Well, looks like I've decided to dust off my old travel blog after all. And as you've all concluded by now, the language has changed so a broader spectrum of nationalities can fall asleep whilst reading it. Hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience. I know you're all linguistic wonders.

Flo and I arrived in good old smoggy Bangkok on the 6th of January to set off on some new adventures in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and whatever other countries will fall victim to our unquenchable thirst for exploring. Through some incoherent scribbling and a couple of overexposed pictures I'll try to share our experiences for the coming period, however long it may turn out to be. If you feel the need to comment on our antics, the 'reageer' option (free Dutch lesson included) will reveal a box where you can drop some words in your language of choice. We'd be honored.

Our first month of travelling has been mainly about visiting places that at least one of us had been before (and liked) and meeting up with friends. After a day in Bangkok we headed for Kanchanaburi, where I spend a little under two weeks in total last time. We had a great time again in this easy going little town with beautiful surroundings, even though the soul had been literally removed from the My corner bar where I had such an amazing time on my last visits. Shared beers, food and a motorbike trip to the Erawan falls with Michal, a nice Polish guy, during our 4 day stay. We jumped over to Ayuttaya in the morning to look at the temples (where some of the damage from the floods was still visible) and headed off on a sleeper train to Chiang Mai in the evening again. High season usually means walking around a lot looking for a bed after arriving in a place and Chiang Mai proved no different. After a long search we ended up in a not to comfortable place later nicknamed 'the prison', but managed to improve our situation drastically the next day. After two days we were very happy to welcome four dear friends (Ste, Michelle, Ramona and Timmy) from Switzerland who we would team up with for a week or two during their holidays.

The next day the 'Pai Angels' (est. 2011) rode off on their first trip. Pai was not surprisingly our destination. Apart from seeing rival motor gangs fleeing town on our way up, it's a bit of a tricky road with loads of curves, a vertically parked truck we encountered underway as a clear proof. Pai was still it's lovely little self with it's relaxed atmosphere, great live music and long nights at the bamboo bar. I still don't know how I've managed to leave the town after only two days (because of the limited time of the Swissies we were on a bit of a scedule) instead of the two weeks last time. Most have been something similar to the way the A-team used to get B.A. on a plane. Only thing I can remember was Timmy and Ramona doing that much radical stunt driving on the way back that their back wheel collapsed so we had to arrange a private police escort to a militair checkpoint to figure out how to get them home. Two rides on the back of a pickup later and they were home safe and sound in Chiang Mai. We spent the rest of our days there walking around, having nice food (especially at Flo's friend Eings'), some drinks and going up the Doi Sutep hill on the last day. Our four companions had already booked flights, busses and boats to Ko Panghan and we, being cheapskates, followed by taking two trains, a bus and a boat.

Ko Pagnan is best known for it's once spontanious, now for many years already very commercial, but still infamous full moon parties. The moon was going through one of it's darker periods while we were there, and we hoped to get a bit more of an authentic feeling at the accompanying black moon party. Unfortunately this one has turned into a little cashcow as well, and I personally wasn't too disappointed that Flo and I didn't go in at the end. We had a nice bungalow at the beach and we really enjoyed relaxing with our group, hanging out and talking nonsense. All good things come to an end and we were sad to say goodbye to the Swiss contingent, them even more I guess cause barbaric, arctic conditions were awaiting them. We took the ferry back to the mainland and a bus was so kind to bring us to Krabi. For some reason I didn't see too much of that place last time, which is really a shame since it has so much to offer. We drove to a nice hotspring, where we enjoyed to compagny of busloads of other tourists, walked up 1200 something steps in the blazing heat up a hill to a temple (fabulous to see some American tourists walking there bare chested, wonder if they would walk into a church in Alabama like that as well) and rode between the beautiful limestone cliffs to go visit an old friend of Flo's who has a reggea bar on a beach. No better Thailand feeling in my humble opinion to lay in a bar on the beach listening to some reggea sounds, holding a Chang and watching the sunset.

Golf karts driving people around on an 1 km by 1 km island, buggies being dragged through the sand, bulldozers on the beach to build up yet another resort and at one point I thought a gym membership was mandatory to get access to the Island. Ko Lipe was not really what I expected. Damn me for having the Ko Lipe description I read 5 years ago in a travel guide in my head. Mother nature did another great job on this beautiful island and the locals are really friendly, but I'd hoped it had 'developed' a bit differently. Personally the only reason I managed staying so long was because Ko Lipe had won the bid for the 2012 world championships sunbathing, with the Swedish girls team winning it by a landslide. I have a lot of respect for people who can be less active then a koala during 24 hours.

I once read that the southern provinces of Thailand are not the safest places in the world. Didn't read enough about it though to get the full picture, but several thousands of people have been killed in that region during the years because of bombings and shootings. Two popular spots for attacks have been Hat Yai and public transport in the whole Pattani region. Sorry to say that I didn't check the current situation online, but after staying in not to interesting Hat Yai for a night, the fully armed militairy officers (and a lot of 'civilians' with walkie-talkies) in our train wagon and, not over-exageratting, 20 of those same guys at every station we stopped, at least were a witness to some thorough precautions to what might possibly happen. We did make it safely to some border town which name I cannot remember, and walked over the imaginary line into Malaysia.

Didn't do our homework on this one as well. Idea was going to the Perhentians after first making a stop a Kota Bharu, which sounded like an ok stopover for a day or two. I did read something online about it being possible to visit the Perhentians in this period, but that turned out to be false. Still the monsoon season, no boats going and all hotels still closed. What I'll remember most about Kota Bahru is some teacher apparently giving an assignment to a whole school to interview foreign tourists, since we were interviewed multiple times during the day including being filmed and photographed all the time. I had ideas about organising a press converence to cover them all at once. Although it can be a bit of a inconvenience while you are trying to explore a city, they were the sweetest kids and gave us little presents and Malay candy. Having to change our plans we decided to head over to the other side of the country to go and see, smell and taste all the flavours of Penang. The way there was already worth it, our local bus taking us through the mountains which provided for beautiful scenery. So, there we are.

News is reaching me by telex about people home in Europe snowed in, eating food from cans by a candle, whilst yeti's are scavaging outside.

We will try to catch some warm air in envelopes and send them by express mail to you all.

Take care all, thanks for reading.