Blogs from Asia - page 13029

Left KL and the very helpful Equator staff, for a two hour bus ride to the historic maritime town of Malacca (Malaka). The town has a colourful past and has been influenced by numerous cultures - including the Malays, Portuguese-Eurasians, Chinese and Indians, with Portuguese, Dutch and British influenced architecture. We are staying in a cheap but clean hostel called the 'Travellers Lodge', which has a great roof terrace overlooking a view of the sea. We enjoyed an Indonesian style lunch, before heading off to the city centre. We first noticed a lot of bicycles covered with umbrellas, tinsel and flowers - a common method of transport for tourists! We were very surprised with the amount of tourists visiting the town. Then we had a look at St Paul's church, Christ church and saw a huge ... read more

Well, having been in Hong Kong 5 days now, I'm slowly getting used to just how busy the place is. It's relentless, there doesn't seem to be a place where a crowd of people aren't!! I can't count how many times I've been offered suits and watches by people on the street, every other step they seem to be in your face! As of now I think we've seen everything worth seeing in Hong Kong, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is a story that has dogged my time here. Unfortunately eating had become a real problem since being ill on the plane, so after three days of vomiting up whatever I'd eaten(delightful image!), I decided to go see a doctor. After a three hour wait, I got to see him, and he gave me some ... read more

It's been quite a while since my last entry. We've already been in Thailand for 10 days now and I must say I'm getting used to living out of a backbag. This is what we've done since we left Bangkok: We took a cab to visit my dad's cousin. He's married to a Thai woman. They live in a small village between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi. They've built a beautiful house and we had the pleasure to stay there for a couple of days. It was so relaxing to be in the country side again after bustling Bangkok. My dad's cousin has been living in Thailand for a couple of years already and he told us a lot about the culture and the Thai way of living. I even found out why Thai people always do say ... read more

A few of you brought to my attention that I didn't include any information or, more importantly, any pictures of where we're staying in Phuket. We are in a condo on the south end of Bang Tao Beach a few hundred meters from the beach. The complex was newly built a couple of years ago. It's quite comfortable with a very large pool in the center and a good little restaurant right on the property. It has about 40 units in 5 buiildings. Bang Tao was originally a Muslim village and is still significantly so. There does not seem to be any unrest....except my getting woken at 5AM by the call to morning prayers. Fortunately, this is usually drowned out by the aircon. There is a lot of building going on. It seems that the Tsunami ... read more

MONDAY 12TH MARCH 2007 I decided to try and forget the tourist shop incident and make the most of the tour, assuming i was actually going where I had asked. After much confusion the mini bus eventually arrived and off we went to Kanchanaburi. I was exhausted from lack of sleep and got the worst place in the front of this ancient mini bus with my legs crushed. I couldn't sleep as I'd planned and feared for my life during most of the trip. At one point the steering wheel was dropping to bits and the driver was trying to fix it while driving along the motor way. When we eventually arrived we went to see a POW graveyard, then we were dropped off at the worst museum ever. There were some bizarre random relics ... read more