Penang 6.10.2012 - 11.10.2012

On our First day (sa 6.10.) at Penang we went to the beach. The beach was okay but the water quite dirty,
so it was not much fun to swim in it. The only thing which would make sense at this beach would be some jet ski riding which was way to expensive. So i didnt do it and instead took some pictures of the sun set.

ko phangan beach

sunset at ko phangan beach

i think the cloud up there looks like a duck

On sunday the 7th of October we wanted to go sight seeing. Our first destination was a mosque near our hostel. We went into the mosque and at the door there was a man who asked us whether he should tell us something about the mosque and the muslims and their religion and so on.
Because we were very interested to get to know something about this religion we nearly spend the whole afternoon talking to this man.
What i learned of this conversation (and the conversation which i had with someone from Isreal at Pai) is a better understanding of the jewish, christian and muslim religion.
The jews have a bible which contains the old testament of the bilble.
The christians have a bible which contains the old testament and the new testament telling the life of jesus.
The muslims have the koran, which is almost the same as the christian bible , but as far as i understood has some extras which were added by Mohamed. There are also some differences in the believe:
While the christians believe that jesus is the son of god and died at the cross and came back to life and was then sent to heaven, in the koran - thats what the man said- is written that jesus did not die at the cross and didnt come back to life, but instead was rescued and sent to heaven before he could get killed.
This for the muslims makes jesus not the son of god but just another prophet, like for example moses.

the mosque we visited

these guys were laughing at me while i took the photo of the mosque , probably because i looked like a tourist with my camera :)

 On monday the 8th of october we tried to go sight seeing again. First we went to a tower in the city,
which should give us a nice view over the city.
But it was not as good as expected, because you could only watch the city through a window.
Thats why we went to the roof top of the building, which was not alowed, but we did it nevertheless (dont tell anyone ;) ) which was much nicer, but a bit dangerous, because the roof was not very stable to walk on.

photo taken from the tower through the window

photo taken from the tower through the window

photo taken from the tower, through an open window (to take the photo was not that easy... because the windows were somehow small)

photo taken from the roof of tower

After visting the tower we took a tram up to the "penang hill". On top of the hill we walked around a bit, and had lunch at a small food court for about 5 ringit. ( about 1 euro)

tram to penang hill

railway from the penang hill down to penang

view from penang hill

me on top of the penang hill

a monkey on top of penang hill

 For the way down from the hill we wanted to take a walk. The way down was about 5 kms to walk,
but a lot of fun. The nature was pretty, and there were so many monkeys on our way. Unfortunately,
we didnt have any bananas with us ...

the way down from penangn hill

the way down from penangn hill 2

a mirror on the way down from penang hill (its for the cars so they can see what is behind a curve)

another mirror (of many) on the way down from penang hill

 On tuesday the 9th of october we went to see the so called "Kek Lok Si Temple. To get into the temple was for free. But we had to pay 2 ringit in order to be alowed to go up to the pagoda (the tower) from which you have a nice view on the city.

the way to the temple

some statues inside the temple (the symbols on the statues are strange...)

the temple as seen from the pagoda

the city and temple from as seen the pagoda

Ko Samui - 4.10.2012

On the 4th of october at about 10 o clock we took a ferry to the island ko samui. We arrived at ko samui 3 hours later at about 1 o clock pm. From the harbour we took a taxi for 80 baht to chaweng beach. There we found a guesthouse for 350 baht per night. We took the first guesthouse that we could find because it was already afternoon and we didnt have much time , because we wanted to go to malaysia on the next day. After checking in into the guesthouse we went to the beach until the sun set. In the evening we bought our ticket to pinang in malaysia for 1200 baht. Then we went to a nice restaurant called "ninja". There, because it was my last day in thailand , I ate four different curry dishes: green curry (my favourite curry), pumpkin curry, pinapple curry and yellow curry. I also wanted to eat the red curry but i couldn't eat anymore. We went to bed early, because we had to get up at about 5 o clock am the next day.

the beach of ko samui

so many planes were landing near this beach

sunset at the beach of ko samui

Koh tao 2.&3. october

On tuesday the 2nd of october I finally returned from ko phangan to ko tao. After my return I went to the beach where my friend was waiting for me already. Then I called someone with my mobile phone who we had met two days before on the ferry from chumphon to ko tao. We met at the 7 eleven, and then went to a small restaurant at the beach in order to have breakfast. I had a sandwich with fried eggs and cheese, which was delicious. I can't remember the name of the restaurant. The only thing I remember is that it had "diamond" in its name. I especially liked the tomatoes on this sandwich. They tasted so sweet ( I think they generally do here in asia), while in germany they have more a sour taste.

the beach , which can be seen from the restaurant where we had breakfast

After breakfast, we took a roller and then went to a beach near the shark bay for snorqling. This was beautiful. We could see many corals and also many small fishes in different colors.

we went snorqling at this beach

we went snorqling at this beach 2

one of the bays we were snorqling at

On the next day we made a boat tour around the island for snorqling. The weather was perfect: blue sky, blue and clear water. Most of the bays and coral riffs were as pretty as the ones we had seen the day before. Unfortunately they didn't want to give us any fins, because they were not aloud to. Had I better brought my own. I didn't take any underwater fotos, because I don't have an underwater camera, but I shot some pictures of the island and the different bays.

 

we were visiting this small island on our way

from the top of the hill you have a beautiful view

me on top of the hill

the hill :)

Ko Phangan 1st October

Today is the day after the party . I'm now alone here at ko phangan. Today I slept very long .went to the beach and then again slept very long. Tomorrow I can return to ko tao :) . Here are somne photos of the beach at daytime ( its the same beach where the full moon party was yesterday.

the beach of ko phangan

   

the beach of ko phangan ( same same beach as full moon party beach)

Full Moon Party 30. September

After our arrival in koh tao on the 30th of september we first had to find a hostel for the night. We found a cheap one at mr. j'sbungalows for only 300 bath per night. After that we tried to find a ticket from ko tao to ko phangan, where at the same night the famous full moon party would be. It was easy for us to find a ticket to ko phangan. But we couldnt get a return ticket anywhere. They told us that we would have to buy it from there. But when we arrived at ko phangan we could not get a return ticket anywhere either. After checking all the travel agencies we finally found one return ticket for the next day. We bought that ticket in hope to find a second ticket at some other agency. But unfortunately we couldnt find a second ticket so we had to buy one more ticket for the second of october. Because I had brought some eqipment to the island like a tooth brush, I decided to stay at ko phangan. In the first night I stayed at some hostel at the beach, which was not so nice. But in the second night I stayed at the "phangan hostel" which was very nice and clean and even had air conditioning. This whole story was really annoying because that way we had to pay for both the hostel at ko tao and the hostel at ko phangan. On top of that the ticket for the ship was very expensive, and it would have been cheaper to go to ko phangan and take a hostel there for 2 days in first place. So what I learn from that is: never leave your backpack at another island or book a hotelroom if you dont have a return ticket. I think I'm losing the focus on the fullmoon party. As some people would say it was "pretty intense" . The whole beach was dancing and celebrating until the late night.

the party beach

At this party there were many stalls which tried to sell small buckets with alcoholic drinks ( as shown in the picture).

stalls selling buckets

    At the full moon party we met so many people who we had met somewhere before. A girl who we had met at bangkok. People who we had met in vietnam. And also some people who we had met at chiang mai 2 days before. What sucked a bit is that in this night I stayed at a hostel at the beach which had only a public and ugly shit toilet and shower. The problem about this toilet was that in the night I wanted to go to this toilet, but someone was sleeping there on the ground. Ill never take a toilet with such a public toilet ever again. It was not even possible to lock the door at this bathroom.

some guy sleeping on my toilet ^^

Chiang Mai 28th September

wewwechiangmai 28th september - on friday 28th of september we went on a one day tour which included: the visit of a butterflyfarm, elephant riding, trekking through the jungle to a waterfall, whitewater rafting (it should be called brown water rafting), and bamboo rafting. The whole tour only costed 700 bath. Well the butterfly farm sucked, because the farm was only " 3x3 meters" and there was only one kind if butterfly and there were not many butterflies in there. The elefant riding was amazing, we bought some bananas for 10 baht and then were aloud to feed them and then we rode on them for a while through a pretty landscape. Here are some fotos.

After we had finished the elephant riding, we did a small trekking tour to this waterfall, which was really amazing, because the nature was so beautiful. And also the waterfall was really nice. The rafting and bamboo rafting was nice but short ( compared to the rafting on the pai river).

we had this for lunch. it was good and it was vegetarian :)