Pen_Nomad Travels East Asia - December 2011 - Malaysia & Thailand

 2011 - 12 --  Malaysia + Thailand (See Photos) (open links in New Tabs)

Had Great time in MELAKA :-) Nice city.

Picked up my Daughter Cassie & Grandson Max from K/L airport then headed into the city to stay at the nice 'Reggie 2' guest house. Visited the 'Bird Park', (very nice), Batu Caves, (very nice except for the vicious rampaging monkeys) and the mildly impressive 'Petronas Towers'.
The 5 hour bus journey to Penang turned into 9 hours, but the VIP bus was comfy enough. Penang was Full to bursting point with the majority of hotels full as it is now, (Oct - May), their 'High' season. Also, many people from cooler Thailand head here and this is doubled this year because of the recent floods in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, (Vacational Refugees). We moved into the W&O guest hiuse and as we arrived late Friday, we had to stay untill Tuesday to get out Thailand 60 day Visas...

12 hour sleeper train to Surathani then the fast ferry to Koh Pha Ngan and back to Happy Beach Bungalows to get the same room as before and at the same price :-) but only untill 26/12 as they have biikings after that....

Moved to a ground floor flat in Chaloklum, (1 months rent is THB 3000 = $80 = 60 Quid),


HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY <3 <3 <3
Had a Great Night, Nice Food at a beach restaurant then Nice evening of Reggae style music and fire and fire Pois with 80 - 100 people at the # 3 Monkeys Bar# ... The Fireworks at Midnight sounded like a medium sized munitions factory exploding ,,, LOL ,,  ending with a 150 foot FireCracker wrapped around the flagpole ,,, :-) and Hundreds of paper Lanterns lifting into the sky....
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY <3 <3 <3

 

Pen_Nomad Travels East Asia - November 2011 - Thailand

 2011 - 11 --  Thailand (See Photos) (open links in New Tabs)

Well !!! What can I say ??? Its been a quiet month.....

Did the 10 day retreat at Wat Suan Mok which went ok as I was a 'Helper' with the Keys to the dormitories so that gave me plenty of freedom.

Then a group of 10 of us went to Koh Pha Ngan and stayed at Happy Beach Bungalows and chilled out for 10 days smoking on the beach at the Three Monkeys Bar and learning to twirl Fire Pois... :-) Now catching the 12 hr overnight train to Suang kolok, the Malaysian Border...

Crossed the Border easily and got the FREE 90 day visa. A night in Khota Baru then the boat out to the Parhenthian Islands. Expectations lead to Disappointment... GUTTED, The Island was CLOSED for Winter. Apparently they close the Islands for the Monsoon Season so there were only 1 restaurant and 2 guest houses open, the up-side was that there were almost no tourists and we, (still traveling with Oscar from Oz ), got a Great MR200 beach front luxury bungalow for MR30, :-) . As it was early in the monsoon season the weather was still OK so we had a good time chilling out on the almost empty beaches.

Teamed up with Jules (UK) and we all left and headed for the mainland where we caught the 'Jungle Train' which runs diagonally down through the center of Malaysia and passes through hundreds of miles of tropical jungle, (and scores of miles of deforested Palm Oil Plantations).
Finally we arrived in Melaka and I must admit that I am surprised. Melaka is the old Capitol of Malaysia before it moved to Kuala Lumpa and now it is a nice quiet, (for a major city), laid back place with riverboat tours and a buzzing weekend night market.Jules(UK) left for Philippines, Oscar(Oz) left for Oz. Had a Rough Night ... Oscar Eunson left so the room price doubled to RM40 ,,, So being Tight I moved into the RM17 Dorm (8bed),,,, Bad Move,,, Freezing Cold Air-Conditioning on All night,,, When the drinkers finally finished coming in and Clomping about at 1 am I finally managed to get to sleep, only to be woken at 6:30 am by the early leavers chatting and packing to catch their busses..... FCUK THAT ... LOL ,,, now moved to nicer single room with nice view for RM25 ,,, :-) I will stay on a couple of days to wait for Cassia & Max to fly into Kuala Lumpa :-)

Pen_Nomad Travels East Asia - October 2011 - Cambodia

2011 - 10 --  Cambodia (See Photos) (open links in New Tabs)

Bus from Phnom Penh down to the coast to the Seaside town of Sihanoukville. Nice 'Party Town' with cool beaches. Stayed at GST 1 guest house for $8 for a few days then mini-van to Kep, a small town along the coast, to catch a small $7 boat to Rabbit Island.

Really chilled out place with only 11 Cambodian families on the Island and, (out of season), only 10 tourists. $4 bungalows on the beach... Electricity from 6pm to 10pm and NO Internet :). Spent a few days swimming and getting Sunburnt.
Boat back to Kep -> Sihanoukville where we stayed at Ottris Beach in a $3 bungalow and went on a 3 Island snorkeling trip which was Great,  lots of Swimming and a nice Barracuda Fish Lunch..

Bus back to Phnom Penh  for 1 night @ Long Lin guest house, then bus to Siem Reap, Angkor Wat. The Whole area is Flooded as is most of South East Asia..... Had a GREAT TIME visiting the Temples on a 3 day pass. (See Photos)

Angkor Watt was Amazing.... Then a 7 hr Beautiful boat trip, passing many floating villages and floating markets took us to Battambang. There a bone shaking 20 km @ 60 kph ride along an old wobbley rail track on a flat 2 meter square open platform was Great FUN,,, It's called the Bamboo Train and is used for local goods transport and for Crazy Foreigners... Also nice to visit are the local Temples with trees full of 1 meter wingspan Fruit-bats, a winery that makes disgusting vino-crapo and the Bat Caves where we saw literally Millions of Bats leaving the caves at sunset.....
So >> Bus to the Border and crossed into Thailand and a train to a Flooded Bangkok. Half of the City under 1 Meter of water so after 3 days of sight seeing it was time to do a runner... Train South to Chaia to wait for the Meditation course to start on the 1st of November at Wat Suan Mok :-) ..

SEE YOU IN NOVEMBER :-)


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Pen_Nomad Travels East Asia: September 2011 - LAOS

2011 - 09 -10 -- Vang Vieng --> Cambodia (See Photos) (open links in New Tabs)

So my time at Pan's Place in Vang Vieng is finally coming to an end after 6 weeks of fun work with the owners, Chris & Nitsa. It has been a nice time, painting/re-furbishing the rooms, re-roofing the outside toilet/showers with Asbestos sheet, which wasn't too bad until they started to cut the sheets with a circular saw and spewed the Asbestos dust everywhere, (Having a bad chest, at this point I was 50 meters away, LOL), and general 'fixing the place up' jobs.

Teamed up with Oscar, an Austrailian Guy and we caught the Bus to the capital, Vientien to get a 2 Month Visa for Thailand, Visited the Buddah Park, a private collection of Buddhist statues then we caught the Sleeper Bus to Pakse. Not much there as it was raining heavy so we carried on to

Champsak where we cycled 7 km to visit Wat Phu a Kemher style Temple ruin. 2 days later found us on a boat out to 4000 Islands. 4000 Islands, a sieries of small islands in the Mekong river that is not too sure of it's place on the 'Tourist Trail'. It wants to be a bit of a Party Place, but there is a major shortage of infrastructur, (1 hour internet costs the same as 20 nights accommodation) and the town closes at 9 - 10 pm making it better suited as a 'Chill Out Place'. Met up with a nice group of travellers, Lorrain(UK), Kevin(F), Phillip(D), Marvin(D) and had a great chilled out week there, swimming in the Mekong River and sitting on the bamboo chalet's balconey watching the distant storms light the night sky. Nice place but being on an Island in the middle of one of the Worlds largest rivers when it is in full flood at the peak of the rainy season was interesting, to say the least.

 8 hours on a VIP bus got us into CAMBODIA, to Kratie, where we went out in a (wet&rainy) boat to watch the rare Irrawaddy Dolphins. Saw a pod of 4 and it was well worth the soaking, :-) . Woke the next morning to find the hotel knee deep in flood water. A 6 hour bus ride took us to Phnom Penh where we booked into Longlin Guest House for $7/night. Cambodia runs a duel currency of 'Real' and 'US Dollars' and is most confusing and easy to think: "it's only a couple of dollars" when in fact it becomes expensive relative to the normal economy. Met up with the group from 4000 islands and explored Phnom Penh, they actually got me in a night club & a late night bar, LOL. Due to the poverty, many of the bars have more hookers that customers and the sex tourist industry flourishes, which is good for the economy, as long as no-one is harmed or forced. The Police recently rounded up a group of WESTERN Pedophiles who had been preying on poor children and, Hopefull, they will spend a Long and Interesting time in the Cambodian Prison. Visited the Genocide Museum and the Poll Pot Killing Fields and Was Emotionally Overcome, couldn't stay inside, it hurt me really bad inside. The Torture and Suffering of a Generation of Cambodians and Man's Inhumanity to his Fellow Man left me in Tears.

Pen_Nomad Travels East Asia: August 2011 - LAOS

Vang Vieng
August is the first month of the 'Rainy' season in Laos so it started to get a bit wet. Though the river was a little flooded, I had to try the TUBEING which involves floating down the river in a large inflated truck inner-tube which was great fun. I stayed at "Pan's Place", a well known medium sized guest house located on the edge of the town centre and run by Kiwi Chris and his Laos wife, Nitsa. As they have just renewed their lease on the place they were keen on up-grading the property so I offered my services as handyman/woofer. The first job was a full kitchen re-build. We ripped out all the old units and, because it was not possible to buy any sort of fitted units, we built new ones in 3"x2" timber with 6"x1" worktops finished in thin sheet metal.

The result was much better space and working conditions within the kitchen. Then came the painting of the internet cafe/room floor. This involved disconnecting the 7 computers and peripherals, ripping up the old linolium and painting the floor.

This went well untill the floor was 3/4 covered and we ran out of paint. A quick trip to the shop for a new tin of the same coloured paint, from the same shop, the same make, even the same seriel/batch number and it was, of course, a different shade, very different. Never mind and 'carry on regardless', so we finished the first coat and 24hrs later, half way through the second coat we ran out again and on buying another, (same), tin of paint, we ended up with a 3rd shade of the same colour. Most of the work is just generally refurbishing the plumbing, electrics and decorating.

LOL. This is certainly a very beautiful region. went out on the scooter to caves and swam in a waterfall. 'Time Flys' when you are having fun! Lots of nice people passing through the guest house. Just realised that my Laos Visa is about to expire so 6 hr bus ride to Vientien -> across the border to Thailand -> $35 for new Laos Visa -> back to Vientien -> 6hrs on bus back to Vang Vieng ..... Long day. Will stay here for another week or so then move on... :-)

Pen_Nomad Travels East Asia: July 2011 - Thailand - LAOS

AM WONDERING WHY I BOTHER WASTING MY TIME AND MONEY ON THE NET WHEN NO-ONE IS REALLY INTERESTED IN WHAT i WRITE .....
8 PEOPLE FOLLOWING AFTER 8 MONTHS AND ALMOST NO COMMENTS ?????  MY TRAVELS MUST SEEM VERY BORING ,,,,
LOL .... POOR ME !!!!!
Will think about continueing depending on feedback from this post ..... :-)

From Chiang Mai to Pai

 You can take the either the 140 Bhat new, air-conditioned (sealed in), smooth suspension, tinted windowed (spoils the view), flashpackers 9 seater minivans or the battered old state bus with open doors and windows. Both take about the same length of time, maybe 15 min less in the flying coffin, (sorry, minivan), but as I prefere open plan and the ability to jump out if something goes wrong, I Jumped on the 70 Bhat, (half the price), battered but serviceable little red state bus for the 120km journey to Pai. The winding mountain roads were amazing and the views out over the precipice, (side of the road), were stunning to say the least. I do tend to get a bit 'travel sick' on winding mountain roads, but with all the windows and doors open for fresh aiiir and dstracted by the views, it was a really enjoyable 4 hr journey. :-). I stayed overnight in Pai and though it seems a nice town, I couldn't find much to do other than the usual partying/drinking which because of the recent Police clampdown, all closed at 10pm. The next morning I caught the 'Mae Hon Song' bus for the 3hr ride to my destination, Wat Tam Wua.

http://www.althaiman.ru/thai%20htm/Province/wattamwua.htm
Stayed at Wat Tam Wua for 10 days and had a Great time doing the Vipassana Meditation course which was great in itself with sitting/standing/walking meditation and the food & room, (Kuti), was excellent. The Monks speak broken English but there were mostly Thai people attending the Watt so not many tourists about. :-)

Sadly leaving the Watt I caught the morning bus back to Pai and checked into the nice little guest house where I stayed on the way out, for 150Bhat/night for a double room. The next day was the 4 hour bus journey back to chang Mai where I stayed at Chad guest house within Chang Mai city in their nice, clean, spaciouse dorm for 100 bhat. Spent the next few days chilling out around the city. I keep thinking about buying a small lat-top as most of the 'Flashpackers' carry them and there is free wifi everywhere and I could do some of the writing that I keep thinking abiout doing.... One Day .... LOL... Also debating about buying a package tour into Laos and 2 days on a riverboat...

2011 - 07 Chiang Mai >> Laos

Finally decided to book a package tour, something I never usually do as they usually work out more expensive, but this time I thought "Sod it, let someone else organize things for a change". I paid 1600 Bhat for the trip from Chiang Mai to the Laos border, then a  2 day slow boat trip down the Mekhong river to Luan Prabang. That morning I met up with a nice young Dutch girl called Leika :-), and we visited Wat Doi Suthep as Tourists and had a really fun day which carried on to the Night Bazaar. As she was a Butterfly and had no idea of what she herself wanted to do, she decided to also book the same tour to Laos.
30/07/2011
Caught the 9am AC mini-van, with Leika, to Chiang Khong, calling at the White Temple on the way. The White Temple was a beautiful sight with lovely Thai/Laos architecture all in white stone with very modern and relevant painting and art (no photos allowed), inside. On to Chiang Khong where we stayed in a nice hotel with large buffet dinner provided. 8am the next morning we took a short drive to the border wher we boarded a small fast boat for the crossing into Laos. On the other side most of the visa exit/entry was done by the tour and we waited for the variously booked tours to all come together for the slow boat down the river. We waited at the OFFICE AND HERE WAS THE BIGGEST AND ONLY CON OF THE TRIP. the 'GUIDE' INFORMED EVERYONE THAT AS THE RIVER WAS FLOODED DUE TO THE HEAVY RAINS THAT WE MAY HAVE TO SPEND AN EXTRA NIGHT OR TWO ON THE UNCOMFORTABLE malaria RIDDEN BOAT AND THE JOURNEY MIGHT END UP BEING 3 OR 4 DAYS. well! 6 OR 7 OF THE 'FLASH-PACKERS' WERE IN A RUSH AND HAD onward TICKETS were stressed and the guide convinced them to drop out of the tour, no refund, and book a direct bus to Luan Prabang. I told him that a few extra free days cruising was fine by me so he ignored us. As it turned out his story was bullshit and we boarded the comfortable slow boat and had a great first day cruising down the Mekhong river in nice sunshine. 7:30 we arrived at Pak Bang. the overnight stop Leika decided to split off with a young Dutch guy she had been chatting up, a brighter flower, and I found a nice small wooden room on top of a guest house backing onto the jungle with nice views for 25000 kip. (am the next morning it was onto a different boat for the 8 hour trip down to Luan Prabang. A second nice day with beautifull views and a lazy, sunny voyage chatting with a group of 5 German girls.

Arriving in Luan Prabang I followed the German girls and we found a nice guest house where I found a room for 40,000 kip. Luan Prabang just seems an expensive tourist town with not much to do, so after a couple of days  I jumped in a mini-van for the 350km, 5hr journey through stunning mountains and rich sub-tropical valleys to Vien Vang. Vien Vang is again a young flashpackers party place and on the recommendation of A Kiwi friend, Nina, I booked into 'Pan's Place' guest house at the North end of Vieng Vang mainstreet. A nice laid back place run by Kiwi Chris and his Lao wife with cheap, (2 quid/night for double room), and good food :-) After a week of nice HOT sunny weather for the cruise, it now decided to piss-it-down with heavy rain for 4 days. The first night I Wandered down the main street during a  rain-break to check out the local greenery, entered a Reggae cafe and was given a 'Coffee Shop' type menu. They wanted 6 quid for half Oz but I was worried about holding so much, (as you all know, I am not a heavy smoker), so I opted for the 40 pence ready rolled 'J'. It was not until I was half way down the J that I realised that I had been ripped off, they had not put any Tobacco in it...... Well!! Indignation! I was about to complain about it when I realised that my mouth would no longer work. It was at this point that I decided to nip the J and save the other half for later. Half an hour later when my legs felt a bit less rubbery I slowly walked across the marshmallow floor and wandered out into the fresh air of the main street to wobble my way back to my 2 quid/night double room to finish the other half of the J in a horizontal position. LOLOL.

4 days of Heavy rain,,, LL… At least it’s warm. Spent a lazy day Cabbaged by the TV and watched, GI Joe, Starwars 1 & Star Trek 11  ect…… ect......