We traveled to KL via VIP bus today and got here pretty smoothly apart from when Soph and Lee got put on a different bus and had to chase down an official to get their tickets back! We had to direct the taxi driver to our hotel as he had never heard of it even though it is a big chain and a skyscraper! The hotel looks nice initially but the electrics are dodgy and the sheets are stained....there is also a ghost in Soph and Lee's room that turns their shower on in the middle of the night! The next day we discovered that you have to get to Petronas Towers at 7am to get tickets to visit the skybridge so it will be an early start tomorrow! We decided to do a bit of ... read more
On the ferry into Langkawi its looked amazing! After a quick lunch in Kenny Rogers healthy restaurant (which everyone hated apart from me) we got to our 'hotel'. We should have realized it would not be great when we turned up and couldn't find the owner or reception! The rooms were definitely the worst yet, the bathroom window is always open and theres a lock on the bathroom door to make sure the snakes don't come in :S. The hotel is about 15mins away from anywhere by taxi so when we went out, we couldn't come back until the evening. We went out to get a curry and a few drinks and realised Thai prices were behind us, in the words of Lonely Planet 'in Langkawi everything apart from beer is overpriced'. The next day we ... read more
We left Krabi at 6:30am and had decided to take a minibus across the border to Penang as it seemed like the easiest option. In typical Thai style it was one minibus for 30mins then we were thrown off and told to wait in an office for another minibus to take us the rest of the way. We finally got to Penang at 7:30pm knackered! The bus driver told us our hotel was just down the road so we started walking and asking people which way it was - but no one spoke English! We later discovered it was Little India and its not somewhere you should be walking around after dark! We hailed a taxi and finally got to our hotel to find a note on the door saying the owners had gone out and ... read more
Hello! Apologies for leaving the blog so long, we have only had wifi in our hotels so typing was too slow! We spent four nights in Krabi with the aim of seeing a few sights around the area. Our first stop was a kayak trip through the jungle which was something we all really wanted to do. They were two man kayaks so it was lucky that everyone there was in couples. In typical Thai style, the men had to sit at the the back and be the 'captain' and only they were allowed to steer - something that annoyed me and Soph very much as the trip went on! We set off and immediately decided we would race each other, which lasted about five minutes in the heat! But I would say begrudgingly that Lee ... read more
We have been in Phuket for two days now and are leaving tomorrow : ( this has been our favourite place so far as the resort we are staying in is amazing! Kata Lucky Villas and Pool Acces is a good place to be if youre ever in Phuket! We have spent today and yesterday on the beach, the sea is quite choppy but we all braved the waves! We will be leaving here tomorrow morning (at 7:30am!) and going down to Krabi via minibus. The time is going so quickly we will be finished in Thailand by next week : ( ... read more
Hello! We arrived in Koh Samui after a very long sleeptrain journey - 13 hours! But it was very comfy although none of us got any sleep! We had two villas which were nice but basic - geckos and cockroaches got in through the ceiling but the beaches made up for it. There were no waves so we just relaxed for our two days there. We also had our first activity day where we went on a elephant trek, to a waterfall and went on a jungle 4x4 ride : ) It was an amazing experience, Lee and Dave sat on the elephants head but me (Linds) and Soph were too scared! Whilst in Koh Samui we also found out that me and Soph both got firsts in our degree so it was celebrations all round! ... read more
We have been in Bangkok for 3 days now and are leaving via sleeper train tonight! Bangkok is mental, especially our road (Khaosan road) but it is definately the place to be for backpackers. There are loads of stalls and shops and its very busy - three days is enough for us! We went to the Grand Palace yesterday after two days of trying - there are so many con artists here! Everyone will tell you the palace is closed but dont be fooled - its open everyday! And if you get in a tuk tuk, be prepared to go to many suit and gem shops and be aware you will not get to your actual destination! But we were very firm and didnt buy anything! Everything is so cheap here, Soph bought a Lowe Alpine ... read more
Not long now! We are just doing our final packing, hope everything fits in the backpacks : S. The next update will be in Thailand (unless we get bored in Heathrow) - Linds xxx... read more
We left Langkawi at 7am - we were glad to leave our hotel! Luckily we got on the 7:30 ferry back to the mainland and got to Ipoh early afternoon. Our plan here was to go to Cameron Highlands as Lonely planet told us this is the main travel hub for visitors to the area. It would appear that in the last six years things have changed and people now go directly to Cameron Highlands which means Ipoh is a bit of a ghost town.......we were the only white people there! Our hotel was find though, the staff wanted to be helpful but couldn't really help us as the only English he seemed to know was 'bus' and 'taxi'. The next day we went to Cameron Highlands on a VIP bus - traveling in style! The ... read more