One of my long city jungle walks took me to the Thai embassy right at the waterfront in Georgetown asking for the procedure for a visa. After some surprise on the other side that a German wants to get a Thai visa from the Thai embassy in the US I found out: It's almost the same procedure as in Germany, but I wonder why they only need 48 hours for a visa here, while in Berlin they need one week? They still need to take my passport, so I will have to do it in Germany, hoping for that friendly Thai woman on the phone a couple of days ago in Berlin to reduce the week to five days.
Enjoying a wonderful time with my american girlfriend Ellen here in DC it is also time for some intense planning for the last two weeks of August, when she is coming to see me in asia. It is perfect to give me some frames for my trip. Bangkok, Chiang Mai, the island of Koh Samui in Thailand and Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Perenthian island in Malaysia and Singapore will be our main travel destinations. To achieve our ambitious travel plans we will use the great flight opportunities offered by Air Asia to fly between the destinations cheap and saving time. Because our time is precious we decided to go to Koh Samui instead of going the Pukhet area due to the ongoing rain season. What we didn't consider was that Bangkok Air built the airport there and has a monopoly on the flights, so they are expensive. But overall, paying 450 dollars per person for six flights around Thailand and Malaysia isn't that bad...So I'm breaking my rules concerning the real Thai experience and basic travelling and they will be broken again looking at some of the wonderful resorts on Koh Samui or Perhentian island we will probably stay in and book in advance...
Over the weekend I will go down to North Carolina with Ellen to prepare at the beach for Asia's beach challenges.
