Bali

There were many areas of Bali we could have stayed in but we selected Sanur not far south-east of the capital city of Denpasar. In Sanur we found a relatively cheap hotel with a decent amount of restaurants around it where we could spend a week doing very little and relishing not having to think about all the regular things: where to stay next? how to get there? does it have bedbugs?



Packing to leave singapore



Passing through the airport was pretty easy except for the surprise fee you have to pay at immigration. We accepted this as some sort of visa as we had had to pay at previous border crossing and moved on. Although this wasn’t a quick process as the entire plane of people seemed to be caught unawares and had to queue at the one and only ATM.

The taxis service from the airport was unusual in that tickets were pre-paid from a booth at the station, but it was all easy to understand and soon enough we reached Sanur and checked into the Ari Putri Hotel. We would stay here for the whole week so were pretty happy to find the room was very spacious, had a balcony and even a TV which let us watch CSI. All the rooms were built round a swimming pool in the middle where I could even enjoy a plate of spring rolls sitting in the water at the pool bar. The hotel seemed to have a huge number of rooms but amazingly we barley saw more than twenty people the entire time we were there.

Utilising the room

We came to Bali with absolutely no plans as we just wanted to relax so rather than go through a few pages of sunbathing based rambling I’ll just pick out a few highlights from the week. The first night we went for a wander along the main road outside the hotel and ended up having dinner in Flapjack’s sports bar. The place was fairly empty but it’s karaoke stage managed to maintain a steady flow of singers, however the best performance came from an American kid who took the guitar from one of the band members and nailed Johny B. Good, guitar solo and all. We came to Flapjacks for a few of our dinners as it was easy and just a few doors down from the hotel. As I said, this was to be a lazy week.

A few nights into our stay I returned to Flapjacks alone at 2.30am for the Champions League Final to find our quiet dinner spot had suddenly sprouted bouncers, velvet rope and a £5 entry fee. I wasn’t happy but wasn’t about to return to the room having got pretty excited about it all day so begrudgingly paid and found a seat. I was amazed at how many locals had showed up to watch it but gutted to see the majority supporting the Spanish team over the English. Come 5am I was leaving Flapjacks having watched Manchester United be torn apart by a team so much better than them in the form of Barcelona.

This is as close to the TV I could get despite turning up pretty early

All the way through Asia we have found shops on the side of the road selling assorted touristy junk, all kinds of food, fake goods and a range of other services but in Bali the most common street stall seemed to be offering currency conversion. I understand people at the airport offering this service but tourists coming out of their hotel having been there a week are unlikely to suddenly realise they need Indonesian Rupiah and rush over the road to a man with a cardboard sign offering a so-called good price. In addition to this street annoyance, taxis slow to walking pace and beep at you to try and get your attention and all vendors would refer to me as “Sir” but Linz as “lady” which is so irritating.  Despite quite a few tourist shops selling various locally made goods, including penis shaped bottle openers, I never came across a Balinese shot glass to add to the collection.

We had a bit of rain during our week but we did get a few good days around the pool, providing we beat the super-keen Spaniards to the few sun loungers that were available round the pool. When it was raining we tended to venture little from the room entertaining ourselves with the free wifi and Aussie rules football on the Australian TV channel. One evening we went to explore the beach with the idea of spending the day there tomorrow only to find it was a working beach in that it was covered with boats, ropes, nets and an assortment of unwanted fishing supplies. We decided to skip it and make saw we beat the Spaniards the next day.

At the bar

I formed an odd relationship with the man from the bar as he seemed to jump between two quite different personalities although this might have been expected given that I'm not sure he ever left. He would be there longer than everyone at night but still be up in time to watch the Spaniards destroy everyone else’s chances of a day in the sun. I’m coming across like not being in  the sun is the worst thing that could happen but I really wasn’t that bothered, it was more for Linz as she had been fighting against strap lines since Mui Ne and was starting to panic that they were now permanent editions to her back.

Other than watch Sebastian Vettel claim yet another F1 victory, this time at Monaco, we did very little until we left a week after arriving. We had the choice of getting one of the unmarked cars constantly parked outside the hotel but instead decided a genuine taxi would be better. Rather than give one of the incredibly irritating beeping taxi drivers the satisfaction of think he had successfully won over a fare, we booked one through the hotel. I took great enjoyment in packing my bag into the taxi in full view of various questionable taxi drivers on the corner.

We reached the airport where we had to pass through security checks before we could even enter the terminal. To my amazement I found a shot glass at a shop right by the check in desks meaning I have somehow managed to come through communist China, less developed Cambodia and now even Indonesia, having barely left the hotel, without failing to add to the collection.

Incredibly the same lady who stamped us into Indonesia also stamped us out a week later. Apparently we aren’t very memorable as she barely looked up at me as I passed, however I remember her well as just a week ago I clearly remember questioning Linz on why they would let a fourteen year old boy work on the immigration desk.

However, before we could even reach the boy-like immigration lady we were turned away for not arriving with the exit fee. It all kicked off. Having been charged to enter the country we were now being charged to leave as well and had no choice, as we had no cash on us, but to exit the entire airport to reach the only cash point available and then re-enter through the security checks to pay.  Little else happened in the airport except having to sit at the gate due to an almost complete lack of chairs. Apparently neither entry nor exit fees are spent on seating.

Enjoying Bali Airport's seatng options

The KLM plane journey back to Singapore went smoothly although it seemed I hadn’t learnt my lesson from our first flight as this time I chose to watch the King’s Speech and found the plane landed before the all important king’s speech. So, I had planned to be able to compare the two films which dominated the 2011 Oscars but in the end failed to finish either.

Our week in Bali had done just what we needed it to by letting us completely relax and recharge before the next stage of the journey begins covering Australia and New Zealand over two and a half months.

We landed in Singapore and checked our bags into the luggage room as we would be returning to the airport the next day for our flight to Cairns. We found the city shuttle bus and soon were back at the Prince of Wales where we were checking into the Brisbane room for our final night in Asia. The following day we spent by heading into town to watch the latest instalment of the X:Men series at one of Orchard Road’s cinema before returning to the airport.

We couldn’t enjoy the service the Dutch offered us on KLM this time as we had been booked onto Australia’s equivalent of a budget airline: Jetstar. There was little room and no films for me to miss the end of, so we just entertained ourselves until our 5am stopover in Darwin. After a quick breakfast and a highly enjoyable rest on a sofa, following the discomfort of the plane, we got back on the same plane and headed onto Cairns.

So three months after entering Asia I’ve finally moved on to a new continent and am now realising I'm nearer the end of the trip than the beginning. Unquestionably the aspect of this leg of the trip I will remember the most are the people who are easily the kindest and most cheerful people I have come across.

However, it all began in China where it took me just a day to realise how much I had thrown myself in at the deep end. From getting horrifically lost on the first day and struggling to get a rhythm going I was pleased that I sorted myself out quick enough to cover the 7,000km distance and see ten massively contrasting cities. I felt I gave a decent effort with the food for someone who rarely ventures far beyond chicken, however the greatest meal I had, in fact in the entire of Asia, was a mere pineapple bought from a vendor on day two as it massively lifted my dwindling spirits and the whole trip picked up from there. My month in China took in some wonders of the world, the amazing city of Hong Kong and some great modes of transport including my bamboo raft and various bikes of questionable safety, however I do regret not getting as involved with the locals as I could have. The highlight of the country was undoubtedly my time spent in Hong Kong which is unfaultable.

The highlight of Vietnam was easily having Linz to travel with as I had missed, other than the obvious, simple things like being able to turn to someone just to point something out and also now I could actually have photos taken of me from further than arms length. Other than Linz though it was the local people who stood out in what has been my favourite country so far. Life in Vietnam seems much more mellow than in the big polluted cities of China and the people are just so keen to make your days even better with honey tea or chilled water ready for you when you finish your day or even just a smile. Vietnam was also when the heat set in not letting up until we set down in Cairns. Dalat offered a brief rest but even then only by a few degrees where as the excruciating heat of Ho Chi Minh City will live long in my memory. I would have never contemplated that I would have hired a motorbike on this trip, let alone three of them, so our time in Mui Ne was an unexpected surprise. Vietnam will be missed.

Cambodia had to be the surprise of the trip but also resulted in the biggest disappointment in that we had to leave so soon. Everything from the cockney rhyming slang of Mr Kim in Battambang to the coconut curries first tasted in Kampot was perfect, the only reason I claim Vietnam to be my favourite country is because we had the time to really explore it. I'm sure with another week Cambodia could put up even more of a fight. The highlight here were the two days in Angkor Wat as Cambodia continued to surprise us as we had no idea of the scale of the temples and being able to cycle round them was amazing.

Thailand will be remembered for the incredible list of activities we managed including swimming in waterfalls, riding elephants, swinging through rain forests and, the best forty five minutes of our entire travels, playing with tigers. However, given its popularity around the world we never got the secluded feel of Vietnam or especially Cambodia, and perhaps given the countries exposure to the western world, we felt the talked up “Land of Smiles” wasn’t quite so happy as its neighbours.

Malaysia will have to be explored in full when time permits as we just couldn’t do it justice. What we saw we loved but, having not been able to venture to Borneo, have vowed to return. Kuala Lumpur was fun to wander round and it’s Petaling Street market was right up there with the best, but weirdly one of the things I’ll particularly remember are the country’s incredibly comfortable buses. Shame we barely had to use them. It would have been nice to explore some of Malaysia’s rainforests but time got the better of us so it was good that we had already delved into Khao Sok national park in Thailand.

Singapore was brilliant. It comes close to topping Hong Kong as my favourite place so far as we crammed so much stuff into just a few days in addition to the obvious aesthetic qualities. It wouldn’t be a hard city to live in however we could have done without leaving with such empty wallets, although my favourite attraction of walking the F1 track (twice) was a great bonus.

So that’s Asia done; thirty seven towns and cities. I can’t imagine Australia and New Zealand giving us such a challenge but that was a huge part of Asia’s draw and although I look forward to the easier life on our new continent I will miss many aspects of life here and it definitely won’t be long until I'm back.

Singapore

We left Melaka on a standard Malaysian long distance bus, which have been considerably more comfortable than previous countries equivalents, which would take us all the way into the Singapore via the border. Singapore is referred to as a city-state which rules as an individual nation made up of both a large mainland area and 63 islands, comprising a total area which could fit into the UK 350 times. Our border crossing from Malaysia into Singapore was fairly straight forward but was quite a draw out affair due to the distances between each sets of immigration and the fact that we had to wait for everyone from the bus to complete each of them before moving on to the next. Having said this there was only five of us on the bus. The only issue came when we reached the Singaporean immigration control when we hadn’t filled in the necessary form, but no worry as the officer let us get in the booth with him while we filled it out. I'm not sure he thought it through as two extra people and two rather hefty backpacks was a little much for his tiny booth to handle.

We were dropped off at a small bus terminal with no way of telling where we were so had to ask in a shop to get a rough idea of where we were. Although we had read about it, we were still shocked, yet very pleased, to hear the lady reply in near perfect English, as it’s the official language of Singapore. This doesn’t mean everyone speaks English all the time, in fact far from it, but it seemed we never had to deal with a language barrier as the locals seemed very capable of speaking both. It turned out we were very close to an underground station and only two stops north of the station we needed to get to. We struggled purchasing a ticket at first from the machine as it wouldn’t accept our notes. It took us longer than it should to realise we were trying to use Malaysian money. However, even with the correct currency we still struggled but a kind Singaporean man made change for us and we were away. Singaporean train tickets are plastic bank card style tickets which are very good value as you get some of your money back if you return the ticket after use.

We had chosen to stay in Little India as the hostel we had found there seemed to be the cheapest we could find in this dangerously expensive city. At £11 per night it was considerably more than any previous dorm I had stayed in but was good value as it had a great bar downstairs, free internet, very clean rooms and good atmosphere. We had arrived in the city on a Saturday when the streets of Little India are packed with the thousands of migrant workers enjoying their days off which made for a great scene. In Hong Kong I found myself staying in an Indian area of the city and very much enjoyed it, but here was even better. The Prince of Wales hostel was in the heart of Little India but was in fact an Aussie hostel and we found ourselves checked into the Sydney room along with 4 others. In reality we were in a twenty-two bed dorm as it was one large room separated by partition walls, with each section being named after a different Australian city.

In a similar way to how I collect shot glasses form places I’ve been, Linz has recently started to collect souvenir glasses from Hard Rock Cafes around the world and was very keen to add Singapore to the mantel piece. So we headed off to Orchard Road which is Singapore’s main commercial street covered with restaurants, bars, cinemas and so many of large shopping centres. We found the Hard Rock Cafe and enjoyed a rather expensive meal and a particularly good Singaporean cover band which played a great selection of crowd pleasers. We left with a few dozen free badges as the man in the Rock Shop seemed to take a liking to us.

Tonight was my first night in a dorm since Hong Kong and Linz’s first all together. Each section of the dorm had its own light but it seemed only ours felt the need to leave it on until 2am. I had forgotten about the awkwardness regarding who turns the light out in dorms as no one wants to do it unless everyone is asleep but someone always seems to stay up for hours. Other than that it was a fairly uneventful evening.

We set off the next morning to find what would be my fourth city sightseeing bus of the trip which would pick us up from just round the corner. Since failing so miserably in Bangkok to get our bearing on the city we have found doing a bus tour, or driving round ourselves, makes it so much easier to get a feel for where everything is. We did a whole lap of the city before alighting in the Marina Bay area which was unquestionably our favourite area of the city. The centrepiece is the relatively new Marina Bay Sands Hotel which stands a three curved towers joined at the top by something which resembles a huge surfboard.

Marina Bay Sands on the left and the rather odd Museum of Art Science on the right

We headed towards our first sight, but on the way suddenly realised we were walking across the Singapore F1 track so diverted to walk along it as I knew the start line was just round the corner. Amazed that we were just allowed to walk along the track we soon found ourselves walking along the pit straight where all 24 drivers from last season’s race still had their names written across each garage. Somehow even Linz was getting into it and even committed months in advance to watching the race in September.



Quick pit stop



Making my feeling known

Our first attraction was the Singapore Flyer which is a 165m tall ferris wheel (30m taller than the London Eye) at the mouth of the bay, or more specifically, between turns 21 and 22 of the F1 track. Unlike in London, this wheel comes with a small exhibition at the base including virtual 3D models you can interact with about how the wheel works.

It may be bigger than the London Eye, but I think ours looks nicer!

The views from the top were amazing as we could see the skyline of the city, the distant suburbs and the vast number of ships waiting outside this very busy port city. Another benefit of going on the Flyer was I could get an excellent bird’s eye view of this section of the F1 circuit and spent a while establishing why I am so terrible at this particular track on the Playstation. We finished the wheel and, having done a second lap of the track, headed over the entrance to the bay via a most bizarre helical pedestrian bridge.

The view of downtown Singapore from the Flyer. In the bottom of the photo you can
see the wierd bridge we later crossed over

It took so long to actually get us and the city in the same photo

On the other side of the bridge we entered the Marina Bay Sands shopping centre to find some lunch which we managed with ease having found the food court. Following lunch we found the entrance to the hotel’s casino and, as we were unsure whether we were dressed appropriately, found a vantage point to watch others enter to see what was and wasn’t allowed. Fear of open rejection caused us not to approach ourselves. Having confirmed we weren’t going to be turned away for our clothes we confidently approached the entrance at which point we were openly rejected for not having our passports with us. We gave up and vowed to return later.

We had the choice to go up to the hotel’s surfboard style roof as it was in fact the Sky Garden, but we decided against it and instead got back on the sightseeing bus to see a different area of town. The new route took us away from the CBD into some of the suburbs including a few rather nice quays before dropping us off in Orchard Road. We had only seen this main road at night so far so opted to walk along it during the day to witness the hordes of young locals milling around the dozens of shopping centres, before re-boarding the bus to take us back to Little India.

We hung around the hostel for a while before appropriately dressing ourselves, including pocketing our passports, and heading back into town to hit the casino. Normally when trying to save money it wouldn’t be wise to head for a casino but given that even Las Vegas couldn’t get us putting more than the bare minimum into a gaming machine we felt it safe. We emerged from the underground not far from Marina Bay Sands so could enjoy a walk along the water’s edge looking across at the skyline we had seen earlier during the day. Our second attempt at entering the casino was a complete success but we soon found ourselves lost among the thousands of tables and machines, and then disappointed the only game we ever play (video blackjack) wasn’t even there.



Marina Bay Sands at night with the Flyer in the distance



We settled for a few games of video roulette before leaving a few dollars down as was to be expected. We wandered around the shopping centre trying to find somewhere for dinner but were rather surprised to find very few options but did stubble across an amazing light and laser show. It was performed over the water featuring green lasers fired off the hotel behind us, similar to the one in Hong Kong, but the most incredible part was how they shot a very fine spray of water directly up from the bay and projected images onto it like a cinema. The overall effect was quite impressive but overwhelming hunger forced us to pursue our quest for food and we soon found a pizza place to end our night out. We returned to the P.O.W in time to catch the finale of the English Premier League season in the form of Manchester United beating Blackpool. Newcastle finished higher in the league than I had hoped for at the start of the season, but throwing away a three goal lead to West Brom, which would have seen us finish in the top half, was frustrating to say the least.

Singapore at night

The next day we headed for the island of Sentosa which is more of a resort than anything else as it includes numerous hotel and restaurants as well as a casino and, its main attraction, Universal Studios. Rather than take the ferry we took the cable car across the water to the island which dropped us at the islands tallest point requiring a short walk to Universal Studios. On the way down, which turned out to be via a number of outdoor escalators, we passed the Merlion which was a three story statue of a half fish and half lion which we passed on the opportunity to climb up. We thought it was mildly impressive but apparently the locals though much more of it as they collectively freaked out when it was struck by lightning not too long ago causing it to fall apart in places.

The Merlion featuring its newly added lightning rod

Having had to take the monorail for the last part of the journey we arrived at Universal Studios where we had to take the customary photo of us in front of the spinning logo. The park was split into various themed zones including Jurassic Park, Ancient Egypt, retro-New York, Madagascar, Sci-fi and the fairytale land from Shrek.



Im not sure why I felt a half-arsed Usain Bolt impression was required



A particular highlight was the combination of Battlestar Galactic themed rollercoasters in the Sci-Fi area, despite the entire storyline regarding humans and some sort of tin can aliens being completely lost on me. An unexpected bonus of this ride was an incredible view of Singapore’s skyline from upside down as you went over a loop. Amazingly there was never a queue for these but there was often an hour long queue for the terrible Madagascar ride. We also shared a river rapids boat with an Aussie family through Jurassic Park, enjoyed a surprisingly intimidating Mummy ride and had lunch while watching a barbershop quartet perform on New York’s streets.

It was hot

Our final attraction in the park was a stunt show based on the film Waterworld which involved various jet ski jumps and a plane crashing through the wall. For some of the rides we queued for quite a while but nothing compared to how long we stopped in one of the park’s shops on the way out. Linz took so long deciding over a souvenir T-shirt I was starting to worry whether we’d make our flight to Australia in a weeks time.

Me and the lads

As we boarded our gondola back to the mainland we found out we had an extra trip included in our ticket so we continued on the cable car beyond where we thought would be getting off so could enjoy more views over the city as the sun was setting. We returned to the hostel where we sat in the bar for a while enjoying live music from an American man who was playing shows to earn a little extra money in addition to his regular job choreographing Universal Studio’s Waterworld show.

Our fourth day in Singapore was spent almost entirely in the hostel as we needed to plan our remaining week in Asia. We were deciding between travelling around Malaysian Borneo or lounging around a pool on Indonesian Bali. We decided to end our time in Asia with a relatively cheap week in Bali before returning to Singapore for our flight to Australia, so we booked our flights and accommodation from our usual seats in the bar. We did venture into town to find some lunch from a sandwich shop near Orchard Road and later to the Tapas bar across the road for dinner, but other than that we did very little on our last full day in Singapore. Lunch was excellent but the Tapas bar turned out to be incredibly expensive and a bit of an annoyance. That night’s entertainment was a local band with a horrific female singer which we couldn’t help but listen to from the dorm as her voice seemed to pierce through the floor more than previous night’s singers.

The following morning was very similar to the day before in that we hung around the bar using the laptop while watching re-runs of Sebastian Vettel’s Spanish Grand Prix victory while the manager was getting more and more annoyed at someone along the bar from us. She was getting increasingly more racist about his Scottish wife and he had a brutal hangover to add to it all, but it did provide extra entertainment while we waited for our bus to the airport.

We arrived at Singapore Airport, which was my first since Beijing almost three months earlier, checked in and had lunch at Subway. I’ve never trusted international Subways since a dodgy chicken experience in Washington but Singapore had been so good to us over the last five days I decided to trust it. I was pleased I did. Our flight from Singapore to Indonesia was with Dutch airline KLM and offered a surprisingly good amount of entertainment. I took the opportunity to watch Black Swan but the plane landed just as the big finale started. Very annoying.

Our five days in Singapore were among the best we’ve done so far and we easily could have stayed for considerably longer, but five days in this city already set us back quite a lot. Hong Kong remains my favourite city so far but Singapore, which doesn’t differ very much, comes in close behind it a there is so much to do, it looks fantastic, its impeccably clean and getting round is so easy. Now it’s time for Bali and a week spent around a swimming pool before the next leg of our travels begin in Australia.

Kuala Lumpur

We reached Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of the morning and found ourselves in the rare position of not knowing where in the city we were. We are usually able to follow our progress into towns and cities on maps but our arrival in the capital caught us a bit unawares so we had no choice but to opt for a taxi and hope it didn't cost us too much. Our taxi driver, who was massive, seemed to enjoy telling us that we were lucky he was there or else we’d have no idea what to do which wasn’t really what we needed at 5am. We were closer than we thought to the hotel and had arrived within 10 minutes.

The Tropical Guesthouse was located just off Bukit Bintang which seems to be KL’s main commercial street which made it very easy to get around. We had booked the cheapest room available which came with just a bunk bed but found that we had been upgraded to a room with two single beds, but that was it. Our room came with nothing other than two beds, a bedside table and a mirror that was barley bigger than a playing card, and was itself only just big enough to fit all these things in. It was smaller than an average household bathroom but the beds we very comfortable and we were actually big fans of our tiny room.

Our room taken from in the corridor. Notice the mirror on the back wall!

After a few hours sleep we headed out to make the most of the day. Our first stop was just up the road at a sports bar where we thought we’d find some easy food. The service was terrible and our burgers were served in sliced bread but it was food so we left reasonably satisfied. The city’s sightseeing bus passed our hotel so we hopped on and saw the entire city in the following three hours before deciding to get off in Chinatown as it is one of KL’s most exciting neighbourhoods. As well as being able to take in the majority of the city’s sites and districts we were pleased to see how green the place is and how much effort they put into maintaining park and gardens.

About to hop on the bus (not sure why I seem angry with it though) 

We aimed for Petaling Street market which didn't disappoint with its two main roads rammed full of stalls selling a good range of stuff, albeit all fake. The highlight for me was continuing my hunt for a Malaysian football shirt which I had started on Langkawi as I came across a stall where I had a good chat with a Kelantan FC fan who gave me a good history of the club. Unfortunately he only had one shirt for sale which was only suitable for a small Malaysia man so obviously I got nowhere near fitting in it. This didn't stop me trying as I really wanted it so entered the stalls changing room (the street round the back) and fought my way into it in full view of many locals. My new friend offered to try and find another one in town suitable for a westerner so I promised to come back. We planned to walk round Chinatown for longer as well as Little India but we failed to locate exactly where we were on the map so ended up wandering aimlessly for a while before returning to Bukit Bintang to find dinner.



Linz getting eyed up as we squeeze through Petaling Street market

After dinner we headed south from the town centre towards Time Square shopping centre, via a huge electronics mall and some torrential rain, where we planned to find some books to read. Having tried only once on this trip to read a book aimed at adults (128 Hours – I completed one chapter) I opted to return to books nearer my reading age and bought Harry Potter. Time Square was almost more impressive than the version in New York as it was the biggest shopping centre I have ever come across. It had at least 10 stories including a rather impressive atrium, and was filled with shops ranging from one-off quirky shops to Gucci. Linz managed to buy a new pair of flip-flops as well as her own Harry Potter book before we got a taxi, to avoid the rain, to head to Central Market. The market let us down a bit as it was more of a small mall rather than a traditional market and it was starting to pack away so we headed back to the hotel.

Our second day started early as we were heading off to one of KL’s main attractions and most recognisable building; the Petronas Towers. We had heard rumours of a set number of free tickets for the Sky Deck which are given out each morning so aimed to get there for opening time around 8am. We will never know if there were any free tickets as hundreds of people had arrived for opening and by the time we reached the front of the queue, after an hour wait, we had to pay. We also had to wait until 10:40am until we were actually able to go up the tower as they only allow a people up in time slots. We killed time by visiting the mall attached to the towers, which again proved to be colossal, where we got some breakfast. The tower itself was a bit of a letdown as you are only allowed to go as high as the bridge connecting the two towers at levels 41 and 42 despite the tower being 88 stories tall. The view was good but probably not worth spending the entire morning managing to get up there.

The Petronas Towers with the Sky Bridge just under half way up

Back in the attached mall we went a science museum to enjoy some relatively cheap thrills aimed at 10 year olds including an opportunity to build your own Lego car and race each other. After a good start my car ended up in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the track. No wonder I didn't get that job at the Toro Roso F1 team which I had applied for months earlier. There was an F1 simulator though and we were able to race the Malaysian F1 circuit resulting in an easy win for me over Linz. I wasn’t taking any chances and took it very seriously given that last time we played a video game (Vinpearl Land in Nha Trang) Linz had beat me quite comfortably twice at football. Redemption.

My dreams in pieces

We boarded the city’s tube system to take us back to Chinatown where we could complete our walking tour from the day before. Chinatown leads directly into Little India so we enjoyed the few kilometre walk through these contrasting districts enjoying the colours of silk shops and food stalls, where Linz took the opportunity to buy her second pair of flip-flops in as many day, before emerging into Merdeka Square. The square is famous for two reasons as it was announced that Malaysia had gained its independence as well as having a 100 foot tall flag pole with a massive flag atop. After the square we returned to the Kelantan fan hoping he had managed to find another football shirt for me, but he had failed.

We found quite a few of these insanely detailed Hindu temples. There's around 100 people on each
side of the roof.

By this stage it was getting late in the day so we headed for the markets at Chow Kit in the north of the city via it’s monorail system. The market once again was closing down by the time we got there and being outside it was hard to enjoy considering the torrential rain had started up again. It’s been a very long time since I had shoes without holes in them so rain was never a pleasant experience for my feet. However, I had established by now that Malaysia is one of few countries in the world who seem to sell Mountain Dew, considered by me to be the greatest soft drink on earth, so I was quite happy.

The most bizarre sky i've ever seen.

We hopped back on the monorail to head towards the KL Tower which is the capital’s tallest building and, unlike the Petronas towers earlier, actually allowed you to reach the top. The rain was still brutal but our hotel had lent us a couple of umbrellas that morning so we weren’t completely drenched. A friendly Malaysia man approached us as we left the station and asked for us for a lift which seemed slightly odd given our lack of car but we soon established we actually was asking if he could share our umbrella for a while. He seemed like a good lad and was apparently running late for a meeting so I obliged and we wandered off while having a good chat. The tower was a surprisingly long way from the station as it was harder to find than we thought so we took refuse in a bus stop where, having already said bye to the businessman, befriended a Malaysian chef who told us all about where she worked and how to get to the tower.

The tower is built on a small hill in the centre of tower which frankly I consider cheating from a tower as it appeared taller than it actually was. There was a free shuttle bus to take you up the hill but we didn't want to stop in the rain to find it so set about the climb. Eventually we reached the top and bought our tickets to the observation deck. The rain had turned into a storm so we watched from the base for a while which gave me another opportunity to fail at getting photos of lightning. Why do I even bother trying?

As I write this I cant help but think I’m coming across as really negative and that every attraction in the city was a letdown, but actually we had a really good time. The reason I am thinking this now is because the tower was once again a bit of a disappointment as, not for the first time in, too many shops had been crammed in the tower an so all you could see was the reflection of them in the windows. In addition clouds would occasionally devour the observation deck resulting in no view at all, but if you did find a spot with little reflection and no clouds then the view was very good. We had intended to do KL’s towers at different times in the day so we could enjoy both daylight and night-time views of the city which we were pleased we did.


The KL Tower taken the day before. There was no point taking any photos from the top



Our journey back down the hill was considerably easier as finding the shuttle bus was much easier and soon enough we were having dinner at the TGI’s at the base of the tower. By this point in our travels I must admit I am starting to lose the effort to try local food, having done reasonably well so far, so unfortunately Malaysian food didn't get much of a look in.

The following day saw the end of our time in Kuala Lumpur as we checked out the hotel and headed for the long distance bus terminal to catch a bus south to Melaka. Once again I find myself questioning how this blog seems so negative when we had a really good time. I can only assume it’s because the best thing to do in KL is just walk around and explore rather than pay to experience its attractions and it’s not so easy to fill a blog with stories of just walking around.

Our bus to Melaka was another very comfortable one and dropped us off at Melaka Sentral which is both a major shopping centre and transport hub. A relatively short taxi ride took us to L’Amarda hotel in the centre of town where we had booked just the one night. The hotel was unusual as we could never figure out who worked there as there was no reception the staff we did identify could have quite easily just been other travellers.

In the evening we ventured into Melaka to find dinner and stumbled across a great street market selling everything from living mice to cuddly Angry Birds. The town appeared completely dead except for this market so coming across it was vital or else we may have never seen anything of not in the town. We found a restaurant on the corner where we could sit right in the street so we could continue to enjoy the bustling street atmosphere as well as live music from our restaurant and the one across the road. We walked back the way we came towards the hotel as we could enjoy strolling across Melaka’s main attraction; it’s river. At night boats cruise up and down and there is an elevated walkway over the river lit up with pleasant lights which we could take pleasure from alone. Our hotel was opposite an impressive fountain which was lit with many coloured lights and timed to music, however it did look a little odd placed in the middle of a fairly average part of the town.

Crossing the river in Melaka

Tuk tuk drivers in Melaka compete for fares with the contents of the
Christmas decorations box

 The next morning we decided not to bother with the other attractions in the town as we would only be doing them as we felt we had to. Instead, as we were both very excited about it, we decided to leave and reach Singapore early enough to enjoy the day there. Yet again we couldn’t establish who actually worked at the hotel, partly because there didn't seem to be anyone anywhere, so we just ditched the keys on a table and left. Melaka continued to be deserted and our hope of easily finding a taxi quickly faded. However, a man identified our issue and hurried off to get his friend who had a taxi so soon enough we were back at Melaka Sentral. Having approached every one of the bus companies we found a cheap bus to Singapore and left Melaka, and Malaysia as a country.

We left Malaysia slightly disappointed to have only seen a small portion of it as what we had seen we really liked. However, although we are leaving for now there is still the possibility of flying out of Singapore to the Malaysian owned section of Borneo to the east of the mainland, if time and money permits. Having said that, Borneo is known for its rainforests covering and I'm not sure if Linz has recovered from her last rainforest experience yet.

Langkawi

The minibus which had picked us up from the hotel took us barely as far as the end of the road where we were loaded onto a second minibus which would hopefully take us a little further. This was not to be our only bus change as not far out of town we pulled into a tiny road off the motorway and were bundled into our third minibus of the morning.

The bus soon pulled up in a town which we took to be the port where we would get on our boat over to the Malaysian island of Langkawi. However, it was in fact just an opportunity for the driver to stop for an hour to chat to his mates. We were a little confused when we were told to leave our bags in the bus and return in an hour, so we chose to go only as far as the nearest restaurant for breakfast, while keeping the bus in sight. An hour later, during which the driver had a bit of a chat and a smoke, we left completely oblivious to why we had stopped other than to please our driver. I'd like to have been able to say we were taken straight to the port and that was it, but of course the trip wouldn't be complete without yet another minibus change. We were taken only a short way out of town, to a tourist office, where we moved our bags to our fourth minibus of the day.

Earlier in the trip we had been given a sealed envelope and were told to give it to someone at the port. The tourist office didn't look much like a port so when the lady from the office tried to take it from us we put up quite a stern resistance despite not knowing what was actually in it. It turned out this was her fee for getting us the final leg to the port so she wasn’t too pleased when we tried to keep it. Eventually, however we made it to the port.

On arrival we were shown into a tiny office, which for some reason I thought the trolley would fit in so spent a good bit of time wedging it in the door, where a nice lady took our passports and prepped our border crossing for us. All we needed to do was show our faces at the immigration office on the way past. We made our way, while enjoying more luggage trolleys, to the queue for our ferry. Somehow we seemed to ignore the queue and barged almost straight to the front before realising, although the locals seemed unbothered so we just stayed there. The boat was uneventful and we were met at the other end by a taxi driver who took us from the town of Kuah to Pentai Cenang, via a currency exchange office, where the budget hotels seemed to live.

We hadn’t booked ahead and just planned to have a wander and find somewhere, however the area was bigger than we realised and walking the length of the one road everything was based on with our bag, and in the midday heat, would have destroyed us. Leaving Linz to recover with the bags I headed off to check out one of the cheapest hotels we could see. It was a dive. It could be easily likened to a prison considering its metal framed rusty beds and the padlock on the door rather than a traditional keyhole. My report when arriving back at Linz was much more detailed so unsurprisingly we moved on. This time I left Linz, again with the bags, to check out a hotel called The Gecko however I never found it but instead found one we ended up staying in. The rooms were massive including a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room all for £6 each which included use of the hotel’s swimming pool. It seemed I was blinded by the prospect of a swimming pool so failed to notice that this place was also a dive. It too had padlocks. I never found out the name of the hotel, but Linz was convinced it was attached to the restaurant next door so we just referred to it by the name of the restaurant. The only reason I thought we were linking the hotel and the eatery was because we needed a name to put on our motorbike rental form and the restaurant was in sight at the time.

I suggested that we had hired a motorbike but it seemed Malaysia had less trust in us than Vietnam so in fact we were only allowed a scooter. We headed south from our hotel and soon reached the tip of the island. I was pleased to get this far as Langkawi was presenting us with a new challenge; traffic. All we found south of us was a fake Hard Rock Cafe so we headed back towards the hotel and found somewhere for dinner. On the walk back we found somewhere to catch the second half of Newcastle v Chelsea and Steven Taylor’s 92^nd minute equaliser. The bar staff and I had a good celebration although I think they were more happy for me than Newcastle claiming an unlikely point. We headed back to the room and realised we had missed our chance to use the swimming pool – the only good thing about the hotel.

The second day we hoped to head north to ride the cable car up to the highest point on the island, but rain thwarted our plans. I found the nearest poncho shop hoping a pounds worth of plastic could help us out but it only achieved two things; flapped in the wind and made me look like a dick. In addition to these issues my helmet did nothing to prevent me getting rain in my face which was surprisingly painful. We soon shelved plans of the cable car and headed into a small shopping centre where I could buy my traditional souvenir shot glass. We stayed longer than planned and by the time we came out the rain had passed so we headed off.

As you can see, I look like a dick...

The cable car is located in the Oriental Village which is a bunch of tourist based shops and activities grouped together around a small pond. At first it seems like a pleasant place but when you start paying attention you realise the shops are terrible, there are few food options and the nice pond is in fact ruined by the presence of swan shaped pedalos. This wasn’t such as issue at first as we only came here for the cable car, but we soon found out it was temporarily closed due to bad weather. We killed time by visiting the village’s animal attractions. First up was a chance to feed some deer, who were quite capable of walking though gaps in their enclosures, followed by stroking some albino rabbits which were kept so badly they looked rather unhappy. As you can probably tell we weren’t too impressed. We also got some lunch where somehow the village managed to demean itself even further by showing Big Momma’s House 2 on the TV. Eventually, however, we made it up the cable car where our hour long motorbike trip was justified. Not just as we got to watch an Indian woman completely freaking in our carriage.

Being eaten by a cloud

The view from the top was very impressive and we could see back along the coast to our area of the island as well as towards the northern end of Langkawi. Our view was only temporary though as a cloud decided to sit on top of us for a while and we could barely see the other side of the observation deck. There was also a rather noteworthy bridge built at the top of this mountain which allowed access to more viewing decks which we wandered along as the cloud had eventually lifted. We took a second cable car to a view point slightly higher before heading back down into the village and then back to Pentai Cenang.

A brief gap in the clouds looking back towards Pentai Cenang

Today was our four year anniversary and we both agreed that it was not to be spent in the grotty hotel we had had the night before so we spent a while trying to find a more pricey one as a bit of a treat. Apparently our trip to the Oriental Village wasn’t good enough for an anniversary. Maybe a swan ride would have helped? We found the Sunset Beach Resort with its own private beach and the nicest rooms we had stayed in by far so splashed out £20 each and moved in. Given the fancy nature of the place I do wish we hadn't arrived on a bright red scooter. The night before we had spotted a particularly posh looking restaurant so, for the second time, opted to drop some serious money and indulge for the evening. Best Peking duck ever.



A very happy Linz



We returned to the hotel before realising we were leaving for Kuala Lumpur the next day and still didn't have ferry or bus tickets. Consequently I mounted the chopper and headed into the night and soon enough I found a tourist office and had purchased a couple of tickets to get us to the capital city. On the way back it started to rain and seeing as I had ripped my poncho off me the previous day, due to hating it, I was soon back at the resort mildly damp.

The next morning we just planned on utilizing the hotel’s section of private beach to lounge the day away but unfortunately were lacking beach towels or the ability to have showers after swimming in the sea. However, the staff were so nice they lent us towels and even let us use their showers despite having checked out. Having seen one tiny jellyfish earlier in our travels, the mere sight of a “Beware of Jellyfish” sign was enough to put Linz off going in the sea but I enjoyed it and we both had a good time on the beach. Annoyingly it began to rain so we packed up and headed off to find some lunch to wait for the sun to remerge. Conveniently it did and we saw out the day on the beach until we were due to be picked up by our bus to the port.

Before this could be done I had to head out solo again to fill the scooter up with fuel and return it to the shop. I had been given instructions but somehow found myself in someone’s drive way so, having completed a perfect seven-point turn, retreated and returned to one we had passed the previous day quite a distance away. Of course it started raining again and I was restricted to so few miles per hour I felt I wouldn’t have been surprised to have been overtaken by a passing cow. My failings continued as I possess zero knowledge of the workings of a Malaysian petrol stations so soon found myself questioning anyone I could find. Eventually however, the bike was filled up and returned to the shop.

We were expecting to be picked up by the customary mini bus however it turned out the lady herself who I had bought our tickets from appeared at the hotel in her own car. I'm not sure what it was but it was the quirkiest little thing I ever seen filled up with all kinds of knick-knacks from cartoon ornaments to scatter cushions. She dropped us off at the port and we headed back to the mainland on the same ferry we had left it. There was little to report from the journey except the woman next to us was stroking a living bird in a small string bag. You probably have questions but I can’t answer them.

We reached the mainland around 10pm to find everything was closed and there was no one around to ask where the bus station was. Our first problem was we hadn’t eaten in a while and had to take our malaria pills with food or else suffer a similar fate to the one suffered in Hanoi. Conveniently we stumbled across a KFC and we could use our need to take our pills with food as an excuse to enjoy some fast food. However, I'm not sure upgrading to a large meal was entirely necessary.

Hanging around the bus terminal

I left Linz enjoying her chicken and went in search of the bus terminal which I found relatively easily so we made it to the station in good time for our overnight bus. The bus was one of the most comfortable we’ve had so far as our position, directly behind the driver, meant there was no one in front of us to recline into our space. In fact there was only one other person on the entire bus. Annoyingly we stopped every few hundred meters it seemed for the first hour making it harder for us to sleep but we did manage to entertain ourselves for a while with Malaysian shop signs. A favourite being a shop very keen to advertise it’s “24 Hour Jam” service. We later picked up enough local language to understand what was actually going on and establish that Malaysians don’t in fact find themselves waking up at three in the morning with an overwhelming desire for jam.

Ko Phi Phi

We set out from Khao Sok alone except for one Englishman in our minibus which headed south from the national park towards to coast. Thailand has hundreds of islands off its south coast and given our tight schedule we had to limit ourselves to just the one so we put a lot of time into picking. Many months ago, on my return to Beijing from the Great Wall of China, I was recommended Ko Phi Phi from a couple who had stayed there earlier in their trip, and following further research we chose to go there. Our minibus trip was stress free, only stopping to pull in at one of Thailand’s 6000 branches of Seven-Eleven, and soon enough we arrived at what could only be loosely described as a bus terminal. However it offered us the chance to book our ferry tickets to the island as well as enjoy a sweet and sour chicken while we waited for our next bus to the port. In the two hours we waited everyone else left on their other various buses. This far from bothered us as part of the reason we had chosen Ko Phi Phi was that few people seem to head there compared to Phuket and Ko Samui. When our bus did arrive we headed off to the port to find a surprisingly organised terminal even giving us the chance to use a trolley for our backpacks for the first time since London. Given the state of my straps, currently relying largely on duct tape, I was rather glad.

The boat trip was fairly uneventful and soon we were docking in the island’s only town called Tonsai Village. Ko Phi Phi attracted us as it has no roads or cars and it small enough to get round on foot. It turns out this is not quite true as we stumbled across a road later on, but it is true for the village and you could easily stay for a week without seeing one. Our hotel, which we had booked from a handy information kiosk at the port on the mainland, arranged for someone to pick us up at the jetty however, given that there are no roads he arrived will a trolley as opposed to a car. We dumped the bags on the trolley and headed off. Tonsai Village at times seems more like a huge market given its tight lanes and number of stalls but when you get beyond the jetty it does space out a bit and you start to see the pristine beaches and mountainous scenery.

The outskirts of Tonsai Village beyond the incredibly clear water

We were staying at a hotel called The White 2 which unsurprisingly didn't stray from far from its name when it came to selecting its colour scheme. The room was very nice and spacious and even managed to make a concrete floor look good by insetting shells and marble flowers. The strange aspects of the room included semi-transparent bathroom walls and a very random bamboo ladder. When we arrive in any new hotel one of the earliest tasks is to check the TV channels to see if they have AXN as it seems to play few shows other than CSI, House and Hawaii 5-O which has already entertained us for many hours albeit when we should have been sightseeing. Unfortunately they didn't but did seem to think that guests may want to watch live CCTV footage of the harbour area. I watched a good hours worth later that night to see if anyone stole the bike the camera was aimed at. I was almost tempted to do it myself by the end.

One of few sights on the island was the viewpoint situated atop the highest point on the island which can be reached after a brief ten minute walk from the village. An hour later, following many map questioning sessions, we reached the peak thoroughly knackered having established that we had ignored the correct sign and instead followed one of the island’s only roads the long way round the mountain. The view was amazing but my celebratory Cornetto was even better. Having cooled down we could really appreciate the view and ended up staying an hour or so until sunset. Tonsai Village is built on reclaimed land between two smaller islands which now form Ko Phi Phi and the entire town was visible from the summit. Before heading down we stopped to look at a photo taken from the viewpoint just hours after the horrific tsunami in 2004 caused such damage to the island. The damage was terrible but allowed the village to rebuild into the great little place it is now. Within minutes we were back in town confirming we had missed the clearly signposted route at the start of our slog round the back of the mountain. Although, now I come to think about it when we set out from the hotel we only meant to walk to the beach, so how we ended up at the top of a mountain I'm not quite sure.

Linz overlooking the man-made section of land between the mountains containing Tonsai Village

That evening we set about exploring the lanes of the village and its many restaurants. Although we saw a few we could have stopped in they we going to be hard pushed to beat a £7 all you can eat BBQ buffet. Annoyingly Linz got about a pound off due to being a girl. I was almost tempted to go and buy a cheap dress, not to try and convince anyone I was a girl, but because they genuinely also offered a ladyboy discount. I decided against it though. Following a thoroughly filling BBQ we headed back to the hotel along the beach. Of course we had to walk past some market stalls and Linz could help but buy yet more bracelets.

Vegetarians could eat so cheaply as there was little more than a plate of cucumber squeezed
in amongst the meat

Unlike the rest of Asia, Ko Phi Phi likes to have a lie-in so shops don’t open until at least 10am and so our snorkelling trip the following day wasn’t due to start until then. Having left the hotel we opted for a quick sausages sandwich in a British cafe, with a bizarre Family Guy theme, before moving onto the meeting point. It appeared that no one else had booked onto our tour but rather than let us go on a private trip, which would have been amazing, we were asked to hang around and use the free internet on the off chance someone else showed up. It all seemed a little odd that come 11am we were part of a group of at least 30 others. Anyway, we headed to the jetty where everyone was handed snorkelling gear and fins. Given that they were being handed out one at a time and not a single person seemed to know their shoe size it was quite a while until we eventually set off.

We were split into two boats and headed out from the jetty through the islands unbelievably clear water. Having had some terrible rain in Khao Sok we were so relieved the sun had decided to remerge for our time on Phi Phi. The first snorkelling spot was a short trip in our longboat round the island where, having got in the water, it seemed the sea was even clearer than it had been before. Milling around the coral reefs was fun but it got even more entertaining when the crew started lobbing in chunks of pineapple. This caused a frenzy of activity around us and, although I'm not sure which part of my body resembles pineapple chunks, I did find I was getting the odd nibble from some of the fish. This caused a lot of panicking from Linz which is normally quite funny but given that her squeals were now being forced through a snorkel only made it more amusing.

This was our first snorkelling spot. Another longboat came to join us

Having managed to get back onto the longboat via its tiny ladder, which is made much harder in flippers, we headed off to a second spot where more of the same happened. The main difference being there was no pineapple left so Linz’s muffled squeaking was instead due to seeing various new fish. Following this we headed to a tiny circular island with a rainforest centre and a pristine sandy beach all the way around it. Although we pulled up here for lunch both of us decided we were too hot for a plastic takeaway container filled with rice and instead spent the hour in the sea. There was one slightly strange moment when I found myself throwing a live sea cucumber across the beach when it appeared to leak on me.

Annoyingly this was one of the only photos I took of our lunch island as it doesn't
do it justice

After lunch we headed back in the direction we had come from however we went beyond Tonsai Village in the direction of the largest island neighbouring Ko Phi Phi. This second island, called Ko Phi Phi Leh, took quite a while to get there and at first we were seriously questioning why we had made the trip. This was because our first stop was the Viking Cave which was talked up before the tour had started but appeared to be a tiny cave with little more than some old ropes and decaying wood. However, this island was about to get considerably better. Firstly we stopped at Monkey Beach which was, rather unsurprisingly, covered with monkeys. The highlights of this stop included being able to watch rock climbers high above the beach scaling the islands vertical facade, but even more so watching the chief monkey accept a bottle of coke from one of the guides and swig away. He did this with such ease I get the feeling he’s grown used to the arrival of our boats and will forever expect a free drink, although Linz remains convinced that he stole the bottle while the guide wasn’t looking. The highlight of the entire day however came next.

Taking a swig

We were taken just around the corner into the most incredible bay I had even seen. The water was a perfect turquoise colour and almost completely closed off from the ocean outside by almost vertical cliff faces and rainforest covered hills. We were allowed to swim around for around half an hour but frankly I could have for stayed days.

Again the photo doesn't do the place justice!

We were then taken further round the island to another bay where our boats moored themselves to other boats in the area, as there was no accessible land available, and we were told to swim over to a manmade staircase to reach the next spot. The spot was one of the most hyped up locations we would go to as it featured in Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Beach where it is supposed to have looked stunning. The manmade stair case appeared easy enough to handle however it wasn’t until we started to approach it that we realised it was actually at the mouth of a small cave and being battered with deceptively strong waves. To aid the people approaching the stairs a series of ropes had been fixed around it, similar to a very large spider’s web, however it soon became apparent that these were more of a hindrance as you had to time ducking under them with the waves or else you would be knocked back to where you started. Our first attempt resulted in Linz being pinned underwater and us retreating to the boat, however on take two, with Linz securely back on board, I made it on my own. Despite having seen smaller children manage it I still celebrated reaching the summit by turning to face the bay and overdramatically punching the air. After a five minute stroll through some rainforest, with no shoes and just my swimming shorts on, I arrived at Maya Beach. Despite taking two attempts and about twenty minutes to get there I decided it warranted nothing more than a photo to show Linz and about twenty seconds of my time. It was rammed. I haven’t seen the film, but something tells me when DiCaprio came across it he didn't have to first walk through a game of beach volleyball. I returned to explain to Linz it was not a beach worth drowning for and we entertained ourselves watching people fail on the stairs while coming back to the boats.

The sun was now beginning to set so we headed back towards the village, however the day was capped by being able to watch the sun set directly in between the two islands as we sailed past. I would love to be able to show you a photo but it seems in the decade or so since I last used an underwater camera I’ve forgotten just how truly terrible they are so the ones I did take came out horrifically. You may ask why we were using an underwater camera while on the safety of the boat? This was because the longboat offered almost no protection from the sea as every two seconds we would vault off a wave and splash directly into the next one, meaning that when we arrived back at Tonsai Village we were just as wet as when we were snorkelling earlier that morning.

That evening we headed to a restaurant called Paddy’s which enticed us in with its cheap drinks menu. Although we had earlier found out that we shouldn’t be drinking alcohol with our anti-malaria pills it didn't seem to have any effect and we were soon washing them down with cocktail buckets.

The following morning we spent lying on the beach and enjoying the few hours before anyone woke up. There was little to report from the beach other than a couple of Japanese girls who were a good source of entertainment. It seemed a standard photo of one of them in front of the sea was not sufficient so instead one would do a star jump while the other attempted to take the photo at the right moment. This lasted at least twenty minutes. At one point a passer-by offered to take a photo of both of them, but he hadn’t seen the star jump fiasco so had accidentally roped himself into a good five minutes of trying to photo two synchronised star jumps.

My view from the sun lounger

We enjoyed Ko Phi Phi so much that we were determined to stay as long as possible but had to leave as our Thai visa was dangerously close to expiring, so we consequently got the last boat off the island that day at 2pm. As a little farewell present from the island I got to enjoy a monkey walking around the jetty in full human clothing while I wandered off to get a drink. We had actually seen this monkey the night before when we genuinely though it was a child at first glance.

The boat was fairly unexciting although I did get excited at the sight of more luggage trolleys on our arrival on the mainland. We were loaded onto a bus outside the terminal which would take us the short distance on to the town of Krabi. We had to stop here for the night as there was only one trip to Langkawi, our first stop in Malaysia, per day and it left early in the morning. Once again there was little to report from the bus except I opted to exit via the window as getting down the aisle would have been too difficult due to the presence of dozens of backpacks. No one seemed to notice.

Our experience in Krabi was mainly spent failing to find anything as we could find neither our pre-booked hotel or anywhere to have dinner. For the first time we ditched our hotel plans, seeing as we hadn’t prepaid, and opted for the nearest and cheapest one called Hotel 7. Normal hotels would have put us in a numbered room, however this place put us in the Bubblegum room as opposed to the Cookies & Cream room or Very Cherry room. This may be the reason that we ended the night at a bizarre Taiwanese ice cream bar. Although it quite easily could have been down the strange addiction to ice cream we seem to be developing over this trip. I blame the heat.

The next morning we were up so early that we had to unlock the hotel doors ourselves before locking them again and masterfully lobbing the keys through a gap back onto the reception desk. We waited a short while for our minibus to arrive before getting on it to start our trip to the Malaysian Island of Langkawi. Nothing else to report except that I left by smaller bag on the pavement containing my wallet, phone, iPod, laptop, tickets and passport. The driver almost had a heart attack when I swore very loudly and jumped out the van a few hundred meters up the road.

We were on our way out of Thailand having been limited by our fifteen day tourist visa, although given how long we were already taking this was probably a necessity. We have done some incredible activities here, from riding elephants to playing with tigers, while seeing some amazing scenery and architecture meaning it has to go down as two of my life’s best weeks. However, despite it being the most popular tourist destination in South East Asia, it was no Vietnam or Cambodia.



Not so many photos for this blog, so enjoy this palm tree...



...and this cat