The almost home straight - To Sydney

2 Oz weeks, Darwin to Sydney

My flight from Bali to Darwin was quite long as it included 13 hours in Singapore airport, but that was fine by me as it saved me around 120 GBP which is going to be put to good use in the real world where Asian prices no longer exist! We didn’t hang around in Darwin and I never saw any of it, we headed straight off to see some of Kakadu National Park. We drove out to Jabiru and visited a site of rocks and rock paintings with great views out over the plains of the Northern Territory, it was green and fresh looking though the temperature was hot. As some of the flights were a day later than originally planned we were running a little late on our itinerary and this meant that Kakadu was a short visit and we rushed through it to get back on the road and get some miles under our belt. I was really disappointed by our short time here as this was the only part of the Australian trip that I have not previously covered and really wanted a chance to explore it more, never mind, it wasn’t for me this time around. Katherine was our next stop and we visited the Katherine Gorge before continuing down through the Red Centre taking in the Devils Marbles, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and the lovely quirky town of Coober Pedy. This is a great town, I have fond memories of it from years ago, situated in the middle of Australian nowhere, Coober Pedy is an unusual place with a lot of character. Around 80% of the population live underground in dug out homes which keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The town makes it’s living from opal mining and you can visit the mines or buy some of their beautiful precious stones. One of the local caves was home to a well known character by the name of Crocodile Harry, possibly the original Crocodile Dundee. This man was full of stories and mischief and when I visited his home in 1999 he was still around greeting people and chattering away. Now Harry has passed on but his house is still open to the public as it is a cavern of goodies and interesting artefacts, home to one of Tina Turner’s bras for example as one of the Mad Max films had parts shot in this cave.  There are many other caves open to the public, private homes, public accommodation, restaurants or churches many of which are an absolute pleasure to visit. The surrounding area has little in the way of landscaping and has had pictures comparing it to the moon, making it an ideal place for other movies to be filmed.

The camping through this part of Australia had concerned me at first, as an arachnophobe I never really believed it was the right place for me to lay my head but once inside my tent I felt safe from the claws of the devil spiders. The first night of camping was at a creek with crocodile warnings around it, but none of us had any intention of going for a swim so we felt safe enough! It was here I encountered a spider which was to almost become a friend, we found her relatives all around us almost all the way through Australia, and she was a rather attractive white spider with a head torch! Her eyes reflected our head torches at night as a pale light surrounded by a gentle blue halo. She became known to us as Albino Annie and not a night went past that I didn’t see her creeping around the campsite. I liked her because she was easy to spot and that is essential when you have to leave your tent in the middle of the night to visit the open-air bathroom! Less welcome was the sight of burrows around the size of a small mouse but maybe more likely to be home to some very large spiders, I am delighted to have not encountered their residents as they were uncomfortably close to my tent. At night the skies were so clear, we had hours and hours of star gazing to keep us occupied, there was no shortage of shooting stars and with my outside door open I could lie in my bed and gaze for as long as I could keep my eyes open.  One night was wild and windy and wet but other than that the weather held out really well and allowed us to thoroughly enjoy our final two weeks camping, star gazing, sitting around camp fires, toasting marshmallows and reminiscing our months of travel and adventure and growing relationships. I can’t believe two weeks’ worth of nights can be summed up in that small paragraph, it was a magical time.

From day one we have been lucky to spot a variety of wildlife, the incredible birds here, ibis, lorikeets, cockatoos, galahs, emus, cockatiels. The bugs, stick insects, a praying mantis, grass hoppers, termites and their enormous mounds and a variety of spider which I have looked up in an effort to name them but failed miserably as soon as their pictures arrived on screen! There have also been many wallabies and kangaroos dotted around the landscape which are always fun to watch, such an oddity.

We travelled on to Port Augusta where we reached the opposite end of the country and a new sea, then on through Peterborough, Broken Hill, Nyngan, Dubbo, Bathurst and on to the final destination of Sydney. We got to walk around a dry salt plain of Lake Hart, we did a lap of the Bathurst race course, we had some wine tasting at the Highland Heritage Cellars of NSW, we had a lovely trip over to Sydney, the temperature becoming more and more comfortable, the land becoming more and more like that of home. The camping became cold, the long trousers and fleeces came back out of the bottom of the rucksack and everything appears to be returning to normal slowly wiping away the traces of Asia and the tropics. The spider hitchhiking in my bag in Indonesia hasn’t reappeared, I wonder where he came from, somewhere between China and Indonesia, now I can’t find him! The food is western again, some people are finding themselves feeling bloated or a little unwell from eating it again, and there’s not a grain of rice in sight at breakfast time! Our final night was spent in a campsite at Lake Lyell, a lovely serene place with hills and still water and a perfect place to spend our final night together as a group. The final day allowed us a visit to the stunning Blue Mountains where the blue haze hangs over the valley which is thick with trees below us. It’s a beautiful place and well worth more than a couple of hours, but that is all we have here, why delay the inevitable final farewell for the group, back in the bus and onwards to Sydney.

We drove in to Sydney with mixed emotions, out of the 24 people who began this adventure only 12 of us have completed the entire trip which makes the achievement all the greater as it clearly wasn’t as easy as we had thought when we originally signed up. It was a triumphant moment, standing at the harbour having our photo taken with the Harbour Bridge in the background, we did it!! 28 weeks living in the pockets of strangers, a social experiment of sorts that I am unlikely to experience again, it has been most interesting. I have camped more than I imagined I would ever enjoy, I have cooked on fire and eaten all manner of animals and animal parts I wouldn’t eat at home, I’ve seen sights I have often dreamed of and visited countries I thought might never be possible, I have visited 23 countries along the way. I have learned so much about the world and feel a richer person for it. I feel quite honoured to have been lucky enough to take on this trip, my life is so easy in comparison to thousands of those I’ve passed on the journey and I hope that I never take this for granted, having said that I have shared a smile with so many, and it’s a private moment like that that I take away and treasure. I live in a country with 4 seasons which is the only way I think I could ever live, I am blessed with an uncommon love of varied weather and I embrace days of rain and wind as much as I do the sun. I have the freedom and finances to travel the world and hopefully the good sense to appreciate the riches I have waiting for me at home. While the UK to OZ adventure is complete I have not finished my travels yet, I still have a relaxing week in Sydney to enjoy before heading off for a couple of months in New Zealand, this story is not yet over!

But for now.... I did it!!

Selamat Pagi Indonesia

A ferry took us away from Singapore and on to our first Indonesian island, Batam. We were warned beforehand that we would be staying in a fairly nice hotel as it was the cheapest option for accommodation which is not a brothel! So it’s fair to say that this place does not have a great reputation, maybe in part due to the large number of boats coming and going from this part of the world. Whatever the reason, I saw no signs of the sex trade and just made use of the local food carts to indulge in my first Indonesian meal, a lovely coconutty chicken curry with spicy vegetables, happy happy! We were in Batam in order to catch the bigger ferry to Jakarta, this ought to take around 26 hours and as always I was quite excited about the prospect of another mode of transport, I always love boats and find it interesting when I can compare them to others I have been on.

Boarding the ferry we were in 3^rd class, which is one level up from economy class but there are obviously 2 others above us. Instead of benches for sitting on the benches are huge and have many mattresses on them so that each aisle has about 6 beds opposite each other, going to breadth of the boat there are about 20 beds across and many many more of them stretching the length of the ship, it accommodates a lot of people! As I chucked my bags on my bed and climbed on I could immediately count 8 cockroaches crawling around on it, scuttling away from my flying bag, looking around I could see these were not the only cockroaches, this was going to be cockfest! It’s a funny thing to say but I immediately accepted that I was going to spend the journey being crawled on by bugs, once that had sunk in I didn’t seem to mind at all and fell asleep within half an hour of boarding, waking a couple of times as my friend was trying to flick cockroaches off me! As the journey got underway it became clear that cockroaches weren’t the only pets aboard, small rats were also spied running around the deck. The safety of the passengers is at the top of every Asian’s list and with this in mind we were frequently locked in as the crew checked tickets, mopped the floor or maybe just thought it was funny to freak out the westerners, of which we were the total sum on board. There were 3 free meals a day, rice and fish for lunch and dinner and an omelette for breakfast, the food was fine, certainly not the worst I’ve eaten. The toilets were less than average, sometimes my flip-flops weren’t thick soled enough to keep my feet dry but having a head cold I was exceptionally lucky to not be able to smell what I could see, as the flushers didn’t work very well!! I was in a cubicle at one point and my foot was getting a lot of splashes from the cubicle next door, good grief how I prayed that I was next to a shower block! Thank you thank you – I was!! I’m not sure I had enough alcohol gel to clean my feet if that was a squat toilet next door, eurgh! There was a prayer room aboard and it was in full session as I walked past, looked like hundreds of flip-flops and sandals had been abandoned outside the door, a sight we are unlikely to see back home. The most exciting part of the trip was knowing that we were crossing the equator, which we did at around midnight. Having travelled for 6 months already it’s hard to believe it’s taken this long to cross the equator! The ferry was (of course) late and we ended up aboard for around 33 hours, but overall I quite enjoyed my ferry journey, it might not sound like the most enjoyable sailing but it’s their ferry and part of the lives I have come to experience so who am I to turn my nose up at it? Admittedly I slept most of the way, head colds are not always welcome while travelling but this was perfect timing as I didn’t have to move and could sleep as much as I wanted.

 I only had one day to explore Jakarta and chose to do so by foot, heading through the city via the national Monument of Indonesia, the old town square and the marina. Jakarta does not seem very geared towards tourists although there are several museums to visit there do not appear to be any amazing tourist must-sees here. Two of us walked 5km through the city, as the only white people and often as the only females we got quite a lot of attention, at times unwanted, but overall very friendly and positive. The streets are built up and are a strange mixture of regular cheap Indonesian shops with a sprinkling of very rich and posh looking coffee shops, banks or residential suites. The old town is not very obvious against the rest of the city and we did not recognise that we had reached it until it opened out into the square, a large open and relaxed space. We continued through in search of the old marina and while attempting to follow our map we ended up in the tiny winding paths of a seaside village, full of people shouting ‘hello mister’ and waving at us from point-blank range. When we reached what seemed to be a dead-end and looked confused all the locals would point in the direction for us to continue, through a gap between house walls and on we walked until it opened out onto a small wooden bridge from where we could see their little wooden boats and bigger boats in the distance, all lined up at the marina we had been trying to find! The locals kindly assisted us with directions out of their meandering village and we popped back out on the main road where we started, though none the wiser as to which way we should have gone in the first place!

We took a train to Jogjakarta, or Yogyakarta, leaving Jakarta the slums were on display, little shacks propped up between the train tracks, children playing nearby and begging from the journeying passengers. Out of the city it was a lovely train journey, through green Indonesian fields and crops and I spent the journey staring out the window, mesmerised by the landscape and watching the people working their fields. Jogja is far more touristy and has a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere. There’re a lot of markets around us and plenty street food to choose from. We visited an art exhibition of batique work by the teachers at the local art school, fabulous colours and interesting modern and traditional works using wax and local dyes. I haven’t seen batique work for many years and I had no idea that such wonderful art could be created using this method.

We ate from the same lovely man every night having different combinations of Nasi Goreng which is mostly just chicken fried rice, but so much tastier! We had a spicy one, a very garlicky one and I also traded in the rice for noodles one night making it Mie Goreng. This man’s cart has a built in oven and from it he slides out his little cooking stove which looks like a plant pot. It’s a clay or concrete pot with a fire burning within, a hole in the side to waft the flames and a section on top to accommodate his wok. The cart has cooked chickens, coriander and large spring onions hanging from the top, there are pots of salad, bottles of oil, soya sauce and chilli sauce, smaller pots of garlic, salt and other spices, and a big drum of stock (presumable the liquid left from cooking the chickens). He has a small chopping board for chopping the vegetables and at the side of the cart are containers filled with noodles and rice, already cooked. From here he can make delicious fresh dishes of fried rice or noodles or soups within minutes, and he has a couple of stools to sit and eat at the side of the street. This fantastic fresh food is so flavoursome that I’m getting hungry thinking about it and comes at the bargain price of 10,000 Indonesian Rupiahs which works out at around 60p in the UK!

From Jogja we visited Borodupur, Indonesia’s answer to Angkor Wat. There are a collection of temples to visit but I settled on this one site, a huge Buddhist monument in the shape of a pyramid you can climb to the top of it and wonder at the many pieces of art carved out in rock. This fantastic 9^th Century building seems to have rows and rows of stone bells, which make a beautiful sight on their own, get closer and you can see that each bell has a Buddha sitting inside it and as some are broken you can clearly see the Buddha sitting proud.

That afternoon we ventured into the world of cave tubing, a far more relaxed form of the tubing we had tried out in Laos. Before we started we were offered some local snacks, a plate of fried grasshoppers!! Of course I ate one! It was very crunchy and pretty salty but not at all bad, having said that, I refused a second one! We sat in our lorry tyre inner tubes and were taken slowly through dark caves by our guides who pointed out the different rock formations and shone their torches up at the bats hanging from the cave roof above us. It was a great little adventure that was over all too soon, but to pad out the day they then took us to another river to gently float down admiring the countryside and savouring the tranquillity. To get to this other river we had a walk through some local paddy fields, among working people who all shouted ‘Halo’ and waved at us. As we reached the end of our tubing adventure we heard a small clatter and looked round to see a large coconut had just fallen from a tree and was bobbing towards us. We took the coconut home and a kindly local chopped it up for us, he wasn’t pleased with it’s quality, said that it was too old and would be better if it were greener, not than any of us knew the difference, I thoroughly enjoyed my large chunk of fresh coconut flesh, it was very nice.

The next day 10 of us ventured off on an extra trip to visit an active volcano. Mount Bromos last eruption came to an end only 21 months ago and so it still funnels out blasts of steam from the sulphur pool within which is visible from the edge of the crater. We were firstly ferried to a viewpoint for sunrise and treated to a stunning sight as out of the darkness three volcanoes appeared before us, Bromo being the smallest but also the only one emitting clouds of steam making the sight all the more special. We were then taken to its foot from where we could climb to the rim of the crater and view the yellow pool inside, watch the steam rising out, listen to the deep rumbling and catch a whiff of rotten eggs, sulphur is not kind to the nasal passage! Everywhere you walk is soft fine lava dust and it gets everywhere. Mount Bromo is a definite highlight of Indonesia, it’s not often I get this close to active volcanoes and it’s the first time I’ve been able to see and hear things happening inside from the lip of a crater. Very exciting! Add to this the threat of slipping and falling in and it’s a real adventure playground!

The local villages reminded me of the Himalayan villages as they all walk around in winter clothes, wearing blankets around their shoulders, their homes have flags flying and they seem to have a similar atmosphere, it’s a very pleasant feeling. Up here they make use of their nutritious lava soil with crops growing on every spare piece of land, cabbage and onions in abundance!

The bus journeys to get to and from Mount Bromo gave me hours and hours of window watching as we travelled through more greenery, miles of crops and villages and hills in the backdrop. From Mount Bromo we were travelling directly to Bali to meet the rest of the group and it was another long day but we had another ferry journey to break it up which was short but provided a nice breath of fresh sea air.

Bali is the surf beach paradise that it promises. We are staying in the fairly touristy Kuta area which is full of shops, stalls, bars and a big long beach busy with surf wannabes and bikini babes! It was exactly what I imagined and a fine place to relax for a couple of days and catch up on some domestic duties. It’s the final stop for Asia and so the last chance to feed my belly with delicious Asian food! The airport is nearby and built on a piece of land jutting out into the sea, from Kuta it looks like they are ditching into the sea but having walked to the airport along the beaches I can confirm that there is some form of landing strip to greet the planes!

Indonesia a gorgeous country to travel around and I admit I have been caught out here as I hadn’t dreamed that I would enjoy it as much as I have, on the contrary I was quite intimidated by it and a little concerned about past coverage of Jakarta and Bali terrorist attacks. I am disappointed in myself, I always try not to let media coverage or people’s opinions change my outlook of a place and give everywhere a fair trial so I have been delighted by what I’ve found and I would place Indonesia high on my list of favourite countries, not that such a list exists, how can I possibly choose?! Sadly it’s the last part of Asia and the end of a huge part of my trip, I’m so unwilling to leave but it’s time to get back to the western world and see what Australia holds in store! 

Malaysia and Singapore

The night train to Butterworth in Malaysia was mostly comfortable but we didn’t get a lot of time to enjoy our beds as the train was running late and didn’t collect us until nearly 3am, we then had to get back out of bed for the border crossing at 9am. It was one of the smoothest border crossings yet, a stamp out of Thailand and a stamp into Malaysia all within the same office and back on the train to find, most disappointedly, that the beds had magically turned back into seats and so the rest of the journey was a more normal train sleep, drooling against the window! From Butterworth we took a ferry across to Penang Island to spend the night in Georgetown. As a former colony it has some nice buildings, a nice park area at the waterside and a few bars to keep us entertained. With only one night here we didn’t get to see it all but we got a taste of Penang which was good as it’s another place I know my parents visited nearly 40 years ago!

The following day involved boat and bus to reach Kuala Lumpur, the exciting big city of Malaysia and home of the beautiful Petronas Towers. Arriving in the evening we headed straight out for a walk through the city, past the KL Tower and arriving ultimately at the beautiful twin towers. I was taken aback by their beauty, I’ve seen many fabulous buildings which stop you in your tracks (or not) and this one is definitely a highlight and a sight to behold, the lights shining out, the elegance, the way they command your attention and hold it. I couldn’t just take a photo and walk away; I had to allow my eyes to saviour it. The city is so clean and accessible, it was lovely to walk around at night time, I really enjoyed listening to the live music and taking in the lights and the atmosphere, Kuala Lumpur scored a lot of points that night.

After enjoying the towers so much in the dark I was keen for a daytime visit not to end as a disappointment, and I am pleased to say there was no disappointment in store for me. As stunning as they are lit up at night, the towers are equally eye-catching in the daylight, so much glass and silver metal draws the eye right in and once again I am captivated by the presence of something very attractive! Such a beautiful building! Walking around them also holds various pleasures, from the small lake to the fountains to the flashes of air conditioning blasting you as you walk past the doorways of the very expensive shops housed within. It’s like a small burst of heaven when you walk past an air conditioned doorway, a small but very enjoyable blast of freezing air to break up the monotony of constantly sweating! We’ve been sweating for a long time now, the last time I remember not sweating was China, there was actually a point in China when I had a fleece on!! That seems a long time ago now.

The rest of my Kuala Lumpur experience involved wondering around the city, and what a lovely city it is. It’s such a clean place, seems very orderly, there is of course a China Town and lots of Chinese food on offer all around the city, the Malaysian food is either well hidden, not advertised as Malaysian or it’s just a combination of Asian foods, I can’t quite decide.  We also spent a night in the nearby shopping centres theme park with all sorts of fun stomach-churning rides to play on, it was a lot of fun.

From KL we headed to Malacca for a couple of days of exciting discovery, and discover we did, mostly though we discovered that this seems to be a very odd place and I’m not entirely sure why so many tourists come to visit this town! There are fort remnants, and canons and a variety of churches and temples and of course a China Town but most of these we discovered on the first few hours of being in the town. As our time there expanded we then discovered that the pavements are a little secret known only to the lucky few, in the middle of China Town there’s a garden devoted to some brass animals and a brass statue of Mr Malacca (also Mr Asia, Mr World and Mr Universe, though who competes in that that didn’t compete in Mr World I do not know!!) and then there were the cyclos or rickshaws with their over-the-top flowers and flashing lights turning a normal mode of transport into something really quite different!  The best part for me was a beautiful church up on a hill, St Paul’s, which is the roofless remains of a church lending itself as a fantastic outdoor performance area.  There was some dancing on while we were there and what a great place to enjoy some visual arts, under the stars.  With some time to spare we took a wander along the sea front to take in the sights of the nearby boats afloat in the Malacca Straits, there weren’t loads to watch but I still like to see the huge barges being pulled by tugs and any container ships that might be at sea at the time.

The following day we took a bus to Singapore and that was the end of our time in Malaysia, a country which hasn’t lived up to expectations in my mind. I have enjoyed my time here and Kuala Lumpur was an easy winner as my favourite part but overall I am leaving Malaysia a little bit disappointed by my inability to match it with a fantasy.

Singapore is well known for all its rules and cleanliness but I think this time around (I visited Singapore briefly in 1999) I found it to be a little more relaxed and Kuala Lumpur had raised the bar with cleanliness leaving Singapore behind in second place. The highlight of Singapore was the coincidental occurrence of the Grand Prix which was taking place during our visit, this immediately gave the city an extra buzz and the atmosphere was easily passed on to the rest of the city. A stroll along the busy shopping area of Orchard Street proved to us the wealth of the city, we were passed by Lamborghinis, Porches, all sorts of fancy cars in among all the fancy hotels and posh shops there’s a lot of money floating around. Between the shops were formula one cars on display, podiums to have your photo taken on and temporary shops selling merchandise.

On the night of the final race two of us took a walk into the city centre, it’s about a 45 minute walk and along the way we became aware of a kind of buzzing noise, of course it was the sound of racing cars in the distance. As we neared the race circuit the noise got louder and louder and it was quite eerie walking a city at night with the background soundtrack. Eventually we reached the closed roads of the race course, we could stand just metres from the road and while we couldn’t see the cars the sound of them tearing past was immense, and very exciting, it soon became our mission to see the cars! The whole place is well sealed but we managed to find a building with a fairly climbable wall, a metre up and hello! There go the cars! It was too much for us, we both actually squealed with delight every time one went past! We lasted in our spot for a couple of minutes before security moved us along, but by then we didn’t mind we were elated with our success. Eventually we found a pedestrian bridge right next to a bridge the cars race across and we sat there for the rest of the race watching them flash past us, we then had a perfect view of the end fireworks. Sitting on the bridge, listening to the cars zooming past with the backdrop of a beautiful city, followed by a walk along the riverside, what a gorgeous night, I thoroughly enjoyed my evening out in Singapore.

The next day was just as exciting, we walking into the city again and headed around the riverside towards the marina. There are some really lovely buildings here painting a cityscape befitting of such a rich capital. Fortunately the route we walked was similar to that of the Grand Prix and so it was natural for us to walk the empty streets of the race-course while they dismantle the masses of concrete and iron in place. It was really quite special to have this opportunity to see the marks on the walls where wheels have connected, to see the skid marks and crash marks where a car had smashed into a wall and to stand in the place where Michael Schumacher had taken out another car and come to a skidding halt. Pieces of rubber remain strewn around the place and only a handful of tourists have taken to the race-course like we have, making it a pleasant dander around. These things generally wouldn’t be all that interesting to me, but it all added up to a far more enjoyable Singapore adventure than I had bargained for, I thoroughly excited myself and can declare quite truthfully that without the Grand Prix Singapore would not have scored nearly as high on the smile test. I leave here with a far more positive view of the place and can’t help thinking of it with a gentle buzz in my heart.

Sa-Wat-Dee Thailand

The journey into Thailand was uneventful, the main difference between this and any other was the sheer number of people at the border, I don’t think we’ve had any queues this long before, it’s funny to think that back in Pakistan, crossing into India we were the only people at the border crossing, we also had to sit around for over half an hour as they waited for the power to come back on so that they could process our passports! It was also the busiest no-mans-land we’ve passed through as there were people everywhere! Once through the border we were not able to continue on the same bus as we were then transferred to minibuses which made the country seem instantly posher!

It was with an air of excitement that we arrived in Bangkok, so much to see, so much to do and only 3 nights and 2 days to do it in. What a great city, I so enjoyed wandering around, passing through all the different markets, seeing all the various street foods on offer, wandering through our own touristy area with its busy market and pub life, Khao San Road is another fantastic place to sit and people watch. Especially as day turns into night and the scenes in front of you change accordingly, the people get drunker and some of the street vendors start to offer a different variety of wares, none of which you would want in your bag for any Asian border crossing!!

We took a trip out to the popular floating market near to Bangkok, and it was nice to be taken around the canals in a little boat, surrounded by other little boats, some full of tourists, others selling food and souvenirs, sometimes congestion halted our progress but any boat is always fun for me. What wasn’t fun? This is not what we all come to see! The place is packed to the hilt with tourists and tourist tat, all the stalls selling the same things (at bumped up prices) and sometimes when you don’t buy they don’t like it. Places like this make me wish I was not a cog in the tourism machine, what was once an amazing little local market is now yet another place in the world where the tourists provide the money and the locals are just slaves to the industry. Their previous way of life has disappeared and in its place they find themselves practically begging people to buy their goods, they get haggled down and get angry at tourists, tourists become unfriendly in return and the atmosphere is tainted. The whole thing is tainted and I hate being a part of it. These are the kind of places I sometimes want to avoid on my journey, but I have to experience this to appreciate the other places a little more, and like a good little tourist... I still took a photo!

That night we went in search of a ladyboy drag show, the best known and most talked about one is not open as they move venues so the only one we’ve found takes place in a nightclub and we have to entertain ourselves until it opens. We headed to the touristy area of Patpong, a great wee night market is in full swing and we headed to one of the local gay bars where we passed a few hours with some lively karaoke! After that with still a few hours to kill we headed for the tourist attraction (I use the word very loosely) of a ping pong show! Girls shooting ping pong balls and various other bits and bobs out of their bits and bobs! Here, the ladyboys only dance as clearly they cannot partake in the main attraction! It was a bit cringe-worthy, but funny also, best when the girls were laughing and looking like they don’t hate their job. The funniest part being when a ping pong ball hit me in the chest and stuck to me!! I had goo in my hair!! Once that was done we headed to our drag show and weren’t disappointed, several ladies took the stage in amazing make-up and sparkly dresses, miming their hearts out as others danced in the background. I really enjoyed my night. At the end of that the lovely sparkly compeer must embarrass some audience members and who better to choose than our very own baby-faced Dan! ‘Are you sure you’re not gay, are you sure?’ they taunt as they take him on stage and physically molest him! I take my hat off to him as not once did he let out his girlish squeal as he stood there, hands in the air, taking the various stages of fondling like a man! Bangkok lived up to its reputation that night and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The next day we took a map and conducted a self made walking tour of the city, passing the palace, wats, gardens, Chinatown, bridges, various monuments and sitting Buddha’s. I’m delighted to see how much character Bangkok still has, it’s still very much an Asian city despite its richer areas with high rise buildings and fancy restaurants there are still loads of lovely little cute parts of the city bustling with locals. The highlight was the Sky Bar, though it wasn’t open. Once of the poshest high rise buildings in the centre is home to a 65^th floor restaurant and outdoor bar and there is a strict dress code that we failed as backpackers for several reasons! As the bar has been made famous in the film ‘Hangover 2’ the owners are happy to allow visitors up to that floor to take photos from inside and despite our current attire the lift attendant kindly points out that they open at 6pm should we wish to change and return, it’s lovely to not be judged ‘not good enough’ by someone in such a posh place. From there we headed down to the river to catch a ferry back up to our part of the city and got to enjoy the pleasures of another boat journey, seeing the city from another angle and passing yet more buildings which demonstrate the variety in wealth on display here. That evening was spent people-watching on Khao San road while trying and failing to find another show to go to. A fantastic day in a fantastic city, another couple of days would not have been wasted here.

We left Bangkok to travel to Kanchanaburi, home of the Bridge over the River Khwae and various museums dedicated to the Death Railway and war cemeteries. Another story which came as new to me, prisoners of war and citizens were used to build a very tough 415km stretch of railway linking Thailand and Burma during World War II by order of the Japanese. In the building of this around 100,000 people died from starvation, disease, accidents and mistreatment. The Japanese were fierce slave-drivers who forced people to work without enough food or medical supplies, even when someone was literally dying and could barely stand up from exhaustion, malaria, dengue fever, they were still forced out to help with the railway. Over 400km of railway including hundreds of bridges were completed within 16 months! While the original bridge was bombed parts of it have been used in the rebuild and the one that stands there today takes both pedestrians and trains across it.

We hired bikes to cycle around the area and ended up at some more Buddha caves, the best Bhudda caves we’ve visited yet. The path took us about 30 or 40 feet underground into deep caves which were great fun to explore, made better by the fact that around every corner there was a Buddha wedged into a crevice! Stalagmites and stalactites create beautiful surroundings as we clamber over and under the rocks. Nearing the end it opens into a large cave with a couple of bats flying around, off this is a smaller cave with even more bats flying around our heads! We’re then taken up steps and pop out into the real world again, sweat pouring off us but all the happier for finding such a fun little place to explore. Next stop was one of the 3 war cemeteries, they’re well kept, beautiful gardens and it’s really nice to see such care is still taken over them, there’s even a dog that seems happy to stay here and watch over the place.

We also hired a couple of small but fast boats to take us up and down the river for an hour. We split into two groups and raced each other along the River Khwea Yoi having a great time to ourselves, it was only lunchtime and yet we passed much bigger boats with parties going on aboard, loud music and dancing!! We hovered nearby to poach some music and then zoomed away on our fun boats.

Kanchanaburi is the first taste of really amazing Thai food. I am in love! The curries and the soups are just so delicious, while they’re all similar in that they have many of the same ingredients; they are all very different too. Tom Yum is the spicier coconut soup, Tom Kha is not spicy but a slightly sweet coconut soup, Massamai curry is a coconut curry, Patang curry is a more aniseedy flavoured coconut curry using an aniseed flavoured leaf we’ve found in a couple of other dishes. I was so preoccupied with these dishes it took me until the last night in Thailand to remember to try any of their better known coloured curries, the red the green or the yellow, tastes of which have left me wanting more! As far as culinary delights are concerned two weeks in Thailand is just not long enough, I cannot eat enough to fulfil my required intake of Thai flavours, I must endeavour to learn more about these dishes when I return home. Even my beloved pork porridge has been dumped at breakfast time in favour of Tom Kha! How can I ever go back to the western world where we don’t have rice for breakfast?!

Kanchanaburi  to Ko Samui was a longer journey with an overnight train, a bus, a ferry and then a minibus. Once we arrive though we have 5 days on this holiday island to relax, recharge and explore, relaxing being top of the list as we’ve been on the go quite a lot lately. The island has a ring road of about 100km and various other small roads branching off it, beaches dotted around, forested hills in the middle and various towns spread around, it’s fairly built up and there are plenty tourists. The nearest beach to us is a nice little bay with another small island at the end which you can walk to at low tide. Once again, the food adventure continues and we are lucky to be staying near a variety of street vendors who all serve fantastic local food usually between 50p and 2 GBP, I wish I could eat more than two meals a day while I’m here, but I am just never hungry enough!

We hired mopeds for a day to go around the island and see the local sights; the big Buddha (one of them) stands tall overlooking a gorgeous blue/green bay. The mummified monk, who is not mummified at all, is a dead body propped into a sitting position as was his wish, on display in a glass box outside his temple, it’s not an attractive sight made worse by the Rayban sunglasses covering his eye sockets! Continuing our moped tour we climbed hills, explored some forest tracks and got soaked at an alarming rate when we got caught out in a down pour. We then visited some well known rock formations of Ko Samui, the Grandpa and Grandma Rocks which are really just rude shapes found on the shoreline and turned into a must see tourist attraction.

For our last night in Ko Samui some of us went in search of some more ladyboy and drag shows. The nearby tourist haunt of Chewang provided us with a selection of shows to choose from and so we opted for two. The first was a tongue in cheek show on a tiny stage with all the feathers and sparkles we could ever have dreamed of. The second was a scaled up version of this on a proper stage with proper seating and beautiful flirtatious waitresses trying to woo the men into spending more money. It was a really great night, we sang our hearts out as they mimed at the top of their lungs and it fulfilled our need for Thai ladyboy entertainment. It was also interesting to see all their different glitzy costumes and to note how they have been adapted depending on what stage of physical alteration each dancer has reached, for example some have their cleavage out while others have it completely covered as maybe no operations have taken place. No matter, they all put a lot of effort into their performances and made our night amazing!

Leaving Ko Samui we get back in our minibus, onto the ferry and then board a bus to Surat Thani where we stop for a few hours to await our night train to Malaysia. A busy hotel housed us for those few hours where I sat people watching in the lobby and noticing all the single ladies arriving to keep people company for a few hours and then leaving later on, once again the adult industry is showing its face as night time calls to the lonely.

Asian Photos

 Mount Everest or Sagarmatha is the central mountain, Nepal

Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an, China 

The Bayan, Angkor Thom at Angkor Wat site, Cambodia 

Ta Prom Temple, Angkor Wat site, Cambodia

Helicoptering out of Lukla, Himalayas, Nepal

Sour Sdey Cambodia

What a pleasure the drive to Cambodia was! The driver and his crew were the friendliest ever and they took all our paperwork from us and filled in our departure and arrival cards for the border and handled everything for us, all we had to do was show up and wait for it to be processed. It was such a joy and made up for many of the grumpy bus drivers we’ve had in Vietnam. Our first stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh, the capital city where there’s a bustling night market, a busy river side touristy street and as much people watching as you can stand. I thoroughly enjoy people watching and took an afternoon out to sit outside a cafe, write a blog, and partake in that very activity. The odd thing about this city though is that many of the westerners appear to be ageing single men, some of whom have a young local girl on their arm, some of whom gather together with other single ageing men through the day and then the night time would be anyone’s guess, mine being the adult industry which would appear to be in full swing in this place! I never expected it to be so obvious. All through South East Asia we have seen the occasional older white man with a young local lady but here there are way more of these men, and I’m trying hard not to judge what I see.

Our first day out here had to be to the Killing Fields, another country with an horrific story to tell, and so recent as it only happened in the late 70s. Cambodians flooded the streets in April 1975 to celebrate the end of the war when Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) came into power, just hours later they were being evicted from their homes and sent to work in the fields. Over the next 3 years this regime massacred around 2 million people, nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population, and threw their bodies into mass graves, 129 of which are spread across the country, they also terrorised those who remained. A school in Phnom Penh was turned into an interrogation centre known as S-21 where people were brought in and tortured for several months before being taken to the killing fields. S-21 housed around 20,000 people and I believe that only 7 people survived this by becoming useful to the Khmer Rouge. This place is now the main museum and walking around it is eerie and sad, makeshift cells still exist, blood can still be seen on the floors and photographs and paintings help us to understand some of the horrors that took place. Outside the city is the site of one of the killing fields or mass graves which is now an open air museum come park with an audio guide telling stories and a memorial stupa which has 9 floors of human skulls displayed within. Walking around what is now a beautiful memorial park gives us time to listen to the stories and reflect peacefully on the disturbing things we are hearing. When the rains come and shift the soil, relics continue to rise up out of the ground, as we walk around there are loads of rags coming through as well as some human bones poking out and once a month the staff collect them and care for them. The Khmer Rouge considered bullets to be too expensive and so used farming equipment from a nearby shed to kill the prisoners. These poor men, women and children were taken from S-21 blindfolded; they had already been tortured, they were thin and weak and scared, they were brought to the mass grave and made to line up along the edge of it where they were battered until they fell in. In the worst section the ‘killing tree’ existed next to the grave of hundreds of children as they had been hit against the tree and then thrown into the pit. The Khmer Rouge then sprayed the graves with chemicals, this would help kill those who were about to be buried alive but it also masked the smell of the graves which were surrounded by land mines in an effort to hide the evidence. Pol Pot was afraid of anyone who might rise against him and so killed anyone with an education; this meant that once it was all over rebuilding the city was very slow as there were no architects or engineers left in the country to do the work. Today the leaders of the Khmer Rouge are in custody and awaiting trial, Pol Pot died too soon to face charges and the others are so old they will never face the punishment they deserve. A terribly sad and tragic tale of needless suffering and death in an otherwise peaceful society.

A walk around Phnom Penh brought us to markets, indoor and outdoor, wats, lots of cafes and eateries, the river and the palace. It’s a nice city, small and lively and I enjoyed my time here but I’ve arrived at that awful place where I have little interest in the temples and the wats and the stupas. I still love the look of them and I still get a wee kick from seeing the monks walking around in their orange robes, it’s such a special sight for a westerner, but I have no desire to enter the temples or spend any time around them, I am becoming indifferent to them. After the killing fields my favourite part of this city has been the busy night market near our hostel, selling loads of food. There’re many types of fish, whole or chopped, buy a bag of fish heads? Crabs all bound up with reeds, giant (and I mean giant!!) prawns, eels, alive and dead. I couldn’t resist a skewer of barbecued chicken which the vendor then dusted with a salt and squeezed lime juice over, that was really tasty!

We moved on from here to Siem Reap, another fairly touristy town but that is mainly due to its close proximity to Angkor Wat (city of temples), the largest Hindu temple complex in the world dating back to around the 12^th century.  A sleepy 5am start to the day ensured we were there in time for a non-existent sunrise and able to start the long day of exploring ancient ruins and temples. The Angkor Wat building itself is recognised the world over by its 5 towers which also feature on the Cambodian flag. Along with Angkor Wat we also visited Angkor Thom and Ta Prom Temple, only 3 out of the many that are situated here. Angkor Thom is a small(ish) city containing many different buildings including the Bayon which is incredible, several rock peaks stand tall each with different faces looking out over the area. Ta Prom is also known as the jungle temple as the trees have grown into the building making it such a magical place to roam around, it all looks like something created by the imaginations of the film industry, such a fantastic place to spend the day. We spent around 7-8hours wandering around the sites, once again thanking the lack of Health and Safety for enabling us to rummage about in places deemed too dangerous in other countries, up and down ridiculously steep steps, under semi-collapsed archways, it’s the kind of place that makes you wish you were a child again because adventures here would be the best! What a fantastic day out, and like everywhere else, there’s food stalls dotted about selling their wonderful food! What more could I ask for?

Like Phnom Penh the rest of the visit involved markets and food stalls and wondering about. I treated myself here to a reflexology foot, hand and shoulder massage and what a treat it was at the bargain price of about 3 GBP for an hour. After he’d done my feet, my legs, my hands, arms, head, neck, shoulders and back I couldn’t help wondering what the full body massage involves?!

Along the road to the Thai border the Cambodian dream draws to a close, looking out the window of the bus the land is flat and there are miles of paddy fields and people working the land. I’d love to return to this country, I feel there is a lot more to explore here and it would be really great to get away from the touristy spots and get a better feel for the place. The people are smiling and friendly, the food is tasty and cheap and the land is green and fresh. With such a sad history I am interested to see how it continues to develop.

Sing Chao Vietnam

Crossing the border into Vietnam I felt so lucky to have got over whatever illness I had as this is the first border we’ve come across where the officials scanned us to test out body temperature. Had I still been unwell and measured an unhealthy temperature I wonder where I would be right now as we had already officially left Laos and if Vietnam wouldn’t let me in I might be taking up residence in No-Mans-Land! But all’s well that ends well and so none of that matters.

Out first stop was the town of Hue (pronounced hway) where we were only staying for one day so we spent it on a boat and took a cruise up the Perfume River to see a temple and a tomb and enjoy a day out on the river. We passed many fields and paddies where people were working away but all along the river we passed many small boats, low to the water and filled with sand or gravel, heading in the direction of the city. Further up the river we found where they had come from as the river was alive with activity, lots of boats working the same part of the river dredging the sand, separating it from the water, loading it on to boats and sending it homeward for use as building materials. Most of the workers we have seen wear the cone shaped hats made from reeds that we have all seen on the tv, I had wondered if this was now just a tourist gimmick but they’re still very much in use by locals, they must be cheap and effective. The language barrier became more apparent on this day out as the tour guide’s English was good but he couldn’t grasp our use of tact or consideration, he looked around us all so he could compare someone’s belly to Buddha’s, he read a girls palm and told that she’s stupid and soft in the head and then he said we all have big bums! It was really quite funny; we wonder how aware he was of the offensive way this had been put across.

Our next stop in Vietnam was a town called Hoi An, best known it would seem for making clothes for people, every second shop is a tailor keen to make a made-to-measure dress of jacket or shoes at a very reasonable price. While I didn’t have anything made many other people were unable to leave Hoi An without something new for their wardrobe. Other than that it was a lovely little town to walk around, ignoring the tourist shops there are some lovely old buildings to look at, it’s a very pleasant place to wander and soak up. A huge market on the riverside sells everything from fresh seafood to all fruit and vegetable varieties you can think of to household goods. Some of the stalls had a load of vegetarian alternatives, vegetarian meat slices, vegetarian beef chunks and even vegetarian pigs ears! Why any vegetarian would look for them I never did find out though as asking a question means getting chased around the market by the stall owner offering you a better price or asking why you don’t want to buy the thing you showed an interest in! It’s a nightmare, running away from them, and it also means we are back in the tourist hell of being asked every 5 minutes if you want to buy something, very annoying!

The main historic tourist attraction is the Japanese Bridge, just a small bridge over a small part of the river, it’s a covered bridge and very quaint and also has the alternative name of the Faraway People’s bridge which is my personal favourite. This part of the river is where a lot of international trade took place and so boats arrived here from many different countries leading the locals to name the bridge after the ‘faraway people’, how lovely is that?

While I’m so far enjoying my time in Vietnam I have to say that it hasn’t yet lit any fires in my soul and I’m keen to see other parts of the country that I might find more interesting. I know the north is far more enchanting but we aren’t heading in that direction, we’re heading south towards Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) via the beach, so I’m sure the landscape will appeal to me more soon. In the mean time, I am just making the most of their food and soaking up what is left of their culture through the tourist haze. The food is not bland but a curry I recently ordered had little in the way of flavour, it was more like a chicken soup, it tasted lovely but it never would have entered my mind to have compared it to a curry. The other dishes I’ve had have all been delicious though, very typically Asian with rice, noodles, soups and spiced meat, very nice, but once again the tourist trail shows its face as we are being given cutlery rather than chopsticks which we have to ask for.

Heading to the beach now on a sleeper bus, I miss seeing the countryside out the window but I enjoy the night buses, I still find it a novelty to have a bed on a bus!! After all the times I’ve slept on buses and trains these sleepers are just genius and I doubt I could get bored of them. Next stop Nha Trang.