South East Asia ... then home!

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You'll be pleased to hear that your intrepid travellers completed their round-the-world escapade early on Tuesday, 10th January 2006 (127 days after take-off!), arriving home in England to a cold winter's day.

Since we last checked in with you early in December, we spent another 2 weeks on the road / air / railtrack taking in Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, before arriving in Bangkok on 14th December to spend Christmas & New Year 'en famille' in Thailand. A little more detail ....

We arrived in Hong Kong on Monday, 28th November after a daytime flight from Perth which took us directly over Bali & Borneo (all in Indonesia), and we now had the luxury of over 36 hours to while away in one of the most developed cities in the world. Whilst in HK we based ourselves on the 'Golden Mile' near the harbourside in Kowloon, a convenient location from which to take in the spectacular lights of Hong Kong Central at night & only a short ride on the Star ferry across Victoria harbour to start a day reacquainting ourselves with the city. The latest addition to HK Central's skyline is IFC2 Tower - a very tall building that Pete was entranced with, but we also managed an interesting walk through the Western Markets area before a refreshment stop at the Mid-levels en route to Victoria peak where we ambled round a circular walk looking down on the multitudinous skyscrapers. We had visited Hong Kong before & were impressed by its obvious continuing economic success, though the downside of this is that the 'good value' we had grown used to getting everywhere else for our hard earned British pound suddenly disappeared!

Nevermind, after our short pause to catch our breath in Hong Kong, we hopped the South China Sea for 3 days in Manila in the Philippines and here we saw everything that you don't experience in Hong Kong. Traffic chaos & the pollution it brings is a fact of life, and although everything works you feel that its a case of 'only just'. While we were there, Manila was hosting the 23rd South East Asian Games and our hotel seemed full to overflowing with contestants / trainers / spectators from neighbouring countries ... oh, and there was the unsettling experience of walking down a corridor one morning when one of the hotel staff, who we're pretty sure we'd never seen before, greeted Peter with the salutation: 'Good Morning, Mr Roff' (and we didn't have name badges on!!). Rather oddly, Manila showed no real signs of being awake to tourism - in fact the Ministry of Tourism was housed in a large government building next to our hotel but we think all the staff were on holiday! That said, we were within a short walk of the old 'Intramuros' district which provided us with worthwhile, though not spectacular, sightseeing. Much of the character of the rest of the city seems to have been blown away during WW2. We didn't have time to venture out of Manila into the countryside & so couldn't do the Philippines justice, but we've at least been there & seen real 'jeepneys'.

We then flew on to Singapore after an overnight stop in Hong Kong (both cities abound in sightseeing & retail therapy opportunities). In 3 days & at a leisurely pace we visited most of Singapore's jewels, including Orchard Road, Fort Canning, Raffles Hotel (for a cuppa!), the botanic gardens, Singapore river & the Merlion, and Sentosa Island where we watched some impressive technological wizardry in the form of a night-time light show combining water fountains & laser beams (OK, so you have to be there!).

Early on Wednesday 8th December we left Singapore for the start of a week-long overland trip through Malaysia. A 4-hour train journey took us out of Singapore (30 mins to the border) & through southern Malaysia to Tampin where after meeting up with our guide / driver we drove to the coastal town of Malacca (Melaka) & the first overnight stop - evidence here of Portuguese, Dutch & British involvement in local history over the past 500 years or so, but most interesting was a roadside stop to wonder in amongst some rubber trees (native to Brazil not Malaysia) and see the tapping process for real & up close. Day 2 saw us en route to Kuala Lumpur - it wasn’t long before an ‘interesting’ lunch stop at the equivalent of a British motorway service area, then the very impressive, photogenic Petronas towers loomed into view and dominated KL sightseeing over the next couple of days. Day 4 took us northwards to the very pleasant Cameron Highlands where tea growing is the main industry & the roads wind incessantly up, down & around the mountains! On day 5 we continued the drive north out of the highlands via the city of Ipoh (impressive Sultan’s palace here) and across one of the longest road bridges in the world whick links the island of Penang to the mainland - the next couple of days took in a bit of colonial history, botanic gardens, temples and our first beach stop since New Zealand! Day 7 brought the end of the Malaysian jaunt and an early afternoon start to our scheduled 22-hour train journey from Butterworth across the border into southern Thailand and northwards overnight to Bangkok. The train was a really worthwhile experience - clean & comfortable 2nd class travel (as good as you’ll get anywhere in the world but for a fraction of UK prices) and a very good way to see the Thai countryside if you’re not in a hurry.

Our arrival in Bangkok on 14 December heralded the start of the last stage of our circular tour of the planet. Over the next month we first took a few days out to catch up with ourselves at Andy’s apartment & do some local sightseeing in Bangkok, we visited the extensive ruins in Ayutthaya (former capital of Thailand), we spent Christmas at Railay beach (near Krabi, on the Andaman Sea coast - hit by the tsunami a year earlier) with our 3 offspring and New Year in Bangkok, followed by a week in Chiang Mai (northern Thailand) doing such things as elephant trekking, bamboo rafting, a Thai cookery course, visits to Buddhist temples … oh, and the inevitable strolls through the night market!

On day 126, after a great time with Andy, we packed our bags and headed home.

A final thought: We both thoroughly enjoyed our epic trip & we will always consider ourselves to be very fortunate to have sought out & taken the opportunity to do it, and what next? ... well after sorting nearly 2,000 photos, and visiting friends & family after over 4 months away, we’ll be planning our 2006 adventure!

Best wishes to you all, and see you soon - Pete & Liz

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