Phuket and some of my travelling highlights

I really want to say Phucket is an amazing island and that everyone should visit at least once but I’m really struggling to find reasons why people should. Maybe it’s because I’ve been to too many islands now or maybe it’s not really my scene but I must say I did enjoy my time on Ko Samui and Ko Tao so I can’t see why I can’t say a lot of positive things about this island.

Lloyd and I have based ourselves in Patong, we’re about 5 minutes from the beach and about 3 minutes from a street filled with neon lit bars which you can’t walk past without hearing the bar girls trying to call you in for a drink or someone shoving a flyer in your face advertising a ping pong show. I’m even getting fed up of hearing the shouts from massage parlours ‘’waaaannnnaaa maaaassssaaaagggeeee’’. This is really not my scene and Lloyd and I haven’t been drunk once since in arriving in Phucket, I mean I don’t want to sit in a bar and get chatted up by some Thai bar girl, it’s not real, they only want to get you pissed up and to make you spend your money, it’s all very superficial plus the music is terrible. I really want to find a bar that plays some good Indie/electro alternative music but they don’t seem to be any over here.

Phucket is full of western tourists; it seems people come here for their 2 week vacations and then head home, I’ve barely seen any back packers here, if they are on this island they are keeping themselves well hidden. I think the western influence could have spoilt Phucket, McDonalds and Starbucks are everywhere, don’t get me wrong when I was in Leeds I loved nothing more than having a Costa coffee on my way to work or chilling out and having a coffee on a Saturday but here it feels wrong, come on this is Thailand and I want it to feel like Thailand not just another part of Europe! The beaches are full of sunbeds with old westerners burning themselves to a crisp, people don’t seem to want to explore the place they just seem to get out of their hotel walk to the beach and stay there for the day. If you ask me they might as well just say in Europe, there’s no point in coming here if you’re not going to experience the place! 

As in most of Thailand and Cambodia there are also loads of old men trying to hook up with young Thai girls. I think Lloyd and I saw the worst of it last night, a fat old man who was all over a young girl, she didn’t seem that bothered she was sat there cradling her drink while she had an ear phone in. Now don’t tell me this guy was there thinking ‘’she really, really, really must love me’’ now I know it takes two to tango and she must be getting something out of it but I really can’t get over how wrong it is and it’s really beginning to get on my nerves now, I mean I’ve ranted about it in a few blogs but out here it’s so in your face you can’t escape it.

Right that’s my rant over and done with, now I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to…

Lloyd and I have been out on a scooter again for the last few days, the roads around here are quite dangerous, there are steep hills, wild curves and a lot of other tourists on scooters, all of this can add to trouble so I’m glad Lloyd was driving and I was clinging on for dear life we did witness someone drive into the front of an oncoming car, and yes I did jump off to see if the chap got up and was okay, luckily he was. It’s fun driving around an island it gives you so much freedom and you can explore at your own pace. We did find a few beaches that were not too crowded so we spent some time hanging out there and throwing our newly purchased American football about. We’ve both caught a lot of sun on our faces, arms and legs. I was already quite brown from catching sun from the first few months of travelling but I seem to have caught even more now.

Tomorrow we head to the airport to fly to Kuala Lumpor to spend a few days there before we head to Singapore. I don’t think I’ll blog too much from Kuala Lumpor or Singapore unless something amazing happens as we are only passing through but if I take any decent photos I’ll post them instead.

Now that my time in SE Asia is coming to an end I thought I’d list my travelling highlights in no particular order

·         Chang Mai- Chang Mai was my first really taste of Thailand. Lots of temples, friendly people and the first time I drank Chang beer.

·         Jungle Trek- The Jungle trek from the Back Packers Meeting Place was amazing 2 nights 3 days out in the hills around Chang Mai. Met a great bunch of people some of who travelled for a while longer with us, this was a great way to meet like minded people and a great place to really start travelling.

·         Vang Vien- Can’t really remember much about this place but judging by the photos I had a great time. Loved hanging out with Nick, Steve, Jorge, Mary and Caro Lin.

·         Luang Prabang- A lovely city in Laos, saw an amazing sunset from a temple on a hill. The whole town had a laid back vibe and we had some great nights out, rode bikes and saw a beautiful waterfall. The locals in Laos are very very friendly and we weren’t hassled once by anyone.

·         Siem Reip – A great place to visit in Cambodia, the town centre is small but there are loads of amazing cheap places to eat and lots of happy hour offers ( 50 cents for a draught beer).

·         Angkor- Amazing temples built centuries ago all now ruins but so worth visiting, if you do go miss out Angkor Watt and see the other temples around the area. Angkor Watt is the biggest but far from the most spectacular.

·         Hanoi- I loved this city, we had a great time celebrating Steves birthday and New Year. The city is brilliant with lots of museums, great places to eat and crazy traffic. If you go to Vietnam go to Hanoi you won’t be disappointed, try everything including the street food you cook yourself, if you’re lucky the owner will supply you with shots of tequila or free, at least I think it was tequila. If you visit eat in the 69 restaurant (69 been a lucky number not a sexual position you perverts) and try the clay pots.

·         People-  Meeting a great bunch of people, all crazy, lovely and most likely alcoholics ;) It’s all about the people you meet and travel with and the experiences you all share that make travelling what it is.

·         Hoi Han- Had my first made to fit jacket which I can’t wait until its cool enough to wear. Hoi Han is a lovely town with lots of places to eat and a few good bars. The people again are really friendly but do be prepared to get hassled by kids trying to sell you stuff. There is also a really nice beach, not over crowded and a nice place to take a walk and stop for a drink. Also the first time I have rode a scooter, great fun!

·         Bars- Two places that I have really enjoyed drinking DMZ in Hue, the first place that played some half decent music and had and Indie vibe and Before and After in Hoi Han pretty much the same as DMZ but served great food.

·         Hue- Despite the weather not been too good this was still a great city to visit. Steve and I went on a city tour and saw a few ancient tombs, pagodas and the old royal city which the Americans decided to bomb during the Vietnam War.

·         Drinking games with Ste and Lloyd in Mui Ne- Steve losing loads of games in a row and then watching him stagger off to bed.

·         Ninh Bhin- This place feels like it’s off the beaten track, not many back packers here so you feel like you are seeing the real Vietnam. Here we did the one day trek which I loved, Lloyd was not feeling well but he battled on like a trooper and made it through the day. Our tour guide was great and full of information about the place and we were made to feel welcome. Tau, the receptionist at our hotel took us to her friends restaurant for food here we had barbecued goat which was great and burnt rice which I wish you could get in England.

·     Transport- In certain parts of SE Asia the transport really varies, despite been hard work the 24 hour bus from Vientiane to Hanoi was an experience that I will never forget, 13 hour train and bus rides feel like a short ride after that.

There is so much more I could write about SE Asia but it’s hard to remember when it comes to typing it. Memories keep popping into my head and I’ve had such a great time so far and I’m beginning to feel a bit sentimental about the time I have had here, sure at times it’s hard with long hours of travelling but I wouldn’t change one thing that I’ve experienced out here. I can’t believe that 3 months has nearly passed since leaving Leeds, sometimes you feel like you’ve done so much and when you look back it feels like time has gone so slow and other times like now looking back it feels like its flown by.

I’d will definitely come back to SE Asia maybe for a few weeks and stay in one country and really explore, experience it and try to get off of the beaten track. It’s a great part of the world that I feel is still finding its feet, one thing I do fear is that parts of it may lose its identity and become too western.

Ko Phi Phi

My first impressions of Ko Phi Phi were not too good and to be honest I was glad to leave this island. It's small, over crowded and there's not too much to do unless you like drinking and sunbathing, I like drinking but sunbathing is not my cup of tea.

Ko Phi Phi seems to have built its reputation on the film The Beach been filmed there, the island itself is overpriced, smells of sewers and you can't get out and explore the island as there are no roads so you can't hire a scooter and escape the masses. The islands only saving grace for me was when the sun started to set and you could get down to the beach to take a few decent photos. In the scheme of things I can't complain, this is the only place that I've not really liked and I've been on the road for nearly 3 months now. I've just arrived in Phucket and even though this place feels busy the island is big enough to be able to deal with it.

If you like to just sit on a beach maybe Phi Phi would be right up your street but for me it's not somewhere I would want to spend too much time. To keep ourselves occupied Lloyd and I bought an American football and spent most of our time throwing it up and down the emptiest patch of beach we could find. Can't say much else about the place really but I'm keen to see what Phucket has to offer, any way here's a nice picture of the sea...

Krabi

We're spending our last day in Krabi before we nip over to Phi Phi for four nights, today we rented a scooter again and explored around Krabi. When we arrived last night we didn't see much of the place and I thought there wasn't much to see. But after a short  drive on a bike today we found a really nice beach and as you are driving around there are amazing rock formations jutting out all over the place.

I thought rather than put up a few photos I'd try to film while sitting on the back of the bike, I chose a bit of music to play over the piece to cover my shrieks of terror like ''Oh my god Lloyd...Lloyd, slow down for Christs sake man, I don't want to die yet...I'm having a great holiday'' and ''God please don't let us crash...If you do please don't mess my hair up''...Only joking I had every confidence in the way Lloyd was driving since I was holding on one handed I'd have to wouldn't I?

Not sure if this video does Krabi the justice it deserves but I hope you enjoy.

Ko Tao

It's our last day on Koh Tao before we head back to the Thai mainland where we will stop for a few days before we hop over to Ko Phi Phi and then Phucket. We've decided to take it easy today as we are a little bit hungover again but we have spent the last couple of days cruising around the island on a scooter stopping off at bays to snorkel in the ocean. We decided to rent one bike because the roads here are not the best plus it's a lot cheaper.

Lloyd been more road confident than me drove while I took the back seat, I am so glad Lloyd was in control of the bike because as I said the roads aren't the best. When I say not the best I mean some of these roads are little more than dirt tracks with rocks sticking out everywhere also there are steep hills to contend with, at times I had to jump off so Lloyd could make it to the top. Sometimes it was easier to park at the top and walk down to the beach, while we were walking down to one of the beaches a couple came up the hill past us on a quad and were struggling to get up. Their quad came to a complete stop so Lloyd and I been the gentlemen that we are ran back up the hill and gave them a push, I'm so glad we didn't go to down this hill on our scooter! If you come to this island I would advise you to rent a quad or a scrambler, I've seen so many people with bandaged arms and legs, scooters aren't made for the types of hills and roads on this island.

I've enjoyed my time on this island more than Ko Saumi, it's more laid back and very chilled out. It seems a lot of people come here to scuba dive, there are scuba diving schools everywhere, I think I'll stick to snorkelling it's a lot cheaper.

Ko Samui

We arrived at ko Samui absolutely shattered after being awake for 24 hours. We flew from Cambodia to Bangkok and had to wait about 10 hours to fly to Ko Samui. I slept for 5 hours after arriving at our hotel but still felt very tired when I woke up. Later that day we met Lloyds dads cousin who lives in Thailand for food, we then went to a few bars for more drinks, it wasn’t long before we were drunk and the discussion turned to how in our eyes it was wrong for old dirty men to take advantage of young girls.  We’ve seen a lot of this in Thailand and Cambodia and it really does my head in, I mean come on at least find someone within 10 years of your own age perverts! Saying that there’s 12 years difference between my Mum and Pop so I’ll let those two off but anyone else NO!!!! Anyway I thought the best way to defend the youth of Thailand was to attack an older man who was fondling a much much younger Thai girl with abusive words and a swift slap of my flip flops against his head and shouting ‘’you dirty old man’’ Plus afew other choice swear words. Lloyd and I then ran as quickly as we could back to our hotel, the run was further than I remembered and been drunk I found it hard to run in a straight line.

Over the next two days Lloyd and I have been shooting around the Ko Samui on scooters, now I’m not the most confident of bikers yet but I did enjoy it apart from when I fell off into a bush…I wasn’t even moving, I came to a stop on a hill and toppled over, while laying there in the ditch that I rolled into I thought to myself ‘’what a way to fall off a bike…didn’t even get hit by a van’’. Anyway I’m fine no cuts or scratches just my bruised pride that I couldn’t even fall off a bike properly, besides all of this Ko Samui is a really nice island and just as hot as Cambodia or anywhere else we have been. We have another 2 nights here and then we pop over to another island.

Just thought I would add that I've updated my pictures, click on the travel pictures tab and have a look. If you want to see a high res picture drop me an email and I'll fire one over to you :)

Good bye and thank you!

I've now had over 600 page views and I just wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to read my blog, I know there are lots of spelling mistakes and poor punctuation and I don't always go into great detail about my travels but thank you anyway. Most of my updates are written after a long journey or while suffering from blazing hangovers, well that's my excuse for poor content anyway.

Yesterday we said goodbye to Steven, since Lloyd and I arrived in Chang Mai (Thailand) we have met so many amazing people who we have travelled with, drunk with, laughed with and had the most amazing experiences with. I just wanted to say thank you for making my first few months of travelling a joy! So a big thank you and stay in touch people!

Shooting Range and Killing Fields

Okay this post is probably going to sound quite two faced and I'm not quite sure how to write this one.

Today we met up with a chap called Mr James who had offered to take us any where we wanted around Phnom Phen . We decided to go to a shooting range and then to the Killing Fields, in my eyes it seems wrong to go and shoot a gun and then go to a place where thousands of people were brutally slaughtered. Overall I did enjoy my experience at the shooting range, I've never shot a gun before and will probably never do so again. I chose an M16 and shot 20 rounds. I managed to hit a coconut I bought for $1 on my second shot and then managed 3 head shots, neck shot and a few on the torso of a paper target. This is what felt really wrong as I was quite pleased where I managed to hit my target. Maybe it was the adrenalin rush of shooting a gun and the kick that the gun gave you when you pulled the trigger. For me the whole experience felt surreal hopefully I'll never have the chance to do anything like that again.

After the shooting range we drove out to the killing fields, visiting this pace was just as emotional as going to S-21 (the genocide museum). When you first enter you are given an audio tape and map, the audio tape gives you eye witness stories and tells you about events that happened at the killing fields. I found my whole time at the killing fields upsetting, around the grounds you can still see clothing and bones working their way to the surface, this happens because after the rainy season the soil moves and items work their way to the surface. Every month the ground keepers walk around and collect the fragments and keep them all together, I found this amazing it shows such respect and dignity for the people who died here.

It's so hard to understand why Pol Pot made his way to power and was able to commit such acts. People who were brought to the fields were blugoned to death with hammers, bamboo sticks, pick axes or just about anything that would heavy enough to kill you. I found out that when the Vietnamese took over and managed to remove Pol Pot from power countries such as Britain, USA and Germany still recognised Pol Pot as the true leader of Cambodia and allowed him to keep his chair with the United nations. This is totally wrong, countries such as the USA and Britain especially should have stepped in sooner and tried to stop what happened, when I heard this I felt ashamed to be British.

I walked around the grounds pretty much feeling depressed, there was nothing really to smile about apart from the noise of children's laughter from a school that has been built nearby. I think building a school near this place is a good idea, the sound of joy and laughter form the kids playing did help lift my spirits a bit. One part of the killing fields that really did upset me was the killing tree, the soldiers at the fields would take the young children from their mothers and then smash their heads against the tree until they were dead, they would then kill the mothers and throw their bodies into a mass grave. I can't imagine how the whole scene would have looked or how anyone could hurt an infant in such a manner.

The centre piece of the fields is a building where all of the bones that have been dug up have been stored together, this has been done out of respect for the dead and is massive memorial. Lloyd and I bought some flowers and an incense stick each and placed them outside of the building before entering. The sight of all of the skulls piled up will be something that I will never forget and it's something everyone should see, we didn't spend too long there but I was glad I was able to go and pay my respects.

I didn't take any photos here as far as I'm concerned the whole place is a grave not a tourist attraction, it's a place where you should go and learn about the horrors that happened and pay your respects to those that died there. If you ever go to Cambodia please visit this place, learn and see for yourself  what happened it does demonstrate how short and how fragile human life is. It did make me think that you should live like every second could be your last, respect other people and thank God that you will probably never have to experience anything like what happened here.

Camodia

We've been in Cambodia for a number of days now and just about spent out first full day in Phnom Penh. Before Phnom Penh we spent a few days in Siem Reap which is further north than Phnom Penh but we have decided to fly from Phnom Penh to the south Thailand islands so it's easier to go further north and then travel south.

From Saigon it was a 14 hour bus ride to Siem Reap which wasn't too bad, I think I'm beginning to get used to long journeys, Siem Reap is a really nice chilled out city with lots of nice bars and restaurants. On first impressions the Cambodian people are really friendly and the street sellers are not too pushy but you have to be prepared for kids trying to sell you stuff every two minutes, I quickly learnt that a swift smack to the head usually sorts them out, I'm joking of cause, I don't condone violence to children, apart from my nephews and niece who deserve a bit of pain every now and again.

While in Siem Reap we bought a 3 day pass to visit the Angkor Temples, we first went to see the sunset, as expected this was really popular and had to contened with at least 1000 other people. After a 10 minute hike up a hill in the heat you then had to que for about 20 minutes to climb the steps to the top of one of the temples and then try to find a good spot to see the sunset. When we got to the top I pretty much gave up on the sunset and only managed to get a few decent photos, still it was worth doing and not a bad experience.

We visited the temples on another 2 occasions and I have to say it was well worth doing the structures are amazing but I do feel there not going to be around for too much longer if tourists are allowed to climb all over them. The last temple we visited was Angkor Wat this seems to be the temple that everyone wants to see, I wasn't that impressed with it, for me the other temples were far better. I took so many photos it's hard to chose which ones to post, I've posted a few below.

In all we spent 4 days in Siem Reap but could easily have spent another 2 days there. We then had a 7 hour bus ride back south to Phnom Penh, this place is a lot busier then Siem Reap and not as laid back but from what I have seen so far I like it. Today (1st Feb) we went to the Genocide museum which is basically an old school which was turned into a prison by the Khmer Rouge and renamed S-21. Cambodians were put here to be interrogated (tortured). Anyone who the Khmer Rouge suspected of being against them was killed in the most brutal ways.

At the prison you were allowed to walk through the cells and look at the ways they tortured people to get confessions. Even though the museum is a place of sadness and shows how evil people can be there did seem to be a felling of peace around the grounds. The last room we entered really shocked me, I wasn't ready to see what  I did, In glass cases were the skulls and Bones of a number of people who had been killed. I stood shocked at what I saw for about 5 minutes and I really had to fight back the tears... I was truly (pardon my language) fucking disgusted at how people can do this to one another.

As with the war museum in Vietnam I didn't take too many photos as to show respect to the dead, I couldn't believe that some of the visitors to S-21  were there taking photos of the torture devices and pictures of people dead, strapped to their beds after hours of 'interrogation'. I did take a few photos outside of the buildings themselves though. tomorrow we go to the Killing Fields, I don't know how I will feel after been there but I will let you know.