Hong Kong, Bangkok, Koh Tao, Pulau Langkawi

End of the journey through China with old Southafrica friend Andreas in one of the most impressing modern cities – Hong Kong, start for the next steps through Thailand and Malaysia with Matthias, Doris and brother Andreas.

Hong Kong, China

Hong Kong, the old British colony returned to China in 1997 still is an autonomous region: Own visa necessary, passport control, swine flu fieber check at the border (also through a normal immigration via bus). And, the most obvious thing is the architecture, very westernized, very modern buildings. In this highly developed city we had the most expensive backpacker ever – three times of the price we paid in Xingping (the beautiful countryside stop we did, where the picture of the 20 RMB note was taken). We did a harbor trip between mainland Hong Kong and Hong Kong Island, where we lived and where the highest skyscrapers are standing. Already traveling through the city, using the wonderful old british two-level tramways or going up to the viewpoint and see the lights of this great city.

I had to leave Andreas, he continued to Macao and back to Guangzhou as you can read in his entry while I took the plane to Bangkok, Thailand. You can see Hong Kong pictures in his guest blog entry.

Bangkok, Thailand

In China we often had problems with the language – every word has several meanings, depending on the spelling of the word (e.g. she can mean yes, can mean ten, etc.). I thought that I never will have these problems in Thailand cause of another language – but the mistake that I did not take care if my brothers are staying in “Baan Sabai” or in “Ban Sabai” led to a several hours trip across Bangkok and let me arrive at 5 instead of 1 in the morning. We lived just some minutes away from the famous Khaosan road: This was something completly different to what I saw in China: Some kind of homely, very westernized small restaurants, shops, just a nice road mainly for tourists, but not so sterilized like the tourist streets in China, no big brands in the streets, no shopping malls.
Thailand is a Kings territory, any criticism against him leads to imprisonment. We tried to visit the nearby Kings Palace, but unluckily there was a special Buddhist day and we have not been allowed to enter, so we visited a temple. I also thought that I maybe already have seen enough of (similar) Buddhist temples in China, but this one was very different to what I’ve seen before: Pyramids in front of the main building, just one main room for praying, and you have to put your shoes off before entering…

Koh Tao, Thailand

Next stop in Thailand: Island Koh Tao. Actually we wanted to go to Koh Pangan, but during our 15hours ride we read in our travel guides and decided to change and continue to travel to Koh Tao. So just one hour stop in Koh Pangan, continuing to the diving paradise Koh Tao. We thought this will be a nature paradise, no tourists, just some divers as we read in the tourist guide. But in fact: One diving school next to each other, nobody on the island is doing a job with is not connected with tourism. But we enjoyed our stay: Andreas, Matthias and Doris did the Open Water Diving course, I continued with the Advanced Open Water Diving course and refreshed the contents from the diving course in Port Elizabeth.

The island did not have any public transportation, therefore I rent a motorbike. Actually it’s good that when you rent a bike you don’t have to show a valid drivers licence… 😉 But anyway, it was a good training to go up and down sandy and steep ways to far away beaches. Because we did the diving courses we also got bungalows for free – airconditioned bungalows with TV, very traditional…

Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia

After a nearly 24 hours journey through Thailand, after a night in a “bed” of a sleeper-ferry where we had to fight for a place on the sardine-can-styled floor for sleeping we arrived in Surrat Thani, changed to a bus, waited like with every journey several times before changing in some of the busdrivers friends cafes / waiting areas (it is usual to wait 1 hour between changing buses, so you always have time to consume something at the “stations” before continuing the ride.

We just had a ticket to the ferry station in Satun/Thailand where we wanted to buy a ticket and cross the border to Malaysia in an about 2 hour ferry ride. At one of the stops a counter employee told us that we will arrive too late to catch the ferry and we have the possibility to change our ticket and buy the ferry ticket from her. Yes, its difficult to decide buying an overpriced ticket and skip the waiting time – but you have no other choice, they just can play with you – otherwise they extra just let you continue hours later…

So we arrived well, searched for our Guest House, found it and spent several days in our Chillout lounge listening to Bob Marley songs on their probably only CD all the time… And the beaches, are great, even better than in Thailand / Koh Tao… This weekend our uncle Bert visits us, its going to get great fun as you will read in the next article…