Curley World Tour!

During our honeymoon three years ago we spent two nights in Singapore on our way to Australia. Obviously our budget then was a little different to our budget now. Three years ago we were staying at Raffles the Plaza hotel, quaffing champagne in the New Asia Bar. That couldn't be further away from this occasion - a dorm room at the Betelbox Hostel, sharing with around 16 other people, all men I might add.

Then and now....Raffles the Plaza and our dorm

Sleep, who needs sleep! Not us clearly as we had managed to pick yet another hostel next to a karaoke bar. In fact the Betelbox hostel is above a karaoke bar and is on a street that is literally filled with karaoke bars. I use the term 'karaoke' loosely as, although people do sing in these bars, I think 'girlie' bar would be a better description. You get my drift. In addition to the activities in the street, simply the number of people in one room meant it was pretty impossible to get a decent nights sleep. Of course we had to have a dorm snorer too, just to put the icing on the cake.

The Blue Lagoon 'Karaoke' Bar
[

During the days we walked around the city taking in the sights and evenings were spent in the Chinese coffee shops grabbing an evening meal and a cheap Tiger beer. It's pretty expensive to go to bars in Singaopre so we decided to save any partying for Sydney.

Boat Quay and Clarke Quay

Sir Stamford Raffles

The Esplanade

The Singapore River

China Town

The Asian Civilisations Museum was really interesting as a lot of the exhibits related to countries that we had visited during this trip. They also had a fascinating exhibit which looked at how the perception of beauty in Asia had changed through the years.

The Asian Civilisations Museum

Another week, another country. On Friday 20th July we headed to the airport for to catch our flight to Sydney.

By the time we boarded our overnight train from Thailand to Malaysia We were so tired by the time we boarded at 1.45am that we were both certain of sleeping through. However, Mr Snorey-Head, in a bunk besides us had other ideas. There is nothing more frustrating than being kept awake by a snorer. It's the fact that he is getting a great night's sleep thank you whilst keeping everyone else awake. We both, somehow, resisted the urge to throw a shoe at him or smother him with his pillow.

In total we spent 24 hours travelling from Koh Samui to Penang, Malaysia. The journey went something like this:

• Songthaew (pick-up style taxi) to Nathon - I hour
• Ferry from Nathon to mainland Thailand - 1 1/2 hours
• Bus journey to Surat Thani - 2 1/2 hours
• Wait at train station - 8 hours (yes that's right, 8 hours)
• Train to Butterworth, Malaysia - 10 hours
• Ferry from Butterworth to Penang - 15 mins
• Taxi to guesthouse - 5 mins

No more overnight trains, please!

Our guest house, 100 Cintra Street, was an interesting little building. It's a Peranakan house that dates back to 1881 and has been refurbished to include a museum, cafe and guesthouse. The rooms were basic - a mattress, mossie net and a fan, but the charm of the building made it a lovely place to stay. What did not add to the charm however was the nearby night club playing hardcore techno until 5am every single night.

Penang had so much to keep us occupied. It has a wealth of history and a really interesting mix of cultures. We had become a little lazy towards the end of our time in Thailand so it was great to have so many interesting things to see and do. Also, the food was brilliant and ridiculously cheap.

Komtar Tower - Penang's Tallest Building

We found it totally hassle free to get around Penang. Public transport is cheap and easy and there are taxis and trishaws everywhere as an alternative.

We spent Thursday 21st just having a general explore around Georgetown, the capital of Penang.

On Friday 22nd we jumped on a bus to Air Itam to board the Funicular to the top of Penang Hill which is 821 metres high. Somehow I managed to talk Gav into walking the 5.5km from the top of the hill, down to the Botanical gardens. I regretted it a little half an hour into the walk though as it was such a steep track and my old knees started to give me some gip I tell you. We met a really friendly chap on the way down. Mr Chi walks to the top of the hill and back down again every single day for excersise. He chatted to us about Penang's history, all the sights that we should see in Penang and mainland Malaysia and of course all the best places to eat.

The Funicular and views from Penang Hill

Mr Chi and the Botanical Gardens

On Saturday 23rd we went to visit snake temple which is home to a number of venomous snakes. Unfortunately the temple was closed due to a fire but we were able to visit the snake house next door. As part of the tour, we were given a snake show which consisted of snake handlers kissing King Cobras and the like. During this performace one of the handlers was bitten by a Mangrove Viper, twice! At one point the lad had this snake literally hanging from his hand by it's fangs. Through very nervous laughs the compere informed us that it was okay, the snake was not very poisonous and that the bite was just like a bee sting. It looked much worse than a bee sting to us. I know you shouldn't laugh at another's misfortune but when the compere then asked if anyone would like to come and touch the King Cobra whilst the snake handler had blood dripping from his bites it was just too much for us - we laughed a lot I'm afraid to say.

If you look closely at the second picture here you can see the blood on the handlers right arm!

On saturday evening we did a walking tour of the city taking in all of the sights in the less oppressive early evening heat.

China Town, Love Lane, The Cathedral of the Assumption, Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower, St Georges Church, WW1 Memorial, City Hall, Town Hall and the Betelnut Sculpture

Little India

Fort Cornwallis

Georgetown has a majority Chinese population and Sundays seems to be a real family day for the Chinese. Businesses are closed and local resturants are buzzing with families. We had a fabulous afternoon enjoying Dim Sum in a resturant near to our guesthouse. Ladies come past your table with trollies stocked with lots of delicious bite size goddies and you simply pick which ones you want. We finished our meal with a pot of Chinese tea and a very full bellies!

Dim Sum!

Whilst in Penang we just had to treat ourselves to lunch at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel. It's a beautiful hotel that was built by the Sarkie brothers who also built the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore. The maître d' did hide us away in a corner behind a large potted plant but that was okay, at least then no-one could see how many of those delicious little desserts from the buffet we actually managed to eat.

The E&O Hotel

Mmmmm!

We had planned to leave Penang on Wednesday 27th however neither of us had thought to check the times for ferries to Langkawi as we had both just assumed they ran all day. At around 11am we had managed to pack up all of our stuff ready to check out and casually asked what time the next ferry to Langkawi would be.....Oh, tomorrow? There are two ferries a day at 8.15am and 8.30am we were clearly running a little late for either. Luckily we were quite happy to spend another night in Penang although we made sure we set an alarm before going to sleep.

A hop, skip and a jump from Penang to Langkawi by ferry on Thursday 28th. We were unbelievebly sea sick during the 2 1/2 hour crossing although as we were turning odd shades of green and hanging our heads over the side of the ferry we were lucky enough to spot a whale and a number of sharks which more than made up for it.

We headed straight to Cenang Beach and checked into the Gecko Guesthouse. Our stay at the Gecko Guesthouse was cut short when we were awoken at 4am the following morning by next doors cockerels. As Langkawi is more of a mid-range to high end hotel kind of place so our choices for budget rooms was fairly limited. We therefore ended up at OP Motel and had the pleasure of sharing our room with a couple of very large cockroaches. We were unable to evict one of them as it managed to hide within the plywood of the bathroom door. The other Gavin successfully exterminated using mosquitio spray, it put up a good fight though. I suspect there were probably more of the horrible things in there with us (shudder).

Cenang Beach

There is no public transport as such in Langkawi and rather than reply on taxis to get around we decided to hire a car for a few days. Even with the air conditioned sanctury of our little Proton Myvi we hired we still had to resort to shopping malls on the odd day to escape from the midday heat (yep, any excuse to shop).

On Friday 29th we visited the Langkawi Lagoon, Gunung (Mount) Raya, Pantai Pasir Hitam (Black Sand Beach), Telaga Harbour Park and Pantai Kok (Kok Beach...childish giggles)

On Saturday 30th we had an excellent day visiting Gunung Machinchang and riding the cable car to it's 708 metre peak. I walked along the suspension bridge although Gav's fear of heights meant the bridge was just a step too far for him.

Langkawi Cable Car

The Suspension Bridge

Afterwards we headed to Telaga Tujuh (Seven Wells waterfalls). The water has smoothed the rock so much that you can slide from one pool to another at the top of the waterfall. It was brilliant fun and just what we needed on such a hot day. Langkawi is a duty free island and was even cheaper than Penang so that evening we decided to treat ourselves to a bottle of wine and a tapas dinner at one of the resturants in Telaga Harbour Park. A lovely end to a great day.

Seven Wells Waterfalls

Dinner at Telaga Harbour

On Sunday 1st July after treating ourselves to a Starbucks coffee we headed to the Langkawi Bird Paradise and Tanjung Rhu Beach.

Langkawi Bird Paradise

Pantai Tanjung Rhu

On Tuesday 3rd we boked onto an organised 'Island Hopping' tour. I'm not a great fan of organised tours as they tend to feel so rushed but it was actually really good. The day started off with a boat trip to Dayang Bunting Island (The Island of the Pregnant Maiden). Legend has it that if you drink the water from the Lake of the Pegnant Maiden you will conceive (I taped my mouth up with duct tape before swimming). After the lake our tour guides threw a chicken pieces into the sea so that we could watch all of the sea eagles come down to feed.

Island Hopping

Lake of the Pregnant Maiden

To end our island hopping day we visited Beras Basah Island. Now here's a thing, there are no toilets on this island. When Gav enquired about restroom facilities he was told to "use the jungle". We were shocked and amused in equal measures when we turned to see a Chinese man doing exactly that. He was not, however, using the jungle as such, more the edge of the beach. A beach that more than a hundred people were on at the time. He was crouched down, swimming trunks around his ankles, therefore stark naked, with toilet tissue in his hand at the ready. We looked away immediately not wanting to see what was obviously going to happen next!

Beras Basah Island

On Wednesday 4th we had a trip out to Pulau Payar Marine Park. The water there is cyrstal clear and the coral reef makes it perfect for snorkelling. We swam with baby reef sharks, a huge very scary looking Barracuda and oodles of beautiful reef fish. It was so much fun. They threw food out for the sharks but the barracuda was so big it was scaring the sharks away and nicking all the food!

On Saturday 7th July we flew to our next stop in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Gavin has always wanted to vistit the Petronas Towers so this was one of the places he was most looking forward to visiting. We were not dissapointed, Kuala Lumpur is an amazing city. As with the rest of Malaysia there is just so much to see and do (and eat), we didn't have one day that wasn't jam-packed.

KL was really easy to get around and a lot of the main sights were walking distance from the hostel we were in. Unfortunately, our hostel was right next to an illegal karaoke club. I don't blame the hostel owner for not asking gang that ran the place to turn the music down. I very much doubt he would have made it back alive.

Monorail

Times Square Shopping Centre was right opposite our hostel. It had a fab indoor amusement park.

On Sunday 8th July we headed for Petronas Towers. The free Skybridge tickets that we had queued for 2 hours to get were for a 4pm visit so we spent the day wondering around the Suria KLCC shopping Centre, the lovely gardens and fountains attached, and of course in the food hall!

Petronas Towers, us on the Skybridge and the KLCC

Monday 9th was spent visiting Menara KL Tower which was the tallest building in Kuala Lumpur before Petronas Towers. We thought the 360 degree views from the KL Tower were far more impressive than those from the Petronas Skybridge.

Gav did a nature walk through the virgin rainforest that surrounds the tower. I started the walk but soon realised that shorts and no mossie repellent in a forest were not a good idea. I had to admit defeat and retreat, followed by a swarm of hungry mosquitos.

We had a go on the zip wire ride at the base of the KL Tower. "Xtreme!'' It didn't seem that high from the ground but felt pretty high when we were standing on the edge waiting to jump off.

The following day we headed to the KL Lake Gardens. As well as strolling around the lake we visited the Butterfly Park and the Bird Park. Enroute to the gardens we took in more of the sights of KL.

Jamek Mosque

Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Merdeka Square Flagpole, the Sculpture Gardens, The War Memorial and the National Monument

Wednesday 11th we jumped on a bus to the Batu Caves which are around 7 miles out of the city centre. A steep climb up 272 steps leads you to the three main caves which house several Hindu shrines. The Hindu Thaipusam festival is celebrated here every year in January or February. The festival is the celebration of good triumphing over evil and involves devotees practicing ''mortification of the flesh'' by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with skewers and hooks, fire walking and flagellation.

There are lots of cheeky monkeys at the caves. They are so used to tourists that they have very little fear and will snatch food out of your bag or your sunglasses off your face.

We spent a really interesting day at the Forestry Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) on Thursday 12th. Apart from walking around the 1528 hectares of forest (not all of it of course), the best parts of the day were spotting the wild Dusky Leaf Monkeys, which are too cute for words, and the 30 metre high canopy walk (the uphill 1/2km walk to the canopy was not much fun though!).

We of course had to sample the night life so on Friday 13th we headed to a club called Zouk where Norman Jay, a British DJ, was playing. It was a brilliant night - a beautiful club full of beautiful people (Gav and I excluded of course). The next day we were good for nothing, we had danced so much at Zouk that we were both actually aching and more than a little hungover - it was those frozen Margaritas!

We left Kuala Lumpur by train on the morning of Sunday 15th, headed for our next destination, Singapore.

On the evening of Monday 14 May we arrived in Bangkok. During our six days there we had a great time sampling the city's nighlife.

Going back to a dorm room was difficult after the lovely rooms we had stayed in during our previous week in Cambodia. However, our hostel did have a fab roof terrace and was also right by a Skytrain station so made getting around during the day very easy.

HI Sukhumvit roof terrace

Our local street kitchens

The shopping in Bangkok is amazing, okay so we could only window shop, but it was still good fun to visit those huge shopping complexes that are all linked by the airconditioned Skytrain so that you can hop from one to another without breaking into a sweat (Bangkok was HOT!).

Our time in Bangkok was made more enjoyable as we were lucky enough to be there at the same time as my stepbrother Sean and his lovely new wife, Clare, who were starting their honeymoon in Bangkok before heading off to Samui. We met the newlyweds in their hotel on Wednesday 16 and set off on what I can only describe as an entertaining evening!

Us with Sean and Clare

Note to self: NEVER get in a cab outside an expensive hotel in Bangkok. Also it might help if you don't pile into the cab outside said expensive hotel stating that you want to go to a ping-pong show. Subtle.

Tuk-Tuk and cab drivers in Bangkok are unbelieveble. We wanted to go to Patpong although our cab driver had other ideas. So we did the tour - his mate's resturant followed by the dodgiest club (and we have been to a few so we know what we are on about here) that I have ever seen. There was no way that we were going in and the mafia that were standing outside trying to usher us in was not going to change our minds. I dread to think what would have happened to us in there.

"Erm that's fine we'll walk from here mate."

Then we stumble across a tuk-tuk. Now let me think, what were the warnings that we had read prior to arriving in Bangkok, 'stay away from tuk-tuks at night.....if he quotes you a price that is too good to be true then it probably is'. It's night and he quotes the unbelievably cheap price of 20 baht to take us to Patpong.....so we all pile in. Well Sean and Clare hadn't been in a tuk-tuk yet and there were 4 of us, what could go wrong?

He took us to a brothel. We didn't go in.

"Again, that's fine we'll walk from here mate."

We headed for the nearest bar for a much needed drink. It was getting stressful trying to see a ping-pong show! Luckily the guys behind the bar were really helpful and told us that we were within walking distance of where we wanted to go.

You are not allowed to take pictures in the bars and clubs in Patpong. It's a good job. The women in the show we did end up seeing were truly hideous. I mean really, really bad. Luckily I have had my rabies and tetanus shots as one of the darts actually landed on my leg. Gavin was using a drinks tray to bat the ping pongs away that were being fired in his direction. Gross.

There were lots of bars that had far more attractive ladies (and ladyboys) however they obviously lacked the lower abdominal muscles of the monsters in the shows and therefore just gyrated on bar tops for customer's entertainment.

All in all a hilarious night out.

The following day, a little hungover, Gav and I headed for the shops for a while, although the novelty wears off when you can't actually buy anything, so we jumped on the skytrain and headed to a nearby public park to chill out for the afternoon. We spotted a huge monitor lizard at the side of the lake munching its way through a turtle. We could hear the beast crunching through the turtles shell. We don't get many of them in Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham let me tell you.

We met up with Sean and Clare that evening and were on a mission to go to a good club. Taxi drivers had other ideas yet again. I'll cut a long story short (what do you mean that's unlike me?). We ended up in a crappy club in the @rse end of nowhere that was full of other idiot tourists such as ourselves that had been brought there by their equally dodgy cab drivers.

I had a massive sulk and decided that I wasn't going to play as it wasn't where I wanted to be and I felt that we shouldn't have given the cab driver the satisfaction of actually paying to go in. Then I realised I was the only one not having a good time (apart from Gav who was trying to get me out of my sulk) so I swallowed my pride and busted some shapes on the dance floor along with everyone else. We hit our beds at around 5am the next morning.

Sean and Clare

The following day we decided to move to a double room in the hostel. It's not much more expensive than two dorm beds and we were getting told off by the young 'uns in the room for coming in so late each night. Surely it should be the other way around?

FA Cup Final day, Saturday 19 May. We started our day with a webcam chat with the Curley family. Gav's parents were in the UK for his Nephew's Holy Communion so it was a great opportunity to get everyone together for a catchup.

For the football we headed for a British style pub that had Guinness on tap and a large screen showing the match - Gav was a happy man. Whilst in there we met a lovely couple, Steven and Fiona, from Sydney. We ended up going out clubbing again to a great place called Bed Supperclub. It was hillarious that the doormen made Steven run to the local supermarket to buy a pair of socks to put on with his flip flops before they would let us in. Girls can wear flip-flops but men cannot...'dems da rules' but boys wearing socks with flip flops makes it okay? We'll let you judge....

Steven & Fiona

Bed Supperclub

After the club, typical us wanted to carry the night on and went on a mission to find somewhere that was still open. We did find an afterclub but as the entrace fee was steep and people were buying shorts by the bottle rather than individual drinks.....we gave it a miss.

CHIANG MAI

Why oh why did we go clubbing the night before travelling? Hungover and tired we arrived in Chiang Mai airport on Sunday 20th May and jumped in a cab to a guest house we had read about called Julie Guesthouse.

Now lets get something straight. Yes we are backpacking and we can slum it with the best of them but this guest house, no way siree. It was not happening. We spent our first day in Chaing Mai looking for somewhere else to stay. We did have to spend one night at Julie Guesthouse - we didn't sleep at all. (Shudder).

The following day we moved to Jonadda Guesthouse and spent the day mooching around Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai has a really laid back, almost hippy feel to it, entirely different to Bangkok.

Sunday Market

It turns out that one of the guys we met in Hanoi, New York Greg, was also staying at Jonadda and we bumped into each other that evening. It was great to catch up and chat about what we had all been up to duiring the last month.

In Chiang Mai they seemed to be obsesed with Bob Marley and reggae in general. It must be a ganja thing. Anyway, we ended up in a reggae bar for dinner that had a Thai band singing Bob Marley songs. Hilarious!

Chiang Mai is great for outdoor activities and the next day we decided to hire moutain bikes to explore the city. Gavin said he has never ever seen me sweat so much in all the years we have been together - well it was very hot! I didn't make things easy for myself either. Not content with riding around on the lovely flat roads in the city, I decided that we should try to cycle up the Doi Suthep Mountain. We didn't even make it to the foot of the mountain before I admitted defeat.

Help me!

That evening we met New York Greg for a few drinks in a bar near to our hostel. It was difficult to sit on those wooden chairs after riding that bike all day. Ouch!

By hook or by crook we were going up that mountain so on Thursday 24 May we hired a moped. At times we didn't think the little moped would make it with both of us on but we got there and were rewarded with some great views of Chiang Mai.

C.H.I.P.S.

Views from the mountain

On the way back down we decided to stop at the entrance to a National Park for a gentle stroll to find the waterfall. An hour of serious trekking later (in flip flops) we found a trickle of water pretending to be a waterfall. Ah lovely, an hour trek back then.

Gav was eager to do an organised mountain biking tour, I of course was not. On the Friday Gav set off on his mountain bike day whilst I had a day long Thai cookery course. Both of us had a great time (and it probably did us good to have a day apart after 2 months of travelling together!).

I had a tour around the local market as part of my cooking course.....bacon buttie anyone?

Gav had arranged for us to meet a couple of the guys from his mountain bike tour for drinks that evening. An evening of drinking games followed, as did another 5am finish.

Drinking games

We (Gav) decided that we were booking onto a three day jungle trek. I personally would have opted for the safer two day trek but was up for the challenge (Gav knows how much I love walking). It's something that we have both been really looking forward to and on Monday 28th we set off on our mini adventure into the Northwest Mae Teang area of Chiang Mai.

Day one of the trek started very easily with an hour or so in a pickup truck to a market for supplies followed by lunch in a riverside hut. Then came the difficult bit. Now, I knew it was going to be a trek although for some reason I didn't think it would be 3 hours of uphill hiking. I started off at a great pace but 3 hours later I thought I was going to die. By the grace of God there was a couple who were struggling more than I and we had to stop every now and then to wait for them to catch us up which gave me a sneaky opportunity to catch my breath!

Ray Mears and Nora Croft

The night was spent with the Lahu Tribe, under mosquito nets in a communal hut. Before hitting our sacks we sat around a fire with our guide. Firstly the hill tribe children came and performed for us, singing sweet little songs and dancing. Even the tiniest children were involved. Then we had to sing for them, very embarassing. We then played a few games (sort of drinking games but without the drink) with the loser having soot from the bottom of a cooking pot smeared on their face. Guess who was the overall loser?

Loser!

Our fellow trekkers

The children's performance

Sleeping in a bamboo hut with 10 other people is near on impossible. Every time one person moves the whole hut moves and any sound echoes through the bamboo. Also it seem that each village must have a million (okay that's a slight exaggeration) cockerels. The purpose of the cockerels is simply to cock-a-doodle-doo from about 4am in order to wake up anyone who may have managed to snatch a few minutes sleep in a communal hut.

On day two of the trek our group was reduced to 7 as some people had opted for the sensible two day option. A 1 1/2 hour trek in the morning, a swim in a waterfall, lunch in a pig sty (well not exactly, but not far off) and finally a 3 hour trek in the afternoon. Although we trekked for longer, it was a lot easier than day one as there was less uphill hiking. We followed the river so there was lots of scrambling over rocks and wading through the water which was really good fun.

Our bed for the second evening was also a communal bamboo hut in a beautiful setting. It was completely open fronted overlooking the river. In the evening we were able to sit and watch thousands of fire flies in the trees opposite. It was gorgeous. By 9pm we were all in bed, absolutely exhausted.

Day three consisted of elephant trekking, white water rafting and bamboo rafting. The white water rafting was the best activity, we had great fun throwing ourselves into the rapids as fast as we could. We both thought we would enjoy the elephant trekking but we actually just came away feeling very sorry for them.

The hardcore three day group

And so it was time to move on again. On Thursday 31 May we flew from Chaing Mai Airport to Koh Samui and then jumped on a ferry to our first Island desination, Koh Pha Ngan.

THE ISLANDS

We met a group of South Africans on the ferry who were all on holiday for a 40th birthday celebration. I stayed with the group and our bags in Thong Sala whilst Gav nipped off on a moped to find us somewhere to stay. By the time he got back 3 hours later a number of beers had been consumed and it's fair to say I was a little tipsy. Our first night we stayed in a room that Gav had found that actually had a bath tub...bliss. However, as it was quite pricey (by our backpacker standards), the following night we decided to join the South African group at a place called Boom Cafe which was just 5 minutes away.

Views from Boom Cafe

Our host, Nok, and our South African friends

Friday 1st June was a full moon and so we along with the group of South Africans headed to Haad Rin for the famous Full Moon Party.

I think to really enjoy the Full Moon Party you need to be there during high season when the larger crowds would create a better atmosphere. We thought that the music was great but there were lots of young kids in awful states (yep, worse than us). You know, sort of 'Ibiza Uncovered' style where they have drunk and drugged themsleves to the brink of hospitalisation. There was a 'casualty' tent where the real bad cases were dumped and left on the ground until the effects wore off. Also, I couldn't get over how many blokes were using the beach as a toilet. Just stood there in full view, urinating on the beach. Obviously we are getting too old for this lark. The group of South Africans, who are all at least 10 years our senior I might add, put us to shame. Gav and I sneaked off at about 4am, they didn't roll in until 10am the next morning!

On Saturday 2nd, feeling holier than thou as we were up with the birds with no hangovers (unlike our South African freinds) we decided to go out on the moped to explore the island and decide where to move on to next. We first popped back to Haad Rin, it looked awful after the party, we definitely would not be staying there. We then went to Haad Salad and Chaloklam before having to turn back as our little moped couldn't make the steep dirt tracks with both of us on.

Haad Salad

Views of Kho Pha Ngan

We decided that Hat Thong Nai Pan on the North East of the island was where we wanted top go next and on Sunday 3rd I jumped in a pickup with the bags and Gav followed on the moped.

Thai style taxi and ice-cream van

We headed straight for Dolphin Bungalows which was in a glorious setting, you simply could not get more chilled, but our bungalow had the hardest mattress imaginable and the mozzies were eating us alive. We stayed there for two nights before moving on to a gorgeous little beach side bungalow which was only 300 baht a night. We honestly could have stayed there for weeks. The beach was perfect with powdery white sand, the weather was perfect, the sea was bath water warm and great for swimming in and there were little local restaurants serving great Thai food for next to nothing within walking distance. It was peaceful, chilled and we met some really cool people there. Have you ever been somewhere that you are so taken with that you don't have to do anything, you can just sit back and relax? This was one of those places for us.

Hat Thong Nai Pan

Okay so the downside, our gorgeous beachside bungalow had bed bugs. At first we thought it was mosquitoes, or maybe sand flies.....no, it was bed bugs. The room had twin beds so Gav and I slept seperately, he luckily didn't get a single bite whilst I was covered from head to toe. My God, they itch.

View from our bungalow

Our little friend

Maybe it was for the best as we probably would never have moved from there otherwise! You would have heard from us in a few years time. We would be earning money by working as a Bob Marley tribute band (Gav would be Bob) and sleeping on the beach with the stray dogs.

Our last night in Hat Thong Nai Pan

Reluctantly we headed back to Thong Sala to jump on a catamaran to Koh Toa. The main thing we were heading to Koh Toa for was the diving. It has great dive sites with reef sharks and whale sharks often sighted. We headed straight for Ban's Diving Resort on Sairee Beach. Our room was fairly basic, a bed, a fan and no hot water but we are well used to that by now and we did have use of a lovely pool. The beach didn't seem to be as nice as where we had come from but that was no problem as we had come for the diving rather than the beach.

Our hotel pool

Catastrophe! I'd picked up an ear infection and couldn't go diving. Cue a little sob. I insisted that Gav still went for his dive as there was no point in us both missing out (oh I'm such a brave little soldier). I sat in our room feeling very sorry for myself with my antibiotics and ibruprofen whilst Gav went off on his two dives and guess what...he only went and saw a shark! It was a Grey Reef Shark and around 2 metres in length. I was gutted to have missed out.

Talking of sobbing, I didn't mention that I have broken my little toe did I? It's now slightly deformed but no longer painful. I basically kicked a brick wall (accidentially) and knew immediately it was broken - toes are not supposed to bend in that direction. You know the sort of pain that takes your breath away and it feels like your heart stops beating for a couple of seconds? Well that's what it was like. I didn't cry at the time, however, I did cry a couple of days later when I skidded on a wet floor in my flip-flops and bashed the bugger again. Gav laughed. He said it looked like I was ice-skating. I did laugh a little too but tears were falling at the same time.

On Friday 15th we jumped on a Catamaran to Koh Samui. We are staying in the Chaweng Beach area in a little bungalow just off the main strip. I have to say we've been living a little like hermits since we arrived. There are plenty of great bars and restaurants but it all seems to be a little out of our price range and other than eating and drinking there seems to be little else to do (what do you mean that's all we do anyway?). We are missing our little beach on Koh Pha Ngan!

We will probably spend a couple more days here catching up on 'admin' before heading on to Malaysia by train where we are hoping to spend the best part of a month. Gav will take over for the next update. Until then here are a couple of extra piccies to keep you entertained. Now why did we call our blog Afros and Sunburn........?

Gav take that vest off!

Oh Dear God, it's a GHD emergency!

This is my first attempt to update the blog and give Cardie a break. Let’s hope that the standard will be as good and who knows it may be a while before I let Cardie back on.

When we planned our trip, Cambodia was somewhere that we both overlooked. However, as we travelled through Vietnam virtually every other traveller we spoke to asked “Why aren’t you going to Cambodia?” So we did some research and decided that we had enough time to make a small detour.

Our journey into Cambodia was by bus from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It is a relatively short trip with the border crossing only 2 1/2 hours away. The cost for a Cambodian Visa is $20 per person. We paid an additional $4 ‘admin’ charge to the guy on our bus in order for him to take our passports and organise our visas for us. Obviously this $4 was going directly into his pocket but as it meant we passed through border control hassle free it was absolutely fine by us!

To reach the capital, Phnom Penh, it was another 3 hours or so from the border and included a ferry aross the Mekong River. There were street kids on board the ferry selling everything from water to fruit. I’ve learnt that I’m too soft with kids and cannot even look at them without being parted from my money so I stayed within the safety of the bus.

Along the highway into Phnom Penh we passed a number of villages and traditional stilt houses where the kids would wave at us, full of smiles, as the bus passed. It had been raining and the lots of the children were playing in the huge muddy puddles that had appeared along the roadside.

Arriving into Phnom Penh was chaotic, as soon we got off the bus we were being pulled from one direction to the other and were bombarded with “tuk-tuk Sir?” “I take you to your hotel”. We were both trying to keep an eye on our backpacks and it all felt quite overwhelming. We had no accommodation booked and therefore had no destination in mind. There are no taxis in Phnom Penh so we took a tuk-tuk, or to give it its proper name a remorque moto.

The driver dropped us off at a café on the riverfront and from there Cardie set off in the heat to find us somewhere to stay. We ended up at a small hotel called the Boddhi Tree Aram, located in a little residential street behind the British Consulate.

Phnom Penh

8 May 2007 Cardie’s birthday

The room was the best of our trip so far and we both had a great nights sleep. We woke up as fresh as daisies and as it was Cardie’s birthday I had asked housekeeping if they could arrange a bunch of flowers. The housekeeper went to the flower market that morning and brought to our room a beautiful bunch of lilies.

Being the big spender that I am(!) and Cardie loving to shop, I took her to the Russian Market. We had read that as a lot of clothes are manufactured in Cambodia ‘surplus stock’ often finds it way to the market. There were plenty of 'designer' brands but unfortunately they were really bad copies. We set off for the other main market in Phnom Penh, The Central Market. Again, the clothes were mainly fakes but we did buy Cardie some trousers - this was probably the cheapest birthday I’ve known in our seven years! On the evening we went to The FCC for dinner and splurged on a bottle of wine.

Birthday Girl at The FCC

9 May 2007

Cambodia has suffered from the effects of many wars but one of the most destructive and harrowing periods was when The Khmer Rouge took control of Government. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, The Khmer Rouge systematically rounded up and executed anyone they believed opposed them, over 2 million people in all. The Khmer Rouge took over Tuol Svay Prey High School in 1975 and turned it into the main prison and torture centre in the country, it was known as Security Prison 21. The former prison is now a museum highlighting the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. We spent the morning visiting the museum and it was extremely disturbing to see the place where so many people had been tortured and suffered.

Rules for Prisoners

Within the grounds are the graves of 14 people whose bodies were found when the city of Phnom Penh was liberated by the Vietnamese. The haunting pictures of the many victims fill several rooms and the tools used to torture the people are left as a reminder of the brutality that occurred. All in all a very sad place.

From S21 prison the prisoners were taken to The Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. It was here that the Khmer Rouge executed over 17,000 people, women and children included. Some of the mass graves have been exhumed and the remains of the victims reburied. A memorial to the 2 million people killed by the Khmer Rouge has been built at Choeung Ek and houses the skulls of some 8000 people.

Skulls in the Memorial

The experience of visiting both the museum and The Killing Fields had a very sombre effect on us both and we returned to Phnom Penh reflecting on what we had seen.

As a result of war 4 - 6 million unexploded landmines remain in Cambodia and it now has one of the highest number of amputees in the world. It was very distressing to see people begging in the streets with servere injuries as a result of landmines.

Our tuk-tuk driver also took us to Wat Phnom, the site of the first pagoda in Phnom Penh. It is here that many people still come to pray for good luck and success in all aspects of daily life.

Wat Phnom

That evening we had a wonderful meal at a restaurant called Friends which is an organisation set up to help and train disadvantaged and street kids in the catering and tourism industry. I managed to leave our bag with $300 in it at the restaurant. Luckily, as we were walking down the road one of the kids came running after us with the bag....phew, that could have been an expensive meal!

The architecture of Cambodia is very striking and we were both blown away by the Royal Palace and National Museum which we visited on Thursday 10th May. The National Museum houses the largest collection of Khmer sculpture although it was the building itself that we where most impressed by.

The National Museum

After lunch we made our way to The Royal Palace, unfortunately as soon as we had paid our entrance fee the heavens opened. A huge thunder storm meant we had to spend the next half hour standing in a door way for shelter. When we thought it had eased off we made a dash for it and ran across the courtyard and a massive bolt of lightning came crashing down beside us. Very dramatic and quite scary!

We thought the Palace was amazing and we spent several hours there. The Silver Pagoda, so called because of it's 5000 silver floor tiles, was very impressive. It houses a huge collection of Buddhas made from many precious metals and gemstones. The centrepiece is the lifesize gold Buddha weighing 90kgs and containing 9584 diamonds the biggest being 25 carats. Very bling. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside the Palace buildings so you'll have to take my word for it.

Children selling water outside the Royal Palace

Leaving Phnom Penh

After 4 days in Phnom Penh we left to take the 6 hour bus journey to Siem Reap. We had a guide on the bus who pointed out interesting sights along the way and the journey passed quickly.

On arrival at Siem Reap we were met by our tuk-tuk driver for the next 3 days, Mr Sokha.

Mr Sokha

The main tourist attraction when visiting Siem Reap has to be the temple complexes in the area of Angkor. On Friday 11th May we set off for a mammoth day of temple sight-seeing. Mr Sokha took us firstly to Angkor Wat - the ultimate example of Khmer architecture and the largest religious building in the world.

Angkor Wat

At its height the Khmer Empire stretched from Burma to South Vietnam and into parts of Northern Thailand, the hundreds of temples still standing are a small remainder of what once was. The earliest dating form the year 802.

Bayon

Ta Prohm (part of 'Tomb Raider' was filmed here)

Us at Phnom Bakheng

After a whole day of visiting the spectacular temples we headed back to the hotel with Mr Sokha for a chat and a beer (or two). He along with many of the other tuk-tuk drivers has served in the army. He told told us about the hardships he had faced during his time as a government soldier and a great story about fighting off a gang of monkeys in the jungle for 8 hours as they were trying to steal his limited food supply. He also told us it was okay for Cambodian men to have more than one wife and having extra girlfriends was perfectly acceptable. I told him I thought one was more than enough. He explained that with your extra girlfriends "you can make funny, have jokes, dance and touching is allowed but no honeymoon". We got the gist of what he was saying!

Mr Sokha took us to the floating village on Tonle Sap Lake the following day. The floating village is made up of wooden boathouses and shops selling everything from large car type batteries to groceries. We stopped at one shop which doubled up as a crocodile farm...bizarre!

Children selling fruit on Tonle Sap Lake

Mr Sokha explained that the people living on the lake use the water for all aspects of daily life, cooking, washing, as a childrens play area and as the communal toilet. He told us that the water was filthy and there there was a lot of disease as a result. We have since learnt that 1 in 7 children under the age of 5 years old, dies in Cambodia as a result of dirty water.

After our boat trip on the lake we stopped at a nearby village. Some of the children came out of the houses and asked for money. Rather than hand them cash, I took them to the shop and brought them bags of sweets to share. They were delighted and were squealing with excitment as they tore into the bags of sweets.

I'm not sure that I could say that I enjoyed our time in Cambodia as such, as it was hard to see so many people living in such poverty. The attack on our senses was challenging - the barrage of sights, sounds...and smells made Cambodia, at times, quite difficult. However, we met some of the most friendly, genuine people of our trip so far and seeing the temples of Angkor were amazing.

They eat bugs in Cambodia!

Leaving Cambodia

On Wednesday 2 May we set off on our 10 hour bus journey to Ho Chi Minh. We were both more than a little grumpy by the time we got off......bloody karaoke videos! I'll move on.

The bus dropped us off right in the main backpacker area of the city and we promptly decided that we wouldn't be staying there and jumped in a cab to a guest house that Gav had read about called Miss Loi's just a few minutes away.

Miss Loi's guest house was lovely. We had a massive room with huge windows letting in loads of sunlight and a balcony with views over the city rooftops. The Mickey Mouse bed linen was amusing but hey it was clean and that's all that mattered.

Views from our room

The following day, Thursday 3 May we spent the day taking in the sights (on foot of course!). We started the day at The War Remnants Museum, previously called The American War Crimes Museum.

The museum has a number of 'themed' rooms displaying photographs and artefacts from the war. The most disturbing of which were those that contained photographs of the effects of Agent Orange and napalm as well as the full size replicas of the 'tiger cages' used to house political prisoners. It's a strange feeling that you are left with after visiting somewhere like that. We were very sad indeed to view the terrors that humans are capable of inflicting on each other.

Later we managed the Botanical Gardens, Notre Dame Cathedral and the gorgeous post office building....before Gav gave up and refused to walk any further and we ended up in.....KFC of all places. Well it was close by, air-conditioned, we were hungry (and that chicken burger tasted good).

The Post Office

On Friday 4 May we had booked a trip to see the Cao Dai Temples and the Cu Chi Tunnels. It was a little rushed, as organised tours often are, but was really interesting.

Cao Dai is a religion that was started by a Vietnamese civil servant in 1926, incorporating all of what he perceived to be the best bits of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism and Hinduism. There are now between 2 and 3 million followers. The temple was very beautiful but it felt odd that they were happy for bus loads of tourists to be traipsing through during their service. It felt a little like we were invading their privacy (although we obviously didn't feel too bad as we took photos along with everyone else).

They have enlarged a section of the Cu Chi Tunnels to accomodate the western frame and allow vistors to crawl through. It still seemed pretty small to me and I wasn't going to risk it. I am a little claustrophobic anyway but mainly I wasn't going to risk it as I had visions of my fat ass becoming thoroughly wedged in a tunnel and the local fire brigade being called to come and dig me out. In the end I decided that I may as well give it a go as everyone else was but only got half way before giving up. It is very hot down there and each section becomes smaller than the last. Gav said that the final sections was so small that he had to pull himself along on his stomach. I would have had no chance!

The face of fear!

On Saturday 5th we spent the day planning our trip to Cambodia. Cambodia wasn't in our origional itinerary however we had heard so much about it from other travellers that we decided it would be a shame not to go. The only problem was that rather than being in Bangkok for my birthday as originally planned, we were now going to be in Phnom Penh. We therefore decided to bring my birthday celebrations forward to coincide with our last night in Vietnam and so on Sunday 6th May Gav took me to the Caravelle Hotel roof top bar for cocktails. What a lovely evening. The open air bar had views over Ho Chi Minh City and to top it off they made a perfect Mojito, all very romantic (vom).

At last I get to wear heels!

After cocktails I was informed that Arsenal were playing and asked whether I minded going to watch the game in a bar in the backpacker area (aaah I see). The bar we ended up in was grim. An actual rat ran across the bar - I kid you not!

At 8.30am on Monday 7th May we departed by bus for our 6 hour journey to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and with that our time in Vietnam had come to an an end.

We'd had a fantastic month in Vietnam. Yes at times there were challenges and we did get a little fed up with being scammed but overall we had thoroughly enjoyed our time there and would like to think that one day we will be back.

Of course we have to end with a picture of a kid!