Bangkok - Round 1

After the overnight train, we arrived at Bangkok very early in the morning, although got woken up on the train around 5am by women patrolling the carriages selling stuff - very annoying. After dumping all our things at the hotel we had a narrowboat ride around Bangkok's canals. The boats were very narrow as the name implies and we heard that someone had gotten very ill after water from the canals splashed in their mouth, which made us all paranoid the whole journey.


We saw lots of sights from the narrowboat, including the grand place (above), which I'm going to go visit when I get back to Bangkok the second time. After the boat trip we went to Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining Buddha, which was extremely ornate.


The rest of the day and most of the next day was spent perusing the many markets. We went to the weekend market, which is meant to have over 1,500 stalls and was insanely busy. We were also lucky enough to be staying very close to Khao San Road in Chinatown, which is a pretty lively area, especially at night.

Ko Samui

Next stop was the island of Ko Samui, which took 4 hours by coach and 2 hours by ferry to reach, but was definately worth it. We stayed at the Sandy Resort, which was just off the beach and had a pool and loungers on the beach.


On the first day we were there we had a boat trip round some of the 40 islands that make up the atol. We did a bit of snorkling, although there weren't may big fish that was probably for the best. We even had lunch on a remote beach that could only be reached by boat.



On the evening of the second night, we went to see a ladyboy show, I don't think I could listen to a Tina Turner song in quite the same way, not that I'd want to anyway. Poor Damien from our tour group got dragged up on stage and humiliated a little bit, but it was all very funny. After spending the remaining time swapping between the beach and the pool, we headed to Bangkok on the overnight train. We had proper sleeper beds, although I didn't get much sleep with all the rocking and strange noises.

Nakhon Si Thammarat - Home of the shadow puppets

We crossed the border into Thailand and after a 7 hour journey, made it to the town of Nakhon Si Thammarat. They don't get a lot of foreign visitors in Nakhon Si Thammarat so as we went past, the locals came out of shops to look and wave at us.

Nakhon Si Thammarat is famous for being one of the last places left in Thailand where the ancient art of producing shadow puppets continues, they're produced by hand from cow hide. The shadow puppet master is quite famous and performed for the king of Thailand, we got to watch a short show.
Thailand's quite a culture shock compared to Malaysia where most people spoke English and the Malaysian language used the normal alphabet. Getting dinner at the night market involved a lot of hand gestures. Getting around is also a bit strange as they use săwngthăew, which are trucks with benches in the back and work like a cross between a bus and a taxi.

Penang - Last stop in Malaysia

Our last stop in Malaysia before crossing the border into Thailand was the small state of Penang, an island off the west coast where the majority of the population is Chinese not Malay and where the British invaded (is there anywhere we didn't invade round here?). We got to the Island by ferry but there is also a bridge, the second longest in South East Asia.

We got there in the afternoon and had a chance to wander around, there are hundreds (maybe a bit of an exaggeration) of temples and mosques dotted around the streets. I also went to the top of the Komtar tower to their viewing deck, but it started raining when I got to the top so the pictures weren't great.


The next day we had a tour round Penang starting with the old British fort. Next we headed to the Chinese Wharfs, there are seven along a stretch of the front and is where the Chinese immigrants arrived. Each is named after a popular Chinese family name so only those with that name could stay on that wharf, if you look inside you couldn't tell that they are a shack built above water as they all have electricity and TVs etc.


We headed to the Wat Chayamangkalaram temple, home to the reclining Buddh, then after a stop off at another chocolate factory we finished at Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddist temple in Malaysia.

Sukasuka retreat - Day 2

Day two and we headed to the local village to see traditional Malay houses and to trek to a waterfall.


After trekking uphill for what seemed like miles, the pool was so good to swim in.



It rained very heavily that afternoon, before it started Joan (one of the group) had gone out in a kayak and had to be rescued by a passing boat when the storm struck. In the evening we had a traditional Malay meal, sat on the floor, only eating with the right hand and no knives and forks. We even wore traditional Malay sarongs.



The next morning we were catching the coach from Kuala Kengsar, the royal town in the state of Perak. Before we left we saw a few of the sights including the Royal Palace and the Royal Mosque (below).

Goodbye city, hello country

We left KL the next morning and got a coach to the state of Perak, then got a rickety minibus and a boat to our next stop, the island of Sukasuka in a man made lake created by damming a river to stop the royal town flooding further down. We stayed in cabins with a family who own the Island.

After being in KL for a couple of days and Singapore for quite a few days, it was really really quiet here and felt very remote. There were lots of mozzies around as well so we had to load up on the insect repellent and sleep with mosquito nets, which I was sure I would end up with my head sticking out of in the morning and bitten to pieces.



The huts did have electicity and toilet so it wasn't too basic though hot water and air conditioning was notably missing and it was a very sticky first night. Plus there were lots of bumps in the night including the Ghekos, which make noises like someone is knocking on the door and a very noisy bullfrog. We also had the the guest below in our cabin the first night.

KL - Day 2

On day 2 we had a guided tour round the sights of KL. We started off at the Batu caves, which is a Hindu temple in the side of a rocky hill with a lot of steps to the top. The caves are home to a hoard of monkeys, who are highly adept to getting food and drinks from the tourists. When we were climbing the steps up, they all came bounding down like something from Indiana Jones.



The caves are huge inside.


After visiting the world famous (apparently) Royal Selangor Pewter Factory, where they make all sorts of things including the F1 trophies and the worlds largest tankard.



We also visited the National Monument, a chocolate factory that had lots of free samples and the National Mosque.