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Published: June 19th 2006
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Elephant Man
The Genisha (Wrong spelling, sorry) at the top of Penang hill PENANG
I've travelled a long way in the last couple of weeks, all the way up Malaysia, and now up through Thailand, so Ill try to give you a few stories without it getting too boring.
Penang, in the north of Malaysia is an amazing place, at first it looks a lot like the other towns of Malaysia, but it was definately my favourite part of the tour. We went to Penang hill, probably not its real name, but its a big hill in Penang, and we rode all the way up on a half hour train/cable car thing, which was unbelievably steap, and I still dont quite trust the safety standards around here. At the top was a small Hindu temple, which was pretty amazing, so we spent a while looking around, and luckily we had some Hindu backpackers in our group, so they told us what all the animal headed Gods were about, which helped a lot as nobody else there spoke English.
It cost RM3 to get to the top of the hill, and only RM1 to go back down... but for some reason we walked it. 2 hours of torture followed with the steapest hill
Monkey Man
This was taken seconds before his mate pissed on me. the little *$@# Its blurry because Im just jumping out the way as I took it. Ive ever seen, one guy in our group was so tired, he was almost sick (weird). Its on this hill that the monkey pissed on my head, as you all know (Sav, if you want monkey stories, you need to start spending time around monkeys).
At the bottom, we went to a botanic garden, but to be honest we didnt care, we were too tired, and there were hundreds of monkeys kicking about, which I was obviously a bit warey of.
Next we went on to a Buddhist temple complex, which was by far the best temple Ive seen on the trip, it was like a whole town, (I would love to describe it, but words can't do it justice, and my head hurts from last night still, so see the photos instead) It was amazing though, gold everywhere, Buddha statues, huge halls and a tower where you could see the whole town.
THAILAND
We arrived at the thai border the next day, and I was forced to use my first squat toilet... probably the worst experience I've ever had, easily a worse toilet than the one in Trainspotting, no joke. At one point my hoody
Buddhist Prayer Room
This was such a huge room full of gold... and a cat. The photo doesnt do it justice. touched the floor, so I immediately threw it away - I would have burned it if I wasn't on a border with armed guards.
We moved up to Surat Thani (stop over town, nothing there but prozzies of questionable gender), and then over to Koh Pha Ngan, which is just like the Cook Islands and Fiji for stunning beaches and palm trees. We stayed on the north, not near the Full Moon Party beach, but we got there 2 days late for the party anyway.
It was on Koh Pha Ngan that I had a bucket, which is just a bottle of Sam Song whisky, Redbull and Coke, but the red bull is loaded with amfetamins (?) which really mess you up. I had about 3 or 4 of these before being carried to my room (Which was up a very steep path, the guys that carried me were not happy) I don't remember much about it though, so its fine that one.
One day I needed cash, and the only way to get it was to hire a Kayak, paddle for a few K's round the Island to another beach, and walk for 10 mins to
The Pagoda
This is the Pagoda, its bloody tall and you can see everything from the top. After walking all day, the 8 or so extra stories in there were a struggle get it - which I did, only to find the cash machine empty, so I had to paddle all the way back, and eat plain rice for the rest of the day.
The rest of the time we travelled around the island on the back of 4x4's, at a phenominal pace, with very few sealed roads. It was quality. We used one to get to an "Elephant Safari" one day, where we got to ride elephants around for a half hour or so, not really a safari but an experience anyway. I wasn't a big fan, purely because of the crap treatment of a baby elephant at the start, being made to do tricks and chained to a concrete block, the 4x4 ride on the way there and back was more fun anyway.
I would love to have stayed and just chilled out on the beach for a while, but I had to move on.
Yesterday we went to the Bridge Over the River Kwai, which was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but we walked across it and all that, took a million photos, and had drinks on a floating cafe on the river.
View from the top
From the top of the Pagoda We also went to a museum where we saw loads of stuff about the railway that was built from Thailand to Burma by the POW's in WWII, it was pretty messed up, I can't believe people actually managed to build a massive railway under such shit conditions, when they had no food, and they all had Malaria.
We visited the floating market which was great, all the food is sold in long boats on the river, and you get punted along to the stall you want, where you can buy meat or fruit from a lady in her floating kitchen, and then all around the sides are all the knock off clothes and wooden things. If you've ever wanted your face on a plate, thats the place to go.
Now Im in Bangkok, tours over, and we had a massive piss up last night and this morning, saw a great band in this little blues bar, called The Blues Bar right near the canal (aka shit filled gutter), the bar was really small, so we were litterally sitting with the band as they palyed, one guy in the group took over the guitar too which was pretty cool.
Koh Pha gnan Beach House
This was really cool, and only cost about 6 pounds a night We ended up racing around Bangkok on a Tuk Tuk at 4am, with no idea where we were, or where we were going.
Now I've got to try to find my way over to Cambodia, and if I can, I'm going to boat down the Mekong into Vietnam, and go by train half way up, and cut into Loas for a few days worth of jungle trekking and relaxing by waterfalls. Its a hard life.
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Lucy Hewes
I want to go to the floating markets!
So glad to hear you're getting on well on your travels still! your blogs are great...make me laugh :) This time next week I'll be in New Zealand! :) take care Ian Lucy -x-