Pakse - Vientiane - Xien Khuan - Vang Vieng

That was a quite stressy start into relaxed Laos^^
Monday (22.11.) I took a minibus from Ubon Ratchathani to the border village Chong Meng (100 baht, 1,5h). The visa at Laos border was without problems, just that I forgot to get USD in Bangkok and so they charged me 32euro (1300 baht) instead of 30dollar :(
A minibus (80 baht, 1h) brought me from Vang Tao to Pakse in Laos. I bought my ticket for the overnight sleeper bus to Vientiane. The 3h until the bus came, I used to do some sightseeing in Pakse.
There is not too much to see... I saw 3 markets and 1 of 2 bigger temples. Wat Luang was filled with young monks and the sunset behind made it quite a sight :)
The shopping mall looks funny^^ 2 floors of a cooled market :) After walking through the streets I had an indian dinner before taking a Laos foot massage... the right way to start my Laos trip and good relaxing before the bus journey.
The sleeping bus was horror^^ It took us 10h, 150.000kip from Pakse to Vientiane. The sleeping spots were about 1,7m long and 0.7m wide for 2 people. I shared mine with a tall french guy... I was able to sleep maybe 3 out of the 10h. My back and legs were aching afterwards :(
In Vientiane a tuktuk brought us from southern bus terminal to the centre. I enjoyed sunrise from the Mekong-promenade and new built Chao Anouvong park before having a good breakfast at Nam Phu Park.
From the local busstation I took bus number 14 to visit Xien Khuan (5.000kip 1.5h). Xien Khuan houses the Buddha Park which is filled with a huge amount of bizzare sculptures from Buddha, Shiva, Vishnu, Arjuna, and many more Hindu+Buddhist gods.
It is great to simply look for your most favourite sculpture or go through hell, earth and heaven to reach the top of the pumpkin sculpture and enjoy a view over the park.
The same bus brought me back to Vientiane where I booked a bus to Vang Vieng (30.000kip 4h). On the bus to Vang Vieng I met 3 polish who just started their holiday 4 days ago. I explained them that Vang Vieng is famous for it's nature, adventure activities, parties and drugs. A happy pizza knocked me off at the evening :P
After a long sleep and good breakfast (I enjoyed several baguettes in Laos already^^ finally bread again :P) I jumped on a minibus to Luang Prabang (100.000kip, 6h).

Wat Luang, Pakse

Sunrise from the Mekong at Chao Anouvong Park

Pumpkin sculpture in Xien Khuan Buddha Park

Sacrifice^^

You just have to pick your favourite sculpture^^

I liked that one the most :P

stunning park

Good view after going through hell, earth and heaven of the pumpkin.

Ubon Ratchathani - enjoying temples and the Loy Krathong festival

A 6h train ride (57 baht) brought us from Korat to Ubon Ratchathani. Due to the Loy Krathong festival most hotels were fully booked. But the 3rd hotel of choice luckily still had rooms available, tokyo hotel.
The next day we rented a motorbike and explored the city. After some troubles of orientation, the fire department provided us a tourist map of the city :D So we started at the old temple Wat Tung Sri Muang, where friendly peopled offered us free drinks and food because of the festival. Next temple on the route was Wat Suphatanaram, a nice place to feed fish and watch the Mun river.
A bit further out of town the most stunning temples were waiting for us. Wat Nong Bua is a sparkling white and gold temple. With totally blue sky and strong sun the temple was nearly to bright to look at. Unluckily the pictures hardly can tell how stunning the temple looked to us^^
That was followed by the great Wat Ban Na Mung, which actually were 2 temples. Both having the structure of a boat shipping the temple. The smaller one even had rowers and guards :D The bigger one was actually sitting on a lake. I saw quite many temples already, but Wat Nong Bua and Wat Ban Na Mung are clearly outstanding. A drive along the Huai Wang Nong reservoir, where we later would celebrate the Loy Kraton festival, before we visited the cities Trung Sri Muang park.
At the evening we went to the Loy Krathong festival. First we visited the Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University and later went to the more stunning Huai Wang Nong reservoir. Some great fireworks, many floating Kratongs and flying Poms made up the scenery. The festival provided too many great snacks :P Later we sent our own Kratong floating and Pom flying :)

Wat Tung Sri Muang

Wat Suphatanaram

Stunning Wat Nong Bua

suay mak mak :)

Wat Ban Na Mung

Ship housing the temple with rowers and guards^^

the second part of Wat Ban Na Mung

Candle sculpture in Tung Sri Muang park

Big Krathongs, only for watching, all made from Banana

our little floating Krathong (right)

Sending a Pom flying :)

Phimai - a friendly village with lovely sights

On friday (19.11.) we took the bus to Korat (198 baht, 4h) and connected there to Phimai by bus (36 baht, 2h).  After arriving in the lovely village, we checked into Boonsiri Guesthouse who provided us with a map to explore the sights next day. A good streetfood dinner with some talks to the locals before going for a sleep.
The next morning (20.11.) we started walking around the village. First explored the Phimai Historical Park that hosts an old Khmer temple, which supposedly was an early concept version of Angkor. But of course it can not compete with Angkor, still the old ruins are a lovely sight. Then we walked to Sai Ngam, an old Banyan tree. Supposedly more than 350 years old it was an astonishing sight. The tree is huge and I'm still not sure it if were many trees or just one^^
On the afternoon we went back to Korat and by train on to Ubon Ratchathani (57 baht, 6h).

Prasat Hin Phimai

Nice park surrounding the temple :)

I like the carvings^^

Sai Ngam

Stunning nature

Train from Korat to Ubon Ratchathani

Ko Samet - busy island with sparkling white sand

On Tuesday (15.11.) I made my way from Bangkok to Ko Samet until Thursday (18.11.). First a 3.5h bus ride from Bangkok's Ekkamai bus station to Ban Phe, a tiny port town. A 35min ferry ride brought me to Ko Samet... finally sun and beach again :D
After checking some guesthouses, I decided to stay with Jep's Bungalows at Ao Hin Khok beach. The beach was rather quiet, compared to it's neighbours, the biggest and busiest beach - Hat Sai Kaew - and the second busiest one - Ao Phai. I also walked to Ao Pudsa, which is nearly as quiet as Ao Hin Khok... that is what activities on Ko Samet are about: Beach^^ Walks along the beach and swimming are the only physical activities. But sunbathing and chillaxing are good too before you enjoy the evening on one of the busier beaches.
I enjoyed to have quiet beach time during the day at Ao Hin Khok followed by dinner at Hat Sai Kaew and party at Ao Phai, Silver Sand Bar. Met a crazy group of English guys there and we had a lot of fun on Wednesday night :)
Over all I'd say Ko Samet offers the best beaches close to Bangkok. The sand was astonishing... white powder you were walking on. The water quality was so so... not good for snorkelling (though I doubt there is much to see anyway), but they might have been due to the storms around the islands and other parts of the gulf. Swimming was great there and so was sunbathing^^

Ferry to Ko Samet

Mermaid statue between Hat Sai Kaew and Ao Hin Khok

Ao Hin Khok beach

Awesome white sand

like sparkling powder :D

Kanchanaburi and the death railway

Saturday (13.11.) morning we jumped on the train towards Kanchanaburi province, which is famous for it's natural beauties as limeston hills, caves, waterfalls and jungle as well as the dark times during WWII when Japanese forces used Allied prisoners of war and conscripted Southeast Asian labourers to build a rail route to Burma - the death railway. The 7:35 train from Bangkok arrived in NamTok about 12:40. At NamTok a Songthaou (small public bus) brought us to the Sai Yok Noi waterfall. At first I was very disappointed due to the mass of tourists at this place. But if you walk pass the wide waterfall and the swimming pool (just 50m), you get to a more lonely second waterfall, which looked much more impressive to me. It was much fun to walk on the stones, which were covered by falling water. It looked extremely slippery as a thin layer with a few centimeters of water was running over the limestone rocks. But you could walk perfectly on it. We left our bags with a nice old lady who we met on the train and made our way to climb the waterfall a little :) It was much fun, but we had to be careful not to get wet due to carrying electronics.
Then we caught a northwest bound bus and continued to the Hellfire Pass memorial. The museum is set above a particularly gruesome section of the Death Railway, Hellfire Pass was a cutting that was said to glow in a hellish colour under torchlight. The memorial remembers of 100.000 civilian labourers from Southeast Asia and 15.000 Allied prisoners of war that died due to the gruel conditions they had to work under. But we were a bit short on time, so we only watched the museum and postponed the walking trail to the next day.
After a bus ride to Kanchanaburi city we checked in SugarCane guesthouse and stayed a night on the river Kwai. The city and river are famous due to the movie "Bridge over the river Kwai".
Sunday morning we went sightseeing the famous railway bridge over the river Kwai and the Allied war cemetery. About 12:30pm we made our way to the Hellfire Pass memorial again, arriving 2:30pm. But unluckily that was too late to do the whole 4 km walking trail which should last about 3h, seeing that the museum closed at 4pm. So we only took a short route to see the actual Hellfire Pass, or Konyu Cutting, and finally enjoyed the view from the lookout over the Kwae Noi Valley towards Myanmar.
The trip to Kanchanaburi was awesome. Great weather and awesome views helped to bear digging into dark, gruel history.

Sam Yok Noi Waterfall

Sunday morning on Kwai river

enjoying weather and view :)

The famous bridge over the river Kwai

Everything connected to the death railway gets a lot attention here.

Allied war cemetery

View over Kwae Noi Valley from the museum

Hellfire Pass - Konyu Cutting

View from Kwae Noi Valley Lookout towards Myanmar

Bangkok Palaces and flooded Ayutthaya

After some party on Friday (05.11.) I went for sightseeing on Saturday with some cute friend^^ We started with the Vimanmek Mansion - a palace made all of teak wood. A great building with real charm and some superb interior. Unluckily taking pictures inside was forbidden :(
Just next to it the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall we only watched from outside.
Our way led us to the Ananta Samakhon Throne Hall, Dusit Palace - a huge European styled building. This definitely did not feel like Thai, at least not from outside^^ Inside it was holding an exhibition of some of Thailand's finest arts. And indeed they were breathtaking.

Vimanmek Mansion

Abhisit Dusit Throne Hall

King Rama V and Ananta Samakhon Throne Hall

Kingdom V Arts Exhibition

The next day (Sunday, 07.11.) Rose and I went to Ayutthaya. A cheap ride on the train (20baht pP.) for 1.5h and we arrived in Ayutthaya. But already the last 30min felt like going by boat instead of train, just because everything to the left and right of the train was flooded. After the heavy rainfalls in October the whole area was heavily flooded end of October. The water levels are decreasing, so the area is accessible again. But still major areas are flooded and people have to go to their houses by boat or have to live on the street. Astonishing and sad. But I can't remember when I saw so extremely friendly and helpful people the last time. We were shown a way to flooded Wat Gaidia and a local offered us a free boat ride, but we refused due to instability of the boat :P People helped us to organize transport on the small buses (songthaew) so we could get around for cheap money (7baht within Ayuthaya centre, more to go outside - 24 to Wat Kaidia)... but the Tuktuks wanted to charge 100baht within the centre^^  This kind of super friendly people is what Thailand is about, unluckily capitalism and media delusion drive more and more people crazy.

We visited some fine ancient temples - I can't recall all the names :P Most amazing was the Buddha head in the tree of Wat Mahathat and the 3 pagodas of Wat Phra Si Sanphet. Ayutthaya is a fine place to escape Bangkok and enjoy some temples and ruins between lush green.

Flooded area - some small houses are completely under water

Farms are on the street now :(

Path to Wat Kaidia

Monk going by boat around Wat Kaidia and dogs staying at the few dry spots

Rose and the Buddha head at Wat Mahathat

That is how Thailand is advertised - stunning :)

Me at Wat Phra Si Sanphet

3 pagodas of Wat Phra Si Sanphet

Puppies protecting Buddha!

or Buddha protecting puppies? :D