My little paradise......

When you travel for long time at certain moment you start to miss home. You miss family, friends, places, food, your bed and all other things around. Always.
Also, at all tours in our life we get to special places. Where we feel so comfortable, cozy and from the first moment there you get this "gut" feeling.
You feel there like at your home. Everything is in proper place, timing is good and somehow everything works. I found that place somewhere in north-east Thailand at the Mekong riverbank. Together with the place there is a person. Very special one. On my way that was Koi. Without any hesitation she welcomed me very friendly and in very short time we started to talk more and more. Our dinners with little drinking where until early morning hours when we talked about everything. From Europe to Asia. For man to women. From ground to the sky. Days where passing so fast, I didn't even realize when 10 days passed like a moment and I didn't want to move anywhere. Finally I had to, but before I finished my travel I manage to visit Koi one more time and we manage to meet 2 more times in different places in Thailand.

One of our first trips around. Great view on the Mekong with Koi :)

In the background you can see monsun season approaching

Here is Brian. He was making sure that our english is proper american and we had a lot of fun together :D Cheers mate !

Always working.......

Some rain

Temple

Mekong riverbank

Hello ! Would you like to get some fruits ?

Favorite Vietnamese food !!!

Night market in Nong Khai, so another trip together. As well we did together a trip for a mask festival, which was described few posts before.

Bird nest. Some one have to take care about it as well

Sunsets. They stay in your head for long time.....

We made a trip to amazing(fairly new) temple.

Any my Nex-6 does the job :D

More buildings around. Blue temple. Blue sky. Around only green forests.

In black

Another nice spot for a sunset. Can it be better then with a beer?

And the sunset it self.

And another one on a different day.

My stay there was simply amazing. The highlight of my trip and it brought back my faith in people. I can't describe how good person is Koi. Simply, KOI YOU ARE AMAZING.
Thank you for everything what you have done for me and what I have learnt from you.

I hope we will meet again one day ;)

Where is Alice......?????

Alice was found in Thailand. Almost lost, a bit afraid at the airport in Nong Khai wondering if I will show up for picking her up at all...... but I did and we had a lot of fun in next 7 days together.

How valuable friendship can be you don't know and realize that until it actually hits you. Surprisingly you did manage to meet together 2 years after last meeting in Copenhagen, where we "study" together. What an amazing story, isn't it? We can't make it happen when we are 500 km away from each other, but on the other side of the world it is possible :)

We had one week together from Nong Khai to Bangkok, where Alice was taking a plane to India afterwords.

So, we were pretty busy filling our days with many places to visit and with afternoon talking, talking, talking........

So Nong Khai monument park was first one on the list,

How many hands you have?

I got some extra time to get more details from this place

Souvenirs are very unique here :D

Vietnamese food from Koi recommendation.

We got 2 days at Koi place where we could chill out and spent some time between good friends.
After,  we followed Mekong and visit Khao Kho area with my favorite temple. Few extra shots from there.

I love this place....

And the attention to the details.....

Here we are :D

Small waterfall, not very impressive but nice spot for something different after temple.

Typical "slawek" dinner. Fried or grilled fish with fried vegetables.

Then we went to Sukhotai in order to see historic park. I was in the mood of quiet, "Isan style" places and with tons of tourists I was a bit upset. Not much left from the city and everywhere people.

But we were still in good mood and enjoying another new place.

Thai green always make me happy.

Hey !! Yours look tastier.... I want it !!!!
But I was faster :P

Leaving from the hotel. Another day in front of us...

If you think that you loaded your car properly.......

All day driving and still happy !! Let's go !

We even got to Italy. Wait, wait..... you were in Thailand..... Hmmm.....
Welcome in Thai Toscana Valley. They like so much European stuff, so they built their own Toscana village, with small church, houses - Toscana style and probably more Italian stuff inside, but we didn't go there.

Well. One, very busy week together was an amazing experience which showed us a different sides of each other. Last time we were only working/studying, so it nice to realize that are pretty normal people enjoying the life.

Thank you Alice......

Last moments of freedom :P

Don't get too stressed. I haven't been kidnapped. It was my last 2 weeks of traveling alone. At first parents will arrive, then Lu. So, I decided to use this time properly and treat my self with sunsets, beach and good food. 

Last unseen part of Thailand was South-East Corner, close to Cambodia border. I have visited huge border market at Aranyaprathet/Poipet where are tons of cheap Chinese crap and you can actually rent a bike for visiting it. Really big market and apart of it nothing in the town.

Next stop for good treatment was Koh Chang - Elephant Island. Not many elephants, but very nice atmosphere. I visited several places and after 3 hours I found my spot at Natural Beach Resort.

Nice A/C bungalow, beach side, great restaurant, massage place on the beach and sun sets on west coast. What more you can ask for?? 

Here it is. The sunset at Koh Chang.

Local village, not exactly touristy spot.

Nomad on the bike.

Massage place. Best place for getting a massage, but massage it self could be better if I had to complain about something.

Good vibe was spreading. Apart of Frisbee, I have played several times voleyball with locals, which do it everyday as a brake after work.

A bit too dark, but still nice.

You can't make a round of Koh Chang, but a nice trip from one end of another takes about 3 hours on this type of roads/

The beach

Next stop on the way was Koi friend in Rayong. I was welcomed, brought to hotel and I didn't need to drive my bike for next 3 days. We have been doing so many things together. Going out, water theme park, waterfall and so on...... Thank you !

Hand-made lolipop. After one of those you won't take Chupa-Chups again. 

Isn't that great ?!?!

All of it was happening in Rayong. Quite big city with few farangs around, but very nice with friends around.

I was pretty was accepted in the family :D

In the water park.

Climbing on the tower was really difficult. Handles on the most places were broken and I am not fit anymore......

But I have finally manage to get there !!!!

Next day was at the waterfall, where you feed trouts with some kind of green beans. Very long ones. and the fish gets crazy about it. Water was really cold, but it didn't stop me from getting there.

Fish is around.....

I tried to be one of them.

We had a lot of fun together

Fish spa was an extra feature of the place.

Aaaa..... waterfall......

Something is written in Thai. I don't know what.
Thank you for taking care about me and I hope to be back in Rayong one day !