Thats the second time Im writing in/from a thai city. This time the exchange fever brought us to Bangkok. Obviously its a must-go in South East Asia. So nice the beaches and islands of thailand might be, the cities are definitely not :) This might be due to this huge amount of dirt and mostly because of the Thai People self. I don't feel like they are the most friendly people out there and definitely not the honest ones. Even when making business with you most of them are not friendly and almost all of them try to cheat on you. I was really annoyed by bargaining and even more when taking cabs. You have to insist on using the taximeter but in most cases you have to repeat this twice or even several times and sometimes the cab drivers just drive away. But you really need to insist on otherwise the probability to pay a higher price is more likely. The same thing is with Tuk Tuk. I think as a tourist you really should avoid taking TukTuks. First of all they never bring you to the place you want immediately. They always stop in one or more shops where they get commision for bringing in people. They don't care if you wanna go there or not. They just do what ever they want! Sometimes they offer you free ride just to make you accept and mostly they get mad at you when you don't buy something in the stops. Its crazy. Taking the cab is more safe in that way – but keep in mind to insist on the taximeter!!

Whatever. Our residence for the first four days was great tough. We stayed in Prince Palace in Saphao – a huge hotel with great facilities for such a good price. Unbelieveable. We really enjoyed this kind of accomondation after craby hostels all over South East Asia :))) Today is the last day and since some of us took the flight for today I moved to another place. Judy and me took a hostel in Soi Rambutri in Khao San Road – this is the backbacker heaven. People from all over the world and all of them are packed with their backpacks :) its amazing! Its definitely another face of Bangkok – a more lovely one btw :) The accomondation itself was a downgrad of 300 Prozent compared to Prince Palace with spiders and all those things which makes a backpackerheart go crazy :)) I have to admit that Im still not backpacker enough to enjoy those craby places but Im trying hard. And as we can see I survive everytime :)))
Bangkok is these days very popular. Whole world is looking on the protest against the new

goverment. The pro-Takhsin people protest the government and claim them for cheating and breaking the democracies. Whatever. Its not as bad as it appears from the TV. The famous places like the area around victory monument and democracy monument are full with people who wear red shirts. They eat, sleep, protest, bargain, sing, drink, party there all this time. Crazy. They sleep in their tents – hang out their clother to dry on the trees and take a shower on the street :)) But most of them were really nice. They were happy to see some western people and were really eager to take pictures with us and more to let us take pictures of their posters. I guess they are really into this and they really want the world to know about their message so we were a good opportunity to bring the message out to others probably.
Regarding sightseeing we were really on a shortcut. The city is so exhausting and going to one place takes so much time that doing more than 2 things in a day is almost impossible. We went to the Golden Mount and to the Golden Palace which are definitely the most-goes of Bangkok.

Golden Palace is so amazing big and so colorful – its impressive how much defined work it must have cost to build this „little town“. After this two station we also took a boat trip. The canals of Bangkok are btw the most convenient and fastest way to get along in this city. But you really need to be fast. The boat will not wait for you to get off – either you make in few seconds or the boat is gone and you might miss you stopp. The possibility of missing the stopp is really high cause the boats are full and sometimes getting out of it will take some more seconds..but this is not their business I guess :)
Beside shopping and little sightseeing we did a lot of party (maybe thats the reason why we couldn't do a lot of sightseeing). In case of parties bangkok was really a great place. Beside the exaggerated clubs like Bed Supperclub there are also some hidden ones. You shouldn't rely on Tuk Tuk Driver who take you to those. :)) The first night we were in a very suspicious club because the tuk tuk driver told us this is the best club :)) No it wasn't the best. My favorite ones were definitely Scratcydog and Narcisso – both open till 5 which is quiet rare because clubs around here close usually around 2. There is also this great street called RCA – which a lot of chillout-bars and live music but again closes very early. :)

All in all Bangkok was Fun and tough there is a lot to do and to see I wasn't so impressed at all. I guess its about the people and also the fact that prostitution and this stereotypes of western men with young thai ladies and also a lot of with young thai boys made me feel uncomfortable. I guess that the outback of Thailand is much nicer – like the islands are. But the touristic big cities couldn't catch me at all.

Just came back from Hong Kong. After weeks of travelling somewhere in the mountains or countryside - arriving in such a big city was really different :) I mentioned maybe before that I really enjoy big city - so I did Hong Kong :) The chaotic design of the city (actually more it looks like there is no design at all) and the hectic way of living - love it! The skyliner were amazing. We went up to the

peak view point and had a great view to the harbour...wow! just breathtaking!

Its propably not the most ecologic city :)...the lights are never turned off - never sleeping - everyday 7/24 action in this city :) I would love to know how much energy they need :))

The last day I was alone in this huge city and I enjoyed that even more. I had my own shedule doing what ever I wanna do and in fact there is a lot to do in this city. I don't even mention the shops - I think stayin there for an exchange would definitely be my ruine...I thought singapore is crazy in shopping matters..no..hongkong is worse :)) Anyway I think HK is definitely more exciting than Singapore. It is more lively, more colorful, and not that "perfect". There is way much more creativity in this city than in singapore where sometimes everything is too straight forward. I hope I can go once again at the end of my exchange :)