Bangkok

Sadly Bangkok was already the place where Victoria had to fly back from. We had a wonderful trip around Southeast Asia. But all beautiful things come to an end at some point in time. The next day my brother Freddy arrived from Switzerland. He'll join me for the next 3 months to travel extensively to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and China. It was nice to meet him in Bangkok City, the first time since 15 months I met anybody whom I have known before the trip. We spent the days with sightseeing, eating and drinking. China town, boats on the river, the MRT, Lumpini Park, Pagodas, Khao San and shopping malls. We were able to catch on the latest news from each other. Cool stuff.

After 2 nights in Bangkok we took a wonderful 15 hours night train to Chang Mai. The train was pretty good and reminded me uf Eastern Europen trains.

Bangkok

After a flight from the Philippines to Thailand via Kuala Lumpur I arrived in Bangkok late in the evening. Victorias plane was scheduled to arrive 3 hours later and was sadly delayed. So I waited at the airport for about 4 hours until finally Victoria appeared in the arrival hall. It felt really good to be reunited after 3 months of separation. We than drank mate until the early morning to catch the downtown bound bus. In the afternoon I slept the first time in 36 hours. Bangkok has a lot to offer: Chinatown, heaps of Wats, huge markets, modern houses, crumbling shacks, parks, universities and a Swiss embassy. That's were I collected my new bankcard after I lost the other one in the Philippines. We visited most of the places except the Presidential Palace where Victoria didn't comply with the dress code. Khao San is extremely touristy, but still offers a lot of surprises and charming side alleys. After two nights and post jet lag we decided to head to Siam Reap in Cambodia. The train has already left so we had to take the bus. Only half way through the journey we noticed a section in the Lonely Planet called "Bangkok Siam Reap bus scam". So we payed to much for the bus itself, we payed to much for the visa and we changed US dollar to the local currency even though dollar is much more commonly accepted. bummer