Asia Trip

Hi followers,

Welcome and join me on my very interesting and fun trip around Asia.

This was a multiple flight trip to and from Bangkok,Thailand, in which i visited quite a number of islands and towns, and  then flew to Bali Indonesia. As you may know I hate long flights, however, since beaming is not yet invented, there was no other option. I visited a total of four places in Thailand; that is Ao Nang, Koh Samui, Koh Tao and Bangkok. After that I flew to Bali.

But wait.., I am getting way ahead of myself… Let's start from the beginning!

From Luxembourg to Bangkok

My trip started from Luxembourg. I flew from Luxembourg via Istanbul to Bangkok. I arrived in Bangkok, whereI stayed with friends for 1 night. We had a nice hotel here.The Loft, more about it in the description below.

To pass the time, we decided to go sightseeing in Bangkok, even though for me Bangkok is way too crowded for a good sightseeing experience.

Wat Arun temple

Wat Arun Temple, translated as Temple of Dawn, is a budhist temple and one of the best known landmarks in Thailand. It was built way back in the 17th century and  is quite an interesting place to visit.

Pak Khlong Talat (Flower Market)

The Pak Khlong Talat is a beautiful colourful sea of fresh flowers, fruits and vegetables where tourists can visit for instagram worthy pictures. It is a famous flower market in Bangkok where you can buy a huge variety of flowers,  tropical fruits and vegetables. It is the biggest flower and fresh fruit shipping point where wholesalers and resellers from all over Thailand come to buy fresh flowers, plants and fruits every day.

Thai Stir Fried Ice Cream

We were also excited to see the making of the famous Thai Stir fried ice cream.  Stir fried Ice cream is a very popular dessert in Thailand that is made on top of a steel plate that is below freezing temperature. The mixture is poured on the steel and rolled into ice cream rolls. It is then served with extra toppings such as candy or cookies.

The first evening we had some local Thai food which was yummy and actually very affordable, which was quite surprising as Thailand is often expensive.

Ao Nang

On the second day we flew to Krabi, where we arrived late in the evening from where we waited for our bus transfer to Ao Nang. Being that the Krabi airport is not too big, our wait there was really comfortable.The airport also offers some international flights.

Ao Nang is a resort town in the south of Krabi and is known for its beautiful beaches and has access to beautiful diving sites off the nearby islands. It is not yet too crowded and is easily reachable from Krabi Airport, and is definitely worth visiting.

In Ao Nang you will find everything you can find in Thai tourist cities, but it's more calm. From massages, to good food and nice beaches. They also have considerable great night lights and a sexy nightlife, but it's a bit limited.

Ao Nang Market

We decided to visit the Ao Nang night Market, which was not so good. A lot of walking for too little fun.

Ao Nang Beach

The beach was sadly also a bit disappointing for me, because it was not as beautiful as you see it in most Blogs and videos. The good thing is it was actually clean and did not have plastics and other debris.

We discovered a beach close by which seemed to be the Centara beach, because the hotel is named after it. It's a small beach which is 5 to 10 min walking from Ao Nang via a trail. It had  amazing water and a great view  of the area.

We stayed in the cliffhanger hotel, which is a modern and new hotel.

Link below in description.

We had some food at the hotel restaurant which was of course much more expensive than the local places but really tasty.

Diving at the Ao Nang Marina

The main purpose of this holiday was scuba diving, so we booked 2 dive days at a local dive shop in Ao Nang.

We were picke very early in the morning and taken to the Ao Nang Marina where our dive boat was waiting for us.

On the first day, we dove close to the phi phi islands which is a natural reserve and protected by rangers. You need to pay a special fee to go there. Look at those amazing underwater life!

The second day we went to another dive spot next to phi phi islands.

Railay Beach

We decided to buy 2 tickets to go with the long-tail boat to Railay Beach, a peninsula between the towns of Krabi and Ao Nang and is only accessible by boat. It has nice beaches and a beautiful view point.

The ride with the long-tail is a real adventure.The boats all use some old car engines to power the boat.

Railay west beach was amazing with a great view. We stayed here for 30 minutes and got to swim in the sea. We also walked to the other side of the half island. You cross some shops and hotel areas. The east beach was not as beautiful and was not usable. We moved forward in the direction of the view point. Moving up to the viewpoint  is easy to do with good shoes. Look at this amazing view.

Pranang Beach

On the way to Pranang beach we found a viewpoint and lagoon. Shall we go up here..? Look at those signs.. Well we decided to take the challenge. I can tell you this was heavy work and one of the most exhausting hiking that I did.

We needed to climb up for 40 minutes to come to the viewpoint, and yes the view was worth the work. From here we wanted to hike towards the blue lagoon. 30 Minutes later we arrived at the access to the lagoon but people told us that it was dirty and not worth so we decided to not go further and go back. Arrived back we were so happy we did it.

We moved forward to another beach next  to Pranang beach. This beach was very crowded and there were apes that tried to steal tourists' belongings. Despite this, the water was nice, warm and clean. It was just a dream!

I definitely fell in love with the waters and the beach here.

After half a day we moved back to the west beach where we took a long-tail to go back to ao nang. Arrived back at the beach we enjoyed the sunset. Amazing too.

Koh Samui

We stayed  in Ao Nang for 5 days, and after that we took the boat to koh samui.

We booked the ferry combi ticket and the transfer bus picked us up  from the hotel and drove us to the port where the ferry was waiting. .

The ferry was fun.

We arrived in Koh Samui, a very beautiful and very touristic island,  in the evening and were taken to the hotel by a pick-up bus. pick-up bus to get to the hotel. Our hotel, the Manathai Hotel was nice and clean, and had a pool just right across the residential building, more in the description below.

However, the hotel was relatively empty, probably due to the still low season.

We visited a market in the evening when we arrived. Enjoyed some super good local food and bought some presents for our families and friends.

We had planned to stay for 2 nights at Koh Samui but left already after one night because diving was much more expensive here than on other islands and the sea was too rough for diving.

We decided to instead check out Koh Tao.

Koh Tao

Decision taken, we checked out early from the hotel and took a taxi to the other port to take a ferry to Koh Tao.

This was a long journey, a 4hour ferry drive. I used the time to work on the ferry, and I must say, it was the best Office I ever had. Lol!

Koh Tao is a small backpacker and hippie island which is also famous for good diving spots.

We booked some good hotels, not perfect but good. More in the description below.

The next morning I rented a scooter which was around 4euro à day without insurance. But that's normal you never get insurance in Thailand as a tourist. We drove to our dive resort, the Carabao dive resort, check the link below.

This is a super good dive resort with boat accès in front of the resort. I have never had such a comfortable dive as the one I had at Carabao dive resort in a long while.

We did multiple dives in Koh Tao, I uploaded a dive video for each dive spot. You will find them in the description below.

Let's enjoy together some seconds in the beautiful underwater world.

With our scooter we drove to the 350 view point of koh tao. Amazing...

At koh tao the main activities that we did were diving, chilling and eating.

Yuan Nang Island

On one of the days we decided to take a long-tail boat to Koh Nang Yang Island. A small island which you can only reach with a long-tail.

This island is amazing. Super white sand and great for snorkeling.

When we arrived at the island, we met with the local authority who control the access into the island. Here you have to pay a fee to go ahead. We were informed that it is forbidden to bring plastic bottles into the island and were also informed that they could not allow us to bring fins to the beach as they would destroy the corals. I was disappointed but could of course understand that.

We then climbed up hills to the viewpoint, and the view was just amazing!

From koh tao we took the ferry back to koh samui where we had some quick lunch and we flew from here to Bangkok.

Back to Bangkok

For my last night in Thailand, we booked one of the best hotels in Bangkok the Marriott which is an amazing hotel with a great restaurant, a pool and one of the best rooftop bars in Bangkok. Though I must note that it is quite a bit on the expensive side.

Prices aside, the rooms at the Marriott were amazing and never and I have never slept in such a good bed. My highlight was the bathroom which had a bathtub and an amazing view over Bangkok. Isn't that just romantic…

After dinner we went to the rooftop bar, where of course all the drinks were overpriced, but the thing that made it all worth it was the great view of Bangkok.

The next day, our group went our separate ways and I flew to Bali, Indonesia.

From Bangkok to Bali

I flew with a local cheap airline.

I arrived late in Bali and took a Grab, which is a local alternative to Uber, to my hotel.

For the first 3 days in Bali, I booked and stayed at the Sol Melia House Legian. The hotel was great and I was really impressed that the entire staff at the hotel, from the reception to the bars, knew my name before I even spoke to them.

I spent these first few days enjoying the calm and rested a bit in Bali from the heavy active time in Thailand.I enjoyed the sunsets, did a bit of  partying and got my energy restored for the next adventures.

Gili Trawangan

After this much needed rest, I booked a ferry from Bali to the island of Gili Trawangan, one of the best dive spots around.

Here I booked a dive resort, the Trawangan dive resort. The resort had nice rooms, a good dive team and professional people. Also their restaurant was good. I made a review video about this place check below.

Gili Trawangan is famous for diving and magic mushrooms. Every bar on the island will offer you a magic mushroom shake.But watch out. Consuming drugs in Asia can easily bring you a long time in jail.

People living in Gili Trawangan told me that there is no risk because the 2 policemen on the island would accept it, but I decided to not take any risk.

I even found that  in one of the main bars, a raggedy weed-smelling bar, people were selling weed everywhere. Again, I wouldn’t take the risk.  

The dives in Gili Trawangan were beyond amazing. Enjoy for some seconds this amazing underwater life. More in the description below.

The island of Gili Trawangan is a small land mass that you can discover in 1 day or even less.There are no cars or motorbikes allowed so the only transport available are horses and bicycles are around. It was a great great experience.

From Gili Trawangan, I left with the boat in the direction Nusa Penida and Nusa Ceningan.

Nusa Ceningan

The boat ride to Nusa Ceningan was around 4 hours with a slot in bali.

I arrived in Nusa Ceningan and a driver from the dive resort was already there waiting for me with a motorbike. Because I had a lot of luggage, he had to take the luggage to the dive resort first before coming back to pick me up. heheeh!

Nusa ceningan was too calm for me. There was nothing much to do, so I decided to rent a motorbike, but there was no rental company around. So I rented a bike from one of the resort employees to discover the island which has a 95% local population and thus quite interesting.

Diving in Nusa Ceningan

Diving in Nusa Ceningan was a  completely different experience. The water was much colder and there were so many big fish. I realised that my 3mm Neoprene was actually not good enough for these waters. I would recommend a 5mm.  

We had very good dives here. Let's enjoy the highlights

I have also made a review of the dive resort in ceningan,  link below.

Back to Bali

After 2 days of enjoying Nusa Ceningan,  I went back to Bali.

When I arrived, I was invited by some people I had met in Gili Trawangan for a meet up at Cafe d Mar Club. We had a nice posh experience on Christmas evening and enjoyed super good food, great drinks, nice music and a beautiful view of the town. The place requires a compulsory minimum consumption of 15 euros which you pay at the door as you enter.

This time I stayed at the Zuri hotel in Bali. The hotel was good but its location was not the best in terms of accessibility. However you could take a motorbike taxi to take you to where you want to go for a couple of cents.

The last days in Bali were mostly  party days for me. So I went out with a friend I met the last time I was in Bali.  We partied at different places including Motel Nexicola, which is one of my favourite places. Motel Nexicola is a restaurant which transforms into a club at night. The food is really good and very affordable.

For my last days in Bali, I decided to  book a nice hotel, the Marriott Fairfield Kuta Sunset Road. The hotel had just opened a month before I arrived and honestly, the service was amazing, the rooms were very nice and the pool was refreshing. I just feel so zen here.

After two days in the hotel, I flew back home refreshed and full of amazing stories of the adventure that was my Asia trip experience. I hope I gave you a glimpse of all the fun that I had.

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