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  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 110

    Budapest — enchanted frozen city

    December 19, 2022 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C

    It was my first time setting foot in Europe in a long time. A foot exposed to the cold with only a flipflop for protection.

    The Hungarian winter had no mercy for my unprepared ass. All I had to shield myself off of the below zero outside temperatures was a hoodie, jeans and flipflops. Not sure if it was only in my head, but I felt very observed.

    The airplane landed around midnight, and I must have arrived at my hostel well later than 1 am. While the feet freezing was bearable in the beginning, by the end I started feeling pain with each step. The hot shower that ensued felt heavenly.

    On the next morning the first order of business was to buy clothes and shoes, this time going about wearing socks with my flipflops at least. It was far from sufficient. Wherever I walked everyone gave me side looks.

    Coming out of the underground I heard two girls speaking in Portuguese. I thought "at least these two I will understand if they make fun of me." So I stepped onto the escalator behind them and soon after I hear one say to the other in Portuguese — "look, the guy behind us is in flipflops", they giggled. To which I, with the biggest satisfaction in the world, said "just so you know, I speak Portuguese". The girl who spoke turned every shade of red. "I... I'm so sorry! it's just that it's so cold outside...", she said stumbling in her words. I told them I was very well aware of how cold it is. She would have hidden somewhere if she could. Her friend barely looked at me from the embarrassment. They walked away as quickly as they could. It felt like poetic justice.

    I got me some shoes and wormer clothes from Decathlon and went about the city, now much wormer. I spent the afternoon exploring the Jewish quarters, chilling at the hostel and getting an haircut.

    Later I met with Noni and her dog Panka for dinner. I had met them both 6 months back while traveling through Europe. We had dinner in the Italian restaurant "Pasta Bazár Trattoria" and then she took me to a ruined bar frequented by locals named "Klub Vittula". The bar was empty but still had a nice and relaxed environment. We observed as Panka made friends with everyone else at the bar. She's the best doggo.

    The next day was a lazy day. I slept in in the morning, then went out to do laundry. Found a nice place with typical and cheap Hungarian food, and just strolled around in the afternoon.

    I felt like going to the cinema so I invited Noni to go watch Larry, a movie about an Hungarian kid with a speech impairment from the poor countryside who finds in rap a way to channel his angst — basically the Hungarian version of 8-mile. Later we went to grab some food (Noni's favourite kebab place) and went for drinks in a jazz bar.

    The following morning I took Panka for a walk and left to go spend the day at the amazing Széchenyi thermal baths. I spent the day dipping in all the pools, worm and cold, and enjoying the various saunas and steam rooms. My favourite was the outdoor pool. It had the perfect water temperature sitting at 38°C and was surrounded by the beautiful architecture made more mystical by the pool's mist. The only problem there was getting out of the water to a below zero outside temperature.

    In the evening me and Noni had dinner and moule wine in the Christmas markets and then met with some of her friends in a nice hipster bar.

    A few hours later I was waking up in the middle of the night to get to the airport and take my flight to Lisbon. It was the end of a life changing 4 month journey.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 109

    Amman — food driven pit stop

    December 18, 2022 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    After the lush greens of Goa, the burnt looking barren land of the Arabian peninsula couldn't have been a starker contrast. Landing in Amman I wasn't sure if I should go for a day trip to the city or just hang out in the airport because the visa on arrival was more than 50€ and the airport was still more than one hour away from the city centre. I decided to go for it.

    I took a local bus to the city with a mix of locals and foreigners. The amount of military vehicles and soldiers on the road to the city was a little alarming. I started to wonder if something serious happened in this country. Maybe that's why my flight was so cheap.

    Closer to the city the bus took a different direction from what I was expecting. A couple of Italians in front of me were equally confused. Realising we were going in the same direction we decided to leave the bus and take a taxi for the last leg of the trip.

    As soon as we leave the bus behind a guy comes to us asking if we need a taxi. The couple explained where they were going and started following the guy. They clearly didn't have much experience, you should never agree to a service without discussing the price first. I had to interrupt and start negotiating the price with the taxi. Once in the city centre I said goodbye to my new friends and went about exploring for myself.

    I walked around and had a delicious gigantic meal of hummus, muttabal and fatteh with meat in my favourite Jordan restaurant — Hashem. I never thought a day would come when I would let hummus be trashed, it was just too much food. And I payed only 5 JOD (~6€) for that gigantic meal!

    The down side was that I had no space to eat knafe... How disappointing!

    I got to see the nice Roman amphitheatre and soon was time to go back to the airport.
    I got a taxi right there at the square that I'm sure I overpaid. I had 3 and something hours until my flight but there was so much traffic downtown that it made me nervous.

    At least my taxi driver had good enough English to keep up a conversation. He explained that the army out in the streets was due to protests for the high gas prices. Apparently a high ranking police officer had been shot dead by the protestors and the whole country was looking for the culprit. He explained that the family of the officer had more than 11 thousand people and all of them would be looking for revenge. So bizarre how things work in Jordan.

    I arrived at the airport well in time for my flight. So much in fact that I got to watch the final of the world cup there. Argentina won against France in penalties right as I was boarding my plane to Budapest.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 108

    Mumbai — fun like a house on fire

    December 17, 2022 in India ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Second time in Mumbai and second time that I'm just in transit and don't get to explore the city. Funnily enough, by trying to stay somewhere cheap not far from the airport I end up in the same hostel I stayed in 2017 while in transit to Rajasthan along with 5 other friends. Weird to think how things have changed since then.

    I landed late in the afternoon and was going to leave very early the next day, which didn't give me enough time to do sight seeing. After checking in, I left to meet Valia, an Indian girl I had met 3 months prior in Bali. This time I also met her new boyfriend, Raj.

    In her own words, we got along "like an house on fire"! 😂

    We had a few beers at the British Brewery, and then they took me for a round of street food. They introduced me to momos, a kind of Indian gyoza or pierogi, an Indian chiken kebab and my favourite discovery of the evening - pan, a digestive cocktail of seeds spices and chutneys that refresh the palate and help with the digestion after a meal. It felt like there was a party in my mouth and everyone was invited.

    They didn't let me pay for anything! Ridiculous!

    Unfortunately the night had to end there. I thanked Valia and Raj and said my goodbyes before taking the train back to my hostel.

    While getting ready to go to sleep I still had a very interesting conversation with my bunker bed neighbour. He was part of the Osho community, and was a curator of small spiritual festivals, his favourites were tantra oriented. I found it super intriguing, and would've loved to delve deeper into the subject, but just there wasn't enough time.
    I had just enough time to get 4 hours of sleep before going to the airport and take my flight out of India.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 107

    Goa — Panjim, the old Portuguese colony

    December 16, 2022 in India ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    I took a taxi to Panjim. I couldn't find good opinions for accommodation so I just asked the taxi driver to drop me at Fontainhas quarter, the historical Portuguese neighbourhood. From there I would go around knocking on hostels' doors to find a place to sleep.

    Apparently the high season was just starting and prices were off the roof for Indian standards. After a few tries I found a bed in a mediocre hostel called Marquito's guest house, in the historical neighbourhood. After checking in, I met one of my four room mates, his name was Sagar. We quickly became friends.

    He was a young Indian, a freelance model, produced house photography for advertisement and did a bunch of other other things. I came to realise that he couldn't summarise his job in a single sentence. He was looking for a temporary job as a waiter and was going to fill the roll of a marketing coordinator in a few months. Made me think of how we as westerners let our jobs become part of our identities, but it doesn't have to be that way.

    We went out exploring together. First to the immaculate conception church, which while being pretty I found weird that it was closed off to the public. Then Sagar took me to Bodega's house, a coffee place with a modern art gallery.

    He payed for my coffee. I found out much later that he was in a difficult situation with his family and was facing a lot of uncertainty for the next couple of months. I don't think I ever found someone so carelessly generous. He payed my coffee! Me, an European tourist! While he doesn't know how he's going to pay for food in a few weeks! And it's not like he ever expected me to pay back, he only told me his story much later the next day, after I inquired about his situation.

    We enjoyed a glorious view of the horizon from the beach, right after sunset. And on our way back he took me through street food stalls where I had pani puri and Indian chicken kebab. Both incredibly delicious.

    Later that evening, after exploring an art exhibition and getting chicken Xacuti for dinner, we got a weird fruit shake that I don't quite remember the name of. Something like Chuki? Anyway, we were sitting in a bus stop just chatting and drinking our shake when a little kid passed by and asked Sagar if he could have his shake. Sagar very casually handed him his half full cup, as if he was just passing over the salt at a table. The kid took his shake and went cheerfully away.

    These demonstrations of generosity had a big impact on me. Even now, days later, I can't help but feel my eyes getting watery from remembering these experiences.

    Back at the hostel we met Lisha and another girl that were staying in our dorm room. We went to the common area upstairs where we spent hours talking. Lisha was over the moon excited when I told her I worked at CERN. We discussed science, Indian philosophy, baghvad gita and everything in between. It was an amazing exchange. I exchanged contacts with them hopping to meet them again some day.

    The following morning started with a relaxed solo walk through Fontainhas, the old Portuguese quarter. I love to see new places become alive at dawn. I walked the whole neighborhood ending in the Hanuman temple at the top of a hill. I stood at the temple for awhile observing the temple's rituals. Besides praying, the believers would pour some liquid on the god's statue, light incence sticks and hang flowers in the altar. I saw them spinning 3 times after pray, walk around the statue and bring offerings to the monastics of the temple. I'm not sure if they are monks, yogis or something else.

    I went back to the hostel and after checking out me and Sagar went for a delicious breakfast at the Confeitaria 31 de Janeiro. Sagar decided he would join me for my daily exploration so together we took a bus to the Basilica of Bom Jesus where the the body of saint Fancis Xavier is kept. Many christian pilgrims come to this site because of it.

    The surrounding area is quite pretty, and the church very old. There's something odd about its interior decoration but it's hard to pin down what. As for the relics themselves there's not much to see as they are kept in a glass-like tomb at the top of an altar, two or three meters above the visitors.

    The visit didn't take very long. Soon me and Sagar were on our way back to Panjim first and then south to the airport. On the way to the airport I got me and Sagar some lunch. He opened up more and told me his story. Both his parents had died in an accident and left him, his brother and all their money and properties in the hands of his grandmother. His grandmother had passed away a few years ago and now he lived with other relatives. But they were pressuring Sagar and his brother to surrender all that their parents had left them to be managed by the family. So Sagar decided to run away from his family with all the paperwork and remain unreachable for a few months until the money of his inheritance unlocks from a fixed deposit.

    I felt that he was very vulnerable and needed a friend. I tried to offer whatever support I could. He ended up taking me all the way to the entrance of the airport and was visibly sad to see me leave. I think I'm getting too good at goodbyes.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 105

    Goa — Anjun, the hippy beach

    December 14, 2022 in India ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Landed in Kolkata in the middle of the night for connecting to a flight to Goa. Went from being comfortably surrounded by cheerful tourists and backpackers to being just me and Indians. From the terminal of the airport I could see the sun come up in an horizon smeared by the smog.

    I landed in Goa a few hours later. At the exit of the airport I could see a small crowd of taxi drivers and vendors lined up on the barrier trying to get the attention of exiting travelers. All alone, without a SIM card to access internet, with no accomodation and not knowing anything about the place I was about to visit, I felt very much outside of my comfort zone.

    A lady, a couple of people ahead of me in a queue, had just bought her pre-paid taxi to a hotel when an old man, realising she was going alone, told her "do you know the local language? Are people waiting for you at your hotel?". She replied positively and went to meet her driver outside. That short interaction made me realise I was no longer in the very safe south east Asia and should be cautious.

    I waited around, hoping to find someone to share a taxi with. At some point a nice old lady sat next to me while her husband went to the pre-paid taxi counter. I initiated conversation. She explained a few things about the area and started telling me that maybe their neighbour could rent me a room but her husband came to take her and he was not in the mood for conversation. So I just let the opportunity slide and wished them a good day.

    After finding a nice looking hostel some 10 km north of the airport I threw caution at the wind and booked a taxi just for myself.

    My taxi driver didn't speak much English but seemed trustworthy. By now my biggest issue was the headrest of the back seat carving into my back and the lack of functional seat belts. First world problems.

    The spacious roads gave way to smaller countryside streets winding through the palm trees and tropical-looking greenery. Not far from the hostel, the asphalt ended and I could sense my driver's hesitation as the car jumped around following the holes and bumps in the road. I told him I could walk the rest of the way.

    The hostel felt remote, yet not fully disconnected. Surrounded by nature and at a 5 min walk to the beach. The bar and common area was open air in a well kept garden. Most people were chilling, having a drink or on their laptops. I found a sense of peace inside.

    I was on my laptop when a guy approached me asking if I was a diver. I followed his stare to my t-shirt, realising I was wearing my manta diving school t-shirt. We got to talking. Not only he was Portuguese but he's also from Lisbon! His name was Zé, he was a tourist guide, frequent traveler and a diving enthusiast.

    I joined Zé and a few more people for a beer at the hostel's bar. There I met a couple of British guys that were crossing the country in scooters. One of them had been traveling for longer but avoiding flying as much as possible. That approach had brought him through Kazakhstan and a few more stan countries. I found his story super inspiring. He was studying political science for climate change, and it showed in his traveling philosophy.

    His friend was a special effects technician that despite being quite young had already worked in productions like Dr. Who and Willow. Again, extremely interesting people.

    The next day me and Zé went down to the beach for breakfast, at a tiny wooden balcony with an amazing view of the coast. He was a cool guy. I wouldn't mind traveling with him for a little while, but he preferred Palolem beach to Anjuna and was going back there that same day. I didn't have time to join him. We exchanged Instagram handles and agreed to meet in Portugal for diving some day.

    I spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach. Checking out crabs and fish left in the rocks by the low tides, drinking lassies and people watching. For lunch, Mushil, a bar tender at the hostel, recommended me Fish Thali, a Goan dish. When he saw me looking at the map memorising my way to the restaurant (I didn't have mobile data) he just decided to take me there himself. I hoped behind him on his scooter and off we went through the bumby dirt road. He was such a nice guy.

    The food was incredible. The fish was breaded with Indian spices and fried, but in a way that kept the fish naturally juicy and not oily at all. With a couple of small crabs, not very different from the ones I observed in the rocks that morning, that were covered in curry. Accompanied with rice and a few more Indian sauces. I made a mess of myself, but it was absolutely worth it.

    The following day I decided to go to Panjim and to check the old Portuguese neighbourhood.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 104

    Bangkok – the farewell to Thailand

    December 13, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Last stop in Thailand, where I had the last pad thai, the last Thai curry and the last mango sticky rice. 😭

    Because I missed my train to Bangkok I only got one good day of exploration in town. And even that day was tainted by the fact that I was constantly checking if the Indian immigration had approved my visa, and trying to reach out to them to speed up the process.

    Despite all that, I had a pleasant stay. Got to see the big lying budda, enjoyed the great palace and its temples, strolled down Khaosan road amidst its DJs and scorpion skewers sellers, and watched a showcase of tradicional dances from all over Thailand in the royal theatre.

    Also had a few occasions where I didn't feel very welcomed. The very first stand I approached to get breakfast at a bus station refused to sell me food for some reason, and a lady at who's stall I had a pad thai didn't give me as much as a smile, while giving it to other clients. Maybe my mood not being the best had an impact on how other people perceived me. I wasn't impolite to anyone as far as I know.

    My flight was taking off at 21h, so after 19h I gave up on my flight and started making plans for a longer stay in Bangkok. A 125€ flight went out the window.

    Around 20h15 I received an email from the Indian immigration. My visa had been approved... I couldn't believe I had missed my flight for less than an hour!

    I started making new plans and ended up buying a new flight, directly to Goa this time, for that same night. Skipping Chennai where I was going to meet with my friend Valia. Luckily she was going to Mumbai the same weekend I was flying out, so we made plans to meet then.

    Maybe one hour after checking in the hostel I checked out without ever touching the bed, and called a car to go to the airport.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 102

    Koh Samui — the hangover

    December 11, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Returning to Koh Samui was relatively uneventful. We stayed at the Samui backpackers hostel, on the northern shore of the island. After going out for our last dinner together, the guys went for a thai massage while I went back to the hostel to figure out my next steps and decide what phone I'm going to buy.

    When they came back, me and Jorge played some pool (he won 2 out of 3 games) and soon was time to say goodbye. They were going to wake up at 5 a.m. to catch a flight to Bangkok. The end of an era!

    When I woke up the next day Jorge and Tavares were gone. It was strange to be alone after two weeks with two of my best friends but maybe even stranger was how quickly it felt natural to be once again solo travelling.

    I invited Tiphane and Sofiene for lunch and went to a shopping centre hoping to find my new phone. Tiphane joined me but Sofiene only joined us in the afternoon. He later told me that after the full moon party he had woken up by himself at 1pm in a bar, not remembering how he had gotten there, and his shoes were nowhere to be seen. When he arrived at the pier there were no more boats to take him back to Koh Samui... In desperation he decided to pay a fisherman 2k THB (~55 €) to take him across islands. Crazy!

    Tiphaine very patiently kept me company while I carefully studied every single mid budget phone in every store in that shopping mall. And the worst is that I didn't make up my mind! I decided I could travel to Bangkok without a phone and buy it there where I surely would have more options.

    Me, Tiphaine and Sofiene went back to the timeless hostel where they are staying. I requested a ferry plus transfer to get to the train station which I had booked an overnight train to Bangkok. To my surprise it was not possible! Even though it was only 14h and my train wouldn't leave until 21h, I had missed the last mini van to the pier and probably the last ferry.

    Kids, never leave booking transfers that involve 3 different means of transportation for last minute. I learned the hard way. The train left without me that night.

    The timeless hostel was fully booked, so I moved to the Blackjack hostel not far away.
    With some extra time on my hands I finally managed to buy a new phone, joined the family dinner in the timeless hostel and started the process of recovering my accounts.

    The upside of missing my train was that I got to see the Portugal vs Morrocco match for the world cup (spoiler: we lost.. maybe it wasn't such a great upside after all).

    The following day I just hung around the timeless hostel mingling with other travelers until a car came to pick me up to start the 17 hour trip to Bangkok.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 100

    Koh Phangan — the party island

    December 9, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    The boat left the three of us at the pier in Thong Sala. From there we had a short 15 min walk to our hostel. The most expensive hostel of our whole trip — almost 30€ per person for one night. But it was for a good reason, it was the night of the famous full moon party and the island was buzzing with anticipation.

    After having dinner in a food court near the hostel, Tavares and Jorge took a nap and later when to get some drinks for pre-gaming, all while I was trying to sort the paperwork for my Indian visa application.

    With everything almost ready (I was still finishing the last steps of my application...), we took what we thought was a taxi organised by the hostel to Haad Rin. Midway through our driver started apologising, saying that he couldn't take us further because there was police up ahead. Why was that a problem? We never found out. Profusely apologetic, he turned around and dropped us at a 7-eleven where another car picked us up a few minutes later.

    The second car finally dropped us at the party. It was pouring. We took cover from the rain in a 7-eleven and used the opportunity to get some extra drinks. At some point we did the bro table chanting and a couple of American girls, intrigued by it, striked conversation .

    I don't remember much about them other than the fact that they were californians and friends from high-school but the tall brunette was insufferable whilst her blond friend and actually quite interesting. She was close to getting her licence to be a boat captain and told me a bit about whale watching in the US. What a cool job to have! She also had nice blue eyes.

    We entered the full moon party together, but the brunette went to buy a donnut (how American...) while we were too excited to join a drum n' bass bar we heard at a distance and so that's how we lost the girls in the crowd for ever. The drum n' bass was a great worm up but after awhile we were back on the beach, strolling alongside the sea, absorbing the ligh shows, the fluorescent paintings and the different music genres. They had these buckets for sale half full of ice with a few bottles of diferent drinks inside. Once bought, they'd just open the bottles and flip the contents into the bucket making a cocktail. We all thought it was brilliant — it's transparent, you can see clearly what drinks you're getting, but also keeps the beach glass free for us to dance barefoot. After the second or third bucket things started to get blurry.

    I wrote to Tiphane explaining where we were, in front of a big billboard saying "cr7gold". Maybe it was a reference to Ronaldo?

    At this point we were on fire, dancing at the beach and meeting lots of random people. Marta, a girl we briefly hung out with in the canyon in Pai, found us and brought her group of friends to join us. But we were too far gone, erratically moving to the sound of different DJs, and soon lost them as well. We crossed paths with a couple of British girls we had met at the timeless hostel back in Koh Samui, I only remember not understanding a word of what they said. We quickly lost them as well.

    Finally Tiphaine and Sofiene found us. We danced and drank, but at some point Sofiene left and we never found him again. It was around this time that I realised I had lost my phone and couldn't remember where I had left my new balance sneakers. I never saw either again.

    Still, that didn't deter me from enjoying the party. The rest of the night was a blur of me, Tavares, Jorge and Tiphane dancing non stop. I jumped on the fire rope, Jorge found a fluorescent mask, Tavares climbed on top of a big sign saying "full moon party" and we all danced on top of multiple platforms. It was a lot of fun.

    Close to the end it downed on me how expensive that party had been, having lost a phone and my shoes. Jorge also lost his shoes, and I found out later that so did Sofiene.

    We found our way back to the hostel, me and Jorge barefoot, and in the afternoon of the next day we slowly dragged ourselves back to Koh Samui.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 99

    Koh Samui - the calm before the storm

    December 8, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ 🌧 26 °C

    The three of us arrived in Koh Samui quite early after crossing the sea for a couple of hours in a ferry. On arrival we got together a group of seven travelers to share the taxi and by sheer luck all of us were heading to the same hostel. In no time we had a van full of backpackers all heading to the timeless hostel on the other side of the island, by the Chewagan beach.

    That's how we met Paul a cool snowboarder and slackliner German, an Italian girl with whom I barely spoke and Sofien and Tiphaine, two French friends with whom we eneded up spending quite some time during our stay.

    The timeless hostel was well located near the beach, with a nice bar/common area in a partially covered courtyard with a couple of long tables that brought all travellers together.

    We went for lunch with our new friends. It was surprising how more expensive the restaurants in that area were. It was hard to find a meal for less than 100 THB, whereas I was used to paying 40 to 60 THB in the north.

    With our bellies full, and check in done, we rented a couple of scooters to zoom around the island. With Tavares on my back seat, and Jorge on his own scooter, we set off to the south by the coast crossing Lamai and then inland up the mountains. The 125cc scooters handled well the roads full of water and even managed to push both me and Tavares up the steep mountain roads, albeit with some effort. As always, driving a scooter through a paradisiac island is a sure ticket to uplift the spirit. Even Tavares had a chance to have some fun for a short while in the empty inland roads.

    The first stop was an amazing waterfall. Despite being beautiful it didn't stand out from the many waterfalls I've seen, except for the force of its waters that fell maybe 30 meters with roaring fury. Below, large and small rocks split the waters. We hopped around and climbed the largest rock to better appreciate the views. When climbing down Jorge told me "be careful not to fall in between rocks". I followed his advice but the same can't be said of himself. Behind me Jorge fell in the water up to his chest. We all started laughing but we found out moments later that he had hurt himself with the fall, his pinky toe was swelling and went through a few shades of purple in the next few days.

    Alison, my Irish travel friend who happens to be a nurse, did her best to provide a diagnosis from the pictures and descriptions we sent her. According to her it was very likely broken. She also advised us to get him on anti inflammatory drugs, raise the foot and put ice on it. After a visit to the pharmacy Jorge was all set. We decided not to go to a hospital as they were close to return to Portugal where he would have access to better care. With Jorge injured I started to doubt that the full moon party would live up to the original expectations.

    That afternoon we still visited a pretty hidden garden full of buddhist statues, a view point with a great view over the south side of the island, a huge statue of a chinese general that is adored as a god (still have to do some reading on this one) and a mummified monk with some way too cool looking sunglasses.

    With the sun setting we returned to the hostel where we joined the family dinner organised by the staff and met the travellers there. Had some laughs, a few drinks and made plans for the full moon party on the following day.

    Sofiene and Tiphane decided to join us. Paul was undecided but ended up staying in Koh Samui. However he still joined us for a late dip in the ocean that night.

    On the day of the full moon party the weather wasn't looking great. Tavares was hoping he could do a bit of surfing but the sea was as flat as it gets. We spent the morning at the hostel and once the rain gave us a break around lunch time we took off with our scooters to make the most of the remaining rental time. We saw the gigant budda and walked part of the main street in the fisherman's village before the rain and the clock forced us to go back.

    With the scooters returned in one piece, we took a car ride to the pier where we would take our boat to Koh Phagan and the full moon party.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 97

    Surat Thani — silkworm fuelled pitstop

    December 6, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Sura Thani is a transfer town. People come here as a middle stop on the way to the islands, Khao Sok, Bangkok or Krabi.

    We only spent one night before moving on to Koh Samui and didn't do a whole lot of exploration. But the exploration that we did was mostly gastronomical.

    First we tried a few fruits they had never tried like dragon fruit and a soft version of durian that I don't remember the name of.

    Then we tried some fried silkworm as a snack. I was surprised to find that I liked them. Tavares couldn't mask his disgust and Jorge ate them like they were popcorn.

    Then we passed some time getting random street food at the night market and topped it all off with a pad thai. Surat Thani wasn't amazing, but wasn't bad for a pit stop.    Read more

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