New Zealand

There are mainly two reasons why I wasn't able to upload any blog posts while traveling in New Zealand as I did it in Thailand: First of all, most of the time we didn't have any internet connection or in the case we had, only with our USB stick on the laptop. And secondly, as I was writing the blog most of the time on my iPhone, I couln't do that as I was most of the time running out of battery and out in the jungle, we had no power :) However, I can ensure that although I didn't let you take part of our activities as frequent as before, we had a truly awesome time and I hope that I can share some great moments here...

First of all, one has to say that NZ is a great country to travel through as there is still a majority of the country unpopulated or just scarely and thus, you see a lot of nature! and we were all deeply impressed by this nature as it has a great diversity to offer! It wasn't unoccasional that you were driving through completely different landscapes and weather conditions, only on a 100Km drive! Furthermore, this country has to offer just everything, from jungle, glaciers, vulcanos over sand dunes - and of course, lots of sheeps and cows :) and sometimes, it felt pretty much as being at home...

Here's a picture from Christchurch after picking up our camper vans and doing the first big grocery shopping :)

But next to a lot of driving and looking out of the window or walking through NZ's nature - there was also a lot of adrenaline and normal activities: Jetboating, Sea ayaking ,River Rafting and Sky Diving. Of course, sky diving was probably the most scarrying thing and the free fall from 15'000 feet was really just amazing and 'wow', but also the grade 5 River Rafting (highest category) with a 7 meter waterfall was definitely worth all the money and a lot of fun!

Another funny story was the fact that we stayed on a campground near Nelson that belongs to the parents of my friend Hayden who I met in Kingston during my exchange semester. I think it's pretty funny if a Swiss meets someone in Canada and then stays a couple of months later on his campground in the middle of nowhere (sorry Hayden, but you know that as well :) in New Zealand literally at the other end of the world! And another story to show how small the world is happened when going through the costums at Auckland Airport shen leaving for my flight back to Zurich, when I ran into John Sundy, a cyclist I met four years ago when staying in Sydney and with whom I was riding four times a week in the 6.20am Coluzzi Bunch :)

And after a last stay at my friends Mirjam and Andi's house in AKL, it was time to face the 30 hours journey back to Switzerland on which I currently am when writing this blog... and fortunately the sun was shining today once again what made a nice farewell from Auckland!

4 days in Sydney

Our four days in Sydney flew by extremely fast - well, I know, that's actually not such a big surprise as four days is obviously a very short period if time to stay in such a great city! However, I would say 'better four days than not a single one'! And even though the forecast predicted four days of rain when we checked it in Bangkok, the weather was pretty good and so we were very lucky from this point of view! And I can say that we really got the most out of these four days...

One highlight was for sure Saturday evening, as we hit a Club in Downtown Sydney. And even though we had a lot of fun going out in Bangkok as well, it was definitely different here in Sydney, as there was one very important ingredient there: nice girls and no hookers! And if you don't believe how many nice girls there were in Ivy Club, just ask Tobi as he's still raving about it :) And as the Club was actually a nice location with a pool, we ended up not soo surprisingly in our underwear in the pool around 3isch in the morning :)

The day after was a classic 'beach day' and we enjoyed te sun and other nice 'views' at the famous Bondi Beach. And as I soent a lot of time there and was living in this neighbourhood four years ago, everything was quite familiar in a way! And yes, it's still a great spot...

On the third day it was time to meet some friends - some. members of the Grabt family who I know since my last stay here and with whom I had a nice lunch before walking back over the harbour bridge to Sydney.
One last highlight I have to mention is the Aussie Open final: even though King Roger didn't make it to the Final (we watched that of course live in a bar in Bangkok), we were in Australia for the Aussie Open Final and thus I didn't want to miss that! Well, it was a pretty long night till the match ended (around 1.30am), but totally worth it as it was great tennis!

Bangkok - Part two

After getting back to Bangkok from Ko Tao, we had three days left in the crowded Thai capital. However, at least we felt a bit more 'local' this time and tried not to get ripped off at every corner. And of course we were visiting at least one of the numerous skybars again, as they are truly nice.
But in contrast to the forst stop in BKK, our activities were concentrated a bit less on drinking and partying, and so there was time for some shopping as well - and even a new haircut! The shopping was fun as well, as the big shopping malls are pretty crowded and the product range insane - and of course the fake products are the funniest :) And I even found a Canada Goose jacket, haha.

And after some last thai food dinners and lunches, it was time to leave Thailand and take off to our next destination: Sydney!

Ko Tao

After one day on Ko Phi Phi, another island was waiting for us: Ko Tao. This little island is located in the Gulf of Thailand, a bit north of Ko Samui. One has to say that Ko Tao is a wonderful island and we were quite happy to stay there for three days - and this meant furthermore that we didn't have to moge on the next day what was also a very welcome fact.
And after the first night it came even better as we received an upgrade due to construction next to one of our cabanas - and this upgrade was pretty awesome as we had a nice and huge apartment for the next to days (little hint: if your bathroom halls, it's pretty big :)
So this nice ulgrade as well as the fact that the weather was good and we were pretty happy with our current situation implied that we had three amazing days on ghis island!
Addicted to drive around on motorbikes as we did in Vietnam, we were renting some on Ko Tao as well and started to explore every angle of this island - either viewpoint or beach. The only problem I had was that my two friends were driving enduro bikes while I had only a scooter (at least with some high profile tires). However, as the roads were sometimes far away from concret streets and closer related to a motocross circuit, handling my scooter wasn't that easy! Unfortunately, I fell one time (to much) - I wasn't worried about the scratches on my skin, more aboutu the little ones on the scooter as insurance is provided only on mainland as they told us when renting the bikes...
However, despite this little mistake, we had a lot of fun driving around and seing the whole island. Another pleasant activity was drinking beer on the beach and enjoyinv some nice fire artistic from locals while lyitening to good house music and getting in the mood from swaping the beer bottle for a buket of anything more or less poisoning (called liquors :)
So after those three days, it honestly wasn't easy to leave this island again as we could doubtlessly have stayed there for a couple of days more without a problem :) But our trip has to go one and so we're currently driving on the bus back to Bangkok becore heading to Sydney soon...

Khao Lak - Surat Thani

Our last stage on the mainland tool us from Koa Lhak to Surat Thani. In the morning we were visiting some nice waterfalls around Koa Lhak and had a swim in them - almost a private waterfall for us as the tourist buses were arriving later.
After this little swim in the morning, our journey took us to the Kao Sak National Park. However, as the weather was pretty bad (rainy) and we had to give back the car on the same day before 7pm in Surat Thani, we decided to drive on. But even though the weather wasn't good, the landscape was pretty nice and it was very interesting driving from one coast to the other one, with a jungle and some heavy rain in the midpart.
However, the day wasn't over yet when arriving in Surat Thani as we had to figure out where and when we can catch a ferry the day after that brings us to Ko Tao. Well, I have to admit at this point that we're currently travelling pretty spontaneous and more on a day-to-day planning. Thus, we spend the eveningy frequently booking hostels, arranging transfers or collecting other kinds of information for tomorrow's stage. Of course, that's not always the way you want it - but hey, that's how it is and so we deal with it now! However, what makes things way more difficult here is the fact that the level of English of the locals is most of the time pretty bad, also at hotel reception etc, what makes communication quite hard, as our Thai knowledge is equal to zero :) But us written earlier, one of my newer skills since attending the Universiade and spending some time in China is "patience"! And this is pretty helpful in such moments, as the best option you have is to try keep smiling and ask again :)
But long story short: we were able to arrange a ferry ticket to Ko Tao and so we took of the next morning to explore the Gulf of Thailand!

From Krabi to Khao Lak

After arriving in Krabi by boat, we went straight to the airport to rent a car for the next three days - and damn, it feels pretty good being able to decide by your own whre to go, when to go and no feeling ripped off verytime you have to take the cab :)
And as we didn't do that much sport in the last coupl of days (or weeks?!?), this morning started with a real excercise as we were climbing up 1203 stairs to a little on a hill near Krabi. And due to the fact that the steps of the stair were pretty steep, the temperature around 30 degrees and the humifity around 85% or so - we were sweatting as hell! Even though, it was totally worth it as we had a very nice view when arriving on the top.

Afterwards we were driving up to the Phang Nga delta where we chartered a longtail boat that drove us around the unique cliffs in this area. One of the cliffs is pretty well-known as the "James Bond Cliff" (the man with the goalden colt). And the nice thing about Thailand is that you can get a "Private update" for only a couple of bugs (in this case 7 CHF) what gives you the opportunity to have a boat and a driver for you own and thus you don't have to drive around with those fu...ing toursits! Another great benefit of a private driver is that you can go to a beach wuere no one else is and have a swim - pretty nice!

After this awesome boat cruise we drove up to Khao Lak ehere we stayed for the night. And one has to say that the driving parts are also vers intresting as you see a lot of nice landscapes and other details: e.g. all the animals that are sitting in the middle of the streets. Most of the time dogs but from time to time also a chicken - and in contrast to the dogs, they normally don't move when driving towards them so you have to stop - pretty arrogant :)

Bangkok

After flying back from Vietnam to Bangkok, the plan was pretty clear for the weekend as Bangkok is quite famous for a good nightlife - I guess the movie Hangover 2 proved that pretty well! :)
Even though our goal wasn't to get as hangovered as the guys in the movie got, but of course we wanted to see as much as possible! And one part of this diversity was Soi Cowboy... I don't want to go into details, but the cliché of Thailand and its prostitution gets proved perfectly at this location - but frankly, that's not really what we're looking for, so we just saw it as "a thing to do" and not something we want to do every night.

But bangkok has way more to experience than this kind of "entertainment": we fell especially in love with all the great skybars that are around the city and which give a breathtaking view over the Thai capital.
Another highlight was the Thai box fight that we've seen and just a very funny night we had that night with drinking beers at several different places.
Of course we did some seightseeing as well. But even though the temples are very nice and impressive, we were a bit dissapointed in total. One reason for that was that we were a bit dissapointed from the transport situation and the feeling that you're getting ripped off as a tourist at every move you do.
At this point a "thank you" to Stefanie who showed us around on two days and with her it was even possible to get a taxi with taxi-meter at first try :)

Unfortunately, our mood was a little bit "downgradet" again on the day we had to leave for the airport in the morning to catch our flight to Phuket: Already having the impression that the taxi drivers in Bangkok aren't the best drivers, the proved us that we're right with this impression. On the highway we had a crash - fortunately noone got hurt. However, it's definitely not something you're looking for! And btw: it's not that easy to get a cap in the middle of the highway :) Bu fortunately we were able to catch our flight to Phuket at time - even though I felt already more comfortable while sitting in a cap driving (fast)...

On the move...

After arriving in Phuket, we stayed only for one day in Phuket Town as we already catched the boat to Ko Phi Phi, a little island between Phuket and Krabi.
And this island is truly a magnifique place as it's an island as sou know it from all the nice postcards. in the afternoon we chartered a boat and went on a s orkeling trip that was truly great as we've seen a huge amount of nice colorful fishs - and some massiv jellyfishs that sceared me pretty much :)

And as the airplane or cap represents the most frequent used vehicle for most people on their holiday, it is the boat for us at the moment as we're already on the ferry from Ko Phi Phi to Krabi. So we better don't get seasick :)

Sunrise on Ko Phi Phi

Five days in Vietnam

after a long and not very comfortable journey, we arrived finally in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday evening. The term "not so comfortable" is accurate as we were not really lucky on our first stage from Zurich to Doha: seated in the first row of three after a line with four seats - that means that our screen wasn't in front of us. However, as we figured out later, this didn't matter at all as our screens weren't working anyway (the only row in the whole airplane)! so definitely not a good start...
However, even travelling "oldschool" without any entertainment system, you make it at to your destinatio at the end... and so did we: after stop overs in Doha and Bangkok we finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh City - welcome to Vietnam!

The first impressions of Ho Chi Minh (HCM) were pretty intense as this city is really a big anthill! With 10 million people living in the city and around 5 million motorcycles on the street, this city is really what you call "chaos"! And when crossing the street for the first time in all this traffic, it really felt like committing suicide. Nevertheless, yet on our second day, we rented some motorcycles by our own and drove through the city - definitely a big excitment! And not only that it is pretty adventurous, it is furthermore also pretty unhealthy as the polution is really bad. But I guess when staying only a couple of days here it should be ok...

But we did not only stay in HCM as we made a two day trip to the mekong delta to see a different face of Vietnam with its countryside. in this region, you also see poorer people and way more "green" of course than in HCM. We spend some time cruising around on a boat on smaller and bigger rivers, visisting a coconut factory, a fruit farm, tried some local tea and visiting floating and other local markets. A special highlight was our accommondation as we stayed in a "homestay". It was therefore very special as our hosts picked us up on motorcycles and we were split up pretty soon. And as we had no idea were we are driving to and how long it will take as well as were our third guy is, it felt honestly a bit strange. However, everything turned out to be great as we had a nice accommondation and excellent food.

But as you fuys know us, we couldn't leave HCM without checking out the local night life. And so we ended up on a nice sky bar downtown HCM and after that we were drinking with locals on the street what turned out to be pretty funny as it was great. And to give you some proof that we also took this stage seriously, I have to say that I was the only one who was able to leave the hotel room the next day to at least see some museums :)

So this was HCM and Vietnam. Next stop: Bangkok! So the pure awesomeness will pretty sure continue... and there we go!

And it goes on...

After being home for almost 14 days and spending a lot of time up in the mountains in Davos, it's time to leave this beautiful place called home again to explore more of this world. At 3pm today, my flight to Bangkok with stop in Doha will take off, our final destination is Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Honestly, I'm not that well prepared and have no idea what we will face when arriving there, however, I'm in the best company possible with my two friends Nicolas and Tobi and thus, I'm not really worried about not having an awesome time on our trip!

After 5 days in Vietnam, we will fly back to Thailand and spend a weekend in THE hangover city - Bangkok! (dumination total). Afterwards, we head down to Phuket and make a trip eastwards to Krabi and then to Ko Samui. We hope to have the chance to hop from one beautiful island to the next one during this time.

Around the end of January, our journey will continue to the land down under and we have a 4 day stop over in Sydney. Afterwards, we will relocate one big island southwards to New Zealand were Nico will join us and there we will travel with our camper from the south to the north island.

So I would say: world, here we come! you better be prepared for us as we are on fire and it's definitely going to be legend - wait for it - party in bangkok - have a massive hangover - still waiting as we travel through New Zealand - dary!!!!

I keep you updated as often as possible - however, if you don't hear anything from me, just assume that we're having the most awesome time! true story!

over and out, and all the best to you guys!