Cameron Highlands

We have spent the past few days walking through the jungle and seeing the stunning tea plantations. We had another lovely room with a view right onto a forest. We learned a valuable lesson about Malaysia: never, under any circumstances, follow walking directions that anyone gives you, because although they mean well, no one has ever walked anywhere! The people are truly lovely and we have actually really fallen in love with this area, it was so much more to our liking than our previous visit to Penang. In terms of the directions though, it is very much like NZ; the public transport is not good so everyone has a car. This means that while they might know how to drive somewhere, they probably have absolutely no idea how long it will take to walk, or the easiest way to walk there. We pretty much did find this out as soon as we arrived in Malaysia but still thought we would chance a well-meaning lady’s advice to walk to the lake, ‘about 15-20 minutes’ in the opposite direction of the tea plantation we were heading to. Over an hour later we arrived at the lake, and while the walk was quite pleasant, it meant that we now had over 10 km’s to walk to get back to Tanah Rata, and we soon found it it was 100% uphill!

The walk on the way there was really lovely through the forest, both up and downhill over a mountain. The start of the walk made us realise that no one actually did the forest walks around this area – we had completed another walk the previous day and had to fight our way through overgrown paths and eventually had to give up on the path because it was so thickly overgrown that we physically couldn’t get through. This one started at – of course – a hotel construction site which had totally obliterated the start of the trail, and after climbing over construction materials and a huge pile of clay, we found the trail. Many times we had to make our own path to the next section of path, which we could always luckily see, but often the path hadn’t been used for so long that it didn’t exist anymore. It was really fun though, the forest was so beautiful with loads of orchids growing and heaps of other cool plants and flowers too.

The tea plantations were a definite highlight, so expansive and beautiful with rolling hills for miles covered in tea. Drinking the tea was pretty good too!

Over the few days we were in the highlands we walked about 35 kilometers, all of which were thoroughly enjoyable. After that we went back to KL so that we could fly into Thailand (to get a 1 month visa instead of only 15 days if we had entered overland) and although last time we didn’t really like KL that much, we decided it was OK. It was the first time in about 6 months that we have been somewhere civilised enough to have a movie theatre, so we went back to the Petronas towers to the movies! The last time we saw a movie was last time we were in KL so we decided perhaps transitting through KL can be our movie catch up times. :-) Our photos are here.

Crazy adventure to Malaysia

View our location map in the Cameron Highlands

We perhaps should have taken our ‘interesting’ departure from Koh Lanta as an omen for the rest of the journey to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. We wouldn’t normally write about all the stuff that happens in transit, but this particular journey was just too crazy to not write about.

We were ready and waiting at our bungalow at the agreed 7.30am pick up time for our transfer to Trang on the mainland. At about 8am we started to wonder where our van was, and the lady at the reception phoned the company and told us it was pretty normal for the Trang transfers to be late. At 8.30am we had phoned both the company we booked through, and the transfer company, and still no van. Finally, about 10 minutes after that, it arrived! Little did we know arrival of the van didn’t mean much…he opened the back for us to put our luggage in, and there was no room at all, not even for a tiny daypack, and there was only one seat left in the van. Hmmm. We had booked the transfer 2 days previously so it wasn’t as if they didn’t know about our pick up. A couple of farang jumped out of the van and told us the driver had been over an hour late for all of their pick-ups as well, and he had also decided to take 2 of his Thai friends in the van also which was why there were not enough seats. The lady at reception at our bungalows started getting really angry at him, yelling and telling him it wasn’t good enough and that he needed to get his friends out of the van since we had all paid for the transfer and obviously his friends hadn’t. Basically the friends were not prepared to get out of the van, which meant we couldn’t get in, so the driver just walked off and for about half an hour just sat around smoking and ignoring everyone. We went up to him and tried to reason that as our visa ran out that day, we really did need the transfer otherwise we’d be overstaying our visa, and perhaps it wasn’t quite so important for his friends to get off the island that day.

Another half an hour later, our receptionist was still yelling at him, phoning his boss and thankfully trying to sort it out for us so that the van could leave. Other people in the van were going to miss their trains and flights but the driver was refusing to leave until we had all figured out how to all fit inside the van with our luggage. A number of the tourists now wanted to punch him (not us!). So basically he wasn’t prepared to leave without us, but he wasn’t going to help us fit in the van either. An interesting and quite hilarious situation to be in, we ended up telling our receptionist that we would pay for the Thai people to get out of the van, since they had told us they were not running any urgent errands, didn’t really need to leave Koh Lanta that day, they just wanted to. So the end result, after another 10 minutes or so of arguing, was that we paid for the Thai’s to get out of the van so that we could get in, the driver didn’t have to worry about fitting us all, in fact he made some extra cash by overbooking the van, so a good day for him. Pretty interesting since they hadn’t paid to be in the van, didn’t have tickets, but still we had to pay for their tuk tuk so that they would get out. Sometimes, it really doesn’t pay to be a farang… avoid “Lanta Transport company” like the plague. In any case, throughout the whole event, we could really see the funny side and thought that although it was a bit annoying, it was quite hilarious that such a situation could even exist.

So the next part was pretty uneventful, we got to Trang and got another bus to Hat Yai. Karen even prematurely made the comment that she loved it how it’s so easy to get around Asia, doesn’t even matter if you miss a connection, there is always another one a few minutes later. Once at Hat Yai, we looked for the bus to Ipoh (where you have to transfer to the Cameron Highlands) but found out that we had missed it for today (which we wouldn’t have if our van had left Koh Lanta on time!), but that was cool, all we really needed to make sure we did was leave Thailand that day so as not to overstay our visas. So we got on a bus to the border. The driver was really pleasant, talking to us a lot and he did a circuit of the town and explained to us that after the town circuit we would leave for the border. So, the town circuit completed, the driver parked up the bus, and proceeded to pour heaps of water into the radiator. Then we got going again, and 5 minutes later stopped and the driver jumped out to get something to eat. No biggie, pretty normal in Asia, so he sat there eating for 10 mins or so. Then we got going again, did another town circuit, and more than an hour later, actually left Hat Yai for the border. We finally made it and got stamped out of Thailand in the nick of time. We had to walk about 1km into Malaysia and when we got there, went to find the bus for Ipoh. No, apparently the buses stop running at 7pm so we had to stay the night at the border. OK, we found a nice guy who pointed out to us where the hotel was so we followed his instructions only to find ourselves still walking half an hour later. We met another guy who said ‘no, the hotel is this way’ pointing back where we had come from. After walking for more than an hour with our packs on, we met another guy who said ‘no, there is no hotel in town. But you can sleep at the train station!’ OK, which way is the train station? ‘Back this way and turn right’ pointing back to where we had just walked from. Despondently, as we still hadn’t had dinner, and there wasn’t a single restaurant or shop or even petrol station open in town, we sat down outside the 7/11 and Dre went inside to get us something to eat. As Karen was sitting outside, a lady pulled up on her motorbike and Karen smiled and said ‘Salamat Malam’ (good evening) to her. She looked at Karen sitting with all the luggage, went inside the 7/11, spoke to the shop assistants in Bahasa Malaysia and told them to tell us we could stay at her house for 60 ringits. Yippee! Finally someone in this town who can actually help us, instead of sending us on wild goose chases to random hotels that don’t exist. So we went with her into her house, she gave us a key, we paid for the room, and then we set out for the first time in the entire trip, to have dinner at the 7/11! We weren’t really looking forward to this prospect since the only thing 7/11 in Thailand has that Karen can eat is chips and icecream. Then we were introduced to the delight of 7/11 Malaysia!! Baked Beans and canned Tuna – which we haven’t seen for 9 months now – excitedly became our dinner. You have no idea how nice Baked Beans and tuna can be after so long! Then we spent ages trying to figure out why we couldn’t find the padlock to unlock the door of the lady’s house (it was a weird system where you put your hand through the hole in the door, feel around for the padlock, and somehow unlock the padlock through the hole…) and then finally realised we were at the wrong house! Once we went to the right door, the padlock was found. Funny that.

The next morning we set off to find the bus station, and luckily had the forethought to leave our packs at the lady’s house. Yet another hour was spent asking ‘where is the bus station’ and getting responses ‘this way, behind this building/after the intersection/turn left at the junction/ turn right at the junction/ wait on the side of the road’ etc etc. Finally we found a young boy who was actually about to catch the bus, and it turns out the ‘bus station’ was a small seat on the side of the road, behind a tree. No wonder we couldn’t find it! The boy said we could get the bus to Ipoh at 10am. So not wanting to take any chances and be stuck in the border town, we arrived at 9.30am and when the bus came at 10, talked to the driver who was only going to Kandar (half an hour from the border). He said there are no buses to Ipoh from there apart from the one that comes from Thailand once a day, which had already been that day, so we had to go to Kandar and then get the bus to Ipoh from there.

On arrival at Kandar, we reminded the bus driver we needed to get the bus to Ipoh, and he told us to go to the other bus station which was for long distance buses, he said we didn’t need a taxi, it was a very easy walk of about 5 minutes, in a straight line, and pointed us the direction to go. After 10 minutes of walking in a straight line, we found some policemen and asked them which way to go. All 3 of them pointed in a different direction. After some debate between them, one guy took us to the corner of the street and showed us the way to go. So in the hot Malaysian sun, we walked around, asking locals and shop assistants, ‘where is the bus station?’ for another half an hour. Everyone pointed a different direction, and eventually we found a Nasi Goreng place with tables so we stopped to eat. After that Dre went out to find the bus station while Karen waited with our luggage. Half an hour later, he returned, soaked with sweat, and despite talking to many well-meaning people, still had no idea where the bus station was, and also hadn’t found a single taxi in town. So, we were left with the only option: walk back to the bus station we got dropped off at, where we had seen taxi’s waiting. So we got a taxi to the long distance bus station, which turned out to be straight ahead and left and right and round a roundabout and right and left again. And ironically, Dre says not a single person he asked, actually pointed in the direction where the bus station actually was.

So finally, we are at the bus station for the buses to Ipoh. It had only taken us about 16 hours (incl the night we had to stay at the border) since crossing the border to get here. (and it is half an hour from the border). We went to book our ticket for the ‘regular bus service’ to Ipoh and found that regular means 3 times a day. Let’s just say that Malaysian public transport is not even close to the same league as super-efficient Thailand’s!!! We had to wait 2 hours (2 hours!!! We have never waited longer than about 15 minutes for the next bus in Thailand!) for the next bus to Ipoh.

This meant that instead of getting the bus from Hat Yai in Thailand, which we would have done if our van had left Koh Lanta on time, and arriving in Ipoh at about 11pm the same day we left Lanta, we only left for Ipoh at 2.30pm the following day.

An hour or so into the trip to Ipoh we were going through exceedingly beautiful primary forest and the trip was really enjoyable. When we got to Ipoh, our luck changed for the better. Although we had missed the last bus of the day, there was a French couple who also wanted to get to Cameron Highlands the same night, so we all shared a taxi up to Tanah Rata.

After all of that, was it worth it? Absolutely! The Cameron Highlands are amazing with so many mountains, tea plantations, strawberry fields and forest. We intend to spend the next few days exploring here before going to KL to get another Thai visa.

Koh Lanta

View our location map on Koh Lanta

We have spent the past week on the beach in Koh Lanta. Now that we have arrived at our destination we had to burn our Sukwan strings given to us by Paet, Thong and their friends. After the first couple of days we found we much prefer the quiet, non-touristy south of the island, so moved here into another beach bungalow on this part of the island. We have been really lucky to spend time on deserted beaches, go for moonlit swims, and spend lots of time in our hammock.

We both learned to make Som Tum, (green papaya salad) at a local stall that we had been at for a couple of days in a row. Now that we can speak basic Lao, it easily converts into Thai, and it has gotten us a long way on this island! Burriam, the lady who runs the stall was so excited that we could speak some Thai that she invited us to learn to make our own papaya salads – she turned out to be an awesome teacher and we have both now made a few salads with her during our daily visits. The proper ingredients are not particularly easy to find outside Asia though, so won’t be that easy to replicate perfectly, still a really fun experience though!

Motorbiking around the island was another highlight, the eastern coast is very pretty and undeveloped and the national park is stunning too. The pristine beaches are really beautiful and peaceful so this has been an awesome place to spend the week. Our photos are here.

Not Cambodia

View our location map in Krabi

The following day from when we wrote the last post, we spoke to our Cambodian border guard guy and he assured us that he could stamp us through the border and get us a taxi to Siem Reap, and he said it would be safe. However contrary to this, we found out on the internet that the border was officially closed, as ordered by the Thai army, (although a few border guards were still working there to make money from tourists and ex-pats doing border runs!) and the 15,000 people living in the area near the border had been evacuated. Not a good sign. Then, we found out on an ex-pat forum, that someone who lives in Surin had crossed the border the day before, and could hear bombs going off in the distance! We also got told that the Poipet border (the main one between Cambodia and Thailand) had been closed briefly also… all of this lead to the realisation that there was no way we could go to Cambodia just now. We were so sad because our entire journey since leaving Laos up to this point was to get to Cambodia. The second choice was to go into southern Laos, but this would mean either backtracking to where we are now to leave Laos, or see if we could get to Cambodia from there. We just didn’t have enough time to be backtracking when we have to be in Singapore so soon, so we took the only option left, and travelled further down Thailand.

We have to say, that originally when we left Chiang Rai the only reason we got the bus was because all flights were fully booked for the following 2 days. So it was going to be quicker on the bus. We didn’t realise how amazing the first class buses are here – they are way more comfortable than the trains and planes, you get food, have a ‘bus hostess’ who brings you drinks and blankets and pillows, plus most of them have in seat massage functions… very impressive. So when we were leaving Surin, we went to check the train times and also the buses, and immediately decided on the bus – it’s faster, more luxurious, and includes food! The Thai roads are so smooth and well maintained that this option just made the most sense.

So we have now arrived in Krabi, en-route to Singapore. Today we are off to Koh Lanta in the hope that it’s not just a tourist town like Krabi is, in any case a few days or a week in a bungalow on the beach will be good (and much needed after all the travelling to get to Cambodia and now here) before we head further south.

Mission to Cambodia: successful?

View our location map in Surin

Our original plan to travel south down Laos and finally see southern Laos didn’t quite work out when we didn’t manage to leave northern Laos before our visa ran out. So we had to exit via Thailand, and make our way down to Cambodia from there. At first we were really torn, because we wanted to see the south of Lao so much, and also wanted to see Cambodia, and didn’t really have time to see both before we meet up with Ben and Christerine again in Singapore. So we decided that since the number one thing we want to see in Cambodia is Prasat Prear Vihear temple, we would travel down Thailand and enter Cambodia at the border just beside the temple.

So this was all well and good, once we left Laos we spent a day motorbiking around Chiang Rai again, and then made our way south. 24 hours on the bus later, we got off near the Thai-Cambodian border only to be told that war has broken out at the Choam border crossing and Thailand was bombing Cambodia. Oh dear. So the friendly Thai policeman advised us to get back on a bus, and travel 2 hours back in the direction we had just come from, to access the other border Chong Jom. We were both actually feeling really good because we’d come on the luxury bus – it was like business class on a plane so we decided to do it straight away. Upon arrival at Surin, the Thai town that you catch the bus to the Chong Jom border, we were told that as of this morning this border is closed now too, because fighting has increased and Thailand has just bombed the temple, Prasat Prear Vihear!!! This is the temple that we specifically wanted to see and apparently an entire wing of the temple has collapsed last night. :-( This is a world heritage site and it has made us very sad to hear.

So what to do next? We could travel further in Thailand and go to yet another Cambodian border that is far from the conflict, we could go in the other direction and go to southern Laos. Both options are enticing. Then we came to a cafe, where we are right now, and met 2 English guys who live here in Surin. They advised us that the border IS open, and one of the guys phoned his Cambodian friend who works as a border guard and asked him about the current situation. Apparently this guy reckons the Chong Jom border is open now and the only conflict is at the other border (Choam). He says if we call him in the morning he will let us know if the border is open and will arrange a taxi for us to Siem Reap if we want to go. So the question remains: will we be successful in getting to Cambodia? Or is it back to Laos we go? Or should we just stay in Thailand and go to the beach? The answer will hopefully become clear in the morning! We are not about to put ourselves in any danger whatsoever so we will just do whatever will be best for us. Stay tuned….

A few random pics of our travels:

We are blessed!

The past week we’ve had dinners with friends and celebrations pretty much every day. Firstly Shahu, our favourite Indian chef invited us for a special Indian dinner at his restaurant, then Thong and Paet organised a blessing ceremony for us so that we have safe travels until we meet again, and we also had a final leaving dinner at Thong and Paet’s house.

The blessing ceremony was so interesting for us, everyone brought an offering of fruit or bread and money and placed it around a centrepiece, and then we all had to touch the centrepiece while a Lao animist priest chanted blessings for us and then tied special string which had been blessed and dipped in alcohol around both of our wrists, and then everyone else at the ceremony also came up and tied a piece of string around each wrist of both of us while saying some Lao blessings. It was so amazing to think that we have a group of people here that would go to such effort and care about us so much. They then gave us a bowl of all of the blessings of food and money. It was really touching. Then a couple of days later we met a guy named Lou who spoke good enough English to explain to us what the ritual actually meant… it’s pretty hard core… the ceremony is basically to bring your soul back into your body so that you will be safe and strong on your travels – if they don’t bring your soul back into your body then it remains stolen by the animals and spirits of the dead. It also puts part of the persons spirit into yours (the person tying the strings) for good luck. Hmmm. This guy sat there explaining this ritual and belief to us for about an hour to explain all the intricacies of the belief – it’s very detailed so if you’re interested, here is a link explaining it in detail (yes we are geeks but were both so interested about what the guy Lou was telling us that we wanted to read more!). Need we say that we’re both so looking forward to coming back here soon? :-)