Kuala Lumpur

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at midday to find that we wasn't allowed to check-in until 12 so we thought we would try some local food, Georgia getting a BigMac and me getting a Double cheeseburger. We were dropped off in Chinatown which didnt\'t seem Chinese at all, just a load of stalls selling a load of fake bags and shoes etc. We just chilled out in the room that night as Georgia wasn't feeling well for some strange reason.

Batu Caves

Monkey stealing a Cornetto 

The next day we went to Batu Caves which is where a lot of Buddhists visit as it is a sacred place. The entrance to the caves involved climbing 300 steps whilst trying to be attacked by monkeys. We clearly didn't do our research on this place because if Georgia would have known there was monkeys, we would have avoided the caves. There were a couple of temples within the caves, took a few photos and made our way back down the stairs. On the way back down the stairs we were shown the monkeys' true potential. On the way down I saw a monkey take a Cornetto from a woman's hand and ran onto the roof of the stall to eat it! So Georgia gave me the bottle of water in case they wanted to take it off her and I would have to encounter the mad monkeys.

Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers

Then we saw a monkey with a pair of sunglasses on casually sitting on the steps. We were glad when we made it to the bottom of the stairs and done a power walk to the train station to escape. On the way back to the city centre we got off the train at the business district which is quite similar to Canary Wharf and decided to get lunch in the food court there. We had a nice meal but felt under-dressed as people were coming from the offices in their suits and we was wearing flip-flops, swimming shorts and vest tops. Ths business area was a greener cleaner version of Canary Wharf or the City of London and almost looked too nice to be in South-East Asia. Just by looking at the people having lunch, there was Americans, Europeans, Indians and every possible culture working within Kuala Lumpur.

Pure coincidence that I'm posing with the picture on the wall

That evening we decided to go to visit the Petronas Twin Towers, previously the largest building in the world before the Arabs got excited in the Middle East with their stupidly tall towers and hotels. The towers are in the district known as KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) and was a new city centre, with a huge park surrounded by skyscrapers, hotels, business offices and a shopping mall. It was very impressive, so modern and clean!! The Asians know how to do it. I say that because people we speak to seem to be shocked that back in England I think as Asians as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc and the rest of Asia I used to just call Chinese....anyways.

The next day we moved across to another district in the city and booked a nice guest house with good reviews. We were given a room, which was basically just a bed with a shared bathroom further down the corridor but the owners were very nice and welcoming which you don't tend to get in hotels.
Georgia noticed that downstairs in the common area/lounge there was 2 books from the 50 shades of Grey sequel and she managed to read the 2 books in 3 days. I'm not sure how she reads so fast, im sure she must skip pages out or something but at least it kept her occupied whilst I could use her phone to look at the internet as I no longer have a phone after smashing it!
We was located next to a shopping centre which had a roller coaster in it, not just a kids one but one that has loops and goes quite high, it took as a bit by surprise. It also had a sit-down Papa-Johns which I'm sure a couple of my mates would get excited about if they had one in England.

We also visited the National Mosque which meant that Georgia had to wear a Hijab and I also was given clothes to enter the mosque....pictures will be uploaded soon! lol. We also visited the Islamic Arts Museum which was very average but I'm not really into that kind of thing, and Central Market which was good to buy some gifts as we near the end of our trip.

They should put this in Lakeside

Was given an Oyster card each as a present from "Jet" whoever he was!

Not to be messed with!

Over the next couple of days we went on a pub crawl in Kuala Lumpur and was the first time we drank in a few weeks as the prices are pretty high compared to the other countries we visited. The bars are a lot more upmarket and you could tell by the people that was on the pub crawl, there wasn't a backpacker in sight! It was a good night which ended with watching a reggae band in a club followed by 2 very enthusiastic DJ's to end the night and we made it back to the room at 3am!
The next day we had a bus booked at 1pm to Melaka, a couple of hours South which we originally was going to visit for 2 nights but changed it to a day-trip as it wasn't far from Kuala Lumpur and our flight was from Kuala Lumpur a couple of days later.  As we got in so late from the pub crawl the previous night we just about made our bus, well we was 5 minutes late but thankfully it didn't leave. Melaka was a very nice place with a harbour and was previously occupied by the British, the Portugese and mostly the Dutch and was very evident and was part of the charm of the town. Windmills, little bridges, "Dutch Square" and the Maritime Museum was one of the many attractions in the town and it was a shame we was only there for a few hours.

Maritime Museum

Mmmmmm....train

We managed to do quite a lot in the few hours we were there by visiting the Maritime Museum and Customs Museum which included a wooden ship based on the ships the Dutch used when they arrived in Malaysia. It was similar to the boat from the Pirates of the Carribean and was well worth the entrance fee of 1 pound. We also managed to try some street food in Chinatown before we headed back to our guesthouse in Kuala Lumpur.
As we had done 5 days in Kuala Lumpur now we decided to do a "home-stay" for a night which involved staying with a family for a night whilst they took you out to show you the rural workplaces including a rubber plantation and some food factories including curry puffs (samosas) and crisps made from potatoes. We even visited the Mother's workmates who worked with her at the food factory as they wanted to talk to us and have photos. The wages are surprisingly low compared to the high-life of Kuala Lumpur as one tonne (1000kg) of potatoes from a farm only sold for 14 pounds.

Us at the Mother's workplace making curry puffs!

The family we stayed with was very nice and we had some Malayan food for dinner, breakfast and lunch although nearly every dish had some kind of coconut in and we both don't really like it. The Muslim family we stayed with consisted of a mother, father and 6 children and they had a beautiful house. We had some interesting conversations and debates about their life in rural Malaysia and about Islam. The only bad thing about the home-stay is that we couldn't find it and we even had to go to the village chief to find out what was going on and resulted in an expensive taxi fare! Hopefully we stay in contact with the family as they have Facebook and wanted to add us!

After our 12 days in Malaysia, we headed to the airport the next day to catch our flight to Indonesia.....only 2 weeks left!

Georgetown and Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Carrying on from our last post the 18 month old baby did not stop crying untill 3am and promptly awoke at 8am to carry on her crying fit! rant most definitely over now.....

I've decided to write this blog ( Georgia), as James needs a day off haha.

We arrived in Georgetown to a very quiet guesthouse called Muntri House. We checked in and was dissapointed to see that the 'air-con' we had paid for was merely a fan unit. We don't like to complain, so just put our bags in the room, had a shower and went out for food. We walked for to find somewhere for dinner and come across a place called 'Little India' . When Malayasia was under British Rule, they employed Indian people to work in construction, they effectively were shipped from India to Georgetown. This explains the large amount of Indian immigrants in the area. They are now of course Malayasian and have their own quarter of the Town. If you looked around you, you would have thought you was in India. Indian music was played, stalls selling Indian food were everywhere and shops selling beautiful Indian clothing. We decided to of course try some Indian Cuisine. James enjoyed his, however I did not. I don't like chicken on the bone in a curry, and this just put me off!

George of the jungle

The next day we got on a local busand headed towards the National Park. Our plan was to catch a boat to Monkey Beach and then complete the 2 hour trek through the National Park back to the entrance. When we juumped off the bus, we stopped at a little restaurant and had curry again, this time it was much nicer :) . The owner made a very nice homemade curry and I was happy! Indian before a trekk was not what we wanted to eat, it was the only place open!
We got the boat to Monkey Beach, set off around 2 minutes on the path and I come across some ten monkeys in the pathway. Don't ask me why I would go to Monkey Beach when I am afraid of monkeys.... But I did! Much to James's dissapoinment I ran away like the big girl I am and refused to complete the trekk. I read reviews on tripadvisor before saying a fellow traveller was attacked by the monkeys and had to have a rabies injections. This kind of thing is rare; but I didn't want to take the chance. We got the boat back to the entrance and took the bus back to the hotel! It was a day out all in all, I just wish the Monkey Mafia wasn't waiting in a pack at the beginning!! Night time arrived and it was ladies night at the bar close to our hotel. Free drinks for girls=happy Georgia. We stayed and had some cocktails, before setting off to bed!

The next day we went on our own walking tour around the town, visited a fort, walked through the quiet streets and even saw a huge cruise ship docked into the port. Georgetown is a world hertiage site with many of the buildings being listed including our hostel which may explain the temporary thin walls between rooms and the lack of air conditioning.


After doing a bit of research, we booked a bus to the 'Cameron Highlands' which was a hill station that the British occupied to escape the heat in the lowlands. We had heard from people we met on our travels, that you can have afternoon tea in the mountains so that was a good enough reason to go. We took the bus at 11.30am and arrived around 4ish to a town that looked so pretty and temperatures of 20C! Right up out street (just what we need, abit of cold weather ;))

We booked a tour which included trekking in the jungle, visiting a tea planatation , doing some strawberry picking and a visiting butterfly farm!  We was most definitely not dissapointed. Firstly, we went into the mountains and saw 'tea-pickers' picking tea leaves and loading sacks of leaves onto tractors to be taken to the factories where the tea is made into what we know as 'tea'. At the factory we got a cup of Cameron Higlands tea and a ice cold peach tea. very nice :) even got a sausage pastry dish to go alongisde it.....

The next stop saw us go to a strawberry farm and hand pick our own strawberries! We paid around 6pounds for half a kilo... slightly pricey even by English standards but was definitely worth it. The strawberries are some of the best I've tasted!


We asked the guide not to be dropped off to the town with the others in our tour as we wanted to stop for afternoon tea and then walk but to the town we were staying in via the forest. We had afternoon tea at "Ye Olde Smokehouse Hotel" and had  some fresh scones, shortbread and tea! It was beautiful and we felt very British. The surroundings were outside in the forest, opposite a golf course and the decor inside what like a old English country House! One for the historians such as myself :)  We finished our scones and strawberries and took 'Trail 4' back to our hotel. The signposts estimated the walk in the forest to be around an hour or so. Me and James done it in 45minutes, because we are pro's ;)

In the 1960s there was only 2,000 people living in the cameron islands and he was one of them! Today there are over 45,000 people. The guide was understably worried about the envirnoment and conservation for the area. He said so much of the jungle is being torn down, and predicts that almost half of it will go in the future. Very sad and definitely something to think about!

We have a bus booked to  Kuala Lumpur tomorrow at 8.00am to continue our next adventure. The Cameron Highlands have been one of the best places we have visited so far (for me at least) .


p.s James broke his phone, not only is the screen smashed, the touch screen doesn't work either.


untill next time......

Koh Samui, Krabi and our "journey" to the border

Under normal circumstances I would be writing a blog in an internet cafe in the middle of the afternoon when it's too hot to be walking about but tonight is an exception. It's 2AM and I have gave up trying to sleep as we are staying in a hotel with paper thin walls (and ceilings) and there is a 18-month old baby next door either running around or crying which her parents don't care about. The walls are literally cardboard, plus the room says it comes with air conditioning which is not really the case. We have been provided with a portable air-conditioning unit that pumps out my hot air out the back of it than the cold air out the front.....I don't know how this hotel has an 8.2 out of 10 rating online, I will be the one responsible to make that rating go down. Rant over!

After leaving Koh Tao, we headed to Koh Samui which is the largest of the Thai islands that we have visited but we had a couple of days free before my parents arrived. We booked into a nice room on the North of the island in the middle of nowhere, but it was cheap and we didn't mind because it had a pool and a restaurant and was in the countryside. It turned out that one of the owners was from Birmingham and there may have been a Thai bride involved somewhere along the line. The hotel was nice but the man who either ran or owned the hotel had the intelligence and social skills of an ogre(couldn't think of a better word) but to be fair wasn't unfriendly. We wasn't there for the service or location, just a nice big air-conditioned room with a swimming pool that we can lay around and detox for a couple of days after enduring the previous 2 weeks of staying in fan rooms and drinking too much beer! 

The 4th April arrived and my Mum and Dad had booked me and Georgia into a nice 4-star hotel on the beach with them which we were looking forward to.....and obviously seeing my parents for the first time in 11 weeks! We checked into reception and was told our room was next door to reception which wasn't too much of a problem, just meant we had a better Wi-fi signal lol. We met my Mum and Dad on the hotel beach and spent the day catching up and having a bit of lunch.

Beach hunk

Over the next few days we seemed to have breakfast as late as possible as it was included with our room until 11AM and was served in these individual wooden bungalows scattered along the front of the hotel on the beach and the breakfast was a 3 course meal! Having breakfast on the beach was the best thing about the hotel. After laying around the beach or pool we would then go out for dinner and have a few drinks and buckets, the drinks sometimes come in actual buckets that you would find on the beach and were usually better value than getting a glass. We were staying on Chaweng beach and was completely different to anywhere else on our travels, it was so developed you could mistake it for being somewhere in Europe. You knew it wasn't Europe because of all the ladyboy shows that were advertised and the endless amount of Thai girls known as Go-Go girls hanging around the bars, although there was a Russian strip club! Don't worry my  Mum put one of the girls in their place after talking to my Dad haha. The resort was just one-long road around 4 miles long so it was impossible to walk down all of it unless you jumped in a taxi or on the back of a pick-up truck.

Me and Georgia decided to rent a moped out for the day to explore the island but I stupidly decided to go through the mountain roads and not stick to the flat wide roads. As a result, our small moped was not powerful to make it up the hill so we had to turn back which was annoying but the worse was yet to come. On the way down the steep hills, the front brake broke leaving me with only the back brake coming down the steep hills. In the end I had to use my feet to stop and my flip-flops are now literally burnt out!

We all visited an "Ice Bar" one night and were given coats, hats and gloves to try and keep us warm from the freezing temperature. The "glasses" were made out of ice and there was even a tuk-tuk made from ice which was impressive. We was only in there for 30 minutes but was worth it as I have always seen it advertised in London but for some reason have never been. We also went to a night market which takes place once a week when the road is shut off and stalls open from early evening into the night with stalls selling everything from Buddha's to Spring Rolls! It was so hot as the steam and smoke was coming from the food stalls and was so busy it became impossible to walk down the market. After my Mum bought a few souvenirs including a couple of Buddhas we jumped back in the taxi back to our resort. The next night we headed to a lady-boy show, a little bit similar to the one we previously saw on Koh Tao but it was a bit more professional which almost took the fun out of it because the show we saw before was quite amateur-ish and was part of the fun.

Six nights later we parted ways with my Mum and Dad and we jumped on a boat back to the mainland whilst they got on a plane back to Bangkok for their flight back to London the following morning! Seven hours later we ended up in Krabi which is probably one of the least touristy places we have been to, its more of a stop-over to get to the other islands in Thailand rather than people visiting Krabi itself. After finding a travel agent and booking a bus to Malaysia we realized we had 7 pound between us to last 2 nights so we made it last until we got to Malaysia to withdraw their currency. We just ate toasties out of 7/11 which is the equivalent to a Tesco Express and had some street food for dinner at the local market which included a fake KFC stall and a stall selling hot-dogs wrapped in pancake? By the end of it we had 1 baht left (2p) and felt a sense of achievement and planned on stuffing our faces the next day on hopefully a something bit more Western.
 

We were picked up the next morning at 06:30 to go to Malaysia but we found out this would involve switching mini-buses in the main city in the South of Thailand just before the border. When getting dropped off by the first minivan we were told by the young Thai lady at the travel agent that the next minivan to Malaysia is not due to arrive for another 90 minutes and we should head into the centre and grab some food! We left our bags at the travel agent and went in search for food but on the way we noticed so many people on the street with water guns.....it was Thai New Year which is known as Songkram.  As a way of celebrating the new year,the Thai tradition originally started by people throwing water over each other as a blessing and a sign of good luck for the new year but has slowly become an excuse for one huge water fight. We found out this out as the locals would threw buckets of water over us, and squirted us using huge water guns. We had to either run or just stand there and get drenched as we wasn't prepared and had no ammunition to fight back.  After being soaked by kids, adults and the elderly lol, our eyes lit up as we saw a McDonald's sign and we ran to cover and tried to dry-out whilst eating chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers. We knew that we were only one block away from the travel agent to get onto the next bus and had 20 minutes to do so which wasn't really the issue, it was trying to dodge the locals and keep dry! We failed miserably. A passing truck with ten people on the back squirted me with water pistols and as I tried to run my flip flop gave way and snapped which gave them more time to soak me until the traffic lights turned green. We made it back to the travel agent wet but we didn't mind because it was so hot and everyone was having a city-wide water fight and all in a good nature with people having a laugh. Our minivan arrived on-time thankfully as we made our escape from the water fight headed to Malaysia for refuge.......

Stats so far................

Stats

Days been away: 81 days

Distance travelled: 15,000 miles (approx.)

Countries Visited: 5 (India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam)

Hotels visited: 35

Bus: 15 Times
Boat: 6 Times
Plane: 5 Times
Train: 3 Times
Overnight Journeys: 7 Times
Longest Journey: 20 hours
 

Thai Islands (Koh Tao and Koh Phangan)

My last blog was very rushed and apparently did not make much sense according to my Dad so I am going to take my time over this blog! To be fair it was rushed because we had to catch a bus and a ferry from Bangkok to the Thai Islands in the South.

Our  journey to Koh Phangan left Bangkok at 6pm and was due to arrive the next day at 10:30am. If we were in England and we arrived half hour late, we wouldn't be too happy. But this is Thailand, if the travel agent says a guaranteed arrival time, you need to add at least 2 hours more onto the journey. We arrived at the island at 1:30pm tired and sweaty after having to endure 2 twilight films on the bus. 

When we checked into our bungalow in our "resort" we had very low expectations but when we entered the room there were cobwebs, dust and spiders everywhere and seemed unused in the past year we wasn't best pleased so we were upgraded to a decent room for a few hours whilst the owner cleaned it. I also made the mistake of trying to convince Georgia that we wouldn't need air conditioning because there would be more of a breeze on the islands compared to Bangkok. Our room had a tin roof so during the day it would heat up and the majority of the time the room was hotter than outside despite the best efforts of a 20 year old fan stuck on the wall! The location of the bungalow was
a 1 minute walk from a quiet beach so it wasn't all bad. The beach was one of the best I have been to mainly due to the fact that there was nobody about, no bars, no sun loungers and the sea was the temperature of a warm bath back home. We even claimed a sandbank at low tide and called it Georgia island, it's the nearest she is going to ever get to owning an island! The island as a whole was developed, but the majority of accommodation was bungalows rather than big hotels and big resorts which makes the island a lot more prettier.

We had a few quiet nights in the bungalow drinking beer and playing cards on our balcony, and eating out at a couple of restaurants. Georgia noticed a sign advertising an unlimited BBQ for only 3 pound which sounded too good to be true, especially as the Thai islands so far is the most expensive place we have visited, although still much cheaper than Spain or Greece. The staff placed a metal bowl on our table, full of boiling water in which you placed the raw meat onto a small plate that was surrounded by the boiling water. Its quite hard to explain, basically it wasn't your typical English BBQ, and I turned into an unconvincing chef that evening trying to cook. Georgia spent a lot of the time in the toilet the next day lol.

After a few days budgeting, relaxing, sweating and exploring the island on a moped, full moon arrived on the island! Full moon on Koh Phangan is an excuse for tens of thousands of people to have a beach party all night and is one of the must things to do! We had arranged to meet up with a few people including Matt and Louise who we first met tubing in Vang Vieng, and Kelly and Laura who we met in Luang Prabang, with Rob flying all the way in from London via Bangkok!
For the "full moon" party we each bought a neon coloured vest-top along with some paints for face paint and random patterns over our arms, although Matt invented his own technique in splattering paint over everyone including the balcony and on the windows! The night started out drinking a combination of Vodka and beer on the balcony playing a few card and drinking games to get the night going and we ended up jumping in a shared taxi down to Haad Rin Beach where the party was. The full moon party was a surreal place, there was a dozen or so beachfront bars blaring out mainly techno music with little independent stalls/carts selling alcohol buckets. It was also weird that we were outside and not inside a packed nightclub. Men and even some women in the sea using it as a toilet whilst there would be people scattered across the beach who were passed out or decided to have a nap! There was also a water slide for people who were drunk enough to brave it, as a good friend we encouraged Rob to have a go and be the Guinea pig. It was a slide about 15 feet high with water running down it with a landing mat at the bottom and it seemed pretty fun looking at the other people having a go, but Rob made a complete meal of it. Instead of sliding down the water slide, he bumped his way down uncomfortably overshooting the landing pad, crashing onto the beach whilst breaking him bum and banging his head on the floor whilst his glasses were falling off, he was in a confused state when he finally got up lol.......it put the rest of us off from having a try! After a few more drinks we slowly was drinking less alcohol and more water (and vegetables) , trying our best to make sunrise at about 6ish but made it to around 5:30am.
That night me and Georgia was letting Rob, Laura and Kelly use our room for the night, but we lost the girls fairly early in the night but we knew there boat back to the mainland was in the morning so they wouldn't be far behind us getting back to the room! The girls turned up at lunchtime looking a bit rough, missed their boat and somehow Kelly's eyebrows were peeling from sunburn, was one of the funniest things I have seen in the past few months.....sorry Kelly lol. Judging by the picture Rob enjoyed his sleep though....
We wasn't in no mood to drink the day after the party and was looking for something to do that didn't involve alcohol. A few days earlier when me and Georgia was exploring the island on our little moped we discovered a Wipeout course. There is a game show  on BBC1 called Total Wipeout when random people or z-list celebrities undertake a water assault course and try to complete it in the shortest time possible. In the past I have always been the first to say that it is one of the worst game shows that has been created but I still couldn't resist giving it a go! Georgia sat around in the shade whilst me and Rob gave the course a go to realise how unfit we are!
That evening we ate at the Mason's Arms which was an English styled Tudor pub in the middle of the island serving English dishes that we have been craving including Pie n Mash, Fish and Chips, roast dinners! I don't think Rob appreciated as much as me and Georgia did because he had only left home a couple of days before. We had an early night in an upgraded air-conditioned version of my shed back home, ready for the boat to Koh Tao the next day....

Koh Tao is a tiny island a couple of hours North of Koh Phangan and only really consisted of one resort on the island and several bays located around the island. We docked into the pier, which looked like it was built in a day and was in danger of collapsing but we made it to the shore and found a taxi to the hotel. The taxis on the islands are not your typical black cab or minicab you would find back in England. They are pick-up trucks with benches at the back with the drivers try their best to cram as many people into one vehicle to earn as much as they can. We arrived at our hot stuffy room in the afternoon and chilled in the shade until the evening when we went out for a meal and for a few drinks. We were staying in the main and only resort but it was tiny, maybe 2/3 streets of shops, bars and restaurants but had a cozy feel to it I suppose. We found a beach bar with good music that was open to the early morning.
The other days consisted of driving around the island on a rented moped which was good but was the most stressful experiences since the beginning of travelling (including India!) when the owner was trying to charge us for small scratches that was there before we rented it out. Admittedly, Rob did scratch a small plastic cover but nothing too major and she wanted 70 pound for it whilst they also tried to charge me the same amount for a scratch on the mud flap! After negotiating for hours I ended up paying 25 quid for a scratch on a mudflap and Rob had to pay the full 70! I had revenge in mind and I thought if we paid more or less 100 pound between us in supposed damages on the mopeds, we were going to get our moneys worth and smash a couple of mirrors on the bikes the next day haha. When me and Rob was walking to the beach the next day, we passed the rental place and it had disappeared . The shop was shut, no mopeds in sight, the roof protecting the mopeds was gone and nothing remained. We had read reviews about dodgy rental companies on the island charging people for non-existent damages to bikes with tourists having no power to negotiate because they kept our passports has a deposit for the bikes, which was a stupid thing to do in hindsight!
Apart from that incident, Koh Tao is a beautiful and picturesque island that was only a few miles long, lots of palm trees and not too developed unlike the other islands. It is a shame that I am not a keen swimmer as it was the 2nd most popular diving site in the world as the water is so clear and warm.
We played mini-golf and bowling a couple of nights in which you may think is not worth a mention but the bowling was an experience. It was "Flintstone bowling" and consisted of a bowling lane made out of wood, there was no machinery involved and we had to re-set the pins manually every time we knocked them over. We also had to push the ball back down the aisle and considering we were playing in 40 degree heat, it was hard work! It was an experience but I think next time we will pay the staff to manually reset the pins for only 50p more! I spent my birthday on Koh Tao and went out for a nice Indian but feels as if I missed out on my birthday but I can't hardly complain being in sunshine on a Thai island!
It was time for us and Rob to part ways after a week together which was EMOTIONAL, Rob headed back to the heat of Bangkok and we headed to Koh Samui for a week to meet with my Mum and Dad. I am currently staying in a nice hotel with air-conditioning, a mini-bar, a swimming pool, soft beds which is complete luxury compared to what we are used to! Until next time.......