March 3, Sick in Pattaya
Well, what can we say about our week's stay in Pattaya? We originally went there to have an afternoon's chat with a former colleague of Anja's father who spends the European winter months in Thailand. We were very happy to be invited to stay for a day or two and then ended up staying for more than a week. Christan decided to develop a fever the day before we were going to take a bus north towards the Lao border. As Laos still very much depends on traditional medicines and methods, we opted for a delay of our departure and visited Pattaya's International Hospital instead. The doctor who was fluent in English agreed with us that it could be malaria. Naturally, Christian did not have any fever when we were at the hospital, which makes it more difficult to discover the little buggers in the blood, and prompted the doctor to offer him hospitalisation for a day in order to thoroughly check for the cause of the fever. After some haggling, Christian decided to test the nurses' skills but rebound when he was shown his ice-cold room and immediately asked to get rid of his clothes and throw over a green hospital dress. He felt suddenly better and completely startled the hospital personnel when requesting permission to bridge the waiting time for further test results by going out to have some food as the dishes on the hospital's menu were quite pricey... We thought that everybody at the hospital would remember us well after just that day. But it came even better when Anja received her final test results from the Tropical Institute in Tuebingen where we had been for a check-up. Some test results suggested that she might have bilharzia, a nasty worm, and the Institute urged her to go for an extended specific analysis. Consequently, we walked into the hospital with urine and stool probes for three consecutive days. You bet they will remember us for the next year! No worms were confirmed and Christian probably just had a really bad flu but we now know that getting seriously ill in Thailand does not necessitate the Flying Doctors to bring one home!

Despite the fact that we were ill or thought to be ill, we did get a chance to see some of the highlights and some of the bad parts of Pattaya. The former colleague of Anja's father gave us a first introduction into the excellent Thai cuisine and showed us the hidden treasures of Pattaya - beautifully located resorts away from mass tourism. He also gave us the opportunity to see some of the surrounding area by taking us on a tour in his car. We stopped at a harvested pineapple field, wondered through a caoutchouc plantation and gazed at a huge Buddha image on one side of a hill which some sponsor had engraved there in order to get a step closer to enlightenment. The downsides of Pattaya are its streets packed with highrise buildings, the swarms of male and female prostitutes, and the planeloads of (old and ugly) Western men (and women!) who flock there to enjoy their services. It is definitely Thailand’s most party town with a decent beach and Bratwurst with Sauerkraut if you are up to it.

Khmer outposts and culinary delights
The town of Phimai, once situated at the outskirts of the Khmer empire and still connected to the Khmer's ancient capital at Angkor Wat in Cambodia through an old road in the jungle, made for a pleasant stopover on our way north. We arrived early enough to enjoy the restored eleventh-century Khmer temple complex before hundreds of school children arrived in their yellow and blue striped uniforms. The small night market where vendors sold everything from smoked fish to fried worms and crickets, from unidentifiable colourful jellies to all kinds of fruit shakes was very appealing. What usually restrains us from ordering a wider variety of delicious dishes is our inability to pronounce and/or understand Thai words correctly. Hence, unless another customer's meal looks good and can be pointed at, we often end up ordering fried rice or fried noodles with vegetables or meat (that seems to be what most foreigners live on as hawkers immediately offer it). We do know that there is much more out there as we have been adventurous every once in a while and just ordered something or were lucky to have a Thai speaker with us or an English/Thai menu to choose from. Besides the warm dishes there are still a lot of fruits out there to be tasted: rambutans, mangosteens, dragon fruits, rose apples and sapodillas to name just a few.

On our own with the locals
After a day of yet unparalleled efficiency, we arrived in Chiang Khan on the bank of the Mekong river. Within minutes we had changed from a local bus that brought us from Phimai to the junction with the main north-south tar road, to a long distance bus to Khon Kaen, where we hopped directly into a songthaew - a converted pick-up truck with one bench along each side of the bed - to Loei and there finally jumped into a just departing songthaew for Chiang Khan. Arriving there, we did need a shower and some rest in order to grasp the speed of our movements.

Although Thailand’s northeastern province of Isaan is already off the beaten tourist track, we managed to get away a bit further by renting a moped for a day. With our own mode of transportation we had a chance to cruise through the nearby mountains and hidden valleys with rice terraces, and examine the small villages patched along the Mekong and its tributary the Huang river. At some stage we were overtaken by a local songthaew packed with smiling and waiving people as they passed. In search for petrol we communicated with several extremely friendly villagers by sign language. We eventually ended up filling a bright red fluid out of a 1l Fanta bottle into the tank - that seems to be the common way to fuel up in the countryside - and off we went again.

Where are those caves?
On the second trip we set out to find a waterfall, some caves and to visit a temple. Finding the waterfall proofed to be rather easy. The location was well signposted and even featured a new tarmac road. After parking the bike we walked along a stretch of empty picnic-sites and even toilet barracks, but as the waterfall came into view we had trouble finding any water that would be brave enough to fall down the cliff. The site must be quite popular with locals and tourists shortly after the rainy season, but for us it was more like visiting an empty concert hall.

Next we had two different caves marked on our little map from the guesthouse. Driving in the general direction we paused here and there to compare Thai letters and words on signs with those on our map. None of the signs seemed to match our map’s inscriptions but we decided to take a turn anyway. We ended up in pretty places but never did manage to find those caves. Nevertheless, we had a very pleasant time negotiating the bike through very rural Isaan and putting smiles on people’s faces as soon as they realised that foreigners were riding the moped.

The one thing we did find, however, was the wat, or Buddhist monastery. It is still under construction but nicely situated on a ledge overlooking the Mekong river. The view far into the Mekong valley would have been magnificent if the sky had not been so hazy and if farmers on both sides of the river would refrain from burning their fields or from slashing and burning the forest in order to gain new fields.

And what now?
From Nong Khai on the Thai side where we found all of the other tourists again plus the accompanying facilities, we crossed the border into Laos via the Friendship Bridge yesterday. It has been a while that we have managed to achieve so many things in one day: Crossing a country border, prolonging a visa, changing money, visiting the German embassy and arranging for onward transport. From here we will head north to Luang Prabang and then continue further north into the "Golden Triangle" where we will again meet the Mekong. We are looking forward to some trekking and more of the tranquil friendliness of the Lao people.

February 12, Bangkok - busy, busy, busy
Before his first visit to Asia, Christian had expected dirty and loud citylife combined with aggressive touts and that whilst breathing smog-filled air. Yet, he was pleasantly surprised to find a clean and friendly city, with decent rooms, great food, tasty juices and even Western-style toilets. Unfortunately, the rice portions served at streetstalls do not match the African scoops. The size and goods in supply on Chinatown's markets, however, are astonishing. Today we spent another afternoon strolling around the small roofed alleyways trying not to get lost...

While waiting for the right airport bus to take us into the "tourist ghetto", we teamed up with Andrew, an elementary school teacher from Oregon. The three of us spent our first morning in Bangkok on a free and informative tour in the National Museum. It was not a good idea to skip breakfast beforehand as Anja was ready to faint halfway through the tour, funnily in the only air-conditioned building of the whole complex. We spent the rest of the day on exploring the nearby suburbs and on reading our guidebooks, a necessary exercise!

At the end of a studious afternoon we came up with the following general route for the next few months: After inhaling a bit more of Bangkok's citylife, we will travel against the beaten tourist track by going clockwise from Thailand to Laos, then Vietnam and finally Cambodia instead of first hitting the latter's most visited site, Angkor Wat.

After a short excursion to the beach south of Bangkok in order to visit a former colleague of Anja's father, the current plan is to head for the Khao Yai National Park and then venture off into Thailand's Northeast. From there we want to continue to Vientiane and Luang Prabang in Laos and probably pursue a loop-shaped route into the northern part of the country. We hope to be able to touch Myanmar's border by floating on the Mekong river in a slowboat. Getting some exercise will be necessary after this and we will do so by trekking through the Lao highlands, hopefully (and safely) coming across a tiger or two...
An itinerary beyond this point has yet to evolve - we will keep you posted.

Now that we know where we are, the major obstacle to overcome is Christian's jetlag! He drafted this update between 2 and 4am being bright awake and having nothing else to occupy his mind...