KL - first time in a big city for 2 months

We met Kate Morgan (Canadian travelling alone) at Father's guesthouse in the Highlands and we soon realised we were doing the same route to Singapore. So now that we are three (and another girl) it was easy to suggest shopping in KL!! And shopping is exactly what we did!! After the touristy stuff that is.

Man it is humid here, and after a very bending bus journey down a very long mountain pass (I had to sit on the floor of the bus at one strange to prevent an up-chuck!!) a nap was the first thing on the cards. Followed shortly by the discovery of Roti Canai...oh lord, this stuff is dangerously good and I can feel and new jean size coming on!

Before we go any further I need to explain how we found the hostel. After the three of us had walked around in very hot circles (in China town, where everyone is helpful, but they all point you in the wrong direction) Kate and I sat down with bags at a bar for a diet coke while Simon roamed the streets looking for our abode for the evening. Turns out we were missing an ´-ie´ at the end of our road name all along...and we had arrived at a completely different bus stop from the one we were supposed to (= never going to find it on our own with 20kg backpacks!)

Civilisation brought with it a glorious cup of Starbucks and the timing of it was perfect. As we approached the door, the 3pm KL showers which had been threatening with lightening and thunder for 10min, came down. We nursed our drinks for 60min...trying to stay out of the rain, but not spend more money while the rain came down in bucket loads. We gave up in the end as the rain showed no sign of letting up and we just ran through the rain from street corner to covered porch all the way home.


Starbucks!!

Dinner in China town that evening was fun (and wet again) and we did the tried and tested ´point and eat´ tactic for ordering. We did well and discovered the covered clay pots on the fire held delicious chicken and rice - a feast in anyones language. This budget, road-side eating has been mostly successful, but I fear as we get into bigger cities and more developed countries the trend will change.

The touristy sights meant we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6.30am the second day in order to get to the Petronas tower free ticket queue by 8am (I thought this was a holiday!!) But the early queue was worth it and the view amazing. I did want to play ´Catherine Zeta-Jones in a catsuit - Entrapment style´ on the bridge, but security is too tight!


Watching the 3D safety video - more like corporate Petronas propaganda!!


Twin towers in KL

And the towers are in the middle of the shopping district, so Kate and I did our worst, while Simon found a cup of tea, book and nap spot. Not too much damage done as I still have no cards and had to choose items and then take Simon back to pay for them (much less fun)

For dinner we trekked to little India and a Lonely Planet recommended curry shop...no Roti Canai!! But we did manage a great budget meal and ate too much for our trouser size. We need to get back onto a beach and into our swimming gear as it may shock us into a diet!

Cameron Highlands - tea country

This was a bit of an accident really, we had got up nice and early to get the ferry back from our Perhentian Island paradise with the intention of taking a bus over to the colonial splendor that is Penang Island / Georgetown. Sadly, due to some duff info we found we were a little over an hour late for the only departure of the day. After overcoming our last travel crisis we felt a little more confident flexing the plan and quickly plumped for a different destination, and what a choice!

Tana Rata in the Cameron Highlands is a verdant part of Malaysia famed for it's tea estates, the most prestigious having been founded by a Scot over 70 years ago. It also has a perfect climate for growing strawberries, roses, orchids and many other lovely goodies. It has a very colonial feel with the tea and strawberries presenting the opportunity to take afternoon tea (complete with scones, cream and jam) in most cafes in the town.

Another feature of the Cameron Highlands are the numerous walking trails ranging from a gentle half hour stroll to full on whole day hikes that snake in out and out of the jungle. On our first whole day there we decided to try and start to get back to our pre-beach trimness gained from climbing endless temple steps with a 2hr jungle walk. Given my navigation skills I wasn't heartened to hear the story of Jim Thompson who went missing back in the day and hasn't been seen or heard from since link here...I didn't want to tell them that he's opened a chain of rather successful if un-authentic Thai restaurants in the UK!!

We set off at a pace and were soon snapping flowers, bugs and each other as you can see below. A couple of hours later we came to the end of our particular trail on a little road that in one direction had a bus stop back to get back to our hostel and in the other a giant signpost pointing towards a tea plantation. After a short discussion about whether either of us could remember how far the tea place was we decided it was either 3km or 45mins walk or perhaps further. This proved to be almost correct, Cath's 45min walk was first at which point we found the extra 3km that took us up to the gate and a smiling security guard who gleefully told us that it was only another 1km to the shop and factory. All of this with the anticipation of a soaking given that regular as clockwork the skies open up at 1pm for a half hour dousing of the countryside. At last we reached the summit (did I not mention that this part of the walk was all up a bloomin steep hill / mountain) and excitedly approached the cafe where we ended up having ice tea as we were so hot. The tea factory had also stopped production for the day so on that visit we didn't end up seeing much at all.


Halfway up


Arty fern shot

After some further refreshments it dawned on us that we were a long way from where we needed to be and no real idea how we were going to get back...so we asked the Boh Tea ladies (the Malaysian version of the Tetley tea folk.) They weren't too hopeful of a taxi passing by their particular peak but did know that the school bus would be passing in a while, so we trotted out to the road and patiently waited...and by gum it was great!! It was an old bone shaker that did no more than 20kph back through the windy roads, much to the delight of Cath's travel sickness.


Looking quite pleased with our transport - before we got to the bendy bit!

We were staying at a great backpackers place called Fathers, which had advice galore and showed dvd's through the afternoon and evening, a godsend when all of the dodgy weather came around. In keeping with the colonial nature of the area the accomodation was all in old army huts, not great at keeing things warm / dry but great fun. Having a large communal area meant that we met numerous other travellers and swapped stories about who had been in the dodgiest situations and which the best beaches in Thailand were, some large sofas also meant that it felt quite homely. Cath also found a kindred spirit in Canadain Kate who helped her shop further along our journey in KL and generally mucked about with us for a few days.


Fathers - old school accomodation British Army style

On our third day we took a trip around with a local guide to look at the most amazing mossy forest (it was a forest dominated by moss, they're quite a descriptive bunch) and a hike up the mobile telecom tower allowing us to see most of the highlands in one go. The highlight however was the Boh Tea estate - a much more impressive factory than the one we head previously visited and much more leisurely approached (back seat of a minivan!!) Not only did we get a tour of the factory, incidentally seeing the machine that sorts the grades of tea...that's right a Boh Selector..., but we also got to sup a cup on the veranda overlooking the entire plantation - magical!!


Enjoying a nice cup of char


Me on top of the world

We left the highlands with full bellies, mucky shoes and some great directions for our future travels.

Perhentian Paradise

After the journey from hell the night day before we decided to tackle things early and left for the early boat to the Perhentian Islands at 8am. Travel in style we thought as the man in his old 80's Merc pulled up - it was great until the monsoon rains came and the water came straight through the dashboard onto my feet!!

Good thing we set off early, as we arrived (after dropping two other groups off) at Kecil Island, Long Beach at 10.45am - it was smoking hot and our heavy backpacks are tough to drive on beach sand! We found Panorama Chalets and they were by far the best budget option on the beach - nice shaded bungalows (we went for the cheep fan option) and they included dinner (not bad as we had BBQ Blue Marlin most evenings) and got to meet a bunch of great people there.

People say that these islands are a lot more beautiful than Thailand, but we felt they were much the same. Only difference is the water is a lot greener and the snorkeling is AMAZING. We did a day trip snorkeling around the islands and the list of fish etc that we saw is endless. Highlights were definitely the rays, turtles and reef sharks. Not so cool were these little jelly-fish (not poisonous) that are completely clear - look a bit like ice blocks - and I squeaked each time I bumped into one and must have made a very entertaining noise through my snorkel when I swam through a whole school of them!
Pictures of snorkeling will follow - a Belgian couple on our trip had an underwater video and camera and they are sending us some pics from the trip.


Local dive shop

On the subject of wildlife, we also had a resident barking gecko that owned our porch light in the evenings. He was about 30cm long and made quite a racket - scared me a little really. Then we had the monitor lizards - I only saw a little one, but Simon saw the big daddies (no picture unfortunately)


Barky the Gekko - looks bigger in real life!

Highlight of the trip for the Everton fan was that the restaurant showed the Everton v Derby game (he waited up until 10pm for it) and was the only lonely soul in the place when it finished (except for poor Jon - who he MADE watch it with him!)

Coral Bay is a 10min jungle walk across the island and well worth a mention. We spent an afternoon there and it was amazingly remote. This was the day that I didn't say one word all day - I read a whole book instead and Simon was very pleased when I finished it.


Coral Bay - just us and a coconut!

Trans-Thai Express

So I reckon you can guess that this wasn't an ordinary train journey, otherwise this would turn into quite a dull blog!

I need to go back to Koh Samui to give you some background, we went into a tour office to book the train tickets (everything here is booked through helpful tour operators who sort out picking you up from your hostel, getting you to your destination and then trying to flog their hostel at the other end.) When we told the woman that we wanted to travel to Sungaikolok her face crumpled and she asked us why we wanted to go there, to which we replied "to get over the border into Malaysia and onwards to the Perhentian Islands."

After a few minutes umming and ahhing she agreed (not before telling us she didn't like selling us tickets there and to promise her that we wouldn't hang about) and phoned her contact at the train station booking office who went through the same line of questioning. It was at this point we even started questioning the route oursleves. We had earlier in the day checked out a number of travel sites including the UK Home Office which all basically advised that one should consider if their journey was entirely neccesary and if so then take caution to avoid certain areas. This was OK as we were on a non-stop overnight train and then were going straight to the border.

So we were booked on the 1.56am (I know!!) train...well that was the time it should have turned up. We got to the station early as the connection with the ferry from Koh Pangan put us in Surat Thani at around 9pm. We thought it would be a good opportunity to finish some reading that we had left over from our time on the beach and possibly have a small snooze. After about an hour of waiting I took a little wander to check the train board, finding to my horror that the train was running 290mins late (firstly I had to work out in my head how long 290 mins was and then add it to 2am.) This meant that we were going to get on our 'sleeper' at 7am and that we were stuck in a station for 10hours. Proper sleep was out of the question as the designer of the waiting room chairs had turned the edges of each seat up just enough to stop the blood flowing past your kidneys when you lay on your side and to trap the nerves between two critical vertebrae if laying on your back.

At this point we were joined by Jon, who had cleverly booked a hotel room for the night but upon arriving at the station at 2am was told that the train was delayed til 7am 'but it might turn up earlier' meaning that he had to abandon the comparative luxury of The Queen's beds and join us on the racks.

The train ride itself was quite uneventful, we smugly snuggled down to in our sleepr carriages allowing the rythmic clickety-clack to rock us off...dreaming of making the border and the delights beyond.

It was about 3 hrs into this lovely snoozing that we were awoken by our cabin boy saying that there was a problem with the train and it was going to have to stop...in Yalla. My mind rushed back to the Home Office website and I mentally rattled off the names of the places that you really shouldn't be, you've guessed it Yalla was up there. Not wanting to panic Cath I merely said, "Oh shit."

Our little train dude assured us that things would be ok, we would get another train that would take us to our destination and he would personally make sure that we knew which platform we were to leave from. This was the same little train dude that once we were safely on the arrival platform at Yalla with all of our bags promptly vanished.

Left to our own devices we now paniced a little, it was tunring into a race against the clock to make the border in time as the town on the Thai side of the border was known more for it's female service entertainment business than anything else so we didn't want to to be trying to find a hostel amongst the hotels who charged by the hour!

Cath, Jon and I scuttled down the platform looking for some indication that there was even a train going to where we wanted to go. We were quite the attraction and each person we asked for help first had to get over the shock of seeing these strange beings before they could point us towards our train. Our comfort wasn't eased much by the presence of more people with guns than I have seen since Tiananmen Square.

After a tip off from someone looking half official we jumped through a train onto an opposite platform only to see the last train of the day chugging away...and then chugging back again. A shuffley run and graceful mounting and we were finally on it, it being a small local 3rd class train that was full to bursting and going to stop at every farm along the way!! This train sat for a while before chugging off, chugging back and sitting there whilst the whole of Yalla Unviersity got on (end of shool for holidays.)

We now became very worried about time and asked around the carriage if folk thought we'd make the border that night. The answers varied from chuckles, flat no's, you can stay in my friend's guesthouse to the more optomistc I hope so's, yesses and I'm heading there to's. We were not even sure what our target time was as all of the way along the journey we had differing reports of the time the border closed ranging from 6pm to 10pm (including one chap who said "9 o'clock holding up 6 fingers!) I think the Thai wish of wanting to help and please hindered us slightly as most people were happy to tell us that we were only a couple of stops and half an hour away...looking a little sheepish an hour and 10 stops later.

A couple of stressed out hours later and we arrived in Sungaikolok, the time was 5.45pm and we had to find the border. Once outside the station we found out that the guidebooks were being a little ambitious saying that it was a 500m walk and our only hope was the famed mototaxis - one guy, a moped and a big smile! After haggling for a decent price the three of us mounted, Cath whispering for hers to go a little steady...well we did all have our 18kg on our backs making wheelies very likely!

Skidding to a halt at the border post we paid and a little shakily hopped off our mounts...to find the border did in fact not close until 10...grrr!! Everything was nice and smooth from there, although we had missed the last ferry to the islands we had had enough excitement for one and a half days and were glad to make it to Kota Bharu and a lovely little place called Friends where we could rest our heads properly. A quick visit to the night market for some good cheap local food and then off to bed...well for us anyway as Jon got a little lost and ended up with expensive soggy KFC.

Koh Pangan - rocks. It just does

We were not so sure of going to Koh Pangan as we were not into the all night Full Moon parties and hanging out with lots of British youngsters. But it was nothing like that at all and I would even be so bold as to say it was our best beach location. I think we mitigated the risk of lots of drunk teenagers by going to the north of the island, to a beach called Tong Nai Pan. The sangtaw (local taxi - a very basically the back of a truck) journey across the island was hair-raising to put it kindly. Thank goodness I had my sea sickness wristbands on - the track was dusty, fast and like rally-cars over a winding mountain path. Again no idea of where to stay, but had read that there were a few reasonable options on the beach and like a little gift, we arrived safely at Central cottages. Go there - they are fabulous. We got a hut for 400Bht (GBP6) per night, right on the beach, with an ensuite bathroom!! It was not the Hilton - it was a basic hut with a double bed and a mosquito net, but who needs anything else!!



The beach is beautiful, clean and quiet and HOT and did I say quiet. I think I did. And beautiful - yip said that already. Falling asleep at night to the sound of the gentle waves and waking to the sound of cicadas. Evenings were a stroll along the beach at 6pm followed by a beer or two while watching the fire-twirlers. Days - were spent here...



or here...



We even had our lunch brought to us here... the lady at the restaurant knew our standard order or Pad Thai (with chicken) followed by fresh pineapple. Three days reading on a beach chair can get tiring, so we did invest in beach bats and even managed an afternoon of kayaks for relaxation. But don't let that fool you - we did very little for 4 days!


The belly got browner

When it was time to leave we sadly departed our beach paradise (after a Pad Thai for lunch naturally) and braved the dusty, scary sangtaw ride back over the island. Not a good one this time - I was very car sick and only survived the journey thanks to lots of heavy breathing and a back rub from Simon.

Back to the mainland and off south to Malaysia. Secretly rather nervous as southern Thailand is not all that safe at the moment and the locals couldn't understand why we were heading in that direction (the lady who eventually sold us the train tickets tried to talk us out of it for 10min first!!) But we will be okay - we will stay on the train until Songai Kolok and then make a dash for the border!!! That is not quite how it turned out, but that story is for the next blog!

Koh Samui - birthday girl treats

Getting from Surat Thani (mainland) to Koh Samui was excellent fun. Knowing the island was expensive and that we were arriving late in day, we opted to take the VERY slow boat and go overnight instead of rushing to the island to find a hotel and go to bed. The ferry port is surrounded by a night market for good, local, cheep food. On board for a 10pm departure and we were two of only 15 people on the deck (5 monks and some locals) Slow means VERY-slow and the gentle rocking of the boat soon put us to sleep, but we did arrive in Koh Samui an hour early (5am) when we could have slept a lot longer. Deciding not to go to the very crowded Chaweng, we opted for Bo Phut beach instead and glad we did. It is a little fishing village on the north of the island and known for its boutique hotels and quiet family feel.

After sitting on the peer for an hour waiting for any signs of life, at sunrise Simon set off on the accommodation search and found Eden Bungalows. Owned and run by a Frenchman, it was very well kept and the real treat was the pool around which the bungalows were built.


Inside Eden - think they might have overdone it with the orchids!

The beach is lovely for early morning walks (even taking your water buffalo for a stroll if you have the time) and evenings bring lots of paper lanterns floating into the still night sky.


More fun than dog walking!

Although we noticed how expensive the island was vs anywhere else we had been, we did manage to splash-out a little for my birthday weekend. In fact, I was treated like a princess and Simon cashed in on the deal. We spent the day in a mountain spa having massages, wraps, body-scrubs etc etc - no pictures!! As it was my crown birthday I was given a crown of flowers to wear... clearly nobody wears flower crowns anymore as I got some very strange looks.


Flower crown and wine spritzer - classy!

Like any popular tourist destination, Bo Phut has an Irish pub...no surprise. What was a surprise was that we were not treated to traditional Irish hospitality. Never before have I met such rude Thai people - our waitress actually shouted at us when they got our order wrong and refused to pay for things we didn't have. Do not go to the Irish Pub if you ever go there - they are terrible.

Rai Lei - the only non-climbers there!!

So we made the flight in Bangkok after a long and painless drive, but as it was delayed, we missed the last longtail boats to Railei beach and had to stay in Krabi for a night...as it was now 9pm, we were not left with many options, so we stayed in a funny little room above a Rasta-bar for GBP2.50!! Okay, so not our finest moment and I do not think it was a bed, more like a table with linen on it, but it kept us off the street and got the budget back on track!

We got the early boat the next day to Reilei and a very hot search for a bungalow....I lost the toss and left Simon at a cafe with all of the bags. Let's just say I had not showered in 48 hours by this stage, it was about 36 degrees (at 10am) and all I saw were expensive resorts...then, up the hill near where all the rock climbers 'hang-out' I found fab, cheep, cool bungalows and the first thing we did was take a cold shower - 2 brownie points to Cath!!


Longtail

Reilei is SO beautiful. It is made up of 2 'beaches', we stayed in Reilei east which is more of a mangrove swamp but a 5min walk away was Reilei west...we basically spent 4 days sat on this beach. You understand why!


Railei west

There was another cute little beach between the 2 that we visited for an afternoon, loads of climbers just hang out here, bouldering. The other draw is that there are some cheeky little monkeys who hang around the rich folk at the fancy resort there looking for food. They are quite tame indeed and will even hang down for a spot of nosh!!


sizing us up


getting ready for the lunge


bullseye!!

Amazing water for swimming, pineapples served on the beach, reading lots of books, chilling at the 'Stone Bar' in the evenings. No climbing. Nothing much more to report really.


Cool sunset


Chilling in the evening - with a Chang

Koh Chang

So after the tip off we followed our noses to Trat, where we were subject to one of the more popular scams here of a bus stopping at a "stop" and trying to get tourists out of the bus. This is actually just a hotel booking office that will proceed to charge you through the nose for the ferry transfer if you don't select one of their premium rate shacks! Once we had persuaded the chap that we did know where we were going and and that this wasn't it (the great big 21km to Trat sign didn't help his cause) he huffed and puffed a little and we finally arrived at the bus station...although we were still a sangthaew (big share taxi that leaves when it fills up), a ferry and another sangthaew away from our final destination. The ferry was particularly slow but it allowed us to properly enjoy the sunrise...something we have seen plenty of with our unearthly travel hours.

Om arrival at Whitesands Beach we intrepidly walked to the sea and turned right as per our tip off...after what seemed like miles we came across it and what a picture!

Independent Bo's is owned by Bo, a blinged up, Hells Angel loving, Thai guy (and his 2 or 3 brothers,) it is run by his Scottish wife Fiona who welcomed us lovingly with coffee, tea and a decent chat wen we arrived. I am not sure that we were expecting politics, religion and the state of the UK at 6am but that is what we got...we also met Phil, who had just come from trying to save the Tasmanian Eucalyptus Forest from somewhat dodgy goings on, who upon hearing we worked for BP was actually quite forgiving!! The huts are pretty basic with a bed, a fan, a loo and a cold shower (which is a barrel of water and a scoop!) Each is decorated individually which can range from elaborate sea-scapes to bright red colonial style buildings leading to them being the most photographed on the beach. You feel quite Hello! when lounging on the hammocks out front being snapped by every English, German, Swedish tourist that passes by.


Mighty beach huts


Our hut


Subtle signage

The huts however are not the main draw, it is both the fact that you can tumble out of bed into the sea and the vibe and people some with quite interesting back stories.

Once we had put the world top rights and Fiona had remembered which room to clean we dumped our stuff, showered, headed off for breakfast and then wiled away the rest of the day with dips in the sea, snoozing and scampering between bits of shade. That evening was Fiona's birthday and the lure of free food ensured our attendance at her party, it was a great way to spend our first night in a new place chatting about what and what not to do / go. Further chats with Phil and his lovely girlfriend Clotilde (the most cockney sounding French woman we have ever met!) and a fair few Singha meant that we weren't feeling too fresh for our boat trip the next day.


Phil demonstrating the height of some people taller than himself

Any party cobwebs we had were blown away within minutes of climbing into the boat, a speedboat on it's very first outing (you got the feeling the owner was having more than a little fun!) The first stop was Koh Wai where we spent an hour snorkelling and Bob you will pleased to hear I didn't repeat our back sunburn fiasco from Mexico!! The water was a little murky and the fish a little limited but I guess it is a tourist hotspot and we wern't expecting the barrier reef.

After a spot of lunch we were off to Koh Lo Yai whic is the closest we have come so far to paradise. The white sand beach was long enough for 12 of us to spread out and feel like we were all alone, the palms rustled in the gentle breeze and the turquoise water was blissfully cool and just right for a perfect romantic moment...if only we could have stayed there forever!


So isolated we had to train a monkey to take this


Cath on a swing!

The next couple of days wandered slowly by in the same manner as we relaxed. Breakfasts of fresh fruit, pineapple shakes, local 30Bhatt (50p) Pad Thai Noodles, snoozing, swimming and hammock laying. On our last big night we ventured to a beach bar offering fire twirlers galore, expensive cocktails and an eclectic mix of patrons this lead to us all sat at the bar bopping to a rather good Thai band version of EMF, The Buggles and Bob Marley, gawping at the various stereotypes. From our checklist we saw ladyboys (getting easier to spot) goodtime girls and their pimps, the pumped up Russian with Koh San Road braided hair, the US college frat-pack, the dad dancers and various other older gents and their Thai dates.


I do look a bit cool, don't I?


Proper Bo sunset

When it came to leave we were definitely sorry to go (although some pesky ants in our packs made it a little easier!) We were off again, back to pass through Bangkok again this time to fly down to Krabi which is the launchpad to Railei beach where Cath's brother Andrew stayed a number of years ago and raved about...this time however we are being more adventurous, so nowhere to stay and no idea...we'll just turn up and see.

Following our noses

This is another attempt at writing when I feel like it instead of forcing myself to recall where we've been and what we did there.

As a bit of background I scribbled this in my Captain America notebook given to me by CanaDan trying not to perspire too much as Cath sat next to me reading up on our next destination positively soaking up the heat!! We were sat in the bus station to the east of Bangkok waiting to board our midnight charriot bound for Trat and eventually (after a taxi and ferry) Koh Chang.

This will be our first taste of Thai island life and I am very much looking forward to settling down for a couple of days. I know there won't be much sympathy forthcoming but before our recnet stop in Chiang Mai we hadn't been in one place longer than a couple of nights...funny how you start longing for a nice cup of tea and a quiet sit down...all of this moving however is helping us develop shoulders of steel.

We chose Koh Chang following some good tips from Aiden in HK and a couple we met trekking, we are also for the first time just going to turn up somewhere with directions of "turn right on the beach, you can't go wrong" as a guide to our night's accomodation...if this goes wrong we could have sandy pillows!!! It is about time really as we have relied heavily on a great little website called Hostelworld to find and book ahead into guesthouses and hostels. Sorry if this shatters any illusions but this has meant that most of the places we have stayed in have had aircon, ensuite and at least a couple of cannels of cable TV but we have paid an acceptable premium both financially and spotantaity-ly...we are now ready to be a bit more adventurous!!

On that note I completed a first the other night during our trek in Chiang Mai. I caught, killed and cooked my own supper!!! I think Cath covered it but just to make sure you all realise how rugged I have become - I was having a quiet beer after a pleasant couple of hrs walk when I heard a comotion down by the fire that some of the villagers were stoking so being the inquisitive chap I am I strolled down to to ceck it out. When I got there I found the owner of the hut we were staying in knocking a couple of biys of wood together and 6 or 7 kids excitedly jumping up and down trying to catch the huge cicadas that were attracted by the noise and flames. I proved to be a great help to their cause as those bugs needed somewhere to land and my comparatively large torse was utilised as an insect helipad for the excited bugs...all I had to do then was grab them and resit the tickling until we got to the cooking phase - well putting them in the base of the fire until the popped. I was quite chuffed with our night's work when gobbling down the crunchy, chicken flavoured beastie although it didn't stop my wolfing down more curry when it was offered later!

Thailand - land of the Chang

Arriving in Bangkok airport was a bit of a shock after Cambodia - smart, shiny and new! It was positively refreshing to see civilization. That lasted all of about 10min, because with civilisation comes 'other people' and they get in the way, stand in your queue and make you now just another tourist among thousands, not the rare breed you were!

We didn't last long in Bangkok - one night (I hear you all singing along) We managed to squeeze in the Night Market (with many an offer for for 'girlie shows') some good Thai grub and the hottest night in a hotel. All the little fan in our room did was chase the ever hotter air around until we could bare it no more and escaped at an unprecedented 7am for a walk and a McDonald's breakfast! Bangkok also delivered a much needed haircut for Simon and a fringe trim for me.....Thai style does not suit Simon and we will be seeking out a trim as soon as we land in Oz!!!

After an entertaining taxi ride back to the airport (he tried to charge us 3 times the price of meter cabs) we headed to Chaing Mai - much less humid and more relaxed. We discovered where Scoobie-doo has been hiding all these years, at MD House. The hotel owner didn't look like him, but they sounded remarkably similar! Oh the land of aircon and a swimming pool, we were safe and cool at last.

Chiang Mai is wonderful. We spent our days chilling or swimming or exploring the town. Our two major expeditions were a 2 day trek and cookery school.

The cookery school was excellent - they taught us all about the leaves and spices on the market (you must have a local market from which to buy all these things) and we diligently learnt how to do it all from scratch. Two problems - I now know how to make the most amazing coconut milk from the raw stuff, but pray-tell, where in London do I go to get my daily fresh supply? The other problem was Simon's confidence in his chilli eating skills. There are two types of spicy, Farang-spicy (2 or 3 chillies) and then Thai-spicy (up to 10 chillies) I am not sure where Simon ended up in his chillies chopping state, but he didn't eat much of what he made and ate tears for lunch instead of his Tom Yum Gai. Lesson learnt! Actually the day was excellent fun and we will be sure to try out our Thai cookery skills on all who are daring enough when we get home.

Visit to the market


(Hot) Chefs at work


Before Chilli incident - the smile was quickly wiped!


Trekking through the hills in Thailand sounds a bit more romantic than it really is. Imagine yourself in a sauna, with a backpack on and not much in the way of a breeze. Even stumbling upon a Tarantulas nest (spider in tact) was not enough to get us moving any faster in the heat!! The countryside is lovely and staying with the hill tribes in their village overnight was very cool. I loved the little piggies (they had lots of freshly produced piglets) and broke the rule by feeding them most of my breakfast the next day just to hear them snort with delight. Simon made some friends and opted for a dinner of bugs that evening. The tribe children make a fire and then stand around it knocking sticks together - this combination is to attract the cicadas. He proved to be a great big landing area and the little children delighted in picking the BIG bugs off him and roasting them in the fire - he said they were good, but I was not brave enough. The second day we spent our first hour on elephants, wandering up the valley. They are rather gentle and quite relaxing to ride, but there were parts where we wondered how they got up/down there until they showed us how.

Chaing Mai set a great precedent for the rest of Thailand. We found the best, cheap Phad Thai from a local man and ended up dining there 3 times. By far the best bar in the town is Babylon - a rasta bar with a huge tree from which a swing hangs - many a beer was consumed on that swing while we listened to yet another rendition of 'No woman, no cry!' We spent days strolling and reading and swimming and wandering through markets...generally chilling.