Namaste – It’s been a LONG time since I have blogged. So this might get a little wild and be riddled with typos, but so what, here it goes.
Singapore:
Nice, but relative to what Thailand and Cambodia have to offer, I don’t see myself going back to Singapore other than to connect with flights to Bali or something like that. It’s a lot more expensive than the other countries in SE Asia, much more developed, safe, and clean. It’s great for somebody’s first travel experience outside of the U.S., but it isn’t as rich in culture I feel as some of the other countries. I did think the light/music show on the water, called Wonderful, at the Marina Bay Sands was pretty great.
Malaysia:
I moved quickly through Malaysia in about a week. I spent two days in Kuala Lampur. I stayed at a cheap hostel in China Town and the highlight was visiting Batu Caves. The caves were pretty cool, but otherwise I wasn’t too crazy about KL.
I then went to the Cameron Highlands where tea is made. I really did enjoy that. The greens were extremely vibrant! I visited a rose garden, a tea plantation, and butterfly garden. The butterfly garden had many more critters than just butterflies – snakes, spiders, giant beetles, scorpions – all of which the hosts insisted on taking out of the cage and placing on people. Nothing like that would happen in the U.S.!
After the Highlands, I went to Georgetown in Penang. I made a friend from the U.K., Sarah. We stayed a nice colonial type hotel/hostel on Love Street, even though we were not lovers, it was a nice place to stay. Sarah wanted to rent bikes one day and bike around the island, which of course I thought was a great idea too. So, we went to this really cool café and rented some old cruiser bikes to set out seeing Buda temples and another town on the ocean. Well, that was crazy. If your idea of a good time is tying a 48 ounce raw ribeye steak around your neck and swimming in shark tank, then maybe you’d enjoy biking in Penang. It was insanely hot as my shirt and pants soaked through with sweat and I couldn’t keep it out of my eyes. The traffic was madness – at one point I was looking back to tell Sarah to watch out for some heavy machinery cruising up on her and she is yelling at me to look forward as a motorcycle is coming down the one way lane the wrong way towards me. Both the motorcycle guy and I didn’t know where to go – I was shaking my head and throwing my arm in the air and somehow he was smiling – and somehow in the last seconds, he scooted in the lane next to me and we didn’t crash. Although I can look back and laugh at some of the experiences on the bike ride – it really was NOT the best idea ‘ ) The same café were I rented the bikes (moon 47) had a flood one day when it rained. As such, the fishes got out of their pool and I volunteered to catch them, which made for a pretty good day.
I missed out on going to the Perhentian islands, which are supposed be the jewel of Malaysia. I guess that leaves me a reason to go back!
Thailand:
I cruised on a train up to Hua Hin to meet up with the lovely wedding couple, Brad and Krista, on their honeymoon. They insisted that I meet them, so no, I don’t think I was spoiling anything. It was a really great to see familiar faces after 4 months of travel. We went out to the market for dinner, visited a vineyard, fed some elephants, received a few Tai massages, and spent a day in the inviting swimming pool and enjoyed some tasty cocktails. The hotel they stayed at had the best breakfast spread I’ve seen – tai noodles, sushi, fruit, make your own omelets, crepes, pancakes, 15 different breads, grilled tomatoes dishes, potatoes dishes, smoked salmon, salads – they pretty much had food for every type of nationality. Since I’d been cooking my own food for a long time, this was a real treat.
After Hua Hin, I went down to a small island called Kotao for diving. Diving is cheap – I did 4 dives – all nice - except for one minor incident. On my first dive of the day, I was having a competition with my scuba buddy, Mar, on who could have the most air when complete. She was beating me, so I snuck up and was trying to secretly breath off of her secondary regulator without her knowing in order to conserve my air. Anyway, she caught me and was like “f you ‘ ) “ and took her air back. On the second dive, I heard this loud shotgun boom and my back was propelled forward. I looked around, I didn’t know if something like an anchor from a boat hit me or what. I looked at my gauge and I didn’t have any air left. My buddy, Mar, was a bit away from me and I thought about swimming to her to get air, but then I also thought, boy, it’s like that story “a boy who cried wolf”. So, I did the emergency ascent to the top and all ended up being fine. I was only 40 feet down, so it wasn’t that bad.
Kotao was great place. I made some really great friends and partied a bit as well ‘ ) Good old whisky buckets!
I then went to KoPhanyang for the half moon party that is in the Jungle. To be honest, I think it was a bit overrated. It was cool to see all the blacklight art and paintings. Yeah, I painted up a bit myself. But I actually had more fun on Kotao and was ready to be done boozing.
Cambodia:
After my party island kick, I met up with my good friend, Roman, from Holland. We headed out to Siem Riep Cambodia to see the Angkow Wat temples. Mar was also there, so that was great too! Beer is cheap (50 cents), the temples are enormous and pretty cool, they speak good English, and they use the US dollar – so it’s a really inexpensive and easy place to travel too. Mar and I gave blood at a childrens’ hospital and later visited an orphanage – the kids were damn cute. I have the intention to return sometime to volunteer for at least a few weeks – its’ hard not too once you’ve visited.
Thailand Part 2:
After Cambodia, I went up to Chaing Mai. I like it as it wasn’t as busy as Bangkok and the market items were really great – they actually had hand crafted items and really great prices.
Pai was my favorite place in Thailand. It was extremely inexpensive as I had my own bungalow for ~$5 a day. And it was a proper bungalow – clean, hot shower, wifi – NICE! And you had to travel across an old and dodgy bamboo bridge to get there (which the rain did wash away the bridge on my last night). The vibe of the people was great – really chill, smiles, healthy and delicious food, jam sessions. And I met a beautiful person there – Svetlana – intelligent, fun, and great conversationalist. Pai really was an amazing place that I’ll return to sometime.
