Hey hey hey...

Well I'll try and keep this last posting for South East Asia quite short and leave pictures to do most of the work.

We arrived in Ko Pah Ngan, after a long, tiring journey and stayed in a nice hut raised on stilts. The view was rather good and the place had a lovely pool; it was also a couple of minutes from a quiet beach, shown below:




We hired a mo-ped and cruised around the island covering over 60 miles in a day, which was pretty good going on those roads! There's also a wicked little cinema, which has loads of films to choose from and has a phone next to your seat, so you can order food and drinks whenever required.

We stayed a couple of nights at a resort Reilly calls home (when not in England) and it was probably the best place we've stayed at; the picture below is of a sunset we saw from our little hut:




We then had a night in Krabi and quickly moved onto Ko Phi Phi; this is where 'The Beach' was filmed and is quite stunning. The pictures below help to show that one...








Because it was peak season when were at Phi Phi, the prices for accommodation were as much as three times as they would be in May, for example. As a result, we could only afford the bare minimum, which was a tiny little hut; we had to walk 30m to go to the toilet. It was fun times though and the pic below is off the inside of that hut.




Although we weren't keen on the idea, we had to spend Christmas in Phuket, as we had a flight to catch from there on Boxing day morning. In all honesty, Phuket was pretty dire compared to the other islands we'd visited, but that is due to the tourism there, rather than backpackers. The place was heaving with Europeans on holiday and was probably very similar to Benidorm. The picture below gives you some idea of the main beach....




However, we met up with Jess Callen from Uni and her boyfriend Gary, as well as Ruth and Burts again, so there was a group of us to get into the Christmas festivities  >: )

We didn't do an awful lot apart from lay on the beach and get a tan. Yep that's quite right, I have gained a tan! It's pretty impressive (for me) and gained many comments from Beth and Ruth along the lines of, "I really didn't think you could get one".

We saw Christmas in at an excellent bar near where we were staying and requested songs all night long. There was no way we could have an Xmas without hearing Slade, that was for sure. Below is a picture from the night:



Christmas came and went and we were soon on another plane to Bangkok, in order to catch a flight the following day. This is the part of the trip where I fly to Sydney and Beth flies back home to enjoy High Wycombe once more. It looks like she's going to experience a drop of about 25 degrees or more after 3 months of 30 degrees plus; flip flops for a wooly hat then....

So I'm writing this last blog for South East Asia in the same place I wrote the first one out here 3 months ago. What can I say about my time here? Well it's been pretty amazing and it truly is an incredible part of the world, but I'm ready to move on. It's great to see some of the sights out here, but it has been quite tiring at times having to haggle down the price of EVERYTHING you buy. The idea of being in Sydney, with no one trying to sell something EVERYWHERE, or having to haggle down the price, is absolutely fantastic.

A special thank you to a Miss Bethanie Drake, who provided excellent company over the last 3 months; I apoligise for getting up early every day to go and check footy news on the net  >: ) It meant a great deal to me, that you kept interuptions of my 'Net time' to a bare minimum (apart from below):




So I'll once more end a blog posting and stop rambling on. The next entry will be for what is in a sense, the second half of my trip; I'll be back to wealthy Western countries and will be on my own.

68 days to go.....

Hi again...

After the last post we soon arrived in Chang Mai and were welcoming the familiar western comforts. Roughing it can be fun, but it's always nice to go to a Starbucks and know you're getting food that wont make you sick.

Chang Mai on first appearances was rather underwhelming; it was just a city and not a particularly special one. The river front was good though, with a couple of good restaurants boasting live bands (and Hagaan Dazz), which was pretty great. We did do a tour that went outside of the city however, which is where Chang Mai came into its own. The water fall with rainbow picture is pretty good and the Pagodas were impressive (both below). They were near the highest point of Thailand which was about 12 degrees Celsius - about 20 degrees lower than the city centre:





During our week in Chang Mai we traveled 3 hours to a place called Pai, which is a funky little town. We hired out a couple of mo-peds and went to a natural spa. Ruth and Burts went in, but Beth and I decided not to. Hot baths in 30 degrees is a little pointless. We did find a freezing outdoor pool after, which was good. I've included a pic of Beth next to the mo-ped I hired - I got 70kph out of that baby >: )




Pai is also where we spent 1hr 30 min on the back of an elephant - it was really quite uncomfortable as I'm not even slightly flexible >: /    I do have video footage however, of Beth falling off repeatedly when the elephant went into the river. As Ruth and Burts will assure you, Jeremy Beadle is gagging to give us 200 quid.




In Chang Mai we also managed to see Casino Royale, which is absolutely brilliant incidentally. The odd thing was before the film started, we all had to stand up in the cinema, while they played a 3 min film showing the king meeting people across the country. This was so everyone could pay their respects to the man the whole country worships. It would be like standing up to sing the national anthem in England really.

From Chang Mai we got another flight to Bangkok getting up at 5am. We then spent about 7 hours in Bangkok before heading to the airport once more to catch a flight to Singapore. About an hour before the flight, Beth and I started to feel a little awful.

We boarded the plane and felt very bad, very quickly. During mid take off, (seat belt signs still on etc) I had to run to the toilet. Thank God we were in the very back seats of the plane. Basically we both had food poisoning - I had bad diarrhea 3 times and was sick twice. Explosive and projectile respectively >: (

The second time I was sick was during the decent where I had to be in my seat again - I literally half filled a sick bag in one 'hit'. I'm writing this on Sunday morning and the flight was Thursday evening. I'm just about OK, but Beth is still in bed and feeling awful. It's pretty expensive to stay here also, which is annoying when you can't leave the hostel due to feeling so bad!

Singapore seems like a lovely place however and we're glad we came here. It's certainly a good place to be ill, rather than Laos or Cambodia, due to it's renowned cleanliness.

We also met up with Steve Kulski and co (mate from Tadley), which was excellent after 7 months of not seeing the guy, but we weren't feeling well enough to socialise too much. He was only around for a day or so, as they left for cheaper places (Malaysia).

We were intending to leave Singapore a day or so after Kulski, when a good friend of my mum's contacted me. Marilyn lives in the heart of Downtown Singapore in an awesome pad. It was excellent to use the pool and watch footy on her wonderful Plasma TV and we truly are grateful for her welcoming hospitality. The pictures below are of the view from her apartment (night & Day) >: )





After making an (almost) full recovery, we caught a bus up into Malaysia and to it's capital, Kuala Lumpur. We arrived one day and left the next which was enough to go up one of it's tall towers at night, looking at the city and the Petronas towers (2nd tallest in the world).

After Kuala Lumpur we traveled on up to the Cameron Highlands, which was great for a quick trek and to see the vast tea plantations. The picture below gives you an idea:




The same day we also went to a crazy place where they had various insects etc, but in XXL size - the beetle below is not given credit by the photo:



We then moved quickly onto Penang, which is an island off the north west coast of Malaysia. We spent just 4 or 5 days in Malaysia due to our food poisoning, which was a shame, but it leaves plenty to go back to.

From Penang we got a 5am mini-bus up to a port in Thailand, where we caught a boat to Koh Pa ngan; this took 15 hours in total.

You'll have to wait for the next posting for more I'm afraid; that is if you're still reading and not just looking for pictures of me injuring myself etc.

Take care,

James