If you've all being paying attention, you'll know from Katie's excellent Cameron Highlands missive that the secret location which we decided on a whim to visit was Borneo. Specifically, we flew from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, one of the two states that make up Malaysian Borneo (i.e. the part of the island that is Malaysia, rather than being Brunei or Indonesia).
Sarawak's quite interesting historically. For a hundred odd years it was its own country, ruled by the White Rajahs. The story goes that in 1841, the area was nominally under the control of the Sultan of Brunei, but that the locals were not too happy and were kicking off against this. Meanwhile, fresh out of the East India Company due to injury, and with a sizable inheritance to blow, British adventurer and trader James Brooke bought himself a warship (as you did back then) and set off to sail to the East Indies. On the way, though, he came across the struggling Sultanate, and spotted an opportunity. In return for putting down the rebellion of the locals, he was given Sarawak to rule over by the Sultan of Brunei. Personally I'm somewhat sceptical about this - he rolled into town with a military might far superior to everyone else in the area and put down the rebellion, fine, but to be just "given" Sarawak by the grateful Sultan seems dubious. But anyway, that's how the Brooke dynasty came to be in charge of this part of the world. He was succeeded by his nephew Charles Brooke, who was succeeded by Vyner Brooke, who was succeeded firstly by the Japanese (it was WW2) and then who ceded control of Sarawak to Britain (meaning Britain picked up a colony at a time it was largely shedding them). In 1963 Sarawak opted to become part of the new country of Malaysia, and that (barring some border skirmishes with Indonesia and some trouble with local guerrilla communists) largely brings you up to date. The three Brookes are known as the White Rajahs, and seem to be generally viewed kindly - they supposedly protected the rights of the local indigenous peoples, the Iban and the Dayaks particularly, while at the same time letting Chinese and Indian immigrants into the town of Kuching to trade. No doubt in reality the Brookes were vicious colonialists who kept order using opium, gunpowder, and divide and conquer tactics, but I don't know much about it.
Though this colonial history is fascinating, we weren't really in town to see this aspect of Kuching (it doesn't really play it up that much anyway - the old fort that the Rajahs built is not even open for tourists). What brought us to Borneo was the wildlife. Kuching is handily placed for day trips to various different animal hotspots, and we took in three: the Santubong river, Bako national park, and Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. I shall proceed through them in that order.
Santubong river cruises are not all that cheap - in fact they're quite pricy. What you want, therefore, before going on one, is to make sure the weather's not going to be rubbish. Asking at the local tourist information office provided us with the following conversation. Me: do you know what the weather's going to do this afternoon? Tourist information officer: It could be sunny, or rain - it's a rainforest so we get both. What he did there, you see, was confuse "weather" with "climate". Needless to say, when we were picked up in the minivan to take us to the boat it was chucking it down.
Still, you can't let weather get the better of you, and after a glum 35 minutes where we sat on the jetty with 20 other tourists waiting to hear whether the tour would go ahead or weather the storm was too dangerous to be going out on a boat in, we were given the all-clear and set off. A doom-foreshadowing German couple drove morale down yet further loudly informing every couple, family, and group of tourists individually and separately that they had been out on a boat in the rain the day before and had seen nothing. Spirits were low.
But if you're feeling gloomy, there's an obvious perfect tonic: the most phallic looking aquatic mammal you can imagine. Ladies and gents, I give you the Irrawaddy River Dolphin. Critically-endangered, these are likely not to be around much longer (at least outside of Bangladesh, where 80% of the world's population of these beasts live), so it was a real treat to see one. Plus neither Katie nor I had ever seen a wild dolphin of any species before. It's phallic appearance was sadly not too obvious as all we saw was its back popping up for air. It came up to breathe three times in the same spot, then up came its tail and down it went, before resurfacing for another repetition of this in a different spot. It was really great to see. At this time it also stopped raining, and a glorious sunset revealed itself. All was right with the world.
The next animal to be spied on our river tour was the equally-wonderful Proboscis monkey. This is brilliantly known as the "Dutch monkey" or "Dutchman" in Malay because Borneo residents said the Dutch colonists also tended to have large noses and bellies. We saw troops of these bizarre simians, which are only found in Borneo, eating leaves in trees at the shoreline of the river. Couldn't get close enough to clearly see their massive snouts, alas.
Seeing as it was now dark, we needed a torch to engage in our next animal spotting adventure: croc hunting. The guide had a high powered job which he would shine at likely places on the riverbank. A crocodile's eyes shine bright red in torchlight, like an LED. The doom-prophesying German could get in on the act here, too, amusingly strapping on his head torch and also shining away, frequently into my eyes. We saw one croc, or rather its eyes - by the time boat got close it had slithered off. Katie and I did see some telltale v-shaped ripples on another occasion, however...
The final part of our tour was when we stopped at a tree, which we flashed. By this I mean that the boat flashed its running lights on and off. This odd practice was soon rewarded by answering flashes from a load of fireflies in the tree - "it's always Christmas in Malaysia" joked our guide, making me wonder whether he knew that Ramadan is coming soon (actually is here now, as I write this, not that there's any visible difference that we've seen). Fireflies are cool, but there weren't too many of them.
So, that was the Santubong peninsula. The next day we went to the Bako national park, partially following a tip from Mr James "Trev" McClure. The park was reachable by a combination of local bus and speedboat, and afforded one many opportunities for walking. Not being big fans of walks, we chose a short, easy route that promised the best chances of seeing wildlife, and were immediately surprised by the difficult going (well, Katie was moaning about this at any rate) and lack of animals. To be fair, in the latter case it was simply because we were stuck behind a noisy larger group of aging French tourists (who put Katie somewhat to shame in their game attempts to keep going on an awkward jungle trail and thus stopped her moans to some extent). On the way back along the trail we were rewarded for our quiet by seeing yet more Proboscis monkeys, this time really close so that we could see their noses and bellies. It was marvellous.
In addition to seeing these sensationally-schnebbed simians, we also saw some Macaques with their babies, and (joy of joys) on the boat ride back to the bus stop, more Irrawaddy dolphins! This time I spotted them in the distance and made our boat driver head over to where they were - two of them, side by side, and this time a spotting of their heads. Marvellous.
Our final wildlife spotting trip was the next day, to Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. The purpose of this trip was to see the other primate for which Borneo is famous: the orangutan. Semenggoh Wildlife Centre is a rehabilitation centre for everyone's famous ginger ape, with a few acres of forest set aside and 26 orangutans living there semi-wild. They have the run of the place, but they're fed twice a day at feeding platforms (though they don't always feel like coming along since they also feed themselves from the jungle, as the staff at the centre are at pains to continually reiterate). We were fortunate: we saw loads of them. The highlight was the massive dominant male, with whom you would really not want to mess. He was built like a weightlifter: a ginger weightlifter with a huge grey face and a poncho made from thick orange carpet apparently draped over his shoulders. An impressive sight. There were also baby orangutans, which drew appropriate "aaahhh" noises from the crowd.
The orangutan spotting was so enjoyable that we missed our bus back. Fortunately one of the park rangers gave us a lift to the nearest appropriate bus stop from where it was simple to get back to Kuching. Doubly fortunately we weren't alone in our predicament, but shared it with a friendly Canadian couple. Our enjoyment of their company continued later on in the day, when we went for dinner with them and then to a super-cheap (by Malaysian standards) Chinese bar/cafe where we got through a staggering number of cans of beer between the four of us. A good time was had by all, but Katie wasn't feeling quite the thing the next morning for our plane journey back to peninsular Malaysia. In fact even that evening in Kuala Lumpur she was still whinging about being hungover. Insert some comment here about "being able to take the girl out of Margate"...
Monday, 23 July 2012
Sunday, 22 July 2012
The Cameron Highlands: aka an oversized garden centre
We arrived in the Cameron Highlands looking for a bit of adventure, the jungle trekking, explorational kind of adventure and instead we left feeling like we had stayed for too long at a Wyevale Gardening Centre. It was certainly pleasant, but not all that thrilling, especially as it rained solidly for the two days we were there.
Quickly deciding that the area wasn't going to quite tick all the boxes we wanted it to, we booked a cheap flight to Borneo (Sam will fill you in on our time here, which was completely amazing) and got ourselves on a full day tour of the Cameron Highlands, to take in all of the local sights. The itinerary for our tour included a visit to a tea plantation, a small trek through the Mossy Forest, time at a Butterfly Garden, a stop at the central market, a visit to a strawberry farm, 'Time Tunnel' museum and Sam Poh Buddhist Temple. One might think that was a pretty jam-packed itinerary, but we managed to do this whistle-stop tour in just six hours.
Our group was picked up by a couple of Land Rovers at 9am and the first stop was the Boh tea plantation (Malaysia's largest tea producer). Unfortunately the tea factory was shut, so we didn't get to see how the tea leaves are processed. We did get a great tour guide though, who showed us the huge and very beautiful plantation and explained to us how tea is made (Did you know that green tea is made using the same leaf as regular black tea? Interesting stuff!)
Second stop: the Mossy Forest. Here our guide took us on a small trek through the very mossy (hence the name) jungle, stopping every now and then to point out various flora and fauna. Again, very interesting. Have you ever seen a Pitcher Plant? They're really cool carnivorous plants.
Third stop: The Butterfly Garden - which actually had many more insects, arachnids, reptiles and amphibians than just butterflies. There were hundreds of butterflies though, quite a scary amount, so many that it was difficult to walk around the place without worrying about stepping on one. There were also a lot of dead butterflies laying around, some in the bin in fact. Actually, the staff at this place seemed to be constantly throwing dead insects into the bins, which wasn't a great look for the place.
At this point those that had chosen to only do a half day tour (they must have been mad, surely they would want to stay on for the exciting afternoon schedule?!) left the group, leaving only Sam and I and a French couple. We were dropped off in the town to get ourselves some lunch, before being picked up again an hour later for the exciting afternoon activities.
Fourth stop: Central Market. At this point it was pouring with rain, so we just bought some strawberries and sheltered in a doorway to eat them. Nothing really that exciting to say about this local produce market, it was just like any old market.
Fifth stop: Strawberry Farm. Again, exactly how you would imagine a strawberry farm to be. We looked at the plants and then felt obliged to purchase one of the many strawberry products from the shop - a slice of slightly rubbish strawberry cake. Perhaps we should have opted for the strawberry juice...
Sixth stop: Time Tunnel Museum. Really not as rubbish as we thought this was going to be. It was a huge collection of one man's local memorabilia, including old photos of the area, information on Malaysia's colonial past, its liberation, old Malaysian advertising signs, toys, kitchen ware, phones, the lot. Spent quite a while here.
Seventh and final stop: Sam Poh Buddhist Temple. The fourth largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia and not all that impressive, not after we had only recently seen the biggest one. It reminded us a bit of a school hall, but did have this incredible painting of a man with pleasingly long eyebrows.
All in all the Cameron Highlands were ok and a nice change from the beach, but didn't satisfy our adventurous urges. On to Kuching, Borneo!!! Before Sam tells you what we got up to here, I'll quickly fill you in on our journey to Kuala Lumpur, where we had to get our flight from. It was a pretty gut-wrenching three and a half hour mini van journey. Our driver got pulled over by the police for speeding (we didn't think he had actually been going that fast) and he took the whole thing really badly. He turned from a happy, smiling man, into a monstrous maniac. He pulled off from the ordeal huffing and puffing and purposely revved the vehicle as much as he could, speeding off in front of the police. He didn't take his foot off the accelerator for the rest of the journey and even undertook a police car at one point. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur 40 minutes earlier than expected and feeling massively nauseous. At least we got there in one piece - we had to play the categories game to keep our mind off of our apparently imminent deaths.
Quickly deciding that the area wasn't going to quite tick all the boxes we wanted it to, we booked a cheap flight to Borneo (Sam will fill you in on our time here, which was completely amazing) and got ourselves on a full day tour of the Cameron Highlands, to take in all of the local sights. The itinerary for our tour included a visit to a tea plantation, a small trek through the Mossy Forest, time at a Butterfly Garden, a stop at the central market, a visit to a strawberry farm, 'Time Tunnel' museum and Sam Poh Buddhist Temple. One might think that was a pretty jam-packed itinerary, but we managed to do this whistle-stop tour in just six hours.
Our group was picked up by a couple of Land Rovers at 9am and the first stop was the Boh tea plantation (Malaysia's largest tea producer). Unfortunately the tea factory was shut, so we didn't get to see how the tea leaves are processed. We did get a great tour guide though, who showed us the huge and very beautiful plantation and explained to us how tea is made (Did you know that green tea is made using the same leaf as regular black tea? Interesting stuff!)
Second stop: the Mossy Forest. Here our guide took us on a small trek through the very mossy (hence the name) jungle, stopping every now and then to point out various flora and fauna. Again, very interesting. Have you ever seen a Pitcher Plant? They're really cool carnivorous plants.
Third stop: The Butterfly Garden - which actually had many more insects, arachnids, reptiles and amphibians than just butterflies. There were hundreds of butterflies though, quite a scary amount, so many that it was difficult to walk around the place without worrying about stepping on one. There were also a lot of dead butterflies laying around, some in the bin in fact. Actually, the staff at this place seemed to be constantly throwing dead insects into the bins, which wasn't a great look for the place.
At this point those that had chosen to only do a half day tour (they must have been mad, surely they would want to stay on for the exciting afternoon schedule?!) left the group, leaving only Sam and I and a French couple. We were dropped off in the town to get ourselves some lunch, before being picked up again an hour later for the exciting afternoon activities.
Fourth stop: Central Market. At this point it was pouring with rain, so we just bought some strawberries and sheltered in a doorway to eat them. Nothing really that exciting to say about this local produce market, it was just like any old market.
Fifth stop: Strawberry Farm. Again, exactly how you would imagine a strawberry farm to be. We looked at the plants and then felt obliged to purchase one of the many strawberry products from the shop - a slice of slightly rubbish strawberry cake. Perhaps we should have opted for the strawberry juice...
Sixth stop: Time Tunnel Museum. Really not as rubbish as we thought this was going to be. It was a huge collection of one man's local memorabilia, including old photos of the area, information on Malaysia's colonial past, its liberation, old Malaysian advertising signs, toys, kitchen ware, phones, the lot. Spent quite a while here.
Seventh and final stop: Sam Poh Buddhist Temple. The fourth largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia and not all that impressive, not after we had only recently seen the biggest one. It reminded us a bit of a school hall, but did have this incredible painting of a man with pleasingly long eyebrows.
All in all the Cameron Highlands were ok and a nice change from the beach, but didn't satisfy our adventurous urges. On to Kuching, Borneo!!! Before Sam tells you what we got up to here, I'll quickly fill you in on our journey to Kuala Lumpur, where we had to get our flight from. It was a pretty gut-wrenching three and a half hour mini van journey. Our driver got pulled over by the police for speeding (we didn't think he had actually been going that fast) and he took the whole thing really badly. He turned from a happy, smiling man, into a monstrous maniac. He pulled off from the ordeal huffing and puffing and purposely revved the vehicle as much as he could, speeding off in front of the police. He didn't take his foot off the accelerator for the rest of the journey and even undertook a police car at one point. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur 40 minutes earlier than expected and feeling massively nauseous. At least we got there in one piece - we had to play the categories game to keep our mind off of our apparently imminent deaths.
Sunday, 15 July 2012
The Perhentian Islands (jacking for a soundtrack)
After the culinary glory of Georgetown, we decided it was time to head back for more beach time. The Perhentian Islands are off the east side of Malaysia, and as such are not currently in monsoon season (east and west coasts have different monsoon seasons). So we were guaranteed no rain. This was enough to get us up in time for a 5am bus ride, which took us right across the Malay peninsula from west to east to connect with a speedboat to the islands (though Penang is an island itself, it's connected to the mainland by a bridge so we didn't need two ferries for our trip).
There are two Perhentian islands. We stayed on the "small" island, though there isn't a huge difference between the two in size. Our original intention was to stay on Coral Bay, but we found there was no availability at anywhere that wasn't a filthy hole. The weekend was approaching (it was a Thursday) so lots of places could offer us just one night's accommodation, which wouldn't do for us. We headed over to Long Beach (not that one) and found a place that was basic but not too rough, and had availability. It was true what the proprietors were saying about the Perhentians getting fully booked at weekends, though - on Sunday morning we saw a few people had been sleeping on the beach.
The Perhentians are well worth this high level of visitation, too. White sand, turquoise water, a perfect sea to swim in - the only down sides are the relatively crappy and expensive accommodation and the poor food options, but neither of these are really seriously bad. It's really a marvellous place - I even managed to find a couple of books that aren't pulp thrillers or romances to read.
The main draw (apart from the idyllic beaches themselves) is the opportunity to do some wonderful snorkelling, an opportunity we took. We did a half day tour (a full day is a bit knackering), and visited three aptly-named locations: Fish Point, Shark Point, and Turtle Point. Fish point was full of, um, fish. Tropical ones, to be precise - huge schools of them swam all around us. The highlight was a cuttlefish that Katie spotted and we then followed for a bit.
Shark point was deeper. We diligently followed our guide around the area, and kept our eyes trained ahead to spot the elusive eponymous fish. Sure enough, occasionally ahead in the gloom you could spot a black-tip reef shark patrolling the coral. By not swimming in the middle of the group I managed to see one on 4 or 5 occasions. By swimming off by myself to have a pee I saw one on 3 occasions, and close enough that I saw the black tip on the dorsal fin. It was pretty cool.
Turtle point was our last stop. The guide drove the boat around for a bit looking for the reptile in question before someone spotted one. Then our boat, and the two other boats in the area, emptied out and everyone leaped into the water to take a peek at the turtle. It was beautiful - slow and graceful. The only shame was how much it was mobbed by tourists. This was bad enough when they all started diving down to have their photos taken with it while it was feeding on the bottom (in the process of diving down they also kicked Katie and I on several occasions, which I am sorry to say provoked some bad language from me (which probably fortunately wasn't heard by the offending individual due to being an underwater swear)). When it went to surface to get some air, however, the turtle was absolutely mobbed.
Actually sustainability is an issue here in the Perhentians as much as all the other idyllic desert islands we've been to recently. Refreshingly, though, in terms of having waaaay more guesthouses, travel agents, restaurants and tour operators than feasible, the Perhentians aren't down with Ko Phi Phi and other Thai islands - the island we visited only had stuff along the beaches, and even there it was really only the two main beaches. The jungle in the middle of the island is untouched. So that's good.
Right, that's enough tangential musical entertainment. And enough about our lovely beach paradise. Ta ta for now. Coming soon: The Cameron Highlands by Katie, plus exciting travel schedule changes, with diversions to parts previously unplanned... watch this space.
There are two Perhentian islands. We stayed on the "small" island, though there isn't a huge difference between the two in size. Our original intention was to stay on Coral Bay, but we found there was no availability at anywhere that wasn't a filthy hole. The weekend was approaching (it was a Thursday) so lots of places could offer us just one night's accommodation, which wouldn't do for us. We headed over to Long Beach (not that one) and found a place that was basic but not too rough, and had availability. It was true what the proprietors were saying about the Perhentians getting fully booked at weekends, though - on Sunday morning we saw a few people had been sleeping on the beach.
The Perhentians are well worth this high level of visitation, too. White sand, turquoise water, a perfect sea to swim in - the only down sides are the relatively crappy and expensive accommodation and the poor food options, but neither of these are really seriously bad. It's really a marvellous place - I even managed to find a couple of books that aren't pulp thrillers or romances to read.
The main draw (apart from the idyllic beaches themselves) is the opportunity to do some wonderful snorkelling, an opportunity we took. We did a half day tour (a full day is a bit knackering), and visited three aptly-named locations: Fish Point, Shark Point, and Turtle Point. Fish point was full of, um, fish. Tropical ones, to be precise - huge schools of them swam all around us. The highlight was a cuttlefish that Katie spotted and we then followed for a bit.
Shark point was deeper. We diligently followed our guide around the area, and kept our eyes trained ahead to spot the elusive eponymous fish. Sure enough, occasionally ahead in the gloom you could spot a black-tip reef shark patrolling the coral. By not swimming in the middle of the group I managed to see one on 4 or 5 occasions. By swimming off by myself to have a pee I saw one on 3 occasions, and close enough that I saw the black tip on the dorsal fin. It was pretty cool.
Turtle point was our last stop. The guide drove the boat around for a bit looking for the reptile in question before someone spotted one. Then our boat, and the two other boats in the area, emptied out and everyone leaped into the water to take a peek at the turtle. It was beautiful - slow and graceful. The only shame was how much it was mobbed by tourists. This was bad enough when they all started diving down to have their photos taken with it while it was feeding on the bottom (in the process of diving down they also kicked Katie and I on several occasions, which I am sorry to say provoked some bad language from me (which probably fortunately wasn't heard by the offending individual due to being an underwater swear)). When it went to surface to get some air, however, the turtle was absolutely mobbed.
Actually sustainability is an issue here in the Perhentians as much as all the other idyllic desert islands we've been to recently. Refreshingly, though, in terms of having waaaay more guesthouses, travel agents, restaurants and tour operators than feasible, the Perhentians aren't down with Ko Phi Phi and other Thai islands - the island we visited only had stuff along the beaches, and even there it was really only the two main beaches. The jungle in the middle of the island is untouched. So that's good.
Right, that's enough tangential musical entertainment. And enough about our lovely beach paradise. Ta ta for now. Coming soon: The Cameron Highlands by Katie, plus exciting travel schedule changes, with diversions to parts previously unplanned... watch this space.
One night in Langkawi and feasting in Penang
After our beach tour in Thailand, we still weren't quite satisfied and so went off to Langkawi, our first stop in Malaysia, in search of more sea, sun and sand. What we found instead was more rain, and a beach that looked like a building site with nasty grey sand. Accommodation was also either too expensive or just grim, so we had to settle on a grim place (even Sam said it was grim - mouldy ceiling, stained bed linen, marks on the walls that added even further to the 'murder scene look' that the hotel was obviously going for). All these factors taken into consideration, we decided to move on the next morning as quickly as we possibly could. We even spent 3 hours sat around at the ferry terminal (including going bowling) so that we didn't have to be sat in our room or on the grey beach.
Onwards and upwards... we jumped on our ferry to the island of Penang and its capital, George Town. Not in search of beaches this time, and instead time for a history lesson. Penang island was acquired from the local sultan by a British trader, Captain Francis Light, in 1786, on behalf of the British East India Company. It was seen as valuable real estate because of its location in the straits between the Malay peninsula and Sumatra. This was slap in the middle of the route for trading ships bearing spices, etc, from Indonesia to the west.
Under British rule, Penang developed into a relatively multicultural location, with Indians and Chinese, as well as some Europeans, Japanese, Indonesians and various others settling in the main town - which Francis Light named, George Town, after mad King George III.
Today Penang is part of Malaysia, and George Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its colonial past can still be seen in its multi ethnic population, the huge variety of amazing food, and the many beautiful colonial and religious buildings.
Wanting to see as many of these key heritage sites as possible during our stay, 'Katie's Colonial Heritage Guided Walks' was born. That's right, with the help of a map, I led Sam around George Town for a magical tour of the must-see buildings and read aloud to him the significance and story behind each one. He LOVED this, as did I.
On the amazing food - loads of good quality hawker food available, my personal favourites including, Roti Canai (Indian flatbread with a little pot of curry for dipping), and Char Kuay Teow (flat noodles fried in soy sauce with prawns, cockles and Chinese sausage). A general lack of beer though, Malaysia being largely Islamic.
We also headed out of the centre of George Town to check out the Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in South East Asia. So many things to see here, including 'Liberation Pond' which was full of turtles and a 35 metre tall bronze statue of the Goddess of Mercy. Pretty cool. On our way to our next stop in this area, we were approached by a local lady who spouted a lot of gibberish at us and proceeded to make me an origami heart made out of a 1 ringgit note from her own purse. Strange to say the least. Our next stop was Penang Hill, a resort high up in the hills that the colonial Brits favoured for its cooler temperatures. You have to take a train to the top of the peak for views across the whole of George Town. Apart from the view though, there isn't much else to do, not unless you have a particular love for owls (they weirdly have an owl museum up there) or want to have your photo taken with a python.
So that's Penang, and in particular George Town. Well worth visiting, although I think it's spoilt us for food in Malaysia. I don't think it can get much better than that.
Next stop, the Perhentian Islands for some more...beach time!
Onwards and upwards... we jumped on our ferry to the island of Penang and its capital, George Town. Not in search of beaches this time, and instead time for a history lesson. Penang island was acquired from the local sultan by a British trader, Captain Francis Light, in 1786, on behalf of the British East India Company. It was seen as valuable real estate because of its location in the straits between the Malay peninsula and Sumatra. This was slap in the middle of the route for trading ships bearing spices, etc, from Indonesia to the west.
Under British rule, Penang developed into a relatively multicultural location, with Indians and Chinese, as well as some Europeans, Japanese, Indonesians and various others settling in the main town - which Francis Light named, George Town, after mad King George III.
Today Penang is part of Malaysia, and George Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its colonial past can still be seen in its multi ethnic population, the huge variety of amazing food, and the many beautiful colonial and religious buildings.
Wanting to see as many of these key heritage sites as possible during our stay, 'Katie's Colonial Heritage Guided Walks' was born. That's right, with the help of a map, I led Sam around George Town for a magical tour of the must-see buildings and read aloud to him the significance and story behind each one. He LOVED this, as did I.
On the amazing food - loads of good quality hawker food available, my personal favourites including, Roti Canai (Indian flatbread with a little pot of curry for dipping), and Char Kuay Teow (flat noodles fried in soy sauce with prawns, cockles and Chinese sausage). A general lack of beer though, Malaysia being largely Islamic.
We also headed out of the centre of George Town to check out the Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in South East Asia. So many things to see here, including 'Liberation Pond' which was full of turtles and a 35 metre tall bronze statue of the Goddess of Mercy. Pretty cool. On our way to our next stop in this area, we were approached by a local lady who spouted a lot of gibberish at us and proceeded to make me an origami heart made out of a 1 ringgit note from her own purse. Strange to say the least. Our next stop was Penang Hill, a resort high up in the hills that the colonial Brits favoured for its cooler temperatures. You have to take a train to the top of the peak for views across the whole of George Town. Apart from the view though, there isn't much else to do, not unless you have a particular love for owls (they weirdly have an owl museum up there) or want to have your photo taken with a python.
So that's Penang, and in particular George Town. Well worth visiting, although I think it's spoilt us for food in Malaysia. I don't think it can get much better than that.
Next stop, the Perhentian Islands for some more...beach time!
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Lanta and Lipe in low season
Low season. This time of year is low season on the west coast of Thailand, because it's the rainy time. Not that, up until now, we've noticed either factor particularly. But all that changed when we visited the lesser-known Thai islands of Koh Lanta and Koh Lipe (pronounced lee pay, in case your internal voice was saying it wrong). Read on to learn more.
Koh Lanta: Yes, first of all we were Koh Lantin'. In particular, we visited Kantiang Bay, a lovely beach which was almost totally deserted at this time of year. There were a few other tourists, all of whom were staying at the Kantiang Bay resort, a less-than-picturesque location which had the dubious honour of hosting some classic rock karaoke-with-a-live-band every night (audible from a long way away): "Hotel California"? "In The Name Of Love"?. We stayed there one night (got free transportation to the beach off them if we stayed with them) but soon moved to much swankier accommodation: a bungalow on the cliffs above one end of the beach, affording a wonderful view across the bay from our balcony (could still hear the karaoke at night, though). Plus, it being low season, we got it for less than a quarter of what they charge during high season (according to the resort chief, anyway).
The down side of low season was that most things were shut: no snorkelling trips, no elephant tours (though we did see the elephants). And the reason for all of this closure was also apparent: it chucked it down with rain off and on for the whole time we were there. Still, it was strangely a very relaxing time, consisting mainly of sitting on our balcony reading and drinking beer, and watching the rain sheeting across the bay.
There was one thing that was still running in low season, and that was a cooking course at Lanta Thai Cookery School. Because of the few tourists, we got a whole afternoon's instruction for just the two of us (the class takes up to 15 but any other takers were kept away by the monsoon that erupted as we arrived at the place). We learnt how to make Pad Thai, Coconut Chicken Soup, and Thai Green Curry: coming soon to dinner parties hosted by us, no doubt. The best part was that we got to eat our own creations (well, and that they were actually delicious).
So cautious thumbs up to Koh Lanta, even in rainy low season.
Koh Lipe: With no Public Enemy song to link to this time, we can get on with the show. Koh Lipe is supposedly the "next big thing" in Thai islands - it's the place that, in ten years or so, Katie and I will be able to say "well we were there on our honeymoon when it wasn't so over-developed and it was lovely back then" the way travel dullards love to do. Actually it's already pretty developed, with loads of shops and bars. But (this being low season) there were almost no tourists and (as a consequence) almost none of the shops and bars were open.
We got to Lipe by speedboat from the mainland, via a massive storm which drenched everyone on the boat and dampened all the stuff in my bag (the up side of which was that I had to unpack, hang up, and repack everything, and I've packed it much more efficiently meaning more space: this is heaven). We stayed at a resort on Pattaya beach, which is busier than either Sunrise or Sunset beach (on Sunset beach literally everything was closed for the season - we were there at sunset and it was eerily suggestive of some dystopian post-apocalyptic scenario what with us being the only people there). Pattaya beach is a beautiful location: (slightly naff) coral just off the beach, turquoise water, white sand, etc etc.
Alas by now the effect of all this is somewhat lessened on us: we've been spoiled rotten on beaches. Still, Lipe is pretty relaxed and I can definitely seeing it becoming the "next Koh Phi Phi" (or some such) - you can walk across the whole island from beach to beach in about 10 minutes, there are no cars, and there are plenty of offshore excursion possibilities. And it didn't rain anywhere near as much as it had on Lanta (though it was cloudy much of the time). The only down side was that the food wasn't up to much, with the only options being the restaurants of what few resorts were open, none of which had great food (or service, actually). Sadly the amusingly-titled "Porn Resort" was closed for the low season so I can't tell you about that. We stayed at the less suggestively entitled "Lipe Resort". Or "Lee Pae Resort". Or "Lee Pay" Resort. Or one of several other spellings they used on various signs.
It was an odd experience being on a mainly closed island with very little to do, and we left after a couple of days, bound for Malaysia (from where I write this). But that's another story: for now, I shall sign off by saying that Lipe also gets cautious thumbs up, but I expect it'll be completely different once it gets busier year-round. And Katie and I will be able to say we were there before it got massive.
Koh Lanta: Yes, first of all we were Koh Lantin'. In particular, we visited Kantiang Bay, a lovely beach which was almost totally deserted at this time of year. There were a few other tourists, all of whom were staying at the Kantiang Bay resort, a less-than-picturesque location which had the dubious honour of hosting some classic rock karaoke-with-a-live-band every night (audible from a long way away): "Hotel California"? "In The Name Of Love"?. We stayed there one night (got free transportation to the beach off them if we stayed with them) but soon moved to much swankier accommodation: a bungalow on the cliffs above one end of the beach, affording a wonderful view across the bay from our balcony (could still hear the karaoke at night, though). Plus, it being low season, we got it for less than a quarter of what they charge during high season (according to the resort chief, anyway).
our bungalow, as smugly pointed out by me
the view from the balcony
The down side of low season was that most things were shut: no snorkelling trips, no elephant tours (though we did see the elephants). And the reason for all of this closure was also apparent: it chucked it down with rain off and on for the whole time we were there. Still, it was strangely a very relaxing time, consisting mainly of sitting on our balcony reading and drinking beer, and watching the rain sheeting across the bay.
There was one thing that was still running in low season, and that was a cooking course at Lanta Thai Cookery School. Because of the few tourists, we got a whole afternoon's instruction for just the two of us (the class takes up to 15 but any other takers were kept away by the monsoon that erupted as we arrived at the place). We learnt how to make Pad Thai, Coconut Chicken Soup, and Thai Green Curry: coming soon to dinner parties hosted by us, no doubt. The best part was that we got to eat our own creations (well, and that they were actually delicious).
The monsoon
Katie is stunned by the delicious taste of her coconut chicken soup
Green curry to take away for dinner
So cautious thumbs up to Koh Lanta, even in rainy low season.
Koh Lipe: With no Public Enemy song to link to this time, we can get on with the show. Koh Lipe is supposedly the "next big thing" in Thai islands - it's the place that, in ten years or so, Katie and I will be able to say "well we were there on our honeymoon when it wasn't so over-developed and it was lovely back then" the way travel dullards love to do. Actually it's already pretty developed, with loads of shops and bars. But (this being low season) there were almost no tourists and (as a consequence) almost none of the shops and bars were open.
We got to Lipe by speedboat from the mainland, via a massive storm which drenched everyone on the boat and dampened all the stuff in my bag (the up side of which was that I had to unpack, hang up, and repack everything, and I've packed it much more efficiently meaning more space: this is heaven). We stayed at a resort on Pattaya beach, which is busier than either Sunrise or Sunset beach (on Sunset beach literally everything was closed for the season - we were there at sunset and it was eerily suggestive of some dystopian post-apocalyptic scenario what with us being the only people there). Pattaya beach is a beautiful location: (slightly naff) coral just off the beach, turquoise water, white sand, etc etc.
Alas by now the effect of all this is somewhat lessened on us: we've been spoiled rotten on beaches. Still, Lipe is pretty relaxed and I can definitely seeing it becoming the "next Koh Phi Phi" (or some such) - you can walk across the whole island from beach to beach in about 10 minutes, there are no cars, and there are plenty of offshore excursion possibilities. And it didn't rain anywhere near as much as it had on Lanta (though it was cloudy much of the time). The only down side was that the food wasn't up to much, with the only options being the restaurants of what few resorts were open, none of which had great food (or service, actually). Sadly the amusingly-titled "Porn Resort" was closed for the low season so I can't tell you about that. We stayed at the less suggestively entitled "Lipe Resort". Or "Lee Pae Resort". Or "Lee Pay" Resort. Or one of several other spellings they used on various signs.
It was an odd experience being on a mainly closed island with very little to do, and we left after a couple of days, bound for Malaysia (from where I write this). But that's another story: for now, I shall sign off by saying that Lipe also gets cautious thumbs up, but I expect it'll be completely different once it gets busier year-round. And Katie and I will be able to say we were there before it got massive.
Monday, 9 July 2012
Koh Phi Phi: Puking in Paradise
Koh Phi Phi: A truly idyllic island, the perfect location for a honeymooning couple to spend two days straight...vomiting. Whether it was a bug or the BBQ'd seafood feast we indulged in, we don't know. It certainly wasn't very nice. First Sam was struck down and whilst he was running back and forth between the bed and the toilet, I went out and sunbathed (on his request that I didn't just sit around and watch him throw up!) and very thoughtfully returned with supplies of sugary drinks, watermelon and ice lollies. By the time he had recovered, I too was puking. Worse, I also fainted in a restaurant, which wasn't very nice either.
Sickness aside, Phi Phi really is a beautiful place. As some of you may know, it's also where they filmed some parts of the Leonardo Di Caprio film, The Beach. They bang on about this a fair bit, with many of the boat and snorkeling tours offered bigging up a stop at Maya Bay, a pretty beach with clear blue waters, that is 'the beach' in 'The Beach'.
Phi Phi was also one of the islands that was badly affected by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. As the main stretch of the island is a tiny strip of land between two beaches, it was completely flattened as the wave washed over the whole of the town. There are hardly any signs of the disaster now though, incredibly the island has been completely rebuilt. The only reminders being the new Tsunami evacuation signs that are posted all around the island (in 2004, the people on the island had little warning and no evacuation plan in place, so 700 people sadly died).
When we weren't puking, we enjoyed a bucket (a whole bottle of rum, a can of coke and a red bull, all poured into a seaside-esque bucket and served with ice and a straw for only two pounds fifty), went snorkeling and watched the sun set over Phi Phi from its incredible viewpoint, high up on the hillside.
Phi Phi really is very beautiful, it's just a shame that the town is a little on the tacky side and that some of the tourists are the type that just want to sit in an Irish pub all day and maybe even beat each other up (that's right, there was a thai boxing bar, where punters are encouraged to drunkenly fight their mates in return for a bucket of booze). Also, the north beach has a couple of 'crazy' beach bars, the kind that blaze really crap music and have nightly fire shows, where fire is literally thrown across the beach, narrowly missing punters.
If you avoid the centre of town and the handful of horrendous beach bars, Phi Phi is definitely worth visiting - just make sure you sort yourself out a nice place to stay, in case you have to spend a lot of time in your room, puking.
Sickness aside, Phi Phi really is a beautiful place. As some of you may know, it's also where they filmed some parts of the Leonardo Di Caprio film, The Beach. They bang on about this a fair bit, with many of the boat and snorkeling tours offered bigging up a stop at Maya Bay, a pretty beach with clear blue waters, that is 'the beach' in 'The Beach'.
Phi Phi was also one of the islands that was badly affected by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. As the main stretch of the island is a tiny strip of land between two beaches, it was completely flattened as the wave washed over the whole of the town. There are hardly any signs of the disaster now though, incredibly the island has been completely rebuilt. The only reminders being the new Tsunami evacuation signs that are posted all around the island (in 2004, the people on the island had little warning and no evacuation plan in place, so 700 people sadly died).
When we weren't puking, we enjoyed a bucket (a whole bottle of rum, a can of coke and a red bull, all poured into a seaside-esque bucket and served with ice and a straw for only two pounds fifty), went snorkeling and watched the sun set over Phi Phi from its incredible viewpoint, high up on the hillside.
Phi Phi really is very beautiful, it's just a shame that the town is a little on the tacky side and that some of the tourists are the type that just want to sit in an Irish pub all day and maybe even beat each other up (that's right, there was a thai boxing bar, where punters are encouraged to drunkenly fight their mates in return for a bucket of booze). Also, the north beach has a couple of 'crazy' beach bars, the kind that blaze really crap music and have nightly fire shows, where fire is literally thrown across the beach, narrowly missing punters.
If you avoid the centre of town and the handful of horrendous beach bars, Phi Phi is definitely worth visiting - just make sure you sort yourself out a nice place to stay, in case you have to spend a lot of time in your room, puking.
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Krabi and Phuket
Hullo,
It's been a while since last we wrote, and this will only be quick. This is because we've been busy doing very little on the beach. We've been to various beaches, but this will serve as a quick review of two of the places we've been: Krabi and Phuket. Katie'll be along at some point in the future to tell you all about Ko Phi Phi. You'll have to excuse the brevity and paucity of this post but it's hard to think in sentences when the proprietor of your internet cafe is bombarding you with loud bad music ("Yellow" by Coldplay? Do Coldplay fans even like this song any more?). So, onward:
Krabi: We arrived in Krabi after yet more fun with tourist buses and stop-offs (see previous rants for my feelings on this livestock existence). Thus we turned up pretty late, and so we ended up staying in Krabi town as opposed to at the beach. Of the beaches around Krabi, Railay beach is supposed to be the beauty, with Ao Nang being for a "night out" (according to Lonely Planet, which actually uses the quotation marks around the phrase night out for some unknown reason in this instance). You have to get a Longtail boat to Railay beach, as there are no roads. Or rather, in our case, because it's low season, you can't get a Longtail boat to Railay beach so you go to Ao Nang in a bench pick-up thing the name of which I don't know how to say. On the way we met a middle-aged Australian couple. They had just spent eight weeks in Phuket but didn't like it (then why spend eight weeks there?) and had come to Ao Nang instead which they loved - "we could live here".
Interesting call, from them.
We found Ao Nang to be somewhat gaudy and a bit naff. The beach was slim and backed by a noisy main road. I mean, if you love the opportunity to buy fake Raybans, Havaianas, Same Same But Different Tshirts and general tourist tat from every single stall, then you're in luck. Mind you, the cocktails at happy hour worked. Sinews suitably stiffened, we headed back to Krabi town (which, by the way is largely dead, apart from an excellent night market).
So, that was Krabi. Railay is probably lovely, but we never saw it.
Phuket: We headed to Phuket under our own steam, getting a bench pick-up thing the name of which I don't know how to say to the bus station in Krabi, and then a normal bus to Phuket. No stops to sell onward tickets, hotel accommodation, or overpriced lunch: heaven.
Phuket's actually an island, but a pretty large one, and close to the mainland (connected by roads, hence us getting the bus there). Once there, we headed to Kata Beach (or Hat Kata, if you want to say it entirely in Thai), because we had been informed by the Usual Sources that it was a bit less Costa del Sol than the other beaches.
The other beaches must be pretty overdeveloped. Katie took a few looks at the place and immediately hated it. It was waaaay too crowded (and this is very much low season). After an exhaustive search for accommodation which involved walking around with our bags in the baking sun for probably 90 minutes we went to the beach and watched a lovely sunset with a beer.
Then we decided that the town and beach were manky and we should hotfoot it onwards the very next day. We duly booked transport to the famed tourist island of Ko Phi Phi for the following day, and then decided to celebrate with a few beers.
The only real drinking options in Kata (aside from, presumably, the bars in the all-inclusive resorts) are, not to put too fine a point on it, girly bars. You might imagine the sound that comes from them when they see me strolling along the road on my own: "freelance" girls in bars love the sight of an adult tourist! Then they see Katie dawdling along behind me, having stopped to pick her ear or look at a snail or take off a shoe or some such dawdly thing. It becomes apparent that I am unlikely to pay for the full services that the "freelance" girls as I am clearly with my wife (to whom I am no doubt saying "are you coming? Can you walk in front so that I can keep an eye on you and I don't end up charging off because you've stopped?").
To be fair to these bars, they do offer something to the honeymooning couple (apart from drinks, I mean): the possibility of playing games with the barmaids. That's right: games. To be clear, I played connect 4 with one barmaid; Katie played Jenga with the other. I drew 6-6 in my own personal challenge. Since this lady must be somewhat more match fit on connect 4 than me I was pretty pleased with this. Also she wasn't drinking, while the Thai rum definitely affected my concentration in some games, allowing her to steal some cheap wins.
The following day, nursing slight headaches, we got picked up at our hotel in a minivan, and taken to the ferry port, from where (after a massive delay which from what I gather is far from unusual with these things in this part of the world) we got a ferry to Ko Phi Phi. But that's where Katie comes in.
It's been a while since last we wrote, and this will only be quick. This is because we've been busy doing very little on the beach. We've been to various beaches, but this will serve as a quick review of two of the places we've been: Krabi and Phuket. Katie'll be along at some point in the future to tell you all about Ko Phi Phi. You'll have to excuse the brevity and paucity of this post but it's hard to think in sentences when the proprietor of your internet cafe is bombarding you with loud bad music ("Yellow" by Coldplay? Do Coldplay fans even like this song any more?). So, onward:
Krabi: We arrived in Krabi after yet more fun with tourist buses and stop-offs (see previous rants for my feelings on this livestock existence). Thus we turned up pretty late, and so we ended up staying in Krabi town as opposed to at the beach. Of the beaches around Krabi, Railay beach is supposed to be the beauty, with Ao Nang being for a "night out" (according to Lonely Planet, which actually uses the quotation marks around the phrase night out for some unknown reason in this instance). You have to get a Longtail boat to Railay beach, as there are no roads. Or rather, in our case, because it's low season, you can't get a Longtail boat to Railay beach so you go to Ao Nang in a bench pick-up thing the name of which I don't know how to say. On the way we met a middle-aged Australian couple. They had just spent eight weeks in Phuket but didn't like it (then why spend eight weeks there?) and had come to Ao Nang instead which they loved - "we could live here".
Interesting call, from them.
We found Ao Nang to be somewhat gaudy and a bit naff. The beach was slim and backed by a noisy main road. I mean, if you love the opportunity to buy fake Raybans, Havaianas, Same Same But Different Tshirts and general tourist tat from every single stall, then you're in luck. Mind you, the cocktails at happy hour worked. Sinews suitably stiffened, we headed back to Krabi town (which, by the way is largely dead, apart from an excellent night market).
So, that was Krabi. Railay is probably lovely, but we never saw it.
Phuket: We headed to Phuket under our own steam, getting a bench pick-up thing the name of which I don't know how to say to the bus station in Krabi, and then a normal bus to Phuket. No stops to sell onward tickets, hotel accommodation, or overpriced lunch: heaven.
Phuket's actually an island, but a pretty large one, and close to the mainland (connected by roads, hence us getting the bus there). Once there, we headed to Kata Beach (or Hat Kata, if you want to say it entirely in Thai), because we had been informed by the Usual Sources that it was a bit less Costa del Sol than the other beaches.
The other beaches must be pretty overdeveloped. Katie took a few looks at the place and immediately hated it. It was waaaay too crowded (and this is very much low season). After an exhaustive search for accommodation which involved walking around with our bags in the baking sun for probably 90 minutes we went to the beach and watched a lovely sunset with a beer.
Then we decided that the town and beach were manky and we should hotfoot it onwards the very next day. We duly booked transport to the famed tourist island of Ko Phi Phi for the following day, and then decided to celebrate with a few beers.
The only real drinking options in Kata (aside from, presumably, the bars in the all-inclusive resorts) are, not to put too fine a point on it, girly bars. You might imagine the sound that comes from them when they see me strolling along the road on my own: "freelance" girls in bars love the sight of an adult tourist! Then they see Katie dawdling along behind me, having stopped to pick her ear or look at a snail or take off a shoe or some such dawdly thing. It becomes apparent that I am unlikely to pay for the full services that the "freelance" girls as I am clearly with my wife (to whom I am no doubt saying "are you coming? Can you walk in front so that I can keep an eye on you and I don't end up charging off because you've stopped?").
To be fair to these bars, they do offer something to the honeymooning couple (apart from drinks, I mean): the possibility of playing games with the barmaids. That's right: games. To be clear, I played connect 4 with one barmaid; Katie played Jenga with the other. I drew 6-6 in my own personal challenge. Since this lady must be somewhat more match fit on connect 4 than me I was pretty pleased with this. Also she wasn't drinking, while the Thai rum definitely affected my concentration in some games, allowing her to steal some cheap wins.
The following day, nursing slight headaches, we got picked up at our hotel in a minivan, and taken to the ferry port, from where (after a massive delay which from what I gather is far from unusual with these things in this part of the world) we got a ferry to Ko Phi Phi. But that's where Katie comes in.
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