Monday, January 30, 2006

Ko Phagnan



We had a bit of a stressfull journey to the island as we thought we were being scammed by the travel agent. They'd taken our money for a minivan & boat to the island but then it transpired they were actually sticking us on a public bus which was late. Even the owner stroking the hairs on my arm and looking bemused didn't calm our fears. As it happened we made the boat on time. When we got to the island though we had the 'pleasure' of meeting the incredulously named 'Space', a Brit lass who was living on the island and working in a bar. 'Space' - for God's sake! Anyhow, we had to wait a while as we'd agreed to split a cab with her and she was waiting for her, get this, blind traveller friend from Portugal. 'Space', (I can't even type that without laughing!), and her mate got out of the cab the beach before us and we headed along the lumpiest track I've ever known to meet Marc & Sorcha. We found Mr & Mrs Boase in a state of extreme relaxation sitting at a beach bar at the far end of the bay supping Singha beer and generally looking like the cat who got the beer. We had a couple with Marc and headed off to bed. It had been a long day.
The following day Ben developed a 48hour gastro-intestinal infection, (or 'the shits' as it's known medically), and had to spend the whole day within dashing distance of the latrine. Thankfully we were in a very lovely little hut in a very peaceful place so it was pretty good for convalescing.
Marc & Sorcha looked after Beth and kept her plied with Beer & food in much the same way as they do with Woody I think.
Once I was better we did all the usual things, eating, drinking and relaxing. We dabbled with the idea of snorkeling and visiting other beaches but frankly it was too darn lovely where we were. They had beer, excellent beach barbies and coconut shakes, why would we leave.


We had ourselves a massage and felt deeply relaxed, it was Ben's first time and he loved it, and it only cost us about 4 quid. Relaxation on the cheap is so good in Thailand.
The last day was a bit of a sorry affair as the Heavens opened, (again), thus signalling our time to move on. Marc & I had to trudge into town in the pouring rain in some rather fetching yellow & transparent rain macs cursing and swearing that we'd "Come to Thailand by mistake. We're not from England."
M&S took the sensible option and flew, (first class!), to Bangkok while we opted for 'divvy class' cab-boat-bus.
The bus on the mainland was exceptionally comfortable with the only main drawback being the choice of films. We were treated to that all time family favourite, light-hearted comedy extravaganza that is 'Hotel Rwanda'. Laugh? No. I cried. A lot. So did Beth. A lot. Then we got 'The Wedding Crashers' which involved a lot of boob shots followed by 'American Pie - Band Camp' which was pretty crude. I don't know if it's a cultural difference or they just don't vet or censor these things the way we do but they were hardly what I'd call suitable for a family oriented bus journey. We'd already been treated to a soundtrack on the catamaran featuring some rap artist singing his hit "F*** you, you Sh**". I kid you not. Google it if you don't believe me. Mercifully Bangkok came into view before they could show any more dubious films like "Die Screaming With Sharp Things In Your Head".

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Khao sok


From Ko Lanta we had an horrendous journey to Khao sok national park packed in a minivan with non-existent air-con. But it was so beautiful and tranquil that a shower in the fantastic jungle hut soon washed it all away. We treated ourselves to that old Thai classic - french fries (yummie potatoes Mmmmmm) and the lovely lady who served our drinks turned out to be a man. Interesting. From the cafe terrace we watched the monkeys across the river playing in the cave and were deafened by frogs and ciccadas, which we originally thought was an alarm in one of the huts as it was so ear-piercingly loud.
We went back to our hut and were confronted with the biggest insects I have ever seen that appeared to have become our new roomies. One was a cockroach about the size of a small child and I'm pretty certain had a beard though Ben said it was meerly a beetle in disguise. Ben did the manly thing and rid our bedroom of another huge beast and said the only thing he was concerned about was crushing the things antennae, although there was definitely fear in his eyes.
The next day we chickened out of the overnight trekking, which would'v involved a good few hours walking each day, and took an elephant ride instead. We were at the front of the pack and we came literally face to many-eyed-face with a huge jungle spider. We kept quiet about it and enjoyed looking back at our everso slightly annoying American companions freaking out at the sight of it dangling across their path. We could've sworn we heard it chuckle. On the way back to base we stopped off at a waterfall and were more taken with another, (or was it the same?), giant spider than the water. These things were big, had fearfully scary pointy legs sporting what looked like yellow knee-pads and moved in such a slow, deliberate way that you almost knew they were thinking, "You may be scared of us now but imagine how you feel when you wake up and find we've taken over the World and eaten all your furniture. Mwah-Ha-Ha!"



We ventured off into the national park in the afternoon and followed a well trodden path with plenty of pit-stops to look at lizards and... more mega-spiders, as well as a friendly monitor lizard who gracefully posed for a photo before disappearing into the undergrowth looking for a mega-spider to eat.
It was great being in the jungle and a brilliant stopping off point before our next beach stop on the other side of the peninsular to meet up with the family Boase.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Ko Lanta


We got a long boat onto a ferry and after a beautiful journey, marred only by a German making a nuisance of himself, arrived in Ko Lanta. We stayed one night in a great hut on Khlong Khong beach, but the beach was narrow and rocky and not condusive to the relaxing beach holiday we had envisaged. We did however have some great Thai food and our first taste of Ko lanta was seen through the kerosene fumes of fire dancing set to some good old fashioned Scorpions rock. The next day we headed onto Khlong Nin beach where C&S suggested we go. The week was taken up with a bit of sea-bathing, a bit of sun-bathing, a bit of beer and a lot of good food. For the first time we were really able to relax and feel like we were on holiday. The following day we sat in the sun and had a beer and some good food... you get the picture. we finally managed to drag ourselves away about a week later and headed in-land to Khao Sok National Park in an effort to get away from beaches and actually see some stuff.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Thailand - Ao nang


Our first stop in Thailand was Ao Nang on the peninsular west coast, and we received an exceptionally warm welcome from Claire & Scott who had booked us a fantastic room in town and pulled out all the stops for us. Scott treated us to some seafood laughably called 'prawns' but each one was the size of a large banana and had enough meat on it to feed a family. We managed to drink several cocktails and got our first taste of the Thai beaches with great company. The beach was a little on the 'busy' side though as throughout the day long-tail boats chugged in and out taking holiday makers to other islands. We also managed to catch an old 'A-Team' episode on Thai television, it was the one featuring Boy-George, cool huh?
The first night we ended up down a strip of bars that I've now christened 'Thai-Croydon', here we drank far too much and had ourselves a highly amusing night watching the Thai ladies, (in very short skirts), dancing provocatively in front of the western men. Aah the cultured life is sometimes so heady and overpowering.
Unfortunately the weather followed us from Malaysia and we were often peed upon resulting in applying sun-screen, five minutes on the beach, swearing, dashing to shelter and repeat. C&S recommended we go to Ko Lanta where they had had a wonderfully relaxing beach holiday with no rain... so Ko Lanta here we come...

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Penang island - Georgetown


Well whadya know! Little India, Chinatown & a Colonial district. Whadda the odds? Hee-hee. Georgetown is one of the most historic cities in Malaysia apparently and the whole of Penang is often refered to as Georgetown in much the same way as the bulk of Georgetown can be refered to as Chinatown. It's very Chinese.
We stayed in a nice little guesthouse that was owned by a sweet Chinese lady and had a cafe on the ground floor. The place was all old Chinese dark wood furniture and even older even darker wood floors but our room was still a little on the 'cell-like' side. The fan above our bed pretty much filled the room and spun at an alarming speed above us at night. I kept thinking it'd descend like in a cheap horror film and we'd have to dash for the door.
Anyway, we finally found ourselves a great little hawker's market and had great food - shame it was our last night in Malaysia really. It was no wonder they proved difficult to find, the stalls are a kind of bike-come-oven-stroke-kitchen affair and they just cycle up, light the wok and get woking. We also found an excellent samosa & bhaji dude who whipped us up some nibbles at lunchtime. I tried to find him again but trying to re-find a food stall in Malaysia is like... well, trying to re-find a food stall in Malaysia.
One of the big problems with travelling is that as soon as you get to a place you have to start considering how and when you'll be moving on and in no time at all we found ourselves booking our mini-van journey out of Georgetown to head off to our third country - Thailand. It was gonna be a five in the morning affair and the walk to the pick-up wasn't exactly pleasant. The charming little streets by day had become horrible by night. Lady-boys everywhere and kids on scooters eyeing you up and down and making several passes don't exactly make you feel safe as houses. It didn't help that we'd met a fellow traveller who'd had all her stuff snatched off her back that very day by 'kid-on-scooter'. When we got to the pick-up Lisa looked relieved and Dan let go of the pointy rock he'd been clutching for the last ten minutes.
The van journey was fine, if a little cramped, mostly 'cos of the company of Dan & Lisa and this really nice American guy called Xander and his new Swedish misses. The probelm with these van journeys is that they also serve as a kind of 'pick-up & drop-off' service for the drivers. I reckon they do twice as many miles as necessary just delivering stuff to their mates or families.
Anyhow, we breezed through Malaysian border control, (another stamp - yey!), and eventually got to the Thai border. The Thai border is a little more thorough than we'd been used to so far. They actually looked at your passport here. Though I was pretty sure I'd be deported immediately as the elderly Thai military guy patroling our booth looked so much like the villain in 'Team America' that I couldn't help but sine under my breath, "So ronery. I'm so ronery..."
So here we were. Thailand.

Kuala Lumpur


Another great bus ride later we arrived in the stiffling heat that was Kuala Lumpur. We had been recommended a hostel to stay in near the bus station and went to the hotel of the same name by mistake. It was the worse place we stayed so far. Even with air-con it just felt weird, like a multi-story car park with beds. Anyhow we did have an amazing view over the Petronas Towers and the Menara KL Communications Tower, set off one evening with the most amazing lightning storm.

We went to see the Petronas Towers and went up the Menara Tower and saw some great views of the city. In the evening found an indian in-door market to eat at. Again, we explored Little India, and China town and drank many fruit juices. In the Chinese market a little man selling herbal hair restorative saw Ben, thought he had found his pension scheme and chased him around the market.

Next Stop George Town, Penang.

Malaysia - Malaka


Travelling in Asia has a bad reputation, but our bus from Singapore to Melaka was a first class VIP most amazing bus ever. With only 3 seats across the row and plenty of leg room even for Ben, our 4 hour journey was genuinely a pleasure.

Melaka is a funny little place and the sense of adventure and anticipation we felt for our first Malaysian town and the beauty of the scenery as it rolled past our coach window was marred slightly by the appearance of a huge advertising board proclaiming that Tesco had arrived in town. At the bus station we were met by a friendly chap who put us in a taxi and sent us on our merry way to our hostel. We were not really sure what we were doing for food and after skirting around some dubious looking hawker food markets ended up in a noodle bar. There have been a steady stream of people and guide books telling us that in Malaysia we would be in food heaven for the price of a fizzy cola bottle, but we were having very little luck stumbling across these places. It wasn't until Georgetown that we were able to experience what the fuss was all about.

Every Malaysian town has a Chinatown, a Little India and a Colonial district and in Melaka we explored all of these as well as the Palace museum. Most of Chinatown was displaying red and gold decorations in time for Chinese New year. It was Ben's first taste of a proper Asian town and I think he was a bit taken aback, what with there being no pavement and most of the buildings crumbling down. The immense heat was a perfect excuse to stop off, very often, for fresh fruit juices.

They obviously put a lot of effort into the business of decorating their trishaws in Melaka. Everything is brightly coloured garlands of plastic and real flowers, bells that play 'She'll be coming round the mountain...' unbrellas and all manner of other things. There was even one done out in the Arsenal colours and another blaring out happy hardcore music... he didn't get that many rides.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Singapore


What have we been up to so far I hear you ask. We'll quite a bit is the answer. We had a brief stay in Singapore which was odd and, unless you like your cities really clean and a little dull with it, frankly a bit of a dissappointment. We did however see a great New Year firework display at the harbour but then marvelled at how the Singaporeans, (who spent the whole time filming the display on their mobile telephones by the way - there was a sea of heads and then loads of little blue screens. It was like the modern equivalent of lighters at a rock concert), then all proceeded home in an orderly fashion in near silence without a single drunken yell of "Happy New Year!" or a manly hug given to a stranger. Odd. They call Singapore a 'fine city'. There's a fine for everything. Spitting - $500, jaywalking - $500. Keeps the city clean I guess but the sterility, after a day or two, is actually pretty disturbing. Hardly surprising though as, according to a chap we'd meet, they only have a resource back-up of four days. All the gas & 'tricity comes from Indonesia via pipe so if it goes tits-up they have less than a week in reserve. No wonder they're a little edgy.
Anyhow our hotel was pretty nice, good air-con room with a free bar-manager/information booth/crap magician/karaoke diva called 'Wilson' thrown in gratis. We met Wilson on our first night chatting, with his pilot buddy Christopher, to an English couple who'd been in Oz for a year called Dan & Lisa - they were to become our travel-buds for the next week. Wilson turned out to be a mine of information, (some of it probably dubious), and he seemed to love his job of drinking with the guests and ruining songs via the medium of karaoke. He did say every few minutes whilst pissed, "Damn I love my job."
After the New Year fireworks Dan & Lisa 'treated' us to a rendition of the Elton & Kiki classic "Don't go breaking my heart". They weren't good. In fact, had any of Elton's lawyers been within earshot I reckon they would've had a court order slapped on them before they'd finished the first chorus.
We also did what everyone apparently has to do in Singapore and visited Raffles for a Singapore Sling. Raffles looks nice enough and very high class from the outside but it's kind of Disney-ish inside and, being mere commoners, we could only drink in the commoners bar. A Singapore Sling set us back $20 each! To add insult to wallet-injury they don't even make 'em up there and then. Ours were poured, along with twenty others, from big jugs under the bar. To add even more insult they taste like shit. They're pink, fizzy and rank. Don't have one. Ever. Unless it's free.
So, marks out of ten.
Singapore - 4
Fireworks - 7
Breakfast - 2 (It's all overcooked hotdogs and a weird porridge stuff with onion in it. How can that be right?)
Singapore Sling - Minus several million.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Catch-up

So, we've been a little quiet of late on the blog front and that's for several reasons, the chief of which being that we've not had a great deal of time... We're in Thailand now on the beach at Ko Lanta and we're staying put for a week on an incredible beach drinking pop, sunning our backsides and marvelling at how many Scandinavians & Germans there are here. They're everywhere!
Anyhow, we've been through Singapore & Malaysia so far, (we'll post more info on these later), and now we're starting on the Thai leg of our journey.
Singapore was a pretty big dissapointment to be honest. It's a nice enough city and a great way to ease ourselves into Asia but, unless you want semi-cheap electricals or a visit to Raffles then I'd not bother. It's very clean and sterile and a little dull with it. We did however see a cracking New Year fireworks display, more on that later.
All is well, we're not seasoned travellers yet, (we miss our bed too much), but we are enjoying being here immensley.

Friday, January 06, 2006

A quickie from S.E. Asia

Hi all, just a quickie so you know we've not forgotten about you. We've frankly been having far too good a time watching New Year fireworks, failing to grasp chopsticks and flinging bits of food around in a casual manner, drinking... er... Carlsberg, (is there a favoured Malaysian tipple?), paying extortionate amounts of cash in Raffles for a 'SingaporeSling' and generally moving from place to place. It's all good, and so are we.
Here's a piccie.