Simon & Caroline's World Tour 07/08

The boat trip up the rapids had told us to prepare for getting wet, but for some reason it didn't quite twig that I shouldn't wear shorts and a t-shirt. At least I had my camera in it's fancy new underwater housing to get this shot. Three rapids, and several complete soakings later, and just as the little man at the back with the bucket for bailing the water out got tired, we made it to the natives village. To be fair they seemed to look like they lived in the straw huts, but the guy demonstrating fire starting and blowing darts was wearing a Quiksilver baseball cap and t-shirt... That soaking had washed off our mozzie repellant, so after a few minutes in that village we were literally itching to get back in the boat and down those rapids.

After the mini buses came the high speed "ferry" to the islands, which was really a oversized dingy, and we bounced/jolted over the waves to the tropical paradise island that is Perentian. The whole setup was very similar to Fiji, including the boat transfer to the beach and me worrying about bags going overboard. Leaving Caroline to bagsit, I wandered looking for a nice little chalet, skipped on the Guantanamo Bay-esque one (it was less than a tenner though...) and settled for the one with aircon, balcony and 70's pink sheets. Sitting on the beach eating our dinner and having a beer, you realise all those hours on the move are worth it!

The day started exploring Long Beach where our hostel is, we contemplated walking through to the next bay, but seeing as we couldn't actually find the path, we hired a water taxi (for £3!) to take us. D'Lagoon has only one small beach and a small hostel nestled on it, and the occupants stared at us as we arrived, as though we'd interrupted their private beach. Our stay didn't last long though, as we arrived a storm brewed up, the wind making snorkelling difficult. I did have enough time to find Nemo though, hiding away in the anemone. Fortunately as the storm settled down, a boat passed and gave us a lift back to Long Beach, just before the rain settled in for the rest of the day, there is a reason we've been carrying heavy reading books around after all!

And of course we indulged in a bit of our new favourite beach hobby; snorkelling. The water here is a perfect clear turquouise and there are two excellent snorkelling spots on this beach, one at each end. There is such a huge variety of pretty, muti-coloured fish to see as well as the interesting coral that you can easily spend ages just swimming around and marvelling at it all (unfortunately, the resulting snorkel face is not such a good look!).

Si helped me to find a Nemo so I was happy and of course he's got his new favourite hobby; underwater photography so he's happy. All in all, everyone's happy and it was a pretty perfect day (just in case you are not jealous enough; we enjoyed beer / cocktails on the beach after sun-down.... Mmm :)

The boat back was on a not so converted fishing boat that couldn't even get close enough to the beach, so we had to jump and swim for the shore. Already missing the beach, we skipped the afternoon trip and read our books on the beach before seeing what else we could find at the local beach, turns out there was a bigger shark, about a metre long, but it disappeared before I could photo it. (or frighten Caroline...)

We explored the local area with Brad, a Kiwi on a 3 week trip, and eventually found La Cuisine - a 24 hour local food joint that had nothing to do with France (the "western food" stall was deserted bar a couple of rice cookers). I'm not sure what I ordered, but it was essentially some shellfish and other stuff scraped out of the bottom of a fishermans net along with a sauce so hot and spicy that I'm surprised the spoon didn't melt on contact.

The first stop was Deerworld, where we hand fed ravenous deer tiny bits of carrot that had us fearing for our fingers. A couple of deer had learned if you chew t-shirt the annoying biped holding the basket of food gets distracted so you can jump up and get all the food. I'm sure I'll have nightmares about being attacked by deer at some point. The zoo was very much of the interactive type, I had a kiss from a parrot, held a hedgehog (it was white, I thought it was some form of jungle hedgehog, but just the plain old UK type), had our hands pecked by quail, and had one very scared sugar glider (chipmunk-esque critter) use our hands as a toilet. The final animal was a rather large bear, fortunately vegetarian, who ate chocolate and Nestles milk from our hands, and was distracted long enough for a bear hug from us.

The government run Elephant sanctuary's prime role is to move elephants from ever encroaching palm tree plantations to national parks, in the hope they stay there - the only rescue mentioned had elephants that wandered out of the park. The sanctuary is also home to elephants that can't be returned to the wild, like the couple of baby orphans, and spend their days as part of the show. Firstly the encrusted mud is hosed off, the elephants laying down so their backs get cleaned, and enjoy every minute. We got to pass them their dinner of fruit, most of them taking it off our hands with huge slimy trunks, but a couple held their mouths open for fruit on what must be the biggest tongue I've ever seen. Finally, we got a quick ride on the stubbly back of an elephant, nicely cleaned only minutes earlier, so I'm pretty sure it was the keeper that smelled so bad.

We had time on the way back to drive up to the Genting Highlands, Las Vegas in the mists (sic) of KL - the air was cold and at 6118 ft our heads were in the clouds, that's probably why half the theme park was inside. Poking out through the mist was the bizarrely multicoloured largest hotel in the world with 6118 rooms, and the inevitable airport style check-in desks. Altogether a packed day, maybe it wasn't so bad I can't read flight times properly..

As it turned out Ao Nang is a bit of a tourist hot-spot and so was filled with 'farangs' (white people). We might not get to experience true, authentic Thai culture just yet but the competition for tourist money meant that we can stay in relative luxury and eat like kings for bargain prices, already we're thinking we're going to like Thailand.

By the time we had our beach clobber on and were ready to catch a boat to Railays it was getting late so we were considering delaying our trip until tomorrow. Watching the daytrippers return and have to exit their boats half way out to sea and come back soaked sealed the deal.

So we found ourselves walking along Ao Nang beach looking for a shady spot to settle in with our books. Before we could reach that spot we met 'Oi' a friendly Thai massuese who was keen to give us massages. I didn't need much persuading and for 2 quid who could refuse. Some pineapple on lolly sticks secured the deal and I left Si to his pineapple and book while I indulged in a little R and R. One hour and one glorious massage later I rejoined Si on the beach feeling like a new woman with all my stresses and strains eased away! I'm feeling an obligation to do my bit for the Thai economy by having one of these every day...

We landed at the west beach which was nicely framed by huge limestone cliffs indicative of Thailand, and the sea gently lapping at the shore. There were also a couple of other beaches a short walk away, the east beach, which seemed to have no sand and was closer to a mangrove swamp. The other beach was much nicer; monkeys playing in the trees, caves at one end, islands at the other. We even ventured up a hill/cliff (i.e. near vertical) to a view point, and a lagoon that was just a bit too slimy to get to with sandals on. Gibbons were hooting in the trees as we descended the few hundred metres back to the beach, making it feel like we were in a jungle in the middle of nowhere, not within sight of ten resorts.

We moved on to Khao Sok, a national park to the north, in a similar vein to Taman Negara (well something has to break up the beaches and islands...). Our tree top hut (concrete looking trees mind you) was devoid of aircon, but did have mozzie nets over somewhat tired beds, and views over the river. Taking a night safari, we walked through the jungle stopping to see sticky frogs, fireflies flashing their bright bums as they fly, spiders, centipedes, frogs that play dead, and elephant tracks (scary, until we were told it was a domestic elephant). Alas, the walk was long and humid, and we saw most of the interesting stuff near our hut, but at least we got some exercise.

The sun beat down as the ferry idled it's way over to Ko Pha Ngan, our next tropical island. Time to catch up on some music listening and blogging, although when they'll get posted is another matter as phone reception is flaky at best. The touts were out in force as the ferry docked, shouts of "YOU! Taxi!", and "where you go?!" were directed at us before we'd even disembarked. Fortunately, we could walk on by as we had found a helpful government tourist advisor who had booked us into the Cabanas.

The hotel backed on to the beach, and we had just enough time to have a swim and snack before watching the sunset whilst walking along the beach - it's amazing how quickly scenes change and you can forget about the woes of a day. With our next days adventure booked we relaxed and moved onto Fiji Thai time.

Ang Thon is the setting for the novel "The Beach", about that traveller's nirvana of an off the beaten track place undiscovered and untouched by other tourists - although I doubt there is any beach in Ang Thon that hasn't been invaded by tourists, given the number that we saw. Still, the beauty of the forty or so islands is undisputed. Whilst the water was a bit murky, snorkelling revealed spiky sea urchins and almost luminescent yellow fish. We didn't actually need to snorkel to see those urchins as the next stop at a lagoon had plenty in it. After a beach lunch, and giggle at the attempts of some people to kayak and how frustrated they were getting, we took to kayaks ourselves and toured the cliffs and caves of a nearby island. That was our day done, just a ride back to shore with the sun shining and wind whistling past as the boat sped on.

Caroline's update: After that stressful pillion ride (it was actually not too bad if I tried not to think of the number of accidents I had read about or the number of people I had seen with obvious moped style injuries!) what better way to unwind than another massage. I decided to try a Thai massage this time not realising that I was actually signing myself up for being poked, prodded, pulled, kneed, stood on, punched, slapped and having all my bones cracked! By the end I was left wondering if I'd been given a massage or been beaten up, especially since it ended with some vigorous blows to the back of my head! I think I'll stick to the relaxing oil massages you get on beaches in the future.

P.S. Apologies for the influx of posts, there's been a lack of internet!

Later that afternoon we boarded the ferry to the last island of our trip, Koh Tao, reputedly home to some fine sea life. So, after dumping bags we (ok, well I) were in that snorkel mask out looking for new wonders. Maybe we were on the wrong beach, but beyond a few sea turds (sea cucumbers if you're being accurate) and a dense school of fish scaring me as they appeared out of the murky water, there wasn't much to see. Come to think of it, the best snorkelling has been in Malaysia.

That evening we watched the sun set over the ocean whilst quenching the heat induced thirst with a couple of beers from the comfort of bean bags. Just as we finished the wind picked up, blowing mini coconut type fruit to fall dangerously close. Time to take cover and seek shelter from the rain in another beach restaurant - it's tough you know... ;-)

We tried to explore the rest of the island, but there was literally one road only 5km long, and we missed even the dirt track turnoffs that were optimistically marked on the map. Still, we managed to squeeze in another beer whilst watching the sunset, and then cheated by going to the local Italian-Mexican restaurant for dinner. The Italian bit was on the opposite side of the road, which meant my pizza took a while to make it's way over. That's something the Thais haven't mastered yet - delivering food at the same time (it is tasty when you get it, so we'll let it slide...)

The journey made us thankful of iPods and their vast selection of music, memories of long bus journeys with a Walkman and a few worn out cassettes are a thing of the past. As expected our arrival in Bangkok was amongst the chaos of taxi and tuk-tuk drivers eager to help make a quick buck, so much so it wasn't even worth haggling when they start at about 25 times the actual fare. The hotel was only a short walk away, so with that overladen traveller look of big rucksack on the back, and small one on the front we made our way through the deserted streets to the nirvana of a proper bed for the night.

The ferry dropped us off near the palace, but the first sight was the colourful roofs of Wat Pho, a buddhist temple adjacent to the palace. The star attraction was the huge gold reclining buddha, about 50 metres long housed in his own building. I'm betting the builders were glad the buddhists didn't want a standing buddha as that thing was big. At least my curiosity was satisfied as to what the sole of a buddha looks like (mother of pearl, in case you wondered), and the only enlightenment that sole received was when the camera flashes went off. (sorry, couldn't resist a rubbish joke...)

We ended up only having half an hour to look around the palace, which was probably a good thing as I had to wear trousers over my shorts in the stifling heat. There were also a number of "helpful" people telling tourists they wouldn't get in, or it was closed already, probably in preparation for some scam or other. There are plenty of signs telling you not listen to these people, often right next to the scammer, which makes you wonder why they don't just get the police to stop the scammers. The same goes for tuk-tuks and longtail boats in Bangkok, they look like such a fun way of getting around, but everywhere you look says to avoid as they are probably in cahoots with a scam, and just get a taxi instead.

That evening we headed to Khao San road, bars and tat shops galore, and of course the one time we leave our umbrella behind is when Bangkok decides to have a tropical downpour and change the road into a river. Good job the beer was cheap!

The museum also gave us our first view of the bridge itself. Which meant there was only thing left to do; walk across it, no easy task when so many other people are trying to do the same thing.

A brief visit to possibly the most boring waterfall ever and we were ready for the highlight of our day out; the Tiger Temple, a monastery turned tiger sanctuary. Our first tiger encounters were with the huge adults at tiger canyon. Even though they were sleeping heavily it was still a little disconcerting to be sat so close to and to be touching real live tigers. The tiger cubs weren't so scary, they were just unbelievably cute. They were only two months old and still had blue eyes, I was seriously tempted to slip one into my bag to take home. The teenage tiger looked the most unpredictable and possibly the most likely to turn round and have a swipe at you, neither Si nor I were in a hurry to have our photo taken with him, after all we already had photos with us in front of the huge adults anyway.

Our journey today, as always, involved a variety of modes of transport. The late departing train made up for it by having a stewardess dishing out food (it was 2nd class carriage too). Some poor unsuspecting grandma and grandpa samlor (rickshaw) drivers pedalled us and our huge backpacks to the bus stop for 50p (I felt like asking if I could do the cycling). Our bags were squeezed on to the bus for the ride to New Sukhothai where a Songathew/pick up truck took us to the old town.

Leaving the town exploration until tomorrow, we called in at the one stop Coffee Cup restaurant - beer, food, cheap internet, massages and travel agent under one roof, with friendly staff too!

After a heavy, but fortunately brief rain, we rode to a massive sitting Buddha, once enclosed in a rather tight fitting temple, but now open to the elements. There was also a herd of cattle, boney and loose skinned, grazing next to a moat that surrounds some of the temples. The lack of tourist crowds, and the freedom of being under our own steam made it feel as though we were discovering the temples for ourselves, apart from a hat and whip, I don't think I could feel any more like Indiana Jones. He probably wouldn't be seen dead on a bike though, so with aching bums and a broken brake cable we handed the bikes back and went to try the town's other restaurant out.

We arrived in Chiang Mai that afternoon, and managed to add Tuk-tuk to our list of modes of transport. Settling down to a late lunch, we realised (yet again) that to get anywhere pretty much takes the day.

That night we visited Chiang Mai's top tourist attraction, the night market. Hundreds of stalls selling essentially the same things: fake watches, fake dvds, silk, chopsticks, and fabric bags of all shapes and sizes. We filled our bags, squeezed in a roti (pancake) before catching a Tuk-tuk home.

The guidebook listed Doi Suthep as a must see, but at the top of the rather large hill there was just a decidedly hungry elephant, the usual tourist stalls, and a pleasant temple (albeit with a "Foreigner must buy ticket" sign outside). But then it could just be that we are temple-d out, and have been spoilt by Sukhothai. Back in Chiang Mai, we tried to find something else to do, but since everything exciting started in the morning, we opted for a river cruise. The commentary left a lot to be desired, with only two announcements, one of which was to point out a block of flats. Still, it was a nice way to pass the afternoon, even when the engine cut out and we drifted backwards for a while.

In case you wondered why there is a picture of a cow attached, these are seen all over Thailand, but up until I saw this statue today they've just whizzed passed a minibus window. I like to call them camel cows (species bovinus dromadarius), due to the big floppy lump on their backs. It was either that or a picture of the king sweating (seriously, can you imagine a huge poster of Queen Elizabeth II with a drip of sweat hanging from her nose?) It's been a slow day.

Back in the bus, we suddenly stopped and reversed to a waiting kart being pulled by camel cows! Turns out that someone beat me to it and called them "Ox", rather boring if you ask me... The Ox kart ride involved us sitting in the back whilst the driver grunted and poked at the Ox to make them move along, whilst a couple of kids ran behind and secretly got a free lift.

The next excitement was an elephant trek, now I thought Asian elephants were meant to be small, but the beast we got on was huge, with us 3 or 4 metres above the ground. The thing was also banana powered, every couple of steps a huge trunk would reach back over his head to where we sat, until a banana was placed in it's finger like grasp. Before too long he'd eaten the whole bunch, but the trunk still came up, huffing and blowing snot over us until he eventually gave up. We almost got a soaking as the elephant sprayed water through his trunk to cool himself down, good job his aim was good, and the water was cleanish anyway.

The final activity was bamboo rafting. We'd been warned to bring a change of clothes and leave all belongings behind as we were going to get very wet. It turned out that the ride was very gentle, to the point of relaxing. We only got wet as the raft was partially submerged with five people on board, but I had faith in the discarded tyres holding the bamboo together.

That night we boarded the night minibus north towards the Thai-Laos border. We were never going to relish spending the night on the road, but by 3am we'd arrived, enough time for a decent sleep, and worth the day we saved!