Koh Tao.

Published on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 in Koh Tao and Thailand. 0 Comments

So… the slow-ish boat to Koh Tao took several hours and stopped once, on Koh Phangan. More than half the people left the boat. I was glad I wasn’t going with them. Braving the intermittent showers, a large group of people hung out outside on the top deck of the boat and swapped stories. I’d lucked in to two fairly cool people, and we were soon fast friends.  One of the people who had joined us was a Thai girl who worked for a dive resort on Koh Tao as, effectively, a tout. Her name was Om (I think!) and despite trying to get us to dive at the resort she worked for, she was very cool. She spoke excellent English and had a lot of good stories. The two guys I was with had lots of questions about everything in Thailand and she was only too happy to talk with us about everything from religion to lady-boys.

Needless to say, the two hours between Koh Phangan and Koh Tao passed quickly. We decided to go with Om to the dive resort she worked for, because a) she was cool, b) it had a shiny new ute with rain protection to take us there, c) it was raining, and d) we knew the place by name and it had a good reputation.

Because I only had a short time on Koh Tao before heading to Singapore to watch the Singapore Open golf tournament, I was thrown right in the deep end: I was to start my open water course that evening. My group was a little large but that wasn’t a problem, and everyone was fairly cool. Most of them were Irish – there was only one other guy in the group of 9 and he was an English guy married to an Irish girl! The dive instructor was a former English primary school teacher who went to Thailand for three weeks, decided she liked it, and has been there for two years working as a dive instructor. We had a trainee dive master with us – also English and a radio DJ, who also went to Thailand for a few weeks one year ago.

The next four days passed in a blur of cheap beer, delicious food, rain, diving, rain, diving, rain, rain, rain, diving, and has the distinction of being one of the most memorably fun times I’ve ever had in my life. There’s something about sitting six meters from the water on a beach with cheap cold beer watching people twirl fire sticks, whilst with a group of twenty people with various colour skin, various accents, and various spoken languages, that makes for an incredibly enjoyable time. Sure, it’s not a particularly authentic travel experience when one realises that there’s nothing on Koh Tao that isn’t for tourists or for the people who support the tourist industry – that is, there’s no real Koh Tao. It’s a place for people to dive.

During the dive course I started to feel worse and worse, and I was actually glad when it was over. My whole body ached and I guess the cold came back to bite me. However, I am now qualified to dive! The course was completely awesome and I really can’t wait to get back…

The day after an enormous night out, including dinner at a fairly decent restaurant, to celebrate certification, I was due to leave Koh Tao for Koh Samui. The night was one of the wettest they had had for some time, and in the morning several long tail boats along the beach had flooded to such an extent that they had sunk. Whilst waiting for my ferry I watched locals trying to un-sink the boats, with varying degrees of success.

I arrived on Koh Samui late, stayed in another dodgy hotel, and awoke at about 4am to head to the airport. I was due in Singapore that night, via Bangkok.

Singapore, Again.

Published on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 in Singapore. 0 Comments

Singapore has to be the most painless country in the world to visit. It’s easier for me, as an Australian, to get in to Singapore than it is for me to get home. Once again, I went from plane to street-side in under fifteen minutes – at a different terminal to last time, but still an international flight. The efficiency is astounding.

I’m back in Singapore for the Singapore Open, but the weather looks pretty dodgy and I’m not entirely sure how much golf there will actually be. We’re expecting lots and lots and lots of rain…

I’m staying at the same place as last time. It’s a good place – I’ve met three English girls in the five hours I’ve been here and we’re going to investigate food somewhere nearby tonight, and then there are thoughts of the Night Safari tomorrow or Friday.

Expect a larger entry detailing the Koh Tao adventures in the next few days!

Chiang Mai to Koh Samui.

Published on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 in Koh Tao and Thailand. 0 Comments

To reach Koh Samui, I spent about 12 hours in transit: Air Asia from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, Bangkok Airways from Bangkok to Koh Samui, and a bus from the airport at Koh Samui to some crazy hotel in Lamai.

Flying from Bangkok to Koh Samui is an interesting experience. Bangkok Airways rate themselves as “Asia’s boutique airline” and they certainly are. Every ticket holder gets access to the Bangkok Airways lounge, with free wireless, food, drink, magazines, and so on. It’s like the Qantas Club, but for everyone. The short flight to Koh Samui shows off coastline and ocean, before several small islands appear. Then an enormous island appears, and the plane lands: welcome to Koh Samui. Bangkok Airways built the airport themselves, and it’s an intriguing place: open sides, luxurious, and compact.

I jumped aboard a minibus taking people to various hotels and decided to stay at some place that looked interesting. The driveway was enormous… lined with shops, and very new and modern. The hotel was interesting… I was fairly sure I was the only person staying there. It was very new and decked out in colonial style four star goodness, but was absolutely deserted.

After a wander to the beach area I quickly decided that I hated Koh Samui. It was full of stupid white tourists, overpriced crap for the stupid white tourists to buy, and underpriced Thai women for stupid white tourists to enjoy. The streets were lined with girlie bars and sports bars and massage places and cheap and nasty looking food places and 711’s and all sorts of other junk. It rained a lot. It wasn’t nice. I went to bed early, only to be women up throughout the night by lots of strange noises in the hotel… and then the power went out. Turns out there was so much rain that several rooms were flooded.

Koh Samui just pissed me off. I had to get out, but to where? I had a vague plan of meeting up with the English guy from the rafting trip on Koh Phangan for a full moon party, but I couldn’t get in touch with him. I figured I’d go there anyway.

The following morning the hotel driver took me to a boat dock on the other side of the island, where I waited for a ferry. While I was waiting I started talking to two guys who were travelling together – A Belgian guy who had been living in Australia, and an American guy who had been all over the place. They convinced me to go to Koh Tao to go diving with them… so I did.

A quick talk to the ferry ticket sales guy, and I had my ticket changed to Koh Tao. I knew nothing of the place, and I’m not a huge fan of the ocean.

Pai to Mae Hong Son: A rafting adventure.

Published on Monday, November 10th, 2008 in North and Thailand. 0 Comments

The rafting adventure from Pai to Mae Hong Son was amazing. We had a group of six people: an older French couple, a 30 year old English guy, myself, and two “river captains” to guide us. The night prior to departing involved non stop rain and some fairly epic lightning displays. The rain resulted in the river flowing high and fast, and made for a whole lot of fun. The weather during the trip was great… no rain, lots of sun, and it was nice and warm without being hot.

The route took us along the Middle Pai River, in to the depths of the jungle. The scenery was spectacular… similar to northern Australia in some ways, but very Thai at the same time. The rapids were enjoyable: the most difficult we saw were class 4, which was fun but not all that challenging. We stopped for lunch, and at one point we had to disembark the raft and walk through a mining camp. The guys there were used to stupid white people wandering about, and were full of questions. While we chatted to the miners, the guides navigated the raft to beyond the river ford and to a safe launching spot. There was a lot of debris in the river – thousands of tree limbs and other bits and pieces, but happily there was little man made stuff.

The overnight camp was again in the middle of the jungle and had been established by the French owner of the rafting company some fifteen years previously. A crew of 4 Thai dudes lived there on a rotational basis. They were to cook, clean, and maintain the place. One enterprising young guy had taken to selling warm beer to visitors: 100 baht per can. I think our bill came to about 2500 baht that night, including many beers bought for the Thai guys. There was no electricity and everything there had to be floated in by river, as there was no road access anywhere nearby. After a delicious meal we played lots of card games and told stories, played guitar (how that survived the raft trip I don’t know) and eventually went to bed: a bamboo sleeping platform for each person, with several layers of mosquito nets and some sleeping bags for mattresses. I used my silk inner as a sleeping bag and slept quite happily in the middle of the jungle.

The following day we rafted through some milder rapids for four hours, saw a bunch of fishermen on their bamboo rafts, and ended up in Mae Hong Son. The French guys and I decided to stay at the same bungalows, and spent the evening wandering about the night market eating delicious food and drinking cold beer. Mae Hong Son is a very interesting place. It’s near the Burmese border, and there are a lot of shifty looking white guys with lots of dark clothing and equipment wandering about and doing strange things at night with motorbikes and cars. Make of that what you will. However, the town is very beautiful and is well worth spending a couple of days in.

Two days later we left on a Thai Airways flight to Chiang Mai. The flight was spectacular – we had an evening view of some fairly impressive mountains, jungle, and farmland. It’s well worth doing, event hough it costs significantly more than the 10 hour mountainous bus ride!

In Chiang Mai the French guys and I split up: I was headed for some hostel the Lonely Planet guide had suggested was good, but in reality it was pretty average. It was the type of place that had a sign stating their hourly rates… but other than that it was OK. A little dirty, a little noisy, but well located. The atmosphere was miserable and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

The following morning, I left for Koh Samui.

A very quick update: Ko Samui, Ko Tao.

Published on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 in Thailand. 1 Comment

After a truely bizzare and somewhat distubing night on Ko Samui (details to come later – I don’t have much time right now) I had decided to go to Ko Pha-ngan, but at the last minute decied to visit Ko Tao instead. It wasn’t too difficult – the same boat went to both destinations.

Anyway, I’m not on Ko Tao, and I’ve started an SSI open water diving course. It’s a nice place, but it’s raining a lot. I guess that’s why it’s the low season.

However, wireless is intermittent and I have a class (??!) to go to soon – the first dive is later today – so don’t expect any major updates or photos until I get to Singapore on November 12.

Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pai.

Published on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 in Bangkok and Thailand. 0 Comments

Finally. I’ve acquired wireless (although the provider doesn’t know it) and have some time to write.

Bangkok was crazy. The hostel was great, and the people were nice, but I guess any city with a lot of tourists in South East Asia suffers from the trying-to-sell-shit-to-everyone syndrome. At least they’re nice about it in Bangkok. They smile, even though they might not take no for an answer.

Bangkok is big, dirty, modern, ancient, clean, big, intriguing, friendly, and spectacular. It also appears to be home half of all worldwide tourists at any one time. Traffic is more chaotic than anywhere else I’ve been so far. Giving way is at best a nice thought, and at worst a deadly reliance – particularly for the millions of motorbikes.

Bangkok 010 (Custom)Bangkok 004 (Custom)Bangkok 008 (Custom)

A French guy, and English guy, and myself met one evening over a few beers and decided to investigate the area. Close to the once infamous and now somewhat gentrified Patpong district, we braved the crowds of tourists and the crowded street markets, and the only thing that told us we were in the red light district was the number of guys offering us cheap girls. No, thanks. Cheap girls are the last kind of girl I want. I even went so far as to invent a girlfriend – it’s amazing how a “no, no… my girlfriend” and a finger running across the throat shuts them up, or makes them laugh… but it’s also disturbing how often it only encourages them.

The following day we managed to navigate our way to a canal boat pier using the Sky Train, and enjoyed a uniquely Bangkok experience. Disembarking, a very friendly Thai guy who wasn’t trying to sell us anything at all (yeah, right) asked if we needed directions. Sure. We knew what was happening – he would draw on a map, say some stuff, call over a tuk-tuk driver, "negotiate" a price, and ask for nothing in return. Sure enough, we soon found ourselves on a thirty baht for four hour type deal. It’s really not that bad. We went to some temples, and also went to a tailor (no pressure to buy anything, just look at stuff) and a gem shop (again no pressure to buy, just look at overpriced pieces of glass and aluminium masquerading as gemstones and silver) and the idiotic white guys buying stuff.

Eventually we ended up at a temple near the royal palace. The tuk-tuk driver said he’d wait "over there" for an hour for us. Sure. See you then. As soon as we entered the grounds of the temple, we knew something was up. There was security everywhere, Thai people hanging out waiting for something, and lots of people in uniform. We wandered around, and eventually the two others left (they couldn’t find the tuk tuk driver) but I decided to hang around to see what was going on. Not five minutes after the other guys had left, the nearby roads were closed and a marching band and a bunch of parading soldiers showed up. Intriged (and stuck – I wasn’t allowed ot, and there were no taxi’s around on the closed roads anyway), I hung around and eventually, after a brief rain shower, a prince and princess appeared. The did their thing in the temple, and left – shortly before the rain started again.

Two hours later, the rain stopped and myself and all the other Thai guys emerged from shelter. The tuk-tuk driver had disappeared. The scammer… became the scammed.

The following day we split up. I was heading to Chiang Mai, a large northern city. It’s nice. It’s a huge change from Bangkok.  It’s relaxed and clean and pleasant in the old city, there was no rain, and it was slightly cooler. The place I stayed in was a bit average. Nice rooms, good food – but despite being full of people, not very social. I ended up doing an ATV tour by myself (which was actually pretty cool, just the guide and I) and we rode through forest and jungle and mountains to villages, lookouts, and waterfalls. It was nice.

After a few days in Chiang Mai I’d had enough, and left for a place called Pai. It’s part of the old hippie trail. Tehran, Kabul, Goa, Pai. It’s still a bit of a hippie hangout. It’s a small town, tucked away four hours in to the mountains from Chiang Mai along what would have to be one of the greatest driving roads I’ve ever seen. If you can deal with the occasional bumps, slow traffic, and livestock… it’s 120km of spectacular scenery with switch backs, sharp corners, long straights, and few interruptions. It’s not much fun being stuck in a (nice) minivan, though.

There’s a lot of stuff to do in Pai. It’s possible to rent a bike or motorbike, to trek, raft, cook, drink, eat, visit temples, and do any number of other hippie activities. I rented a bike but immediately was monsooned upon, so my bike rental adventure was short lived. I got a nice view at the end of the ride but discovered I’d left my camera battery in the charger. Whoops.

Being a slightly alternative town, there’s a big focus on healthy living. Most restaurants are so called organic, and there’s more fruit juice and shake shops than in all of Australia. There’s Italian food, Indian, French, Thai, Chinese, Burmese, bugers, street stalls, restaurants, bakeries, markets, and loads of bars with live music. There’s hippie clothing shops, tour offices, normal clothing shops, big hotels, small riverside bungalows, and the usual guest houses. It’s full of Thai people, white guys, Japanese, old, young, short term and long term. A lot of people seem to have been here forever. It’s a nice place, and very laid back. With better transportation I think I’d spend a little longer here, but after seeing the number of people bandaged and in splits, I decided against renting a motorbike.

I did, however, decide to undertake a two day white water rafting journey to Mae Hong Son. I leave tomorrow morning, and arrive on Tuesday in the afternoon. From there I’ll fly to Chiang Mai, and then from Chiang Mai to some island down south – probably to dive, perhaps to party. On the 12th I fly from Koh Samui (not where I’m staying) to Bangkok, and from Bangkok to Singapore.

After Singapore, I’ll spend a few weeks in Laos before heading back home early. I should be home before Christmas and in time for my cousin’s wedding. I’ll basically be home a month earlier than expected, but that’s fine by me. I can’t get rid of this cold, and I feel as though I’m just spending money to be sick in exotic places.

Mt. Kinabalu Photographs.

Published on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 in Malaysia and Sabah. 2 Comments

Well, it’s taken a while but here they are, finally.

To see everything (without captions) visit the Mt. Kinabalu page in the gallery.

The journey from Kota Kinabalu to Mount Kinabalu takes around two hours and involves a long, steep, twisty road. However, instead of having a sporty car to enjoy the road with, we have a minibus… with dodgy tyres. It makes for an interesting journey. Driving through the mountains, there are peaks as far as the eye can see. Suddenly, rounding a bend, an enormous mountain looms far above everything around it, partially obscured by cloud. My first thought was “uh-oh.”

The record board. Some people  say those times also include the descent.

At the start of the climb, we descend to a small valley.

The smile didn’t last long.

Yeah, we’re headed for the summit…

Past a waterfall.

Five hundred metres! How hard can it be?

Well… it gets more difficult.

Only another 5km to go…

Stairs. Uneven height and endless. From memory (I didn’t count) there are 3500 of them.

Mountain squirrels are everywhere. They’re timid, yet friendly.

Halfway!

We ascend through the clouds and everything becomes shrouded in mist.

While we struggle up the mountain, our female guide has no trouble. She doesn’t even break a sweat. The porter carrying up thirty kilograms isn’t struggling, either.

Our guide, pointing something out.

Looming out of the mist, we spy Laban Rata. It’s a relieving sight, as we’re both exhausted.

In the morning, we can clearly see Laban Rata perched on the side of the mountain.

More rainforest…

A shelter.

Standing next to the shelter, looking up the trail.

Turning around, looking down the trail.

Cloudy.

As I said, there are more photographs in the gallery.

I’m recovering slowly, and I’m feeling a bit better now. I leave Kota Kinabalu for Bangkok tomorrow morning, and I’ve got three days planned there before heading elsewhere. I’m not sure where yet – maybe Chiang Mai, maybe the north east instead.

I’ve been made aware that the Singapore Open golf tournament is going to take place in mid November, so I’m quite tempted to go to that. We’ll see…

Mt. Kinabalu.

Published on Monday, October 20th, 2008 in Malaysia and Sabah. 5 Comments

Well, I was defeated. I’ll try again eventually, but for now I’m just glad that I’ve seen the last of an endless ascent followed by a somewhat more rapid descent.

Of the countless guests at the guest house we’re staying at, some other guy and I were the only two from here who wanted to climb the mountain on Sunday. We left early in the morning, and arrived at the start of the walk at 10am. Guides are compulsory for the expedition, and our guide was a local (as in she lived just outside the national park) woman with a name that escapes me. She’s been doing one ascent (and descent) every week for the past twelve years. That sounds like a lot, but along the way we met a guy who does one ascent and descent every day. It’s training – he carries a minimum of 30kg, and up to 50kg. He’s currently Sabah’s most decorated body builder. I think his legs were about the size of my torso.

Anyway, the walk starts easily enough – by doing downhill. After a pretty waterfall the path heads up, and following the path, so did our party of three. There are dozens of other people heading up the mountain at the same time, and just as many coming down. How hard can it be?

The total walk for the day is six kilometres. It doesn’t sound like much, and to be honest it’s not. I can and do quite happily walk about six kilometres several times a week. The six kilometres on this mountain is in another league. To begin with, the walk starts at nearly 2000m above sea level. I live only 300m above sea level. The walk is up a mountain, rather than simply around it. It’s hard work.

Every five hundred metres are small shelters, with a toilet and water tank and shelter and a bunch of people sitting around under cover complaining about the ascent, and just as many complaining about the walk down. We struggled to lunch at the 3km shelter, and wondered what was in store next.

The climb became even steeper, up rocks and steps and a rocky path through a changing environment. Rainforest became semi alpine trees – short and stunted, twisted by the wind. It was wet – pools of water lay across the path, and a mist hung in the air that enveloped everything and made trees, rocks, ropes, and us damp to the touch.

I can’t remember too much more about the walk up. It was hard work, it was very pretty, and even with a light load, I was very sore. The scenery changed almost step by step, and all around us were fascinating sights and sounds.

We reached the overnight… chalet, I guess… after 6km and about four and a half hours. The theory is to arrive early, eat early, and sleep early – to trick the body in to thinking it’s morning at 2am, so the final ascent to the summit can be commenced at 3am. The final 2km to the summit is undertaken in the dark, so the sunrise is the reward for the trek.

The Laban Rata rest house was large and comfortable and warm. Everything there had to be transported on someone’s back. Dinner for 80 people probably came up on the back of a few dozen porters. Beer cost twenty ringgit each (the place I’m staying at now sells cans for four ringgit, about $AU1.60), bottles of water (although why you’d bother I don’t know, since clean and pure water was everywhere) were ten ringgit. I didn’t bother to look at some of the heavier items. There is a helipad, but it’s only used for medical emergencies. Electricity comes from an electricity generation station at the base of the mountain, water is collected locally, and sewerage disappears down the mountain in a pipeline that’s hidden from view for most of the walk. The chalet was built in 1986, and I expect all of the material used in construction and the stuff inside now was taken up by hand, so to speak.

I ate, and went to bed early, ready to reach the top. In dorms of six persons, we had one spare bed. One was occupied by a guy from Sabah who had also been complaining about a cold, and after a brief talk to establish names, starting points, and why the hell we were both coughing and spluttering so much, we both became more determined to make it to the top.

Upon waking at 2am, I knew I wasn’t going to. My head pounded from crown to throat, I could feel my lungs aching, my body was sore – not from exhaustion, but from what I think was a combination of altitude and the cold I thought I was recovering from.

The other ill guy and I ventured down to meet our guides. One look at me and mine told me that I was not going up. To be honest, it was kind of a relief. Rather than struggle, I’d sleep – and still catch an awesome sunrise from 1km below the ideal view point. I protested, but she was adamant that I was to stay put. My sick friend started the climb.

A couple of hours later he was back in the room, worse than before he left. I was glad I didn’t try to make the summit, I probably wouldn’t have made it and was likely to have returned feeling even worse. A large number of us hung around the overnight place waiting for the sunrise, and we were all ill in some way – altitude sickness, injuries, a cold, or any number of other ailments.

My guide and friend from the hostel returned from the summit at 8, and at 9:30 we begun the 6km descent to the bus. Going down was difficult, but fast. We made good time and arrived back to the hostel (a 100km drive away) by about 2pm.

After a shower, the deposit of some laundry, I feel somewhat more alive but still very much as though I’m sick. My body is sore in the odd way that comes from a cold, although my legs and shoulders are fine (so far!), and my ear is giving me trouble – perhaps I have an ear infection? I’ll find out soon.

I’m trying to decide my next move. If I recover quickly, I’ll head from here to Singapore or KL to use it as a jumping off point for Bangkok and Laos, and I’ll probably be entering Laos this time next week. If I don’t recover quickly, I’ll return to Singapore and the place I was staying at there to spend time recovering in a less chaotic environment. We’ll see.

I’m sorting through the ton of photographs I’ve taken, so expect a new post in the next day or two with lots of photos and not much writing!

Kota Kinabalu.

Published on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 in Malaysia and Sabah. 0 Comments

Well, I’m here. It seems like a nice place. The place I’m staying at is located very well – a little too well at the moment, it seems. It’s across the road from a large park, where some kind of cultural festival is taking place. There’s singing and dancing from 7am to midnight, and it’s loud. Interesting, though.

The plan is to suss out the rest of the Sabah adventures today, but we’ll see how that goes. There’s a lot to decide upon.

Something has been decided, though. I start the Mt. Kinabalu ascent tomorrow.

Still in Kuching.

Published on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 in Malaysia and Sarawak. 0 Comments

I’m still in Kuching. After hearing some stories from people who had recently endured the Belaga adventure, one of the English guys and myself have decided to stay here tonight and then fly to Kota Kinabalu tomorrow, skipping the river trip. I really wanted to travel to Belaga, but recent reports say it’s not worth it – the guides there now are terrible, and have a tendency to spend all the money meant to go to the long houses they visit on booze. As such, they get drunk and angry and try to extort more money from tourists who don’t really have a choice.

No, thanks!

We’ll arrive in Kota Kinabalu tomorrow afternoon, and then decide what to do from there. If we can, we’ll visit Gunung Mulu National Park first, then explore the rest of Sabah.

Edit: Later today, I went to a place to check out some Orang Utans. They are awesome. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people checking them out with me…

My plans are still a bit vague. The English guys are heading to Belaga, but I’m feeling terrible and I think I might just go to Kota Kinabalu and figure things out from there…