Tieske's Adventures

“How do you feel about taking your AirBnB adventure to Malaysia?" my manager texts me in October. "Sure," I reply, "how about December?"  My AirBnB hosts are waiting for me in the lobby of their apartment complex in Bangsar ( a suburb southwest Kuala Lumpur's city center).  I’m their third guest and they go out of their way to make sure I’m comfortable. They show me around the complex; educate me on the train and bus system ; point me to the nearest ATM and even take me out for a quick bite. “Welcome to Malaysia!” It feels like a warm summer night and I walk over to Bangsar Village, a local area with plenty of restaurants and a mall, while listening to some feel-good music. I get some monopoly-like money from the ATM and a familiar feeling brings a smile to my face: a new adventure! Where in the world did I end up this time? I sit down at an Indian restaurant to order some food. “It is spicy, is that OK?” Having spent eighteen days in Thailand l...

Fog machines blow smoke into the crowd, hard beats follow each other rapidly and thousands of hands are in the air. It’s a little after midnight and we are on Koh Pha Ngang, partying at the Half Moon Festival. Multi-colored strobe lights offer extra effects, entertainers are dancing with fire and black-light emphasizes beautiful colored body paint. Paint is all around us. On our bodies and by accident on our clothes. Some people look like Native American, others like Mexican death masks. A handful of tough guys have the Superman logo painted on their chest. It just started drizzling and the sand underneath my bare feet is getting muddy. It doesn’t matter. Nobody seems to care. The party continues. We came here with a group of people. In Koh Samui we met Nikki and Maartje, two Dutch girls who are here on an internship to learn about castrating dogs. They are fun to be around, but I keep a safe distance, planning to start a family one day. Then there are Piotr and Kasha, ne...

As we exit the airplane, we are welcomed by a warm blanket of humidity. We are on Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. The plan is to stay here for one night and continue by boat to Koh Pha Ngang tomorrow. We booked a little bungalow room in Chaweng Beach. The room is not much more than a space for three beds, but it is dirt cheap and why stay in your room when you have an incredible backyard fifty meters away? When I’m looking for my iPad to read a book, I realise that I’ve left it in the plane. This is not something I typically do. Luckily the Bangkok Airways personnel found it before taking off to their next destination. I return to the airport and the iPad is back in my possession. Yay Bangkok Airways!  The food at our resort is amazing and we devour a delicious barracuda steak. The beers keep on coming and we’re having good conversations.  Later that evening we decide to go to a beach party at the Ark Bar. So much fun...