In the morning jump from the bed into the lake - pure luck in green

Waterbeds: Chiew Lan Lake in Khao Sok National Park rocks the bungalow guests to sleep at night

© Susanne Arndt

We lie in our wooden bungalow in the Khao Sok National Park and sweat. Outside, the rhythm group of crickets and cicadas gives everything, birds, geckos and monkeys shine as soloists. Blessedly I listen to the dark, nudging Fred: "Listen, the sound of the tropics ... crazy, right?" The only complains: "I can not fall asleep at the clatter."

We're here because I want to show my eight-year-old son a fascinating world beyond his beloved Star Wars universe: the supposedly oldest rainforest of our planet in Khao Sok National Park north of Phuket with Lake Chiew-Lan in the thick of it and then sleepy island life that needs neither shoes nor watches. I would like to visit the Andaman Islands Ko Chang and Koh Phayam, because there is still a touch of old backpacker romance there.

By the way, I want to taste the freedom that I experienced here 25 years ago, when I traveled alone through Southeast Asia: with an open air ticket in my backpack and cleaning tablets for drinking water, which you took with you then, finally you went on an adventure , And so it was: I lived with a family who had picked me up on the train as I dangled my legs from the platform of the last wagon as the landscape rolled back. I ate "magic mushrooms" on the beach and saw blue pigs, kissed Canadians and Cubans. But of course these were just the highlights, the brain filters the past thoroughly.

Siesta Thailandia: While the midday sun is burning on the island of Koh Phayam, Susanne and Fred are forgetting to read on their porch. If the mom is lucky, the son also reads before

© Benjamin Haselberger

Apparently, the young woman, who is sitting in the bikini in front of us, also knows that: "We do not remember days, we remember moments", she tattooed herself on the shoulder. She is one of ten backpackers to board the ramified Chiew Lan Lake on Day Two. Our wooden boat gently sets the gigantic water surface in motion, from the emerald green karst cliffs grow like carious molars, some hundreds of meters high. Fred and I agree that behind the bizarre mountain panorama on the shore, Ms. Mahlzahn must have lived out of the "Augsburger Puppenkiste" before Jim Knopf had made her harmless.

When we reach the bay with the bamboo raft huts where we will spend the night, we welcome first the frog family, which has made themselves comfortable in our dwelling. And then, "Yippie!", We jump in, swim between water runners and bob in truck hoses along the jungle shore. The lake is so sun-soaked that even the spindle-headed Fred never gets cold. "There's a seagull!" He shouts and points to a white heron. "There! A ladybird!" To the bright red dragonfly that laces over the water - he sees things as he knows them. But who does not.

In the shelter of the darkness show still more animals. "Big Man", that's the name of our Thai boat driver, drives us out to the deep black lake after dinner. In silky soft air we cruise along the shore under the Milky Way, in the light cones of our flashlights reflect macaque eyes, flutter bats. Owl is sitting on bamboo, kingfisher on rattan. Big Man turns off the engine - and into the silence, a clan of majestic hornbills glides to their roost on a banyan tree. Even Fred stops wide-eyed.

Jungle Swing - surprisingly high and unsteady: Elephant lady Sambun carries Susanne Arndt and Fred, 8, though extremely well behaved through the jungle in the Khao Sok National Park north of Phuket - nevertheless, Susanne desperately hopes that the seat please do not slip from the elephant back. ..

© Benjamin Haselberger

With us on the lake, young backpackers spend the night with a penchant for handy life-style words: "Live for today, tomorrow may never come", for example, is written on Deborah's thigh; The Australian was born in the same year that I first visited Thailand. So far only with tourist buses on the road, she muses at breakfast: "I would like to go with a local bus, that's certainly an experience."

Not for Fred. "It stinks here," he says, as we board the bus to Ranong the next day. We want to go up to the Burmese border to transfer from there to the islands I have chosen.While I find it exciting to sit among Burmese migrant workers who have their faces painted with white Thanaka paste for protection from the sun, Fred just thinks of one thing: "What are we playing?" After half an hour "I see something you do not see" and tens of laps "Mau Mau" I capitulate. I pass Fred my smartphone with the coveted games - and am suddenly in the thick of the middle in Thailand: the family in front of us, the fingers of sticky rice from a bag; the elephants trotting along the roadside with their leaders, the mahouts; at temples and jungle mountains in the swirling morning haze.

On Koh Phayam I find my paradise. At the wide Büffelbucht the atmosphere is so casual, that I immediately switch down two gears. At the bar of our accomodation, hippies squeeze fruit shakes in slow motion, a couple of women lie in books recessed on colorful mats in the shade. Fred immediately starts sorting our belongings on the shelf of our cabin: books and games here, clothes there, shoes in front of the door. "You act as if you wanted to stay," I state. "I want too," says Fred. Great, it fits!

We bathe until our fingers wrinkle like baby elephant skin. The sea lazily spills as I walk along the wave seam and Fred swims alongside. We spend the midday heat on our veranda, or we play billiards in the shade of the driftwood "Hippy Bar" on the beach. We'll get on with coolie fish and jellyfish tattoos, playing "rummy," "jenga," "gallows rates," until I can not. I want to see something from the island. Fred nothing.

Only once can I manage to lure him into the village with the promise of ice cream. As we pass a couple of fishermen's huts, he says, "There is nothing here but broken houses, and where there are broken houses, there is no ice cream." And put it one step further: "Why do people really live in the trash?" After all, there is no romanticization of simple life in my son's son, which he has ahead of adult backpackers. But our trip is over quickly. And I feel as unfree as long ago.

Depositing: Fred sells time between two snorkeling sessions on the Similan Islands

© Susanne Arndt

What neighbor John does not stop us the next morning his usual "Welcome to another day in paradise!" entgegenzuschmettern. I smile in disgust - for Fred, paradise is made up of games, not playing for me. At breakfast, the mood is bad: "The music is stupid, I do not like the orange juice, I think it's weird that everyone can deal here, there's not even a movie here, I go back to bed and play with my phone , okay? " - "No you do not!" Back in the hut, I start to pack: My city kid needs action, other children to play, if necessary even a big fat portion of spaghetti bolognese. We will leave the world of backpackers and enter the realm of package tourists: Khao Lak.

Khao Lak greets us with boobs. On the first evening, we explore the excursion offer on colorful flyers and posters on brightly lit stalls. We opt for a snorkeling trip to the Similan Islands, 60 kilometers off the coast. The tour is organized in a military style: In the morning a van picks us up with beige leather seats and a LED light show in the back. We take a seat between blondes with artificial fingernails and clean-shaven men who speak an amazing potpourri of German dialects. Out of the boxes "Let's dance the night away!" As we jet along the coast to the pier.

The sea is silent, and the sun gives its evening show

Giant Pool: On Ko Chang the Andaman Sea is just right for splashing

© Benjamin Haselberger

There we get like hundreds of other snorkeling vacationers a number on the chest - aha, we drive with boat number 11. In addition, fishermen sort their catch, the Fred suspiciously eyed: "Then we have no more fish to watch, right?" Yes, we have. One and a half hours later we jump from our catamaran into the sea. In the underwater silence we observe yellow and blue fish, checkered, striped, with dots. I'm struggling to catch up with Fred, who keeps shouting, "Mom, here, there are so many!"

On the islands, before which we anchor in the course of the day, round granite rocks warm in the sun, otherwise: white beach in front of jungle, nothing else. The water shines in baby blue, on the beach swells the wet sand like warm semolina pudding between our toes. The whole people who spit out the boats do not bother me, thanks to Fred. Lonely beaches are not for us, I know that much now.

In the evening, Fred's eyes are still lit up when we eat pizza and spaghetti bolognese at the Italian restaurant instead of rice and glass noodles. I order another glass of red wine while my son plays with Erik from the next table "Uno". Wonderful!

All this has nothing to do with Thailand, but what the hell: Even our bungalow with the soft bed, the refrigerator and the windows, the crawlers keep away, both of us like excellent.Before going to bed, Fred turns on the air conditioner and diagnoses: "Here we do not warm the bed like home, here we cool it down."

In Khao Lak, I can no longer deny it: Thailand and I, we have set, become more obese. Instead of beach huts, there are luxury resorts, instead of strolling VIP buses, instead of long-haired boys seasoned fathers. And I was already slimmer - and looser.

I should not have stuck to my Robinson dreams on Koh Phayam when Fred and I got on our nerves because lonely beach life does not suit us at the moment. My son showed me what I had long since forgotten: that it is important for backpacking to be spontaneous. And that only those are free who make themselves free - even from their own plans and ideas.

Travel Info Thailand

© Bianca Classen

Phuket

Seapines Villa Liberg. Perfect to Arrive and Say Goodbye: Designed like a temple complex around the royal blue pool, this lovely B & B is just 2.5 km from Phuket Airport, and within easy walking distance of Nai Yang Beach. If you have to start on the day of departure before breakfast, you will be driven to the airport free of charge. DZ / F from 45 Euro (111 Moo 5, Soi Bang Malao 2, Nai Yang, Talang, Tel. 076 32 85 85, www.villalibergphuket.com).

Khao Sok National Park

Morning Mist Resort. Nice pool, great restaurant terrace with good food and fruit shakes, the fresh floral bouquet decoration from the garden wear. Simple wooden bungalows, 20 Euros / night (53/3 Moo 6, T. Klong Sok, A. Phanom, J. Suratthani, Tel. 08 99 71 87 94, Morning Mist Resort).

Trips. Book a two-day tour to Lake Chiew-Lan in the "Morning Mist Resort" - a great nature experience (65 euros including transfers, overnight stay in a raft hut, food and guide). The resort also offers elephant riding: on pachyderms it's a good hour through the jungle (23 euros / adult, children pay half).

Ko Chang

Crocodile Rock Bungalows. Tonn and his wife Pit are warm hosts, their pretty bamboo bungalows the last on Ao Yai Bay. In the evening there is wonderful Thai food, in the morning espresso and delicious crunchy muesli with fruit. Bungalow from 8 euros. Prebooking (Tel. 08 13 70 14 34, Crocodile Rock Bungalows).

Mama's. If you like more familiar than at the 4 km long Ao-Yai Bay, stay overnight at the small Tadang Bay. There are three very simple resorts to choose from, such as: B. "Mama's Bungalows". Bungalow from 7 Euro / night (mamas-bungalows@hotmail.com, Tel. 08 72 76 77 84).

Koh Phayam

Starlight Bungalows. Todd from Florida provides a deep relaxed atmosphere. Simple bungalows at the Büffelbucht from 7 Euro / night. Tree houses are being planned (Tel. 08 19 78 53 01).

Bamboo Bungalows. Simple to luxurious bungalows on the busier Ao Yai Beach. From 15 Euro / night (Tel 07 78 20 012, www.bamboo-bungalows.com).

Khao Lak

Green Beach Resort. Large, comfortable complex in a garden on Nang Tong Beach. Bungalow with air conditioning from 33 Euro / night (Tel: 076 48 58 45, www.khaolakgreenbeachresort.com).

Trips. Snorkeling trips to the Similan and the Surin Islands can be booked in the hotels or at the dive shops and stands in the village - the prices are negotiable (eg 45 Euro / person including food and equipment). The nice dive shop "Kon-Tiki" offers children snorkeling tours to Koh Tachai with free ice for everyone! (13/128 Moo 7, Tel. 076 48 53 78 www.kontiki-thailand.com).

Pizzeria Ristorante Bella Italia. Original Italian cuisine and homemade ice cream. Also the red wine tastes good (13/20 Moo 7).

Wrap up

• Flashlight (there is not always power)
• Frisbee (light, flat, fun)
• Diving goggles (underwater there is always something to see)
• "Thua and her elephant": The story of Thai girl Thua, who rescues an elephant, introduces her to Thai culture. Exciting! From 8 years (Randal P. Harris, 12,90 Euro, Carl Hanser Verlag)
• Mosquito and sunscreen
• Everything fits in: The children's backpack "Fox 40" with a capacity of 40 liters and has a built-in whistle in the chest strap, if the child wants to be noticeable in the bustle (Deuter, ca. 90 Euro)

Getting there

z. Condor direct from Frankfurt to Phuket from 1300 Euro for an adult with child (www.condor.com).

Getting Around

Overland trips by taxi are a good option for those in a hurry, eg. B. 150 km from Phuket Airport to Khao Sok National Park for 75 euros. There are very cheap "local buses" that also use the locals, air-conditioned VIP buses, for shorter journeys Songthaews (pickups with benches) and motorbike taxis.

phone

Country code for Thailand: 00 66; the 0 before all numbers only with domestic calls select.

Read

"Thailand": The backpacker classic from Lonely Planet is now also available in German (26.99 euros).

【English Sub】泡沫之夏 01丨Summer's Desire 01（主演:张雪迎,秦俊杰,黄圣池,陈欣予）【未删减版】 (May 2024).