Just call me Micheal
May 22nd, 2006so the shuttle bus from Singapore airport stops in the centre of little india, there are so many men filling the streets that the vehicle can’t go any further. ‘You get out here and walk’ the driver says with a smile and gestures vaguely down a small alleyway. So here i am, arrived in asia, white, female, backpack on amid a sea of indian men on a sunday night. interesting.
I learned later that sunday is the day-off for all the construction worker immigtrants from india which is why there were so many of them. they are harmless and later I managed to find someone to go for dinner with in the middle of it all. My first experience of eating rice and curry with my fingers.
People told me singapore was sterile and oppressive but i didn’t find that at all, i really enjoyed how many different types of people lived there and to see a hindu temple, buddhist temple, mosque and a church all in one road.
But this was a gentle introduction to asia i think.
Getting to Kuala Lumpur was easy but i wasn’t prepared for the mayhem that was to greet me: still sitting on the bus when guesthouse leaflets are being thrust into my face. ‘Rocky’ wins the race because he makes me laugh. Part-malay/sri lankan/tamil he was a very interesting guy who calls himself ‘a dodgy geezer’. The guest house is up a tiny, filthy, dark staircase squeezed inbetween a bollywood music shop and a moped repair garage. He takes a few of us out for dinner to a restaurant where local people eat. We get drunk on thai whiskey.
I only have a few days in malaysia so afer exploring KL i go to Taman Negara, a 135million year old forest. It is a 4 hour coach journey followed by 3 hours in a longtail boat. I am the only person not travelling as a couple. I begin to tire of the pitying looks before long. The village we stay in was lovely. Tiny, no supermarkets, no roads, and you have to scramble up a sandy bank to get from the river to the village. I admit to feeling a little daunted as this was the first time i’d done something like this. I was realising how different asia is to australia and new zealand where all things touristy are handed to you on a plate.
However, sitting at a floating restaurant, writing my journal I begin to feel rather ‘Micheal Palin’ and really excited about what adventures lay ahead of me.
Next stop is Ko Tao, and island in southern thaialand where my sister and her boyfriend are beginning a 3 week holiday. My journey there was ‘incredible’ in more ways than one. I won’t go into the details here but it took 48 hours with no sleep, no showers and almost tears.
So I am extremely pleased to arrive. We stay in small bungalows, right by the sea. We celebrate Songkran, the Thai new year and a 3-day woater festival. We buy enormous water pistols and eveyone in the village throws, sprays, tips and shoots water at each other. That evening I drink far to much sangsom (whiskey), lose a flip-flop, get molested and am sick for over 24 hours.
Fortunately my lovely little sister is there to look after me. We spend our days snorkelling, kayaking, shopping, drinking, smoking. Lovely. I say goodbye to them on Ko Samui and head across to Ko Phi Phi which is beautiful. More snorkelling and floating around on boats is done. Then to Phuket which i really didn’t like. SOmething to do with the great numbers of fat old western men with tiny, paid-for thai girls. Made me shudder. I left there pretty quick and got up to Bankok. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as i did. Yes it is hot, smelly, polluted, noisy. But it is also fascinating and full of interesting things to see and do.
Lots more has happened since, including accidentally attending a thai funeral, getting lost in a hill tribe village, and falling off a moped. Will do another update soon. Promise.
After mum left I spent a week in Byron Bay, it was pretty stormy for the first few days and the waves were huge. There were a handful of surfers who were 
wanderingdeb