Bangkok seemed so less touristical as usual. Even though the infrastructure was still there. After all the shopping we signed up for some tours around in Bangkok to see the local market places, the people living at the side canals of the main river Chao Prayah and some historic temples. Bangkok is definitely an very interesting city, but after 3 days we felt like we'd have to leave to get away from the heat, the dust and the very busy athmosphere in the city. We rented a car to leave for my family's countryside house near Ban Phe, close to Rayong.

My mother built the house about 15 years ago, far away from any touristic activities. It was a simple house in a small fisher village with a very basic infrastructure. At that time we even had to dig for ground water, and I remember when we've got the village's first telefone installed in that house. But until today the things changed a bit. Everything got a bit more comfortable. There are now a central water supply system, 24 hours electricity, good roads, and even busses for public transportation. Little cozy restaurants have opened along the sea shore, motorbike rental shops were established, and even some internet cafes have found their way down to the neighbour village. It has become much more lively. That was nice to see. We stayed there for a couple of days to visit some of my relatives, and to check out the sites in some daytrips with our rental car.

We signed up at a dive center in Khao Lak, close to Phuket. So we soon had to get on the way, since this is quite a distance to take by car. We were driving up to Chon Buri, and then to Bangkok. In deed we saw all the cars on the trucks queueing in front of the gas station. And our decision to drive on with a quarterly full tank for looking for another gas station turned out to be a big mistake: We were driving on for a looong time without spotting any other gas station, until in the middle of Bangkok we had to decide to leave the express way, which would have kept us away from the traffic jungle, and safely would have got us through the city. We landed in the crowded heart of Bangkok. Driving a car in Bangkok, seriously, is the nightmare of every European car driver! At least we found a gas station, but it took us almost three hours to find again out of the city. What do we learn from that story? Make sure you have plenty of gas before driving through Bangkok! :-)

When we finally arrived in Hua Hin, where we planned to have a dinner at the sea, and to stay for the night, it was already quite late. So we decided to drive the night through via Chumphon, Ranong down to Khao Lak. After we arrived around 4 o'clock, we found a small place at a beach, where we parked the car to get a bit sleep until dawn, and until we could check in at the Nang Thong Bay resort.

Khao Lak is small village at the border of the Khao Lak National Park. It is the main departure point for divers to the Similand and the Surin Islands. We also hoped to get to dive a little around the Similan Islands, but the south-west monsoon blew up the waves to a hight of four meters, so that all boat trips out there were cancelled.

We took our dive lessons anyway at Khao Lak. Anne did the Open Water Diver course, and I did the Rescue Diver course. The fact that we were the only students in the dive school made it somehow possible, that we could coordinate our theory lessons, the swimming pool excercises and the open water dives so that we had them at the same time at the same places. So we did the dives together at Ko Phi Phi and Ko Raya. These are both very nice dive sites with a rich underwater life, but unfortunately the visibility was not as good as expected. Anyway, besides the corals and the various small fishes, we met a sleeping leopard shark and an eating sea turtle, which we watched fascinated for a long time.

After a short trip to Phuket (where we run again out of gas... What did we lear before? :-] ) we packed our things and drove further to Krabi, Chang Lang (close to Trang) and Hat Yai, where we had our next stop. Hat Yai is a clean, middle sized town, more or less untouched by the western world. On our way down to Hat Yai we notices fewer and fewer temples and more and more mosques. The main religion changes from Phuket to Hat Yai visibly from buddhism to muslim. And this is also normal so close to the border to the mainly islamic influenced Malaysia. The people are very friendly and open, even if sometimes very curious about what two tall western tourists are doing in that town.

From Hat Yai we to ok a bus down to Malaysia, our next destination, where new adventures are waiting for us.