Hi everyone! We decided to make an unplanned trip to Borneo using a cheap air Asia flight!.. So here's what we did... A very light sleep kept us both on our toe's for our 2:30am alarm call! We set off bound for Kuching, the Capital of the Sarawak region of Malaysian Borneo. We first took a taxi to KL Sentral station where we took the AirAsia bus to KL's new LCCT (Low Cost carrier Terminal) The route was very easy which helped because we were both still half asleep! When weighing our luggage, we found out that Nik's bag weighed 19 [View Full Entry]

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Transport to Taman Negara (TN) took us the best part of a day. We took a more gentle ride by speed boat from the Perinthians back to Kuala Besut on the mainland, then made the 8 hour minibus ride to Taman Negara. The journey was such a contrast to the bus journeys we had experienced in Indonesia the previous week! We had only 4 in our minibus so enjoyed numerous seats to relax on! We spent much of the morning leg eating fake/halal Pringles! After a lunch pit stop at a fancy hotel I managed to eat a whole loaf of [View Full Entry]

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Back to the dirty streets of Medan and after a huge breakfast by the lakeside and a long wait for a boat pick up we started our journey across to the Perinthian Islands on the west coast of Malaysia. First of all we crossed the lake back to Parapat and with a better view of the “island” of Samosir. We spent much of the time figuring out where we had driven to on our epic moped trip 2 days before. Once in Parapat we were shoved onto a public bus with ample leg room and air-conditioning, but were soon told to [View Full Entry]

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Onwards to Berastagi seeking some peaks.. We lugged our bags back downstream to the main part of the village ready to leave the amazing Bukit Lawang and yet again stopping for a photo with the locals! We had to take a "opolot" (motorbike and side cart) to the local bus station where we then opted for a public minibus to Medan. The minibus was hot, cramped and literally falling apart on the bumpy pot holed road. In true Indonesia “Chicken bus” style it was drastically overloaded as we picked up various aged locals from 5 to 105 years old!! At one [View Full Entry]

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The 4am morning sermon at the SM Raja mosque was an unwelcoming wake up call for the day ahead. Nik had also developed a rash and swelling on her hands and feet the night before so were unsure whether we could even make it to Bmukit Lawang! What next for Nik!? Nevertheless we decided to make the 3 hour journey and chose to go in a tourist minibus direct from our hotel rather than trek across the chaos of Medans streets to the bus station. After escaping the polluting city roads we found ourselves traveling through an endless "plethora" of palm [View Full Entry]

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27th April Unfortunately we had to wait another day in Railay, Krabi for Nik to recover from her migraine so again we had an uneventful day, but she gradually started to feel better later in the day, feeling comfortable enough for a swim at our resort. The following day we did manage to make the trip down to Malaysia! Although Nik struggled throughout it!. We set off early morning from the beach, expecting yet another poor journey made up of plenty of transport changes and much of the time unaware of our location! Fortunately this wasn't the case! We waited [View Full Entry]

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23rd April Today was fundamentally governed by our afternoon trip to Railey Beach, Krabi. After brekkie we managed to spend a short while on the beach to relax and let the day unfold. We then ate at the local market and chilled in a bar for some shade. The trip across to Krabi took 1 and a half hours in which the majority of time Nik and I spent trying to avoid the sea spray in the blustery winds. So blustery in fact that 2 canoeists were stranded out at sea desperately waving SOS signals for help. Fortunately our boat responded [View Full Entry]

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We took the early morning and very busy ferry from Phuket to Koh Phi Phi over a choppy Andaman sea in search of paradise. We found it. Our arrival to the larger Phi Phi Don Island was welcomed by towering oceanic cliff faces and remote beaches that Thailand is famed for. We opted to take the short walk into town in search of accommodation rather than use the numerous hotel touts selling from their multiple pictures at nearby shops. There are no motorized vehicles on Phi Phi as everything is accessible by foot. However the numerous bars, restaurants with widescreen TV’s [View Full Entry]

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Onwards to our second stop in the Gulf of Thailand to Koh Phangan although reluctant to leave the Eden like Koh Tao. We ate breakfast at the main harbor before boarding the cheapest island hopper "songserm" for the two hour journey South to Koh Phagnan. Once we arrived Nik sorted our accommodation whilst I secured our luggage from the boat. After slight deliberation we opted for a family owned and very budget accommodation away from the westernized full moon party area of which Koh Phangan is renowned for. We managed to save money with a free taxi ride although this was [View Full Entry]

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11th April The commercial engine of the Khao San road seemed to have been switched off in the early morning with few vendors open for some breakfast as we waited to be picked up for the floating market raring to go. We took a minibus for the 2 hour trip to Damnon Saduak, however as the long journeys around indochina was taking its toll, I was asleep for much of it. Once we arrived near the market we were herded onto a long tailed speed boat for a short distance which seemed somewhat pointless regardless of the surrounding stilt houses that [View Full Entry]

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