Bangkok part 1

We left Kho Pha Ngan and boarded an over night train bound for Bangkok, as over night trains go this one was pretty good. Our seats turned into a bed and there was a pull down top bunk, so we did sleep, which was good as the following day was hectic. We arrived in Bangkok early morning and went for breakfast. Then we were taken to a floating market, the only one left in Thailand apparantly. That was fun, there was bit of a boat ride to get there and local people were selling their wares from long boats....mainly farm produce. There was also a market on the land next to the canal so we had a good look round there. Kit told us that all the prices were more inflated here and you have to haggle (you have to do that everywhere but here you have to do it more), we tried our best, but I reckon we still got ripped off. It feels wrong to be arguing with poor people over 20p though! Rich bought the nastiest bit of tat we've seen since the Steve Irwin and family plate, a wavy cat. We've seen them everywhere, gawdy gold plastic cats with a wavy arm :-/ ....he loves it. After the floating market we drove over to the bridge over the river kwai, had a walk on the bridge and a look round the museums, then visited a cemetary where hundreds of japanese POW who died during the building of the Burma railway are buried. Rich's grandad was a POW and worked on the Burma Railway, it was really sad to see the cemetary and all the names of the people who died, nearly all of them under 25.

This was the last day of our tour although it does include a night at a hotel in Bangkok....the girls however had to fly home that night. They were desperate to shop on Khosan Road (famous for shopping in Bangkok and VVVVV cheap) before they went. W arrived back in Bangkok around 7pm, by the time they'd showered and got themselves ready for leaving it was about 7.30....then they went on a shopping frenzy! We all chilled out and had dinner, they met us an hour or so later loaded with bags and wolfed down some food, then Bronagh went for round 2.....she didn't come back till almost 11, poor Kate was getting stressed as their flight was just after midnight...it was funny...We bade them farewell and then about half an hour later Kit got a phonecall from a tearful Kate saying she'd left her painting behind!!! Oh how we laughed....sorry Kate, but we did. She'd been carrying this enormous rolled up canvas with her since Bali (before she joined this tour) and it was slowly getting battered...and then she goes and leaves it behind...tee heee ;-) We'll send it home to you Kate....promise!

So, girls gone :-( tour over :-( we're on our own....

Woo-hoo.....Thailand....beaches, buckets and (sun)burn!!

As you can probably tell from the title, I'm quite excited about Thailand!! Been looking forward to coming here for ages and I've not been disappointed, it really is bloody cheap!

The first thing we did when we arrived was go have lunch at a restaurant. It was a fairly nice place and we spent about 1 pound 50 between us on lunch and a drink....great stuff!!

Our first stop was Surat Thani which was just an over night stopover on our way to Kho Pha Ngan, an island popular with us tourists!

It was a ferry ride and then a jungle truck to get to our beach resort and we were greeted with flower garlands and fresh coconuts to drink.....hello Thailand!!! OUr accommodation was little huts, right by the beach for 4 nights!! Bliss

We had a most excellent 4 nights there. Bronagh and Kate were so excited to get to the beach and to Thailand as they'd heard about 'buckets' and couldn't wait to have them! Buckets are basically cocktials in a bucket, like a kids bucket and spade type bucket. Generally they're half a bottle of Thai whisky, a can of coke and a can of Red Bull and cost around 200 bht (about 2 pounds 50) and you only need one to get hammered, although you can pay more and get a variation.

Our days were spent lazing around on the beach, eating, snorkelling, shopping, eating, swimming, eating, playing cards and shopping....it was tough.

Our evenings were spent watching Thai boxing, eating, drinking buckets, shopping, getting piercings (I got my tragus pierced), drinking buckets on the beach, watching football and playing cards....it was tough.

I have to say that most of the eating was done by Kit and Shannon who eat loads. Kit has about 10 meals a day while Shannon sticks to 3 mostly but will have about 5 dishes where the rest of us have one or two!! It's just not fair either cos there's not an ounce of fat on either of them...they do excercise a lot though, and meditate. I wonder if that's where we're going wrong....perhaps we should start meditating ??

On our last night we all got very drunk on buckets (except Shannon who doesnt' drink) and had a fun night of drinking and dancing and the like.Bronagh got extremely drunk and was in a bit of a state, I've been 19 and in that state though so I looked after her!!

All too soon it was time to leave our island life and head for the bright lights of Bangkok....booo. We had a great time on Kho Pha Ngan....it was quite developed and touristy but it had it's quiet spots too. It was cheap, the food was great, the buckets, er...full, the group we were with were fun....need I say more ???

A week in Malaysia....

So, we join our group and travel from Singapore to Malaysia, first stop Malaka. This was a nice little city with plenty of charm and character. Rich and I were right impressed with our hotel, yes that's hotel, we're in the land of the cheap now so no more smeggy hostels. We had nice hotel with TV, Fridge, air con, en-suite, was luxury!! Spent 2 nights in Malaka, generally walking around the city, taking in the sites, chinatown, little India and the many temples. We all got chatting to this man selling little paintings by a church, he was very funny and ended up giving us all one of his pictures for free....cheers Francis!! Malaysia is much cheaper than Singapore so going out for dinner was great, although as I'm a funny f@@ker when it comes to anything with a face I'm not going to be eating meat and there is a lack of veggie food, but I'm getting by, Rich'll eat anything, and has been! One of the irish girls on our tour, Bronagh is a funny f@@ker like me, but with everything not just meat so I don't feel so bad about it! Rich and I had the best meal from a little hawker stall in Malaka, it was a plate of noodles (mine with no meat) and they were the best noodles ever, and they cost 6 ringit for 2 (1 pound) Brilliant!!



After Malaka we took a bus To Kuala Lumpur and had a couple of nights there. I have to say I wasn't very impressed. It was a big city and it was dirty and smelly and didn't have half the charm of Malaka. We had a good look around there too. We visited a place called Batu Caves which was really interesting, the caves are world famous for hosting hindu festivals and there are shrines all over the place and an enormous statue. There are 272 steps to climb up to get to the caves and there are little macque monkeys all over the place.....we like monkeys :-)

Our guide Kit was constantly getting us all to try local food and the like and we all did most of the time. One night he took us into chinatown and to a little tea place where we had jelly tea, with honey, was very odd...but nice.

Rich and I wanted to have dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of KL tower, but when we got there it was fully booked....bugger should've phoned ahead. So instead we went of for dinner in a nice part of town. After we'd been in the restuarant (which was also a bar) a while though, Rich noticed that it was full of prostitutes!! Nice!. We had a look at the petronas towers but didn't bother going up as we'd been up KL tower and already had a good luck at KL from above.



So, KL.....tick, next stop was the Cameron Highlands. We arrived there early evening and the first thing we noticed was that it wasn't hot....hooray!! As we were up in the mountains it was significantly cooler which was a welcome relief.

Had 2 nights here as well, again, in a hotel. We went on a full day tour of the area which consisted of a bit of a jungle trek, a visit to a tea plantation and sampling of said tea which was very nice, a butterfly farm (which pleased Kate as she'd been going on about butterfly farms since Malaka!!), a buddhist temple, a swim in a waterfall and a visit to a village of indiginous malaysians.......Now, it was a great day up until this point. The indiginous people had been living in the jungle in a traditional way up until 10 years ago when the government turfed them out and gave them a village on the edge of the jungle, all well and good you may think but seemed a little wrong to us. Well, what was more wrong was that the local people did 'tours' to these villages, they handed us sweets to give to the children when we arrived and when we got out of the bus we were swarmed by kids all with their hands out for sweets, it was like being in the zoo and was just so wrong. It would appear that the local tour guides have agreements with the village people so they can bring tourists in but, we felt like we'd invaded their home just to gawp at them like animals, rather than being invited in to see how they live. Sorry, a bit of a rant there, I'll stop waffling now!



After the fresh air and peacefulness of the cameron highlands it was back to hectic cities, Penang to be exact....So, a bus, a ferry and a taxi ride we finally arrive in Penang and have lunch at a 'british' pub....oh how Bronagh was happy when she saw the menu!! Normally everytime she looked at a menu she had a look of horror!! After that Rich and I went with Kit on a cable car ride up Penang hill. That was nice although it took bloody ages!! Rich was in a bit of a panic as the England game was starting at 11pm and we didn't get back to our hotel till 10 pm!!!

We watched the England game and Rich was not happy, I think that was a bit of an understatement....he was almost suicidal....I tried to reassure him and tell him it was just a game and it was the taking part that counted but that didn't seem to help.....although beer did!

We had a walk round the botanical gardens and saw more monkey....yay, we like monkeys :-) We also learnt a new word....doowar...not sure if it's chinese or malaysian but it means raise your arms and lower them again!!! So everytime someone said it we all did it.....you had to be there really !

On our last night in Malaysia we made the most of it....by going to the cinema! We saw Superman returns and what a great film it was. Cinema Malaysian style was odd though....people were constantly talking, phones ringing, phone conversations being had, burping loudly and all manner of noises, you just wouldn't get that at Warner cinemas

So that was our week in Malaysia. We did really enjoy it and wish we'd had more time, and seen some beaches and the like, but hey-ho we only had 8 or 9 days, and we did get a feel for the place.