Back home again

And here it is, the final entry to this blog about our big trip - with the good news right upfront:

We all arrived safely back in London!

A lot has happened in the 85 days since we left London. In fact, it feels like we went straight from Spring (when we left London at the end of May) to Autumn, as it is currently rather cold, grey and rainy here. Or is it just the proverbial "British Summer" that's welcoming us back?!

Therefore rather than sending you a depressing image of rainy London, we thought, we'd finish this blog of our big trip with a nice SUNNY slideshow with some more images from our time in Bangkok a few days ago:

Bangkok Impressions

We hope you enjoyed reading this blog as much as we did putting it together. And, who knows, perhaps it made you curious about seeing some of the places we visited for yourself.

If you want any more infos about any of these places just give us a shout. Ah, there are also many, many more photos, which we would be only to happy to share with you... :-)


The final photo on this blog shows us rather appropriately in front of a display about around-the-world travelling from the Museum of Air & Space in Washington DC (...only that it took us 85 days rather than 18):

Hope to see you all again in person soon.

Till then...

Last stop: Bangkok

After two relaxing weeks on Kho Samui, we are now in Bangkok, the 12-million people mega-city and capital of Thailand (which is also the last stop on our 3-months round-the-world trip).

The contrast between the idylic island image that Kho Samui tries to maintain and Bangkok's cosmopolitan mega-city nature already became apparent when comparing both airports:
















Whereas Kho Samui's airport felt intimate, more like an upmarket golf club-house with lots of open space and natural materials, Bangkok's airport was huge, surprisingly modern and efficient - with lots of glass and steel (NB: And, I don't even think Singapore offers this service: a long row of baggage carts was neatly lined up at the baggage caroussel to assist arriving passengers...)
















We arrived in Bangkok on Sunday afternoon and were initially spared the full onslaught of its famous traffic (jams). Once we had checked into our hotel, we made the most of the somewhat limited traffic (and exhaust fumes!!!) and undertook a tuk-tuk ride. These tuk-tuks are driven by a small motorbike and have an open area in the back for up to 4 passengers - a good way to get around the city (providing the traffic moves, of course).
















The next morning we were greeted by the following view from our hotel window and were then ready to properly visit Bangkok's many attraction.
















First up was the Grand Palace - probably the city's number 1 attraction. This area, which was built from 1872 onwards, includes many famous temples, spires, Buddha statues and old paintings. It's all very colourful and beautiful - with the beauty really being in the details.





































After spending a lot of time in the Grand Palace we took undertook another tuk-tuk tour. We quickly learned the "name of the game" of these tuk-tuk tours or even taxi drives in Bangkok. You can get them very, very cheap, but there is often a little catch: The make rather frequent stops at some random jewellery shop, tailor shop or general Thai tourism shop. The driver gets rewarded by petrol vouchers (for shlepping tourists there). As long as you are able to resist the sales offensive in these places, they leave you pretty much in peace. Having two charming little kids probably helps... And after a free drink or so we were usually on our way again 10 minutes later.
















Next we saw a much less visited temple called Wat Saket, which again was incredible with all its golden Buddhas and detailed ornaments (but this time minus the thousands of other visitors that we saw at the Grand Palace). It was here that we met a very charming and well-spoken Thai man, who we got to talk to. He revealed that his father's company is the company sponsoring the renovation of this temple and so he took it upon him to show us around. Rather modestly he said that we might have heard about his father's company: It is Red Bull, the recipe to which his father came up with about 30 years ago!





















Following a quick fruit snack "on the go"...
















... we then took to the water. Or better, we undertook a boat-tour on a high-speed long-tail boat through the klongs, the waterways that go through much of Bangkok and provide an alternative infrastructure to the often blocked roads.
































Today we saw another famous Bangkok attraction - the giant Reclining Buddha of Wat Pho. This massive buddha is about 45 meters long and 15 meters tall and is, ...well, reclining:
















We followed this with a bit of shopping in one of the many shopping-"temples" and thus seeing another, modern side of Bangkok:




















Now, while I am sitting at Starbucks and writing this, we are getting ready for our return flight to London, which is later tonight, with our departure being past midnight.

All going well, we should be back in London tomorrow morning...

Some more impressions from Kho Samui

As our stay here on Kho Samui is almost coming to an end, here are some more impressions from our time here on this island:



The majority of time we have spent here right on the beach.

















Lucy and Fiona have found some nice friends to play with - and are busy the whole day running back and forth from the beach to our wooden bungalows, only interupted by the occasional snack on the beach or swim in the sea.


In the meantime, Sabine and I finished one book after another and had a few more massages on the beach:
















We only sporadically ventured out further away from "our" beach. Some highlights of these trips were:


Taking a "local taxi" to the next town. These taxis are basically reconfigurated pick-up trucks with two benches, opposite each other, in the back for passengers. The rear end where you enter and exit is open all the time, which makes for some excitement whenever the driver brakes abruptly. The money that was saved on safety and general ride comfort seems to have been put into some rather fanzy lights though...
















We visited a number of markets with all their stalls for local produce, craft and food. Yesterday, for example, a Thai couple who work here on the beach invited us along in their car to visit the annual food festival in Nathon, which is the town on the island where most ferries arrive.

















Some rather different local food awaited us - and not a hamburger or bratwurst stall in sight:





















We were most impressed by some of the delicate carvings that local people created out of melons and other fruit:






















Quite amazing...

Another day to go here on the island, and then we are off to Bangkok for our final stop on this big trip before heading back to London.

Around the island of Kho Samui

Yesterday we drove around the island of Kho Samui. Quite literal, because the one main road follows more or less the coastline.


Along that main road you find lots of commercial premises, especially along the North and East coast. Many places either cater to tourists directly or support the tourism industry on the island in some sort of way. Imagine a restaurant/cafe/bar, followed by a motorbike rental place, followed by a mini-mart, followed by a pharmacy, followed by a massage place, followed by a cheap clothes shop ... and then it starts all over again.

The main attractions on the island are either religious shrines, natural sights (like the odd waterfall or stone formation) plus some animal-related experiences...but more about that later in this blog entry.

To be honest, some of these attractions felt mainly like a good excuse to put up some more souvenir stalls.
















Starting off with the religious shrines, there are three big statues which are hard to miss in the Northeast corner of the island - all of which are quite new, very colourful and, ...well, big.






















There is the Big Buddha, the Happy Buddha and the Chinese Lady Monk (which has 18 arms, which - no doubt - comes in handy for multi-tasking):

















































And it was at the Big Buddha that Fiona found Nirvana - under the careful supervision of the local monk. Before Fiona could completely float away though, we were saved by more souvenir shops...




































Talking of monks, the next monk we saw didn't look too well:






















Probably something to do with the fact that he passed away 37 years ago. They built a shrine for him, where he still sits today like he always did - praying (and wearing his favourite Ray Ban sunglasses).

(NB: Above mentioned mummified monk made another re-appearance late last night into our lives, when Fiona proclaimed she couldn't fall asleep because of the "scary monk". Well, in the end sleep prevailed...)

After all this religious inspiration we had two more highlights on our trip yesterday - both to do with animals.

First up, was some serious elephant trekking!!!

In pairs of two, we boarded our seats high above the ground on the back of some elephants. And were carried around along forest trails and through shallow creeks. It was all a bit shakey, but a great experience. And free air ventilation was provided courtesy of the giant elephants' ears.







































Back on the ground, one more special animal encounter awaited us.

Lucy and Fiona elegantly stepped into Siegfried & Roy's shoes and bottle-fed Sexy, a 3-months old tiger baby:

















Thank God, Sexy was more interested in drinking her milk bottle than playing with Lucy and Fiona. Quite a big cat for 3 months... I wonder what is in that milk?!

The kids were (rightly) proud of their braveness and we were, well, just glad that it all went smoothly without any scratches for anyone.


It was a busy day. Looks like we'll now need at least a few days again on the beach to recover;-)

Doing "nothing" on the beach in Thailand

The last few days we have done pretty much nothing on the beach in Thailand.

Ok, there was lots of swimming, reading books, the occasional massage right on the beach and loads of good (and cheap) Thai food...but that was pretty much it.


It is very hot here - a good reason to restrict our movements to a minimum.

Also, when you sit on the beach, every few minutes another vendor comes by, offering you pretty much everything you need in life - from fresh fruits and ice-cream to T-shirts and jewellery...























Plus it is just very beautiful on the beach here - from sunrise:


















...to sunset:




















Fiona has (finally) learned to also swim with her head ABOVE water, while I have perfected my trademark underwater-handstand - both of which can be admired on the next picture:























In the meantime, Sabine must have read - what felt like - 20 big novels and Lucy is busy making friends with the many other children here.

All very relaxing and the exact opposite of the sightseeing extravaganza the weeks before...


Today (after one week here) though we finally felt ready for some sightseeing again and so we went on a trip around the island, but more about that in the next blog entry.

Arriving in Thailand

After a flight from Siem Reap (with brief stopover in Bangkok) we arrived on Kho Samui in Thailand. Here on this island we are planning to relax for the next 2 weeks, before we start our return journey (via a two day stay in Bangkok) back to Europe.

First impressions of arriving in Thailand were very positive:

To start with, a very colourful plane from Bangkok Airlines got us here:















And once we arrived at Kho Samui airport, a rather different kind of airport bus picked us up from the plane:















We are staying in some basic bungalows in Maenam on the North coast of the islands. The bungalows are amongst thick rainforest vegetation and right on a very beautiful sandy beach:






























The first few days we were busy getting settled in and buying the key things.















Unfortunately, the fact that it is beautiful here is no longer a secret. Many mosquitoes have also heard about it and are joining us here. Despite lots of layers of anti-insect stuff, our legs look like a dot-to-dot drawing without the numbers...















Life here is basic, quiet and very relaxing. It's very hot here and so we are spending most of the time in the bungalow or on the beach.

Just the right place to let all the many impressions from the last few weeks settle in...

Dr. Beat Richner, the good Swiss

On Saturday evening in Siem Reap we attended a concert by Beatocello.

This name, which is well known in Switzerland, is the artist name of Dr. Beat Richner, a Swiss pediatrician, who has made it his life's mission to help Cambodian children. (And whose other passion is playing the cello.)

After having worked in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh for the Red Cross in the 70's, Dr. Richner left the country during the bloody years of the Pol Pot tyranny from 1975 - 1979. He returned in 1991 and was asked by the then king of Cambodia to re-construct the Children's Hospital in Phnom Penh and basically help re-build the health system in this country which was completely on its knees after this terrible civil war (NB: Before Pol Pot there were 1,000 doctors in Cambodia and after his reign, in which he killed most of the elite of this country, there were only about 50 doctors left.)

Now, almost 20 years later, Dr. Richner has managed to build 5 children hospitals across Cambodia - mostly from private donations. A great achievement and something well worth supporting.

Children get free medical treatment. The hospitals use some of the latest medical technology that we are used to in Western Europe (but which is still very much the exception in these poorer countries). Over 2,200 medical staff work at these hospitals. Since its launch in 1992 over 9.5 million kids have been treated at these hospitals.

The concert was a fundraising event, which basically had Dr. Richner and his cello on stage. He played various classical pieces and in between talked about his hospitals (and the challenges he faces every day). He was (surprisingly) direct and talked openly about corruption in Cambodia, his dislike of the global health organisations (and their global "healthcare tourism" as he called it), and his despair of not getting more funding from governments or other official organisations.

Over 90 % of the hospital's funding is still coming from private donors and so also this concert ended with a plea for donations.

We left very impressed by Dr. Richner's achievement (and with our wallets significantly lighter).

We felt that it is definitely a cause worth supporting. If you want to find out more, please visit (and support):

http://www.beat-richner.ch

Dr Fish, Apsara Dancers and Blue Pumpkin

After all the walking around the temple ruins our feet deserved some kind of special treatment.

And they got an experience of a different kind - courtesy of "Dr. Fish".

Under this name we saw various large fishtanks throughout the city centre of Siem Reap, full with hundreds of little fish. As soon as we sat down and put our feet into the water these little fish literally "attacked" our feet and nibbled on them. The idea being that they take off all dead skin from your feet. Well, that's the theory. In practise it felt more like a thousand little electroshocks...































By comparison, much more gentle was an evening show we saw with Cambodian Apsara dancers.

Apsaras were beautiful temptresses during the ancient Angkor days. They are carved in stone all over the old temples of Angkor, where they can still be admired in all their beauty today. I guess, you can say, they were Angkor's equivalent of today's supermodels.















The dance show we saw was a modern interpretation of the old Apsara theme. Lucy and Fiona loved it - and even got their special photo with the dancers after the show was over:
















Another surprise in Siem Reap amongst the old-fashioned markets with all their souvenir stalls, the restaurants and bars was a great ice cream shop, called "Blue Pumpkin".

It was ultra-modern place, including oversized white beds in an entirely white room for people to relax on (and enjoy their ice-cream). It really looked like it was designed for delivery in Tokyo or New York and landed by mistake in this Cambodian city.
















Everything in this place was cool (not just the ice cream)....