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Published: October 25th 2007
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The Grand Palace
On site at the largest palace in Bangkok, Thailand. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia (and then Thailand again)
We're Baaaaaaaaaack! Warm and somewhat rainy greetings from the land we love!
Ok: we left off last time with our flight from Perth, Australia to Bangkok. We spent a few days in Bangkok, then headed down to the islands of Ko Phangan and Ko Samui for some fantastic chilled out beach time. We then returned to Bangkok for a few more crazy busy days to make arrangements for Borneo.
Borneo was so amazing. We simply loved it there. The people were fantastic, the food was great, the prices good, and (surprisingly) the availability of creature comforts, was excellent! And the various species of strange and smelly monkeys were entertaining. Except when they tried to steal our food. They are surprisingly good at drinking coke out of the can, and eating chips with elegance and style. We even saw one lighting up a cigar! Okay, just kidding on the last one, but I am sure somewhere out there... We spent lots of time diving, as per usual. Sipidan Island, off the Eastern coast of Malaysian Borneo, has some world-class diving. Some pictures can be found here, but we'll also get
Bangkok Temples
What an amazing place. A must see in Thailand. (And the taxi drivers make sure of it.) a proper gallery online with all our dive pics. Speaking earlier of our primate ancestry (the smelly monkeys), one of the absolute highlights of our time in Borneo was visiting the OrangUtan sanctuary in Semenggoh National Reserve. This place was inspiring. The freedom these big creatures had to roam around and live natural yet protected lives was remarkable. They really did seem healthy and well cared for in this environment. How encouraging for us to see something positive and productive amidst so much global environmental damage.
After Borneo, we flew to the ultra-modern city of Kuala Lumpur, another fantastic and interesting place. Then over to the quaint and cute town of Melacca, a place of history, culture, and way too much heat! But ahhhh the tri-shaw - a slightly disturbing mix of bicycle-cum-taxi, decked out with offensive fake flowers. Get this, it even comes with its own light show and R&B soundtrack! How weird is that!!!Singapore was next... what a strange mixture of ancient and modern. Not to mention the fact that this place is its own city, island, country and corporation all in one... Everything is uberclean and everyone obeys the rules. Especially when crossing the street, which
Grand Palace
Bangkok, Thailand. we are not used to anymore after the chaos of everywhere else in Asia! We were fortunate enough to be there during the festivities of their 42nd anniversary of Independence Day: it seemed half the population was assembled on the quays and esplanades to watch the fireworks and shows - which kicked butt on our good ole Canadian firework (singular!).
For our next adventure, we flew from Singapore to Bali, where we would spend the next few weeks relaxing, shopping and yes - diving (just can't get enough). We got excellent deals on handcrafted stuff for the house, and sent home nearly two cubic meters of much-loved cargo from there by freight! And of course we fell in love with Bali, even without the shopping. What's not to like about this place. Except that you risk your life walking along the sidewalks which are inevitably caved in on themselves! But if you are after someplace beautiful, cheap and amazing for a getaway, head over to Bali for sure!
From there, we flew to Labuanbajo, a tiny fishing village filled with, well, fish. And fishermen. And plenty of rats. But what it lacks in Western-style comforts (e.g. toilets, sinks and showers!)
Grand Palace
More of the magnificent temples of Thailand it definitely makes up for with Komodo national park! Home to its namesake the Komodo dragon (biggest lizard on the planet), it is also phenomenal for diving. It is underwater heaven. We lived we loved we laughed. But the best laugh we had in LBajo was Ron getting shat on by a bat. It hit him right on the beaker. Mid- sentence. And his mouth was open!
After yet again spoiling ourselves with luxuries like food and facilities with a quick return to Bali for a few days, we jetted to Sulawesi, the strange K-shaped island in the Indonesian archipelago. Manado and the islands off the northern tip of Sulawesi are also fantastic dive locations, and we spent another week there, diving 3-4 times a day.Our return flight from Manado ended up being a bit of a gong-show, as Garuda Indonesia Airlines (try not to use this airline - ever) couldn't get their act together and ended up bouncing us around half the country in an exhausting 28-hour period (and of course no one knew anything and customer service is nonexistent!). Thus we never did succeed in getting us to Borobodur and Yogyakarta, the places we had really wanted
to see. We ended up spending a few days in Java just hanging out, before leaving Indonesia.
We flew from there into Phuket, in the south of Thailand, and spent a few enjoyable days there before venturing to the more secluded parts of the Andaman Coast, Railay Beach. It's a great place, but is growing quickly, which so often comes at a price: the first time seeing it 4 years ago, there was still jungle with monkeys climbing around. Now it's full of hotels, and the jungle is gone. There are still monkeys, but you have to hike a ways to see them. We were actually in Railay when the tsunami warnings came this time around. During the big tsunami of 4 years ago, many people died in this area. Fortunately there was no damage this time, and the water rose only a few inches. But needless to say, people did get a little creeped-out, and a few may have indeed wet themselves (not us of course). We just ordered more drinks 😊 We wanted to do the rock climbing thing, since it is unbeatable here, but were pretty much rained out in Railay, and the entire Andaman coast
The big Buddha
This is the largest standing Buddha in the world, Buddhis Erectimus. Ok, I made that part up. was covered with the same weather, so we decided to head back across to Ko Phangan. Hey-- when you know something's good...2 weeks later, we were both properly tanned and ready to have some city life again. We left for Bangkok to get ready for our next adventure: Vietnam!
Which brings us up to date in the present - finally!!!
For those of you interested in our collective geekiness, here are a few stats up to the date that we finished this segment of the trip (Sept 10):
Total number of flights: 33 (for those of you with environmental concerns-- don't worry, we are going green on this. We are offsetting our global emissions..)
Total number of nights: 123
Total number of changes for nightly accommodation: 49. That equals a move to a new place every 2.51 nights. Which explains why we are feeling rather tired. Vietnam will keep us on the move as well, but after that, we'll be taking a holiday😊
Also-- for those of you who like to follow along, see the map at the top left corner of the page. And see the pics below (4 pages).
All the best to all
of you. Do keep in touch. We have more than the occasional pangs of nostalgia and sadness over missing friends and family, and would be very happy to hear from all of you loved ones!
Stay tuned, catch ya later!
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