klausmb
Klaus Bravenboer Joined: April 9th 2006
Logged in: June 20th 2011
Logged in: June 20th 2011
Feel free to have a look around and don't hesitate to add comments to each entry below. Note the entries are listed most recent first so scroll to the bottom to get started.
Also you can view my full size photos on Flickr
Take care,
Klaus
Travel Blog Posts
Penang Bridge
I only really came into Malaysia for a Visa run but thought why not come in a bit further and check out Penang the old British trading post. I stayed in Georgetown, Penang which has some English architecture and old Forts. I found the place pretty dirty with open sewers in the streets, the guesthouses were of a pretty poor standard compared with Thailand, paper thin walls and shared bathrooms, but for $2 per night what can you expect I suppose. Cheap food and lots of cheap random stuff. Very cheap DVDs and games, cheaper than Thailand, didn't load up though as I would have to carry the stuff around all my trip. Went to the movies here NZ$3, saw The Da Vinci Code after just having finished reading it, it was good except for the ... read more
Not a heck of a lot to do here so only stayed one day. Looks like it could be a party town but in low season it was dead. Hung out with a group of Aussies which was good value then headed down to Penang Malaysia.... read more
Cliff base
There's not a heck of a lot to do in Krabi town itself, the province hosts lost of eco-tours and Railey Beach has some very good rock climbing. I went to the Tiger temples where you can climb up 1200 steps to see a massive Budda and some awesome views over the city. I had a weird experience while at the internet cafe in Krabi. I glanced over at the Japanese girl next to me's computer screen. She was reading a email with some New Zealand stuff on it, the flag etc. I asked her if she had been to NZ, she said she and her boyfriend (sitting on my other side) used to live in Auckland, New Zealand, I said so did I. "Where abouts?" I asked, Kingsland they replied, "What street?" I then asked ... read more
Bamboo Island
Phi Phi is most famous for being the location where the movie "The Beach" was filmed with Leonardo DiCaprio. I didn't see Leonardo but saw some amazing scenery, have a good look at some of these beach shots, to me anyway they are what I envisage when I dream of a beautiful beach. Phi Phi is a party island and I made the most of it, everyday I said I'd move on but I ended up staying another day. Party at night, sleep late then watch free movies in all the restaurants, eat, watch the fire shows, party, repeat. I also did some rock hopping and trekking completing a loop just about around the entire Island. Lots of fun here! I can also thoroughly recommend the one day boat trip with snorkeling, I even swam near ... read more
Me and David partying it up
Phuket is a rich area, lots of new cars, flashy malls with lots of western stuff to buy and high speed internet for cheap, yah! finally I can upload a lot of photos to the internet. I meet some Brazilian guys that live in Sweden and we checked out things round and about Patong. Patong beach's main strip is pretty seedy, lots of fat old English, Australian, American white guys etc with tiny young Thai guys, pretty disgusting really. Even a good slew of young guys sharing the company of numerous Thai girls for a few days as they pass through and paying through the nose for the privilege. I meet some local Thai people while in the shopping mall that really took me under their wing and I had a great time ending up staying ... read more
Burma / Myanmar
I just whipped in here for a bit over a day. Basically you get 30 days on your Thai Visa every time you cross into Thailand so you get a boat over in to Burma. Stamp your passport exit Thailand, enter Burma, exit Burma, enter Thailand and wholla 30 more days! I stayed in the country about 5 minutes and got harassed by about 10 little guys asking me if I wanted to buy either Viagra, whisky or tobacco, I didn't want anything though so got outta there. Met some people on the Visa run and went to check out the hot springs. These are seriously hot, the coldest is 65 degrees and people actually immerse themselves! I tried putting my foot in but couldn't handle as you can see in the picture. They go up ... read more
Local bus
I left Ko Samui in search of some jungle trekking and a little adventure. From Ko Samui I got a bus which drives onto a large ferry, then you go sit up top, then it docks you get back on the bus and carry on to Surat Thani before swapping to another bus. What I didn't realise was while I was up top on this ferry thieves down below were rifling through my bag in the bus! I had my most important stuff with me but they did steal my pocket knife and also my fingernail clippers! I didn't realise that till a couple of weeks later when I went to use them though, haha. Well anyway lesson learnt always lock your bag on public transport and I always do now. Swapped to my "VIP" bus ... read more
This place is pretty commercial and really caters to a lot more affluent traveller or tourist than my self. Struggled to find a cheap room here but eventually found Charlie Hut for 300B in Hat Chewang. Couldn't resist and indulged in some Burger King, felt right filthy afterwards. They have all the fast food places and lots of luxury resorts. Spent a night in Hat Chewang, then headed to Hat Lamai for some relaxing and working on my tan :-). Plenty of Farangs and bars round here but no drinking for me because I am still on antibiotics for the ear so didn't really get out at night much. Taught a technophobe Canadian couple how to share their photos online, hooked up their yahoo account to flickr see www.flickr.com for a good easy to use website. ... read more
Right I came back to Ko Tao, checked with the doctors, he tells me my ear is now fine and I can try diving again, cool stuff. I check in and try diving again the following day. We get out to the dive sight and into the water, I'm feeling a little nervous now and want to take it nice and slow. The boat has a rope down to an achor at the the sea floor so we will slowly decend in pairs. What I didn't realise was that the rope wasn't fixed at the top to the boat so while I was holding onto the rope thinking I was stationary the whole rope and me was actually drifting downwards. To cut a long story short I went down to fast, couldn't equalise and ended up ... read more
My pad
I arrived the day before full moon so didn't expect to find any accommodation close to Haad Rin (the main party beach). Off the pier (in Thongsala) I got sold the dummy and went to a place in Haad Yao called Sun View supposedly 10 minutes drive, was more like 30 minutes which meant a journey from my place to Haad Rin is about 45 minutes, damn out in the back of beyond, no really it wasn't that bad I kinda liked the place and there were lots of Farangs! and we could all chill out in a cool common area, listen to music and watch lots of pirated movies, I'm loving it :-) Went in to Haad Rin the first night to check out the scene with a couple of the boys from Sun View, ... read more
