More Equipment

 Back in Germany on a rainy day, perfect for shopping at the outlet center of globetrotter. Had two great hours of exploring, chatting and consulting with one of the nice salesmen, all with their own outdoor and traveller experience. Found some great deals, but especially I found some very useful and handy items I still needed from my packing list. I now just need a few more items and then I will have everything assorted.

You will probably never guess what is inside of all those neat and handy packages on the picture, so this is what I found from the left to the right: 1. Rain poncho 2. Sleeping mask 3. Mosquito net for two, there are nets with a bottom, but I just took a net in a pyramide shape you have to hang over your bed on a nail or hook and squeeze it under your mattress or sleeping bag at the bottom 4. A sleeping bag, actually a silk sleeping bag inlet with integrated insect coverage. Took silk rather than cotton, because it better absorbs the humidity and doesn´t has to be dried for long. It will be hot, so I don´t need a warm cover and if, I can wear clothes inside 5. A traveller towel, a really cool item that feels and looks like a leather cloth for your car. It dries quickly and can be used several times. I always wanted to feel like my BMW, what a great experience 6. A traveller pillow, actually this is luxury and extra weight, but I couldn´t not grab one of them from the store shelf, although the salesman was trying hard to persuade me not to :-) 7. some special travel wallets, one that you can hide as a secret pocket so I can separate my cash from important documents 8. a traveller lock and 9. a hard cover for my sunglasses.

Of course I had to check all the items and try them out. So here is a picture of the wizard of Asia. He wants to say congratulations to Air Asia. The company just won the Skytrax Award "World´s best low-cost airline" for the fourth year in a row. Happy to travel with them!

Paradise Beaches

After putting lots of effort and time into evaluating our travel guides and travel reviews on sites like Tripadvisor out of many many options on Koh Samui and Perhentian islands Ellen and I finally found our personal paradise beaches and booked two wonderful resorts. We decided to go for more luxury on Koh Samui and are staying in a Beachfront Bungalow for 4 nights at RajapruekSamuiResort  at the western not so touristic "virgin" coast, where you can experience fantastic sunsets and a great view on the five islands. Although it is pretty lonely there, there are some Thai villages around and great nature sights such as waterfalls, not to speak of possible daily boat trips and activities on the beach. Perfect for a relaxing, romantic getaway.

On Perhentian in Malaysia we decided to go for a traveller experience and are staying at a Robinson Crusoe place called Keranji Beach with huts at a beach you only reach by boat with jungle all around it. Because they don't have a formalized online reservation form we emailed back and forth with Adenan whose email adress we learned from my tourist guide and his nice basic homepage. He really helped us with all our questions and requests very nicely and with great service. Some big professionally organized hotels could learn from this great personal customer service. A really cute and exciting detail we found out by doing intensive research is, that the beach has its personal otter pet Amran, take a look here.

I already talk like I've been to the places I'm describing after all that research and reading. The internet and the great travel guides are really giving you realistic impressions, but I'm looking forward to reporting live. Two weeks from today I will be boarding the plane to Bangkok...

Asia Prep Camp

Where is the best place to prepare for a trip to southeast asia? Right, Washington D.C. of course! Hot, humid, tropical climate with temperatures up to 102 degrees Fahrenheit. As soon as you leave the air-conditioned buildings you are wet like you have just left the shower. Besides the high humidity and the burning sun I also have to take shelter from tropical storms.  Going for a run in this hot, tropical environment in the morning, preventing sunburn, mosquito bites and keeping the water balance of the body up is the best training for asia.

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.