So you need to get from A to B? What is the most logical means of transport?... read more

“Aaaaaagghhhhhh, will you just get out of my face?!!” was what I wanted to scream at the many touts that flocked around us as we crossed the border into Cambodia. They literally swarmed us, called out contradictory information and made it difficult for us to think straight. It was a truly uncomfortable experience, but we survived and didn't even properly lose our temper! Earlier that day we chose to take a public bus to Aranyaprathet and take a tuk-tuk to the border from there. Taking a public bus was four times the price of the train but at four euro per person for a five hour trip it was still great value. Choosing the bus also meant that we could leave at the more humane time of 8.30am, in lieu of the 4am start we would ... read more

The jetty was a busy place, with several boats docked at once. Local men plodded by carrying huge bags of food and crates of drink to the boats. Once everything was loaded in our long boat, we had to climb on and negotiate our way over bags of vegetables, bales of eggs and huge ice blocks to take our seat on a wooden plinth at the back of the boat. The skipper launched forth once all the passengers were aboard and we were amazed at the size of the motor propelling us towards Ko Chang. It was a special boat trip, for many reasons, but mostly because we enjoyed being part of the shopping process. As we chugged away from the jetty we passed an eery boat graveyard, and many big fishing boats that were returning ... read more

'How would Santa Claus know where to find us?' was my biggest preoccupation with being in Villa Molek, Langkawi, for Christmas morning. If this was the only issue, it gives you an idea of the level of luxury we were surrounded by. We had reserved these villas back in Australia, promising ourselves that we would be good to ourselves for a few days around Christmas. The luxury didn't come cheap, but it was so nice that it took the edge off being away from home for these special days. We had to rise early to be in time to take the only boat that runs from Penang to Langkawi. Standing at the Port at 7.30am there was a small problem with processing our reservation. It was quickly resolved and we were bumped up to a slightly ... read more

We were accosted by shouts of 'taxi., taxi' as we alighted the bus in the Bus Terminal in Melaka. Not knowing how it works or how far we were from our hostel, we took some time to walk through the terminal. We finally found an ATM to withdraw some Malaysian Ringgits and then ordered a taxi from the official taxi rank. Following some discussion and a lot of hand gestures between the drivers about the location of our hostel, our taxi pulled up and out popped a man that I can only describe as being a dead ringer for Buddha. How his taxi supported his weight, plus four western tourists is beyond me, but it did, and 15 minutes later we were deposited in front of a blue door and wished an enjoyable holiday by Buddha. ... read more