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Bangkok - Jim Thompson's House
All pretty much as he left it - a man of very good taste Hi everyone
Sending you our very best wishes for a lovely Easter time - hope you get to spend some quality time with your loved ones over the period. Springtime is such a wonderful season - enjoy.
Here is a quick update on our travels since leaving Cambodia. We returned to THAILAND on 5 March, arriving into Bangkok, after a mammoth 10 hour coach trip where we literally squeezed in a short visit to Jim Thompson's house (the legendary American adventurer, entrepreneur, art collector and businessman who helped revitalize the Thai silk industry and "disappeared" in 1967 whilst visiting a friend in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia) before heading back down to Koh Lanta. We couldn't resist spending a few more days on this lovely island and enjoying a couple more dives at the excellent Ko Bida site.
We had then planned to move onto Langkawi but it proved too expensive for our budget so we decided to take a boat to PHUKET instead, and very glad we did. We spent New Year 2001/2 here but found it a little boring - certainly not the case this time. We based ourselves in
Bangkok - Khao San Road
It gets busier after dark! Phuket Old Town, which has some very attractive Sino-Portuguese architecture, great restaurants and an interesting museum (the Thaihua) that features very good displays, videos and historical photos on the roles and traditions of Phuket's main immigrant groups (Chinese & mixed Malay-Chinese) who arrived here in the mid to late 1800's to work in the island's growing tin mining industry. It was very easy to catch songthaews (public buses) from the Old Town centre to the many nearby beaches. We chose to visit Karon Beach one day and Patong Beach the next day. Both boast beautiful long golden sandy beaches and the sea temp was 30 degrees (heaven!). We were lucky to be in town to experience one of their 'Walking Street' events which they hold throughout the year on a Sunday afternoon & eve. They close a whole street to traffic and line it on both sides with food stalls and a few selling clothes and jewellery. We had a great time moving from one food stall to the other trying all the wonderful treats on offer - spicy fishcakes, sausages, steamed dumplings, BBQ'd meat on sticks, spring rolls, deep fried vegetables to name a few of the savoury choices,
lots of sweet dishes to be had too. There were also a number of live singers - some pretty good, others should just stick to karaoki bars! If you're planning to visit the Old Town we can highly recommend Kopitiam by Wilai Restaurant on Thalang Road where we enjoyed some fabulous meals for peanuts.
We left Phuket on 16 March and flew to Penang on a small propeller plane (an ART 72 - 500/600) operated by Firefly. We loved Penang the first time we visited back in 2002 and it's even better now - so much to see and do. We managed to find a great little hotel a few minutes walk away from Fort Cornwallis in Georgetown and spent 4 busy days exploring the main attractions. These included the beautiful Botanical Gardens (free entrance surprisingly - just watch out for all the cheeky monkeys), the massive Kek Lok Si Temple complex (largest Buddhist temple in SE Asia, construction began in 1890 and it's still growing), several other places of worship (churches, temples, mosques), kongsis (traditional clan houses), the clan jetties, Fort Cornwallis, the elegant E&O Hotel (where we enjoyed ice cold drinks relaxing around the swimming
Koh Lanta - Saladan
View from Catfish Cafe pool) and of course Penang Hill whose summit stands at 823 metres. We loved the thrilling funicular railway ride that takes you nearly to the top where you can walk the last few metres enjoying the fabulous panoramic views over Penang - the best are to be had from the old Bellevue Hotel, sipping on a cold bevvie on their garden terrace.
We flew from Penang to SINGAPORE where we spent 2 crazy days sightseeing. We visited Singapore back in 2002 and boy were we surprised by how much it has changed - the shear scale of construction is quite incredible, so many amazing buildings and lots more in planning including two new airport terminals (4 & 5) . We made good use of the great MRT system (metro) and being Singapore of course everything run very smoothly. We did a lot of touristy stuff - boat ride on the Singapore River, posed for photos in the beautiful Fullerton Hotel and of course Raffles although we baulked at paying S$33 for a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar there (it was however packed). We walked around the fabulous Marina Bay Sands shopping mall which reminded us of
the casinos in Las Vegas as it has a 'canal' running though it with boat trips to be had. The highlight for us was the amazing Gardens by the Bay complex - a park spanning 101 hectares of reclaimed land in central Singapore adjacent to the Marina Resevoir. Most of it is free to walk around but there are entrance fees for the towering treetops walkway and Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. Must have been our lucky day as whilst we were checking out the prices to the Dome and Forest a young couple approached us and gave us two spare tickets to both for free! We were truly blown away by the amazing flora, stunning displays and great sculptures in both. Hard to express in words the beauty of the complex and our photos probably don't do it justice, you'll just have to go and see it for yourselves. We dined in Chinatown both evenings and although there are many restaurants to choose from we ate in the same one called 'Chinatown Traditional Kitchen' both nights as the food was excellent and soooooooo cheap. We certainly felt a huge sadness in the air on our second day when we
Koh Lanta - Lanta Old Town
Very quiet in the heat of the day woke to discover that Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore, had died in the early hours aged 91 and the country went into a week of mourning.
From Singapore we flew to BALI where we have just enjoyed a relaxing week's 'holiday' in celebration of reaching the halfway stage of our travels. We based ourselves in Legian, the next resort along from Kuta and spent most days on the lovely long golden sandy beach there soaking up the sun, reading and watching all the surfers having great fun riding the big waves. We did manage to leave our sun loungers for a day's sightseeing in beautiful Ubud, which represents the heart of Balinese culture, and is nestled amongst scenic rice fields with a landscape dotted with temples and palaces. We also did a day's scuba diving up in Tulamben in the north of the island where we dived on 2 fabulous sites; a shipwreck (WW2 transport ship 'USS Liberty' that was torpedoed in 1942) and a coral wall. A week on this beautiful island was way too short, we'll make it a lot longer next time.
We fly to Perth today
Koh Lanta
Yet another piglet for the start of our big Oz adventure......
Lots of love to all.
Trev & Verity xxx
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