What's this? The end? Tonight marks my last night of over 16 months of travelling. It has been a hell of a journey and I have seen and done some pretty incredible things. I'm really looking forward to going home now and seeing everybody.
The last 2 days I have been in Bangkok, back on Khao San road. I noticed that all the clothes I've been wearing for the last year and a half are pretty grubby and splashed out on all sorts of cheap stuff for myself. I spent 4 hours yesterday wandering around Bangkok's weekend market, one of the largest in the world. It feels very odd to know that this is my last night in Asia so I've been eating curries and buying crap I don't need all day.
To all that have been reading this blog, thank-you so much and I hope that in the future I get to go to some more exciting places. As a matter of fact, when I come home I will shortly be visiting people in Wales and Scotland. And since I have never been to either, that's kind of the same as travelling... sort of.
Keep an eye on my blog as I will be updating my 'Top 5's' (I never really had any time to sit and write those down) and adding some lovely pictures for all of you to admire.
Good-bye for now! x
About Me
Monday 26 July 2010
Sunday 25 July 2010
In The (Tubing) Vang Vieng
I know most people would be hard pressed to remember what it was I did around this time last year, but it just so happens that about 13 months ago I visited the small Laos town, Vang Vieng. If the name Vang Vieng doesn't ring a bell then you most likely haven't been in South East Asia. It's a bit of a phenomenon on the SE Asia tourist circuit and most people that visit Thailand take the grueling bus journey over the border just for Vang Vieng. It is a beautiful place surrounded by incredible limestone cliffs dotted with caves and rice paddies. However, no one is there to see that... it's really just for the craze of Tubing.
Tubing is basically another excuse for an enormous piss up, but this time it's on a river. Most people hire out a large rubber tube and get a tuk-tuk up the river to the first bar. These bars are built hanging over the river and most have massive swings, zip-wires and slides, and all have a LOT of alcohol. Tiger whiskey (the local brand) is free and they don't mind just handing out bottles of the stuff. Or you could opt for the greatly popular Lao Lao bucket. That's right - a BUCKET of alcohol. Or of course you can stick to beer. Not drinking isn't really an option.
When you get bored of the first bar or notice that the number of tubes are starting to decrease, you hop on your tube to go down to the next. Some handy Lao kids don't mind hauling you in with ropes, and they have an expert aim. Basically the process repeats until you get too drunk and get a tuk-tuk back, or if your still a bit sober you can attempt to tube back to town. Suffice to say they whole thing is really, really dangerous and it's no surprise to see the majority of Vang Vieng's visitors with a bandage on somewhere. On our first day we had glorious weather, didn't drink too much, had an excellent time, and tubed down the river until the rain started getting so heavy that we couldn't hear each other shouting across the tubes - so we got the tuk-tuk back.
The second time I went we met a group of people who were celebrating their friends birthday. This meant that around every 10 minutes it was time for a birthday shot. It was really funny and we somehow got a lot of very strange things spray painted on ourselves. That night, Dom - whose birthday it was - passed out in the bar and subsequently had the majority of his head shaved and the majority of his body covered in permanent marker... I think he may have even had his ear coloured in. Somehow, someone managed to convince him to keep his hair as it was until he left Vang Vieng!
The third day turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Primarily because of the free whiskey. I foolishly got involved in a game of beer pong, except we didn't use beer, we used whiskey. I got hideously drunk and somehow ended up getting lost in a rice paddy because I refused to go near the water. Eventually I got a tuk-tuk home and had some sleep. When I woke up I found that I had broken my toe and vomitted on the floor. That was my last day tubing.
So don't worry about me or anything. I am completely fine. Except for the toe thing, that hurts. The whole thing is very stupid and dangerous but the times that I wasn't 100 times over the limit was really good. The swings are excellent and the tug-of-war over the mud pit and the mud pit volley ball is very funny. We stayed there for about a week and the last three days I was there I was quite keen to leave. I was, as they say, tubed out. Also I found it really interesting that I felt so much older than everyone there. It was strange being the older one, that never happens!
I am now back in Bangkok after a very unorganised bus journey back into Thailand. I have some very exciting news... ... ... ... ...
... more to come.
Tubing is basically another excuse for an enormous piss up, but this time it's on a river. Most people hire out a large rubber tube and get a tuk-tuk up the river to the first bar. These bars are built hanging over the river and most have massive swings, zip-wires and slides, and all have a LOT of alcohol. Tiger whiskey (the local brand) is free and they don't mind just handing out bottles of the stuff. Or you could opt for the greatly popular Lao Lao bucket. That's right - a BUCKET of alcohol. Or of course you can stick to beer. Not drinking isn't really an option.
When you get bored of the first bar or notice that the number of tubes are starting to decrease, you hop on your tube to go down to the next. Some handy Lao kids don't mind hauling you in with ropes, and they have an expert aim. Basically the process repeats until you get too drunk and get a tuk-tuk back, or if your still a bit sober you can attempt to tube back to town. Suffice to say they whole thing is really, really dangerous and it's no surprise to see the majority of Vang Vieng's visitors with a bandage on somewhere. On our first day we had glorious weather, didn't drink too much, had an excellent time, and tubed down the river until the rain started getting so heavy that we couldn't hear each other shouting across the tubes - so we got the tuk-tuk back.
The second time I went we met a group of people who were celebrating their friends birthday. This meant that around every 10 minutes it was time for a birthday shot. It was really funny and we somehow got a lot of very strange things spray painted on ourselves. That night, Dom - whose birthday it was - passed out in the bar and subsequently had the majority of his head shaved and the majority of his body covered in permanent marker... I think he may have even had his ear coloured in. Somehow, someone managed to convince him to keep his hair as it was until he left Vang Vieng!
The third day turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Primarily because of the free whiskey. I foolishly got involved in a game of beer pong, except we didn't use beer, we used whiskey. I got hideously drunk and somehow ended up getting lost in a rice paddy because I refused to go near the water. Eventually I got a tuk-tuk home and had some sleep. When I woke up I found that I had broken my toe and vomitted on the floor. That was my last day tubing.
So don't worry about me or anything. I am completely fine. Except for the toe thing, that hurts. The whole thing is very stupid and dangerous but the times that I wasn't 100 times over the limit was really good. The swings are excellent and the tug-of-war over the mud pit and the mud pit volley ball is very funny. We stayed there for about a week and the last three days I was there I was quite keen to leave. I was, as they say, tubed out. Also I found it really interesting that I felt so much older than everyone there. It was strange being the older one, that never happens!
I am now back in Bangkok after a very unorganised bus journey back into Thailand. I have some very exciting news... ... ... ... ...
... more to come.
Thursday 15 July 2010
Jungle Trekking in Northern Thailand
As I said in my previous entry I went away for 3 days into the jungle with my guide Izz. Izz was brilliant and it was the first time I had a female guide for something like this. She was really funny and had a proper laugh with us as a group. There were 9 of us in the group: Me, Andy, Bri, 4 more English, and 2 Spanish girls. We all got on really well and it was strange socialising with the English lot as they were all 18. In some ways I felt really old and in others it was like we still had the same conversations! Strange. We had a meeting the night before the trek where we introduced ourselves to each other and Izz told us what it was we were doing and what we would need for this trek.
In the morning we got up really early as the start of our trek took us 3 and a half hours into the jungle in the back of a pickup. On the way there we found a couple of road laying teams pouring sand onto the road and levelling it out over pot holes. So we jumped off the pickup and gave them a hand! Izz told us they would work most of the day doing that and would only get the equivalent of about 2 pounds a day. We stopped off at a small market and bought some sweets and stuff for the kids in the villages that we would meet in the trek. By the time we got to our stop we had suitably gotten to know each other and were ready to set off. At the start of the trip we were shown how the tribe members set up traps to catch the small animals that they could eat in the jungle. Some of them looked really deadly too! The first day trek was excellent fun and Izz showed us all the different things we could eat or use for medicinal purposes in the jungle. We walked about 6 hours and stopped to hack down banana trees to get the middle out to cook up for our dinner. It was really fun and she showed us how to make bags to carry stuff using the banana leaves. We then hacked down bamboo to get to the shoots, which we'd also use for our dinner.
The walk was really quite difficult with some pretty hard climbs. Eventually, around 5.30pm, we got to the place we stayed on the first night. It was part of the Karen hill tribe but there were no families living there. The people there worked on the rice paddies that were all around us giving a remarkable view. We made dinner which was a mix of some stuff Izz bought from the market and the food we foraged in the jungle. It was really interesting to see all this and to have all of it put together, and the fact it tasted pretty good helped too.
That evening we met one of the Karen tribe members who gave us a gun to play with! It was a very old rifle that had to be loaded with gunpowder and about 10 tiny pellets making it like some really weak powered shotgun! The idea was to go out in the evening for a few hours and see if we could catch anything to eat the next day. We walked around the jungle for about an hour and hadn't seen anything. To be honest I thought the whole thing a bit of a farce since there were 9 of us and the 2 guides making a lot of noise that would surely scare anything away anyway. Then one of the Spanish girls spotted a snake. It was about a foot or so long but really thin and apparently not at all dangerous. I looked at it thought 'what would be the point?' as there wouldn't be any meat on it and there's no way we could actually do anything with it. But Izz told us we would be able to add it to our lunch tomorrow and since we hadn't caught anything we decided to go for it anyway. So we chopped off its head and it took about 10 minutes for the nerve endings to finally give out! It turned out I was right - we were shown how to skin it and the we just barbecued the whole thing and chopped it us to pass around. There was no actual meat on it really. So we carried on in the jungle and by this point it was getting to midnight and we were really tired from a day of walking. Then, right towards the end, Izz spotted the tail of a small bird and instructed us to shoot it! Again, such a small thing wasn't worth killing and I'm not even sure it wasn't set up. I mean the English guy that shot it got it straight away and the next thing we knew the dog was sniffing at the dead bird on the ground. It could have easily been thrown there by one of the guides. No way of knowing though. So we went back with a small bird and a small snake.
The next morning we got up and made some breakfast of toast and scrambled eggs cooked over the fire. It took a while for us to get up and go as we were all so tired from the day before. Just as we were about to set off, the guide who'd taken us in the jungle gave us a dead animal, which was nice of him. He said he'd caught it in a trap overnight. It was like a ferret thing but with a short tail, maybe a polecat? Don't actually know though. Izz put the bleeding mess in her bag and we set off. The walk was even harder on the second day and we walked up to the highest point on the mountain and there was an excellent view of the biggest mountain in Thailand.
On the way up there we got to a stream where we stopped for lunch. We made a fire so we could cook up some vegetables we'd got in the jungle to have with some noodles Izz had brought from the city. It was really cool because we obviously didn't have bowls or pans. Instead we cut down some bamboo and made pots to cook everything in, bowls to eat everything out of and made chopsticks as well! It was so fun and we cooked using the water from the stream next to us. We decided to eat the snake and bird, but that turned out to be a bit stupid. We were going to cook the polecat but in the end Izz just skinned it and cooked it for later on. Eating out of a bamboo bowl was quite difficult but it was really cool, at least until all the flies decided to make an appearance!
We had been so lucky with the weather as well and it only rained a bit in the evenings, which is quite unlikely in the rainy season up a mountain. During the walk in the afternoon we suddenly came upon a couple of elephants that had been waiting for us to trek though the jungle. I did elephant trekking last year in Thailand and it was good but it felt pretty stupid rocking up at an elephant pen and sitting on the back of it while it walked around for an hour that time. But this was completely different. We were in the middle of the jungle and it was actually part of the trek. We were on the elephants for about an hour and then had a hard, steep walk to get to the main village of the Karen tribe. On the way there we got more bamboo and Izz showed us which mushrooms would be safe to eat and have for our dinner. The tribe village we stayed at in the second night was made up of 6 families who kept pigs and water buffalo that they would breed and trade with other villages. It seemed like a really interesting life. All the children were sent to school 6 days a week and we had brought sweets and things to give to them as presents but foolishly we left them in the pickup on the way over! Izz said she would get them back to them soon though.
That night at dinner we had our polecat thing and some mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Also a couple of the families made us some dishes as well including a really good pumpkin leaf soup and some really spicy curry paste. We also had these crisp things dipped in sweet and sour sauce that was really good. We spent most of the night having a few beers, making slingshots, and talking to Izz about life in Thailand and how her job effects her and her family. It was really interesting and she really wanted to learn about how life is different at home. I nearly forgot to mention our two companions: Steve and Geoff. They were two dogs who met us in the place we stayed at in the first night. They followed us the rest of the way so we gave them names, which Izz found really funny because the Karen tribesmen don't name their dogs.
On the third day Izz took us fishing. We had these small round nets to catch small fish but it didn't really work and no one was very interested as we were all so tired. But Izz also started catching grasshoppers and other insects and showing us how to burn them and eat them. It was really cool and actually tasted quite nice. We had a 2 hour walk to the place where we went rafting. Again, I did the bamboo rafting last year but this was so much better. We raced along the river and got stuck a few times. The water was quite disgusting though. At the end of the rafting we got to a large village where a lot of people who work in Chiang Mai live. From there we got back in a pickup and were taken to the largest waterfall in Chaing Mai, the Mae Pae Waterfall. The waterfall was huge, some 100 meters high, over a few tiers. The water was really cold but very deep and there was a great spot to dive into. The waterfall was so powerful there was no way you could stand underneath it. After that we got back in the pickup to go home and everyone conked out. It took about 2 hours to get back from there and once we got back we were all so glad to have hot showers and sleep in a comfy bed!
It was definitely one of the best things I have done since coming away and it's something I think everyone (fit enough) who comes to Thailand should experience. In Chiang Mai the more popular (and cheaper) treks are the touristic ones which sound a lot like what I did last year. And although this one was three times the price it didn't matter because it was a hundred times better. We had a day to chill out a bit and have a massage but had to catch a bus that evening to get out of Thailand since our visa was due to expire. So we've caught a bus to Laos and gone up to Vang Vieng.
In the morning we got up really early as the start of our trek took us 3 and a half hours into the jungle in the back of a pickup. On the way there we found a couple of road laying teams pouring sand onto the road and levelling it out over pot holes. So we jumped off the pickup and gave them a hand! Izz told us they would work most of the day doing that and would only get the equivalent of about 2 pounds a day. We stopped off at a small market and bought some sweets and stuff for the kids in the villages that we would meet in the trek. By the time we got to our stop we had suitably gotten to know each other and were ready to set off. At the start of the trip we were shown how the tribe members set up traps to catch the small animals that they could eat in the jungle. Some of them looked really deadly too! The first day trek was excellent fun and Izz showed us all the different things we could eat or use for medicinal purposes in the jungle. We walked about 6 hours and stopped to hack down banana trees to get the middle out to cook up for our dinner. It was really fun and she showed us how to make bags to carry stuff using the banana leaves. We then hacked down bamboo to get to the shoots, which we'd also use for our dinner.
The walk was really quite difficult with some pretty hard climbs. Eventually, around 5.30pm, we got to the place we stayed on the first night. It was part of the Karen hill tribe but there were no families living there. The people there worked on the rice paddies that were all around us giving a remarkable view. We made dinner which was a mix of some stuff Izz bought from the market and the food we foraged in the jungle. It was really interesting to see all this and to have all of it put together, and the fact it tasted pretty good helped too.
That evening we met one of the Karen tribe members who gave us a gun to play with! It was a very old rifle that had to be loaded with gunpowder and about 10 tiny pellets making it like some really weak powered shotgun! The idea was to go out in the evening for a few hours and see if we could catch anything to eat the next day. We walked around the jungle for about an hour and hadn't seen anything. To be honest I thought the whole thing a bit of a farce since there were 9 of us and the 2 guides making a lot of noise that would surely scare anything away anyway. Then one of the Spanish girls spotted a snake. It was about a foot or so long but really thin and apparently not at all dangerous. I looked at it thought 'what would be the point?' as there wouldn't be any meat on it and there's no way we could actually do anything with it. But Izz told us we would be able to add it to our lunch tomorrow and since we hadn't caught anything we decided to go for it anyway. So we chopped off its head and it took about 10 minutes for the nerve endings to finally give out! It turned out I was right - we were shown how to skin it and the we just barbecued the whole thing and chopped it us to pass around. There was no actual meat on it really. So we carried on in the jungle and by this point it was getting to midnight and we were really tired from a day of walking. Then, right towards the end, Izz spotted the tail of a small bird and instructed us to shoot it! Again, such a small thing wasn't worth killing and I'm not even sure it wasn't set up. I mean the English guy that shot it got it straight away and the next thing we knew the dog was sniffing at the dead bird on the ground. It could have easily been thrown there by one of the guides. No way of knowing though. So we went back with a small bird and a small snake.
The next morning we got up and made some breakfast of toast and scrambled eggs cooked over the fire. It took a while for us to get up and go as we were all so tired from the day before. Just as we were about to set off, the guide who'd taken us in the jungle gave us a dead animal, which was nice of him. He said he'd caught it in a trap overnight. It was like a ferret thing but with a short tail, maybe a polecat? Don't actually know though. Izz put the bleeding mess in her bag and we set off. The walk was even harder on the second day and we walked up to the highest point on the mountain and there was an excellent view of the biggest mountain in Thailand.
On the way up there we got to a stream where we stopped for lunch. We made a fire so we could cook up some vegetables we'd got in the jungle to have with some noodles Izz had brought from the city. It was really cool because we obviously didn't have bowls or pans. Instead we cut down some bamboo and made pots to cook everything in, bowls to eat everything out of and made chopsticks as well! It was so fun and we cooked using the water from the stream next to us. We decided to eat the snake and bird, but that turned out to be a bit stupid. We were going to cook the polecat but in the end Izz just skinned it and cooked it for later on. Eating out of a bamboo bowl was quite difficult but it was really cool, at least until all the flies decided to make an appearance!
We had been so lucky with the weather as well and it only rained a bit in the evenings, which is quite unlikely in the rainy season up a mountain. During the walk in the afternoon we suddenly came upon a couple of elephants that had been waiting for us to trek though the jungle. I did elephant trekking last year in Thailand and it was good but it felt pretty stupid rocking up at an elephant pen and sitting on the back of it while it walked around for an hour that time. But this was completely different. We were in the middle of the jungle and it was actually part of the trek. We were on the elephants for about an hour and then had a hard, steep walk to get to the main village of the Karen tribe. On the way there we got more bamboo and Izz showed us which mushrooms would be safe to eat and have for our dinner. The tribe village we stayed at in the second night was made up of 6 families who kept pigs and water buffalo that they would breed and trade with other villages. It seemed like a really interesting life. All the children were sent to school 6 days a week and we had brought sweets and things to give to them as presents but foolishly we left them in the pickup on the way over! Izz said she would get them back to them soon though.
That night at dinner we had our polecat thing and some mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Also a couple of the families made us some dishes as well including a really good pumpkin leaf soup and some really spicy curry paste. We also had these crisp things dipped in sweet and sour sauce that was really good. We spent most of the night having a few beers, making slingshots, and talking to Izz about life in Thailand and how her job effects her and her family. It was really interesting and she really wanted to learn about how life is different at home. I nearly forgot to mention our two companions: Steve and Geoff. They were two dogs who met us in the place we stayed at in the first night. They followed us the rest of the way so we gave them names, which Izz found really funny because the Karen tribesmen don't name their dogs.
On the third day Izz took us fishing. We had these small round nets to catch small fish but it didn't really work and no one was very interested as we were all so tired. But Izz also started catching grasshoppers and other insects and showing us how to burn them and eat them. It was really cool and actually tasted quite nice. We had a 2 hour walk to the place where we went rafting. Again, I did the bamboo rafting last year but this was so much better. We raced along the river and got stuck a few times. The water was quite disgusting though. At the end of the rafting we got to a large village where a lot of people who work in Chiang Mai live. From there we got back in a pickup and were taken to the largest waterfall in Chaing Mai, the Mae Pae Waterfall. The waterfall was huge, some 100 meters high, over a few tiers. The water was really cold but very deep and there was a great spot to dive into. The waterfall was so powerful there was no way you could stand underneath it. After that we got back in the pickup to go home and everyone conked out. It took about 2 hours to get back from there and once we got back we were all so glad to have hot showers and sleep in a comfy bed!
It was definitely one of the best things I have done since coming away and it's something I think everyone (fit enough) who comes to Thailand should experience. In Chiang Mai the more popular (and cheaper) treks are the touristic ones which sound a lot like what I did last year. And although this one was three times the price it didn't matter because it was a hundred times better. We had a day to chill out a bit and have a massage but had to catch a bus that evening to get out of Thailand since our visa was due to expire. So we've caught a bus to Laos and gone up to Vang Vieng.
Saturday 10 July 2010
South to North in 28 Hours
As the blog title suggests we have spent a lot of time travelling. I have been to Bangkok a number of times now and I was in no hurry to return. We had originally planned to spend the night in Krabi and go north the following morning but when we arrived at the dock in Krabi after the 1 and a half hour boat trip, we were told we would have enough time to catch the evening bus to Bangkok. We had to get them to take us into Krabi town to pick up Bri's sunglasses that she had made and managed to get back to the bus station in time to head up north. We were taken to a restaurant where we had to wait for half an hour before being loaded onto a pickup truck and taken 10 minutes down the road to another restaurant. Eventually we got on the big bus to take us north and I watched Avatar and the first Lord of the Rings film - without sound - and at 1.30am we stopped at yet ANOTHER restaurant. I was getting pretty annoyed at this point, especially when I was told I should buy food since this would be the last stop before we arrived in Bangkok at 6am. I tried to politely explain to him that on a normal night, I don't wake up at 1.30am for some food.
We finally got to Bangkok at about 7.00am and jumped into a tuk-tuk to go straight to the train station. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long before our train, which would take 12 hours to reach Chiang Mai. We finally arrived in Chiang Mai around 9.00pm and found a cheap guest house. I was completely exhausted and was thankful for the bed! Slept in a bit the following morning and set out to find a trekking trip that suited what we were after. There are loads of "Tourist" treks costing around 20 pounds for 3 days and very few "Non-Tourist" treks which are at least 3 times as much! Saying that though, I essentially did the tourist one last year in Kanchanaburi and had no wish to do it again. So we opted for the expensive one and are due to leave tomorrow. Today then and we spent all this morning learning how to cook!
That's right a cooking course. It was excellent fun and I made pad see uw, a fried thick noodle dish, then some sping rolls before trying stir fried hot basil and then khaw soi curry. Safe to say I am absolutely stuffed now and probably wont need to eat again today! The khaw soi curry is supposed to be a local dish which is basically a red curry but with curry powder in it as well. It tasted really good and we were showed the "special ingredient" which made it even better! I will have to cook for people when I eventually come home.
So a short post today but this is because I will be on a 3 day trek from tomorrow morning and I hope to have much to say when I get back!
We finally got to Bangkok at about 7.00am and jumped into a tuk-tuk to go straight to the train station. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long before our train, which would take 12 hours to reach Chiang Mai. We finally arrived in Chiang Mai around 9.00pm and found a cheap guest house. I was completely exhausted and was thankful for the bed! Slept in a bit the following morning and set out to find a trekking trip that suited what we were after. There are loads of "Tourist" treks costing around 20 pounds for 3 days and very few "Non-Tourist" treks which are at least 3 times as much! Saying that though, I essentially did the tourist one last year in Kanchanaburi and had no wish to do it again. So we opted for the expensive one and are due to leave tomorrow. Today then and we spent all this morning learning how to cook!
That's right a cooking course. It was excellent fun and I made pad see uw, a fried thick noodle dish, then some sping rolls before trying stir fried hot basil and then khaw soi curry. Safe to say I am absolutely stuffed now and probably wont need to eat again today! The khaw soi curry is supposed to be a local dish which is basically a red curry but with curry powder in it as well. It tasted really good and we were showed the "special ingredient" which made it even better! I will have to cook for people when I eventually come home.
So a short post today but this is because I will be on a 3 day trek from tomorrow morning and I hope to have much to say when I get back!
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Back in Thailand
It was hard leaving the Perhentians since the islands were so relaxing. I would definitely advise for people to take a couple of weeks out there if your looking for a holiday. It's really easy to get to from Kuala Lumpur and there are some really nice but more expensive holiday resorts on the Big island. But anyway, leave we did, and bound for Thailand we were.
I have to admit I wasn't overly keen on the idea of going back to Thailand since I had saved up all this money in Australia to see and do new things and going back to Thailand wasn't really on my to-do list. I did, however, have a fantastic time last year and I know only too well that when visiting a country you cannot expect to see everything. Thailand is also a beautiful country and there is a lot to do here. So we went across the border from Malaysia, which gives us a 2 week visa. The town we arrived in, Sungai Kolok, wasn't the Thailand I remember. I found out that a lot of Malaysians go there for the Thai prostitutes, which might give you a better insight on this small border town. To get there we had to take a taxi, which turned out was really cheap. On the ride there we spotted a truck full of coconuts on the road which had monkeys riding on the top. When asked about it, our taxi driver told us that they use the monkeys to climb up the trees and bring the coconuts down! We only had to wait in Sungai Kolok for 6 hours and the internet was really cheap - hence I managed to change my blog around loads and add more stuff. If you haven't noticed I have started writing a running top 5, though I have to say its hard. It does, though, give me something to keep myself entertained on long journeys!
We caught the bus late afternoon to Krabi and were surprised by the number of military stops there were out of Sungai Kolok. I had heard of problems in the south and it is, from what I hear, not recommended to travel at night. Not that we had any problems. I have just been reading on BBC News that the Thai cabinet are considering extending the current state of emergency laws that are still in place following the anti-government protests. Who knows if this will be a good idea? For now it seems that the laws will be gradually lifted over the next 3 months. Not that anyone here would even notice. This island (Koh Phi Phi Don - or just PP) was one that was devastated in the 2004 tsunami and while the government didn't actually give the people here permission to rebuild, they have done so anyway. It seems that everything here is business as usual and a lot of places are starting to expand. It doesn't seem that the people here are concerned with its government and it seems to cater exclusively to tourists anyway.
It was very late when we actually arrived in Krabi. At 3.30am there isn't an awful lot around the bus stop that happens to be 4km's away from town. We couldn't have walked that far with our bags and who knows whether or not it would be safe. We spotted a 7/11 and found out there was a hotel nearby. Opting for the safe mode we set off for the expensive option. As we started walking a drunken Thai man started calling to us and seemed to jokingly offer us a lift into town. He had this motorbike with a sort of trailer attached to the side of it. We obliged. Needless to say we were a bit scared and were worried we had done something stupid, but in actual fact it was really funny. He took us into town and I think was very happy when we gave him 150 Baht (that's 3 pounds) when we got there. Driving into town he was going up one-way streets saying: "No police! Shh!" Which we thought was hysterical. We safely got a guest house and got some much needed sleep.
We spent the day exploring Krabi but the weather was really bad. It even gave me cause to think that going to an island probably wouldn't be worth it if it would be raining incessantly anyway. But we heard the weather was better out there and so we booked the boat for the following morning. In our exploration in the evening we came across Krabi's night market and got some delicious food. We then found a bar where we could watch football and after that ended a local band came on stage to play. They were really good and looked so comfortable pulling off some excellent solo's. They had a break and after that they were really excited to bring on stage a musician from Phuket who I gather was famous. It was a really good night out and I didn't get back in until half 3!
The boat ride went fine, taking an hour and a half to get to PP. We found some nice accommodation and had an explore of the beach and the bars. It seemed very much the same as the islands I visited around this time last year. I watched an amazing sunset over the karst limestome rocks from the bay and I would have put it in my top 5 (maybe even at number 1!) were it not for the sheer amount of rubbish. It wont even break the top 5 now since the whole beach is littered with bars for the all night PP parties every night. I quite literally mean littered as well. I had a few drinks and watched the football but was so tired from the night before I didn't stay out long. Also I really didn't want to feel rough for the next day I had booked a trip rock climbing!
Rock climbing was quite high on my "Things to do whilst travelling" list I keep in my head and I am so glad I have finally done it! I met my guide, Tarr, at the end of the beach and it was only a short climb to the limestone wall that already had a top rope set up. I did a 16mtr climb and two 24mtr climbs, which were very different to the indoor climbing I used to do at home. Tarr told me he was very impressed with my technique and I have my climbing buddies at home to thank for that! The view from the top of the climbs over the bay was incredible and for all my worries about the weather it was a really fine day! After the three climbs I went and got some lunch and when I got back Tarr told me he would teach me how to set an anchor and lead climb. This is something I always wanted to learn back home and Tarr was very adamant that I told no one about it (maybe I shouldn't be putting this in my blog!) since I hadn't actually paid for it. We didn't have a lot of time and he wasn't very patient but I am now, officially a beginner lead climber! I was completely shattered after all of this and was looking forward to having some food and getting some sleep.
The following morning we actually set an alarm! We got up for a day trip (that's two tours in two days for me, something I rarely do) to see the surrounding islands and do some snorkelling. The trip started at Monkey Beach. It is exactly as the name suggests, a beach with some monkeys on it. I didn't bother getting out the boat for this one but watched happily as one girl teased a monkey with some banana's and as soon as she turned her back it jumped on her. She screamed a LOT! Hahaha. The next stop was The Beach beach. As in the beach where they filmed The Beach. A lot of what is beautiful about the beach in the movie seems to be mostly camera tricks. It was also insanely busy, which does take the beauty away from it. It was still very nice, but compared to the Perhentians... wait, compare ANY beach to the Perhentians and the same thing happens! Anyway we went onward to a brilliant snorkel area and saw millions of amazing fish and loads of coral. It was quite deep too so you can really swim down and see loads more. I think I saw a barracuda. I mean, I'm pretty certain it was a barracuda anyway. We stopped at a couple of cool swimming places and a nice beach before going to another snorkelling spot called Shark Point. We were told that there were some harmless black tipped reef sharks in the area. Briony was really nervous and she hates sharks and somehow, unbelievably, she was the only one to spot a shark out of the 10 of us there! She pacicked and swam straight back to the boat but she was fine. We had one more stop on the way back which was a cliff jump. It wasn't too high - some 8 meters or so - but it still rocked me to say the least. It was really cool though but after that I was ready to go back to PP.
We went out last night so I am a bit hungover today. When we stopped at the very popular Reggae bar (which ironically has a Thai boxing ring inside) I thought I spotted one of our friends from Bundy. I asked Briony and Andy and they both said no, that's not him. Then he walked past and lo and behold... yes, it was Joe from Bundaberg! It was really great to catch up with him and have a few drinks. As it happens his friend is a boxer at home and we convinced him to get in the ring. The guy he went up against had no experience whatsoever and the fight was over after 1 round. We watched a whole load of other fights, some of which were very very funny, and one bout of Thai boxers. It looked pretty hardcore but they were throwing themselves on the floor a lot giving the impression that it was actually fake. We then went out to the beach for the party in which we all managed to lose each other.
And so today, our last day on PP. I still haven't swam in the sea here because it looks quite disgusting and I am currently trying to map out some sort of future travel plan. Some decisions to be made it seems!
I have to admit I wasn't overly keen on the idea of going back to Thailand since I had saved up all this money in Australia to see and do new things and going back to Thailand wasn't really on my to-do list. I did, however, have a fantastic time last year and I know only too well that when visiting a country you cannot expect to see everything. Thailand is also a beautiful country and there is a lot to do here. So we went across the border from Malaysia, which gives us a 2 week visa. The town we arrived in, Sungai Kolok, wasn't the Thailand I remember. I found out that a lot of Malaysians go there for the Thai prostitutes, which might give you a better insight on this small border town. To get there we had to take a taxi, which turned out was really cheap. On the ride there we spotted a truck full of coconuts on the road which had monkeys riding on the top. When asked about it, our taxi driver told us that they use the monkeys to climb up the trees and bring the coconuts down! We only had to wait in Sungai Kolok for 6 hours and the internet was really cheap - hence I managed to change my blog around loads and add more stuff. If you haven't noticed I have started writing a running top 5, though I have to say its hard. It does, though, give me something to keep myself entertained on long journeys!
We caught the bus late afternoon to Krabi and were surprised by the number of military stops there were out of Sungai Kolok. I had heard of problems in the south and it is, from what I hear, not recommended to travel at night. Not that we had any problems. I have just been reading on BBC News that the Thai cabinet are considering extending the current state of emergency laws that are still in place following the anti-government protests. Who knows if this will be a good idea? For now it seems that the laws will be gradually lifted over the next 3 months. Not that anyone here would even notice. This island (Koh Phi Phi Don - or just PP) was one that was devastated in the 2004 tsunami and while the government didn't actually give the people here permission to rebuild, they have done so anyway. It seems that everything here is business as usual and a lot of places are starting to expand. It doesn't seem that the people here are concerned with its government and it seems to cater exclusively to tourists anyway.
It was very late when we actually arrived in Krabi. At 3.30am there isn't an awful lot around the bus stop that happens to be 4km's away from town. We couldn't have walked that far with our bags and who knows whether or not it would be safe. We spotted a 7/11 and found out there was a hotel nearby. Opting for the safe mode we set off for the expensive option. As we started walking a drunken Thai man started calling to us and seemed to jokingly offer us a lift into town. He had this motorbike with a sort of trailer attached to the side of it. We obliged. Needless to say we were a bit scared and were worried we had done something stupid, but in actual fact it was really funny. He took us into town and I think was very happy when we gave him 150 Baht (that's 3 pounds) when we got there. Driving into town he was going up one-way streets saying: "No police! Shh!" Which we thought was hysterical. We safely got a guest house and got some much needed sleep.
We spent the day exploring Krabi but the weather was really bad. It even gave me cause to think that going to an island probably wouldn't be worth it if it would be raining incessantly anyway. But we heard the weather was better out there and so we booked the boat for the following morning. In our exploration in the evening we came across Krabi's night market and got some delicious food. We then found a bar where we could watch football and after that ended a local band came on stage to play. They were really good and looked so comfortable pulling off some excellent solo's. They had a break and after that they were really excited to bring on stage a musician from Phuket who I gather was famous. It was a really good night out and I didn't get back in until half 3!
The boat ride went fine, taking an hour and a half to get to PP. We found some nice accommodation and had an explore of the beach and the bars. It seemed very much the same as the islands I visited around this time last year. I watched an amazing sunset over the karst limestome rocks from the bay and I would have put it in my top 5 (maybe even at number 1!) were it not for the sheer amount of rubbish. It wont even break the top 5 now since the whole beach is littered with bars for the all night PP parties every night. I quite literally mean littered as well. I had a few drinks and watched the football but was so tired from the night before I didn't stay out long. Also I really didn't want to feel rough for the next day I had booked a trip rock climbing!
Rock climbing was quite high on my "Things to do whilst travelling" list I keep in my head and I am so glad I have finally done it! I met my guide, Tarr, at the end of the beach and it was only a short climb to the limestone wall that already had a top rope set up. I did a 16mtr climb and two 24mtr climbs, which were very different to the indoor climbing I used to do at home. Tarr told me he was very impressed with my technique and I have my climbing buddies at home to thank for that! The view from the top of the climbs over the bay was incredible and for all my worries about the weather it was a really fine day! After the three climbs I went and got some lunch and when I got back Tarr told me he would teach me how to set an anchor and lead climb. This is something I always wanted to learn back home and Tarr was very adamant that I told no one about it (maybe I shouldn't be putting this in my blog!) since I hadn't actually paid for it. We didn't have a lot of time and he wasn't very patient but I am now, officially a beginner lead climber! I was completely shattered after all of this and was looking forward to having some food and getting some sleep.
The following morning we actually set an alarm! We got up for a day trip (that's two tours in two days for me, something I rarely do) to see the surrounding islands and do some snorkelling. The trip started at Monkey Beach. It is exactly as the name suggests, a beach with some monkeys on it. I didn't bother getting out the boat for this one but watched happily as one girl teased a monkey with some banana's and as soon as she turned her back it jumped on her. She screamed a LOT! Hahaha. The next stop was The Beach beach. As in the beach where they filmed The Beach. A lot of what is beautiful about the beach in the movie seems to be mostly camera tricks. It was also insanely busy, which does take the beauty away from it. It was still very nice, but compared to the Perhentians... wait, compare ANY beach to the Perhentians and the same thing happens! Anyway we went onward to a brilliant snorkel area and saw millions of amazing fish and loads of coral. It was quite deep too so you can really swim down and see loads more. I think I saw a barracuda. I mean, I'm pretty certain it was a barracuda anyway. We stopped at a couple of cool swimming places and a nice beach before going to another snorkelling spot called Shark Point. We were told that there were some harmless black tipped reef sharks in the area. Briony was really nervous and she hates sharks and somehow, unbelievably, she was the only one to spot a shark out of the 10 of us there! She pacicked and swam straight back to the boat but she was fine. We had one more stop on the way back which was a cliff jump. It wasn't too high - some 8 meters or so - but it still rocked me to say the least. It was really cool though but after that I was ready to go back to PP.
We went out last night so I am a bit hungover today. When we stopped at the very popular Reggae bar (which ironically has a Thai boxing ring inside) I thought I spotted one of our friends from Bundy. I asked Briony and Andy and they both said no, that's not him. Then he walked past and lo and behold... yes, it was Joe from Bundaberg! It was really great to catch up with him and have a few drinks. As it happens his friend is a boxer at home and we convinced him to get in the ring. The guy he went up against had no experience whatsoever and the fight was over after 1 round. We watched a whole load of other fights, some of which were very very funny, and one bout of Thai boxers. It looked pretty hardcore but they were throwing themselves on the floor a lot giving the impression that it was actually fake. We then went out to the beach for the party in which we all managed to lose each other.
And so today, our last day on PP. I still haven't swam in the sea here because it looks quite disgusting and I am currently trying to map out some sort of future travel plan. Some decisions to be made it seems!
Thursday 1 July 2010
The Perhentian Islands
The Perhentian Islands were just stunning. Every morning I would get out of our dingy little cabin and step onto the sand and just say: "Wow, this is a-maze-ing!" And it really is. We took the boat there from Kuala Besut, a small port town that only really exists to send people to Malaysia's best known islands. The main part of the Perhentians is the Big and Little islands. The big island (though it is about the same size) is mostly comprised of expensive looking resorts while the small island has a few cheapies and a couple of bars. None of the islands have any roads or hassling sellers or loud music or anything that could otherwise annoy you at a beach resort. The water is turquoise blue and crystal clear making it perfect for snorkeling and diving alike. There is nothing about this island that anyone wouldn't enjoy!
The boat was a quick one and took just 30 minutes to get to the island where we managed to find a cheap place to stay. The room wasn't the best but since nowhere in the island offers electricity from sun up to sun down and there was little chance of air con at our price range, we spent our time mostly on the beach. We stayed with Yvonne, a Dutch girl we met in the Cameron Highlands, and she watched the England-Germany game with us so we watched the Holland-Slovakia game with her as honorary Netherlands fans. Speaking of the England game - that was terrible right? I cannot believe how Capello could get it so tactically wrong. We were so open at the back and could have shipped more than 4. Anyway, enough football. It was fun watching the game on a big screen with plenty of English and German banter and a few (expensive) beers. Being as we were on a paradise island I actually found it difficult to care much about the football.
So other than lounge on the sand, swim in the sea, and have some drinks, we did little else on the island and that worked out just perfectly. We met up with some really nice English people who shared our views on the shocking football display and showed us where the best food on the island is. The food was a buffet style barbecue where you choose your meat and are entitled to unlimited supplies of everything else. We made full use of that and suffice to say we felt quite ill after! We did this the last two nights and were treated to a spectacular sunset last night. I also tried a shisha pipe for the first time. I haven't smoked in over a year so it gave me a bit of a rush. It tasted a bit like apple flavoured Hubba Bubba. I was quite drunk before I tried it and for some reason it was just me, Briony and the bar owner left. I think that reason could be that it was 4.30am and all the English had gone to bed depressed and Germans can't hold their drink. Haha!
The island is quite expensive since they do not harvest or make anything on the island. It is actually a marine park meaning they aren't even supposed to fish (though they do) so everything comes from the mainland. Also everything is run on generators so the rooms, internet and anything cold or hot is expensive. I can accept the raise in prices for this island, it is definitely worth it.
We left the island this morning and have just crossed the border taking us back into Thailand. Next stop is Krabi. This bus doesn't leave for a couple of hours so as you might have noticed I have used this time to 'pimp' my blog up a bit. You may also have noticed I have added a new 'page' to my blog (if you haven't noticed you can spot it right beneath the header at the top of the page). I will be using this to keep a running top 5 of all sorts of things that I have seen and done, partly for my amusement and partly to make you all jealous! Haha! I will also try to get pictures of these places up as well in case you weren't feeling jealous enough. I hope you enjoy.
The boat was a quick one and took just 30 minutes to get to the island where we managed to find a cheap place to stay. The room wasn't the best but since nowhere in the island offers electricity from sun up to sun down and there was little chance of air con at our price range, we spent our time mostly on the beach. We stayed with Yvonne, a Dutch girl we met in the Cameron Highlands, and she watched the England-Germany game with us so we watched the Holland-Slovakia game with her as honorary Netherlands fans. Speaking of the England game - that was terrible right? I cannot believe how Capello could get it so tactically wrong. We were so open at the back and could have shipped more than 4. Anyway, enough football. It was fun watching the game on a big screen with plenty of English and German banter and a few (expensive) beers. Being as we were on a paradise island I actually found it difficult to care much about the football.
So other than lounge on the sand, swim in the sea, and have some drinks, we did little else on the island and that worked out just perfectly. We met up with some really nice English people who shared our views on the shocking football display and showed us where the best food on the island is. The food was a buffet style barbecue where you choose your meat and are entitled to unlimited supplies of everything else. We made full use of that and suffice to say we felt quite ill after! We did this the last two nights and were treated to a spectacular sunset last night. I also tried a shisha pipe for the first time. I haven't smoked in over a year so it gave me a bit of a rush. It tasted a bit like apple flavoured Hubba Bubba. I was quite drunk before I tried it and for some reason it was just me, Briony and the bar owner left. I think that reason could be that it was 4.30am and all the English had gone to bed depressed and Germans can't hold their drink. Haha!
The island is quite expensive since they do not harvest or make anything on the island. It is actually a marine park meaning they aren't even supposed to fish (though they do) so everything comes from the mainland. Also everything is run on generators so the rooms, internet and anything cold or hot is expensive. I can accept the raise in prices for this island, it is definitely worth it.
We left the island this morning and have just crossed the border taking us back into Thailand. Next stop is Krabi. This bus doesn't leave for a couple of hours so as you might have noticed I have used this time to 'pimp' my blog up a bit. You may also have noticed I have added a new 'page' to my blog (if you haven't noticed you can spot it right beneath the header at the top of the page). I will be using this to keep a running top 5 of all sorts of things that I have seen and done, partly for my amusement and partly to make you all jealous! Haha! I will also try to get pictures of these places up as well in case you weren't feeling jealous enough. I hope you enjoy.
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