Bali

For the past two months we've been on the move every three days, so we were delighted to be checking into our hotel in Bali for a lengthy seven days. Bali as an island has everything you could ever want (or at least anything Gaz could ever want anyway). The island has a varied mixture of landscapes from stunning beaches through green rice fields up to lofty volcanoes. We spent our first two days lying on the beach and learning to surf. Our balinese surf instructors had the patience of saints, which was fortunate because they really needed it in order to teach us how to surf. Fortunately their perseverance paid off though and by the second day Gaz was managing to stand-up and ride some waves. Luckily Tara had thrown in the towel by this point so we even have some photos to prove it.

We spent our third day on the island underwater, as we tried our hands once again at Scuba diving. We are starting to think that we're not destined to be regular divers because we had another disappointing dive. Bali is renowned for its usually calm seas and and thirty-metre visibility underwater, but this was not the experience that we were treated too. The ocean was so choppy that our boat captain couldn't even make it to the dive site, so instead we had to go a dive site nearer shore. Here we were treated to claustrophobic five-metre visibility, but fortunately our dive master had brought some bread down with us to feed the fish and we were soon surrounded by swarms of tropical fish. It was a great experience to have the fish eat out of our hands though we're not convinced that this constitutes the unobtrusive diving that was encouraged during our PADI course in Thailand.

On the fourth day we hired a scooter and set off to explore the southern tip of Bali. Within 30 minutes of setting off, we had our first (and thankfully only) brush with Indonesian corruption. We were flagged down by a police officer and asked to show our license. When Gaz showed his UK driving license we were told that its not valid in Bali and that we required an International driving license. We were then told that we'd need to come to a law court tomorrow to sort it out, but for a 150,000 Rupiah bribe the officer was willing to let us off. We'd read about this in the Lonely Planet, so we weren't entirely surprised but it was frustrating nonetheless. So we paid our bribe to the fat police officer and set off again unsure as to how many times we'd have to pay such a bribe. Thankfully this was the only time that we were pulled over, but it took the shine off of what was otherwise a really fun day. We rode down to the Monkey temple in Uluwatu, where we ambushed by monkeys looking for peanuts, before heading north to Dreamlands beach. Dreamlands beach is a surfer's paradise with an amazing break, but was far beyond our surfing skills so we stuck to admiring it from the beach.

On our penultimate day we hired a car & driver and went on a tour of the island to see some of the culture that Bali had to offer. We started off our day with a Balinese dance show (which was essentially an Indonesian panto), we then went to some local craft factories (Silver, Batik, and Wood-carving) before heading up the mountain for views of the volcano (which we couldn't actually see because we were shrouded in fog). On our way back from the volcano we stopped at a coffee plantation, and the rice terraces before finally making our way down to the Monkey Forest in Ubud (where we were once again ambushed by over-friendly monkeys).

Bali is without doubt Gaz's favourite destination so far. The island has so much to offer from mountain hiking through surfing. The beaches are the most stunning that I've ever seen, and the local people are really friendly. Furthermore accommodation and food are excellent value especially near Kuta beach, although prices seemed to get higher as you move inland. I'd love to go back. The only things the island needs to get rid of are the corrupt policemen, and the hawkers that put on irritating Australian accents when they're trying to sell you something.

Singapore

Having spent a few weeks in the more rural parts of South-East Asia, we were quite looking forward to the hustle and bustle of Singapore. Prior to arrival, all we knew of Singapore was that its illegal to chew gum, and that Singaporeans love air-conditioning. We arrived to discover that virtually everything is illegal in Singapore. The whole city is covered with signs telling people what they can't do. We were deeply disappointed to discover that the transportation of durians on the Singaporean Metro system is illegal, but Tara was quite relieved to rid herself of the two that she'd smuggled in from Thailand as they were taking up quite a lot of space in her backpack. We only had two days in Singapore, but we managed to squeeze in quite a few sites. We started off with wander around the colonial district of Singapore, taking in their new Arts Theatre, the Singapore Cricket Club and their old parliament building. From there we wandered up through Fort Canning which sits upon a hill in the middle of the city, and over to Orchard Road to indulge in some retail therapy. In the afternoon we caught the cable car over to Sentosa Island, which is a Singapore's equivalent of Blackpool (a slightly tacky pleasure resort) and also the southern most tip of continental Asia (a dubious claim as it is connected to mainland Asia via two bridges). Singapore has a beautiful colonial feel to it, which we indulged in by sipping Singapore Slings and Gin & Tonics in one of the many Raffles hotel bars. After that we made our way down to the waterfront which is home to one of the livelier parts of town for dinner and drinks.


The public transport system in Singapore is excellent. Its quick, clean and really easy to navigate. So through a combination of trains and buses, we made our way to Changi Prison on east side of Singapore Island on our second morning and visited the war museum that is based there. We then went for a brief stroll around Little India (unsurprisingly this is the Indian quarter of Singapore), before heading out to the airport to catch our flight to Bali. We both really enjoyed Singapore, but it is perhaps a little too sterile. Everything is illegal, and the punishments for breaking any of the laws are extremely harsh. Furthermore, after two days we were beginning to show early signs of frostbite from the arctic air-conditioning so we were glad to be moving onto the beach paradise of Bali.

Thailand - Chiang Mai and the Islands

The UK's Foreign Office website states that "Travel by Lao Airlines is strongly discouraged". So it was with some relief that we safely touched down in Chiang Mai (Thailand) aboard Lao Airlines flight QV645. We made the short journey from the airport to the Seven Suns guesthouse and were somewhat bemused to discover that we'd been given their rainbow-themed room. Clearly Gaz must have sounded somewhat camp on the telephone when he made the room booking. The guesthouse was also somewhat unique in that it seemed to actively encourage guests to bring back any Thai ladies (or lady-boys for that matter) whom they'd met whilst out on the town. Whilst in Chiang Mai, we indulged in some traditionally backpacker excursions such as a Thai cookery course, and a Muay Thai boxing evening. The cookery course was a lot of fun and we learnt to cook a number of delicious dishes including Green & Red Thai curry, Pad Thai, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, and Chicken with Basil. However, la creme de la creme of our cooking exploits was Tara's spring rolls, which no doubt she will be forcing you all to try upon our return. The Muay Thai boxing was somewhat disturbing as the first three fights involved children no older that 12 kicking lumps out of each other. This was then followed by an exhibition bout where they blind-folded six fighters and then left them to blindly punch each other until only the victor was conscious. Even the referee of this bout was on the receiving end of some vicious blows. When we thought it could get no worse they then brought out some female fighters, which was when things got really ugly. Once all the fighting was over, it was then the turn of the lady boys to take to the blood soaked boxing ring and entertain the crowds. A fitting end to a bizarre yet strangely riveting evening.




From Chiang Mai we then flew down to the island paradise of Ko Samui. We checked into a hotel called Montien House, which is by far the most luxurious place that we've stayed thus far, with the only downside being that we had to share our room with some particularly hungry mosquitoes. We spent our first day lounging around on Chaweng beach and also made good use of the pool in our hotel. On the second day we rented a scooter and went beach hopping around Ko Samui. We also managed to coax our wheezing two-wheeler up to the Na Muang waterfall, and some of the highest points on the island. According to the Thailand Lonely Planet, the only noteworthy site on Ko Samui (excluding the beaches) is a mummified monk at Wat Khunaram, so naturally we had to go and see him. The monk is preserved in a glass case and sits in the lotus position with a pair of sunglasses perched on his nose. Outside the temple a Buddhist monk insisted on throwing some holy water on us, before charging us 50 baht to tie some string around our wrists. We were told that the string would protect us whilst we are travelling, so we were somewhat disappointed when a local man pointed out the flat tyre that our scooter had acquired whilst we were being blessed. Conveniently the local man that pointed out the flat tyre also knew of a repair shop next door where they could repair our tyre for us. The bike was unrideable (is that a word?) though so we had no choice but to make use of his conveniently located repair shop, and we were pleasantly surprised when they only ripped us of to the tune of 150 baht (GBP 2.50).





From Ko Samui we caught a catamaran over to the neighbouring island of Ko Phangan, and made another valiant attempt to "rough-it". We checked into the cheap and cheerful Same Same Lodge on May 9th, and the promptly checked out of it again on the morning of May 10th. The room was infested with Geckos which were feasting on the dead flies on the underside of our mattress. So we doubled our accommodation budget and moved into the comfortable and clean Sea Breeze bungalows. We had intended to travel onwards to the island of Ko Tao within a day or two, but we've enjoyed Ko Phangan so much that we've thus far not managed to get on the ferry. Ko Phangan is home to some of the best scuba diving sites in Thailand, so we decided it would be a good venue to undertake our PADI Open Water Diving qualification. Gaz had completed his Open Water diving course 8 years ago, but had not been diving since so we decided it would be more fun (and safer) if we enrolled on the course together. The course took three days, the first two of which were traumatic for Tara as she struggled to clear her mask without swallowing half the swimming pool or bay that we were in. She struggled through though, and had mastered the skill by the end of the second day. She was struggling to see the point of diving though, as visibility on our first two dives was never more than 2-3 metres. On the third day, it was Gaz's turn to be traumatised. We boarded our dive school's boat and sailed out to the dive site at Sail Rock. Our boat was somewhat ill-equipped for the conditions though (mainly because it was a river boat and never designed to travel on anything rougher than than a boating lake), and by the time we'd swayed our way across the Gulf of Thailand Gaz had turned a nice shade of green. Gaz discovered that the fun is quickly taken out of diving when you're sick in your regulator. Somehow we both survived the experience and managed to successfully complete our PADI course. We now intend to become fair-weather divers and will only be adorning ourselves with scuba gear when the ocean is as flat as a pancake and the underwater visibility is in excess of 20 metres. To celebrate our diving achievements, we decided to head into the jungle and party the night away at the Half-Moon party. This was without doubt the best night out that we've had in Thailand, and we didn't stumble home until the sun started to rise at 5am. We paid the price of burning the candle at both ends the next day though. Tara didn't make it out of bed all day, and Gaz would have stayed in bed as well if he hadn't found some strength in the bottom of two or three bottles of Chang beer.




Tomorrow we travel from the idyllic island of Ko Phangan to the hustle-and-bustle of Singapore. Re-adjusting to city life is bound to be difficult.

Bangkok, Cambodia and Laos

After a great last day in China, we packed our bags and headed again for the airport. Beijing airport is amazing (well...as amazing as airports can be anyway), and we caught a flight firstly to Hong Kong and then onto Bangkok. Our first experience in Bangkok was to be a sign of things to come, because despite following the Lonely Planet's advice of getting a metered taxi from outside the terminal we still managed to get ripped off. Our fare was twice what it was supposed to be, and I'm still none the wiser as to how the driver managed to con us. Bangkok itself was a welcome break from China though. Everybody speaks English, the hostels are lovely, and it has restaurants from every corner of the globe. We booked into a lovely hostel near the Khao San Road, with a massive air conditioner and a stunning roof-top pool. We spent our first day ticking off a couple of the standard backpacker experiences in Bangkok; a river "cruise" aboard three planks of wood with a V6 engine stuck on the back, and a tour of the Royal Palace. The following day we decided to get to know the real Bangkok, so firstly we got ripped off by a Tuk-Tuk driver and then hopped on the SkyTrain and made our way over to the Nana Plaza to gawk at some sex tourists. We were not disappointed. The place was crammed with old men and young Thai girls. We decided to take refuge in an Irish bar (surely Catholic morals would prevent such carry-on in there), but discovered it was as sordid as anywhere else we'd seen. We made friends with some ex-Pats over a game of pool though, and drank the night away with them.

The following day we caught our Asia Air (Thailand's Ryanair) flight down to Phnom Penh, and booked into a grimy guesthouse in the centre of town. Cockroaches were crawling over the bathroom floor, the sheets were dirty, and the air conditioning unit didn't work because of an alleged power cut in the area (we later discovered that it wasn't working due to some underhand cost-cutting by the landlady). We discovered when we'd arrived at the guesthouse that we'd left our South East Asia Lonely Planet book (or the LP as we refer to it) in the taxi. This proved to be a blessing in disguise though, as good quality blackmarket copies of the Lonely Planet books are in abundance in Phnom Penh. This meant we could upgrade from our On-A-Shoestring version of the South East Asia LP, to the more upmarket LPs for each of the countries that we are visiting on the section of our trip. The individual books include more upmarket hostels, so with a little bit of luck we'll be able to avoid any further cockroach-infested guesthouses.

We had a great time in Phnom Penh. We hired a car for the day so as to see as much as we could in the time we had. Our first stop was a shooting range north of Phnom Penh, where Gaz took up the opportunity to fire an AK47 (although opting for just a sheet of paper as a target, instead of the goats and cows that we're on offer as live targets). We then visited the sombre sites of the Killing Fields (where Pol Pot and his cronies murdered many thousands on innocent victims), and Toul Sleng (the jail where the victims were tortured prior to their deaths). We were also involved in a car accident, when the lady behind crashed into us as she was focusing on her mobile phone instead of the road in front. Fortunately nobody was hurt and hopefully that will be the only road collision that we experience during our travels. Our final stop was the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, after which we decided we deserved a beer. What then proceeded was one of the more obscure nights of our trip so far. The bar was owned by an alcoholic Irishman called Rory, who'd fallen in love with an older woman whilst travelling in Cambodia and had married her (most probably the only instance of a young westerner marrying an older Cambodian woman). He was trying hard to drink his profits, but as pointed out to me, "its very (hiccup) hard (dribble) to drink your profits (burp) when 24 cans of beers cost $4". The other friend that we made in the bar was an Irish mercenary, who'd been hired to fight in Cambodia 14 years previously and had never left. We lost track of both time and the weather whilst talking to these two characters in the bar, and it wasn't until we tried to leave the bar that we realised the street outside had flooded up to our knees. We decided to drink another couple of cans whilst the water subsided, but it just kept rising. Eventually we had to bite the bullet and wade through the knee-deep rain and sewage. The road to our hostel was flooded up to our waists' though which made it inaccessible by foot, but a plucky Tuk-Tuk driver managed to find a route through the floods (and half way round the city) for just $2.



From Phnom Penh we caught a bus up Siem Reap. We'd undertaken a few shorter bus journeys in China, but this was our first long haul journey by road. The LP reported that the road between Phnom Penh was well tarmacked, but I think this is a relative term and is a comparison only to the other roads in Cambodia. After six hours of bouncing along at the back of the bus, we were both quite glad to be getting off. Our friend Jeremy (you may remember him from our China posts) met us at the bus station, and from there we made our way to the floating village in Siem Reap. We'd heard mixed reviews about the village, but we were all amazed by it. The village is in the middle of a large lake called Toule Sap, and has everything from floating Churches to floating pig pens. Our accommodation in Siem Reap was the best that we've experienced so far (The Siem Reap Hostel if you are ever in the area), with multiple communal areas, a swimming pool and large comfortable rooms. As well as Jeremy we also met up with Steve and Meghan (our Yangtze River cruise compadres), and had some great nights out Siem Reap. The Angkor What bar and Warehouse bars were our a favourite haunts, but the town is full of good cheap restaurants and bars. Whilst in Siem Reap we visited the Angkor Wat temples which were breath-taking, although we're becoming somewhat blase when it comes to temples as we've seen far too many of them in the past few weeks.



From Siem Reap we caught a flight to Luang Prabang in Laos with Jeremy only to discover that it was full of more Wats (temples). So we decided to take to the countryside on a tour. The first part of the tour involved mountain biking 15km along winding, hilly and muddy tracks to an Elephant Lodge. From the lodge we caught a boat to a waterfall and then hiked for two hours in the baking midday sun to a mountain village where we became the evening entertainment for the local village children. After a few well earned beers we adjourned to our sleeping quarters, which was the floor of a wooden hut with a mosquito net overhead. On the second day, we hiked back to the lodge and went on an elephant trek through the jungle, before getting into a Kayak to paddle four hours back towards Luang Prabang. Tara and Gaz started off in one kayak, but the tour guide decided our pace was too leisurely so Jeremy and Tara swapped positions. This was when things all started to go wrong. The bung had been removed from the back of Jeremy and Gaz's kayak, so when we hit the first set of rapids we started sinking fast. Our tour guide had paddled off downstream with Tara so was unaware of the trouble we'd gotten into. Two local fisherman tried to help us get the boat afloat again, but they were unsuccessful. After 20 minutes of fighting the current, we eventually gave up and left the kayak to float down river without us. We'd lost our flip-flops in the current so after fighting our way out of the river we had to traipse along the rocky river bank barefoot. By the time we reached Tara and the tour guide they'd managed to collect most of our possessions from the river (with the exception of Jeremy's flip-flops), and fix our kayak. We were exhausted by this point though, and we still had another hour and half of paddling until we got back to the town. Somehow we managed to make it back to town, but we were all wrecked from the experience. We treated ourselves to fillet steaks in the best restaurant in Luang Prabang and some strong gin & tonics that night to help us get over our ordeal.




Tomorrow we head off to Chiang Mai in Thailand aboard Lao Airlines. They are reputed to have one of the worst air safety records, so wish us luck!