Right here goes, this is going to take ages!
Last time i updated this i was in Nha Trang, soooooo much has happened since then so this will probably be a long read for anyone that actually reads this!
I was awoken at 8am in Nha Trang by our lovely hostel recpetionist Thom, 'Mr Nick Mr Nick your bus here!' Clearly Dj'ing the night before got out of hand and i hadn't set an alarm. After 5 mins throwing things into my bag i stumbled onto the bus that was clearly pretty annoyed at me for holding them up. Anyway at least i slept pretty much all the 12 hour trip to Saigon to meet Mother. She'd booked a 5* hotel for the night which i was seriously looking forward to. I got a few funny looks as i walked into the lobby, probably because i was cooler than any of the folk in there or maybe beacause they had designer luggage and i rocked up with my back pack? Mother arrived about half an hour after me, to a tearful reunion...sure. The hotel was amazing, i ate steak, i drunk beer on the rooftop bar, i stole all the soap from the room, i slept in a bed with 2 pillows! Cheers Lisa, needed that!
Next day we went for a bit of a walk round Saigon but had also booked a bus back up to Mui Ne that afternoon. We didn't really see anything that exciting but it was at least useful to give Mother a crash course in crossing Vietnamese roads. We arrived at Mui Ne that evening.
Mui Ne is ok, i'd say. Very quiet when we were there, not a great deal going on at night. LOADS of Russians. LOADS of kite surfing, which is hard and expensive. It was perfect for what we wanted which was a few days on a pretty nice beach or by a pool. Mother got rid of her jet lag and slept a lot, i continued working on my tan and ploughing through my book whilst picking up a bit of Russian on the way. We stayed here for 4 nights, then headed back to Saigon, again!
We were staying in the backpacker area of Saigon but in a pretty nice hotel, which was super-duper cheap with well friendly staff which i would recommend to anyone (Duoc Voang). We found some street drinking bars again, similar to Hanoi, plastic stools/ tables and V cheap beer! I met up with the group i'd been travelling down Vietnam with and we had few pretty mental nights out. On the tourist front we went to the indoor market which i thought was pretty cool, Mother was scared there would be snakes at every turn, there wasn't. The war museum was well worth a visit, parts of it were pretty horrific but the whole story was told really well. Finally the Cu Chi Tunnels were also an eye-opener, there's a few you can get in, i struggled in most of them and i'm small. I also fired an M-60 here which was sooooo cool, so loud and powerful got a massive rush from it. A word of advice to you all, don't ever ask a Vietnamese tour guide that likes opera and doesn't like football, if he likes football. I made that very mistake, the result being a full length opera rendition of Celine Dion's, my heart will go on, none of the bus knew where to look, did not see that one coming.
Next we were off to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Due to Mother suddenly developing an aversion to the bus, we flew, i wasn't complaining. She also developed a need for luxury, so we stayed in a seriously baller hotel here. Food was awesome and i even had a glass of Red which had been a long time coming. Tried to go out for a Guiness on Paddy's day but somehow managed to stumble into what looked like an Irish bar but turned out to be what i'm pretty sure was a make shift brothel, needless to say we got out of there quick.
As a treat to Mum on Mother's day i decided to take her to shoot some guns, then to the Killing Fields, then to S-21 prison. I'm nice like that. In all seriousness it was a good, if not slightly haunting day. The killing fields are basically as they sound. A field where people were murdered while Pol Pot's, Khmer Rouge movement were in charge. It basically invloves a walking tour with a headset, there's loads of mass graves and stories behind them.You can still see bones fragments coming out of the ground along with the odd tooth, pretty gruesome but a 'must do' i would say. I'm glad i went and fired an AK-47 before going here as i don't think i'd have fancied playing with guns after i'd seen this. By the time i'd got to S-21 i think i'd seen enough, it was equally as gruesome as the killing fields, but again, think it's important we went.
On the move again, the next day to Sihanoukville for some more pool and beach time. We checked into one of my choices of hotel which had a pretty nice pool and spent the next day chilling here. The night before i met up with pretty much everyone i'd met since i had been away from about 3 different groups. For one reason or another we'd all ended up in the same place at the same time which was cool! I re-united with my divorced Vang Vieng wife Tayla and we decided we should go to Bamboo island in the next couple of days. Mother wasn't feeling too good around this time and decided it was time for more luxury so she checked into another 5* on another beach which i went to see her at, it was pretty special, and cheap for what it was i'm told! She was happy to go on her own as she wasn't too up for staying on an island in a hut with no toilet and no electricity for most of the day, so me and Tayls went together to Bamboo.
Bamboo island is beautiful! There's only one place to stay on the island which has a about 20 huts down an amazing beach, with turquoise water. The huts are basic to say the least and only have electricity between 18:00 - midnight, literally a bed with a mosquito net. You don't care though. There's a big common area where you can get food/ drink with loads of comfy cushions where everyone hangs around. It didn't get too rowdy but i was definitely NOT sober either night i was here. Skinny dipping happened in a big way here as there's glowing plankton at night which is soooooo cool to see, didn't want to get out of the water because i was totally mesmerised by it. The days were filled with exploring the island and playing shuttlecock with Jakey, Mac & Scott. Me and Jake brought it home for the English. Beatiful couple of nights here, loved it!
Next, i had to go and meet Mother in Siem Reap where she'd flown to the previous day due to her new found fear of buses. To be fair i can see where it may have come from, my trip from Sianoukville to Siem Reap wasn't ideal by any means. Won't go into it but it took about 5 hours longer than it said it would due to numerous stop offs to pick up all sorts of different things, then a cheeky 3 hour wait for a transfer to another bus in Phnom Penh. This seems to be the Cambodian way on the bus front.
Siem Reap was all about the temples of Angkor Wat. We were here 2 days and Mother had been there a day before so had sussed out a bit of a route. Whilst i would love to say it was one of the best experiences of my life, i'm afraid i can't, it wasn't. The temples themselves are amazing and i can't believe that they managed to make them. BUT, there was just too many people there to fully enjoy it. You're constantly dodging peoples photos and tripping over people. I'm glad i've seen it but my advice to anyone going would be to go as early as possible to miss the crowds! Oh and get a tuk-tuk to take you around.
By now it was time for Mother to return to the Motherland. I really enjoyed my 2 weeks with her and am glad that she got to see some stuff that i'm pretty sure she wouldn't have done otherwise. Hoping she enjoyed it too! Bye Lisa!
I had one more night of luxury in the 5* hotel then it was time to start the over complicated but cheaper trip to the Thai islands which started with a flight to Kuala Lumpur to stay for one night. KL was a massive shock, it was the most modern/ developed place i'd been to in a while, riding their version of the underground was wierd, but at the same time quite nice to have some sort of organised transport system, as well as proper roads. Didn't really do too much my one night here as had to be up the next day for a flight back to Thailand, Koh Samui.
My plan was to get the boat straight off Koh Samui to Koh Tao to meet up with Tayla and Ali, however when i arrived, i found out the last boat had gone 10 mins before i arrived so i had a bit of an unexpected night there. It turned out alright, i met a group of friendly Germans from the bungalows i stayed at and ended up going out with them, still managed to get up for the ferry to Koh Tao at 8 the next morning.
I immediately bumped into Ali and Tayla when i arrived in Koh Tao, which was pretty lucky. Managed to find a cheap room as well. The island itself is pretty tiny but seems to have the right mix of being pretty chilled and you can go out if you want. The snorkelling is amazing and it has some beautiful beaches. We had a quad bike for most of our time there which was loads of fun as well, a lot of the roads there are proper bumpy dirt tracks which i wouldn't fancy on a moped, plus they were usually up or down steep hills, heaps of fun though on a quad bike. I loved Koh Tao, it was one of my faves, but by i think it was 2nd April, we left to get to Koh Phangnan for full moon!
We hadn't booked anything in advance and kept on getting told we needed to. Liam had sent me some pretty detailed instructions on how to find a cheap bungalow when you get there, so we gambled and it paid off! We ended up in perfectly ok bunbglaow for 4 quid a night, nothing fancy, but clean enough and close enough to all the action. Everyone else was paying like 15 quid for a dorm so we were pretty happy with that. Not a lot happened apart from partying in Koh Phangan, which i sort of regret as the rest of the isalnd is supposed to be beautiful but we did no exploring! We were there 4 nights before full moon and each night gets busier and busier in the build up, i remember we went to a pool party, a waterfall party and a jungle party in the build up. All of which means not much activity in the day apart from laying on the beach. I managed to meet up with Phillips and Hairy, two old friends from school. Was wicked to see them, we had a right laugh catching up and playing many many games of Mexicano! Full Moon itself was awesome! Everoyne wears fluorescent clothes, me being me decided not to and just let Tayla do a massive full moon graffiti piece on my back which looked SIIIIIIIIICK! I then did a makeshift David Bowie lightening bolt on my face. I drunk a fair few buckets, fell through a stage, danced a lot and ended getting in at about 9am the next morning. Saw the beautiful sunrise with a few people i'd been travelling with for a while which was a nice way to end. Koh Phangan nearly tipped me over the edge, similar to Vang Vieng, i was ready to leave here. Was good while it lasted though!
Next stop was Krabi town, we were only supposed to stay one night but Tayla had to do a Visa run to Malaysia the next day. We didn't figure this out till late the night before she had to go so i had to make a quick decision on how to keep myself entertained the next day. I went on 'The James Bond Tour' which involved visiting the island where they filmed 'The Man with the Golden Gun'. I was really looking forward to this, me being a HUUUUUGE James Bond geek. Unfortunately it didn't really live up to expectations, the island was overun with sooooo many tourists, too many to even take decent photos. It ruined it a bit for me. The floating village we visited was cool, then we went to some naff temple and waterfall, we spent most of the time on the boat or bus but i guess it kept me busy for the day.
Next day we went to Railey bay, which is on the mainland but you can only get to it by boat. We didn't have anywhere to stay but managed to find a really cool, cheap bungalow resort up in the hills in the middle of the jungle which turned out to be a godsend the next day as we had a Tsunami warning! I had gone to get drinks down the beach, when i got back i noticed a lot of people running away from me to get inland. Now i had been lying in the sun all day but i definitely didn't smell that bad. Then i saw Tayla waving at me telling me to hurry up. Why i didn't think something was up at this point i don't know, i continued casually stroll along the beach. When i finally got to Tayla she'd packed all my stuff up into to my bag and told me that there was a Tsunami coming. I still didn't seem too worried and kept saying it'd be fine. As we were walking off the beach it finally hit home when what i can only imagine what an air raid siren sounds like went off. This shit me up a bit and i knew it was for real now. We were told to get to highy ground, luckily we were right next to one of the climbs to a viewpoint really high up, so we headed up there. We spent the next 6 hours there, there was a huge storm, the sea had gone right out, it looked like the world was going to end and we had the perfect view. Thankfully it never came, but it was a nervous few hours. After dark we lit a fire and waited until we were told it was safe to come down. The next challenge was getting down in the dark, when i say dark i mean pitch black down a 400 odd metre climb. Luckily there were a few guides from the island there who had torches and i had my iPod, still pretty tough going though, took about an hour to get down. We asked at the bottom where we should go if there's another warning only to be told that where we were staying was the safest place on the island and that's where everyone would be heading if anything hit! HA sometimes going cheap pays off, we slept well that night.
The next day we decided to climb back up what we had come down the previous night, then down to a lagoon inside the mountain. I'm not sure how we managed to get down in one piece the night before! The climb the other side was challenging to say the least, it was actually a climb with ropes and all, not scramble, pretty dangerous. I'm not sure how they're allowed to let people down there, sure they get plenty of injuries, good fun though, even managed it in bare feet because we're hard!
The rest of the day was spent exploring the last few beaches on the island and then watching the sunset with a few beers/ cocktails. That's the beauty of this place, you can walk everywhere and there's more than enough to keep you occupied for a few days. Railey is cool!
Reluctantly, we left the next morning to go to Phi Phi, which i was really looking forward to especially as we were arriving on the first day of Songkram (3 days of celebrations for Thai new year). The first day is a giant water fight, which we arrived right in the middle of. We were soaked from head to toe with all our bags by the time we got to a hostel, it was quite a long walk though so being soaked with cold water every now and then was actually quite nice! We headed out straight away to get some revenge on people, armed to the teeth with the best super soaker 200bht could buy we water fought the rest of the day and went partying on the beach at night. Thai new year rocks! However i'm pretty sure it was the cause of a giant abscess on my back, what was a spot that got squeezed by Tayla turned into about a 4 inch wide volcano on my back. It was MINGING! In the end i had to get some antibiotics as it was pretty painful, squeezing it was pretty gruesome and left me with a huge hole in my back, Iodine must've taken a fair bit more money this week as i used loads! Only now has it just about healed.
Phi Phi was far more party orientated than i had expected, so we went out quite a lot to the many many beach parties, there was a really cool place called Reggae bar, don't let the name fool you. It basically has a full size Muay Thai ring in the middle and anyone can challenge anyone to a fight, they provide you with the full gear and a ref and you get a free bucket. I would've loved to get up there and show off my impressive skills, but as you all know i have a precious face, so had to stay out, lucky for everyone that wanted to fight me i would've totally battered all of them, obviously. Tayla on the other hand fancied a go at some butch girl that looked to be trained in martial arts, she gave a good pre-fight show waving to the crowd and bowing down in the corner, mimicking a prayer just like a pro. Then the bell went and something changed, we found out that Tayla can not fight but is quite good at running round a ring away from punches, apart from a couple to the nose which swelled up the next day, good effort though Tayls!
Obviously we did a boat tour of the surrounding islands and went to see 'the beach' which was absolutely beautiful, but again a place with too many people! We managed to survive another near death experience on the trip back, the boat broke down and was drifting pretty quickly towards some rocks. Luckily we got picked up by a bigger one just before we hit and a storm was in full swing. Oh, and another Tsunami warning, but we were pro's at these by now.
We decided that next up we'd go to Koh Lipe. I fancied crossing the border to Malysia by boat, Koh Lipe seemed to be the only place you could do this from, plus i'd been told it was beautiful. I wasn't wrong! We arrived towards the end of the season but the weather was pretty good the whole time we were there bar a couple of short sharp storms. Similar to Railey, this is a tiny place and you can walk the whole island in a few hours. There's 3 main beaches, all of which beautiful in their own way. We spent most of our 4 days here on the beach topping up tans and watching sunsets, we finally got an amazing one on our last night, fully red! We managed to find a really cool bar on the beach called Mia Luna, which was decked out like some kind of Voodoo camp with black lights and freaky skulls, cool though. We went there a couple of nights, it wasn't that busy but still heaps of fun. No Tsunami's here, i loved Koh Lipe, sad to leave.
Our next adventure was a speedboat to Langkawi, which is in Malaysia. Easily the coolest/ easiest border crossing ever! It takes about an hour, all you have to do is give someone your passport before you get on, they go off get it stamped for you. Then you do the same at the other end, ace!
Langkawi is a world away from any of the Thai islands in terms of how developed it is, not nearly as beautiful though. We had some more beach time here, found a pretty cool bar called Babylon to spend the nights and our hostel was like cat village, we adopted one and named her Milky, she would pretty much either live in our room or wait on our doorstep till we got back. We had a day out riding the island on mopeds which was cool apart from losing a couple of hours to a tropical storm. Saw an amazing waterfall and visited a deserted beach, the sun was POWERFUL here though so we had to be pretty careful how long we stayed out.
After 3 days in Langkawi it was time to get back to the big bad city. Our taxi left at 06:30am we managed to put our phones on silent so didn't hear alarms! For some reason i woke up at 06:25 and luckily looked at my watch, cue 5 mins mad dash to get ready. Luckily we made our ferry and got to KL early that evening.
KL was cool, beer was expensive. We shopped a lot, walked a lot and saw a few sites. Time seemed to go pretty fast here and before we knew it, it was time for Tayla to go home! Sad times. I left the same evening as her on the night bus to Singapore.
What a great place to finish off my time in SE Asia! I love it here. It's clean, modern, vibrant, the people are friendly, the food is amazing, everything just works! I've spent the last 3 days just wandering around and taking it all in. I've walked everywhere bar a few underground trips and feel like i've properly fallen in love with the place. Could definitely see myself back here. Only problem is, the beer is mega expensive, but the place almost makes up for that.
It's now just a few hours before my flight to Aus, which i'm really looking forward now. Sure it's going to be totally different and a hell of a lot more expensive but it's definitely time for somewhere new! I've met loads of cool people, seen some crazy things, been to loads of beautiful and not so beautiful places, SE Asia has been a mad three and half months that i will never forget!
Bye for now! Nicholas X
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