Malaysia & Singapore

One year into this trip, I've come to realize on a number of occasions that I spend too much time on the photographs, and not enough time on keeping this diary/blog section up to date. To allow for more regular updates in the future, and to make things a bit easier for myself, I'm going to change a few things:

All photos I post on FlickR are in chronological order and most of them have a little write-up underneath them anyway. Hence I feel there's no need to double up on the writing: Have a look at my Malaysia Photo Set on FlickR. If you prefer a more convenient way of viewing the images: here's the same in slideshow format.

You can subscribe to my FlickR images via RSS feed. Don't know what RSS is? Click here. If you'd like to leave comments, you can do so on FlickR or on this blog.

A very special thank you for Malaysia and Singapore go to Matt, who kindly took me out for an evening of good food and beverages. And to Sunny and his son Jin Sheng at Sunny Motorcycles in Kuala Lumpur for helping me with the 'big bike service'! Much appreciated, guys :)

Here's a few samples from the Malaysia collection:

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Thailand II - It's nice to meet twice

Now that the rainy season in Malaysia and Indonesia is about to end, I can finally get back on track for my original route – meaning: one last visit to Thailand, to connect from Cambodia to Malaysia.

This time around, the two weeks in Thailand became one big ‘reunion’ and a chance to meet some people I hadn’t seen for a while: It all started in Bangkok, where we had two fairly big overlanders’ meetings with people I had met en-route since the UK. I still can’t believe that there were so many of us in Bangkok, ALL at the same time. And everyone had come to Thailand on their own motorcycle, starting in their home country, often travelling for the past 2-3 years.

I can say we had a great time together, telling stories of what we had experienced since we had met last time, exchanging travel information… and of course the occasional beer to quench our thirst.

Our first overlanders' meeting on Khao San road, from left to right: Me, Holger, Sascha, Rob, Elmar, Guido, Jörg, Anja, Esther

Our second meeting: Me, Guido, Olli, Elmar, Annette, Esther, Graham, Jörg, Rob, Holger & Anja.

And another one clockwise from left to right: Olli, Holger, Anja, Joerg, Graham, me, Annette, Esther, Guido & Rob. (Thanks for the pictures, Jörg!) Annette, Jörg, Elmar and I hooked up with Graham for a few days to go & see the Floating Markets outside Bangkok.

Our further route through Thailand was again mostly about meeting people I had met before: In Ranong we met up with Ulli, a German biker I had previously met in India (Ulli: I’m glad it worked out this time – it was a very nice evening in Ranong!).

Another 200km further down in Khao Lak, we went to visit Jintana, a local woman I got to know through a friend from England (Vanessa: Thanks a lot for introducing me to Jintana!). We had briefly met during my first visit to Khao Lak in January – and I’m glad we managed to meet up again for lunch & dinner, as Jintana is such an inspiring & refreshing character with a great sense of humour.

Last but not least, I went to visit Daniel in Songkhla again. Daniel is responsible for two of the finest culinary experiences I had on this trip: the first time we met, he took me to a fantastic seafood restaurant on Ko Yo; and this time we went to a local restaurant in Songkhla, where I discovered ‘century eggs’ as one of my favourite side-dishes ever. Daniel & I had a great evening together in the pub, with a real character of a host – Captain Carsten from Denmark, who runs a cargo ship near Australia and during his on-shore time runs “The Office” bar, generously paying quite a few rounds for his guests. (Daniel: Thanks a lot for the good time we had, your good advice on Southern Thailand, and for the beverages & moto-taxi!)

All in all, a very joyful 2 weeks in Thailand, and a good example for the benefits of travelling slowly. I’m glad I had the time to meet up with everyone again – and I hope we’ll meet again somewhere some day.

Here are a few more images from the Thailand Album on FlickR:

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