MR D. DOCUMENTS THE SOUTHEAST ASIA TRIP (18-Nov-2007 to 18-Dec-2007)
18-Nov-2007 – AUCKLAND TO BANGKOK
18-Nov-2007 – AUCKLAND TO BANGKOK
First day of the trip,
flights from Auckland-Melbourne-Bangkok.
Hamish and Chris got
dropped at the airport in the morning, round 5am (from memory) to
catch a 7.40am flight to Melbourne, where we met up with Al. Alex
flew from Christchurch to Melbourne all on his own. We arrived in
Melbourne at 9.30am and Tuffy was waiting at the gate for us. We had
a bit of time to kill at Melbourne airport, so we decided to have our
first of an insurmountable number of beers.
With about half an hour
until the check-in time closed, we decided to finish up our beers and
check-in. Arriving at the Jetstar check-in counter, we followed
usual procedures to check-in; producing our air tickets and
passports. Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly, until we
were questioned about whether we had confirmed departure from
Thailand (which we did not). The service woman that she could not
check us in until we had confirmed departure from Thailand – news
to us! We told her of our plans to just work our way down through
Thailand and Malaysia, and fly out of Singapore, but all of Hamish’s
phone-voice charm couldn’t get us on the plane. She called her
superior and we were still unable to check-in. Panic slowly started
sinking in as time was running out for us to make our flight. The
service woman advised us to go to Flight Centre to find a cheap
flight out of Thailand.
We boosted to Flight
Centre and talked to them about flights out of Thailand. The cheapest
option they could find was going to cost us AU$400 each –
ridiculous price seeing that we were not going to take the flight
anyway. Hamish decided to try and find an internet machine in hope of
finding a cheap ass flight. After a few minutes, success! Asia
Airlines had flights from Phuket to Singapore for THB2200 each.
Hamish locked those gears in and we sat there refreshing his hotmail
account, for what seemed an eternity, until we received the
confirmation and tickets. New issue, how the f@#k do we print them
out?! Hamish ran to Vodafone and asked the hotties working there if
we can print it out. Second success of the day! At this stage, we had
about 10 or so minutes left until check-in closed. Hamish waited for
the tickets to print while Al and Chris ran to the check-in counter
to line up. This is where things got very tight. We managed to get to
the front of the queue, only to have to wait for Hamish. Asty did the
bolt down to see what was holding up Hamish; turns out the terms and
conditions page was printing first – full page of size 6 font that
took over 5 minutes to print. Time was running out, check-in was
closing in 2 minutes and still no sign of Hamish or the tickets.
Finally, Hamish turns up and we are fully checked in through to
Bangkok – 5 minutes after check-in closed. We boost through customs
and boarded our flight. There were well deserved celebration bourbon
and cokes on the flight over. The in-flight movie was Die Hard 4.0.
During the flight, Alex had an epiphany about viewing pictures on a
camera and how they should rotate depending on the camera’s
orientation. Great idea Al, if it hadn’t been invented a year
earlier!
We arrived in Bangkok
at 7.40pm local time. The travelators were awesome. Once we cleared
immigration we went to collect our bags. We found a conveyer-belt
that was stopped, but full of bags. This turned out to be the
conveyer-belt that our baggage was on. Hamish and Chris found our
bags with relative ease, but Alex struggled. After circulating the
whole conveyer-belt a few times, a rather relieved Alex finally found
his bag. We exited the airport and were greeted by a wall of
humidity. We met a taxi driver who offered to take us into Khao San
Road for THB500. Hamish tried bargaining with the driver to take us
for cheaper, but Alex just accepted the fare and got in the taxi.
Khao San Road was
buzzy. We didn’t have anywhere to stay, so we wandered down in hope
of finding a place that had a spare room. Rikka Inn had a room for
us, THB1000 a night. We left our bags there while they made up our
room and went exploring around Khao San Road. A nearby pub had a live
cover band playing, so we went in and had a couple of Singha beers.
On the way back to our room, Asty befriended a dude called Tommy who
he thought wanted to give him a game of ping pong – Alex couldn’t
have been more wrong. We turned in early after a long day travelling.
Hamish and Tuffy got to share the double and Chris got the single
mattress on the floor.
19-Nov-2007 –BANGKOK
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We woke up early on our
first day in Bangkok. It wasn’t a great day – overcast with a few
showers. Breakfast was had down Khao San Road at D Café. We walked
round the streets, but it was fairly quiet – we only saw a couple
homeless beggars. To be fair it was only 8am. We decided to take a
tuk tuk ride round the town to view some sights. It was a bit of a
squeeze in the back of a tuk tuk. To be honest, they weren’t made
for us three large lads to be seated in the back, but if families of
five could fit in one, the three of us could definitely do it. Our
driver, Mr B, offered to take us round to the main attractions for
only THB20 – what a bargain! However, there were some hidden
strings that we would find out about later.
The first stop on the
tuk tuk tour was a visit to the Big Buddha, a huge Buddha that stood
outside a temple. All the temples were covered in bling. The second
stop on the trip was another Buddha – the Lucky Buddha. This was
where the infamous “teacher” incident occurred. We started having
a conversation with this random guy floating around the Lucky Buddha
who claimed that he was a teacher. We yarned to him about what we
wanted to get up to while we were in Bangkok, i.e. get suits made and
travel round the country. The conversation seemed fairly innocuous
at the time, but when the next two destinations we visited were the
Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and a tailor to get suits made,
Alex became suspicious and thought we had been scammed. Chris
agreed with Alex, but Hamish thought that the guy at the Lucky Buddha
was genuinely a teacher – 9 hours later, Hamish still argued that the
guy was a teacher.
At the TAT, we talked
to Mr T (the travel agent) about what we wanted to see and do while
we were in Thailand. He sorted out a travel package for us that
included accommodation, transfers, sights, etc that cost us around
NZ$1400. While we were there, Chris started chatting to Mr T’s
assistant. She asked him about his “mamma” and “papa” and
Tuffy thought she was speaking to Chris in Chinese.
After the suit makers,
we headed back to Khao San Road to grab a late lunch and wander round
the markets surrounding Khao San Road. We meet some random dude who
asked us if NZers actually f@%ked sheep or not. After a couple hours
wandering, we got a bit thirsty and tired of inhaling pollution, so
we picked up a few Chang beers from the Seven Eleven and headed back
to the room. Chang turned out to be an amazing beer which would
quench our thirsts for the remainder of the time we were in Thailand,
and at THB74 for a 640mL, 6.4% bottle, it was a steal. Hamish had a
few teething problems with our new favourite beer; he struggled to
open them up. Alex provided us with some drinking entertainment by
trying to differentiate between Japanese and Asians.
When Mr B dropped us
off, he said that he’d come back later that night to take us to a
ping pong show on Patpong Road. “While in Rome” kicked into
action, so we decided to take him up on his offer. We jumped in the
tuk tuk and he drove us round to the ping pong show. Mr B said that
if we paid for him he’d come in with us. “Sickety baht” is how
much Mr B told us it would cost. We thought sixty baht was pretty
cheap, but when it came time to pay, we found out that we had
misinterpreted Mr B’s thick Thai accent and that he’d actually
been saying “six hundred baht”. Knowing the actual price, Mr B
said that he didn’t want to come into the show anymore, so three of
us proceeded to go in to watch the show. We could only really
describe the whole experience as intriguing. Asty got a bleeding nose
(possibly from a diversion of blood), there was over 15m of ropes and
chains hidden in mysterious places, ping pong balls flying all over
the show and old sifty guys sitting in the front rows. The show
started with a “Welcome to Thailand” announcement and concluded
with a live display of porn. One of the acts that Alex particularly
like was one in which a girl proceeded to light and smoke a cigarette
down there.
Feeling a little
peckish after the show, we grabbed a late dinner at a 24 hour cafe
called Oriental Food and had another brief wander through the night
markets before turning in.
20-Nov-2007 –BANGKOK
Alex woke up early this
morning and made it his mission to wake up Hamish and me – a lot of
“ringgits” occurred. We had breakfast on Khao San Road again;
this time at a place just across from the Rikka Inn. The previous
night, Hamish was able to get hold of Bubs and Becky who were also in
Thailand at the same time we were. We planned to meet them where we
had breakfast. Asty had another bleeding nose.
Once Becky and Bubs
turned up, we went and found Mr B to take us to the long-boat trip on
the Chao Phraya River which runs through Bangkok. All five of us
couldn’t fit in the one tuk tuk, so Mr B went and got one of his
mates to take the other half of us. We got to the pier and paid
THB400 for an hour long boat trip. The boat trip took us along the
Chao Phraya and through some feeder creeks. We went to the floating
market, the fish farm, saw some of the river-side houses, and got a
sweet view of Wat Arun from the river. Along our travel, Alex and
Hamish thought they saw Chris’ long lost twin, who was driving
another long-boat heading in the opposite direction. We got dropped
off the boat trip at a pier near Wat Pho (the Reclining Buddha) –
Asty tried to get off the boat before it had stopped.
We got off the
long-boat and walked to Wat Pho to see the Reclining Buddha. Along
the way we passed a dried fish market that everyone thought smelt
like rotten fish. The Reclining Buddha was enormous, about 46m long.
After seeing the Buddha, we walked to the Grand Palace, Wat Pra Keow
and the Emerald Buddha. Grand Palace was littered with temples,
statues, ornaments, etc. The girls had to have covered shoulders at
the Grand Palace. It cost around THB100 admission into the Grand
Palace. There was a pagoda in the Grand Palace that was completely
gold. We saw two armed guards that Hamish insisted he get a photo
with..JPG)
Mr B and his mate
picked us up from outside the Golden Palace and took us back to the
tailor to have the final fitting, before we headed to T.A.T. to
finalise our travel plans. Mr B’s friend had a tantrum because he
was being mucked around by us, so to keep him happy we let them take
us to a jewellery factory in order for Mr B’s friend to get a food
token. We bought some jewellery and pure silk ties while we were at
the jewellery factory.
After the jewellery
factory, we got Mr B and his friend to take us back to Khao San Road.
We grabbed a late lunch with the girls at a restaurant called
Prekab’s Place and did some more shopping around the Khao San
markets. We got some awesome sorbet ice cream from a shop around Khao
San Road. The girls went back to their hotel, while we went back to
Rikka Inn to check out.
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Later that evening we
caught an overnight train north to Chiang Mai. Once we checked out,
we took an hour long taxi to the girls’ hotel to chill and have a
refreshing swim in their outdoor pool that was 20 stories up. They
were staying at the Bayoke Sky Hotel. After our swim we had catch a
taxi to the Hualampong Train Station to catch our overnight train to
Chiang Mai. We had dinner at the train station and boarded our train
(which departed at 10pm). On the train, Chris was sleeping below a
dude who was from NZ called Hamish. We also met some Aussie chicks
from Perth. Our carriage was a second class cabin; no air
conditioning, just windows. The seats folded down into a bed and the
top formed another bed, so there were two people on each side of the
train. As we were departing, Hamish and Alex were looking out the
window and almost lost their heads from an incoming train. Both got
massive frights. The ride on the train was very bumpy. We all tried
to get some sleep from around 11pm.
20-Nov-2007 –CHIANG MAI
The sleep on the
overnight train was fairly rough; Asty likened our sleeping quarters
to that of a concentration camp. Asty woke up again early again –
around 4.30am. We were all up by around 7am and the waiter came round
to take our breakfast orders. All three of us ordered the American
Breakfast. Our waiter insisted we buy him a Chang beer to share with
us. It seemed many of the locals lovedtheir Chang beer. We did so and played a couple games of cards with him. The toilets on the train were pretty primitive – a hole in the floor in which any excrement would fall onto the tracks below. There were some sweet sights along the trip of rice fields and small towns along way. The rest of the train trip was spent playing 500 with the other Hamish.
We arrived in Chiang
Mai at around 1pm and were picked up by a minivan. This was the start
of the hilarious misspellings of Hamish’s name (referred to as the
“Hamish” issue from here); the dude picking us up had a sign that
said “Welcome: Party Mr Wamish Wright”. The van first took us to
the Chiang Mai branch of the T.A.T. to finalise our trip and then the
Holiday Garden Hotel where we were to be based while at Chiang Mai.
We checked in to the hotel and got our second taste of the “Hamish”
issue. Alex claimed first shower that was cold – justice for
claiming the first shower!
We jumped in the back
of a “taxi” and had lunch down in the Old walled city in Chiang
Mai. Emails and bank balances were checked in an internet café after
lunch and then we went for a wander through Chiang Mai to see the old
fallen down temple. It was getting dark, so we left and picked up a
bottle of Thai rum for THB220 to smash back in the hotel. This is
when it started pissing down with rain. We flagged down a tuk tuk and
headed back to the hotel. Our tuk tuk driver didn’t know where he
was going; as a result Hamish and Alex got drenched, but Chris
(sitting in the middle) was sweet.
Finally made it back to
our hotel and had a wee kip. We set up a wakeup call, but still
managed to oversleep. Tuffy was a zombie when we got the call to wake
up. We shuttled to the night market, where we got a feed at a seafood
place. We did a bit of shopping – buying some t-shirts and
singlets, etc. Alex bought some magic rings with aspirations of
becoming a magician or something. Chris thought that when you bought
“black/white” DVDs it is the picture quality that is black/white,
when in reality it is just the covers that are black/white. After a
while, we headed home and went to bed.
22-Nov-2007 – CHIANG MAI - HILL TREKKING
The day started at
7.30am; we showered and went to the hotel’s buffet breakfast. Alex
wanted some toast, but it never came. Hamish offered to get some
toast, but he also didn’t get any. A green van picked us up, took us to
pick up a few other people and went to the market. We got some
awesome deep-fried banana and pumpkin. One road that we travelled
down had a ridiculous number of pot-holes.
We stopped on the side
of a random road and started marching down this track to a random
hut. At this hut, we found out that this is where we would be doing
our elephant riding. We were given lunch here, before we got to ride
elephants. Asty got allocated the baby elephant. The ride took us
through a river where the guides stopped us and the elephants had a
water fight. Hamish got drenched by Chris’ and Hamish’s elephant
soaked others. Hamish’s guide, Johann, tried to get his elephant to
throw Hamish off. We got back to the hut and Asty was given some
bananas to feed the elephants..JPG)
Darkness fell and we
had no torches. Hamish, followed shortly by Chris, went to bed. Alex
stayed up getting on the rice whiskey; this would be the start of a
very entertaining night for young Alex. When he finally stumbled back
to our bamboo hut, he couldn’t find his bed. “F@%k, f@%k,...”
searching for his bed. He felt Chris’ arm, “What the f@%k is
that?! Who the f@%k is that?! WHAT IS THAT?!” He finally found his
bed, but woke up during the night to go for a piss, fell off a ledge
and the whole bed finding process repeated itself. In the morning,
Chris woke up to find Alex asleep between two mosquito nets, with his
trackies pulled up to his knees. When asked why he had his trackies
pulled up to his knees, Asty said he was cold and thought chickens
were attacking him. He had not realised that there were blankets
provided; Chris looks to the foot of Alex’s bed to find a neat pile
of blankets still folded. What Alex thought may have been his bed,
turned out to be one of the German travellers’ beds. Chris,
laughing hysterically at Alex, makes the floor shake with his
laughter and wakes Hamish.23-Nov-2007 – HILL TREKKING
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Everyone woke and had a good laugh at Asty’s expense. We had breakfast, packed up and then left for a full day’s trekking. We wound our way down through the hills from the first village and stopped at a sweet little waterhole round 11:30 for a swim. There was a mint little waterfall that you could jump off. Alex took the dodgy slide off the waterfall into the shallow water. After the boys finished up swimming, we started to climb up hill to another village up in the hills. The village was busy harvesting corn, well, hitting dried corn with sticks to get the kernel off the cob. We stopped here for lunch. One of the Germans had a bunch of pens and pencils that they offered the kids in the village as presents. The kids were super-excited by the gifts; they grabbed the pens and pencils, ran off and started drawing all over themselves as they had no paper to scribble on. There were pigs and chickens everywhere in the village.
We finished up lunch,
some people had quick toilet stops, and we left. Mr Smith told us
that today was going to be a hard day’s climb. We had to climb
around 300m up to get to the next village which was around 800m above
sea level. We left the village and started walking up this single
file, overgrown track. We hear some commotion up the front of the
group; Benjamin, who was overly paranoid about how snake are
everywhere and how poison they are, tears down the hill with Iza in
tow yelling for the guide. “Where is the guide?! There is a snake!
There is a snake!” Mr Smith races up the hill to find an irrigation
pipe with a leak in it. Benjamin was paid out and pranked about
snakes for the rest of the trip. Everyone calmed down and we
continued our very steep and big climb, the hardest by far, but there
were still some fairly big climbs to follow.
In fading light, we
made it to the next village where we were to stay for the night. At
the entrance to the village was a local store; we stocked up hard on
the junk food, grabbed a few beers and a bottle of rice whiskey. We
smashed the beers with dinner, which was by candle light. The local
kids came and put on a show for us; they were just after money we
decided. After the show, we started to get amongst the rice whiskey.
Mr Smith was chippered with some opium, but had too much and vomited.
We had a look, before caving and paying THB50 for all three of us to
try it. The whole experience was wicked. We lay down on this mat in
the bamboo hut, tilted our head to the side and had this long thin
pipe put in our mouths. An old lady sat with the other end, packing
the pipe. She would make sucking noises to signal that it was time to
inhale. It was quite a buzzy feeling really; a little lighter than
weed, but still the same buzz. Alex was too hammered to feel the
effects of the opium. We tried playing mafia with the Frenchies; the
language barrier was interesting. Al found his bed – big
accomplishment!24-Nov-2007 – HILL TREKKING - CHIANG MAI
Bloody chickens kept us
up from around sunrise, so any chance of a sleep in was lost. When
everyone finally started to get up, we were cooked up a breakfast of
eggs on toast. Alex sat on Hamish’s cup of coffee… Hamish
attempted to tell Mr Smith a joke; “How does the chicken cross the
road?” – he had no punch line "... it was a rhetorical question..." Chris asks where the eggs came
from – meaning locally grown or from the city – Alex and Tom
crack up “…from the sky…” After breakfast, we started 1½
hour descend from the village down to the river, where we would be
doing some white-water and bamboo rafting. As we were walking down
this semi-steep hill, Benoit spontaneously took off, basically
running down the hill. We caught up with him, when we reached the
bottom. As we were walking to the river, we past some elephants that
were grazing amongst the trees. Nearing the river, Benjamin finally
ran into a snake, although it had been run over by a truck.
We made it to the river
and went white-water rafting. Asty was surprised that we all got wet
whilst rafting… Benoit trid to take Asty down, but he held on.
Hamish took Marie down on the raft invasion. Benjamin was constantly
yelling “SCHEIZER!!” when we were heading down the rapids.
Once we finished
white-water rafting, we then moved on to bamboo rafting/sinking. The
bamboo rafts would spontaneously start sinking. Marie bailed when we
hit a rock. We had lunch when we got to the finish – also had ice
cream and beers to celebrate the end of our trek.
We jumped back into the van/truck and bounced down the pot holed road back to Chiang Mai. We got back to the hotel and took our first craps for three days. Chilled out in the hotel for a couple hours to reenergize, then went into town and had a cheap ass dinner – THB50 for meal and a beer! We cleared our emails, before heading to the fallen city to check out the lantern festival parade. Picked up some Chang beers from the Seven Eleven and hammered them while the parade was on. Wandered down the road and saw a shit load of lanterns flying in the sky. Hamish got a lantern/hot air balloon and lit it. We watched as others crashed and burned – one got stuck in a tree and fell an unsuspecting chick.
Found some random cart
that sold some amazing banana rotee. We had fireworks thrown at our
feet by some random kids. Pretty funny, so we went and bought some of
our own. Alex bought some duds, they didn’t light. We got smashed
walking round the markets, going from Seven Eleven to Seven Eleven to
pick up a new beer. When we were over the markets, we went to THC, a
roof top bar. We met a few randoms while we were there, including
Josh Stiff (a mate of Richard Drake – possibly one of Hamish’s
mates). The pub was packed and there was nowhere to sit, so we sat on
the floor. The rest of the night got a bit hazy – no one remembers
when we got home or who paid for the tuk tuk… all comad out
expectedly.
25-Nov-2007 – CHIANG RAI
Hamish’s alarm went
off at 6am. He turned it off. 45 minutes later, Chris’ alarm went
off. Now we were late. Still drunk, we raced down to breakfast. Soon
after, we were picked up by a van heading north to Chiang Rai for the
day. The van stopped half way along the journey at a market that had some natural hot pools. There was a chick called Meagan from Mosgiel in our group and a family of 3 from Singapore. We then stopped at another town; Chiang Saen. It was a walled town with an old pagoda. The wall was built around the 1200s.
We then travelled
further north to the Mekong River and the Golden Triangle. We went on
a river cruise that went up and round the Golden Triangle. The boat
trip passed the Paradise Hotel/Casino – the only casino near
Thailand. Paradise Hotel is actually located in Myanmar. We then got
to stop off over in Laos, only for half an hour though. It was still
enough time for us to try snake whiskey.
As we got off the boat,
there was some dude selling souvenir Golden Triangle saucers. On the
base of the saucers were our photos! They’d secretly taken photos
of us before we got on the boats and made the saucers up while we
were on the trip.
We had a massive buffet
feed for lunch at a sweet place that overlooked the Golden Triangle.
Hamish was harassed by bees. Following lunch, we bundled into the van
and headed to Mae Sai at the Thai/Myanmar border. We had a wander
through the markets; Hamish got harassed and chased by some watch
seller – Alex and Chris come to his rescue and purchased some
watches.
Next stop was the Karen
hill tribe village, where the long necks and the big ears live. We
got to look through their village and take some photos with them.
Afterwards, we got into the van and headed for home. Hamish invested
in some pineapple food – massive fail. Kept it pretty quiet this
night – we were pretty knackered.26-Nov-2007 – CHIANG MAI - BANGKOK
Had a sleep in this
morning; it was our first decent sleep in a few nights. Grabbed
breakfast down in the hotel restaurant and then taxied into town. Got
dropped off at an ATM to grab some cash and then we went to an
internet café to check emails, etc.
Later, we decided to
check out Doi Suthep, so jumped in a tuk tuk and headed up… well we
thought we were. Instead of taking us to Doi Suthep, the driver had
driven us to some random jungle bungy jump. “This isn’t Doi
Suthep!” “Oh no, no, tuk tuk no go up hill.” Douche bag. In the
end, the driver just to take us back to the hotel.
We chatted to a taxi
driver at the hotel and organised a trip to Doi Suthep on our way to
the train station. In the process of cancelling our pre-booked
shuttle to the train station, Hamish left the tickets at the hotel –
pass the blame? Finally, we made it to Doi Suthep and had a wander
round. The temple was way up on the top of a hill that looked out
over Chiang Mai. The view would have been mint, except the smog made
it too hazy to see the city. Met the taxi driver at the base of a
massive flight of stairs and headed to the train station, via the
hotel.
We boarded our train
and killed time by playing scum and poker. A random dude turned up to
claim his seat on the train, so we made space for him. Alex kept
putting stuff on the dude’s seat; he thinks we are paying for our
meal. The random guy was just standing there waiting. The train meal
was a fiasco; none of us got what we ordered and different parts of
each meal turned up in different waves, so half of our meal was cold.
After dinner, we played some more scum with a Dutch couple, Ferry and
Susan, from Utrecht, Holland. Chris though his name was Freddie and
kept calling him that. We played from the top beds. Once again, it
was a very bumpy trip and we get very little sleep.
26-Nov-2007 – BANGKOK
The train arrived at
Hualampong Station at about 5:45am. We spent about half an hour
trying to hail a taxi to take us to PJ Watergate Hotel, where we were
to stay for the next couple nights. The hotel was in a different part
of the city to Khao San Road. Because it was so early, it took us
ages to find a place for breakfast. After walking off breakfast, we
headed back to the hotel to shower.
Feeling clean and
refreshed, we taxied to the sky train. Not 100% sure which station we
got on the sky train at, but later we went to Jim Thompson’s house.
Jim Thompson was an American who sparked the Thai silk industry. We
had a bit of difficulty actually locating Jim Thompson’s house, but
when we finally found it, we felt about 20 years too young; nice
house, but pretty boring.
We had to jet back to
the tailor to have our final fitting; got free beers again! The
fitting took a little longer than we thought, so we ended up getting
a fair few free beers. The tailors needed to make a couple small
adjustments, but then they would send our suits back to NZ for us. We
decided to walk to MBK to have a look around. Chris claimed to be an
authentic tuk tuk driver, started heading in the completely wrong
way, and proceeded to rip the map in half. MBK was huge; there were
floors and floors of shops. One floor was completely dedicated to
cellphone accessories. Another floor was dedicated to food; we had a
massive feed on this floor. Asty thought he got shafted when he asked
for a hot tom yum soup, until he got towards the bottom where all the
chillis were. Hamish gave Sam Phampho a call, as he was back in
Thailand for the summer, but he was too knackered from working all
day.
The taxi trip back to
the hotel was anything but normal. Hamish demanded that we put the
meter on, but the taxi driver refused. The taxi driver started
yelling at us and when Hamish attempted to get out, the psycho driver
threatened to slap Hamish’s head off. We agreed to pay the freak
THB100 and he dropped us back at our hotel. We got back to find our
washing packaged in individual bags. Nothing much happened after; had
an early night.
28-Nov-2007 – BANGKOK - KANCHANABURI
6:30am start. Chris
gets into the shower first, out at 6:45am. Hamish next, gets out at
7am. Alex gets in at 7am, has a shit and 2 minute shower. Hamish
battled with the ridiculously low bathroom door frame – smacked his
head a couple times.
As usual, we were
running late for breakfast; speed ate until we were picked up by a
van. The van was taking us to Kanchanaburi to check out the bridge
over River Kwai. We picked up a few other people before we headed to
the Allied Cemetery at Kanchanaburi and the war museum. Wasn’t that
interesting, so we wandered to check out the bridge over the river
kwai (Khwae Yai River). Found the remains of the original bridge
(probably the most interesting part…
We were allowed to
cross the bridge, Hamish almost bailed on the bridge. Was a pretty
dodgy bridge crossing; one wrong slip and you would probably end up
in the river. When we got to the other side, we saw some elephants
chilling under the bridge, Al couldn’t see them (not surprising
really).
The van then took us to
this railway station where we would catch the train to the death
railway. The death railway was pretty sweet. Passed a Buddha that was
embedded in the rock wall. We got to the end of the train trip and
our van picked us up and took us to a roadside restaurant for lunch.
Just up the road from
the restaurant was this waterfall where we had a mean swim and walked
up the hill to where the water source was – basically a hole in the
rock. The van took us back to Bangkok and the railway station there.
Had KFC for a feed at the station, Hamish saw a couple of his mates
there (Nic and Francie). We boarded our train to Surat Thani, en
route to Koh Phangan. Hamish sat next to a yank called Matt. This
time we got the air-con, first class train carriage – so much
better!29-Nov-2007 – SURAT THANI - KOH PHANGAN
Arrived at Surat Thani
train station, where there was complete chaos. There were busses
everywhere and no one knew which bus they were supposed to get on. We
found our bus and got crammed on like sardines. The bus took us to
Don Sak pier, where we caught the ferry to Koh Phangan. It was about
an hour and half long ferry trip, so we passed the time by playing
cards; Hamish only managed to become president on the last hand of
scum.
We got off the ferry
and were thoroughly accosted by taxi drivers. Got a taxi to Sea Scene
where we were staying. It was a pretty sweet little spot – right on
the water and a sweet little beach hut. The water was really warm, so
we had a swim and found a sweet rock to jump.
The resort hired
scooters for THB200 a day, so we grabbed a couple of those and went
to Thong Sala (the nearest town) to clear emails, make calls home.
Alex booked a diving trip for the next morning and we grabbed lunch
while we were in town. Hamish managed to step in some wet concrete
outside the restaurant. Scootered from Thong
Sala to Haad Rin to have a look and then back to Thong Sala for a
good deep-fried market dinner. We picked up some Changs and headed
back to the resort. Hamish and Chris started hammering into the
Changs. Alex offered to taxi us into town as he wasn’t drinking
because he was diving the next morning.
Whilst we were
drinking, there was a massive green stick creature on the door. Chris
was petrified; Alex tried to flick it away, but it flew into his
head/ear and inside. Alex freaked out; it was hilarious.
We headed into town not
too long after the green insect fiasco and played some pool and had
some more beers. The first bar we found that was open was dead. There
was a massive group of locals sitting in a circle out the back; they
looked pretty dodgy, so we just got a couple beers and played pool
out the front.
When we returned home, the green bug had also returned!
30-Nov-2007 –KOH PHANGAN
Alex left at 7:30am to
go diving. He went to Sail Rock for a dive. The seas were pretty
rough and many of his fellow divers were sea sick, but Alex was fine.
He got two dives in; the visibility wasn’t great, but Alex said
there was still a lot to see.
Hamish and Chris slept
in and scootered round the island. We tried to go as far north as
possible. Stopped at a waterfall somewhere round the middle of the
island on the way, and then tried to go to Haad Rin for lunch. We
thought we were going the right way, but ended up going down very
steep hill and ended up in a construction site so had to turn round.
We ended up at the north end of the island at Chalok Lam. Tried to
loop back round the island, but kept running out of concrete road –
roads would just end and turn to gravel. Weather turned for the
worst, so we headed back to Thong Sala for lunch. Found a sweet
little restaurant on the roadside; thought we were paying THB130 for
a meal and drink – a little more expensive than what we were used
to paying – turned out to be only THB30! Went back to Sea Scene and
read our books while it rained. Alex returned not long after and we
had a swim when it cleared.
We headed to Haad Rin
for dinner. Parked up the scooters and went for a walk. So many
places were obsessed with Snoop Dogg. Found a nice seafood restaurant
that had a display of fresh fish out front that you could choose and
they would cook up for you. We picked out a nice looking snapper –
turned out to cost us THB300! Had deep-fried ice creams for dessert
and Alex couldn’t fathom how it works. Found a bar that was on a
roof and had a few beers and watched fire pois. The beach was lined
with little stands selling buckets of alcohol, so we went for a
wander before we headed back to the resort. Alex got quite smashed
and got snap happy on the scooter trip back.1-Dec-2007 – KOH PHANGAN - KOH SAMUI
Final day on Koh
Phangan. Chris woke up with a crook gut and opted out of the morning
adventures in hope of a quick recovery. Alex and Hamish, however,
went for a final scooter round the island. They set off for Hat Rin
and then tried to go North-East by taking an alternative route that
when through the middle of the island. Alex wanted to go down another
road, Hamish had his doubts and thought it would end up on the other
side of the island – turned out Hamish was right.
We squeezed in one last
swim at the beach, before the “shuttle” arrived to take us back
to the wharf. The ferry to Koh Samui was relatively fast. We checked
into our hotel/resort (Chaweng Villa); this place was off the meter –
beachside infinity pool with pool bar. After a late lunch at Ninja
Crepes, we had a quick wander through the town before deciding to
pick up some Changs and return to our bundalow. Had a quick swim and
then cranked into some drinking games (deal or no deal and
red/black).
Before we got too
leery, we grabbed some dinner at a restaurant a little bit out of
town. Hamish got severely punished with his extremely spicy yellow
curry, while Alex tried to order the hottest meal on the menu only to
receive chicken and cashew nuts.
After dinner we hit the
pubs. Alex wanted to go where the Thai sluts were, Hamish wanted to
go where it was pumping, and Chris didn’t mind where they went.
First pub we went to was a let-down; there was a power cut and we
received rubbish red bulls. We chopped our drinks and headed to the
next pub. Alex played a game of connect four with the waitress and
Hamish had a random guy put an iguana/chameleon plopped on his head.
Played a game of pool, in which Alex dominated.
The third bar was the
goods. We chatted to this Irish couple, Joe and Evon. All of us, like
all New Zealanders apparently, thought his name was “Joel” which
really grinds him. We also met three girls there from Perth doing a
similar trip to us. Had a dance with them, after which Hamish lost
his memory. Eventually we left the bar/got kicked out/the bar closed
– none of us can remember. Hamish tried running away (he insists he
was running home). Alex chased after him, but epically bailed. A
heated argument breaks out between Hamish and Alex. Chris intervened
to breaks up the tension and was praised for his efforts by the
nearby hawker. Alex made a bet with Hamish that Hamish wouldn’t be
able to remember the fight in the morning. Alex won his bet.
2-Dec-2007 – KOH SAMUI
All of us woke up still
very drunk/hungover, but a good buffet breakfast helped that. We
spent a lot of the day poolside reading and swimming in the infinity
pool. The pool attendant came over and asked if we wanted to play a
little beach soccer; we dabbled. Hamish was extremely useless in his
hungover state. Expectedly, we got cleaned up.
After exerting
ourselves and a quick swim in the ocean, we retired back poolside
where Chris and Alex ordered some very expensive (THB 80) orange
juice. After a sip, Alex places his cup on a crack in the deck and
spills it all. By now, the sun was getting quit warm. Alex ignores
wise advice to put a shirt on; as a result he ends up very red…
We had dinner at
Ninja’s again. Alex tries to order the spiciest mean again, but
noodle soup turned up. The night was kept pretty low key; couple
beers and some cards before bed.
3-Dec-2007 – Koh Samui - Koh Phi Phi
Early morning wakeup
call at 5:30am. Picked up out pre-arranged breakfast boxes and jumped
in our van to the pier, where our bus was waiting for us. The bus
took us to the ferry, which then took us to Don Sak. Alex volunteered
to provide snacks for the ferry trip. He managed to buy two packets
of rotten fish flavoured snacks. “They looked like BBQ flavour”.
The bus at Don Sak took
us to some shack in the outskirts of Surat Thani. We waited there for
ages and eventually got picked up by a ute/truck that took us around
the corner to some transfer shop. Apparently we didn’t have tickets
for the bus, so had to purchase some for THB 100, even though we had
already pre-paid for our tickets.
A van turned up and
picked us up, along with Andreas and two Swedish chicks. Andreas was
an English dude who was on his way to Waimate and the two Swedish
chicks, contrary to popular belief, were not that hot. There was no
air-con in the van, so it was a very stuffy trip to Krabi.
At Krabi, we boarded
the boat to Koh Phi Phi. The process to get on the boat was
ridiculous; we exchanged our tickets for another ticket, which we
exchanged for 20 metres later for another ticket. 10 metres later,
the most recently received tickets were torn in half… blatant
deforestation.
The boat to Koh Phi Phi
was packed, more people than space. We arrived at Koh Phi Phi to find
that we had been booked in at Phi Phi Hotel. Checked in and went
straight to the pool for a swim. After that, it was dinner time –
BBQ buffet, our first proper meal of the day. As per usual, eyes
bigger than our stomachs. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel
with the aim of heading back out – didn’t happen, we were way too
knackered. Instead, we booked a snorkelling trip for the next day and
played some cards.4-Dec-2007 – Koh Phi Phi
First things first,
buffet breakfast and check emails.
We met our snorkelling
group; Jascha (Dutch), Camille (French), a Shanghai couple, Japanese
girl, and two Swedish chicks. Our guide led us to a long-tail boat
and we all headed to our first snorkelling spot at little cove on the
North-West side of Koh Phi Phi Don. We were able to heaps of tropical
fish swimming in the waters and the visibility was amazing.
The next
stop was the aptly-named Monkey Beach – monkeys were everywhere on
the beach. We had lunch and a snorkel around the rocks. We saw
schools of little fish, along with a couple barracudas, and there was
a bit of coral around to see as well. Jetting across the bay, we
stopped at Short Beach. There was an underwater tunnel that we could
snorkel through. Hamish managed to somehow cut himself and also
started coughing up blood. Alex snorkelled down to where there was a
group of divers.
We chilled on the beach for a bit before heading to
Koh Phi Phi Ley. Seas were pretty choppy for our small boat and we
all got drenched on the trip to Maya Bay – the beach where they
shot “The Beach”. We swam here and our guide tried to take us
across the island to a sweet snorkelling spot, but it was too rough
for anyone to get through. Instead, we headed to the sunset view
point, where we snorkelled and fed some fish. Camille and the tour
guide had a (not so) playful Muay Thai boxing fight. It turns out
that our guide was a former Muay Thai boxing champ. It was also
somewhere round this point that we found out our guide had been high
all day. We watched the sunset (behind some clouds which we all
thought was land). Heading back across the straight was good fun. The
seas had picked up and it was pretty rough, meaning we all got
drenched again.
Back on main land, we
headed back to the hotel to shower and change. Jascha and Camille
were keen to try out the all-you-can-eat BBQ place, so we met up
there. During dinner, Camille had issues with understanding how we
couldn’t eat and drink at the same time. We decided to hit up the
bars with these guys. Tiger bar for a few Sangsom buckets was the
first stop, then to a reggae bar where we could watch some muay thai
boxing. Amateurs were able to get up and fight, which was pretty
entertaining. There was some big yobbo tourist, who had beat Camille
on a previous night, who got his arse kicked by this tiny little
dude. The yobbo only had one move really, a roundhouse kick. We
watched another fight where a chick got kicked in the head by another
chick. As soon as it happened, the first chick started apologising.
At midnight, the bar gave out 200 free buckets. We managed to get in
on that, but they were rubbish. We talked to some annoying Swedes and
a dude, Dave, from Scotland. Hamish left fairly soon after finishing
the buckets. Chris left no long after and somehow found Hamish (who
had gotten lost). Alex stayed out, but somehow managed to find his
way back.
5-Dec-2007 – Koh Phi Phi
Alex woke up at 7.45am
very very hungover. He had booked up a diving trip for the day.
Battling, he couldn’t find his camera, but Chris, half asleep,
found it straight away.
Alex got two good dives
in. Visibility was around 15 metres and a lot of fish were about.
They were taken to a spot at Koh Phi Phi Ley, near “The Beach”
beach. Al had to have a lie down at lunchtime as he was so hungover.
He couldn’t talk… 
Meanwhile, Hamish and
Chris had a decent sleep in to avoid having hangovers. Chris woke up
at 10:10 am to discover that they’d missed breakfast. Not a lot of
action back on main land; a bit of laundry and mindless wandering.
When Alex returned from
his half-day dive trip, we had a swim and a wander up to the view
point and watched the sunset. This seemed to be a very popular idea
with many of the tourists. It was a tough climb, but well worth it.
Alex had issues with facial expressions and arm placement in photos.
After the sunset, we headed down to the 2004 tsunami memorial. We had
dinner at a very scummy all-you-can eat sushi place and then returned
home to crash. Alex must have eaten something foreign, as he was
completely out of it when we got back to the hotel room.6-Dec-2007 – Koh Phi Phi - Patong Beach
We woke and had the
last good breakfast before catching the early ferry to Phuket. There
was a lot of confusion around which boat people were supposed to be
on. Two boats were moored alongside each other. The first boat was
headed back to Krabi, while the other was headed to Phuket. You had
to go on the first to get onto the second. Hamish missed this fact,
only getting onto the first. No one told Hamish he was on the wrong
boat until Chris and Alex yelled out from the other boat.
The boat took us to
Phuket, where we then got into a van that took us to the Mermaid
Resort at Patong Beach. We had a sweet pool outside our room, so we
had a swim and played some ball in the pool. Al threw Chris a wide
ball and Chris took an amazing catch, but split his elbow open on the
side of the pool. He went back to the room to clean it up, but fell
faint in the process (not good with blood).
We had a wander to get
some lunch and patch up Chris’ elbow. The shopping area wasn’t
that far away, so we had a shop for the afternoon. All of us ended up
buying a lot of DVDs. The walk actually ended up being rather
sizable. We picked up some Changs on the way to our room. Around
9:30pm we got the munchies, so went to grab some dinner and then
decided to hit the night life.
There was a huge debate
about where to go. We somehow managed to end up in some Aussie bar,
where a babe from Canberra would talk to Hamish. On transit between
bars, we bumped into the W.A. chicks that we’d met on Koh Samui.
They had no recollection on meeting us - gutted. After a few too many
drinks, we headed home. Alex set an alarm so we wouldn’t miss
breakfast.
7-Dec-2007 - Phuket
We woke up pretty hung, had breakfast and then sat round the pool reading til somewhere round 2:30pm. We had lunch at a different place to yesterday. Chris ordered pork with vegetables, but actually got vegetables hold the pork. We checked emails after lunch and went shirt shopping. We spent ages shirt shopping, but came out with some good stuff. Tired and stressed from the epic shopping we shelled out for authentic Thai massages. The massage ‘rooms’ were essentially a series of mattresses separated by curtains. We were each directed to a separate ‘room’ and asked to remove our clothes. We decided down to punters was far enough. Alex, the raging bull, got special sound effects from the customer next door, who had obviously asked for the ‘special’ massage with the happy ending. “You finished now, you go shower.” Chris, the sleeping elephant, thought Alex had asked for the ‘special’ massage. Alex defends his new nickname, claiming his masseuse was extremely hot.
Feeling a bit peckish
(and, for one of us, a bit drained of blood) after our massages, we
grabbed some dinner, before heading back to the hotel for an early
night.
8-Dec-2007 – Phuket-Kuala Lumpur
Today, we left Thailand
for Malaysia. We got up at 6:45am for a 7:15am departure by van. The
van was pretty small, so for 3 relatively large guys, we were pretty
squashed in the back seat. The van took us to somewhere just outside
of Krabi. Here we switched into an even more cramped and non-air
conditioned van. This van took us to Hat Pai, where we again changed
vans. The new van was much more spacious, and air conditioned. It was
also much speedier than our previous two vans. We crossed the border
between Thailand and Malaysia. It was amazing how relaxed they were
at the border; we had stuff to declare, but they still put us in the
express green lane.
The van took us to a
massive bus depot in Butterworth, Malaysia, where we had to wait 2 ½
hours for our bus to depart. We played ‘contract whist’
(essentially Up & Down the River) with Mick and Jenny from
England. There was some little random local kid running round begging
for loose change. We finally got on our bus to Kuala Lumpur. The bus
was three seats wide – one on one side, the aisle, and two on the
other side. The air con on the bus was ridiculously cold. We had an
extremely chilly sleep, Alex especially. He had packed his jersey in
his stowaway luggage and not until the morning was he aware that he
had Chris’ air con pointing towards him or that Hamish had a spare
jersey in his backpack. Hamish and Chris woke up just as the bus left
what looked to be a random bus stop. As it turns out, this was the
Kuala Lumpur stop – a little side street bus shelter across the
road from the major bus depot. Seeing as this didn’t appear to be a
major bus stop, we didn’t get off and ended up in Klang (the port).9-Dec-2007 – Kuala Lumpur
After nearly 25 hours
in our overnight bus and missing our stop in Kuala Lumpur, we arrived
in Klang. We were too early for the bus ticket offices, so had to
perch until we could buy tickets back to Kuala Lumpur.
When we finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Hamish bolted to the nearest McDonald’s, only to find that they had squat toilets. We asked him what the issue was with squatting, to which he replied “I don’t have the flexibility.” He finally caved, and used the squat toilet. Whilst he was ‘taking care of business,’ Alex also needed to use the bathroom. The cleaner had just come out of the women’s toilet and ushered Alex into them to use, where Alex discovered that the women’s had a proper sit down toilet – much to Hamish’s frustration.
We stayed at the Swiss
Inn and dropped our laundry off at a cheap local backpackers. We took
the LRT (Light Rail Train) to the KLCC station to see the Petronas
Towers. We were too late for skybridge tickets, so had a quick look
round the KLCC mall and then walked to the Golden Triangle.
We had lunch at BB
Plaza and then had a quick look round Chinatown. Batu Caves were
supposed to be a pretty sweet attraction, so we tried to find a bus
out there. After walking round a couple clocks, we realised that we
were in the right place to begin with. The caves were pretty cool.
There was a ridiculous number of stairs to climb up to the caves, but
it was worth the climb. Hamish watched a stand-off between a
poisonous yellow-striped snake and a monkey.
Night started to fall,
so we bussed back into town and headed to the KL tower. Chris and
Alex took the long way round the hill to get to the tower. Up the
tower, we were able to look over the city lights – pretty romantic
really. We walked back to the Swiss in, picking up our washing on the
way. We had claypot chicken around the back of our motel, at some
road-side hawker. It looked pretty legit; heaps of locals were eating
there, so we decided it was sweet.
After dinner, Alex went
back to the motel to crash, while Hamish and Chris went to check out
the markets. It turns out that the best time to land some good
bargains is when shops are closing up. We got some awesome deals on
wallets, bags and cufflinks.
10-Dec-2007 – Kuala Lumpur - Teman Negara
We woke up an hour
after what we had thought we’d set our alarms for, due to our
phones still being set to Thailand time. Rushing to pack, as well as
trying to book a trip to Teman Negara, we didn’t have time for
breakfast. A van turned up to take us to Kuala Tembeling. We had
lunch and then it started bucketing down. After lunch, we boarded a
boat which would take us the river right into the heart of Teman
Negara. Hamish bailed down the marble stairs leading down to the
dock. During our quick 2 ½ boat trip up the river, we saw a couple
water manitors; one perched up on the river bank and one climbing a
tree.
The boat pulled up to a
floating pontoon at Kuala Tahan, where we would spend the next couple
days in the rain forest. We were shown to our room – a hut with two
sets of bunks. We chilled there and chatted to Benji, a dude from
US/Israel. He had just come from a stint with the Israeli Army. We
played a bit of cards with him. Dinner was served on a floating
restaurant on the river side. As it turned out, this would be where
all our meals would be served.
After dinner we crossed
the river to the National Park to go on our night tour. They started
us off in a room where we watched a video about the region, before
taking us on the night walk. Rain was pouring down and Al’s touch
was similar to high eye sight – abysmal. The guide showed us where
a tarantula should live, but no actual tarantula. We saw some deer
from a hide… well, we saw eyes reflecting the torch light. Majority
of what we did see were moths.
After a very wet and
mostly disappointing trip, we hit the sack.
11-Dec-2007
– Teman Negara
Another wet day in the
rainforest, what else should we have expected? We got up and had
breakfast at the floating restaurant, before departing on a bush walk
to a lookout. Asty’s jacket was very ineffective, however, it
didn’t matter as everyone ended up sopping wet.
We kept count of the
number of leeches we attracted; Alex finished up with two, Hamish
attracted one and Chris got two and a half (one was on the sock). We
made it up to the lookout and got a good view of the clouds below.
The guide took us further along the track to the canopy walkway, but
when we arrived it had been closed.
We caught the boat back
to Kuala Tahan for lunch, and then took it further to see the Orang
Aioli village. The village locals demonstrated a few of their
survival skills; Hamish broke the fire starting wood twice. Asty hit
the blowdart target, even though he couldn’t see it – he thought
the leaf target was a hole. Chris and Hamish narrowly missed. Hamish
looked as if he was trying to eat the end of pipe. He blew on the
pipe, but jams the tube. Locals tried for ages to fix it. The guide
tells us it’s time to say goodbye. The whole village comes out to
say good bye. Waited ages for the boat to arrive and we got soaked in
the rapids on the way back. The river had risen a couple meters
higher than the day before.
We had cold, dribbling
showers; probably would have got more pressure from the rain outside.
Played some cards before we went to having dinner with John and
Brooke (a couple from Australia).
12-Dec-2007 – Teman Negara - Malacca
Woke up and started to
pack up our gear. In the process, Chris found a frog chilling under
his bed. Angry John was impatient to go, so we took a pretty quick
trip down the river – the boat was hauling. The road from Kuala
Tembling to Jerantut was flooded so we had to take the boat further
down the river. We got off the boat and had to walk for a while,
before squashing into a van. We waited at some random hostel, then
piled into the van, drove round the block and waited some more.
Finally, we got the van
back to KL and they gave us a measly refund. The van dropped us at
the main bus station and the lady who Hamish bought the tickets off
sent her regards… only problem was that she was in her mid 30’s.
We jumped on the bus to Malacca (cost us 10RM) and the driver almost
rear-ended a car.
We took the bus right
into the middle of town and got off at the Town Square. Checked into
Cho Tho Hotel and did the traditional rock-off for the double bed.
Hamish’s luck finally changed and got a double bed to himself. We
wandered down to Chinatown for dinner, but all of us were pretty
knackered at that stage.
13-Dec-2007 – Malacca
We woke up and went in
search of breakfast. Found a sweet little café/restaurant next to
the river. Water monitors were chilling on the far river bank. There
was this random guy hanging round the café, but didn’t amount to
anything.
We had a look in
stalls, before heading up to Old St Paul’s Church at the top of the
hill. There were some remnants of Fort Santiago nearby, so we had a
look round there. Next, we went to the maritime and navy museum
across town. Hamish was ‘scared’ of the ship; Flora da la mer
ship was closed for renovations, so we went to the shopping to mall
to get some shopping in and grab some lunch. Alex – “So, when was
my last shit?” Alex struggled with car racing at the Timeout. We
bought some drinks and went to Stad toeys museum. Hamish went in and
looked round at the history of the city.
That night, we checked
out the night markets. They were surprisingly quiet. We got a cheap
dinner and tried a bamboo drink. More DVDs were purchased, along with
some magic tricks.
14-Dec-2007 – Malacca - Singapore
We caught a taxi to the
Malacca Sentral for an 11am bus to Singapore. Alex grabbed a voucher
off some promo chick. Finally something paid off for him; it was a
voucher for a free McMuffin from McDonalds. Alex spent the whole
breakfast/brunch gloating.
The bus stopped at a
service centre and we grabbed some lunch from the canteen there. We
all ordered laksas; Hamish didn’t really enjoy it. We also tried
fresh durian.When we approached the border to Singapore it started raining – hard. None of us had ever seen rain as heavy as this before. Our bus was making wakes in the surface water on the road. The so-called tight customs at the border between Malaysia and Singapore didn’t want to know about us. We were previously panicking about our copied DVDs, etc, but it was pretty much a walk through.
We got off the bus at
the depot and it was still bucketing down. It was nearly impossible
to flag down a taxi; it took forever and we all got pretty soaked,
especially Hamish. Finally we got one and headed to Hamish’s
aunty’s place. We showered while she cooked us some dinner, and
after dinner we watched “In the pursuit of happiness.”
15-Dec-2007 – Singapore
We did the usual
tourist thing today; went to Orchard Rd, bought cologne/perfume from
Lucky Plaza, and loaded up on electronics. Wandering down the road,
we came across some side street that had a few food places down it.
One place was selling pan-fried stingray, so we thought we’d sample
it for lunch. It wasn’t too bad – much like flounder or sole.
After lunch, we boosted to Chinatown so Crips could get his aunty’s tiger balm. We then caught the MRT to Harbourfront and then walked to Vivo City (a big shopping centre). Vivo City is also where you catch the monorail to Sentosa Island. We jumped on the monorail, and this was when we discovered Alex’s feet or sandals wreaked. Once we got to Sentosa Island, we jumped on a bus that took us to Fort Siloso. It was bucketing down, so we bought ponchos but still managed to get soaked. We had a look around the old fort and some of the World War II history.
After a quick stop to
check out the Merlion, we were back on the monorail and then on a bus
back to Hamish’ Aunty’s place. We enjoyed a lovely dinner of
crumbed chicken that Alex complimented by asking “what type of fish
is this?” – Douche. We let Hamis
h’s cousin, Jon, choose a DVD to watch. He chose “Round the World in 80 Days.”
h’s cousin, Jon, choose a DVD to watch. He chose “Round the World in 80 Days.”
16-Dec-2007 – Singapore
Got up well rested from
a good night’s sleep. Alex must’ve still been asleep at breakfast
as he put lime juice on his weetbix, thinking it was “super skim
milk.”
We hit up the zoo
today. It ended up being a mammoth day out. We hung round for the
night safari. Alex wasn’t keen as he thought that the night safari was just going to the zoo at night. Our favourite animal was probably the spectral tarsier as is was nowhere to be seen. Alex asked what the name of the spectral … was; Hamish repeated “Tarsier” four times and on the fourth Alex was like “yeah, its Tarsier!”
We had an epically
large feed at KFC. Alex and Chris had an almost as epic game of war.
17-Dec-2007 – Singapore - Darwin
After “quenching”
our thirsts, we took a bus to Little India for lunch and a bit of
shopping at Mustafa Centre. We got a tasty feed of tandoori chicken
and mango lassi from some random corner Indian takeaway.
We jumped on the MRT
and then a bus back to Hamish’s aunt’s to shower and pack up our
final things, before jumping in a taxi to the airport. Check-in was a
breeze, but the plane was delayed for an hour due to a communication
system malfunction. The budget terminal was very budget; their slogan
was “Notice the Difference.”
We landed in Darwin at
2am. Hamish had his bag searched by MAF because of his snake whiskey.
The delays almost made us miss our connection to Melbourne, but
luckily their check-in counter computers crashed and we boarded the
domestic flight to Melbourne.
18-Dec-2007 – Darwin - Melbourne - Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch
We all had a rubbish
1-2 hours sleep on the plane. We arrived in Melbourne at the most
budget terminal; there was no real terminal, just a conveyer belt for
luggage that was in a shed.
We caught the bus into
town and walked around for a bit. We chilled in Federation Square for
a while to try re-energise. After we perked up, we went down to the
MCG and had a tour round the stadium. Alex was in his prime;
Australian cricket history everywhere. We trammed back into town and
then got on a bus back to the airport to check in for our flights
home. Got through without any problems and had one final game of Scum
– Hamish was the champion!
One last photo and we
boarded our respective flights home.
BRING ON MR D. Part 2!!
