Luxury Travel

Thanks for tuning in again!
On wednesday evening i set my alarm for 8am, as i had a 9:20 pick-up from the guesthouse. Stuck my earplugs as far into my head as possible and tried to get some sleep. Went though the nightly ritual of tossing and turning, dozing off and jolting awake for no apparent reason, and was quite awake when the alarm went off. As i had decided i'd pack that morning, i was just contemplating where to start, when there was a knock on the door. "are you ready mister?" - i answered that i would be ready shortly, thinking it was the reception's idea of a wake-up call. Jumped under the shower, emerged 10 minutes later, feeling definitely awake, got dressed and got interrupted by more knocking on the door. Banging, now, actually.

I open the door and the receptionist anxiously bleats "you ready now?" at this, i wave at the room in general and shoot back "does it look like i'm ready? it's 8:20. i'll be out at 9."
Now the little guy is getting really nervous. He jabs at his watch - "no, no, this no thailand. this malaysia. is 9:20!"

My grim smile faded. i slammed the door in his face, saying "give me 5 minutes1". packed in 2, was in the bus in 3. what an absolutely excellent start to the day.

my bus ticket; on the road to Ipoh

Four hours later, the bus passed through the outskirts of Ipoh, turned left and started grinding its way slowly up the road to Tanah Rata. Taking us effectively from sea level to 4,500 ft. As it twisted and turned in very low gear, the landscape slowly started to change. From the red earth and limestone cliffs, overgrown with dense, tropical vegetation, the colours started to change ever so slowly, as the temperature dropped. At 3,000 ft, we entered the realm of the clouds. Cotton candy whisps clung to the hillsides and the road gleamed black with the thin film of moisture that covered everything.

My nose was stuck to the window of the bus as we passed glistening rock faces and tiny waterfalls. Bright green ferns clustered where ever there was room and the sky above was a deep, slate grey.

At 3,500 ft, a fine drizzle started to fall, which was not to stop until late that night. We rounded a few final bends and twists in the shiny black serpent we were using for a road, and suddenly the landscape opened up. We were surrounded by gently rolling hills. Some densely forested, others carefully cultivated. Strawberry farms and tea plantations were glimpsed as the bus picked up some speed now. And before long, we had reached our destination: Tanah Rata, main village in Malaysia's biggest hill station: the Cameron Highlands.

The village has an almost Twin Peaks-esque quality to it, being so isolated, cloud bound and hemmed in by dense, cool forests. Daniel's Lodge, where I'm staying, lights up a campfire every evening where travellers sit and chat, play the guitar and sip Tiger beer. As I ripped my right foot to shreds on a bit of glass on Koh Samui, I'm not exactly Sebastian Coe at the moment, so I'm taking it very easy and hoping it will heal in a few days. It's cramping my style slightly, as i was hoping to do some hiking while i'm up here, but will have to be content will the 1 mile strolls around the village.

not so bad, with the campfire and all...

First of all i would like to thank everyone for sending me all those lovely e-mails over the past month. It's so much fun for me to hear what everyone is up to - thanks so much!

Firefly Air whisked me away from Koh Samui yesterday morning - right on cue, as my visa was only valid until yesterday - and after crossing the Malaysian border at several thousand feet, unceremoniously (it is after all a low cost carrier) dumped me on Penang. Immediately upon walking down the stairs from the twin-propellored flying machine, the unmistakable smokey tang of Malaysia enveloped me.

According to the lonely planet, Georgetown's Chulia Street is the destination of choice for street savvy travellers, so I dutifully instructed the taxidriver accordingly.

chulia street

After checking out three or four of the local flop houses, as is traveller etiquette, i finally shrugged off my inexcusably heavy backpack in a fan room at the illustrious Blue Diamond Hotel. The place is okay, although far from attaining the status of hotel. The diamond association baffles me, but i did manage to find some peeling paint that may have once been blue.

Spent an uneventful evening slowly sipping Tiger beer and chatting with the other travellers, who seemed to have one common goal: getting out of Georgetown as quickly as possible. With that in mind, i set out this morning to explore what used to be known as the 'pearl of the orient'.

Penang, a tiny island in the straights of Melakka, has quite an impressive history for it's size. If you're interested in that stuff, please google it ;-). What has been super though is riding around in rikshaws. Hadn't done that in ages!

The centre of colonial Georgetown is Fort Cornwallis, founded by a certain Captain Francis Light, to whom I bear a striking resemblance, i am told...

Anyway, turns out that you can quite easily see the town in a day, which i did. You'll find more pictures in my gallery, if you enjoy temples, shopfront houses, etc. Well, it makes a change from those sickeningly white beaches and azure waters, doesn't it!

Tomorrow morning I'll be on a bus nosing up the arterial highway through the lush, green countryside of peninsular Malaysia, on my way to Tanah Rata, the epicentre of the Cameron Highlands.

From Georgetown, Penang, I'm Iain Howe for Travellers Network. Back to you in the studio!

greetz from koh samui!

please bear with me. i'm struggling to upload the pictures, but wanted to bring everyone up to speed on the latest events, so please check back in a day or so. until then this blog entry is for the hard-core readers: no pictures, just words ;-)

last friday, i cunningly planned and set in motion the workings of a daring escape that would free me from koh phangan. that is, i hopped on a ferry to koh samui.

bidding a fond farewell to little israel, i fixed my sights on the big sister of the three sister islands and did not look back. well, okay, i looked back once for your collective benefit.

what struck me first upon making landfall on koh samui was the noise level. i mean, this place is noisy! there's the airport, of course, with a never-ending procession if bangkok air jets landing and taking off. there's the traffic, the sheer number of people, and the sound systems. i felt like i had walked into a city by mistake.

the lonely planet has likened koh samui to beautiful lady wearing too much make-up. the island is very pretty, but everything man made is just a little over the top. or a lot over the top. chaweng beach is very pretty, which is par for the course in southern thailand, i'm realising now. but behind the beach with its row of beach bars varying from ultra trendy to faux rasta and eco-friendly, the raw machinery of koh samui does the dirty work: indian taylor touts and taxi drivers compete madly for attention with the island's brigade of ladyboys in front of the 7-11, macdonalds, and starbucks.

the tourist melange consists of travellers and holiday makers in equal measures, topped with a rather sad bunch of mustacchioed middle aged men whose soul mission to be here is easily guessed, and becomes embarrassingly obvious as soon as the sun sets over chaweng and the pros start grinding it out.

the ark bar, where i'm staying, seems to attract a lot of people travelling alone, so i'm glad to say i'm not exactly isolated here. you can't really help but party all night, and although i naturally resisted with every fibre of my being, i have seen quite a few sunrises here ;-)

however, that has not deterred me from my main reason for being here (apart from the airport): the koh angthong national marine park.

yesterday morning at 7AM i was picked up outside the ark bar and whisked off to a powerboat that took me, along with 7 other adventurers, to the very boundaries of sensory overload: snorkelling and kayaking around the 42 islands of koh angthong national marine park. it is the setting and probably the inspiration for alex garland's book 'the beach', and i know now exactly what he means.

granted, i had not slept the night before and was fighting a kingsized hangover, but i am not ashamed to say that i wept. tears gushing down my face as the astonishing, literally breathtaking beauty of the islands unfolded. my pictures, once i upload them, do not do it justice. not even close. it is perfect in every way. azure waters, limestone islands surrounded by coral reefs, secluded beaches and even a hidden lagoon.

i lie. it is perfect in every way but one. and this is probably the main reason for my embarrassingly girlie sobfest: the big, chunky charlie (to quote daffy duck in garland's book). it is beautiful and perfect, and we will destroy it. we are raping it with our speedboats and kayaks and our viewpoints and souvenir shops. it is forbidden pleasure, and should be closed off immediately. of course, that is about as likely to happen as outlawing ladyboys on the island. so i cried for paradise lost.

of course, upon returning to the ark bar, i washed down an alka selzer or two with gin and tonic and was fine again ;-)

my visa runs out tomorrow, so i'm heading to penang, an island on the west coast of peninsular malaysia. got myself a secondhand lonely planet for malaysia today, so will investigate what to do when i get there. suggestions are welcome of course!

well, thanks for tuning in again, and please remember to come back in a day or so to check out the photos.

oh, and the tattoo was henna, of course. disappointed / relieved / couldn't really care less? i'd be interested to know, so drop me a note with your views on this matter? - your input is greatly appreciated by the management of this blog, i.e. me.

let's start with the obligatory beach shot, shall we? ;-)

hat rin - sunrise beach

the weather has been flip-flopping for days now on koh phangan. one moment you're on the beach getting nice and crispy in the brutal sun, the next you're running for cover as all of a sudden you find yourself pelted by raindrops the size of marbles. it does have its upsides though, as this particular thunderstorm, brewing on the horizon...

...gave me this rather nice shot, and then caused a power blackout on the island, which meant i enjoyed a candlelight dinner! okay, it was vegetable pad thai, again, and i was dining alone, but i had a candle on my table, so it counts.

went diving again yesterday. we took a boat out to sail rock, a limestone pinnacle rising out of the gulf halfway between koh tao and koh phangan. the visibility wasn't great, but we did get to do a lovely swimthrough - swimming into a tunnel at around 20m depth, and then up through a chimney, emerging at around 9m. smashing stuff.

later on, the swedish couple i'd been diving with joined me for a few drinks on the beach, and we decided to take the plunge: the half moon party! twice a month, a few thousand people make their way into the jungle for a psychedelic rave. many actually say it is better than the full moon party. as i've only been to the half moon party, i'm not really qualified to judge, but i will say that it was a whole lot of fun.

basically it was a clearing in the jungle with a massive sound system, some pretty good deejays and lots of blacklight.

of course we weren't prepared for the blacklight, so were not wearing white. so unprofessional of us. but thankfully the party organisation catered for people in exactly this predicament: neon bodypaint!

superman vs the dragon master

anyway, ended up hanging off the back of a pickup truck full of partygoers in various states of enlightenment at 6am, bouncing back through the jungle at full tilt, heading for the safety of my cabin on rin beach.

oh, and i finally got one:

How shall i describe Koh Phangan. Well, let me be absolutely honest and say that at this point, all i can describe with any accuracy would be the quaint little village of Hat Rin - home to the legendary Full Moon parties. And the not quite so legendary Shiva Moon parties, Half Moon parties, and Black Moon parties. As long as there's a moon, there's a party!

Not that I've been participating much. From the moment I arrived here I've been feeling a little under the weather. Slight touch of the 'flu, i'm afraid, so your faithful reporter has preciously little to report this time. Spent a lot of time in my hammock looking at this:

therapy...

But never fear - I have consulted a clinic and am currently sufficiently (and legally) chemically fortified to start my exploration of life on Koh Phangan properly.

Hat Rin is probably best experienced if you are 22 and Israeli, which is what most people seem to be around here. The locals have learned to deal with their particular style of communication (I'm grossly generalising here of course, as I've actually met some really nice Israelis) by taking there money very quickly and efficiently and packing them off on trips taking them anywhere but Hat Rin.

Life happens on the beach here. Sunrise beach, that is. Truth be told, it is actually a gorgeous beach, and relatively unspoiled despite the monthly onslaught of ten thousand ravers at the Full Moon parties. There is a big red neon sign at the south end of the beach, reminding you that you are on Koh Phangan. Overstating the obvious? Maybe, but considering the enlightened state of mind that most partygoers are in, at night, on the beach, it is probably not a bad idea ;-)

I'm diving on Sail Rock tomorrow morning, and will be going to the half moon party tomorrow night. This party is actually supposed to be better than the full moon parties, as it is set deep in the jungle with a fairly fierce dj line-up.
I'll also rent a quad (one of those 4 wheel bike/tractor jobbies) and head up to the waterfalls before I leave.

And naturally, I will be submitting a report in full of my discoveries and appraisals of these wonders of nature.

That's it for now, i'm afraid. Thanks for tuning in again!
cheers,
i