Mixed Emotions and the Last Two Countries of South East Asia

After Laos we flew to Hanoi. After years of Vietnam war stories (or the American war as the Vietnamese call it) I was very much looking forward to experiencing the country myself. Albeit, in a more welcomed and explorative way. When we drove from the airport I got that feeling you get when you finally arrive at your long anticipated destination: so much excitement for and buildup to the trip that when you arrive you can’t quite believe you’re finally there. I definitely had the same experience in India. Having family and other people there to help create buzz helps you appreciate the feeling. Driving the 35km into Hanoi town, packed into a minivan with half foreigners and half Vietnamese, I just couldn’t stop taking pictures. I think I’ve gotten the idea across: I was excited.

We only spent 2 days there, but we managed to cram in a few good things. We started the first full day by walking to the Hoa Lu prison. The prison was originally built by the French, then used for political prisoners and finally for POWs during the war. The prison has since been torn down and a large high rise apartment building built instead, but they graciously kept one side of the original structure for posterity. The contrast between the descriptions of the political prisoners from the 30s and 40s versus the POWs was striking. The description of how the former were housed and treated was atrocious, as you would expect in a prison. And the latter were treated oh so well, with exercise, trips out of the prison and permission to raise and cook meat for their Christmas dinner. There was quite literally no mention of any mistreatment of the prisoners. Alex is positive it is all bullshit. I’m not convinced it is all bullshit, but I am certain their time there was not all light and fluffy as the museum curator likes to make it out as. If I’m not mistaken Presidential candidate John McCain has said that he was tortured in the prison. They have a picture of him from his surgery to treat his arms from his bad landing. They also have his uniform on display, the one he was captured in, kind of like they are proud to have this connection. That was the first of our light and bubbly material.

Before we hopped on a bus to get to Halong Bay, we squeezed in a trip to see Ho Chi Minh, the father of Vietnam. Despite expressing his wish to be cremated he has been embalmed and put on display in Hanoi. Every year for two months he is sent to Russia for ‘maintenance’. We were lucky enough to see him, though. It was a little creepy because he looked like a wax model. He was in a temperature controlled room with low light and six military guards for approximately a 3m x 3m room. It was pretty surreal. No pictures allowed, sorry.

Hanoi was the scariest traffic I have experienced yet. India was seemingly chaotic but when you crossed the road you could see the patterns well enough to cross safely. Hanoi not only seemed to have absolutely no rules, there seemed to be no regard for the pedestrians who were crossing the road. About 80% of the traffic is motorcycles. We saw people driving on the sidewalk, sometimes creating a two way path separate from the road. No matter where you were walking, expect a moped to almost mow you down. On our way to a old colonial house that has been refurbished we spotted a cramped market that went the right direction. Alex said “Let’s go this way, it’s too narrow for bikes so we’ll be safe this way.” Obviously, just at that moment a moped came zooming out of the market and we all had to jump out of the way. When we could justify taxis we took them because it was the only way we felt safe on the roads.

We hopped a 2 hour bus to Hai Phong. We had thought we missed the last boat to Cat Ba, the national park island in the middle of Halong Bay. When we arrived we were told it was in 10 minutes, from a place that was a 10 min taxi away. We decided to just take our time and stay the night. As we were walking to a guesthouse we were stopped by a woman on a moped telling us we were going to miss the boat, according to her it was actually a half hour later that we were originally told. This woman was almost scary in her insistence that we had to HURRY! She then proceeded to lead the taxi to the port. When we got there we were told the price that was posted was actually more because the posted price did not include the buses we would take on either side of the boat. So we paid double what was posted, mainly because she was so urgent about everything that we felt pressure to decide. Ultimately, we only paid about £9 for about 2 hours of travel, including a fast boat. It turns out the buses were free for ticket holders for the boat. Live and learn. We looked at the bright side and realized we were happy we were there that night as opposed to having to do it the next day. So even though we overpaid we were glad the woman kidnapped us.

The following morning we got onto a tour of Halong Bay. In the morning we left on the boat and went through what is incredible landscape. Unfortunately, in addition to the noise pollution of our motorized boat there was also rubbish and floating pollution in the water. This was particularly visible when we went kayaking. It was pretty nasty water. We also saw this pretty cool massive cave. Too bad it was not as amazing since they put colored lights all around. It gave the whole place a Disney feeling. After lunch we went for about an hour until they took us to a small bay for swimming. The water there was blue and beautiful. The whole trip took the day. It was the perfect way to Halong Bay. The next day we took the reverse route we used getting to Cat Ba, we paid the posted price that time.

Another bus from Hai Phong to Ninh Binh, a relativey small town but with a few beautiful things to see. When we arrived at our little guesthouse, Xuan hotel, we met an English couple who were on a three week holiday to see Vietnam. With 6 of us (Me and Alex, Joe and Laura and Greg and Denise) we hired the car of the guesthouse, with a driver for the day for $8 each. It was a nice big SUV with fantastic air conditioning. The major attraction is Tam Coc, aptly nicknamed Halong Bay on the rice paddies. You take a small row boat up a little river that passes under three grottos. It only takes about 2 hours but that is plenty since there is no sun cover and even at 9am it is bloody hot. I preferred Tam Coc over Halong Bay, but if I needed to see both to appreciate Tam Coc as much as I did. We also saw a few temples and climbed up a mountain to see the view.

That night we got our first sleeper bus to Hue. It was a pretty funny thing. We got on at 10pm and there were only enough beds for us 6 who got on. There were also people lining the aisles. I did manage to sleep, surprisingly. When we stopped for breakfast the next morning we were convinced by a tour guide to get off the bus and go for a tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). It was probably the best spontaneous decision we have made in the whole trip. Ironically, the DMZ was the area of Vietnam that saw the most violence because it was the divide between the warring democratic south (whom the US was supporting) and the Communist North. It was so bizarre to be on a battleground. I'm sure if I were telling my grandfather, a WWII pilot he would be dumbfounded why I would want to visit a battleground, but it happened recently that it still abounds popular culture that I feel I should see what I can of it and connect to it as much as I can. I was not alive then, nor do I think it was a just war, but I believe that whether I think it was a good or bad thing, it happened and I can learn about it. And learn about it I did. Our tour guide was a really nice guy and very easy to listen to. His English wasn’t perfect, kind of English that is from practice not education, but we certainly understood him. Mr. Hoa is from the town where he still lives today, very close to the border between North and South Vietnam, but firmly in the South. He turned 18 six months after the Americans left Vietnam, but before the war ended so was conscripted to the army. He was very good at giving us all of the sides involved. I learned more from him than I did in all of my schooling. I took what he said with a grain of salt, but I still believe he was being less biased than any establishment I have ever come across. We visited a battleground and saw a bunker. It was very important to take a guide with us as the local people know where the unexploded bombs are. Yes, we did see one of those too.

We saw one of the cemeteries of the Northern soldiers the South had created during the war. Many of the 4000 soldiers were unnamed. That cemetery was one of about 10 and small in comparison to others. We got to see the actual border and where the DMZ would have started. Lastly, we went to the tunnels on the north side. Hundreds of people lived down there for years. They were pretty small. The network wasn’t particularly large but the height and width of the physical tunnel was apparently larger than the infamous Cuchi tunnels in Saigon. After our tour, we had some lunch and took a minibus down to Hue.

After reading about Hue and the next town we were going to Hoi An, we decided to skip out Hue and head out the next day to Hoi An. It took about 4 hours on a bus. We arrived and the boys scouted a place to stay. They scored what seemed like a 3 star hotel for only $12 per night. We had a bathtub and everything! Hoi An was a nice place to relax. There was a beach there and the town is a very charming old colonial town. We spent 5 days there. Probably too long, but we enjoyed it there. We also all had some piece of clothing made. Vietnam is the place to get clothes made, and Hoi An specifically. I had a leather jacket and two pairs of jeans made for $150. Alex had two shirts made: black pinstripe on both, one shirt has pink satin trim (under the collar down the button track and on the inside of the double cuff) and the other one has a dark purple in the same places except is the whole cuff. Laura had an outfit of a green sleeveless top and linen trousers made for a wedding she is going to soon and Joe had them make a Hawaiian Suit. My favorite part is that the material is normal Hawaiian except for the Lotus flower that is very Asian. Look out for the photos because your imagination just can’t do it justice.

For some reason we opted for a $27 bus ride, which worked out at a dollar an hour, instead of flying for $55 and would have taken less than an hour. Silly us. But we saved the money and now we have a funny story. This took us all the way to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The last stop on the War route for us was the War Remnants museum in Saigon. Outside they have about 10 American military and Air Force vehicles all in pretty good condition. Inside, they use mostly photos to convey what they want to. There are a lot of very savage photos. As could be expected we weren’t up for very much else that day. In order to counter balance the gloom of wars past we decided to head to the water park. Not very cultural you might accuse, but in reality we only saw 10 other foreigners in a completely packed water park, I kid you not. Despite the cost, the water park on a Sunday was a big family destination. Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Saigon was our last stop in Vietnam. I could’ve used more time in Vietnam, two and a half weeks was probably a little short, but it’s a good excuse to come back now. From there we hopped over the border to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The activities to do here are even more heart wrenching because it still feels so recent. A prison/concentration camp, ex-school, S-21 was the primary prison in the capital. The place is falling apart and decrepit. And most of the place is filled with the photos the guards took when the prisoners arrived. Most of the people who were taken here were not criminals, they were intellectuals, or artists, or in some way threatened Pol Pots regime. All of the people who were taken to S-21 were destined for the killing fields. 10s of thousands were murdered at the killing fields. They have dug up about half of the mass graves so far, I don’t know if they are still working on it or not. They have built a structure to hold some of the bones as a remembrance for those who were killed. Probably the most jarring about the whole place, despite staring at about 30 mass graves were the old bones and clothes run into the dirt on the pathway.

That evening we were having a beer when a young American approached us with her small organization that arranges groups to go to the city dump to feed the children that live there. We decided to go as an antidote to the sadness we had been experiencing that day. Although going to the dump was going to be difficult, we were going to be helping and seeing the immediate reactions on their faces. We donated $20 each and went to buy food at the market. The organizers buy it, because they can negotiate more and they know what to get. Then we all pile onto a flatbed truck and go to the dump. This group goes 2-3 times a week, so the kids know what’s going on. It was pretty bad conditions, the kids were all dirty, some had school uniforms on, and many had cuts all over their body. With 9 people on the trip that day we had enough money to buy food for about 400 kids. That is all of them and some got to get back in the line again. It was grueling in the heat with the smell but incredible to meet these kids with good English who wanted to know your name and if you were married. Most of them were so sweet. It felt so different to experience the sadness but to be doing something about it. The effect is completely different from a museum. I know that’s obvious, but after going to so many sad museums I was so happy to have done that.

Our final stop in this whistle stop tour was Siem Reap, the second largest city in Cambodia and the city closest to the ancient temples of the Angkor kingdom. Unfortunately, we only ended up with one full day to do the temples. I’m quite sure that we could have been able to drag them out to three days or even a week to do justice to the beautiful place and to avoid the midday sun. Instead we got a very early night and rose at 4.30 in the morning to get to the temples by sunrise. We saw the sunrise over Angkor Wat, the main temple there and the national symbol for Cambodia (it’s even on their flag). We had a coffee to wake ourselves up then proceeded into the decaying temple that was built in the 12th century. It isn’t decaying as much as many of the temples, but it is covered in moss and the effects of time are obvious. However, I’m sure that is one of the biggest reasons it is so awe inspiring. Next we went to the tomb raider temple Ta Prohm. We also saw Preah Khan, Banteay Kdei, Bayon and Ta Keo. Bayon is the central temple inside the old city. There used to be homes and many other structures where the surrounding these temples but they were all made out of wood. Stone was reserved for the home of the gods. Ta Keo was my favorite temple. There were 4 levels of steep steps on all four sides that were very thin but the view and the breeze were completely worth it. We just powered through the heat by stopping often for water and soft drinks at the numerous little cafes. We made it until about 4.30 when we decided we were pooped and we didn’t think it was going to be a great sunset. The Angkor temples were so beautiful and sacred that I don’t think I could’ve dreamed a better way to finish our South East Asia portion of this trip.

Traveling is all about the people you meet, what you get to see and the crazy stories you collect. It has been amazing that whenever things go wrong or are threatening to go wrong (which happens a lot) if you laugh about it, it always turns around. It’s not that it changes the circumstances it just makes you realize that you will be fine and actually it is kind of funny how things got to that stage. I am mostly talking about travel. A good example of this is our journey from Siem Reap to Bangkok. When we booked our tickets we asked the usual questions to try to assure that the journey will be reasonably good: same bus on both sides of the border? Does it have air con? Bus, not a minivan? We received yes to all three of these questions so we assumed it would be a reasonably easy trip. When we got on the bus, there was no room for our luggage, so the bus was a little cramped to say the least. No air con. Alex and I had no leg room. I sat with my knees 6 inches from my chest and Alex had to open his legs wide because he literally didn’t fit. When we arrived at the border they asked us to take our bags with us. So we took our bags. Our bus drove off. We ‘departed’ Cambodia then we were directed to walk to the Thailand entry about half a kilometer away. We literally walked to Thailand. Then we ‘entered’ Thailand. They took my temperature, but not the three Brits I am traveling with. Maybe because I’m American? We waited for about a half hour, with no info, and then got directed to the next bus. It was a minivan. In the end we got there and faster than they said it would take. So all was fine, but you just gotta laugh about it.

We are now in Bangkok and we leave on Wednesday for Hong Kong. We are currently planning two weeks in HK then 3 weeks in Japan then 5 weeks in China before we board the TransMongolian Railroad for 3 weeks. We haven’t bought our tickets yet, but we are planning on flying back on the 18th of September.

Thai Cities and Beautiful Laos

Bangkok was mostly uneventful. We saw some temples, not enough museums, went to a few malls to get the shopping we needed done out of the way, and frequented Khao San road, which is the backpacker hangout. We wanted to live it up before Tim returned home, give him a proper send off. We did purchase a little travellers BENQ laptop; 10.1 inch screen 90% full keyboard, 1.6GHz, 2GB of RAM and it only weighs just over a kilo, all for about £300. We are pretty excited about it. It is my first PC ever and I wish I could have this as a Mac but they just don’t make them yet. For now though, I am quite happy with our little computer.










The journey up to Chiang Mai (the second largest city in Thailand) was either 10 hours by bus or 14 by train. Obviously it sounds a little a silly to go for the longer option, but the bus is just seats and for a few more bucks we got air con sleeper cars. Naturally, we went in style by train up to Chiang Mai. Both Will and Karl needed some comfort while suffering from a nasty head cold. Chiang Mai is a really different city from Bangkok. It is much smaller and by comparison much cheaper. The city used to be surrounded by walls and a moat, and to this day there are still portions of the (crumbling) walls and most of the moat around the city.
Chiang Mai is Will’s turf. He has been there many times before on past travels and always adored it, so we were happy to let him lead us to a guesthouse. The streets inside are not exactly a grid, but there are main roads and small roads. The North Eastern corner seems to be the backpacker hangout. The food is good, but mostly international fare, and the accommodation is very reasonable with good rooms for £4 per night. Obviously the city has grown to be bigger than the old square (I say obviously because you could walk from one corner to the opposite one in about 20 minutes.) All of the fancy hotels are outside of the wall, but I think you miss something by not staying in the old part of town. We stayed at Libra Guesthouse on Moon Muang Soi 9. Very sweet and reasonably priced, but the best part was the free wifi; it only worked for parts of the day, but I find that when I have internet at home I use it more frequently in time that I would only use as down time.
Will headed up to Pai and then to Mai Haad Song (sp?). He wanted to check out an orphanage his ex-girlfriend had set up. They are still good friends and he had supported her in that mission and wanted to see it in person. So he left Chiang Mai after a couple of days and we would meet back up either there or in Laos.
There were definitely some pretty cool things to do in Chiang Mai. We organised a cooking course. There are many courses on offer in Chiang Mai but for me Alex and Karl we all wanted to know how to cook these amazing dishes instead of, say, know how to give a Thai massage. So for£36 we spent two days learning how to make 12 dishes, 6 each day. The class consisted of the three of us and a teacher. First she would show us how to make the dish then we would get to make it ourselves on their brand new equipment. If we didn’t finish every dish we made that day (which was not advisable, it was so much food) we even got to take it home with us. We got to take away a cookbook with all the recipes we learned plus a few more. My two favourite dishes were the green curry and banana steam cake. Both I will have to make again. Everything else there was incredible (except the Massaman curry, which was really hard) and would be happy to try to make again.

















We also got to do the flight of the Gibbon; a series of ziplines in the tree tops. Alex was all set to come despite his fear of heights, but at the last moment the night before he came down with flu like symptoms. Convenient, no? There were something like 18 platforms, 11 ziplines and three abseils/belays. It took about three hours and I’m glad I did it, but I don’t think I will do it again. The problem is that this one seems the safest because they seem to know what they are doing, they don’t let you hook yourself up but then it takes longer between the ziplines and the ziplines themselves are comparatively short to other similar gibbon experiences. I decided to go ahead without Alex, unlike diving, Alex may never want to do the Gibbon experience again. So Malia, Karl and I went to soar through the trees like monkeys. I did not bring my camera along, but I have attached a picture, compliments of Karl Renner.





We ended up spending a little more time in Chiang Mai than we had planned as we were waiting for Malia’s lost card replacement to be sent to her. After many days of talking and emailing and faxing, communication with a US bank that was only made cheap in the last few years, did a new card finally arrive by DHL. Yay new, cheap communication!

Alex could not find anyone to maintain the dreads he had gotten done on the last day in Bangkok. So short of getting a tool for me to do it for him, which we failed to do, he decided to get them shaved off the day we left Chiang Mai. I love it!







We parted company with Malia in Chiang Mai, it was a little weird and sad, but we’ll see her again somewhere in SE Asia. Malia was going to spend a few more days there then head to Pai. Will wasn’t ready to meet back up with us, so we caught a bus up to Chiang Khong, the border town with Laos. We stayed at a sweet little guesthouse with good food and a fantastic view over the Mekong. We met two sweet women travelling alone but had decided to travel together. Caroline from Paris and Franziska from Berlin. They were going on the slow boat too, so we joined forces the next day. The room was a little worse for the ware and had more than a few bugs in it. I didn’t get the best night’s sleep. The next morning we bought our tickets for the slow boat and crossed the border into Laos. Goodbye Thailand.







We bought some food and some alcohol to while the day away. We were told there would be nothing on the boat, which was of course, not true. We also bought some cushions for 80p as there were thin wooden benches and that’s it. The first day was 7 hours on the boat. The view was unbelievable. It reminded me a lot of the Yangtze river. As the boat was all foreigners it was fun to get to know everyone. Chat above the screaming engine and when you got bored of the person you were talking to or they got bored of you, all you had to do was look up and realise you were in a beautiful unforgettable place. It was truly amazing. We didn’t often get bored of one another, it was more when there was a silence or to point out a massive eddy (it looked like a really dangerous river, I’m glad we were on the slow boat and not the fast boat). We stayed that night in a tiny town whose only purpose was as a stopover for the boats travelling down or up the Mekong.



Pak Beng gave me the creeps. It went past charmless, the town felt ghostlike (with no real reason for existence) and over-inhabited (with all the tourists and locals to take care of those tourists) at the same time. The electricity gets turned off at midnight so the fan, the only thing keeping us from dripping sweat turned off for the rest of the night. When I say dripping, I quite literally mean dripping, even at 4 in the morning. It was hot, but mostly it was the lack of moving air. The next day we boarded a smaller boat than the previous day and yet spend 9 hours on this on (or so they said it would be). We met Joe and Laura a couple from London whom we got on famously with and are still travelling with. They had missed the slow boat the day before because of the world slowest service in a restaurant and had taken the fast boat to Pak Beng.

That evening we arrived in Luang Prabang, the second city of Laos. Officially, it is not the capital, but in terms of charm and draw it wins hands down the title of best city in Laos. It was small enough to walk around the centre of town, it had two rivers bisecting it, the feel was truly French, it had reasonable accommodation, and best of all it had delicious food and wine at reasonable prices. Will managed to meet us there by flying in. He saved the time of the slow boat but also money for flying out of the country and reclaiming the VAT he paid for his computer.









After Luang Prabang we headed through the mountains and into Vang Vieng.
The town used to be unpaved and in the three years between Will’s two visits it had grown quite considerably. It is a strange little town but not creepy in the way Pak Beng was. We stayed over the river which you had to get to via a rickety little bridge. We went tubing and we survived. It is a lot of drinking and very little tubing, which is probably for the best anyway. The amazing thing about this town too was the beautiful backdrop of the mountains there. This is the place that is known as the place to get laid and when I saw tubing I understood why: it is one huge westerner meat market. Pretty crazy.



Afterwards, bruised and sore, we headed to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. As I’ve said before it is an almost completely uninteresting place in my opinion. But it provided a place for us to get our Vietnamese visas without any difficulty. Will and Karl tried to change their ticket to come with us to Vietnam, but were not able to without spending a lot of money. So we will have to see them in London in a few months. Sad to leave them after 2 months of travelling together, but at least it won’t be too long before we meet up again. It was absolutely amazing making such great friends while travelling. Here’s to you two! See you soon.

We flew from Vientiane to Hanoi to avoid 24 hours straight on a bus (there is no train). We are now here with Joe and Laura and have about 3.5 weeks to make it through Vietnam, Cambodia and back to Bangkok for our flight to Hong Kong on June 17. We can do it!

Beautiful beaches and lots of fun

When we arrived in Langkawi we were, as usual, surrounded by touts. We banded together the six of us (Me and Alex plus Malia, Davide, Karl and William) and managed to negotiate a reasonable rate to the beach we wanted to go to. There is no public transport on the island so we did pretty well to have so many people. We landed at a reggae bar, had a beer and some food, then three of us went off to find accommodation while the other three stayed behind (and drank). There were five of us who needed accommodation as Davide sleeps in a hammock on the beach. We tried many options from fan bungalows to dorms to large rooms with air con and the latter turned out to the cheapest. So we got a room with two double beds, an extra mattress on the floor, our own bathroom, AC and we were a stone's throw from the beach. Somehow the days slipped away from us. The island is tax free so we could buy beers from the duty free shop for 35pence a can. I don't think anyone would have any trouble guessing we got very drunk there. There was an instant bonding with these guys, and sharing a room instantly made us close: all the barriers were shot down almost immediately. After five days in Langkawi doing mostly drinking we decided we should go see some of the island before we headed into Thailand. By this time Alesandro, the other Italian, had made it to Langkawi. We rented two bikes and a Jeep and drove off to see some of the sites. We went to the cable car. The cable car was undoubtedly built as a tourist attraction and it cost about 6 pounds to go up, which is expensive for Malaysia, but it was incredibly beautiful. It was very high and Alex had some difficulty going up, but I think he is glad he did it after all. We have some great pictures of Alex looking very worried, but in his charming smiling way. We went to a few waterfalls and it was nice just to see some of the island after spending so many days there. The highlight of the day however, was a beach that we went to see. I don't remember the name of it unfortunately, but it was on the west coast of the island. It was not built up at all but it was probably the most perfect beach I have ever seen. Crystal clear water just cool enough to cool us down from the heat outside and completely white sand. Mom, even you would have liked to swim here.

The next day we headed off towards Thailand. We arrived in Koh Lipe, which Alesandro had been to 3 years before and have loved it. We traveled there via the mainland to save some money and also to pick up some Baht as Koh Lipe is so small it doesn't have an ATM. Again it made financial sense to all stay in a room together. We got a beachfront room with a double bed and three single beds and our own bathroom. Unfortunately, there was no AC. It was a bit warm during the day when the sun heated up the little hut. We explored the island, ate some yummy Phad Thai and pancakes and of course, had lots of fun getting to know our new friends. In a pretty short amount of time we became pretty close with William and Karl. Obviously when you spend that much time together solidly it's pretty much a given that you either like each other or you're forced to do it. We are the former. After 4 days William and Karl headed up to Bangkok to pick up Karl's brother. We made plans to meet back up in Phuket. Alex and I left the following day and went up to Koh Lanta. Between us we managed to be ill for three days. Not sure if it was food poisoning, I doubt it, but it sure wasn't fun. We decided to cut our losses and head up to Phuket.

In Phuket we stayed in On On Hotel which is the hotel used in the movie The Beach as the mainland flop hotel. It was very basic, but it was clean and we got our own bathroom for a total of 2 pounds each a night. We shared a triple with Malia. Although, there wasn't a single powerpoint in the room, a little odd. We stayed there two nights. On the second day we rented a motorbike and a car and went to explore the island. Alex and Malia on the bike and the other four of us in the car. Thanks Will for driving! Alex is really enjoying his experience on the motorbike. The next day we moved to Kata beach. That is one of the quieter beaches near the infamous Patong beach. Patong is a raucous over touristed beach and town. That night we ventured out to the main road there to have a night out. It was an incredibly strange experience to watch. All along the street were women and Ladyboys. The women in all the bars were paid to make the men feel attractive, flirt with them and play bar games with them (the women are very very good at these games but they clearly let everyone else win) and generally make the men feel happy so they will spend more money. These women may also go home with the bar customers but I think that is a side business. The Ladyboys are a whole other ballgame, sorry for the pun. In Thailand, apparently it is quite accepted to raise boy children as girls. Ladyboys are transvestites that have extensive plastic surgery and often the only thing left identifying them as males are their knuckles (William says it's always the knuckles that give it away for him). Just in case you were wondering the toilets are marked that there is a women's toilet and a men/ladyboy's toilet. So I imagine everything is still intact there. It was quite a scene, it's difficult to explain all of it here. I was told it was a mini Patpong, which is in Bangkok. Over the next few days we did some exploring and beach hopping.

Next stop was yet another beautiful and idyllic island called Koh Pha Ngan. In Thai Koh means island. We were on our way to the well known full moon party. It was everything it was supposed to be. Craziness. It too was also surreal as it was a huge group of Farang (the thai word for white foreigner) getting completely drunk and going crazy on drugs. It was mayhem everywhere, not in an obviously dangerous way, but people getting lost from each other, peeing in the ocean a few feet away from two people having sex, next to a sleeping person. I should mention we went with all six of us and we all made it home fine.

Then on to yet another totally georgeous island called Koh Tao. On April 12 Koh Tao celebrated New Year (New Years Celebrations can last up to a week). Thai, Cambodian and Lao New Year is a extremely fun experience. Everyone and I mean everyone gets wet. There are a lot of waterguns, people driving around in pick up trucks with huge plastic bins full of water and people around it throwing the water onto people as they pass them. It was an incredible experience to share that with Thais. During the day we were all part of the same party. Everyone was drunk and everyone was happy. We took the whole day to travel about 3 miles. We stopped along to way to fill up our water guns, eat a little and we drank the whole way. It was such a beautiful day.

After we recovered from that day we did what most people go to Koh Tao for: scuba diving. It is the cheapest place in the world to get certified and to go for fun dives. Alex, Malia, William and I were going to get certified together as Karl was already certified and Tim (Karl's brother) has a broken wrist in a cast). On our first day William came down with a nasty headcold and you don't want to dive with that! Alex, Malia and I are now certified to go diving to 18 metres. We were taught by a friend of Malia's from home that like many other westerners found himself drawn to the tiny lovely island and became a dive instructor. It was so much fun. I never thought I would say that as I am usually pretty much a big wimp about the ocean. But I was ok, I was actually really happy to get under the surface and see up close the pretty marine life. And surprise surprise they are more afraid of me than I am of them. Murphy I thought of you a bunch when I was diving. Not only the time you had to take me back to shore when we went snorkeling in Hawaii but also how much you would love to be down there surrounded by all the fishies. We were so enamored of the whole experience we decided to go for our advanced certification. Basically it would mean we could go down to 30 metres, but also we could do more diving! On the morning of starting the course Alex woke up with a mean pain in his ear. Malia went ahead to the first dive. I decided that although I could dive with out Alex I wouldn't want to in the future go without him so there was no need to be certified to a deeper depth. Alex is OK, just a minor ear infection which has now been treated. We were both so disappointed not to get to do the Advanced, which includes three dives of your choice and two dives that are required (Navigation and Deep Diving), that we are sure we will get to it one day. In fact we were so sad to leave Koh Tao (we'd been there for 10 days) that I'm sure we will get back there sooner rather than later. There were many people on the island who were on travels and just never left. It is one of those magical places that just calls you back.

That was the end of our beachy time in Thailand (which also means it is probably the end of our lack of communication, but I don't promise it). We are now in Bangkok getting our Laos visa sorted. We are going to travel up to Chaing Mai in a couple of days and then into Laos. We are in the hot season and have had to succomb to paying a little more for AC because it is just too brutal without it.

Penang Delights

On March 11 we flew from Denpasar to Kuala Lumpur.  We arranged a bus from the airport to the train station and hopped onto an overnight train to Penang.  Actually the train took us into Butterworth on the mainland, just opposite Georgetown in Penang.  The whole trip was so incredibly easy.  The train was spotless with AC all for the equivalent of 16 pounds.  We arrived at 5.30am and walked to the ferry.  We then took a bus from the ferry port all the way to Batu Ferringhi to meet Malia.  For anyone who doesn't know Malia, I moved in with Malia when I was 13 and lived with her for four years. Malia was in Penang with her family for her cousin's wedding.  It was the end of their trip after the wedding so we got to hang out with them for a couple of days.  Malia's Aunt is from Penang so she knew the good spots for food and could tell us the traditional foods and give us tips of where to go and what to do.  One of the amazing (and weird) dishes we consumed was something called ice kachung. I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong, but that's how it sounds.  The dish is a mixture of sweetcorn, red bean paste, fresh coconut strips and a sweet sauce all over shaved ice.  It sounds weird, and it was, but it was also an interesting mix that I can't imagine you would find many other places.  We frequented the many hawker centres and enjoyed being amongst people we knew, some by association, but enjoyed their company all the same.  We visited the butterfly farm on Penang which was totally unexpectedly amazing.  We spent about three hours wandering around the enclosed (hot!) main area with butterflies walking all around us.  There were so many different kinds of butterflies, scorpions, centipedes, koi, beetles, grasshoppers, snakes, and many other types of bugs that I can't even remember.  We did some good old shopping in the brand new shopping mall that like many others in the world reminds me of home.  It's kind of sad that that happens, but it's true. Catie and Lindsay, our Australian friends whom we met in Malaysia, gave us inspiration to buy some travel speakers.  Now we have music wherever we go, which is really nice. After Malia's family left she moved into the same guesthouse as us, and then there were three.  Again. We heard there was a new Thai immigration rule that if you arrived in Thailand by land you only got 14 days so we decided to get a Thai visa in Penang which allowed us two months instead.  We took the bus into Georgetown  and after a long walk we arrived at the Thai embassy.  We met two Italian travellers on the bus who we tried to tell them about the new law and to come with us.  They decided after we got off the bus that it was a good idea and we saw them there after about a half hour.  We dropped off our passports and walked into the center of Georgetown to await the return of our passports, which was going to be about 4 hours. We didn't manage to walk all the way, it was a little farther than we thought and it was very very hot, as usual. We had a delicious meal at an Indian place.  It was the first time that I really looked forward to (we have discussed this the night before) and then enjoyed eating Indian food (it was really good Indian food) since we left India.  I knew that this feeling would return, but I didn't know how long it would take for it to come back.  Now every time I eat Indian food I can look back to our trip there. We walked around little India and then Chinatown a little bit. While we were in town Alex decided he wanted to have a sheesha (hookah) to travel around with.  So we searched high and low for a little travel sheesha.  We would've been far more successful in India! At least more so than in Malaysia. We ran out of time and had to go back to get our visa filled passports.  The Thai embassy decided to take an hour break just when the half hour window to pick up passports began. The two Italians we had met that morning had to leave to pick up their stuff from a travel agent who would be closing. I should mention that these two Italians prefer not to pay for accommodation. They travel with hammocks, which they string up on beaches or in parks and leave their stuff with other travelers or with travel agents or their preference is 7 Elevens which stay open 24/7. So We got the passports (ours and the Italians, I guess we look trustworthy) then returned to town to resume our search, as we got a tip just before we ran out of time.  Although the tip turned out to be misinformed, we did run into three different guys that we saw at the embassy.  We ended up sitting down with the two Kiwi guys traveling together and an Englishman who's 61st Birthday it was that day. Alex went to pick up a sheesha, which was slightly overpriced because it was the only one in Penang for sale. We had some drinks with William, Karl and Sam, (the two Kiwis and the Englishman, respectively) then went back to Batu Ferrenghi to reunite with the Italians. The next morning we took the boat direct to Langkawi. We left one of the Italians, Alessandro, behind to take a language test for his Australia Immigration, he met back up with us later. Davide came along with us, and we also saw William and Karl on the boat. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, although we weren't aware of it yet.

Indonesian Paradise

We arrived on the 25th of February from KL on Asia's budget airline, Air Asia. We stayed one night in Seminyak, near the major party town of Kuta. We stayed in a lovely little place called Losmen Inada. It had charm but we wanted to head up to the north of Bali and away from the party antics of south Bali so we headed out. We stayed in Ubud for one night. I came down with my usual fever and weakness that night so we didn't get to see much of Ubud. We left the next morning to Lovina. The bus made its way through the rainy mountains and over to the North coast. We passed a huge lake and possibly a crater. Indonesia has a number of active volcanoes, one of which is on the island of Bali. At the bus stop, which is the hotel of the bus company we arrived to about 10 touts waiting for the bus to try to convince each of the 7 passengers to stay at their place. We enjoyed our yummy and free but basic rice lunch and boarded the bus to get closer to the hotel/hostel that sounded the nicest in our book. We weren't quite close enough! So after a nice little trek in what felt like 30c weather we arrived at a place that lacked a charm about it. Although I was sad to see the hotel quality room with a massive view of the beach from the bed go, it was too much money for a place that the room was the only nice thing about it. We decided the next best option was the place that was furthest from us at that point. So we hopped in a bemo, a local bus/taxi notorious for ripping off tourists. We did get ripped off, we later learned, and he managed to swipe an extra note from us when returning our change. C'est la vie. An expression I have been using a lot lately. We entered Kubu Lalang, the hotel, and decided that at the same price as the last place, the charm of the location and the staff was so much better, we took it. Every day for seven days we thought, should we leave yet? and each day we thought not yet. We did end up going to the hot springs and we looked for a waterfall, but must have missed the sign. The very relaxed place with great staff gave us a chance to get caught up on my reading. Outside the bungalow were daybeds that were perfect for whiling away the day and reading. I read Shantaram which is 900 pages in 5 days. Shantaram is a great book about an Australian escaped convict and eight years in Bombay. It is incredibly well written and gives an insight into a kind of India I will never see. I highly recommend it.

Then we took the same bus back to Kuta near the airport. That is the town that the bombs went off in 2002 and 2005. There is nightlife and beach. We were more interested in the latter. We went to the beach three days in a row. We would sleep in and maybe do an errand or two in the morning, like get post cards or a desperate search for hair bobbles (which was surprisingly difficult) then have lunch and head to the beach for the afternoon. There is so much accommodation in Kuta that the prices are pretty reasonable. The nice hotels with pools and aircon are about eighteen pounds a night. We couldn't afford them, but we did find a little place with our own bathroom and air con for 9 pounds a night. A little more than we have been spending but everything else was cheap enough so we splurged a little. The air con was bliss and felt so luxurious.

Walking at new heights in Taman Negara and KL

Last I wrote we were off to do the canopy walkway in the Taman Negara in central peninsular Malaysia. We made the little trek there (which seemed minuscule after our grueling hike two days before it, and yet I was still sweating through every bit of my clothing) and waited a little while to go up. The canopy walkway is accessible via 20 minute canoe boat or 1 hour trek. I would say about half of the people there had made the trek and the other half took the boat. The boat costs a bit of money and the trek is free. Once you purchase your tickets you have to wait your turn. It is a first come first serve process. We arrived at about 1pm and were lucky to not have to wait more than 20 minutes. Then you climb up some more steps and onto the walkway. The walkway is 45 metres above the ground (and Alex who is afraid of heights was convinced it was at least 50) and 510 metres long, spread over 9 walkways with junctions at trees. The canopy as they call it is literally a rope mesh with steel wire securing it to the tree. You then walk over what is essentially a metal ladder laid over the ropes and wooden boards to guard against wearing them too thin. Each walkway is only supposed to have 4 people on it and some of the tree platforms specify a max number of people. And they swayed regardless of how few were on the platform. I'm not that afraid of heights but I was a little perturbed. I got a few photos of Alex and I will try to upload them. I would go first on the walkway and then when I reached the platform I would turn and take a photo of Alex. I went first because there was a group of about 10 school kids, maybe 14 years old, ahead of us. And like most kids that age they were fearless and prepared to play/scare the girls in the group, who in turn would shriek and then laugh. I have to admit I was not nearly as amused as their friends. We survived and I think Alex is glad he did it.

The next morning we got up very early to take the local bus to Jeruntut where we switched to an air con bus to KL. It was incredibly easy and cheap and we arrived in KL around noon. We had heard from Lindsey and Catie (our hiking friends) that they were staying in Chinatown. We headed there to find some accommodation and stopped in a few places to check them out. We saw a couple of places that were lacking charm and when we arrived at the one Lindsay and Catie were at it had so much more charm than most and a ceiling fan that makes the world of difference. As I am signing in Alex asks the desk guy about Lindsay, at first he didn't know who we were talking about, then when we found Catie's name in the book, he then recalled them and said they had checked out. Spooked by the guidebook saying Chinatown has a prevalence of bed-bugs and Catie's propensity for finding them, Alex and I looked at each other and made the excuse that we should go to the Internet place to double check where they are. We headed back to one of the other places we had seen at checked in. The rooms were very basic and we shared the bathroom, but it was cheap and reasonably clean. As we learned later, the reason they left the hostel they had told us about was not because of bedbugs. The bed turned out to be the noisiest bed they had ever come across and actually managed to keep them awake. They did take a video and showed it to us of Lindsay sitting then standing and repeating this over and over again. It could have been a comedy skit. I hope they post the video. They have some great photos and are much better at posting them. Their blog is www.beyondbagot.wordpress.com and they have a link to all of their photos. As it turned out, some of their friends had gotten together to give Lindsay a birthday gift of money to stay in a proper hotel for a few nights. So after their night of no sleep due to noisy furniture it was a very welcome and appreciated present.

We saw some of the sights the next day. We went past the national mosque or masjid, went into Merdeka square (with an unbelievably large flagpole), and we tried to get into one of the museums near Merdeka square, but it had been moved entirely to one of the other museums we had walked so close to! Oh well. It was too hot and we were tired so we decided to do it the next day. We walked back to our area via the central market or pasar seni (Bahasa Malaysia is relatively easy to learn the written words). Alex shocked me when he wanted to do some shopping and we wandered around for at least 2 hours looking for clothes and presents. I asked Alex a couple of times: "Who are you? and what have you done with my boyfriend?" At home when he worked all week at a job he wasn't crazy about he would come home and his time was so precious that shopping just didn't make it in there. Being away and having more time to do enjoyable things he was happy to shop and even initiated it (I've learned over the years not to initiate shopping as Alex is never up for it).

That evening we went home showered (we usually need two showers a day in this heat) and decided to go over the road to a bar that had free wifi to check our emails. We hadn't heard from Lindsay and Catie and where they had gone so we thought we should check in. When we got down there they were at the bar. It is called Reggae Bar and it is known among backpackers as it has a long happy hour and it's in the budget guidebooks. So it wasn't THAT big a coincidence, but it was still surprising and serendipitous. We stayed there to have a couple more beers then headed to the Chinese hawker centre nearby for dinner. We called it an early night as it was Lindsay's birthday the next day and we knew we would have more time to chill the next evening. We made a plan to meet at their hotel the next evening at 8pm. They were going back to the Thai embassy the next day after a failed attempt because they didn't have all the necessary things to get their visa.

We meant to get up early and head to the Petronas towers very early to get a good entry time but after a little drinking the night before we could only get up and out by 10am. We walked to the metro and almost got on the wrong train, then had to run to catch the right one. We didn't get on the set of doors right in front of us as they were full so we went to the next one. You might think this is a lot of info, but there is a reason. At the next stop some people filed out so I moved closer to the back and as I turned around I saw Lindsay. Of all the trains and all the cars and all the doors we managed to get onto the exact same one. They were heading to the embassy and us to Petronas towers. Amazing. We had a chat for a few stops then got off one stop before them.

The Petronas Towers are free to enter but they give you tickets with time slots in order to stagger the crowds. At first I thought: It's lovely that they don't charge, it gives you a nice feeling. I think this is especially true when you are traveling on a budget and are aware of every ringgit you spend. We had a few hours to kill so we checked out how the rich spend their time. The mall that is part of that complex is huge! Of course, I understood the reason behind the decision to make it free much better once we sat down to watch the video before going up. There is a 10 minute (essentially promo) video that they show before you can go up. The best kind of propaganda. Check out who Petronas are here. Eventually we got up to the 41st floor to the bridge between the two towers. Some good photos because it's cool to see cities from up high. I'm pretty sure that will never get old. Then back to Chinatown to change and head out for dinner.

Lindsay's bday started with some cocktails in their hotel room, then dinner at the hawker centre and drinks and a shisha at the Reggae Bar. It was a really nice night. We got on with them so nicely that since we have left them that night we just refer to them as the guys. We have said to each other, I wonder where the guys are? or I wonder if the guys got their visa? It is the first time that Alex and I have made friends with a couple that neither of us knew beforehand.

The next day we flew to Bali. The second time we managed to get good and drunk the night before we had to travel. Well done us. It is absolutely no fun to travel, especially with 15kgs or 33 lbs on your back, in the sweltering heat and blaring sun when you are hungover.

Sultry Singapore

When I looked up sultry in the dictionary it was the perfect description of Singapore. There is something sexy about the architecture and the beautiful young people, the sleek quality of newness on every corner. And the heat. That's the best part of this definition. characterized by oppressive heat and humidity; "the summer was sultry and oppressive"; "the stifling atmosphere"; "the sulfurous atmosphere preceding a thunderstorm". I can't imagine living in a stifling heat like that all year round. That's all that I could think of in that heat: 'it's like this the whole year round'.

I enjoyed Singapore. It was clean and I felt like I was in a city that I could relate to again. It wasn't much outside of my comfort zone, an idea that was personified by all the of the western expats. We spent two nights in a classic hostel which was very central and pretty clean. On the 3-6th nights we stayed with a friend of Alex's, Lorrie. Lorrie worked with Alex in Ware at GSK. She was just transferred to Singapore for a year. Although Lorrie and I got along really well and I was very glad to have gotten to know her and spend time with her, it was also so nice to stay with her as we got to stay in a home. It's amazing how a home can feel after 6 weeks on the road. We got to do laundry and have music playing in the background, skype our families and generally feel safe and happy.

We ate some fantastic food, both at hawker centres and in restaurants. It is a very nice to place to visit, sorry Dad. Some of the sites we saw: Botanical Gardens (so georgeous, and free), National Singapore museum, Little India, Boat Quay, Clrke Quay, Colonial district and Central Business District, which really felt like Canary Wharf. Two things I want to see if we go back: the zoo, I was sorry we didn't get a chance to see that. and China town.

On our second to last day we went to Parasilk, an electronics store that my father found on through his online research to be the best store in Singapore for such things. And low and behold when I arrived, Lorrie confirmed this to be true. Well done, dad! We had a chat about cameras and we decided on the Panasonic LX3 Lumix. We took the camera out to play the first night and it takes some great photos. It is not as powerful as the proper SLR but because of the size I am so happy with it. We compared the processors with a couple of other small SLR-like cameras and this one had the best processor. It is not a large optical zoom, 3 I think, but the camera is 10 mega pixels, so we can always crop the picture after the fact. I feel like the size is the most important part of it, it is not only small, but it seemed to have better specs than some of its peers. The guy said it was good for night shots. And the brilliant thing is that it does do good photos in low light. If we want to open the shutter for longer, we can, but since it is not a real SLR you can't feel the shutter opening and closing. The result is that it doesn't quite do it as well, but I am so happy with this. The lens is also 24mm so we can take wide angle. The aspect can be changed from 4:3 to 3:2 (original 36mm film aspect) and 16:9. And of course, you can manually change all of the settings if you want. oh and you can set it to auto so it chooses the best setting, eg portrait or macro. Murphy was right about having a camera that takes good pix, it makes the world of difference.

On Tuesday morning we took a very early morning train out of Singapore and into Malaysia. it was a fine train ride other than the fact that we had said a proper goodbye to Lorrie with lots of drinks. It felt like an eternity on the train. We arrived in Jerantut around 1pm. We found a hotel and crashed. Jerantut is only a stopping point on your way to Taman Negara. We are currently in the little village that serves this national park. Taman Negara is apparently the oldest rainforest in the world, at 130 million years it survived the ice age. We hired a guide and went with a couple we met on our way up to the park. The couple, two Aussies, at the beginning of their year of travel, were the perfect hiking companions. The boys carried the heavy packs and the girls trudged along in our day packs. We trekked for 7 hours and made it to a hide, which is as it is described, a hut on concrete stilts to hide from animals. It was 12 wooden bunks and that's it. The toilet didn't flush. If no one is going to go out there every day (and they shouldn't) the park should put in squat toilets. It's much cleaner. Unfortunately we didn't see anything more than a Tapir, but it was worth the trek and the excitement of going out there. Today we hiked another hour to a jetty and got motorised canoe back to Kuala Tahan where our hostel is. Most of the last 36 hours can be better described with pictures. I haven't downloaded them yet, but I will, hopefully. I think one thing that can not be fully described is the amount of liquid our bodies expelled in this heat. It looked like each of us had gone swimming in our clothes. Alas it was only sweat. literally dripping. quite a picture. Canopy walkway tomorrow then off to KL.

If I have forgotten to tell everyone about anything in particular you were looking forward to hearing about, maybe I mentioned it to you or someone else? feel free to remind or ask me.

Off to bed to sleep in a mediocre mattress that will feel like the softest foam mattress after the wooden planks last night.