This leg of the journey did not get off to a good start when we flew into Clark (Manilla) Airport only to find that it was not Manilla as the internet had implied. Manilla was a two hour drive south!!. This was a minor airport above Manilla. It used to be the American airbase until a volcano had erupted and covered it in two feet of ash. The Philippino army was based there and the security was something else!!! When I asked if we could go into the airport to buy an ongoing ticket I was told that I had to go into the town. I could not believe it. We would miss any outgoing flights by doing this. We were overcharged for the taxi and found ourselves in sleaseville. It had obviously been the place where the American military went to relieve their tensions!!!! It was wall-to-wall girlie bars, unaccompanied women were banned.
We went to the hotel to get a ticket out of there, but we were not sure exactly where we wanted to go. A travel agent said that she would help so we followed her in our taxi, to her office on slease street. She tried to convince us that it would cost two hundred and fifty pounds to get out of there by going to Manilla then out to Cebu. We were used to paying 30 for an internal flight so we walked out of there. This did not look like any place that we would want to stay, and the blatant rip-off attitude of the travel agent and arrogance of the airport security posed quite a problem. As we walked past an internet place Lee asked a european guy if he knew anywhere that we could stay and it turned out that he owned a hotel! It was called, The Anchorage, and he was the Aussie owner. What luck. It was basic and clean, and, apart from the mirrors along the headboard wall (!!!), seemed acceptable, under the circumstances. It had a bar and a type of transport cafe. There were one or two ex-pats around too. Lee had his best pork meal ever later, and got talking to Paddy Lynch, who travelled extensively in the Philippines. He assured us that we could get out of there for about 25 pounds. We were beginning to relax. He suggested a place to stay in Cebu, he even recommended some islands that we might like to visit and wrote it all down. A plan was beginning to shape itself. I went and had another beer where I watched on elderly doddery old man being persued by two young girls, with their tea of meat in skewers clutched in a plastic bag in their hands. His hand was shaking so much that he was spilling his beer. I think it was an illness, not the girls. Sometime later he meandered away from them and to the safety of his bed. They left. I smiled to myself.
We set out at 10am to the travel agent around the corner next morning to book a flight to Cebu. It was 25 pound and left at 12. We shot back to the hotel via a 24hr cafe with petite girls in halter neck dresses as waitresses. We picked our tickets up and grabbed a jeepney and returned to this bloody awful airport. The driver was a bit harrassed at the checkpoints by over zealous guards and I was getting irritated by the time delays. We pais our money and a guard asked me what we paid the driver. I said that it was my business. He waved his security badge and said it was his adding that they were just concerned that we were not overcharged. I quickly retorted, "Like your official airport taxi's yesterday that overcharged us. We left it at that. I was so glad to leave.
At Cebu we got a taxi to Kiwi Lodge recommended by Paddy. It was full but they got us a room around the corner. This had a huge cockroach hiding under the shower curtain. I squealed and Lee sprang into action, venting his anger on the said creature. My hero!
The next morning we flagged down a taxi at 7.30. The driver did not speak a word of English and 'pier 4' and 'ferry port' were hard to act out. We drew a boat, with no response so we left it and headed back to The Kiwi Lodge, (God Bless Paddy Lynch,) where the boy called a cab and told him where we wanted to go. The ferry took two hours to deliver us to Bohol and a taxi delivered us to a smaller island, joined by road, off the south coast, called Panglao. We headed to Alanaland. We paid off the taxi and then found out that it was full! We booked in next door, Bananaland. By now it was beginning to feel like Lalaland. We stayed two days. It was beautiful but empty. The beach, accessed through a rather grander resort was white but there were no sunbeds that did not belong to the hotel, and they were right up near people's bungalows. I did not feel comfortable. There was nowhere to leave your clothes and nowhere for Lee to sit comfortably in the shade. The sea was tourquoise but had quite strong waves, so swimming was difficult. We were unsettled and left. We did not go back. Despite the beauty this was not our kind of place. We moved to a little place on the mainnroasd where there were other people and got talking to a couple who went there to dive. We left two days later.
The taxi took us to the port. The boat took two hours. Another taxi took us to Cebu airport. The first plane took us to Manilla then we had to get a taxi from the domestic terminal to the international terminal, for our flight to Jakarta, Indonesia. We were glad to leave the Philippines. It had been an expensive, waring waste of time! It is easily, the worst place that we have been to, seedy, dirty, very, very poor and quite forlorn, I felt, though the people seemed pleasant and resigned to the fact thast they would work for very small money and just 'get-by'. It just made me feel sad.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Sunday, 20 January 2008
What wildlife???? What life?????
Malaysian Borneo-exotic thoughts of dense jungle, orangutans, exotic flowers and birds.......well!!!!!!
Borneo is a large island divided across the middle. The northern half is Malaysian, and, the southern half is Indonesian.The north-western section is called Sarawak. The north east is called Sabah. This is the place we visited.
As our taxi sped away from the airport I was feeling very excited. We were to begin our trip in the capital of Sabah, called Kota Kinaballoo. We had picked a little hotel with a pool for three nights, from hostelbookers, on the internet. It was only 21 pounds in total. I was looking forward to jungle, rain forest and a myriad of wild animal, birds and sea-life; the reason we decided to go to Borneo. I sat back and looked out of the window. The factories and brick built houses, garages and shops were a bit of a surprise. At the next junction our taxi headed away from town, which was a bit disconcerting too. I asked where we were going and he said that our hotel was on the coast in Papar. Where the hell is that? I thought. I hoped that we were not too far out. Forty minutes later our taxi pulled up outside a large resort with a sweeping entrance, not our kind of place! I had a feeling that we had done it again!!!
We walked into the entrance area and the receptionist seemed surprised to see us. I thought we were in the wrong place. I hoped we were in the wrong place, as beautiful as it seemed. We showed him our bit of paper. He said that the rate was higher than our receipt said, but, since we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, we argued the point. He made a phone call, and then accepted our booking. I looked around as Lee booked in. We asked if there were any restaurants or supermarkets nearby. Ten minutes, he said. Oh, I thought as I heard Lee asking, "How many people are actually staying here?" I was not surprised by the answer.
"Just you two, Sir," he said, smiling. I looked over the large lounge area, the empty restaurant and out to the manicured lawns. We asked why there were no others. He said that last week many people had stayed there but booked out just yesterday, (Did they know that we were coming? ). We established that meals were available. We could have then delivered to our rooms, at no extra cost, if we wished, we were told. Lee asked if we could have a couple of cold beers. No alcohol. We were told. Ah.....A Muslim hotel, we thought. We had stayed in one in Satun, in southern Thailand. Bemused, we were shown to our room. We walked in thoughtful silence.
The room looked reasonable and the view over the pool and the sea were rather nice, though I did seem to startle the security guard who was walking across the lawns when I opened the curtains. They did not seem used to seeing people here! I went out on to the balcony and lit a mosquito coil. I closed the door and flicked the light on on the balcony. It did not work. I went to the other side of the patio door looking for another switch, only to find a two-inch gap between the wall and the the window frame! The mosquito's would have a field day. I turned to tell Lee, who was already looking crestfallen after examining the bathroom. The soap dispenser was broken and the soap had been put into an empty water bottle. It did not look too attractive. When he opened the bedside drawer there was a used tissue and some receipts. We decided to ask for our money back and get the hell out of there. The receptionist provided his car and a mate for 400 ringotts, to drop us into town. We shot off with boom box and rap on full.I knew the words, which amused the driver. I was just glad that the windows were tinted as I mimicked the Peugeot advert set in Mumbai
Kota Kinabaloo, the capital of Malaysian Borneo, looked quite shabby as we drove around in the dark, early evening. It is a medium sized town with a colonial past. The population was Muslim, with Filipino workers in abundance. We wanted to go to the National Park and the Abdul Rahman, (Yes, folks at Alumwell-I did not enquire who he was.) Marine Park. We decided that the backpackers looked grim so we opted for the Kinabaloo Hotel. Another mistake, though I did laugh about the sign warning that no Durian fruit was allowed. It is popular in this part of Asia, about the size of a marrow and smells like a rotting corpse! It actually does not taste much better, either! A room was ten pounds. It had no window but seemed clean enough for one night. We dumped our bags and set out to find something to eat.
We walked around the area and saw no other backpackers or westerners. We did discover, 'The Lilac Lodge', however, and booked three nights there, moving in the next day. It was opposite a huge, open, fish restaurant that seemed to inhabit a shopping mall space. The designated seafood swam in tanks all around us, which was disconcerting. Some slug shaped things in large plastic bottles seemed to squirm and rotate in a disgusting manner, they were lobster sized without the legs. Yuck!!! An irritating man on the stage seemed to want to attract my attention. He was drawing portraits. Having seen my recent photo's there was no way I was going to have an enlarged version done!!!! I gave him one of my irritated stares and he left us alone. We had a beer and left, squirming slightly at the sea life's fate. We would not eat here.
The buildings looked grimy. There was no colour, nothing attractive. Men stared at us from the small, dark rooms that passed as shops and cafes. I smiled at the older women. They smiled back. The streets seemed warm and grubby: added to the now familiar smell of sewerage and drains was the disgusting smell of huge, open bins. Great! We were sweating from the intense heat of the night, trickles of sweat ran down our faces and back as we looked for somewhere acceptably clean, to eat. I noticed some lady-boys, which was a bit odd in this staunchly Muslim town; they seemed happy enough.
After crossing the road we found a place to eat. Lee had chicken sweet and sour, I had fried rice. Both were cheap and tasted okay. We even had a beer! As we were tired from travelling we returned to our room. I went into the bathroom and was suddenly aware that I could hear every word of a telephone conversation that was going on next door. I also became vaguely aware of some banal music drifting up from somewhere below too. I closed the bathroom door and got into bed. After 10 minutes our neighbours through the adjoining door returned, and, again, it became clear that we could hear every sound. There was the bathroom, a short disagreement between a man and a woman in a language I, thankfully, could not understand, and much rustling in plastic bags as I drifted off to sleep.
The next day we booked out of the Kinabaloo Hotel. They seemed surprised. We transferred our bags across a few streets, booked a trip and had a walk up to the harbour. It was an easy town to explore but we did not find much that we liked. The few western style bars were grouped together on a jetty overlooking the sea. It was all a bit isolationist for us. We walked back past the market as the sun set. It was unbelievably warm and added to the smells previously mentioned, the barbecued fish and rotting fruit were overwhelming! We turned towards the town and our lodge as we had an early start the next day.
We had booked a day trip to Kota Kinabaloo National Park the next day. The lodge had made 100 ringotts (ten pounds) on us we found out as we had booked the trip through them. They gave us the wrong receipt initially, so that left a sour taste before we had even set out
We were picked up at 8am and began our adventure. There were only three of us and the mini bus driver from hell played Shumaker around the hairpin bends of the mountains for two hours, overtaking three vehicles at a time:another white knuckle ride!! There were often sheer drops on either side of us too! We trekked through the rain forest and saw rain... and yes you guessed it...forest. No wildlife, a few orchids, some hot springs, that were so full of locals I declined to go in. It was a bit like sharing your bath with 7y1!!! We had a good lunch at the lodge where the guide proceeded to show us all the local wildlife that we would not see! We walked into the rainforest after lunch and climbed high enough, up very uneven steps, to do the tree canopy walk, 42 meters up in the air, in pouring rain. The walkway was constructed of a series of narrow aluminium ladders threaded with rope, from which they were suspended. Netting had been placed either side. As it was a bit like a training programme for tight rope walkers, at the circus, we did not dare take our eyes off the finishing line. Total madness! There were five of these bloody things and NO WILDLIFE. I was so disappointed. The climb down was an endlessly punishing series of steps. We did get some satisfaction from the efforts we had made and Lee did well with the heights. We just had the returning two and a half hour mini-bus trip to face. We were very relieved to get back, and a bit disgruntled for the next two days as we felt that we had been ripped off.
We did find other backpacking places and the colonial history in Atkinson's clock and Jessleton Point pier were an interesting change. We sat quite happily in a pleasant breeze and a more muted sun, because of clouds, for two hours on our last day and wished that we had taken a boat out to a couple of the off islands from here. Ah well.....
We took an hours flight into Sabah, on the northern eastery tip of Borneo, and got the taxi to our backpackers. It was lovely apart from the garish colour schemes. Our window overlooked the sea, from where I did spot sea-eagles dipping in the bay. The town was smaller and shabbier that Kota Kinaballoo. The hostel was empty again, apart from us two, but we did book a rather expensive trip to a type of desert island where green-back and hawksbill turtles came to lay their eggs after 50 years of roaming the sea.
We set off, at great speed, a couple of days later, in a small speedboat, at 9.30am. It took one hour and we stopped the engines to look at a large pod of dolphins that honoured us with their presence for a while, then sped off again amid spray and engine roar. The island had white sand where we were allowed to wander along the clear waters. We could snorkel and swim too. I floated in the warm waters while a Brahmin Kite circled overhead and thought about school, as it was Tuesday afternoon. I had hated Tuesdays last year! It is strange how life changes.
By evening I had done a pretty good impression of a tomato, much to my embarrassment, but others were red too. It was all forgotten as we watched a distant tropical storm like a firework display in the warm night then the call came that a turtle had come up onto the beach. By the light of a full moon, in the warmth of a tropical night we watched in awe as this huge sea creature laid her eggs. Her shell was over a meter in length and 92cm in width. I felt amazingly priviledged to witness this and the release of some new hatchlings, just ten yards from where I had been sunbathing in the afternoon. An amazing and magical experience, though their survival rate is less that 5%. I thought about our Basic Skills book about the turtle.
The next day we returned to Sabah, leaving turtle island at 7am, and docking at 8.15am. It was quite a choppy journey and we were sprayed with sea. We were being picked up at 10.30 to go into the jungle and up the Kinabatangan river to spot Probiscus monkeys, in the wild.
It took 45 minutes to get to the jungle lodge, which was actually based at Sepilok, the Orangutan rehabilitation centre, that we had visited earlier that week. A two hour drive brought us up to the side of the rather wide river. Our boat looked very flimsy and I had a moment of hesitation as the heavens had opened and I could not see how the boat would not fill with water. Luckily, another boat picked us up and off we set, in the warm rain. It did subside so I got my wildlife fix. We saw lots of probiscus monkeys as they come down to the river at sunset. They are huge and comical looking. I was thrilled. We saw silver lemurs, long tailed macquacs, crested snake eagles, two types of hornbills, a kingfisher and many other local birds. I was tired, wet and happy as we returned and even complimented the driver on his superb, relaxed driving.
Earlier in the week we had seen a large monitor lizard near the harbour in Sandakan so Borneo had, at last, delivered its promise of wildlife, though it had been a very expensive place to visit!!!!
Borneo is a large island divided across the middle. The northern half is Malaysian, and, the southern half is Indonesian.The north-western section is called Sarawak. The north east is called Sabah. This is the place we visited.
As our taxi sped away from the airport I was feeling very excited. We were to begin our trip in the capital of Sabah, called Kota Kinaballoo. We had picked a little hotel with a pool for three nights, from hostelbookers, on the internet. It was only 21 pounds in total. I was looking forward to jungle, rain forest and a myriad of wild animal, birds and sea-life; the reason we decided to go to Borneo. I sat back and looked out of the window. The factories and brick built houses, garages and shops were a bit of a surprise. At the next junction our taxi headed away from town, which was a bit disconcerting too. I asked where we were going and he said that our hotel was on the coast in Papar. Where the hell is that? I thought. I hoped that we were not too far out. Forty minutes later our taxi pulled up outside a large resort with a sweeping entrance, not our kind of place! I had a feeling that we had done it again!!!
We walked into the entrance area and the receptionist seemed surprised to see us. I thought we were in the wrong place. I hoped we were in the wrong place, as beautiful as it seemed. We showed him our bit of paper. He said that the rate was higher than our receipt said, but, since we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, we argued the point. He made a phone call, and then accepted our booking. I looked around as Lee booked in. We asked if there were any restaurants or supermarkets nearby. Ten minutes, he said. Oh, I thought as I heard Lee asking, "How many people are actually staying here?" I was not surprised by the answer.
"Just you two, Sir," he said, smiling. I looked over the large lounge area, the empty restaurant and out to the manicured lawns. We asked why there were no others. He said that last week many people had stayed there but booked out just yesterday, (Did they know that we were coming? ). We established that meals were available. We could have then delivered to our rooms, at no extra cost, if we wished, we were told. Lee asked if we could have a couple of cold beers. No alcohol. We were told. Ah.....A Muslim hotel, we thought. We had stayed in one in Satun, in southern Thailand. Bemused, we were shown to our room. We walked in thoughtful silence.
The room looked reasonable and the view over the pool and the sea were rather nice, though I did seem to startle the security guard who was walking across the lawns when I opened the curtains. They did not seem used to seeing people here! I went out on to the balcony and lit a mosquito coil. I closed the door and flicked the light on on the balcony. It did not work. I went to the other side of the patio door looking for another switch, only to find a two-inch gap between the wall and the the window frame! The mosquito's would have a field day. I turned to tell Lee, who was already looking crestfallen after examining the bathroom. The soap dispenser was broken and the soap had been put into an empty water bottle. It did not look too attractive. When he opened the bedside drawer there was a used tissue and some receipts. We decided to ask for our money back and get the hell out of there. The receptionist provided his car and a mate for 400 ringotts, to drop us into town. We shot off with boom box and rap on full.I knew the words, which amused the driver. I was just glad that the windows were tinted as I mimicked the Peugeot advert set in Mumbai
Kota Kinabaloo, the capital of Malaysian Borneo, looked quite shabby as we drove around in the dark, early evening. It is a medium sized town with a colonial past. The population was Muslim, with Filipino workers in abundance. We wanted to go to the National Park and the Abdul Rahman, (Yes, folks at Alumwell-I did not enquire who he was.) Marine Park. We decided that the backpackers looked grim so we opted for the Kinabaloo Hotel. Another mistake, though I did laugh about the sign warning that no Durian fruit was allowed. It is popular in this part of Asia, about the size of a marrow and smells like a rotting corpse! It actually does not taste much better, either! A room was ten pounds. It had no window but seemed clean enough for one night. We dumped our bags and set out to find something to eat.
We walked around the area and saw no other backpackers or westerners. We did discover, 'The Lilac Lodge', however, and booked three nights there, moving in the next day. It was opposite a huge, open, fish restaurant that seemed to inhabit a shopping mall space. The designated seafood swam in tanks all around us, which was disconcerting. Some slug shaped things in large plastic bottles seemed to squirm and rotate in a disgusting manner, they were lobster sized without the legs. Yuck!!! An irritating man on the stage seemed to want to attract my attention. He was drawing portraits. Having seen my recent photo's there was no way I was going to have an enlarged version done!!!! I gave him one of my irritated stares and he left us alone. We had a beer and left, squirming slightly at the sea life's fate. We would not eat here.
The buildings looked grimy. There was no colour, nothing attractive. Men stared at us from the small, dark rooms that passed as shops and cafes. I smiled at the older women. They smiled back. The streets seemed warm and grubby: added to the now familiar smell of sewerage and drains was the disgusting smell of huge, open bins. Great! We were sweating from the intense heat of the night, trickles of sweat ran down our faces and back as we looked for somewhere acceptably clean, to eat. I noticed some lady-boys, which was a bit odd in this staunchly Muslim town; they seemed happy enough.
After crossing the road we found a place to eat. Lee had chicken sweet and sour, I had fried rice. Both were cheap and tasted okay. We even had a beer! As we were tired from travelling we returned to our room. I went into the bathroom and was suddenly aware that I could hear every word of a telephone conversation that was going on next door. I also became vaguely aware of some banal music drifting up from somewhere below too. I closed the bathroom door and got into bed. After 10 minutes our neighbours through the adjoining door returned, and, again, it became clear that we could hear every sound. There was the bathroom, a short disagreement between a man and a woman in a language I, thankfully, could not understand, and much rustling in plastic bags as I drifted off to sleep.
The next day we booked out of the Kinabaloo Hotel. They seemed surprised. We transferred our bags across a few streets, booked a trip and had a walk up to the harbour. It was an easy town to explore but we did not find much that we liked. The few western style bars were grouped together on a jetty overlooking the sea. It was all a bit isolationist for us. We walked back past the market as the sun set. It was unbelievably warm and added to the smells previously mentioned, the barbecued fish and rotting fruit were overwhelming! We turned towards the town and our lodge as we had an early start the next day.
We had booked a day trip to Kota Kinabaloo National Park the next day. The lodge had made 100 ringotts (ten pounds) on us we found out as we had booked the trip through them. They gave us the wrong receipt initially, so that left a sour taste before we had even set out
We were picked up at 8am and began our adventure. There were only three of us and the mini bus driver from hell played Shumaker around the hairpin bends of the mountains for two hours, overtaking three vehicles at a time:another white knuckle ride!! There were often sheer drops on either side of us too! We trekked through the rain forest and saw rain... and yes you guessed it...forest. No wildlife, a few orchids, some hot springs, that were so full of locals I declined to go in. It was a bit like sharing your bath with 7y1!!! We had a good lunch at the lodge where the guide proceeded to show us all the local wildlife that we would not see! We walked into the rainforest after lunch and climbed high enough, up very uneven steps, to do the tree canopy walk, 42 meters up in the air, in pouring rain. The walkway was constructed of a series of narrow aluminium ladders threaded with rope, from which they were suspended. Netting had been placed either side. As it was a bit like a training programme for tight rope walkers, at the circus, we did not dare take our eyes off the finishing line. Total madness! There were five of these bloody things and NO WILDLIFE. I was so disappointed. The climb down was an endlessly punishing series of steps. We did get some satisfaction from the efforts we had made and Lee did well with the heights. We just had the returning two and a half hour mini-bus trip to face. We were very relieved to get back, and a bit disgruntled for the next two days as we felt that we had been ripped off.
We did find other backpacking places and the colonial history in Atkinson's clock and Jessleton Point pier were an interesting change. We sat quite happily in a pleasant breeze and a more muted sun, because of clouds, for two hours on our last day and wished that we had taken a boat out to a couple of the off islands from here. Ah well.....
We took an hours flight into Sabah, on the northern eastery tip of Borneo, and got the taxi to our backpackers. It was lovely apart from the garish colour schemes. Our window overlooked the sea, from where I did spot sea-eagles dipping in the bay. The town was smaller and shabbier that Kota Kinaballoo. The hostel was empty again, apart from us two, but we did book a rather expensive trip to a type of desert island where green-back and hawksbill turtles came to lay their eggs after 50 years of roaming the sea.
We set off, at great speed, a couple of days later, in a small speedboat, at 9.30am. It took one hour and we stopped the engines to look at a large pod of dolphins that honoured us with their presence for a while, then sped off again amid spray and engine roar. The island had white sand where we were allowed to wander along the clear waters. We could snorkel and swim too. I floated in the warm waters while a Brahmin Kite circled overhead and thought about school, as it was Tuesday afternoon. I had hated Tuesdays last year! It is strange how life changes.
By evening I had done a pretty good impression of a tomato, much to my embarrassment, but others were red too. It was all forgotten as we watched a distant tropical storm like a firework display in the warm night then the call came that a turtle had come up onto the beach. By the light of a full moon, in the warmth of a tropical night we watched in awe as this huge sea creature laid her eggs. Her shell was over a meter in length and 92cm in width. I felt amazingly priviledged to witness this and the release of some new hatchlings, just ten yards from where I had been sunbathing in the afternoon. An amazing and magical experience, though their survival rate is less that 5%. I thought about our Basic Skills book about the turtle.
The next day we returned to Sabah, leaving turtle island at 7am, and docking at 8.15am. It was quite a choppy journey and we were sprayed with sea. We were being picked up at 10.30 to go into the jungle and up the Kinabatangan river to spot Probiscus monkeys, in the wild.
It took 45 minutes to get to the jungle lodge, which was actually based at Sepilok, the Orangutan rehabilitation centre, that we had visited earlier that week. A two hour drive brought us up to the side of the rather wide river. Our boat looked very flimsy and I had a moment of hesitation as the heavens had opened and I could not see how the boat would not fill with water. Luckily, another boat picked us up and off we set, in the warm rain. It did subside so I got my wildlife fix. We saw lots of probiscus monkeys as they come down to the river at sunset. They are huge and comical looking. I was thrilled. We saw silver lemurs, long tailed macquacs, crested snake eagles, two types of hornbills, a kingfisher and many other local birds. I was tired, wet and happy as we returned and even complimented the driver on his superb, relaxed driving.
Earlier in the week we had seen a large monitor lizard near the harbour in Sandakan so Borneo had, at last, delivered its promise of wildlife, though it had been a very expensive place to visit!!!!
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Languid in Malaysian Langkawi
Another two days of travel brought us to this charming island off the coast of mainland Malaysia.
We were up at 5 and out by sixas we were the first to be picked up and the ferry was at 8am. The mini bus transferred us to the ferry after one and a half hours of riding around trying to find the accommodation of the other 9 travellers! We were up and down tracks and tumbled about before the driver parked at the jetty car-park at 7.30 and disappeared. He reappeared 20 minutes later then told we were too late for the eight-o'clock ferry. Shame that he had taken 20 minutes to get the tickets!!! We all got off, loaded the bags on to our backs and marched, not towards the jetty but towards a waiting coach!!. We clambered on and waited, feeling confused. About 30 minutes later we started the next stage of the journey to a different jetty. This took us a short while, about 10 minutes!!!! We all had to pile off the bus again and walk onto the ferry. This time our bags stayed put. The ferry set sail ten minutes later, much to our relief. We had an hour and a half before landing. The television was on so we looked for seats as far away as possible and ate our breakfast of cheese and a cup-a-soup each, as the shop only sold pot noodles!!
As we disembarked at the port and waited for the coach to reappear, I had the presence of mind to get near the coach doors, which was just as well because we had acquired two extra passengers. This meant that two of the original passengers were now without seats for the drive up to Surat Thani. I was appalled. They sat on the stairs and on the steps. About half hour into the journey the young male host put both televisions and we were subjected to rather awkward young Thai girls gyrating in little, quite decent bikini's. There were lingering shots on non-existant bosoms, and crutch shots. I wanted to shout, "Oh pleeeeaaaase! Get a room, or a girlfriend!" I toyed with the idea of turning our television off, as no-one seemed to be watching it,and we had an elderly Buddhist monk with his bongo drums justn behind us, (I liked to think that he found this quite disgusting but I am not sure, however, I was not quite brave enough. Maybe the monk had prayed because there was a kind of divine intervention when, a rather solid father-of two-teenaged-girls said something to the young man about 15 minutes later and the television was clicked off immediately! Lee cheered loudly. It was like being in some adolescents dream!!! Yuk!!! For once it was good to be aged.
After the remaining hour on this coach we watched, amazed as the coach was driven down a very narrow side street. Washing and two tuk-tuks had to be moved and a tuk-tuk driver who came down hoping to turn left at the bottom had to turn around and go back the way that he had come. We had wondered why the coach was going down such a narrow street but it transpired that the travel company office, toilets and restaurant were down there. It began to rain a little. We were all asked to get off. When we all asked why we were told that another coach would come for us. We still did not budge but they began off-loading the bags!!! Eventually we were all unceremoniously dumped in the street., where about 50 other people were waiting with stickers stating their destination written on theen, like evacuees.
During the next hour everyone was collected by tuk-tuks or mini-buses. I went to the loo where they had the cheek to charge 5 dong. I was disgusted so said there was no way I was going to pay and told the youngsters to do the same. No-one paid but no-one seemed to mind either. We grabbed a fried rice before we we hustled onto a mini-bus by a rather rude driver muttering, "Felang blah, blah, blah," under his breath. We treated him with equal disregard when he tried to put the bags by our feet. He shoved it in, I shoved it away with a firm, "No!" Twice. I argued that Lee had to have somewhere to put his feet. I was not going to back down either. I thought I had won until Lee clambered in and my bag was chucked onto his knees before the door was slammed shut. Ah well, I felt better, and Lee squashed the bag between him and the guy next to him where it acted as an arm rest.
We travelled on quite fast up wide roads heading for Satoon, on the coast, where we were to spend the night. We would then cross the border, out of Thailand and into the muslim country of Malaysia. After 3 and a half hours our driver had stopped, shouted Satoon and begun off-loading bags again. So, in the middle of a torrential downpour we had to run to the waiting mini-bus in front where the driver was waiting to take the five of us to Satoon. The journey was much more pleasant then. There was more space, a gentler driver and pace. This is when we met the wonderful Matt and Vicky, who were also heading to Satoon and then on to Langkawi. As they had not chosen a hotel, and ours was a reasonable price, they followed us and we shared a taxi/truck to the hotel. We went out for an evening meal and found a delightful little bar that had locals and a type of folk club at 9.30. It was a brilliant evening and quite unexpected. We even had a few English songs too-The Young Ones and Imagine. These were such lovely Thai's with very little English but their little bar Binhla, named after a local bird, was an absolute delight.
We met Matt and Vickki after the non-existant breakfast, listed but, as the hotel had no bread it did not happen!! They flagged a tuk-tuk to the ferry port. This time we shared with them. It was 200 baht (67 to the pound!) for all of us to the port. It took 20 minutes too!! Value for money or what?
At the port the paperwork was simple and we crossed another border, and gained another visa. We were soon speeding along in an enclosed boat, along with at least 3 small cockroaches that were wandering among the life jackets above our heads! Two televisions, showing the local sit-com, were in full blare. One in each compartment. No-one was watching. An older English gentleman had switched it off but it had been put back on. He sat there with his head down!Never-the-less the journey passed pleasantly. Lee offered a cold alcoholic drink to Matt and Vickki and we chatted happily.
We disembarked at a jetty on Langkawi where we could see a beautiful square containing a huge brown eagle statue with wings outspread. It is called Eagle square and the island is named after this beautiful bird that6 resides here amongst the karst pillars between the islands. We walked through a shopping mall and bought a fabulous cake each then headed for the taxi rank. We shared a taxi for 20 ringotts, (6 and a half to the pound) as we were heading to the same part of the island.
We travelled for 20 minutes and each went off to view our respective accommodations. Ours was full for two days and their was rank so we booked into a hotel across the road. Now to investigate Langkawi ....Christmas homesickness fading fast.
We were up at 5 and out by sixas we were the first to be picked up and the ferry was at 8am. The mini bus transferred us to the ferry after one and a half hours of riding around trying to find the accommodation of the other 9 travellers! We were up and down tracks and tumbled about before the driver parked at the jetty car-park at 7.30 and disappeared. He reappeared 20 minutes later then told we were too late for the eight-o'clock ferry. Shame that he had taken 20 minutes to get the tickets!!! We all got off, loaded the bags on to our backs and marched, not towards the jetty but towards a waiting coach!!. We clambered on and waited, feeling confused. About 30 minutes later we started the next stage of the journey to a different jetty. This took us a short while, about 10 minutes!!!! We all had to pile off the bus again and walk onto the ferry. This time our bags stayed put. The ferry set sail ten minutes later, much to our relief. We had an hour and a half before landing. The television was on so we looked for seats as far away as possible and ate our breakfast of cheese and a cup-a-soup each, as the shop only sold pot noodles!!
As we disembarked at the port and waited for the coach to reappear, I had the presence of mind to get near the coach doors, which was just as well because we had acquired two extra passengers. This meant that two of the original passengers were now without seats for the drive up to Surat Thani. I was appalled. They sat on the stairs and on the steps. About half hour into the journey the young male host put both televisions and we were subjected to rather awkward young Thai girls gyrating in little, quite decent bikini's. There were lingering shots on non-existant bosoms, and crutch shots. I wanted to shout, "Oh pleeeeaaaase! Get a room, or a girlfriend!" I toyed with the idea of turning our television off, as no-one seemed to be watching it,and we had an elderly Buddhist monk with his bongo drums justn behind us, (I liked to think that he found this quite disgusting but I am not sure, however, I was not quite brave enough. Maybe the monk had prayed because there was a kind of divine intervention when, a rather solid father-of two-teenaged-girls said something to the young man about 15 minutes later and the television was clicked off immediately! Lee cheered loudly. It was like being in some adolescents dream!!! Yuk!!! For once it was good to be aged.
After the remaining hour on this coach we watched, amazed as the coach was driven down a very narrow side street. Washing and two tuk-tuks had to be moved and a tuk-tuk driver who came down hoping to turn left at the bottom had to turn around and go back the way that he had come. We had wondered why the coach was going down such a narrow street but it transpired that the travel company office, toilets and restaurant were down there. It began to rain a little. We were all asked to get off. When we all asked why we were told that another coach would come for us. We still did not budge but they began off-loading the bags!!! Eventually we were all unceremoniously dumped in the street., where about 50 other people were waiting with stickers stating their destination written on theen, like evacuees.
During the next hour everyone was collected by tuk-tuks or mini-buses. I went to the loo where they had the cheek to charge 5 dong. I was disgusted so said there was no way I was going to pay and told the youngsters to do the same. No-one paid but no-one seemed to mind either. We grabbed a fried rice before we we hustled onto a mini-bus by a rather rude driver muttering, "Felang blah, blah, blah," under his breath. We treated him with equal disregard when he tried to put the bags by our feet. He shoved it in, I shoved it away with a firm, "No!" Twice. I argued that Lee had to have somewhere to put his feet. I was not going to back down either. I thought I had won until Lee clambered in and my bag was chucked onto his knees before the door was slammed shut. Ah well, I felt better, and Lee squashed the bag between him and the guy next to him where it acted as an arm rest.
We travelled on quite fast up wide roads heading for Satoon, on the coast, where we were to spend the night. We would then cross the border, out of Thailand and into the muslim country of Malaysia. After 3 and a half hours our driver had stopped, shouted Satoon and begun off-loading bags again. So, in the middle of a torrential downpour we had to run to the waiting mini-bus in front where the driver was waiting to take the five of us to Satoon. The journey was much more pleasant then. There was more space, a gentler driver and pace. This is when we met the wonderful Matt and Vicky, who were also heading to Satoon and then on to Langkawi. As they had not chosen a hotel, and ours was a reasonable price, they followed us and we shared a taxi/truck to the hotel. We went out for an evening meal and found a delightful little bar that had locals and a type of folk club at 9.30. It was a brilliant evening and quite unexpected. We even had a few English songs too-The Young Ones and Imagine. These were such lovely Thai's with very little English but their little bar Binhla, named after a local bird, was an absolute delight.
We met Matt and Vickki after the non-existant breakfast, listed but, as the hotel had no bread it did not happen!! They flagged a tuk-tuk to the ferry port. This time we shared with them. It was 200 baht (67 to the pound!) for all of us to the port. It took 20 minutes too!! Value for money or what?
At the port the paperwork was simple and we crossed another border, and gained another visa. We were soon speeding along in an enclosed boat, along with at least 3 small cockroaches that were wandering among the life jackets above our heads! Two televisions, showing the local sit-com, were in full blare. One in each compartment. No-one was watching. An older English gentleman had switched it off but it had been put back on. He sat there with his head down!Never-the-less the journey passed pleasantly. Lee offered a cold alcoholic drink to Matt and Vickki and we chatted happily.
We disembarked at a jetty on Langkawi where we could see a beautiful square containing a huge brown eagle statue with wings outspread. It is called Eagle square and the island is named after this beautiful bird that6 resides here amongst the karst pillars between the islands. We walked through a shopping mall and bought a fabulous cake each then headed for the taxi rank. We shared a taxi for 20 ringotts, (6 and a half to the pound) as we were heading to the same part of the island.
We travelled for 20 minutes and each went off to view our respective accommodations. Ours was full for two days and their was rank so we booked into a hotel across the road. Now to investigate Langkawi ....Christmas homesickness fading fast.
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