Mack and I met up for breakfast and started our hitchhiking tour. Original plan was to go to Battambang and a national park but we caught ourselves thinking about the sea and were like fuck it, we’re gonna catch a ride to Phnom Penh and head to the ocean.

One TukTuk ride out of town and 20 minutes later we got lucky. A sweet couple picked us up, saying they’re gonna go all the way to Phnom Penh. Those two were really cute and helpful, buying us food and explaining a bit about Cambodia. 

Funny thing: both live in Phnom Penh but told us it’s a horrible city and we should be careful. They were not the only ones who gave us a warning about Cambodia’s capital, almost every restaurant we passed had some people telling us to be careful. I could see why, Phnom Penh looked like a complete shit-hole. We only saw one part of it, sadly.. The next day we took a bus to Kampot which is really close to the sea and supposedly one of the most beautiful areas in Cambodia. This was so true!  We rented a bike on our second day and explored the beauty of the Bokor Nationalpark. And it’s insanely good roads which just tempted to drive fast. We spent a whole day there, I learned a couple of tricks for the biking and we got lost in the beautiful jungle like atmosphere.

As you can see, we found this beautiful little temple on top of Bokor mountain. It looked magical!

The next couple of days were relaxed, we had breakfast in our favourite cafe which was staffed by people harmed through landmines or similar things and it was truly impressive how some Khmer manage to serve with only one arm or completely blind. Anyone who’s down to visit Kampot, go to the epic arts cafe!  One day I stumbled over a graphic design shop named MATHILDA. They were selling tank tops/dresses for girls with beautiful designs and in the backyard of the MATHILDA shop was a hidden bar, the looking glass.

However, the next day Dutchie, Giulia, Jakob (he’s new), a french guy and me did a day trip to see the pepper plantations and a couple of caves in the Kampot area. It was an amazing day, starting with an interesting motorbike ride to cave number one. Oh, we found some puppies outside of the cave!!

The cave was amazing. We did some exploring, walking around in the darker areas and climbing some bamboo ladders when it happened: Jakob was gone. There was yelling and searching with our torches for a couple of minutes but no sign of him. Reminds you of something? Yeah, my comment about how this is the perfect start of a horror movie was not the best thing I could’ve said but guess what happened next? Someone said ‘why not split up?’. Yep, this is even more horror movie like!! All I could think of was ‘the descent’ with those gollum-like creatures that eat humans... While deciding what to do Jakob appeared out of nowhere :D Thanks, for giving us a scare. 

At cave number two we had a little climbing-adventure. Two locals guided us through the caves, climbing from one stone to the other like little monkeys, it was a lot of fun and this time no one got lost. Our next stop was the secret lake which has a horrible history. During the Khmer Rouge the lake was built using forced labour by prisoners and captured villagers to create a dam. Thousands of the people were killed after they helped build the dam and buried in a mass grave at the bottom. One man who escaped told people of the “secret” location of the mass grave under the water. The bodies have never been recovered and some fishermen have collected human bones along with their daily catch. Sounds like the perfect place to take a swim, right?

Not far from this lake was La Plantation a big pepper plantation who offers free tours and free pepper-tasting. Did you know that Kampot is known to have the best pepper in the whole wide world? Of course, people argue about which one is the best but Kampot pepper is definitely one of the best. It’s so delicious and they gave us a beautiful tour, so we could take a look at the real work done here and how much those people do everyday. They also grow other plants like pineapples or mangos and some more spices to make the pepper even taste better.

After arriving in Kampot, grabbing some food and a couple of beers to go we drove to the nationalpark, picked a nice spot and watched the sunset. It was one of my favourite days on my travels.

Now you’d expect some more stories about my travels in Cambodia. Truth to be told, I spent almost three weeks in Kampot having the time of my life. What did I do all the time... well, remember the looking glass?

Note: this is not up-to-date, tumblr didn’t work the last time so i had to post this a bit too late and apparently it’s not really working rn so I have to make a separate post for the pictures...

My trip continued the day after tubing down the Nam Song. Micah and me hitchhiked to Vientiane and we were so lucky! Didn’t even wait for 30 minutes, the guy bought us water and dropped us of just around the corner of our hostels. So lucky! We sat in the back of a jeep for about 3 hours and had a good time watching our surroundings pass and listening to some music :)

Vientiane was surprisingly small. And clean. Probably the cutest capital in the world, it doesn't even look like a capital. There are like 700.000 people living there! I can totally get why a lot of foreigners decide to live there for a while, it’s really quiet and nice but if you wanna party you can party at Fuck Bar or Sorry I’m Gay (this is just HILARIOUS!!!).

I’ve done a bit of exploring. But first I enjoyed really good coffee. I’m not the biggest fan of the french but thank god for their culinary influence in Laos. Such good coffee and croissants! In Vientiane you’re gonna stumble over a lot of handicraft shops which is really nice and very tempting. A lot of temples as well and so many TukTuks or bikes selling drinks.

So I Went to Patouxay (this is the war monument dedicated to those who fought for Laos independence) and was met by like 100 Chinese (what a surprise!) and some other tourists. I think I mentioned it in earlier posts but I still can’t get over the fact that a lot of Asians have this weird obsession with white people. It wasn’t a big deal in Thailand but here in Laos... in some areas you can’t even sit down and relax cause some random stranger is gonna sit down as close as possible, you look up from your reading and see his friend is taking a picture and then they’re gonna fuck off. What the hell?! I’m just a normal person... anyways this is for everyone who has some insecurities: go to fucking Asia (at best would be some remote places) and there are gonna be thousands of people telling you how beautiful you are. Good for your ego!

After Patouxay I walked around for a while. On my way to the COPE centre (they show you what impact the war had/has on Laos, it’s really interesting and worth a visit) I made the worst discovery. I was just walking down this random street when I saw something that broke my heart. I’ve heard of illegal animal trade in Laos but I never saw it. I’m not even sure if this place was illegal but the way those animals were treaded was horrible. You could find anything in the cages. Puppies, hedgehogs, birds, lizards, rabbits, even some monkeys. You were not allowed to touch any of those but some of the puppies were just craving for affection and it broke my heart. I was so angry and I swear if I would’ve stayed two minutes longer I would have cried.

Well, that’s basically it for Vientiane. You could go to Buddha Park out of the town but except for that there’s not much to see or to do. Just enjoy this sweet city and it’s markets and good food!

Two days in Vientiane was enough for me. Took a sleeping bus to Pakse (south) and had a pleasant surprise: i had to share a normal sized mattress with a stranger, yeah! Who doesn’t like to cuddle with someone you never saw before and you’ll likely never see again? Oh and we had no toilets for a 13 hours bus ride! Another yeah!! It’s obviously not a surprise that I looked like a sleep-deprived zombie when we arrived in Pakse. Checked into the Hostel and had a nice chat with the owner who offered to take me to the local morning market. It’s apparently one of Laos best markets, huge and so diverse. From any kind of fruits or vegetables you can think of over clothes, cosmetics and electronic stuff to weird black furry things that looked like organs or chicken or toads with their legs tied up so they cannot run away, ugh. Also not a single white soul there..

Back in my hostel I met Andrea. We talked for a while and she asked me if I want to join her for a three day motorbike loop to the Bolaven Plateau. I said yes, of course.

Day 1 of our loop was amazing!! Driving a bike always makes me happy and if you’re driving to a beautiful destination through beautiful landscapes you can’t do anything except smiling. Better with a closed mouth tho unless you fancy eating insects! Waterfall number one was really nice. There was a small ethnic village nearby and a small to treck through the area.

Our trip continued to Mr Vieng’s coffee plantation (the Bolaven Plateau is known for a lot of plantations and really good coffee). Sadly he was not there but we found a really cool bird chilling on a hammock and eating peanuts!

After a really tasty coffee we made our way to Tad Lo, the next waterfall and our homestay. The homestay was basically a big room with ten queen sized beds separated by curtains. But hey, we payed a bit meal experience!ore than a euro each, so who cares? The village at Tad Lo is a really small one, no tourists) except for those who do the loop). The real local experience! That includes delicious food and it comes in insane portions.. once done with our meal we made our way to Tad Lo.

This waterfall was my highlight for reasons I’ll tell ya later. The small stream coming from the waterfall was full of kids and families having fun. Three other bikers joined us to go to the very top of said waterfall where we met some other backpackers who were about to jump off the waterfall. And this is where my favourite part starts.
Seeing those two guys jumping my brain told me “do it”. I couldn’t help it, thought about this for at least 20 minutes until some local boys came around and jumped as well. They were like 10. You see, I couldn’t watch 10 year olds jump off a 10m waterfall and refuse to do it myself. So I did it. And it was perfect. I jumped two times in total, the locals and my friends watching me, and I felt the adrenalin pumping through my veins. Couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day! This was one of those perfect moments while traveling. Oh by the way, we did see some elephants bathing in the stream coming from Tad Lo that day!

Day 2 was rather dull compared to the first one. The road was way nicer than the other one, tho. We saw one waterfall that day which was located on an impressive platform with a great view! The waterfall itself was small due to the dry season but the view was stunning!

We stopped at a coffee and tea plantation on our way to Paksong and had some great coffee and arrived in Paksong in the evening. Our dinner was quite fancy and unusual. Let me just show you picture!

Day 3 started way too early in my opinion. But we had three waterfalls to visit and get back to Pakse. The road was shitty, by the way… whole road from Paksong to Pakse was construction and that means high risk to fall of the bike or not be able to see your own hand because of the dust. But it was worth it! The waterfalls were beautiful, one of them perfect to swim and another one over 100m high.

That was the Bolaven Plateau Loop! A great experience (not for beginners on the bike) and simply beautiful! I can strongly recommend this loop, just watch out for cows or pigs crossing the street!

That night in Pakse was was delighted by my dear Skype-partners back home and also by a drunk Lao guy who told me and the hostel owner he’s into Ladyboys. I also got to know Giulia another solo traveler from Austria.

 We met again the next morning on our way to the 4000 islands/Si Phan Don. Si Phan Don is an area in the very south of Laos where the Mekong River is the widest (14km) and right there are about 4000 islands (how many depends on low or dry season). This place is stunning. Nature is beautiful, the people are so sweet and the vibe is amazing. 


We made our way to Don Det, the most popular of the 4000 islands, and checked in at the Happy Bar Backpackers Hostel. Fuck yeah, this is a great place to stay. We paid 50,000 kip (about 5€) for a double room with view on the river, balcony with a hammock and we were not disappointed! Manni, the hostel owner, is such a friendly and cool guy and creates a family like atmosphere! Right there I bumped into Ben, someone I met on the slowboat AND shared a dorm with in Vang Vieng. Seriously, I met so many people from the slowboat all over Laos, it’s hilarious. 
The three of us stayed together most of the time. Also when we had a small boat trip with Manni and some hostel people to an island on the Mekong where we hung out for the rest of the day, played some drinking games and took a bath in the Mekong!


I’m here for four days now, leaving for Cambodia tomorrow and I don’t really wanna go. This is a perfect place to relax and just do nothing for a couple of days, weeks even if you feel like it. I’m definitely gonna come back one day!


Yes, i know it’s a little bit late for that since I’m already out of Thailand for a while but I still need to give you my list of the typical things that make Thailand.. well Thailand. Like i told you guys for my other list: don’t take it too seriously.. it’s just the impression of a young white girl traveling Thailand for the first time!

First of all they are like the french people in europe : don’t think they need to adapt to other cultures or learn other language..  - it definitely is the land of smiles. happy and really friendly people (experienced it more in the southern part of thailand tbh) - Thai people are really loud!!! seriously, you can hear them everywhere - there is the so called “Buddha day” ( a couple of times in the year) and they take it really serious. no alcohol. bars are closed at that day 12 and open again 24 hours later - do not say any bad words about the king! unless you wanna get arrested - they just randomly start talking to you or sit with you.. it’s quite funny but can be a little bit disturbing at the beginning  - EVERYBODY has a motorbike. wether they’re 10 or 80. usually no license and they drive however they want to (traffic lights? what is it) - it is tradition to become a monk for a couple of months when they turn 21 (at least in the southern part around suratthani, but als in bangkok) -speaking of monks: you can find a temple at every corner and you recognise monks everywhere because of their orange clothing - in the small villages near suratthani: when someone dies / someone becomes monk they light up some lamps whole area of village. in case of death: they grief for about a month, after that have a big feast and celebrate the dead

- as a solo female traveler they always worry about your safety. they would rather let you stay at their house (even if they don’t know you) than leave you alone in the dark - speaking of traveling.. hitchhiking: they don’t understand the concept. always want to bring ya to a bus or whatever but when they take you they are really friendly, buy you dinner or a coffee - the TukTuks…usually not in the best condition and the drivers are a bit crazy. It’s funny tho how they just chill in they hammock inside the TukTuk and overtime a tourist walks by you can hear a faint “TukTuk TukTuk” - the one thing i’m so gonna miss in Europe are the fruit shakes or the street food. you can get it at any corner and it’s really good! -speaking of food: don’t believe them if they tell you something is not spicy. It is fucking spicy!!! - you probably knew this will be on that list: the Ladyboys (and pingpong shows..). yes, they are here. and yes, quite a lot! sometimes you recognise them immediately but sometimes it’s really hard to tell. better make sure before you have a go ;) -crazy food to try. you saw my videos.. no need for further explanation 

The day after our waterfall discovery meant goodbye for some of us. Well, let’s say a see ya instead of goodbye. We all chose to continue our journey on different paths. Gustav and I tried our best to hitchhike our way to Vang Vieng. And believe me, it was fucking difficult. We had to catch a couple of rides, waited for a while at the road, were turned down most of the time (someone even had the nerve to flip us off and that really devastated us) and eventually we arrived in a very rural village in the mountains halfway to our destination. We watched a beautiful sunset over the mountains. Seriously, Laos has never disappointed me with the sunsets..

It was already getting dark so we decided to look for a place to sleep. We ended up at a construction camp and camped (me in my hammock, Gustav in his tent) under a... hut? No, not really it was more of a roof on stilts. However, we were praised with a stunning starry sky and that kind of quiet you can only hear when you’re in the middle of nowhere. Didn’t las long tho. In the dark we saw three lights coming closer and closer to us. Three locals went straight to our camp and my first thought was ‘this can’t be good’. Well, it wasn’t as bad as I expected but definetly shocking. The three of them tried to convince us to sleep at their place because there are ‘bad people’ out there. When we tried to tell them we’re gonna stay one of them started gesticulate cutting open someone’s throat. You probably will understand that falling asleep was a bit difficult that night but hey, we’re still alive!

We arrived in Vang Vieng the next day. I needed a couple of days to sort through my plans and collect my thoughts. Once I was done I started enjoying my hostel companions and the possibilities you have in Vang Vieng. I rented a bike and drove to a beautiful lagoon from where you can discover some caves and a nice viewpoint. To climb up to the viewpoint was a little bit adventurous but once up there you have a stunning view.

Back at the lagoon I bumped into a canadian couple, Annie and Micah. I shared a dorm with them so we decided to ride back together while enjoying the sunset.

That night we went out to enjoy Vang Viengs party scene. It was Saint Patrick’s Day so a little bit more crowded than usual but it didn’t prevent us from grabbing a couple free drinks each. Was a really fun night that ended in our hostel pool!

The next day we were in the mood for a lazy day. Perfect conditions for tubing! A really popular activity you can do on the Nam Song river. Some of you might not know what tubing is. Well, you rent a rubber tube, get into a TukTuk and they drop you off at the river 3 km away and then you simply start floating back to town in your tube. At best with a beer! We had a perfect day. Just floating, chilling in the sun, drinking beer and doing nothing. It was a little bit tricky at some points. Usually when one of us shouted “you better keep your ass out of the water” which means there are rocks in the partly shallow water which will hurt if you hit them withy your bum. Except for that, we were also attacked by three locals boys who made it their mission to splash water into our faces and get into our tubes :D those boys weren’t the only ones who splashed water onto us. EVERY kayaking group who passed by did it. And took pictures. Four hours and one incident with an excavator later we arrived back in town and had a stunning sunset to watch (yes, another one..).

It’s hard being far way from home. Especially when you're alone. Traveling sounds easy. You go from one place to another, see what mother nature created and get to know a lot of wonderful people. You live the dream! But most people don’t talk about the downside of traveling alone. You have to face a lot. New places with new people, sometimes no people at all, difficulties on your way because you got lost or communicating with locals can be really hard here in Asia. But facing yourself is the most difficult. Your fears and your feelings. You have to make decisions where to go and what to do next and sometimes just getting out of bed in the morning and forcing yourself to socialise is hard enough. You learn the difference of being alone and being lonely. And yes, I’m a bit lonely at the moment when thinking of home, my friends and family sitting together. Enjoying company and sharing. I’m on my own. Yes, it’s difficult sometimes. But it’s alright! To be honest, I love it. Most times. Deciding what I want to do and not feeling the need to make a compromise. But then there are those moments it would be nice to share and sit and talk with a friend. Damn sentiments. Broad hint to my friends: I would LOVE to have someone coming over :p I miss you lot. Enough with the feelings! I’m not gonna make this post a pity party for me being gone, sitting in a coffee shop in Laos at the very moment while writing this and enjoying my fucking delicious banana pancake.

Some of you might wonder how exactly this happened. I don't mean the feelings, I mean me being in Laos even though I was in Thailand not even a week ago. 

After Bangkok I went north. Taking the night bus (too hungover to hitchhike) to Sukhothai and enjoyed the ancient temples. I rented a bicycle and found myself spending a couple of hours in the Sukhothai Historical Park. I know those are temples again and I reckon me mentioning in the last post that I’ve had enough of it (backpackers use the word out Buddha’d or out-templed, which is quite funny) but those are quite different and a nice change. Let me show you!

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Later that day I hitched a ride to Chiang Mai. Well, I tried. Took me three people (one of them was really annoying trying to tell me I should just take a bus or pay him for the ride. took me three times telling him politely this is not how its works until he left me alone...) to finally reach Lampang, a city close to Chiang Mai, from where I took a bus to Chiang Mai. It was an exhausting day. I hate to say this but I was getting really mad at Thai people and them not feeling the need to learn any other language even though their country is full of tourists. Seriously, most of them out no effort in learning english which makes a strong contrast to any other southeast asian country. One of the reasons I’m not particularly fond of Thailand..

Spent two nights in Chiang Mai planning my next move and researching ways to get out of Thailand. Partly because my visa expired soon but also because I felt like I needed to leave as soon as possible because Thailand is doing me no good. I had a great time there but seriously not because of the country. The feeling wasn’t quite right. Maybe because of my prejudices, maybe because Borneo just set my expectations really high and I felt like Thailand didn’t have a lot to offer.  Whatever, from Chiang Mai I hitchhiked to Chiang Rai and on the 9th I made my way to the Laos border. Toodaloo Thailand! 

Crossing the Laos border was easy. Took a bus to Chiang Khong (Thailand), a TukTuk to the immigration, a shuttle to the border, paid a couple of dollars, got a stamp in my passport and that’s it. I made it to Laos. You might think I’m crazy now. Entering Laos was like coming to the surface and breathing fresh air for the first time in a while. I can’t really explain it but while I sat on the slowboat, smoking a cigarettes and seeing the beautiful landscape (that kind of reminded me of Borneo) pass by, I felt a rush of energy going through my veins. That made me really happy!

I met a cool group of germans on that boat and been spending my days with them since that day. Yes, I never thought I would say this. I was avoiding germans for now for obvious reasons. But this particular group was really fun and a funny mix as well.

We arrived in Luang Prabang on the second day and enjoyed the city for four days! Very touristic but you can manage to find some quiet places if you want to. I had four really nice days, exploring Luang Prabang and its area, playing cards with the lads, attending night markets and watching some beautiful sunsets.

On our last day we decided to rent some bikes and go to the most popular tourist attraction Luang Prabang has to offer. The Kuang Si waterfall. We were not disappointed, this place is truly stunning. On our ride to the waterfall we stopped at a random homestay/restaurant place and were welcomed by a very eager and super friendly local, called Sai. He teaches some kids in the area, has a beautiful garden to grow his own food and play with the kids. He showed us around, teaching us some local games and offered us delicious Lao food. It was one of those moments that only happen when you're traveling. You just happen to be at the right place at the right time for no concrete reason and you’re happy.  Arriving at the waterfall, we made our way to the very top to take a bath. Luckily, it was so late that we were alone and had a really good time. I have to show you the waterfall and you’ll know why I’m so amazed by it.

Well, you can pretty much guess what I’ve been doing most of the time since my last post.  I took a ferry to Koh Tao and started my Open Water Course with Roctopus (strongly recommend them). Best decision ever. If you saw the video you will know the people I met. 

If not I’ll give ya quick info: Emily (girl from Cali), Annika (girl from Adelaide) and me started our course and had the best teacher we could imagine, Niko. He seemed to know the best way to teach each of us individually wether really serious and caring or with a very flirty and fun attitude. The girls and I were really happy and had lots of fun through the whole course. 

But to be honest diving is not as easy as you might think. You have to be in control of your breathing, your buoyancy and so much more. But the important thing is you are in control so you have to trust yourself and try not to freak out while breathing underwater (i mean the whole idea is pretty fucking scary because humans are NOT MADE TO BREATHE UNDERWATER.) I loved it, tho. It’s pure adrenaline at the beginning and overtime you see a cool animal swimming next to you. I could tell you so much more but I think you can see on my video how happy I am.. 

So we did our Open Water and got our certification after 4 days and Emily and I decided to got for the advanced course the very next day.

Didn’t stop us from getting really drunk that night. We all met at a beach bar and watched our video before we moved on to another bar. And another. Stopped at the bucket lady (stand in the middle of a street who sells cheap buckets of alcohol) and played a... umm let’s say interesting game of Jenga. After that we ended up at another bar at the beach where I saw a really familiar face playing pool. It was Brett, the guy I know from Kinabatangan and who recommended me going to Roctopus in the first place. To say he was happy to see me would be understated. Found myself wrapped up in a massive hug. We stayed there for a while catching up until I decided to go home for some sleep (definitely needed it). Let’s get one thing straight: don’t go diving while you’re hungover. The diving itself wasn’t the problem actually. Sitting on a boat that’s rocking up and down and from one side to the other is the problem. I was so impatient to get into the water that I almost knocked my dive instructor over. My performance underwater was good (mind the hangover) except for one incident when I bumped head first into the ground while doing one exercise. And you know what happened? Niko laughed his ass off underwater. Such a nice teacher.

Whatever, the rest of the day was really nice. The next morning started early with our next two dives: deep dive and wreck dive. At the deep dive I got a little bit narked (=nitrogen narcosis, happens at a depth about 30m and could be described at being high of nitrogen). My brain was realising things way slower than usual and I felt a little bit tipsy. Nothing to worry about, happens a lot. 

That night our course ended with our last dive and the one I was most excited about! The night dive. It was amazing!!! Going into the water while the sun is setting and slowly seeing the light disappear while being underwater. We even saw some of the bioluminescent plankton while sitting on the ground and waving with our hands like 5 year olds. Couldn’t stop smiling when we came back on the boat. It was the perfect end.

Diving is something so precious. You discover a whole ne world down there, it’s simply amazing. I can’t remember when I felt so happy about doing something (except for assisiting in the OR) and it’s definitely something I will never miss again in my life.

The day after I headed to Bangkok to finally meet Yannik, a friend (mostly of my sisters) that I’ve pretty much known my whole life and he happens to study in Bangkok atm. 

I arrived in the middle of the night, couldn’t get into my hostel and camped out at McDonald’s for 4 hours. yeah. Had so much fun watching drunk Thais (a lot of ladyboys) stumble in and having a post-party meal. Got into my hostel at 7 in the morning and got ready to explore the city with some people I met there. 

Rented a motorbike and drove through the city for a couple of hours. Traffic in Bangkok is just crazy. Really really crazy. They don’t care wether the traffic light is red or green they drive how they want and don’t really care about rules. Lucky I survived.

The next day I met Yannik and Saskia. It was good to see a familiar face after such a long time :) We covered the basic tourist attractions, had a very nice day wandering in Bangkok and enjoyed a good meal in the evening. Well, what is there to say about Bangkok ? It’s hot, dirty and loud. Full of beautiful temples. But seriously, I see why everybody’s getting sick of seeing temples because they all look the same. Kind of. Of course, they are different and nice but you just have to see a few and that’s enough. 

That night was our last night in Bangkok. Our? I met some people in the hostel: Naheedul (a bangladesh guy from the UK), Miroslav (croatian dude), Mari (a girl who lives in Vietnam but is from Russia) and two people from Indonesia and one from Vietnam.  Last night Bangkok. Naheedul had 2000 Baht he had no use for. We got drunk. Very very drunk. Tried snake and scorpion (tried the scorpion the day before) and Miroslav and me even went for a centipede and a mixed box full of insects at the end of the night when we were proper sloshed. 

Went back at maybe three or four in the morning and couldn’t go to bed because two people were having fun in my dorm room. Thank you so much 🙄

you guys I did my open water course on Koh Tao and got my diving certification yesterday! 🐡

I have something great to share with you! My diving school made a pretty cool video of my group. Just click on the link enter the password “scuba” to see it :)

Leaving Borneo was hard for me. Really really hard. This place was like home. I had family there, people I trust, people I love and truly care about. Malaysia was in familiar in a way I can’t really explain, it was a feeling like I belonged there. Heading to Thailand was a big deal, bigger than it should have been. And I remember not wanting to go at first.


Things didn’t get easier when I checked my mails the day before my departure and I saw that my flight was delayed so much that instead of just changing the plane in KL I had to stay overnight. This was something I didn’t expect at all but it was actually doing me a favour. Some of you might remember Andy (wildlife photographer, married to Maureen, stayed with them for a couple of days in the Owl House in Ba’Kelalan). Andy happens to live in KL so I asked him to stay at his place for the night. He and one of his friends (who happens to be a uber driver) picked me up at KL Central, we went for some nice Indian food and chit chatted for what felt like a couple of hours. That evening (mostly spent at that Indian place and later at his apartment aka “the batcave” where you have by the way a stunning view over KL) was full of laughter, great stories and really good conversation. It was like reuniting with an old friend and was exactly what I needed before leaving Malaysia for good. 


Thank you Andy, for giving me those last couple of hours in that beautiful country! And I’ll stick to my word, it is still a see ya and not a goodbye

THAILAND

Phuket gave me a rather unpleasant welcome. As soon as I stepped out of the airport (again massive delay of flight. If anyone of you ever plans a trip to Asia NEVER take Malindo Air!!! they are rude, always late and I think I never had less space in a plane) I immediately wanted to go back. Outside of the airport were like a billion people, Thai and foreigners. It was horrible. Taxi drivers yelling at you and following every tourist that was stupid enough to slow down for a sec. Tourists pushing their way through the crowd. HORRIBLE! It was just too much for me as I was never a big fan of crowds but after the peace and quiet I enjoyed in Malaysia it was downright terrifying.
Anyway I managed to get away from the busiest spot and tried to find the cheapest way to Phukets pier where my ferry to Koh Phi Phi departed and where I was finally meeting the family friend I was supposed to meet a day earlier. Because of my delay and too many people I made a big mistake. Dumbest thing I’ve done so far. I forgot there was an hour difference between Malaysia and Thailand which meant I had one hour more to get to the pier. However, I thought I had one and a half hours for a way that’s supposed to take one hour with the bus (cheapest way to go, 150 Baht) which departure was 40 minutes later. So I figured I had to go there on the fastest way (and most expensive, 700 Baht) and took a taxi. Fuck me, I spent almost five times more than I had to just because I was being stupid. Here’s my advice for you: always let your phone set the time zone automatically and you won’t make this stupid mistake!! I assure you my day got better as soon as I was on that ferry. I met my travel mate, we chatted for a while how everything’s going and arrived on the stunning Phi Phi islands! We didn’t expect so many people to go there but it was still a breathtaking view.

We shared a nice bungalow in the hills with a pretty good with over the island and far away from the loud beach parties at night (you can hear them on the whole island). After exploring our accommodation we went swimming on a smaller beach. The sea was stunning, almost hot and really clear. That day we watched one of most the beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen from the beach with some nice fruit shakes and me trying Pad Thai (Thailand’s national dish) for the first time.

The second day we started exploring the small city and decided to go out at night. Well, I decided to get really drunk. Which I did. We went to a pretty cool rooftop bar, wandered around in the town and ended up at the beach parties where we enjoyed watching the fire show, Limbo and dancing. 

My body thanked me for the mixture of delicious cocktails, beer and (free) shots with a massive hangover the next day. I cured it at a nice beach bar with a mango shake and some really good fried noodles. I ended up staying at that place for more than two hours because that one Thai (former tour guide) working there started telling me about Thailand’s main attractions, where to go an what to see. He’s a funny guy, always smiling and joking around. I went to that bar again in the evening or rather night after I got my first bamboo tattoo! Funny thing: I went there by myself, a little bit nervous and ended up chatting with a really nice american guy for the whole procedure who joined me for a drink after that.

The following day we continued our trip to Koh Lanta. I’d really like to tell you something about that island but I’ve been sick for the whole time we spent there. Yeah, had a really fun time there! But at least now I know that you can just walk into a pharmacy and buy some penicillin without prescription. Oh, I actually have one thing to say: I watched Dark while I lay around in our hotel room (almost dying) and I strongly recommend watching the show!!! That’s it for Koh Lanta, sadly.

Less than a week ago I spent three days in Krabi, exploring the cute city and area. On my very first day I discovered a beautiful buddhist temple! Think I sat there for two hours just enjoying the sensation of finally being alone. It was very peaceful. That and having a full body massage that night made me sleep like a baby and fully recover.

The next morning I went for a day trip to Rai Leh. It’s really close to Krabi, you go from the city to Ao Nang Beach where you take a long-tail boat to the Rai Leh. This place is stunning. Just beautiful!! But way too crowded in my opinion. Which made me go climb up all the way to the viewpoint and later to a small lagoon on top of the hill.  Climbing up to the viewpoint is exhausting but manageable. Going to the lagoon is not for the weaker hearts. There are some points where you only got a rope to hang on or some bamboo-ladders (not trustworthy at all!) to climb down. Good for me, tho. Cause that meant not a lot of people went down there. That lagoon was magical. Like a home for fairies. Probably the most beautiful thing on Rai Leh, definitely worth a visit.

Truly shattered I fell into bed that evening and woke up to a morning full of excitement. You wanna know why? Well, I decided to try something new. That morning I started hitchhiking. Usually not a big deal, but it turned out to be rather difficult because where I started (Ao Luek) NOBODY spoke english. So i had to write down some useful phrases in Thai (took me ten minutes for like four sentences). That actually helped even though it led people to the conclusion I had no money at all (Thais are not familiar with the concept of hitchhiking). 
So I ended up in a truck with Bunsong and his sleeping daughter who took me home to his family to offer me accommodation. He lives near a town called Surat Thani. This area was so originally Thai that they don’t speak a word english except for “hello” and “thank you”. How did we manage to communicate? Google translate for the win. Just try to imagine spending nearly 24 hours with a bunch of people and the only way you can talk to them or explain yourself is via a translation app. They didn’t really understand me, were really concerned and started buying me food and cooking for me even though I insisted they should not. Everybody wanted to take some pictures and talk to me (how??) and was really really kind. 
I would say first time hitchhiking in Thailand went good. Strange and complicated but good!

The day after I got to the airport nearby to meet Raf (a guy from couch surfing who wanted to join me). We met up and started half an hour later and had a lucky strike!
David, a cute old guy from the UK who happens to live in Thailand for seven years, picked us up and gave us a lift. He brought us to a small temple in the middle of nowhere (Amphoe Lang Suan - Na Phaya) right at the sea and even offered us to give us his bike as long as we are around. We asked the monk if we could stay for the night and he agreed immediately. To be honest I never met a stranger person than that monk, he was just downright crazy! Whatever, we stayed at the temple for a night. A night full of bugs and spiders and two hours of sleep. 

David came to see us again and offered that we could stay at his house if we want and now I’m here in Lang Suan, exploring the area (hot springs, luminescent plankton, temples and beaches) with Davids bike and babysitting his dog, Charleen, for two nights because he is on a business trip. Funny where you end up when you’re hitchhiking, I quite like it. We’ll see where I end up next.