13/05/02 - 21/05/02 Ko Phangan - Sinagpore
Some traveling was done i can tell ye... try and stay awake reading this it
may be good... i certainly had a good week.
13/05/02.. Phangan(Thailand) to Penang ( malaysia)
The route planned is by boat from Phangan to Surat Thani, train to Hat Yai,
change train for Penang. Sounds simple but even the best laid plans...
Up at 5:30 to make it on time for the ferry, very smooth crossing once
sailing once again. It all started to go pear shaped though once we has
docked and picked up our bus to transfer us near a train station.
THere was a pushy little conductor on the bus trying to make us by tickets
to Malaysia. He claimed the ttrain only leaves at night time and our only
option was by bus. His voice can on be described as sounding like that of a
fly hanging around your ear. If i had a paper he would have been swatted,
Instead i was armed only with a mini disk which gives the power of instant
deafness...but not even the deaf are safe from this fuc**r. Turning his
attention to Jade and Mark, Myself and Kelly both discussed the best way to
kill him.
A quick reference to the bible pointed out that he was not lying about the
train, but i didn't really want to buy a ticket from this freak. THe only
plus points were that this bus would bring us all the way to where we wanted
to go so we wouldn't have to get off and go to another bus etc... plus he
promised that he was getting off. The latter was true, but within 10 mins we
were parked and had to get off the nice big air con bus and wait for
another. In the mean time we were brought into and office two by two and had
our passports checked, told we needed to have 330 euro eqiv in malaysian
dollars to cross the border. How nice of them to offer a currency exchange
!!
Smelled the scam and told them we had money falling out of our ears and
hopped on our small mini bus where knee rubbing off the next person was
unavoidable...for the next 13 hrs.
The french bloke who was rubbing off my right knee was done by the scam.
Kelly and myself were like two kids at mass trying not to laugh when the
frog laster fell asleep and started druling on himself. Then his head
started to role around with every bump. He must have smacked his head off
the window 10 times and still didn;t wake up.
Half way through the journey we changed buses again and said goodbye to
diggers and Jade...we'll really miss the laugh with them. Finally arrived in
Penang after midnight and booked into a nice cheap hotel.
14/05/02
Woke up to a beautiful view out of the 7th floor window overlooking the
Island of Penang. It's a huge cove outlined by Skyscrapers, and very much
likle the pictures i've seen of Rio de Janero.
Went to visit a temple in Penang hill which is the biggest temple in
Malaysia, and took 20 years to complete... Im not surprised. For a start the
hill was a mountain and i'd say 15 of the 20 years were spent laying the
steps up to it. But what a temple !! complete with hundreds of turtles
inside and built into the 'hill'.
Found a shopping mall and another, Kelly was in her element... me too !!(
star wars premier is on tomorrow night!!) Went for walk through the town
that night but turned around after suspected rats p*ss hit my foot. At first
glance i swear i thought it was a large cat...Huge !!!!
Had to wash it off...
15/05/02
Went to visit the botanical gardens today.... which was nice !!
Monkeys roam freely around and so too do the fully grown Lizzards (iguana's
or monitors!!) compared to the Lizzards back in Samui these boys were
massive. I tried to get a few snaps of a 5ft iguana but he ran off in the
other direction ...kelly went the other way. Honestly i could start to take
this running away business personal!! The monkeys were a lot more helpful
though. Once again a waterfall was out of action.
Saw stars wars at midnight...what a film. I think it was the best one ever
made, maybe it's b'cos im away and not listening to the critics ?????
On the walk home my sidekick Kelly the creature spotter ( she's great for
that) pointed out loads of rats either side of us, but before i could get
the camera out i heard the sound of size 4's legging it the other way. The
rats held their ground though. as even the cars were going the other way(
honestly!!) it made sense to do the same.But not matter what street we tried
it was the same...flanked!!
Caught a rickshaw home and got one snap of a rather large rat who sat up and
said cheese.
Absolute winner of a night as the champions league final was just starting
when i got to the hotel room...result!!!
Made a mental note not to try and bargan the rickshaw drivers down as they
are so old and nice and we end up wanting to get out and let them sit in the
car while i drive us home... really nice men...but they all seem to be
monkeys!!
16/05/02 Phangan to Perhintian Islands..
As the bust doesn't leage till 9pm and checkout of the bargan hotel was at
12 it meant hanging around for most of the day... at the mall. I really
liked Penang in spite of the rats. It's such a nice place and well worth the
visit. But there's more to see...such as the Perhintian Islands which are
located at the north east of Malaysia. Total oposite side of where we are
now.
17/05/02 Perhintian Islands
Although the bus journey was fine i just didn't manage to sleep at all. we
had to get off at 5:30 am and wait for local bus at 7. THe wait again for a
speed boat at 8:30. so after 11 hrs of travel we were here. By far the most
picturesk sights we've seen...beautiful. the colour of the water, the remote
beaches, the jungle behind them...lovely. Couldn't get a picture though as i
was too busy using my hands to try and keep inside the speed boat.
The main problem with this place is that the locals kno0w they can over
charge for everything so they do. We paid the same for our hotel in Penang
as here.... but no mini bar ...wouldn't even call it a mini hut.
Got some much needed washing done and ended up falling asleep at 6:30pm and
didn't wake up till the next day. Plus we had already decided we were
leaving on the 18th. So in other words we did nothing here. Pretty long
journey to make just to do some washing... ahh sure there's great drying in
that sun... Plenty more beautiful places to see for less.
18/05/02 Penang - Melaka- Kuala Lumpur
Clothes were still wet...they dry better in the sun, not the shade!! Another
a*s smacking speed boat trip ahead and long haul to K.L. Every bus to K.L.
was full and we were getting pestered by the locals to take their offer up.
Could only imagine what type of bus they would throw us on. So we choose to
go to Melaka, which is about 150k south of K.l. Then catch another bus after
that. It added another 4hrs on to the journey but us hardened (a*s)
travelers can take it.
( i have to keep using the * because some people cant receive bold words in
their jobs...toss*rs)
Managed to sleep the whole way this time.
19/05/02 Kuala Lumpur
Found a very nice hotel in KL and dropped the bags (ehen) off and headed out
to see the sights. we had been traveling with a south African couple and
arranged to meet up with them later for dinner. I haven't met anyone from
S.A. that i didn't like yet, they nyst be the nicest people on the
planet..well apart from winnie and the rest of course... These people are
just so nice.
First impression of KL ...wow!! ( Sven if you thought this place is smelly
wait till you hit Bangkok... they'd bottle your sh*te there and sell it as
an air freshner up there).
WE got to see most of KL in one day, the twin towers ( which are the tallest
building in the world), Medaka (freedom) square ( from the brits in 1956),
the markets, the night sky lit up by what is known as the city of lights
(...so is Tallaght!!) below and of course some shopping malls. Had dinner in
a south african restaurant.
No comparisson to Bang-mickey...this place wins hands down. Would definately
have stayed here longer but there is a flight to catch on the 22nd so onward
we go. (try and check out the Petronas towers in KL on the web ...they're
something else!!)
20/05/02 KL - Singapore
Thought about home...whats the atmosphere like there now coming up to the
world cup?, thought of how Mick McCarthy should be elevated to legendary
status as the only man to Captain and Manage Ireland in the World cup !!,
when big brother starting ? Whats going on in general ??
Realised i have sent postcards from Malaysia...doh !! get you all on the way
back. Finished about a boy on the train... Arrived in Singapore and checked
into a nice hotel. tomorrow We will check out the town and the next day its
off to Oz to take in the world cup.... COME ON IRELAND !!
may be good... i certainly had a good week.
13/05/02.. Phangan(Thailand) to Penang ( malaysia)
The route planned is by boat from Phangan to Surat Thani, train to Hat Yai,
change train for Penang. Sounds simple but even the best laid plans...
Up at 5:30 to make it on time for the ferry, very smooth crossing once
sailing once again. It all started to go pear shaped though once we has
docked and picked up our bus to transfer us near a train station.
THere was a pushy little conductor on the bus trying to make us by tickets
to Malaysia. He claimed the ttrain only leaves at night time and our only
option was by bus. His voice can on be described as sounding like that of a
fly hanging around your ear. If i had a paper he would have been swatted,
Instead i was armed only with a mini disk which gives the power of instant
deafness...but not even the deaf are safe from this fuc**r. Turning his
attention to Jade and Mark, Myself and Kelly both discussed the best way to
kill him.
A quick reference to the bible pointed out that he was not lying about the
train, but i didn't really want to buy a ticket from this freak. THe only
plus points were that this bus would bring us all the way to where we wanted
to go so we wouldn't have to get off and go to another bus etc... plus he
promised that he was getting off. The latter was true, but within 10 mins we
were parked and had to get off the nice big air con bus and wait for
another. In the mean time we were brought into and office two by two and had
our passports checked, told we needed to have 330 euro eqiv in malaysian
dollars to cross the border. How nice of them to offer a currency exchange
!!
Smelled the scam and told them we had money falling out of our ears and
hopped on our small mini bus where knee rubbing off the next person was
unavoidable...for the next 13 hrs.
The french bloke who was rubbing off my right knee was done by the scam.
Kelly and myself were like two kids at mass trying not to laugh when the
frog laster fell asleep and started druling on himself. Then his head
started to role around with every bump. He must have smacked his head off
the window 10 times and still didn;t wake up.
Half way through the journey we changed buses again and said goodbye to
diggers and Jade...we'll really miss the laugh with them. Finally arrived in
Penang after midnight and booked into a nice cheap hotel.
14/05/02
Woke up to a beautiful view out of the 7th floor window overlooking the
Island of Penang. It's a huge cove outlined by Skyscrapers, and very much
likle the pictures i've seen of Rio de Janero.
Went to visit a temple in Penang hill which is the biggest temple in
Malaysia, and took 20 years to complete... Im not surprised. For a start the
hill was a mountain and i'd say 15 of the 20 years were spent laying the
steps up to it. But what a temple !! complete with hundreds of turtles
inside and built into the 'hill'.
Found a shopping mall and another, Kelly was in her element... me too !!(
star wars premier is on tomorrow night!!) Went for walk through the town
that night but turned around after suspected rats p*ss hit my foot. At first
glance i swear i thought it was a large cat...Huge !!!!
Had to wash it off...
15/05/02
Went to visit the botanical gardens today.... which was nice !!
Monkeys roam freely around and so too do the fully grown Lizzards (iguana's
or monitors!!) compared to the Lizzards back in Samui these boys were
massive. I tried to get a few snaps of a 5ft iguana but he ran off in the
other direction ...kelly went the other way. Honestly i could start to take
this running away business personal!! The monkeys were a lot more helpful
though. Once again a waterfall was out of action.
Saw stars wars at midnight...what a film. I think it was the best one ever
made, maybe it's b'cos im away and not listening to the critics ?????
On the walk home my sidekick Kelly the creature spotter ( she's great for
that) pointed out loads of rats either side of us, but before i could get
the camera out i heard the sound of size 4's legging it the other way. The
rats held their ground though. as even the cars were going the other way(
honestly!!) it made sense to do the same.But not matter what street we tried
it was the same...flanked!!
Caught a rickshaw home and got one snap of a rather large rat who sat up and
said cheese.
Absolute winner of a night as the champions league final was just starting
when i got to the hotel room...result!!!
Made a mental note not to try and bargan the rickshaw drivers down as they
are so old and nice and we end up wanting to get out and let them sit in the
car while i drive us home... really nice men...but they all seem to be
monkeys!!
16/05/02 Phangan to Perhintian Islands..
As the bust doesn't leage till 9pm and checkout of the bargan hotel was at
12 it meant hanging around for most of the day... at the mall. I really
liked Penang in spite of the rats. It's such a nice place and well worth the
visit. But there's more to see...such as the Perhintian Islands which are
located at the north east of Malaysia. Total oposite side of where we are
now.
17/05/02 Perhintian Islands
Although the bus journey was fine i just didn't manage to sleep at all. we
had to get off at 5:30 am and wait for local bus at 7. THe wait again for a
speed boat at 8:30. so after 11 hrs of travel we were here. By far the most
picturesk sights we've seen...beautiful. the colour of the water, the remote
beaches, the jungle behind them...lovely. Couldn't get a picture though as i
was too busy using my hands to try and keep inside the speed boat.
The main problem with this place is that the locals kno0w they can over
charge for everything so they do. We paid the same for our hotel in Penang
as here.... but no mini bar ...wouldn't even call it a mini hut.
Got some much needed washing done and ended up falling asleep at 6:30pm and
didn't wake up till the next day. Plus we had already decided we were
leaving on the 18th. So in other words we did nothing here. Pretty long
journey to make just to do some washing... ahh sure there's great drying in
that sun... Plenty more beautiful places to see for less.
18/05/02 Penang - Melaka- Kuala Lumpur
Clothes were still wet...they dry better in the sun, not the shade!! Another
a*s smacking speed boat trip ahead and long haul to K.L. Every bus to K.L.
was full and we were getting pestered by the locals to take their offer up.
Could only imagine what type of bus they would throw us on. So we choose to
go to Melaka, which is about 150k south of K.l. Then catch another bus after
that. It added another 4hrs on to the journey but us hardened (a*s)
travelers can take it.
( i have to keep using the * because some people cant receive bold words in
their jobs...toss*rs)
Managed to sleep the whole way this time.
19/05/02 Kuala Lumpur
Found a very nice hotel in KL and dropped the bags (ehen) off and headed out
to see the sights. we had been traveling with a south African couple and
arranged to meet up with them later for dinner. I haven't met anyone from
S.A. that i didn't like yet, they nyst be the nicest people on the
planet..well apart from winnie and the rest of course... These people are
just so nice.
First impression of KL ...wow!! ( Sven if you thought this place is smelly
wait till you hit Bangkok... they'd bottle your sh*te there and sell it as
an air freshner up there).
WE got to see most of KL in one day, the twin towers ( which are the tallest
building in the world), Medaka (freedom) square ( from the brits in 1956),
the markets, the night sky lit up by what is known as the city of lights
(...so is Tallaght!!) below and of course some shopping malls. Had dinner in
a south african restaurant.
No comparisson to Bang-mickey...this place wins hands down. Would definately
have stayed here longer but there is a flight to catch on the 22nd so onward
we go. (try and check out the Petronas towers in KL on the web ...they're
something else!!)
20/05/02 KL - Singapore
Thought about home...whats the atmosphere like there now coming up to the
world cup?, thought of how Mick McCarthy should be elevated to legendary
status as the only man to Captain and Manage Ireland in the World cup !!,
when big brother starting ? Whats going on in general ??
Realised i have sent postcards from Malaysia...doh !! get you all on the way
back. Finished about a boy on the train... Arrived in Singapore and checked
into a nice hotel. tomorrow We will check out the town and the next day its
off to Oz to take in the world cup.... COME ON IRELAND !!
posted by Gavin Harmon @ 6:02 AM
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