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Ko Lipe
The beach in front of our accommodation Hello!
How are you all? I hope that you're making the most of the sunshine I hear you're having!
So after Krabi (Thailand), we moved even further South to a tiny island called Ko Lipe on 3rd May. This is a lovely undeveloped island with gorgeous beaches and blue seas. Unfortunately when we were there it was the rainy season so we only got one nice day out of 5. However, we made of most of our time on the island and still managed to relax. Thankfully we managed to get some great accommodation which was right on a beautiful beach. The thing we noticed straight away on this island was the amount of stray dogs which wandered the beach. The Thais seem to treat all the animals in a bad way and we saw numerous dogs cower when a Thai walked past but they were really friendly with us. We bonded (ahhh) with one particular dog (which we nicknamed Fishcakes after he finished off Stu's tuna fishcakes :-)) He used to run upto us and get really excited whenever he saw us (probably because we used to feed him of course!) and we would take him walks
Ko Lipe, Thailand
Wish you were here! along the beach and play fetch. We really enjoyed our time on the island, despite the weather, and we were quite sad to be leaving. On 8th May we got the ferry back to the mainland, Pak Bara, where we spent the night.
On the 9th May we set off to cross the border into Malaysia and ultimately reach Penang. We were sorry to be leaving Thailand behind (well until we stay in Bangkok for two nights in August) as we had really enjoyed our time there. I would recommend anyone to visit Thailand as it's a fascinating country with so much to offer. Of course there are some huge differences between Thailand and England, especially if you're travelling on a budget. Some were interesting such as their religion, traditions and way of life, others certainly took some getting used too......
The time
This might seem strange to people who have never experienced "Thailand Time" so I will try to do my best to explain. "Thailand Time" is something which we're now getting used to but it gave us a shock to begin with. Basically the Thai's like to do everything quite slowly, which is absolutely
fine especially when you're ion holiday. The only problem is that they tell you that it will take you half the time...not so good when you're trying to make travel plans! For example, when getting the bus back down from the Laos border to Bangkok I was enquiring about the bus times and the man told us it would take 10 hours to reach Bangkok which would mean we would be arriving there at midnight. We were a little apprehensive about arriving in the capital city at that time at night as we had no accommodation booked. However, we decided to go for it and hoe for the best. At this time we didn't know much about "Thailand time" so we fully accepted the fact that we would arrive in Bangkok at midnight. Pulling up at the bus station at 4 o'clock in the morning we started to understand the notion of "Thailand time". Now we have gotten more used to it and generally add on a few hours to however long they tell us trips are going to take.
The toilets
Okay, now I know that this isn't a very pleasant subject but it's something that
Ko Lipe, Thailand
Our doggie companion during our time on the island - Fishcakes. I'm going to have to mention! The toilets are, of course, very different to ours. This was very problematic for Michelle at the start of the trip but it was something that she had to overcome (especially when she really needed to pee!!) The toilets are a hole in the ground with foot spaces at either side. They don't believe in toilet roll (yuck) so we now have to carry our own supply around, and the only way to flush the toilet (or hole) is to pour water down from a huge bucket which is normally outside the cubicle. Now that is, in my opinion, bad enough but in some public toilets the hole in the ground usually led to an open drain which ran through the centre of the queuing area. That's right folks, you had to queue either side of the open drain whilst people's erm...business floated right past you! Many times I preyed that I wouldn't trip up!!! Just to top it off and leave you with a really pretty picture in your head, the toilets were rarely cleaned. To try to take the terrible stench away, the workers would leave cut up fruit like limes on
the floor. Whilst that was all very nice, many bugs also like the strong smell of the limes....I will leave the rest upto your imagination.
The bugs
These little creepy crawlies are certainly something that we've had to get used to here in Asia...they are everywhere! We've been bitten by all sorts of wierd and wonderful creatures but we're now fighting back...with our discovery of the bug room spray. Our little friends definitely don't like this and have been keeping clear of our rooms, it's just a shame that the skin repellant doesn't work as well :-)
The food
To begin with we struggled to get used to the culinary differences between Thailand and home...but gradually we started to become more adventurous (as our stomachs started to rumble!) and actually found that there were many of the Thai dishes which we really enjoyed. We're now eating a lot more of the local food and appreciating it.
So we're now in Malaysia, our third country, and hoping that we enjoy it here as much as Thailand. Our first impression of Malaysia was based on Penang as that was our first stop. We stayed in
Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
The view from our room window Georgetown which is the main city there. It was a really nice city with a lot of atmosphere. Whilst we were there it was really evident to us the number of different religions who all live side by side in this country, as we saw hindu temples, islamic temples, buddist temples, chinese temples (although I have to admit I'm unsure of which religion these belong to) and Christian churches. There are also a lot more cars on the road here than Thailand - mainly Protons (I bet that brings some memories back for you Mike!)
Unfortunately we timed our stay in Penang badly as we had spent longer in Thailand than originally planned, meaning we could only spend 2 days exploring Penang before having to move onto Kuala Lumpur in time to catch a flight we have booked for the 15th May.
So we arrived in Kuala Lumpur today (12th May). The capital seems really nice, although busy which I suppose is to be expected. We're hoping to explore it more tomorrow and hopefully get tickets to go up the Petronas Tower.
We'd both like to wish Stu's Grandad, Fred, a Happy 85th Birthday for today. We
Penang, Malaysia
The trishaws are the traditional way of getting around the city hope that you've had a really nice day and Stu enjoyed speaking to you all yesterday.
We look forward to hearing from you all (hopefully!)
Lots of love, Michelle & Stu xxxx
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Krystyna
non-member comment
Happy holidays!
Dear Michelle and Stuart So lovely to read your last few blogs, they have been truly amazing and a joy to read, keep them coming. Thailand sounds beautiful and one of the things that I remember from your blogs was the elephant experience and the beautiful beaches. I am not so sure about the stray dogs, as you know I am scared of them! Glad you arrived in Kuala Lumpur ok, the airports beautiful from what I remember and I believe the city has many great sights to see, such a big difference though from your earlier travels. The good news is that at least you won't have the same toilet troubles, sounded just awful! Keep safe, have fun and look forward to reading your next blog. All our love. Krys, Mike, Daniel and Nicholas from Down Under. xxxx