South East Asia 08-09

Malaysia to Singapore to Australia

2009-05-06T15:07:00.000+08:00

I spent another few days in Kuala Lumper... eating nice food and relaxing...
Caught a bus to Singapore and then a train to the airport so I could get on a plane to fly back to Darwin, Australia.

Here is the site for my next blog going through Australia...

http://www.craig-vermeulen.blogspot.com/

Sarawak

2009-04-14T11:40:00.000+08:00

Finally got into Miri and found a place to stay for the night.

We went to Niah caves and walked about 10ks on this day... Stayed the night in a fairly nice cabin in the national park...

Next day travelled to Bintalu.
While having breakfast at the junction I saw a strange prehistoric turtle in a fish tank...

There was some some strange fruit here too so had to try that...There is not a lot in Bintalu but had a good feed and a few beers. There was a bike festrival on and there was the usual cook up with lots of smoke...Left next day across some ranges by 4WD (179ks) via logging roads (four and a half hours) to Belaga. This is looking down on Belaga (with a rain storm) on the way in.. It is a small inland riverside town with about 2500 people. Not a lot to do here but an ok spot to relax for a bit.
Left a couple of days later on a long boat to Kepit (the next main town down river) ....
Here is mum sitting on top of the boat... 155ks down a river by boat and down through some of the Sarawak inland....

Here is an old totem pole out front of a longhouse...

The people make really long houses where up to 100 families (up to one thousand people) live in them. This is one of the longhouses from the boat... Through some rapids (Window photo)...

Not a lot around Kepit but we had a look at an old fort and the museum and just walked about and had some good foods. This is on the river front in Kepit...

One more boat and we were into Sebu for a night...Found a pretty good friendly Chinese lady who ran a good eatery here.. very nice chicken and veggies.Here are some chickens ready to take home...Got another boat from Sebu to Kuching...Didn't think much of Kuching at first because we walked into the older part of town and it was a bit dirty. Ended up walking along the river for a bit until we walked into the new part of town.. not bad really...There is a lot of good food here, lots of veggies and some pretty mean Malaysian curries... unfortunately it is the same as the rest of Malaysia, cooked in a lot of heavy oil (It might be Palm oil, not sure). I will have to have a cholesterol check up when I get back to Australia.
On the other side of the river they have an old run down fort....There are easy day trips out from here too.
Went to Gunung Gading National Park and saw a Raffesia flower (Meant to be the biggest flower in the world although this one was only about 400mm diameter....We also did a bit of a climb up a hill... to a bit of a view point looking back towards Lunau...Went to Semengok Nature resrve where they have more Orangutans...

Brunei

2009-04-10T16:32:00.000+08:00

Beaufort.
Got in here late in the afternoon and found the worst place I have ever stayed at in my entire travels. The room was smokey, there was no hot water, the TV had 1 station which was fuzzy and there were cigerette burns in the carpets. There were some burger boys at the front door who made a stuff up with our burger order and gave us too many burgers and they were not even eatable.
One good thing in town was a nice satay house across the street.

Caught a bus next morning to Memonbok and changed over to a small boat for a rough water crossing to Palau Labuan...

Palau Labuan port...Waited in Palua Labuan for an hour or so and caught the next boat out for Brunei...
Mosque on the way into Bangar Seri Bagawan...Found a couple of OK places to stay in Brunei for reasonable prices which was a bit surprising since the Brunei $ is close to the value of th Astralian $.
There are some nice buildings and Mosques in Bangar...
We went for a river trip one afternoon...This is a heap of houses on the water on the opposite side of the river to the main city centre...These houses stretch for over 8 kms along the river and it is where most of the people live...Past the Sultans Palace...to see the Probiscus monkeys (they have very big noses)...They did not come real close to us but there were a lot of them in the trees around the area.
Here is mum with her backpack on when we were leaving early the next morning...To catch an old bus...which we thought was going to be a straight forward trip crossing the border into Sarawak.
Going past some oil fields on the way...We ended up riding on 5 different buses and had to cross a river in a little boat...It was apretty good day though.

Sabah

2009-04-04T14:29:00.001+08:00

Flew into Kota Kanimbula early in the morning and had a bit of a walk around town for the day. very hot and humid here...Found some good night markets with lots of food...Caught a bus through the mountains to Ranau which is close to Kanimbula National Park.
This Mountain is half the height of Mt Everest...Mum and I went for a bit of a walk around the park one day.
Lots of flowers...Some of the smallest bananas I have ever seen (Maybe Pygmy Bananas)...Saw a small snake...Caught a bus to Sandakan.
This is close to an Orangutan rehabilitation sanctuary so we had to go and see some Orangutans.
Got a couple of good pictures...There were some Macaque monkeys here too...

Caught a bus back to KK and rested for a couple of nights there until it was time to move a little bit further south.

Laos to Malaysia

2009-03-13T11:15:00.001+08:00

With my visa just about finished I left Tadlo and decided to go as far as I could in one hit through Southern Thailand towards Malaysia. (I didn't like Southern Thailand the first time and was not planning on staying anywhere this time). Got up early first morning and caught a bus to Pakse... just missed the morning bus to the border so had to wait there for a few hours to catch the 3:30pm bus. Crossed the border about 5pm and into Ubon Rathethani by about 6:30pm. Bought the next ticket to Bangkok there and caught the night bus out at 7:30. After the bus broke down at 3am we changed to another bus finally got into Bangkok 3 or 4 hours late at around 9am. From there I caught a local bus to the southern bus terminal and checked the tickets to Hat Yai (way southern Thailand). I found an overnight bus leaving at 4:45pm and arriving into Hat Yai at 6am. It was here where I was reminded why I didn't like southern Thailand. Here the Tuk Tuk drivers and ticket seller hassle you and lie to you about there not being a Train Station in town and how far it is into town or the price of the tickets. After a few minutes I decided ignored them and called a few of them names, but I decided to just called them rude Southern Thailanders (Which I think sums it up).

I ended up having a nice breakfast (chicken with rice and coffee) and catching the next bus across the border to Penang.
After about 52 hours on buses it was good to rest and eat. I was looking forward to the Indian food here in Penang. There is a lot to choose from and it is very very good. Yumm!!!

Just eating and sleeping for a couple of days... recovering from the journey south.

Decided to get myself a hair cut and a shave. Here's the photos.
Before...

After...

Left for KL early next morning.

Got into KL after lunch time and out to Kays house by mid afternoon...

She had organized a bit of a dinner with some friends this night.

Was very nice, lots of yummy food...

Mum got to KL early Sunday morning so we went out looking around for the day.
Went to Batu Caves...Saw a lady there with a big knot of hair hanging down her back...We went to Putra Jaya where the government offices are...I was very impressed with some of the architecture.
This is the high court...More buildings...Mosques and buildings...A bridge...Mum at the twin towers...More food (Balinese)!!!
Went to Melaka for a couple of days.
Looking from a bridge into Melaka...Mosque on an island in Melaka...Another day out and we went to Genting Highlands.
We took a cable car (Genting Skyway) up the hill from about 977 meters to about 1200 meters...A bit of cloud coming through...We saw a white monkey on the way...
There is a big theme park up here...Entering the centre is like having an overdose of art... and colour...and more art...and flowers...and lanterns...and rides...and more art...and more rides...and snow...
And lots more stuff...Interesting to see it all.

Pakse & Tadlo

2009-03-11T14:27:00.000+08:00

Headed south to Pakse for one night. There was some nice food and I got a room next to the Mekong river but over all not a lot to offer in town.

Next morning I headed out on a bus to a small town called Tadlo.

Fairly nice riverside town...

Swimming, good food, cheap beer and accommodation.

View from my bungalow...This was nice but quite a few tourists come through here.
It is easy to meet up with other travelers and locals...

There is a bit to see in the area.
Waterfalls...

An Owl...

A couple of elephants...

Some pigs...

Almost stood on this snake...

Goats...Geese...

South from Phonsavan

2009-02-27T15:38:00.000+08:00

I took a cool old bus south towards Paxxan. I was told the bus should take about 8 or 12 hours to traverse the 200kms but I had met a French girl the day before who came north and said it took her 26 hours. There are a lot of road works in this region and there are very long time delays. We waited for about 3 hours at one stop and another hour at another stop. Ended up taking us about 16 hours to do the trip, but it was fairly pleasant. Going through many mountains... past villages...and lots of dirt road and logging trucks...There are a heap of Vietnamese here doing the road construction with massive machinery.. some of the road carvings are enormous.
I ended up getting into Paxxan about 12:30 and got myself a guest house... the fellow there wanted more money because it was so late but I told him I wouldn't pay extra and I got an OK price anyway...
Left early the next morning and went to Tha Keak. Got here about lunch time and was fairly hot. I decided to walk the 2 ks into town and get some lunch on the way. I met a fellow at lunch who was a teacher at a school. He invited me to come that night to teach the children some English.. pronunciation etc...I read a book and the children read the sentences after me. The teachers and I went out for dinner afterwards... was very nice.
There were some kids on the side of the road wanting money from the foreigners. They were grabbing at your pockets and camera etc. I tried to get their photos...See that blur in the top right corner?? That is a kid who would not stop bouncing.. I could not get a photo of him.. he would not stop... Bounce Bounce Bounce.. Was very funny!!Only spent one day here and headed off south to Sevaneket.
It was very hot here...Nice shady tree...Hired a bike the first day and went for a ride with Noy...Had some nice food for lunch and went for a bit of a ride around town...Spent a few days here eating good foods and enjoying an afternoon beer while watching the colorful yet disturbing sunsets...Thats Thailand on the other side of the river.
Thee is a very large amount of smoke in the air here from fires. Every one seems to be burning stuff all the time.

Phonsavan

2009-02-24T11:47:00.000+08:00

I left Sayabuli after too many beers and about 5 days staying in a bungalow at a Karaoke bar restaurant with a heap of local party people. It was fun getting into a bit of a party with the locals for a change.
Went back through Luang Prabang towards Phonsavan.
This is the Museum being renovated...Should be very nice once the grounds are done.
The main attraction here is the Plain of Jars...I went to 3 sites but there are about 52 sites where big jars up to 3.5meters tall are scattered all over the place and estimated to be around 4000 years old.
Most sites are still being cleared from the unexploded bombs and mines from the war that never happened here...Only 4 jar sites are safe to enter and even the area around these sites are still dangerous because of the scattered unexploded mines etc.
There is a man made cave here where it looks like a big oven where the people may have baked the jars...There is a field out the front where there is a large collection of jars still scattered about. It looks to me like a manufacturing and market place...
The tourist information says the jars may have been for Rice Whiskey or burial purposes but there is no organic matter (bones etc) in the jars so they can not be dated and hence just about rules out the burial site theory.
Some of the other sites are not so easily explained. There are jars on top of hills. I am guessing the jars were used for water storage...And there is always good food on offer...

Huay Xai

2009-02-18T13:44:00.000+08:00

Crossed the border at Huay Xai in the morning
Caught the slow boat from there to Pak Beng Sunrise over the river at PakBeng...The got the slow boat early the next morning to Tha Suang (a small village down stream) then into a pickup for a trip to Hong Sa...The next day was to Sayabuli over many many mountains.There was an elephant festival here...Fairly interesting.. they showed us different ways the elephants are used for logging...Very strong.
They also had some parachuters jumping from a helicopter...I stayed in a bungalow at a Karaoke Bar...Lots of people here having fun...

Northern Thailand

2009-02-03T22:08:00.000+08:00

Back into Thailand with my Laos visa running out.
Went to Loei... small nice town not far from the border...

Chiang Mai
Got the 10 hour over night bus and got in early in the morning.

They always seem to be celebratnig something...
Found a guest house and had some food and a sleep.
Got up later in the day and had a quick look around town... looks OK.
There is an old mote and wall surrounding the older part of the city...Spent a couple of days in Chiang Mai.. not a bad little town.. fairly busy though.. better off getting out of town a bit or in the back streets for a quieter room.
Some fairly good cheap food around, day and night markets etc etc.

Pai
Caught a bus and got into Pai a bit after lunch time.
This is a fairly nice town also. Lots of bungalows and lots of expensive ones too...Had to look hard for a cheap place to stay here.. finally found a bungalow at a price I was happy with.They have night markets here every night and then music afterwards.. heaps of variety in the music too.
Spend a couple of days here and then went back to Chiangmai.

Chiangrai
Another 4 hr bus ride and getting a bit closer to the laos border.
Got a cheap room close to the bus station and the town centre...
This is the jade Bhudda of Chang RaiThere is good food and cheap internet close by so I am happy here for a couple of days.
This was a bit of music on the streets in town...

There are good markets in this town every afternoon and evening.
This is the walls around a old jail...Apparently most of the people in the jail were there for drugs (being close to the golden triangle I guess). They have had to move them to a bigger newer jail further out of town somewhere.

Pak Lai

2009-01-31T10:53:00.000+08:00

Got the pickup to Pak Lai.
I think we had 6 flat tires on the way...

Goats walking around while we were getting a wheel repair..
Stopped some where and got some of the flats repaired and then went down the road and changed them over again. The tires were worn out and they were just stuffing new tubes into them hoping to get another few kilometers... very strange. Made it an interesting trip though!

Ended up getting a room overlooking the Mekong...Saw some people lifting a house...
And found a nice restaurant for dinner.
I walked to the bus stop in theearly misty morning...

I saw the Monks doing their daily food collection...Got the bus to the Thai border.
There are a lot of big trucks on this section of road carrying lots and lots of rice...
Very dusty traveling along this section of road...

To the border town Keong Thao (Something like that).

A very dusty town...

Laos/Thai border crossing...Actually the border is the river...

Sayabuli

2009-01-29T16:37:00.001+08:00

I caught a bus to Sayabuli.
I was the only white person on the pick up (mini bus/ute). These pickups usually care meant to carry about 13 people but there were 30 in this one. We crossed the Mekong river in a fairly isolated region...
On a fairly old barge...A fellow on the bus (Mr Oun Keou) invited me to come to visit his village while I was in the area. They were having a party for the week end.
I had trouble finding a way to get to the village so the first day was lost. I organized a fellow on a bike to take me the second day. It was about 25 kms and we had to do some river crossings and go through a heap of small villages on the way.I had to walk across this bridge while to motor bike rider took the bike across...Finally got to the village.. When I got to there Mr Oun Keou (who invited me) was not there. All the people gathered around to see what I was doing...Some one called Mr Oun Keou and told him there was a visitor there for him. He arrive about 1 hour later while I had a beer and watched the people watching me. They had organized a generator and a big stereo system. I think it was the Chinese new year party.

I asked him how often they get a falang (foreigner) in their village and he said I was the first to ever visit.
He took me around to some of the huts where there were people drinking a type of rice alcohol (different to rice wine) out of clay pots/Jars, through thin lengths of bamboo. I tried some.. it was fairly sweet.The were putting it into bottle as well for others to drink...Every one having a little bit of food and some beers...
A couple of ladies wanted to dance with me so I had to entertain the villagers...A heap of kids watching the strange behavior of the white man...In the afternoon the family got dressed in their traditional clothing and we got some photos together...

Northern Laos

2009-01-21T12:57:00.000+08:00

Udomxai
Just a small town at a main intersection.
Spend a couple of nights here.
Lots of satellite dishes...

Not much to do.. some markets and some really cheap cheap food. All this cost about AU$5...

Had to get some one to help us eat it all. Watch carefully...

Two of us had a lot of trouble getting through it all.

Nong Khiaw
Caught the bus here early in the morning.
Bus started squirting fuel all over the road... We stopped and the fellow tried to tie the fuel line up with tape... didn´t work. I had a look and told him to take a line off the filter and put it to the fuel distributor to bypass the split hose... he seemed to under stand so he fixed it and we were on the way again.
Just around the corner we heard a noise like a gun shot.. this time it was the tyre on the bus which had blown out.. it was a pretty worn out tyre...
This was a really nice spot... bungalow on the river front and a few beers in the afternoon... nice.

Muong Ngoi Neua
This was a really nice little place up the river a bit.
We caught a boat in the morning.. every one piled onto the boat but it was sitting on top of arock and as they tried to push the boat out from shore it scraped a hole into the bottom and it started leaking...
Everyone got off the boat again and another boat came up to pick us up. Off we went up the river... very nice scenery here.
The boat started to splutter and cough and I could tell right away it was a fuel problem..they tried to start it over and over and they worked out it was the fuel pump.
The tank was sitting right down on the floor so I tried to tell them to lift the fuel tank higher so the fuel could fall down to the motor, but they couldn´t understand and said ´´no no ... won´t work´´. I tried to tell them a few times and they still didn´t try it so I thought it doesn´t really matter, I have all day they can sort it out for themselves. We waited for about 30mins for another boat and continued north to our destination. They floated the broken boat down stream to get it fixed... would have wasted a good day for them to sort that simple problem out.
They cram the people on the boats...
Nice river ride up through the mountains...Nice village...A lady sitting by a fire...
Sunset behind the mountains...
Went for a bit of a hike up into the mountains here...

There were people workng in the rice fields...

And stumbled across what looked like an old bath tub which was positioned next to where some water was coming out of the mountain...

Vientiane North

2009-01-06T17:01:00.001+08:00

Caught a 24 hour bus from Vietnam to Laos.
A mini bus picked up about 16 of us from the centre of Hanoi and took us to the bus station. As we got off the fellow said go over there and pointed towards another bus. We all walked that way and some one said this bus goes to Laos and so we all piled on. As the bus took off a fellow asked where we were going and I immediatley asked.. ´´are we on the wrong bus?´´ It took another 25 minutes to find out we were on the wrong bus so we all got off in the middle of no where and waited to catch a bus back.Here we all are on the side of the road in the dark..We all got onto another bus to go back to the station...We were all hoping that the real bus was waiting for us and when we finally got back to the station about 45 minutes late we found the bus was still there... suppose they were not going to go anywhere with only a few people on the bus.

Crossed the border at about 7am.
The Vietnamese fellows stamped the Passport and asked for $1.. I asked Why.. they couldn't tell me.. so I kept asking.. they ended up ignoring me and calling the next fellow.The next fellow asked Why and then they ignored him.
Being so early in the morning I just paid the $1 and got my passport.. I was sure they should not have been asking for this money.. just another rip off my a corrupt bunch of people.
Here is the laos border crossing...
The trip in the bus was nice down through the mountains and rivers.
Met a good group on the bus and we all ended up going out for dinner and to the markets and the guys ate some pretty strange and sometime bad bad food.

Vientiane is a fairly nice town on the river.
They have a big concrete thing in the city... apparently the US givernment gave them a heap of stuff to build an airport runway but they buit this thing...Not sure exactly what it is.

Vang Vieng
When I got off the bus at this place I looked out and thought.. what am I doing here on the side of the road.. just looked like a birt road in the middle of nowhere with a few shops here and there. The bus driver pointed West and said the town is thay way.. another fellow (Stefan) and I walked that way and found the real town... very nicely surrounded by moutains and a river that looked cleaner then most I have seen in South East Asia. We found a nice clean guest house and went for a walk around the town. Bought some spring rolls and then some fruit and then some soup and later on more soup.. was pretty good and cheap. Went back for a sleep mmmm nice comfortable bed....zzzzzzzzz

Bon Non Oon
This is a stop on the top of the mountain that a couple of bicycle riders told us about. We didn't know the name of the place at the time but knew it was about 20ks north of Kasi... we bought more spring rolls and waved down a bus passing through town.. we tried to explain to the driver
that we were looking for a hot water spring and some how he knew what we were talking about and we were dropped off at the right place for a very reasonable price.
There were two restaurants and some bungalows...Thermal pool with mountain views...It was nice lazing around here for the afternoon. Had a nice fried rice for dinner and a beer... Nice relaxing place.

We found a small pickup which gave us a lift to Phu Phong where we had some breakfast. Just as we finished a fellow offered us a ride in a minivan.. After negotiating a good price we were off and ended up in Luang Pubang a few hours later (about 2:30). The drive was amazing.. beautiful scenery and stopping at one place to get a big salad bagette... yummm.

Luang Pubang
This is a real tourist town with heaps of souvenirs and crafts, but lots of really nice food ... I am starting to really like this country.Had a good walk around town through some rice paddies and around some hills...
Came to a temple where they were playing music and praying...Walked over some bridges and around finding foods etc.

Luang Ma Tha
Interesting town. Hired a good mountain bike for a day with another fellow and went for a ride through some mountains...Went to some villages...Saw a lot of huts in the hills...Aparently used during the season when the crops are being planted and harvestd etc.
Lots of little pigs running around too.
This one was shorter then the chickens...Some of the old ladies here come and say do you want to buy a braclet? And while they show you they slide the other hand out from under the bag and show you some opium.

Moung Sing

Just one night here with some very hot, spicey food... and to the markets early in the morning...Lots of the tribe people come and sell their produce here... including rats, owls and other birds.Caught a bus back to Luang Ma Tha and it stopped a couple of times and the driver bought a big rat/mole thing from one place and then bought a big cat/dog (Omoh) thing from another couple of fellows on the side of the road.

Hanoi

2009-01-02T16:56:00.000+08:00

Hanoi
Here is just another Asian city... noisey, smoggy and smelly.

Met up with Trang in Hanoi... was really good to see her again.. even though it was only for a day. She rode me around on her motor bike.We had a really nice lunch. and then we went to some temples where Confusious students studied.

And Ho Chi mins Palace, and walked by the museum and the Musileum (his Tomb).

North from Hoian

2008-12-27T13:23:00.000+08:00

Town hopping from Hoian to Hanoi
Catching local buses can be cheap but you have to know what the going price is before you get on the bus... they try and charge you 2 or 3 times as much as they should and you have to offer them a price lower then the going price. They sometimes act upset if you don't pay extra.. I am not sure if it is an act or they are really upset.. it is fun anyway.
Bit of a hassle in Vietnam with all the negotiating all the time (from public buses to rooms), but adds to the adventure I guess.

Hue
Interesting town with the older part of the city inside a mote and huge walls.. must have been built for war times and protecting the city and the people.. interesting...

The hotel where I was staying put on a FREE buffet meal for Xmas.. included beer and wine too... was pretty good...
Dang Ha
Not a lot in this town but found a cheap place to stay for a night and had a bit of a walk around town and found some good value street foods.

Caught the bus out the next morning. Here are the people on the bus waving for the camera...
Dang Hoi
This is a picturesque town on a river and ocean front...

Here is a fishing boat at the mouth of the river...

And some people I met on the beach... Mainly walked around town looking at the strange things, like a pedestrian crossing which crosses right through a garden... These people wanted their photos taken while they were working...

they were laying some really thick concrete for the road...
Vinh

Not a lot in Vinh. A nice park in town...

I spent 2 nights there, had a few drinks one night and couldn't anything to eat except soup, but the soup was pretty good. The fellas near the guesthouse had a couple of cocks that were having a bit of a go at each other... The people are hard workers. Here is a couple of ladies filling in a trench... I got up early to catch the cheap bus.. I was told should be 65kVND.. got there and they were demanding 100kVND.. got one driver down to 80k and I said no so he left.. the other driver would not budge from 100k so I walked away and up to the main street to wave down a bus passing through town. Firstly I stopped for a coffee and saw a few buses drive past.. after my coffee I got up and waited for the next bus to come by.. best I could do there was 80kVND so I took it... that must be the going price. Stopped at a food stop on the way and had some food. They tried to charge me 40kVND which was well over priced.. should have been 20 - 30kVND. I held back and offered then 20kVND he insisted on 40kVND and I said no not worth 40kVND I offered 25kVND and another fellow came over to assist in getting the inflated price.. I ended up paying 30kVND which is probably reasonoable for a road side food for a bus stop.
Got into town and found a room for 90kVND.. this is reasonable... although he wanted 100kVND to begin with.. which is still reasonable, but hey I have to knock them down a little bit... can't let them have their way all the time.

Nimh Binh
There are some nice mountain on the way north from Vinh to Nimh Binh.
This place is a bit more touristy and there are temples, rivers, caves and national parks to see in the area... Since there are tourists here I have decided to do what most tourists don't and have a look around the town itself and see if I can find some nice food etc. The hotels seem to offer good food but are a bit more expensive and there doesn't seem to be a lot of selection out on the street.

Hoian

2008-12-21T11:41:00.000+08:00

KonTum to Hoian, was a very hazey day.. about 6 hours travel by bus through some nice mountains and rivers... and waterfalls...After being in the highlands and only seeing about 6 tourists for the last 10 days it is a bit of a shock to suddenly see the number of tourists here.

Spent the first day here on a bike riding about.
Had a 2 hour massage and foot scrub... my feet needed a good clean up after all the walking I have been doing. Very good value too.

There are lots of tailor shops here in Hoian. Everyone trying to get you into their shops to measure you up and make a suit or any other clothing you may want.

Here is a fellow in his boat...

And another boat transporting all sorts of stuff...

And another boat...

A bit of roadworks in town with a big old steam roller...

Hoian to Hue.

Hue is a historic town with the old part of the city inside a huge mote and walls.

Walking around town for a few days... I am starting to get sick of the bike riders who keep asking you if you want a lift... you say no and they keep persisting to show you references and try and tell you how cheap they are and that they can show you around.

Central Highlands

2008-12-15T11:35:00.000+08:00

Delat to Buon Ma Thout was nice scenery... winding bumpy roads through the hills and mountains.. We passed by a lake... And past some villagers drying coffee beans... Through rice fields... When we got off the bus a fellow said he was there for a coffee festival and that he had a stall there. He invited us along to try some juice, wine and coffee...

We were as much of interest to every one as the festival was... The people we having a good time with Peter.. he is very tall and the kids wanted photos with him.

Buon Ma Thout to Plaiku was a bit better road.
We were in a 15 seater mini bus and at one stage we had 28 people in it.

There were kids in town tonight practising for an Xmas event... And people walking (Excersizing) on all these joining paths in the middle of a park in town...

Plaiku to Kon Tom was only about 50ks so was a quick journey.

Went for a walk around town.

There is a nice wooden church here...

Walked through a village on the outskirts of town.

There are quite a few of these buildings throughout the highlands...They were traditionally built for the men to sleep (away from the women) and also for community meetings.

Saw some ladies weaving baskets...

And people working in the crop and flower fields... Saw this fellow walking down the street with a heap of fish in tanks...

Not sure if he was selling them on the street or moving them to some where else.

Dalat

2008-12-10T23:31:00.000+08:00

Caught a bus up tp Dalat with Julie and Micheal. Another fellow Peter (Micheal had met before) got on the bus.

Was OK except the bus broke down after lunch and some people had their laptops and cameras stolen from the bus.
Got the cleanest and best value accomodation yet.. US$12 twin share per night including breakfast, internet beds made and clean towels every day...

Out to dinner with a group from the bus.. Walked around town for the day.. around the lake ..and saw a crazy house. Hired a bike and a guide for a day...
We went to a flower farm...

Water falls... The guide and I under the falls... Coffee plantations with some people picking and sorting coffee beans... A silk farm where they grow the silk worms, feed them mulberry leaves, harvest the silk, wash it and turn it into thread for weaving material... And a Monestary. Here is a drum inside a temple... Michael and I hired a bike for a second day and thought we would go it alone for a day.

We saw some prisoners working in a garden...

Went to a Pegoda...

With a bell in it that weighs 8500kgs...
We got into a town and thought we would stop for a drink.
There was a place that looked like a restaurant so we stopped there and walked in and sat down. A fellow came up to us and asked if we wanted some tea.. I asked if he had anything else.
He asked "Don't you drink tea?"
I said "yes.. OK then, tea will be fine. "
Michael asked for a menu and they looked at him blankly.. we sat and chatted to the fellow while as we drank the tea.
I was looking around watching the ladies putting a lot of nice looking food on the tables and I said to Michael "I don't think this is a restaurant".. he didn't really hear me and a few minutes later he said "Should we order something?"
I once again said "I don't think this is a resaurant".. and proceeded to querie the fellow if it was a party or festival or celebration... took quite a while to find out that his mother died at 74 years of age and this was the funeral.

We were then invited to eat with them.. this was a really nice.

Rode down a big moutain and past a big dam...

Heres a local boy riding his bike, on the way to school...

Saigon

2008-12-05T23:46:00.001+08:00

Caught the bus from Phnom Phen to Saigon today. Saw these ladies carrying some food to market while waiting for the bus...
The trip took about 7 hours.. was a pretty good run.
This was a big temple looking thing on the way... It was pretty good looking.. had the old temple architecture but looked like it was built a lot more recently.

Crossed the Mekong on the ferry (in the bus).
Had a feed in Vietnam for afternoon lunch.. was pretty good.. looking forward to trying more of the food on offer.

Mum, Sonny (Sister) and Matt (Nephew) came to Saigon.. met them at the airport and helped get them back to the hotel where they were staying. We all had a beer and then went for a bit of a feed.

Spent 1 day walking around town. Had some food and went to a nice park...

Mekong Delta
We went to the Mekong Delta on the second day...Drinking some tea...Canal ride...

Driving back into Saigon...
Mum, Sonny and Matt left to go north on a 13 day trip towards Hanoi and then back to Australia.

Phnom Phen 2

2008-12-04T23:20:00.000+08:00

Went to a genocide museum.
Didn't seem like a big deal at first...
It is a school which was set up as a detention center...
It is where the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed people...There are a heap of cells built inside the rooms...

And rooms where people were tortured and photos of the way they were found in the rooms...There were some peoples accounts of the Khmer Rouge times and the hardship they went through...After going in and reading and seeing what had happened and realizing that this was only 30 years ago it was pretty interesting.

Pnom Phen

2008-12-02T11:47:00.000+08:00

Had breakfast and caught a bus from Battambong to Pnom Phen in the morning... had a bit of a head ache so was not the most pleasurable journey but was generally enjoyable... didn't eat all day so that didn't help.. I was the only white person on the bus, but every one on there was happy. Got into Pnom Phen in the afternoon and had to negotiate with a TukTuk driver to knock his price from $5 to $3 which, as I found out later, was still to much!! No matter I just wanted a place to rest and get a feed... ended up scoring a room with a hot shower.. it's been over a month since I had a hot shower, was really good.

Went down to the Vietnam Emassy to see about getting a Visa.. as I walked towards the enterence a couple of fellows in a station out the front said we can process your Visa here for you.. I handed it over just as I saw a sign behind thenm saying "Visa precessing 50m". I quickly grabbed my Visa off the fellow and said I think I will go up the road and have a look first.. they laughed and I walked away... spoke to one of the tourist Visa organizers he said they are another scam.. charge you more to process it etc.

Ran into a fellow I met in Siem Reap and he said there was a place near the guesthouses where you can get the Visa sorted for $30.. the Embassy wanted $35.. how do they do it???

I took my Visa back to the place near the guesthouse and handed it in there,, that should be 2 days by the sound.. just long enough for me to have a bit of a look around town.

Walking around for a couple of days.
Buildings...
Temples...
Palace...Symbol of Independence..Sunset at the guest house...Fountain...

Battambang

2008-11-27T17:44:00.000+08:00

Got up at 6am and caught a bus from Siem Reap to Battambang... got here about 2pm.

A TukTuk driver picked me up from the bus and took me to a guesthouse which I have heard about... Pretty good rooms, with cable TV. I sat up last night and watched movies for hours... first time I have done that for quite a while.

The TukTuk drivers here wait out the front of the Guesthouse and try and take you to a tourist location everytime you walk out. I keep telling them I don't want to see touristy stuff... I don't think they understand.

This is a couple of fellows taking their cattle across the river here in Battambang...

And a picture from the other side of the river looking into town...

Siem Reap 3

2008-11-24T22:08:00.000+08:00

Siem Reap 3 .. hmmm... maybe I have been here too long!!!

I hired a grandma bike (with Basket, carrier and dynamo on the wheel) and went for a bike ride ... ended up covering around 80kms.
I went to see more temples about 18kms to the east.
Took a couple of pictures on the way.
A farmer...A girl playing in the park...Some kids playing on the river bank...I finally got to the temples.
This is part of the Ro Lous group of temples...
I had a hassle with the guy at the front checking day passes. Mine was expired.
He told me I couldn't go in, so I said OK and walked out. I was taking pictures out the front and the fellow came and told me I couldn't take pictures either.. I told him I could take pictures and I will. I walked out to the street and took more pictures and he came out very upset. He called on his radio to the people at the next temple and they were ready for me there. When I got there a guy came up and stood in front of me and the temple to block my view.. not that I worried.. I had already taken some pictures around the corner out of their sight.
They were not that spectacular anyway, they had scaffolding all around them for renovation..
I then rode the bike south for a bit and the further east and then to the north. A lot of the people in this back area were really nice, nearly all of them were waving and saying hello as I rode my bike past.. they would not see a lot of tourists through this region.. was really nice. I got back to the main highway and the started my way back to town having lunch on the way.
While eating my fried rice and veggies for lunch I had to take a photo of this guy driving his car around the corner...
He mustn't have had enough room in his boot for his spare tyre.

As I was heading back to my guest house for a rest I saw an English couple who were just hiring their bikes. They asked me to join them on a ride south to the lake, I said OK silly me after I have just ridden 50k's. Got to the lake and there were people in all sorts of housing there.
Boats...

Floating houses...
Interesting area.
we rode back to the guest house late in the afternoon and I had a couple of beers and relaxed a bit.

Went out to a place where they had some Khmer dancers...The carvings in the temples show the dancers really twist their feet and toes and fingers a lot and also they do not cover their belly. These girls had their belly's covered... how disappointing!!!

Siem Reap 2

2008-11-18T23:18:00.000+08:00

I met a Cambodian fellow down by the river... he could speak French and couldn't speak English.. My French vocabulary is very limited but we sort of spoke for about 1 hour. He said he was 75 years old and told me how he was dragged out onto the streets and beaten during the Khmer Rouge times. He showed me marks on his hands which he said were from being dragged by his feet. He was very proud to be still wearing his glasses. I wish I had taken some photos of him.. he had only a few teeth and a lot of wrinkles on his face.

I met another fellow who asked me to sit and speak with him. I said yeah OK. We chatted for quite a while. He said he was 19 and that he was from the mountainous region north of here and he is in town studying. He wants to be a doctor to help his home town and that he needed to improve his English for going into further studies. He said the doctor they have where he comes from does a sort of ritualistic dance or something to make the people feel better. He said he doesn't believe that that method works and wants to bring more help to his town. We are now communicating via email so it would be nice to hear how he goes in the future.

I bought a loaf of bread today (like a football shape) which was very dark and crunchy... was very nice. As I walked through some old markets the ladies were pointing and wanted to know what it was. I showed them and offered them some. they said no no no.
Then one of them offered me some jelly stuff which looked like it had a type of bean in between.. then she sprinkled coconut on top and gave a piece to me. It was nice. I broke off a piece of my bread and gave it to the lady. Another lady came over to try it too. Then as I walked through the markets some other lady poked it with her finger to see what it was. None of them could speak English and I can't speak Cambodian. It is a lot of fun doing these types of things with people.

Walking a looking around town for a few days...Some local housing by the river...I have never seen one of these for rent before...
Some lights in front of a hotel...This is a gecko I saw on the wall, but it has red spots all over it and it is about 3 times bigger then the little geckos we have in Australia...
A bit of traffic chaos...
Thailand has a new law which means that the driver of a motorcycle has to wear a helmet.
So you see a lot of bikes like this ...with only the driver wearing a helmet.
In Cambodia they do not have to wear a helmet at all. (as you can see from the picture).

These are some sings out the front of some pizza shops...I found out that if you ask for extra toppings... you will get them.

There are quite a few people walking around town with these wagons...
They are selling mussels... they must get them from the lake near by.

This is a working team putting in a water pipe...I walked past and they had started digging and a couple of hours later they had finished and it was all filled in again. They are fairly efficient.

This is a lady riding her bike down the road with a chicken on a nest on the back of the bike...The chicken lifts it backside up and down as they were going over the bumps on the road.

Siem Reap

2008-11-17T16:32:00.000+08:00

Back into town later and they are having a water festival with long boat racing up the river...Some locals jumping from the tree into the river and watching the events...Later on there were fireworks and river lights...
Found a couple of really wonderful food places with Khmer Style foods...
amazing tastes this is really nice food. Honestly makes my taste buds dance in my mouth.. absolutely incredible...A few of us out for dinner...The local people here are fantastic.
There are blind people who do massages.
There are the land mine victims (missing limbs) who play in bands on the side of the streets.
Here is a local giving me a wave while on top of a pile of timber being towed up the road by a motor bike...
Here are some local men building the TukTuks...
Some of the funniest stuff is written on the signs (Actually I think I also saw this department in the Philippine)...and menus..
I have seen Mago Salad.. not sure if it is magot or mango
Steack (Steak) ... Durk (Duck)
Special Breast.. not sure what this meant as they had anything from chicken to frog under the heading.
Crap salad or fried Crap. (Crab)
When you point it out to the hosts they have a good laugh too.

This is my room $US3 per day...
I am on level 3 so looking out over the houses and trees is very nice.

Ankor Wat

2008-11-13T17:27:00.000+08:00

Siem Reap is where Angkor Wat is.. didn't realize this until I got here... so had to check it out.

A Kiwi girl (Melissa) and the American fellow (Erik) and I got a guide and TukTuk driver for the day to go and have a look.These are a little different style of TukTuk...Up at 4:45am to get a sunrise and a full day in...They are temples built as far back as about 800AC with wall carvings.... Telling stories of the battles of the kingdom...
Also the way people lived...
Some of these temples are where Hollywood came and did tomb raider footage.
Amazing stories... very interesting... the first real touristy thing I have done, but totally enjoyable.

I took a lot of photos of this area.. I have to go through them and sort some out.
This is a chamber and as you pass through you put your back to the wall and beat your chest... the whole room resonates at a nice vibration and echos through you and the room.. very nice....While we were driving around on the TukTuk we were pulled over by the police... they were checking licenses and registration of the vehicles.... I thought all was OK until he came over to me and said "Excise me sir I have to check the plate!!"
I said.. "Do you want me to get out of the vehicle?"
He said "no no it is OK"
I didn't realize he was asking for a bribe
The Guide gave him some cash and we were right to continue.

We stopped for lunch and a heap of little children came to try and sell us bangles, flutes, t-shirts, books and a heap of other stuff.
** Photo from Erik **
They say "Where are you from"
and after you tell them they say "If I tell you the population, your PM, all the states and territories and how many governors you have had, will you buy this from me for $5?"
They were very clever kids... we tested them on a lot of countries and they knew 95% of the countries we asked them... very clever.

Thai Cambodia Border

2008-11-13T16:42:00.000+08:00

The Thai/Cambodia border crossing very interesting... there were military clashes on this border about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I am not sure if it was near this border crossing or another one bur a few people were killed.

Got into Aranyaprathet just after dark on the train. Their were 2 French and 1 American on the train so we all decided to hit the border together... a TukTuk driver came onto the train looking for a fare and he told us 30 Baht (sounded good) to take us through to the Visa process and to the border.

We got two TukTuks for the 4 of us and headed to the Kingdom of Cambodia visa processing center... they tried to hit us with 1200 Baht for the visa and we all thought $20US was the price. Had to argued a fair bit even to drop them down to 1100 Baht.

Next was the border crossing.. through the gates photos and stamps etc.. all done..
Now we had to get out of the border town (Piopet).. this one is a bit of a western, cowboy sort of town (Casino on the border, rough roads, horse drawn wagons, beggers etc etc)... we all decided to get a taxi to Sisophon. We paid 1000 Baht for the 4 of us to take a taxi (maybe a bit expensive). The taxi driver turned on the television and started to play loud Cambodian dancing/singing girls.. was fairly pleasant.. just a bit loud. Then he stopped part of the way and started to load up coconuts in the boot of the car... what ever.

Almost hit a dog on the way... didn't hear the thump, but it was very close.

A little later the driver tried to change over a DVD to play on his TV while he is going really slow (maybe 30k's an hour) and we are all sitting there thinking gee... we have been traveling all day.. would be nice to go and get feed and sleep. Anyway, he pulled over again to have a chat on his phone and take a pee... I got out of the car and told him to get back in and drive.. he couldn't speak English at all but said OK and got in and we proceeded again at a very slow speed.

A little bit later he pulls over again and starts unloading coconuts at some house... hmmm ... starting to get a bit frustrated.. I wound down the window and told him to get back in and drive us to a Guest House... He handed me the phone to his boss and I tell him the same thing, saying we have payed good money and take us now!!! The boss asked if we wanted to find our own way to the guest house and I said yeah sure we will, but we will be taking the car. He asked to speak to his driver and so the driver got back in the car again.

We tried to tell him where we wanted to go but with him not speaking English made it a bit hard... He drove us around the town a bit until we pulled out a map and showed him where we wanted to go.. for some reason he stopped at the bus stop. Ended up being OK because some TukTuk divers come up asked where we were going and explained to the driver where the Guest house was that we wanted to go to.. finally.. getting some where.. we drove back the direction we came from and stopped at a guest house which ended up being pretty good. Had a feed and a sleep.
Woke up in the morning and a quick look around town...
OK.. we really are in a different country now!!!
Exchanged some US$ for Cambodian Riel got some nice local food at a street stall and then got a bus to Siam Reip. The bus was full so they gave me a little plastic chair to sit in the isle (between the seats) on the bus. The bus was full of locals and they were very happy, all smiling.. it was a pleasant journey... bit uncomfortable after a while, but still pleasant. This was a highway stop where the bus let us off for a feed or drink or toilet break...
Yes... it is the main highway!!!

Bangkok

2008-11-05T20:46:00.000+08:00

Took the night bus from Ragong to Bangkok... 10 hours... got in at about 5am and waited around for a bus to go into Chinatown where I walked around for a couple of hours with map in hand looking for some accomodation. Finally got a place at a reasonable price and slept most of the day.

Went out tonight for some Pad Thai and a strawberry shake.. was pretty good.. needed a feed thats for sure.

I am not planning on being here very long... the city smells like Manila.. thick with car exaust fumes causing a constant tickle in your throat... this is totally unacceptable... how can we have cities like this? Our cities in Australia are not far behind this level of crap air quality. Something really needs to be done to stop using all these fossil fuels.

Oh well, first day out.. went to some electronic equipment shop... huge crazy out of control... people and equipment every where.

Some cool architecture...

A fellow in a Tuk-Tuk offered me a ride for free ...and I said whats the scam buddy... he said all I have to do is to go into a shop for him and have a look around. The shops sponser the Drivers by giving them fuel vouchers for dropping in potential customers... once your there they try their best to sell you what ever is on offer. No matter how hard they tried, they were not going to sell me a designer hand made suit made to fit.... just would not fit my wardrobe (especially my Back Pack Wardrobe).,, the other clothes would reject them... Prices are pretty good though.. you get to choose the material, shirt, tie and jacket and pants all for about $Au100.

I saw a bit of Thai boxing on wy walk about... They call this thing on the left "The swing"... And some strange bell shaped temples...And a big bridge held up with a lattice of strings...

Some pictures from the outside of a palace...
Walking around Bangkok at night time, they were getting ready for the water festival.
This is an old fort...

People were making little boat, flower candle things that they were putting into the river.. apparently to symbolize that the river washes away all the shit they put in there. (That's the way I interpret it anyway).
There were also boats all lit up with lights and the bridge was also lit up...

Rangong

2008-10-29T15:09:00.000+08:00

Went over to the other side of the peninsular to Rangong, a few road blocks on the way, checking the buses etc.. probaby looking for illegal imigrants, rebals or something. This is very close to the southern Bermese (Maraymar) border. A lot of people come here to cross the border for a day and get a stamp and then come back into Thailand with a renewed 30 or 60 day visa.

Nice little town.. a bit cheaper, lots of markets and yum food.. they even have thermal pools/springs and surounded by mountains. I had a nice room for 200 Baht.. I down graded to one for 100 Baht... has shared showers instead of one in the room.. it is a bit older place but it is comfy enough.

Well.. I just had the first meal I could not eat...
It originally looked like chicken curry so I said hmmm... I will have some of that.
Then as they were dishing it out I realised it was fish and thought.. hmm.. looks like nice fish, I will give it a go.
I walked up the road to a place where I sat to eat... as I opened the packet, it had a smell which I can't quite describe... not off, but not good... there was some sort of fruit inside.. had a piece of that... that was where the funny smell came from... what ever fruit it was.
Then I looked deeper into the sauce and pulled out something which looked like a ball with little bumps all over it... I think it was a type of sea erchin... put my teeth into it to see what the texture was like.. was like a marshmellow.
I dug deeper and pulled out something that looked a bit like a witchety grub with no head.. actually it looked like a small finger... didn't try to taste that one.
Had to try some fish so I got a piece of that... the fish was good but it was over powered by the taste of what ever that fruit this was... Oh well, there's a wasted dollar!!!
I should have taken a photo.. to late now and I won't be buying it again.

Here are some pictures of the public hot springs... This is a nice swiming hole I found.. went for a swim here one day... It was very nice.

And a sunset from the centre of town...
Near this wooden built stryctue....

Ko Phan-gan

2008-10-26T13:33:00.000+08:00

Ko Phan-gan (Ko meaning island)

Went and put my gear on the boat.. WOW!! it is an old boat with an upper deck where there looks like about 60 people are going to be sleeping tonight... leaves at 11pm.. takes about 8 hours..

Ended up being OK.. only a few people on board and I had quite a good sleep.

Up early and off the boat.. all the taxi drivers trying to get a fare. I walked past and had a look around town.
Ended up sharing a taxi with a couple and headed up the west side of the island where I got a bungalow with self contained bathroom (cold shower) over looking the beach and islands...

Here is a sunset from the bungalow...
Walked into a place call "Mr Matt, rooms, food, drinks."
I found out why he is called Mr Matt... he was flat out on the floor sleeping. Decided not to disturb him.

Not a lot else here.
The island people don't want to know you unless you are going to give them money.. very greedy bunch and the island is fairly dirty....

Here are some Pad Thai noodles, Watermelon juice and garlic bread... yummm...

Fairly expensive (Au$3 - 4) but hey I am on a resort island.

There are some nice spots, but they are in the off season and they are bulding all day.. banging, sawing etc etc... and good thing you can't see the beach up close... bags, cans. and lots of garbage.. fairly disapointing really... you would thing the island people would know a little better.

Spent 4 days here with a fair bit of walking.
Hired another M-bike.. went for a zoom around the island..

Hat Yai and Saren Tani

2008-10-20T14:36:00.000+08:00

Finally made it to Thailand... first stop is"Hat Yai".

Got into town, got some cash (Thai Baht), found a guest house and got myself a feed of tom yum soup... very spicey but nice.

Had an afternoon nap and then went for a big walk around town... almost got lost and didn't get back until late that night... stopped into a shop on the way home and had some nice noodles.

The room I had there was on the third floor but it was fronting a main road and it was damn noisey all night. I don't know how a small town of around 200 000 people can be driving around so much... what are they doing all the time?

Decided to leave Hat Yai on Tuesday morning and head up to Saren Tani ...

Woke up..had breakfast...a girl sat at the table beside me and smiled... I looked and thought nice boobs... they look a little bit big for an Asian girl... I was right...once again she said "hello" in his manly voice. We had a bit of a chat... she works as a lip singer in a caberet bar...another lady boy. Wanted to kiss me as I headed off for the bus, but I avoided and shook his hand and went out side.

Caught a mini-bus out of town heading north.
The minibus stopped on the way for a fuel top up and a pee stop... I got some red chicken curry and rice there... it was my first taste of Thai food... gee it was good... wish I got a larger container.

Got into Serant Tani and looked aroundfor quite a while for a room...

Luckily I found some street markets here tonight and guess what.. more chicken curry and rice.. this time it was green, with lemongrass and ginger... ohhhh... so good!!!

Went for a walk this morning looking around town...down to the river...

Nice bit of rain here this afternoon.
Almost time to go out for dinner again... so much nice food... I have to have a health check when I go back to Australia.

Lots of these little cars in Serratani.. they are Taxis.. they call them TukTuk.. then again they call anything with a motor a TukTuk...

Penang

2008-10-19T20:54:00.001+08:00

I took a bus from KL to Penang and then I didn't get off and ended up in Butterworth (the other side on the mainland), had to catch a fairy across to Penang (George town) again.
This is a boat harbor near the ferry terminal...

Bit of a long day but was OK after I spend 1.5 hours going from Hostel to Hostel looking for a good one to stay at.

Staying in the Chinatown region in Georgetown paying a bit more for a room here Rm20 (AU$8) Nice room with bed and fan and fairly quiet.. it is pretty good.

Out for Breakfast had coffee and 2 eggs on toast for a change.. was good.

Saw a temple with some of the largest incense sticks I have seen...Very smelly ritual.

Then met a fellow in the street and he showed me around to an Indian place the cheapest he said... it was too... RM1.80 ($Au0. 70) for a tea and Roti (Fried bread like naan and Dahl dip)... will be back there some time.

Having a look around George Town...
Gardens..
Pier..
Fishermen and their boats..A bit of a storm brewing over the mainland..Here is a picture of my room...
It is not really that yellow.. for some reason my camera takes yellow pictures under fluorescent lighting.

Another mosque..

There are lots of different and very cheap foods to eat... Noodles/Rice for RM3 ($Au 1.20) and very cheap drinks... Honey Dew or Watermelon juice for RM1.60 ($Au0.70).

I hired a motor bike on Sunday for RM20 ($Au8) to go around the island to have a look at the beaches...

And waterfalls where some people were swimming...and Islands...
Had an accident on the bike too...
I was riding along and I saw the traffic light turn green and the cars started to move so I kept going... then when a car came out of the intersection I looked again and realized the green light was to turn left.. not go straight. So I ended up doing a nice little skid.. should have got a picture of the mark.. and I ended up on the bonnet of the car... got a scratch on my ankle.

It was a driving school car and it was the ladies first driving lesson... wonder if she will go there again? I paid the fellow RM50 ($Au 20) after a bit of negotiating and continued on my way.

here is the photo of the car with the bumper bar fallen off and the indicator lense missing!!
the other dint was already there... I couldnt see the lense on the ground either.. I think that was already missing too... they might hit a few tourists!!!

Kuala Lumper 2

2008-10-16T13:48:00.000+08:00

I have just spent another week in KL.

Zooming around with Kay in her car...
And yes... eating lots more food...
These are a long thin fluffy dough... good to dip in soup or coffee..Mmmmmm... chilli.. and soy...Soup and veggies with rice ...Home made pancakes...Fruit salad for breakfast...And lots more yummy stuff to eat...

Cameron Highlands 2

2008-10-04T10:24:00.000+08:00

In these parts they call me Bond....

Well Kay and I got a new camera each in Kuala Lumper... best price for the best we could find.. a couple of things I don't like about mine but overall it is a pretty good camera.
So lets see how it performs hey???
Here we are taking a photo of each other.. testing our new cameras...
Leaving Kuala Lumper one more time with Elaine, Fiyon, Pauline and Kay...
We drove up to the Cameron Highlands We had a nice couple of days looking at flowers, tea plantations

Ohhh and don't forget the food...
The girls ate... and ate
and ate...
and ate...I don't know why they are not fat!!!

Got caught in a traffic jam for quite a while...
but yes we made it to a place where we could get more food... very lucky we all didn't starve!!!

Kay doing her usual peace sign picture...
then she had to decorate my hat!!!
More of Kays artistic work...Another waterfall between Tanah Rata and Bringchang
And some nice looking buildings on the hills around the region...

Cameron Highlands

2008-09-24T16:16:00.000+08:00

Got into Tanah Rata and went out for dinner with an Aussie couple.

Tea Plantation photo from the bus

Robinson Waterfalls
Did a bit of a jungle walk

to the top of the mountain to look down on the town 'Tanah Rata'

This is where my camera packed it in....
Went back to Kuala Lumper for a few days and got a new camera.

Selangor

2008-09-16T15:26:00.000+08:00

Went to Kuta Caves...
Big statue out the front...
Heaps of monkeys trying to grab your stuff and run away with it... almost lost my camera..
Don't they look cute and innocent!!!
Staying near KL in Selangor (Just over the border really).. not a bad spot, glad I came here.. it is not listed anywhere in the backpackers and traveling info so it is the sort of place I like.
I have never seen ice skating inside a shopping center before
And a big water park out the back.

Staying with Kay.. she is a really nice lady, except she forced me to eat some durian...I have tried it before so I was expecting the worst but this one seemed to be a bit better then last time.

Kay and I out at dinner...
Lots of really yummy food to eat!!!

More food with Kay and some of her friends.

Went for a swim in a thermal pool with Kay and her friend Chris...it was pretty hot really. Almost looks like mushroom and person soup.

Then went to a nice park and saw people feeding a lot of fish... I mean heaps of fish...

looks like a big fish soup.

Did a boat cruise and saw lots of fire flies (All my photos turned out black!!!) in Kuala Selengor and then went out for a nice seafood dinner... didn't get a picture of the feed, but was very nice... loke most of the food we have been eating.

Here's a picture of Kay cooking up a storm...

Kota Bhuru

2008-09-13T16:41:00.000+08:00

Travelled the East coast from Kuantan to Kota Bharu on a seven hour bus ride.. not much to see in between took one photo.

There is meant to be nice islands off the coast and did see some from the bus, but all I really noticed was the smog and air polution... must be much nicer under the water with the fish and coral.

Might look at doing some islands in Thailand instead.

Getting ready to do the jungle railway.

Did Jungle railway today.. 8 hours on the train.. not bad... was surprised to see so many houses and built up area all the way.. I was really expecting to see jungle.. Oh well saw a little bit I guess. Got back into Kuala Lumpa tonight and got a bed and a feed, feel a lot better after that.

Might spend one more day here and the up to Selangor on Wednesday.

Kuantan

2008-09-09T13:53:00.000+08:00

Kuantan is a small and fairly nice town
They boast to have the biggest Mosque on the east coast...Every body has the biggest, smalles, longest, highest something don't they???

Drove around in a little Malaysian built car.
Went to Punching Caves and saw the sleeping Bhuda
Looked over the palm oil tree plantationsThen we had to travel across vast lands and wild country to get to a waterfall for a swim. Actually we drove, but I thought the story would sound better!!!

Went for a walk to a beach... forget the name...and saw some monkeys
Went to another beach called Charating beach
here is a picture of some bungalows there..
Had a quick look in a fishing village near Charating Beach

Kuala Lumper

2008-09-07T12:23:00.001+08:00

Stayed for 4 nights (2 on the way to Kuantan and 2 on the way to Selangor)

Twin Towers
and from a distance...
and Kuala Lumper Tower

China Town markets..

"Bye a watch sir"

"Bye a bag sir"
"Do you a good price sir"

Walked around the city.

Just another busy city... " let me outa here!!!"

A couple of signs at the bus stop on the way out!!!No Beeping Horn (I think)

You can work out this one for yourself.

Through to Selengor...

I saw a nice girl on the side of the street last night... gave me a smile... I smiled back and then she says in a deep manly voice... "come we have fun time"... yes it was a guy... my first encounter with a lady boy... I decided to get out of that street.

As I walked up the street there were more girls (I think they were girls) blowing kisses and saying stuff like "come for fun time, come for fun time"... oh well.. thats what traveling is all about I guess. Sorry.. didn't get a picture of the lady boy... he may have wanted me to pay!!!

Another picture of a mosque in KL.

Melaka

2008-09-07T12:22:00.000+08:00

Spent 7 days in Melaka... quite a nice first stop...

I did a lot of walking.. got lost a couple of time, but always found my way back... somehow!!
A nice looking temple on the island close by..

Saw some huge kite flying

Didn't try one of these China town markets
Saw a Kung Fu guy put his finger through a coconut...to fast for the camera!!
wanted me to throw playing cards and coconuts at him!!

Did a Chinese tea courseMet a heap of fellow travellers

And ate some wonderful home cooked food Watched the two crazy Russian girls dance in the streetThey also got into some different religious rituals
This was interesting...
Went into a pub / restaurant
Washed our feet and sat at a table with our feet in a pool while drinking a few beers
All these little fish come up and nibble on the dead skin on your feet..
tickles a bit but is very pleasant and they do a good foot cleaning job.

I ate a century egg (100 year old egg).. don't have evidence of that one!!

Rode a bike around for a week..

I met a nice Vietnamese girl and took her riding for a day.. She had a nice singing voice too.. Here is some of the loacl wild life..the lizard on the bank is pretty big, but the one in the water was really big...
Here is one on the side lazing in the sun...Here is another one wrapped around a building...A group of locals playuing Majong..
Check out the tight staircase on the back of the building...

Singapore

2008-09-07T12:21:00.000+08:00

Stayed two nights in Singapore with a lot of walking around town.

Not a lot to see, really just a big city.

There is a plce in the city called Fort Canning
It is quite a nice spot to get away from the hussle and bussle of the city (Even though you are still in the city)

There are some very big old trees there which are quite nice to see

I went to China Town, Little India, street markets and food stalls...

first try of food stall food here.. not bad but I am sure there is more to come