When we arrived in Chumphon we haven’t booked the ferry yet. That was no problem, when we got out of the train a woman came to us and asked where we want to go. After we explained that we want to go to Koh Tao several men came to us and presented their prices and fares for the tour. We decided to take the service of the womans company. So we followed her to the next bus which was the transfer to the ferries. After half an hour driving in this big coach we arrived at the pier where the ferries leave Chumphon to the islands.

We checked-in with our tickets and entered the boat after 15 minutes. It was a nice boat with a lot of seats for a huge amount of passengers.

During the boatride we slept the whole time, so when we arrived in Koh Tao after one hour drive we weren’t that exhausted anymore. On the pier in Koh Tao we played the same game with different suppliers for different hostels, hotels and taxis.

We picked the guy who could speak the best english and who answered to our questions about activities to do and places to see truthfully. We hopped on his pick up taxi and drove to the street where all the hostels are located next to the beach.

Before we booked in to a hostel we compared prices and services between the chosen ones. We decided to check-in to a hostel where we got a two bed dorm for 400 Baht per person. That was quite cheap and enough for the day.  We slept and relaxed the rest of the day. Good night, guys.

This day we woke up at the same time as yesterday and drove with the parents of May and May to the office of their company. They are buying toilet paper and other utilities for daily use from a supplier and are selling it to big customers in Thailand.

After having  a look at their office we drove to the Gaya rak Massage temple.

There we enjoyed for fully three hours the best massage in my life. I felt reborn afterwards and so happy as never before. With this great feeling we had lunch at a chinese restaurant where we tried out delicious food like peking duck and different sorts of fish. While eating we talked a lot about the massage and about the differences between different kind of duck meat.

The next station was the MBK Shopping center. It is a huge shoppingcenter which offers on ten levels a huge variety of souvenirs and goods. There are several shops next to each other and a lot of salesmen trying to sell their goods to you. We spend their three hours, shopping, walking around, having lunch at MK and buying souvenirs. Then we drove to the Bangkok train station, where we said good bye and THANK YOU to the family. Then we had to wait two hours at the train station. It was extremely hot there and we sweated more than we could drink.

Totally soaked with sweat and exhausted as never before we entered the train. Entering it we were shocked by the dirty walls and seats where cockroaches were running along the walls. After five sleepless hours we arrived in Chumphon. 

When we woke up around 8 o’clock we had to hurry up because we wanted to visit the company of May’s parents today. After one hour drive we arrived at the company. It is a B2B company which produces plastic bags for their customers. May explained us the way the plastic bags are produced. The material is delivered by the supplier. The material will be mixed with another material and the mixture is put into containers. The whole material is filled in a special machine, where it is heated up to become liquid. Then it is blown to the top of the machine, where at the end were two plates formed like a triangle which cooled of the liquid plastic bags. At the end there was the final plastic bag.  The company can control the colour and the thickness of their bags. In the cutting process the plastic bag is cut in the perfect size.

After we visited the manufacturing they showed us the warehouse of their company. It was a huge building with a lot of collars. They managed their waste management quite good and recycle all of the waste they produce with another collaborative company. I asked them how long it took to build up all of this and they answered that it took about 15 years. So Dad, we’ve got enough time for our plan.

The lunch today was awesome, we had octopus, shrimps and other kinds of fish with noodles and rice. It was reallly delicious we tried out the thai beer. I really liked Shang beer and Leo really liked “Leo” Beer. After we finished, we drove to Wat Po in the middle of Bangkok to have a look on the different temples which are located there. Wat Po was really beautiful and we got to know a lot about the history of the temple and about different stories. May was a really good tour guide and so we walked around for two hours.

At the end of the trip we had a thai feet massage. The man who massaged me knew quite good how to release the stress out of my feet and make me feel happy. It was a great feeling to get a massage like this and an even better feeling to walk to the Bangkok River City center with well treated feet. On our way to the center the parents of May joined us and told us that we will have some time to do shopping. So we did.

After that we went on the Blue Orchid river cruise on the Khao Phraya. It was a luxurious boat ride from 19:45 to 21:45 along the shore of the Khao Phraya where all the beautiful temple are situated. We enjoyed a huge buffet with various specialties and two really good organized entertainment programs with two different singers and many special dancers.

When we arrived home we had to pack our baggage because we will leave tomorrow night to Chumphon.

Staying with the family we figured out that they already planned the whole journey for us. So we started at 10 o’clock to drive to the first place. It was a Zoo quite close to the house of the family. We entered and went straight to the crocodile farm. There we bought raw meat and fed the crocodiles. They were quite lazy because of the high temperature but some of them were happy about us feeding them. It was impressive to see how fast this animals can attack. After feeding the crocodiles, Eahr invited us for a ride on an elephant. It was awesome we rode the elephant for approximately twenty minutes and discovered a really enjoyable way of travelling around the world. Probably I should have tried that earlier. We haven’t expected that the ride on the elephant would be that high. During our ride we crossed many interesting plants, some other staff members than our rider and a waterfall where we took some pictures.

After the ride we had lunch in the restaurant of the zoo. The lunch was okay. There was a buffet with different kinds of thai food, but the overall quality wasn’t satisfying us that much. We ate and got the information that tonight we will go out for dinner to a restaurant with the rest of the family. We were quite happy to hear that. When we finished lunch we went to the crocodile show. The show started and two young (approximately 16 year old) boys entered the arena of the crocodiles. They looked afraid and not professional at all.

They poked the crocodiles with a small stick in their hands, till these got angry. When the time passed people gave them more and more money. So the boys were getting more and more adventurous and put their hands, their head and other parts of their body in the mouth of the crocodiles. It wasn’t nice to see how these young guys risk their life just for 100-300 bath which would be 70€. Luckily they survived and May’s dad told me that he attended such a show once and the crocodile hunter lost his ear because he wasn’t fast enough. After the crocodile show we continued to the next show. It was called the elephant show, but starts with a really good magician who showed his tricks for half an hour. We were surprised by some magic tricks and couldn’t explain how it works. In the end he earned a huge applause and the stage was prepared for the elephants.

At first our elephant entered the stage and the speaker started to explain the story of Thailand. It was a roleplay with elephants and actors and reminded me a bit of the Karl May Festspiele in Germany. After the roleplay finished the elephants switched to sports and performed a football match.

It was interesting and funny to see this big animals playing soccer and their riders controlling them. To control them the riders used a weapon which looks like a hook to threat the elephant. Normally the elephant does what he is supposed to do, but in some cases not. This time they never had to use the weapon which was good in my opinion, because elephants look so sweet. They did handstand and danced like humans.

After this show we took some pictures in front of the elephant and we could get the experience of touching the elephants russel. It was weird, before touching I thought it would be soft, it wasn’t at all. The russel felt hard and scratchy. In the next 15 minutes we took another picture with a much more dangerous animal. The tiger, we touched his tail and could feel the power and beauty of this animal while sitting behind its back.

We drove to the next show by car. It was located 5 – 10 minutes away and was a show which represented the traditional thai-lifestyle. We got to know what traditional activities they prefer and how they live with these traditions. The most impressive activity of the thai lifestyle was the Muay-Thai fighting. Two really experienced Muay-Thai fighters showed us how a fight could look like and fought for three rounds as real Muay-Thai fighters.

We got to know the cultural dance which is named after a region in Thailand and got to know how the thai rice workers harvest the rice.

After all this show experiences we were quite tired, but Eahr didn’t forget that I want to get the experience of riding a boat. So when we arrived at the house he asked me if I am awake enough to try it out. I agreed and May, Eahr and I went on a fabulous boat ride on the river located next to the house with their new swedish boat. Eahr drove the first six minutes and then he allowed me that I could drive the boat as well. And so I did. I had to be carefull in the water of all the water plants, but it was a funny trip. I enjoyed to have the responsibility of the boat. After 30 minutes driving around, taking photos and videos we returend to the house.

We had one hour to prepare for dinner. Then we got to know the two sibblings of May and drove to the restaurant. When we arrived there, we figured out that we would have to sing karaoke tonight.

At first it was my turn, I started with the song Lemon Tree and continued with the song “killing me softly” it was funny to sit on a chair on  the stage and to sing these songs in front of up to 20 guests. The audience (other guests inside of the restaurant) applaused in the end and my part was done. We enjoyed six different plates of delicious thai food and some other guests from other tables singing different songs. Leonid also sang. He did a good job as well. After our dinner we drove home. Arriving at home Leo and I were shown the transformed cherryblossom which you can only see in the night. We were astonished by its beauty. We were really tired ( almost 24 hours no sleep) So we decided to go to our dorms really soon. We said good night and thanked the family so much for everything they did and offered. At our place we decided to sit on the balcony and have a beer.

So we did, we enjoyed a lovely talk with each other and came to the conclusion that the first day was awesome and our situation was the best one to start a good vacation in south-east Asia.

When we arrived in Bangkok after a 13 hour flight the first problems occured on the passport control. Leo and I had to fill out an arrival card, but we couldn’t read the adress on the adress-card of our family because it was written in thai. So we went to the passport control officer. He sent us back because there was a gap where the adress-field should have been. At this moment May called me. She gave me the directions where to find them at the airport. I listened carefully to get the way to the right exit. (there were three different ones) So we decided to ask another staff member at the airport to translate the thai adresss for us so that we can enter Thailand. The next time it worked and we were in Thailand, luckily our baggages arrived as well. We got them at the baggage claim and decided to exchange some money first. The course was 38,86 Baht = 1 €. First of all we changed 100€ just to make sure that we will have enough money for our journey. Following Mays instructions we found the family of her really quick. They were waiting in front of the exit B and were so happy to see us. When I saw them I was quite happy as well, because without a local phone contract I  couldn’t  inform them about our arrival in Thailand. I got to know Mays Mum. She was called Sri and Mays Dad. He was called Eahr. They both were really friendly and open-minded. On our way to the car lot, we stopped at a restaurant and had delicious thai food.We tried octopus, scampis, other sorts of fish. For dessert we had mango with sweet rice. During breakfast we drank out of a coconutshell the freshest cocout milk I’ve ever drank. Leo and me ate a lot and were quite full after the delicious breakfast.

It was almost 5 o’clock AM. Continuing our way to the car Leo and I were hit by the temperature of 30 degrees. When we entered the car we were happy about the AC and talked about our planned journeys for the next days. Driving through suburbs of Bangkok was a fantastic way of seeing how the citizens and the places in Bangkok look like.

Leo and I were really interested in the thai architecture and liked to see all the different temples.  The family was happy to answer our questions. After one hour and 45 minutes we arrived at the house of the family. It was not even a house it was a castle build like a traditional thai house. The mate of the family carried our baggage to the guesthouse. Our rooms were two big separated rooms in the beautiful guest house next to their house. It is located next to the river “Hapen” and we enjoyed the nicest view from our balcony. When you are staying on the balcony you can see the river with a bluish water.

On the surface were floating waterplants like little spots on a beatle. The stream of the river was upside down and the boat traffic was moderate. Probably every hour a small boat, full of locals passed by.