Thailand

Since our last update we've covered pretty much all of Thailand.

First on the list was Koh Phi Phi, which after an entire day of travelling and stopping off for a night in Krabi, was beautiful. It was pretty much a textbook desert island. Clear blue seas and white sands fringed by palm trees and huge hills of jungle. We all got a whole bungalow for a tenner a night, which though pricey for the budget we are on, was a lovely taste of luxury.

We quickly booked ourselves on to a snorkeling tour around Koh Phi Phi's sister island Phi Phi Lay. Renting ourselves a private long boat for the day, we had a great day of snorkeling with tropical fish and discovering private white sandy bays. The big part of the trip was going to Maya Bay which is where the film The Beach was filmed, however due to it being monsoon season here the boat couldn't take us directly to the bay so we had to swim to this make-shift ladder made out of ropes and walk to the beach from there - which was eventful to say the least and a life jacket was certainly needed. Maya Bay it self though certainly being worth the trip there.

After Koh Phi Phi we once again set out on a day long trip to the island of Koh Phanghan - the host of the famous Full Moon parties. We unexpectedly took a sleeper ferry boat there and arrived at 5am the next day, exhausted and in need of a good bed which we got. The Sanctuary was beautiful, and so was our private jungle house which had no windows - the breeze coming through the open balconies cooling us down at night. The staff were lovely, we were particularly fond of a man named Sam who lent us his guitar one night which I (Lily) was very grateful for.

The full moon party itself was mental, it was packed, it was bright and it lasted till the early hours of the next morning and we all had a great time and more importantly survived. The rest of our stay in Koh Phanghan was spent relaxing on the beach, renting out kayaks and exploring untouched bays on the island and watching films on the beach. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Next up was the sleeper train to Bangkok. Arriving at midday we journeyed to the famous Koh Sahn road - a backpackers haven with it's cheap hostels and restaurants. Finding ourselves a cheap hostel quickly, and exploring the many markets of Bangkok soon after, all of us acquiring a number of gifts for cheaper than cheap prices.

We saw the last Harry Potter twice whilst in Bangkok as well, enjoying the normality of a cinema and the insanely huge portion of popcorn that we got for the equivalent of one single pound. The Grand Palace was beautiful and very golden as well, the Emerald Buddha chamber housing the largest piece of jade on Earth, and amazingly intricate illustrations covering the walls - it was a great piece of Thai culture.

We laid down a small memorial for Max, Bruno and Conrad. Several people giving us gifts and messages for the boys that we have placed in a small private place on the Koh Sahn road as that was the place they celebrated Conrad's birthday, and it's safe to say they probably had a great night there. It's somewhere where we are sure they made many fond memories.

All in all, Thailand has been amazing. The beauty of the tropical islands, and the insanely cheap markets of Bangkok have been great and we're looking forward to our return here in a few weeks.

Next up, Cambodia.

Malaysia Part Two

Since our last post we've been to the capital of Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur. Which is a massive hustling, bustling city as most cites are. We stayed in the heart of Chinatown in what was a less than desirable hostel with no air con on the first night meaning that we all almost passed out with the heat. It was pretty grim to say the least.

However KL's Chinatown was very exciting, and we all particularly enjoyed the hawker market that was just next door to the hostel and pretty much sold fake versions of everything you can think of. We've also noticed that the Malayan's have a particular obsession with both the iPhone app angry birds and the animated childrens series Ben 10. You can buy tops, bags, phones, glasses, key rings, windmills, shoes, socks, coats and tons more things with either an angry birds or a Ben 10 theme.

We decided to escape the city on our second day and travelled to the Batu Caves which was an hour away on the bus. The caves themselves housing a Hindu temple and welcoming you was a 20m high golden statue of a Hindu God which was amazing.

The caves were huge and bats were flying about in the ceilings. It was thankfully quite empty inside, a lot of tourists probably being deterred by the storm that hit us on our way to the caves. The roads were flooded within a matter of seconds and lightning was cracking right above our heads - our first taste of the monsoon season we've arrived in. The caves were peaceful and the view of KL from the top was spectacular.

The next day we headed up to the Cameron Highlands which has been highly recommended to us since we arrived, and quite rightly too. The temperature up here is much cooler giving us a lovely break from the heat causing us to actually wear jumpers and trousers. Our hostel having a bonfire every night which attracts all the travellers in the small town we are staying in.

Yesterday we booked ourselves on to a countryside tour, hopping on to a minibus and being taken around the highlands to see the rose gardens, tea plantations, honey bee farms, butterfly farms, strawberry farms and a lovely Buddhist temple all for the equivalent of 7 pounds. The cheap prices out here still amaze us.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Malaysian island of Penang as a stop off before we enter Thailand the next day. We are planning on going to the tropical island of Koh Phi Phi which wasn't originally intended but after hearing from several people about how amazing it is we've decided to do it instead of Phuket which supposedly is a seedy, dirty city full of seedy, dirty men. So no thank you basically.

I think though that we are all agreed on the fact that the Cameron Highlands has been one of our favourite places so far.

Singapore Contd. and Malaysia Part One

Our last day in Sinapore was spent exploring the area a little more, though the heat of the day made it less than pleasent. We decided to do the Night Safari, which after missing the first bus, we found to be a Thorpe Park-like experience. Everything was obviously tailored for tourists, though the tour itself was enjoyable and our tour guide 'Mark' made us laugh with his broken English - leaving long pauses between words and cracking jokes about modelling rhinos. The flying squirels were particuarly scary, and the baby elephant was adorable. 

The next day we travelled to the Malaysian border - which was one of the most stressful things we've ever been through, both myself and Will feeling the need to vomit from the stress at one point. However the sleeper train to the town of Tampin was blissful in comparison. We all had our own bed compartment, and there was a food trolley and air con, literally heaven.

Once we arrived in Tampin we got a taxi to the coastal town of Melaka, which is much like Amsterdam with canals ruling most of it's streets and a large river running straight through it. We didn't have a hostel booked before we arrived, but the first one we tried had four beds for us and is run by some really lovely, chilled people. There's no air con in the dorms, and the heat here is suffocating - all of us suffering in the humidity, but after a couple of days here we've aclimatised a bit.

Will and Josh decided to do a 10km run in the plantations around the town with a group of Malayans. Both managing to not die meaning they were initiated in to the group by having to dip their naked arses in to a bucket of ice and then being rewarded with free alcohol on the house. Myself and Holly opted out, naturally, and instead booked ourselves on to the river boat cruise, which was breezy and gave us a great view of the rest of the town we hadn't seen yet.

Today we are heading to the capital city of Kualar Lumpar, a 2 hour bus journey away. We'll miss the chilled out Voyager's Cafe which has been our base point while staying here and the lovely staff and the beautiful food.

2 Days Later, Singapore

We've arrived in Singapore after 2 entire days of travelling and were welcomed by a choking wet heat that we are all still trying to get used to. Our flight to Mumbai went by quite quickly, our only complaint being the amount of times we had to restart our TVs, but all in all Kingfisher airlines are rather good.
We arrived in Mumbai 9 hours later and we could see the slums of Mumbai through the window which reminded us all of how far from home we already were. The wait in Mumbai airport however soon turned in to a sort of hell, we were there for 12 hours and if it weren't for the row of recliner chairs we found then we may have gone stir crazy. On to the next flight, and it was another 5 hours before we were in Singapore and after Josh and Will's little wonder making us late for our bus, we were on the road to our first hostel of the trip.

The city of Singapore is very modern. The roads are straight and very ordered reminding us of somewhere in Europe. It's also a city full of other cities. We saw a replica of the London Eye, and a mimic of the Sydney Opera House. There was also a strange building that looked like it had some kind of a spaceship on the top of it which was amusing in our jet-lagged states.

Our hostel is in the Little India region of Singapore, and when walking the streets your hit by all the different spices and incense arising from the different shops. Last night we explored the area a little and stopped off for some food which was served on a huge banana leaf and was only around a quid.

Tonight we are going on a Night Safari where we have been promised a chance to see puma's, leopards and flying squirel's, though we will be avoiding the giant toad's for Holly's sake.