Speedy catch up!

Sandakan was great - back to nature with loads of monkeys and birds. We had good company and great food; it was the perfect way to relax for a couple of nights. We soon moved on to Indonesia.

Indonesia is absolutely gorgeous! We made some fantastic friends (Rich and Nat from Harrogate / Newcastle). We originally met them in Hermanus, South Africa and as we hopped onto a local minibus headed to Bromo volcano in Java they were already sitting on the bus! For the next 10 hours we didn't stop chatting; it was difficult to even order food from a menu because that meant a pause in conversation to look at the menu! It was the start of almost 3 weeks travelling together and it has been the best time of our whole trip! We 'climbed' a volcano together; endured a 14 hour bus journey from Bromo in Java to Kuta in Bali, played more than 100 games of cards, spent a week luxuriating on a Gili Island and went on a three day road trip where we all survived some sort of food poisoning. Saying goodbye was a sad moment!!!

We were sad to leave Indonesia this morning but we are now excited to getting to Australia tomorrow where we can once again have western luxuries... bacon, sausages and red wine!! So excited!

Fingers crossed that we will find some work in Aus so that we can prolong our trip!

Love S&R

xxx

Chit Chat

I left a few bits out of the Thailand blog:

1. Thai boxing is very popular in (you got it...) Thailand. In Koh Phi Phi we found a bar where volunteers can get into the ring and fight each other in three 1 minute rounds; each 'contender' has head and shin protection and boxing gloves. It was a great way to keep people entertained - we saw some really bad attempts and boxing and some very drunk people stumbling around trying their best not to trip up. Then we met an American...

He was a few inches shorter than Rich and a bit smaller; he had boxed up until the age of 15 and he was determined to get Rich into the ring. Rich spent a couple of hours drinking his whiskey bucket before finally agreeing to the American guy's repeated requests. I was designated as the videographer and two new English friends were Rich's water boys. The American was left to fend for himself.

They got kitted out in their tiny thai boxing shorts and protective clothes and the American started to dance around the ring getting closer and closer to Rich. Rich just stood and stared at him - maybe wondering what he was doing dancing around like a crazy person. And then the American got close enough and Rich swung a punch... and a slap, and a head grab/hug type thing, then several unsportsmanlike punches to the back of the head. The dancing American was too little and his boxing skills non-existent (except for his dance moves).. Rich got a few punches to the head and even fell into the ropes but the American had a bleeding nose and an inability to reach Rich. Eventually, in the 3rd round, the ref called the fight to an end and declared Rich the winner! All in all - it was terrible! They were both pretty rubbish but we all laughed about it for ages and Rich is still going on about "the time he fought an American".

2. Rich hired a jet ski in Patong, Phuket and spend around on it for 30 minutes. I declined the invite to join him coz I knew he would want to go fast and try some crazy moves. And I was right considering he threw himself off the jet ski when he turned it too fast. But he loved it and he survived.. yay!

Malaysia

We eventually and reluctantly left the Thai islands and made our way to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We arrived at our hostel and with some trepidation we stood at it and stared. The building looked like it was crumbling down; part of it had a missing wall, no windows and was covered in graffiti and other rooms had clothes and lots of rubbish visible on their balconies. Eeek! We stepped in through the door and were pleasantly surprised.. it wasn't luxury but it was clean and quite bright. The hostel owner offered to drive us to a cash point and drop us off at a local Indian restaurant. It was the welcome we needed after spending 11hours on a bus; the Indian food was great (I think msg had something to do with it but we aren't complaining!) and we went back to bed quite content.

We spent the night before Rich's birthday at the same hostel and had a good evening. The hostel staff took us to a local pub where we drank cheap beers and met some local Malay-Indians. they were all middle aged and had left their wives at home with the kids. They were very friendly and when they found out that the next day was Rich's birthday they bought him cake, beer and tequila and they sung happy birthday. What more would you want? :) I sneaked off home early and made lots of happy birthday signs which I hung on around the hostel and in our room and the following day we checked into a gorgeous hotel in Malacca/Melaka. We luxuriated in a big room with soft linen and a shower separate from the toilet (normally it is all in one tiny room, this leads to a lot of wet toilet paper and constant wet feet!). It was awesome! That night we had a lovely dinner and came back to the hotel where we bumped into the owner of the place - he poured us numerous whiskeys and when we left two days later he even organised for his friend to give us a free lift to the bus station. We loved the hotel and it was a real treat after months of staying in mostly dingy hotel rooms!

Our lovely hotel room

The bus stations in Malaysia are a sight in themselves - each bus company has touts trying to get you to buy tickets from them. They call out in auction voices... Buuuus bus bus to aiiiir airport! Over and over again! It was amusing but also annoying! We walked through the station and touts followed us trying to guess where we were going... they call random destinations out loud: KL, Singapore, JB... blah blah blah in the vague hope you will say yes. It wasn't that easy for us coz we were just going to the local airport but the touts were still helpful even if they knew we weren't buying from them. They sat us down on a bench and said "wait". I looked confused and responded: "for how long? When is the bus? How long will it take?" And he replied... "wait". Er... alright then; I gave up and we waited. About 30minutes later we were on a cheap local bus to the airport and on our way to Kuching in Borneo.

Malaysian Borneo

Kuching is another example of how different Malaysia is to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos... theere are only ever two people on a motorbike and both wear helmuts, car drivers and passengers wear seatbelts and everyone stops at red traffic lights. Civilised is the word that we used often. Kuching is well known for its proximity to Semmengoh Orangutan Sanctuary and Bako National Park. The orangutan sanctuary is a place for wild and semi wild orangutans; they have feeding sessions twice a day but it is not guaranteed to see an Orangutan. Luckily for us we saw three adults and two babies and they were gorgeous! We watched them for about an hour and it was wonderful to see. They are very cute and the babies clambered all over their mother and were generally quite playful.

cute!

Bako National Park is an island well known for its wild life - especially Probiscis Monkeys (HUGE noses!) and because it has 25 different types of vegetation from seven complete ecosystems. It was quite interesting that in an hour you would walk on a beach, through mangrove swamps, into a rain forest, across dry sandy hills where bush fires are a risk, into a dry forest before ending up at a cliff overlooking a different beach. We hiked for 5 hours in the sun and we were completely shattered when we left. We enjoyed the exercise and the natural beauty of the area. We spotted monkeys, a wild boar, vipers, a bull spider and lots of pitcher plants.

Proboscis Monkey @ Bako National Park

From Kuching we moved up the coast to Kota Kinabalu. Unfortunately we booked all our flights in advance so once we realised that all the good places to visit are out of our budget we ended up having a week in Borneo with nothing to do. So we have found ourselves in a nice little hostel close to the beach and the best thing about it is that it has cooking facilities! Yay! We BBQ'd steak and chicken and cooked potatoes, veggie kebabs and made a salad and the following morning we made bacon and eggs - fantastic!

Yesterday we joined up with two girls from the Philippines and we hired a car for a roadtrip to the tip of Borneo. It involved something like 9 hours of driving in a tiny car which had a 1 litre engine (upgraded from a car with a 650cc engine!!!). It was a good day which ended up with me going to bed at 2am, Rich staying up with a group on people from the hostel till 9am this morning (Sunday 28 March) and us both spending most of the day sleeping. Now this is the life!

On Tuesday we will head to Sandakan to the Nature Lodge (http://www.naturelodgekinabatangan.com/index.php) which is in the middle of the jungle. We will do boat cruises and jungle treks and we hope to see some impressive animals whilst dodging leeches!

Sorry for the long blog... more info will follow ASAP.

Check out the latest photos at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2188845&id=60506421&l=637973e708
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2189433&id=60506421&l=9f89090463

love S&R

Thailand continues... ladyboys, beaches and beers!

Thailand is INCREDIBLE!! After 4 months of eating mostly rice and noodles we finally made it to a country that knows how to cook western food. We took full advantage... pizza, pasta, bacon, sausages, hash browns, steaks and tons and tons of cheese and ham toasties from 7/eleven. It was beautiful!

From Bangkok we made our way to Koh Tao - the island of cheap scuba diving. In short we did our advanced open water... 5 dives in two days plus free accommodation. The island had some great restaurants and it was all relatively cheap. Fantastic place. Our highlight was that we dived for about 30minutes with a whale shark; we were incredibly close to it and exhilirating is the only way I could describe it.

Next stop: Koh Phangan, home of the full moon party. Our beach bungalow was not equipped with aircon so we were out of bed by 9am every day and we were forced to avoid our room until after dark. Luckily we had a good communal area where we (and the other poor souls who couldn't afford aircon) would vegetate all day with books, beers and the occasional movie. As for Koh Phangan - we stayed in Haad Rin which is where the full moon party takes place and it wasn't so bad. The roads were taken up by lots of shops and restauranrs, numerous young westerners walked around scantily clad and some unscrupulous locals selling vodka buckets with already opened vodka bottles (watered down or drugged up? We aren't sure). So it definitely had atosphere; it also had parties on every night. We visited the famous Coral Bungalow pool party which is notorious for a reason! In hindsight we probably shouldn't have swam in that pool... It was a combination of pool water, alcohol and questionable bodily fluids. Gross gross gross! At about 2am Rich and I felt we were being discriminated against... apparently only single people are good for conversation! So we headed back to our room and off to sleep.

The following day we met a bunch of crazy aussies (but then what Aussies aren't crazy?) who had also been at the pool party: Jezza (the most talented, and nicest, womaniser I have ever met [no offence meant]) and Harry Potter (aka: Luke). FYI Luke had jumped into the pool head first and earned himself a notable Harry Potter scar which has probably since decreased in size because of his addiction to anti bacterial hand gel (it can be used for EVERYTHING!).

The next party that we had to pace ourselves for was the full moon night. Basically we prepared with a nap, headed out late so as to increase our chances of making it through to sunrise, got a bucket each and covered ourselves with luminous paint. We met up some friends and sat on the beach for ages, did a bit of dancing and walked around looking at the general craziness. It was a good night but not a great one and i think we made it home about 4am.

As soon as possible we moved out of our naturally heated bungalows and up the west coast of Koh Phangan to Haad Son beach where we got a pretty cheap chalet with aircon and a swimming pool. Amazing! We sat by the pool for 3 straight days until we ran out of books to read and decided to head to Koh Phi Phi.

We crossed the coast towards Phi Phi with a couple of nights spent in Patong, Phuket. Most of that time I felt as though my jaw was on the floor. I saw stunning ladyboys that really did look like woman and I got accosted by locals carrying giant lizards who wanted me to pay for a photo with it (er... no thank you!). The most amazing thing about Patong is that people actually go there on holiday... they must be weirdos. It was also quite wrong that people had young children with them on a road featuring numerous half naked girls and ladyboys. It was all quite strange and we got the next available ferry to Koh Phi Phi.

Phi Phi was awesome.. beautiful beaches and good food. It a great place to meet people and we were able to camp on Maya Bay which is the beach featured in Leo Di Caprio's movie 'The Beach'. It was absolutely stunning, we had thai green curry, buckets, music, we slept under the stars and chatted about random stuff. All in all a night to remember. We also did some diving in Phi Phi and saw octopus, nudibranch, shrimps, leopard sharks etc. All quite cute things surrounded by beautiful coral. Our stay there was brilliant and we really didn't want to leave.

But leave is what we did... southwards to Kuala Lumpur. More info to follow asap

Send us some news!

S&R. xxx

Thailand so far: Chiang Mai - Bangkok

Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai on the 17th of February. It’s an area known for its hill tribe trekking, its temples (almost as many as in Bangkok even though the city is half the size), and its food. We were keen to get started on a Thai cooking course and so we booked one for the following day. We visited a local market to find out about ingredients and then we got stuck into learning how to cook six dishes of our choice. Among the things we learnt to cook were spring rolls, thai green curry, prawns with curry powder, papaya salad and chicken soup with coconut milk. It was a fantastic day! We ate everything we cooked and came away with a recipe book so we can try it all again at home (don’t expect any dinner invites until we have perfected the recipe!).

The following day we hopped on our hired motorbike and drove to one of Northern Thailand’s most famous temples - Wat Suthrep. It is perched 1676m up on a mountain and once again we had to face some long winding roads. Rich thought it was great fun but I was holding onto him squealing at every turn - it was scary even though Rich drove so well! We FINALLY reached the top only to see the main attraction covered in scaffolding (doh!) but because the temple has a lot of gold plated ornaments it was still quite impressive. The main monument (it’s called a chedi) also has 17kilos of real solid gold at the top.

That same evening we had booked tickets for the night train to Bangkok… it was an easy going journey which got us into the very sweaty city at 6:30am.

Bangkok

Ah… what a great place! As we stepped off the train we had some friendly information men offering their help. We found out local train times, bus routes to our hotel and the answers to a whole lot of other questions. They made it so easy for us and we loved it! We were soon on a free (yay!) local bus which stopped almost directly outside our hotel (another yay!) and we were checked in before we knew it. The hotel is like a boarding school dorm with prison type beds, a sink in the bedroom and tiny windows. It brought us a few giggles but we are staying coz it’s clean and cheap which is all we really need.

Day 1 in Bangkok was spent exploring the local backpacker area - it is a street lined with market stalls and bars but the humidity is so high that we didn’t last long outside. After an afternoon rest we jumped onto a river ferry which is a maim transport method in Bangkok (avoids the road traffic jams) and made our way to Chinatown and the evening flower market. All in all it was a productive and enjoyable day and we were looking forward to getting down to some serious shopping.

Day 2 was our shopping day. We headed out early to the weekend market - a market notorious for making you buy things you never knew were needed. We arrived at 10am and only left at about 2pm… we came away with 6 t-shirts, 2 girlie vests, 12 pairs of chopsticks, a pair of ’pearl’ earrings, a hand painted bag and 3 leather belts… it all cost £40 - bargain! We then headed to a mall to buy the bits we hadn’t been able to find. We eventually made it home after dark (around 6:30pm) absolutely exhausted. After a cold shower we treated ourselves to a leg and foot massage (£2 each - loving it!) where they pulled, pushed, stretched and yanked our legs and feet in various directions. It was sometimes sore but mostly quite good and we definitely felt more relaxed afterwards.

Today we relaxed for a bit and treated ourselves to an air-conditioned cinema where we watched Avatar on Imax. It was incredible and it was only £5 each! Tomorrow is our final day in Bangkok - we have a night train and morning ferry booked to Ko Tao - the scuba island where we will spend my birthday doing some diving before heading to Koh Phangang for the Full Moon Party.

Our trip has been amazing so far - a brilliant opportunity to meet new people and learn about different cultures. We miss aspects of England (roast potatoes and breakfast fry ups) but it has been definitely worth it! One of the best things about this trip has been the local people in every country - they are so friendly! Today we had a thai man start up a conversation with us on the bus; and even the tuk tuk drivers (renowned for trying to rip people off) offer their help with directions. We never get bored or cease to be amazed by their friendliness; it makes us smile on almost a daily basis.

Check out our Thailand photos at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2186263&id=60506421&l=cfe81d4dae

Lots of love
S&R. xxxxx

In the Tubing: Vang Vieng!

Vang Vieng is the ultimate place to party. Ok well maybe ultimate is a strong word but still - it was brilliant. And it was good because they have everything... water to swim in, a hot sun, cheap drinks, good music, late night bars, late night pancake and sandwich stalls and great places to relax after a good night out.

The area is made up of numerous bars perfect for chilling out. The bars come equipped with cushions and mattresses and episode after episode of Friends or Family Guy. The food was pretty good; a lot of barbeques and western grub so we enjoyed the 6 nights we spent there. On day 2 we decided to hire a tube and get down to the river.

The tube hire all goes through one company so you pay your money (55,000kip + 60,000 deposit = £8.50) and jump on a tuk tuk which is already loaded up with several tubes. The tuk tuk takes about 12 people and hey presto the party begins! The first stop = bar 1... It is packed with people sun tanning, barmen giving out free shots, dance music blasting out of loud speakers and the occasional person swinging from a high rope into the river. It was awesome!! We stayed there for a few whiskey buckets and then toddled off to get into our tubes to head down the river ready to get pulled into bar 2... But our tubes had been stolen! So we walked the few metres to bar 2. We had soon forgotten about the lost tubes and were dancing with a bunch of Manchester students in the hot sun. I then went on mission: ’find the tube’ where I grabbed two tubes and kept them to one side ready to actually use them.

So you get the idea… we soon moved on to bar 3 where Rich lost his tube again and had to swim to bar 4. It was already past the cut off time for getting the tubes back but we still rushed to the tuk tuk in the hope we wouldn’t lose part of our deposit. The tube guys weren’t having any of it but after such a great afternoon partying we didn’t mind… food was the next thing on our mind! Our last meal had been breakfast before 12 so we grabbed some BBQ chicken, had another whiskey and headed home. We were in bed by about 8pm and woke up with the normal mysterious bruises that come with a great night out.

Our other tubing experience involved actually tubing rather than partying. We did the entire 4km route with only about 4 bar stops and we saw some interesting things… mud volleyball, hash brownies and opium shakes - surreal! We stopped only for a whiskey bucket and some photos along the way, we also floated into a herd of buffalo, got pushed over the shallow water by some local kids shouting “money money money” (I dutifully obliged - they were so cute!) and eventually made it to the end of the route with about 15minutes to run the length of Vang Vieng to make sure our tubes got back before 6pm. We had great success (Borat style)!

After another day chilling and a day trip to see a few caves and a pretty lagoon we booked the bus which would take us on winding roads over a mountain range and into Luang Prabang. The roads were so windy they could give you motion sickness! I was sitting in an aisle seat and spent most of the 7hour journey trying not to fall out of my chair… I was so pleased when it finally came to an end and we arrived (on 14 Feb) in Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is a cultural world heritage site… it has pretty streets, old buildings, GORGEOUS bakeries and French restaurants and a lovely night market selling gift type things. It was a pretty place to visit and we spent one morning watching the monks receive alms - daily food from the locals. Unfortunately it has become a tourist event with tour groups giving alms and most of the locals staying away (we got up at 6am to see it! Disappointed!). Anyway, we were keen to get into Thailand and so we hopped on a cheap flight to Chiang Mai at the earliest opportunity.

Laos Don Det, Motorbiking round the south and Vientiane

Don Det... it is another world altogether. If you stay there too long you get sucked into the chilled atmosphere and you will never again have the energy to leave your hammock! It has got to be the most laid back place I have ever been. It took about 40 minutes to find the waiter at the restaurant (so when our friend asked for a candle instead of ordering his food we never let him hear the end of it! It took another 30minutes before the candle arrived and we could order our dinner).

Don Det was all about swimming, reading and chilling in a hammock. Our two energetic moments in four days involved an hours bike ride and Rich stripping to his birthday suit and leaping over the side of a bar into the river several metres below... since it was 1am we were all promptly kicked out. And because all this was done under a "if you do it I'll do it" challenge we planned a covert operation for the remaining three boys in our group to 'break' (ie: climb over the small fence) back into the bar, strip down and take the plunge. Rich was camera man and I was protector of clothes. Mission was successfully accomplished without bar openener waking up. Good fun!

After Don Det we headed to Pakse; the city of the South. We hired motorbikes at the earliest opportunity and after a morning of learning how to ride a motorbike (and with only two close calls; one involving a group of children jumping out of the way of my skidding bike!) we were planning our trip around the countryside. We headed off the next morning... first stop: Tad Lo. It was the first of many waterfalls. The area was pretty; we stayed in a lovely bamboo bungalow set in lush gardens and recovered after several hours on the bike in the hot sun.

One of many waterfalls we found

Over the next 3 days we visited another 3 small cities; we saw some beautiful scenery and we enjoyed the friendliness of the locals. Lao people are amazing; kids waved to us constantly and even adults gave us a few shouts of hellos with huge smiles. We had local ice cream (very coconutty), tried the coffee farmed on the fields we passed by whilst riding on the Bolaven Plateau and ate quite a bit of noodle soup. The hours on our bums took their toll but the freedom the bikes gave us was fantastic. I loved the challenge of driving on bumpy dirt roads and dodging HUGE potholes (it really hurt if you failed to dodge them!) We made it back to Pakse with not even a puncture and after indulging in some western food we planned our trip to Vientiane - Laos' capital.

We only spent two days in Vientiane; being the capital it really catered to tourists and the prices were double to what we were used to. But we took advantage of the great restaurants and enjoyed the food we found. We hired a motorbike again and explored the city and drove out to see the Buddha Park. It was a great day. The bike did get a puncture though but luckily there are repair shops every few metres; so 20minutes and 10,000kip (less than £1) later we were back on the road.

The Buddha Park

After two days we decided to make our way to the party town of Vang Vieng; famous for its pub crawl along the river. We get tubes and float down the river until a bar catches our fancy; then the bar staff throw you a rope to pull you in. Should be fun! Will send an update ASAP.

S&R.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cambodia II: Mondulkiri - Ratanakiri (motorbike madness!)

Mondulkiri was muddy; we had clay-style red mud everywhere! We were apparently surrounded by jungle and the only way to get to Laos was to head back down south only to go back up North. Unless of course you were crazy enough to head to Laos on motorbike through Ratanakiri on the road that isn't really a road; through dried up rivers, remote villages and 'thick' jungle. When it was put like that to us we thought 'that sounds like great fun!'.

So after a few days exploring Mondulkiri Rich and I found ourselves the best guides available (the ride is too rough to do it on your own or to do it with inexperienced bike riders) and we were off. The bikes were loaded with our bags at the front and food&hammocks at the back. End result = being far too close to the conservative Cambodian man.

After 45 minutes I was groaning from cramp and we got our first rest. We soon hit the road at full speed (when we requested helmets we were told we wouldn't need them! Little did I know we'd be doing 100km p/h on paved roads for some of the way) and got half way to Ratanakiri after a few hours. Then came lunch (it looked like chicken livers but you can never be sure), and then came the bumpy road...

HUGE bumps, tree trunks, sand (worst terrain to drive on), dry riverbeds and a whole lot of dust. It was great fun and our guides' driving was impressive! I would call the jungle more of a forest but it was still pretty. After a few tough hours on our bums we ended up at the 3-hut village where we spent the night. No toilet facilities; no shower facilities; no electricity etc. We found a river where we washed off the dust; our guides cooked over a fire (this time it was definitely chicken but the only reason we're sure is coz we saw it being butchered into tiny unrecognisable pieces). The homestay family were lovely and welcomed us into their home; we showed them photos of our travels (they seemed a bit confused upon seeing a photo of a zebra) and they forced us onto their scales so they could gawp at our weights. When it got dark we got bored and climbed/fell into our hammocks to go to sleep. All in all it was a good experience.

The next day we arrived in Ratanakiri completely covered in red dust; i have never been so filthy before. We didn't even bother showering; we headed straight for the volcanic lake nearby and spent the afternoon swimming. It was perfect.

Aftter a good night's sleep we hopped on the bus to Laos; successfully argued my way out of paying the bribes at the Cambodian border, unsuccessfully argued the bribe at the Laos border and before we knew it we were back on a minibus in the direction of Laos' river island of Don Det.

More to follow soon.

Love S&R.

xxxx