Thailand the third…
Since I met my girlfriend in october 07, we have been in Thailand twice and continuing our tradition, we departed to Bangkok on 26th of december for the third time.
Aye, the cold weather, no sun and almost every day the grey fog over the landscape, as you can imagine, we were really looking forward to the tropical condition in the home of my girlfriend. And we had really a lot of plans in Thailand and only three weeks for executing.
Khon permformance (image from wikipedia)
In Bangkok, after a small nap, we head of for the traditional khon dance performance in the oldest cinema of Bangkok. Khon dance is the royal dance in thailand, the story is always being told by a chorus at the border of the stage, which is illustrated by the dancers in colorful, handmade cloths and masks. The story is mostly a part of the epos of Ramanaya.
The more important a figure is, the more detailed and beautiful is the dress of the dancer. Demons and monkeys are illustrated with a mask. Every mask is unique and shows the character of the figure.
After some days of shopping, we head of to the north of Thailand. On the 30th of december, we arrived in Sukhothai, the oldest capital city of Thailand. The hotel was an old, traditional thai house with a pool in the middle of the courtyard and with the small channels around, filled with beautiful lotus.
With this idyllic atmosphere, the hotel is like an oasis in the middle of Thailand for all travelers.
The ruins of the old capital city (more than 700 years old) brings an imagination of the brilliance and beauty the city had been centuries ago.
The many channels around the city areas let assume a very efficient city planning. The temples with all these Buddha’s seem to be a bit different to Ayuthaya, are influenced by the former architecture of burma.
Hook, a very good colleague of my girlfriend, thaught me some tricks in photography. We made a lot of photos and I think, I could improve the quality of my shots.
Sukhothai has been very nice, but we still had about 4 hours driving with the car to Chiang Mai, the northern city. On the way there, we stopped in a very old temple, which is still in use. Behind the building with the ash of Buddah, a small hut drawed our attention. In the door of this hut where a small hole. If you go inside and close the door, a natural projection of the building with the ash of Buddah gets visible. It is really amazing an not fake! This phenomena is holy and no woman is allowed to enter this hut.
In Chiang Mai, we went for dinner in a restaurant serving the local food of the northern thai. A dance performance showed the different dance styles of Thailand.
The ruins of Sukhothai
The next day, we head off to Mae Cheam, a small village in the middle of the mountains, still belonging to the district of Chiang Mai. On the way there, we took bath in a hot spring. A lot of people are visiting this place and boiling some eggs. Seems to bring luck and good health to eat eggs boiled in this hot spring.
Mae Cheam has only 4 hotels and 3 of them where fully booked…
We rent a bungalow on the last one, it was the emergency bungalow of the owner, very dirty and in a bad condition. After complaining, we go the room of some people, which did not come yet. But we had to wait until they cancel their booking. Afterwards we went to a very nice hotel with only four rooms (which we wanted to go first) and booked the rooms for the next day.
The night in the first hotel was a bit cold and we did not have a lot of space, but at least we had a ‘almost’ clean place to sleep. In morning, we searched a temple, where my girlfriend can make her merit. First we found a temple with a holy spring, where Buddah drank from, but unfortunately all monks where out, so we had to search further. Finally we found a small, old temple where we made a merit to an old monk. While hook and me shot some photos, my girlfriend talk to the monk about the religion culture in the mountain.
The afternoon and night, we spent with drinking coffee and relaxing in the fabulous bungalow hotel we booked the day before. The house was made out of teak wood and the small bungalows with the platforms in between integrated into the garden is very beautiful. Rice fields surround the hotel and far away the forested peaks of the mountains were in sight.
Mae Cheam
The way back to Chiang Mai, we visited the Orb Laung national park, where the Mae Cham river is flowing in the canyon. Special is the view over the whole valley on the view point on top of the hill and the prehistoric paintings. The night in Chiang Mai and the seven hours back to Bangkok were not really spectacular.
The after a few days in Bangkok we took the bus to Kuhra Buri (12 hours) near Phuket. With the speed boat we reached the national park Mu Kho Surin. Surin is a small island, with white beaches and cyan, glass clear water.
There is a small restaurant and you can rent a tent. My girlfriend went there since many years and knows the stuff quite well, so we got the best tent and sometimes some special menus.
Surin is one of the best spots in Thailand for snorkeling. The reef with all its beauty provides a lot of animals to see. Among other thing you can see turtles, moraines, sharks, stingrays and a lot of colorful fishes. Unfortunately, it was very windy and the waves were quite high, so we couldn’t go for snorkeling a lot, but we enjoyed the see with the sunshine and relaxing.
The way back to the mainland was quite adventures, the see was very wavy, some passengers had to fight with the see sick and nothing remained dry.
Mu Kho Surin
Back in Bangkok we used the remaining time for shopping 
On the 17th january we head back home.
Have a look at the pictures:
Sukhothai
Chiang Mai
Mae Cheam
Mu Koh Surin
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