Holy! it is already August 1st, I can hardly believe it, where has the time gone??
I just realized it has been a long time since I last wrote... Since Singapore exactly and that seems like ages ago.
We have already ventured through Malaysia, and made our way overland through Thailand and tomorrow morning we head for Cambodia.
Singapore was awesome, however expensive in comparison to the rest of SE Asia. I loved the zoo, however it did not live up to the hype.
We took the overnight train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. Our experiences of KL were less than pleasing, first the ATM wouldn't work to give us some money, and of course the money changer isn't open at 6am, and we had no Malaysian Riggits, only Singaporean dollars and some pesos from the Phils. After spending 10 hrs on a train overnight hardly sleeping our patience were running low. Finally after sitting around trying to figure if we could just walk anywhere Darryl found an ATM willing to give us money and the money changer opened all at once! Yahoo now we were getting somewhere, however our cab driver had no clue how to get to our already booked and paid for hostel, and so he dropped us off in China town in the rain and pointed in the direction he thought we had to go. Luckily our university degrees have paid off and we took out the map and walked to the hostel. We then continued to run into some issues, people in KL love to tell you the wrong directions or the wrong bus or even that the bus you want doesn't actually exist, we were even bumped off our 10am bus for a later bus all because the women couldnt tell us the bus stop was across the street instead she kept saying "stay here, I take you" and by the time she took us they had oversold the bus and left us tourists to rot... lol In all the countries of the world I have ever visited and all the cities I can tell you this is the most I have ever been annoyed...
Finally we made it out of there for the Cameron Highlands, the highlands were very different than what I had expected, many older tourists here and it felt almost posh at times. It was gorgeous and I loved visiting the tea plantations, I really never realized how much time, land and effort it took to make a cup of tea. The weather in the highlands was amazing and the people of this area are fantastic. Even though we only stayed 2 nights the Cameron Highlands were the highlight of Malaysia for me.
After that we wanted to head to Langkawi, an island in Malaysia, however it was ridiculously expensive and would consist of us chartering our own van and driver. So instead we followed the other tourists to Penang, an island also on the NW Peninsular of Malaysia. We stayed in China town once again, 3 Chinatowns in 3 different cities; China town has been good to us. Great food and shops I would highly suggest staying there especially in Singapore.
After Penang we were going to head to Langkawi then Ko Phi Phi, Thailand.... well that also changed, lol. Like I said before we are just rolling with the punches.
The ferry to Langkawi was full, and the cost to get to Ko Phi Phi was very high from Penang so instead we hired a van to take us to Ko Samui, Thailand. This journey took 12 hours, however it was super cheap considering we basically had an entire van by ourselves for almost 5 hrs until we picked up some more people in Hat Yai, Thailand.
We stayed in Ko Samui for 4 nights, we soaked up the sun and cold drinks, spent nights having candlelight dinner on the beach and of course we both got too much sun.
From Ko Samui we took the ferry back to the mainland and a bus back to Bangkok... which leads me today!
We are now in Bangkok, staying on Th Khan San, a major tourist trap and drinking area. Our hostel is a dive however it cost just $3 each Canadian a night for our own room. We are only staying here tonight and tomorrow we are headed to Cambodia, the Lonely Planet warns of issues between Bangkok and Cambodia border crossing, basically stating the the officials tend to raise the price of the visa, our plan is to go in broke, spend most of our baht tonight, hide our other cash and only have the exact amount that the government officials state is the cost of the visa, (and maybe an extra Canadian $20 for some extra grease if necessary)
Wish us luck!!
So the possible plan from here... Cambodia a week, Vietnam 2 weeks, and Laos a week (yes Indonesia is axed due to Darryl's insistence that it is geographically out of the way)
I just realized it has been a long time since I last wrote... Since Singapore exactly and that seems like ages ago.
We have already ventured through Malaysia, and made our way overland through Thailand and tomorrow morning we head for Cambodia.
Singapore was awesome, however expensive in comparison to the rest of SE Asia. I loved the zoo, however it did not live up to the hype.
We took the overnight train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. Our experiences of KL were less than pleasing, first the ATM wouldn't work to give us some money, and of course the money changer isn't open at 6am, and we had no Malaysian Riggits, only Singaporean dollars and some pesos from the Phils. After spending 10 hrs on a train overnight hardly sleeping our patience were running low. Finally after sitting around trying to figure if we could just walk anywhere Darryl found an ATM willing to give us money and the money changer opened all at once! Yahoo now we were getting somewhere, however our cab driver had no clue how to get to our already booked and paid for hostel, and so he dropped us off in China town in the rain and pointed in the direction he thought we had to go. Luckily our university degrees have paid off and we took out the map and walked to the hostel. We then continued to run into some issues, people in KL love to tell you the wrong directions or the wrong bus or even that the bus you want doesn't actually exist, we were even bumped off our 10am bus for a later bus all because the women couldnt tell us the bus stop was across the street instead she kept saying "stay here, I take you" and by the time she took us they had oversold the bus and left us tourists to rot... lol In all the countries of the world I have ever visited and all the cities I can tell you this is the most I have ever been annoyed...
Finally we made it out of there for the Cameron Highlands, the highlands were very different than what I had expected, many older tourists here and it felt almost posh at times. It was gorgeous and I loved visiting the tea plantations, I really never realized how much time, land and effort it took to make a cup of tea. The weather in the highlands was amazing and the people of this area are fantastic. Even though we only stayed 2 nights the Cameron Highlands were the highlight of Malaysia for me.
After that we wanted to head to Langkawi, an island in Malaysia, however it was ridiculously expensive and would consist of us chartering our own van and driver. So instead we followed the other tourists to Penang, an island also on the NW Peninsular of Malaysia. We stayed in China town once again, 3 Chinatowns in 3 different cities; China town has been good to us. Great food and shops I would highly suggest staying there especially in Singapore.
After Penang we were going to head to Langkawi then Ko Phi Phi, Thailand.... well that also changed, lol. Like I said before we are just rolling with the punches.
The ferry to Langkawi was full, and the cost to get to Ko Phi Phi was very high from Penang so instead we hired a van to take us to Ko Samui, Thailand. This journey took 12 hours, however it was super cheap considering we basically had an entire van by ourselves for almost 5 hrs until we picked up some more people in Hat Yai, Thailand.
We stayed in Ko Samui for 4 nights, we soaked up the sun and cold drinks, spent nights having candlelight dinner on the beach and of course we both got too much sun.
From Ko Samui we took the ferry back to the mainland and a bus back to Bangkok... which leads me today!
We are now in Bangkok, staying on Th Khan San, a major tourist trap and drinking area. Our hostel is a dive however it cost just $3 each Canadian a night for our own room. We are only staying here tonight and tomorrow we are headed to Cambodia, the Lonely Planet warns of issues between Bangkok and Cambodia border crossing, basically stating the the officials tend to raise the price of the visa, our plan is to go in broke, spend most of our baht tonight, hide our other cash and only have the exact amount that the government officials state is the cost of the visa, (and maybe an extra Canadian $20 for some extra grease if necessary)
Wish us luck!!
So the possible plan from here... Cambodia a week, Vietnam 2 weeks, and Laos a week (yes Indonesia is axed due to Darryl's insistence that it is geographically out of the way)
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