Yesterday was our last day in Ko Lipe. Time to get our bamboo tattoos made 😎

All week prepared and discussed with the tattoo artists. Yesterday was the day.

Ready. Steady. Go!

The Tattoo Art Style of Sak Yant Bamboo tattoo has its origins in Kambuja, present day Cambodia, respectively in the ancient city of Angkor Wat, the centre of the Khmer empire that ruled over much of South East Asia.

Was it painful? Hell, yes! Do I regret it? Hell, no (at least not yet, lol)! 😎

The Thai artists added their art note into it and personalized it for us. We love it.

For the next 14 days…

Avoid sunlight – check (hello winter in Germany).

Avoid chlorine water – check.

Avoid salt water – check.

Now we are ready to leave! Bye bye, Thailand!

Let’s get out of Koh Phuket, lol.

Ready for our last island escape…

It wasn’t easy to get here… but all the effort was worth it (and that’s why island life here is still quite remote and not too many tourists).

A couple of hours later, we arrived on the white sanded shores of Koh Lipe.

Oh, hello paradise!

Koh Lipe is a small tropical island located in Thailand’s deep south, not far from the Malaysian border.

On this island, ‘paradise’ dream becomes reality. A real-life utopia of green palm trees, leaning over white-sand beaches, adjacent to crystal clear waters. Wow!

It can only be reached via speedboat(s). That was a ride (sailing was smooth in comparison). The small island can be fully explored on foot in under one hour, that’s how small it is, almost no cars on this island.

When you think of Thai islands there’s a specific image that comes to mind. Crystal clear, near impossibly turquoise waters, lapping up against a white sanded beach under palm trees beneath the blazing sun. Maybe there’s a long tail boat? Koh Lipe fulfilled all these stereotypes, honestly in any direction you looked, it could have been a postcard.

The sea water crystal clear, perfect for snorkeling. We just walked from our hotel room into the water and went snorkeling straight away. Amazing!

We also did a day trip on a long tail boat with a driver who found us the most beautiful coral reefs on the surrounding islands. Wow! Red, purple, pink and all the colorful fish in between. No camera but an underwater panorama!!!

We found Nemo (many Nemo’s actually). I could watch them for hours swimming in and out of the anemones.

It’s so beautiful, it’s hard to believe it’s real!

We loved the laid back atmosphere. Fresh seafood for dinner with our feet in the sand next to the sea. Beautiful.

Koh Lipe has some cool bars & night life.

And last days in Thailand… mean also, time for bamboo tattoos.

Koh Lipe, the tropical island paradise of southern Thailand. You may wonder how a day in paradise could look like… well, a very simple loop of getting up, swimming, snorkeling, reading on the beach, napping, finding a restaurant and a bar & getting stuck in said bar kept us happily occupied for quite some time on this picture perfect island.

I guess we’ve absorbed all the vitamin D we could want. Our batteries are recharged.

Leaving Koh Lipe is hard. Breaking the comforting cycle of beaches, blissful sunsets and sublime snorkelling is very difficult, but as with any island story there comes a time to leave. Time to go back home to Germany (not ready for the snow in the weather forecast).

Dear Thailand, khàawp khun 🙏

We loved being back. We had an amazing time!

Thailand. Sailing. Enjoying daily sunsets. And one is more beautiful than the next. Very peaceful. Nature pure. Pure bliss. What a wonderful world.

Marvelous sunsets. They became better day by day.

Moments that make us small.

“Don’t forget: Beautiful sunsets need cloudy skies.” – Paulo Coelho

Sunrises are just as spectacular.

Those moments… wow! What an awesome trip!

Sleep. Swim. Breakfast. Nap. Swim. Sail. Lunch. Chill. Snorkel. Kayak. Nap. Swim. Dinner. Repeat for 7 days. So wonderful.

Beautiful Thailand. We are back on the Andaman Sea. We hopped on a sailing boat in Thailand and lived on paradise time: waking up every morning anchored in a beautiful bay, having a dip in the ocean and then set sail for our next spot. Snorkeling. Watching brightly colored fish swim by, and us in the middle of it. Panorama underwater world. Swimming. Kayaking. Shimmering turquoise water.

Pure happiness.

Star watching at The Beach. Walking on the finest white sand beaches. Watching the boat traffic and the people.

Chill out on deck. Wind in the hair. Sun and salt on our skins. Sailing by craggy limestone peaks. Clear water. Treated to some spectacular views you can only reach by boat or kayak.

Some days we went on-shore and enjoyed coconut ice-cream, banana shakes, pina coladas, mango sticky rice, Thai lab, foot & head massage. So good. So fresh. So exotic. So relaxing.

Sailing from coral island for snorkeling to coconut island…

Is there anything more relaxing than sleeping out beneath the stars, rocked by the gentle pitch of a yacht? (We had some windy & shaky nights, too…)

Feasting on delicious food prepared by our onboard chef „Ice“, whipping up Thai favourites daily: Thai curries, banana bread, fresh fish, mango ice cream, laab, Pas Tai, fresh exotic fruits…. OMG. Soooo good! She spoilt us. Can we please take her with us?

The hardest decision we had to make: whether to swim with the tropical fish or kayak around the gorgeous spots.

We spent the evenings slumped in a bean bag surrounded by turquoise blue water to watch the sun dip beneath the waves.

Sleeping on deck under the stars and waking up to this:

Chilling out on deck with a good book and a bowl of fresh fruit.

We love the colors of Thailand: blue sky, white sand beaches, turquoise sea, yellow mangos, white coconuts.

My favorite of each day: chilling in a bean bag after a good swim and watching the sun go down followed by an amazing clear sky with stars & shooting stars wishing for a never ending holiday.

A last swim & snorkel before a bumpy sail brought us back to Phuket. Our Andaman seafaring odyssey comes to an end. It was amazing.

We arrived in the “Thai Highlands” & the spiritual capital of Thailand: Chiang Mai. It’s our first time in the north and quite a breath of fresh air after the beautiful chaos in Bangkok.

It’s exciting to go to a place we have never been before. We (have to) trust the taxi driver because we neither speak nor read the Thai language (no more English here…). Our “La Maison” is about an hour north of Chiangmai city. In fact, it feels like being in the middle of nowhere. And that’s fantastic! Finally, we arrived in the little village, together with the cows.

Life here seems very laid-back and it is a fantastic place to experience different things in life and turn your usual 9-to-5 (or 8-to-7 lol) routine to 180 degrees. That’s exactly what we were looking for.

Doing „nothing“ needed to be practiced at first. Now we got the hang of it and cannot stop it anymore (good that this vacation continuous…). Also being bored can be wonderful. Besides, we had so much time for sleeping. Plenty of time for relaxing. Time for swinging! Time in the hammock. Time for reading. Time for listening to all those natural exotic noises (a bit scary sometimes, too). Time to see the sun set at 6pm (we missed the sunrise). No appointments (just breakfast, dinner and elephant dates).

It was very relaxing living for the past days in this wonderful lush green garden. So calm. So peaceful. We spent 24 hours every day more or less outdoors for the past days. It’s been wonderful. We fell asleep listening to crickets and the birds woke us up in the morning. A healthy natural paradise.

We keep enjoying >30C degrees, which feels much cooler (and still hot) in the north compared to Bangkok. Doing not much helps to cope with the heat.

Our accommodation, a heaven of peace, the kindness of the host, the place, the calm, everything was perfect!

No WiFi. No A/C. Surrounded by rice fields. 3 dogs, sometimes 4. 3 cats. Geckos (good for eating the mosquitoes). A pool with very refreshing cold water. Fresh cooked Thai-French style dinners: simple, fresh and so delicious.

May I introduce the most wonderful 3 elephant ladies who are 84, 42 & 8 years young, gorgeous & all the time hungry.

Elephant Sanctuaries are committed to the rehabilitation and rescue of elephants. We learnt about their habitats and feed and bathed them in the river. They are magnificent creatures. Elephants are holly in Thailand, even islands and beer are named after them: Chang.

We had a traditional lunch at Mae in the Akha tribe with these beautiful ladies:

Another beautiful day is leading us to the Wat Ban Den, the „Blue Temple“.

Wow! Those vibrant colors! A pink elephant. A baby blue elephant. Blue roofs of the temples. Opulent golds. We found the entire temple truly mesmerising, maybe one of the most stunning temples we have ever seen!

Climbing up a sticky waterfall „Buathong waterfall“, named after a mineral deposit, which is very grippy. The water is cold and crystal clear, and comes from a mineral spring.

Goodby, little paradise! We are on our way south to Phuket.

9:00am: Thai chef Angie arrived and took us shopping on a local market. We bought all ingredients fresh for preparing a pad tai, som tum (papaya salad) & mango sticky rice for dessert for lunch. Yam!

Shopping at the market itself was already a fabulous experience: spices, fresh produce, seafood, meat, supplies and so much more! I love shopping groceries in foreign countries. There’s so much to see… (and buy).

It’s amazing to see the fresh produce that’s available at the local Asian market. That must be the reason why Thai food is soooo delicious.

The choice is huge… we decided for a fresh coconut milk shake to cool down for the way back. Sooo good!

Let’s start cooking!

The result is amazing & soooo delicious. To all future guests back home: be ready for Thai home prepared meals! 😎

Bon Appetit!

Now we need a siesta!

We arrived in Thailand, the “Land of Smiles”, and are kicking off our little Thai adventure in Bangkok.

It’s officially winter time here (not that this would make any remarkable difference to summer time, lol). Winter means nothing else than 32C degrees and 90% humidity (hello curly hair!). Puh, it’s hot and nope, we are not complaining. It’s November and we love being here. Starting & finishing every day with a dip in the pool, swimming a couple of lanes 14 floors above the city. Life is good!

Jetlag? Oh yes! It’s ok though, if you start watching “hangover part II” at 3:30am when you stay across the famous Lebua tower.

We love to be back in Bangkok. Sleeping on the 26th floor, panorama view included & city feeling again: those busy streets, permeated by the smell of grilled food and boiling soup (and fumes). Taking in all the sights, the sounds and smells, it is a sensory overload. How to cross those busy intersections? Just wait and follow the locals. All those taxis, most of them don’t want to use the meter. The tuk-tuks that overcharge us tourists who can’t speak Thai (but it’s so much fun anyway). Seven-Eleven stores appearing on every single block, weed shops usually next door. The chilling breeze of air conditioners on a sweaty sky train. The Thai flair that all restaurants add to their international cuisine. My cheeks flushing in the warm, humid summer, I mean winter weather – the only weather & season there is here. Cultural identity where the old and the new and the thai and the western all intertwine to become such a whirlwind of a city. All of that is Bangkok, one-of-a-kind charming city with its beautiful chaos! And us in the middle of it. Yeah!

Bangkok is for foodies, clearly our favorite part: from super delicious street food, a classic in Bangkok, to fancy restaurants & roof top bars. No matter what, try it all, it’s delicious. That first bite (and second, third…) of Thai food… mhhhhhhh…. Sweet & sour & salty with a kick of spice. Lemongrass, fresh mangoes, curry, fresh herbs, coconut… super delicious! Oh gosh, how much we missed it.

Second night in Chinatown. This time a guided food tour by locals. The heavy rain wouldn’t stop us. From Michelin star dumplings to Netflix curry back to Michelin star noodle soup followed by soy sauce ice-cream. Again wowed by those flavors, fusions, colors, smells, buildings, the crowded streets in Chinatown, and the people!!! That’s Bangkok!

The finish and all time favorite of every day: the Thai traditional dessert “Khao Niew Mamuang” (mango sticky rice). It’s soooo good and remains our absolute favorite dessert. This dish is made up of sticky glutinous rice doused in coconut milk and served with a side of sliced mango. Yum!!!

Next to eating delicious Thai food… we also slept in, enjoyed the infinity pool, a 2 hour massage (gorgeous but painful!!), meeting friends over coffee, a longtail boat ride on Bangkoks Chao Phraya River, enjoying the views and observing the locals and the tourists… we loved being here.

Ready for changing urban life to remote life, continuing our trip to the north of Thailand. Cu in Chiang Mai!

Goodbye, Bangkok! We had a blast.

It’s November, the least liked month of the whole year. Why? It’s getting cooler, darker & rainier, the summer has definitely come to an end and Christmas is still far away…

The project at work is done, farewell was celebrated with cake, flowers and sushi. Ready for vacation! Time to take some me time. Us time. Time to recharge batteries. Time to put laptops & phones away. Time to go to ………. sunny Thailand!

Ebooks are downloaded. MP3 player is loaded with favorite music. Bikini is packed. 2 big & 2 little backpacks packed. Let’s go! Ready for sunshine. Ready for Thai massages. Ready for delicious street food. Ready for the most friendliest people on earth. Ready for Thailand 🇹🇭

And Charlie is being taken care of by this beautiful young lady & her family. Huge thank you!!!

We are about to take off, see you soon! ☀️

Happy Halloween y’all!

Happy fall y‘all!

Thursday night. Fun night in Stuttgart. Church night.

That church turned into a funky projection show about the creation of the earth – Genesis.

Pretty chilled. Mobile phones allowed. Laying on the church floor on huge seat cushions. Applause in the end. A modern way of showing Genesis.

A colorful spectacle.

Grande finale.

The end. The beginning.