Young, Free and now...BROKE!

Hi all, hope everyone’s ok? I’m going to start a new update now, but will finish it off tomorrow as we are a bit pushed for time…Wayne’s making me go to a basketball game (Singapore v’s New Zealand)…I’ll let you know whether it was worth it tomorrow.

6/12/06 – 8/12/06
Melaka wasn’t anything to write home about: stayed in a travelers guesthouse that had military-like house rules, but the room was a great size so we just kept ourselves to ourselves so as not to get into any trouble! Visited a few museums (including Baba Nanya Heritage Museum: a traditional 19th century Pernakan house, and the Maritime Museum: located on a recreation of the ‘Flora de la Mar’ – a Portuguese ship that sank off the coast of Melaka whilst trying to transport treasures back to Europe) and hung out in coffee shops playing cards most of the time. We were just really stalling so that we didn’t have to pay for too many nights in Singapore.

9/12/06
After a 5-hour bus journey we arrived in Singapore…We hadn’t booked any accommodation, so were delighted when a random man on a bicycle greeted us at the bus station in Little India. He offered us a room for S$25/night – far cheaper than any of the ‘budget accommodation’ listed in the guidebook – so we jumped at the offer, no questions asked. When we arrived at ‘Al’s Nest’ as he like’s to refer to it, we realised that we had agreed to a ‘home stay’ arrangement, rather than a room in a guesthouse…we are therefore currently residing in a family home. It is very bizarre – the sign over the door declares that it is an export trading company (??), they leave dirty washing all over the floor and never ever clean the shared bathroom (gross), but they give us breakfast and then let us get on with it…all we have to do is put up with the grandmother, who gawks at us, whilst shouting in Chinese (we have now established that she’s deaf). After ‘settling in’ we caught the underground to Orchard Road, the infamous shopping district. It is so Christmassy: lights, music and decorations everywhere, and incredibly busy – worse than Oxford Street at this time of year!

10/12/06
Breakfast eaten quickly and in silence, whilst grandmother viciously decapitated smelly fish with a humungous knife. Escaped and caught the underground then bus to Singapore Zoo, which is just outside the city in the centre of the island and set in beautiful jungle. Saw a Bengal White Tiger and a Polar Bear for the first time. The zoo is excellent and internationally acclaimed, primarily because they try to recreate an entire ecosystem appropriate for individual species. There are virtually no cages and animals are only separated from visitors by a moat system (many species, including the Orangutans are free-ranging ).

We spent the evening wondering around Little India: it was a memorable experience; despite the fact we did very little. Apparently every Sunday night all the Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants (in Singapore on 2 year work visa’s) swarm the streets and simply hang around…there were literally thousands of men (no women), you could hardly move, even the alleyways were crowded. Sunday is their only day off, so they ‘socialise’ according to ‘Al’ (the man of the house we are staying in). They don’t drink, eat or party - they just stand. Some of them must have intended on spending a bit of money though, as we went to the only ATM in Little India and queued for about 20 minutes behind a massive line of Indian men. Spoke to Al for the rest of the evening and learnt that hangings are still carried out here and that men who commit crimes receive a beating from the police force!

Run out of time, I’ll continue tomorrow – our last day in Asia! Emma xx

Can't believe another 2 weeks have passed since i wrote this damn thing – i finally get it written up, feel relieved that its out of the way and then realise that I'm behind again. As you can probably sense i'm getting fed up with it so from now on entries are going to be sketchy...I should never have started it! I'm hoping you are all getting fed up of reading it, so that these diary notes are now purely for my own benefit: to dodge my memory when i'm old and grey (although my genetic inheritance denotes that I will be grey before i'm officially old – hey Mum...haha – Rich, make sure she doesn't change the locks before I get back!)

The most important message to get across is that Malaysia is sooooo HOT!!! I think it's the warmest place we've been to so far. It is sometimes unbearable and you just want to go back to the hotel room and lie in an air conditioned space. Other than that its a wonderful country and we have been having a really great time.

20/11/06
After a late night (watching Thai boxing in a bar with Micheal (the Dutch guy) and his Thai 'girlfriend'...) we rose early to catch the ferry to Krabi, so that we could take a minibus from Krabi to Hat Yai (southern Thailand, on the Malaysian border). To cut a long story short, we broke down and ended up sitting, once again, on a very cramped minibus on the hard shoulder of a motorway. The upshot being that our last day in Thailand turned out to be our second last day as we had to spend the night in Hat Yai (which can only be described as a concrete dump). The city, for obvious reasons that strike you upon arrival, does not cater for tourists – basically because no sane tourist would set foot in it. The main attraction appeared to be the Carrefour (massive superstore – identical to the one we always visit in Italy). No-one spoke English, but with the help of some Thai ladies who were in our minibus, we managed to find a reasonable hotel and a travel agency, so that we could catch yet another minibus to Malaysia.

21/11/06
Arrived in Georgetown, the second largest city in Malaysia, via ferry as it is on Penang (an island in NW Malaysia). The first hostel we looked out was gross: stale smell, no lock or key and no toilet...so we snuck out and found a newly opened hostel above a bar. It was clean and cheap so suited us, but it did look a little incomplete: concrete floor and the 'ensuite' consisted of a freestanding shower, randomly placed in the room like a wardrobe (no sink, toilet etc.) It was very strange. I think they ran out of money and opened early to earn money off travelers so that they could tile/carpet the floors.

Georgetown is very much a Chinese city, with a scattering of colonial architecture. Since we were staying in Chinatown we went for a Chinese that evening and decided to explore the rest of the city the following day...

22/11/06
Hired a moped and stopped off at all the main sights:
1.Fort Cornwallis, where Captain Light first set foot on the virtually uninhabited island of Penang in 1786. He established a free port, in the hope of luring the spice trade form the Dutch. The fort was made from wood, but in 1808 a convict labour force replaced it to the current stone structure.
2.Penang Museum, which highlighted the customs and traditions of Penang's' various ethnic groups (Chinese, Malays, Indians and Europeans).
3.Piang Peranakan Mansion, the ornate home of a wealthy Chinese family – beautiful, but a bit OTT!
4.Penang Hill, was cleared of forest under the instruction of Captain Light so that he could grow strawberries, hence its also known as Strawberry Hill?!? We took a painstakingly slow tram 800m up a steep slope, but the 30 minute ride was worth it: the views of Georgetown were stunning.

First impressions of Malaysia are really good: prefer it to Thailand already. Its much more developed, but still retains a traditional atmosphere. Tourism doesn't seem to be everything to Malaysia. We wanted to see the 'real Thailand' but now realise that the real Thailand is in fact what we saw: tourism. A huge majority of the population seem to work directly/indirectly in the industry, and this has in my opinion ruined its' appeal. They just shouldn't try so hard!!

23/11/06
Kept hold of the bike and headed to the Botanical Gardens. Pretty place, surrounded by natural jungle and where monkeys roam freely. Found a pagoda, ate our picnic and then read our books for a couple of hours (yes, I said 'our books', Wayne is now reading novels!! Well he's read one...what a transformation!) On the way back we stopped off at 'The World's Largest Toy Museum,' but I desperately hope that this is a false claim as it was probably only a little bigger than a double garage. We had the impression that it would be full of life sized toys, but it consisted of a few glass cabinets and looked like an unexciting version of Toys'r'us After a brief stop at the beach we headed back to Georgetown and booked a bus ticket to our next destination...

24/11/06
Caught the early bus departing for Tanah Rata; the main town in the Cameron Highlands (name taken from William Cameron, the surveyor who mapped out the area in 1885). The highlands are 6000 feet (2000m) above sea level and it was therefore a lot, lot cooler than anywhere else in the country (I actually had to put my jumper on in the evenings!) Temperatures there rarely climb higher than 21C (but don't drop below 10C) and the fertile soils mean that the land is perfect for vegetable cultivation and horticulture – something the town of Tanah Rata is VERY proud of...we should have really read up about the highlands before we came, because other than the fact that Jim Thompson (the American whose house we nosied around in Bangkok) disappeared here whilst out on a pre-diner stroll in 1967, we knew nothing about the area. It transpired that the only things to do were: visit various vegetable farms, visit various fruit farms, visit various tea plantations or go on a walk!! We opted for the later the following day...

Tanah Rata possesses an old-fashioned English atmosphere, despite the fact that the main ethnic group is Indian. On several occasions we went to a tea shop and dined on English Breakfast Tea and sc'o'nes. Our accommodation was clean and comfortable but the name painted on the front of the building suggested that it was a retirement home! We never said anything to the owners but I'm worried that the 'aging' gene mentioned earlier has already kicked in??

25/11/06
We'd had enough of paying tour guides to take us on treks that we could navigate ourselves, so we decided to use the guidebook and head out into the jungle alone. After 4 hours of jungle photography and one ambiguous set of crossroads/tracks we finally made it to the Boh Tea Estate, where we continued our trail through the plantations and upto the factory (bit of a brief encounter). Since we'd walked over 20km we treated ourselves to ANOTHER cup of tea and a scone, and then took a taxi back to the main town. It was a really fun day, despite the leg effort, and we hardly spent a penny – tap on the back.

26/11/06
Upon realising that unless we wanted to visit a farm there was little else to do in the highlands, we decided to make our way to Pulau Pangkor; a very small (8 sq km) island. The journey from the highlands, via Ipoh and Lumut only cost us 3GBP each (minibus, coach, local bus, taxi, ferry, minibus again) but did take 9 hours! Found accommodation in Teluk Nipah, the most 'happening' place on the West coast of the island. We timed our arrival completely wrong as it is now school holidays and Pangkor is 'apparently' Malaysians top holiday destination! The place is FULL of school kids (holiday camp ambiance) and prices have rocketed, so we seem to be paying over the odds for our chalet. Despite this 'weeks' worth of popularity the island doesn't have much to offer. Its main industry, surprisingly, is still fishing. Spent the rest of the day and most of the following doing very little; lazed on the beach and cooled down in the expensive chalet.

28/11//06
Hired a bike and rode around the island, which took all of 50 minutes – well worth the 24 hour rental fee! The east coast is full of fishing villages, which were pretty, but offered little to do, so we drove back to the west and lazed about again on Coral Beach. Started to feel ill that evening: on and off the toilet all night (centre parcs re-run!!)

29/11/06
Planned to leave the island that morning, but I didn't think I could control my bowels for the 4 hour bus journey to Kuala Lumpur so we spent another day doing very little – it was starting to get boring! Since we had stayed for so many nights, Wayne decided to try and negotiate a better price for one more night but they wouldn't budge, so we moved next door. It was a lot cheaper, offered a similar type of room, but breakfast was included! We should have looked here before! I wasn't feeling any better by late afternoon, so Wayne hired a bike and went and found the only chemist on the island to get me some antibiotics. Seemed to have an effect as I was feeling a lot better by the evening.
We were woken up that night (about 2am) by the most horrendous thunder storm I've ever heard: torrential rain and roaring thunder that went on for hours. We were scared that the room was going to flood so we got up and moved all of our luggage and belongings onto the furniture.

30/11/06
Up and out at last!!!!! I know there are many, many places on Earth far worse than a tropical island to be stuck on, but this place was seriously dull and the food was terrible. We couldn't wait to get to Kuala Lumpur. The Bus dropped us off in Chinatown and we eventually found a windowless box to sleep in (the hotel is aptly named 'D' View Inn!) It's actually quite a nice place, you just can't tell what time of day it is, or what the weather is like outside, when your indoors. That evening we wondered around Chinatown (Wayne got his hair cut at last!), visited Petaling Market and generally enjoyed KL's vibes; seems like a wonderful city.

1/12/06
Can't believe it's December already – Christmas is coming and we have finally found somewhere in Asia oozing with festive spirit: a shopping mall! Took the underground to KL City Centre early morning in hope of going up the Petronas Towers (Malaysia's landmark). We got into the queue, but it was enormous and a member of staff came and placed an 'out of tickets' sign after the couple standing 5 places ahead of us...aghhhhh. Since only 800 tickets are allocated to members of the public each day we had to abandon all hopes of seeing the view that day. Instead we browsed around the shopping mall, wondered around the park and then walked to the communication tower, which we foolishly paid to go up. The view was impressive but we should have just waited to get some free tickets at the Twin Towers. Later that day we bought a ticket to see Dejavu at the cinema (1.5 GBP each – bargain!)

2/12/06
Walked around Chinatown and the Colonial District. Saw Masjid Jamek (1907 British designed mosque), Central Market (handicrafts and arts stalls) and Merdeka Square (aka Independence Square). Not very exciting day. Its so hot and humid here that its hard to appreciate all of the sights – we gave it our best shot.

3/12/06
Visited the Lake Gardens situated towards the west of the city. Really pretty place to relax, but very, very hot. We had a look around the World's largest 'covered' Bird Park, which was essentially an enormous walk-in aviary, with around 160 species of birds. Witnessed a bird show: parrots performing clever routines on mini-bikes etc, and saw eagles, pelicans etc... Kept us entertained for a couple of hours. That evening we returned to the shopping district and ate in pizza hut of all places.

4/12/06
Visited the commercial centre and faffed around: sorting out Waynes camera and FINALLY managed to put his pictures online (3 hours worth of uploading – we actually persuaded the bloke to let us leave the memory card connected to the computer while we went and got lunch – it was still there when we returned – phew!)

5/12/06
Finally made it up to the skybridge in the Petronas Towers (level 41 of 88) – at least we can say we've been in the buildings that Catherine Zita Jones hung from in the film Entrapment. The actual view was not as great as from the Communication Tower – oh well – it was free.

We've spent most of our time in KL wondering around the shops, but the city is fantastic and if you have a job and money you could really have a great time here. We've decided to move on to Melaka tomorrow, so our next update will probably be summing up Singapore and our time in Asia. Moving on to Australia next week...............very excited!!

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY RICH!!! Hope you have a brilliant day.
Some of the keys don’t work very well on this computer (i.e. colon) so I have used - - - a few too many times.

8/11/06
Catamaran from Ko Samui to Ko Tao – ROUGH RIDE (1.5 hours) …they were handing out sick bags to passengers – was glad to reach land.
On board a ‘Big Blue’ Diving School tout approached us - the price for an Open Water course seemed reasonable (130 GBP) and the accommodation was free so we agreed and managed to get a free ride from the port. We had originally intended to do a PADI course but they have just introduced a compulsory book (which you have to purchase separately – more expense!) so the diving school suggested we just do the SSI course – same international reputation, but more popular in Australia than in Europe. 6 people on our course (one couple from St Albans! Such a small world). The instructor, Rick, was Hawaiian and turned out to be a really cool guy – very pleased with our ‘choice’ of dive school. It was located right on the beach and our al fresco classroom doubled up as the restaurant/bar. Only drawbacks = homework (on a tropical Thai island?!?) followed by a written test and the fact that we have arrived in November (worst visibility).

Ko Tao is a very small island in the Gulf of Thailand, dominated by dive schools. It has a really chilled out atmosphere as there are very few shops, restaurants and roads, but plenty of beach bars. I read that in 1983 only 1 bungalow existed on the island – there are now over 40 dive schools! Tourism gone mad. We both loved the place, but could see that if you didn’t dive there was little else to do…it is just too small.

9/11/06
1st Dive Day
Morning = all theory…breathing techniques/equalisation, nitrogen level assessments, dangers and fish types etc etc…
Afternoon = water skills…mask clearance + removing mask, regulator retrieval, buoyancy etc etc… We all mastered the skills quickly and finished ahead of schedule so the instructor took us out for a shallow dive (5m) to some coral relatively near the shore. We got used to breathing under water for long periods of time and tried to work on our buoyancy – was excellent – really good fun!

10/11/06
Morning = theory again, but finished early so we took our exam a day early – easy 50 multiple choice question– all passed no problem (yes….Wayne passed a test first time! He was chuffed! Haha).
Afternoon = first proper dive – very excited…went to the dive site ‘Twins’ and dropped to a depth of 14m. Unfortunately visibility was dreadful – 2m at most! It was so bad that Rick (instructor) lost navigation (around a site he has visited over 500 times!) When we came up to the surface a storm was raging – very rough waves, rain and generally very dark and gloomy – bit scary but we all managed to get back to the boat. Apparently achieving neutral buoyancy in these conditions is extremely hard – so I think we all did ok. We spent 1.5 hours sitting on the boat (recovery time –allows your nitrogen levels to lower) and then tried a second dive at ‘White Rock’ dive site….even WORSE! We could barely see each other. We stayed down at around 14m to achieve the required dive time and then surfaced as there was no point – you couldn’t see anything. I was a bit anxious during this dive as it sometimes felt like you were on your own down there, in a murky sea with dangerous creatures that could approach you without warning….a few days earlier a whaleshark had been spotted at this site so I think I had good reason! We were all a bit disappointed, but had our fingers crossed that tomorrow would be better…

11/11/06
Early Morning (7am) = third dive and visibility had improved (slightly = 9m – usually visibility in Ko Tao = 30m). We returned to ‘Twins’ and ‘White Rock’ but it felt like a different place…we saw so much more – clown fish (nemo), angelfish, parrot fish, massive jellyfish, cleaner fish (that eat the bacteria out of wounds), stingray, red breasted wrasse, scissor tail sergeant majors, trigger fish and green blood!! (I cut my finger on some coral and my blood looked green underwater – very impressive!) Enjoyed it so much more than the previous day. Noticed that Wayne breathes in more than his fair share of air, which meant that he was ALWAYS the first in the ‘red’ (air cylinder – like petrol tank) and made the whole group return to the surface. We couldn’t understand why he ran out of air so much faster than everyone else, but after watching the video of our dive (made by our accompanying videographer) we could see why…my ‘buddy’, unbeknown to the rest of the group, was constantly dancing around - doing numerous spiral dives and rolls in front of the camera – show off!
Afternoon = no test as had been completed the previous day so we had a free afternoon – slept! Met up with the others later that evening, collected our dive cards and log books and then went out for dinner…good fun.

12/11/06
Gulf of Thailand to Andaman Sea (Ko Tao to Krabi) – 6 hour boat ride, 4 hour bus ride – non-eventful and therefore dull for both you as readers, and us as passengers!

13/11/06
Hired out a moped and found a mediocre beach. Sunbathed for a few hours but then got caught in a storm so ran to the nearest restaurant. Once again, bit of an unremarkable day. Krabi town is bit of a dump – surrounding area is beautiful karst scenery (therefore popular place for rock climbing) but didn’t want to stay an longer so booked a boat for the following day.

14/11/06
Krabi to Ko Lanta (boat, bus, truck). We originally tried to book to go to Ko Phi Phi, but it is so popular that there aren’t any rooms available unless you book a few days in advance. Ko Lanta is also a popular place and we could only find accommodation in a bungalow at Last Beach Resort – as the name suggests it was the last resort on the island (if you work you way down the west coast.) Very isolated (no road – just dirt track, no phone reception, no internet) and bit of a dump – the bathroom stinks! When we arrived we were a bit pissed off.

15/11/06
Decided to make the most of it since we were here. Hired a bike to try and find civilization – found it, but unimpressed. After Ko Chang and Ko Tao, Ko Lanta was a bit of a let down. Beaches were ok, but nothing spectacular…towns were developments of nothingness.

16/11/06
Rainy season became very evident….bit of sun in the morning, but were then forced to retire back to the dump for the rest of the day. I read an entire book and Wayne found solace in his psp (I think). I know it is awful to convey this when we are so lucky to be on this trip, but on 16/11/06 we were BORED!!!!! Wouldn’t recommend Ko Lanta – not much going for it.

17/11/06
Up at 6am (eager to get out of Ko Lanta) so that we could catch a truck lift at 7am to the pier…our next stop Ko Phi Phi …. no show!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ANNOYED!!!!!!!!!!!!! The island has no taxi service so we were forced to wait until 11am for the next lift. By the time we got on a boat (6 hours after we’d hoped) it stared raining and the staff onboard failed to cover our luggage….everything in my backpack was soaked…books ruined, cards soggy and clothes drenched. Once again, very pissed off!

Arrived in Ko Phi Phi late afternoon. Tsunami damage is still very evident across many parts of the island – lots of derelict plots and copious amounts of construction going on. Yet it is so popular here. This has caused accommodation prices to rocket (we bumped into someone we met in Laos and he said that he had met someone who was here 2 months ago, staying in the same room as he was now, but had paid 350B then, and was paying 1500B now! – crazy!) Our room is the most expensive we’ve stayed in yet (10 GBP) but is certainly not the nicest….the bathroom is the size of our freezer in the garage at home, and it is situated on the main road, next to some steps which we now recognize as the social hub for all returning clubbers. It is noisy outside the room all day and ALL night!! The hard core clubbers (unfortunately not us) decide to return to their rooms about 5am, and the local shop keepers decide to open up around 5.30am. Sleep deprivation. Wayne got so pissed off last night he started banging on the window to get them to shut up – unfortunately he forgot there is a mosquito guard across the window and he has punched it in…whoops….now we’re getting eaten alive as well! I think we are staying in the wrong area –the rest of the island sounds gorgeous, but since there is no road network, nor motor vehicles, the only way you can get to the other towns is by boat. Upon arrival, an employee from the guesthouse turned up with a metal trolley to assist us with our luggage – no tuk tuk’s on this island!

18/11/06
Snorkeling trip around Phi Phi Lay (the smaller of the 2 Phi Phi islands – with no development whatsoever) via longtail boat. Visited various shores…Bamboo Island (excellent visability), Monkey Island, Maya Beach (aka ‘the’ beach in the film ‘The Beach’) and Shark Point. Good fun, but not nearly as rewarding as diving (too expensive here – boo hoo). We got drenched in sea water on the boat as the sea was very choppy – not the best of experiences but we survived…I heard a lady telling someone later that day that their boat had sunk!

19/11/06
Happy Birthday Rich (again!) Wondered around, lazed on the beach and booked our bus/boat to Malaysia for tomorrow morning….fancy a change of scenery. Phi Phi is not as stunning as all the hype (and accomodation prices) suggest, although to be fair this could be because of the Tsunami damage. Generally though there are just too many people in such a small place.

Quick update - we bumped into the guy we shared a dorm with in Hanoi, Vietnam AGAIN this evening – its so weird….AND Wayne is now having a drink with Michael (the Dutch guy we met in Laos) whom we also bumped into today. I’m now off to join them.

I’ll write again once we’ve traveled a bit around Malaysia….E xx

Hi all, 2nd from last night in Thailand and I realised I haven't updated you since Bangkok - very poor - no excuse, so here goes...

3/11/06
After 8 hours on an incredibly cramped minibus (and short-ish ferry trip) we arrived at White Sand Beach, Ko Chang. Hadn’t booked anywhere and found the only place we could afford was a very smelly red brick ‘bungalow/cupboard’ with a DIY flushing toilet and cold dripping shower (which has now become commonplace for us as ALL the accommodation we have stayed in since Ko Chang has offered the same luxurious bathroom – cringe!!!!!!!!!) We thought our first impression was bad enough, but later on when I was just about to brush my teeth I noticed the water was running brown...we turned on the shower and sure enough brown crap started flooding the wetroom (drainage was also very poor). Wayne ran to get one of the owners who then proceeded to spray the walls, ceiling and floor with this filthy suspicious substance. It was just revolting. After about 30mins he ‘realised’ (or just told me this to keep me sweet) that one of the pipes outside had been sliced open so mud (although I still believe it was sewage!) was getting into the water flow. He ‘fixed’ this problem and let the tap run to clear the system out…….over an hour later the water ran clear-ish, but our bathroom was still a filthy mess.

Although our accommodation wasn’t up to much, it was on the beach and the adjoining bar was excellent. We stayed out until about 3am singing and playing the drums while one of the owners sang along to his guitar (re-reading that it does sound a bit odd! – we had had a few drinks.)

4/11/06
Hired a moped to flee the tourist haven we were residing in –headed south and found a deserted beach! When we arrived we were the only 2 there – it was paradise…the sea was crystal clear and warm, and the sand was fine, white and rubbish-free. Later in the day a few more people found the beach (much to our disappointment) but it was still really, really quiet =fab!

Ko Changs’ interior comprises mainly of lush national parkland and it is therefore remarkably unspoilt. By this time we had had enough of waterfalls so didn’t bother visiting any, but the jungle was beautiful. Looking back I would say that Ko Chang (East Coast, near Cambodia border and in the nearest island cluster to Bangkok) is one of the better islands we’ve been to – although White Sand Beach (West coast) is too touristy, the rest of the island is beautiful.

5/10/06
Hired a moped again (a cool bright pink vehicle!) and this time headed East: which is relatively deserted (very little development/tourist industry). It took us hours – we didn’t realize how big the island was, nor how bad the road surface became….we had read that the road around the island wasn’t yet complete, but had assumed that the road continued down to Long Beach (SE.) Not the case. We encountered massive dirt track slopes where our poor little rev-and-go struggled – it couldn’t get enough power to reach the top, so we had to walk up half of them. Once the tarmac road stopped (see pic) we should have really turned back, but since we’d come so far we persevered. I even had ago on the bike, but was quickly demoted to the back seat again when I came into a ‘spot of bother’ with a sharp corner (lets just say we went ‘off’ road before the tarmac road had ceased – whoops!) The treacherous journey was NOT worth the hassle –we should have just gone back to the beach in the south. ‘Long’ Beach may have been long but it certainly wasn’t wide – there was nowhere to even sit – the sea came right up to the tree line. The only restaurant/accommodation there, was a stereotypical hippie hangout (think grown men in sarongs, with flowers in their hair….) After one drink and one very awkward conversation we waded through the sea until we found a spot where we could dump our bags and swim – it was soooooo shallow we had to crawl! No exaggeration, you could keep walking 200m out to sea without it getting past your knees! The water was lovely and clear, but there was no way you could swim. Very disappointing. We stayed about an hour and then made our way back down the dirt track. Our petrol gauge (yet again) didn’t work, and we run out of ‘gasoline’ on one of the steep hills…typical! Whilst we were contemplating what to do next, a lovely local couple pulled over and helped us out. The guy disconnected his petrol pipe and filled up my empty bottle of water with fuel – ahhh. We tipped it into our tank and then drove to the nearest gas station (term used VERY loosely as such things rarely exist). In reality you just have to pull up at one of the road side stalls (sell odds and ends, fruits and drinks) and buy an empty squash bottle full of pink fuel –I was very skeptical at first but all our mopeds/scooters have seemed to work ok).

6/11/06
Left Ko Chang and headed for Pattaya (yep its meant to be a hole I know –but we had booked a very cheap flight from Pattaya to Ko Samui so we were just heading there for one night so that we could catch the flight the following morning). After a ‘slight’ disagreement the previous night (yep again, our first big argument – not bad for 2 months 24/7 or is it?) we were both a bit pissed off: in our own little worlds, oblivious to others and hence vulnerable –perfect for a pair of vultures/con-artists. I don’t know how it happened but I was only aware that we were being led to some unknown accommodation once we’d been dropped off by the minibus into the middle of no-where. We were told by these two ‘passengers’ (who we now realise were commission-earning tour operators) that we had to wait for a free ‘taxi’ from this deserted bar, but nothing ever showed up, so we then had to pay to get into Pattaya –should have stayed on the bus!! However, it all worked out rather well as the room was brilliant (and cheap 5GBP for the night!). It was huge, had hot water, a sofa, a tv, a balcony and best of all it was spotless!!! Things were looking up…

7/10/06
…or were they? As I said before, the only reason we came to Pattaya was to fly out of the airport (to Ko Samui, where we would catch a boat to Ko Tao). The flight, although a bit more expensive than bus, was chosen as it would save us valuable time. This didn’t quite work out…we asked an employee at the hotel how long it takes to get the airport and they said 1.5 hours/800B! I knew that Pattaya airport was ‘out of town’ but this was a lot further than expected. We were really pissed off – having paid over the odds to get into Pattaya we realised that we should have stayed out of town anyway! By that (eve 6/11/06) time we couldn’t do anything about it, so we booked a taxi for 7.30am (aiming to get to the airport around 9am).

The taxi turned up on time (phew) and I’d found a copy of The Guardian the previous evening so I was happy: engrossed in British news. 15 mins later Wayne was concerned that we were heading to Bangkok –very odd as the airport is in the opposite direction? After much deliberation we decided that maybe the motorway network meant that we had to go north slightly, before heading south-eat?!? (it was early!!) The further north we crept, the more concerned we became so we stared checking with the driver (a 17 year old who evidently couldn’t read) that this was the right way to Pattaya airport. He kept saying “yes, yes” so we felt a bit rude and just shut up. Anyway, an hour later I noticed a sign to Suvarnabhum (Bangkok’s newly opened) Airport and literally shouted at this imbecile to “STOP and PULL OVER NOW”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We then calmly (?!?) tried to explain, using visual aids – i.e. guide book map, airport booking voucher, and very, very slow, well pronounced English that we were at the WRONG airport. The poor guy just didn’t understand –he didn’t speak much English. 20 minutes later we were still sitting on the hard shoulder, and our driver was yet to experience any sense of urgency. I knew we were going to miss our flight so I rang the airline who, eventually, told me that we could turn up late and get booked onto the next flight (5pm). This would really mess up our plans (we wouldn’t be able to get to Ko Tao that day) but was better than paying for another flight from Bangkok – slight ray of hope –all we had to do was get the driver to “turn around!!” After numerous phone conversations with various taxi associates we managed to get the driver to understand that he must drive us back to Pattaya. With this ‘new’ revelation our driver was concerned as to who would pay for his fuel. Once again I had to speak to a colleague, who tried to persuade us to pay a bigger fare to cover the cost of the ‘gasoline’. My response: “NO WAY!! This guy has taken us to the wrong airport and made us miss our flight! I don’t see why we should pay at all – would you?” She got a bit mad, made me pass the phone back to the driver, who also got a bit mad, and then we carried on our journey in complete silence. We had obviously pissed him off as it appeared that his new mission was to kill us before we got to the airport – his driving was crazy. He didn’t know where he was going and would have driven us past Pattaya airport if it wasn’t for Wayne shouting out the directions from the road signs (illiteracy was confirmed). I think we actually did a handbrake turn into the airport: tyres screeched and we were flung out of our seats, but to his credit (?!?) he did get us there very quickly: it had taken over 1.5 hours to get out of Pattaya, but took only 30 mins to return! We pulled up outside departures at 10.50 (our flight was at 10.50!) so while Wayne negotiated a reasonable price for this farce of a ride, I sprinted into the airport, through security, in hope of stopping the plane. No such luck, it had already departed: 10 mins ahead of schedule. AAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! We’d been in the car for over 3 hours and in reality it should have taken us 20mins (MAX!)
AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

We booked ourselves onto the next flight (without any penalty charges!) and then faced a 6 hour wait in an airport with one canteen and no shops – fun, fun, fun. We hadn’t eaten all day so we spent a few hours in the restaurant and then wondered outside. Time went surprisingly quickly: we watched a film in the canteen, read a newspaper and part of a book, but it was such a wasted day! And, what gets me most is that if you had booked at taxi to the airport in Luton or the surrounding towns, you wouldn’t get taken to Heathrow!!! I just couldn’t believe that we’d booked to go to the airport in Pattaya, but had been taken to an airport miles away! It does explain the estimated 1.5 hour journey though – the hotel employee must have thought we meant Bangkok???

Ko Samui Airport made up for it though – it was a gorgeous open air, beach hut style affair, with super-efficient staff who helped us find accommodation for that night and transport to Ko Tao for the following morning. Didn’t see much more of the island, as it was pitch black by the time we got to our room.

I'll sign off now as I've written far too much as usual. I'll try and carry on tomorrow...still got over a weeks worth of info to write up...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (mostly beach stuff.) Hope you're all ok. E (and silent typer W) xxxx

Sorry there has been such a long absence…haven’t got round to writing this blog until now – mainly due to idleness! As a result, this update will be a bit vague (and potentially less loquacious) than previous attempts but I’m sure you’ll all get the gist of our whereabouts…

24/10/06
Smooth flight from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai, so no tails to tell. As soon as we hit the ground we felt as if we had been transported to another world (or at least continent)…a shuttle bus whisked us off to a ‘normal’ sized airport (as opposed to landing right in front of Laos’ Dr’s surgery equivalent). Thailand is so much more developed than Laos and to begin with we felt a bit lost in a bustling city (although in reality Chiang Mai is a small, reasonably quaint development!) To recover from the modern stresses of life that we had been bombarded with, we decided to treat ourselves to a Thai Massage – BIG MISTAKE!! This pain endurance test should be renamed ‘Full Body Pounding’ (Natalie, if law doesn’t work out I have found you the perfect vocation – you have the right potential for this profession if my memory serves me correctly!) We thought massages were meant to be relaxing! Anything but! I was biting my lip for the entire hour, whilst Wayne was crying out in pain (much to the amusement of both our masseurs) as a sadistic Thai woman walked over his back. They must have pulled every bone out of place. Never again!

25/10/06
Thai Cooking Class. This was a pretty fun day – we were in a group of 4 and visited the market to buy fresh produce before cooking (and eating) five dishes each (favorites included Green Thai Curry and Chicken Coconut soup). So, we fully intend to treat all of you to a Thai feast on our return. After explaining the tortures we had endured the previous day to the other couple on our cooking course, they advised us to try a foot massage, which is apparently so relaxing you can fall asleep. Upon exiting the second massage parlor (which we had sworn never to go in again) Wayne proclaimed ‘me and massages don’t work– I’m NOT doing that again, you can go on your own next time’. Verdict: not quite as bad as a full body pounding, but definitely NOT relaxing. Wincing is a better description.

26/10/06
Another trek! We had planned to do a 2 night/3 day trek in the north, but ever since the flight to Thailand I hadn’t been feeling 100% (a cold that completely knocks you back - yes in Thailand – in 35C heat?!? – maybe my heart is with all of you at home and it contracted the bacteria….ahhhh) Anyway, yes we went on yet another trek – this time we visited a few more ethnic villages and rode an elephant. I was really looking forward to this part, but once we got there I felt a bit harsh – it all felt very immoral and I couldn’t enjoy the experience, despite numerous attempts of telling myself that it was ‘just like riding a horse’. Our elephant was more like a pig – he kept lifting his trunk up to us, begging for sugar cane (like a dog!) We decided to ration him, so he started to wonder off and turned to the jungle in search of a light snack (pulling down half a tree!!) the trek also involved bamboo ‘rafting’ – all a bit lame – more like floating down the river on a lilo (no rapids )
27/10/06
Flew into Bangkok’s ‘brand spanking new,’ 26-days-old airport, which is MASSIVE – felt like we had arrived back at terminal 4 (apart from the stifling heat!) Decided to give the infamous Khao San Road a try and the rumours are true – it’s a tourist haven: lively, bustling and ridiculously commercialized, but very cool (Wayne attempted to get dreds – not so cool - Claire it was Wayne NOT me – can you imagine!! Fortunately they told him his hair was too short – phew!) We shopped in the dirt cheap market and lazed around the busy pool (our first one since Nha Trang, Vietnam!)

28/10/06
Sight-seeing day: Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, via the express boat (river and canal network). Lived up to its name: very grand place, but a complete rip off as we couldn’t go inside. It was just too hot that day, so we gave up on our ‘cultural’ attempt and went back to chill out in our air-con room (luxury!)

Only thing to add about Bangkok is that their booming sex industry is extremely evident and fed primarily by old western men. More worryingly, ladyboys seem to outnumber ‘ladies’ in the prostitution/waitressing (interchangeable as most waitresses in any restaurant or bar, are in fact prostitutes) profession – do these men know who they are perving on – do they even care?!?!. The whole thing is very in your face – Wayne has been offered numerous unrepeatable ‘shenanigans’ in the street whilst I have been standing next to him!! It’s obscene! We decided enough’s enough and booked a ticket ‘outta here’ for the next morning…

29/10/06
…Kanchanaburi (130km west of Bangkok) is in a really scenic location (see pics – when I can load them on – this computer won’t let me) but is famous primarily because of the ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ and Death Railway. Checked into a really pretty guesthouse (small bamboo bungalows facing gorgeous gardens) but it’s a ‘little’ basic (cold water, non-flushing toilet?!? Yuck.)

30/10/06
Visited the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre, which is an excellent contemporary museum/research centre. It was really informative and gave a non-bias account/explanation of Death Railway: why it was built (alternative supply route), why there were so many deaths (16,000 Prisoners of War) etc etc… Japanese engineers estimated that it would take about 5 years to complete the railway, but the army forced the POWs (many of which were British) to complete the 415km railway in just 16 months!! (18 hour shifts were not uncommon, 7 days a week). The Bridge was only in use for 21 months before the allies bombed it in 1945. After the museum we walked around the immaculately cared for Allied War Cemetery (half of which is filled with British graves, most in their 20s/30s – so sad).

In the afternoon we caught a truck to the long-awaited ‘Tiger Temple.’ This forest monastery is a growing tiger orphanage, and cares for tigers that haven’t developed enough instinct to survive in the wild as hunters (although plans are now in place to train their offspring for an eventual return to the jungle). We arrived at the temple and were greeted by a sign reading ‘red, orange and yellow make tigers angry’ … f***ing fantastic – they could have warned me BEFORE - at the guesthouse (where we had arranged transportation.) My cleverly constructed outfit chosen this morning, as you will see from the pictures, entailed a bright orange strappy top, yellow bra straps (visible) and yellow/orange shorts. I also anticipated that within 5 seconds of being in contact with these BIG CATS I would earn my final suicide accessory: a pair of bright red, bloodshot eyes. Antihistamines were NOT going to ward off this allergy! Instead, my only means of self defense was a light blue smock (again, see photos) kindly donated by the monastery. Cool and calming blue seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately it was, in the end, my loud chesty cough, as opposed to my anger-inducing colour combo, that provoked the tigers and sparked off a ferocious roar and near attack (luckily they were chained down!!) Whoops. So, a word of warning to anyone intending on visiting this temple: in addition to avoiding ‘warm’ colours, don’t cough!

Before visiting the temple we had got the impression that tigers roam around freely – rightly or wrongly (I can’t decide – caution veers me towards rightly/ethics veer me towards wrongly!) this is not the case. The tigers are in fact on leads/chains. We also got the impression that you could just walk around and approach the tigers, as long as you are with a monk. Instead, due to increased popularity, the once in a lifetime experience has turned into a conveyor belt of tourists. You didn’t get to spend much time stroking the tigers. It was more a case of: ‘stoke, pose, snap and go’. However, it was a great experience – how many times do you get to go and sit next to a tiger and stoke it like a domestic cat?!?

The temple was an amazing place. Aside from the tigers, the temple attracts an array of wild animals from the surrounding jungle. Wild buffalos, cows, hogs, horses, goats and deer all roam around freely…we didn’t appreciate how many animals were present in the grounds until the monks started emptying sacks full of maize along the dirt paths. Hundreds of animals emerged from every direction, attracted by the free food – it was an amazing sight – almost biblical (thinking Noah’s Ark here) as the animals did actually walk in lines of 2/3 according to species (I believe the additional line is a contemporary addition to the biblical story –the only explanation – especially as we are in Thailand – is a line of ladyboys for each species!) As you can no doubt imagine, nature boy was in his element! I think he actually took thousands of snaps – no exaggeration! Fortunately they are mostly on his new toy and you won’t have to endure all of them on snapfish.

A slightly amusing incident to report from the temple (but in confiding this piece of entertainment I realise that I may be condemned by Buddhist Gods): the monks lead the tigers back to their evening retreats (aka cages!) at about 5.30 every day. On this particular evening a tiger decided he wasn’t having any of it and wanted a rest (see photos). As punishment for this act of defiance the tiger was walloped with a massive branch by a temple volunteer. Quite rightly reacting to this blatant physical attack, the tiger leapt up and started sprinting off in the direction of the jungle. The old monk, who had been holding the tigers’ lead, was pulled off his feet and flew mid-air for what felt like 10 seconds before falling ungracefully back down to Earth. The tiger at this point I must highlight WAS ‘free’ (a long hatched escape plan looked like it was finally paying off!) Unfortunately some volunteers chased after him and managed to catch hold of his lead (phew!!) Anyway, with the palaver of a flying monk and a Noah’s Ark rerun we lost track of time and got back to the truck (and 6 unimpressed faces) a little late. Didn’t make any friends on that excursion! Hahaha

31/10/06
Visited:
1. Erawan National Park, famous for its 7-tired waterfall. I think we have become desensitized to waterfalls – seen to many – but it was very pretty. The waters were brilliantly clear and the fish were humungous (about 50cm long!) The smaller fish kept nipping you – bit uncomfortable but bearable: felt like minor electric shocks.
2. Hellfire Pass and the accompanying Australian-Thai memorial project which honors the allied POWs and Asian labourers who died whilst constructing the Thai-Burma Railway. Hellfire Pass is the name given to the largest of the 1000m mountain cuttings (which were carried out using only minimal equipment: hammers, picks, and shovels etc.) By the end of the cutting 70% of the POWs had died, due to exhaustion, malnutrition and various tropical diseases! The conditions were horrific. Various pictures on display show the POWs looking like walking skeletons
3. Train ride on Death Railway – unremarkable...zzzzz
4. Bridge over the River Kwai – not particularly beautiful (especially due to reconstruction) but interesting because of its complex history.

1/11/06
Return to the Western World and this time we embraced it to the max!!! Gave Khao San area a miss and headed for the shopping district. Spent most of the day in the MBK centre (felt like a vertical Milton Keynes – 8 levels!) Highlight was indulging in Western Cuisine – visited the mall’s food court which is super cool. You are issued with a swipe card, where you purchase whatever food you want from an array of kitchens, and then pay for it all at the end: pasta and chocolate waffles – yum! Very expensive (compared to our usual 3GBP meals for 2) but worth every penny. Completed the ‘home away from home’ day with a trip to the cinema….but this was no normal cinema – we opted for the VIP ticket where, for the price of a normal ticket at home, we were given a complimentary drink and snack, a luxurious leather reclining couch with blanket and pillow and table service!! (see pic) VIEWING HEAVEN! (Watched The Guardian – pretty good film).

2/11/06
Shopping mall repeat. So tired and neck/shoulders ache from typing so much, so that’s all im offering for today’s agenda. Off to bed…hope you enjoyed. Haven't checked ANY of this so excuse all spellings/typos xxx