Thailand is my passion

The NORTH (18/08 to 25/08)

I leave from Fiumicino at 13:30 on August 18th, alone because I have to join my two friends who arrived in Bangkok 2 days ago... the airline, Emirates, is excellent, plasma screens on every seat with games and films that won't be in our cinemas until months later, you eat like crazy, and drink even more, red and white, beer and digestifs are handed out, with the "all-inclusive" formula, by the beautiful Arab and non-Arab hostesses, in short the journey passes, despite the interminable 11 hours with our butts 10000 meters high, and not counting the double stopover of Malpensa and Dubai (an airport that for the luxury with which it's designed really deserves to be seen in depth). I arrive in Bangkok at 12:30 on August 19th... I made it!!

There's no respite, as soon as I get off, pleasantries done, we leave immediately, first stop of the trip, the North... Immediately fleeced by a taxi driver in cahoots with a travel agency, we pay the equivalent of 10 euros for transport to the bus station, we look for the one that will take us, or rather so we believe, to Kanchanabury (it would have cost 2.70 euros if we hadn't listened to the thief). Immediately on the road, darkness falls, impossible to communicate with the driver, nor with the myriads of people loaded by force and refrigerated, against the try-to-beat temperatures weighed down by a dizzying humidity, by a couple of rickety fans? we stink like cows grazing? we get off at the wrong stop and find ourselves practically in the middle of nowhere, we don't eat, and we find a "hotel" soon renamed the "hotel of death"...

1 euro a night, including dead lizards in the bathroom, if you can call it that, a 1.5 x 1.5 meter cubbyhole, a double bed for three, a window overlooking a wall, Fantozzi-style, and air conditioning, yes air conditioning, that one, in Thailand is never missing, like the coughs, colds, sore throats to which you're obviously subject given the constant temperature swings.

5 in the morning, the night passed almost sleepless and with the fear of an Oriental Psycho, bright and early we set off again, and reach the first destination, finally?the Sayok national park, beautiful, natural, incredible, we take a boat ride, we make use of the sulfurous and thermal waters of the place, a swim under a waterfall, and we find to sleep a floating resort on the river, with no electricity, lit with oil lamps, but clean and beautiful. At night the darkness is the real kind, the kind we'll never see back home, just as we'll never see, thank God, the enormous cockroaches that infest these areas, for the non-experts, truly disgusting big roaches capable of climbing anywhere in cahoots with the darkness... we eat, Thai food, excellent and at only 1.50 euros each... incredible...

In the morning we're on the road again, destination Ayutthaya from where we'll take the train that will take us overnight to Chang Mai, in the far north. Ayutthaya is beautiful, the historical park is incredible, but we only see it fleetingly, there's no time? we buy tickets for the sleeper berth and we're already on the train... the night passes quickly, the beds are comfortable and clean, the compartment is shared, we see quite a few European faces, still they please us, soon we'll learn to love the lively almond eyes more?

In Chang Mai we stay at the Lanna House resort, very central, in our opinion run by a local Trans, we learn the first lesson: here Trans are in most cases unrecognizable, the risk of the old wurstel is always lurking? the place is anyway close to the city's typical night bazaar, a very characteristic night market, and luck has it that happening to be there on a Sunday we also find the Sunday market during the day, another crazy big market, Lacoste at 2 euros, Nike Shox at 25, t-shirts, shorts, sarongs, everything but truly everything, it drives you crazy... Directly with the hotel we book a two-day trip: elephants, trekking, sleeping in a village, rafting, everything truly incredible, in particular the trekking, truly destructive, fording rivers with water up to our necks, jumps, crevasses, in short, real but really real...

we would never have believed it could be so excessive, and we only understand later why the payment of 500 Bath (10 euros), mystery revealed, was a life insurance, damn!!? The village where we sleep at night is on top of a mountain, mind-blowing for how beautiful the view and the place are, we're in the middle of the jungle, we're in the middle of nowhere, it's the real Thailand...

SOUTH, islands, sea, fun (26/08- 11/09)

the party ends and with a bus the following night we're on the road again towards Bangkok, we arrive more tired than before and with a domestic flight (80 euros, highly not recommended if we had had more time?) we catapult ourselves onto the island of Ko Samui, the only advantage, seeing the local airport, wood and straw style, practically Caribbean, truly fascinating... we find a resort also very central, OP-bungalow, for 3.50 euros a night, we also rent scooters (2 x 3 euros a day) so that during the days we tour a few different beaches, all at the very least incredible, even though our bungalow is 10 meters from the sand, and in the evening we look for characteristic little restaurants directly on the sea, like real gentlemen, which here it seems we are. At night then we're free to get around avoiding the tuk tuks.

two of the coolest evening spots, the reggae pub, hard to find anything similar in Italy, a huge venue with live reggae music every evening; and the Supersub which is 500 meters from our resort and includes 6-7 venues where you dance, drink, and for those who want you can do other things, here "the other" becomes so easy and even free that you lose your head, but watch out for the usual hidden sleazebag, the risk is always there?

3 days fly by, we leave again towards Ko Pangan, on the 30th there will be the full moon party, for the uninitiated look it up on the web, the craziest party of my life, not that the two evenings preceding the party are any less... 20 venues on the beach, music for every taste, people dancing inside and out, buckets, and I repeat buckets of rum, at 2 euros a head, true madness, the maximum, and everything on the night of the full moon party is tripled starting from the people, almost 60-70 thousand people and only because we're in low season, from every part of Asia, Europe, America... it's the apotheosis, it's the top, it's pure orgasm...

the accommodation for the 4 days is spectacular: Boom's cafè is the name of the resort, the owner Nok is a mum, she cooks like no one had ever made us eat before, she's hospitable, 2 bungalows 3 meters from the beach at 3 euros a night each, palms, fresh coconuts to crack open and drink or eat, hammocks... in short real relaxation, the postcard kind... at least until night...

this too had to end, we set off again, we absolutely must see the Thai Riccione, Phuket, beautiful this one too, very long streets with a thousand little places