Doyboy Travels

Comments

quannum — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 22:50:00 +0000

Dear All,
Well I am having to change the comments system so that you have to login. Sorry but I dont want comments about loans, fit girls who want to talk to me (yeah i know ... but they are not real!) and all the other rubbish..

So sorry but you'll need to logon if you want to make a comment... blame the lame arse spammers, quite impressive that they manage to automate the process though.

Thanks for reading.

Doyboy.

Hurray its the SA (South Africa)

quannum — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 19:59:00 +0000

Ok so I know its been a while since this has been updated. However I have many, many reasons some of them good and some of them bad but you don't really want to hear them. So instead I'll tell you about South Africa.

Getting back on a plane felt a bit weird, since I have been back its not like I ever left, as soon as I got on the plane its like I'd never been back to the UK.

I was meeting up with Lauren, my dad (Tony), brother (Addy) and his girlfriend (Fi), myself and Lauren had flown separately as I was originally going to be flying direct from Oz. I flew with Lufthansa... not too bad though no personal tv screen!! :(

Landed in Joburg or Jozi (as the natives *sic* call it) and was a little bit apprensive, whilst doing my travels you get to talk about your trip and everytime you talk about South Africa and Joburg you always hear crazy stories of muggings..

I landed on my 30th birthday which was cool and there were lauren and dad to meet me... we walked outside, no muggers came running over actually everyone was pretty friendly, didnt feel threatened in anyway... actually the people we spoke to were smiling and laughing.. it was great.

Ad/Fi arrived 3 hours later and we got in the VW MPV and started to head up to Kruger National Park..... lions, leopards and elephants - I couldn't wait.

4hours later ........... and a bit of back and forthing we found the Palace, the Impala Palace. Lol had managed to score a bargain, we had a whole house for 5 people over 3 days = 2000 Rand (approx 200 pounds). If you go live outside the park and drive in, living in the park could cost 15000 Rand for the same deal!

Fast Forward my birthday ..... and on to the park.... (by the way my birthday was good fun though a little tired after the flight and travelling! - so we decided to make the next day my bday too, did I say "we" sorry "I".)

4:30am - out of bed and in the car ... bit of a killer but we were hoping it'd be worth it...

The great thing about Kruger National Park is that you drive yourself round the park, you have to get there early as by 9 the animals have packed up for the day, lazy gits!

As we entered Kruger, I looked at the map... its a such a huge place and particularly because you have to drive slowly - getting around the place would take days. So off we drove with Lauren at the wheel.. we saw plenty of Buck, which are amazing, though you soon get bored. Eventually Addy spotted something in the distance...

One of the things that you have to do is to stop moving every once in a while, only then can you taken in the sights and sounds of the wasteland.... amazing all the noises of the birds squaking and the animals yapping.... in the distance two grey blobs..

So I got the camera out and in the distance.... something moving behind the bush..... is that an elephant.. no... a rhino, two rhino so we waited.....

Slowly, teasing us the two rhinos started walking towards us, a mother and calf and across they came.. across the road, fortunately noone else was about .. it was amazing. The mum stopped stared at us... smelt another rhinos escrement, took a sh*t and looked at us again and then wandered on..... amazing!

... end of part one

A Month On

quannum — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:21:00 +0000

Well apologises for those who I have yet to speak to (back home), its been a while since I have updated the site. Since I got back its been a bit of a mad dash to get a new contract for the company and well looks like we have bought a house too.

Anyway so at the moment I am sat in the lounge of my girlfriends house watching a classic film called 'Gridlocked' with David Hasselhoff.... now I know I am back to reality!

Pretty crazy being back... bit of a culture shock at first but you soon get back into it. Something that I had wondered as I travelled was whether if I was a foreigner to the UK would I get asked about where I am from etc.... well my question was answered for me at the service station outside the airport. A czech girl was in front of me and the woman started a conversation asking where she was from and what she was doing here .... it was nice to see.

Anyway I shall be changing this blog to Doyboy Lives and when interesting things happen then I will update the site.... hmm might have to actually make some stuff up..!

Anyway better get back to the Hoff!

If you have a moment then drop me a line, look forward to hearing from you

Thanks for reading
Si

Back to the UK.

quannum — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 02:03:00 +0000

Well its time for me to return home, currently writing this from Sydney, however in 5 hours, I will be winging my way back to the UK. Really looking forward to the 26hr flight, hope that I am not put next to any big people for this flight.

Kinda mixed emotions, looking forward to going home but also gonna miss the not having to do anything all day (if I wish) and also getting up early is gonna be a pain. (Yeah I know you lot are feeling sorry for me!).

Ah well - shall be updating the site with the last few posts from Sydney and I hope you enjoyed the blog, maybe I'll continue the blog and change the name to Doyboy Lives... though my adventures in computing might not hold your interest in quite the same way.

Keep in touch and thanks for reading, its been great fun so far!

Si

Surfing Bon.di.a (Part 2)

quannum — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 01:40:00 +0000

So finally plucked up the courage to go out again. This time borrowed John's board (a mini mal - for the beginner) and made my way down to the beach.

Surfboards arent the lightest and after 20mins walking to the beach my arms were killing me but I ran in, got taken out by a couple of waves and eventually made my way out past the breakers.

The waves were nice and small 1-2ft... though when laid down on the board they look pretty big. It must be really funny watching a beginner as all you do is fall off, there can be no wave insight and I managed to falloff even while lying down. I am pretty sure I heard a couple of surfers laughing after my 6-7 fall .. but hey we all had to start somewhere.

Looking around, I noticed that most of the surfers were sitting on their board... you've got to look cool and relaxed so I thought I would try and follow suit. Its not as easy as it sounds, you kind of get the balance right for maybe 1-2 seconds and then suddenly the board starts to capsize and there is nothing that you can do about it. I gave up and thought it best to try and catch a wave.

My first wave of the day was a corker, I actually caught the wave well and was so happy about it that I lost concentration and the board nose dived into the wave and I went over the top.... after a sec or two of being spun round I climbed back on the board and paddled back out.

This happened a few times, though I did manage to catch a wave properly and make it all the way in... this happened once. The amazing thing though is that if you get one wave thats all you need to keep you fired up and you dont mind getting dumped a few times.

And that was my surfing effort - part two.

Surfing A.U.S

quannum — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 07:31:00 +0000

Australia and Surfing go together like Gary Glitter and ..... his outfits.

Nick and John are both well into their surfing and already I was up for a trip to the beach. However when we checked the weather the swell was too big and the wind was blowing the waves over.

We decided to have some food, whilst eating this bloke walked across the window and I caught a glance at his face. 4 seconds later realised that it was Dan from University, thinking Alan Partridge I was about to shout over "Dan.... Dan.... Dan...... Dan..... DAN....... DAN......." but I didnt need to cos it turned round and went "Alright Si, what you doing here?"..

Anyway the cruxs of the conversation went blah blah blah.. computers.. blah and you wanna come surfing tomorow?

So that was it tomorrow was supposed to be better and we didnt even go out due to the excitement of surfing on Sunday. Saying that the World Cup is now on between 11:00 and 5:30am which keeps messing things up...!

After waking up later than expected and after we checked AquaBumps (surf website) we set off for Bondi Beach. Its a bit chilly in boardies outside but after walking to the beach, renting a wetsuit and board we were ready.

The waves looked pretty big and every so often a much bigger wave would hit. I put on my footstrap and we waded out... pretty much straight away the task in hand was not standing on the board but just being able to lie on it and also duck through the waves, duck through, jump over what ever it takes not to get sucked under and becoming like clothing in a washing machine.

After about 10mins, I was knackered and still hadnt really got out too far.

After an hour, I came back in. This surfing lark is much harder than I was expecting.... the problem is just getting out there and then feeling comfortable moving around the waves...

We went back and in and this time I chose to stay in close...

I managed to get to Dan, John and Nick to then go for a wave and get wiped out by two consecutive waves ..... they managed to properly dump me to the bottom and I also lost a contact lens in the event...

However I continued on and managed to half get up before losing balance. The funny thing is that you are paddling and using your arm muscles to get out to the waves and then you're there and you think, "Right thats it got out, brillant". You paddle to catch the wave, you catch the wave... then you try and lift yourself up and your muscles go "Yeah right mate.... you just made me haul you all the way out to sea, paddle to catch the wave and you want me to do WHAT! I ain't getting you on to your feet...." and so you fall off.

So that was that we went back in and I thought, surfing is amazing, hard but well worth it. Plus as someone said to me you've never see a fat surfer!

Sydney

quannum — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 05:56:00 +0000

After recovering from the shock of having to get a visa to enter Australia, (I guess the Ozzies are just getting payback by getting us English to pay to enter the land that we once banished them to), I got on the Qantas 747.

The plane was pretty slick with games, radio and the tv.
I got chatting to my neighbours and at first mistook them as local Singaporians... however one of them was from Morcombe, Lancashire (UK) and we got chatting.
The film line up was one of the worst I have seen in a while and after watching Eight Degrees Below I tried to get to sleep, this was easier said than done.

The seats just werent big enough and you felt that if you leant to one side then you would be leaning on one of your neighbours ... it was impossible to get some sleep! That I was my only complaint (albeit a big one!) the customer service was good and we got given playing cards and a few extra goodies from the head stewardess... always a bonus!

As I couldnt get much sleep when we arrived in Sydney, I was knackered. The first thing that I noticed was how cold it was.

I had heard that Australia's border control was pretty tough including stories of people's coats and shoes being quarantined.

I was a little nervous as I had my snowboard jacket (which had been strapped to the back of my backpack) and my shoes werent the cleanest. However I got through fine but because I was on my own then I am a potential drug/jem dealer and I got the third degree. It doesnt matter how innocent you are these things always make you nervous and before you know it you're wondering, hmm am I guilty of anything?

After a bit of stuttering on being asked what I did in Singapore (I couldnt think what I had done!) the guy let me through and off I went.

I was staying at my friends Nicks near Bondi Beach and he'd given me good instructions. I bought my ticket to Bondi Junction and jumped onto the metro, 1 change and 30mins later I had arrived in Bondi and had caught a taxi to Nicks.

My flight was actually really badly timed and I was flying whilst England played Trindad & Tobago... so far I had not found anyone who knew the score, actually most of the aussies said "Why would I know that?". However the Portuguese taxi driver knew it all and within 5mins I was updated on the game, highlights of the England game and all the other in Group B.

I knocked on the door of Nicks, the door had opened and I had arrived!

Bad breath in Singapore

quannum — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:37:00 +0000

When you read the guides to Singapore the things you notice are the following:-

No Littering in Singapore
No Jaywalking (crossing the street without traffic lights)
And no Chewing Gum - hence everyone must have pretty bad breath.

Its true Singapore is pretty clean, much cleaner than any other cities that I have visited recently. You are reminded to be Graceful (inner joke: Apparently Grace is not a church, its offering your seat to someone else and letting people get off the train before trying to get on) in the MTR stations.

Singapore is great though everything is very impressive there are more shops than you can think possible. Singapores religion is shopping and thus getting in the spirit I decided that I should buy a laptop (which I am now using). Walking around and with some hangling I managed to pick up a HP DV5010 with 2GB RAM for S$2899 (£983) its pretty superb, you get 11 blue LEDs (check that Grom 11!) and you even get a little remote control to play DVDs, oh and its got a super fast graphic card to play games with too!

Singapore always seem to have lots going on what with Barney showing up in one shopping centre to artists from around the world doing shows in another its fantastic and more importantly cheap entertainment!

Destination Singapore

quannum — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 04:32:00 +0000

Due to the busyness of the trains and buses all that was left was a First Class ticket to Singapore at the pricey sum of 135 Ringgit (£20ish). Although that doesn't sound like much it is....

I arrived at the station with all my goods and was starving as ever the only thing that was open was McDonalds (4 of trip). With MaceeDees in hand I boarded the train and found my sleeper. This was the plushest sleeper I had been in, I only had 1st class once before in China and the difference was poles apart.

The sleeper had ensuite bathroom, TV and was nicely setout maybe a little bit small... but compared to anything else I had seen it was great.

I switched on the TV and was met by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and precided to watch the start however before I knew it I was asleep. I kept waking up through the night as because we were entering Singapore I knew that we'd have to go through border control.

Our steward told me that the officials would come on board and at 6:15 they did, they stamped my passport and that was that... or so I thought. I went back to sleep to be awoken some 30mins later being told that I need to get all my stuff and go through Singapore passport control, I was a bit pi**ed off as I was tired, having a good dream and now had to lug all my gear off the train.

Anyway so off we got, everyone hussling to be first in the queue, I don't normally worry about people pushing in but did raise my voice to a couple of people who tried to get in front of me, in true Peter Kay (British Comedian) style.

After about an hour we were back on the train and entering Singapore station. Singapore station you would think would be connected to the rest of the public transport network, but oh no its not! A 15min walk (go out of the main entrance and turn left and follow the road round and straight over the traffic lights) later I had entered the MTR.

The MTR system is pretty fantastic all works like clockwork and you can get everywhere on it. You are even told when the next train is to arrive!

A short trip and walk and I arrived at my hostel the Hive, very cool design and relatively cheap rooms. They had a dorm left so I plonked mystuff in the dorm and setout to discover the city.

No Kualas or Umpa Lumpurs

quannum — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 04:14:00 +0000

Arriving in KL via the bus was a bit of an experience, I didnt get a whole lot of sleep. Every 5 mins the bus seemed to stop, switch the lights on wait till it had awoken all on the bus and then drive off.
We arrived at about 5:30am and after a bit of going in the wrong direction I found the KL train system. The trains cover most of the city centre but have this annoying habit of not being very well connected to one another. For example my first trip, I bought a ticket - I was hoping to my final destination but was told that the tickets dont work cross metro systems. So jumped on the train and away we went. Arrived at the changeover station had a 5min walk so that one found the station and two to get to it.

My hostel had received some good reviews and after stopping off at the only place that was open for food, McDonalds (3rd of trip) I went in search of the guesthouse. After about 40mins of walking down the street that the hostel was supposed to on. I realised that the hostel had closed down or something to that effect, very strange as the hostel said that it had rooms for the next few days. Anyway I wandered across the road and set myself up in the Green Hut Hostel. Pretty nicely done up, a strange layout but had everything you need.

KL is caught up like everywhere else in World Cup fever and there are Nike booths everywhere. Now this is one thing that annoyed me but why dont we get these little promo booths in our cities. They are dotted around the city each country has one and its just very cool.

The stand is playing a series of video clips following the Brazillian team and also shows Thierry getting involved in a Paris street football match... its brillant. The best thing is that its hosted by Mr Eric Cantona.

KL isnt that big, well not on the surface, you can wander around the areas pretty easily and its not so hot that its uncomfortable doing it either.

I found some great food places in the Golden Triangle Shopping Centre which is next to the Imbi monorail station.... oh and speaking of monorail systems its highly likely that Matt Groening got his idea of the Simpsons monorail episode from KL. The monorail is ok though it does feel a little dodgy at times especially when going round the corners, it tilts into the corner but it feels like its an after thought something that the government thought would be "cool".

Saying that KL is cool, I really liked the place easy to get around and has this brillant IMAX cinema where they played Marvellous Destination a film produced and narrated by Tom Hanks which allows you to see what it would be like to walk on the moon. Its brillantly done and seems to be showing on other IMAX cinemas such as Bradford, UK - take a look.

The KL Twin Towers are impressive from the outside, after a bit of a late night watching the football we got up (as you have to as the tickets are free but on first come, first served basis) and managed to get a ticket for all of us. These towers are the tallest in the world, some 452m and up in the middle at abou 170m is the Skybridge which connects the two towers together.

The view from the Skybridge is pretty good but not as spectacular as I was hoping, I just wonder if its just that I am used to these sightseeing things now. However next year will be a bit different they are planning on allowing you to Bungee Jump from the bridge, that will be very cool!

Blackjack in KL

quannum — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 14:07:00 +0000

Well I arrived in KL and in a day managed to into a situation:-

Travelling on your own is definately the way to getting the best stories, I seem to attract scams like flys are attracted to sh*t.

So yesterday I am walking along and these 2 Indo women start chatting to my whilst walking to the Internet. They ask me where the Twin Towers are and point them in the direction. Then they ask me where I am from.. bla bla and what I am up to now, I told them that I was going to the Internet.
Funnily enough they also needed to go to the internet and maybe we could have a coffee afterwards, I told them well I am going to be a while at the Internet as I have loads to do. They said well maybe we could do the internet for an hour or so and then have a drink. I said its gonna be longer than an hour for me and I must sort this out.
So off we go to the Internet and after 2 hours they get bored and leave... we arrange to meet up for breakfast at Starbucks the next day as they have a sister who is going to London and would like to ask me some questions. I thought fine its no skin of my nose.

So we meet up the today and I think hmm didnt know that Starbucks did breakfast but hey ho. The next thing they say our Uncle is cooking breakfast for us so lets jump in a taxi. I am a little scptical but they seem ok.
So off we go we arrive at the Uncles house and I met the Uncle and Aunt and then we have breakfast, all is good. After breakfast I am chatting with the uncle and he mentions that he is a dealer at a casino playing blackjack. I say oh right thats cool and then he talks about how you cant really win as the dealer is the person who decides when someone wins. Sometimes he is told to make people happy to get them sucked in..

He then says hey I can teach you how to play Blackjack and turn this game from a game of chance to a game of skill. Always wanting to learn, I say why not. So he talks me through the game as its different to US blackjack. Then he tells me the system he has so that you can work with the dealer to beat the banker and other players.

So we play a few games and I am thinking, hmm where is this going. He then gives me his mobile number and says I should call him if in Asia and we can play at some casinos though he deals only at VIP tables and the minimum amount of money is 5000 dollars - I am thinking yep right, *uck that.

Next he starts say that because I am new to this I need more confedence and we should practice more He then says this businessman from Brunei is coming to play Mah Jong and is a sucker for gambling. I will tell him that the Mah Jong players have gone to the shop and does he want to play you at BlackJack. He then gives me 600 RM about 200 dollars.

Before I know it there is a knock on the door the guy comes in, smart suit and diamond rings (dont know if real to be honest but looks the part.). The uncle then says right so Mah Jong players have gone to shop though we have been playing Black Jack and would you like to play my friend Simon and his g/f. The guy says yeah why not.. its all too smooth to behonest and I am thinking this is really dodgy.

Anyway so the guy hands over 2000 dollars and wants to be the banker. I nobly say to my "girlfriend", oh your much better at cards you play. So the niece starts playing, all the time I am thinking how do I get out of this. After 2 hands the system is working but then he says "hmm your g/f has much luck I want you to hold the cards" (so he is in on the scam) and then on the end of the third hand he starts betting harder.

The 4 hand he bets so much that I don't have enough chips. I know that this hand I can win but then say "look, I dont have the money to cover this, I am not rich enough for this game." Then funny a rule that I didnt know about comes into effect, if I fold then the Brunei guy gets all the money. Oh, so I say well I could cover this (I know I can win the hand). Then have an idea, right so I say to the guy look this is too much for me, lets play this hand and if I lose I lose and call it quits if I win then you get your money back and so do I. Strangely his english goes to pot and he doesnt understand. I repeat and eventually he understands...
He then says "I request that we play one more game after this one as we are gentlemen", gentlemen my arse. I say no as it doesnt matter everyone gets their money back at the end of this anyway. The uncle then gives me my money back gives the Brunei the 600 RM plus his 2000 dollars and thats it game over.

The uncle smiles and says "Now you have learnt the last lesson of gambling in a Casino" and we walk out. I am now thinking, hmm whats gonna happen now, the uncle say dont to worry as its a days tip for him and I still pretend that I think I have lost it and say I feel bad but he says it doesnt matter you have learnt a valid lesson in gambling. Another relation arrives a bloke and he is going to give us a lift.

I don't want to get in cause dont know if something dodgy is gonna happen as I am still not completely sure if the Brunei guy was in on it or not.
The guy seems ok and I think well he is quite fat so I could probably outrun him if need be. So I get in and nothing happens I chat to the driver though he only tells me his name and the girls say that he only understands enough english to answer what is your name.
They drop me off at the bus station, I then get paranoid and decide not to take the bus but to go via train and then think I am being followed. On at least 2 occasions I think hmm sure I have seen that bloke earlier. So I do some doubling back and go the wrong way on the subway jump off and then jump back onto the train going the right way (proper 007 stuff). Eventually I arrive in KL Sentral station, buy my ticket, laugh to myself and then start to relax.

Blog Update

quannum — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 10:22:00 +0000

Dear All,
Just a quickie, I have spent quite a while on the blog over the past couple of days (11 hours in total). So there are loads of posts which aren't on the front page and its just about up to date. There are some old posts from Tibet and Thailand that I have yet to complete.

Anyway hopefully you'll enjoy them at least the pictures are pretty nice (apart from the Killing Field and S21 photos).

Right then time to catch the bus to Kuala Lumpur.

Cheers
Simon

Diving at the Perhentian Islands

quannum — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:49:00 +0000

So the it started, I arrived at 8:30am. I had read some of the book that they gave me, they asked me to read 5 chapters (i.e. the whole thing) I managed 1.

I met my instructors Rory and Trisha, Trisha was doing her Dive Master (one of the hardest amateur qualifications) and Rory had been diving some 20 years or so. I felt as though I was in safe hands!

I was stuck in front of a TV and watched DVDs which were to reenforce the reading that I had done (*cough*). The DVDs were amazing so cheesy they were funny, for example one of the jokes they made was that "Divers can handle pressure" (geddit - they can handle the water+air pressure - yep that good).

Afterwards I had a couple of tests and then in the afternoon we went out for our first dive. There was actually another person who I was diving with Fanny from France (yeah I chuckled to myself too), quite interesting girl though working in Singapore for 2 years on a placement that is setup by the French government - nice!

So the first dive is called a confined dive in that you are diving in waters waist height in order to try and keep you calm. The first time I put my head underwater I did freak out a bit but then told myself to keep calm and breathe. The most important rule in diving "Always breathe" and so I did and that settled me down.

We had to do various skills, like take your mask off and on and flush out the water, remove your scuba gear and put it back on. Use your buddies alternative air supply as yours has run out. I did think it went a bit quick but it was pretty clearly guided so you could follow.

The next day we went out and did a proper open water dive. I was a bit hungover from the night before as once again I needed help to sleep in the hut (thats the only reason honest!). This time it was a bit more scary and they had us do some tasks at the start which I messed up a bit and took three times as long as Fanny (still makes me chuckle). When ever I cant do something I do wind myself up about it - but I kept myself relatively calm and finished the skills. And so we were off. The first time you start going down its incredible, I guess the same awe might not be obtained if I was diving in the North Sea (UK) but in Malaysia as you look down you see hundreds of fish, not boring coloured fish, proper "Finding Nemo" fish and the coral is incredible too.

We swam about following Rory and saw such amazing things, including a Hornbilled Turtle, sharks, trigger fish just all these crazy colourful fish - fantastic.

In the afternoon we went to another spot called D'Lagoon and the amazement continued.

I dont want to go on about Diving too much but it feels so incredible to see all these wildlife in its natural habitat, plus you learn things about how the wildlife lives. For example we saw a school of squid, I never knew that they swam around in schools.
I then had to do my theory exam, I had no idea what the pass mark was and I dont think its very difficult to pass but I got two wrong which meant that I passed. All I had to do was a couple more skills the next day and it was done.

The following day we continued on - however Fanny had to go back to Singapore as it was Monday. So I then had one to one tuition.
The highlight of the diving however was Temple of the Sea which is supposed to be the best dive site and was just incredible. Its like having your very own aquarium, Giant Moray Eels, more rays - amazing.

In the afternoon we popped down to Mullet Point and saw an Eagle Ray which annoyed all the others we were diving with as they are pretty rare and no-one else saw it! Its looked pretty magistical flapping through the sea - a fantastic site!

And That was that I filled out some paperwork when we got back thanked the instructors and I was done. I totally recommend that people give it a go, maybe do a introduction dive first just to see if you would like it - but I think any normal person would. There isnt too much danger as long as you keep an eye on your air and follow the procedures - you'll be fine.

Anyway the Perhentian Islands were amazing place to do it and would recommend the Coral Sky Divers

The Perhentian Islands

quannum — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:37:00 +0000

The hut we had wasnt too bad, the shared toilet and bathroom werent the best but it was cheap.

I was sharing with Tony the Swede who then realised that he actually didnt have any money... with no way of getting money on the island he had to go back on the mainland and find an ATM. This is what chilling out on Ko Phan-ngan for 10 days and smoking loads of weed does to your brain! ;)

The first thing that hits you about the islands is the crystal clear blue water its amazing and the second was the heat of the sun. It was so hot that I just hid with everyone else in the shade.The islands are really stunning and there is plenty to do including snorkelling, wake-boarding, kayaking and of course diving.

Seeing that I wanted to learn to dive I thought I better go and find out a bit more about it. I had a chat with a couple of outfits and eventually went with Coral Bay Sky Divers (the name is a bit misleading) the main reason was that they had been there for 14 years and I would be having one to one training. The PADI Open Water course allows you to dive without any real supervision and teaches you the beginning techniques so you don't hurt yourself or anyone else. It was a bit more pricey than I was expecting at 900 RMT (about 120 pounds) but compared to the UK where its about 500 pounds its a bargain!
I filled out a bit of paperwork and all I needed to do was show up at 8:30 (ouch!).

Our first night involved drinking some of the Sam Sung I had brought with me, actually it all got drank. I wasnt really looking forward to sleeping in the hut and this would definately help. The island was pretty quiet, I guess without too much alcohol to consume there isnt the necessary ingredient to get the party started.

However I stayed up till about 1am with Tony, Keeli, Cerina, Joe, Dom, Jake and Ryan chatting then realised that I was getting up for 8:30am and quickly went to bed.

Bangkok to the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

quannum — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 11:02:00 +0000

Getting from Bangkok to Malaysia is relatively easy and I had arranged to met Will and get the train to Sungai Kolok in order to get across the border.

I packed my stuff up and thought that it would be better taking my stuff to the train station, put it into left luggage and then go back into Bangkok as I had a few chores to sort out.

I got to the Hua Lampong station and went to buy my ticket, I thought that I would be able to get the same train that Lauren and myself had got to Trang. When he said yes here is your ticket and it leaves in an hour and half (15:15) I thought bu**er, not gonna be able to tell Will. Anyway thats how it goes, I still managed to get my ticket and catch the train with 5 mins to spare!

The sleeper train was fine, though it arrived 2 hours late. I got off and caught a moto to the border. Crossed the border no problem and then something strange.... no one was hassling me to get a tuk-tuk, great! I walked into the town centre as I had no money, no idea where the bus station was but in an hour I had money, had eaten and was on the bus headed for Kota Bahru.

My final destination is the Perhentian Islands which I have been told is a great place to learn to dive as its cheap, has some of the most amazing sites and unlike places like Ko Tao doesn't have a conveour belt PADI teaching system. Two of my friends are complete diving geeks, and one in particular has been travelling the globe and boring us with his diving tales for a few years now and I thought well its about time I saw what all the fuss is about. (check his site: Mr Burton Travel site - the photos are on the right hand side).

To get to the Islands you need to go to Kuala Besut and get a boat from here to the Islands (50 RMT with some haggling!).

I stayed overnight in a bit of a dive of a guesthouse (KB Guesthouse) and met a few other people who were also going and grabbed a taxi in the morning with them to Kuala Besut (32 RMT between 4).

Once there we bought boat tickets and some booze as its pretty expensive on the island (and hard to come by). I was with 3 lads from the UK, 4 Americans from California and a Swedish guy. The fast boat was just that it bombed towards the island and about 30mins later we had arrived on Long Beach. My timing was pretty bad, Malaysia is currently in holiday season and thus everything was booked up. We managed to find 4 huts for us all, the last 4 huts on the island (probably) and settled down.

Time to go back to Bangkok (Cambodia -> Thailand)

quannum — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 13:57:00 +0000

So its time to go back to Thailand, I had managed to spend my $300 and was down to $1. Will and I left for Bangkok, our planned trip was via sea to Kong Khong which is a 4 hourish journey from Sihanoukville port. Its apparently the better way to get to Kong Khong particular when its wet season and the roads are bad between the two points. After my experience earlier getting to Siam Reap I was up for avoiding any dodgy roads.

We met Dominque from France who was also making her way up to Bangkok, had a bit of food (which was rank) and got on the boat. The other reason I wanted to go via boat was for the view, I thought I would be able to get some photos from the boats deck, oh but I was wrong. The boat is all enclosed and its not possible to get on the deck, so now we were stuck in a boat for 4 hours, with smelly a/c and Cambodian music TV .. superb! Fortunately I had my book, Colony by Ben Bova which is excellent and only taken me 10 years to read! (honest! - yeah and its because its written in big words!)

Dominque then proceeded to tell me all the places that she went to in Cambodia as we left, its always annoying when you miss something that sounds really good. Anyway in case any of you go apparently near Kampot (20km South East) is an old French holiday resort with an island nearby and it sounds amazing! The great thing is that its not in any travel guides (well not yet!).

Eventually we arrived in Kong Khong and walked up the rather percarious walkway back on to land. The next step was the border crossing with Cambodia and Thailand, we picked up a German bloke called Alex and after a bit of haggling and walking away jumped in a taxi for a 100 baht to the border. The guy was actually a nice fella and I gave him a bit of a tip.

We arrived at the border crossing, the touts trying to sell everything from tobacco to pens and then proceeded to wait to get our Visa's stamped. We waited and waited.... Then about 30mins later the couple before us left and I got my exit stamp.

Walking across the no-mans land we wandered into Thailand and filled out some more paperwork.

Its now I have a bit of a confession to make (this is to Lauren - sorry babes), back in Silhanoukville I lost my watch whilst having a drink or two. I hate not knowing the time and it had been doing my head in for the past 3-4 days - but thank you for Thai borders, you can buy all sorts of cr*p including fake watches so now I am the proud owner of a Casio Film Watch which advertises its Illuminator function but doesnt work... making it pretty impossible to read in the dark or with bad light. It does however have a dual time functionality and a analog clock which you can't set.

After my purchases we got a minibus to Trat, which I didnt realise was a 100km away. Finally we reached Trat, bought bus tickets to Bangkok and waited....

The journey to Bangkok was pretty uneventful and we arrived some 4 hours later at the north bus station in Bangkok. I then had a brainwave and decided to stay in a bit of luxury at the Room Reflections, which has got to be the coolest hotel I have been in (see the pics).

Silhanoukville, Cambodia

quannum — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 11:02:00 +0000

The journey from Phnom Phen to Silhanoukville is pretty simple, jump on a bus and 3-4 hours later you arrive in town. Whilst awaiting the bus I met a Belgian called Will who detested Belgium and was now living in Brazil with his girlfriend.

What seems to happen is that whoever you travel with is who you end up hanging out with for a while, unless they are d*cks or a**holes. Fortunately Will was laid back and sound arriving in Silhanoukville we jumped on a couple of tuk-tuks and ended up at the GST guesthouse, which I can highly recommend. $5 for a double with fans, bathroom and sat tv... superb!

Silhanoukville is situated on the south coast of Cambodia and due to the timing it was low season and pretty quiet. The beach is amazing though filled with hawkers and touts trying to get every buck they can, who can blame them really but it does get annoying after a few hours!

Further up towards town was a bar/guesthouse called Monkey Republic which housed a couple of Dutch guys (Bart and Marc) who I have been bumping into all the way down since we entered Laos. We spent a few nights there playing pool and eating the excellent food.

Cambodia's beer Angkor beer whilst not as good as Laos's Beer Lao was definately still drinkable, much more so than the foul Chang Beer (Thai beer). Silhanoukville is really relaxed and there isnt too much to do except laze on the beach and drink beer in the evening... its a pretty hard life.

One of the highlights is renting a moto and driving the 20km out to the Ream National Park which is fantastic. Remote and deserted beaches, no touts in sight and crystal clear blue water... fantastic! Driving around the park is cool too though here is a tip when it starts to look a bit marshy stop and turn around as you only get mud everywhere and then have to turn around when it does eventually become marsh.

Apparently you can also do a boot trip and see River Dolphins here but it was a bit expensive and by the time we got there it was too late to do the trip.

The Killing Fields and S21

quannum — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:47:00 +0000

Cambodia was home to one of the brutaliest war crimes since World War II. Between 1975-1979 Pol Pot ordered the mass slaghter of between 1-3 million (pop 8 million) innocent civillians as he and his generals "re-educated" the Cambodian people with the Khmer Rouge army.

Targetting intellectuals and anybody who wouldn't do what they were told he brought them to a secret camp such as S21 in Phnom Phen where they would be tortured, questioned (sic) and disposed of in a mass grave now known as a Killing Field. One of these fields is 15km outside of Phnom Phen.

Sitting on the back of Raine's moto we setoff for the Killing Fields, a bumpy and dusty ride. When we arrived I paid a small fee and entered the site of the Killing Fields.

Looking around at first, its difficult to see how gruesome it must have been as although there are the holes left from the mass graves, the grass has grown back. If you look closer you can still see a few bones littering the ground in and around the graves. Plus there is a stupa which is there to remember the dead. Inside the monument, skulls fill the middle column and looking at the skulls closely you can see holes and slices of bone missing from the skull. Not because they have been dropped or damaged in the graves but because people were blugened to death with hammers, axes .. its all pretty horrific.

Trying to avoid all the kids asking for money is difficult but if you can you can explore the site which stretches quite a way behind the stupa. However pretty quickly I left as its not the most uplifting of experiences.

Next was S21, after being dropped off I was approached by 2 beggars one in particular had lost a leg and his face had been really deformed by something or someone. Walking in to S21 there are three main buildings, the first on the left has been left pretty untouched to give you an idea of what the rooms looked like and what people had to go through. The second building is where the cells are kept (bricked cells with just enough room to lie down in). The third building holds an exhibition on the people who worked there with their experiences and stories. Some of the pictures have Khmer scribbled over them and I am sure that some people think them as cowards as they joined the Khmer Rouge in order to survive. However their lives were in jeopardy as much as the prisoners they were guarding and many of them were killed when they didnt follow their superiors orders.

More information on the Khmer Rouge and Killing Fields can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Fields

As soon as we finished it was time to get back and watch a funny DVD...

The Phnom Phen is mightier than the sword

quannum — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 21:01:00 +0000

Phnom Phen is the capital of Cambodia, famous for crazy shinangans where you can do anything that you want. Situated towards the South of Cambodia, it was a five hour journey from Siam Reap.

Unfortunately there werent enough seats to get the bus with Michelle, Gabrelle and Abraham and I didnt realise it but that would be the last time that I would see them (guys if you do by some stroke of luck read this - please get in touch!).

So I jumped on another bus and off we set, the road between Siam Reap and Phnom Phen is amazing and smoothier than a babys bottom when compared to the border to Siam Reap. For this I was grateful, I started feeling pretty rough that morning and on the bus it was getting worse. What didnt help was that the buses air-con was set to freeze your bollocks off.

They put a Bruce Lee movie which was dubbed into Khmer. The editing team have to commended in their dubbing effort, not only do they dub random sentences, they also manage to leave out all sound effects except the occasional punch sound every 3 minutes or so. With this quality movie running I read.... before I knew it we were in Phnom Phen.

I planned to meet the rest of the group at their bus and not feeling too great got hounded by the tuk-tuk drivers, admitted defeat and jumped into a tuk-tuk. After 5 minutes of telling him "No, I don't f**king want to look at your guesthouse, we went to the GST bus stop". We waited about 20mins, no bus... I thought well lets go to the guesthouse and wait.
Off we went the tuk-tuk driver dropped me off and then tried to charge me $20 for the trip and when I offered him $5 he threatened me with "I dont want something bad to happen to you whilst you are here" so we settled at $6.

I waited and waited, feeling worse and worse and eventually went to bed.

I was staying at the No 9 Guesthouse, which is sat on the lake front and really nice, all the staff were great. The rooms weren't the nicest but they were functioning and didnt smell too bad.

I spent 2 days watching DVDs, saw some great stuff and some bad. A german girl was also ill, so we just felt sorry for eachother and laughed at the fact that all we did was eat, drink and watch DVDs (perfect travellers really!).

Day 3 - I felt better and got another tuk-tuk driver to take me round the Killing Fields and S21, on my way out to get some different food I then noticed that the ba*tard tuk-tuk driver had taken me to No 9 Guesthouse II instead of the first one, bug*er.

Cambodia has some crazy storms (see pics) and the location of the guesthouse is absolutely beautiful with great sunsets and friendly people - superb. Unfortunately down to the fever I didnt get to see too much of the city which is a real shame as there were russian markets that you could get a bargain at but I guess thats just
how things go sometimes.

Switching to Feedblitz

quannum — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 20:20:00 +0000

Morning/Afternoon All,
It seems that the Bloglet subscriber service isnt too reliable so I have switched over to Feedblitz. To those who have already subscribed dont worry you have to as you are now already been moved over to Feedblitz. However if in the future you want to disconnect yourself from my ramblings then you will need to head to FeedBlitz.com to unsubscribe yourself.

For those who havent subscribed then please do so and know that the service is definately more reliable.

If anyone has any questions about it or problems please let me know as I am knew to this one too!

Update 1/06/2006 - seems that the emails werent actually telling you what had been updated - this has now been fixed and you should get a little summary text with it now.

Any problems please drop us a line.

Cheers
Simon

Angkor Wat

quannum — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 11:01:00 +0000

Angkor Wat is one of the most amazing sites on this Earth. A city of temples stretching I dont know how far but its pretty damn big.

The highlight of Angkok Wat is waking up early for the 5am sunrise. I was woken up at 4:50am and legged it out to the tuk-tuk to start our journey.

Unfortunately even though we had got ourselves up for the sunrise we missed it, gutted getting up super early for no reason. Anyway it turns out that it was still for the best.

Angkor Wat was made about a thousand years ago (about 1100 AD) by a number of kings and was actually lost until 1891 ish when the French heard rumours about its existance and went in search for it. Later on it became a mass slaughter site for the Khmer Rouge and the walls are riddled with bulletholes.

Everyone arrives for the sunrise and then leaves for food and on this day it turned out that we had the Wat to ourselves. After chatting away to a local he asked if we had a guide and before we knew it he became our guide. Pointing out things we would have never have seen and telling us facts that we would have never known.

Angkor Wat was also the setting for the first Tomb Raider movie which was filmed at a temple I cant remember this and the Jungle Temple which I think are my favourite of the temples. This temple has been left to nature and has the most amazing trees growing on its roof.

Our tuk-tuk driver took us around all day for $10 and was an excellent host pointing out things as we drove around - a truely fantastic experience.

As ever lets let the photos do the talking.....

Voyage to Siam Reap (Cambodia)

quannum — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 09:14:00 +0000

Firstly sorry that I havent posted in a while, Cambodias internet was less than useless. No upload or downloading of photos - superb. Anyway this place is a bit better except the keyboard doesnt have a working shift button. So if I miss a capital here and there forgive me.

So Cambodia is south east of Thailand and about a five hour train journey from Bangkok. I checked the times and there were two trains one at 5:50am and another at 1:30pm. I decided that the 5:50am would be a good bet and stayed in the local hotel, the Train Inn.

Paul who I had been travelling from Laos back to Bangkok left that night and I went to bed.

I slept really badly that night, I dont know if the bed had bugs or what but I got a really bad rash and just couldnt sleep well until about 4am. My alarm went off at 5 for the train, I laughed, thought 1:30 will be fine and feel back asleep.

The journey was slow but steady and we arrived in a place that still I cant pronounce but its spelt Aranyaprathet (sure its should be easy to pronounce and by all means try, it wont be correct!) . Arriving at the station I was met by a couple of Tuk-Tuk drivers and we went to one of the guesthouses. It looked ok - so I setup camp. I was still feeling rotten from last night - so got some food, had a search for internet - failed and went to bed.

The next day woke up - slept a bit better, though the guesthouse was really noisy. Wandered around to find the bus station to pick up a lift to the border.After some discussions with the tuk-tuk drivers my negotiation skills failed me and then pointed me in the direction of a sagwnathrew which is basically either a pickup or a big lorry. I walked over to the lorry asked if going to the border and jumped on. An hour later and 10 baht i was at the border, met by a horde of touts, I let them guide me through it all. Its easier that way - I can choose whether I will take their bus at the end.

This was my second border crossing and this was the worst, I had to pay an extra 5 dollars so that i waited 15 mins instead of 4 hours. Though to be fair had i know how long I would wait at the bus station I could have saved myself 3 quid! Met up with a bunch of english lads and we got our visas and headed for the bus.

Then the wait... we were originally told that we would be waiting about half an hour. three hours later and after a few of us started to ask for our money back a bus arrived. We boarded and waited to setoff.

I decided to have a chat with this fella from the states. Now he was a little older about 40 and was also travelling on his own, my conversation lasted about 5mins after which he said some weird sh*t and then kept making little rhymes like "sharing is caring" (depends what your sharing - i thought).

When you judge that someone is a little strange, you always wonder if its just you who thinks that.

Fortunately the fella from the states was sitting on his own. The bus driver then said that we would go once the seats were filled. There were about 8 seats to fill... just at that moment a bus pulled up and a horde of people got off and started to queue for tickets. Before I knew we had three canadians, 2 swedes and an english lass who came and sat next to me.

The swedish girl got to sit next to the guy from the states, who wouldnt move his backpack for her and within 10mins he put his arm around her - which she promptly pushed back. YES! he is weird, back luck for the girl but he is weird great!

Michelle was travelling with Abraham (swedish guy) and Gabrelle (swedish lass) since Bangkok - pretty interesting lass. One of her stories was about how she met this bloke called David Walliams about 5 years ago .. got completely pi**ed up and puked everywhere and told him "I'm a lady...." over and over again. She wasnt sure if she started his Little Britain sketch ... but it sounds like it was possible... I like to think so.

The trip was pretty crazy, I had been warned by lots of people and books that the roads were bad, but you always think they cant be too bad... well they were. Fortunately the rain had soften the dirt track up a bit - however we were still bouncing all over the place.

Suddenly the breaks were slammed on and we stopped... the driver got out looked around the bus, then told us to get out... we had a flat. 30 mins later we were back on the road, I thought to myself well its only a 4 hour journey and its been 2 so we are half way there.

We pulled up at a stop for dinner, had a bit of food with the english lads i met at the border and waited for the driver to come back (he was getting the spare tire sorted). We then waited while he had some food and we all got in to the bus. This time a guide joined us and at the front of the bus the service door had been opened and the driver was tickering with the engine.. great i thought.

20 mins later though we were on the road, then the guide told us that actually we still had another 4 hours to go, oh and also the roads get a lot more bumpy from now on .... Great!!!

Yep he was right the roads were bumpier and also the bus was swerving all over the place, i thought he was dodging pot holes but apparently he was trying to hit any wildlife he could .. fortunately he missed the 2 dogs....

When we finally arrived in Siam Reap it was about 12:00 - 12 of us got in tuk-tuk and headed off to a guesthouse that had been recommended... unfortunately it was shut. Finally we found a bargain little hotel for $6, me and Abraham got a room and then girls took another.

Michelle talked about getting up for sunrise at 5am and getting to Angkor Wat - sounded good to me.... I crashed out.

Vang Vieng

quannum — Sat, 13 May 2006 11:12:00 +0000

Vang Vieng it sounds like something out of a movie, either the name of an evil villain or maybe the real home of Count Dracula.

Vang Vieng is a 9 hour bus journey south from Luang Prabang, it apparently has amazing views however it was night time when we did the journey and all we could see were silhouettes of the mountains which looked beautiful but couldnt get a good photo of them (damn cameras and there need of light). We arrived at about 3am and stumbled to the nearest guesthouse.

In the morning, the Laos sun was out in full force and we proceeded to lug ourselves towards the town centre. Town centre is a bit grand, the streets are currenly mud with large dangerous channels running down each side of the road (at somepoint they will probably become drains). The place is pretty small and everything that is there is pretty much to do with the tourists, the people who live there either run or work for a business providing tourist services. Actually about 5 years ago there were people living where the tourist centre is but now they have moved a little bit further out.

We found a nice guesthouse called the Babylon, funnily enough run by a ex real estate agent from Beckingham, London (my bro lives there you see).

There really isnt too much to do in Vang Viang which doesnt involve either drinking, eating, smoking or the river. You can buy what they call "Happy Shakes" which have various illicit ingredients and have varying effects. Every two minutes you are being asked whether you want, weed, mushrooms or opium ... its pretty crazy.
Then there is the restaurants which run Friends, Simpsons all day (To help those who have participated in one of the shakes). Before you ask, I did try a couple of shakes a sip of a mushroom and a sip of an opium though to be fair nothing happened and I didnt feel too crazy about having any more of the opium (see below). However the weed shakes were great!

A couple of weeks before we arrived a lad died when he overdosed on Opium shakes, the guy apparently had 6-7 shakes which is just plain stupid but also you never know how much they put in a single shake.

Vang Vieng sits on the Mekong which goes all the way down to Vientaine and further south to the bottom of Laos. This river is beautiful and also provides much entertainment with kayaking and toobin'. Its possible to even kayak down to Vientaine which I fancied doing but the river is low and you seemed to spend more time in the back of a lorry than on the river.

Anyway check out some of the photos, I have been getting a bit lazy of late with the photo taking and there arent as many good ones as I would hope... sorry.

Luang Prabang Waterfall

quannum — Mon, 08 May 2006 16:10:00 +0000

Everyone when they visit Luang Prabang goes to the waterfall, its supposed to be one of the towns highlights. So far on my travels I hadnt seen too many waterfalls and was really looking forward to this one.

After quite a bit of wheeling and dealing we managed to get a tuk-tuk to the waterfall at a reasonable price, its funny tuk-tuk drivers will do anything to get you in their taxi including on agreeing on a price and then changing their mind when you set off. Its annoying and you just end up getting out of the tuk-tuk and changing with him going mad at you.

We also picked up three other travellers, a couple from Ireland and a Canadian lass who was running an NGO in Laos... all interesting people. We made our way down the dusty and bumpy track, an hour later we arrived.

The waterfalls I have to say are the most amazing falls I have yet to see. They are tiered falls but with the top one being what I would class as a proper waterfall i.e. it falls about 50 meters down into a splash pool. The only problem was that because it was low water season they werent as full and powerful as they could be - but hey you can't have everything!

The top was a real mission to get to and after about 30mins of searching for the final fall we stubbled on it, ignored the danger - cliff sign and climbed down. We joined a group of monks who were having a bit of a break from their religious duties - they were also doing some crazy jumps into the splash pool!

After a bit of psyching myself up I did a couple of jumps, saying that they werent too big about 10-15m and the only dodgy thing was that you landed into water and then bounced off the bottom of soft sand.

The rain started after about an hour of being at the fall so we decided to make our way down. It was really tretcherous and I slipped over a couple of times the journey up took about 30mins the journey down took over an hour.. it wasnt what you would call fun.

Anyway I will leave you with the pictures cos they are much more interesting!

Oh yeah did I forget to say that they had bears and a tiger in the little zoo at the bottom of the fall too - quite a bizarre place to have a zoo.

Bang Bang in Luang Prabang

quannum — Mon, 08 May 2006 15:01:00 +0000

The trip to Luang Prabang was a bit of an adventure. We were strapped in to a speedboat which is basically a bit of boat shaped wood with a massive engine (straight out of a Toyota Corolla). When they gave us crash helmets and told us to put in earplugs I got a bit scared (a few people die or get seriously hurt on this trip a year). Before we knew it were we hurtling down the river at 40mph, dodging the rocks. We had a few moments, including the time we bumped a little rock pertruding from the river.

Sitting in a space 1m long with your knees tucked up for 6 hours is not what you would call comfortable. But its a better option than sitting on the slow boat for 2 days.

After the 6 hours we thankfully arrived safe but painfully in Luang Prabang. Grabbed a rather expensive tuk-tuk into town and settled in the guesthouse.

Luang Prabang is famous for its beautiful waterfall and also has a temple which overlooks the rest of the city, apart from that its got plenty of backpackers who want to party. The first thing you notice about Luang Prabang is how well setup it is for the tourist, cafes and bars everywhere all serving pretty good food.

That night we found a local restaurant which was doing a buffet with dance show for $7. The food was amazing with all you could eat pork, chicken and various cantanese dishes. The local dance school also put on a show. Unfortunately not many of the photos came out so all I have is this one. It was well worth the money and good to see some local dancing and stuff. Even if it was a little strange at times.