Island Life: Krabi region, Lanta, Langkawi

Starting in Ao Nang beach, Krabi, I began ten-days of beach and island time. In Ao Nang I stayed in Glur hostel which was a 25 min walk to the beach. The hostel beds were raised on separate platforms with your own wardrobe and curtain. This was a nice chill out hostel for me, one evening there was torrential rain so I stayed in, watching Aladdin in the common area!

Krabi, although not an island but a starting point for visiting the islands, is quite touristy but a day trip to Railay Beach was just what was needed. Apparently Railay is normally quite crowded but it was relatively quiet when I was there. The water is clear and blue (if the sky is blue) and the sand is soft. The limestone cliffs and islands as a backdrop are quite impressive. You can also climb up one of them to reach a viewpoint of the bay and climb farther, a perilous journey or so it sounds, to reach a lagoon. You have to climb down a vertical cliff to get to the lagoon and then of course climb back up.

I was quite disappointed with myself but also with the weather. It had been raining the two days prior to my visit, meaning that the climbing (scrambling really) route was very wet and slippery. There was a sign of course saying not to attempt it in these conditions. Nevertheless others were going up in flip flops and slipping a bit. I was wearing my hiking boots so I gave it a go. Unfortunately a combination of them being too wide to fit in any footholds and it being very slippery and my fear of not being able to get back down, despite there being a rope which was also slippery, caused me to give up after about 5 metres. I'm sure that had I been with friends such as my hiking guide, Ieuan, I might have managed it and seen the amazing view like the one an Argentinian man showed me on his iPhone after coming down.

Next stop was a ferry to Koh Lanta. Lanta is a very chilled out, relaxing island with not too many bars or high rises, or a McDonald's. A lot of the locals still live where they always have lived and sell whiskey bottles of 'gasoline' outside their houses for 40baht. Sitting with a mai tai and a pad thai and enjoying the sunset in one of the beach huts became an almost daily tradition. Even if it is alone, the peace and time to think was a treat. I was surprised to see so many other solo people lying on the beach and leaving your bag while you swim seems to be safe. I often stayed on the beach or on the beach bar until sunset. The best sunsets I've ever seen, and I couldn't believe how well they came out in the photos.

Another common thing to do in Lanta is a 4 islands boat tour. You head out on a traditional style long tail boat and stop off at Koh Ma and Koh Cheuk for snorkelling. A lot of people don't find the snorkelling that great, however I've never really done it before so even though I couldn't use the breathing tube and decided just to hold my breath, I found it really interesting. There were nemo fish, ones with stripes like zebras, bigger shiny blue ones and little timid silvery ones and sea urchins. No idea what their real names are. After that we went to Koh Mook to swim through the 80m long dark cave to reach a not so secluded lagoon with many other tourists. We then reached Koh Ngai or Koh Hai for lunch. Never before had I seen such clear blue water and white sand. It really did seem like a paradise, although there are only a few places to stay and not that many places to eat, which for me would prevent it from being paradise!

Koh Ngai

Koh Ngai - our longtail boat

Koh Mook - swimming through the 80m long cave to get to the lagoon

Another great thing to do in Thailand is a cooking class. In fact I met people who did a cooking class in every asian country they visited. I did mine at Time for Lime in Koh Lanta. This is a well known restaurant and cooking class on the island. The lady who runs it also runs the cat and dog rescue centre. The cooking class was so much fun. The teacher, Mia, was a jovial, joker who poured out her enthusiasm as we ground spices and chopped with giant knives, and sqaushed or 'kill it' as she would shout. We also got to decorate our creation and present them in coconut bowls and with banana leaves. This class was very vegan friendly with fish sauce kept separate and tofu used instead of chicken. I can't wait to get home with my Time for Lime apron and recipes!

After that I spent just over 3 days in Langkawi, a northern Malaysian island. This island is very different to the Thai islands. For a start, most of the food is Indian or Malay and some Chinese. They are also a lot less pushy than the Thais or the Vietnamese. The people are predominantly Muslim. You can often hear the calls to prayer coming out of speakers on the streets and there is no local beer; mainly just carlsberg.

Langkawi has one of the oldest subtropical rainforests in South East Asia and this area has been recognised by UNESCO. There are three rainforests. The one I visited is named the Kilim Geoforest. I went on a mangrove river boat tour. The mangrove trees are fascinating with their roots growing above land.  We saw monkeys and some people were feeding them bread so that they would swim towards the boat, not great for protecting the natural ecosystem. We also saw eagles, a giant lizard and a lot of bats hanging in a cave.

Kilim Geoforest Park, full of mangrove trees, rivers and wildlife

In my last evening I went on a rainforest evening trek. The trekking was quite easy. The guide Jerome of Dev's Adventure Tours was very enthusiastic, informative and made it very interesting. We saw flying lemurs which only awake in the night, giant red squirrels, and termite mounds (both active and inactive). The active mound had a snake hole not far from it and Jerome told us that the termites and the snake have a symbiotic relationship. He also showed us the snake bite scar he got from a venomous snake! The inactive mound had become so because the queen died. The worker termites apparently seal up any holes in the mound and leave, in respect for their queen and it becomes a sort of shrine to her. The trees had termite tunnels and lines going quite far up. We learnt a lot about the flora of the forest as well.

If you want to spend extr money in Langkawi you can do the sky cab and skybridge where you see the forest canopy and views of the island. Aside from nature, the shopping is duty free, and the beach and beach bars with bamboo mats, candles and shisha are fun. It's not really an island for partying. I met some great people there.

I then moved on by ferry towards the Malaysian mainland but only made it so far as Georgetown on the island of Penang, which has a short bridge or ferry to the mainland.


Georgetown is like another world. Quiet at night, but busy during the day, with tourists taking photos of street art and old colonial buildings.Some areas are very run down. There is a large china town as well as a large 'india town'. I really did feel I was in india there. The Malay people speak Malay but for the most part they speak their own dialect of chinese or indian and tend to stick within their respective community. It felt very strange to be in a place with two distinct races and nationalities living so close. However this gives rise to the streetfood and diversity of the food in Georgetown, which is renowned. I had some really good curry platters and tofu dishes and also found some vegetarian cafes.

Some of the street art

I briefly popped into Fort Cornwallis, the fort built in the late 1700s by Captain Francis Light, the English founder of the city, during the rise of the British Empire. 

Fort Cornwallis, the fort built by Captain Francis Light, the English founder of Georgtown

Some of the old colonial buildings. Some parts of town were very run down.

My particular favourite cafe was the Sushi Kitchen on Gat Lebuh Acheh. This place is a quiet oasis near a busy main street, where tourists pile onto the Clan Jetties. They keep the door closed to maintain the atmosphere, so you just need to push it open. I had a delicious tofu noodle stirfry for lunch, and came back for sushi for dinner! Both were absolutely delicious. The owner Milk, who is also vegan, was so kind and took me to a nearby hawker stall which served a lychee dessert.

Vegan Sushi

Vegan lychee dessert at a hawker stand

The clan jetties occupy a section of the Georgetown port. They are a form of shantytown build by the chinese over the last century. They are still occupied today by various families. There are different names: Tan Jetty, Chew Jetty etc. They also now have electricity and running water though I did see some outdoor toilets, where it was just a hole opening out to the rocks and sea below! They live tax free as they don't live on the land.

One day I took the bus out to the Kek Lok Si temple. Someone called it a sort of disney land for buddhists. I could agree. The colours were vibrant, and almost tacky, with shops selling incense, buddhas, sandals, bags. There was also a vegetarian cafe within the complex. I climbed the steps up to the top of the white temple, pictured below. It was a cloudy, misty day and there was a great view of part of the city, beneath the mist.

Culture of a different kind

It's been a while since I posted, mainly due to laziness and being bogged down (literally) by what I presume was food poisoning. The symptoms began on night one of the two day slow boat journey from Luang Prabang, Laos to Chiang Kong, Thailand. The idea is that you spend 8 hours each day on the slow boat with recycled car seats and one night in a small village half way. I ended up there for two nights and visiting the medecins sans frontiers clinic to check I wasn't dying. Fortunately the check up and medications were free, though I did make a donation. The village is very remote and apparently the hospital there is of very poor quality.

Dosed up on anti-everything medication, I was able to continue the journey to Thailand and spent a couple of days each in Chiang Kong and Chiang Mai...doing not very much at all.

A week into the sickness, when I gave into getting antibiotics, a very kind missionary family from my hometown church took me in for a few days in Chiang Mai to recover. Chiang Mai is a beautiful city, with the old town being walled and surrounded by a moat. There is also a lovely mountain called Doi Suthep where the Royal Family has their summer palace and wonderful views of the national park can be seen.

If you're wondering what caused the food poisoning aside from my own stupidity, well, that would be the cold vegetarian buffet at the night market which had probably been prepared about 4 hours prior. Interestingly there was a perfectly good cafe beside which served a vegan burger but I opted for culture...and ended with cultures of quite a different kind!

Recovered, I headed to Bangkok on a comfortable overnight bus and spent 2 days there. Bangkok is an interesting city, some call the old town the Venice of the East. The river boats which act like buses were very handy to reach the old temples (called Wats) and famous roads. The BTS and MRT 'skytrain' system is a great and cheap way to get around the newer parts, much like the London Underground...but above ground.

And now for some rest and relaxation on a Thai island and a Malaysian island.

Laos: Vientiane & Vang Vieng

Temples, beer lao, sunset over the Mekong river, aerobics class with the locals on the riverfront, all you can eat vegan buffet for £2, night markets, blue lagoon and ...Vang Vieng tubing!

Tubing. I had read so many bad things about people dying and whatnot that I was a bit scared but decided to go along with some people I'd met. I was the only one around wearing a lifejacket.

Apparently between '99 and 2012 there were on average 20 deaths, mostly drownings, drug related accidents and people hitting rocks when jumping in/swinging etc on makeshift ziplines. However since 2012 the police stepped in and cleaned it all up.

The number of bars you pitch up at (by a man throwing you a bottle on a rope, which you are supposed to catch and be pulled in) has been reduced to 4 or so. Of course I miss the rope and end up having to walk from the next bar along to find the crowd again.

Floating down the river in a big rubber ring was very relaxing and the views of the vegetation covered limestone mountains were very beautiful.

I was wondering how people die doing this until the last stretch of river from the last bar which seems never ending and it gradually got darker and darker. A group of English people held onto my tube and we found the finishing point together or one of them. There was a man with a flashlight. Then there was a bit of a walk back in the dark over slippery pebbles.

All topped off with a baguette and relief when all members of the group reunite!

Unfortunately due to the nature of tubing I have no photos.

Day 1 in Laos

'Same same but different' - a favourite saying in SE Asia ... And some interesting meal descriptions on menus...

Same; still Asia, but different to Vietnam. Today in Vientiane was very quiet, slow paced, no more beeping of horns. But tonight the city came alive. I went to a terrace bar to have Beer Lao and watch the sunset over the Mekong river. Suddenly after the sunset a group of locals starting dancing and doing aerobics on the riverfront. Apparently it's 3000kip to join in (about 25p). Unfortunately the beer had taken effect by now but tomorrow I'll be there in my leggings! I spent the rest of the evening at the night market singing in my head, 'I think I better leave right now'...before I buy anything else.

Hoi An, Hanoi, anagrams and surrounding sights

The last 12 days or so have been jam packed. There has been an overnight bus ...

 ... champa temple ruins called My Son (more photos), a historic Chinese/French/Japanese style village, bicycle tour of handicraft village (Hoi An Free Tours), Vietnamese ice coffee, watching a Vietnamese music & dance performance. It has been wonderful to spend some of this time with two Canadians and an English girl.

The My Son ruins were fascinating because they are so ancient and so many traditions and spiritual beliefs are represented. The detail still left on these stones was amazing. Each symbol has a meaning and there are different sections built during different eras. During the 'American War' as they called it, in the 1960-70s, Vietnamese people would hide here. There were giant bomb craters and bullet marks in the walls. Sadly a lot of the pillars and buildings were bombed and left in ruins. Our guide's father was hiding here during the 60s but thankfully survived.

Hoi An was absolutely beautiful with the lanterns at night by the river, the Japanese bridge lit up, and the beautiful old colonial buildings. Unfortunately it seemed to be rainy season and a rain poncho was definitely required!

Hoi An is so beautiful at night. The sights and smells are wonderful. Something I love about Vietnam is that there is incense everywhere. Wedged into the pavement cracks, in cafés, in hostels, on car bumpers, even in trees!

I spent one morning on the Hoi An Free Tour. It was an amazing experience led by our enthusiastic guides Vy and Cuc. It is run by Uni students who want to show tourists around and also improve their own English. They took us to a near by island and we visited communities who were producing straw mats at home, wooden boats, and rice noodles among others. We gave a small donation to each. It was amazing to see how the locals live and work. 

After a short flight to Hanoi, I treated myself to a private room in a hotel  for £10 and enjoyed a bath and free toiletries! Hanoi is a crazy busy city, especially when coming from Hoi An.  Some sights from the roads there:

Entire families on one motorbike, the kids without helmet

Backseat motorbike passenger sitting on wooden chair...or passenger holding boxed TV

Motorbike driver groping female passenger

Women with every inch of their body covered, complete with mouth/nose mask or surgical style mask.

A short retreat was required. Took a visit to Ha Long bay with the two lovely Canadians, with 'Ha Long Party Cruise'. Maybe not so much of a retreat but great fun and much better than being stuck on a junkboat after dark (5pm) with Middle Aged couples or honeymooners! Some new card games & drinking games were learnt but most importantly some beautiful sights were seen and snapped. The food was pretty good too! We stayed the first night on the boat and the second on a private island with hammocks, kayaks and karaoke! Met some more lovely people on the boat from many nationalities.

In Hanoi, we also visited the Ho Chi Minh museum, passed by his mausoleum thought unfortunately it was closed for annual 2 month maintenance. I'm not sure if it is maintenance of him or of the building!

Nearby we went to the Maison Cetrale prison which he french set up to detain 'political prisoners'. Captured US fighter pilots were also kept here. I was surprised at the good conditions in which the US prisoners were kept here; also the forgivingness of the Vietnamese towards the Americans.

Lastly I took a trip to Mai Chau for 2 nights. Initially I had wanted I go to Sapa to trek and see the tiered rice paddies however when I realised the rice was harvested in September and it could be dry foggy   and wet, I decided on another hilltribe village called Mai Chau which lower and further south.

Mai Chau was interesting, beautiful also and very green. I enjoyed the 3 hour walk/hike (there were some hills) through the villages and also the cycle on very old bicycles with no gears. Thankfully that route had less hills.

Unfortunately the guide wasn't very good and had to keep asking locals for directions! Somebody's bike got a flat tyre too. The evening was a highlight - when we watched a performance of traditional music and dance. At the end we all joined in! The dance with the hopping between moving bamboo sticks was particularly hard!

The end of Mai Chau was my lowest time so far. I left the trip a day early as the guide just put a downer on everything and it appeared I would be doing day 3 (a motorbike ride to nature reserve) alone with just the guide. Apparently this was a privilege but I didn't feel comfortable with it.

Unfortunately my iPhone fell through the gaping and flimsy bamboo floor of the upstairs bedroom and smashed onto the concrete below. Thankfully all that was required was a 30 minute / £35 repair at a shop in Hanoi.

The bungalow where my phone smashed through the floor onto the concrete below

Next - onto Vientiane, Laos

Russians, redness and ... triangles

Day 5 .. I think. I'm going to lose track soon.

The past two days I've spent on the beach in Nha Trang. The hostel is really nice, the ladies who run it always remember your name. The included breakfast on the rooftop is also great!

I've become rather red from lying on the beach even though I stayed under a sun umbrella. The water is lovely and a bit wavy with views across to the Vinpearl water park and amusements park. £15 seems just too expensive in my new economy while a beach bed is just over £1. A long cable car connects to the island of Vinpearl.

I would say Vinpearl would be mainly populated by Russians as most of this town is. They have charter flights from Moscow and a lot of Russians own hotels and restaurants here. Shop signs are often written in Vietnamese,English and Russian.  Of course because we're white they keep trying to speak to us in Russian and invite us into their restaurants. They also love to pose on the beach for photos!

One day was a little overcast so we went to the nearby Thap Ba mudbaths. I'm not sure if they truly have any health properties but it was fun and refreshing. After the mudbath you get into a mineral water pool and then shower off. You can then swim in either the hot or cold pool and go in the jacuzzi!

Triangles...hmm...

"What's your feeling on triangles?", an English guy at the hostel asked me as I filled up my water bottle.

I told him I preferred circles as there is only one type of circle. But he replied, "Ahh, but how do you know a circle is really a circle? How can you trust a circle?".

I'm sure he wasn't on drugs as he and some others were about to motorbike 3 hours to Da Lat on very windy roads!

Tomorrow I'll get the overnight bus with two Canadians girls I met last night.

Nha Trang beach 

Massage (blind) and markets

Today in Ho Chi Minh was good. I went for a 'blind massage' in the morning with some people from the hostel.

Blind?

I wondered the same.

The ladies who do the massage are blind. I don't know if it might be as a result of Agent Orange in the generation before. Quite possibly.

See: Agent Orange

I've never had a proper massage before but it was good, I think I was relieved they were blind when they say you only wear your knickers! 

I had actually brought a note in Vietnamese from the girl at the hostel reception asking them not to go too hard on my neck which I realised was futile when I got there! (See picture)

My neck seems to be ok.

The staff were so sweet and smiley and it was only £2 for one hour!

Later we went to the market and then had some street food. This is delightfully cheap - about 45p for mine and you sit on wee plastic stools like the type you get in wysebyse or wilkos! Fortunately one of the guys with us was vegetarian and did a good job communicating what we wanted. We ended up with a nice udon noodle soup with beansprouts, lemongrass and possibly sweet basil...and hopefully no fish sauce/shrimp paste.

But for now, 11pm sleep as I am up at 6am for a bus to the beach town of Nha Trang.

Ho Chi Minh City

Departure 23rd 12noon Belfast, 6 hours in Gatwick, 7 hour flight to Dubai and 7 hour flight to Ho Chi Minh - arrival 1930 on 24th Oct.

Pictured below is the view from my dorm room and surprisingly even though my dorm mates went out last night I actually slept quite well! No jet lag so far. I didn't get my phone out anywhere else - due to reports of theft from most I've spoken to! I used the trusty money belt my mum gave me, to wear under my top.

Although, speaking about theft I did see a tourist carrying a DSLR with massive lens. I hope she manages to keep it. What apparently happens is that one of the many motorbikers fly by and whisk whatever they can see.

I'm staying in tonight - the main reason being that I'm waiting to see if my backpack arrives from the airport! Apparently it got left in Dubai. Just as well I brought 'travel clothes wash leaves' and toiletries in my hand baggage!

This afternoon I walked to the War Remnants Museum - guided by a German girl called Jana who also leant me her Birkenstocks as it was too hot for my hiking boots which is all I have right now.

Whilst in the War Remnants Museum torrential rain and a thunderstorm began. A bit surreal maybe being surrounded by old guns and rocket launchers when hearing the loudest thunder bangs I've ever heard! Some very sad, but moreso very shocking stories and photos in the museum. The effects of the US Agent Orange are still causing birth defects abd disabilities. Have to admit I don't fully understand how the war started and it didnt seem to explain - or really does any one know why a war starts?

I have begun to master the art of crossing the road - apparently you just have to walk and they'll swerve and beep. On the way back I decided to find my way back through a small park. There were kids chatting in the shelters. I didn't think how the rain may create little rivers instead of paths. I ended up walking along the curbstones leaping, which seemed to become a maze surrounded by water!

Lastly I had a tasty meal at a wee cafe where I got steamed rice and tofu for about £1.17 (pictured)! A very touristy street, lots of ladies with conical (and comical) hats, fruit on two baskets on a long stick over her shoulder and people wafting menus in your face (view out of the cafe pictured last - I took my camera out of hiking sock  briefly!) They had tofu and aubergines too - I may return tomorrow!

Leaving Liverpool

Well, I've arrived back in Belfast for my penultimate visit before leaving for World travel. I've brought my car and most of my possessions home for safekeeping.

The 8 hour ferry was good practice for long lonesome journeys to come, though in new places; which will hopefully make those long journeys more interesting.

Liverpool (Wirral) welcomed me in 2009 with chatty cleaners and patients' visitors in the hospital lifts, a gradual discovery of vegetarian cafes, art galleries, theatres, second hand shops, as well as outdoor gems; Thor's Rock, Red Rocks, Fort Perch Rock, Marine Lakes, beaches, forests, Mother Redcaps, as well as surrogate mothers and a church family.

The Liverpool skyline, which I could see from one of my 5 bedrooms (over 5 years of different homes), could be a symbol of the unity and closeness of the Liverpool community standing side by side, perhaps waiting to welcome those arriving.

Operation Backpack Fitness

Decided I need to step up my fitness in preparation for lugging a backpack around my wee back, and hiking up mountains such as:

             and 

Perhaps after the year, I might have developed back and shoulder muscles I never knew I had. So, this morning, seeing as it was too windy and stormy to go for a run (my friend Ieuan is a fairweather runner!), I decided to spend 30 minutes this morning doing lunges, squats, weights and other painful exercises.

The regime, which I plan to continue, went something like this:

• 2 minutes marching to raise heart rate and blood flow
• 3 minutes lunges
• 4 x 15 second squats
• 5 minutes weights
• 10 backwards pressups (is that a thing? I used the window sill)
• 10 normal pressups (NOT the girlie ones)
• 25 second plank
• 50 sit ups
• 5 minutes weights
• 4 x 15 second squats

with some breaks in between to breathe!

As I write this at 9:30pm, the wind and rain are battering my windows, so a repeat of today might be on the cards....