Waking up at 6:00 feeling like I have polio, we arrived at a small bus stop with plastic tables and chairs, two dodging toilets and over inflated food prices. We sat for two hours waiting for another bus to pick us up. There was another small crowd of people that were heading to another island and they got in the back of the new aged Tuk Tuk’s that look like small Daihatsu trucks. With a dozen people and packs crammed in the back and two blokes standing on the back they were fully overloaded and it looked like the front of [View Full Entry]

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Today was a rest day and time to catch up on planning our trip to Cambodia, Lao and book our plane tickets for India. After 2 hours I found that Air India could take us to Kolkota or as we know it Calcutta. With all airlines charging around $450AUD each we managed to get them for $100AUD each “what a bargain!” But I’m sure we will pay for it down the track when we fall out of the sky and crash, or we may be riding in the cargo hull with all the chooks for that price. We also sat around [View Full Entry]

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With a later start than what we wanted we got to the Grand Palace at 10:00, we hesitated on paying the 700THB entry fee for both of us and hoped it was worth the $22 AUD. We walked through the main walls and I was stopped from going any further as I was wearing shorts and required long pants. 10min later and 100THB deposit I walked out wearing a pair of long purple pants. Within 10 meters of entering the Palace entrance we knew it was worth the money we hesitated paying. The temple cannot be explained by words, photos can’t [View Full Entry]

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I woke up around 7:00 and gave Jacinta her present, a kiss on the forehead and a merry Christmas, she was happy and returned the same present. Ready to tackle Bangkok head on, we made an earlier start and headed to MBK’s in a Tuk Tuk. I needed a camera battery and we checked out the clothes. For those of you that are not familiar with MBK’s it is a huge shopping centre with 6 floors of shops. It was business as normal for Bangkok and we negotiated our way to the Grand Palace Emerald Buddha or to the locals Wat [View Full Entry]

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It only just occurred to me that it was xmas eave and it does not feel like xmas. I had a great sleep last night and there was defiantly more leg and this time, there was a place to store our packs so we didn’t have to sleep with them again. We were worried about sleeping because the amount of noise, shaking and swaying from the carriage just before bed was crazy. I’m not sure if the track condition had got better or the train slowed down but it improved 100% by the time everyone was in bed. I just inspected [View Full Entry]

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A late start again and we were in no hurry to rush out into the streets again. We had to re-pack our back packs and that takes around ½ hour just to organise what you need to get you through the night train. It made was made worse by the room being so small and we really couldn’t spread things out. Off to Kapitan’s for breaky at 11:30 and we had some prathra bread and curry dipping sauce. A quick bus trip to the ferry jetty and back to Butterworth train station only 100m from the jetty. The tickets for second [View Full Entry]

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We hired a motorbike first thing for 25ringits. Our mission was to ride around the Island of Penang. When you hire a motorbike in Asia the petrol tank is always empty, the reason is they siphon out any fuel left over after the hire so they can put it in there bike. So when the bike says empty it really means empty. Most of the time you just have enough fuel in the carburettor to get you to the first petrol station. We have been caught out before and it’s no fun trying to find a petrol station pushing your bike. [View Full Entry]

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I woke up at 4:50 only 5 minutes before the carriage guide started to wake everyone up. “Butterworth, Butterworth” he yelled out. I drew Jacinta’s curtains back as she was sitting on the other top bunk from me. She didn’t sleep very well and looked terrible. We managed to gather everything ready for the stop. We waited for the train to stop as was ready to make a quick exit. The train had been stoping letting off and picking up passengers all night so we were ready for the quick exit. As soon as the train stopped we jumped off in [View Full Entry]

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We ended up bumming around the whole day, we had a good look at the shops again and I tried to buy a Canon battery for my video camera which was an impossible task, everyone was out of stock and won’t have any for 1-2 weeks. We gave Glen’s unit a clean and made sure everything was packed and ready to go. It was so handy having the unit as it was a stone throw to everything and I knew it was probably our last bit of luxury we were going to have for some time. The view from the balcony [View Full Entry]

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Tody we hopped off at Pasar Seni train station and walked over to China town for breakfast. Jacinta had Chinese dumpling soup and I had wonton soup, it was a nice light meal to start the day at 10:00 in the morning. We walked through the rest on the China town markets, I ended up buying a pair of sun glasses for $15rm $5Aus, I somehow lost my new pair the day before. I also bought a wallet and a purse for Jacinta. The same bargaining applies to KL China town, you ask how much and then half it, you stick [View Full Entry]

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