Travel diary #3

BACK TO BANGKOK

The original plan was to stay four days on Koh Lanta and then move on to the next island. But that move kept getting postponed and eventually I stayed a good two weeks on Koh Lanta because it was such a great island. If you're going to Thailand; definitely go there. And then send me an email, and I'll give you an incredibly detailed travel guide with all the nice addresses and places to be.

But as nice as it was, I'm writing this in Bangkok, where I arrived Sunday afternoon. Here I rented an apartment and the plan is to lock myself away for three days to finish some deadlines and catch up. After that, I want to look for another beautiful island and the plan now seems to point to Koh Tao.

Anyway, the past week on Koh Lanta I ate so incredibly well and a lot every day that I gained a good five kilos more than before. Approximately. The hospitality on that island is phenomenal, Jet would go crazy there. After three weeks in Sri Lanka, I was quite fed up with all the curries and was craving Western food, no matter how barbaric that sounds. On Koh Lanta, you're at the right address. I often ate better there than I can in Amsterdam. And also on a warm beach, in a cozy garden, or on a high mountain top. Really, it was so nice.

We also did a mega touristy tour where you were whisked away in a speedboat to four islands in one day. The first two were really nothing more than oversized rock blocks with a big slab of dead coral in front of them, but the third was Koh Kradan and that was ridiculously beautiful. Put that on your list too. And save up and make sure you sleep at the Seven Seas Resort. We walked past it and almost wanted to break into a cabin and just not leave, it was that nice.

Anyway, Bangkok. I haven't made many plans because I really need three days behind my laptop. A friend of mine has lived here for a few years so I'm going to have dinner and drinks with him on Monday, but that's about it for plans. That apartment I'm in is mega nice, with a small balcony with a great view of Bangkok. A large table with a view of that same skyline and a bed that, indeed, also overlooks that skyline. That's going to be a nice way to wake up.

By the way, it's strange how quickly you can feel at home somewhere when you've been outside the Netherlands for a while. Especially when you're staying in an apartment. I've been here for no longer than three hours and I really feel like I live here, it's that pleasant. And as nice as hotels and cozy hostels are, a real own little house is a godsend. There's a washing machine and it's happily bubbling away, I bought beers at 7-Eleven and later I'm going to watch an episode of the new Netflix series Making a Murderer. Watching series abroad gives me a huge I-live-here feeling.

So, everything is still going well. The countdown is slowly but surely starting, because in eleven days I'm flying home again. Although home seems very far away now, in the sultry heat and spectacular blinking skyscrapers around me.