would you believe it, we have completed s.e asia and flown to adelaide! its been mad busy but we have manged to see everything we wanted to. now its freezing here and i want to go back!
ill begin where i last left you on the edge of your seat....after HCMC we got a bus across the border to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. we didnt get off to the best of starts there as when we arrived colin thought he had money stolen from his backpack which we had to leave on the bus as we went through customs. we spent most of our time in phnom penh cancelling the credit card, getting the money back from his travellers cheques, fighting with the insurance company and trying to find a police station which doesnt seem to exisit in cambodia! it wasnt until we reached Koh Pha Ngan weeks later that he found the "stolen" envelope stuffed in an evening times newspaper! anyway, after the events we took another bus to Siam Reap. the main reason we went there was to visit the temples of angkor. we had a great "tuk tuk" driver who took us around the whole day and told us what was what. although many of the temples were very similar, the best were always going to be Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat (photos to follow at some point!) ofcourse with my luck though, my camera battery decided to die when we reached Angkor Wat at the end of the day....sadly that was all the time we had in cambodia as the beaches in thailand were calling me. if we had longer i would like to have stayed in a village somewhere away from all the tourists.
So with our limited funds we decided to take the bus back to bangkok. this was certainly the most memorable yet as the roads were a nightmare and the bus was tiny. i couldnt even fit my legs in front of me (i know they are long but normally i manage!) so we sort of had to lie on the seats and on the path in the middle of the bus which was ofcourse the luggage compartment as there was nowhere else to put them. we only spent 1 night in bangkok as we had already seen it and just went in order to get a ticket to the islands.
the first island we visited was Koh Tao which was really nice. spent 3 days and 3 nights there-the longest we had been anywhere since the elephant park! we had a nice bungalow at the top of a hill looking right over the bay. we did some snorkelling there which was great, saw loads of marine life and managed to burn the very top of my legs which was really painful! couldnt sit down for a few days. always where shorts.... from here we "hopped" over to Koh Pha Ngan and went straight up to the west coast. stayed in a fancy place with a very quiet beach. needless to say we wished we had longer there.
By this time i felt i should get some zoology incorporated into the trip so we headed for Koh Sok National park and stayed in a bungalow that resembled a tree house. the park was fun to walk through but very, very humid. we saw the odd thing but the most memorable was a massive lizard that i thought was a crocodile climbing out of the water we were suposed to swim in, and a water snake! after this quick insight into the wildlfe of thailand, we headed acorss to the other side for 1 last island- Koh Phi Phi. it was annoyingly touristy but still very nice. we did some kayaking, snorkelling and got to swim to the paradise beach where the beach was filmed!
Sadly that was the end of our time in thailand and we crossed the border into Malaysia. our first stop was the island of Penang. Stayed for 1 night so went to a temple and to a shopping mall and by then it was time to get an overnight train to KL. when we arrived we walked around for a bit not really having any plan and came across a bus that said Taman Negara National Park all over it. i really wanted to go there so before we knew it we were on our way. 4 hours or so on a bus then a 3 hour boat up the river to get there. you'l be pleased to here, however, that it was worth travelling for a night and a day to get there! its supposed to be the oldest rainforest in the world so it was great to visit. i also managed to do something i've always wnated to do after studying it for so long- a canopy walk! its the longest in the world (although part of it was closed off but we'l just forget that bit). we also went for a night walk which was even better than our walk during the day. at first we walked through the "snake area" (argh) where i spotted a snake hanging on a branch above my head. this annoyed the guide i think as he missed it, but i was on red alert! also saw loads of massive stick insects, scorpions which is very rare, spiders and a civet that watched us for a while in a tree.
alomost finshed i promise.....
headed back to Kuala Lumpur for a few days after the park. its a nice city, a bit strange for us after being in the quiet for so long though. we went up the KL tower- brought back memories of the glasgow tower...fraction of the size....and went to the bridge that crosses over the twin towers (tallest in the world). this was free which was a bonus!
then onto our last stop-singapore! not nearly as busy as i thought it would be. the train staion was like bearsden station or something. the best thing we did here (after finally finding somewhere to stay and getting over the price of everything) was go to the singpore zoo and night safari. the zoo was one of the best because it has moats surrounding most of the animals as opposed to cages. although it did have the elephants doing a show which is a big no no for us now! the night safari is another zoo acorss the way with nocturnal animals that only opens at night. they all seemed very good with the animals here and were very strict about e.g camera flashes which is great. the other major thing we did in singpore was sentosa island but i kind of wish we hadnt bothered! suposed to be a theme park island but no sign of that for me! we rode these little bike things down a hill, took a skyride, went to the artificial beach that had sea full of oil, and went back to the mainland! they have topshop there and in KL so that could pass the time!
now- we are in austalia! not much to do in adelaide...and its raining and very cold. glad i carried my woolly hat around for so long now! take us back to the roasting weather in asia!!
