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Published: June 14th 2010
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Hi everyone!
Its that time again, here's blog number 7: Thailand and Malaysia part 1. We hope you enjoy it 😊
Our Thai adventure began in Bangkok (the airport that is!). Due to the recent trouble in the capital we thought it was best to head straight down south, so we started off in Phuket- which pretty much sums up the expression 'sun, sand, sea and souvenirs'. As we had been advised that it was here you could purchase electricals at crazy cheap prices, we decided to treat ourselves to a portable DVD player. This has since given us many hours of entertainment, especially as we insist on topping up our dvd collection in every new destination. Phuket was a nice place to chillax for a few days, but best of all we got the opportunity to go on an Elephant Trek. We had waited so long to do one of these we were extremely excited about saddling up and were given a Elephant who called himself Captain. Despite the fact he had a prosthetic tusk, he did a stand up job and we enjoyed every minute.
After a few days we were ready to head to our
next destination- Koh Phi Phi which had a fantastic atmosphere and beautiful surroundings. During the day we were content with swimming in the turquoise sea, sun bathing on the golden sand and wandering around the souvenir shops (for once not frantically searching for a new bag for Richard!). At night however, the tide went right out revealing the perfect stage for some fire based activities including huge skipping ropes, limbo and rings of fire. Due to our better judgment we decided against participating, but it was certainly amusing watching others take part. It was also in Phi Phi that Jeni had her first taste of the notorious Sangsum Bucket. Although it is well known that the Thai rum can have unusual effects on people, it came as a surprise to both of us when Jeni started hallucinating and swore blind that Freddy Krueger was after us! Ok so it was slightly funny at first, but it was when Jeni insisted they would have to spend the night hiding in the bushes until morning that Richard finally had to put his foot down and escorted her inside (using all necessary means). Needless to say- the hangover was devastating.
On our
way to Koh Phangan, we chose to stop off in Krabi for a few days. Although the area was truly beautiful, there wasn't an awful lot to actually do here so we have little to report other than numerous trips to the local mini mart and a hell of a lot ants! We arrived in Koh Phanghan just in time for the Full Moon celebrations, and managed to bag ourselves a swanky yet affordable bungalow which even had it's own private beach. We soon discovered that the best way to get around the island was by moped, so took the opportunity to visit Had Rin (AKA party central) repeatedly. It is here that thousands of backpackers congregate to experience the monthly full moon parties; they're a great excuse to dress up in bright clothing, meet randoms and experiment with buckets of unknown Thai spirits. Considering that people were passing out left, right and centre from 10pm onwards, we were rather proud of ourselves for making it until daybreak and see sunrise on the beach.
After recovering from yet another hangover, we left for our last destination in Thailand Koh Samui. We managed to find a nice air conditioned room
(which truly is a blessing in Southern Asia when you can afford it) in the Island's biggest resort- Chaweng. The highlight of our time in Koh Samui, if not Thailand as a whole was definitely our visit to a lady boy cabaret. Basically a number of gender benders (some convincing, some with adam's apples the size of golf balls!) sang and danced to a range of songs from Tina Turner to Britney Spears.
The next day we were off on our merry way to Malaysia. We planned for our first stop to be Palau Perinthian, an island Paradise located just off the coast. Unfortunately we arrived too late in the day to cross over to the island so we had to spend the night in the fishing village of kuatn Besux. Getting off the bus, tired and weary we decided to stumble into the first hotel we saw. We soon realised that this was a major error when we entered the room to find a number of cockroaches the size of Golden Retrievers! Keen to get the hell out of there, we decided to leave early the next morning and soon arrived on the island after a quick speedboat
trip. Due to the school holidays having already started we found that much of the accommodation was fully booked, however after a bit of searching we were fortunate enough to find some hillside bungalows with sweeping views out to sea. Having dumped all our belongings we quickly booked onto a snorkeling trip which would take us to many different reefs and beaches. We managed to see quite a bit of the underwater fauna including tropical fish, sharks and massive sea turtles. It was an excellent day out, despite the fact that Jeni was repeatedly attacked by what she maintains were evil Parana fish.
After nearly a month on the beach, by this point we were happy to head off to the contrasting Taman Negera- the world's largest rain forest. Like most backpackers we decided to base ourselves in Kuala Tahan, just metres from the national Park entrance. It was a rustic, back to basics place which had the novelty of floating restaurants nearby. We soon got used to the fact we were surrounded by wildlife of all shapes and sizes, however Jeni got a bit of a shock when she found a lizard in the toilet bowl. Feeling particularly
sorry for the poor critter, we attempted a rescue mission which was eventually successful and managed to set him free. We're pretty sure he'll be scarred for life though. We spent the next few days trekking through the forest taking in mother nature's sights and sounds. We also walked along the world's highest and longest canopy walkway, which gave great views of the forest below. That evening we chose to book onto a night safari too. Unfortunately we didn't see a great deal of wildlife, but did manage to spot an owl, 2 small cats with leopard print coats and a herd of cows. On our last day in Taman Negera we decided to walk to the Bat Caves on the other side of the park. The trek was a hard slog and when we arrived Jeni didn't like the idea of crawling through tiny spaces with the bats, so left Rich to go it alone.
Next up was Kuala Lumpur which is where we are now. We reached here via a relaxing boat journey through the rain forest and bus straight to China town in the city centre. We have only been here for 4 days but have
already seen many great sights including the Botanical Lake Gardens, Petronas Towers, Central Market, National Monument and few temples. We also made it up the Telecommunications Tower for a stunning birds eye view of the city. We're really enjoyed our time in Kuala Lumpur, and may find time to pop back at a later date, for now though- we're off to Bali!
Tune in next time!
Love to all, Jeni and Rich xx
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Parling Senior
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Very Jealous
Aren't there any beaches that you haven't been to?