Thailand - Pattaya

We decided to run from the rain and head to the opposite side of Thailand. We caught a cheap flight from Hat Yai to Bangkok and then a bus to Pattaya.

View Ko Lipe in a larger map

The common form of transportation is the Songthaew (which literally means "two rows"). It's a small pickup truck with a cover over the back and a row on each side of the bed. While you're walking along the street, you get beeped at every 30 seconds because they want to know if you want a ride. You just wave them down, hop on, and when you want to get off, push the little doorbell, pay the driver 10 baht (about 30 cents US) and that's it. Very easy and convenient.

I didn't take any pics of Pattaya because I didn't really like it. It's dirty, over-commercialized, sleazy, and obnoxious. Everyone is always trying to sell you something while you're walking down the street or laying on the beach. "No, I don't want a belt." "No, I don't want a tailor made suit." "No, I don't want a taxi." "No, I don't want a massage." "No, I don't want a Thai wife."
Yes, I do want to get out of here.

Oh, but I did get sick of my hair and got a haircut and a shave.

Thailand - Ko Lipe

We hopped on a train just after we crossed the border into Thailand and headed towards another island. This one was on the western side of the peninsula (as you'll see in coming posts, our itinerary hasn't always been the most logical).

View Kota Bharu, Kelantan in a larger map

We got to the pier late at night and had to wait until the morning to catch a boat so we stayed at a guest house that could have done with a few Orkin visits. Anyway, the next morning we were in the van to go to the pier and were passed by a motorbike... not just any motorbike. A barbecue motor bike!! There were 3 people clinging onto this thing as it sped down the road with a chargrilled chicken smokescreen on their way to meet the boat.


I just had to try it. Verdict: Delicious. It only cost about $1 US for a marinated, grilled chicken breast... to go.

After the great people we met on the Perhentian islands, we were excited to make more great friends. It turns out that when the guidebooks say that an island is closed, people believe it and don't go. We turned out to be two of 10 tourists on the entire island.

As we walked around the tiny island we picked up some tagalongs. I had noticed in Malaysia and Singapore that there were no dogs! I think I saw 3 the entire time we were there. We found out later from a couple Canadian guys that owned a scuba shop that Muslims believe dogs are very dirty creatures. In fact, if they get licked by one, they have to go through a ritualistic cleansing process. So they don't have them as pets and thus, have no (or very few) strays wandering the streets. Here in Thailand, Buddhism is a lot more common and they love animals. Well, a lot of the locals loved them so much that they let them hang out on the beach all day - forever. Some of the dogs and cats that were once pets are now feral and roam the beaches and jungle in small packs.
We had a young dog from one side of the island follow us to the other side, only to be attacked by the residents of that beach. He ran off with his tail between his legs. Awww poor thing doesn't know it's a dog-eat-dog island. Anyway, the animals are everywhere. We sat at the restaurant in front of our bungalow and had dinner and by the time dinner was done we had 3 dogs on the floor. A cat behind me on the railing, one behind Celia on the railing and one on her lap.... Gross! Let's just say Petmeds.com hasn't quite made itself known on Ko Lipe. Who knows what they're carrying! Sure, they're fine from far away and it breaks your heart to see the dogfight wounds and to be nibbling away at a pesky flea.... But keep it away from my dinner table!!!


Aside from the fear of contracting mange, it was a beautiful place and had beautiful beaches, quaint bungalows, friendly locals, and nice weather... for the first day.

Monsoon season in Thailand is May-October. Monsoon translates to lots of rainstorms. The resorts refer to it as "Green Season" but they're not fooling anyone. But us.

Our first plan was to explore the island the first day, take a snorkeling trip the second and then leave on the third. We woke up to a rainstorm on the second day and decided to cancel our snorkel trip.
-"Oh, we didn't expect you to even show up."
-"Well... We had nothing else to do."

And we didn't. The 3 days of rain and high seas meant the boats weren't operating and we were stuck. We read several books, took naps, ate a lot of food, and had THE BATTLE IN THE BUNGALOW!!! While laying on the bed reading one of the rainy days, Celia felt a little tickle on her shoulder. She brushed it off and thought nothing of it. A moment later she felt it again and looked over suddenly screamed and jumped from the bed and I, naturally, jumped up in a state of alarm. -"What is it?! What happened?!"
She pointed at the pillow and I moved it away to reveal the culprit. Oh, it's ON!

"In this corner at one inch and less than an ounce.... THE COCKROACH!" (BOOO! HISSSS!)
"And in this corner at 5 feet nine inches and 150 pounds, weilding a tennis shoe and a water bottle... THE BACKPACKER!" (HOORAY!)

A battle of epic proportions ensued and in the melee, I somehow smashed my thumb in one of the many strikes at my opponent. He's fast, but not fast enough.

Since we had nothing else to do I got a Thai massage. Now Thai massage is different to a Swedish or any other type of massage because rather than just rubbing and compressing the muscles, you're getting pulled and stretched and twisted and manipulated.

Just after this pose she had me cross my legs and she sat down and pulled me up on her legs. It was like doing a superman, except Indian style and facing the ceiling. Noi and Danee were very friendly and we talked with them quite a bit because they were such good company on the rainy days.

Malaysia - Kota Baru

The last big city before the Thai border is Kota Baru. We had met some fantastic people on the Perhentians and followed them to our last stop in Malaysia. We had dinner at a night market, which is very common in this part of the world. It's a bunch of stalls that are set up each night and sell an array of food. One specialty in this city is the blue rice that comes with an egg, some vegetables and chicken.

Paul, Trish, & Michelle at the night market

Blue rice anyone?
Buh-bye Malaysia!

Malaysia - The Perhentian Islands

Our friend Kate, whom we met in Panang, was on her way to the Perhentian Islands to meet some friends who were doing some scuba diving. At this point all we'd seen were cities jungles but no beaches so we were itching for the islands. We got a bunch of info from her and we adjusted our plans to go the day after she did. We took a 5-hour minibus ride from one side of the Malaysian peninsula to the other:

View Larger Map
Then hopped on a speedboat to the Perhentian Islands.

When you think of paradise, what comes to mind?
Palm trees? White sandy beaches? Sunshine? Crystal clear water? Fresh tropical fruit smoothies?
Check, check, check, check, check!

This place is AMAZING! It was easy to lose track of time. One Canadian girl came to visit and ended up staying 8 months! She went back home for a few months and now she's back. We were talking to some people that had just arrived and they asked what we'd done so far.
-"Well, we laid out on the beach and then got in the water, then laid out again."
-"How long have you been here?"
-"Four days!?"

We'd been staying at the Panorama Bungalows. It reminded me of scout camp but tropical instead of pine forest.

We met Hannah and her mom, Sarah, on the minibus across Malaysia. She'd been traveling for almost a year and her mom came for the last month to take her home. Hannah had already been to the Islands and made some friends including one of the locals who owned a boat. One day we finally got our acts together and went on a snorkeling trip. It included stops at a coral reef at the lighthouse tower, turtle point, shark point, and another coral garden. Of course, we had to climb up the lighthouse and jump off. We did the first level, then I had to take it up a notch and go from the second level. What a rush.

I've been snorkeling in Hanauma bay in Hawaii before and I thought it was pretty amazing. When I flopped off the boat with my mask, snorkel, and fins, I was totally shocked at the coral reef below me! There were SO MANY FISH of all shapes and colors and bright, healthy coral. The water was so clear that even from the surface we could see everything so clearly. (I was kicking myself that I didn't buy the underwater camera... it was the other of my top-two choices.)

Because we had an in with the tourguide, we were the only ones out there. It was breathtaking. As promised, we saw sea turtles at turtle point. We could actually see them from the boat so we just jumped in once we spotted one. And, as promised, we saw sharks at shark point. They were harmless black-tip reef sharks but they were still about 6 feet long and dangerous looking. Our tourguide made sure none of us were bleeding before we got in the water though... just in case.

If I ever make it to this part of the world again I'll come back to stay a bit longer. As for now, I've got more world to discover!!!

Malaysia - Panang

We spent another day back in Kuala Lumpur on our way back through towards the border between Malaysia and Thailand. We had been trekking for a while now with heavy packs and when faced with the slightest temptation of relaxation we caved. I had heard about the fish spas and wanted to try it. So this is how it works. In the spa there is a little fishpond that snakes its way through the front of the spa and it's about 2 feet deep. Along the sides are cushions. You take a seat and they wash off your feet and then dunk them into the fishpond. I think these fish were trying to get back at me for the Singapore appetizer but as soon as I put my feet in the water HUNDREDS of inch-long fish started nibbling on my feet! Now I'm not one to keep composure while being tickled so it took a lot of willpower to keep my feet in there while being tickled on every bit of my skin. They were wriggling and squirming while trying to get a good foothold and I was almost wetting myself. It looked like I was wearing boots made of fish, fishboots. It didn't hurt and after the first 5 of the 20 minutes I got used to it so I could relax a little... except when one would slip between my toes, that really tickles! By the end I had super-smooth feet and the fish had full bellies. Symbiosis!

(Through the miracle of technology, I've lost this picture while trying to upload it. I know, I know. I'm just as bummed as you are)

Ok. We made it to Panang and stayed at a beautiful guesthouse called Hutton Lodge. It was built in the English Colonial time and has been refurbished to be a guesthouse/hostel. The people were friendly and the place was clean.

We went to visit the Botanical gardens with our new friend Kate. Turns out all I took pictures of were the monkeys and a frog. Oh, and the sign that I just couldn't stop laughing at.

On this trip I brought a few credit cards as backup. Just in case. They turned out to be more of a pain because all 3 of them were stolen in Panang and thousands of dollars were charged up on the cards! At times like these I'm grateful for the credit card companies that have checks in place. The cards were stopped and I wasn't held responsible for any of the charges (whew!). I guess we all live and learn. I'm just lucky it wasn't my passport or something. We met some people in Singapore who planned to stay there for a weekend. They had their passports stolen and two weeks later they were still waiting for replacements.

Singapore - Singapore

We took the train from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Singapore, Singapore. It's an island on the very bottom tip of Malaysia but is a separate country all on it's own. For a time it was part of Malaysia but it broke away and decided it could do it better. And it has. It's clean, modern, and orderly. But the people can't seem to figure out the whole let-people-off-the-subway-before-trying-to-squeeze-on idea. They have signs and videos and arrows on the floors showing where to wait so people can get off easily... but it's just not getting through.

When unpacking a couple things at the hostel when we first got to Singapore, I dropped my camera from the top bunk onto the linoleum. It turned on (hooray!) but the screen just turned white (boo). So this is what pictures look like when you don't know if your camera is working or not:

As if I wasn't bad enough at remembering to take pictures. So I took it in to the panasonic store to see if I could get it fixed. Turns out they had a repair shop in Singapore (hooray!) but it was closed on weekends (boo), and it would probably be more cost-effective to just buy a new camera (of course it would). I did some looking around since I've heard that Singapore has cheap electronics (Thanks, Sara... She went to Singapore to get a bunch of Singaporean cheerleaders ready for the Chingaaaayyy Parade of Dreams). I found a little shop and started the bargaining and researching and test-driving. The shop was willing to give me trade-in value for my old broken camera because they repair them and have a community education class and teach children photography (awww). After an hour in the shop, I bought a new camera and got a few pics of the surrounding area.

Singapore has a large muslim population and here are some pics of a mosque and a graveyard. If you look closely at the mosque you can see a row of circles under the gold top. Guess what it is... Soda bottles. Waste not want not, eh?

Oh, one night we went out with some new-found friends and we ate at a little restaurant on the street. We ordered some things that sounded delicious and while we waited for our meals to arrive the owner brought out something to munch on. Now I've had popcorn at some restaurants, olives at others, oil, vinegar & bread, etc. Peanuts were no surprise... but these had a secret ingredient. Upon closer inspection I noticed these intermixed with our snack:

Mini dried fishies. And yes, I ate them.

So not a lot of pics from Singapore unfortunately. But I've got more from other stops along the way.

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

We drove overnight to London from Llandudno and caught our flight to Malaysia. We had plenty of time to catch up on sleep because the flight was 13 hours long! We flew Air Asia, which has some killer deals on tickets but they cut out the extras... The Southwest airlines of Asia except without the denim and kahki outfits.
Kuala Lumpur is a huge city and it's not the cleanest. If we had smell-o-vision you would be able to experience this place better. We first got to the hotel (at 8am) and asked the front desk girl where a there was a good place to eat. She said there was a McDonalds, KFC, and Starbucks close. But we decided to get started on our real experience. "Where would you go to eat and what would you have?" She directed us to a little food court at a nearby office building.
"Food court?" you may ask.
Yes. But we didn't see Hot Dog on a Stick, Sbarro, or Mongolian Barbecue. It was a bunch of stalls offering all sorts of dishes. When unsure of what to eat, go where all the locals are. I got some rice and some stuff that looked like chicken and beef in sauce. I was eating along and enjoying my selection when I came upon something that made me think, "vegetable, mineral, or animal?" Since I couldn't figure it out, and it looked like something alien, I pushed it to the side and continued on my delicious journey. I haven't seen anything like it since or I would ask. Oh, and sorry there's not a photo of it.
Malaysia has a strong Muslim influence and there were mosques everywhere. We were able to go tour one but we were wearing shorts and T-shirts so we had to cover up to their standards. I felt like it was graduation. And Celia had to cover her head.

Kuala Lumpur is the home of the Patronas towers. Two twin towers that have a skybridge between them. I think it was featured in a Mission Impossible or something. We weren't able to go up because the tickets were out for the day we were there and we were leaving the next day. But the outside was pretty cool and the chandelier inside was just as beautiful.