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Published: December 12th 2005
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Hello People, sorry for my lack of blogging of late, i forget the last time i braced the super interweb, so much so that i've forgotten to type and certainly forgotten what on earth we've been up to in the recent past.
I Believe the last entry i made was up in Pai before we braved the horrendous non a/c sleeper train back down to bangkok where i got super hot and amazing paranoid (justified) that without the power of a/c to protect me i was being eaten alive by all the mozzies about. Somehow we managed to survive although i'd say to anyone travelling to Thailand that paying the bit extra is an excellent idea. Anywho, back in Bangkok i managed to meet up with ex-boss Graham from RMP job in leeds (by the way dude wierdly i met up with a guy in Penang on a pork noodle store who still has a bond qurery regarding an RMP house from 2 years ago - rock and roll - though hardly suprising. made me realsie again that it's a very small world) and we had an ace couple of days wandering around, drinking and braving the English town
The ghetto
only the best accomodation,got pretty smelly in the rain, as did we! that is the Khoa San road. Enough of the site seeing the first time so we were happy to save as much money as possible (we've already decided the squeeze is on) and mooch around. My personal fave afternoon activity was helping a canadian guy we met buy a guitar. The chap started at an outrageous price so i quoted back something equally stupid and said that if i could play him 3 songs he knew, he had to sell it at the cheap price. 2 Beatles songs and one led zep later and there was a very happy canadian and a miffed bangkok street seller - ace.
After farewells were said it was time to set off down south to krabi (where i think claire got up to). Krabi itself wasn't much in my opinion although it did serve as a good place to go other places. Notably for us Railey which is a world capital of climbing (not that i got many happy faces when i told them i was a climber who had neglected it for around a year - that doesn;t go down well), where we stayed in probably the worst place yet, the main
Ko lanta
This is more like it....sunshine and hammocks problems being that it was small, smelled of wee, was next to the power generator, had no p[ower at cetian times of the day, no water at the other times and was untolletrably damp - always. Still we had a pretty good time anyway meeting our new best friend Sweedish Tom , who shared our relaxed attitude to all the problems and generally hung around us in a pleasnat way for the next 5 or so days as we shipped out and headed to Ko Lanta.
Ko Lanta was (as i seem to keep saying) another tropical island paradise, with ace people (notably an outcast from Seatle called Micheal who ran a coffee bar with real Tea (so so good) and excellent sandwhiches and a beach volley ball court as his front garden), and generally a good vibe about the place. Our days were mainly spent drinking, lying in our newly aquired hammocks, swimming in the torquoise sea, watching the nightly fire shows (those guys really know how to pick up injuries too - lots of dudes with shorter hair than they once had and sizeable dents to various parts of the body) and eating really great food. Also
Malaysia-Fort Cornwallis
Marc reminising about the good old days of colonialism we managed to have a hike around some of the Tsunami damaged area - luckily Ko Lanta managed to miss most of the bad stuff and they didn't get any loss of life, but one side of the island still has a vast collection of telegraph poles, boats, old bar stools and other stuff. Also one of the bars we drank in is still at an angle from where the wave pushed it over. Anyway after far to much relaxing and meeting with Toms diving friends (he's a dive master) it was finally time to (nearly miss) our "air con" (yeah right) mini van that took us up to the malay border ready to take up residence in the old british colonial town of georgetown on penang. (quick note first about the border crossing from thailand to malaysia - more of a sham never there was, our driver dissapeared and hence we were deemed unworthy of crossing - not sure of how we were going to get across he finally sauntered up half an hour later trying to make us pay his fee - some gentle Britsh persuession and lots of stiff upper lip finally got us through).
And
Malaysia
Playing soldiers in the fort. so into Penang which i absolutely loved. Staying at the slightly un-aptly named hotel Swiss (??) we had two great days spent looking around the original Britsh fort which settled there (Fort Corwallis) which has loads of interesting galleries, reconstructed battlements and cannon which you can sit on (and did i !). Anyone happening to be in the panang region soon definate go and check it out. also we went up the cable car to the top of penang hill and saw an absolutely breathtaking view of the town below. Lots of neon lights and docks lit up to be captured in exposure shots on the camera. The evening was spent watcvhing live premiershiop football (the 3pm kick off as it was 10 pm local time), while having the best tandori chicken i've ever had - india eat your heart out.
Then to what was this morning as i write when we headed out from the hotel and across the ferry to the mainland (penang is an island) - actually a free ferry of all things - and across to the bus termianl where we once again played all sorts of games with the asian madness that seems to be the transport system. Eventually after some wheeling and dealing we got a reduced fare (probably only to what the locals pay anyway) and sat on a very enjoyable trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL). As we arrived and as i write a huge thundert storm seems to have taken ovet and we had constant lightenming for about 3 hours - didn't stop the petronas towers looking absolutely massive though. We'll be off to see them tommorow.
Claire sends her love but alas she decided watching as good as it gets on the (very dodgy) hostel video preferable to a trip to the internet cafe. Tonight should be interesting as our dorm is with a huge crazed chinaman and a shy and ritiring austrian - what a 4some. Anyway sorry for not writing much of late - i'll try to be better in the future. My defense lies in me having too good a time with too pricier internet while on Railey and Ko Lanta.
Hopefully be some more pics when we get to Singapore, by the saounds of it sitting in internet cafes will be all we can afford.
cheers for reading, marc.
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WobblyWeaz
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Tea!
Wow, no matter how ace a time I'm having, a good cup o' brew makes everything seem rosier! Am infinitely jealous still but I can console myself knowing that I have the best christmas tree in the world!!!! Muhahahaha.... it was "acquired" (by a wayward aussie housemate) and its like 7ft high and 4ft wide and is the prettiest thing ever ever ever. Ever. Its the christmas tree of my dreams. So happy! Anyway...ahem. Did you hear about that oil plant exploding in Hemel Hempstead? Apparently the bang was heard in Holland. Howge. Keep on keeping on my lovelies- hope your adventures to come are as ace as the ones you've had already! Lots of love, S xxxx