Good evening Singapore and welcome to episode 20 of Sleepless in Singapore. Today is Sunday the 2nd of June 2024. I'm in Germany right now on a business trip and also to see my family, my mom, my dad and of course Philipp. And the story I'm going to tell you tonight is about how I continue traveling Southeast Asia.

I think last week it was all about Kuala Lumpur and Tiaman Island and then I guess I told you about my crazy car ride to the Senai airport where for the first time in my life I got quite sick just from a crazy car ride. And so today is going to be about the trip up from, well, Tiaman and then with a plane up to Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia and then from there all the way up to Bangkok and probably even a bit further. So please make yourself comfortable, relax and let my voice be your guide to a restful night.

The flight to Penang was quite short and I landed in Penang quite late but that didn't stop me from going out and trying the street food which Georgetown is famous for and which I enjoyed a lot. So Georgetown is this little colonial city in the very north of Malaysia. There is this island called Penang which is quite close to the mainland. There's I think a bridge and there is definitely a ferry that only takes a couple of minutes. And Georgetown has this very beautiful colonial charm. It's got all the old buildings and it's got all the street food and it's just got this like feeling of these old pretty, well, these old pretty colonial towns I guess. A little bit like some parts of Singapore and a little bit like Malacca and places like that. What Georgetown is also famous for is the street art. There's a lot of murals and wall paintings and sculptures on every corner. There's this old town part of Georgetown where on every street corner you can see something very nice. Then later on after the street food I went to some karaoke bar which was also great fun. And then finally I went to the place I was staying which was called the Palm Mansions. An Airbnb that was absolutely beautiful. It was an old shop house, an old colonial house with a wooden ceiling and it just has this like whole old flair that you know from movies and I really liked it there.

The next morning I went to an old favorite, the Magshaft Café. I think I've mentioned that in one of the episodes before, another time in Georgetown back then with Hatim. And after having my breakfast at the Magshaft Café I went on a scooter tour to the more nature part of the island of Penan which is I think up north on the island. And there are absolutely stunning beaches, very nice jungle. There is a bit of a jungle trek I did and I just took the most wonderful pictures there. And then after the short stint in Penan which is always too short I believe, I took the ferry, this like big car ferry. I remember like standing between the cars or beside the cars looking out on the ocean. And I took this ferry and I made my way to the train station and I took a train to the northern border of Malaysia trying to get into Thailand which was interesting because this border only opens for a short time, twice a day, or back then at least it did. And so I had to wait for quite a while. But then finally I made it into Thailand and I had a lunch somewhere at the border place while waiting for the border to open.

And then after making it to Thailand I took another train pretty similar to the trip I've told you about a couple episodes back with Hatim. And that train took me to I think Chumfon in Thailand, somewhere Surat Thani. And there I took an overnight boat to Koh Tao and that boat was very adventurous, very old, definitely many many many years old and very slow. And there weren't any seats or cabins or compartments or anything on the boat. It was just one big upper deck and they put mattresses, mattress next to mattress, all on the upper deck. So you're just sleeping between random people on what looks like a giant mattress. Well it was fun. I got to talk to a local for a bit and these trips for the locals they seem to be both transport and travel. And downstairs in these boats there's everything from whole scooters over tons of fruit over all kinds of goods they have to transport to the islands. And then on the upper deck the locals they are sitting in small circles, they are eating. I also think I mentioned that before. Where these boats leave there is like almost a little market where everyone is selling cut fruit and take away food and drinks and all that. So the locals are sitting up there and having their snacks and the old guys are always like half secretly smoking by the window. And because everything is so slow and so local and time doesn't seem to be a big issue, it's very relaxing. And I stayed up for quite a bit to watch the people and then eventually when I fell asleep late at night I slept quite well.

And then in the morning when I woke up I was in Koh Tao. The boat was arriving at Koh Tao a little after sunrise I think. And Koh Tao is also adventurous. Back then it was my very first time I think ever on a Thai island. Maybe ever in Thailand. Except for when I was a small child with my parents. But I immediately liked Koh Tao. I always liked Koh Tao a lot. I immediately liked it back then. I got picked up from the hotel I was staying in a pickup truck. You just jump in the back. Probably doesn't really hold up to German safety standards but you just jump in the back and sit there and the car is going across the island. And Koh Tao is a tiny island but it does have some hills and some ups and downs. So you go up and down and back and forth in the pickup truck and it feels like freedom. It feels very nice.

One of the first things I did in Koh Tao was go to Hippo Burger Bistro to get some lunch. And turns out the burger there was nothing extraordinary but it was all right. And the fries were all right. And then after the burger now that I knew how to ride a scooter I rented a scooter to get around on Koh Tao. And that was especially helpful because the way up to my hotel which was on the cliffs was very steep and very exhausting to walk up there. So I was very happy when I had that scooter to go up and down.

And then I don't really know what to tell you about Koh Tao because it doesn't make for a very entertaining story. But I can tell you I spent three of the best days of my life. I enjoyed tremendously. Like I said it was the first time. It was also kind of the first time on that whole trip I did. And by now we are like three or four months in right. It was the first time that I had a bit of luxury and a bit of relaxing. I had a very nice hotel. The hotel I think it was called something cliffside. It had a wonderful view over the bay and looking over to I think shark island. I'm not 100% sure. I gotta verify that. It was a nice view over to a tiny little island. And it was just so beautiful and was so out of everything I've seen before and everything I've experienced before. And I was there for only I think three days. But I really enjoyed it. It was very nice.

I thought back then some of the things are a bit expensive. I remember one evening when like a group of us were sitting together I went to this Italian store to try to get some nice wine. And I felt back then the wine was quite expensive. Now of course living in Singapore that's all relative. And I spent a lot of time at this wonderful nice little beach with absolutely gorgeous white sand which is kind of atypical for me because I'm not the biggest beach and sun person. But there I enjoyed it a lot. I even went snorkeling which usually I also don't like because I always get water in my goggles. But there I somehow even enjoyed the snorkeling. So yeah all in all I really enjoyed my time in Koh Tao. And I was sad to leave after only three days.

And what I did is I took the ferry to again Jumbo North Suratthani. And from there I took a train up to Bangkok. Also for the first time in Bangkok. And for reasons beyond me I had a hostel in Bangkok that was right next to Khao San Road. And I remember that was a pretty horrible evening because we ganged up. There were like other Germans and you know there were there are always like a lot of people. If you don't really know what Khao San Road is it's this like party backpacker full of hostels full of crazy stuff street in Bangkok. And I guess being sad to leave Koh Tao behind I was at this Khao San Road and there was a wild party and while it was fun in the beginning I think I might have drunk something wrong or just too much. And I only remember that I lost my phone that night which was sad because it was a pretty new iPhone I only bought a couple weeks back in Japan. And I woke up the next morning in my tiny hostel room with a terrible headache. And I don't know let's just say I don't have the best memories of Khao San Road.

It took me a whole day to pull myself together and to freshen up and to get rid of the headache. Then I went out and bought a new phone because it's very hard to travel in foreign countries without a phone. So I went to I think IKONSIAM and I got a new red iPhone. And I spent the evening setting it up and pitying myself for being so stupid. And I'm also very sad that I lost the pictures of the last couple of days because they hadn't synchronized yet. But eventually I accepted my fate and I went out had a coffee or a tea or something downstairs in the hostel and then another weird thing happened because there was this lady back then I thought like elderly lady now I realize she might not have been that old maybe maybe in her late 40s or something. And she started talking to me and somehow she didn't stop. I was hungry so I asked her to join me for some food and she said she's not hungry and so I left and then she came after me and she said oh on second thought I am hungry and so she did join me for food. And she had this very interesting story about how she bought a house in Sweden but now she's trying to sell the house in Sweden because she wants to move to Thailand. And it was all a little bit weird or confused to me but she told me that whole story about what happened in her life and how she got divorced from her husband and how she's trying to sell the house in Sweden and she asked me if I needed a house in Sweden because you know who doesn't.

And that was my evening that was the evening before really bad and the whole day really bad and spending a lot of money on a new phone and then a weird evening that was just like a whole weird couple of hours. And I think of the whole trip the whole big trip the whole many many months of traveling that might have been one of the low points if not the low point. Then the next day after sleeping one more night in that hostel at Khao San Road I was kind of so fed up with the Khao San Road that I even changed hotels and went to a place that was a little nicer and I kind of accepted my fate of having to spend the money on a nicer hotel and a new phone and all that. And I did some sightseeing the usual Bangkok stuff and then yet again I met Verena and Misha who at the same time also were in Bangkok. So I remember we spent a nice afternoon checking out the Chatuchak market and then alone again I went to the palace I took one of these river boats the cheap river boats in Bangkok and I went to the palace and I was quite impressed how big and how vast this like whole palace area is.

And then we met another traveler on couch surfing and we went up this tower. What was the name of that tower? On my pictures it says Ratchathevi but I don't know if that's the area or the tower. But anyway there is a tower like a building a skyscraper where you can go up all the way to the roof and it's an open roof and there's some kind of fence but otherwise it's an open roof and you have a magnificent view of Bangkok. And I remember we spent quite a while up there to try to catch the sunset and take some nice pictures. And then after that we went to the train market the old train market for dinner. And I think that was also the time where I met Stefan my old colleague from my old company who by the time also had left that company and moved on being an IT consultant or not even a consultant like an internal consultant or internal person responsible for IT infrastructure for another company and he was in Bangkok. And somehow he figured out that I'm in Bangkok as well. It was 2017 August the 1st. He figured out I'm in Bangkok and he texted me if I wanted to meet and I said yeah let's meet let's meet at the uh I don't know what the hotel you're in or the hotel you're giving your your presentation there and I picked him up and we went around in Bangkok a bit we went to to that train market again and we had a couple of beers together and we had this very nice seafood dinner where they where they throw all the seafood in a in a big pot with a with a sauce and all that all together and then they pour the pot just right on the table no plates nothing and you just eat from the table and that was quite nice seafood and we had a couple of asahis and kirins and we had a good talk and I really enjoyed that time and I think that might have been the last time I saw Stefan in person I know we talked again after that but I think meeting in person that might have been the last time.

The next day in Bangkok I had a nice pancake breakfast somewhere in Silom and I went to the barber shop to get a haircut which was for such an expensive barber shop not excellent and then after a wild and weird time in Bangkok I finally took a flight for some change of scenery to Hanoi and that Hanoi part I really really enjoyed tremendously again but I think I will tell you about Hanoi in the next episode and for now I will give you some Tom Sawyer to finally fall asleep.