This day we woke up at 6’o clock in the morning. We met our boat-guide in front of our resort. He explained to us the safety instructions for the trip, we were not allowed to swim in the river or to put our hands in the water during the ride. So we started our tour, when we arrived at the floating markets the salesmen weren’t finish getting their goods on the ships. After ten or fifteen minutes driving through the busy men building up their stores. We’ve got the experience of trading goods and joking around with salesmen from the floating-market.

Their boats were packed with fruits, vegetables, clothes, food and different materials. It looked like a huge warehouse on the water. We bought some fresh watermelon. At the next boat we bought some ice tea. It was amazing to sit half-naked in the sun eat watermelon and drink Ice-Tea while driving on the river with an ancient long boat.

The next stop was an old rice noodle farm, where we got to know the steps of producing rice noodles. In this area was a black coloured bird which repeated funny words we said, so we stood in front of the cage and talked to the bird for a long time. There were other domestic animals like guinea pigs as well. We had heaps of fun and enjoyed our fresh baobab ice-tea (Affenbrotbaum-Tee). It is said that this tea helps against diary and other deseases and I think it worked.

Back on the boat I asked our guide if it would be possible to control the boat for some time. He agreed and I could take the control of the boat, this one was a bit more heavy to control than the one from Eahr. After my turn it was Leos turn, he did a quite good job. I decided to start my motorboat-licence when I would be back in Germany.

When we returned at our resort, we decided to rent some bikes and explore this area. We started to cycle together but lost each other quite fast so we both had our own cycling experiences. The streets were crowded with cars, motorbikes and bicycles. I felt horrible on the street cycling along the way. Nobody cared about cyclist, they always honked. It is normal to honk in Vietnam to communicate with others, sometimes it is quite hard to understand why someone is honking, but I’ve never seen an accident during the whole time I’ve been there.

Back home we relaxed in the hammocks which were build up on the balcony in front of the river. We had a nice view and really enjoyed our last hours in Vietnam.

Our host ordered us some tickets for the bus. When we arrived at the “bus  stop”. There was no bus coming, tthirty minutes before our bus to Saigon would leave we decided to stop a cab and take a cab to the bus. It was quite close and we almost missed the bus to Saigon, but luckily we didn’t. At the airport we slept around 4 hours till our flight departed to Bangkok.

When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, we figured out that the place where we wanted to go in the Mekong Delta is too far (8 hours by bus) so we changed our plans and decided to go to Can Tho (the biggest city in the Mekong Delta).

So we did, got a lift from two motorbike drivers to the bus station and waited there for half an hour.

When we were driving on the motorbikes we already got a good experience of the lifestyle and the attitudes of vietnamese people. They are very busy, carry everything with motorbikes (almost everybody rides one) and they are so friendly. Never met such friendly and helpful people before. After five hours ride we arrived in Can Tho. Luckily there was WiFi in the bus so I could already book a resort in Can Tho.

I booked the Maivien Resort, which sounded quite nice very apart from the big hotels. When we arrived in Can Tho at the bus station.

We asked several drivers what the price would be for a ride to the resort. We compared all of them and took the two cheapest ones. The ride was about 20 minutes and started in the city, then it ended in the pure nature on rocky and sandy roads in the darkness. Luckily we arrived safe.

We met the host and he showed us our room. We had booked a nice two bed bungallow in the nature, surrounded by the sounds of animals. There were gekkos, mosquitos, bugs and ants talking to us. We were happy to get the experience of the Mekong Delta like this. For the next morning we booked a tour for two hours on the river “Song me con” which was directly located in front of our resort. We would have to wake up at 6’o clock the next morning, so we went to bad early and felt asleep while listening to the sound of the nature.

Today we woke up at 8 o’clock and celebrated my 23. th birthday as a gift of Leo I’ve got a bottle of a danish premium wodka.

After the celebration we had a fantastic breakfast included. At 12 o’clock we checked out and did some research about our next trips. We found out that it will take around 5 hours from Ho Chi Minh City to Co Than. At 1 o’clock we were picked up in front of our hotel from a kind tuk-tuk driver who drove with us to the bus station where our bus would start to Battambang.

In the bus to the bus station we arleady met two nice guys from England. We talked a lot with them and had a great time. They wanted to go to Battambang as well, but wouldn’t like to do the bamboo train today. So when we arrived in Battambang we split apart. Leo and me picked a nice looking tuk tuk driver and rented him for the whole day.

First of all he gave us a ride to  the famous bamboo train (also called nurries), which is located 5 – 10 km from the bus stop in Battambang. The experience of riding on the bamboo train was extremely awesome. The train is build out of two roulers on the train tracks and on top of this roulers they put a mat made out of bamboo sticks.

They used it in the former years to transport goods from village to village. Nowadays it became a tourist attraction. The ride on the bamboo train is quite adventurous because when you sit/lie on it you ink that the train is leaving the tracks for some seconds. The train tracks are not very straight, so sometimes the train jumps with 40 km/h from one train track to the other. Probably not made for people with high fear factors. One thing which is important to mention is that the train track is just one-way, so when there is another nurrie returning from the village. The driver has to lift the bamboo train of the tracks and wait on the side till the other bamboo train passed by.

When our driver took the bamboo train back on the tracks, I could see how the bamboo train works. There is a electro engine on which is a wheel where the driver puts in a sling which is connected to the roulers. It’s just that easy.

We enjoyed the ride a lot, it took around 30 minutes and ends in a village. Where we could buy clothes and souvenirs from little cute looking girls. The methods they used to make us buy things we didn’t want in the beginning made us a bit angry. On the way back this feeling vanished really fast. We saw the sunset and took a beautiful picture on a bridge in front of the sunset.

 At the end of the returning trip we had the awesome experience of doing my famous travel handstand together on a bamboo train. Have a look guys. After we finished the bamboo train experience our driver took us to a nice restaurant. We invited him for dinner and had lovely talks with him. He was a really nice guy with a great family and a big heart. After the dinner he brought us to the bus station where we decided to book a bus to Phnom Phen. From Phnom Phen we would take another bus to Ho Chi Minh City.

After our 23 hours trip from Chumphon to Bangkok and from Bangkok to Siem Reap, we arrived in our new hotel.

It was a really nice Temple Suite & Spa which I found on booking.com. I thought it would be perfect to spend my 23. th birthday there.

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After we checked-in we booked a trip to Angkor Watt and to some other temples. We got a really nice driver for the whole day who drove us around all the temples the whole day. The first stop was Angkor Watt, before entering the temple we enjoyed lunch in the restaurant next to it and drank the real Angkor beer.

It was really delicious my stir fried chicken sweet and sour. When we were full we started our trip to Angkor Watt, the temperature was extremely hot, almost 41°C and the air was 0% moisturized.

When we entered the gate of the Angkor-Watt area the first thing I had to do, was to take a picture of my one-handstand for my memory. 

Walking around in the ancient old temple made me tired and thirsty, so we decided to buy some water on a market nearby.

It was horrible, everybody tried to sell  something something to us and if you accidentally touched a souvenir they almost wanted us to pay them directly. After we sunburned a lot we decided to search our driver who wanted to wait outside of the temple.

It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. There were everywhere taxidrivers waiting for customers and our driver wasn’t there. So we asked other drivers where our driver was. We found him after 10 minutes searching with the help of a description.

The next stop was Bayun which is another temple located quite close to Angkor Watt in the middle of a big roundabout. I was too sunburned to explore the temple, so Leo did it on his own.

In this time I talked to our driver about the lifestyle in Cambodia, about his family and about him. I also talked with him about my girlfriend and about how good it is to have a family. After 45 minutes Leo returned and we continued our trip to the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed.

It was called Ta Prohm Temple. It was fascinating to see the settings out of the film in reality with our own view. We really enjoyed the whole day and when we got back to our hotel, we decided to take an oil massage. It took one hour, after that I needed some time for myself and decided not to go out tonight on my birthday, because I was too exhausted from the last days. We didn’t have much sleep and I was very bitchy about everything.

This morning we had to wake up quite early to settle things for today. First of all we had to book our hostel for one more night. Luckily it worked spontaneously and so we could enjoy the day. First we walked to the place where the Diamond Sea Diver picked us up.

We drove on the back of the truck with two other people from Sweden to the pier. There we got our snorquelling masks and waited for more people, which arrived after a while in groups of two or three. There were also some Germans, but mainly, chinese, korean or thai people. Our guide gave everybody snorqueling masks and we entered the boat.

It was a small two leveled boat with a rooftop where we could sit on. Leo and me decided to go on the top-level, because we were prepared with sun cream and felt ready to tan our bodies. The first stop was Shark bay, the boat stopped and we could go snorquelling in front of a beautiful cliff.

We snorquelled around for 45 minutes and saw beautiful fish, but no sharks, such a shame. We started talking to the swedish couple on the boat. They were really friendly and told us a lot about Koh Samui. On the way to the next bay some chinese people got seasick and one vomitted at Leo. He wasn’t really happy about that.

On the way the team offered cakes and drinks for us. We ate and drank a lot. The next stop was Mango Bay where Leo and I went snorquelling,

I was already wearing  a shirt because the sun on the deck of the boat was too intensive. The sunlight was mirroring from the water back to us. At the next stop we decided not to snorquel but have lunch instead. So we did, we had a well-cooked thai meal and enjoyed some tea with it. The last stop was the Island called Ko Nangyuan we enjoyed the rest of the day there. In the evening we returned to our hostel and felt asleep.

Today we rented a scooter and discovered the island. First of all we drove to Sairree Beach which is the biggest beach on the island.

At the beach we enjoyed the sun and went swimming. We figured out that there was a place near the beach where we can work out and so we did.

There were several machines like benchpress and pull-up bars where we could work-out. It felt good to do a good work-out after a long time without it. After our work-out session we continued to the next beach, it was approximately 5 km away. On the way to this beach we drove on roads full of sand through little villages. In Ko Taoh everybody drives a scooter, we saw even three persons on one scooter. Generally the scooters have 125 cubic and  a maximum speed between 80-120 km/h. The roads down to the beaches in Koh Tao were very steep and rocky. It was really helpful that the scooter had a lot of horsepower.  When we arrived at Freedom beach we first of all went into the water.

We swam for about half an hour. Than we returned to our place situated below a palmtree in the shadow. We enjoyed almost the whole day tanning and driving around to various beaches. We ate at a famous resort which also had an infinity pool. We decided to swim in the pool before having dinner.

When we returned to our hostel (Asia Divers Resort) we had to lay down in our beds because the sun was too intensive and we both got burned.

Luckily we bought After Sun Lotion and so we managed our sunburns quite well. We went to bed early to be prepared for our big snorquelling trip the next day. By the way I haven’t told you guys about the accident which we had when Leonid was driving, we injured ourselves really much and Leonid is now at a hospital with a broken hand.

Don’t take life too serious… It’s the first of April and in Germany it is allowed to make jokes on this day to make fun of the reactions of others. Enjoy your days folks, everything is okay and we are both happy and healthy.

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.