I am already familiar with the way to the airport. I leave to the airport well in advance of my departure.
 
 

 
 
I spend some time in the airport with eating, having a cocktail and checking my email.
 
 
I take a picture of one of these notorious smoking booths in the Bangkok airport. If you want to smoke, you do so in one of these boxes with at least a dozen of other addicts and with hardly any ventilation. I guess this is an educational measure.
 

 
 
The airport I board then is not very big and many of the seats remain empty. I enjoy looking out of the window first at Bangkok, than the clouds and sky and finally Cambodian land and Phnom Penh.
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
It is getting dark by the time we get closer to Phnom Penh.
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
Filling all the paper work and buying a visa takes me a long time. Then I wait at the passport control where many people stand in a cue. In the end it is only about 40 minutes after we touched down that I leave the airport.
 
 
I get a taxi and we drive to the Amok guesthouse, where I booked a room and where I have stayed before for a number of months.
 
 
It is a moving experience to arrive at the Amok guesthouse. Many of the former employees are still here and I am pleased to meet them again and spend some time talking to them. It is good to be here again, in an environment which I am already familiar with and with people whose company I value.
 
 
I get the same room that I occupied before, interesting experience. It is almost two years ago that I arrived here the first time and moved into this very same room. By then I had only vague ideas of what the coming months would be like and what would follow. Now I am here again, after I finished research in Cambodia, my final thesis based on the findings, final examinations, graduation and a six months internship in the ILO’s PRO 169 Project all of which were based on my earlier assignment in Cambodia. This time round I come with more specific assignments and already significant experience stemming from my earlier work here and elsewhere.
 
 
Just like when I arrived here for the first time, almost two years ago.
 
 

 
 
I have a shower. Today is the last day of the Khmer Happy New Year which is celebrated in a way not fundamentally different from the Thai New Year in Thailand (and the Lao New Year in Lao, for that matter). So I take my camera and go to the riverside with a moto taxi.
 
 
There are many people on the road and on the roadside and occasionally I witness somebody throwing water at somebody else. However, much more moderate than what I have seen in Thailand. I read the other day in the newspaper that the government has restricted New Year celebration and tried to enforce a ban on the cusdom of splashing water at people. I heard that policies tried to implement the ban by forcing those not respecting it to drink an amount of water equal to the amount that fits into the bottle or whatever they are using the splash the water. As a result, New Year celebrations were muted and there where fewer casulties of celebrations turning violent than in previous years.
 
 
I arrive at the riverside and walk down the road for some time, getting a fair share of water splashed at me. Later I walk back and enter the Foreign Correspondence Club (FCC) which has a nice view over the riverside.
 
 
I take some pictures here.
 
 

 
 

 
 
There are only few people involved in splashing water and they do so very occasionally. I also note that almost exclusively Cambodians are involved, not foreigners unlike in Chiang Mai.
 
 

 
 
In the background is the mighty Mekong River.
 
 

 
 
I meet a young couple from Canada. He is ethnic Chinese who fled Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge when the nightmare began. It is very interesting talking to him, as he has witnessed some of the darkest times of this place and now returns as a visitor on such a peaceful and enlightening point in time and at a place which seems to proof considerable development in the country.
 
 

 
 
Later I walk over to an area close by at the river, in front of the royal palace, where on weekends and holidays many Cambodians come to enjoy picnic. At this time the area is already pretty dark. A number of youngsters along the road splash modest amounts of water at people on motorbikes. I do not see any foreigners.
 
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
One of the bystanders walks up to me and puts powder in my face. This is the other important custom on Happy New Year, besides splashing water.
 
 
After some time I take a moto taxi and ride home. I am very happy to be in Cambodia again.
 
 

 

Today I take it easy. I spend some time walking around in Chiang Mai and visiting some sites around town with a tuk tuk. One very unfortunate incidence is that the tuk tuk I am siting in hits hard an old man in the middle of the road. The man falls and is dragged along for some meters. The poor guy is down for about 5 minutes on the middle of the road obviously deeply shocked and probably also with immense pain. Then we manage to lead him to the roadside. An emergency team arrives after some time and takes him away.

It is afternoon when I meet Chingya again. Songkhran is still ongoing and we decide to join the water battle again. This time we take the moto. Chingya has brought a water canon. Obviously, I do not make the same mistake again and this time round I leave my camera at home.

The walls that circle the inner town of Chiang Mai represent a square each side of which is about 2km long. Along the wall are two roads on each side of the moat, leading in circles around the town center in opposite directions. It is here, along the moat and on the road where most water battles take place.

We take the moto and the plan is to ride one time all alongthe moat all around the town. And this is what we do. Chingya rides the bike while I target people on trucks and along the roadside. Obviously, we are frequently on the receiving end since we are an easy target in the slow traffic.

It does not take long until we reallize that some people use very cold water. We note that massive amounts of ice are sold along the road. People on trucks put huge amounts of ice into barrells of water that they refill from the moat, and many people along the road do the same. Once in a while we get a chance to refill our watercanon with icy water. It is fun because you definitely get a reaction from those you target. However, we also take substantial amounts of cold water. After the first halve of the ride we are already pretty cold. This takes about half an hour and now the sun is setting.

By the time we finish the circle around town I am shivering. Even a bath in the dirty but warm moat now seems an appealing prospect and this is what we end up having. Then we go and have food. Later I go to the guesthouse, pack my staff and leave to the airport. Nothing worth mentioning happens on the flight back to Bangkok. I take a taxi from the airport to the Central Point Hotel. By now I am familiar with the way.

I learn at the reception that I was ‘upgraded’ to a room with kitchen at the 23 floor. I don’t need a kitchen but like the view from the balcony.

I arrive in Bangkok late Friday night. My flight to Phnom Penh is on Sunday evening. As it happens, I have some problems with my computer and spent much of the weekend looking for somebody to fix it. Finally I have the battery reconditioned in a shop close by in a shopping mall. Besides, I spend some time going around in Bangkok.

This is some sort of mall for electronic and computer shops and it is here where I have my computer fixed. People sell cheaply all kinds of hard and software, music and electronics.

Today is holiday and since nobody is in the office, I decide to spend a day more like the many people who come here as tourists. The guesthouse offers a number of day trips and following the recommendation of the receptionist, I booked one of them the other day, which involves visiting Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain in Thailand (2595m), as well as a close by waterfall and hill tribe village, among others. The price is about 20US$.

We start at 8 am in the morning with a mini bus. We pick up a number of other guests before we leave the town, an elderly Thai couple, a middle aged British couple who lives in Bangkok, and two Germans in the company of a young Thai lady. Then we leave Chiang Mai to the south. It takes about 2 hours from the town to the gate of the national park in which the mountain is located. The ride is comfortable, the road is pretty good and the bus is air conditioned.

There is not much to take pictures of during the first hour of the trip. When we enter the national park, I get out my camera. However, I note that it is occasionally malfunctioning, and the frequency of these occasions increase. I attribute this behavior of my camera to the fact that it got very wet yesterday. At some point, the camera makes only nasty noises when I start it but refuses to focus or take pictures. I find this very frustrating, having the chance to be a tourist for one day and a broken camera at the same time.

This is the last picture I am able to take.

We travel through mountainous and fairly green scenery, slowly but continuously climbing up the mountain. Then we reach a huge parking lot, get out of the bus and walk the few hundred meters to the highest point in Thailand. Although this appears less impressive in practice than it sounds, I find it annoying not being able to take a picture where everybody else does.

After less than twenty minutes we get on the bus again to ride a few hundred meters to another huge parking lot. It is located next to two religious buildings (temples? Stupas?, I really don’t know)which were built recently in honor of the Queen and King respectively. Still struggling with my camera I note that it seems to come to live again. In fact I am able to take a number of shots and after some minor errors it seems to operate properly again. I am very glad and take many pictures.

This is the building dedicated to the Queen, if I am not mistaken. Both buildings are located in a huge and colorful garden which however looks a bit artificial to me.

The guide takes a picture of me.

The place is pretty crowded, partly due to the holiday, I guess.

This building is dedicated to the King. I climb up the stairs.

This is inside.

Then I walk over to the other building. I am on a tight schedule here, because the bus will be leaving after only a 30 min break.

At most of the places one does not really get the impression that this is about 2600m above sea level, maybe because the sky is overcast.

One of the artworks at the building. The scenes which are depicted here are partly pretty bloody.

This is inside the other building.

People pour water over Buddha statues and pray.

Children are performing dances when I reach the parking lot.

Then we continue the trip.

In his short statements, the guide mentions a number of times that what we see are achievements of the ‘Royal Project’. During the bus ride I ask him what this project is all about. He tells me that it aims to prevent the local indigenous groups from ‘burning down the forest’, and instead assisting in creating occupations other than traditional ones. I ask him whether he thinks that hill tribe members are happier now and he say yes. My limited experience with indigenous peoples in other countries makes me skeptical if such a project really correlates to those peoples’ aspirations.

On the way to the next sight we stop at a local market, for about 10 minutes. The whole trip is carefully scheduled. The market is an accumulation of small shacks in which members of hill tribe communities sell fruits and mostly generic artwork at low prices.

At the market.

Then we continue the trip. The next stop is a hill tribe village. The village is close to the main road.

This is in the village.

We go to one house where a group of women weaves textiles, mostly scarves, which are sold to visitors. Another group of tourists has already entered but I do not see anybody buying anything. The women do not seem very enthusiastic about their work.

The next stop is a simple, open air restaurant at the roadside, where we have lunch, which is decent.

Then we head to the next attraction. It is a waterfall. The final kilometers are pretty bumpy, but the huge parking lot is crowded with people and cars.

This is the waterfall. It is pretty high and there are substantial amounts of water involved, despite the fact that it is dry season.

We have about 30 minutes time which I use to walk around, hang out and take some pictures. Most visitors appear to be Thai and I see very few foreigners.

It is very hot, even in the shadow. Many people picknick or go for a swim.

Then we leave and head back to Chiang Mai.

On the way, we see many people with barrels of water, water pipes and water cannons, either at the road side or on the back of pick up trucks and both involved in water battles. Occasionally we come across farmers standing with massive water tubes and a water pump with a power generator – equipment that I guess on other days is used for irrigation purposes – pouring huge amounts of water over everything that travels on the road. However, the speed of the bus does not allow taking pictures.

At one point we are going slower and I can take this pictures. These guys are listening to heavy metal music, appear drunk, dance on the road and pour water over some females on a motor bike, actually close to harassment.

The closer we come to Chiang Mai, the more water battles we get to see at the road side. Everybody starts carefully wrapping belongings into plastic bags. The guide informs us that it would not be possible to enter the center of the town due the crowds of cars and people. On the final stretch we go only very slowly. People line up the road and target everything with water.

Massive amounts of buckets are sold along the road. People built chains to efficiently transport water the few meters from the moat to recipients.

This fellow tries to open my window. He fails.

Some people swim in the moat.

We are moving very slowly. At some point we stop only about 300m away from my guesthouse. I put on my rain jacket and all my stuff in the bag. I get only modestly wet on my way home.

It is still daylight, I change and leave again, with my camera wrapped in two plastic bags, looking for a dry spot from which I can take some shots of the crowd.

The inner city used to be enclosed by a wall made of brick. Some gates are still standing and so are other parts of the wall. I finally find a suitable spot on one of those parts of the wall. Two roads are following the moat in different directions, it is along those roads where most of the action takes place and this piece of wall is right in between them.

Some kids are jumping from the wall into the moat, which I find quite brave.

Then something else happens at the road side. Two motor bikes have an accident which I do not actually see. When I take notice, somebody is lying on the road without movement. I then see that a group of people is punching and kicking the person which is down already and find it quite nasty. A few meters away from me is a man with a walkie talkie who first talks to his counterpart and then walks towards the scene of the accident so I assume somebody will take appropriate action.

However, nobody seems to intervene and the mistreatment keeps going on. This incident happens actually quite at a distance and I take pictures with 10x zoom. I know somebody should intervene but feel very reluctant to do so, because what is going on is quite violent.

At some point the guy on the ground gets up, much to my surprise. It even seems to me that he tries to apologize but these fellows keep kicking and boxing him. At this point I actually record a short film which I would present here but I don’t know yet how to integrate it into this text. At any rate, finally some people appear who look like police in civilian clothes and they prevent further abuse quite effectively.

It is almost dark and I go home. Later I call Chingya. He picks me up with the motor bike in the evening. We ride around for some time and then head towards some bars that are located along the river.

There is live music in quite a number of these bars. A band is playing in the first bar we enter and I am very delighted that they play very well and very sophisticated music, too. We order drinks and listen and talk for some time and have another drink.

Later some good looking girls go on stage and dance. At this point, the band has changed, not to the better. They play mostly Thai pop with the characteristic keyboard sounds that I do not particularly like.

Later we move to another bar where we order more drinks. Chingya recommends the place because a locally famous blues guitarist plays here regularly. A band is indeed playing bluesy music, not bad but not particularly good either. It is already about 11 when the guy finally appears. He plays in fact very good and very fast but always solo and most of the time loud. Anyway, the band is pretty good for the most part and we have a great time.

It is late when we leave.

Today is Wednesday. As far as I know, this is also the first official day of Songkhran, the Thai New Year. In the morning I have a meeting with Helen in the office of the International Alliance. The office is outside of Chiang Mai and she has explained to me yesterday how to get there. However, it takes me more than 30 minutes to find the office. A number of children splashes significant amounts of water at me on my way through the city center. I like it, and by now I can manage to ride on the wrong side of the road.

Finally I find the office. We spent the morning with discussions. Later we leave to visit a party of indigenous peoples from Burma (Myanmar) who fled from their evil government to Thailand. Although Helen speaks Thai very well it takes us quite some time to find the place. Here I meet again with Chris, his wife, Jannie and Chingya. The party takes place in some sort of garden and there are about 40 or 50 people, including a life band. Most people are from Burma.

People enjoy themselves, some have drunken significant amounts of beer already, and a number of children have a lot of fun splashing water at each other and everybody else. I get to talk to some people and listen to the music and more generally enjoy being here among friendly folks.

Jannie and Chingya singing.

Chingya singing.

Indigenous refugees from Burma, slightly drunk.

Children playing with water. By now I am wet all over, like everybody else.

It is early afternoon when we decide to move to the town center and join the Songkhran celebration. First we ride to Chris’ house, where I try to put all my belongings into plastic bags. The roads are very crowded when we come closer to the town and water is splashed at us quite frequently. The inner city is closed and at some point we leave the bikes and walk.

I knew that splashing water at other people is what Songkhran is all about and that this practiced particularly in Chiang Mai. However, I am surprised about the number of people and amounts of water involved. It seems everybody is joining, locals together with Thais from other places and foreigners. The road is wet everywhere, almost everybody seems to have a water canon and trucks are driving around with huge barrels of water and people splashing it all over.

This police man has not only wrapped his radio in plastic, but also his gun.

Jannie and Chingya, entirely wet.

Chris and his wife, wet, too.

This moat surrounds the city center of Chiang Mai. The water inside is not particularly clean, but this does not prevent people from swimming in it, or from using it to make other people wet.

By now I am getting a bit concerned that my camera might get wet. We decide to have some food at the roadside and I run home to leave my bag and camera there. I realize that water is standing in my camera bag and hope the camera will survive. Then I go back to meet the others.

Obviously I cannot take any pictures anymore. We continue to walk through the crowd, now armed with water canons and buckets. I realize how much more fun it is to make other people wet, rather than being on the receiving end only.

At some point we come across on of the four gates of the old city wall. A huge procession takes place, people of all ages partly in traditional costumes pass by with nicely decorated cars with Buddhas on the back, people carry huge flags, dance, sing and shout blessing over loudspeakers. The whole event is quite fascinating, particularly given the environment in which it takes place. There are tons of people battling each other with water canons in very casual dress, next to it is a stage with loud techno music and many people dancing, and here is what appears to be a time honored tradition of celebrating the New Year. These are quite different manifestations of the same event, and they do not seem to be at odds with each other. I also note that this event is celebrated by locals and foreigners together and equally enthusiastically.

Everybody has joined the celebration.

We stop by the market where Chingya buys a selection of fried insects, like worms, and grasshoppers. I try, reluctantly at first but then find that this stuff is fairly tasty. Than we join the crowd again, at a place next to the moat, and battle each other and everybody else with water. We spent quite some time doing that and it is getting dark when we decide to go home.

I meet with Chingya in the evening. There are still pockets of people splashing water. There is a stage close to one of the gates were traditional and not so traditional performances take place. We spend some time watching.

New Year Performance.

Later we ride to the night market where we have some refreshment and talk. Many of Chingya’s family members were involved in the struggle against the Indian government and his father was killed by the Indian army. As I mentioned, I have met Chingya’s uncle in Geneva and found him to be quite an interesting person. So is Chingya. He has studied the law in India and has worked in Delhi for a lawyer organization that supported HIV/Aids affected people. Now he works as Campaign and Policy Advocacy Coordinator in AIPP. Later we walk through the market and still later hit a bar. I learn a lot about Naga in India, about AIPP and indigenous peoples in the region. It is already past midnight when we go home.

I meet Chris’ wife (unfortunately I forgot her name), who is an indigenous person from the Naga in Manipur, India. We discuss for some time. Later Jannie joins us, indigenous, too, Kadazan from Sabah in Malaysia. Jannie is Secretary General of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), a regional network of indigenous organizations. Their office is just on the other side of the road.

Later we have lunch in a local restaurant next to the river. The food is excellent and incredibly cheap. Still later I meet with Jannie in the AIPP office. One of her staff, Chingya, joins us and we spend the afternoon with interesting discussions. Chingya is also Naga from Manipur in India. In fact I have met his uncle in Geneva, who is one of the funders of AIPP and lives currently as political refugee in Canada.

Chris’ wife has prepared a great diner and we spend the evening in their house, again with interesting discussion. Helen joins us, a young woman from Australia who works for yet another NGO, the International Alliance of Indigenous Tribal Peoples of Tropical Forests.

It is late in the evening when I try (ultimately successfully) to find my way back home with the moto scooter.

It is dark when I leave the building. It does not take long to get a taxi and I am on my way to the airport. There is massive traffic jam. At some point the car does not move for more than 15 minutes and I am getting concerned that I might miss my flight. However, there is not much traffic once we have reached the toll way. The driver speeds up and we make it in time to the airport. Bangkok’s airport for domestic flights appears smaller and more provincial than the international one. My flight is with Air Asia and I have booked it online some days ago (ca. 80Euro for the return ticket). In fact it was not easy to get a flight during these days, as foreigners as well as Thais travel to Chiang Mai to spend Songkhran here, the Thai New Year.

The flight is only about one hour and we reach Chiang Mai airport late in the evening. The climate seems a bit cooler up here. I take a taxi to the guesthouse. The taxi driver is new in the business and we are driving around for quite some time which is nice because I get to see the town. The flair is markedly different from Bangkok, more like a provincial town with low and partly old buildings, an ancient wall and a moat around it.

There appear to be countless tourists and significant nightlife. There are also countless guesthouses and my room in one of them is fairly simply, just a hard bed, a shelf, a bathroom and a van. It is late in the evening already. I go for a short walk along the road with dozens of bars and restaurants. After I have some diner I go home and sleep.

As agreed upon with the travel agency I meet the guide and the driver in the hotel lobby at 2 pm. The guide is about 30 years old and tells me that he is deputizing for his colleague who has fallen sick. I learn that he has studied design in Bangkok and works in his family’s company which produces clothes.

The guide suggests visiting Wat Benchamabophit, a temple which he considers the most beautiful in Bangkok and I agree. We reach the temple after about 30 minutes, during which he tells me all about his job but nothing about Bangkok and its sights. In addition, he suggests that I should buy a suit and some shirts in his shop which I kindly decline.

Wat Benchamabophit is made of marvel which the king brought from a visit to Italy some hundred years ago.

An initiation ceremony for young monks is going on inside and I do not enter in order not to disturb. I read in the guide book that there is a unique collection of Buddha statues in the yard. The guide is constantly talking to somebody on his cell phone while I see the statues.

Backside of Wat Benchamabophit.

The guide keeps complaining about the heat and suggests that he will wait in the shadow while I see the compound around the temple. I agree since he does not do any guiding anyway. I find the garden and other buildings quite beautiful.

This is where the monks live.

Some monks return from their initiation. It seems they have gotten some gifts.

This canal separates the Temple from the monk’s accommodations.

There are many fishes in the canal, some of them quite big.

The guide seems to have run out of ideas when I return to him. He says there is no point in visiting more temples as they all look the same (which I doubt). He ensures me that any other interesting sight would be closed today, as it is Sunday. For me it is hard to believe that there is nothing else to see on a Sunday in Bangkok. The only thing the guide can think of is a boat trip on the river which I find very appealing but at 40 US$ unacceptably overpriced. The guide appears to find it ridiculous that I do not want to afford the boat trip. Increasingly he seems to be unwilling to pursue this tour, after only about one hour. At this point I consider bringing this tour to an end, too, and exploring Bangkok on my own, since the guide is not very helpful. We agree to visit another temple where there is a 22 meter high Buddha statue before we finish.

On our way we pass this building, which houses the Thai parliament, according to the guide.

This is the statue.

This is inside the temple. There are many beauty- and colorful paintings on the walls.

The guide tries to hook me up with a prostitute on the way back to the hotel.

After I have some rest in the hotel I leave again. I walk down Phetchaburi Road towards Chalermlok Market in the east where I turn to the south and head to the Central World Plaza and the Siam Center. There is massive traffic on the road and the narrow pavements are crowded with people, a good share of them obviously foreigners.

Phetchaburi Road.

In front of the Central World Plaza

There is some sort of promotion event in front of one of the huge office buildings. A Thai rock band is playing but it sounds fairly Western to me.

Ratchadamri is a multiple road construction that carries a ‘sky route’ and what appears to be a highway, all above the main road.

I enter the Siam Center. This is a very modern building that houses countless rather expensive shops and a huge cinema on the upper floors. I walk around for some time and have some food.

Inside the Siam Center.

At some point a young man ask me whether I need a moto taxi. I knew that there are taxis and tuk tuks but did not know there are moto taxis. Given the traffic jam on the road I ask the guy to give me a ride to the area around Khao San Road. Khao San is located in the west, near the river and it takes some time to get there. Most of the backpackers stay here and it is supposed to be a vibrant and fascinating place. Thanks to the motorbike we snake through the dense traffic fairly quick.

Songkhran, the Thai New Year, is coming up next week. What is popular during these days is to splash water at each other. This holiday is particularly excessively celebrated in Chiang Mai. As it happens, I will travel to Chiang Mai tomorrow afternoon.

All along the way are many people and there are many lavishly decorated trucks along the road that leads to the Democracy Monument.

Democracy Monument. Tons of people all over the place.

Shortly after we arrive at Khao San Road. The road is extremely crowded with foreigners and at least as many Thais. There are all kinds of shops, restaurants, guesthouses, tattoo shops, barbers and so on which seem to cater mainly to tourists and at very reasonable prices.

I walk around for quite some time and get myself a hair cut and a cocktail. Later I check my email, before I head back to the hotel with a tuk tuk.

My journey to Cambodia starts on April 10. I fly from Berlin to Frankfurt and from there to Bangkok. Not much happens during this trip that would be worth reporting. I tend to find long distance flights rather annoying and this one is no difference. In Frankfurt I find that my luggage is checked in all the way to Phnom Penh, while I want to stay in Thailand for one week where I will need my stuff. I talk to the people from the airline and they ensure me that they will make sure that I get my bags in Bangkok. I try to get a seat at the window but no such seat is available any more and I find myself between two mid aged men who appear to be sex tourists and spend most of the time sleeping and snoring.

We reach Bangkok very early in the morning of April 11 and like all the other travelers I wait for my bags at the luggage claim. Unlike them I wait in vain. So I talk to a number of airport staff. These people are very helpful and after about half an hour I get my bags. A person from a tourist agency approaches me on my way out. What he offers is a taxi to my hotel now together with a sightseeing tour in the afternoon with a private car and tour guide for about 30 Euro. The taxi to the hotel would cost me about 8 Euro anyway. Moreover, it is weekend and a guide seems to be a nice thing to have for just one day in a city like Bangkok. So he and his numerous colleagues manage to persuade me, not least by showing me certificates that appear to show that the services of this company are audited and recognized by the Thai government.

The ride to the hotel takes about half an hour, during which I get to see very urban environment with many skyscrapers, multistory highways and significant traffic jam.

Road just outside the airport.

Huge skyscraper.

Road just outside the hotel.

The name of the hotel is Central Point and it appears to be fairly luxurious compared to what I would have chosen for myself. This accommodation was chosen and booked by my organization at UN rates and I have to pay only modest 25 US$ per night. My room in the 8th floor is generously sized and air conditioned. There is a huge bed, a small kitchen, a sofa and some chairs, TV and stereo, a balcony and a safe. I have a few hours of rest before I prepare for the sightseeing tour in the afternoon.

My room.

Views from the balcony.