By far the best thing about having a travel companion is the fact that we can afford air con! We debated getting a fan room today and then decided for an extra 2 pounds it was worth it just to be cool. Since I've been in Malaysia Thailand has become HOT, almost unbearably so!
So after a rather ecstatic reunion at Bangkok airport with Andrea last monday we spent a whole day catching up and a rather frantic day seeing temples, Chinatown and riding the sky train (to get ice cream, not specifically but it was a bonus!) before taking advantage of the ROOFTOP POOL that we had at our hotel (for 7 pounds a night..)! We also ran into Iain and Alice who I met in Taman Negara who took advantage of our hospitality and gatecrashed the pool as well, it was great to see them again though.
We (oooh it's just so exciting to write 'we' in all my entries now!) then took a v horrible non air conditioned 4 hour bus ride to Kanchanaburi which we vowed we would never do again! Kanchanaburi is where the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai is so we spent a day thoroughly depressing ourselves learning about the Japanese occupation of South East Asia. They weren't very nice to the PoWs so there were some rather harrowing exhibits in the museums but it was interesting to learn about a completely different aspect of WWII. We decided to hire bikes (Andrea not feeling up to braving a motorbike yet) and cycle round the town which was quite treacherous, we were cycling down rather narrow streets being overtaken by motorbikes and lorries very fast on all sides. I maintain we would have been safer on motorbikes! The best thing about Kanchanaburi though was our incredible guest house, it was right on the river and we had a little bungalow on stilts. A perfect way to recover from the museums was sitting on our veranda overlooking the river and reading Dan Brown (which I read in less than 3 hours, a personal record!).
The next day, 11 hours of travelling later, we made it to Sukothai. We had quite a funny journey to get there as we had to go back to Bangkok. Having paid for a minibus to take us directly to the bus station we had quite a funny argument in the middle of one of the main roads in Bangkok when the driver refused to take us there. He nearly tried throwing out our bags and driving off but contented himself with dumping us at a petrol station and putting us in a minivan there instead. The bus to Sukothai was surprisingly luxurious, we were given water, snacks and a meal ticket for lunch! And air con which was a blissful relief.
Sukothai was the old capital before Ayutthaya and is a massive site of beautifully preserved ruins surrounded by lakes and moats. We had rather a hot day of cycling around them (decided to brave the bikes again but luckily there were fewer cars!) and faded after about 3 hours, there are only so many chedi (tower things) you can see in 35 degree heat!
Now we have made it to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand having met the most charming Germans so far on our trip on the bus here. The next few days are going to involve a cookery course, trekking through hilltribe villages, elephant trekking, bamboo rafting and trying to work out how the hell to get to Laos. The travel agents are adamant there are no buses to where we want to go so we might have to take a 2 day boat ride with potentially no shade...argh!
Monday, 31 March 2008
Monday, 24 March 2008
A dose of normality
For the last few days I have decided to ignore the budget and just be a tourist in KL and in Singapore and it has been amazing! Once we finally made it to KL and found a hostel it was a shock to be in such a civilised place! I had a fun day trying to get grand prix tickets (finally success on that front, more later), staring in the mall at all the designer labels (Gucci, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Rolex etc all under one seriously expensive roof!); going up towers with my new friend Osama and getting soaked by the rain. We finally managed to have a very civilised cup of tea which was much cheaper than the beer in KL!
Coincidence that the grand prix was in KL the weekend I was there? I'm not sure but I thought it would be rude not to go (and with tickets less than 20 pound for a hillside seat!) even though I could only go for the qualifiers. I managed to make my way there with the help of new friend Xavier and we settled ourselves on the hill, drunk our smuggled in water and watched the action. Having never been to a gp before my overriding impression was it was pretty noisy! Unfortunately I hadn't done my homework properly and so was a bit clueless which car was which (my gp fan days were about 5 years ago) but it was great watching them all zooming past. There was a fun porsche race in the middle as well.
My journey to Singapore was rather stressful, the circuit in KL is quite far away from the city and so I nearly missed my bus (which typically left 30 mins late after all that), was soaked from the downpour and the air conditioning was on full blast as usual. I was nearly left behind at immigration (luckily was helped out by some nice Sri Lankans!) and then arrived in Singapore an hour later than planned, so instead of the all female dorm I'd booked at the hostel I was shoved into a room with 5 other men, all of whom snored at various times of the night and who had the air conditioning on so cold I thought my toes were going to freeze! Not an auspicious start to the weekend....
However, meeting Fran from Trevs (who is here doing research) made up for my not so good night (I moved to the female dorm the next day and got some sleep eventually!) and we had a lovely day wandering round Singapore, me in high excitement about the cleanliness of the place (and the toilets, wow, they are just luxury compared with Malaysia and Thailand!). We then decided quite randomly to go to a spa, put our feet into some water and have them nibbled for about half an hour by 'doctor fish'! Quite an experience and my feet felt so soft afterwards! Going out for a curry in Little India in the evening was interesting though, all the men in the entire district it seemed were out on the streets standing around, I couldn't see any women so we got a lot of stares, esp when we accidentally walked down the prostitute street!
Today I've been to the zoo and behaved like a small child. I got very excited at seeing orang utans and the elephant show was hilarious (more for the commentary than the elephants). My companion for the day was a rather 'eccentric' Swiss lady who had just been in Australia for 3 months to improve her English, it was still abysmal though! She was wearing (I have to describe her because you had to see it to believe it) bright blue flowery boardshorts, an orange Indian-like top, topped off with luminous orange nails and a pink and purple hat. She was rather short with short and spiky hair and a few tatoos. I was almost embarrassed to walk next to her!
The most inspirational woman award from my trip so far though goes to the 75 year old woman from Birmingham who was in my dorm last night. 75 and still backpacking, amazing!
So tonight I'm back to Bangkok, meeting Andrea (woo! I'm so excited!) and hopefully finding a hostel. Hostels in Bangkok, I've decided, don't like me as despite having tried for a month we have been unable to book anywhere yet! So here's hoping Khao San Road isn't too busy tonight...
Coincidence that the grand prix was in KL the weekend I was there? I'm not sure but I thought it would be rude not to go (and with tickets less than 20 pound for a hillside seat!) even though I could only go for the qualifiers. I managed to make my way there with the help of new friend Xavier and we settled ourselves on the hill, drunk our smuggled in water and watched the action. Having never been to a gp before my overriding impression was it was pretty noisy! Unfortunately I hadn't done my homework properly and so was a bit clueless which car was which (my gp fan days were about 5 years ago) but it was great watching them all zooming past. There was a fun porsche race in the middle as well.
My journey to Singapore was rather stressful, the circuit in KL is quite far away from the city and so I nearly missed my bus (which typically left 30 mins late after all that), was soaked from the downpour and the air conditioning was on full blast as usual. I was nearly left behind at immigration (luckily was helped out by some nice Sri Lankans!) and then arrived in Singapore an hour later than planned, so instead of the all female dorm I'd booked at the hostel I was shoved into a room with 5 other men, all of whom snored at various times of the night and who had the air conditioning on so cold I thought my toes were going to freeze! Not an auspicious start to the weekend....
However, meeting Fran from Trevs (who is here doing research) made up for my not so good night (I moved to the female dorm the next day and got some sleep eventually!) and we had a lovely day wandering round Singapore, me in high excitement about the cleanliness of the place (and the toilets, wow, they are just luxury compared with Malaysia and Thailand!). We then decided quite randomly to go to a spa, put our feet into some water and have them nibbled for about half an hour by 'doctor fish'! Quite an experience and my feet felt so soft afterwards! Going out for a curry in Little India in the evening was interesting though, all the men in the entire district it seemed were out on the streets standing around, I couldn't see any women so we got a lot of stares, esp when we accidentally walked down the prostitute street!
Today I've been to the zoo and behaved like a small child. I got very excited at seeing orang utans and the elephant show was hilarious (more for the commentary than the elephants). My companion for the day was a rather 'eccentric' Swiss lady who had just been in Australia for 3 months to improve her English, it was still abysmal though! She was wearing (I have to describe her because you had to see it to believe it) bright blue flowery boardshorts, an orange Indian-like top, topped off with luminous orange nails and a pink and purple hat. She was rather short with short and spiky hair and a few tatoos. I was almost embarrassed to walk next to her!
The most inspirational woman award from my trip so far though goes to the 75 year old woman from Birmingham who was in my dorm last night. 75 and still backpacking, amazing!
So tonight I'm back to Bangkok, meeting Andrea (woo! I'm so excited!) and hopefully finding a hostel. Hostels in Bangkok, I've decided, don't like me as despite having tried for a month we have been unable to book anywhere yet! So here's hoping Khao San Road isn't too busy tonight...
Thursday, 20 March 2008
How many Malaysians does it take to open a bus?!
Just a funny image to finish off my time in the jungle...
I had forked out lots of money (a whole 4 pounds) to get a minibus back from the jungle the evening after the tour had finished. I thought I had almost missed the bus so I ran up soaking wet (at the end of the tour I jumped fully clothed into the river to wash all the mud off!) only to find the driver rattling the key in the lock of the bus and unable to open it. 45 minutes later there were 6 or 7 men standing round the truck each trying their best to break into the truck using the key that evidently didn't work. I couldn't understand why they didn't just change the key?! I'm not quite sure how they finally managed to open it an hour later, especially as the crow bar hadn't seemed to do anything!
I am now in Kuala Lumpur having felt the need for some civilisation after my jungle experiences. Funnily enough despite meeting a Cambridge graduate on the bus we managed to miss the stop for the capital city and ended up in a town about 3/4 hour away! Luckily we found a bus back but I do wonder if my brain has been frazzled by all the sun, surely it can't have been that difficult to get off in the biggest city in Malaysia?!
I had forked out lots of money (a whole 4 pounds) to get a minibus back from the jungle the evening after the tour had finished. I thought I had almost missed the bus so I ran up soaking wet (at the end of the tour I jumped fully clothed into the river to wash all the mud off!) only to find the driver rattling the key in the lock of the bus and unable to open it. 45 minutes later there were 6 or 7 men standing round the truck each trying their best to break into the truck using the key that evidently didn't work. I couldn't understand why they didn't just change the key?! I'm not quite sure how they finally managed to open it an hour later, especially as the crow bar hadn't seemed to do anything!
I am now in Kuala Lumpur having felt the need for some civilisation after my jungle experiences. Funnily enough despite meeting a Cambridge graduate on the bus we managed to miss the stop for the capital city and ended up in a town about 3/4 hour away! Luckily we found a bus back but I do wonder if my brain has been frazzled by all the sun, surely it can't have been that difficult to get off in the biggest city in Malaysia?!
Into the jungle...
I've managed to make it back to civilisation dirty, muddy, sweaty, wet and exhausted after an epic 3 days in the jungle!
The first adventure was taking the jungle railway from Khota Bahru through the jungle to the starting point for Taman Negara (the jungle, it even sounds exotic and exciting!). I got to the station at 6 in the morning only to be told there were no seats left and I couldn't get on the train. I tried to shed a few tears but quickly realised that the ticket guy wasn't going to budge and so managed to get a seat for half of the journey with the promise that I would move and sit on the floor for the rest of the trip. The seat part was comfy; I caught up on some much needed sleep (with a lot of clothes on as the air conditioning was fierce!) then at the station where I had to move every seat filled up and I was left sitting in the restaurant car surrounded by men whose sole past-time seemed to be staring at me and smoking, there were literally no women in the restaurant car! I tried listening to my ipod and staring pointedly out of the window trying to ignore the stares and the 'where are you from's but in the end I got fed up and went and sat on the bin! The journey through the jungle was pretty cool, it was only a single track railway with the jungle less than a foot away on both sides but once we'd stopped for 2 hours for no particular reason I was quite glad to get off!
In Jerantut I met the lovely Ian and Alice and a very nice, rather earnest, German cyclist called Jenz. We had fun negotiating the local supermarket and then the next morning had a 3 hour boat ride to Taman Negara. The boat was pretty low and we got wet but it was fun, seeing beautiful birds and a big lizard as we zoomed up through the muddy water. Ian, Alice and I braved the jungle, tucking socks over trousers and covering ourselves with deet (I went one step further the next day and stuck duck tape around my socks as well, I looked a right sight!) to try and avoid the leeches. First stop was the canopy walkway, a massive rope ladder in the top of the trees about 45 m above the ground, it was fantastic! Then we decided to climb a hill which was completely exhausting. It was so hot and humid in the jungle that as soon as we moved we were literally dripping with sweat, nice! By the time we made it back we were exhausted and not amused by the people who said it was a nice 'gentle' hike up this hill!
After a rather sleepless night in the dorm (some rather loud snoring and sleep shouting during the night didn't help!) I signed up for a 2 day trek into the jungle. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I think I had rather a romantic view of a nice walk, sleeping in a cave with the jungle noises in the background and some funny stories to tell the next day. I don't think I'm made for the whole trekking malarky! The boat ride up the river was lovely but the trek was one of the hardest things I've ever done (and some people do it for 7 days...why?!). The jungle was incredible, we saw no one else the whole day and it was exactly as I'd pictured: dense trees, enormous roots and Tarzan-like vines, deafening cicidas. We also saw elephant footprints, mushrooms galore, insects including enormous ants (no big animals though we saw some wild boar on the way to the canopy walkway). The walk involved scrambling over trees, crossing rivers and trudging through mud drenched in sweat, hard hard work even though we only walked about 8 km. After about 5/6 hours of trekking we reached the cave which was such a relief, I had never felt so disgusting in my life! A 'jungle shower' involved standing in the river and pouring water over ourselves which was the most amazing feeling. The cave was enormous, rather smelly and full of bats which was a bit creepy; we made a fire, had some dinner and listened to the immense sounds of the jungle and thunder outside (we had just finished gathering firewood before it poured with rain). Needless to say sleep was quite elusive, we only had a thin mat on the floor, all my clothes were wet and I had a very loud snoring guide next to me not to mention the squeaking bats! But hey it was an experience!
The next day after the rain all our clothes were still soaking (putting on wet boots is not fun) and the leeches were out in force. The paths all became twice as treacherous as we slipped and slid over the mud and tried to avoid the leeches (luckily we had some trusty walking sticks by this point or I wouldn't have made it!). My tactic of drenching my shoes in deet, long trousers and socks seemed to work but the others got completely attacked by the little buggers! We had more streams to cross over branches (tightrope walking isn't my strong point so I got wet a few times), more trees had fallen down over night and by the last hour I was trudging and sliding in the mud in a very bad mood (I had a fight with the mud and lost, Uganda people know how much I love mud!). But we finally made it back to the boat and I got away with just one leech, yes! In hindsight I think I will say it was an amazing experience but right now I'm just so happy to be clean and not jumping up and down looking for leeches all the time!
The first adventure was taking the jungle railway from Khota Bahru through the jungle to the starting point for Taman Negara (the jungle, it even sounds exotic and exciting!). I got to the station at 6 in the morning only to be told there were no seats left and I couldn't get on the train. I tried to shed a few tears but quickly realised that the ticket guy wasn't going to budge and so managed to get a seat for half of the journey with the promise that I would move and sit on the floor for the rest of the trip. The seat part was comfy; I caught up on some much needed sleep (with a lot of clothes on as the air conditioning was fierce!) then at the station where I had to move every seat filled up and I was left sitting in the restaurant car surrounded by men whose sole past-time seemed to be staring at me and smoking, there were literally no women in the restaurant car! I tried listening to my ipod and staring pointedly out of the window trying to ignore the stares and the 'where are you from's but in the end I got fed up and went and sat on the bin! The journey through the jungle was pretty cool, it was only a single track railway with the jungle less than a foot away on both sides but once we'd stopped for 2 hours for no particular reason I was quite glad to get off!
In Jerantut I met the lovely Ian and Alice and a very nice, rather earnest, German cyclist called Jenz. We had fun negotiating the local supermarket and then the next morning had a 3 hour boat ride to Taman Negara. The boat was pretty low and we got wet but it was fun, seeing beautiful birds and a big lizard as we zoomed up through the muddy water. Ian, Alice and I braved the jungle, tucking socks over trousers and covering ourselves with deet (I went one step further the next day and stuck duck tape around my socks as well, I looked a right sight!) to try and avoid the leeches. First stop was the canopy walkway, a massive rope ladder in the top of the trees about 45 m above the ground, it was fantastic! Then we decided to climb a hill which was completely exhausting. It was so hot and humid in the jungle that as soon as we moved we were literally dripping with sweat, nice! By the time we made it back we were exhausted and not amused by the people who said it was a nice 'gentle' hike up this hill!
After a rather sleepless night in the dorm (some rather loud snoring and sleep shouting during the night didn't help!) I signed up for a 2 day trek into the jungle. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I think I had rather a romantic view of a nice walk, sleeping in a cave with the jungle noises in the background and some funny stories to tell the next day. I don't think I'm made for the whole trekking malarky! The boat ride up the river was lovely but the trek was one of the hardest things I've ever done (and some people do it for 7 days...why?!). The jungle was incredible, we saw no one else the whole day and it was exactly as I'd pictured: dense trees, enormous roots and Tarzan-like vines, deafening cicidas. We also saw elephant footprints, mushrooms galore, insects including enormous ants (no big animals though we saw some wild boar on the way to the canopy walkway). The walk involved scrambling over trees, crossing rivers and trudging through mud drenched in sweat, hard hard work even though we only walked about 8 km. After about 5/6 hours of trekking we reached the cave which was such a relief, I had never felt so disgusting in my life! A 'jungle shower' involved standing in the river and pouring water over ourselves which was the most amazing feeling. The cave was enormous, rather smelly and full of bats which was a bit creepy; we made a fire, had some dinner and listened to the immense sounds of the jungle and thunder outside (we had just finished gathering firewood before it poured with rain). Needless to say sleep was quite elusive, we only had a thin mat on the floor, all my clothes were wet and I had a very loud snoring guide next to me not to mention the squeaking bats! But hey it was an experience!
The next day after the rain all our clothes were still soaking (putting on wet boots is not fun) and the leeches were out in force. The paths all became twice as treacherous as we slipped and slid over the mud and tried to avoid the leeches (luckily we had some trusty walking sticks by this point or I wouldn't have made it!). My tactic of drenching my shoes in deet, long trousers and socks seemed to work but the others got completely attacked by the little buggers! We had more streams to cross over branches (tightrope walking isn't my strong point so I got wet a few times), more trees had fallen down over night and by the last hour I was trudging and sliding in the mud in a very bad mood (I had a fight with the mud and lost, Uganda people know how much I love mud!). But we finally made it back to the boat and I got away with just one leech, yes! In hindsight I think I will say it was an amazing experience but right now I'm just so happy to be clean and not jumping up and down looking for leeches all the time!
Saturday, 15 March 2008
A couple of days in paradise
Aaah the beaches of South East Asia, I don't think I could ever get sick of them! The Perhetion islands are my kind of paradise, no roads, electricity for only 12 hours a day, the most incredible blue water and a little hut to myself on the beach...I was still with Mark and Sophie (who I met in the Cameron Highlands) at this point and we had rather a hairy boat trip over, arriving on the island completely soaked, then having to trek for about half an hour to the other side of the bay through the forest, not fun with big bags! But one look at the beach when we arrived made it worth the journey.
It was a relaxing couple of days (not much to report apart from some attempted body boarding and a lot of burning!) but I had to say farewell today to Mark and Sophie and head back to my not so favourite town of Kota Bahru where at least I've found a hostel that was open! I've had a whole week not alone which has been amazing. Tomorrow I'm heading to the jungle on a 9 hour train that leaves at 6 in the morning, should be an interesting experience! For now, I'm going to find the famous night market and eat as much as possible to stock up for tomorrow, the food is incredible there and all about 20 p!
It was a relaxing couple of days (not much to report apart from some attempted body boarding and a lot of burning!) but I had to say farewell today to Mark and Sophie and head back to my not so favourite town of Kota Bahru where at least I've found a hostel that was open! I've had a whole week not alone which has been amazing. Tomorrow I'm heading to the jungle on a 9 hour train that leaves at 6 in the morning, should be an interesting experience! For now, I'm going to find the famous night market and eat as much as possible to stock up for tomorrow, the food is incredible there and all about 20 p!
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
The kindness of strangers
My one piece of advice if you go to Malaysia, don't go to Ipoh! I arrived on the bus in the afternoon and decided to have a look around the town before my night bus up north. I jumped on a local bus without a clue where I was going (LP hadn't deigned to give much information about the place) and ended up in the back end of nowhere surrounded by car shops and the most enormous black cloud pursuing me. It was one of the biggest rainstorms I'd ever seen and eventually a man led me into a shop and let me sit there until the rain had stopped. After some telling off for being on my own (Where is your husband? Why are you not with your family?) I had a lovely long chat to the lady who owned the shop and by the end of the rainstorm (about an hour later) she had decided I was like a daughter to her, gave me her umbrella and a kiss and instructed me to get married quickly! While travelling as a girl on my own has been quite stressful sometimes: everyone is very disapproving especially in Malaysia; people have gone out of their way to look after me and I have been so touched by some strangers' kindness to me.
I had quite a hilarious journey to Kota Bahru which is right in the north of Malaysia, next to the Thai border. The bus itself wasn't the most comfortable and I was stuck next to a man whose snores rattled the bus! Luckily I was with some people I'd met in the Cameron Highlands so when we arrived at 4.20 in the morning at the bus station I was very glad I wasn't on my own! We wandered around for about half an hour in the completely dead streets; we eventually broke into a hotel and camped out in the reception until 6 when the receptionist came back from watching the football and found us a room! We're still trying to work out if we can get away with only paying for one night as technically we'll only be there for 24 hours...cheeky!
The next stop is the Perehetion islands for some more sunning myself and then on to the jungle. I'm just hoping to get some sun now as it has been cloudy here all day, I'm getting a bit fed up of all the rain!
I had quite a hilarious journey to Kota Bahru which is right in the north of Malaysia, next to the Thai border. The bus itself wasn't the most comfortable and I was stuck next to a man whose snores rattled the bus! Luckily I was with some people I'd met in the Cameron Highlands so when we arrived at 4.20 in the morning at the bus station I was very glad I wasn't on my own! We wandered around for about half an hour in the completely dead streets; we eventually broke into a hotel and camped out in the reception until 6 when the receptionist came back from watching the football and found us a room! We're still trying to work out if we can get away with only paying for one night as technically we'll only be there for 24 hours...cheeky!
The next stop is the Perehetion islands for some more sunning myself and then on to the jungle. I'm just hoping to get some sun now as it has been cloudy here all day, I'm getting a bit fed up of all the rain!
Cameron Highlands
The Cameron Highlands are in the centre of Malaysia and famous for tea plantations and strawberry farms. I met some people at the bus station who warned me it was cold but it was freezing! I guess probably England spring temperatures but coming from 30 degrees it was all a bit of a shock and I had 2 rather uncomfortable nights sleeping in all my clothes!
I finally finally met some nice (normal!) people on the bus journey and arranged to go on a tour with them to find the biggest flower in the world. This involved a 3 hour trek through some serious mud (anyone remember me and mud escapades in Uganda? I'm not a fan to put it mildly!) and a hair raising ride up a very steep hill in the back of a pick up truck, I thought I was going to fall out/over the edge on numerous occasions or at least knocked out by the branches we kept driving under. However the walk was quite fun, involving lots of clambering over and under tree roots clutching onto bamboo for support. The flower was a bit of a let down to be honest. It takes 15 years to grow and only flowers for 7 days. Yes it was big but it was just a flower and not even that pretty! After a quick refreshing dip in a waterfall we slipped and slid our way back down to look at some tea plantations (I was covered in mud by this point so looked a bit of a state. But I didn't fall over which is a first for me!) which were beautiful, rolling valleys covered in different shades of green; stocked up on strawberries and braved a butterfly farm full of insects and snakes (the cages all looked pretty dodgy though).
The next day I decided to go back to the tea plantation and negotiated buses to get there, meeting an Italian guy said 'incredible' a lot, I'm not sure if this was at the views or at the difficulty we were having communicating! I then rather stupidly hitchiked back, realised my mistake as soon as I got in the car but the guy was charming and chatted the whole way back. I guess sometimes you just have to trust your instincts..
I finally finally met some nice (normal!) people on the bus journey and arranged to go on a tour with them to find the biggest flower in the world. This involved a 3 hour trek through some serious mud (anyone remember me and mud escapades in Uganda? I'm not a fan to put it mildly!) and a hair raising ride up a very steep hill in the back of a pick up truck, I thought I was going to fall out/over the edge on numerous occasions or at least knocked out by the branches we kept driving under. However the walk was quite fun, involving lots of clambering over and under tree roots clutching onto bamboo for support. The flower was a bit of a let down to be honest. It takes 15 years to grow and only flowers for 7 days. Yes it was big but it was just a flower and not even that pretty! After a quick refreshing dip in a waterfall we slipped and slid our way back down to look at some tea plantations (I was covered in mud by this point so looked a bit of a state. But I didn't fall over which is a first for me!) which were beautiful, rolling valleys covered in different shades of green; stocked up on strawberries and braved a butterfly farm full of insects and snakes (the cages all looked pretty dodgy though).
The next day I decided to go back to the tea plantation and negotiated buses to get there, meeting an Italian guy said 'incredible' a lot, I'm not sure if this was at the views or at the difficulty we were having communicating! I then rather stupidly hitchiked back, realised my mistake as soon as I got in the car but the guy was charming and chatted the whole way back. I guess sometimes you just have to trust your instincts..
Saturday, 8 March 2008
The best advert in Malaysia
As I was on the bus today I saw an advert for shampoo (can't remember the brand sadly or I would rush out and buy some) with the caption 'As used by Malaysia strongest hair woman (Malaysian book of records)'. Brilliant!
Thursday, 6 March 2008
From sharks and hippies to popadoms
Bear with me on this one, has been quite an eventful week!
English camp finished last friday with some especially riotous kids (I taught them splat which they seemed to enjoy, the seasons weren't going down too well!); they all gave us flowers (I got a rose from one of my favourite kids Nok who I think had a soft spot for me...was quite useful when trying to control the classes!), had some pictures taken, got our hands shaken off and then the kids ran after the truck shouting and waving as we left. I'm beginning to sympathise with celebrities! Carolyn and I were then dumped at the side of the road to get a bus to Krabi where we were going to do some r+r on a beach for the weekend (thoroughly deserved, the camp was exhausting!). It was sad to say goodbye to the old TVC truck (but as it was such a long way to the school I wasn't THAT sad, being bumped around in the back wasn't much fun!) and the other volunteers, a mixed bunch who had become a bit like family since I had been there. I was quite emotional at saying goodbye to Jeremy, our friendly American with the bright yellow trousers and crazy hair; we spent most of the week 'gently' teaching him about British humour and who decided to get away from us all by going to Mongolia...
A bus, taxi and longtail boat ride later we made it to Rai Leh (pronounced the same as the Essex town!) and were greeted by an enormous rainstorm. Rai Leh is a little bay about half an hour from Krabi and only reachable by boat; it has a posh side with a pretty beach (Rai Leh west) and a side with cheap accommodation but a muddy beach (Rai Leh east). Guess where we were staying...Despite the LP's raving about the beaches here we weren't overly impressed, yes they were beautiful but alas the rest of the world had also discovered this and to quote Carolyn 'It's just like Blackpool'. The big limestone formations all around the beaches were beautiful but hard to enjoy with all the topless sunbathers around (queue some very loud and quite funny comments from Carolyn, it did seem to work though!)! On the second night we managed to find a party which luckily for us was directly below where we were staying with live music until about 3 in the morning (another night of no sleep, the first night the bed we had to share was so uncomfortable!). The place was full of dredlocks and very very happy Thais...as we walked past the bar the next morning there were still a few passed out in the corner!
So being a bit disillusioned with Rai Leh we headed for Phi Phi, and felt like we'd arrived in Ibiza...(remember Kavos?! This was worse!). The main town of Phi Phi had been wiped out during the tsunami but you would never have known it, it had been rebuilt almost exactly as it was and it was horrendous! The beaches were lounger to lounger packed, that sewer smell was everywhere and rubbish littered the streeets and the beach. We managed to have an amazing meal on the beach in the evening (my best pizza of the trip so far!) and then a drink watching fire poi but then made the mistake of walking through the town and were greeted by far too many brits abroad and staggering drunks (they were selling buckets of whisky and coke on the street for 3 pounds so it was hardly surprising really). Argh this wasn't why I'd come to Thailand, it was worse than Durham!
After rather an emotional goodbye to Carolyn the next day I was once again on my own and decided to move somewhere a bit quieter. I jumped on a longtail boat to a beach around the corner (well more like fell in, it definitely wasn't that elegant with a big rucksack on my back) and found myself a nice bamboo hut for the next couple of days. I met a very chatty Californian masseuse who treated me to lunch but then regaled me with conspiracy theories about 9/11 for an hour. I had decided to be brave that night and sit in a bar and try to meet some people but unfortunately walking along the beach at 10 that evening there was NOTHING! I guess you can't have it both ways can you...
The next couple of days were very relaxing: a trip on a big boat (we saw THE beach from the film 'The Beach' but it was packed with so many day trippers, horrendous) with some of the most amazing snorkelling I've ever seen (I saw Nemo! I was very excited) and some friendly Brits and Aussies (all couples, where are the lone travellers??) and more snorkelling the next day with, I'm not joking, SHARKS! It was a bit of a heartstopper, I was happily swimming along and all of a sudden I see a fin and a tail swimming in front of me. Eek! I saw about 8 in total looming out of the gloom around me; they were only about a metre long and apparently harmless but that definitely counts among the most scary experiences of my life! The other fish were incredible, at one point I was alone and completely surrounded by about 200 fish, amazing.
Finally yesterday involved 6 different modes of transport and 13 hours of travelling to get to Penang in Malaysia. I had got a bit sick of Phi Phi: the Thais (and travellers) there seemed to be among the most unfriendly people I'd ever met and I was a bit sick of all the beautiful bronzed people in bikinis. I think I'm turning into an unfriendly grump to be honest! But I met some lovely people on the minibus to Penang including a student in Penang who was so friendly (he gave me all his family's numbers in case I got into trouble in Thailand) and an inspirational Swedish girl on her own who'd been travelling for a year, restoring my faith in the travelling world.
Penang is so different to Thailand, it's a real mish mash of India, China and colonial England. The houses all seem to be falling down and walking along the street are people in beautiful saris, chinese-y looking people and lost looking tourists! I had a pretty interesting lunch braving one of the restaurants in Little India. Presented with a banana leaf as a plate and with lots of different types of curries piled on it, waiters running around with buckets of rice and popadoms, I was expected to eat this all with my hands (at this point I asked for a fork, there's only so local I can go!).
I'm still not entirely sure what my plan is at the moment but I'm counting down the days until Andrea gets here. The joys of being a girl on your own are starting to wear a bit thin: the constant stares and questions ('Yes I'm alone!'), a fight with the immigration officer (he wanted me to pay him, luckily my nbf the student stepped in and rescued me!) and having to wait to get a boat because the boatman simply won't go with just one person. The worst bits are meal times, it's an endurance test to sit there nonchalantly and try not to bolt the food down and run. I'm trying to perfect my cool 'i'm alone and don't mind' look but I think it just comes out looking rather desperate! Not to say that I haven't met some nice people, I met a great couple of old malysian ladies this morning who made some jokes about the english coming back to survey their colony and gave me some chinese coins 'for prosperity' as we parted but I'm not quite sure why I only seem to attract old ladies and strange women!
English camp finished last friday with some especially riotous kids (I taught them splat which they seemed to enjoy, the seasons weren't going down too well!); they all gave us flowers (I got a rose from one of my favourite kids Nok who I think had a soft spot for me...was quite useful when trying to control the classes!), had some pictures taken, got our hands shaken off and then the kids ran after the truck shouting and waving as we left. I'm beginning to sympathise with celebrities! Carolyn and I were then dumped at the side of the road to get a bus to Krabi where we were going to do some r+r on a beach for the weekend (thoroughly deserved, the camp was exhausting!). It was sad to say goodbye to the old TVC truck (but as it was such a long way to the school I wasn't THAT sad, being bumped around in the back wasn't much fun!) and the other volunteers, a mixed bunch who had become a bit like family since I had been there. I was quite emotional at saying goodbye to Jeremy, our friendly American with the bright yellow trousers and crazy hair; we spent most of the week 'gently' teaching him about British humour and who decided to get away from us all by going to Mongolia...
A bus, taxi and longtail boat ride later we made it to Rai Leh (pronounced the same as the Essex town!) and were greeted by an enormous rainstorm. Rai Leh is a little bay about half an hour from Krabi and only reachable by boat; it has a posh side with a pretty beach (Rai Leh west) and a side with cheap accommodation but a muddy beach (Rai Leh east). Guess where we were staying...Despite the LP's raving about the beaches here we weren't overly impressed, yes they were beautiful but alas the rest of the world had also discovered this and to quote Carolyn 'It's just like Blackpool'. The big limestone formations all around the beaches were beautiful but hard to enjoy with all the topless sunbathers around (queue some very loud and quite funny comments from Carolyn, it did seem to work though!)! On the second night we managed to find a party which luckily for us was directly below where we were staying with live music until about 3 in the morning (another night of no sleep, the first night the bed we had to share was so uncomfortable!). The place was full of dredlocks and very very happy Thais...as we walked past the bar the next morning there were still a few passed out in the corner!
So being a bit disillusioned with Rai Leh we headed for Phi Phi, and felt like we'd arrived in Ibiza...(remember Kavos?! This was worse!). The main town of Phi Phi had been wiped out during the tsunami but you would never have known it, it had been rebuilt almost exactly as it was and it was horrendous! The beaches were lounger to lounger packed, that sewer smell was everywhere and rubbish littered the streeets and the beach. We managed to have an amazing meal on the beach in the evening (my best pizza of the trip so far!) and then a drink watching fire poi but then made the mistake of walking through the town and were greeted by far too many brits abroad and staggering drunks (they were selling buckets of whisky and coke on the street for 3 pounds so it was hardly surprising really). Argh this wasn't why I'd come to Thailand, it was worse than Durham!
After rather an emotional goodbye to Carolyn the next day I was once again on my own and decided to move somewhere a bit quieter. I jumped on a longtail boat to a beach around the corner (well more like fell in, it definitely wasn't that elegant with a big rucksack on my back) and found myself a nice bamboo hut for the next couple of days. I met a very chatty Californian masseuse who treated me to lunch but then regaled me with conspiracy theories about 9/11 for an hour. I had decided to be brave that night and sit in a bar and try to meet some people but unfortunately walking along the beach at 10 that evening there was NOTHING! I guess you can't have it both ways can you...
The next couple of days were very relaxing: a trip on a big boat (we saw THE beach from the film 'The Beach' but it was packed with so many day trippers, horrendous) with some of the most amazing snorkelling I've ever seen (I saw Nemo! I was very excited) and some friendly Brits and Aussies (all couples, where are the lone travellers??) and more snorkelling the next day with, I'm not joking, SHARKS! It was a bit of a heartstopper, I was happily swimming along and all of a sudden I see a fin and a tail swimming in front of me. Eek! I saw about 8 in total looming out of the gloom around me; they were only about a metre long and apparently harmless but that definitely counts among the most scary experiences of my life! The other fish were incredible, at one point I was alone and completely surrounded by about 200 fish, amazing.
Finally yesterday involved 6 different modes of transport and 13 hours of travelling to get to Penang in Malaysia. I had got a bit sick of Phi Phi: the Thais (and travellers) there seemed to be among the most unfriendly people I'd ever met and I was a bit sick of all the beautiful bronzed people in bikinis. I think I'm turning into an unfriendly grump to be honest! But I met some lovely people on the minibus to Penang including a student in Penang who was so friendly (he gave me all his family's numbers in case I got into trouble in Thailand) and an inspirational Swedish girl on her own who'd been travelling for a year, restoring my faith in the travelling world.
Penang is so different to Thailand, it's a real mish mash of India, China and colonial England. The houses all seem to be falling down and walking along the street are people in beautiful saris, chinese-y looking people and lost looking tourists! I had a pretty interesting lunch braving one of the restaurants in Little India. Presented with a banana leaf as a plate and with lots of different types of curries piled on it, waiters running around with buckets of rice and popadoms, I was expected to eat this all with my hands (at this point I asked for a fork, there's only so local I can go!).
I'm still not entirely sure what my plan is at the moment but I'm counting down the days until Andrea gets here. The joys of being a girl on your own are starting to wear a bit thin: the constant stares and questions ('Yes I'm alone!'), a fight with the immigration officer (he wanted me to pay him, luckily my nbf the student stepped in and rescued me!) and having to wait to get a boat because the boatman simply won't go with just one person. The worst bits are meal times, it's an endurance test to sit there nonchalantly and try not to bolt the food down and run. I'm trying to perfect my cool 'i'm alone and don't mind' look but I think it just comes out looking rather desperate! Not to say that I haven't met some nice people, I met a great couple of old malysian ladies this morning who made some jokes about the english coming back to survey their colony and gave me some chinese coins 'for prosperity' as we parted but I'm not quite sure why I only seem to attract old ladies and strange women!
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