Nov 2007

We headed off in search of sun on a longtail to Railay, which is a beach just the next bay round from where we were in Ao Nang.

Was a bit choppy and rainy so we got soaked both on the boat and attempting to get our rucksacks into the thing in the first place. The sun did finally decide to start playing along just as we scrambled off the longtail onto the beach at Railay.

Railay puts Ao Nang to shame. Such a beautiful beach and no tacky little shops. It has the sheer limestone cliffs rising out of the sea at each end of the beach which was pretty cool. There were quite a few plush resorts that the beach backed onto, but pretty well hidden in the undergrowth. Unfortunately for us we had to trudge past the resorts, wishing we could afford to stay there, right through the undergrowth into the forest to find the cheap places. We ended up getting our own little wooden, thatched, bunglaow/forest hut effort with veranda and cushions to lie and relax on which turned out to be really nice. We'd gone to see another place that was a lot simpler and cheaper further into the bushes but I spotted a spider in a tree that was the size of my hand, so we decided against staying there.

The weather turned from thereon, and we've had glorious sunshine pretty much everyday for the past couple of weeks, which has been great. We spent most of our time just lounging on the beach and swimming in the bath temperature waters which was good. The Thai's know what they're doing when it comes to cocktails, either serving them in hollowed out fruits.....

or in buckets......

or the bars just sell you the ingredients and leave the rest up to you........

all that cost less than 3 quid which was pretty good.

From Railay we caught a ferry South to an Island called Ko Lanta. We caught a longtail boat out of Railay bay then had to transfer from that onto a little ferry out in the sea which was interesting. The ferry was overloaded with people all sitting hanging over the edges which was a bit disconcerting at first, but we just squeezed in and survived the 2 hour trip unharmed. There was the usual chaos that has greets you at every bus station and ferry port over here, with people tugging at you and shouting taxi in your face. We opted for a motorcyle and sidecar to take us to the main beach, which was an experience.

We spent our first night in a fancy beach hut at a resort, right on the beach which we thought was a pretty good deal. We later discovered that there was an open sewar running right under it that carried everyone elses filth past which made a very unpleasant smell. We were provided with an air freshener but it only made the smell even worse.

We left the next day. The beach at this place was pretty good though, and we got our first sunset over the Andaman Sea which was pretty spectacular.

Jenny had spent a good hour and a half constructing a big sand sculpture of a turtle in the sand. She was just finnishing off the head, when a pack of dogs caming running along the beach, made a bee-line for the turtle and jumped all over it destroying it.

Very funny.

We caught another sidecar down to the south of the island the next day, and found a much quiter and cheaper place to stay. We made sure to check for the telltale air spray as soon as we got sown round our hut this time. All clear. We stayed at an amazing quiet little family run private beach resort. Really incredible, and we were paying a third of the price we have been most places. The beach was nice, but a little rocky which made it a bit of an expedition to get into the sea, but other than that we both loved it, and stayed 3 nights. We got into a routine of just relaxing on the beach with our own little thatched shade booth

then gazing out to sea at the psychedellic sunsets and pirate ships going past,

whilst lying at the low tables of the local bar next door, enjoying a Singha or a cocktail, before heading out for something to eat, before returning to the bar to watch the nightly fire show.

Absolutley great. Could have stayed there a lot longer. The only major decision to be made when we were there was whether it was to be green or red curry.

Both brilliant. Jenny got a bit bored of the sun sometimes but there were plenty of crabs for her to torment, and sticks to do it with, all along the beach, so she was happy too.

From Ko Lanta we caught another ferry North to Ko Phi Phi. Ko Phi Phi is a breathtaking place.

It's a series of islands, most of which are massive limestone cliffs jutting out of the sea. The water is absolutley crystal clear and the beaches are white sand. It was quite touristy, but we expected that. And I don't think that can detract from how spectacular the place is.

We ended up staying in a place right at the top of a hill overlooking the whole bay which was really nice. The accommodation was good - big spacious huts on stilts. An American guy in front of us was mumping and moaning about having to pay for one, describing it as 'a bit ghetto'. We thought it was fine, apart from the 10 flights of rickety rusting stairs that we had to climb every day to get up to the top of the hill.

Ko Phi Phi's water is so clear it was unreal, and it has some of the best diving in the world, so we booked up for 2 dives out at the 2 most southerly limestone islands Bidah Nok, and Bidah Nai. We thought it wise to try a bit of snorkelling the day before doing this seeing as we hadn't done any since my little episode with a shark in Panama. You can snorkel right off the beach at Paradise beach where we were, and saw so many fish......and sharks, which was pretty smart. There were lots of Black Tip sharks patrolling about the water, but they were only about 1 - 1 and half metres long, and probably more scared of us than we of them. They were reasonably inquisitive though. But nothing like the monster in Panama so everything was ok. The next day we went diving. This was different class. We did it with a couple who were doing their last day of the open water course, so we could take it quite easy, and it was nice to have less experienced people there seeing as we hadn't dived since March. I can't rant and rave enough about the diving though. It was just immense.

We did it from a longboat which was very very slow in getting us to the islands and back, but very cool all the same. No sooner had we got down than we saw a stingray, then a Leopard shark about 4 foot long chilling out on the bottom. We saw all sorts of amazing fish, nemo, huge shoals of baby barracuda, lion fish......the list goes on. Our guide was good and pointed out all the interesting stuff, and at one point when we werelooking at lion fish under the coral, another 4 foot long lepoard shark came swimming up behind him and glided up the face of the coral. Leopard sharks are docile by the way, otherwise I would have been hyperventilaing and soiling my wetsuit. Really crazy stuff. We were both absolutely flying after it. Learning to dive is a must for everyone we've concluded.

We left Ko Phi Phi this morning on a ferry North to Phuket Island. We are currently in a little beach place called Hat Kata. It's not really very great. Unfortunately it has to compete with all I've just written, which is a hard act to follow, admittedly, but it's REALLY touristy here, and the prices are ridiculous. So don't think we'll spend much time here. Looking into heading North to quieter places before arriving in Bangkok on Sunday to meet the folks.

We had a bit of an episode last night with some unwanted wildlife trying to share our little hut.

This big badboy came through the roof to shelter from the rain. Not sure if the pictures translate very well exactly how big it was. It was VERY big. So big that you can see the pink of it's eyes reflecting the flash. Horrible. Jenny eventually took control of the situation and got rid of it. We were both doing a lot of checking of the bed before getting under the covers last night.

We spent our last few days in Australia back in Sydney kicking about Russel's flat relaxing before catching a plane to Singapore. We went out for a meal with Russel, Nic, James and Sarah, which was a good laugh. Great meal. Nepalese place, really good food. We then flew out on the 1st November to begin the final leg of our round the world jaunt. The flight was a bit traumatic. First couple of hours was constant turbulence, and both of us were gripping onto the arm rests in panic for most of that. The inflight entertainment didn't work which was a bit crap, so I entertained myself with quite a few miniature bottles of wine. We arrived in Singapore at about 10pm both pretty tired. We headed for Little India, an area of the city with loads of hostels. Unfortunately we didn't bank on every hostel in the city being full and were both extremely tired and emotional when we eventually checked into a hotel at about 1am (4am Sydney time) having trapsed about with full backpacks on around the dark, smelly streets. The hotel that we eventually found was fine although we paid well over the odds for it. We had been offered a mattress with some interesting brown stains on it at the end of a corridor, without a door, on a kind of balcony/part of the roof of the place before...so that had been the final straw and we splashed a bit of cash just to get somewhere that resembled a room. Next day we headed back to Little India and managed to check-in to a hostel no bother that morning.

Singapore was alright. It's a pretty amazing mix of Cultures. Little India was interesting because it is Deepavali - Hindu festival of lights - at the moment, so they had all these ridiculously colourful decorations and neon light displays up all over the place.

We didn't spend long in Singapore, only one full day. We didn't see much of it as we spent half the day trying to buy a train ticket to Kuala Lumpur. I'm not sure there's an aweful lot to see in any event. We walked down the main street, Orchard Road, which is basically just one continuous stretch of massive shopping centres. Could have been anywhere. Weird walking down the street in the intense humidity and getting blasted by freezing air conditioning every few steps, from all the shops. I'm still struggling to get used to hot outside, cold inside. One thing that was good about Singapore, and has been so far since being in SE Asia, is the food.

Amazing selection of stuff to eat. On our day in Singapore we ate curry in Little India in the morning, Thai for lunch, then Chinese for dinner. Great stuff. We stayed in a dorm that night, which was a bit like a prison cell, which we had to share with an American Jesus freak and a girl from Leith. Not sure which is worse.

Next day we got up early and caught a train to Kuala Lumpur (KL). I think the line that we were on is part of the Orient Express route.

Certainly there was a sign indicating that was the case. The train took about 7 hours and was absolutely freezing. We went 2nd class, and the carriage was literally like sitting in a fridge. Wasn't very comfortable, and the toilet was a hole in the floor that went straight onto the tracks. Wasn't too bad though.

We arrived in KL mid-afternoon, managed to check-in to a hostel at our first attempt, then went and had a look around the city. Again, there wasn't a lot to see, apart from the Petronas Towers.

Absolutely amazing building, especially when all lit up at night. More massive shopping centres involved here, making up the bases of the two towers. We wandered about here for a while before going to get some food. The food in Malaysia, so far, has been great. You can eat and drink for next to nothing. We both ate and had a drink in KL for under 2 pounds for both of us. Despite the small shard of glass that I found in my Nasi Goreng, that was pretty good value. Nasi Goreng is great - basically spicy chicken fried rice with seafood, or whatever meat they have lying about. Been eating a lot of it, from dodgy little places that we've stopped at along the way. We only spent the one night in KL before moving North and to the West Coast of Malaysia, in search of good weather, and beaches. The weather so far has been disappointing. Been pissing with rain for the majority of our time here so far. I was getting a bit worried that we might have made a mistake in planning the trip the way that we have, and that we were going to be under a monsoon cloud for the whole SE Asia leg. A Malaysian guy that we spoke to allayed those fears by telling us that the weather has just been pretty shocking for this time of year and that it should be good by next week. So should be ok fingers crossed, as I'm planning on getting very very very very brown.

From KL we got a bus to a little place called Lumut where we caught a ferry to an island off the West Coast of Malaysia, called Pulau Pangkor. When we disembarked we caught a weird little pink taxi/minivan to the other side of the island to a little bay called Teluk Nipah.

Was a really pretty little beach town. The beach had rope swings hanging off lots of the trees lining it, which was quite smart.

Unfortunately the weather spoiled any quality time on the beach. It was a torrential downpour for nearly our whole time there. However, we did venture into the sea on our second day there. The sea here is really warm so we spent a good couple of hours mucking about in the waves. Other than wandering about the beach and sitting drinking Tiger beer on our little porch, watching the torrential rain and the weird hornbills flying about, we didn't do a lot.

Jenny is taking great interest in each and every cat that we come across, which makes getting anywhere quite a slow process as they are all over the place here.

I even spotted one down a drain in Singapore. Jenny fed one of the cats in Teluk Nipah a tin of curry tuna, so even the cats like it spicy over here. Was good to relax for a day or so before we hit the road again.

Last couple of days were a bit of a nightmare. Began a marathon two day slog North from the island. First caught a boat back to the mainland. Then caught a 2 hour bus to a town called Ipoh. Ipoh was a bit of a dump, and had proper open sewars running down the sides of the streets, absolutley revolting, the place stank like a toilet. Unfortunately we had to kill a whole day there wandering about in the rain before catching an overnight bus to Hat Yai just over the Thai border. Got absolutely no sleep because the bus was freezing cold. Managed to negotiate the border crossing before catching another 4 hour minivan to Krabi on the West Coast of Thailand. This was a nightmare, not least because we knew it was to be 4 hours, and we spent an hour and a half crawling about the streets looking for people to pick up before leaving. Got no sleep here either because it was so cramped and the driver was driving as fast as he could overtaking on blind corners driving literally inches befhind the vehicle in front at 70mph.

Having survived this we then caught another 1/2 hour taxi to our final destination Ao Nang, where we are just now. Slept well last night after all that carry on. Krabi seemed a bit of a dump as well, although we didn't spend long there and I was having a bit of a strop because of sleep deprivation. Ao Nang has niceish beaches, although the view out to the islands is what it's really all about and the longtail boats scooting about from bay to bay.

Really pretty. There are several reminders of the devastation that was caused by the Tsunami that hit in 2004, in the shape of evacuation signs, and there still appears to be a lot of rebuilding going on around here.

Ao Nang is kind of spoiled by the road that the beach backs onto that is littered with tack shops crawling with tourists. Going to head to better beaches tomorrow probably and try to escape the crowds.

Weather is still pretty crap although it's not raining and the sun is making some effort to come through.