Thailand

Thailand, the land of smiles... and omnipresent tourism industry :-) Granted, after the cultural tour through Myanmar, Cambodia & Laos with its myriad of temples and religious sites I here left the cultural stuff more aside and mostly followed the holiday highways. And the holiday industry is really really big here, far too big for me to feel comfortable, except maybe for a few spots where tourism hasn't fully destroyed the beauty of this country yet. And then some times you get a bit tired of locals trying to cheat you, sell you stuff, not wanting to understand what you need and so on. But then again, you still meet some really friendly people, like Mr. Lek and his wife, who own a small little guesthouse in Chiang Mai, and he would play the guitar and drink a beer with you late at night and then drive you to the airport for free when you leave.

Anyway, I've spent an exciting and funny time in this country, mainly thanks to different skills I was able to learn or at least try, diving, kitesurfing, thai boxing, and most of all thanks to my friends & family who managed to come and see me here and celebrate my fortieth birthday in a small paradise resort called Pimalai on Ko Lanta. Thanks a bunch to them for all!

Getting older of course also means, that things in your body start twitching and making other less funny things, reminding yourself, that health is one of the most important goods you have. So for instance, after an ear infection I unfortunately was left behind with a quite displeasing tinnitus, which I fear will accompany me for the rest of my life (at least the internet community says so). But yes, there's of course worse things that happen to people, nevertheless it's still quite annoying and I only hope that I will be able to enjoy the rest of this tour with my new companion.

Now after five months of travelling in Asia I'm really looking forward to some western culture again, so very soon I will be in Down Under and thereafter meet the Kiwis. Hope, that this is gonna be fun!