We enjoyed cycling through small villages, where we felt very welcomed…

…both by local people and by the monks who allowed us to camp in the temples.

To avoid the heat, we tried our best to get up as early as we managed to.  Our best friend in the morning -the original Thai Red Bull!

The further we went from Bangkok the more of the wildlife we could find.

Discovering empty beaches was a nice bonus.

We reached Chumpon after five days and took a night ferry to Koh Tao. What happened there – you will know soon!

Koh Chang is the second biggest island of Thailand and is covered by a deep jungle in the inner part and beautiful white sandy beaches as well as mangrove forests along the coast. With only around 5000 inhabitants it has no dense population, but has been discovered by many tourists already, which makes it a crowded place here and there – though for now only one part of the island is touristy while the Eastern part has less hotels and is widely populated by the Thai people.

Finally after such a long time we could hug and kiss each other and tell thousands of stories sitting together instead of being on the phone or via the internet:

We brought different local fruits to let Anna’s parents try some exotic delicacies, which they did not know before – a nice introduction to a new culture…

Meeting each other after such a long time was a deep experience. For us it was also a bit like celebrating our birthdays as a lot of new things made all the way from Europe to Thailand. Among them some bicycle parts, our packrafts, gifts from the sponsors, a GoPro camera, a lot of food and snacks and many, many other things:

The time on Koh Chang we spent with cosy lunches in different bars and restaurants to try the variety of Thai cuisine and to enjoy some cold beers to cool ourselves down:

To explore the island we decided to rent motorbikes as cycling would probably kill us. A lot of fun and excitement not only for Anna’s parents…

…but also for us. Suddenly we could move much faster and easier than on the bicycles and could enjoy all the adventures of having an engine:

Although your body does not sweat as much as on a bicycle because you do not have to use your own muscle power to get forward, it is still quite demanding to sit on a motorbike when it’s +40°C outside. To not burn our bottoms and legs we cooled the seats with some water before the ride…

…and made several stops in the shadow, so we could get some cold drinks as well as talk about the impressions of discovering the island on a motorbike:

Thanks to the freedom of having two vehicles we could explore less touristy parts of the island such as fishing villages,

with houses standing on stills…

…next to mangrove forests:

The island also has three Buddhist temples which we could visit, to show Anna’s parents the colourful Thai architecture…

…as well as various types of Buddha sculptures…

…and monks in their daily life:

Besides discovering the island, we spent many hours being lazy on the beach:

Koh Chang, which means “Elephant Island” is home to this amazing creatures. We were not really interested in attending an organised trekking tour through the jungle but wanted at least visit one of the elephant camps and share pineapples with them:

The island has a lot of different fruits which we do not have back home, so we definitely had to stop here and there to admire huge jackfruits hanging from the trees…

…or taste the smelly and spiky durian:

The days of having fun together passed by very quickly….

…and soon we had to say goodbye. It was nice to have a family feeling again, to hear stories from home and just to be together. We were happy that we could have holidays with Anna’s parents and are looking forward to see them again somewhere else during our trip. We also hope to meet Mat’s family  – maybe in New Zealand – or some of our friends, who would like to spend the time with us somewhere on this planet. After nine days we were again, only the two of us…

Since the suitcases of the parents were emptied on the island, we had to fill them up with our souvenirs. We finally got rid of seven (sic!) Chinese and Vietnamese hats that we carried for four months on our bicycles. We also send a replica of a Thai Buddhist master; now he is occupying an honourable place in Anna’s parents home.

Thailand is a Buddhist country. On every step we could experience how much the religion is present in the daily life of the Thai people.

Wherever we went we could see Buddhist temples – Wats. Since camping is not very popular in Thailand and to find a good spot to put up our tent was almost impossible (or forbidden, like on the gas station below) we decided to ask for a place to stay in one of the temples…

…we got a place for our tent plus a fan (without any air circulation, sleeping in the tent during this hot and humid period is a nightmare) and we could also take a shower. The only negative aspect of staying over night in the temples is, that the daily life starts around 6 o’clock in the morning, which does not really fit into our normal sleeping patterns. On the other hand we can start the day early and cycle some kilometres without suffering from the heat that much.

We have already heard from other travellers that sleeping in Wats in Thailand is pretty easy, and indeed, it quickly became our preferred way of camping! All we had to do to stay there was to find a monk (preferably an abbot) and ask where we could sleep. In every Wat in Thailand there is a place where one can wash, and we could always plug our electronic devices to charge overnight.

One day, when it was around lunchtime and too hot to cycle, we were looking for a good place to spend some hours in the shadow during the worst heat. We saw a sign for a “rest area” and thought it would be the perfect place where we possibly could find some shade and probably something to eat. It turned out to be a rest area on the territory of Wat Khom Bang. While we were about to get some sleep underneath a big tree, the abbot of the Wat passed by and asked whether he could help us somehow… We ended up with a huge lunch, a refreshing shower and interesting conversations in the temple’s garden, where we could try different fruits. On top of that we got a delicious dinner, a private air-conditioned room for the night, a big breakfast the next morning and 6 kilos of fruits to eat on the way…

Among the treasures of the garden we could find and taste mangosteen…

…as well as the “king” of all fruits (according to the abbot of Wat Khom Bang), the very specific in smell and taste: durian…

…and the to the lychee family belonging: longan…

With full stomachs we could jump on our bicycles and start cycling towards Koh Chang to meet Anna’s parents hoping that they will recognize us…

…we changed a bit since we have left home.

To have enough time to explore this huge area with its different temples, we decided to buy a three day ticket and discover the park mainly by bicycle. Due to the hot weather it was a quite demanding sightseeing trip but definitely worth it. It is one of the most impressive architectural places we have seen so far. The combination of massive structures and detailed stone carvings makes this place a special experience…

Angkor at its best time was a huge metropolis. However, only the religious buildings were made of stone – all the rest, including the Royal Palace was wooden. Unfortunately most of it either burned or rot as the time passed…

We were so lucky to have our bikes with us – the best way to explore the site!

We had a great time visiting the temples, especially because we did not try to see EVERYTHING but instead cycled and wandered around the sites with curiosity and a good sense of humour…

The archaeological park is one of the main tourist attractions in Cambodia which means that on almost every step you have people around you, who try to sell you some drinks, snacks or any kind of souvenirs. Unfortunately this also includes a lot of children working as vendors, trying to make some money with kitsch that nobody really needs.

One of our favourite sites was Ta Phrom, where most of the architecture is overgrown by huge trees. Due to the massive roots which spread in all directions, some parts of the temple are damaged and have to be stabilized by special constructions. This place is a fantastic opportunity to realize how strong and beautiful nature can be…

We really had a lot of fun and could not resist to shoot some self portraits:

For some of the local people the park offers a perfect scenery to take their wedding pictures:

At the evenings when the temperatures finally dropped some degrees and the light changed it was even more spectacular to explore the temples…

…one of the recommended tips for tourists is to watch the sunset at Pre Rup. Enjoying the sun setting, which is normally supposed to be relaxed or romantic, at this place seemed like a massive invasion:

Even though it is a place full of tourists it was still possible to avoid this huge groups, by simply visiting the sites in a different order than the guides advise.

Unfortunately some people seem to forget that there are visiting a place where they should act in a respectful way by wearing appropriate clothes, covering their shoulders and knees…

…some others treat local children as living sculptures and tend to be intrusive by taking close up pictures of them:

Since it was so hot, visiting Angkor was a pretty exhausting experience. We were not the only ones that suffered from the heat, though…

Three days full of impressions – tired but happy!

It was our first temple in Cambodia. We were very excited to get there and positively surprised by a total lack of tourists! We saw a few Westerners, but mainly Cambodian families go there for a picnic. The temple itself is pretty damaged but comparing to Iranian Persepolis it is in a great shape.

Walking around the ruins of the temple was a very intense experience: it has a unique ambient, definitely worth checking out!

Since the temple lies on the mountain, we left our bikes at the bottom of it and climbed it by foot. There is a paved road leading to the top, but its last section is so steep, that even walking up the hill made us exhausted! Luckily on the way down, we got a lift from the soldiers.

We enjoyed it a lot!

The villages we cycled through made us aware of how poor Cambodia really is. In Laos the poverty is not as vivid, we could see that people can cope with that and keep a good style. In Cambodia sometimes we could not believe our eyes – it felt like Africa…

The places we passed by had no electricity and no running water; the box-fridges in the shops are filled up with ice every day to keep the drinks cold.

This is the police station:

And this is how you tank (petrol):

Local markets. We love them (as you know), but in Cambodia they were the poorest and most unhygienic we have ever experienced:

A street stall with snails – fancy a snack?

The biggest problem of travelling around Cambodia are mines and unexploded bombs. We love to camp wild, but doing it in Cambodia is sometimes playing with death. Every here and there we saw red signs warning about mines. There are still parts of the country, where people are living just a dozen of steps from the minefields…

For the first time we saw cashew nut plantations and as its yellow fruit looked very tasty, we had to try it. Mat also could not resist and licked the shell of the cashew nut, which made his tongue numb as it contains an allergenic substance, which we figured out later on. To get rid of this toxins and to be able to eat the seed – the cashew nut -  a roasting process is needed first.

A young Khmer girl, a little bit scared of us and shy at the beginning, gave us a smile after we said a friendly “Hello”:

Already in China and Vietnam we have seen a lot of strange looking transportation systems, but this man and his vehicle, carrying several sleeping mattresses and a couple of glass shelves was by far the most extreme version of cargo:

This sugar cane mills we could see everywhere, the sugar cane juice is served ice cold and very often mixed with pineapple. A much better thirst quencher than the usual western soft drink in the red can:

In Cambodia the slash – and – burn technique in agriculture is still widespread, this method unfortunately has bad effects on the ecosystem:

Some animals we met on our way through the Eastern part of the country:

Banlung was the first Cambodian city for us:

We enjoyed some self made sandwiches with very big and very delicious avocados from the local market:

The meat stalls on the market where at least interesting motives to photograph or…

…to watch some crunchy bird snacks rotating above the fire:

Very popular, not only on the markets but also inside the cities in local bars and restaurants, are these small rice pancakes, which are served or plain with some chilli sauce or filled with vegetables or meat. A good snack for the second breakfast, especially when eaten among the locals, sitting on tiny little chairs and smelling the fire…

Lanterns from Hoi An:

We have already seen hairdresser or dentist stalls on some markets in Asia, on this one we also found a small pharmacy…

A common method for transporting pigs on a motorbike or truck – looks really nasty!

Incenses:

Not a jackfruit, not a durian…

The most colourful and exotic fish we have seen so far, we found on this lively market with a lot of very friendly, smiling people in a small village on the coast of Central Vietnam. Looking at this beautiful creatures we really felt that they are from a completely different world…

On the markets and also in the restaurants we found this strange looking “cucumbers” which are in fact bitter melons and are also known for its medical use. We tried them in different dishes but the very strong and bitter taste could not convince us to have more…

During our trip we have tried a lot of different kinds of tea, the Turkish Cay but also some varieties of Green tea in China and in particular from the Yunnan province, we liked the most. In Vietnam we switched back to coffee, which has a very thick consistency and reminds more of cacao and is usually served with condensed milk and can be ordered hot or with ice. Due to the tropical weather we preferred the cold version as a nice refreshment and a source of energy.

Vietnam is also famous for its soy products, the tofu – steamed or fried – is one of the best we have ever tried. And the soy milk is a fantastic thirst quencher for cyclists!

Local markets. Adventure – guaranteed!