Freaky & Weird

Another true story that happens in life.

There is a Scottish historical story called ‚The Declaration of Arbroath‘. 9 years ago this story changed my personality and my life dramaticly . So I had the thought of getting a tattoo with the text of the declaration. I told my wish to Faye and one morning she came up with some additionals: the celtic knot for endless love (which I have as necklace) as an underlaying picture. I loved that idea so it was clear for me to get such a tattoo someday. But I never found a studio that fitted to me and I always thought getting a tattoo is something so important that it has to be the right person to make it.

Well, here at the location ‚Horizon’ (that Faye mentined a few days before) is a tiny sign for a studio. And because life is always good to us this studio is run by a local artist. People from all over the world come to this place just for his tattoos. And funnywhise (believe it or not) we met a German guy who took his vacation since 9 years at this place to get another bamboo tattoo from this studio.

At the beginning I was a bit unsure because until then I had the feeling it had to be a machine tattoo. But I met Eacho, the master, and I talked with him about my idea. After a few seconds I totaly knew he is the right one. He listened carefully and I saw in his eyes that he created exact what was in my mind. At the end we got brothers in minds, a kind of spiritual relationship.

He started with a pen drawing on my back, which took over two hours. While I was sitting on the chair and enjoying the atmosphere I had an inspiration. A swort through the knot and the declaration text. Faye was skeptical but Eacho understood again what idea I had and he made an additional drawing. And the result was just gorgeous! Without the sword it looked nice, but a bit lame. And now, indescribable for me.

So the hard work began. Starting 6pm and finished 2am on day one, one day off and another 3 hours today. So total net 12hours with a lot of beer and Thai wiskey to endure the pain and let the time pass.

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Finally it was done, and I‘m so happy and proude. But not only me, also Eacho was thankful about the opportunity and inspiration I gave him.

And here it is, my first real bamboo tattoo

If you go into a Thai restaurant and order some food, normally the waitress asks „spicy“? Every travel book heartly recommeds to say „no spicy“ because europeans are not used to feel comfortable with asia spicy food.

Well, after 6 weeks in Thailand and a lot of Thai food (especially red curry) we were sure we know what spicy means. So we started ordering „spicy“ and we felt good with that.

Today for dinner we went into a restaurant, ordered red curry and the common question came. This time (for whatever reason) I answered „real spicy“. The waiter looked puzzled and asked back „Thai spicy“? And I said „yes“. A hugh smile was in the guys face and he said „ohh nice.normally tourists never ask for thai spicy“. I was excited.

The food came and the guy showed me proudly the chili pieces and the chili seeds in the curry. I took a spoon of the curry and immidiately I got a hickhop. It was THAT hot. Every spoon needed over 2 minutes to get into my mouth ( longest dinner ever). I was able to define exactly the posittion of every bit in my body. Now I know how long my esophagus is and where the stomach starts. I guess I lost 2 KG water because of sweating and tearful tissues. Finally I needed 2 portions of rice to finish the meal. What an experiance but for sure it will be the last one for a couple of time. And I‘m a bit afraid of tomorrows outcome …

Some survival hints for eating thai spicy food:

Eat slowly, breathe thru your nose, be aware of every spoon, take a rest after every 5th spoon, use more rice than usually with the food, drink mango shake in tiny sips.

Good luck…

The longer we travel the more we enjoy and live our freakiness and weirdness. Our new location fits perfectly to that. A mixture of Pirates of the Caribbean with a lot of chill-out flair, and it‘s as vintage as we are 😉

We booked the ‚Sky Room‘ (orange wall with window above the Horizon Bar sign) for the next 5 days.

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Yesterday our host Nan did a BBQ especially for us. We got white snapper with ‘Mama style’ gravy, king prawns and squid. It was so delicious and after dinner we had a long talk with Nan about the Thai way of thinking, the influence of the Tourists to the culture, importance of family and much more. Such kind of experiences are one of the reasons why we make our trip, it was mind keeping indeed.

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We already have a great local accomodation and have had some real spicy and delicious red curry …. looks like Ko Lanta could make it for a longer time 🙂

… we will hopefully be in Ko Lanta.

So again an island, it seems having only water around us is the thing we like.

But honestly the main reason to leave this place is: Muslim prayer around us that’s very loud and often (which we do not claim!) and we didn’t find a proper accomodation which fits to us.

Maybe we are a bit extraordinary in our visions about accomodations, but ehyah, we are freaky and weird.

So let’s make a photo from this place and see what will come next.

Al-humdu Boutique Hometel
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yZzb5

Since we took the decision to change our life dramaticly last summer we sticked to a kind of mantra: Life will always provide us with the best, so we trust it without any doubts.

Today our believe deeply proofed to be right, here is the story:

Faye booked a single house a bit on the mountain near Krabi. The reviews of the accomodation were very good and the contact with the host pleasant. Yesterday we arrived at the place and the house and the view were very lovely. The host provided us with fresh fruits and water, so everthing seemed to be perfect.

But soon Faye did‘t feel good at the place. There was no specific reason, more lots of little circumstances and overall a somehow not good “spirit“ in the house and the surrounding. So from the legal point of view no reason to quit the contract and so Faye decided to stay calm and endure the situation.

This morning, after a restless night, I stood up and made some coffee, as usual. I took the coffee to the veranda ( where we had a nice view into the jungle) went back to the kitchen to grab a juice. Maybe I need to mention that getting to the veranda needed me to take some steps of a stair and while coming back from the kitchen to the veranda I stepped on the stairs. Without any warning the second step broke completely, the wood was rotten and my 130 KG were too much. I fell into the hole, got some abrasions at the right leg and a bloody wound on the left shin. I‘m not seriously injured but for sure it was a shock and it hurts.

In an usual way of thinking such a situation would likely cause a massive upset but you know what: Now it didn‘t at all. Why?

We contacted the host, showed him his broken stair and my legs, explained him that it was impossible to stay any further in his house for security reasons and because we have no chance to get up the hill to the town for having dinner and shopping. The host was not happy to cancel the booking ( of cause) but watching my bloddy wound gave him no other realistic chance.

So now we are in a tiny little hotel next to the beach ( the host dropped us here). We will stay here for the next 2 days and search the next location. Faye is happy not being any longer in the creapy house and we have plenty of restaurants next door.

This little story is a kind of quintessence for me. I fully believe with 100% of my heart that life always presents us with the best. Always.

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… we thought about the meaning of our life. For getting proper answers we asked an expert and here is his assessment.

What a magical day, so many wonderful impressions!

The buddhist monks live in „Wonderland“, which is really a very energetic forest between some high rocks with very big trees in it. Everything was soooo calm … we enjoyed it very much!

The monkeys waiting on the steps to the entry of the wonderland forest showed how you have to leave monkey mind behind to feel the magic and relaxation of wonderland forest ^^

Therefore: Don‘t feed the monkey (mind)! 😀

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Finally mainland after one month of island chilling. 3 h with a ferry, 3 h bus drive and here we are. Two days in Krabi town. Honestly, we get stressed just by spelling the word TOWN 😀

And here we are:

Ban Punmanus Guesthouse
122 Soi Nathvithi, Krabi rd, Paknam, Muang Krabi, Kerabi 81000, Thailand

https://goo.gl/maps/2m7Cnf7qz372

The last 2 days we took some off-time, just laying at the pool or at the veranda, thinking about the life and what’s important for us.

Tomorrow we will move to a new location, it will be a surprise.

So stay calm and keep on reading…

Hey, we not only did some shopping ^^ we also went hiking to a waterfall in the jungle (me in flip-flops!)

I also did my first scooter driving 🙂 and last but not least I performed some nearly world class header jumps in the pool just for Andy <3

You see, today we will really have to relax … 😀

After nearly 4 weeks here in Thailand we got frustrated because we found so many shops and boutiques with so lovely shirts and dresses but they never fit – Even if we mostly eat rice every day 🙁

But today we found a shop (a very small one far away from the main shopping streets) which offers shirts in 5xl for me and dresses which fits to Faye. Note, 5xl in Thailand means 2xl in Europe :-p

We started to buy all we got but than we remembered out limit capacity in our bags. So we finished with 3 items each…

Is was indeed delicious and made with love.

Highly recommended…

Today we went to our new location on Ko Pha-ngan, an area calls Chaloklum.

We found this location last time while our scooter tour and Faye felt in love about this peaceful place, so we decided to book a beach bungalow for a week. And so here we are.

This is the view from our veranda, really relaxing.

The resort itself is a bit like in the film “Hotel Budapest”, it was a 5 star, but it stops operating in high quality so it’s now a kind of 2.5 stars. But we have AC, a fridge and bathtubs. Nonsensical and Freaky indeed…

Chaloklum Bay Resort Koh Phangan
68 Moo 7, T.Koh Phangan, A.Koh Phangan, Suratthani, Thailand, Tambon Ko Pha-ngan, Koh Pha Ngan, Chang Wat Surat Thani 84280, Thailand

https://goo.gl/maps/1MBZB3iAqcE2

That‘s how the beach looked like when we arrived:

And that‘s how it looks today:

Pabuk changed his speed an direction more to the south, so the center of the cyclon is not on us any more. From the radar view we expect the worst part is over, 3h earlier than calculated.

A few bottles of water, some coffee, two beer and two bags full of food – should be enough to stay inside for the next 24 hours or so 😉

Today we choose our dinner in a Milanese operated Pizzaria. Wooden oven, perfect dough, real Salami and original Salsiccia.

Was soooo tasty and a perfect  variety after 3 weeks Thai food.

We finished with 2 hot Segafredo Espresso (but we were too fearful trying the Tiramisu).

Indeed a budget killer, but

YOLO

The cyclon “Pabuk” is on the way to the gulf of Thailand and will hit Ko Phan-gan Friday night, 11pm.

Luckywise we don’t have a beach Bungalow so we are save from the high waves

You can follow the moving of the cyclon and all metrological data here:

https://www.ventusky.com/?p=9.3;101.0;5&l=wind-10m&t=20190103/03

Cross fingers that it won’t be so dramatic as described in the news

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30361480

http://thailandtip.info/2019/01/02/die-erste-schwere-warnung-vor-einem-tropischen-sturm-fuer-den-sueden-seit-1962

is the name of our famous Thai restaurant.

Fabulous authentic food, local atmosphere, reasonable prices and  kind people, that’s all we need.

If you ever visit  Thong Nai Pan Noi Beach check it out

http://www.tripadvisor.de/ShowUserReviews-g303907-d1791027-r642928406-Again_and_Again-Ko_Pha_Ngan_Surat_Thani_Province.html

To our family, all our friends and followers

The journey will continue

 

Looks like a toy and the 125cc scooter had some problems in the mountains with over 19%  gradient and Faye and me on it.

But we ( and the scooter) survived

Breakfast: in the resort restaurant: unexpected expensive, standard quality but very small portions

Lunch: we skipped, just a beer

Dinner: in a high rated restaurant at the beach: horrible expensive but high quality. Unfortunately again baby portions, so we where still hungry. We went next door to a local restaurant for an addon, very bad decision. Incredible cheep, but poor quality ( very fat and we strongly guess flavor enhancers).

So Faye is again in bed with medicine and whiskey.

What a food desaster, maybe we do not like this beach…

After one week we left the lonely Bottle Beach and now we are 6km further at Thong Nai Pan Noi Beach.

It’s also lovely here, we enjoy the AC, the large and comfortable bed and the hot shower. Sadly we are on the top of the garden, so no beach view. I will try to change that now. I keep you posted…

Add: fully booked out, so we need to stay on the hill…

Thong Nai Pan Noi Beach
Ban Tai, Ko Pha-ngan District, Surat Thani, Thailand
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HUSVr

… is what makes travelling so exciting.

So beautiful that we met Karin, I‘m sure we‘ll meet again someday! 🙂

Collecting lovely shiva shells (thx Karin! :D)

Yesterday I thought it would be nice to have a starter for our dinner. So I ordered “prawn cracker” because I imagined it was something I saw at the neighbour’s table with real fried prawns.

In fact it was just prawn cracker, like chips but made with prawnpowder. They taste quite good, not what I imagined, but ok.

What I and Faye did not realised while eating was that such kind of food contains flavor enhancers  and Faye is highly allergic against it. So after one hour after finishing our main course Faye felt very bad and her blood pressure got down. It took some time to getting back into our room.

Luckywise we had the right medicine with us and a glas of Thai whiskey helped against the nausea.

Today she is better and we learned another importand lesson:

– Real Thai food is healthy

– Convenient Thai food is as bad as everywhere else in the world.

So don’t buy or order it…

• Watching the bird

Other cool activities:

• Having a nap
• Dancing with crabs
• Being scared of the jelly fish
• Searching shells
• Listening to the sound of the ocean
• Enjoying real Thai food

Now you know it 😛

And off we went again … bye bye Koh Samui .,. Here we are Koh Phangan 🙂

Taxi, Catamaran, Taxi, Long Boat and now we feel like at the end of the world at Bottle Beach

Living at the edge of the jungle for one week … little bit scary for me to be honest ^^ but we have already seen some monkeys in the trees, woohoo 😀

Smile Bar
Ko Pha-ngan, Ko Pha-ngan District, Surat Thani 84280, Thailand

https://maps.app.goo.gl/gq3DG

After one week we dare to post this kind of pictures 😉

And yes, you may hate us now!

But who cares anyway, breakfast is waiting … 😛

Today we decided to make a tourist day. Overall that means: spending 5 times more money than usually. But it was a very nice variety.

First we hired a scooter, and (why not) we took the one with the big machine. Good choice with me and Faye on it(^^). Driving was a huge challenge because of the often flooded streets and the crazy other drivers. But at the end all went smoothly.

So what did we as a tourist?

Visiting the shopping streets on high street

Enjoying a (tasty but expensive) fruit shake and real Espresso

Saying hi to the golden Buddha

Having a look at the other beaches with the huge resorts and sun umbrellas

Making some fotos of the Dick-Stone (not a nice view for a man of 50 😉 )

Having a bigger dinner and more beer than usually 😀

That’s it .

Was it worth it?

Sure, it was another experience… 🙂

Most of the other bagpackers here are only half our age but have twice as much baggage 😛