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 :-)