Since it would make a very long day of traveling from Ao Nang tot the island of Koh Chang I decided to have a stop-over for a day between Bangkok and Koh Chang. Although I always have said I would never go to Pattaya when travelling in Thailand, the location of the city was ideal for my stop-over and it would give me the opportunity to check whether my prejudices about this city were right.
 
Once Pattaya used to be a small fishing village. Nowadays it is known for being the Disneyland of hedonism where nightlife, massages and bars are all in some way related to sex tourism. Because I certainly didn’t want to be in the middle of this, I booked a room in Jomtien beach area, a few kilometers south from the crowded and crazy Pattaya city center. The area is supposed to be more mellow and the beach is supposed to be a bit better.
 
After spending one day in Jomtien I have to conclude that my prejudices were right. The tourists around are mainly Russians (Hello Baboesjkas!) and older western man accompanied by young Thai boys/girls/ladyboys. The touts from the bars don’t hesitate to touch you wherever they like to get you into the bar. And the few kilometers of beach is mostly filled with umbrellas and sunbeds, while the water is a bit filthy.
 
One day on this beach is enough for me knowing that better beaches await me in Koh Chang (Thou I succeeded in finding a piece of Jomtien beach that wasn’t too crowded). And I didn’t felt the urge to visit Pattaya city to see more of this kind of tourism. It was an interesting day, but I was happy to move on to a more relaxt island vibe.

Although the weather forecasts predicted some rain, I travelled south on the Andaman coast from Khao Lak to Ao Nang near Krabi. Ao Nang beaches are framed by the limestone headlands and the town is a gateway to Railay bay (two bays further by longtail boat) and some beautiful islands. Next to the main beach is a small boulevard and across the road one can find many shops, massages and restaurants (and touts trying to get you into their shops).

I booked a guesthouse just 2 minutes from the beach and was thinking about visiting some more beaches (like Railay) from Ao Nang by longtail boat. Unfortunately the weather forecasts were right and the expected rain was not just a tropical rain shower in the end of the day. It rained pretty much all the time. Because of this the sea didn’t turn turquoise and greyness was coloring the sky…

In the dry hours I walked a bit along the beach to enjoy the beautiful scenery with the karsts rising up from the sea. The fact that I was suffering from some stomach problems didn’t help to undertake more adventurous things in the area either.

The upcoming weeks are supposed to have the same weather in the area (obviously the rainy season ends a few months later this year). Reason for me to book a ticket to Bangkok and travel to the Eastern Gulf Coast to be able to enjoy some sunshine and tan my skin. So the Southern Andaman coast islands remain on my travel bucketlist. A reason to return to Thailand once!

An important reason for me to stay in Khao Lak for a few days was the possibility to visit the Similian Islands Marine National Park, around 60 km from the mainland. The Similian Islands NP is known to have some really good spots for scuba diving. I was advised to go scuba diving at the dive sites of Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock. These sites are actually between the Similian Islands and Surin Islands and are known to see not only the more common species of corals, fans and tropical fish, but larger animals such as manta rays, leopard sharks, nurse sharks and even whale sharks.

My first diving trip was to Koh Bon and Koh Tachai. On a big boat we left Khao Lak early morning to arrive at Koh Tachai a few hours later. There was a firm current during the dive and the big fishes didn’t show up. My air consumption was high and the dive lasted just over half an hour… Though it was a fair dive, I was hoping for better on the next two dives.

While the boat took us 25km south to Koh Bon we enjoyed lunch. Koh Bon is located about 20km north of Similan Island #9. We dived both the western and the eastern side of the ridge and got a better visibility then at Koh Tachai. Again no whale sharks or manta rays. However we saw many fishes, sea snakes, morays, shrimps and crabs. On the boat back to Khao Lak we enjoyed the beautiful sunset and drunk some beers to celebrate the day of scuba diving.

The purpose of my second day of scuba diving was to go to Richelieu Rock. Richelieu Rock was discovered as a recreational scuba dive site by diving pioneer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, with the help of local fishermen. Some have named this site as one of the world’s ten best sites and everybody on the boat was really looking forward dive this site. Richelieu Rock lies close to the Burmese banks, so the trip would take us a few hours by speedboat.

When we were approaching the dive site, the NP rangers called our captain to tell him we were not allowed to go diving on Richelieu Rock due to big waves. A big disappointment for the scuba divers aboard and the captain decided to go to Koh Tachai instead to make the two dives.

Compared to the dive on Koh Tachai two days before, the visibility was better today and the currents had changed directions. It made the two dives more like easy drift dives. I ended my two days of scuba diving without seeing whale sharks or manta rays. But I made some beautiful shots of the underwaterworld. The Similians Islands Marine National Park is one of the best places for beautiful scuba diving in the Kingdom of Thailand for sure!

The purpose of this holiday in Thailand was to explore the Andaman coast. So I booked a room at the Monkey Dive hostel in Khao Lak and got a flight from Bangkok to Phuket. The beachtown of Khao Lak is situated 100 km north of Phuket. Here long white sand beaches are backed by forested hills.

Nowhere outside of Aceh was hit harder by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, but the town has done some significant tourism resurgence since the tsunami. The Chinese and Russian mass-tourism hasn’t arrived in Khao Lak yet. Though the town is well equipped to tourists and has plenty of accommodation, shops and restaurants.

A major reason for many tourists is that Khao Lak is the most practical base to explore the Similian and Surin islands (70 km off shore). These islands are known for the excellent scuba diving. No wonder that so many dive shops are based in town.

I divided my time in Khao Lak between reading books on the beach and scuba diving in Similian islands NP. In the weekend I visited the festival in the main street that was organized to celebrate the end of Buddhist Rain Retreat and the start of the tourist high season.   

My holiday to Thailand started in the metropolitan city of Bangkok. During my visits to Bangkok in 2009 and 2011 I stayed in the KhaoSan Road area, the backpacker-hub from Asia. Bangkok is more than tourist-madness on the streets, buckets of booze and touts shouting. So this time I decided to book a hotel at the Chao Phraya Riverside.

One of the reasons for me to stay at the riverside was the Co van Kessel bicycle-boat tour departed from the River City Shopping Center. Many times other travelers advised me to do this bicycle tour in Bangkok. Budget, time and location had been my excuses to skip the tour before. But now I wanted to be sure not to miss out on this one.

I booked the tour for the afternoon and I was a little bit worried when the pouring rain started just a little before lunchtime. We had to start the tour wearing ponchos… The first two hours we cycled through Chinatown, taking narrow alleyways and crossing several markets. Since it was a Sunday it was relatively quiet on the streets, but the smell of the food and flowers was all around. Thai people start cooking the food early morning and the smell of grilled fish (and others) at breakfast time is common here.

After visiting some of the many temple sites a longtail boat took us (and the bikes) further into rural Bangkok (Thonburi). Our prayers at one of the temple-sites probably helped us because it stopped raining. I really enjoyed watching the canal lifestyle of the Thai, the wooden stilt houses and the people fishing for food. What a contrast with the hectic city-life just a few kilometers away!

We got off the boat and cycled through some residential communities in the country-side before we enjoyed a proper Thai meal. Filled up by the delicious food we continued our biking tour through the green and humid fields. We boarded the longtail boat again to take us back to Chinatown and end this ‘off-the-beaten-track’-tour through Bangkok.

This was a great way to spend my Sunday afternoon. Bangkok deserves to be designated as the “Venice of the East” for sure!

Tomorrow I will continue this journey by flying to the south-west and visit Khao Lak, a beachtown located at the Andaman sea. Hopefully I don’t have to visit many temple-sites overthere to pray for sunshine!