#1: BUSTLING BANGKOK / MEETING DONNIE / KO CHANG BEACHLIFE
February 23 | Krong Koh Kong, Cambodia.

And here we go again: one more time shredding sunburns on paradise-like palm-ridden beaches, exotic food choices and traveler-harassing salespeople, willing to do anything with you and your luggage/back/conscience; more time South-East Asia. Now as back on a rainy fourth October in 2006 the whole story starts in what Lonely Planet describes as the "nexus of Thailand's past, present and future [being] a superb subject for any urban connoisseur": Bangkok, or Krung Thep as the locals say. The city of angels that is. For (way too) many people the beginning and end of it all. Seatbelts fastened, on we go. It's a different travel mate this time and we also have way more time to spend in Thailand than some five years ago. Back then Donnie ("that special someone") and I only made it to Ko Samet, quite a lovely island not too far away from Bangkok, maybe half way to the Cambodian boarder. However, we just had a week then, now it's eight of them.

Meanwhile used to the idea of using Couchsurfing not only for European hitch-hiking trips, my wonderful long-time companion and close friend cK arranged a host well in advance with whom we spent the first four nights (a Thai girl, living together with her mom and sister, basically using a spare room in her house for a steady stream of coming-and-going surfers from anywhere. By the time we were there we met a guy from Belgium, a French couple, a girl from Belarus, another guy from Ukraine, three lads from the States and a Russian "yogi", many of them real characters). Right from the start we found ourselves thrown in a melting pot of nightclubbing, wicked taxi rides and a conjuncture of other travelers from all over the world as it was Valentine's Day and our host willing to party away the fact of not having any lover around. Fair enough! The next days were used for excessive sightseeing and long strolls all around the "new" Bangkok (since Donnie and I were kinda covering palaces and temples last time): relaxing in Lumphini Park, riding the sky train, virtually getting lost among the side streets of China Town, making intense use of the river ferries and catching up with good old memories from Khao San Rd.

Donnie came into town shortly after we met up with cK's flatmate Sven and his girlfriend Laure who just returned from their own four weeks of exploring Northern Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, supplying us with proper information about the current situation. Nothing really can beat the sensation of excitement to see and team up with a real good old friend after a long time: hard to put in mere words how beautiful it is to finally meet Donnie again - having seen him for the last time in July 2011, shortly before heading to Central America while he prepared for his own South East Asian experience. After long hours of talking and catching up the five of us finally relaxed with some delicious Pad Thai and cold-enough Chang and Leo beer in Thanon Rambutri.

None of us was too keen about spending much more time in Bangkok, so we were all happy to leave behind that massive bulk of a city soon. Sven and Laure did leave meanwhile (funny enough to undergo this Berlin buddy experience in Bangkok, anyways) and we quickly decided to hit some Thai islands before our ways would separate again (cK and I were about to travel towards Cambodia, Donnie rather wants to explore Thailand's north). Apart from Pattaya and Ko Samet the only reasonable choice could have been Ko Chang were we would indeed spent another four rather lovely nights: Chang, by the way, is Thai for 'elephant' and who doesn't love those amazing creatures? We arrived there in the afternoon of February 18 after getting through quite some stressful minutes of Bangkok morning rush hours (certainly NO fun to end up with a Thai cab driver who doesn't speak a single word of English when under time pressure - e.g. to catch an already-paid-for bus). The three of us shared a wooden hut including bathroom on the island's Western side at Lonely Beach for 450 Baht (about 11 euro) altogether and connected with other like-minded traveling souls right from the start, among them a lovely German couple (named Miriam and Stephan, their wonderful Saxon accent is clearly missed!) who we basically spent every night (and some daytime on the beach) together with. First swim in the Gulf of Thailand after many years: check. Snorkeling trip around quite some lovely spots: check. Heavily sunburned for not having worn a t-shirt: (sadly) check. Having enjoyed enough free buckets of wodka and accepted a free beer from my favorite Pad Thai food stall lady: check! Our last night together certainly ended up pretty excessive, still being worth every second of it...

Just last morning (on February 22) we left Ko Chang behind, finally - leaving Donnie and the German couple behind, making our way over the (typically way-too-annoying) Thai/Cambodian boarder and now settled for two nights in a rather relaxed and still very unspoiled Cambodian town called Krong Koh Kong (or simply Koh Kong City), paying $7 a night in a shared room (Cambodia basically uses the U.S.$ parallel to its own currency, the riel, thereby avoiding annoying coins. Also, the 100 riel note - worth 2,5 cents - makes for good bookmarks). My sunburn didn't really get better after a long day of riding bikes along the countryside, thereby meeting a young Buddhist advocate who showed us around in a local pagoda (or temple) and a middle class family from the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. This is going to be our next target, the story to be continued rather soon. Stay tuned. Oha, snow in Central Europe, eh? Well, maybe I should just stop worrying for sunburns. Especially after having read Loung Ung's personal account about the Khmer Rouge regime: First They Killed My Father.
Pictures will follow. Time for a real cold shower now...