As a tourist in Chiang Mai one can learn a lot of things. Thai massage, Buddhist meditation, Muay Thai and cooking Thai dishes. After feasting on all the delicious stuff for the last couple of weeks I decided to get an idea of how to cook it myself. The cooking school I chose is a small family run business close to town and the owners picked me up this morning.

In Chiang Mai one of the markets where locals buy their stuff is Thalat Warorot. People sell everything there. Groceries, spices, herbs, clothes, garment, household needs and appliances, jewellery, hilltribe souvenirs - everything. The market is a 15 minute walk from the appartement where we are staying. A cheap alternative to get there is a red taxi. These taxis are basically utes with two benches in the back and a roof over them.

Thai massage, herbal ball massage, herbal sauna - this was a bit of a wellness weekend. Thai massage is very interesting and unlike other forms of massage I knew before. It involves a lot of stretching, pulling limbs and quite often I had a foot or knee in my back. It sure was effective, felt like butter in the sun afterwards. Other than that food is still my main point of interaction with the Thai culture.

If I had to describe Asia I’d say I can’t. It looks different, it smells different and it feels different. Coming to Australia was a change for me but the difference between Oz and Germany is minuscule compared to the difference between Thailand and Germany. And Thailand is the most western of the south-east Asian countries. The differences make Thailand very exciting but also exhausting due to the sheer amount of impressions.

On Saturday Hiro and I left Bangkok to go to Chiang Mai. It’s an 11 hours bus drive up into the mountains and a nice opportunity to see a little more of Thailand. Of Thailand and its roads as well, what I saw there is a bit exotic to say the least. The bus stopped a couple of times to allow for toilet visits and buying snacks and at 1:30 am we arrived in Chiang Mai.

Despite the fact that I don’t know the slightest bit of Thai I got along well enough with the people in the streets. With people in the streets I mean the food stall owners. When I want to order something I simply point at it and when I have to pay they either write down the amount or show me the banknote I have to pay. As there are only few tourists in the area I’m often the only westerner and get a lot of looks.

Wat is the Thai word for temple and being a Buddhist country Bangkok is full of them. Today I had some of the most famous ones on my list. In walking distance from the hostel is Wat Phra Kaew, home of the Emerald Buddha and part of the Grand Palace. While walking there I constantly had to get rid of tuk-tuk drivers. A common scam in Bangkok is a very cheap or even free ride to some allegedly famous Buddha or temple.

During the day Bangkok is as overwhelming as it is at night. The streets are full with taxis, tuk-tuks, scooters and buses and simply crossing the street becomes the first adventure of the day. The area around the hostel isn’t a major tourist destination so most people in the street are actually Thai. Which means I stick out and not just because I’m roughly one head taller than the average Thai.

My journey to Asia started somewhat rough. The airport bus that was supposed to pick me up at eleven ran late and didn’t arrive before 11:20. The driver did his best to get us to the airport in time and an hour before check-in closure I was at the terminal. The domestic terminal, cause that’s what it said on my ticket. Turned out to be a printing error and my flight was leaving from the international terminal as one would expect.

After more than eleven months in Australia my time here is coming to an end. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll get on the plane to Bangkok and arrive there in the late evening. I’m pretty excited to see Asia. Excited and mildly concerned as well. I don’t have a clue about the language and ripping off tourists is somewhat common in Bangkok. Don’t expect any major problems though. The time in Australia has been incredibly good and I could write endlessly about it.