An amazing day spent feeding the elephants, bathing with the elephants and being educated about the plight of the elephants in Thailand. Since logging has been banned in Thailand most elephants have been effectively "out of work" and forced to work in elephant camps where they give tourists rides all day (the seat on their back is actually really bad for them as they have weak backbones), paint pictures and do unnatural routines, or even beg on the streets of cities. Domestic elephants in Thailand are subjected to a ritual called "pajaan" which means "to crush". When the elephants are still babies they are forced into a bamboo trap where they are poked, prodded and beaten with wooden sticks with nails in the end for a whole week. At the end of the week the elephant's ... read more

Not much to say about Lanta apart from sun, sea, sand, frisbee, beer, hammocks, oh, and Swedish people!... read more

After getting the boat from Pangkor to Lamut, the bus from Lamut to Butterworth, then the ferry from Butterworth to Penang, we arrived at our hostel, Star Lodge, which had been recommended to us by a lovely Spanish guy in Pangkor. Penang is a lot like Melaka, but bigger and busier, so it’s not as charming. The hostel was grand, just as the Spanish guy had described. A really sweet old Chinese man who ran the hostel recommended a place to eat called Red Garden Food Paradise. He gave us a little flyer and as it was round the corner, we decided to give it a whirl. And what a food paradise it was! We walked in and were greeted with a massive selection of dim sums, all in little metal pots. Not being able to ... read more

After the expense that was Singapore we were looking to save as much money as possible. So the thought of shelling out 30 quid each to get there wasn't the most enticing - there must be a cheaper way. As it turned out there was but it wasn't easy. We first had to get the public bus across the causeway back to Malaysia - which we stupidly decided to do at half 5 on a Friday (the same time as probably the whole population of Singapore - it's cheaper to live in Malaysia on the weekend apparently). The crossing actually involves 3 buses meaning you have to lug all of your stuff through both the Singapore and Malaysian immigration. We got to Johor bus station about half 7 and brought tickets to Tapah - a town ... read more