Thailand, Malaysia II

Hello again from Malaysia. I’m now back here after a week in Thailand.

After leaving KL I flew to Bangkok and spent just over a day there. All I had time for was a visit to the Grand Palace, which is a very impressive collection of buildings including the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, one of the most important temples in Thai Buddhism. On my way there someone tried the infamous scam on me: “Where are you going, sir?” “The Grand Palace”, “Sorry sir but the Grand Palace is closed today. My friend here will take you on a tour of the city in his tuk-tuk.” The next thing that happens is I get in the tuk-tuk and get taken to a tailor and pressured into buying an expensive suit: it was playing out exactly as I had read in my guide book. I had been fore-warned, so I didn’t get in the tuk-tuk but carried on to the Grand Palace, which was of course open as usual.

Bangkok is a pretty crazy place. It’s extremely busy and it feels like everyone who talks to you is trying to sell you something (see above). The roads seem chaotic at first, but on closer inspection the rules appear to be very simple: when the light is green the cars go, when the light is amber the cars go, when the light is red the cars go (much simpler than having different rules for different colours); cars generally stick to the roads, people and motorbikes use both roads and pavements, whichever is clearer; on pedestrian crossings, the cars will only make way for you if you start to cross the road, and even then they don’t stop, they just drive around you, which is pretty much the same as crossing a road at any other point, making pedestrain crossings rather redundant.

From Bangkok I took the overnight train to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand and spent six days there, mainly looking around the city and its various temples and markets. I took a Thai cooking course, which was really fun – I now know how to cook five Thai dishes, including  fried cashew nuts with chicken, Chiang Mai noodles and my favourite, deep-fried banana. It also included a tour of the market. Photos here, here and here. I spent my last two days in Chiang Mai at the nearby Elephant Nature Park, where I spent time feeding, bathing and learning about the rescued elephants at the sanctuary. It was amazing to get so close to the elephants, but also very sad to learn about the individual histories of some of them, and about the terrible treatment of other elephants in Thailand.

From Chiang Mai I flew to the north east corner of Malaysia and caught a speed boast across to Pulau Perhentian Kecil (translates as Perhentian Small Island), a tiny island 20 km from the coast. On this small, remote island I stayed in a chalet on a small, remote beach, accesible from the rest of the island only by boat or a footpath through the jungle. I spent five days there and had an amazing time - the best part of my trip so far. On one of the days I went scuba diving on some of the reefs, but apart from that I just spent my days swimming and relaxing at the beach by my chalet. One of the owners of the chalets was a chef, and the food he cooked was delicious – the evening meal was different every day and always excellent, usually based around a locally caught fish (my favourite was the barracuda curry). Fortunately we didn’t catch much of the torrential rain that hit the Grand Prix.

After my time on the island I caught a speed boat back to the mainland and had a ride in a minibus to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands, an area somewhere in the middle of the peninsula, where I am now. The Cameron Highlands has a distinctly British feel to it, which is no surprise seeing as it was discovered, developed and administered by Brits until Malaysia’s independence, at least according to my very limited knowledge of the area. It seems to be mostly tea plantations, and every guest house in Tanah Rata serves cream tea. Today I went on a tour of the area, which included a visit to a tea plantation and factory, which was very interesting, and a strawberry farm. The best bit about the strawberry farm was obviously the cafe, where they served strawberries, strawberries with cream, strawberry ice cream, strawberry milkshake, Belgian waffles with strawberries, strawberry tart, strawberry cake, strawberry curry, strawberry fried rice (ok, I made some of those up). After the tour I took tea and scones in a delightful English country garden, so it was a very English day all round. It even rained for most of the day, and not the tropical rain that they get on the coast here and is followed by glorious sunshine, but real English drizzle from grey skies that continues for hours. The rain has stopped now but it’s still cloudy.

My visit to South East Asia is almost over. I have had a fantastic time here: I’ve seen some amazing places, eaten some delicious food and met some really interesting people. Tomorrow morning I get a bus to KL, and the next day I fly to Perth. I am looking forward to this more than anything else on my trip so far, because soon after I get to Perth I will get a train to Kalgoorlie to see Tom. For those who don’t know, Tom is a long time school friend from Weymouth, who I haven’t seen since he moved to Australia over a year ago, so I am really looking forward to seeing him again.

I will put some more photos up when I can. The internet connection here is painfully slow so I’m not even going to try here, but I will hopefully in the next few days if I have time.

KL

Greetings from Malaysia!

I am having a great time in Kuala Lumpur. It’s a really diverse city, with an interesting mix of Europe and Asia, old and new, and pretty much every religion I know of. And everyone seems to coexist peacefully. I’m staying in a really nice guest house which is just a short walk from the city centre and all of the main interesting attractions. The weather has been great – it’s been sunny most days, with the occasional shower which is quite a nice refreshment on a hot day.

I met an Australian girl called Zoe at the hostel. We got on really well and spent three days exploring the city together. On the first day we took a bus up to the Batu Caves, just outside KL, which is a huge system of caves which has become a Hindu shrine, the biggest of which is 50 metres high. It was full of a strange mix of animals, including monkeys, bats, chickens and kittens. We then went back to KL and had a look around the markets and shops in Chinatown. On the second and third days we went to the Lake Gardens, where there are various nature parks and museums. The National Museum, on the history of Malaysia, was very interesting. I loved the Bird Park and the Butterfly Park, both of which are just like huge walk-in cages, with the animals flying all around us and occasionally staying still long enough for a photo. I’ve also been up the KL Tower, which had great views of the city (apparently better than from the Petronas Towers).

Monkey outside Batu Caves

Yesterday morning I took a bus down the coast to Melaka, which is a very pretty city with lots of historic buildings and musuems. It has a very European feel to it, which is no surprise seeing as it has been occupied by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. The food there was amazing – the highlight was probably a restaurant which served a selection of curries and rice on a banana leaf. In the evening I had a look around the night market in Chinatown, then went on a boat trip along the river, which was extremely cheesy (neon lights and pop music blaring from the speakers) but fun. Last night I stayed in a guest house in Chinatown, with an incredibly friendly and generous owner and a very nice Canadian family also staying here.

Independence Memorial, Melaka

I’ve just got back to KL this evening, and I’m flying to Bangkok on Wednesday. I love Malaysia: the food is excellent and the people are so friendly. I really don’t want to leave! My flight out of Asia is from KL so I plan to spend a bit more time here after Thailand before I go to Australia, probably on one of the islands on the east coast.

Hong Kong Airport

Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t devote a post to an airport, but I’ve been here for nearly 19 hours now so I decided to write something, if only to pass some time.

I arrived at the airport at 9am yesterday for a 10.50 flight, and all went smoothly until we boarded the plane. We taxied to the runway but were then told that there was a problem with the plane and we couldn’t take off yet, so we taxied back to the terminal and got off. After a couple of hours we were told that the problem was fixed, so we got back on the plane and taxied back to the runway… where we were told that actually it wasn’t fixed, so we taxied back to the terminal and got off again. After a few more hours (and a complementary Burger King meal courtesy of Air Asia!) we were told that we wouldn’t be taking off today and they had booked us into an airport hotel for the night.

To be honest, the hotel was worth the wait, and definitely worth a lot more than my plane ticket. Seriously, it was probably the poshest hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and utterly luxurious compared with my hostel. It had at least five restaurants, two pools, a gym and probably much more. I needed to email the hostel in KL to tell them I wouldn’t be arriving that night. Unfortunately the only internet access was in the hotel’s cocktail bar, and unfortunately you had to buy a drink to use it… oh well, one has to make sacrifices such as these.

I didn’t have long to appreciate the hotel. There was a 2am wake-up call as the flight is due to take off at 5. I’ll believe that when I see it.

I’ll try to put some more photos up soon. Bye for now.

Greetings from Hong Kong!

Hi all,

I’ve had a good first few days in Hong Kong. I’m staying in the YHA on Hong Kong Island, which is quite far from the centre but it’s nice to be away from the noise and smog of the city, and the views are stunning. I spent my first day exploring the city centre, and I’ve taken the funicular railway up to Victoria Peak where the views of the city and Victoria Harbour are even better than from the hostel. I’ve also experienced one of Hong Kong’s double decker trams.

Night view from hostel

Yesterday I got the train over to Lantau Island and met a Canadian called Jason at the bottom of the cable car,  so we went up together to see the Buddha statue and monastery. While at the Buddha statue I experienced some real, modern Chinese culture. A group of girls asked me to take their photo. After photos of three different poses they were satisfied, but then insisted on having a photo with Jason and me as well! So here it is:

I’m taking a boat across Victoria Harbour to Kowloon tomorrow to explore that part of Hong Kong. I’m especially looking forward to the view of Hong Kong Island at night, which is supposed to be spectacular.

On Tuesday I fly to Malaysia, where apparently it’s raining. A lot. More from me when I get there.