less than a week before our holidays we decided that we miss asia too much - so we booked a flight to cambodia and travelled overland to thailand - and all over the place ;)

  grabs - munich - bangkok - siem reap - angkor wat
we took the train to munich early in the morning, went for a meal there, flew to bangkok, slept in the very stylish and free lounge of bangkok airways (free drinks, free food, free internet etc) and arrived in the late afternoon (+5hrs time difference) in siem reap, cambodia. there we got a hotel (first choice of lonely planet - sometimes not the best choice, but easy to find) and some lovely food. the next day we cycled the 7km to the park entrance of angkor wat, the largest religious monument in the world. the small circuit took us the whole day but was really nice and interesting. but after a day we had seen it and decided to carry on the day after....
 

siem reap - phnom penh - sihanoukville
in phnom penh we went to markets, enjoyed delicious food and read about the terrible khmer rouge's genocide of 17000 civilians (1975 – 1979). on the streets we saw lots of people with only one leg (or none at all) and being there made me really realize how lucky we are, in switzerland, such a safe and fearless country. we visited "friends", a great project to get street children into secure surroundings!

 

sihanoukville
sihanoukville wasn't really what we had imagined. we compared much too much with thailand, but of course cambodia went through horrible times – and most of the people in our age or older lost a family member because of famine or the khmer rouge! there are still lots of mines all over the country and obviously lots of people still loose a leg or two if they step onto the wrong spot of land! there are lots of kids on the roads – and lots of really good projects to keep the kids from the roads and provide secure places for them to play. www.artcambodia.org/

 

bangkok
on a short stop-over for shopping in bangkok we decided to go to koh tao again. so we booked a bus and ferry and spent the rest of the days shopping in mbk, eating at rainee's and other places of course, reading and enjoying asia by bus, boat or on foot.

 

koh tao 1
we knew that koh tao was paradise. and we needed a really nice place to relax, read and cool down. so we spontaneously decided to take an overnight bus down to surrathani and the ferry over to koh tao. moondance was our aim. but the bungalows we knew from the last time were now sunset – but still beautiful and quiet… and jack was still there and even remembered us! we met lots of really great people – trina (canada) and duncan (australia), whom we already got to know on the bus down south, sofia and patrick (both sweden) who asked us to join them on the once-around-the-island-snorkelling-trip etc.

  koh tao 2
most of our time on koh tao we went snorkelling or read on the beach – in the shade or hammock. if you felt like drinking or eating you would go to the bar and get a delicious fresh fruit shake with ice, to cool you down. yes, mieke and erwin, the famous no name burger is still alive and still delicious!!! in the eves we sometimes went to viewpoint or buddha view for a dinner. yes, it still is paradise. but for how long? they are planning a dive station over at moondance – things are developing extremely fast!
  bangkok - munich - home
back in bangkok we went to the sea world in siam and bought some cheap clothes, dvds and thai deco style stuff for home. but after such a holiday you don't really want to think about home – but about your next trip, about another year travelling, about free time and lots of fun and adventure!
we arrived at midnight and had to get up at 6am the next day to go working...
www.milsom.ch - last update 07.07.2008 ..