Beach, bye-bye Bangkok, hello winter...
Trip Start
Aug 04, 2010
1
27
Trip End
Jan 16, 2011
Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
Monday, February 28, 2011
The temples of Siem Reap marked the last cultural destination in our trip around Vietnam and Cambodia. From there, our lazy holiday began. We caught a lazy taxi to the border with Thailand, wandered across at a leisurely pace, then caught another lazy taxi all the way to the pier for the boat to Ko Chang (delighted to discover that once we crossed the border, a taxi service was offering exactly this route, for half the price we'd been quoted - and turned down - while we were back in Siem Reap). Once on Ko Chang, which is really a beautiful place, I'd love to say we did lots of exploring, rented a moped to tour the island, walked to one of the waterfalls, snorkeled near one of the smaller islands off the coast, tried a spot of sea-kayaking and visited the mangrove forest and fishing villages on the quieter side of the island. But no. We slept and swam in the pool and swam in the sea and read our books and indulged ourselves with regular massages and drank cold beers and walked around a bit from cove to cove and had lots of tasty meals... and that was about it. A week of pure, luxurious lazing.
Well rested and beginning to tan nicely, we caught the bus from Ko Chang to Bangkok at the end of the week, moving ourselves in with the rest of our belongings - already carefully stored for us - into a friend's spare room. And so we were back in our "home" city, but not longer in our home, which made for a very strange experience. We caught up with friends and with cinema releases. We did a last little bit of shopping. We closed our bank account. I popped into work to find out if I was being missed yet - not so much, seems the world functions perfectly fine without me ;-) And we had our last night at the amazing Tawandeng German beer brewery / Thai entertainment extravoganza, sharing a "tower" of carefully crafted beer with our table of friends while watching (and later dancing to) the show on stage: a mixture of English and Thai pop music, performed with ever-increasing enthusiasm, showmanship and glittery costumes as the evening progressed and the singers/dancers indulged in shots of whiskey bought for them by members of the audience. Simply unique! And finally, we pulled up a chair in the Robin Hood Pub for our last try at the weekly quiz, leaving the team half-way through to go to the airport and catch our flight for Holland - a fitting place to say goodbye to the people and the life in beautiful Bangkok.
And so, back in Holland, the weather is cold and the sky is grey, but the people we missed are as fabulous as ever, making the job of settling back in far easier. With every day that passes, Beirut and Bangkok feel more like an elaborate dream, But just for the moment, the extra-blonde hue to my hair and the layer of brown skin that is starting to peal away is a reminder that it was all wonderfully real. Now all eyes forward to the next adventure...
