With a scooter through the outskirts of Krabi

A small video update to round things up. Here in Ao Nang actually everyone drives around with a scooter / moped, even the foreigners. So for about 200 Baht a day everyone can rent one (helmet and a slap on the shoulder included), nobody gives a damn if those farangs have a driver's licence or not (this doesn't mean I don't have one of course). So I spontaneously decided to grab a scooter and to explore the outskirts of Krabi. Well, see for yourself, at best in fullscreen.

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More Bangkokian miracles...

Here we go again, another blog entry. So my 4 day stay in Bangkok finally came to an end. In fact I can happiliy look back and say that I've seen pretty much everything I intended to do and that no unwished incidents inflicted my trip so far. To my big surprise I can tell that I experienced a more or less clean city with not so much of the myth-enshrouded stereotypes like ladyboys, many street hookers, scammers etc.

But let's take a look at a few things I've witnessed so far:

A typical crowded street in mid-day Bangkok...

...and on the other hand we've got skyscrapers.

The very reliable Bangkokian Skytrain system

The passageway to Wat Mangkon Kamalawat in Chinatown

A must-see location when visiting Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown

The famous Jim Thompson House

Khao San Road. Ready to get scammed?

A monk at his best. A few moments later he took out his smartphone...

Prayer bells at Wat Hua Lamphong

The vigilant temple guardian...

The epic Buddha in Wat Pho

The temple towers at Wat Pho, even more amazing in the dark...

A pretty normal sunset here...

Wat Arun at night

Wat Phra Kaew, probably one of the most crowded places in South East Asia...

Taking a ride on the Chao Phraya River

Chao Phraya in its whole glory

So you see there's quite some stuff to see in Bangkok and there's even a lot more. To put in a nutshell I'd say I liked the Snake Farm, Wat Pho, the whole Chinatown area and the northern part of the city most. More things I'd liked to see were the Kho Ket Island or the Crocodile Farm, but these two were too far outside the city. But nevertheless I had a great time and probably I'll return to Bangkok when I'm back from the south.

Speaking of the South, I just arrived in Ao Nang near Krabi. So stay tuned for the next post revolving long-tail boats, beaches and islands!

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Food stalls, Cobras, Durians and other Bangkokian miracles...

If you guys already thought that I got kidnapped by reckless Bangkokian ladyboys, I can reassure you that luckily nothing whatsoever happened to me (yet). Rather I took the opportunity of the last two days to explore the urban jungle that Bangkok is.

What miracles may lay beyond the overcrowded immigration desks?

But first let's travel back through time for about 3 days from today. So after I enjoyed an awesome bar of camel milk chocolate in my first stopover in Doha, Qatar, I finally reached the Thai capital by Sunday at 6 PM local time, after a total flight time of about 11 hours and an additional latency of 8 hours in Doha. But of course my humble self can't be arsed with a few hours of travelling so I helped myself with a selection of awful Hollywood movies and deep naps. The Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport itself was huge though, much bigger than I expected. Crowds of Arabs, Indians, Asian and of course Western people overcrowded the waiting queues in front of the immigration desks. So here goes another 40 minutes of waiting, getting your backpack, withdrawing some Thai Bhat and calling a Taxi.

Food stalls in Chinatown, Bangkok

After finally getting to the Hostel and spending my first night there, it was finally time to explore the city. What stroke me immediately was how easy it was to get your hands on food in this megalopolis, in each corner you were looking at there were food stalls and people literally eating on the street. In fact a paradise for such a gourmet as me! It doesn't matter if you'd like traditional Thai food, Chinese, Indian, Western, whatsoever, you can have it all for a tiny fraction of the cost you would pay in Europe. Street food in Bangkok is actually pretty hygienic too, as these dishes are rapidly made with fresh ingredients, just on the spot. You can see these old ladies washing the vegetables and chopping them, absolutely transparent customer policy I'd say (something I can't always expect from a Western restaurant).

Isn't something fishy about this dinner? Actually yes, it's fish. And hell, it's delicious. And for about $1 it's cheap too.

Time for some healthy fast food!

Of course I didn't back off from eating some of the more exotic stuff out there. I mean how about some grasshoppers for example? They might turn off your appetite at the first glance, but they actually are really good! Imagine some crunchy chips (or crisps if you're a Brit) with a toothsome, greasy sauce and then you've got grasshoppers. OK, think away the long legs, the antennas and those cute eyes, but you get the idea. Next time I'll move on to those maggots, nothing as good as a little snack for on the go!



But so far nothing beats the awesomeness that Durians are, one of the most infamous fruits around this place. A Durian is basically a pineapple-looking and spike-covered husk with a delicious flesh inside. The Durian is widely spread, sold and eaten throughout South East Asia and is regarded by many people as the "King of Fruits". So if they're so good, why the notoriousness? Because those things stink like hell, disgusting Western People to their utter sickness. At this point I'd like to post a quote from Wikipedia:

«The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine, and raw sewage. The persistence of its odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in Southeast Asia.»

"Why, just why do people hate me? Because of my spikes, my delicious flesh or... my fragrance?"

After savouring a few slices of Durian I can't understand how somebody in all worlds would drag the Durian's name through dirt. In any cases one of the most delicous, if not the most delicious fruits I've ever eaten!

Sightseeing didn't get the short end of the stick of course. During my two days here I've already wandered through the northern and southern parts, doing and seeing everything I want to. Again a huge advantage of travelling alone! On the ways through Bangkok I came across many monuments, funny people, temples, animals and of course food stalls (but I guess you already know that, don't you). One of the most memorable thing I did was to visit the Snake Farm of the Thai Red Cross. This facility's purpose is basically to not only exhibit snakes from Thailand and around the world, but also to educate the Thai people and their foreign friends about the danger and also the miracles of snakes and their venom. Visitors can observe those numerous cute reptiles in their compounds, and information signs spread all along the farm give insight into snake studies and the treatment of snake venom.

The highlight although was a little snake "show" where visitors were shown how to handle several harmless and highly dangerous snakes. At the end you were offered to take a Burmese Python over your shoulders, which was highly exciting of course (those things are actually pretty sticky to be honest). And that dude below grabbing that King Cobra bare-handed definitely deserves a prize for being an awesome lad!

Grabbing a King Cobra... like a boss!

 Of course I made shitloads of more photos, but I won't post all of them here. Expect to see some more in the next blog entry, probably with less text than this time.

Stay tuned for more!

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The journey finally begins!

First of all welcome to this humble travel blog and thanks for dropping in anyways! If you're new here don't hold yourself back from taking a look at the About Me section to check out who in all world this «Muri» actually is.

My initial «Backpacer Rookie Starter Set»

So after several weeks of intense preparations it's finally happening tomorrow. Together with my trusty 55+10 l Deuter backpack I'm going to hit the road in South East Asia for a half year. I only packed in the most basic stuff, everything else will be acquired during this hopefully epic trip (pretty optimistic, huh?).
So first stop tommorow's going to be Doha in Qatar, which will be the only stopover before landing in Bangkok, Thailand, where shit hits the fan right now. With a price tag of about $600 I was more than lucky to find such a cheap flight, thanks to the miracles of Skyscanner.

Argh, all these red arrows...

Well, of what itienary am I thinking of anyway? First of all I must admit that I'm not exactly a proponent of big planning, I sure want to journey as spontaneously and freely as possible. But eitherway I've got some destinations in mind I absolutely want to visit. So first I'm getting my keister for two months to Thailand, as already indicated above. After exploring the south and north of the (now politically boiling) country I intend to head eastwards to Laos, where I'm probably staying one month. Another whole month I'd like to spend in Cambodia southwards of Laos, accessible along the iconic Mekong river. Furthermore I've got a 2 months stay in Vietnam in mind, tramping northwards the country along the coast with Hanoi as final destination.

Certain changes of the route are of course perfectly possible, if not even very likely.

Now what's more to say? Look forward to further entries to this blog and of course feel free to post some (always welcomed) comments below. Sally out!

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