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