Darwin, Australia

Yay here I am in a really English speaking country- you would not believe how good that feels!!!

I arrive here at about 3am and as usual I have not made any bookings for my accommodation! Customs is a nightmare here- they even want to know where you have been walking in your shoes in case you are bringing any dodgy soil into the country, it all seems a little extreme especially as I cannot remember the last time I walked through customs in the UK and it was manned!!!

they have a fantastic little airport shuttle that drops you to the door of your hostel, so I pick one and head there. unfortunately it does not have an all night reception, there is though a nice sign telling me to feel free to take a seat till it opens at 6am. I like this the chairs are comfy and there is a TV, and it saves me having to pay for a bed I wouldn't be getting into till nearly morning.

I really enjoyed my time at this backpackers, there are a group of long term residents here that do work around the place in return for their board and occasionally go out to do seasonal work to get a bit of drink money and to keep on top of their visa requirements. There is a kitchen for cooking your own food, a BBQ to use if you wish, and a swimming pool to cool off in. It has a really friendly party atmosphere.

Darwin is a really small as state capitals go, it it the capital of the Northern Territory. There are four or five main streets crossed by four or five smaller streets, there is one supermarket (Woolworths- how mads that- its like tescos over here!) and a small pedestrianised area for a shopping area. It also has sixteen backpackers and they are nearly all full during the dry season!

It was bombed during World War II by the Japanese and a few year later Cyclone Tracy leveled what was left- about 4 buildings remained standing.

The first place to go out and explore is the town, the harbour and the esplanade which runs right from one side of the town to the other, there is also a beach but it is not used, there is always a danger of a croc having made his way round the coast- they do that you know!!

Its in one of the parks that i came across my first crazy big bird with a big beak- it was just pecking about on the grass- i later learn this is an Ibis!

The main town has a mix of offices, bars and shops, many selling tourist paraphernalia, and plenty that are geared towards the great out doors- these shops look like they have been plucked right out of Americas wild west.

In the middle of the town is Crocasaurous Cove, this is a newly opened reptile house with the biggest residents being the aggressive saltwater crocodile (salties), obviously!! the most famous of these is Burt, who starred alongside Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee!! They also have the largest collection of Australian reptiles in the world. Each reptile has a little card on the tank explaining where they live and what they eat- most read 'Deadly to Humans'.

The crocs are obviously the main attraction, they have a section where you can swim with them. This is not as crazy as it first sounds, the beast will have his own area where he lives and swims, and behind a very tough clear partition is the area for us to swim. The idea is to get in and splash about enough to attract his attention so he comes to investigate. Already he seems bored of this game as no matter how much I splashed about he was not going to waste the energy. And didn't I look stupid, the swim area can also be seen by the people in the centre! Pay a bit extra and you can go in the cage of doom (or some such name) and be lowered into the water of one of the other crocs in a glass tank- its similar to a shark cage and i assume they do it at feeding time else its just a smaller version of the swim area.

Darwin is really a nice place to chill out and no nothing- there is not really a great deal of things to do here, it is more of a jumping point for the great national parks like Kakadu. I did find myself a little worse for wear for drink on a couple of occasions, especially when the backpackers run fancy dress competitions at the local pub and provide free beer!! (Thank you to Chelsea for the loan of a costume)

So my first few days in Darwin are spent chilling out (cause Bali was such a chore!) and waiting for Mark to arrive.

Depensar, Bali

Depensar is the crazy, noisy capital city! I had planned a two night stop over here but I am getting out of here tomorrow it is far too frantic for me!! Not many people who visit the island come here, it is a purely working city and doesn't really accommodate tourists, that is the good thing about being here!

I have had a really good mooch around today and have seen some interesting things. The first thing i stumbled upon was a procession down the main street lots of people and musicians walking in front of or following a huge tower structure, this is a funeral procession. perched in the top of the tower is a coffin, there is a picture of the deceased on the back and hanging off the side is a priest, he is throwing things (rice or holy water i cant see) down onto the crowd. As we approach a cross roads suddenly the men carrying the tower start to move around erratically, they are spinning the tower and running in circles with it and the priest is going frantic with his chanting and throwing, though actually i think he is trying to stay up there! This is apparently done to confuse the spirit of the dead person- from reclaiming the body??
Then as if on cue the musicians and the mourners start up again and the tower makes the rest of its way down the the cremation ground. I did not follow the procession any further than the gates.

On the way back into the main town i passed another two processions heading to the cremation grounds- one was very similar to the one i followed but the other was much simpler, the coffin is carried by pall bearers and there are few mourners. I don't know if today is a special day for the funeral ceremony or if this sort of thing happens every day.

Back in the main are where i am staying there is a huge market on, again i don't know if this is a daily occurrence. Outside the stalls are all set up selling flowers, flower heads and petals for offerings- it looks fantastic, so colourful. Most of the vendors have spread there wares right out into the road and the combination of the heat and dust, the blaring cars, bikes and vendors, and the women moving between the traffic and the stalls with huge parcels balanced on their heads is chaotic and crowded its amazing, really makes you feel like you are in another world.

Inside the market hall its quieter though no less cramped- the entire ground floor is for food, there are barrels filled to the brim with little dried fish and other crazy looking food stuffs i cannot name. Upstairs its clothing and household goods, the vendors in these stalls are quick to spot you and drag you to see what they have.

Away from the markets there is a huge open park, there are many families here with young lads flying kites which is an important pass time here. Along on side of the park is the museum and a temple, as with the other buildings round the rest of the island these are beautifully carved with guardians and decorations.

At the top of the park is a statue of the last three Raj of Badung. Rather than submit to the Dutch in 1906 they set fire to their palaces and made a suicidal Puputan (fight to the death). Dressed in all their fine ceremonial clothes and jewels, leading the other royals, the priests and courtiers, and armed with only their ceremonial swords, they march to meet the dutch guns.

There is more to see here, the other side of the city is where all the big shopping malls are but trying to get over there will be totally suicidal the drivers here are crazy, and the idea of wandering around a shopping mall is not exciting me. I am going to head back to Kuta for a few days tomorrow, get a bit of beach time before my flight to Australia.

Sanur, Bali

I didn't realise there was a festival on when i arrived in Sanur. I managed to catch the last day. It did mean that it took me forever to find somewhere to stay. I ended up booking myself into an expensive homestay with a king size bed, air con, a fridge, hot water (oh joy!) and a bath to put that hot water in. This is sheer luxury and it is costing me about 7 pounds a night!!!

The first thing i did is run myself a hot hot bath (i am not as tanned as i thought!) and set the air conditioning to about 16 degrees (bbrrr)- Fabulous!

When i eventually got myself outside to see whats what a carnival had just started its procession down the main street. There were dancers and musicians in traditional clothing along with floats with giant characters, it was all really noisy and fun. Much like the carnivals we used to have at home the floats were sponsored by local businesses- mostly hotels in this case and some had even got their guests to participate, dressing them up in local costume.

Sanur is another beach resort, but where Kuta is full of loud and drunk surfers and Lovina is quiet and laid back this place is the more expensive end. Lots of big hotels backing onto the white sands.

I only stayed here a couple of nights, and once i had seen the carnival and had some food it was quite late. i had seen most of the beach front are whilst looking for somewhere to stay, so the next day i set out in search of Bali's oldest artifact.

This artifact was very difficult to find, especially as most of the locals seem to be unaware of it. Situated behind a temple, Pura Belanjong, it is a stone column covered with Sanskrit and dated 913 AD. The column stands in a pit of earth and has a glass cabinet on the top so you cannot see the full length of it. It has also been draped with a sarong so only a small portion of the delicate script can be seen.

Lovina, Bali

Lovina is on the opposite side of Bali to Kuta and even Kalibukbuk, the main tourist area is a much much quieter town. Its beaches are a mixture of black and white sand so they look a dirty grey colour and the water is clouded by seaweed but it is still a nice place.

The top attraction here is dolphin watching, so 6am one morning i found myself heading out to sea on a small boat to go find some, and there were loads it was fantastic. Quite a lot of people do the dolphin runs each day so there are lots of boats on the sea. Once a dolphin is spotted the boats jump to life and they are off chasing it down so the passengers can get a better look, horrid as it sounds this does not seem to faze the dolphins as the do leaps by the side of the boats. Once they have finished feeding they all seem en mass to head back out to deeper waters and this is when you realise just how many there were in the water here.

As side from the dolphins seeing the sun rise over Lovina was beautiful and i was quite taken with the glowing blue plankton in the water, it was really pretty.

Going to the Hot Springs up in the hills involves using the public transport (Bemo) for the first time. As i am only going about 8k down a straight road this should be fairly simple, and it does seem to work fine except i was charged double what it would normally cost.

Everyone in Bali is out to relieve you of as much of your money as they can. It is really poor here but even so it does start to grate on you when you are constantly asked to pay more than you would even at home. Everyone has a trick or a scam, even in the 7eleven they will try to skim money- which means telling you the goods come to an amount more than the till reads.

Anyway back to the hot springs. Once dropped at the side of the road it is a motorbike taxi up to the springs them selves. Its pretty here and nicely laid out. The water falls down two tiers through water spouts into pools for swimming. The water is slightly green in colour and smells slightly sulphurous but is not overpowering. There is a third pool where the water falls so heavily that it is like getting a massage.

On the top of the hills not far from the springs in Bali's only Buddhist monastery. The views from here are lovely, the hills on one side and the sea in the distance on the other. This is a strange Buddhist temple as it has many of the same carved guardians as would be found round the Hindu temples.

Ubud, Bali

Eventually i managed to get myself out of Kuta and travelled inland to Ubud, this is the cultural centre of Bali.


Here you can wonder around the old palace. It is laid out more like a compound with open pavilions, one with a large bed in it, another with a throne. Everything is on one level (its not done for the princes to have common people walking above their heads), there are few decorations but the whole thing is still quite pretty and feels calm. Down the road from the palace area the Royal Temple (Pura Marajan Agung) is not open to the public but you can peer through the gates to have a look. Pura Taman Saraswati is the Water Palace, quite a large place with two pools filled with lotus flowers in front of the main temple area.

Public transport in Bali is a bit of a nightmare unless you are travelling out from the capital Depensar to another fair sized town. So to get to see some of the sights outside of Ubud a tour was needed.

Goa Gaja is the Elephant Temple (no elephants) It used to be a hanging temple which meant that it was literally hanging on the side of a steep hill. When the Volcano Batur erupted in 1962 it caused an earthquake which in turn started a mudslide and the temple (along with a Buddhist Temple) was washed down the hill. Lots of the smaller more ornate rubble has been collected and is on display.

There are two large pool here with water features involving ladies with urns. Splashing this water on your face aids fertility. Actually this whole temple is dedicated to fertility and lots of couples come here to pray and meditate. It has to be a joint effort, as making babies is a joint effort! There is a cave at this temple too with a huge carved image of Kata, he it there to ward off evil spirits and is always pictured with his hand ready to catch them! After another couple of temples we went to view Lake Batur at the base of Mount Batur. You can still see the lava paths down the sides of the volcano from when it last erupted.

The last place we took a look at was the rice terraces, these stick out the side of the hills like large ledges and they are constantly in use. There is some story of a farmer offering to sacrifice a pig at the end of the harvest if it was a good one. The harvest was good and he didn't have a pig to sacrifice so he planted some more rice meaning he hadn't yet finished with the harvesting!

Ubud is famous for its traditional dances, there are various performances every night. I went to see the Kacak Fire and Trance Dance Pura Batu Karu. It was brilliant. In the Kacak there are a hundred or more men sat round in a circle chanting, singing, swaying, in the middle of the circle, the stage, is an enormous candelabra which provides the only light. The costumes were amazing, the story told was part of the Hindu story Ramayana so we have demon kings and monkey gods and magic weapons!

The Sanghyang is a god-inspired trance dance that protects the society from evil. A man wearing a costume of a grass horse repeatedly dances through a bed of burning coconut shells with bare feet while the rest of the men chant.

Kuta, Bali

I had planned to spent the afternoon on the beach after my surf lesson, but instead i sat outside my room at the losmen waiting for my teeth to set!!


OK with the disasters out the way its time to see stuff. I found the Hard Rock Cafe, Bali and had a drink there for Greg, and visited the memorial to the Bali bombings of 2002 which i found quite beautiful.

There are two nice temples to visit not far from Kuta. I went to Tanah Lot first, this is a sea temple on a rock which is inaccessible at high tide. To get into the temple complex all visitors and locals must be wearing a sarong, including the men. You can rent these at the entrance. The temple itself is on top of the rock and not open to foreigners but if it is low tide you can walk across to the base, where i had a blessing from the priests.

First you have to wash your face in a small stream that flows out of the rock there, then one priest will dab water into your hands from a bowl held by another. You have to pretend to drink this, this is done three times and on the third time you rub the water onto your face and hair. A third priest then stick a few grains of rice to your forehead and the blessing is complete.

Back on the main land you can sit on the cliff top with a beer and watch the sun set behind the temple. this is what most people come to see and its one of the most photographed scenes of Bali and it is gorgeous.

It is believed that if you visit the temple with your partner before your marriage then the marriage will fail, i don't know the reason for this though. The temple itself has mostly been reconstructed as the constant pounding of the waves against the rock inevitably wore it away. It is still an important site for the Balinese though.

The second of the two temples i visited was Uluwatu, another sea temple though this time on a cliff top. Again foreigners are not allowed into the temple itself but can walk around the grounds which a full of statues of gods and mythical beings, so long as they are careful of the monkeys!

The monkeys here are crafty they often steal things and only return them when they are exchanged for food. Some have even been known to dangle their stolen items over the side of the cliff until the food is produced.

I got punched in the nose by a monkey trying to steal my glasses right off my face. The little critter came from out of nowhere and with a flying leap made a grab, fortunately he missed but his little fist slammed into my nose instead- it was quite a shock, it didn't hurt but my nose is still a little sore after the surfing incident. I spent the rest of my time at Uluwatu half blind. This is another good place for sunset.

Just down from the main temple is a naturally formed arch way of rock that juts out into the sea its very pretty and today they had ceremony out there, the walkway was decked out with fronds and woven grasses and millions of offerings. It kind of looks like our harvest festival with corn dollies.

Offerings can be found everywhere over Bali, it is made up of a little packet made from banana leaf and holds a bit of rice and other food stuffs, some flowers and a joss stick. They quite small they fit into the palm of your hand and they are left outside shops and houses, at bends in the road, at junctions, in family and communal temples. As soon as the parcel touches the floor the essence of the offering is absorbed by the gods so the dogs eating them, people treading on them and cars driving over them is not a problem.

Each family will have its own temple compound withing the family compound this is an enclosed area with a few or more decorated columns that honour the gods and their ancestors.

Dogs roam all over the place mostly wild and either ignored or mistreated, as it is believed that they fraternise with evil spirits and this is why they bark all night. Though some people do now keep them as pets.

I spent quite a bit of time down on Kuta beach too, i never did get back on a surfboard but i did get a bit of a tan. I also got so see them filming a couple of episodes of the Australian TV programme Bondi Rescue: Bali, which was interesting.

Kuta, Bali - Surf Lesson

Hey hey I'm in Bali- how fantastic i have been looking forward to arriving here. Not really got any expectations other than its paradise!!!

So keeping true to form i arrive about 12am at Depensar airport which is not actually in Depensar!! It is though only a 15 min taxi ride into Kuta which according to the bible (Lonely Planet) is the place to be as a backpacker. Unfortunately i have arrived during the high season and with nowhere booked to stay, where is the fun in that, it is about 3am before i find anywhere! So that was a good couple of hours wondering from Losmen to Losmen (guesthouses) before i found one with vacancies. I managed to get myself totally lost down the various Gangs (side streets) that run between Poppies I and Poppies II, the main areas for budget accommodation.

Even though it is very early in the morning there are plenty of people about. Kuta is a party town it is to the Australians what the south of Spain is to the British (and i feel i must add they are no better behaved than the Brits!!)

It turns out i have booked myself into a place on Poppies II which as it turns out is the busier of the two streets and requires ear plugs.

The streets are very narrow, just about the width of a car and lined right the way down to the beach with market stalls. It is a friendly place and very quickly the locals get to know your name and where you are from though they will try and herd you into their shop each time they see you. This is of course if you don't get hustled into a side street to have your nails painted or your hair braided!

The beach here in Kuta is lovely, a long stretch of white sands and clear sea, you can walk out into the sea for quite a way and it doesn't get past your knees, but beware the surfers they are everywhere!

So if this is the main pass time i best get myself some lessons. This is really easy to do there are plenty of surf shops dotted amongst the market stalls. I follow the first sign i come to which leads me to Jason and Made, its not actually their sign they have just moved their tour business to this location and are not yet open for business but Jason is quite happy to provide info on the different surf companies. Eventually we decide it would be best if he just took me out himself and make arrangements for the following day.

So with my new board shorts and feeling the part i start my lesson. First off is learning the positioning for paddling a few rules like not placing yourself between the board and the beach (this one is important!) and how to jump up on the board- i am more comfortable with my left foot forward which means the strap will go round my right ankle, this apparently makes me goofy (ha ha yes thank you!!) if i was to have the strap around my left foot i would be normal.

Time to get into the sea. After about half an hour i am getting to grips with the sea and balancing and do actually manage to stand up, no hands- this is great fun!! Time for a quick break and its back in the water my first attempt is not good am unbalanced and fall off, as i wipe the sea from my eyes i am totally unaware i have broken an important rule here, until the surf board smacks me in the face, and i spit my teeth out into my hand.

In case anyone is unaware my front teeth are false i have a bridge which means they are held in place with strips of metal at the back and its these odd looking teeth i am now looking at, actually i am very lucky a wave didn't wash them straight out of my hand stood there like i was, lisping to my surf teacher that i need a dentist!

Jason was very good as soon as he got over his own shock he got me to his dentist which charged only slightly more than the local rates (a lot less than the tourist dentist) and insisted on paying for the repairs. As it wasn't his fault we settled on half each. In a couple of hours my teeth were glued back in place as good as new. Thank god they were false would have been in a right mess had they been real!

No i do not have pics of this incident!

Singapore

It took two hours to make my way through customs at Singapore, and when i finally got to the other side my bus had left without me!!! Panic!!


its not too bad i had been queuing up with a couple from my bus, she was Singaporean but he was Burmese so they had a long wait too! Being Singaporean she knew how to get me into the city from the border! How lucky was that!!


I had not been able to get any Dollars in Melaka so they lent me the money for the local bus and took me to an ATM when we got to town, though they refused to have the bus money back. You meet some really nice people travelling.


I don't know why i keep doing this but once again i have arrived at my destination late at night, its gone 10pm now, and it takes me a good 20 Min's to walk to an area called Little India, this is where i will find all the hostels. I have been recommended a place called Ali's on Roberts Road by the chaps i met in Hat Yai.


I could not find the place and eventually asked at a cafe on the corner. It just so happened that a chap eating in there worked there, he took my stuff up to this little door with no identification and up some stairs. Each door on the landing had a number on it and the room he showed me into had towels on the beds like a guest house would be, but he seemed to have it in his head that as i was travelling on my own, unmarried and not a Muslim i was fair game. It took quite some time to convince him to leave the room, if it had not been so late by this time i would have moved. As it was i locked the door, put my backpack in front of it and slept in my clothes! I made a quick get away the following morning and found a fantastic place called The Inn Crowd and spent the rest of my time in Singapore there!


Singapore is just a big city- it is nice though and they do make every effort to keep it clean!! I think though that in my mind i had blown out of proportion the cleanliness of Singapore and i was a little disappointed to find things such as dust and mud and puddles still thrive here.

I did read somewhere a quote 'One cannot visit Singapore without eating at Raffles at least once' or something to that affect, and so i did. I had lunch there in the bar (couldn't afford the fantastic buffets with free flowing champagne!) and a Singapore Sling, well after all this is Singapore!

The hotel actually took up most of the rest of my day it is a very grand looking building as you can imagine (it even has its own theatre).It also has lots of fancy shops and for some reason i found myself in Tiffany's again looking for that necklace i liked in KL. They didn't have it.

I had a real good mooch around the centre the following day, did all the usual sites, The Museum (Originally Raffles Library & Museum), The court houses old and new, Raffles landing site (where Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore first landed) and the surrounding quays. Found a nice English style pub here (The Penny Black- full of English people too!) that did very nice fish and chips and best of all had vinegar to put on my chips- marvellous!!

And just to make me feel even more at home it rained all day!

well tomorrow i am heading out to Bali, i have seen all i wanted to see of Singapore on this occasion. i didn't really stray from the city centre but i am happy with that.

Singapore airport is fantastic- free Internet for all!!!

Interesting fact (to me anyway!):

The foundation stone of the Old Supreme Court Building, then the biggest foundation stone in the whole of Malaya, was laid by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Shenton Whitelegge Thomas, on 1 April 1937. Buried beneath the stone, is a time capsule containing six Singaporean newspapers dated 31 March 1937, and a handful of coins of the Straits Settlements. The capsule is due to be retrieved only in the year 3000.

SINGAPORE SLING
The Singapore Sling was created at Raffles Hotel at the turn-of-the-century by Hainanese-Chinese bartender, Mr. Ngiam Tong Boon.
In the Hotel's museum, visitors may view the safe in which Mr. Ngiam locked away his precious recipe books, as well as the Sling recipe hastily jotted on a bar-chit in 1936 by a visitor to the Hotel who asked the waiter for it.

Originally, the Singapore Sling was meant as a woman's drink, hence the attractive pink colour. Today, it is very definitely a drink enjoyed by all, without which any visit to Raffles Hotel is incomplete.

Recipe30ml Gin
15 ml Cherry Brandy
120 ml Pineapple Juice
15 ml Lime Juice
7.5 ml Cointreau
7.5 ml Dom Benedictine
10 ml Grenadine
A Dash of Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry

Melaka

Hey Melaka is great, when i finally arrived here. Had some right fun and games with the bus drivers at the bus station in KL one was trying to send me in one direction to buy a ticket and one was telling me to wait where i was to buy a ticket. Eventually my bags were loaded onto a bus and i was told to get on- still not got a ticket!

Just after we got off the motorway at the Melaka junction the driver pulls over and tells everyone to get off except for me and a Chinese chap (OK this is odd). He loads all the other passengers onto a different bus, they were not going to Melaka he was just bringing them this far as a favour to the other driver.. or some such randomness.

Anyway rather than take me all the way to the station he says he is going to drop me near my guest house which sounds great, its nearly 10pm. Anyway the Chinese guy got off the bus a few minutes ago and i am trying to get out of this 'will you be my friend?' conversation with the bus driver he wants my number so he can call me (He is telling me he cannot afford the 'fee' for the woman his family have found him and so he cannot marry her, oh and he sleeps on the bus). i am a little concerned about this conversation, especially when he admits he is actually driving in the opposite direction to the guest house.

He lets me off the bus at a petrol station with instructions to walk that way and ask for directions! nice! i think i would rather have gone to the bus station (if that was where he was going) there may have been taxis!

Its not actually too bad after about 5 Min's i get to a shop which fortunately for me is opposite the road i need to turn down, so far so good. 15 Min's later when i get to the end of this road i now do not know if i need to go left or right! OK so there is a small office open i am going in there- it turns out to be the head office of a water filter company who are having a birthday party in the back office (they actually sing happy birthday in English which i find rather odd!)

4 slices of cake, 2 bottles of water, 2 bags of crisps and much talk of Manchester United later the chaps at the water filter company drop me off at my guest house (another 10 minutes drive away!) and wish me happy travels- nice guys. Fortunately Jay and Malik the brothers who run Emily's Travellers Home are still up and i am shown to my room.

In the morning i get to eat all the toast and drink all the tea i want as breakfast, i also get to meet Playboy, he is the resident rabbit and has free range of the guest house gardens. This is a really fantastic place to stay its a converted Chinese shop house and the guys have made it into an unusual place with ponds full of fish and turtles, the showers are decked out to feel like jungle waterfalls and the coffee table converts into a BBQ!

So i like Melaka, the town is not massive you can go and see whats left of the old Portuguese Fort, they actually arrived before the Dutch. The Dutch soon got wind of them being there and took it from them so there are lots of old Dutch style buildings round the square and there is a windmill on a traffic island. Next to the square there is a fountain dedicated to Queen Victoria, the British had ousted the Dutch, but we were nice and gave it them back after a while!

The Maritime museum is in a replica of an old style dutch merchant ship, shipping is still big here with the Melaka straights being one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world!!

Of course there is China Town here with its weekend night market, it doesn't sell a lot but it does have an enormous karaoke stage at the end of one street which is very popular. During the day its interesting to walk around the shops and the temples here

This is a relaxed town and i really enjoyed the few days i spent here. Jay and Malik & Playboy were great hosts. I have no idea how we got onto the subject but we did sit up till 3am discussing Malik's own personal brand of religion which is something like a combination of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and the state of the world in general. Evolution is dismissed, doctors are shunned and the whole idea that the earth orbits the sun is a cause for hysterics- it was quite mind boggling.

From here it was very easy to get the bus into Singapore, and it only took a couple of hours to get there.

Kuala Lumpur

Sight seeing around Kuala Lumpur is really easy, they have a hop on hop off bus that travels around the city, the ticket is valid for 24hrs. It only goes one way round the city but there is a bus every half hour.


Fortunately there is a stop right outside my guest house. I have teamed up with a girl (Nicole) from Switzerland from my dorm as we are both only planning on being here for 2 nights.


The first place we get off has to be the market really doesn't it- might as well get the shopping out of the way. This is not a big fancy mall, there are loads of those this is a craft market full of little trinkets and handmade what nots!

The bus takes us past the Sultans Palace (i didn't even realise they still had one how bad is that!) you cannot go round the grounds here but the bus does do a handy 5 minute stop so you can take photos of the gates and the guards and get straight back on.

We also went to the lake gardens (the gardens themselves were actually closed) where they have lots of little 'farms' the butterfly farm is where i found out about the nasties in the Cameron Highlands, and we had a mooch around the hibiscus farm and the orchid farm. Not far from here is the State Mosque (closed for prayer- we are whipping through these sights!!) and the old railway station. Both the old station and the railway company head quarters were built by the British but in a very traditional Islamic style they are really quite impressive.

Merdeka Square is where Independence was declared on 31.08.1957. (Malaysia an i share a birthday you know!!) Its really a big grassed area with a flag pole and some fountains! The law courts are nice, again in the Islamic style and there is St Marys Church (The curator is very proud its 150 years old!)

Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for the bus it is raining again. We didn't get off the bus again until we got to the KL Tower. It would have been better to walk here from the guest house as it is supposed to have a bit of a rain forest at the base but we don't have enough time to do it that way. There is nothing much in the way entertainment in the tower but the view is nice, you can go up to the top for a fee but as we are planning on going up the Petronas towers tomorrow its back on the bus!!

Our last stop we decided should be China Town, this is actually a bit passed out guest house and so we have ridden through it already but nothing really gets started here until about half six. It is like one huge market selling fake sunglasses and watches. It covers a massive area and unfortunately doesn't sell anything much other than those sunglasses and watches. We did have some nice food here though.

So last day in KL and we are off to the Petronas Towers. if you want to go up to the sky bridge you have to arrive early to get a time slot. We arrived about 10am and will not be going up till 2.15pm just as well there is a huge shopping mall in the base of the towers.

The mall has everything from Prada and Tiffanys (saw a beautiful necklace in there!!) to Marks and Spencers and a massive food court on the top level.

Down on one of the lower levels Estee Lauder are doing a makeover session, my companion for the day signs up for this and i wait whilst she has her hair and make up done. before she can have the photos taken its time to head off up to the sky bridge

The views from here nice- we are on the 41st floor and can see lots of the places we visited yesterday on the tour bus. You get about 10 minutes on the bridge which is plenty before its back down in the super speedy lift.

Back to the fashion makeover, now at some point whilst waiting for Nicole and visiting the sky bridge i have decided that i want to have this makeover done too. Its not my usual thing but seems like fun so i have my face done (false eyelashes and all) and my hair curled before i was whisked into a changing room fitted out with a glamorous dress, which was probably very glamorous on some one else but i look like a fancy bag of potato's (its only head shots they are doing so they don't really care how the whole dress looks)

Once the photos were taken you get to pick one and have it printed, but not before they have airbrushed you to the extent that it no longer looks like you!! I do have all the other pictures they took on a disk though, i like these ones better they look like me!

So with my newly curled hair and my now not so nice makeup (the false eyelashes kept banging on my glasses so i had to take them off but that left funny lines in my eye makeup!!) I am now leaving Kuala Lumpur and heading south.

Ipoh, Kota Bharu & the Jungle Train

Any bus to or from the Cameron Highlands has to pass though Ipoh so as we both want the overnight bus to Kotah Baru we decide on an afternoon in Ipoh.

Its a pretty little town and we made our way round it within a couple of hours. There is the green in the middle where a cricket match was taking place, a crazy Victorian/Moorish style railway station now a hotel.


The most random thing was a clock tower monument to someone called James Birch, he was the first British Resident of Perak but was a bit unpopular and got himself murdered. The clock tower is quite pretty and has a frieze round it showing all the characters from world history who have contributed to the colonised world. As this is a Muslim country the figure of Mohammad has been painted out. This chap was so unpopular that the road the clock tower memorial stands one was renamed after one of his murderers!


so once we had seen all that we just so happened across an English style bar and spent the rest of the afternoon in there- Had a very nice steak and chips!! Am not impressed with the food here so far!

The journey to Kota Bharu was the coldest most uncomfortable journey ever. We arrived at about 5am and spent most of the morning catching up an sleep.

This is a good day to be in Kota Bharu there is a cultural festival- this town is billed as the most traditionally Malay in Malaysia!

There were displays of traditional music, dance and games. There was also a food festival just up the road- the festival of 100 rices!! The food here was really good, it was sort of like the good food show at the NEC in that restaurants, hotels and brands all had food to sample or buy. We had a job getting away from people who all wanted to give us food when we wanted to buy!

Every one wanted to chat it is a really friendly town. On the way back to the guest house one chap insisted on hugging the both of us. Felt quite guilty that we both immediately checked our bags!!!

The following morning Dana and i parted company she is off to the islands and i am having another day here (to do my washing- yay!) before getting the Jungle Train (ooh exciting)

Even though i told the guest house i would be needing to move to a single room rather than a twin i think they though i left when Dana did because they locked the room from the outside. I took me ten minutes of banging on the door before they let me out- i was dying for the loo!!

So i moved to a different room, threw my stuff in and set about using the washing facilities, that's 2 large buckets and a tap!

I had to be up for 5am the following morning for the Jungle Train, unfortunately i was not alone in my room last night, as i get to the train station i find my arms are covered in lots of little itchy bumps, apparently my back was too. Anywhere that had not been protected by my pajamas had been munched on.

I now know that the actually quite large, red (funny that) flat looking bugs that were climbing up the walls when i was leaving that morning were bed bugs. They do not live in the bed they live in cracks in the walls and skirting only making their way to the bed at night!! Nice!

So anyway it was still dark when i got on the train so i had a sleep till the sun came up. The idea of getting this 16 hr train journey to Kuala Lumpur is that it passes across the mountains, through jungle and villages. Well it certainly does that but most of the time the jungle has grown right up to the track so you cannot see much. I had approximately 2 1/2 hours of fantastic views.

There was a 2 hour wait for my connection at Gammas and i eventually arrived in Kuala Lumpur in time to go to bed!

Cameron Highlands

Well its supposed to be 5 hrs to get here, 7 hours after leaving George Town we arrive in the Cameron Highlands. We are staying in an area called Tanah Rata which is little more than a high street with a couple of places to eat and some shops.



I cannot say i am impressed with the places that do food here most of it is pre made and sitting around waiting to be ordered and so is served up cold.



Its cold up in the hills and it rains a lot (which is why the food really needs to be hot!). This is where all the English used to come for holidays to escape the heat of the low lands. The big thing here is strawberries, there are loads of strawberry farms and small shops offering 'real' Devonshire cream teas with strawberry jam!!! They also have a lot of tea plantations here.



for the first time on this trip i am using my sleeping bag it really is cold!! (have you caught on yet its cold?)



Armed with a map Dana and i head off to do a spot of trekking (taking Wans advise of route 9!) down past Robinson's Waterfall (very nice) and through some jungle. it only really took a couple of hours to make our way down to the road, and that included one wrong turn where we had to do some back tracking and lots of scrambling over/under fallen branches and a small stream! It was another 45Min's walk by road (uphill all the way) to get to the tea plantation i was totally worn out by the time we got to it and was very much in need of a nice cup of tea! (Boh TeaPlantation)



The views from here were lovely and the tea bushes were spread across the hills as far as you could see- they look like some crazy jig saw puzzle!



We didn't fancy heading back through the jungle and fortunately once we had made it back onto the main road a chap stopped and offered us a lift back to town for a small fee. On the way we passed a sign- 14k back to Tanah Rata by road- thank god for that lift!!!



Further in to the hills is another town Brinchang which is quite disappointing in that it is exactly like Tanah Rata. The walk back from there was nice though and we passed the old smoke house which looks like some one just plucked it out from Henley in Arden or Stratford upon Avon and dumped it on a random hill station in Malaysia!!



Later when i was in Kuala Lumpur i found out that Malaysia's biggest spiders (bite not poisonous but hair will give you a nasty rash) and its deadliest Scorpions (yes i mean deadly) both as big as your hand live in the Cameron Highlands. Thankfully i was completely unaware of this when i was scrabbling under logs and through leaf litter!!

George Town, Malaysia

Going across the border into Malaysia was quite exciting this is my first over land border crossing. It was really easy too. The mini bus drove us to the Thai customs were we were stamped out of the country and then drove us across what looked like a bridge to the Malaysian Customs where we had to take all our luggage to do the usual scans and stamps and that was it i was in Malaysia!

At first i couldn't quite put my finger on what was different we were driving through some fairly empty countryside it was quite flat and fairly green. Then it hit me- we were on a motorway! this is the first motorway i have been on since leaving the UK. The only thing that came close was the short journey along the expressway into Bangkok from the airport.

And there are no longer any corrugated slums along the side of the road, eventually i could see in the distance what looked like housing estates, admittedly in the middle of no where but short blocks of streets with houses!

The trip into George Town did not take very long in fact i think the whole trip including customs was probably only about 3-4 hours long.

George Town is not how it sounds, it is really a big place. I am staying in the China Town area in a hostel called Banana that was recommended to me by some chaps in Hat Yai who come here regularly to renew their Thai visas. The sun is starting to go down once i am checked in so i just have a little wonder around the local streets. Just round the corner outside the Chinese temple there is a stage set up and a play been acted out- it looks quite interesting with all the traditional Chinese costumes and obviously they are talking in Chinese!

At the end of the street is the Cathedral, a Church and across the road from that a nunnery. I also find the local mosque and a Hindu temple (though i had no idea that is what it was at the time) This is my first sight of a Hindu Temple and it is highly decorated, really lovely.

So the next day is the real sight seeing. There are two free hop on hop off tour buses here, one that does the historical sites and one that does the religious ones. As its Sunday neither of them are running so its a walking tour for me.

The first place i head for is the Fort Cornwallis. This is the landing point for Sir Frances Light and the British East India Company which led to George Town being the capital of British Malaysia. There are a whole load of impressive colonial buildings on the way, the fort is also closed today but that's OK as there is nothing inside except a mock up of and old campsite!

It is whilst wondering around the outside of the Fort that i meet Wan (at least that's what i think his name is- how awful is that!) He is an elderly Chinese Malaysian who gets chatting to me. He spent many years living in England with his English (Yorkshire) wife, first in Derbyshire and later in Sutton Coldfield of all places. He decides he would like to show me around his hometown.

Just behind the Fort is the the clock tower celebrating the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria, and just up from there is Malaysia's very own Downing Street. This is the financial district and is full of familiar banks such as HSBC and The Royal Bank of Scotland!

After much convincing i decide that i will let my new friend show me some of the sites further afield, i know this may sound like a really stupid thing to do but i like this guy and i don't feel any danger from him so i get in his car and we go first the Thai Buddhist Temple, OK so i have seen plenty of these but this one look different its does not have all the glitz of the ones in Thailand. Across the road from there is the Burmese Buddhist Temple which is totally different again.

Our next stop (after a quick drink in a seaside cafe) is a really beautiful Chinese Temple. My guide explains that these places are not really temples they are associations. Yes the Chinese population comes here to pray but there is more too it than that. Wan feels that the Chinese people in Malaysia are treated like second class citizens (which considering their hard work is what made Malaysia what it is today is despicable- obviously this is my guides bias opinion!) It is apparently much easier to get on in life as a Muslim and so if a Chinese child shows academic promise (backed up by report cards) the association will pay for them to receive a better education right through to university. I cannot say if this is how it is this is just how Wan views it.

The only place i have not been yet is a Mosque so that is next on my list. Wan drops me off at the main one (just around the corner from Banana) this is the only place of worship he will not enter he is going off to have a drink at Banana it turns out he knows the owners and may see me later. So i head off into the Mosque alone. I do of course cover up with the garments provided and have no sooner set foot in the place when i am accosted by a chap wanting to show me the way (religiously speaking of course) he is a nice chap and very earnest and given the amount of bad press Islam gets at the moment I don't blame him for wanting to explain it in a way that doesn't involve jihad or suicide bombers.

Whilst there a group of Muslim women arrived they spoke to my guide in absolutely perfect English, turns out they were from Iran and oh they were so pleased for me that i had come to the mosque to learn about Islam (?) they each shook my hand and smiled so much i felt quite guilty that i had really only just come to have a look about!! I managed to lose my guide when a group of unsuspecting Spanish tourists arrived and got myself back to the guest house quick!!

Wan was still there having a beer when i arrived so i sat with him for a bit and he told me more about his life (used to import Swiss watches for a living) and he has decided that we are going to Batu Ferringhi (the beach) for food.

Whilst sitting there we make a new friend- Dana!! (yay hi Dana finally caught up with you on the blog!) She is waiting for the bus to go to go somewhere (i forget now!) but its not working and we drag her along with us! Lol she couldn't get rid of me for about a week after that!!

We are both going to the Cameron Highlands next only i had planned tomorrow but Wan convinces me that it is better i stay in George Town another night and then Dana and i can go together- its better that way.

So we had a final dinner with Wan again the following evening and said our good byes and it was off to the Cameron Highlands!

Trang, Ko Lipe & Hat Yai

So without Greg I didn't fancy staying in Krabi and I found I didn't want to go to any of the possible destinations we had looked at before deciding on Krabi so I headed for Trang.


Trang is a city in the south where there is absolutely nothing to do! I spent just the one night there. Had a wonder about a few of the streets and visited the night market for some food.


The owner of the guest house arranged for me to get a speed boat to Ko Lipe its part of the Tarutao - Adung National Park and the only island you can stay on. The sea gypsies or Chao Le were there before it became a national park and under Thai law this land cannot be taken from which i think is quite cool.



The owner of the guest house did warn me that as its now low season parts of the island will have closed down. She dropped me at the bus station the following morning and I made my way to the pier.



the bus journey was fine, even the speed boat (2hrs) was fine it rained at one point at we all got wet but eventually we arrived- there was no pier so we had to wade off the boat onto the beach.



Now it was time to find somewhere to stay. The owner of the guest house was not kidding when she said places would be shut, i don't think that even she expected the whole island to be shut though! It took about two hours in the now blazing sunshine to walk from one side of the island to the other with my back pack and i eventually ended up back at the boat.



The chap who ran the speedboat was very nice he arranged for me to have a beach hut from the same place he was staying and as it was technically closed it was very cheap. I was warned that there would be no electricity except between the hours of six and nine PM. This turned out not to be the case there was no electricity to my hut full stop!



As there was no where to eat food the Boatman and his crew also invited me to dinner which was really nice of them- the food was really really hot. Apparently he lives on the island during the high season but goes back to the mainland for the monsoon weather. each week weather permitting he comes across and spends two nights on the island ferrying locals and random travellers such as my self.



He explained that the beaches around the south were not their best at the moment as they were heading into monsoon season and the sea was dredging all sorts off rubbish off the sea bed and dumping it on sand. In about September groups of people would arrive for a massive clean up operation.



he also explained about the Chao Le, they do not speak Thai but a dialect of Malay and they have no religion except ultimate respect for the sea and an ancestor. This ancestor was an Indonesian fellow who married into the tribe and eventually led a group to settle on Lipe and for this he is honoured.



We arranged to meet for breakfast the following morning and i went back to my dark little hut with a couple of candles.



The next day was incredibly hot. and the island looked fantastic. I found that the hut no longer had any running water now too, i must have used what little there was the night before. Breakfast with the Boatman was noodles- really really hot! and i think i spent the whole day on the beach with the occasional swim until the sun started to go down and it was back to my dark little hut and the candles. This is not really a bad way to spend a day- though i did burn just a bit.



Well the following day was totally different i woke to an almighty storm- the sort where the thunder is so low over head that each time it rumbles you dive for cover! i could not even see the sea from my hut with the sheets or rain and the fog and the hut was on the beach! Typically this is the day i am getting the speedboat back to the mainland!!



Oh joy oh Joy a group of us, me and some locals sat with our belongings waiting for the storm to clear. At one point the tide managed to pull the boat from its anchor and sent it crashing into the longboats moored alongside (a line of heads popped up from the boats and i noticed for the first time that each one was occupied by its owner bailing it out as fast as it was filling with rain water!). The crew of two managed to pull it back using mainly ropes and only the engine once it was away from the longboats. These chaps are really strong.



Eventually the Boatman gave the order that we were to set off. It had not stopped raining but the thunder and lightening seemed to have moved on. This was the scariest boat ride ever it was worse than being on a pirate ship at the fair. Some of the locals were throwing up over the side (i was proud to hold on to my stomach!) and we were all wearing life jackets that had not been in evidence on the outbound trip- that upped the scare factor a bit too! Every so often the boat would slam into a wave with a huge jolt and you would wait for parts to fall apart it felt like a car crash!



At one point something went overboard and we had to stop whilst they worked out that it was not a person and it was nothing of any real value worth turning round. Whilst we were stopped the motion was terrible if it had seemed bad whilst we were moving this was much much worse we were bobbing about like a cork!



The rain had never let up and the thunder had been rumbling ominously above as the engines were re started. We did make it back to land obviously but it is not really something i would like to do again!



Soaking wet and just a mite smelly from not been able to wash properly (the sea just does not get you clean!) i got myself booked on a mini bus to Hat Yai the last stop before Malaysia. I pity the poor person st next to me!!



There is nothing much to do in Hat Yai either (except call the folks in OZ at a ridiculous time in the morning- sorry!) but i still spent two nights there just getting over the trauma of the boat trip. From here i took the bus to Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia!!

Krabi

This is the last place Greg and I will visit together from here he will get the bus back to Bangkok and the flight home. but we still have a couple of days.

Rather than stay by the beach we stayed in the town and did a bit of exploring just walking along the streets checking out the shops- oh wow did he check out those shops!

We took a short long bow boat trip along the river, on one side is the town and on the other mangroves. We could see monkeys playing in the mangrove swamp.

First stop was an enormous cave, there some crazy crabs on the sand that have one giant claw- they were quite shy and disappeared down their holes when we stepped ashore, then it was up the ladder and into the cave. It really was huge and filled with stalactites and stalagmites, quite a few had met making crazy columns. There were bats in here too though a skylight kept it fairly ventilated.

Back in the boat we headed back they way we had come past the Pier and out into the fishing village where the houses were on stilts and parts of the river had been netted off for fish farming.

It was quite a pleasant hour on the water.

That evening we ate at Leonardo Di Caprio's favourite restaurant whilst filming the beach. Its a dutch style place and quite cozy, there is a big photo of him in the front of the menu.

Our last day together and we spent the morning Kayaking it was a half day tour through the Mangrove Swamp about an hours ride away. This was much better than Kayaking at sea, although the waterways are tidal you can't really feel it.

We passed by some huge cliff faces and saw yet more monkeys and a massive lizard sunning himself on the rocks, at one point a snake swap across our path. Unfortunately we didn't get far into the swamp as the tide started to go out leaving the waterways too shallow.

I have to admit that i didn't really do a great deal of paddling on this trip I took Greg's advise and sat back and enjoyed it! Ha bet he regretted saying that! The guides kept laughing at my 'taxi'. They were a lot of fun and by the time we got back to shore the whole group was soaked through from their games.

Back at the hotel we had just enough time to get all of Greg's many many purchases packed away before it was time for him to get the bus. The owners kindly did him a packed lunch to take with him.

As you can imagine this was not a nice time, didn't want him to go! But hey he has left me his camera so I can take pics again!! YAY!!

Miss him loads.

Ko Phi Phi

Ko Phi Phi Don was mostly destroyed when the tsunami hit. it is a strange shaped island from above it looks kind of like a dogs bone (!)- it is two hilly land masses connected by a wide flat sand bar that narrows in the middle. when the wave struck it hit the sandbar from both sides.



Its kind of strange arriving at the busy port, people are bustling all over the place with touts shouting for business- hotels, trips, bars and knowing that most of these people would have been there at the time and will undoubtedly know many people who were not so lucky.



This is a party island the main town is just a couple of narrow streets lined with bars, restaurants and 'tourist information' and the place to be at the end of the night is the noisy and hectic Irish Bar- all the best islands have one you know!



Our guest house this time is tucked away from the town and both the beaches. Behind it are the remains of a tiled floor whatever stood there before has gone. there are a couple of abandoned shacks dotted about the place, probably what was thrown together in the aftermath. there is still a lot of building work going on here though its all for tourists.



One of the hilltops has the most amazing view point and from here you can really see the island- it is really very small. There is an old chap who lives at the top with his cats. a pregnant queen and her last litter who were quite well grown. We had the ancestry of these kittens (down the mothers line of course who knows which Tom fathered them!!) It all started with one girl cat who had various litters most of whom eventually ran away to live in the jungle on the hillside. That cat is no longer with him but one of her descendants is always there! very sweet.



That night we ate a fantastic Mexican and settled down to watch.. of course 'The Beach' it was after all filmed on Ko Phi Phi Le and we were heading out there the next day!



So the first stop on the boat trip around the islands is Ko Phi Phi Lee and Maya Beach where it was all filmed. and the beach did look lovely, however we decided to spend our time snorkeling instead.



I am not one for getting in deep water normally but Ah wow that was totally fantastic there were loads of yellow and black stripey fish everywhere though the coral was OK it was not the best. Of course I had to get some use of the underwater feature on my camera! I am now a fan of snorkeling!!



We had another brief stop at a place called Shark Point. Once again with an uncommon display of bravery I entered the water- as far as I am concerned all sharks are dangerous and people eating and all sharks can get you in about a foot of water! I may have blown this out of proportion slightly but they do scare the crap out of me and even though i am now a fan of snorkeling i did have occasional concerns about them at the last stop. well anyway I didn't see any of the black tipped Sharks that are supposed to hang out here as i just snorkeled around the boat and got back on it. That was enough for me- i swam in shark infested waters and I was pleased with myself! Did see some more of those stripy fish though!



So my underwater camera has let me down- back on the boat after the shark trip it is not behaving i fear it must have leaked. I am now without a camera.



The last stop for snorkeling was Bamboo Island. Oh what a time to not have a camera! We snorkeled onto the beach there passing over some lovely coral much more exciting that by Maya Beach and there were so many more fish, along with the stripey ones we saw barracuda and angel fish, and loads of others o could not even begin to name!!



On Bamboo Island we found some fantastic shells and coral in some crazy colours, luminous orange- why would a shell be luminous orange on the bottom of the sea that's not very well hidden!! We also found some really big hermit crabs with fabulous shells. would have taken pics of those too but I have no camera!

the last stop was Monkey Beach - we have seen lots of monkeys now so they are not so exciting! I left Greg to get the kayak over and i stayed on the boat. Did get to see a Sea Eagle drifting around on the breeze above the cliffs- that was quite special.

Back at base we got some food, had a nap and spent the evening at a beach bar where there were more fire dancers- this time we were all encouraged to limbo under a flaming pole, cant limbo at the best of times so certainly can't when there is a chance i will set myself on fire so i gave that one a miss!!

So that was our two nights on the island. Back to the mainland tomorrow!

Phuket Town

So with all the rain we had had at the national park the roads around the towns were flooded, and I mean really flooded. Lots of people use small motor bikes here but they were just been walked through water well up around the body of the bike. It was quite interesting to see how the locals coped- they were all stood about outside their homes keeping an eye on it. Some had built little damns and others had created small trenches so that the water was guided away from their properties. Most of the houses were the sort where the ground floor acts as storage and a garage- they go through this every year!



With all the bad weather the bus was sooo slow so it was quite late by the time we reached Phuket Town (well its now a city!) we were not planning on heading to the beach here it was more of stop over before KO Phi Phi.



There was not much to do that evening, it was mid week and the bar with live music that Greg found was shut (he looks for one at every town!)



There are lots of old Chinese shop houses around Phuket. The ground floor will be a shop for the first part but then behind it will stretch the living quarters and garden with sleeping quarters upstairs. They really don't look that big from the front but the stretch back for ages. The frontages will be nicely decorated with tiles and bright paint. We had had a drink in one that had been restored and made into a Chinese tea house it was lovely. And then it was time to head for more islands.

Khao Sok National Park

Khao Sok is on the way to Phuket, having heard wonderful things about it we have decided to stay here overnight. It is one of Thailand's best maintained national parks and is a tropical evergreen forest (it cannot be classed as rain forest as it has a dry season of a few months) with lots of impressive limestone cliffs. One of the main reasons for going to so we could be woken in our treetop hut by the sound of gibbons calling in the morning.

we got to see a lot of the park just from the bus arriving and leaving the next day. As we were staying only one night we did not have enough time to do a trip deep into the park. There are plenty of trails that can be done without a guide, most of these are closed now for the rainy season but two are still accessible and that's enough for the time we have.

so the first attack came whilst Greg was lugging our backpacks to our treetop hut, I had gone on ahead to open the door. we had already inspected the hut and it was very basic but had a mosquito net and a balcony overlooking the river. He had dismissed my claims of the attack as he really just wanted to get the bags sorted.

Maybe the tree top jungle hut is not a good idea as now Agh!!! the room has a really big big black spider, and its on the bed- its was as big as my hand. but I was really brave and I did not freak I asked that when we returned the bed be checked before I got into it. Spiders are really high on the list of things that scare me and this was a big one. So OK we have been here five minutes but all will be fine I am sure, we change into waterproof clothes and go for food and a drink and a look about, its quite late in the evening and its raining. We never did see that spider again- phew!!

So trekking the next day suitably attired in walking boots, long all weather trousers, a waterproof coat a hat and the hood of my coat pulled up over it- nothing is getting at me!! Its raining again but its not cold.

I don't know how long we had been walking before I felt the need to roll down my sock slightly- and yes there he was a nasty little leech looking to attach himself, and by no means was he the last! They were everywhere you could see them reaching for you from the path as you walked by them and before long we had both flicked many of them off ourselves. Again I must say i was doing quite well at this point i was a little squeamish about them and really did not like he idea of them but i was coping.

We met some locals at the end of the first trek and sat with them for a while. A rather large leech appeared on the floor between me and Greg we are not sure which of us it dropped off (shudder) but the locals had a good time chopping it u with this huge knife that appeared from nowhere!!

Although it is raining neither of us are dry the waterproofs are not suited to the humidity of the park and we are both drenched with sweat, but the is not sweat rolling down my arm although I tell myself it is at first I cant help but have a look and as I take my coat off the sleeve of my top is soaking through with blood and the little bugger is still in my sleeve. This time a bit of panic starts to set in- how the hell did it get there??? and as I now have it caught up in my sleeve I find I am frozen in place- if I move it might roll away and get lodged somewhere else about my person. Eventually Greg does get me to get it out and this one was burnt in the lid of a pop bottle.

OK so panic over we continue on our way and start the second walk, oh my god there is something slimy on the back of my leg and this time it is an all out screeching and leg shaking freak out!! Its funny now but that slimy feeling was just the last straw. The leech was actually long gone what I had felt was a huge globule of blood welling up where it had been and soaking into my trousers.

Whilst we were inspecting my leg a couple came skipping (not really that's for effect!) round the corner in shorts and trainers and an umbrella, they didn't stop to wonder what we were doing and carried on their way. As we set out again I do remember wondering if they had it right being dressed like that at least you would be able to see them better if they were on you.

As we rounded the corner the girl was having an almighty screaming fit and stamping around wildly. The leech in question was not even on her it was on her shoe! Oh how much better do I feel about my own little (much littler!) fit now! We did stand and watch for a while :)

we never did see that couple again they didn't catch us up and on the return there was no sign of them we think they fled the park!!

I was aware of another one by my knee but I know I cannot roll my trousers that high, I will soldier on!!

Once back at the hut we both stood on the balcony and stripped there were a couple of fat leeches that fell to the ground and we checked for any more (one of them had got me on the bum!!). Those that were trying to wiggle their now fat little bodies to safety were squished with the boots, bright red blood would spurt out but the little sods wouldn't die they would just be gone when we next looked.

Greg did admit he hadn't believed me the first time I said I had been attacked- when we were getting the bags to the room! Ha!!

The wounds bled on and off for about 12 hrs, when the scabs did eventually form they were so fragile that the slightest knock would send the blood pouring out again. It was about 3 weeks before the little bumps went.

It was a relief go get the bus! Of the gibbons there had been no sound I think we may have been mislead and they didn' t hang in our part of the forest anymore!

Ko Tao, Ko Phangan & Ko Samui

Ko Tao

Yay our first of the paradise islands! Ko Tao is a really big on diving and the majority of the people here are looking to do just that though there are still people like us who don't dive.

Our first guest house here is on the beach!! its a bit old and decrepit with holes in the floor but you know what its a little bamboo hut on stilts with a grass roof, a little en suite toilet and shower and a balcony. There is nothing between us and the sea except sand, at night the sea comes right in and you go to sleep to the sound of the waves- its just perfect!!

The guest house we are staying at also has its own bar/restaurant which did the most amazing Thai food. The best massaman curry i had in my entire time in Thailand. And although i didn't know it that was my last taste of proper Thai food, in the islands is very expensive and is no where near as tasty as in the north.

We spent that afternoon walking along the beach, (white sands, sunshine, palm trees just what you expect from the Thai islands) and playing in the sea.

The next day we set about exploring. walking to the top of the island there is a look out point where you can see Koh Nang Yuan its a cluster of three tiny islands connected with sand bars. There are day trips out to the islands but the set up there is a bit funny, the islands are let by the government to a chap who has built a resort on one of them and charges others to visit. we admired it from a distance.

we then headed right the way back down and across to the south to a little cove where the water was really clear and we could see lots of fishes swimming around our legs. very nice!

We were to spend two nights on each island, so now it was on to Ko Phangan.

Ko Phangan

So this is the home of the famous full moon party. We arrived two days after the party having spent the full moon on Ko Tao. We did however stay in the Hat Rin area (cliff top bungalow this time!) which has two beaches and the party is on one of them. Thinking that the party beach would be a bit of a mess we headed out to the other one. Its only a ten minute walk between the two and was a big disappointment, this was not a particularly nice beach the tide line was covered in rubbish. God only knows what the other beach looks like!

Ha well the other beach was pristine! the sand was finer, the sea clearer and the whole place was really clean despite having had thousands of revellers there two nights earlier! They really make a big thing about cleaning this beach and anyone who arrives at Hat Rin pier on the day of the party has to pay an extra 100B towards the clean up.

The beach was busy that night there are bars with the fire dancers, its amazing to watch them throwing these flaming batons up into the air and catching them again. To keep people drinking at their bar they lay on games such as jumping through a ring of fire and the giant flaming skipping rope. There a stalls lined up all along the beach front selling buckets, which will be a small bottle of a spirit of your choice, a can of pop and a can of red bull all mixed together in a small bucket.

Our second night there it was really quiet and the town seem deserted, we later found out that there was a big party at another beach further round the island. There is nothing much of traditional Thailand here its all set up to cater to the hoards of younger tourists looking to party. The food is mostly western and if somewhere does do Thai its not so good. We found somewhere that did a really good full English- run by an Englishman of course!!

The one element of Thai culture that does thrive here is the massage parlours! So as there was nothing going on in town we treated ourselves to full body oil massages. it was really relaxing even though somewhere a baby started crying in the middle of it (bit random)

We did attempt to walk about the island a bit but got a bit lost and ended up back in town, so we had a snooze on the beach instead. So two nights here and it was off to Ko Samui.

Ko Samui

The biggest of these three islands. And it was another beach hut for us, in Bo Phut in the north. It used to be a small fishing village and the main street (if you could call it that) is made up of shops converted from the old fisherman dwellings.

Once we were all settled in we headed down to the south to go to see the Grandfather (Hinta) and Grandmother (Hinyai) rocks. These are naturally formed rocks that are shaped like male and female rude bits (keeping it clean you never know who is reading!!)

On the way back to Bo Phut from there we went to Lamai, this is not as popular with the tourists as Chaweng its considered to be Samui's 2nd beach but there we found a fantastic rock bar with nobody in it and we were allowed to pick our own music DVD's Yay great place, fantastic place!!

The following day we took a boat out to Ang Thong National Park, a cluster of islands just off Samui. On our first stop we went sea kayaking now i must admit that i had been really looking forward to this but in reality i hated it. I just do not have the upper body strength to keep the kayak going in the tidal waters around the islands. My life jacket was way too big, when sat down it hooked over my ears and i was convinced on numerous occasions that we were going to be swept out to sea!! agh i was really useless!! once we got back to the beach we had a little swim and checked out the monkeys, they had white rings around their eyes and looked permanently startled. We wondered up to a bit of a view point and had a look- all really nice.

The next stop was a green tidal lagoon. really really beautiful. its sits in a ring of cliffs and is fed by underwater tunnels that are too small for boats or divers to navigate. we saw some fantastic fish in there, an enormous blue one and a sea snake and clams- all sorts of stuff. you cannot swim in the water here.

Back at the beach again we made an attempt at snorkeling but with a boat load of people trying the same most of the sand had been disturbed and we didn't do very well getting out to clear waters, as it was we had spent so long spotting critters in the lagoon it was time to get back on the boat.

Back in Bo Phut we ate at a french restaurant, there is quite a heavy french influence here for some reason and the food was fantastic!!

so with our two nights on Samui it was time to head back to the mainland.