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Published: March 4th 2010
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What a hectic few weeks! Firstly, apologies for the fact that most of these photos are from ages ago but this is the fastest connection we have had so we have made the most of it!
My last entry was from the beautiful island of Ko Lanta where we ended up staying for 6 nights, the longest we have stayed in one place since we set off. We took a day trip on a boat from there up to Ko Phi Phi which was absolutely stunning and Alex had her first decent experience of snorkelling over a coral reef which she loved. The day was tinged with sadness though as it was where one of my old mates from school died in the Boxing Day Tsunami.
We explored Ko Lanta on a moped for a day which was great fun and ended up driving up to a complex of caves. It was completely dangerous but great fun dodging creepy crawlies and trying to follow the light of the guide on hands and knees in the pitch black. On the way down the hill we had our first of many encounters with snakes on this trip. As you may know,
snakes are my absolute worst fear and we both got pretty close to stepping on this one and it was the catalyst for loads of abuse from Alex as before the guide had finished calling 'SNAKE!' I was already halfway back up the hill running away!
We spent a couple of days in a town in southern Thailand called Trang where there were not many tourists at all and we had great fun visiting the night market each night eating unidentified deep fried food smothered in chili sauce. People were really friendly and full of smiles. On another snorkelling trip we had a funny time. We were on a boat and were the only western tourists on it, the rest of the people were Thais and Malaysians on holiday. We visited the Emerald Cave off Trang which is a 80m cave about 1m high which leads to a lagoon. An 80m swim wouldn't really have been a problem but we were told with some insistence that life jackets were compulsory and that we had to arrange ourselves into a floating 'crocodile' holding on tight to the persons jacket in front. I gave up protesting and thought it would be
a laugh to join in, and it certainly was! The poor bloke at the front had to do all the swimming to pull a 50 person long snake of people through the dark cave. Overall a really funny day with some lovely people but unfortunately on the last snorkel, i managed to get a deep gash in my foot from an oyster shell.
Our 15 day visa was about to run out so we crossed the border into Malaysia and headed for the island State of Penang. It was here where our paths crossed with my friend from York, Aislinn and her fiance Jonny. We spent a great couple of days with them catching up and exchanging travel stories and advice as they have come from India and Nepal where we are heading next and they are heading nowthwards along the route we have taken. Penang was in the grip of Chinese New Year celebrations and we saw dragons, fireworks and lots of revelry. We went to a spice garden and a butterfly farm and had a couple more unwanted snake encounters!
From there we headed south to Kuala Lumpur where we met our friend Margaret at the
iconic Petronas twin towers where she works. Margaret and Swithin were wonderful hosts to me when i visited on my Gap year (7 years ago) and kindly offered to put us up again this time. It is difficult to describe how nice it feels to be invited as a guest into their home as opposed to stating in guesthouse after guesthouse. We have been thoroughly spoiled! They have taken us to the best chicken and rice restaurant in town, the best satay place and we have visited some great places in KL. We explored the markets of Chinatown and visited a couple of Chinese temples which were thronging due to New Year celebrations. A good day was spent visiting the Batu Caves (where devotees pierce themselves with spears etc to show devotion) and the KL bird garden and orchid garden. I even got to watch a Spurs game with a glass of wine with Swithin! (they actually played well for once Colin!)
Due to my gashed foot we changed our plans and visited Singapore next rather than going to the rainforest at Taman Negara and risking infection. We took an absolutely amazing bus down to Singapore. Think First Class
airline seats with table service and massaging seats! After all that luxury we stayed in a big dorm above a pub and made it our mission so see as much of the place as we could in 2 days.
Alex's Great Uncle had been a POW at Changi prison during WWII and thankfully survived so she was keen to go there and see the place. It was really moving and the recreations of the unthinkable conditions were well done with interviews by survivors too.
Singapore at night is stunning and the cityscape is something special. Wandering around felt completely safe and there were free concerts being put on on the waterfront for the celebrations. Alex dragged me somewhat reluctantly for a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar in Raffles (15 pound each- ouch!) but it was fun in the end and it had to be done.
The next day we went to the Zoo which was really well done and some of the animals were incredible. The white tigers and polar bears were my favourites and Alex loved the Orang Utans.
After a stop back in KL and thankfuly leaving some of our heavy stuff at Margaret and
Swithin's house, we went to Taman Negara national Park which is home to the oldest rainforest in the world. We took ourselves off into the jungle for the last couple of days keeping a beady eye out for wildlife. No tigers or elephants but we saw lots of monkeys, lizards, birds and more snakes! It was the sweatiest experience of my whole life!
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