Home Safe

Well we finally made it home – the journey was a bit of a slog - 14 hours flight from Singapore to Heathrow but the plane was virtually empty and we had 10 seats between us so were able to lie down flat for lots of it.
We had a fabulous time and highlights for David at each place were…..Singapore – the Singapore Slings; Penang – Hawker delights; Cameron Highlands – the tea plantation tour; KL – the bird park; Siboya – the beach and BKK – the shopping experiences. For Amanda the highlights were…….. Singapore – the lion dances; Penang – living in Georgetown; Cameron Highlands – the jungle trekking; KL – the bird park; Siboya – the crab lunch and BKK – IT city!
In the 28 days we were away we went on 7 flights, numerous taxis including Mr Dean’s in Krabi and Mr Ooi’s in Georgetown, local buses and coaches, mini bus tour, trishaws and tuk tuks, cable car up the side of the temple in Penang, pick up truck (D) and motorbike (A) trying to get to the ferry in time in Siboya because the tuk tuk wouldn’t start, Mike’s 4x4, the sky train in Bangkok and several different types of boats including the Thai longtail boats and the paddle boat in the floating market!
We reckoned our best meals were the (1) “all you can eat buffet at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang, (2) Crab lunch at Kob Siboya, (3) satay sticks in Chinatown, Singapore and (4) the Indonesian prawns at Clark’s Quay in Singapore. Worst meal was an unspeakable one at 4.00 in the afternoon after arriving at our apartment in Kuala Lumpar, but still we managed to avoid jippy tummies!
It is lovely to be home and hope to see / talk to you all soon. In the meantime, we took 2,624 photos between us, so be warned…. We’ll post a few now though!
David and Amanda xx

On Our Way

Yesterday we met up with an old friend of Amanda's and he took us to the floating market way up north of Bangkok city....very interesting to see all the people there buying and selling food and veg as well as all the touristy stuff. On our way back into Bangkok, we stopped at the side of the road to watch the people farming the salt fields. They let in seawater and once it has evaporated, they collect the salt into little pyramids first and then into a huge mound of it. Afterwards he took us to the British Club for lunch.
The previous evening we went to Patpong Night Market specifically to find watches and were successful. What was strange about the watch purchasing was that we had to select from books and once we'd determined which watch we wanted.... the stall holder disappeared and returned a few minutes later with them in hand....and then the bargaining starts!
We are now at Bkk airport awaiting our flight back to Penang and then the next day onto London. Final report to come when we get home!!

Bangkok Old City

Today we did more of a tourist thing....took a boat trip up the main river called Chao Phraya and saw lots of temples and other religious buildings from the water. Apparently there are 400 temples in Bangkok and 30,000 in Thailand! We alighted at Wat Aroon - the temple of Dawn and 'did' that for a bit. The Temple of Dawn is huge and apparently built even before Bangkok existed. We are in an internet cafe so can't upload a picture of it!
On the other side of the river was the Grand Palace where the king used to live which we walked around in the heat of the sun!
Yesterday, after blogging we headed for IT City to track down a list of software. IT City has to be seen to be believed - it was five floors of computer shops....we reckon about 500 outlets selling computer hardware and software both legal and possibly not so legal. Once the decision is taken to buy the software we were given a slip of not very official looking paper and told to return in 15 mins! Draw your own conclusions!
We left IT City and jumped into a tuk tuk who took us kind of willingly to his 'shop' for a very cheap fare....the deal was we had to go look and hopefully buy, but there was no obligation to buy.....but we did - the shop was a Nepalese tailors shop and we have ordered tailor made trousers for Amanda and silk shirts for David which will apparently be delivered to our apartment this evening! We shall see!
Tonight we are on the hunt for Rolex watches in the red light district of Bangkok called Patpong - the night market is the place to find them and we have just seen the stalls being set up in readiness.
Its really really hot in Bangkok and we are looking forward now to coming home to some February weather! See you soon.

Bangkok Shopping

We've just hacked our way through the 'mother of all markets' at Chatuchak. Not a watch in sight, but tons of food, flowers, clothing both second hand and new, 'antiques', souvenirs and general junk. We rode the sky train from end to end - very comfortable, air conditioned etc., and are now in a mall where we got 20 mins of internet access for 20p. Not bad!! Now heading off to another mall where we hope to get watches and software...... which we have a list of. Bangkok apartment is compact but clean and airconditioned and still bigger than a hotel room! People here friendly and not nearly as aggressive in the market as we found in KL and still the iced coffee is top of our refreshment choices!! Last night we managed to buy deep fried chicken take away from a hawker stall down the road along with a nice salad and a couple of beers....no one seems to speak much English beyond hello and how are you! No internet access in the apartment, so blogging could be a bit intermittent...... take care all - see you soon!

Farewell Koh Siboya

Our island of Koh Siboya is around 5 miles long about 3 miles across at its widest point. We took the tuk tuk to the North Pier and watched the locals fishing for small silver fish. We returned via another beach resort and the island duka (General Stores). All around the shores are blue tsunami signs explaining what to do in the event of a tidal wave and showing the “escape routes” to take to higher ground. The signs are fairly new and “stable doors and horses bolting” springs to mind. The people smile and wave everywhere. The island is home to around 1,000 locals although it is difficult to see how they sustain themselves. Most of the island is covered in rubber plantations, offering some jobs; there are a few eating places, small shops and resorts offering other employment. There are chickens, goats and a few cows and evidence of some fruit and veg growing. Fishing, ferrying and tourism are other outlets although most of the resorts, like ours, are virtually empty – a consequence of the worldwide economy, the political unrest in parts of Thailand and probably still concerns about the tsunami.

The tsunami on the island was around 1 metre high, enough to cause significant damage but we don’t believe any loss of life. Most of the houses are built on stilts and are made of bamboo and palm leaves, sometimes woven in pretty patterns. The stilts are to keep the houses cool with the air circulation rather than anything to do with water, or flooding or tidal waves.

Our trip across the island today, was interesting but we obviously have the prime location at Thai-West due to the clean beach, standard of accommodation and facilities. Mains electricity is in the process of being supplied to the island and should reach Thai-West by the end of the year. In the meantime, the generators seem to work well. We continue to be looked after well by Intion and her family. We are the only guests! Her sister is chief cook, cleaner and laundress; she is married to Ban who is the only one, apart from Intion, who speaks any English – so is our waiter, sorts out our menus and drives the tuk tuk. They have two little girls of about 6 and 8. Intion’s brother Akom is in the house next door to us by the beach. He is a furniture maker by trade and does a little bit of everything around the site including setting out the fishing pots. He also has a wife and two children a little boy and a little girl. They all muck in together for example, at dinner last night Ban barbequed three huge prawns and baked the potatoes, his wife prepared the salad and coconut chicken soup, Akom carved the decorations and Intion served and entertained! To complete the family picture Intion has her two year old son Martin and her mum and dad here too. Her husband, Elik who we corresponded with regularly in setting up the trip is an American lawyer; they have a house in California as well as the Thai-West business and travel between the two.

Well that is Thai-West and the end of our paradise island. Tomorrow we fly to Bangkok providing we can get the problematic tuk tuk started, negotiate the long tailed ferry boat at low tide (wading through the water again) and persuade Mr Dean, our taxi driver, to drive fast enough to get to Phuket airport in good time!

Another relaxing day at the beach!

Happy Birthday Sue xx

Daily Grind

Sat on the beach at Thai-West
Flip flops, shorts and vest
Breakfast is done
Lunch still to come
Then it will be time for a rest!
******
Today’s the day to sit on the beach
It really has been a peach.
Reading, swimming, sunning and all
We must say, we are having a ball!
******
We went for a wander by the sea
David and me
We watched the tide go out
And all the little crabs running about.
We saw a man flying a kite
Then came back to the site
Cos it was time for a bite!
*****
Sat on the verandah
Me and Amanda
Watching the sun go down
Beers at our feet
It’s really a treat
And now we are both quite brown!

Krabi Town

Intion, the Thai-west owner invited us to join her on a trip into Krabi town today. She said she had some business to attend to and we could go along for the ride. She wasn’t sure how long she would be but she thought maybe 2 to 4 hours……so we left the resort at 7.30 this morning and got back at 7.30 this evening!!
It took 2 hours to get into the town in the first place – meant to be a lot shorter but the boatman turned back twice to pick up more passengers……. Once dropped in town we set about exploring it…. Was quite a nice town, with amazing traffic lights (see pic) – lots of tourists around and lots of opportunities for various trips to other islands – all of which looked quite interesting but impractical from “our” island. The plan was that Intion would phone us when she was ready to collect us. We had just settled down to lunch when she rang to say she would be another hour…. Perfect timing or so we thought. An hour and a half later she rang again to say she was coming back to pick us up and drop us off at Tiger Cave because she would be at least another hour or so……her non English speaking brother was acting as the taxi driver.
So, we were dropped at Tiger Cave – apparently the last place a leopard (???) was seen in Thailand! Anyway it is now a temple of some sort which incorporates various caves…. Very little English signage but we saw “the big tree” and “the big cave” so called.
Intion and her brother reappeared at around 3.30 and we headed for Tesco (!!!) to do a bit of shopping – David was hoping to pick up a bottle or two of red wine as we haven’t had any wine, gin etc, since arriving on the island although we have managed to quaff the local beer. But we were too early…. They don’t sell alcohol before 5.00pm…… oh well – we had an ice cream instead and waited for Intion who had said she should be half an hour max but was nearer an hour!
Last ferry goes at 5.30, so the brother, our driver, put his foot down – Intion rang ahead and we made it to the pier at about ¼ to 6.00. All good except that it was low tide and to get to the ferry we had to wade out through muddy water to reach it…..see pic of David and the brother carrying the shopping and heading up the gang plank!! Apparently, the ferry was stuck in the mud and so we had to wait for higher tide and as it turned out, more passengers…..as the sun set over the water – we finally left and headed for home……the island looked very welcoming, but everywhere pitch black – remember there is no electricity on here….. no matter – our tuk tuk was waiting with Intion’s brother in law at the wheel…..ah, problem – the battery is flat….seems that is very common as a pair of jump leads and a spare battery quickly appeared and at last we were on our way!
An eventful and interesting time – tomorrow we will go back to sitting on the beach all day!

On the Beach

Lazy day...walking, swimming, sunning and, of course, .....eating! Fried chicken for lunch and pepper and garlic squid for dinner with coconut chicken soup. Our noisy neighbours have left (hooray!); they left when the tide was right out so had a long walk to the long-tail boats (see pic).



All's well here and hope y0u are coping with snow in uk. Love from us both. D&A.

Lazy Day!

Sunday – our first full day on the island of Siboya. It’s a lovely beach and very nice cottage with a large bedroom and reasonable sized bathroom. Should be idyllic. There is a drawback though…… the resort next door has a two day motivational event going on with karaoke going day and night and our cottage is close to the kitchens which in order to feed 80 people started their day at about 5.30am and the karaoke hadn’t stopped much before 2.00am…… still not having enough sleep at night and with nothing to do all day except lie around reading there has been lots of chance to catch up on our lost sleep! There isn’t much English spoken here so we are doing a lot of smiling and nodding and then crossing our fingers that what we have agreed to for breakfast, lunch and dinner is going to be ok….breakfast we were offered eggs and sausage but “sorry there is no bread”….turned out there was only toast!!! Lunch we were offered crab and fruit……what we got were 8 large crabs….four of them steamed and four of them fried with spring onions and a chilli sauce and huge portions of rice for each of us served in a star shape…….followed by a very large serving dish of paw paw, pineapple, watermelon and unidentified fruit which was sort of pear shaped……we’ve got snapper for dinner apparently!

Thailand Here we Come!

Saturday 7 Feb. Travelled to our holiday island in Thailand. Left KL at 1300 by AirAsia on a 1 ¼ hour flight to Phuket. Collected from the airport by the cheerful Mr Dean (not his real name but known as) for the 3 hour drive to the ferry stopping for a bite to eat and to get some money from the ATM along the way. Arrived in time for the last Ferry to Koh Siboyha which left at 1730, or thereabouts depending when all the passengers had arrived. We were expected! Now what would you imagine the ‘ferry’ to be? Certainly not a roll on roll off cross channel affair. Something more modest perhaps: a flat tub with room for a couple of cars/bikes/small trucks? No, still thinking too big. Our ‘ferry’ was a much smaller craft with an outboard motor; would take a few scooters and a dozen passengers but not much more (see picture). The ferry took 20 mins to reach our island and then it was only a 10 minute tuk-tuk (bit like a small open sided van) to reach our resort. We had a lovely red Thai chicken curry, washed down with a couple of beers for supper before retiring to upwords and bed. Thankfully we were so tired we were unaffected by the Saturday dance night in the resort next door! Bye for now...David.

Birds

Today we went to the Kuala Lumpar Lake Gardens Bird Park which is just 10 minutes from the city centre. They have a walk in aviary said to be the largest in the world. Malaysians seem to be very hot on records - the highest, the biggest, the best!! Four sets of batteries, four hours and four hundred and eighty nine photographs later we emerged from the experience having thoroughly enjoyed it and headed back to the apartment.
Tomorrow we head off to the www.thai-west.com resort - we have no idea if we'll get internet access or even if our phones will work although we assume so. In an emergency though you can contact the resort, their number is on the website. We get to Bangkok on 14th.

KL City Tour

KL was hot, 32*C, and humid so we decided to give up walking the streets and take an air-conditioned bus tour at £6 each from the Malaysian Tourism Centre.



They also had a lovely restaurant there so we replenished with a club sandwich and chips and iced coffees before setting off. First stop was the craft centre where we saw them making batik materials…very clever stuff.



Then on to Beryl’s chocolate house to sample some Malaysian chocs….yumm.
Next stop was the Kings Palace which we could only view from the outside.



Now Malaysia has a unique monarchy; the king rotates amongst 9 regions and only gets to sit on the throne for 5 years before the next region takes over. There have been 13 kings since independence from the British which took place on 31 August 1957.(I know the maths doesn’t work out quite right so some of the kings must have sat for less than 5 years).

Onto the war memorial which was beautifully set out....



..........and then to the State Museum which was also very interesting, especially how Malaysia was formed in 1962 from 9 states which included Malaya, Borneo and Sumatra. Singapore split from the union 3 years later to become an independent state. The native Malays are the most privileged and are the ruling class. They get the top jobs and, for example only pay 19% tax whereas the rest (Indians, Chinese etc) pay 27%. From the Museum we finished up at Independence Square where we left the tour and headed for China Town.

Of course there were other interesting sights seen from the coach including passing loads of Embassies and the Malaysian Parliament buildings. The road which houses the British embassy is known by some as ‘the English Channel’ as the French Embassy is on the opposite side of the road. The US embassy is next door to the Iraq Embassy…funny old thing!
Well that’s our culture afternoon…hope your afternoon’s will be good too and not too snowy. BFN……..D&A.

Shopping

Today we went on an organised tour of KL which David will report on. Before we signed up for the tour though, we went to the Petronas Twin Towers and on into the mall which is next to them. It was absolutely incredible – huge and with every designer shop you could think of. Miles and miles of commercialism. We were there at around 12.30 and all the office workers were out spending their hard earned cash. We window shopped for a bit and then headed for the Tourist Info Centre.
After our city tour we walked to the Central Market, crossing the river where the two muddy rivers meet…. Kuala Lumpar is so called because it means the confluence of muddy rivers!! The Central Market building was a bright blue and jam packed with little stalls selling crafts from pewter, to cushion covers, jewellery, pashminas, paintings, and other stuff mostly handmade. We bought a very pretty piece of jewellery which I might keep or I might give away as a gift.
From the Central Market we walked to China Town. We had been warned it might rain and Petaling Lane in Chinatown has a covered market. We priced the watches and got into one conversation where the trader started at RM85 and reduced his price after some haggling right down to RM35 (about £7 for a genuine Rolex imitation)! After talking to some Dutch people we met whilst eating, it seems Bangkok will come up with just as good prices, so we decided to wait until we got there to buy watches!
After our meal, we then did a bit of shopping in preparation for our visit to the island - Koh Siboya - next week. We needed shoes for swimming in and we both managed to buy flip flop type shoes - mine were £3.00 and David's were even less - £2.40. Last of the big spenders eh!

Venice Hill

Bus journey from Cameron Highlands was uneventful and the bus was comfortable and on time.

We are now sitting on the balcony in our 3 bedroom self catering apartment 10 floors up with a view over the forest and a new housing estate complete with bulldozers but we are far enough up for it not to be a problem!

The apartment is in a place called Venice Hill - hill being the operative word as to walk to any shops or restaurants is 20 mins down hill and thankfully only 5 ringetts (£1) taxi back up the hill!

Thinking of you all in the snow. Report on KL after we've been there tomorrow.

Beetlemania!

Can you believe this is a beetle! Amazing isn’t he!

BOH puts the Ummph! in life

BOH is the name of the tea plantation that we visited this morning. It was established by a Mr J A Russell in 1929 and was the first highland tea garden in all of Malaysia apparently. The current CEO is Caroline Russell, JA’s granddaughter. The tea bushes themselves look gorgeously green as you can see in the picture and the brown patch is where those bushes have been pruned. Matthias was full of all sorts of information about the growing of tea but as we looked at the views we got on to discussions about other stuff and we learned that in Malaysia if you are a Muslim you are taxed at 15% and if you are not, then you are taxed at 27%! Matthias himself comes from a Chinese mother and his father was half Ceylonese and half British!

After we’d looked at the views (and put the world to rights) we had a whistle stop tour of the factory itself and saw the machines that process the tea through five stages – withering, rolling, fermenting, drying and sorting before the leaves are sent off to Kuala Lumpar for packing. The factory machines all date from 1935 which is when the first leaves were picked – originally by hand but in the 1980’s tea picking machines were introduced which are hauled up the slopes by two men. Tea picking happens after 9.00am when the day has warmed up a little and the dew on the tops of the bushes has dried. Originally, it was the Tamils from India that were brought over to pick the tea and you can see the roofs of the houses in the photo that the families that work for the Russells live in. There is also a primary school, a catholic chapel and a Hindu temple! Now they are mostly Indonesians who work there.

No blog is complete without a description of what we ate and drank – at the end of our tour David had a pot of gold blend tea and I had a mug of earl grey flavoured with tangerine made with a tea bag! We shared a warm coconut cake and a square of banana cake!!

Hope you are all surviving the snow!

Cameron Highlands

Not such a bad place after all. Took an excursion into the hills which included the highest point in Cameron Highlands (and Malaysia) accessible by road, a walk in the mossy forest, a look round a tree plantation (more of that later) and finishing with the Butterfly Farm (including insects and reptiles). Mathias, our guide and driver aged 21, was very good. We also met his Mum, Mary, doing some guiding ahead of us. The weather was great, cool but sunny, and we finished with a banana leaf curry. Amanda has gone for some reflexology while I play on the laptop in the foyer (where there is a wireless signal). Enjoy the pics....by for now.

Cameron Highlands

Finally left Penang at 1000 this morning and started, a rather tortuous 6.5 hour journey in an old 'coach' to Cameron Highlands, leaving Penang island by the 3rd longest bridge in the world to get to the mainland. Cameron Highlands is around 6,000 ft up and is a sort after 'resort' for those wanting to get away from the heat to the cool of the mountains; it is certainly fresher up here and cold enough to warrant jeans and a thin sweater in the evening. Cameron Highlands was discovered by the British and the climate suits tea plantations and strawberries - so tea, scones and strawberries are served everywhere (except in our hotel dammit!). Apart from the pleasant climate, the place seems to be a bit of a dump - sort of run-down touristy place. However we will make the most of it. To-night we had 'steamboat' which is a local Chinese favourite. Its a bit like a Chinese fondue in that you cook it yourself in a heated soup provided over a gas heated stove. We were given prawns, chicken, Chinese mushrooms, fish, eggs, vegetables, crabsticks, fish balls and stuff as well as 2 different types of noodles....yumm it was pretty good and filling.

Back in hotel now. Tomorrow morning we are off on a guided jungle trek for 4.5 hours. Amanda will tell you all about it when we have recovered. BFN.

Culture!

This morning we had a very interesting half an hour or so listening to a talk by the granddaughter of a man whose house was used by Sun Yet Sen in 1910 when he lived in Penang for four months! Now those of you reading this who don’t know who Sun Yet Sen was – shame on you!! Let me enlighten you – Dr Sun, so called the Father of Modern China was a revolutionary who wanted to turn China into a republic and he was eventually successful, becoming the first president of China in 1923. He died two years later. Anyway, we were in the house that he used as a base whilst in Penang, having been exiled from just about everywhere including Singapore from where he travelled to Penang from. The house itself – 120 Armenian Street – has been preserved and we met the daughter of the guy that owned it when Dr Sun was using it. This is her photo. She was telling us that the good china has been stored away and only the everyday china is now in the cabinets! The house itself is one of the so called “shophouses” which have an air well open courtyard in the middle - open to the skies to let some cool breezes in and unpleasant odours out! At one time apparently, there were 37 people living there! And that’s the end of today’s history lesson!