It's a bit cold in this country!
Yes, we're back, after a real treat of a Valentines day (24 hours on buses, then arriving in KL at 4am), some last minute bargain hunting (Genuine Rolex??) and finally a 14 hour Air Asia flight. It's funny how 14 hours now seems like a fairly short journey. We arrived to Stansted at 3.30pm on Wednesday, very kindly met by my Dad, who then spent the next half an hour hunting for his car in the car park... My car is very poorly, we have no money and have plans to spend the whole week unpacking boxes. Was it worth it?
YES!
An edited version of this, along with photos, will hopefully be made into a book in the near future. Watch this space!
Monday, 21 February 2011
Monday, 14 February 2011
The end is nigh...
It seems somehow an appropriate way to end our trip to be sitting in a 24 hour internet cafe at 4.30 am, having been travelling for nearly 24 hours (through Valentines day) to get to Kuala Lumpur. At least it reminds me that I am probably ready for a break from this travelling malarky. It's easy to forget when lying on another beach in Thailand, but it's time to go home. At least for a while! So, a day to spend here and then it's off in the morning, flying at 9.30am. I'm excited, happy to be seeing family and friends, happy that I can eat cheese, drink wine and have a bath (possibly at the same time). On the other hand, I'm apprehensive about the weather (I start shivery at approximately 20 degrees), not quite sure I want to do any work and, well, can't believe the year is just about over. The last few days in Koh Samui have been a good way to end our trip. Very touristy, very busy, but lovely weather, lovely beaches, good food and plenty of shopping to stock up on last minute souvenirs and presents. We've both got the tans to a jealousy inducing level, although Kev's thighs are perhaps verging a little on the red side - but hey, who's going to see them in winter? So that's very nearly it. One more entry to come - the journey home and perhaps a little 'highlights of the trip' to finish on. Which probably won't include sitting in an internet cafe at 5am in KL.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Koh Pha Ngan/Koh Tao
After a few days in the hustle and bustle of KL, we flew into Thailand to make our way to the Gulf coast islands. Flying didn't actually save much time, as we still had quite a bit to go on the bus, and a night in Surathani, but it did mean we would be allowed to stay in Thailand for a month rather than 2 weeks given overland.
After some debate, we decided to make Koh Pha Ngan our first stop, and then take the rest of the remaining not-quite-three-weeks as it came. The boat ride over was interesting, involving 3 buses and a boat before we actually got there. When we arrived, it was pouring with rain and my first impression of the island was a crowd of miserable looking foreigners huddling under rain macs waiting to leave. We wondered if we'd chosen the wrong coast... Still, even in the rain it was easy to see the appeal of Koh Pha Ngan - amazing scenery with panoramic views over cliff tops at almost every turn in the road. We ended up renting our own beach bungalow, 10 metres to the sea with good views. And our own little porch with hammocks which was my favourite part. Well, I say that, my favourite part was actually the very cute pug living there. I now want a pug as well as an orangutan. Speaking of which, we now have a new addition to the family - my mum has adopted an orangutan!
The week and a bit we spent on Koh Phan Ngan was very mixed weather-wise - we had a few lovely days, but far too many rainy/cloudy days which was a shame, but we did get out on a motorbike quite a few days so got to see a fair bit of the island. As I said, it really is beautiful, although some of the roads are a little steep for a not very good little scooter to cope with! Other than that, we did a bit of lazing on the beach, some swimming in the clear waters, and spent a lot of time trying to decide if we should do our Advanced Open Water diving course. In the end we decided we should, and so booked a boat ticket over to Koh Tao, well known for its cheap diving. And it turned out to be where the sunshine was at as well.
As soon as we landed on Koh Tao, it was blazing sunshine and we both had a good feeling about the weather here. We weren't disappointed. We were taken straight to a diving resort (which turns out to be possibly the biggest in the world, although we didn't realise this at the time!), where we booked our advanced diving course, which gave us 3 nights free accomodation. In a resort with 2 beautiful swimming pools, 2 minutes fom the beach. Very nice! We didn't want to dive immediately so booked one extra night and spent our first days just enjoying the sunshine. Obviously, being a diving resort, the pools are often used for training, but when they were free it was lovely.
The first day of our actual diving started off in the classroom, learning about deep diving and navigation. I was a little apprehensive about the navigation - I have enough trouble finding my way around on land, let alone underwater! Still, it seemed simple enough and we practised using compasses on the land as well. We also borrowed dive computers - again, simpler to use than I thought they might be. After lunch, we got together the equipment we needed and went out onto the dive boat. Which was huge! We got the the first dive site (for our deep dive), but it was decided that the current was way too strong so had to move. Unfortunately, visibility wasn't great down deep, but got much better as we got higher. I enjoyed the deep dive - but it was the next dive, navigation, that was going to be my challenge. Kev and I were 'buddies', and the first test we had to do was navigate together to swim in a perfect square at 18m. We did it perfectly (mostly due to Kev - he used the compass, I just counted kicks to 10!). We were then sent off by ourselves to navigate our way around the site and surface safely. It was a very different experience being without an instructor or dive master, but it was great. We didn't see anything spectacular, but the sense of freedom was exhilarating.
We went back to shore for about an hour, and then it was time for our 3rd dive of the day - a night dive. This was another new experience and one I was very, very excited about. As I stared into the black looking water, standing 3 metres up on the boat about the jump in, I wondered if maybe it didn't seem so much fun after all! It's quite disorientating at first - things look very different underwater at night, and I found that if I took my eyes off the person in front, I was likely to lose track of where I was. Most of the time, you can only see what is lit up with your torch or someone elses. We saw loads of small stings rays, and a couple of large barracuda, as well a a huge trigger fish (asleep luckily) and a moray eel. It was a really good dive - I'd like to do more dives at night.
On the seond day of our course, Kev woke up not feeling too well, and decided he'd be better off not diving. So instead he came on the boat with us but didn't go in, and left his last two dives for later on . I had a great day diving - I buddied with Olivia (another girl on our course), and we did both dives completely on our own with just a dive map, computer and compass to navigate by. It gave us both a real sense of achievement when we found our way around accurately andsurfaced where we had planned! The visibility was much better as well. And... we were officially advanced level divers! A few drinks that evening seemed a good idea to celebrate. Kev did his second day 2 days later, after a day in and around the pool. He had even better visibility for his dives, and had a great day. And of course had to celebrate all over again!
So to Koh Samui, where we arrived yesterday in the baking sun. We have less than a week here before we return to Blighty, and neither of us know where the year has gone.
After some debate, we decided to make Koh Pha Ngan our first stop, and then take the rest of the remaining not-quite-three-weeks as it came. The boat ride over was interesting, involving 3 buses and a boat before we actually got there. When we arrived, it was pouring with rain and my first impression of the island was a crowd of miserable looking foreigners huddling under rain macs waiting to leave. We wondered if we'd chosen the wrong coast... Still, even in the rain it was easy to see the appeal of Koh Pha Ngan - amazing scenery with panoramic views over cliff tops at almost every turn in the road. We ended up renting our own beach bungalow, 10 metres to the sea with good views. And our own little porch with hammocks which was my favourite part. Well, I say that, my favourite part was actually the very cute pug living there. I now want a pug as well as an orangutan. Speaking of which, we now have a new addition to the family - my mum has adopted an orangutan!
The week and a bit we spent on Koh Phan Ngan was very mixed weather-wise - we had a few lovely days, but far too many rainy/cloudy days which was a shame, but we did get out on a motorbike quite a few days so got to see a fair bit of the island. As I said, it really is beautiful, although some of the roads are a little steep for a not very good little scooter to cope with! Other than that, we did a bit of lazing on the beach, some swimming in the clear waters, and spent a lot of time trying to decide if we should do our Advanced Open Water diving course. In the end we decided we should, and so booked a boat ticket over to Koh Tao, well known for its cheap diving. And it turned out to be where the sunshine was at as well.
As soon as we landed on Koh Tao, it was blazing sunshine and we both had a good feeling about the weather here. We weren't disappointed. We were taken straight to a diving resort (which turns out to be possibly the biggest in the world, although we didn't realise this at the time!), where we booked our advanced diving course, which gave us 3 nights free accomodation. In a resort with 2 beautiful swimming pools, 2 minutes fom the beach. Very nice! We didn't want to dive immediately so booked one extra night and spent our first days just enjoying the sunshine. Obviously, being a diving resort, the pools are often used for training, but when they were free it was lovely.
The first day of our actual diving started off in the classroom, learning about deep diving and navigation. I was a little apprehensive about the navigation - I have enough trouble finding my way around on land, let alone underwater! Still, it seemed simple enough and we practised using compasses on the land as well. We also borrowed dive computers - again, simpler to use than I thought they might be. After lunch, we got together the equipment we needed and went out onto the dive boat. Which was huge! We got the the first dive site (for our deep dive), but it was decided that the current was way too strong so had to move. Unfortunately, visibility wasn't great down deep, but got much better as we got higher. I enjoyed the deep dive - but it was the next dive, navigation, that was going to be my challenge. Kev and I were 'buddies', and the first test we had to do was navigate together to swim in a perfect square at 18m. We did it perfectly (mostly due to Kev - he used the compass, I just counted kicks to 10!). We were then sent off by ourselves to navigate our way around the site and surface safely. It was a very different experience being without an instructor or dive master, but it was great. We didn't see anything spectacular, but the sense of freedom was exhilarating.
We went back to shore for about an hour, and then it was time for our 3rd dive of the day - a night dive. This was another new experience and one I was very, very excited about. As I stared into the black looking water, standing 3 metres up on the boat about the jump in, I wondered if maybe it didn't seem so much fun after all! It's quite disorientating at first - things look very different underwater at night, and I found that if I took my eyes off the person in front, I was likely to lose track of where I was. Most of the time, you can only see what is lit up with your torch or someone elses. We saw loads of small stings rays, and a couple of large barracuda, as well a a huge trigger fish (asleep luckily) and a moray eel. It was a really good dive - I'd like to do more dives at night.
On the seond day of our course, Kev woke up not feeling too well, and decided he'd be better off not diving. So instead he came on the boat with us but didn't go in, and left his last two dives for later on . I had a great day diving - I buddied with Olivia (another girl on our course), and we did both dives completely on our own with just a dive map, computer and compass to navigate by. It gave us both a real sense of achievement when we found our way around accurately andsurfaced where we had planned! The visibility was much better as well. And... we were officially advanced level divers! A few drinks that evening seemed a good idea to celebrate. Kev did his second day 2 days later, after a day in and around the pool. He had even better visibility for his dives, and had a great day. And of course had to celebrate all over again!
So to Koh Samui, where we arrived yesterday in the baking sun. We have less than a week here before we return to Blighty, and neither of us know where the year has gone.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Thaipusam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaipusam
A HUGE Hindu festival in KL, where devotees make a night time pilgrimage to the Batu caves (and some of us less dedicated tourists get the 10am bus...). It involves over a million people in a very small area, some of whom have various part of their bodies pierced with spikes. Apparently, the greater the pain, the greater the merit with God. It was hot, it was crowded, at times there were things I don't think I want to see again. But I'm certainly glad we went. The heat, the colour and smells - well, it was like being back in India. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
A HUGE Hindu festival in KL, where devotees make a night time pilgrimage to the Batu caves (and some of us less dedicated tourists get the 10am bus...). It involves over a million people in a very small area, some of whom have various part of their bodies pierced with spikes. Apparently, the greater the pain, the greater the merit with God. It was hot, it was crowded, at times there were things I don't think I want to see again. But I'm certainly glad we went. The heat, the colour and smells - well, it was like being back in India. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
Friday, 21 January 2011
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)