Little Old England

Home sweet home! Back on English soil now. Coming back into the country is very strange, it’s so weird hearing English people everywhere, seeing signs in just English and being able to have normal conversations with people without having to speak slowly or point at things for them to understand!

Had an amazing time in Thailand. Mainly hopping from one island to the next. Started off on the mainland at a beach called Railay which was gorgeous (the best place we visited in Thailand), with such dramatic scenery – rocks jutting up so high out of the palm tree lined sandy beaches. Dave and I tried our hand at horse riding along the beach and through the rubber plantations; our guides were very nice but didn’t understand much English. Went out on the town (well, beach bars) and sampled all the cocktails (2for1) which seemed to all taste like red sweeties or blue sweeties.

From Railay we headed to Ko Lanta for a few nights. Being out of season the entire place was dead! We did some elephant trekking through the jungle and lazed by our swimming pool – managed to get a super deal on accommodation as was so out of season. Found an excellent bar here called Otties which sold the best Masa Man curry ever (southern Thai cuisine), a delicious creamy curry.

Ko Phi Phi was our next island. Devastated by the tsunami at Christmastime, they are still rebuilding a lot of the accommodation. It was so strange to imagine a huge wave coming in across the bay and destroying so much. There was a good atmosphere about the place though despite what has happened to them and the beach was nice. The guys did some more diving at some deep water dive sites – the Hin Daeng and Hin Muang.

Got an extremely rocky boat to Phuket from Phi Phi – had to sit out on deck and slide around on our soaking wet bums as the waves crashed over the sides for 2 hours. Had a day in the sun on Kata beach in Phuket and visited the Green Man pub (and English pub supposedly) which was pretty expensive for Thailand prices! Even participated in the pub quiz, managing to come 7th out of 14 – not bad for us as we didn’t think we’d know any of the answers (we did particularly well on the ‘monster’ round, though foolishly didn’t use our joker card to gain us double points – damn!).

Next came our worst 2 days of travelling in the entire time we’ve been away! Got an overnight bus up to Bangkok and got our bags gone through without us realising – luckily nothing much of value was stolen as we didn’t have anything in our main luggage – just nail clippers, coins we’d collected etc. not a great journey! We went straight through the capital to Ko Chang, an island near the Cambodian border where we chilled out for a few days after our ordeal.

Last stop – Bangkok! A much nicer city than KL and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there even though we seemed to be rushing about all over the place to fit everything in and get it all done in 4 days. Did lots of shopping at the malls, Khoa San road and the Chuckachut weekend market; sight saw Wat Pho the reclining Buddha (huge!) and the royal palace and temple; the guys got suits tailored for them and I got a winter coat done; and of course indulged in our 5* luxury at the Davis hotel where we stayed for a super bargainous price – well recommended if anyone is going to Bangkok. Had a rooftop pool, whirlpool, sauna, Jacuzzi, gym (didn’t use that – we’ve all already lost enough weight!), and our excellent rooms stocked with slippers, bathrobes, mega shower and bath, lots of TV channels etc etc…. Plus we got breakfast included which was the biggest buffet breakfast I’ve ever seen – full on cooked stuff, continental stuff, salads, rices and the like - had to make sure we filled ourselves up everyday! The scrambled eggs and bacon was the best – mmmm, yummy!

So that’s that! 10 months and 25 days later we are finished and our world tour is over. Now, back in reality we have to sort our lives out and decide what we are going to do with ourselves. I think a good dose of Neighbours is in order – see if it’s still behind what we’ve seen in Oz (seen this morning that none of the morning TV programmes have changed – is so bizarre!), a good old raiding of the cupboards for food we’ve missed for the year and of course partying to catch up with all of you and your near year’s worth of news!

Lots of rice and noodles!

Well, our time in asia is going very quickly. we only have 3 measely weeks of travelling left now! everywhere in asia is very different to all the westernised places we've visited - not suprising really. very sick of rice and noodles, but coping with it. here's a rundown of our asian activities so far...

bali - quote from email "went to 3 main towns - kuta, ubud and sanur. all of them had many people on the street hassling us 24/7 - do you want transport? you eat in my restaurant? you want to but this wooden carving? you want massage? etc etc. was very tiresome and we were glad to escape at times.

the main island is entirely geared towards tourism with fake knockoff stalls everywhere as well as markets and local produce. did a tour off quite a few temples, with some of them being very impressive with the rice terraces surrounding them. and also went to a cocoa plantation where we saw the people actually making the coffee/choc etc and we got to sample quite a few of their drinks and fruit they grow.

the guys did a day diving on a ship wreck which they have been raving about - said it was their best dive ever! we went for day to some smaller islands off the SE coast on a very fast boat ' the ocean flyer' razzing it aloong at 30knots we were clinging onto the boat trying not to fly off. a poor little american girl was sceraming and crying all the way there (for 45mins!) but seemed perfectly fine as soon as we got there with no voice lost! did some snorkelling and had a yummy balinese lunch followed by a trip in a glass bottomed boat and banana boating! tried quite a bit of the local food between us at dinnertimes. its strange going out every night for dinner and not having to cook for ourselves!"

singapore - quote from email "the more westernised world of people in suits and masses of shopping malls here in singapore - dont know how they manage to use all the shops and theyre still building more! been on a hippo bus tour of the city - to see the shopping malls lining orchard road, little india, chinatown, sentosa (the party resort island where we saw a pretty cool light and water sidplay last night - still not as good as bellagio though!), and we're off on the night safari at the zoo tonight. off to kuala lumpur tomorrow hopefully, so seen you real soon chris -will come find your hostel. singapore is a very nice city and all very compact so easy to get around."

malysia - such a green country. there are palm tree type things everywhere. arrived into kuala lumpur to the stiffling heat and traffic congestion. didnt really think much of this city - not much to see and rup lost his passport (whoops - all sorted now though!). did go up the patronos towers to take in the view and made it out for my birthday to a couple of irish bars, followed by some malaysian karaoke in a very desserted bar! luckily not many people to embarress ourselves infront of and i think we managed to clear out half the people that were there! oh well, we enjoyed ourselves singing along to the beatles, brittany and atomic kitten!

next up was the cameron highlands - excellent mountain retreat. nice and cool after the city, plus lots of tea! being a former british settlement they seem to have taken some devonshire traditions and serve tea and scones everywhere! yummy! went on a tour of the tea plantations and to the Boh tea factory to see it all being made - mmm smelled like tea! then a bit of jungle trekking with our excellent guide telling us all about the plants and history of the area. also visted the honey farm and strawberry farm for a delicious fresh milkshake. also met my friend chris here (doing medical elective in KL with her friend abbie) and all went for dinner - a traditional steamboat. a pot of soupy stuff and a plate of lots of eggy and crab stick tasting stuff to dunk in and cook - not that great tasting, but a good experience, plus we amused chris and abbie for the evening whilst pulling faces eating it!

from here headed to taman negara national park. got a longboat into to the town, a nice cruise up the river. did the rainforest canopy walk and a big trek around the jungle.

our last place was the perhentian islands. gorgeous islands off the NE coast. stayed on longbeach with beautiful warm waters and white sands. just chilled out for a few days and ate lots in the many restaurants. went on a day snorkelling trip and saw a couple of huge turtles and a shark! now in kota bharu for the night ready to depart early into thailand tomorrow morning!