G'day...Deb here (obviously)! Well, we have not managed to do anything stupid since Ben's last entry, so another conventional blog entry..
Since the last entry, we've moved to Koh Pha Ngang, an island about an hour's ferry ride from Koh Samui. The first 4 nights we stayed at another LP recommendation 'Cookies Bungalows' (chosen based on my friends car number plates!) and it turned out to be pretty awesome...our little bungalow was literally a few metres from the beach with a porch and a hammock. The morning routine involved waking up to the sound of the waves lapping on the shore and going straight in for a swim. Not a bad way to start the day and we found this also helped make the cold shower easier to take. My only 'small' reservation with the place was the fact that the roof didn't meet the walls - obviously for ventilation but on the first night we had a visitor in the form of a rather large lizard - aside from the monitor lizards swimming in the river, it was the biggest we've seen, so I was 'a little' worried about what might come in through the roof at night as we slept, but I live to tell the tale that nothing 'ate' me..
We hired a moped for a day and took a ride up the coast to explore a bit further, all the way singing 'Born to be Miiiild'. On our travels we found a place called Haad Yao and one of the resort style places was advertising rooms that were within our backpackers budget. So after a few nights at Cookies, we've now moved on to a room with a/c, hot water....and best of all a pool where we've spent the last 2 days, today we had it completely to ourselves as the resort is not at all busy. We're feeling energetic, so tomorrow we're planing on checking out the resorts private beach! We're also planning to hire a moped and find our way to a smaller island that is connected by a sand bar where the snorkling is said to be amazing.
In a few days we're planning to head back north to Bangkok and then on to Kanchanaburi. I'll try to post some photos of the islands soon. Ciao for now.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wicked innit...
Hello once again,
At the end of the last entry we referred to Jason and speculated whether or not he was employed for the atmosphere... well we were to learn more about Jason before we left Koh Samui...
Jason does eat... in fact he is regularly forced to eat by the bungalow staff as "we've had to take him to hospital too often when he drinks but doesn't eat"
Jason's leaving gift from his last job was Rogers Profanisaurus... look it up if you don't know what it is. (Nan, you shouldn't, it's a book with rude words in it.)
Our final encounter with Jason began, as we knew it would, in the bar... Jason walked towards us with a swagger and told us he'd been shopping and did we want to see what he'd bought? Without waiting for an answer he produced and held to the back of Debbie's neck an electric pink vibrating willy.
All eyes were on this thing, it was about 4 inches long from... err... anatomically accurate base to tip... and as we all wondered what on earth he had bought this thing for (apart from tickling girlish necks)... he made me wince, and gave Freud enough material for a whole new theory as he snapped the bottom from his still vibrating purchase and, with a leery smile dipped his head, lit a cigarette, and said "wicked innit"
At the end of the last entry we referred to Jason and speculated whether or not he was employed for the atmosphere... well we were to learn more about Jason before we left Koh Samui...
Jason does eat... in fact he is regularly forced to eat by the bungalow staff as "we've had to take him to hospital too often when he drinks but doesn't eat"
Jason's leaving gift from his last job was Rogers Profanisaurus... look it up if you don't know what it is. (Nan, you shouldn't, it's a book with rude words in it.)
Our final encounter with Jason began, as we knew it would, in the bar... Jason walked towards us with a swagger and told us he'd been shopping and did we want to see what he'd bought? Without waiting for an answer he produced and held to the back of Debbie's neck an electric pink vibrating willy.
All eyes were on this thing, it was about 4 inches long from... err... anatomically accurate base to tip... and as we all wondered what on earth he had bought this thing for (apart from tickling girlish necks)... he made me wince, and gave Freud enough material for a whole new theory as he snapped the bottom from his still vibrating purchase and, with a leery smile dipped his head, lit a cigarette, and said "wicked innit"
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Feeling the pressure, and meeting some cliches.
Hello again. Debs and I have been feeling the pressure since the last entry, to be honest it's possible that we have already peaked and we have been wandering around trying to get into merry japes purely for the purpose of this blog... our wide eyed 'we're gullible please take us on an adventure' look has not been a success... what follows is therefore a more conventional travel blog entry. We will try and do something a bit stupid for the next entry.
Since our last update we went to visit the floating markets south of Bangkok, we stayed overnight in a hotel recommended by the LP which was refreshingly free from bulding regulation and 'red tape,' it was also free of other guests and light bulbs above 40 watts. We are beginning to doubt how wise we were to get the 'on a shoe string' version of a travel guide but it can't all be bungalows on beaches.
We had travelled the night before in order to be the first to arrive at the floating markets and that turned out to be worth the effort, we were up at the crack of dawn and were amongst the first on the waiting boats, we saw monitor lizards swimming across the rivers, had coconut patties, noodles and spring rolls for breakfast and had a fantastic time, we refrained from buying anything big however as we have a long time to go yet.
Back in Bangkok we had a few hours to kill before getting a bus overnight to the South of Thailand and Koh Samui and so visited Chinatown and the Thieves market... A word to the wise, if you come to Bangkok be sure to have tight security around your bootleg dvd's and err... adult entertainment goods as judging from the goods on sale the Thieves target these almost to the exclusion of everything else.
On the way to the Thieves market we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a huge long food market on both sides of a long alleyway, not marked on the map or mentioned in any guides, it was loud, crowded, and absolutely fantastic... I suspect we were complete pains to the other patrons as we wandered around mouths open and camera at the ready trying to identify what the various goods on sale were, onbe of our favourite experiences so far.
We've been in Koh Samui for a couple of nights and have already met a chap who seems to exist entirely on booze and Marlboro reds and who has been coming here for the last couple of decades... it is such a cliche we had wondered if the hotel hired him for the ambiance... he is impossible to age and we have seldom seen him away from his barstool, he has an opinion on everything and frankly we're not quite sure what to make of him...
We're staying in a little bungalow
thing about 20 metres from the 
beach, it's basic but functional, last night we ate fish grilled on a bbq right on the beach and ended up sipping drinks and listening to Bob Marley at a beach bar whilst a tropical storm gave an impressive light show on the horizon... we could get used to this.
Since our last update we went to visit the floating markets south of Bangkok, we stayed overnight in a hotel recommended by the LP which was refreshingly free from bulding regulation and 'red tape,' it was also free of other guests and light bulbs above 40 watts. We are beginning to doubt how wise we were to get the 'on a shoe string' version of a travel guide but it can't all be bungalows on beaches.We had travelled the night before in order to be the first to arrive at the floating markets and that turned out to be worth the effort, we were up at the crack of dawn and were amongst the first on the waiting boats, we saw monitor lizards swimming across the rivers, had coconut patties, noodles and spring rolls for breakfast and had a fantastic time, we refrained from buying anything big however as we have a long time to go yet.
Back in Bangkok we had a few hours to kill before getting a bus overnight to the South of Thailand and Koh Samui and so visited Chinatown and the Thieves market... A word to the wise, if you come to Bangkok be sure to have tight security around your bootleg dvd's and err... adult entertainment goods as judging from the goods on sale the Thieves target these almost to the exclusion of everything else.
On the way to the Thieves market we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a huge long food market on both sides of a long alleyway, not marked on the map or mentioned in any guides, it was loud, crowded, and absolutely fantastic... I suspect we were complete pains to the other patrons as we wandered around mouths open and camera at the ready trying to identify what the various goods on sale were, onbe of our favourite experiences so far.
We've been in Koh Samui for a couple of nights and have already met a chap who seems to exist entirely on booze and Marlboro reds and who has been coming here for the last couple of decades... it is such a cliche we had wondered if the hotel hired him for the ambiance... he is impossible to age and we have seldom seen him away from his barstool, he has an opinion on everything and frankly we're not quite sure what to make of him...We're staying in a little bungalow
thing about 20 metres from the 
beach, it's basic but functional, last night we ate fish grilled on a bbq right on the beach and ended up sipping drinks and listening to Bob Marley at a beach bar whilst a tropical storm gave an impressive light show on the horizon... we could get used to this.
Friday, October 17, 2008
What canny travellers we are!
Welcome friends, Ben here again. Well Debs and I arrived in Bangkok yesterday, the gateway to SE Asia and we bore in our sweaty clutches the travellers bible, a near mint, latest edition of the Lonely planet guide to SE Asia on a shoestring... yes we prided ourselves on being well prepared travellers who were forewarned and forewarned about the dangers and pitfalls endemic in any large city, well we had mostly survived London and so surely Bangkok should hold no fears for us!
Well not only were we well prepared my friends, we were also lucky! For not 5 minutes after leaving our guesthouse for the Khao San road, shiny faced and with a tourist map held proudly in front of us than we met a really friendly Thai chap who was able to warn us that our intended destination was not only 3k away (far further away than it seemed on our inadequate map) but that it was also closed until 2pm! How had the Lonely Planet omitted to mention this fact?! We were shocked to say the least, but our new best friend knew of some alternative attractions including the elusive 'Lucky Buddha" and as long as we bargained hard then a tuk tuk driver would take us to all of them for a mere 40 Baht! In fact we were not to accept anything more than this and we would only pay the driver at the end and so he would wait for us at each attraction! Well what a bargain! And clearly not a scam as the price quoted was twice that the Lonely Planet had warned us would be quoted by 'Dodgy' tuk tuk drivers! What luck!
We were intially sceptical that we would really get this price and probably wouldn't have taken the tour... but then our friend hailed a tuk tuk entirely at random and bargained on our behalf! I know! What a hero! We waved him off with sorrow and joy in our hearts, with people like this around our travels would be fab :)
Well the first stop "The standing Buddha" was pretty impressive and erased a few nagging doubts that had crept into our cynical London hearts and we both started to relax a bit, the second stop "The Black Buddha" was less impressive, indeed you could say it looked a little like a number of slightly shabby statues in a dingy room... but every trip has it's disappointments... and the Lucky Buddha was next and that would bring us good fortune!
The Lucky Buddha could apparently only be found through the entrance of a tailors, although our driver was unsure which one so we tried a few... sadly we couldn't find it so our driver took us to a tourist centre that spookily resembled a tour operator to see if they could help... alas they were also at a loss! After a fruitless 40 minute search around the less salubrious neighborhoods of Bangkok we were forced to admit defeat and our driver eventually agreed (after we had uttered the magic words "if you don't take us to the Khao San road now we will cry") to take us to our original destination for the agreed fee.
Well we never did find the lucky Buddha, despite a long and fruitless search through any number of commercial premises, but as I sit here in my remarkably shiny new suit (50:50 Nylon:Rayon mix, pricey but unique) and wait for our coach to the Mo'ron river (already 2 hours late but LP says we have to understand that the pace of life is different here) I can't help thinking that we did find our own 'Lucky Buddha' in the kindness of strangers, so if you meet a strange man on the street who goes out of his way to be helpfull and seems really nice. Kick him in the nuts. Hard.
Editors note - Yes, we really were that dim. We didn't spend any money, and actually the 40 minute hare around Bagkok was kind of fun and actually good value at 40B... We realised we had been a bit dim about 2 minutes into the journey and just had a bit of a giggle. When we finally located a real tourist office they had a big sign up basically saying that there was no such think as a 'Lucky Buddha' and would you all please stop being so stupid.
It was actually really usefull as it gave us cynical edge we needed for the rest of the day and meant we persevered in finding the ferry dock with all the Thai's passengers for 40B as opposed to paying 700B for a private boat. We live and learn I guess :)
Bangkok is noisy and polluted and just as we expected really, it has some beautiful temples and Buddha statues and we'll post some photos etc. in the next few days or whenever we get access to internet again.
Well not only were we well prepared my friends, we were also lucky! For not 5 minutes after leaving our guesthouse for the Khao San road, shiny faced and with a tourist map held proudly in front of us than we met a really friendly Thai chap who was able to warn us that our intended destination was not only 3k away (far further away than it seemed on our inadequate map) but that it was also closed until 2pm! How had the Lonely Planet omitted to mention this fact?! We were shocked to say the least, but our new best friend knew of some alternative attractions including the elusive 'Lucky Buddha" and as long as we bargained hard then a tuk tuk driver would take us to all of them for a mere 40 Baht! In fact we were not to accept anything more than this and we would only pay the driver at the end and so he would wait for us at each attraction! Well what a bargain! And clearly not a scam as the price quoted was twice that the Lonely Planet had warned us would be quoted by 'Dodgy' tuk tuk drivers! What luck!We were intially sceptical that we would really get this price and probably wouldn't have taken the tour... but then our friend hailed a tuk tuk entirely at random and bargained on our behalf! I know! What a hero! We waved him off with sorrow and joy in our hearts, with people like this around our travels would be fab :)
Well the first stop "The standing Buddha" was pretty impressive and erased a few nagging doubts that had crept into our cynical London hearts and we both started to relax a bit, the second stop "The Black Buddha" was less impressive, indeed you could say it looked a little like a number of slightly shabby statues in a dingy room... but every trip has it's disappointments... and the Lucky Buddha was next and that would bring us good fortune!
The Lucky Buddha could apparently only be found through the entrance of a tailors, although our driver was unsure which one so we tried a few... sadly we couldn't find it so our driver took us to a tourist centre that spookily resembled a tour operator to see if they could help... alas they were also at a loss! After a fruitless 40 minute search around the less salubrious neighborhoods of Bangkok we were forced to admit defeat and our driver eventually agreed (after we had uttered the magic words "if you don't take us to the Khao San road now we will cry") to take us to our original destination for the agreed fee.
Well we never did find the lucky Buddha, despite a long and fruitless search through any number of commercial premises, but as I sit here in my remarkably shiny new suit (50:50 Nylon:Rayon mix, pricey but unique) and wait for our coach to the Mo'ron river (already 2 hours late but LP says we have to understand that the pace of life is different here) I can't help thinking that we did find our own 'Lucky Buddha' in the kindness of strangers, so if you meet a strange man on the street who goes out of his way to be helpfull and seems really nice. Kick him in the nuts. Hard.
Editors note - Yes, we really were that dim. We didn't spend any money, and actually the 40 minute hare around Bagkok was kind of fun and actually good value at 40B... We realised we had been a bit dim about 2 minutes into the journey and just had a bit of a giggle. When we finally located a real tourist office they had a big sign up basically saying that there was no such think as a 'Lucky Buddha' and would you all please stop being so stupid.
It was actually really usefull as it gave us cynical edge we needed for the rest of the day and meant we persevered in finding the ferry dock with all the Thai's passengers for 40B as opposed to paying 700B for a private boat. We live and learn I guess :)
Bangkok is noisy and polluted and just as we expected really, it has some beautiful temples and Buddha statues and we'll post some photos etc. in the next few days or whenever we get access to internet again.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Currently lost in Melbourne Airport
Ben here. We've spent the last 4 weeks with Debbie's family and I am pleased to report that the family welcomed us in at every opportunity and we are now properly stocked up with barbequed meat and salad (I am storing mine in a spare tyre configeration) so we should survive any bouts of... err travelers indigestion.
We're just one flight away from our true destination, a whole new continent to get lost in! We were pleased to read that there have been recent riots and border disputes in Thailand as surely this means there will be many gentlemen in uniform to aks for direction when we do end up standing in the middle of a busy intersection, holding our guidebook upsidedown whilst buying fake gems and getting a tuk tuk to the drivers cousins carpet shop for an amazing bargain.. I can't wait.
All for now. Ben & Deb
We're just one flight away from our true destination, a whole new continent to get lost in! We were pleased to read that there have been recent riots and border disputes in Thailand as surely this means there will be many gentlemen in uniform to aks for direction when we do end up standing in the middle of a busy intersection, holding our guidebook upsidedown whilst buying fake gems and getting a tuk tuk to the drivers cousins carpet shop for an amazing bargain.. I can't wait.
All for now. Ben & Deb
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