Here it is: The day I was waiting for for a long time. Will be on my way to Cologne Airport in a few minutes and then flying to Bangkok via Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. Everything fits in my backpack perfectly and the daypack, that can be separated from the mainpack is just great. The main pack has this great travel and rain cover attached, so no worries about my backpack getting damaged checking it. You can see it on the second picture.
How am I feeling? Interesting, strange, tense. Lots of excitement, looking forward to the great experience, but uncertainty too. But I´m well prepared and will relax as soon as I´m on the plane and after my first steps in Thailand I´m sure. Wanted to buy a train ticket to go
down the gulf coast to Surat Thani over night to be at the beaches the next morning. But it didn´t work from here, so I will try to take the Sky Train from Bangkok Airport into the city, then find the central station and hope to get a ticket for a sleeping booth to go down there over night. Otherwise I will have to stay a night in Bangkok and travel Saturday. The next days I will be on the beaches of Ko Phangan and Ko Tao to calm down and relax. Just hope that I can motivate myself to leave them again :-). My plan is to go up the gulf coast after it step by step and do the northeast of Thailand including a jungle trek before I will meet Ellen in Bangkok on August 17.
On my way! The next time I´ll write it will be from Asia...
