Related

3. January 2019

CELES Beachfront Resort – The BEST Hotel In Koh Samui, Thailand

We spent four wonderful days in the beautiful Celes Beachfront Resort. We really enjoyed our holiday there and highly…

---

Read More

30. April 2018

Our Private Villa At Shiva Samui – A Very Unique Experience

We spent 3 wonderful days in one of the charming villas at Shiva Samui and had an amazing time! The beautiful and…

---

Read More

4. December 2017

A Tropical Vacation At The Aiyapura Resort Koh Chang

After a couple of weeks in Bali, we planned another 2 weeks in Thailand to explore a new island, where we have never…

---

Read More

The post CELES Beachfront Resort – The BEST Hotel In Koh Samui, Thailand appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.

Beach Swing – Shiva Samui

Shiva Samui, Koh Samui Thailand

Our villa at Shiva Samui had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a very large kitchen, which was directly connected to the open dining area and the living room! The highlight was definitely our own pool! We felt very comfortable in the well lit and beautifully furnished villa! It was the perfect combination of thai furniture and modern style. Let me show you our beautiful vacation home away from home!

our villa with private pool – we love it

our beautiful living room at Shiva Samui

The living room was really huge. Our villa had really nice paintings as well as beautiful statues. The living room, the dining area as well as the kitchen had access to the amazing garden and the pool.

well lit dining area with pool and garden view

We really liked the open living situation and enjoyed every day at our Villa at Shiva Samui. The main rooms had a really nice garden and pool view. The lush green and tropical garden was amazing.

beautiful master bedroom – Shiva Samui

Beautiful beach vibes at the Shiva Samui

Our villa was only a few steps away from the white sand beach and the great Shiva Samui Beach Club, where a lot of activities and sports are offered.

Shiva Samui Beach Club

Right next to the big pool at the Shiva Samui Beach Club is a restaurant, where fresh and super delicious food is served. The breakfast buffet offered a great variety of thai-cuisine and western food. We tried many different dishes and everything was very delicious.

we loved the beach swings

Shiva Samui is a great place to spend a lovely vacation. We absolutely enjoyed our stay and can highly recommend it to everybody who is planning to come to Koh Samui, Thailand. These villas are perfect for families, as well as couples or a group of friends. Shiva Samui has villas for up to 8 people and all of them look stunning!

Watch our video and let us show you the amazing Shiva Samui

The post Our Private Villa At Shiva Samui – A Very Unique Experience appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.

amazing view at the Aiyapura Resort Koh Chang

After a couple of weeks in Bali, we planned another 2 weeks in Thailand to explore a new island, where we have never been before. We have been to Thailand 5 times in the last couple of years, but never visited Koh Chang! So we hopped on a bus and a ferry and 10 hours later we are back to island life, where we stayed at the beautiful Aiyapura Koh Chang!

Koh Chang – A Tropical Paradise

Koh Chang is a wonderful island, which is located near the border to Cambodia, about 170 miles from Bangkok. This was our first time visiting Koh Chang and we really like the Island with its tropical rainforests and mountains as well as the white sand beaches. 

The Aiyapura Resort Koh Chang

We stayed at The Aiyapura Resort, which is a beautiful place to spend a peaceful and relaxing vacation. It is only a 10 minute drive from the pier, where we arrived with the ferry. The resort ground is huge and offers a incredible scenic view of the ocean. After arrival we received a delicious welcome drink at the reception, before we were the shown our great sea view bungalow. The staff also took us on a little ride with the golf cart around the whole resort, where he took a photo of us at the view point.

We especially enjoyed the big terrace of our sea view bungalow with the amazing ocean view, where Jeremy loved to play his guitar. 

This is a very exclusive resort with a gated entrance with access to its own private beach and pier. We always felt save and had a really good time!

In the tropical garden are so many different animals like peacocks, which create a very special and magical atmosphere. Every morning we woke up with the sound of the tropical animals singing!

The Aiyapura Koh Chang has a pool and a private beach as well as its own pier! It was a very special time we spent at the Aiyapura Resort and we loved it! 

They offer so many fun activities like biking, kayaking and the highlight is the jump mania, where you can spend a great time jumping around on the huge indoor trampolines.

The post A Tropical Vacation At The Aiyapura Resort Koh Chang appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.

Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort – Our Happy Place

We stayed at the beautiful Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort, which is a incredible resort and we can highly recommend it to everybody who plans to visit Koh Mak!

Let me show you around the Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort. 

view from our bungalow rooftop

The Ao Kao resort is just perfect! The bungalows are very very nice, really big, super clean, furnished with a big bed, a sofa with a table and a TV! The bathrooms are huge as well and it is enough space to spend a great vacation there as a couple of as a family! The Ao Kao Resort has everything you need for the perfect vacation: a great pool, a private beach, tennis court, a beach bar, kayaks to rent, scooters, which you can take around the whole islands and much more.

pool at the Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort

Warm Welcome At The Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort

At arrival the staff served us a delicious welcome drink and handed us a map of the island and explained where all the good sights are. They showed us our bungalow which is in a beautiful lush garden! They arranged the flowers on the bed to spell out “welcome Ina“, which I think is so cute and shows how much love they put in the resort to make the guests happy! I’ve never seen that before, so I was really surprised about this lovely gesture!

best welcome arrangement ever

We immediately fell in love with the incredible rooftop, which every bungalow has! The view was amazing and we loved to relax there on the lounge chairs. Because there is a roof on top, you can relax in the shade. There are so many pink flowers and the whole resort and garden is very well maintained. 

Ao Kao Restaurant – Koh Mak

We ate many times at the Ao Kao Restaurant, which served super delicious food. The breakfast was included and very tasty. The staff prepared fresh scrambled eggs or omletts as well as my favorite pancakes with banana and chocolate sauce. We could sit right at the ocean with a view of the surrounding islands. A speciality was the homemade fruit jellys, which we loved with our toasts.

We really enjoyed every single day of our stay at the Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort. The weather was perfect, so we had the chance to explore the island by scooter as well. We had fun times in the clear water, snorkeling and enjoying our last days at the beach for the next couple of month!

The Perfect Resort in Koh Mak

This Resort is awesome and we can highly recommend it to you! We hope we will be back there soon!

The post Our Dreams Came True At Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.

This years they put up this funny sign with 7 Things To Do In Khao San Road:

sign in Khao San Road

1. Visit Wat Chana Songkhram
2. Check Out Khao San Museum
3. Enjoy The Real Thai Food
4. Get A Tattoo
5. Relax With Thai Massage
6. Buy Silver And Handcraft Art
7. Rock The Night Out

1. Visit the Wat Chana Songkhram! This temple is right across the Police Station at the end of Khao San Road. (in direction Mc Donalds, NOT Burger King )
   The temple is open from 6am till 6pm! To respect the culture and the locals, it is always recommended to wear pants or a sarong for girls and not to show legs or shoulders!
2. The Khao San Garden is the only museum in this street. This combines a museum with a library and a french cafe. Unfortunately we haven’t been there yet, but I promise, we will go next time! (Tuesday – Sunday: 10 am – 9 pm)
3. There is a great variety of cafe’s, restaurants and bars in Khao San, where you can find delicious thai food, but western dishes as well. My favorite thai dishes are green curry, massaman curry and garlic chicken with rice! Enjoy the tasty food!
4. There are a couple of tattoo shops, where you can make a memory of your amazing vacation in Thailand!
5. The Thai Massages are sooo good! I haven’t seen a street with more massage places than in Khaosan and the parallel streets. I love Charlys Massage: sitting there, enjoying a 30 minute foot massage for 150 baht and watching the people walking up and down the street
6. Don’t miss out on the great opportunity to buy Silver and Handcraft Arts in Thailand. They have a good selection of silver jewelry! I love to buy a new ring, which reminds me every day of a great holiday!
7. Rock the night out! My favorite bar is the roof bar, where they have live bands every night! You can sit at the open windows with a view of the Khaosan Road, drink cocktails or the famous Chang beer and make new friends!

DO WHAT YOU LOVE, DO IT OFTEN AND ALWAYS TRAVEL WITH AN OPEN MIND!

Love,

Ina

The post 7 Things To Do In Khao San Road appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.

Of course the Hotel should be in a good lactation, the rooms should be nice and clean and a pool would be nice as well. We were spending so much time looking for Hotels on booking.com without finding something great.

Airbnb came back into our mind and we checked if we can find something cool. While we were scrolling through the app for Airbnb Bangkok and we found a very nice looking apartment. It is in the perfect location, with a 45 squaremeter size and a pool on the roof top. Everything sounded amazing and the little flat had all we could wish for. It was the best accommodation for us in Bangkok!

The Best Accommodation In Bangkok

living room at Milk’s apartment

So we went there, met the lovely owner Milk for checkin and spent 3 great days in this nice Airbnb apartment Bangkok.

It is in downtown Bangkok, really close to the BTS and to the Terminal 21 shopping mall. It is the perfect location: a few steps to good restaurants, bars and cafés, only a few minutes walk to go shopping, 5 – 10 minutes drive to Siam Center, MBK, Pratunam Market, etc. It could not be better!

The 45m2 apartment is on the 11th floor of a really nice and safe condo. It has a huge living room with a kitchen with a table and 2 chairs, a big relax sofa, TV and everything you need. You can also wash your clothes in the washer there, which is perfect for backpackers!

kitchen at Milk’s apartment

In the second room is the comfortable bed, which is good for 2 people and a balcony.

bedroom at Milk’s apartment

The condo has a really nice pool on the 11th floor as well and there is a fitness studio in the condo.
We loved relaxing at the pool and there were not a lot of people. Compared to a busy Hotel, that was like paradise

The Best Accommodation in Bangkok – in a perfect location

In the gound floor is a little shopping mall with a lot of restaurants and cafés. You can find thai, korean, japanese, italian food around without walking more than 2 minutes.

We walked about 5 minutes to the BTS station Asoke, from where we could go everywhere by skytrain for a few baht.

MBK Shopping Mall, just a few skytrain stops away

Milk, the owner of the apartment is such a lovely woman. Finally we met her for the check in and she showed us everything in the condo and the flat and explained what we needed to know. We were talking for half and hour and had a good time with her!

She also has a tourist office and does private tours. So if you are planning to see Bangkok with a local, Milk is the perfect girl to do that! Talk to her what you want to see and do, and she will plan an individual and unforgettable trip for you!

The price is 32Euro a night. I think that is very cheap for what you get!
Find more information about this nice airbnb here: airbnb.de/bangkok/3712763 rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank”

Because accommodations are usually so much bigger than a hotel room, we really love Airbnbs. It is also cheaper and you are not in the touristy areas, where they charge you more for everything. Besides that it is very nice to meet the Airbnb apartment owners, who are normally locals and can give you good advise for sightseeing, shopping and restaurants.

So contact Milk to stay at her amazing apartment – the best accommodation in Bangkok or plan a tour with her!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Bunique-Travel-Organizer

Whatsapp: +66 86-750-5023

E-Mail: thebunique@hotmail.com

The post Best Accommodation In Bangkok appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.

Jeremy and me stayed in the L Suite and we had such a great time. There is a large bedroom with the best bed I’ve ever slept in Thailand! The L Resort Krabi is a really cozy and lovely hotel, which we can highly recommend to everybody!

The L Resort Krabi – The Place To Be

In the living room was a sofa and a chair to relax and watch tv. A second flat screen was in the bed room.

The bathroom had a huge rainshower and a bathtube as well. Everything was perfectly clean and prepared very nice for us!

And the best: you have a perfect view of the ocean from the living and the bed room. We really love this place!

With love for detail The L Resort Krabi provides everything you could wish for in the room:

In the bathroom they have a comb, a nail file, a shaving kit, shower gel, shampoo and conditioner and body lotion and more ready for you. In the living room of The L Resort Krabi is a coffee maker, a mini bar with snacks and you get 2 bottles of water for free every day.

They also provide a docking station for your iPad to listen to your own music in your hotel room. Isn’t that great?

You can also spend time in the outdoor pool with a refreshing waterfall or relaxing in the Jacuzzi.

At the moment The L Resort is doing some constructions to improve their bungalows to a modern style and eco-conscious rooms. * update: We just saw pictures of The L Resort after finishing the constructions and it looks awesome! We need to go back soon!!!

You can find further information on www.thelresort.com.

For requests or questions you can send an Email to grm@thelresort.com

If you are going to Krabi beach I highly recommend The L Resort, it is the place to be

Enjoy your time in Thailand!

Find and book your accommodation here!

The post The L Resort Krabi – The best Hotel in Krabi appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.

The first few days after the accident I had very bad dreams about what happened. I could be dead, I lost my helmet while I fall, but my head, face or backbone is fine.

I was so lucky and I guess a had a guardian angel.

I am so glad, that nothing really bad happened and nothing is broken.

But I am still afraid of riding on the back of a scooter. I did it twice now, but I didn’t feel good.

The roads here in Thailand are not the best, but the Thai people drive their scooter with so much confidence and actually I know that I am pretty save.

After the accident we spent one Week in Chiang Mai, and i Could not Leave our Hostel often. I had a very hard Time to walk or bend my knee.

Jeremy took good care of me and cleaned my wounds a few times a day with h2o2 and betadine, which helped a lot because it is antispectic and also drys it out a little.

After one week in Chiang Mai I felt better and we drove to Pai by bus, because Pai is such a good place to recover.

It was an about 3 hours ride on a windy road, but absolutely worth it.

We had a nice little bungalow in a cute garden for only 5€ a night.

The location was perfect, because it was 1 minute away from one of the Main Streets by the night market.

We really loved to eat at the night market and it was a good training for my foot and knee to walk a little every day!

We went back to Chiang Mai and took a flight to the south of a Thailand.

Now we are on the beautiful island of Koh Tao, relaxing on the beach and enjoying the sound of the ocean.

Yesterday I thought it is a good idea to go in the ocean, because the salt water can help the wounds to heal. At first I went in the sea only with my feet and that felt so good and it did not burn on the wound at all.

So a few hours later we bought snorkeling equipment and I went in the sea completely.

 My scab on my foot fell of and the new skin looks really good and I feel so much better.

My knee will take a few more days, it looks still a little deep, but I am happy that I am making progress so fast and I can walk almost normal already.

Thanks everybody for your support!

The post 18 Days After My Scooter Accident appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.

I really love the amazing atmosphere, the friendly locals and the delicious food in the streets of Thailand.

Let my show you one of the best in Thailand: Pai night market

 
I love to walk through the streets and fill my tummy with the Thai food and yummy fruit shakes. And everything is so cheap!

  
Delicious BBQ beef, pork, chicken and fish skewers

 These chicken skewers are soooo good

In Germany you pay more for one single passion fruit than here for the whole fresh made fruit shake.
My favorite shake: passion fruit mixed with mango!

One fruit shake a day, keeps the doctor away

Here are the prices you pay for food, Drinks, etc.:

Chicken/pork skewer: 5 baht (0,13€)

Plain rice: 5 baht (0,13€)

5 Dumplings: 20 baht (0,50€)

Seafood skewer: 40-80 baht (1-2€)

Thai Pancake with Nutella and banana: 30 baht (0,75€)

Fruit shake: 30 baht (0,75€)

T-Shirts: 100 baht (2,50€)

1h Thai Massage: 150 baht (3,75€)
I dont want to tell you to much, just go and enjoy!!!
To which Night markets have you been so far?

Let me know your favorite Night markets in the comments below!

The post Things to Do in Thailand: I Love Night Markets appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.

I ordered myself a coconut before finally deciding on the Chicken Avocado Burger. Coming from California I am pretty loyal to my California Avos and I rarely like to step out of my “Avo Comfort Zone” due to some bad exeriences at places like Yankee Stadium (whatever you do don’t add the guac on your nachos) and others but I figured I’d give it a go with trying some Thai grown avocados.

While I was waiting for my order I noticed trucks driving up to the cafe every couple of minutes. They were dropping different things every time. First it was tomatos and lettuce, another time the truck dropped off some meat. The final delivery that I saw was a huge sack of fresh green avocados. I was thinking to myself, “this dude just came in his tiny truck and dropped off the ingredients to my lunch.” By the time I saw all of this I was dying to get my order.
When it finally came I was so impressed. The burger was huge. There was a good piece of chicken on the burger and good amount of avocado on the side for me to add. “It comes with fries?” I wasn’t expecting that but my order came with freshly made french fries. Today was shaping up to be an other great day in Pai.

After lunch I took a walk down the Pai square and noticed a little massage parlor advertising a 1 hour Thai massage for 150 baht (about $4 US) so I decided to stop in. “Sawadi ka” I heard as I approached the entrance. ‘Sawadi ka’ is the phrase a female uses to greet others (for men it’s ‘Sawadi kap’). The Thai language is so difficult but try to learn some and use it, it will earn a couple of extra points when interacting with the locals. I laid down on the massage mat and the nice lady began to work her magic. I don’t know what it is but I do some of my best thinking when I’m getting a massage. I know I’m supposed to relax but I sometimes I can’t stop my mind from wandering off.

While the nice lady proceeded to make prezil out of my extremities I started to think about what I wanted my next step to be. It’s been a year since I quit my job to travel the world and so far I have had the time of my life. One thing I learned throughout my journey is that it’s not so much about where you go, it’s about who you become that truly makes the journey special. It feels like I’ve been on this race around the world trying to collect flags to put on my map and I want to change gears for a bit. I want to settle some place and get really good at something. By the end of the hour I had made up my mind. I finally decided what I want to do next. I want to become a Dive Master.

I earned my PADI Open Water Diver Certificate last year on my trip to Koh Phi Phi and from then I knew I wanted to continue further and what better time to start than now? And what  better place to train than Koh Tao?

I booked my flight and ferry for the 6th of October that will take me from Chiang Mai, in the north of thailand, to the beautiful, sunny island of Koh Tao.

This is a new journey for me and I haven’t figured it all out yet but I’m excited to start  something completely different from what I’m used to.

If you have any advice or tips for someone wanting to become a Dive Master please comment below. Thanks for the support and I will update you all soon.

Jeremy

Do what you love,

Do it often,

And always travel with an open mind.

The post I Want To Be A Dive Master appeared first on Open Mind Travelers.