My Personal Travel Experience in Southeast Asia - part 1

The first time I came to Thailand was in December 2001. Before that I had been for 10 months in the Phillipines. I can say that there is a big difference between these countries. Thailand's economy is more advanced, but the Filipinos are friendlier and more open to the foreigner.

I started with Bangkok first; I did stay in a youth-hostel and had a special experience with two girls from the Patpong area.

Actually I never wanted to go Pattaya, but after this experience I thought: Just try it for one night only. I did what I planned and continued after this short visit my trip to the East and then to the North, just staying in important cities for few hours or overnight until the 30 days of Visa-on-Arrival have been over.

Thus I forwarded by train to the South, to pass the border of Malaysia. Actually I just wanted to stay there for one night, to get back to Thailand again, but on the Butterworth Express I had met a Chinese woman, who attracted me and asked me to stay with her on the nearby island of Penang. I did like this place named Georgetown a lot, so that I decided to extend my stay there up to fourteen days. Because of this I met also my longtime-friend Andi from Bavaria. Afterwards I had to see Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, and also Singapore. My last destination in had been the border city of Kota Bharu in the northeastern part of West Malaysia.

Again in I decided to visit some more tourist spots, same as Phuket and Ko Samui. I have to complain that I didn’t really like this famous island in the Andaman Sea, because of their many stupid holiday-makers and vacationers traveling on package-tours. Because of them the Thai people haven’t been friendly at all. On Samui it had been quite a bit similar but I had a good experience with a Japanese lady again. Therefore I had to go back to Pattaya again to lose my last travel-money out of my pocket, just 3 days before I had to leave this country.

But anyway, it was a good time in all the three months; especially as I didn’t get sick at all; a circumstance that never happened again until 2006.

To be continued.