Oct 08

Spent a night in the small town of Kota Bharu, went to the night market for dinner and had been tipped off by the guesthouse owner to try the bar-be-qued chicken...we did and it was delicious! In the morning it was off to Kuala besut to catch the boat to the perhentian islands. The boat only took 30 mins but it was like a rollercoaster ride! there were only 4 of us on the boat so it was really light and practically flew across the water! Transferred onto a tiny boat to get dropped on the beach....we had to reverse in because the waves were so big and narrowly avoided getting a soaking! I headed down to moshin chalets as i had heard they had a cheap dorm but when i saw it it wasnt that appealing. was heading to look around another guesthouse when i bumped into 3 girls, two from the uk..both called laura and anett from norway. they had walked up and down the beach and looked in every guesthouse and said moshin was the best so decided to share a room with anett. after we had settled in we headed down to the beach and the clear warm water...it was so amazingly clear!!!!

Had a couple of days relaxing and one day we took a snorkelling trip around the island. We saw black tip sharks, so many tropical fish, colourful coral and my favourite- green turtles. They are so graceful to watch as they swim up to the surface to breathe and dive back to the bottom to feast on the seagrasses. it was amazing to see them in the wild, and there were quite a lot of them, quietly wandering around the seabed! such a privilege to swim with them.

did lots of reading, swimming, eating (great fish bar-be-ques on the beach!). there was one bar on the beach and they set up a big bonfire every night that every sat around with some people doing fire juggling and eating! its such a relaxed place, and the moon was full so the nights were so light!

i'd had such a good time on the first snorkelling trip i went on another one! we went to the same places as before but this time there were lots of baby turtles, only days old. The eggs are collected from the beach and hatched away from the water. when they are small their shells are very soft and they have a little hole in their bellies which attracts predators so they have to wait till that closes up before they are released into the sea, it gives them a much higher survival rate. we were allowed to pick them up and hold them, they were so tiny but feisty at the same time, they were raring to go!!! we also stopped at a coral with so many fish you could barely see the water!! as soon as we got into the water we were surrounded by hundreds of fish!!! it didnt help that the snorkelling guide was chucking bits of bread at my head (these fish loved to eat bread) so it was turning into a feeding frenzy, i felt like i was in a piranha tank! there were also lots of jellyfish at this stop which i wasnt too keen on!!

We kept changing our bus tickets so we could stay one more day, then another but we (anett and i) eventually dragged ourselves away and caught the bus to the Cameron Highlands, 5000ft above sea level it is the highest point in mainland Malaysia. the cool climate is ideal for growing strawberries, tea and lots of other vegetable crops.

We checked into fathers guesthouse and settled into the dorm which was in an old Nissan hut, felt like we were in army barracks!! I was so excited to get out my jumper, scarf and jacket...it was worth carrying them for 6 months just to wear them up here!! at the moment its the rainy season so its nice in the morning but at about 12.30 the rain starts and doesnt stop for the rest of the day.

we took a tour which took us up to gunung brinchang the highest peak in the area, 6,666ft, it was quite misty but we had a lovely view over the tea plantations. then we headed to the mossy forest...we were thinking a nice wander through the forest, on no, it turned into a muddy, scramble on all fours up and down and up and down a big steep muddy, mossy...did i mention muddy? forest! it was a bit of a surprise but we soon got into the spirit and were throwing ourselves around the tree roots and over the boot sucking mud.

next stop was the Sungai Palas tea plantation...the nice clean tea factory...and us looking like we had been dragged through a hedge backwards (well it was quite close to the truth actually!!)
the Boh plantations were founded in 1929 by scottish businessman J.A Russel, he visited the Cameron highlands and realised their tea growing potential. the company is still run by the same family and some of the tea bushes are nearly 100 years old and still producing tea. we did a tour of the factory and discovered the drying and rolling processes are still the same, still using some of the original machinery but the plucking process is now done using shears and machinery rather than plucking by hand.

we then visited a strawberry farm, had some strawberry ice cream!! then dont plant the strawberry plants in the ground here though, they are in raised grobags so not quite like being back in Tiptree. the strawberries are lovely though, nice and sweet. they even manage to grow 'self plucking' (aka, pick your own) strawberries here!!

spent the next few days exploring Tanah rata (the town we are staying in) and taking advantage of the jam and scones!!
had an indian meal one night...choosing the mildest curry possible, it was very nice...no plates though- we ate off banana leaves...think they were trying to save on the washing up!

heading to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, will be sad to leave the cold weather, even enjoyed the rain -when i've been inside, nice and warm rather than out in it!!

have put some pics on flickr...dont get too jealous over the perhentian ones!!!

Arriving on koh samui we spent ages trying to get a shared taxi to take us to Maenam beach without the rip off foreigner price, after about 20 mins and a lot of walking we finally found one. Not a good introduction to the island!

We settled in our room, a stones throw from the beach, and after a bit of exploring we hot footed it to a prime sunbathing spot (didnt have to look hard, the beach was deserted) where Sally proceeded to get very red and burnt!!

The next few days we wandered round Maenam village, had massages (aloe vera wraps for sally!) and generally enjoyed the sun, sea and sand!

We ventured into Chaweng, the most populated area on the island one day with supposedly the nicest beach but it was horrible, jam packed with beachfront bars, people and hawkers trying to flog you things so we quickly retreated back to the quiet relaxing Maenam.

After four days we headed over to Ko Phangan to the north, a smaller and less developed island and caught a boat out to Bottle beach.

all the bungalow operations are owned by one family and are imaginatively named bottle beach I, II and III with smile being the odd one out! naturally we headed for smile, and bagged ourselves a cute bungalow in the middle of a tropical garden looking out onto the beach. perfect.

spent the rest of our time there lazing round the beach...we went snorkeling one day with borrowed equipment from Smile, one set had a leaky mask and the other a leaky snorkel so we either got blinded or drowned!!

the beach can only be reached by boat and this makes it lovely and peaceful and relaxed. We were having lunch one day when a group of people on jetskis roared into the bay and dropped off a few people then whizzed around making lots of noise. The waiter at bottle beach one was fairly annoyed by the disturbance and gathered some of his mates together, headed towards the group...brandishing a meat cleaver from the kitchen where he proceeded to tell them in no uncertain terms to stop making so much noise! needless to say the warning was heeded by the jetskiers and they soon left!

all too soon it was time to leave and i left sally on koh samui to catch the bus back up to bangkok while i carried on down south, heading towards malaysia.

The situation in the South of Thailand is slightly dodgy and there have been quite a few bombings in the recent past by the pattani united liberation organisation who want to make a separate Muslim state in the south. in the minibus on the way to the border there was a big police presence and every few miles a road block this turned the journey into a big slalom as we were always weaving in and out of the cordons!!

crossed the border uneventfully except for the fact i seemed to be the only person walking over the border, everyone else was in cars so i felt a bit out of place with my big rucksack and being the only westerner in sight!!

Now in malaysia and heading to the Perhentian islands tomorrow, apparently home to some of the best beaches in south east asia!

Met Sally from the airport and we headed straight for Kanchanburi, about 3 hours west of bangkok by a very hot bus! Kanchanaburi is home to the bridge over the river kwai, part of the death railway to Burma, constructed by POW's under Japanese control during WWII.

Spent the night being rocked to sleep in our guesthouse which was actually floating on huge rafts on the river!

The next day we went to the Thai-Burma railway centre to learn more about the construction of the railway. Its one of the best museums i've visited on my trip so far, full of interesting information, models and exhibits, all brought to life through the moving personal accounts and anecdotes of survivors. Its this personal connection that can make or break a museum like this and it was this aspect which was missing in a lot of the Cambodian and Vietnamese museums.

Am typing this in a pub and a live band (including bad thai singing!) has just started playing so i can barely hear myself think so sorry if the rest of this post doesnt make much sense!!!!!

After the museum we walked to the bridge which is a reconstruction as the original was bombed during the war, evidence of which can still be seen on the concrete pillars. It a slight anti climax as its essentially just a bridge!!

Our second day was spent visiting Tiger Temple. Ever since i'd heard about it i'd been in two minds whether to visit.
The temple was founded in 1994 as a forest monastery and animal sanctuary and they took in their first cub in 1999. Over time they have been given several orphaned tiger cubs and over 21 cubs have since been born at the temple.
The unique thing about the temple is that the tigers are not caged during the day and are free to roam around the canyon area allowing the public to interact with them...obviously a once in a lifetime opportunity.
There is much controversy about the temple which many people saying the tigers arent infact orphaned but the result of black market tiger trading. Also some people claim they are drugged by the monks in order to keep them docile. The entrance fees are expensive in thai terms- 5 pounds per person, but this supposedly goes towards the building of tiger island which will allow the tigers to roam freely and not be caged at night. They have been planning it for years and its believed they are delaying the building as it will stop the interaction with the public and the number of people visiting might decline but when we visited they seemed to be doing a lot of construction so hopefully they are actually building it.

So deciding there was no other way but to see for myself, we went. There are lots of animals roaming around the temple grounds (no sign of a temple though!!) pigs, ponies, goats etc....think they might all have been dinner!
Heading down into the canyon we were unsure what to expect, turns out it is all very regimented, the tigers are in a roped off area and you are taken around them one person at a time while someone snaps photos. There are lots of thai handlers and western volunteers there to shove you in the right direction. Some of the tigers are chained and all of them are lying down dozing, i dont think that they are drugged though. It all happens a bit quickly so you dont get a chance to think - wow this is actually a tiger i'm stroking! from reading other peoples experiences I think it probably used to be a bit more relaxed with the tigers allowed more freedom but with the increase in visitor numbers they have had to make it more organised.

while we were there an irish journalist was interviewing one of the western keepers, i ear-wigged the tail end of the interview and he seemed to be interested in pinning down exactly where the tigers came from and if any dna testing had been carried out.

Overall i think the tiger temple probably started off with the best intentions, they were actually caring for the first tiger cubs but as so often happens it unexpectedly turned into a money maker and this means they have lost sight of the original aim and as a result the tigers are suffering.

It was time to head back to bangkok, as the sun was setting we watched the procession of bankokians jogging their way round Lumphini Park and ending in the hilarious techno aerobics session...of which our highlight was flip-flop man tripping over his box steps and star jumps. All warmed up it was off round the corner to Lumphini Boxing stadium for the Muay thai boxing!! we went for third tier tickets, much to the disappointment of the lady trying to flog us 20pound ringside seats, we were the furthest from the ring but we were in the action with the muay thai aficionados. Gambling is illegal in Thailand but you wouldnt think that from the amount going on in the third tier. Neither of us really had a clue what was going on in the ring and half the time it was more interesting to watch the men get more and more excited as the fight went on with the betting getting more and more furious. From what we figured out Thai boxing is similar to normal boxing but they can kick each other too! also they do a funny dance before the match in honour of their trainer which was possibly the most amusing part of the whole evening!! and seeing the bookies bribing the policemen on duty!!!!!!

Quick jaunt around patpong so sally could get asked if she wanted to see 'ping pong show?'....no thanks....'we have mens show?'....no thanks.....'ahh we have ladies too?'....no thanks...'sure no ping pong show???'

Saturday was the mighty Chatuchak Weekend Market- 35 acres of hustle and bustle under the fierce bangkok sun for which you need a map if you have any chance of surviving!!
We attacked early in the day and perused the jewellery, handicrafts, clothes, books, household goods, shoes, bags, dogs...yep i said dogs! and cats..and about every household pet you can think of! After 4 hours and frequent cold drink pit stops we were shopped out (almost) and headed for the air conditioned malls where we managed to put in another couple of hours bargaining- this time a bit less hot and sweaty though!!

Sunday we flopped into the cinema and watch the Zohan movie, very funny, and in the evening caught the bus down to Surat Thani where we boarded the boat to Ko Samui for some island adventures.