After getting a little stuck on Magnetic Island we headed off on our 2nd Oz bus to Airlie Beach. Our driver named Pistol Pete was quiet and recovering from a hangover we preferred this to the previous driver Diesel, who's incessant use of the word awesome and favourite saying "cool bananas, no dramas", had scarred us.
We went straight though to Airlie, seven guys on a 52 seater coach!?! Watched Borat on route and arrived early evening. That nights entertainment was Jelly Wrestling. About 10 women from different countries went at it in a jelly pit trying to rip off bands from each other for a prize of 500 bucks. It was strange to watch especially when the aussie girls were practically beating each other up for the money. However it was pretty funny.
The next day was our venture onto the Whitsundays and sailing around the islands. We departed at 430 and vegan introducing ourselves to all the passangers, we had Italians, germans, english, dutch, canadian, israely and a belgian all on our boat, we lucked out though as everyone was easy to get along with, and the best thing was i didnt get seasick!!
Our first destination was blue pearl bay, where we moored and were all at awe by being right next to Ivana Trumps million dollar yacht 'Grand Finale'. We thought about taking the dingy over to say hi but decided the party was better on our boat. Beer and goon was consumed late into the night. (GOON - the aussie nickname for very cheap and disgusting tasting wine) In the morning with everyone suffering from a nasty goonover we headed for a dive in the bay. Me and rastrick buddied up and heading off along the reef. The visibility is no where near as good as Thailand but we did find a cool empty clamshell.
After this we began sailing again and headed around to a place called whitehave and it is possibly the most idylic white sand beach i have ever seen. Sting rays and sharks swam in the waters but none of them will harm you, unless youstep on them.
That evening we continued on the beer and goon escapades, included this time were german drinking games and a whitsundays races card game run by the loudest yorkshireman ever known. The next morning we headed to another bay to do some snorkeling, the whole time weve been snorkelling around the whitsundays weve had to wear stinger suits as there are two types of deadly jellyfish. While snorkelling this time i got a sharp electric like shock to my lip, jellyfish sting! At first i started to have a brown stinger suit moment, then realised that the pain had gone and i was fine! It was also at this point that the load yorkshireman spotted a 2m shark come out of a cloud of sand, the only words that came out of his mouth for the next hr were expletives. Green missed this little trip as his Goonover was too bad!
In the evening we sailed back and all met up in a bar called Reefo's, drinking with the crew and captain into the wee hours.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Magnetic Island
The next morning was an early one again, onto our oz bus and headed south down the coast. We had a loudmouth aussie female driver, who had to put awesome into every scentence and loved speaking on the microphone almost the whole trip - no sleeping was done.
We did stop at a quality croc farm where the Steve Irwin imposter jumped onto the bus with croc in hand to try and scare us, most people were too tired to notice. THe highlight was seeing a rather large aussie name mick sitting on one of the biggest crocs ever seen in Queensland. We also got to hold a small crocodile who insisted on crapping when the trainer grabbed hold of him.
We continued on to a place called magnetic island, which is a very idylic island of a place called townsville. The island is beautiful however there is not alot to do. We did however for some strange reason decide to trak all the way round a cove climbing on the rocks, some of which were a little on the dogdy side, and the nthe tide started coming in. You hear these horror stories of people being trapped on rocks while the tide comes in, i knew i was fine, cos i have a phone, but it was still a bit on the crazy side, especially when wh had to jump from rock to rock avoiding incoming waves and dodge overhanging spider webs with quite nasty looking critters in them. We finally arrived at the next bay pretty much too tired to do anything. The evening involved drinking overpriced pitchers and wathcing cane toad racing. Where an overweight aussie pensioner yelled out strange words and gathered peoples money for betting on the races. It takes about 30min to get bets for the 8 toads and the race takes on average about 10sec. Another backwards aussie tradition i think.
The next day we headed to the old WW2 forts on the island, it took ages to get there and by the time we did it was getting dark but we trudged on hoping to catch the sunset from the top of the lookout tower. After winding up and up, keeping our eyes out for koala's, wallaby's, spiders and the deadly death adder, we arrived at the top just as the sun had dropped behind the horizon. The comms tower and lookout tower were the main remains and they were rather creepy at night, we were lucky we'd remembered torches as the return journey would have been impossible without them. We scarpered back walking through countless spiderwebs and tripping out at the slightest rustles in the bushes, usually behind us.
Tomorrow we head for Airlie Beach and a two day sailing trip on the Whitsundays, i really hope my stomach is up to this one, prob going to have to lay off the VB.
We did stop at a quality croc farm where the Steve Irwin imposter jumped onto the bus with croc in hand to try and scare us, most people were too tired to notice. THe highlight was seeing a rather large aussie name mick sitting on one of the biggest crocs ever seen in Queensland. We also got to hold a small crocodile who insisted on crapping when the trainer grabbed hold of him.
We continued on to a place called magnetic island, which is a very idylic island of a place called townsville. The island is beautiful however there is not alot to do. We did however for some strange reason decide to trak all the way round a cove climbing on the rocks, some of which were a little on the dogdy side, and the nthe tide started coming in. You hear these horror stories of people being trapped on rocks while the tide comes in, i knew i was fine, cos i have a phone, but it was still a bit on the crazy side, especially when wh had to jump from rock to rock avoiding incoming waves and dodge overhanging spider webs with quite nasty looking critters in them. We finally arrived at the next bay pretty much too tired to do anything. The evening involved drinking overpriced pitchers and wathcing cane toad racing. Where an overweight aussie pensioner yelled out strange words and gathered peoples money for betting on the races. It takes about 30min to get bets for the 8 toads and the race takes on average about 10sec. Another backwards aussie tradition i think.
The next day we headed to the old WW2 forts on the island, it took ages to get there and by the time we did it was getting dark but we trudged on hoping to catch the sunset from the top of the lookout tower. After winding up and up, keeping our eyes out for koala's, wallaby's, spiders and the deadly death adder, we arrived at the top just as the sun had dropped behind the horizon. The comms tower and lookout tower were the main remains and they were rather creepy at night, we were lucky we'd remembered torches as the return journey would have been impossible without them. We scarpered back walking through countless spiderwebs and tripping out at the slightest rustles in the bushes, usually behind us.
Tomorrow we head for Airlie Beach and a two day sailing trip on the Whitsundays, i really hope my stomach is up to this one, prob going to have to lay off the VB.
Cairns
Our first impressions of Cairns was of utter dismay, the place was dead, we had heard about all this crazy backpacker scene in oz, but this place was so quiet it was unreal. It was possibly because we arrived on a sunday and early in the morning but that was not the case. Our first day was spent mostly sleeping, to recover from our all night flying, without a single film on the plane, very dissapointed!!
However in the evening we found where everyone had been hiding the one lively bar in the city called the Woolshed. It seemed that just about every backpacker in Cairns was there and it made for a good night. We met up with one of Robs friends and his travelling companions to drink into the wee hours, a very stupid idea for me seeing as we were diving the next day on what we didnt know at the time was the fastest and roughest boat ride ever. The highlights of the evening were the goldfish races and the first decent western meal we'd had for 5 wks, I ate steak!!
The following day we had to be up at 730 to go diving, i had a muzzy head but otherwise felt fine, but as soon as the boat got up to speed, the day took a turn for the worse. 4 times was my agonising tally of hurling up a technicolour rainbow before we reached the reef. I had puked so hard my stomach muscles were killing and i cudnt do the first dive, great, id just spent over $150 to throw up all day. I did manage to do one dive, which i guess made it worthwhile but it wasnt the most enjoyable dive, did see a huge moray eel though. The return journey held just one instance of yawning. The rest of the day was spent sleeping agian.
Our final day in Cairns involved sunning by the lagoon on the beachfront for a few hours followed by a trip to the cinema to see TMNT, its a bit kiddie but i enjoyed it. CGI is amazing though far better than that Toy Story stuff.
However in the evening we found where everyone had been hiding the one lively bar in the city called the Woolshed. It seemed that just about every backpacker in Cairns was there and it made for a good night. We met up with one of Robs friends and his travelling companions to drink into the wee hours, a very stupid idea for me seeing as we were diving the next day on what we didnt know at the time was the fastest and roughest boat ride ever. The highlights of the evening were the goldfish races and the first decent western meal we'd had for 5 wks, I ate steak!!
The following day we had to be up at 730 to go diving, i had a muzzy head but otherwise felt fine, but as soon as the boat got up to speed, the day took a turn for the worse. 4 times was my agonising tally of hurling up a technicolour rainbow before we reached the reef. I had puked so hard my stomach muscles were killing and i cudnt do the first dive, great, id just spent over $150 to throw up all day. I did manage to do one dive, which i guess made it worthwhile but it wasnt the most enjoyable dive, did see a huge moray eel though. The return journey held just one instance of yawning. The rest of the day was spent sleeping agian.
Our final day in Cairns involved sunning by the lagoon on the beachfront for a few hours followed by a trip to the cinema to see TMNT, its a bit kiddie but i enjoyed it. CGI is amazing though far better than that Toy Story stuff.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
On Route To Cairns
This needs its very own post as its so special. This also enhances why we have begun to call Joseph Michael David Rastrick - Special Fried Rice.
Firstly we head out of Singapore to the airport via the underground, we reach the airport and me and green get our bags checked in, meanwhile there appears to be something wrong with rastricks passport, we are both chekced in fine but the airport people begin to call other staff over and we start to get nervous. The passport is being checked over again and again. We begin to try and work out what we are going to do if rastrick cant fly, where we will meet etc, rastrick thinks he's going to be detained for sending fake rolex's back home, which warrants a $5000 fine.
I was planning to give him my map of Singapore and say cheeryo, we'll see you in Oz sometime, then they finally tell us the problem, special fried rice had paid and ordered his oz visa on one passport and then decided he needed a new passport also meaning he has a new passport number!
All worrying over he had to pay again ot get a visa there and then before the flight.
Thats the end of his troubles, on passing through security checks, the stupid lady doesnt think i look like my passport photo which is true, i had the photo done when i was about 16. So green and joe begin laughing and so do i. She continues to ask me my own name in a very questioning manner and i can barely hear her, so i look more confused and sketchy, she asks me to take my hat off, but i now have the longest hair ive ever had and still look nohting like i did back then, i asked her what she would like me to do to look more like myself, but all she could come up with was to have a shave. I had also just finished reading Mr Nice, so had terrbile thoughts of being detained and frisked by customs, very dodgy, luckily id already sent any thai and malaysian things that are not really allowed to be brought through customs. Finally she waved me through!
This was not the end of it. We ahd a hour stopover in Darwin, we get off the plain and im the only one to get a random frisk search by a large beer bellied aussie, in the meantime when we go to get back on the plane, special has lost his boarding card, but they let him straight on anyway, what was the point of the boarding card, i dont know?
Finally we arrive in Cairns to be greeted very nicely by the customs people, first line of questioning, all th usual stuff, show your passport walk through, i get a second line of questioning, "all fine carry on sir", next we get to a set of baggage checks, now in the uk after you get you bag your free to go, but in oz thats when you get a complete baggage search, great, so another line of questioning all your stuff is taken out of your bags, all medicines and liquids checked, all clothes thrown around. What they think i managed to put in my bag while it was in the hold of the plane, who knows? Finally after the sucession of 'nazi' checks we get allowed into Australia. And i thought this country was laid back?!?
The Australian side of customs was actually more stringent and abusive to ones self than the Singapore side and in Singapore you get the death penalty for drug trafficking!!
Firstly we head out of Singapore to the airport via the underground, we reach the airport and me and green get our bags checked in, meanwhile there appears to be something wrong with rastricks passport, we are both chekced in fine but the airport people begin to call other staff over and we start to get nervous. The passport is being checked over again and again. We begin to try and work out what we are going to do if rastrick cant fly, where we will meet etc, rastrick thinks he's going to be detained for sending fake rolex's back home, which warrants a $5000 fine.
I was planning to give him my map of Singapore and say cheeryo, we'll see you in Oz sometime, then they finally tell us the problem, special fried rice had paid and ordered his oz visa on one passport and then decided he needed a new passport also meaning he has a new passport number!
All worrying over he had to pay again ot get a visa there and then before the flight.
Thats the end of his troubles, on passing through security checks, the stupid lady doesnt think i look like my passport photo which is true, i had the photo done when i was about 16. So green and joe begin laughing and so do i. She continues to ask me my own name in a very questioning manner and i can barely hear her, so i look more confused and sketchy, she asks me to take my hat off, but i now have the longest hair ive ever had and still look nohting like i did back then, i asked her what she would like me to do to look more like myself, but all she could come up with was to have a shave. I had also just finished reading Mr Nice, so had terrbile thoughts of being detained and frisked by customs, very dodgy, luckily id already sent any thai and malaysian things that are not really allowed to be brought through customs. Finally she waved me through!
This was not the end of it. We ahd a hour stopover in Darwin, we get off the plain and im the only one to get a random frisk search by a large beer bellied aussie, in the meantime when we go to get back on the plane, special has lost his boarding card, but they let him straight on anyway, what was the point of the boarding card, i dont know?
Finally we arrive in Cairns to be greeted very nicely by the customs people, first line of questioning, all th usual stuff, show your passport walk through, i get a second line of questioning, "all fine carry on sir", next we get to a set of baggage checks, now in the uk after you get you bag your free to go, but in oz thats when you get a complete baggage search, great, so another line of questioning all your stuff is taken out of your bags, all medicines and liquids checked, all clothes thrown around. What they think i managed to put in my bag while it was in the hold of the plane, who knows? Finally after the sucession of 'nazi' checks we get allowed into Australia. And i thought this country was laid back?!?
The Australian side of customs was actually more stringent and abusive to ones self than the Singapore side and in Singapore you get the death penalty for drug trafficking!!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Singapore
Singapore is a lovely city, clean, metropolitan and with plenty of things to do, the downside is its freakin expensive, and the have a fine for just about everything but there are no police to enforce them, very strange.
The first day we did a walking tour of the city taking in all the tourist things like statues and buildings. There are loads of cool skyscrapers, mostly banks. We saw Mr Raffles himself, the founder of Singapore and also the spiky topped opera house. The evening was interesting we started out with a $50 all you can eat Indian with beer included. We managed to make it to four courses of indian food, prob the best ive ever tasted. We then watched the highlights of the Man U Vs. Roma game on the riverfront.
We then proceeded to a kareoke bar again, for some pool and top draw singing from us and a load of Singaporeans. I think we got through - 3 doors down-kryptonite, linkin park-In the End, the dirty dancing tune-Ive had the time of my life, A meatloaf song i think, Robbie Williams-Betterman and im sure some others I cant remember, I think we could have gone all night. The next stop was a bar to watch the Liverpool game but by this time i'd was toast and retired at bout 330 in the morn, Rastrick and Green returned at 7am after having played winner stays on pool for 2 hrs and not losing once to the locals (Green that is).
The next day we went to Sentosa island at around 4 in the avo after Green finally arose. We went to a Dolphin show, which was pretty cool, seeing a dolphin jump and 10ft out of the water. Next was Underwater World on the travellator to view crazy fish and the highlight was prob the sharks swimming over your head as you travel along in a glass tube. Finally we sceptically went to a kiddies laser show and act which turned out ok, with huge jets of water and flame explosions and fireworks at the end of a singing dancing stage show.
The evening was rounded of at Raffles hotels Long bar for a legendary Singapore Sling, which is just a fancy cocktail and i mean fancy, at 8 pounds a go we werent tempted with more than one, although they are pretty tasty.
Our 3rd day involved heading to a waterpark in the morning and riding the waves in the Tsunami pool, a bit distastefully named! Also a ride called the Samsung Slide-up was interesting as you launched of the water slide in a float you basically shot up the other side and then back down, basically like a half pipe death slide on water!
In the evening we went to the night safari, where you get toured around on a tram, looking at nocturnal animals and the like, the best part was prob walking through a large bat cage with the bats and then actually spotting one, and realising they are about 2ft tall and have a wingspan of around a metre and a half, at least thats what it looked like.
Our final day me and Green watched Sunshine at the cinema while Joe went off on his tod to a desterted island, the results were confirmed, there was nothing there!
The first day we did a walking tour of the city taking in all the tourist things like statues and buildings. There are loads of cool skyscrapers, mostly banks. We saw Mr Raffles himself, the founder of Singapore and also the spiky topped opera house. The evening was interesting we started out with a $50 all you can eat Indian with beer included. We managed to make it to four courses of indian food, prob the best ive ever tasted. We then watched the highlights of the Man U Vs. Roma game on the riverfront.
We then proceeded to a kareoke bar again, for some pool and top draw singing from us and a load of Singaporeans. I think we got through - 3 doors down-kryptonite, linkin park-In the End, the dirty dancing tune-Ive had the time of my life, A meatloaf song i think, Robbie Williams-Betterman and im sure some others I cant remember, I think we could have gone all night. The next stop was a bar to watch the Liverpool game but by this time i'd was toast and retired at bout 330 in the morn, Rastrick and Green returned at 7am after having played winner stays on pool for 2 hrs and not losing once to the locals (Green that is).
The next day we went to Sentosa island at around 4 in the avo after Green finally arose. We went to a Dolphin show, which was pretty cool, seeing a dolphin jump and 10ft out of the water. Next was Underwater World on the travellator to view crazy fish and the highlight was prob the sharks swimming over your head as you travel along in a glass tube. Finally we sceptically went to a kiddies laser show and act which turned out ok, with huge jets of water and flame explosions and fireworks at the end of a singing dancing stage show.
The evening was rounded of at Raffles hotels Long bar for a legendary Singapore Sling, which is just a fancy cocktail and i mean fancy, at 8 pounds a go we werent tempted with more than one, although they are pretty tasty.
Our 3rd day involved heading to a waterpark in the morning and riding the waves in the Tsunami pool, a bit distastefully named! Also a ride called the Samsung Slide-up was interesting as you launched of the water slide in a float you basically shot up the other side and then back down, basically like a half pipe death slide on water!
In the evening we went to the night safari, where you get toured around on a tram, looking at nocturnal animals and the like, the best part was prob walking through a large bat cage with the bats and then actually spotting one, and realising they are about 2ft tall and have a wingspan of around a metre and a half, at least thats what it looked like.
Our final day me and Green watched Sunshine at the cinema while Joe went off on his tod to a desterted island, the results were confirmed, there was nothing there!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Kuala Lumpur
After taking the night train from nearby Penang we arrived ni KL at about 830 and by 1030 we dropped off our bags and were headed to the Malaysian Grand Prix, we didnt even know it was on till we arrived. Bundled into a taxi we shot off, arrived at the track an hour and half later and tried to get some tickets. We got peasant prices tickets with the rest of the Indians and Malaysians for 50 rinngit, which is about 10 quid. Bargian compared to Silverstone. We posed with a spark plug girl and then headed to our hill to watch the race.
I was not expecting to enjoy it but tehe adrenaline surge when the start went, bearing in mind we couldnt even see it was incredible, that lasted about two laps and then be just sat down to watch the rest, gets a bit boring after the first few laps. The sun was extremely hot and i can safely say that it was the hottest i have ever been, every item of clothing dripping with sweat. There was even a riot to buy water as the stalls ran out for ages.
In the evenign we joined countless F1 fans in the bars around town. We drank at an irish bar while watching some of the cricket, painfully paying about 3 pound 50 for a pint. KL is very expensive compared to everywhere else we have been considering we have just come from Thailand paying 90p per pint! We met some Sheffield ladies and then proceeded to a club with some crazy Malays dancing like they were on speed to some funky techno style music.
The next day we went to a place called the Batu Caves a real tourist trap considering we took a bus for about an hour to see what was actually just one big opening in the rock just full of hindu temples and shrines and over touristed but still really shabby looking. Then onto the KL tower to view the city, great views and shots of the Petronas twin towers. Finally we headed to a bar near the Petronas towers to take advantage of the photo oportunities when it gets dark. Although trying to get the whole towers in is painfully difficult, i think ive got a good shot of it tho. Finally we headed to the chinese market where Joe and Rob bought high quality fake watches, firstly for 150 rinngit then im sure Joe got stiffed as the same watch was 60 rinngit at a stall further down. I just bought some knock off Billabong T-shirts as some of mine are bit on the manky side now.
Our last day in KL is spent visiting the shops below the Petronas towers and then heading up onto the skybride, where the bridge scene and most of the film Entrapment was staged.
I was not expecting to enjoy it but tehe adrenaline surge when the start went, bearing in mind we couldnt even see it was incredible, that lasted about two laps and then be just sat down to watch the rest, gets a bit boring after the first few laps. The sun was extremely hot and i can safely say that it was the hottest i have ever been, every item of clothing dripping with sweat. There was even a riot to buy water as the stalls ran out for ages.
In the evenign we joined countless F1 fans in the bars around town. We drank at an irish bar while watching some of the cricket, painfully paying about 3 pound 50 for a pint. KL is very expensive compared to everywhere else we have been considering we have just come from Thailand paying 90p per pint! We met some Sheffield ladies and then proceeded to a club with some crazy Malays dancing like they were on speed to some funky techno style music.
The next day we went to a place called the Batu Caves a real tourist trap considering we took a bus for about an hour to see what was actually just one big opening in the rock just full of hindu temples and shrines and over touristed but still really shabby looking. Then onto the KL tower to view the city, great views and shots of the Petronas twin towers. Finally we headed to a bar near the Petronas towers to take advantage of the photo oportunities when it gets dark. Although trying to get the whole towers in is painfully difficult, i think ive got a good shot of it tho. Finally we headed to the chinese market where Joe and Rob bought high quality fake watches, firstly for 150 rinngit then im sure Joe got stiffed as the same watch was 60 rinngit at a stall further down. I just bought some knock off Billabong T-shirts as some of mine are bit on the manky side now.
Our last day in KL is spent visiting the shops below the Petronas towers and then heading up onto the skybride, where the bridge scene and most of the film Entrapment was staged.
Penang
From Langkawi we took another boat to the island of Penang, as old brithish colony.
First day we checked out the old fort called fort Cornwallis, which is a rebuilt english post. But has actually never been in a battle. Then headed to the shopping mall to try and find more cheap deals.
The evening was spent chatting to a german guy called Sasha who used to live in London and was now going to join us to visit Penang hill the next day.
After finally making it to the cable car at the bottom of Penang hill we took the 30min ride to the top. On arriving we were greeted by a man with a python, he was very persuasive in getting you to pose with it, he was very fond of said snake, kissing and cuddling it. It did not look dangerous so, we oblidged and posed with (affectionatly named Steve the Burmese Python) the snake. It was bloody heavy and quite coarse, and a little sketchy when it turns to look at you and then tightens a little around your arm, but no harm came.
First day we checked out the old fort called fort Cornwallis, which is a rebuilt english post. But has actually never been in a battle. Then headed to the shopping mall to try and find more cheap deals.
The evening was spent chatting to a german guy called Sasha who used to live in London and was now going to join us to visit Penang hill the next day.
After finally making it to the cable car at the bottom of Penang hill we took the 30min ride to the top. On arriving we were greeted by a man with a python, he was very persuasive in getting you to pose with it, he was very fond of said snake, kissing and cuddling it. It did not look dangerous so, we oblidged and posed with (affectionatly named Steve the Burmese Python) the snake. It was bloody heavy and quite coarse, and a little sketchy when it turns to look at you and then tightens a little around your arm, but no harm came.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Langkawi
We took a bus from Lanta to Trang, then a bus from Trang to Satun, a taxi from Satun to the pier and finally a boat to Langkawi!
We were now in Malaysia, first day we hired jet skiis and cruised around the ocean at breakneck speeds trying to dislodge oursleves to no avail. Then we mainly chilled on the beach until evening.
That evening we hit a place called big joe's run by a very large boltonian, and to say the least he's mental. He was informing us of how he had to leave the uk due to customs and police trouble and that he owned some large clubs in bolton, he was also very proud of his distate for manchunians, and we were with a ginger one, what could be worse! However he paraded us with free shots and then got us all singing on the kareoke, - Green = My Way, Rastrick = stairway to heaven, me = hotel california. Then a few further shouting renditions from joe and green. After signing some bricks in joes establishment and saying cheer'eo to litte big joe, his child who only played video games while we were there, we went to reggae house, to listen to a live reggae band and dance the night away. After being accosted by some crazy old dutch woman, and dragged onto the dance floor, me and green decided to retire a litte worse for wear, and feeling abused. Joe returned at around 6 in the morning, a little unknown of his whererabouts and how he got back... ladyboy!?!
The next day we hit the mangrove swamps for a guided tour. We checked out a fish farm, crocodile cave (no crocs), bat cave, (lots of bats), and finally saw sea eagles and monitor lizards, all while we were very hungover! The bat cave does not have a toilet!
We were now in Malaysia, first day we hired jet skiis and cruised around the ocean at breakneck speeds trying to dislodge oursleves to no avail. Then we mainly chilled on the beach until evening.
That evening we hit a place called big joe's run by a very large boltonian, and to say the least he's mental. He was informing us of how he had to leave the uk due to customs and police trouble and that he owned some large clubs in bolton, he was also very proud of his distate for manchunians, and we were with a ginger one, what could be worse! However he paraded us with free shots and then got us all singing on the kareoke, - Green = My Way, Rastrick = stairway to heaven, me = hotel california. Then a few further shouting renditions from joe and green. After signing some bricks in joes establishment and saying cheer'eo to litte big joe, his child who only played video games while we were there, we went to reggae house, to listen to a live reggae band and dance the night away. After being accosted by some crazy old dutch woman, and dragged onto the dance floor, me and green decided to retire a litte worse for wear, and feeling abused. Joe returned at around 6 in the morning, a little unknown of his whererabouts and how he got back... ladyboy!?!
The next day we hit the mangrove swamps for a guided tour. We checked out a fish farm, crocodile cave (no crocs), bat cave, (lots of bats), and finally saw sea eagles and monitor lizards, all while we were very hungover! The bat cave does not have a toilet!
Ko Lanta
Right its catchup time, we were on Ko Lanta about 5 days ago now but lets see what i remember.
Took the boat from Phi PHi in the morn. Arrived and were immediatley whisked off to sunny's guesthouse. I had a room to myself this time or so i thought, while rastrick and green shared.
We hired out some motorbikes and went exploring on the island. Continueing straight down the isalnd we stopped at numourous beaches and coves. As we neared the end of the island we ran out of pavement and hit the dirt road, sceptically we continued on. The first large dirt hill appeared and we were riding old manual bikes, which were notoriously hard to change gear. Green was first and only made itr up about half way i was someway behind and floored it only to get up a bit further while frantically trying to change back to first. Joseph sailed past while uncontrollably wheelying all the way up. After we learned to navigate every hill in first we continued on. This time we hit a proper dirt hill, ie. with dirt about 2 ft deep, we all again got stuck in the dirt while an old lady cruised past on the other side of the road, in about 1 inch of dirt. At this point i decided to hit the throttle full speed to get out of the mud but only anded up wedged head on into the side of the road in a ditch of dirt and dust about 5ft deep, to say my white t-shirt was ruined was an understatement. We escaped our dirt confines and made it towards the end of the island and stopped and a nice beach, however it the n decided to start to monsoon and we turned and ran before the dirt turned to mush and it would have been even trickier to return an the way back my t-shirt turned into more of a brown wet clingy mess. But i was still trying to look good in my fake aviators and flame bandana!! - miserably failing!
The evening was spent watching football however just before the second agme the whole island had a powercut and we had to get updates from a guys mobile phone - robert was not happy. (man u v blackburn)
On the return to our rooms i found i had been joined by a family of cockroaches and quite big ones, i began a personal vendetta against everyone, my flip flops have become lethal killers a total of six notches between them, im very proud. In the morning one dead cockroach had been massacred by ants and there was not much left of him, all the animals over here are viscious!
Took the boat from Phi PHi in the morn. Arrived and were immediatley whisked off to sunny's guesthouse. I had a room to myself this time or so i thought, while rastrick and green shared.
We hired out some motorbikes and went exploring on the island. Continueing straight down the isalnd we stopped at numourous beaches and coves. As we neared the end of the island we ran out of pavement and hit the dirt road, sceptically we continued on. The first large dirt hill appeared and we were riding old manual bikes, which were notoriously hard to change gear. Green was first and only made itr up about half way i was someway behind and floored it only to get up a bit further while frantically trying to change back to first. Joseph sailed past while uncontrollably wheelying all the way up. After we learned to navigate every hill in first we continued on. This time we hit a proper dirt hill, ie. with dirt about 2 ft deep, we all again got stuck in the dirt while an old lady cruised past on the other side of the road, in about 1 inch of dirt. At this point i decided to hit the throttle full speed to get out of the mud but only anded up wedged head on into the side of the road in a ditch of dirt and dust about 5ft deep, to say my white t-shirt was ruined was an understatement. We escaped our dirt confines and made it towards the end of the island and stopped and a nice beach, however it the n decided to start to monsoon and we turned and ran before the dirt turned to mush and it would have been even trickier to return an the way back my t-shirt turned into more of a brown wet clingy mess. But i was still trying to look good in my fake aviators and flame bandana!! - miserably failing!
The evening was spent watching football however just before the second agme the whole island had a powercut and we had to get updates from a guys mobile phone - robert was not happy. (man u v blackburn)
On the return to our rooms i found i had been joined by a family of cockroaches and quite big ones, i began a personal vendetta against everyone, my flip flops have become lethal killers a total of six notches between them, im very proud. In the morning one dead cockroach had been massacred by ants and there was not much left of him, all the animals over here are viscious!
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Phi Phi
We experienced the strangest journey to phi phi, via the sleeper boat from ko tao, to picture it just remember your history lessons and the sketchy drawings of the slave trade boats. 3 people to a double mattress with mattresses lined up both sides of the boat. A little odd to say the least.
We arrived in Phi Phi and stayed at a good place with a pool. Phi Phi is pretty much the idyllic island paradise, white sandy beaches and warm clear waters. Our first evening was spent at the sports bar trying to catch up on some sport.
The next day we headed to Maya Bay to see 'The Beach', which is suprisingly very nice even tho heavily touristed. The evening was spent on a boat out to see watching the sun set as we ate dinner. Then we headed to a few bars and tried to find the bar where they have a muay thai ring to see drunk people fight each other but no one fancied that night. I feel that a boxing ring is exactly what the lion is missing. Spice up those dreary fri nights and let all chavs get a kicking.
The following day we trekked up to the viewpoint overlooking the whole island, almost died trying to get there from heat exhaustion but was well worth it. We decided to take a very off piste route back through jungle, getting very paranoid about spiders and the like, we did manage to avoid the snake going up the tree right next to us, luckily we spotted it. The beach we reached at the end was deserted except for a resturant and a place to catch a longtail back to civilisation.
We arrived in Phi Phi and stayed at a good place with a pool. Phi Phi is pretty much the idyllic island paradise, white sandy beaches and warm clear waters. Our first evening was spent at the sports bar trying to catch up on some sport.
The next day we headed to Maya Bay to see 'The Beach', which is suprisingly very nice even tho heavily touristed. The evening was spent on a boat out to see watching the sun set as we ate dinner. Then we headed to a few bars and tried to find the bar where they have a muay thai ring to see drunk people fight each other but no one fancied that night. I feel that a boxing ring is exactly what the lion is missing. Spice up those dreary fri nights and let all chavs get a kicking.
The following day we trekked up to the viewpoint overlooking the whole island, almost died trying to get there from heat exhaustion but was well worth it. We decided to take a very off piste route back through jungle, getting very paranoid about spiders and the like, we did manage to avoid the snake going up the tree right next to us, luckily we spotted it. The beach we reached at the end was deserted except for a resturant and a place to catch a longtail back to civilisation.
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