Day 34 - 37 Koh Pha Ngan

Koh Pha Ngan was 4 days of complete and utter contrast. After our short boat ride from Koh Samui we arrived at the notorious "full moon party" venue. We had arranged to meet up with Fiona and CP a few days earlier so we could experience this party haven together. We knew we had come at a quiet time, the next full moon being 5th of June and the place carried quite a sleepy vibe, but that didnt stop us visualizing the madness of the moon, and experiencing it to a certain degree. Stalls lined the streets filled with fluro singlets and body paint, bucket stalls lined the beautiful beach and with night fall came the music. After lazing around in the awesome paradise bungalows pool we ventured out in search of the crowd and found them amoungst the fire dancers and painted people dancing on table tops. The small crowd was all we needed to realize how utterly insane the place could get on a full moon party. We drank cocktails and ate some delicious Thai food as we watched the bucket stall vendors fight for business. We watched some very talented locals fire dance, and watched some very silly tourists almost burn their faces off playing the balloon game. The balloon game involved them taking a mouthfull of kerosene and spitting it out at the stick of fire they held infront of them, in order to light the target on fire. Boatfulls of people ventured out into the dark sea to partys at other bays which apparently kicked on for the entirety if the weekend. We could of almost joined those boat people but we had made a commitment for the next three days that a bad hangover would not help. The next moring after saying goodbye to Fiona and CP we where on our way to the "commitment"...3 days at a Ayurvedic/yoga/massage/cleanse retreat in the hills of Koh Pha Ngan. Something that we never thought we would experience but was actually very rewarding. At Monta Vista retreat we participated in a Ayurvedic cleanse that included fresh fruit, herbs, and small Tri Doshic Meals. We woke early every morning for yoga looking out at the amazing view and struggled with swithing the mind off at meditation. We enjoyed daily massages and learnt the principles of Ayurvedic (natural healing & the power of the mind). Even though it was a great experience and we learned things that we will incorporate into our daily life  we were glad it was only 3 days...The yoga/massages where amazing but the cleansing food or lack of it was a little hard. We are now rearing to go, refreshed, rejuvenated and ready for the next half of our adventure.

Day 30 - 33 Koh Samui

I want to begin my Koh Samui post by thanking everyone who looks at, reads, and or comments on my blog.  Its comforting to know that you can follow our journey, have a way of pin pointing where we are, and its good feeling to see that some of you are actually reading my wordy travel experiences. I suppose it will save you from millions of "When we were in South East Asia..." stories when we return, but you might just get them anyway. So our Koh Samui experience started by taking a long tail boat from Railay, a 1 hour wait in Krabi, a 30 minute mini van ride to a bus stop in central Krabi, another 1.5 hour wait, a 3 hour bus ride to Don Sak, a 30 minute wait for the ferry, and a 2 hour ferry ride to Koh Samui. We arrived on the jetty just in time for the most intense tropical downpour and made our way through the steam rising on the asphalt to a tuk tuk. We drove around the coast, past beautiful stretches of sand, and contrasting small towns until we made it to Chaba Resort in Chewang. When ever I have heard other peoples tales of holidays in Thailand they largely take place in Phuket or Koh Samui so I just made the assumption that they were just the "same same but different" however from all the "Koh Samui is too touristy" talk from hardcore back packers we actually came to realize that this mixture of over the top flash and sleepy rustic is under-appreciated by some. Samui locals were definitely not as pushy as Phuket which really helped the laid back vibe and added to the feeling of safety which i suppose is how we plucked up the courage to hire a scooter one day. It was great to do some exploring, find peaceful little swimming spots, drive through the gorgeous little fisherman's village of Bohput, and witness how the locals lived their lives outside of the tourist hubs. Driving around the crazy streets was really really fun, but it came to an end too early because of course "we" had to watch the bloody State of Origin.  After a scooter day I started to wonder if accidents really happened as frequently as we were told (until our taxi driver one day hit a pregnant lady on a scooter which is totally different story in itself and re installed my fare of scooters in Thailand) One really enjoyable yet painful day pulled us off the beach, away from Ark bar and on a boat bound for Anthong National Park. The collection of limestone islands that make up the park seemed not that far in the distance from the bow of the speed boat but as we all should know the ocean isn't always what it seems. As soon as we got beyond the shelter of the bay the swells began to increase and the boat would drop off with such force the fiberglass felt as though it was about to shatter. We continued at a gut retching speed,  with our organs and joints being jolted and mussels completely tensing all the way into Anthong. As the Thai crew sat on the bow (with Mike of course) enjoying being completely saturated and laughing at the hellish ride the rest of the us where at the back of the boat hanging on for dare life. 6 out of the 15 where physically sick with plastic bags and last nights dinner everywhere, with the our tour guide telling them to "hang off side of boat for fresh air and wet face".  I was really thankful for my stable sea legs at that point and really felt for those pale face people. Thank goodness Mum, Amy or Sue were not on that boat!! Stopping was definitely the best part of the trip with the crystal clear water, amazing snorkeling, the breathtaking emerald green lagoon on Koh Mae Ko, kayaking through the caves, and lunch at a local fishing village. The fishing village was on the banks of a hand dug canal that the locals had made in order to get the fishing boats in and out. They cooked us a feast of sweet & sour chicken, local stir fried vegetables, steamed rice, deep fried prawns, thai chicken soup and fresh watermelon, YUM! Our unbelievably happy tour guide "Ye" was great and we managed to get back to shore that night alive. Other highlights of our Koh Samui stay where finding an awesome local restaurant, set up in a shed with the kitchen in the middle. Our orders were taken down on ripped up pieces of cardboard, and averaged on 65B per meal ($2Aus). The place was packed, the staff running around chaotically weighing seafood, cooking, taking orders, and squeezing fresh juice. Our food was amazing...squid, massaman curry, phad thai, papaya salad, and basil and bean salad what a feast! A feast that we would dream about quite frequently at our next stop Koh Pah Ngan... 

Day 26 - 29 Railay

Imagine arriving in a bay that looks as though God has been playing with a melting pot of limestone, chucked a few rocks down into the ocean, and poured the rest of the melting substance over the top so it drips and then drys like icicles. Add jungle, coconut palms, mangroves, white stretches of sand, jade coloured water and a littering of resorts on the shores and you have Railay. We arrived by longtail boat, which sounds like  a motorbike and looks extremely labour intensive to maneuver. Our boat driver took us as far as he could until it was all ashore, wading through the mud and mangroves with our packs on our back. We stayed at the Sand Sea resort on the West side which was a 5 minute walk from our mangrove arrival on the East. We soon realized this may be one of our favourite stops, with so much to explore... We had some huge days and there is no better feeling than your head hitting the pillow in utter exhaustion after a meaningful, inspiring, and physical day. Some of the highlights included climbing up "the mudslide of death", the reward a magical view at the top. I really didn't think I was capable of pulling my body up that gigantic cliff, it was fear more than anything but determination = suprisingly pleasent results ohh and I had some help...Mr Beavis managed to carry the bag, my shoes, scale up and down the bank like a monkey, and give me a hand at the same time. After the climb we made our way through tangled tree roots to Ao Phra Nang beach to wash the red clay from our legs and bake/age our bodies a little bit more in the sun.  Yesterday we hired a kayak and set out for the surrounding bays, and limestone caves. With the weather on our side we decided to venture out to the outer unhabitated Islands, which was absoloutley worth the 20km round trip row, and mind games to get us there. We spotted some strange looking sealife, and naked french people,  experinced absoloute silence in the middle of the ocean (something we havent heard for a long time), sheltered near the mouths ofthe cave from the blearing sun, found some of the best swimming spots on the trip so far, and Mike got a nasty jelly fish sting on his lip. Unfortunately our stay here is coming to an end as we prepare for an early morning to our next destination Koh Samui. 

Day 23 - 25 Koh Phi Phi

Hello world...its been a while since we checked in. We are safe and sound at breathtaking Railay. A gorgeous bay landlocked by limestone cliffs, just out of Krabi and only accessible  by boat. Since arriving here the heavens opened up, pouring with sunshine, sparkling waters, adventures, and most importantly the lining started returning to our stomachs. Unfortunatley in Koh Phi Phi we were hit with a case of the travelers bug (something in the form of food poising, gardia, or gastro that seriously affected our stomachs). So the beautiful island of Koh Phi Phi is now known by Mike as Koh Poo Poo. Apart from being bunkered down in our room we did manage to go for a swim under the shade of the overhanging limestone cliffs, get lost in the maze of narrow alleyways teeming with trinkets, and we even "managed" (JUST) to climb up to the view point overlooking the island. On our last day on the island, with cloudly minds, unstable legs, and homesickness starting to set in we jumped abroad the ferry to Railay. As we sat on the  bow breathing the salty air, with the wakes lapping at our feet and watching the huge jellyfish swim by I once again realized how special this South East Asia journey is and how lucky we were to be out here in the world. A bad tummy may slow us down but not for long...

Day 20 - 22 Phuket

We were really excited about the next step of our journey, Thailand. We decided to fly into Phuket from Penang as it meant we received a 30 day visa instead of a 15 day visa if we had entered over the land boarder. I was glad to be flying as the boarder between Malaysia and Thailand is still quite dangerous with recent car bombings in March. We booked accommodation at Peach Hill Resort just between Kata Beach and Karon Beach about 10 minutes drive from the famous Patong. It took about an hour from the airport to get to our accommodation and the drive was more than overwhelming...hundreds of stalls selling fake everything, people everywhere, scooters everywhere, restaurants, bars, lights, massage parlours, Aussie bars blasting AFL, thousands of deck chairs along the beach and so much more. Phuket = CRAZY! After a relatively quiet first night in Karon (quiet by Phuket standards) we ventured off into Patong for the day. Transportation was by Tuk Tuk after we were approached by what seemed like thousands of taxi drivers offering "cheap price". All day it was "I make nice suit for you mate, taxi, tuk tuk, please come in for a look, massage, manicure, dvd, cheap price for you". There were people grabbing our wrists, lots of hand shaking and a few very sneaky tactics to try and get us into their shops. The funniest thing was they have all seemed to have perfected the Aussie accent "Gidday mate, would you like a suit...what about a dvd mate" and if we ever informed them we were infact New Zealanders it suddenly became "oh Kia Ora bro". I found the entire experience quite overwhelming and just wanted to be left along while Mike relished in it, bartering with them, telling them he could get it cheaper down the road, joking with them, coming back with quite a few witty responses that they couldn't even respond too. I was a sucker at first, and pretty sure I got ripped off with my first purchase but got better and harder as the day wore on. Mike had a massage and I had a manicure and pedicure for next to nothing, enjoyed some amazing Thai food, walked along the beach with all the Russians in G-Strings and middle age English men, absorbed the craziness, and we even got to feed a baby elephant that was roaming the streets one night which was my highlight. Phuket is something we definitely had to experience however its not somewhere I will be coming back to in a hurry. Today we are off to Phi Phi Island for 3 nights were "The Beach" was filmed and apparently can be described as the most beautiful island in the world...can not wait. 

Day 18-19 Penang

After 24 hours of traveling it was wonderful to be in Penang. The best thing however was our day was going to be one of the easiest day's we would probably experience in a big asian city as we were meeting up with Sean. Sean is one of Mikes  work colleagues from Melbourne and is originally from Penang. Our dates somehow matched and we were so lucky that Sean and Lyn   were able to show us around, and introduce us to some of the local delicacies. Penang has arguably the best food on offer in Malaysia and some of the smelliest we were soon to find out. We toured through historical Georgetown to a very busy old style cafe where we tried the famous Laksa that had been boiling away all day. The spicy/sour broth complete with noodles and seafood was delicious! We had a feast that included Cendol a Malaysian desert with shaved ice, coconut milk, beans, and sweat peas it was interesting and surprisingly ok. Later that day we checked out some of the beautiful hotels along the water front, and Sean explained how there is a lot of new development going on in Penang on reclaimed land. After driving around this pretty city Sean & Lyn decided to go on a  hunt for Durian, a famous local fruit. We had noticed that this fruit was banned in many public places and hotels in Malaysia and we were soon to find out why...because of its smell. Think of the smell of gas, chuck in a few garbage trucks and blue cheese and you have Durian. We drove up into the hills to a roadside fruit stall, a colorful display against the green back drop were we tried Rambutan, Mangosteen, Jett Fruit, Star Fruit and of course Durian. The smell put us off completely but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it. It was heavy in texture like a root vegetable, very very strong like garlic, quite sweet but almost like a meat...very different and something I wouldn't eat again. The rest of  our time in Penang we walked the  streets of Georgetown, admired the  old  architecture, tasted the cheap and amazingly delicious hawker food, and prepared for the next step of our journey  into Thailand.

Day 17 Perhentian Islands to Penang

Our last night on the island was restless to say the least. I have never experienced more than 50 mosquito bites on my arms & chest, something I can add to my list of "hopefully never again"...oh and mum there is no Malaria on Perhentian so don't freak out. We boarded the 8am boat back to Kuala Besut and crossed our fingers and toes that we would make our 11am bus in Kota Bharu to Penang. Fiona, CP, Mike and I jumped in our 1970 Mercedes with our taxi driver Zoul and made our way to Kota Bharu. There was a little confusion about the location of our bus stop but thank goodness for technology and google maps however our trip was still destined for a series of unfortunate events. Once at the bus stop we were told there was no 11am  bus and the next one wasn't until 10pm. Zoul our taxi driver was very concerned about our wellbeing at this "middle of nowhere" bus stop  and decided to stick around and ask everyone he could if there was another bus departing for Penang before 10pm. Thank goodness he decided to stay with us as we were back in the cab and at Central bus station in the middle of Kota Bharu in 20 minutes. It was distressing to realize that our research had failed...there was indeed no 11am bus as so many internet sites informed us. It was either wait in Kota Bharu for 12 hours or hire a car and drive to Penang. Kota Bharu can be explained in a sentence "A place that none of us ever ever want to go back  to or be in for a second  longer". So hiring a car it was and the boys somehow had the confidence to drive in crazy motorcycle Malaysia. Zoul amazingly was still sticking around to save the day and took us to his friend who knew were we could hire a car. He became increasingly chatty & had suprisingly good English which he told us he learnt at night school when he got the job to drive tourists around. Later on we discovered his friends directions were wrong and there was no car hire place in sight, this really put him in a spin with his head lowered and shirt wet with perspiration he was devastated that he had wasted our time and couldn't stop apologizing. We were happy that we were safe in his taxi rather than on the streets of Kota Bharu but doubt started to enter our minds to whether Zoul knew that there was no 11am bus from the very start. We decided to go to the airport to rent a car and Zoul kindly drove us. We obviously gave him quite a bit more money for all his effort and there were even hugs and handshakes all round. Its nice to believe that there are actually nice people in this world like Zoul who will go above and beyond the call of duty to help strangers & I suppose we will never find out if he took us for a real ride knowing there was no 11am bus in the first place. After saying goodbye to Zoul things just got so much better...we found out there was  a 3 day minimum to hire a car and a hefty interstate tax, we even looked at flights. After a while we admitted defeat, we would be catching the 10pm bus. We were over the moon that we would be spending the day in Kota Bharu with our packs in the heat, and a night of paid accommodation in Penang we wouldn't be enjoying. It  was a day of killing time thats for sure and I am glad there were four of us to lighten the load and bring some humor to our situation. We spent 3 hours in KFC because it had Aircon and plugs to charge our electronics, 1 hour in the shopping mall, 2 hours walking the streets, 2 hours trying to figure out which hawker food wouldn't make us sick, 2 more hours in McDonalds for the Aircon, bathroom and Wifi, and an hour at the bus stop. I have never been so happy to start a 7 hour bus trip in my life, and at 5.30am after a couple of hours of fitful sleep and dressing like Eskimo's because of the Aircon we arrived in absolutely awesome Penang alive just 12 hours late...

Day 13 - 16 Perhentian Islands

At some point during our 5 nights on the Perhentian Islands we realized we were in actual fact on holiday. We had spent the last 14 days charging around making sure we saw & experienced everything we possibly could. But here apart from swimming, snorkeling, walking over to the other side of the island (Long Beach) eating and drinking there wasn't a hell of a lot to do and it was fantastic. A typical day on the Perhetians involved...1) waking up  in a sweat once the sun started streaming in. 2) making our way as quickly as possible to the wharf for a swim. It was the deepest jumping off point and offered some cool temporary relief from the heat. 3) a cold shower.  4) Breakfast on the beach = Roti Canai with home made curry sauce. 5) Lay in the sun, read, swim, snorkel, read, lay in the sun. 6) cold shower. 7) Light Lunch,  snickers shake, or skip the food and stay in the water. 8) Walk to another beach spot, read, swim, lay in the sun. 9) Watch the storm roll in signaled by the cracking thunder and fork lightening in the distance. 9) Cold shower. 10) Make our way to dinner which usually involved a beach BBQ, rice, banana bread & watermellon. 11) Early night or big night at long beach drinking monkey juice, dancing to cheesy music with the locals, and buying the best burgers I have ever eaten at 3am from a stall on the beach...and that pretty much sums it up. We were also lucky enough to run into the first kiwi couple we have seen on this trip and  strangely enough Mike knows them SMALL WORLD!  It was really good to be able to hang out on the island with Fiona & CP, chat about travel plans, party with and tomorrow travel to Penang with. 

Day 12 Kuala Lumpur to Perhentian Islands

We decided to fly from  KL to Kotu Bharu. We were rather interested to see what an overnight train journey on ''the jungle line'' would be like but taking a 45 minute flight for $35 Aus each seemed like the better option. We arrived in Kota Bahru at 3.30pm and were told the last ferry  departed Kuala Besut at 5pm (give maybe 20 minutes due to Island time). We jumped in a taxi at the airport for our 1 hour journey to the jetty. We weaved through small towns overtaking families on motorbikes, children on motorbikes, women, men and animals on motorbikes. It was great being able to people watch as we drove.  Malaysia is predominantly muslim in faith and  I had heard that Kota Bahru was a little more extremist than the cities as small towns often are. On our drive every single lady I saw was wearing the traditional muslim head dress. It makes western woman stick out like a sore thumb. Mike helps out a bit there though, a tall, pale skinned, hairy english man gets a few looks too. Once we arrived in Kuala Besut just in time for the last boats to Perhentian islands things were a little more relaxed, more tourists & malaysian holiday makers lined up to jump on the boats destined for a few days of paradise. 35 minutes later on glassy water we arrived at Coral Bay...these Malaysian Islands just keep getting better!! We walked along the white sand beach asking for accommodation and finally settled on a small room at Fatimah's about 30metres from the beach...it was more than basic but for $10 a night, cold running water, a fan, and a mosquito net we couldn't complain. We were just happy to be here and time would tell if we could hack it.

Day 10 - 11 Kuala Lumpur

I never had any formulated opinions or thoughts on Kuala Lumpur, in my mind it was just another huge Asian city, a stop over destination perhaps full of shops & fake watches. I was right about the fake watches however there was so much more depth to the city that I could have ever imagined. Exploring the city at night was fantastic, everything comes to life, the lights, the people, street stalls, clubs, food, and last but not least the buildings. The Petronas towers were spectacular at night, huge & bright, actually quite beautiful towering over the green park beneath them. We were lucky enough to book dusk tickets to go up the towers to view the city from the sky bridge & then the 83rd floor. Mike & I agree thats its the best view of a city that we have ever seen. Other than exploring the city by foot and monorail we ventured out to Batu Caves about 30 minutes out of the city. The Batu caves are a Hindu worship site featuring a 40m gold Hindu statue. The limestone caves are really impressive full of wall paintings, shrines and MONKEYS...so many monkeys. Hearing all the Japanese tourists screaming every time one got too close, or tried to steal their food was frequent. I loved them, I could of sat there all day on the steps and watched them. On our train trip home from the caves we watched a huge storm roll in and cover the city in complete darkness. The thunder was intense and the downpour saturated the city in minutes. Unfortunatley we got completely saturated too but we couldn't complain since we had such a awesome hotel to go back to & dry off. The Istana hotel really did make our stay in KL that much better. We took full advantage of the buffet breakfasts, afternoon high tea, and complimentary cocktail hour with nibbles (the nibbles were more like a feast and substitued for our  dinner most nights) We can never be guaranteed aircon, power, or full tummys so why not make the most of it & a bubble bath or two.     

Day 9 Melaka to Kuala Lumpur

One of the easiest journeys we have made so far... an air conditioned bus with complimentary water and green tea and 2 hours later we arrived in KL. We decided to stay somewhere a little more fancier and why not when the Aus dollar is on our side. After a short trip on the monorail admiring the skyline of this huge city we arrived at The Istana hotel. Marble floors, water features, amazing artwork and the very happy staff of Istana were a heavenly sight. We both suddenly became a little self conscious in our jandels, t-shirts and carrying our sweaty back packs in this palace however that soon disappeared when we entered our room. The bathroom was bigger than the rooms we have been staying in and the view...so those are the Petronas Towers!  

Day 8 Melaka

A huge day of travelling from Tioman Island brought us to Melaka about 10.30pm in the evening. We had no idea what our accommodation would be like as we booked it about 3 hours prior and there wasn't much to chose from seeing that we would be arriving the weekend before Malaysian Labour day. Our little taxi with no seat belts took us to the 1st Inn Hotel right on the edge of vibrant China town. Noise, horns, karaoke from the surrounding bars, colourful tuk tuks blasting Adele and Lady Ga Ga, the smell of food and thousands of people on their way to the Jonker street night market greeted us all at once. We dumped our bags in our surprisingly spacious room for $30Aus a night and took off for the night markets in search of food. We had managed to book a room right in the middle of the action on the edge of the river and within a 2 min walk to the creative hub of Jonker street. After exploring the stalls and sitting down to a bowl of Curry Mee (a local noodle curry, consisting of coconut milk, spices and fish) bed was calling after an exhausting day. Melaka was originally a Malay fishing village however in 1511 the Portuguese conquered the city and soon after the Dutch, then British. The European influence is still hugely evident in this pretty little city with many of the original buildings still standing, and many bakery's and street stalls selling the famous pineapple and egg tarts. Walking along the river side almost feels as though you are in Europe. During our 2 days hear Mike and I took a tuk tuk ride around the city which was hilarious. We learnt about the Melaka tree which opens its foliage to the sun during the day and closes it up again at night (sometimes its referred to as the tree of life - for you mum) We explored St Paul's Church built in the 1700's and other historic buildings, spent hours visiting stalls on Jonker Street, walked the length of the river admiring the street art and water displays, and Mike even learnt a few very cleaver card tricks from an old magician "selling" his secrets.