The Maldives. Just Stunning!

The Maldives. Stunning. 

Sadly, our time in The Maldives is coming to an end. This is not only our last night here, but our last night of our entire Honeymoon/Holiday. What a truly amazing and fantastic experience! I shall do another post to summarise the entire trip, but for now, I must blog about our time here in The Maldives. Paradise!

When we arrived at the airport, we were met by the holiday rep and shown to our boat transfer. We were lucky in the fact that we had a speedboat all to ourselves, and it was great whizzing across the water at 50mph towards our destination and seeing all these Islands and Lagoons go whizzing by. It took almost an hour to get to our resort, and it was a great trip! We were met with the obligatory cold towel and taken to reception to check in. There was a fabulous sunset as we arrived as well, the the sun a fire red ball on the horizon!
 
The following day, we woke to a beautiful sight. Our sea villa was about 100ft from the beach, over the water in a shallow lagoon, with the clearest, bluest water I have ever seen! Simply stunning! After breakfast, Ju and I wasted no time in getting our mask & snorkels out and swimming in the clear lagoon. We saw sooo many fish, as well a a bloody HUGE stingray, it was at least 6foot in length, and we were a bit cautious with it as it was the same kind that speared Steve Irwin! We ventured further out and saw more reef sharks and a smaller ray. After lunch, on the way back to the villa, we saw. A sea turtle in the lagoon by our villa, so I told Ju to watch where it went whilst I ran in, grabbed the camera and dove into the water to photograph it, not realising my new watch was still on my wrist and was not waterproof!! ( it still works) I managed to get a couple of shots before he swam away!!

Most of our time here has been spent in the water, swimming in the lagoon. On the West side of the island, it is about 4 foot deep for  about 100m out to sea, then there is a reef and it is a sheer drop to 20- 25 metres. Again, AMAZING to snorkel in and see a myriad of different types and sizes of fish! Another thing was, every night, up by the dive school, at the end of the pier, they would turn on 2 big floodlights and at 9pm, there would suddenly appear some Manta Rays, attracted by the lights and the plankton. Sometimes there were 6 or 7 of them, dancing around in the water, just 4 foot below. Truly and amazing thing to see. they even do a night dive where you can dive in a swim with them!!
Ju managed to overcome her fears and go SCUBA diving. She did a SCUBA dive course and is now a licences scuba diver. She just needs to do 2 more dives at 18m and then she will be open water qualified!! She hated all the practical and skills testing, but once she was diving, she loved it!! I am so proud of her for doing it!! I did both Dives with Ju and I also did another one, to 20m with an instructor, which was great. Another vertical sea wall with everything except sharks! There were Rays, octopus, eels, shoals of fish, big ones, small ones and even a dolphin escort for the boat on the way back. I love diving now!!! And so does Ju!!
I must also add, that we took an all inclusive package for our stay here, which was a good thing- and a bad thing! Good in the fact that breakfast, lunch and dinner, As well as drinks were all included and there was a huge buffet selection available at every meal time and the food was great. 
Bad because there was TOO MUCH good food and all the weight we had lost on the holiday, we have probably put on in this last week!!!
We both absolutely love The Maldives and will definitely come again, and this was one of the cheaper resorts as well! So good knows how great one of the more expensive places will be!!!
It is our last night now, and I am sat here, waiting for the sunset (which are always stunning), whilst Ju does her hair. We have a nice candlelight romantic dinner booked this evening.  We are both sad, not only to be leaving this beautiful paradise, but also because it is the end of our wonderful adventure. 
We have been to so many different places, seen so many different things, met so many different people and done so many new and exciting things along the way. 
It was 7 weeks ago today that we left for Hong Kong, and when I think about it, it seems soo long ago, yet also, it seems like the time has flown by!! 
No idea when I will actually be able to post this, as the Internet voucher has been used up!

Paradise Found!

Well, Ju and I arrived in the Maldives in one piece. We were met at the airport by the tour rep who then guided us to the boat to transfer us to the Resort Island. Ju and I had a speedboat all to ourselves, with just the skipper and first mate on board. The trip from airport to resort was about 45 minutes and was great fun in itself, as we were bombing through the waves at about 40 knots, passing loads of boats on the Way!!
When we arrived at the island, we were greeted on the jetty with a cool towel and led to reception, where we were given a rundown of the island and facilities, then shown to our room, which is a sea villa, over crystal clear turquoise waters!! Another decent sized room with another 4 poster bed! We got our bags in and went for dinner which, as we are All-inclusive, was a huge all you can eat buffet. Sunday was Italian night!!
We then had an early night as we were tired from travelling.

Today, we were up early for beeline and a meeting with the events team, telling us about all the things that we can do on the island. We tuen went back to our villa, got changed and then jumped into the lagoon below!! We practically swam from 11am until 5pm, snorkelling the whole time, with an hour out for lunch! We saw sooo many fish and creatures today. Among the best were 2 Manta Rays, a 6 ft long stingray, several black tip reef sharks and a hawksbill turtle!! All right under our noses!! I can't wait to actually go SCUBA diving here!!

Now I am sat, beer in hand(well on the table at the moment) waiting for the sunset over crystal clear waters!!!

Life is so hard sometimes!!!

Bye Bye Bangkok, Ta Ta Thailand and Hellloooo Paradise!!!

Bye bye Bankgkok, Ta Ta Thailand and helllooo Paradise!

Well, after more than 3 weeks, 9 different destinations, much shopping, sunbathing, swimming, eating and sightseeing, it is finally time to leave wonderful Thailand. I can easily see why it is called the Land of smiles and why people can easily fall in love with it. Everyone is so friendly, the weather is great ( most of the time), the food is great and some of the scenery is simply stunning. 
We have had some great times, memorable trips, slips, meals, sights, fantastic hotels and one shit one!!!
Now on the plane, far above the Indian ocean, heading for the Maldives. 
Both Ju and I are so excited and have been looking forward to this part of the holiday ever since we decided to go! When we first talked about going on Honeymoon, we both said that the first place we wanted to go was to The Maldives!! It was the first place we booked up  We have left it till last because we need a holiday to recover from all the travelling we have done over the last 6 weeks!! We are just looking forward to the peace and tranquility, the crystal clear waters and stunning views. I am sure that neither of us will want to leave on Saturday!! One thing I have been looking forward to, more than anything else, is to go diving here! I loved it in Phi-Phi and can only imagine how amazing it will hopefully be here!! Hopefully Ju can join me diving this time as well. 
I really do feel like a kid on Christmas Eve!! I am smiling now, even as I write this at 36000feet!!!
I am also a teeny- tiny bit sad, as I know our adventure is coming to an end, and by this time next week we will be back home in London. Hopefully I will do some more blogs before then!
Until then, I shall do lots of toasting in the sun and swimming in the lagoons!!

Chiang Mai, Rain and Watches!!

Chiang Mai

Well, we had a great 3 nights in Chiang Mai- once we finally got there!!
After our adventure on the sleeper train from Bangkok, which eventually arrived more than 5 hours  late, we arrived in Chiang Mai. 
Once we got off the train, it was still peeing with rain, we then had to get a taxi to our hotel. Not easy! There are very few taxis in Chiang Mai. Most of them are the converted pickup trucks or Tuk-Tuks, and there was no way we could fit into a Tuk Tuk with all our bags, so we waited in line for our turn for a pick-up taxi. And waited. And waited. And waited. Almost an hour later we were still waiting, so I headed, in the pouring rain, up to the main road, to flag one down. 5 minutes later and a lot wetter, I eventually got one. When I jumped in the back, I was a bit surprised to see someone in there already!! A Thai soldier, probably on leave. Anyway, we drove back to the station and, Having shown the driver our hotel Booking form for the SIRILANNA hotel, we set off. 10 minutes later we pulled up at, what I thought was our hotel, until we got out. We were at the LANNA hotel. So, explained to the driver, again, that we were staying at the SIRILANNA hotel. Off we trundled again. 5 minutes later we stop at the DI LANNA hotel! Again, explain to the driver it is wrong hotel and this time I point out on the map on my phone where we are and where we should be!!! Off we trot again! We stop again 5 minutes later in completely the wrong direction and I am just about to say something when the soldier, who has been there the whole time, jumps out!! Eventually, some 30 minutes after we started, we eventually get to our hotel!! Bless the old timer, he was still smiling though, so I gave him a tip!!
The hotel itself was great. Right slap bang in the middle of the old city. It was only a small family run boutique hotel, but it was bloody great nonetheless! Again, we were upgraded to a bigger room. The room was lovely.  All dark wood panelling and furniture. A huge 4- poster bed and a big bathroom with jacuzzi bath and a shower big enough for 5!! The whole hotel was decked out in lovely carved panels and pillars. The staff were really great and friendly too. 
Because the train was so late arriving and it took us so long to get to the hotel, it was already 4 pm! So the day was a bit wasted really. We just unpacked, had a shower, got changed and had some food, as we were starving. Ju then got her nails done (most important thing!). By this time it was about 8pm, so we wondered off in search of the night Market. As it was still pissing down, we grabbed a brolly from the hotel and set off. 
Now, whenever Ju has the brolly, I can never share it with her, as she either holds it too low for me to be able to see where we are going, or, she constantly keeps hitting me in the head with it!! So invariably walk a step or two ahead!! 
This was funny because, on the way to the Market, we passed dozens of bars and Massage parlours, and everyone we passed, one of the girls would say "you want massaaaaggeee?!" or "welcome. You want drinky?!" , then, as soon as they say it, Ju would come into view behind me and they would be quiet then!! It was quite funny!!
Once we got to the Market, I was on the watch hunt again! We were not buying tonight, that was going to be the following night. One of the stalls we found, had a lot on display, and I asked if they had any more. He then led me to the back of a shop, opened what looked like a wall, and inside was a secret room with a couple of thousand watches in!!! I was in heaven!!! I found a few I wanted and told them we would be back the following night. We found another stall, with an even bigger secret room, and even more watches and got an even better price!! After a bit more bargain hunting we eventually made our way back to the hotel for a well earned sleep!
The following day, it was peeing down still, and we got up early to go and do our Thai Cookery class. We bundled into the back of a pick-up taxi with several other bods, and the first stop was a local Thai food Market, which sold all things food. Even 3 foot high bags of freshly made fried curly crisps!! Madness! Anyway, we were there to be shown the raw ingredients for the food we were going to cook. Lots of vegetables, herbs and spices, then it was off to class! 
We were In a group of 10 and we got to pick what we cooked. I think we had 6 different things to Learn. If I remember, I did spring rolls, chicken and cashew nut, beef massamann, a spicy chicken salad, banana and coconut pudding and something else!! It was great fun! We chopped everything with a huge meat cleaver ( which I must buy when we get home)  and cooked everything from scratch in big woks! Even better still, we got to eat everything we cooked! At one point, Nancy, our teacher, showed us which part of the chilli actually gave out the heat. Some of us tried it, only a small bit, the size of a grain of rice. No harm done! -WRONG!!! 30 seconds later my mouth was on fire and was for the next 10 minutes!! I am never doing that again!!! For the rest of the day I was known as "Hot Man"!!
We carried on cooking until about 3 and then, when we had finished, we were all given certificates and recipe books to take home with us. 
It was still raining when we left, so we cooped ourselves up in our room until later in the evening when we raided the night market for a serious amount of watches!!!
The following day was another dull weather day, so we had a bit of a lie in and ended up going up the mountain to see the Duoi Supthep Temple which overlooks Chiang Mai. We got one of the pick-up taxis to get there and ended up feeling a queasy when we eventually made it to the top, because of the twists and turns in the road and the diesel fumes!! We were glad to get out! 
The temple is small, as far as temples go, but it is bloody lovely, has loads of bells and Buddhas and a shitload of gold in the temple spire!! Once we finished up there we made our way back to our hotel and went for a bit of a pamper with massages and facial scrubs, ready to face the night Market one last time!! Again, we bought a few watches as well as some other bumpf and watched one round of staged Mui Thai boxing. Ju thought it was real until I told here to watch where all the kicks, knees and punches land- all on the gloves! We got a Tuk-Tuk back to the hotel and packed, as we were leaving at 5am to fly back to Bangkok, where we are now, in a hotel by the airport, looking forward to tomorrow and the most eagerly awaited part of our holiday- The Maldives!!! 

Boats, bridges, Birthdays and Bye bye Bangkok

Boats, Bridges, Birthdays and Bye Bye Bangkok

Had a couple of really good days in Bangkok, even though we spent most of the time outside of Bangkok!!
On Monday we were up at sparrowfart, 0530, in order to get ready, have some breakfast and then get a cab over to the Kohsan Road for 7am. We were picked ip in a minivan, along with ten or so other people for our tour of The Bridge Over The River Kwai and The Tiger Temple. 
Unfortunately, it is quite a drive to get to the bridge, so we spent a cramped couple of hours driving there. Our First stop was one of the associated Allied War Cemetaries. Unfortunately, as we were running late, we only had about 30 minutes there, which was not long enough. It brought back memories of when I went to Normandy for D-Day commemoration in 2004, and I went to the cemetery in Bayueax. That day, I cried non stop for 30 minutes when I was walking round that cemetery. This time, I was fine, until I started reading the headstones and the words that the families had put on there in memory of their lost son/Father/Husband. Made me shed a few more tears. 
We then drove on a little further to the bridge itself. 
When we arrived, our guide gave us a little talk about the bridge, museum, train and the timetable. He had such a hilarious accent, and kept saying PWREEASE, instead of please! If I can upload the video, I will! 
We had a look around the Jeath War Museum and saw the remnants of the original Wooden Bridge. There is only a small bit of it left. We then walked up and over the Metal Bridge, which got blown up in 1944. It is still used today. We then took a train along the "death railway" for about two hours. It was bloody hot and like being on a space hopper!! Seriously, the bogies on the train are ferked!! It was bouncing up and down and all over the place. A few people, including Ju, started to feel a bit queasy!! Once we stopped, we had lunch, which was not too bad actually, then we were driven to one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Thailand. Except there was one problem. There was bugger all water!! Because it wad so hot, there was no water falling over the waterfall!! I could see that it would be nice when there was water, but there was only a trickle today!! 
After all that excitement (!) we then drove to my favourite part- the Tiger Temple. 
Again, a peed off because we did not have enough time here to do too much, but we still managed to get up close and stroke several Tigers and have our pictures taken with them. Absolutely magnificent animals. I have already decided that my next tattoo will be a tiger, because I love them, and I was born in the year of the Tiger! We even got to stroke some baby ones as well!! All too soon we had to leave and had a 3 hour drive back to Bangkok. When we eventually got back, we just had a quick bite to eat and then flomped into bed as we were so tired, and had to be up early again for the following days trip. 
Today was Ju's Birthday, and I surprised her again with a birthday card which I have had since we left home! I also arranged for the hotel to deliver a small Birthday cake to our room as well, complete with candles!!
We were up early again for another trip and this one was to the floating markets. As we left the hotel, it's was pissing down with rain, but thankfully it stopped by the time we had driven the 2 hours to the Market. Once we arrived we were shuffled onto a longtail boat with a V8 engine on the back and the whizzed along some of the canals to the main Market area where we transferred to a smaller boat, with a bloke on the back with a paddle. It was such a weird, surreal experience to be in q boat, drifting along, past all the stalls along the bank. There were other boats where people were cooking on them and selling from the boat as they drew up alongside you. It really is something you have to do if you come to Bangkok. We had just over an hour of floating and shopping and managed to grab a few more bargains as well. We made it back to Bangkok for about 2 and after lunch, proceeded to pack and have a snooze for an hour, before we checked out of the hotel, about 6. 
This evening, we are taking the overnight sleeper train up to Chiangmai. Unfortunately, all the First class Private sleeper cabs were sold out, so we have had to make do with second class sleeper bunks! For those of you that know Ju, it did not go down too well!! But fair play to her, she has enjoyed the adventure of doing something she would never normally do!! We are sharing an open compartment with 2 other beds, one of which has a Japanese version of sideshow Bob in it!! Just hope he does not mind my snoring!! We made the best we could of the evening by having several Singha Beers and a curry, watched a movie on the Laptop (Black Swan. Seen it before, still confusing but great!)
As I type this, I am on the lower bunk and Ju is, hopefully, sleeping peacefully above me on the top bunk. We both have earplugs in and sleep masks, and, surprisingly, the bed is fairly comfortable. So coupled with the imbibing of beer earlier, I should get a good kip!! 
I will post this once we get to our hotel in Chiangmai tomorrow. 
Night all!!

Bangkok, heat and almost being Tuk- Tuk for a ride!!

Bangkok. It is fecking Hot!!! Everywhere we go, day or night, it is stupid hot!! I have to change clothes twice daily because it is so damn hot!!!
On our first day in Bangkok, we decided to do some sightseeing, sonwe got a taxi and went to the Grand Palace.
Now, this is where we almost got conned.
As we were walking to go into the temple, a local, very friendly man, said that the temple was closed until 2pm because of some religious service going on. ( it was currently 12.30)
He suggested that we go and visit a couple of other sights and come back at 2. He then 'hailed' a Tuk-Tuk and said that he would take us to these "sights" for only 20THB, wait for us and then bring us back to where we started. I immediately thought that something was fishy, but Ju was already in the Tuk-Tuk, saying "let's go!"
So off we went. All the time, something was playing
On my mind about the price being so low. Our first stop was "the royal Temple"
As we went to go in, we were greeted by a man who claimed he was a Principal of the school across the road who was helping out at the temple at the weekend. He then tried to explain something about the Temple, then he started asking personal questionslike, where we were from, where we lived, how much rent we paid. As soon as he asked that, I knew something was not right. I refused to answer and cut him off. He then left us to explore the temple, which was nothing more than a courtyard. When we returned tou our driver, he was sat with the guy who talked to us about the Temple. We got back into the Tuk-Tuk and he then dropped us off at an "import" shop. As soon as we walked in, I knew it was a con. It was a jewellery/gem shop. We just walked straight out and the driver then got upset saying that we had to go in for 5 minutes and buy something, or he would not get his voucher for petrol. I very politely told him to F*co off, gave him his 20THB and walked away to get a taxi back to the Great Temple! Lesson learnt!!
The Great Temple was pretty spectacular in itself. Lots of big ornate buildings, smothered in gold and jewels. We then went to see the reclining Buddha, which was exactly that! A big Buddha, reclining and he was about 100ft in length!! And very Gold and shiny!!
After the Buddha we took a short trip across the river to Wat Arun, which was another temple, which we could actually climb halfway up to the top. The last set of steps were virtually a ladder!! Great views from up there!
We ended up o. The Kohsan Road for dinner and tucked into a juicy steak each, and our taxi home was Mr. Magoo. He had proper jam jars on and unswear he was nearly blind! Another hair raising cab ride.
Today we went to Chatuchuck Market, which is a ferking HUGE open air Market, covering 27 acres and 14,000 stalls! It makes Wwmbley Market look like a jumble sale!! Again, it was stupid hot!! I think Ju and I had 6 bottles of drink each, but never needed the loo, as we were sweating so much!! We, mainly Ju, had a great time in the Market, buying all sorts of bits and bobs! Even had to buy a suitcase to carry it all!!
We again went to Kohsan Road for dinner and ended up finding a tour operator and booking trips for the next 4 days, starting with a trip tomorrow to Kanchanaburi and The Bridge Over The River Kwai, as well as a stop at a Tiger Temple. Really looking forward to the trip. Only thing is, we have to be up at 5:15am in order to get the bus in time!!!
Will do another blog, once we have done our trips and probably from Chiang Mai, where we are off to on Ruesday on the overnight sleeper train!

Koh Samui, Crashes and Tattoos

Koh Samui, crashes and Tattoos!

Well, I certainly don't think we will be forgetting Koh Samui!!
We were only there for 3 nights, it rained every day, on and off, but we had a great time. 
The hotel was really nice. It was on the opposite side of the Island to all the shops, bars and clubs, but that it what we wanted- a bit of peace and quiet. The staff were really nice and friendly. The food was good, and we managed to get some decent sleep at last! 
On our second day, we decided to explore the island a bit, so we hired a couple of scooters for the day. At 11.00am we left the hotel and at 11.00.02s, the scooter trip was over! 
Imagine, if you will, the hundreds of clips that you have seen on "you've been framed" of someone, generally a woman, sat on a bike/scooter, and they go to set off and open the throttle full, wobble, scream and then fall over/skid/ crash!
Well, unfortunately, this is what happened to Ju!
After a brief instruction on how a scooter works, we set off, only Ju opened the throttle full, panicked, went to turn and stacked it in under two seconds. Bless her! She ended up with a gravel graze on her elbow and a couple of knocks on her knee. Needless to say, she did not go anywhere near the scooters again! Luckily, we were outside the hotel, so she got patched up and we skunk back to our room. I ended up pottering about on my scooter later to go to a pharmacy to get some painkillers and also for a little tour to see what was about. That was the end of that day!!
The following day, we sensibly decided to rent a car to tour the Island. We ended up driving up to the North to see the Big Buddha, and was a big bugger alright! No sooner had we got there, than the heavens opened again and it proper pissed it down, for 10 minutes, then it stopped almost as soon as it started and was hot again!! We had a good mooch around the site and took lots of pics, then bundled back into the car and headed to Chaweng, which is the biggest town on Samui. We had a wander down the main street, and, even though we both said we would not do it, we both got a tattoo done! We both had a traditional Thai Sak Yant done ( the scripture like Angelina Jolie) Ju had hers done on her back on her upper left shoulder blade and I had to have mine in the middle of my lower back, as I am running out of room!!! We had it done traditionally with bamboo as well! Really pleased with how they turned out as well! After getting inked, we headed back through Chaweng and took a tour through the centre of the island to our hotel. 
We managed to persuade the hire car people to let us have the car till noon the next day, so we were able to drive ourselves to the airport and save on taxis. 
I must say that Koh Samui airport is one of the nicest and most picturesque airports I have ever been to! It is literally just big wooden huts, with no Walls, and so laid back. Puts you at ease before you get on one of the smallest passenger planes that rattles along!!!
We had a short flight to Bangkok and actually spent longer in the taxi, with another psyhcotic taxi driver, getting to our hotel, than we did flying!!
Again, we have lucked out with our hotel. It is pretty much central, overlooking the river, and we have got a suite, with a couple of sofas, a kitchen, a kingsize and a balcony overlooking the river!! Great Internet bargain!!
Sad to see the news about Japan, and had to reassure several people that we are ok, and not in any danger. Let's hope that there are no more! 
Off to explore Bangkok in the morning. Looking forward to seeing lots of weird and wonderful things!! :-)

A Tiny Plane and Island Hopping

We are flying in THAT thing?! And island hopping!

It's been a while since the last post, so time for an update! 
We left our nice little hotel and got a taxi up to the airport, which was not the biggest of airports! We had to queue for bloody ages before we managed to check in and for some reason, there were hundreds of Russians everywhere! All fat, round, pink and sweaty! Not the best of sights! 
Anyway, once we checked in, we then waited for our flight to be called. Eventually it was called and we all shuffled through the gate on to a bus to be driven to our plane. When we got to our "plane" I cracked up and Ju was worried! She could not believe we would actually be flying on such a small plane!! It was a twin propellered small plane with about 50 seats! Needless to say, Ju was a little nervous on take off! After a short flight we landed in Koh Samui airport, which Is the coolest airport in the world, ever!!! We were met off the plane by little buses, the kind you would probably find whizzing around Disneyland, and driven to the terminal "building" which really is just a roof over a luggage conveyor! There are no Walls! There was even a cat sleeping in the middle of the floor!!! So laid back!
We then got a cab to take us to the ferry port- another cab story! We paid for our cab, only for him to bring two other people, drop them off after 5 minutes. Then, 2 minutes later, he stops. We get out and into another cab, carrying 6 people from our same flight!! God knows!
Eventually made it to the fast ferry and took the catamaran over to Koh Pangnang. To get to our hotel we had to get a taxi which resembled a pickup truck with a sheep pen on the back of it!!
Our hotel this time was a small collection of NICE bungalows right on the beach and only a 10 minute walk from the town. What was amazing was, in the town, there was a bloody TESCO'S and 3 minutes from us was The Masons Arms, an English pub!! Ju was happy about this as she could eat 'normal' food again!! The next day, we took a cab up the coast to Haad Yao beach, a psychotic cabbie this time! I actually had to bang on the window to tell him to slow down!! It was a great little beach, with the golden sand and Blue sea that Ju has been longing for! We had lunch on the beach and spent most of the day in the water, snorkelling the reef that was just offshore! 
After 3 peaceful nights on Pangnag, we took the early ferry up to Koh Tao to our next port of call. Our hotel was right on the North West tip of the Island, and there is only 1 main road on the island, and it finished at our hotel. Actually, it finished about 1 mile before our hotel- the last bit was a bumpy track that you could only access in a 4x4. We even had to pass under a HUGE boulder that had fallen partially across the road!
The hotel was great. We again got lucky with the room. A nice big suite. The whole complex is built into the hillside, starting at the waters edge and making it's way up the steep cliff. We had a great view over the sea and Islands opposite. One of the best features was, right at the bottom, there was direct access to the water and the snorkelling was amazing!! Sooooo many fish and reefs! We literally spent the whole 2 days in the sea, watching all the fish!! It's a shame we were only there for 2 days. Had we have known how great the place was, we would have stayed longer. 
We were up early to catch the morning ferry all the way back to Koh Samui, where I am now. Sat beside the pool, in the sun, waiting for the sunset!
We have 3 nights here before we fly off to Bangkok. I think we will try and explore the Island a bit tomorrow. I will try and upload some pictures when I have time!!
back to the sunbathing for now though........

One night in Phuket

One night in Phuket!

So it is bye bye to Ko Phi Phi- after a false start!
We got up at 9, to pack, check-out and make our way to the pier for the 10:30 ferry to Phuket. 
Only there was not a 10:30 ferry to Phuket! But there was one to Krabi! The next ferry was not until 13:30!! Bloody fecking arse!! So we now had 3 hours to kill, so we just went and had breakfast and then pootled online for an hour and a half until was time to go! We eventually got on the ferry after much disorganised chaos on the pier. We both sat up on deck, soaking up the rays. We made it to Phuket in about 95 mins and then went about getting a taxi to our hotel, which was about 30 miles away, just by the airport. 
Either we get all the nutty taxi drivers or they really all are mad over here!! We had yet another nutty driver, who spoke not much English, but thought he could! He weaves in and out of traffic, at one point, he stopped off at a school and picked up his 7 year old son and dropped him home en route!! He had the local Thai radio on and was singing along, really badly, as well as trying to dance whilst driving!! All along the way, he kept saying, you want to stop here, 2 minutes, go shopping or stop get pineapple or stop get coconut! By the end of it, I had to say please, we just want to go to our hotel!!! Ju was cracking up in the back, trying not to laugh!! Eventually we made it to our hotel and was quite nice. It was in Nia Yang Beach, just south of the airport and is right opposite the beach. The road is lined with seafood restaurants, bars, massage parlours and tailors?! Just up the road is a huge hotel complex which has been deserted since the tsunami hit here. It looks spooky. Some of the bars have pictures up of before and after the tsunami hit. This place looks like it was hit pretty hard. 
We ended up in a lovely little place, having a candlelit dinner on the beach as the sun was setting. It was really beautiful and the food was great too. Now getting an early night as we are both shattered from the lack of sleep over the last week  and are looking forward to flying to Ko Samui and then on to Ko Pang-Nang tomorrow! More beaches and sunsets to come for the next week! 
Today (2 March) is our halfway point in our holiday! 3.5 weeks down 3.5 more to go!!! 
Seems like such a long time ago that we Landed in Hong Kong!!! Let's hope these next few weeks are as great as the ones gone by already!!!

A postcard from Koh Phi Phi-fecking noisy place!!!

Koh Phi Phi, Diving and "BRRING, BRRING!"

Hello campers! It's been a while since the last blog post. As we are leaving KPP tomorrow, I thought I may as well update our adventures that we had this week on KPP. 
When we arrived last Wednesday (2 days earlier than planned because of the Krabi debacle!)
We were already half cut due to the Chang beer we had on the ferry! Not knowing that it is about 6.8ABV!! So we needed a pee stop and went to the first bar next to the pier for a pee. Thing is, it was for punters only, so we had 2 more beers!!
It was sweltering hot and we had to lug all our bags to the other side of the island to our hotel, through all the narrow uneven streets. 10 minutes later we got there, drenched in sweat and half pissed, only to find out that, because we Did not call to confirm our reservation, they had let the room! Bastards! And KPP was exceptionally busy as well. Most of the hotels were full. In a bit of a panic, I managed to find a place just up the street, closer to the beach. It was a quaint looking bamboo bungalow, quite nice for the price I thought, and what's more, at least we had a room for the night! 
How wrong was I?!!!
What I did not realise once we had booked and paid for the room, was how noisy, hot and uncomfortable it was!! Being only literally 20m from the beach, was great during the day, unfortunately, at night, at both the bars to the right and left, they had nightly beach parties, with fooking huge speakers and bass bins!! It was sooooo loud that the whole hut sook with every beat!!! Whats worse is that it was like an oven in there! The one pissy fan did bugger all to cool us down! So, after being blasted with music and sweating bucketloads, we went to find another hotel at midnight, just to get some rest!! They were all full, so we had to bed down for the night in the hellhole!! Mercifully, the music stopped about 2am and we eventually managed to sleep! Needless to say, we did not stay another night! We found a little hotel on the other side of the Island for the next night and managed to get some decent sleep at last!
For the following night, we were over on Phi Phi Leh Island, camping on the beach in Maya Bay, which was the one used in THE BEACH. ( see previous post for blog about that)
When we returned from Maya Bay we got our bags from the tour operator and then checked into our original "hotel". I say hotel loosely, as it is just a couple of dozen bungalows. Mercifully, the one we booked was made of bricks and mortar and not bamboo! It was only about 30M behind the previous hellhole, but the Walls blocked out most of the noise, so we invested in earplugs!!
Had a quiet day mooching on the beach and a lite dinner by the pier. 
Next we we went to Viking Divers to start our SSI open water training. We had to sit and watch some videos in the morning and In the afternoon went diving just off the beach in the harbour side of the island to about 3-4m depth, but learning all the health and safety stuff. Things like removing masks and replacing, bouyancy, breathing. All mundane, but necessary. Ju, bless her, who is not all adventurous, did really well and managed to all tasks. Unfortunately though, she did not really enjoy it and did not want to continue the course. Also, shae was a little scared about diving too deep and having a panic attack underwater. Bless her. I am sooo proud of her for trying though!
So I ended up going on my own for the second day. I was teamed with the same Instructor, Laura, who was great, and a Bulgarian girl called Antonia, who became more whiny and annoying as the day progressed!
We went out past PP Leh to a place called Shark Point (for good reason) and I did my first open water dive. Almost as soon as we got to depth, we saw a HUGE Leopard Shark! About 6-7 foot long! Just sat there, chilling on the bottom! Awesome to see. We ended up seeing 3 or 4 more in the next hour, among thousand of other fish!
We then had a break for lunch ( at 0930!) and then did a second dive in another location, both 12m depth. I bloody loved it!
It was much the same the following day, except this time we went to 2 other locates and went to 18m and it was just Laura and myself. It is so peaceful and colourful down there and I cannot wait to go diving again! I passed my final exam, got my SSI divers license and dive log and a video of my dives! Poor Ju. She feels sad about missing out and hopefully will be able to do a controlled dive in the Maldives, which I am sure she is going to love!!
This is now our final night in KPP and, don't get me wrong, it is a lovely place- if you are young and single!! There is so much onus on partying and drinking and booze cruises, that it sort of detracts a bit from the real KPP. And, as in Pangkor Laut, the soundtrack was Ju going AIEEEE, here it is BRRINGG, BRRINGG or BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP!!! that is the soundtrack of all the locals on pushbikes, cycling up the narrow streets, trying to get past!!! If they don't have a bell, the do just say beep or brringg!! It was funny the first few days, but now, just annoying!!
Overall, I have enjoyed KPP for the experiences we have had here, the tour, the diving, the beach, but I don't think Ju was overly impressed! Next stop is Phuket tomorrow for one night before we fly to Ko Samui the following day and then on to Ko Pangang when we land. Have looked online, and there and no raves on the beach in front of our hotel!!! So until next time............

Just simply amazing!!!!

Probably one of the best days and nights of my life- ever. 

Today on Koh Phi Phi, I, we have had such an awesome and amazing time. We booked a tour through a local agency and it went a little like this:-
Started on Phi Phi Island and took a longtail boat ride to monkey beach where we hand fed monkeys with grapes. 
Next stop was a snorkelling trip- with sharks!! Totally mind-blowing! There we are, just swimming away, surrounded by hundreds of tropical fish and in amongst them are black tip sharks, some of which are more than 6ft in length. So amazing to be swimming free among sharks!!! 
Next stop was cliff jumping!! We stopped at the far South West tip of Phi Phi and clambered up the cliffs to jump off there were various heights to jump from, ranging from 10ft to 50ft. Thing is, you had to climb up razor sharp jagged rocks to get there. It reminded me of when I was a kid, jumping off the prom, Barbican and warehouse in Penzance! I thought, feck it, and went straight to the highest point and jumped off it!! The force of the impact hurt my ass, and blew my Velcro watch off my arm!! ( I managed to catch it before it sank!)
After that, I was done!
Next stop was on Phi Phi Leh. We stopped in a bay and had a swim and some dinner. The water was soooo blue and clear. 
The best bit was yet to come. 
We continued around the coast of Phi Phi Leh and came into Maya bay. The beach that was used in the film "the beach". Absolutely stunning. When we got there though, about 4.30, it was packed with loads of boats and hundreds of people. Not so good. 
Now, this is where it gets great. We had paid to camp out overnight on the beach! So, as time went on, more and more people and more and more boats started to leave. Eventually, there was myself and Ju and about 30 other people left.  
We all sat around chatting and there are about half a dozen local Thai guys who stay here on the Island and cater for the camping tours. They cooked us a great Thai chicken curry, which we ate under the sheer rock face that surrounds the beach. There is a small hut which you can buy drinks from as well. Later on, the guys do a fire dance and cook BBQ chicken and carry on drinking and partying until you want to sleep. 
Here is the best bit. I am currently lying on "The Beach" next to Ju, in a sleeping bag, with the stars shining as bright as I have seen them, above me. Also, In the distance, there is a thunderstorm lighting up the night sky!! I just wish I could take a picture to show you how truly amazing this is right now. Another thing to add, which makes this even better, is, for those of you that have seen THE BEACH. The moment where Leonardo Dicaprio goes to the beach at night with the French bird and then they get it on in the water. Whilst they do that, the sea glows around them- IT'S TRUE!!!!!!
the plankton that is in the water, when you move through it, they light up and glow in the dark!!! It truly is sooo amazing and spectacular here that, being the wuss that I am, I am close to tears because it is so beautiful. I am just so glad that I am able to share this with Ju as well.  If you are ever in Phi Phi, you HAVE to do this trip! It is one of, if not the best experiences of my life!! I am just so glad to do it!!!
Now going to fall asleep, next to the woman I love, listening to chillout songs including PURE SHORES  and PORCELAIN  on the iPod, in a sleeping bag, on "The Beach" looking up at the stars. 
Such an amazing moment in my life. (sorry bro, lol!!)

Thailand and "anyone for the Bangkok Hilton?!"

Thailand at last and the Bangkok Hilton!!

Finally said a sad farewell and left Pangkor Laut to make the trip to Thailand. We ended up having to get another taxi back to Kuala Lumpur airport. We ended up in a nice Mercedez with a mad driver called mr Rajhmal, who had a great handlebar moustach! He was a mad driver because he would literally drive up right behind the car in front and I swear he actually nudged a few, and when he then overtook, he would pull alongside stare them out for 5 seconds and then shoot off!! I had to tip him as I was scared what he would do if I didnt!!
We made the 4 hour trip on only 3 hours, thanks to Mr Rajhmal, and had a 4 hour wait for our flight. I must say that KLIA is a really nice, clean and efficient airport. It took us only 10 minutes to get through to departure side. We spent our time waiting by pootling around on the net and watching movies. Eventually we got on our flight and flew to Phuket. 

When we arrived, we made it through passport control fine, picked up our bags and proceeded to go and meet our driver. As we were going through customs, we were selected to put our bags through the scanner. This is where I thought they were packing us off to the Bangkok Hilton! As Ju's bag went through the scanner, the female official started squealing and asked Ju to open it and empty it. She did and the customs bint pointed to something that Ju had bought of a beach seller in Bali. It was a solid frame, about 1 inch thick and about 10x6 in size. On the middle of it were 3 floating metal Buddah heads. She said it was bad, and I am immediately thinking, "oh shit, is it packed with drugs??!" 
It turns out that it is forbidden to remove from the country of Thailand, any images or figures of Buddah. What made ours worse is that it was just the head, which is sacrilegious!! We were worried as to what they were going to do, but at least it was not drugs!! We were taken to the supervisor, who looked a lot like Kim-Il Jong, and he tried to explain, in minimal Engrish, that it was illegal to transport Buddah, especially the head, but he would let us off and then tried to fasten some sort of bathplug chain around the gift with a customs stamp! Much bizarreness!
We eventually made it outside, to find our driver to drive us the 2 hours round to Krabi. Except, the hotel we had booked, which said it was in Krabi, was   Not in Krabi- it was 30km past Krabi, on the beach, in the middle of nowhere!! And our driver did not know the way!! He stopped twice to ask for directions, and then picked up a woman with her kid to take us there! Farcical stuff! 
When we eventually got there, there was no-one on the open air reception, as it was their day off! Eventually, someone arrived and checked us in. We were both too tired to care at this point, so we both just had a (cold) shower and crashed for the night. Also, let's be honest, anywhere we stay after Pangkor Laut was bound to be a bit of a comedown!!
This morning, we got up, went to have breakfast overlooking the beach, only to discover that the beach was black sand and there was literally nothing around us! We both decided that we would check out today, 2 days early and head to Koh Phi Phi. I sort of felt bad, as it looks like it is a family fun spa hotel and they really try and make an effort and were so nice, but it is just so isolated! So we paid for 2 days and scarpered! We are now sat on the overloaded sweatbox of a ferry to Koh Phi Phi for a week. Looking forward to doing a PADI diving course, and having a bit of a fecking party!!
Am writing this on my notes app on iPhone and will cut and paste when I can! Might even add some more by then, but for now, time to snooze on the ferry!!

G & J

Pangkor Laut, monkey hunting and "AIEEE"

Pangkor Laut Island Resort really is as good as it says on the tin! From the moment we landed we were treated like royalty! We were met at KL airport by our driver, Mr Logan, in our own private people carrier. Because we missed breakfast at the hotel in Bali and missed it on the plane as we were sleeping, by the time we landed in KL, we were starving! The fact that we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us meant that we had to eat something, so, being sacrilegious, we stopped at a McDonalds drive through! Well it was cheap, quick and just what we needed for a quick fix! Almost! It is nice to see that McDonalds staff are thick and incompetent all over the world, and not just in the UK!! Ju, being the fussy eater that she is, simply wanted a big mac with nothing but the bread, burger and cheese in it. Simple you would think?! Nooo. It took four, yes, four attempts for them to get it right! The first came with sauce and pickle, the second, no cheese, the third, sauce and pickle again, and finally, on the fourth go, they got it right! So, after an elongated food stop, we lay back in our seats and slept most of the 4 hours up to Lumut to catch the ferry across to the island.

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with a cold flannel and a drink and then given the run down of the island. It is such a big complex that they use shuttle buses to get you from one place to the other!!
When we entered our room/ spa villa- Wow! It was amazing. Set about 50m from the shore, over the water, with our own sun balcony, huge bedroom, huge bathroom and a bath that managed to actually swim a stroke in, it was that big. Complete luxury!
We settled in, went for dinner and had an early night and slept so well.
Over the next couple of days we just mooches about the island, swimming in the spa pool in the morning and then catching the bus to Emerald Beach for lunch and sun in the afternoon.
On our first day on the beach, we discovered that there were hundreds of small hermit crabs on the sea bed, in the shallows of the water, and I managed to catch a few, most and inch or two in size. Ju was fascinated by them and sat on the beach having her own 'crab wars', where she would try and get one to fight the other!!
What was so funny was that, on the following day, when we went to the beach, Ju was reluctant to get in the water because she realised that the crabs were on the sea floor and thought that they would bite her. It was so funny because whenever anything touched her feet, she would jump and yelp
' aieee'! That was all I heard all afternoon!! That was my soundtrack to Pankgkor Laut- AIEEE!!
There is lots of local wildlife on the island and we were lucky to see Eagles, Hornbills, turtles, sea otters. There are also wild monkeys as well and Ju was obsessed about seeing them, and on day 3, she got her wish! We were on the beach when a cry went up from a woman to our left. 3 monkeys had come down from the trees and jumped on her table and were trying to pilfer food!! They scampered off, with Ju in hot pursuit, camera in hand, saying 'here monkey, come here'!! She got some good pics. One of them of a monkey with his head in an ice bucket!!
On our final day, which was our Wedding Anniversary, we had a nice lie in and mooch in the pool In the morning. I thought I would tackle the 3km Jungle trek that goes from the East of the island along the south coast and over to the west coast. The guide time was 60 minutes. So I told Ju to meet me on the beach in 1 hour for lunch and set off. No sooner had I set off and found myself a stick with which to beat away any monkeys or

Monitor lizards, then I felt something on my shoulder. I just brushed it and felt a cobweb and saw a fecking HUGE Black and yellow spider fall to the floor!! Those of you that know me well know that i am EXTREMELY arachnophbic!! Needless to say I literally shat myself, screamed like a girl and let off a fair few expletives! Thankfully I was on my own, so was not embarrassed any further! I even managed to take a picture of the bugger!
I managed to compose myself and continued on my trek, making sure to clear any cobwebs away with my stick! To say it was hot would be an understatement!! I was sweating more than the proverbial fat Man in the pie shop, who was also wearing a sweatsuit. Whilst running. In a sauna. That was in the middle of the sahara. It was hot!!
It was a good trek as well, some really steep bits, up and down, where they had cut into the hillside and placed logs for steps. I eventually emerged on the other side about an hour or so later, drenched in sweat and staggered on to the beach, plopped my stuff onto a lounger and fell into the sea. Bliss!!
Had a final lazy afternoon with Ju on the beach, still going AIEEE, whenever she was in the water. When we were leaving, 2 monkeys literally appeared in front of us and jumped onto a table and started rifling through someones beach bag. I still had my jungle stick with me and managed to beat them away before they took anything so they just ran to the back of the bar and took some fruit and sat on the road and ate it! Buggers!
We had a really lovely anniversary dinner. We just ordered room service and ate it on our balcony over the sea in our villa, with chill-out music in the background, the sun setting and local fishermen in their small boats catching barracuda. A perfect end to a perfect stay.
The resort really is an amazing place to go, and can recommend it to anyone, if you don't mind spending a bit of cash! We were lucky in the fact that we got a very good deal on the room, but the food is expensive, about £20 per dish minimum and the spa treatments are very expensive as well. But the whole experience is worth it. We shall never forget this place and hope to come back again someday.
Now though, we are on way back to KL airport, via another 4 hour drive (our driver has a fantastic handlebar moustache, I will try and get a pic) and a flight up to Phuket and another 2 hour car trip the other end to get to Krabi. Thailand, here we come! Just under 4 weeks of exploring all Thailand has to offer! Really been looking forward to this!
I will try and add pictures at a later date.
Until the next update, so long Malaysia, hello Thailand!!

G & J

Well, we had a fabulous time in Bali and would recommend it to anyone. When we arrived, there was a bit of confusion as to what we were supposed to do, but went figured out, in the end, that we had to queue to buy a visa to enter Bali, and then queue again to go through passport control which took forever!! When we had eventually made it through and got our bags, we then had to go through a further security checkpoint and put all our bags through a scanner!!

When we eventually made it out of the airport doors, we were met by a scene of total disorganised chaos! The best way to describe it is to imagine the very front row of a concert, all squeezed against the rails. Well, this is what it looked like, but the people were just those waiting to meet passengers, holding up name cards! Madness!

Then, we noticed how hot it was. Within 2 minutes, I was sweating like in a sauna! (I know, fat bloke!)

We eventually found a cab and $3 and 5 minutes later were at the hotel. We were surprised, to say the least, to be met by guards armed with semi automatic rifles, who did an under car bomb search and checked us out before we were to proceed!! (there are armed guards marshaling entry and exit points and all guests carry ID cards) this is a direct result of the bombings several years ago. At least we felt safe in the hotel!!

We were very surprised by the hotel itself. It was only a Holiday Inn, but with a Balanise twist. It was very well presented and the staff were SO polite and efficient. We were greeted with a cold face towel and a bowl of cold jelly, whilst we were checked in. Bloody nice touch. The room was good, not great, but modern, cool and good. The only annoying thing was, right outside our room was a decorative pond, and for the last 2 nights all we could here were bloody frogs all effing night! At one point, I climbed in and threw stones at the feckers!! Noisy bastards!!

Frogs aside, it was a great hotel with nice pool and swim up bar. Once we were settled in, we sat down on the front, in oversized wicker sofas, overlooking the beach and sea. We then proceeded to get quite pissed and silly, watching the lovely sunset and sampling the local brew "Bintang", which was rather nice!

We managed to make it up for breakfast the next morning and spent the day doing a mix of shopping in the local mall, which was a 15 minute walk up the beach, and parking about by the pool.

The following day, we booked a tour, doing several activities. First of which was snorkeling of the coast, which was ok, but because there were 20 other boatloads there, the water was a bit churned up and not as clear as it could have been, but still saw plenty of tropical fish. Next up was Turtle park, which is as it says, sort of! It is a small landing beach where they keep lots of turtles, some huge buggers as well, 4-5 foot long, as well as snakes, lizards, and monkeys! Got to hold my first snake, a big python, and, I must admit, it felt weird and I won't do it again in a hurry!! Even Ju had a go as well, bless her!

We then had a bite to eat then off for a 2 hour spa session, which included full body massage, scrub, foot bath, floral bath. I was so relaxed, I kept falling asleep!! Bloody lovely though!!

After our rub down, we then went on a small tour of the south of the island, encompassing a bloody great statute of some Hindu gods and a lovely cove beach called dreamland, which you could only reach by climbing down some steps carved through the rocks! We declined a swim, seeing as were all nice and fresh from the spa and then headed off to the clifftop temple at Uluwatau.

When we got there, our driver, Cherro, advised us to remove all of our jewellery, hats and glasses, as the monkeys that live in the temple love to grab things of people, which we saw first hand! We saw several hats nabbed, some glasses, they even tried to take the flip flops of someones feet!!

The temple itself was beautiful. Perched high on top of the cliffs and lots of nooks and crannies, but by God, was it hot!! After all that pampering and spa, it was all gone as I was again sweating more than the proverbial fat man in a pie shop!! We stopped off for a cool coconut water then back to the hotel for a cold shower and an early night!

The next day, we had a lie in and a lazy morning by the pool, until after lunch, as we were doing a shortened temple tour in the afternoon taking in 2 of the bigger temples. Silly me, fell asleep on a floating board in the pool for 30 mins and crisped my back! I did not feel it until that evening, but i was proper English Lobster!

Anyway, we set off on our temple tour, but got bogged down in Traffic! It took us 40 minutes to do 200m at one point!
I must take a side step here to talk about the traffic in Bali-It is Fecking Bonkers!!!!!!

There seems to be no sense of highway code! If you want to overtake, you do- Regardless of what is coming in the other direction! Even Undertaking is done with scary ease, and it does not matter who has right of way, as if someone wants to turn or cross the road in front of you, they will just do it!! BUT the worst thing is, MY GOD, the bloody bikes and scooters!! I have NEVER seen soooo bloody bikes and scooters on the road! If you imagine ALL of the bikes and scooters you have ever seen, ever, in your whole entire life, and then multiply by 1000, you are still not close to the number of scooters that there are on the roads in Bali!! And they literally have NO road sense or sense of danger at all, whatsoever!! I mean, it is not uncommon to see 3 people on a moped, Father, Mother AND BABY! Yep, thats right, a freaking baby!! Mum and Dad are ok with helmets on, not all the time, but baby? NO! Un-fecking-believable!! And then, there are the mopeds bombing round with 10-12 year old kids driving them! With 3 or 4 people on board! And seriously, they do not care about other traffic! They will pull out in front of you whenever and wherever they want! ALSO, there are the mopeds that really should be trucks, as they are soooo overloaded, they are wider and higher than a car!! Just Stupidly so! (oh and i forgot to say that, everywhere, by the side of the road, are people selling petrol-out of empty vodka bottles!!)

Anyway, Rant over, back to the trip.

We eventually made it to the first temple, and It was worth the trip, Cant remember what it was called, but it was bloody lovely, with lots of different tall and short stacks and immaculately kept gardens, surrounded by a moat. We could not stay too long there as we were trying to get to Tanah Lot Temple for Sunset, and were still a way away.

we managed to get there in time, (bonkers driving!) and on the way to the Temple, the streets are just full of market shops selling all kinds of tourist tut, but fascinating to wonder round!

The temple itself is another great spectacle. Built on a big rock that is separated from the cliffs, only by about 30 metres, and is easily accessible at low tide, (it was high tide, boo). There were other buildings on the cliff leading up to it, and it stretched even over to the next 2 bits of headland that were 5 mins and 10 mins walk away. We stayed to watch the sunset, but left as soon as it became apparent that it was getting too cloudy to see a good one, and that the clouds were actually storm clouds! Made it back to the car in time before the Heavens opened and the lightning came down!

Our last stop was to a beautiful restaurant that was on the beach. All the tables were on the beach and the food was in fish tanks in the restaurant or in the, fresh from that afternoons fish market, ice boxes. (I had chicken!) All was going great, until, just before our food arrived, it pissed it down again! So we legged it indoors and eat the dinner watching the rain belting down on the beach. Another good day, apart from, that night was the first night of the sodding frog chorus!

Because we had bugger all sleep, we had another lazy final day, in the shops, and by the pool, and Ju got her hair and nails done, AGAIN! And I stayed undercover, as i was still frazzled from the sun the day before!

Had a nice final meal in a local restaurant, and a meander along the main street back to the hotel, before finally calling it a night after packing at about 11, only to be kept awake by sodding Kermit & his friends again!

We were up at 0530 for our 8am flight back to KL and made it ok, both slept the 3 hours on the plane and for 3 of the 4 hours in the car travelling form KL airport to Lumut, ready for our next stop, which is the truly amazing and fantastic Pangkor Laut Island resort, which I will tell you all about in my next blog, whenever I get round to it!

Thanks for reading my version of War & Peace, and I will try to make my next one a lot shorter!!

Bye for now!

G & J

Bye Bye Bali, Hello Paradise-Eventually!!

Bade a fond farewell to Bali, and, after a 12 hour trip, including a 4 hour car ride, made it by Land, sea and Air the Pangkor Laut Island Resort! Bloody beautiful, what little we have seen already, and cant wait to explore the Island in the daytime tomorrow.
Will try and do a final Bali update when we have time and will try and add some more photos.
Cheers
G & J

Beutiful Bali.

Arrived In Bali on Sunday, and immediately it was Ferking hot again!! The most humid place so far!
Upon arrival, it was alittle bit chaotic! We got shuffled into a queue and had to buy a visa, which was $25 wach, then into another queue to get through immigration, which took forever! Then, when we finally got our bags, we then had to pass each bag through a scanner before we could even get out! When we finally got outside, the humidity was incredible! Within 2 minutes I was sweating like a fat bloke in a pie shop!!

Got a taxi to the hotel for only 3 Quid, but, what was slightly unnerving was the fact that when we got to the hotel, we were stopped at the entrance by armed security who did a bomb search of the car berfore we were allowed in!! *feck* And there are security all around the hotel, and you have to have a guest ID card with you at all times for security! At least we feel safe with all the security!!

The hotel was a surprise. Again, bloody nice! We were greeted at reception with a cold towel and a jelly! Bloody nice! The room was nice as well, not huge, but nice, clean and cool. The hotel itself, I think is bloodly lovely. Done in a Balanise style, with lovely lawns, a great pool with swim up bar and big four poster sunbeds! It is right on the beach as well, which is always nice!

Once we checked in, we just had a wonder round the hotel complex and found a great place to sit and have a beer, a nice big sofa overlooking the beach and sea! So we sat there for a couple of hours and sunk several "Bintang", which is the local beer! It just happened to be happy hour as well, so we ended up sitting there and watching the sunset, and it was just beautiful! We both felt so happy and content, just lying there watching the sunset, listening to chilled music, sipping Bintang!

Today was Valentines Day, and I managed to surprise Ju with a valentines card that I bought back in London! We then spent the morning and lunchtime looking around the local shopping mall, which is pretty big! Ju is happy because she has now got the set! New watch, New bag, New glasses! I am just glad that she has trouble finding shoes to fit, otherwise we would be broke!!

Had an afternoon chilling in the sun/haze by the pool and then had a lovely dinner in a local restaurant in our own little Balanise hut. I had a great dish, which was beef and chicken satay, but what was so great about it was that it came on the plate with its own little wooden BBQ to keep the food warm!

Have booked up a tour for tomorrow, so going for an early night as we are up early in the morning.

Again, having problems uploading pics, but will try and do some soon!

BALI

BALI.

It's Beautiful.
End of!!

Bali bound and heading to the beach.

Well, that's the cities done and dusted for now! Time to hit the beach at last!! I am now sat in a crumpled heap in KL departure lounge waiting for our flight to Bali. I was a little over exuberant with my celebrations in the bar last night after watching United beat City! Get in!!
Met a lovely Aussie called Russell, who was a fellow United fan who is also on his honeymoon and he was my wingman until about 1am this morning! Cheers fella, enjoy the rest of your Honeymoon mate!
I eventually stumbled upstairs sometime after 1 and, try as I might, I was unable to remain quiet, and apparently shook the hotel with my snoring!!! Poor Ju, she kept kicking me to get me to shut up, even put the telly on to cover the noise and was 2 minutes away from going to sleep on the bath to get away from the noise!! I am so sorry hon. xxx lol.
Really enjoyed KL. It was damn hot and humid, but I liked it. The hotel was great and an added bonus, being as nice as it Was, and I had the biggest and nicest T-Bone steak in there that I have had for many a year! I fought I was going to start mooing after I finished it because I had eaten so much cow!!!
We didn't actually see that much of KL. We spent most of the time in the shops and Market. Didn't even go and see the Petronas towers! Mind you, we could see them from the hotel as they were only about 2 minutes away. Loved Pentaling market. Such as busy and condensed Market. Bought several new watches there, which I love! I had to stop myself from buying too many!!
Now heading off to Bali, which is a bit of the unknown, but just looking forward to having a lazy time on the beach. In fact, I think we are beaching it all the way from now until we get to Bangkok on 11th March! So hopefully I will not be the colour of a milkbottle for too much longer!! Well almost time to board the flight now, so farewell Malaysia, for now, and hellooooo Bali!!


An Englisher abroad!!

Well farewell to lovely Singapore. I will definitely be back again!

Arrived in Kuala Lumpur mid-afternoon after a short hop from Singapore to, what I can only describe as Exeter airport, circa 1970!! The plane stopped in the middle of nowhere in the airport and some rickety red steps were pushed into place. Feck me, it is hot and humid here!! We gingerly made it down the steps and across the tarmac into a tunnel and then pointed to turn right! we walked around 3 sides of the terminal building for about 7 minutes, passing loads of passengers going all over the shop to other planes. It would have been so easy to jump on another plane! Eventually made it into the terminal and to passport control. Got yet another stamp our passports! When we got to baggage reclaim, it said that our bags were on belt 4.
Belt 4 was not moving. There were several bags scattered around on the floor by belt 4, but not ours. :-(
After making polite enquiries (where are our fecking bags mate?!!) We eventually found them scattered on the floor by belt 7!! At least we got them!

The next obstacle to overcome was how to get from the airport to our hotel in central KL. I did not realise, until we landed, that the airport is 70km from KL!!! Crapola!
We decided to get a taxi, fairly reasonable for about 20 quid. As we were paying for it, the 8 women who were in the other booths trying to sell bus tickets all started wailing like banshees, so much so that it actually made me jump! All they were doing was trying to get the attention of the dozen people who had just come through customs!! Talk about loud, geesh!

We eventually made it to our hotel in KL, and I was left a little red faced! I had not realised that, through the booking website, we had booked a 5 star hotel, for little money. So as we pull up in a taxi, and i get out wearing flip flops, shorts and an England football shirt (which i wore because i knew it was going to be stupid hot!), I thought, wow, this is nice!
When we got inside and went to reception and told them our names, the receptionist said, follow me please sir, and led us straight into the lift, up to the 20th floor and out into the VIP club reception!!!! I  felt like a right 'nana, sat there in my Chav outfit, whilst to my left, there was an Arab sheik watching the business news on the tv and on the other side were several people in suits having a meeting! I just wanted to ground to open up and swallow me there and then!

We eventually got booked in and taken to our room, which again, was bloody lovely! Huge Queensize bed, Huge ensuite with big bath and shower, free internet all day, free breakfast, free afternoon tea and free evening cocktail!! Needless to say, I got changed pretty damn quick!!

Eventually ventured out into KL to have a look around and popped in to a few shops and Malls

Found somewhere to eat and finally got Ju to eat something oriental! (she decided to tell me only after everything was booked that she hates Chinese food and especially Thai food! I just said, well your shit out of luck there then love!!) She only had Plain noodles in soup, but it is a start! We then had one of those "you had to be there moments' where, after asking Ju 2 of 3 times if she wanted to try some of my pork, the waiter placed a spoon and fork on the table and I asked Ju if she wanted the fork ( to help with the noodles) to which she gave an exasperated response "how many times do I have to say that I DON'T WANT ANY BLOODY PORK!" I looked at her and just held up the fork, and that just set us off!
Another first for me tonight, to go with the sunburnt hands! I have never eaten in one restaurant only to finish and then go into the restaurant next door immediately after leaving to eat again!! This happened tonight as Ju only had noodles and the next place was a sushi bar, which she can eat till the cows come home! So we ended up in the sushi bar eating again!
Managed to brave the Pentaling Street market  for a couple of hours after dinner and loved it! It is hookey watch heaven! So many there that I want,  but I have set myself a limit and am determined to stick to it, (within reason!!) Did not buy any tonight, but am going back tomorrow to get the ones I found that I wanted!

Hopefully I can resist temptation and not buy too many tomorrow!

Up early in the morning as we are off to an outlet centre that sells genuine leather goods, LV bags, etc, at half price and BOGOF prices! Ju is very excited about this part!

Hopefully we will not bankrupt ourselves tomorrow!!

I will let you know how we get on!!

G & J

Last day in Singapore, Singaapore Zoo & Night safari

Had a lie in this morning, then meandered up tp the pool for some swimming and more picture hanging over the edge! As it was a really sunny day, the photos looked better, as it was a clearer sky behind!

Upon lots of recommendations, we decided to spend the last day at Singapore Zoo and also stay for the night safari. Both bloody good actually.

We got a free shuttle bus up to the Zoo and had a good mooch around for several hours. It was so bloody hot and humid, then I realised that we were in the middle of a rainforest, so no bloody wonder! Hopefully sweated off a few more pounds! The Zoo is great, most of the animals are in encloseures, rather than cages and there are some monkeys that are free roaming in the trees above you. So you are always looking up to make sure that one is not about to poo on you!! I loved the White Tigers and Cheetahs, although they were bloody lazy and just lay there in the sun doing bugger all!

I would add some more pics, but there is a problem on the website at the moment, bugger!!
We were really lucky as well because, just as we finished, it pissed it down in biblical proportions for about 30 mins, so we just took shelter in the gift shop and succumbed to buying tut!

We then found a fish foot treatment spa, where you put your feet in a big tank of water and lots of little fish come and nibble away all the dead skin and crap. It feels soooo wierd at first and ticlkes like buggery, but once you get used to it, it just feels like they are vibrating on your feet. For some reason, i seemed to have 3 times as many fish on my feet as anyone else! The bloke nest to me had about 10 onhis and I had more than 100!! What are they trying to say?!

we then made our way to the night Safari and were greated by several half naked blokes dancing and breathing fire, which was quite impressive to watch! The Night Safari is good apart from the fact that it is  too dark to see some of the animals clearly and no flash photography is allowed. Still, worth going on though!

Well, our Singapore adventure is almost over. Flying off to Kuala Lumpur in tomorrow lunchtime for 2 nights. Only really going there to look at dodgy watches and handbags and possibly look at the Petronas Towers! Then we fly off to Bali on Sunday for 5 nights. Our first bit of beach holiday! Will see about doing a diving course there maybe, if it is cheaper than on Phi Phi that is! Agian, will update blog as and when internet is available.

I just want to add that, I really like Singapore and if you are ever in this part of the world, Might I suggest forgetting about the budget and booking a room at The Marina Bay sands. It is the only way you can get to swim in the pool, and it is a bloody good hotel as well!!

Until next time............

Singapore & When is a Jacuzzi not a Jacuzzi?!!

Wednesday 9th Feb. day 6

Well, we arrived into the sweltering heat of Singapore on Tuesday afternoon and managed to get a free bus from the Airport to the Hotel-Tidy!
First thing that struck me about Singapore on the way from the airport, was how lush and green it was. Avenues of trees lining the roads.

When we arrived at our hotel, The Marina Bay Sands, we could not help but go WOW! It is an amazing thing to see. It rises out in the middle of nothing, and it really does look like there is a boat on top of the hotel!!

We proceeded to check in and, AGAIN, we were upgraded to a bigger and better room because it was our first visit! Lets hope this continues all trip!
LOVED, the room. A large double with a kingsize, a balcony and a huge walk in bathroom!
First thing we did was to get changed and head up to the pool on the roof. It is a truly awe inspiring thing! An infinity edge pool, 57 stories up!! NUTS!

Now, this is where the Jacuzzi story comes in!!
TRUST ME!
On the upper side of the decking, there are several Jacuzzi,s, overlooking the other side of the hotel. I thought I would see if one was free and jump in it. I looked down the left, Full. Middle, Full. Right, Empty! Bonus, I thought! So i grabbed our stuff and jumped in. It was a little shallow, only waist deep. Hmmm. So i thought it must be for kids!
Noooo!
A security guard comes over and, very politely says, "Excuse me sir, but would you mind getting out of the fountain please?!" I was mortified!! Ju was not much help! She was too busy laughing, and was still laughing by the time we got back to our room!! NEVER again!!
Had a good day touring all the sights in Singapore. Stopped in Raffles for the obligatory Singapore Sling!
Had a long walk down Orchard road, doing all the shops and getting an earlyish night as we are up early to do some more touring tomorrow!

Will do another update soon, after we do the night safari!

G & J

Hong Kong and the Big Sleep!!

Well, we made it to Hong Kong in one piece, but the flight was not the best.
We left London about 30 mins late and had crappy seats. 2 of the middle 4 seats on a 747. Great thing is, the plane was called Air Force scrum!! Great!
Looooong flight to Hk, made worse by the fact that neither of us managed to get much sleep due to not being able to get comfortable in the shitty seats!
We landed in HK at 14.30 on Saturday afternoon, HK time, and by the time we got through the airport and into HK and into our hotel, it was 16.30.
We were both pretty much FUBAR, so we decided to have a 2 hour nap.
Only problem is that we did not wake up until 11pm!! So the evening was a blow out!
We decided to stay in bed and sleep until the morning and get up early, which we did. We got up at 7am, had a nice breakfast in the Hotel and were out the door by 8am. We wondered around the Wan Chai area of Hk, where the hotel is, looking for thr Peak Tram. Eventually found it, bought our tickets and made our way up to the top. BUgger me!! It is a stupidly steep tramline! Almost 45Degrees at some point!

Anyway, it was well getting up early for, as the views from there are truly stunning. An amazing view of all the towers and skyscrapers that make up Hong Kong. We then descended back down Via the tram and headed through Hong Kong park, which was a lovely tranquil surprise in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the city. It even has a small aviary in it, which was great.

We stopped for a bite to eat then went to meet up with an old School friend, who is from Hong Kong, who I have not seen since he left school 20 years ago! It was great to see you Josiah!! We have both put on a few pounds since we last saw each other! We had a great natter for a couple of hours over a drink in a rooftop cafe.
Ju and I then headed to the Temple night market and had a long walk ammong the shops, back down to the waters edge to cath the light show that they do every night on all the buildings overlooking the water. It was ok, nothing too special! Then it was back to the hotel and an early night!

Today, we cheated a bit! We jumped on a tour bus and toured most of the Island on a bus. Bloody good value though! Well worth doing a nd a great way to see lots of HK. We went to the South side of the Island as well and had a wonder through Stanley and Stanley market, which was a good trip, then went back to Hk and over the water and did a tour of Kowloon as well. I am amazed at the sheer scale of some of the buildings, how high and vast they are! HK just seems to go upwards!! We got on the Star ferry and have taken several trips on the Underground as well, which is a lot cleaner, cooler and efficient than LUL! Mind you, most things are!
All in all, had a great time here in HK. Another early night tonight as we are up at sparrowfart to go to the airport as we are off on our next leg of the holiday to Singapore. really looking forward to this one, as we are staying at The Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which it the feck off huge new one with the infinity pool on the roof!! We have 3 nights there before it is off to Kuala Lumpur!

Well, 5 days down, only 48 more to go!!!