D&K'S RTW Adventure

Penang/Georgetown

The journey from Samui to Penang was as hideous as we expected!...It went kind off like this....taxi....boat.....bus....sleeper train....ferry...taxi, and took more than 24hrs....delicious! Main problem is getting to the mainland at surat thanni, and then waiting on the train to Butterworth. No first class sleeper on this route, so you get the second class bunks in the corridor affair...with some delightful sounds and fragrances during the night. Met a really nice girl (Jo), on the ferry, wished we had met her earlier on saamui
While we were waiting for the ferry in nathon on samui, we slipped into a net cafe and to our delight found a really cheap flight from penang to kuala lumpar (only 15 quid each one way by asiaair whoever they are), we snapped that up instantly to avoid another overnight journey when we travel to KL.
Another nigtmare is the thai malasian border crossing...you get wakened up about 6 in the morning, and you arrive at the border just before 8am feeling like shit. You have to get off taking all your luggage and then queue to go through immigration etc, your bags dont get xrayed, so dont quite understand why they insist that you take them off the train!...bizarree!, then you all board the train again and travel on to butterworth, where the train terminates and mysteriousy doesn't quite connect very well with the malaysian trains, so its another long wait at butterworth or do as we did, have a stop over at Penang.
Penang
We stayed in a cracking hotel on the outskirts of Georgetown(hotel 1926), very reasonably priced and great standard of rooms in a row of renovated old colonial houses, lots of character and style, about 20 quid per night for the room.
Not many tourists in Georgetown to be honest, so we got gawked at quite a lot.
Its quite an interesting little town, a mix of old colonial archtecture and new modern high rises...drains still completely rank though, no change there then for all of s.e asia!..............mmeeeoww... Most tourists stay up along the north coast at batu ferrengui where the best beaches are.
Weather was quite rank , very hot and humid and lots of rain! Managed one good sunny day on the beach, Kris went parasailing which was quite cheap for a short 5 min tow.

Beach was nice and wide and sandy but water a bit murky, not in the league of what were used to on our travels! specially after koh tao etc.
Unfortunately the funicular railway to the top of penang hill is currently out of action, so we couldnt get up there....gutted!
Took a wonder along to the botantical gardens which were really nice.
Went up the Komtar which is the tallest building aabout 70 stories I think, great views!....the building itself is a bit of a seventies nightmare, really run down inside, with a horrible shopping mall on the lower levels. Couldnt resist a wee trip to the cinema(we cant get all behind with our media now can we?), quite enjoyed the last samuri despite the malaysian subtitles.
Took a trip over to Fort Cornwallis which is quite interesting The historic site where Captain Francis Light first landed on this island in 1786. Its been partially rebuilt as a historic site and the cannons still point out to sea but I dont think they were ever fired. Shame they havent quite managed proper pavements as its a nice place to wander about, but very difficult because of the lack of sidewalk and open drains, so that pisses you off. The taxis on the island never manage to switch their meters on so its always a case of doing the old barter routine yet again....
An interesting place but a bit dispapointing after the thai islands, good for shopping if you are into that, the best mall is the Gurney Plaza. Loads of starbucks so Kris was happy!
Off to KL next by asiaair......

South Thailand/ Islands

Off on the train from Bangkok to Chumphon, took about 8 hrs but wasnt too bad, good thai efficiency, stacks of food avaible every few minutes and overhead fans. It actually rained quite alot that day which was bizarre..
Four nights in Chumphon at the Paradorn Inn.......hmmm...not one of my better ideas. Hotel was fine but not much to do or see in Chumphon. Should really have just stayed for one night here. We spent a couple of days on the deserted Thung Wua Laem Beach which is about 12k from Chumphon. An amazing place which im sure in years to come will have major development. It was weird to be the only people on it.
Then accross to Koh Tao by boat. This was allegedly meant to take 1.5hrs by the Lomprayah speed boat but actually took 3 hrs....they seem to be selling this route as a catamaran but thats not really started yet, so its really the boat you get.....hmmmm....
After arriving in kohtao we arrived at our bungalows (koh tao cottage resort)on chalok baan koh bay which is 5 mins by car from the main pier at maehead.
This resort is really beautiful with stunning views of the sea.
This was the view from our balcony of our hut...

Its very underdeveloped and quiet. Its as near as you can get I think in thailand right now to secluded paradise.
Diving was excellant and kris did his advanced Padi course here, and had his first experience with sharks and his first night dive.
We spent a week chilling out here which was great. The roads on the island are horrific, we hired a moped one day but decide that wes enough as its so dangerous, most of the roads are dirt tracks/dry riverbeds. Every where you go you see people with horrific cuts and grazes from bike accidents....really didnt want that to happen to us, we had one brief wheely experince, with David ending up on his fanny and that was enough...it had to go !
We also took a boat over to NangYuan Island for snorkling ,which is really three small islands joined by white tidal sand bars, its really stunning. ..pics to follow soon...

Koh tao is incredibly laid back...in fact everone seems pretty comatose at times, it takes a while to find the low gear required for the islands....but you soon slow down.
After a week here we transferred by boat again over to koh samui. The boat journey was horrendous, it was so rough, this time we got the fast catamaran..... At times we though it would overturn!... We should have realised that it was going to be rough when they gave out sick bags shortly after boarding, and lets say they were used in abundance !.......
We arrived safely but very nauseated on samui for a few days in moonhut bungalowas on the quiet north coast at maenam. Really nice place and our bungalow is about 2 metres from the sea...its just as we imagined it to be.

We are glad we chose the north coast as we believe many resorts on the island are nw totally spoilt with mcdonalds, pizzahut, starbucks etc....thats not what you really come to tropical islands for....... well we dont..
Off to Malaysia tomorrow by ANOTHER boat and over night train to Penang....

N Thailand, Laos & Cambodia

Travel Route:
Thailand
Chaing Rai, Chaing Saen, Sop Ruak, Chiang Khong

Laos
Huay Xai, Luang Prabang, Vientiane

Cambodia
Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Poi Pet

We'd like to say a big hello and thanks to Peter, Ian, Penny and Connie for an amasing 3 weeks. There were 3 other people for the first 2 weeks, but we won't go there... anyway - moving swiftly on!

We'd especially like to say a big thanks to Connie for providing extensive comedy opportunities for us to take the mutual piss out of both the Brits and the Germans....early morning towel placements, trolley dolleys and the infamous 'japanese victory salute'! - all will be imortalised here in pictures soon...
Plus an extended thanks to Penny's hat which hopefully made it home intact for future journeys!

Our detailed itinerary continues below:-

Detailed Itinerary

Day 1&2
Chilling out in Chiang Mai.

Day 3
Headed north to the small town of Chiang Khong (via Chiang Rai) on the banks of the Mekong. Accommodation overlooking the river.

Day 4
A day tour of part of the infamous Golden Triangle region,View image
following the Mekong north through the historic, ruined city of Chiang Saen to the fascintaing town of Sob Ruk at the junction of Burma, Laos and Thailand. Visited the Chedi Luag temple and Opium musuem. We spent the late afternoon at one of the Thai army checkpoints that monitor the border for drug trafficers, enjoying their hospitality and drinking far too much beer and Rice whiskey! View image

Day 5 (Xmas day)
Crossed the Mekong River to Huay-Xai, our entry point for the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Afternoon spent exploring the surrounding area and a visit to a nearby Mhong 'hill-tribe' village, bought sports equipment from the local chinese market before handing them to the local school as presents. View image

Day 6
Travelled down the Mekong on a fast long tailed boat (300km in 6 hours! with crash helmets, ear plugs and a couple of break downs) View image
one of the world's last remaining untamed rivers, winding through mountains and pristine forests to the ancient Lao capital of Luang Prabang.

Days 7 & 8
Nestled in the mountains, long isolated from the outside world – the first sealed road to the city being completed only 6 years ago – Luang Prabang is a world heritage site, containing fabulous temples. We stayed in a converted French colonial villa.

Day 9

Treked through the surrounding hills and visited the stunning Kuang Si Falls.

Day 10
Visited Long Lao, a nearby Hmong village, to discover the traditional life of the hill-tribe peoples. Whilst driving up to the villages we threw out stacks of balloons to all thye kids in the villages. We took this pic of a little boy with this crimbo pressy... View image

Day 11 (New Years eve)
Morning flight to the capital, Vientiane. We saw the new year in with our german friend Connie, at a local cafe.

Day 12
Day tour of some of the fascinating sites of Vientiane; Si Saket temple, That Luang pagoda and the unusual 'Buddha Park'.
View image

Day 13
Flight to Phnom Penh and staying close to the historic riverbank quarter.

Day 14
Toured some of the sites of Cambodia's capital city including the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace and saw how Cambodians are coming to terms with their tragic recent history with a visit to the Khmer Rouge Genocide Museum at Tuol Sleng.

Day 15
Traveled up the Tonle Sap River (on a Russian 'tube boat' which looks like an airplane without wings!) to the small provincial town of Siem Reap in Western Cambodia.

Days 16 & 17
Angkor

– an unforgettable two-day tour of the fabulous site, its ruined palaces and vast jungle clad temples. Dificult to show the scale of many temples in photos, but you can see our Lara skipping across the jungle tree tops...lol

and emm...the stairs on some of the angkor temples are a trifle challanging....
kris secretly took this stunning view of my ass as I was clambering down the stairs shaking like the proverbial leaf!......there's apparantly been quite a few fatalaties on these steps, but have never been officially recorded. Anyway the steps were a nigtmare!

View image
– words didn't do it justice. A comprehensive tour of the major sites, including sunrise and sunset visits.
View image

Day 18
Day aff!

Day 19
Overland journey through the Cambodian countryside to the Thai border at the 'lovely' Poipet and onto Bangkok.

Changmai

We flew from bangkok to changmai with thai airways a nice smooth hours flight. When we arrived at the bangkok domestic air terminal they told us that the guest house we were going to stay in was full as was all the other guest houses!, so we would have to book the only free ones with them !....funny that, it seems a current feature of bangkok, most places you ast tuk tuks/taxis to take you are mysteriously closed, but they can suggest an alternative place.....yea right!
Stayed ina intersting guest house...the laithai...hmmm....not too bad, has a pool and aircon, but seems to mysteriously have an awful lot of older male guests with very young female thai friends in tow.....one morning at breakfast there were about 7 or 8 couples like this at breakfast!, we were wondering if we were staying in a brothel....lol....of course they would really all be there because they were doing early morning foot massage.......yea right!
Havent been to changmai for 7 yrs, and its become much more toursity,a lot of the the bars are now full of very predatory young thai girls ala patpong style...shame..
City itself is still quite interesting, we did some elephant trecking in the jungle, bamboo rafting on the river and had a ride in an ox cart...very interesting . For some reason thjey seem to train the elephants to do ridiculous trick things for the tourists...totally unecessary, as they are fantastic as they are, the treck through the jungle was fab. A few days chilling out here and we were ready to start our indo china tour on dec 23rd....... wonder what our fellow travellers will be like....