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Published: July 22nd 2006
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Hello, hello.....Time has evaporated and it's been awhile since i've last written. Where to pick up from? Oh yeah the last entry ended with us in Laos heading to Thailand and unsure where to from there...
Well, from Luang Prabang we had 3 options and there was also now only 3 of us (myself, Emma, and Ivan 'the terrible' -who despite his namesake is a wonderful lad who bears the brunt of all Em's and my jokes in fine style!). So our options were : 1) head back the way we came to where we originally crossed into Laos; 2) take a slow boat upstream the Mekong for 2days to a new border crossing and see some lovely scenery; or 3)same upstream journey in a zippy, ultra-fast and very dangerous little boat that takes 6hours but with a very real risk factor of crashing (apparently it happens to 1 in 6 boats!). We chose option 2 and sat aboard arse-numbing wooden seats for 10 hours each day and chugged upriver to the Thai border. Of course we arrived too late for the border crossing and had to spend overnight in the border town of Huay Xai where there is
absolutely NOTHING to do. Next morning crossed back into Thailand, took a bus to Chiang Rai, spent the afternoon there and boarded an overnight bus back to Bangkok. Once back in Bangkok we spent a couple of days partying on the Khao San and spending innumerable hours exploring the shops and enormous food court of Siam Paragon. Then it was aboard another bus+boat combination to head to the island of Koh Tao off the coast of Koh Pha Nang. Koh Tao is a reknowned divers paradise with loads of dive schools and reefs to explore though unfortunately neither Emma nor i have dived before and we lack the funds/time to do a training course now, perhaps when we return. But this didn't stop us from receiving a thorough and constant explanation of all the elements of diving from our soon to be certified dive instructor Ivan...for anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of being a non-diver in the presence of divers suffice to say it can be a little boring to constantly hear coded talk about DSM, ICD, DMT, DSD, STD...or whatever! (Sorry folks that's a blatant attack at Ivan who'll appreciate what i mean). Anyhow though diving wasn't our
thing there are plenty of beaches on Koh Tao to visit so we rented a couple of motorbikes and headed around the island. Though only problem is that said beaches tend to be quite difficult to get to and involve some torturous roads which test the limits of one's bike riding ability....Ivan failed. Somehow whilst stationary we nonetheless ended up with some scratches, a broken clutch lever, broken headlamps, and a profusely bleeding Ivan. A few stitches later, a couple of hundred dollars in repair costs and a good laugh our beach hunting on bikes came to an abrupt end. After a few days on Koh Tao it was time for Emma&i to part company with Ivan and head down south (via Koh Pha Ngan) to catch up with my mate Chris Quarrie who's living and working as a teacher in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
We spent the first couple of nights in KL in a hostel before graciously being invited over to stay at Quarrie's ample apartment located in the outskirts of KL. After many months of travel and living out of hotels it was soooo nice to have all the comforts of a lovely apartment...though we did see
much of KL we really spent most of our time lounging around the flat watching dvd's, playing Xbox (well Quarrie&i did, bless Emma's patience!), swimming in the pool, and hanging out in the nearby pyramid shaped huge mall (so, yeah, basically i revisited my teenhood). Kuala Lumpur is a nice city with big broad clean streets, big modern air-conditioned malls, and towering edifices....it reminds me much of downtown Toronto. But after a few days we were itching for a beach and so we headed out to the fabled Perhentian Islands laying off the east coast of Malaysia about 15kms south of the Thai border. We got to the coast by way of train, after months spent on Indian trains Malaysian trians are a dream come true by comparison: clean, quiet, spacious, modern...a real treat! From the coast we took a speed boat to the islands -there are 2 islands Kecil and Besar, which literally translates to Small and Big- and after spending hours searching for accommodation on the cheaper Small island we headed to the somewhat more for families and domestic tourism Big island. Once finally settled in we could appreciate the sheer beauty of the islands, the water was
the most beautiful and vibrant shade of turquoise, and so clear you could see over 20 feet down to the bottom! Though we were paying more on the Big island than we'd hoped to on the Small island it was worth it as we ended up staying on what has to be the loveliest beach we've seen bar Krabi in Thailand...soft white sands with a nice little drop into the water (ie. no wading for 20metres and still being only ankle deep in water), nearby reefs for snorkeling, and a nearby restaurant for sustanance. On our third day we went on a snorkelling trip around the island. We saw the usual array of brightly coloured fish as well as swam with sea turtles (close enough to touch them) and i saw a metre long black tipped reef shark! Sadly, i was not nearly as brave as i'd hoped to be and at the sight of him i was straight outta the water and in my haste ruined Emma's chance of seeing him...mia culpa.
After a few days on the islands it was time to head back to KL for a few nights before heading up to Thailand...our reason for
Cool shaped flower!
...nature's pretty creative.... going back again to Thailand?? Answer: to catch our flight from Bangkok to Seoul. Yep, after spending years talking about wanting to teach TEFL we both figured that now's the time to give it a go so we got ourselves jobs as English Instructors at Easy i English camp....it's 4 weeks of playing with Korean kids 12 hours a day, living on campus in student residence (we have our own room) and getting paid decently. Sounds like it'll be a blast! After 4 months of being on-the-go we're actually looking forward to setting our bags down for a bit and having a room of our own....there seems to be a saturation threshold with travellin' and after 3-4 months you stop appreciating it as much and you need to refresh for a bit -so spending time at this camp is the perfect way to do so.
Whilst on our final week in Bangkok we hooked up with Ivan once again (he's unshakable! heh heh) and a mate of his, Ronan, who as good fortune would have it has just finished a year's teaching in Korea and gave us some great insight into what to expect and the fun times to
be had.
Well it's only a few hours til our flight so this has to be ended here. Unfortunately there's not enough time for me to add photos to this entry and i have no idea what internet facilities will be like at our camp so i don't know when they'll be attached but rest assured that they will be (Floppy is anxious to get his picture in front of the Petronas Towers up!). Tomorrow morning we'll be in Korea making our way to the camp...i have no idea what to expect but i'm fortunate to have great company for this adventure and no matter what the camp'll be like i'm sure Emma&i will have some ol'good laughs. We're off to camp!
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