Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City

Follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail, follow the, follow the, follow the, follow the, follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail! Good Morning Vietnam and all that! Do you know how hard it is to find a Vietnamese man named Charlie?

Arrived fairly late into Ho Chi Minh City on the 20^th July 2009 after 2 leisurely weeks at the Hilton Arcadia Resort, Phuket. So we had to get ourselves back in the groove of travelling. Not much fuss getting through immigration as our visas and passports were all up to speed. Got a free map on our way out before sharing a taxi with “Flash Gordon” (maybe it was a look-a-like) to the city.

The backpackers places all seem to congregate in one area and Ho Chi Minh City is no different to any other city on that score. After traversing the millions of motorcycles and scooters on the road (there are 9 million people in Ho Chi Minh City and 5 million motorcycles), honking and beeping their merry way, we made it to the hotel. Chanh was the manager there and he was real friendly! Funny little places they have in Vietnam. Tight stairways and narrow houses, but the stretch out backwards and upwards. We headed straight out for dinner Awesome Indian food where the breads and BBQ stuff were cooked outside in what appeared to be a steel drum tandoori! The garlic naan and new food item – onion kulcha – were delicious. We had quite a nice room, but there was a noise that drove me insane. Whether it was amplified by my inner ear post diving and plane riding problem I don't know, but I threw a bit of a wobbly and was pacing up and down in reception for a while. I then managed to put 1 ear plug in and by turning to the side, was able to drown out the noise and sleep OK. We moved rooms the next day, but were woken up at 5am by the bloody muslims singing and stuff in the park. 5am. Get some sleep!!

One thing to note about Vietnam that is in some of my favourite movies, like Good Morning Vietnam and Forrest Gump is that it can rain. A lot. Our first full day and we didn't know quite what to expect, so we were about to head out and explore when it started raining, so we waited a bit and bit the bullet and headed out. After all, that's what we had traipsed pack-a-jacks this far round the world for! We didn't get very far before we decided to stop for lunch, it went very dark and there was an almighty, grumpy thunderstorm which knocked out the power and was very loud. Anyway, we carried on walking / aquaplaning for about 20 metres before jumping in a taxi – after I had rescued Jenni's lost flip flop floating down the street... We headed for the War Remnants museum and drove through water that was lapping up on the pavement. Crazy rain!

We paid our 15,000 ding dong to get into the museum and headed in. The parking lot had American planes and helicopters just sitting around. I guess they didn't clear up everything after themselves! It was nice to see a side of the conflict that is not one depicted by Americans in the movies. Yes, a lot of people died in the war – on both sides – and they were brave soldiers, but the US really didn't know what they were letting themselves in for! It was good to read the history of the build up to the “American war” with the French colonising and losing control and trying to get control back, and America stepping in and the communist north trying to infiltrate the republic south. We learnt more when we went to the cu chi tunnels... The war museum contains left over pieces of the war that people have donated. Many pictures adorn the walls taken by photographers killed in the war, their last rolls of film in some cases. Some of the pictures and stories of what American soldiers did were quite horrific. There were samples of guns, ammo, clothing, posters denouncing the war, even a sewer pipe where a family hid whilst US senator John Kerry hunted them down (I think that may have become more prevalent when he was running for office!) It was an interesting visit and kept us out the rain for a while.

Next day we took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Cost of the trip (2 hours each way by coach) was $5 each, plus entry fee to the tunnels of 75,000 dong. About £3. So a pretty cheap trip. We drove Northwest out of Saigon and were treated to stories from our guide about the war and so on. Once at the tunnels we watched a documentary made in 1967 about the Cu Chi area and how the people there were fighting the war, we also saw maps of the area and a model of how the tunnels were constructed. The tunnels covered a vast area of 200 kilometres, we only saw a tiny portion, but I can see why the US troops struggled.

We were shown fox holes – a 1.3m deep, 0.6m wide hole in the ground, covered by leaves and dirt that a VC (Victor Charlie, Viet Cong – Communist fighter) would hide in, spider holes that had 3 tunnels in – 2 of which were probably booby trapped dead ends! We then saw the trenches, some booby traps that were very cunning and pretty lethal if you got on the wrong end of them, a leftovesr tank, a firing range where you could shoot M16 or AK47s for a charge. It rained again, and Jenni and I were the only ones to bring protection, we were a little smug! (I mean, having seen the previous day's rain why wouldn't you bring a raincoat or brolly?) We then got a chance to go in the “international” tunnel – slightly bigger than the original, with a few (dim) lights added for our comfort. Even then, the tunnel was pretty small and claustrophobic. They were up to 3 levels deep, laden with traps, hidden exits and ways out to the river. We learnt how they cooked secretly, how they went to the toilet, showered etc. Very interesting. The Americans underestimated these guys at their own peril.

We took a day to bum around, check out the local area, the Ben Thanh market – it's in everyone's guidebooks, but it was pretty ordinary. The sun actually came out too!

We were up early for a trip to the Mekong delta. A minibus took us for a leisurely drive down to the delta area, which took a couple of hours. We jumped on a boat and headed out onto the brown and murky Mekong river. There were water hyacinths floating along like debris and many boats going along the huge river. Our first stop was on Unicorn island where we got to try some honey tea, we even saw the bees up close! The tea also had some pollen in (makes a man strong – like viagra apparently). Along with the tea we tried banana, lotus, peanut brittle and ginger – the peanut stuff was nice. Additionally we were visited by a snake – a Python that was just lying in a cage nearby. I touched it, but I really do not like snakes!

We moved on, walking along the island, seeing how people live here – some 80 million people in the delta area. We got to a restaurant place and were given some local tropical fruit – pineapple, pomelo, rambutan, longans and papaya. Even the pineapple was ruined by adding chilli salt to it! The fruits weren't that great! Local musicians then gave us a demonstration of their talents before we headed off to experience a rowing boat along the delta's narrower waterways. It was similar to the Okavango delta, but muckier, more uncomfortable, a lot cheaper and we got to wear a vietnamese pointy hat!

Next came lunch on another, smaller island after a ride in a horse and cart – we skipped the fish! After lunch we headed back to base. Reasonably priced at $10 each!

Thailand

Thailand – Bangkok

We arrived in Thailand to a nice big, clean airport and actually got our stamps in to the country this time! Got thermally scanned again, looking for swine flu, but we were clear still... Onwards and outwards. But then we had a crazy idea – let's rent a car. In Bangkok, home of Burnout 3 tuk tuk takedowns... (X-Box reference). Anyway, we drove in to town with our GPS system and were in Bangkok centre before we figured out how to find anywhere! Turns out that there are several ways of translating road names, and the ones supplied by our serviced apartments were different than the ones on the GPS! Eventually we were able to get to a road near the apartments and headed there – at least we saw the downtown area! It was dark by the time we found our way to Sivalai place, it really was tucked in a backstreet area of the suburbs, twisting left then right then left again into suburbia. On the plus side, it was nice and quiet! It had a really nice pool (no chemicals), a gym, such friendly staff and awesome food for really cheap prices. Even the drinks and mini bar were at wholesale prices. We also had a great view of the city from our room.

We went a wandering round the local area, to the temple of dawn and to the river. Got a tuk-tuk back to the apartments which was something I wanted to chalk off the list. It was so very hot wandering that we vegged for a bit in the cool sanctity of our air conditioned room. We took a taxi to the Skytrain station to make our way into the centre for shopping which was a good experience. I always enjoy using the foreign underground systems – or overground in this case. Cost 2 of us the same by Skytrain as it did by taxi on the way home! 45 minute ride for about 120 Baht – just over £2. They charge you that just to get in a cab in England. Anyway, shopping was heavenly for Jenni, Shoes, bags, jewellery, but mainly shoe sales... She bought a pair and pranced around in them when we got back to the apartment!

Kanchanaburi

One of the reasons we got the rental car was so we could go and do a bit of touring. The plan was to head up to the river Kwai, then tigers and anything else we can fit in. We made it up to the bridge over the river Kwai by sometime around 11. We walked it's entirety and back, even allowing a train to go by us! It was a nice spot, tourist trap though with a million market stalls selling tat. Jenni's bracelet from Africa broke as we crossed the street, so we had to pick up all the pieces, an arduous, but necessary task in order to get it remade.

We then tried to find our way to the tiger temple, but my interpretation of the lonely planet map was a little off and we ended up at Erawan waterfall. Very beautiful in it's own right and if you get there early a whole day could be enjoyed with it's many levels, fish and so on. It was kind of green water, but clear. Weird. I wasn't going in deep this time, though!!

We only spent an hour or so there before trying to get to the tigers. By now I had a map and knew how far the temple was, but still we missed it. The sign was a tiny thing in the opposite direction – I found that out going back again! Arrived at 3:45, when the canyon is shut to visitors, so we didn't get to see the tigers after all that. So annoying. Anyway, we trudged back to our place, ably assisted this time by the sat nav. Swam, ate, chilled.

Bangkok Airport

I thought we'd be OK getting to the airport, just follow the sat nav I thought. My day was to be filled with bad decisions! It seems that the sat nav was programmed to go the shortest way to the airport, not the fastest – hindsight, oh hindsight! We left enough time – 3 hours to go the ½ hour journey to the airport, picking up a box to send home from the post office and to get fuel. Did not take into account my decisions and the sat nav and the bangkok traffic. A few times I brushed with the expressway, but the sat nav said no. Then I went to follow the signs to the airport and then they ended. I got myself in horrendous traffic and anger grew in me! We arrived, finally, at the airport about 15 minutes before we were due to take off. So I ditched the car with Jenni (she manfully defended it's space, putting the sat nav in and out of it's box several times and looking like she was unloading the car, so as not to get towed by the over-eager Bangkok airport police) and ran through the airport to the Bangkok airways desk. I was stopped several times by security guards throughout the airport, guess they don't like runners! I made it to the desk and said “I'm late for my flight, can you help?!” The nice girl helped me change my tickets, get us unloaded off the other flight (as I checked in online) and I had another 1 ½ hours to make the next flight. We ditched the car with the drop off guy, posted postcards and the box at the post office at the airport then made it through the much more stringent security than at any Malaysian airport (got my toothpaste taken off me!) and went to the lounge. Disappointingly, we only found the brownies edible, so headed back to the food court to wolf down a BK burger – I feel so bad eating that crap when there's so much lovely Thai food available, but every now and then you need a taste of home. I forgot to mention that they fed us on our flight, but we ate that as well. A boeing 717 took us on our journey to Samui, was about 20 minutes early getting there, must have been downwind!

Koh Samui

As we disembarked the plane at Samui, the airport was a bit like an open air beach hut, with amusement park (like Disney) style open air carts to take you from the plane to the “terminal”. Once there we had to wait for our bags and then headed out. We checked out some accommodation to see if there was anything better – we stuck with our plan. Samui mermaid. Pool, beach, a good base. We were supposed to be being picked up at the airport, but since we missed our flight we weren't there to meet them! It was only 5 minutes to the hotel by taxi, but very expensive. Hope that the rest of the islands don't continue in that trend.

We were greeted at our hut by an almighty thunderstorm, at one point the lightning seemed right above us, all our lights and electric went off and the thunder was immediate! Weather was grumpy. Our room only had a fan, no air con so it was stiflingly hot in the room. Don't think Jenni liked it, but was OK for me. Clean, basic, but cheap! Hung out by the pool, the breeze from the sea was nice to cool us down. We had decided to stay another day then head to Koh Pha Ngan for a bit. Relax, chill out, yeah... So, as we were close to the Big Buddha, thought we'd have a wander over there once it's cooled down a little. It didn't really cool down enough for us to be bothered walking for 20 minutes so we didn't bother!

Another day plotting by the pool, booking places to stay in Koh Phangan and for Samui when we got back. Sorted out the ferry as well. We ended up in the premier sports bar across the street as they had free wi-fi. Additionally they also had great food, happy hour on cocktails and Bianca to do the entertainment. She was a cute fillipino, trying to be sexy, singing karaoke – admittedly, not the best! But still fun. When Stevie Magic came on, it was time for us to call it a night! Out into another big storm over our heads, I was spotting a pattern on Samui. Stormy.

Koh Pha Ngan

After checking out, we took a mini bus to the ferry port. Took longer to wait and load up the mini van than it would have to walk to Bang Rak port. Took the ferry over to Koh Phangan and once there (only a short, smooth 30 minute ride for 250 Baht) we got a “taxi” to our beach. It was a pick up truck that we sat in the back of for about 40 minutes, bumpimg our way to the beach. Good fun! Once there, it was a real quiet place. A white sandy beach, curving round the still, gently lapping bay. Central Cottage was in the middle of the beach and had a wide range of accommodation. We'd opted for a Big Island Hut. Basic, but with air con. Trouble was, there was no flush to the toilet. We also didn't get breakfast – so we upgraded to a much bigger, better room that had breakfast included – it made economical sense to do that as breakfast was 360 between us and the room upgrade was 400. So, we relaxed into a daily schedule of breakfast, chilling out and finding dinner – then avoiding the obvious storms that blew in every evening. Very spectacular. The half moon party was due on the 1^st July – we didn't go to it – but there was an almighty storm that night that must have all but made it a wash-out. It was very quiet at this beach, apart from the odd annoying character.

We did see a guy catch a fish with just a spear – very clever! Only took about 10 minutes to walk the entire length of the beach.

I had a nice Thai massage one afternoon – cost 200 Baht (less than 4 pounds sterling) for one hour. I have to admit that some of it hurt! But, good pain! We did see a guy catch a fish with just a spear – very clever! Only took about 10 minutes to walk the entire length of the beach which we managed a couple of times.

Back to Koh Samui on the ferry, after a load of drinks. Apparently they serve the drinks in 90ml shots. We had 3 cocktails each and a Jaeger-bomb for me and a coffee sambuca for Jenni. Both a little drunk, not numbed by the curry. We got a free transfer in with our ferry tickets that took us to our next destination

Koh Samui – Again – Taling Ngam

I thought the place on Koh Phangan was quiet – well it was nothing compared to this place – Am Samui was the resort name and it was South West of the island away from the busy beaches. I guess there were maybe 1 or 2 other rooms taken at the time. We had dinner and finished about 7:30pm. When I went back to see why the wi-fi was turned off – the place was in darkness, everyone gone! Talk about quiet! Great views of the sunset. It really did feel like we were alone at the place. Although a few other people were here and there it might just have been because the food was a bit cheaper than at the other local hotels – they were mainly spas or swankier.

Our TV was busted, so we had a guy come in to fix it that reminded Jenni of her granddad!

We had some cracking thunderstorms during the day or early evening time, which led to awesome eerie sunsets taking place. The food was OK and we did very little for a few days but sit around by the pool and sleep

Took an early taxi to the airport – and went through the popular resorts Chaweng and Lamai beaches, they were packed with shops and buildings and we were glad we took the quiet option with our own private beach!

Samui airport was really nice, it had a shopping area outside, a bit like bicester village and once inside, there were free snacks and beverages. Only a few gates were there and all the seats were like sofas or lounge seats. A small plane (AT72 Jet prop – Bangkok Airways) took us over to Phuket

Phuket

We arrived pretty early at Phuket and gathered up maps and information as we waited for our bags. We were staying at the Hilton Arcadia resort in Karon beach and found a hotel representative at the airport, alas no shuttle to the hotel so we grabbed a metered taxi for 500 Baht. It took about 45 minutes and we could see that Phuket was a lot more developed than the other islands. Dual carriageway, more cars, signs and traffic. We arrived at the front gate, welcomed by saluting guards and were dropped off at a bellhouse – we then took a shuttle (like another open disney cart) to reception.

We got to check in and gave our details and were told that we had our own personal check in. So we inched over to the Hhonours checkin area and the manager came over to meet us. He gave Jenni a bunch of flowers and a flower bracelet to me, we got a champagne flute of juice and we also got a chocolate and we were told of our upgraded room. It wasn't ready, so we were taken to the lounge for Gold VIP members. Breakfast served until 11am and happy hour 5 – 6:30 every day. At around 11am we were taken to the room. It was nice, but had a bit of a rubbish view, so I sought out the manager to see if there was anything he could do. There wasn't but he kept his eye out...

Highlights of staying at the Hilton have been the great service, the free cocktails and appetizers every evening, playing squash and going to the gym. We did a few classes in the first week, stretch class, pilates and a few work outs. Swimming in the pools, watching free DVDs, getting half price food from the café between 5 and 7pm. We ventured out a few times, the beach was a lovely yellow sandy beach, but the sand was quite hard. The waves were pretty huge and the red flags were out as it was monsoon season and there are a lot of undercurrents. Just along the beach road was a street of shops, restaurants and hotels so we found a great place that served excellent cheap thai food and we visited there several times.

We took a tuk-tuk to patong beach to visit the shops. It wasn't the best shopping centre but we grabbed something to eat, Jenni bought some new tops and we went to the cinema to watch Transformers. It was a little weird before the show when the national anthem played and everyone stood up! We didn't manage to stand up, we thought it would be more disrespectful! The film was awesome and afterwards we got a taxi back to the hotel.

It rained quite a lot whilst we were there so we played a lot of Squash and just hung out when it did. I wanted to try out scuba diving as they did a sample try out in the pool pretty much every day, but it was only in the second week that it was clear enough to do so. I turned up and gave it a go, seemed easy enough apart from equalizing my ears but I thought I could get around that. I persuaded Jenni to do the try out as it was just in the pool. She found it quite easy but was still scared about the fish. Vincent was very patient and he helped us get used to the equipment and so on. That night we went and signed up to do a Discover Scuba Diving course – 1 day of diving... Jenni didn't have enough time to mentally prepare to do it the next day, so we were to do it on my birthday!

An early start – 7:30 at the scuba shop at the front of the hotel and we were picked up by the minibus and taken to the marina about 15 minutes away. We boarded the boat and sailed for about an hour and a bit to Racha Yai over bit 2 metre waves. So it was a bit bumpy. At Racha Yai we got our stuff on, and waddled to the boats edge. We'd obviously had a bit of a briefing from Vincent before any of this and I was straight into the water. Jenni, being afraid hesitated at the deck edge and took some coaxing into the water. Once in though, we spent some time learning skills (badly!) - clearing our mask and recovering the regulator. We then spent 10 minutes underwater on our first dive.

We came back up, had some lunch and a little break and prepared for our next dive. This time we didn't have any skills to learn, we were just diving! So down we went, I had trouble sorting out my ears with the pressure so had a headache most of the way, but Jenni was fine. We were under for 37 minutes, before my air started running low, but I also got water in my mask and had a bit of trouble clearing it without killing myself! So we surfaced having seen moray eels, fish, octopus, more fish, starfish, anemone, clams and coral. All very beautiful. We got back on the boat, cleaned up, had some snacks and headed back to the marina. 9 hours goes very quickly! We were given our certificates by Vincent and headed off back for snacks at the hotel.

Later on that night, a birthday cake was delivered to our room, compliments of the hotel – my mum had phoned up and tried to buy a cake, but they were having none of it and gave it me for free! It was a cracking chocolate cake. Very delicious. Was an uneventful birthday evening as we were both knackered from diving!

We saw a snake in the grounds of the hilton too, just outside reception, so we let the bell boys know. They didn't seem too concerned as it was just a green snake. They did get the security man to try and catch it though, but a “Dolly” bird nearly got it first! Dolly bird as they make a noise like a dolphin! Other residents of the Hilton were the Andaman Porsche drivers – all there kitted out in their Porsche shirts, 911 Turbos circled around the hotel grounds. I think it even bumped up my price of staying there so I wasn't happy!!

Didn't sleep so well for the last couple of nights as my ear was giving me some jip. It was also playing up on the flight to Bangkok but it was only an hour so not too bad. We posted some stuff back and went to check in so we could go to the lounge, but Air Asia wouldn't let us check in until 2 hours before. We grabbed something to eat and wandered around for a bit then went and checked in and headed to the lounge. The flight was running about an hour and a half late. That was a blessing as the terminal building was sooo big that it took half an hour to walk to the gate.

Overall impression of Thailand was that the westerners have definitely infiltrated too much. We just took it like a holiday rather than travelling as such. We didn't find it to be particularly cheap, except for some food and to be honest, the Hilton was not much more expensive than some of the other places we stayed. The people were really nice, the place was geared up for tourists much more than Malaysia, but I think it has gone too far and that's a real shame.

Malaysia

Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur

Out of Singapore and into the jungle... The train stopped at loads of places, and finally got to KL at 9:45pm. 7 ¾ hours... So we grabbed some Ringgits, grabbed a taxi and headed to our hostel. It was quite near the centre of KL and close to where all the backpackers places were. We dumped our stuff and went out for a delicious Indian meal, noticing loads of rats in the backstreets as we went. We noted how dirty the place was in comparison to Singapore, Africa and indeed anywhere we'd been. Back in the hostel and it was equally as oppressively hot. Trouble was, the room had louvre windows, the noise outside never stopped and neither of us got much, if any, sleep at all. Next morning, after hearing the mopeds, shops cleaning up etc, I made the executive decision to find us somewhere else to stay. I'd seen another hotel advertising decent rates for their rooms and headed over there. I got us in at the special rate and went back for Jenni. When I got back, they had let my room go and gave me another one overlooking the main road again! I asked for a quieter room and they did eventually give us an inside room with no windows. Blissfully quiet!

We just headed to the mall, I got some prescription sunglasses ordered for the next day, Jenni got some contact lenses. Picked up some other necessities like shorts! We had Thai for dinner and went to sleep some more! Next day we headed to the petronas towers fairly early and got ourselves some tickets, then breakfast. I'd been feeling a bit ropey, so after breakfast I was sent back to bed with some aspirin for my temperature. A day of sleep then back up the twin towers for the view, dinner in the food court, which was no longer a challenge for us!

We weren't upset to be leaving the next morning as KL is not the nicest place. Early morning taxi to Sentral Station and took the skybus to the airport's low cost terminal. Had breakfast at a fake KFC style place and it was disgusting, so didn't really eat. After checking in (Jenni purged her stinky trainers to meet the baggage requirements, we had a doughnut and some snacks. The air asia flight was pretty good, apart from there being 1 extra person on board than had checked in. I think someone neglected to mention a baby or something! We also bonusly got moved to the emergency exit as some people with kids had sat there. Some people are so stupid! It was great for us, Jenni especially, as there was a stinky guy next to her and we got more leg room!

Kota Kinabalu

KK is in Sabah – a state of Malaysia – but is on the island of Borneo. A short 2 ½ hour flight from KL on what I thought was a domestic flight, but we still had to come through immigration. Oh dear, this is where our train trip caught up with us! We were near the front of the line (after getting off the plane last – the Malaysians are not very courteous, respectful, have manners or common sense) and the poor girl had to get the boss in as we hadn't actually been stamped into Malaysia as of that time. After checking our tickets, the train ticket and some deliberation, we were stamped in and 5 minutes in a taxi got us to our chosen hotel, KK Times Square Hotel.

It was just outside the town on it's own little complex about a few minutes drive to the town centre. Not far to walk either, but you had to take the long way round. We checked in to our 99 Ringgit room and put our stuff down before heading for a nosey round town. We got to reception, asked about the wireless internet, where our toilet paper was and so on. The manager asked us where we were from, then after we'd said England, he upgraded us to a room with a better view of the waterfront. It was also a bigger room! So we moved, already KK was working out better! I got a haircut, my first on the trip, had italian for dinner – really good italian food too – and the restaurant manager was talking to us for ages! Again, so friendly... The hotel manager recommended that we go to the island, and to the nearby resort. But we just milled around Friday and Saturday. Had great Indian food at the same Kohinoor restaurant both nights!! One of the nights, we were walking to town, when a guy we'd spoken to at the bar, a friend of the manager, drove by. He stopped, picked us up and dropped us off at the waterfront. So nice!! Sunday we went to the Sutera harbour resort. Very plush. We just hung by the pool, drank cocktails. The manager took us there, came back for a drink and was coming back again later to swim. That again shows how friendly they were. Even tried to tip the free shuttle driver and he looked mortified!

Time to send another package home, when we can find out when the post office is open!

The hotel manager arranged car hire for us at a good rate for the Monday morning, waited around for us and gave us directions as to how to get to Poring Hot Springs and Sandakan. We signed no documentation for the car hire, just picked it up and went!

We drove along the mountain roads past Mt Kinabalu, very spectacular with the clouds beneath the summit. It was particularly slow and bendy roads all the way until we reached the Poring hot springs. The springs were supposedly a natural phenomenon of 98 degrees C water that you could go and bathe in. To me it seemed like a series of baths and swimming pools, nothing special, and I certainly didn't want to go in water that hot when it was about 34 degrees and 90% humidity! We stuck to our initial plan and headed up to the canopy tour.

It was a trek of about 1000 metres up the hills to the treetops and the walkway around the tops of the trees. It was a bit like I'm a celebrity, get me out of here wandering along the planks on ladders surrounded by netting. It was quite safe, but very high. About 41 metres high to be precise – and 158 metres long up in the trees. The views were breathtaking of the surrounding countryside and the trees around us. After we had completed the walk, we headed down again, dripping with sweat – a theme becoming all too common in Asia. Had a bite to eat and trekked to Sandakan – about another 3 hours or so.

Sandakan

We drove into Sandakan, the old capital of Sabah, but it was a bit run down, the buildings weren't very nice and it was all a bit disappointing. We had a little wander, but felt like we were under more scrutiny than anywhere before. So, we stayed the night, got ourselves a parking ticket to the tune of 50 cents – so we paid it once we figured out how to do so! We then headed to where the ferry left for turtle island hoping to make it over there, but the office was closed and other guys sitting around were no help. So in concluding that we were unlikely to see any turtles during the day anyway, we headed for Sepilok.

Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Sanctuary

Sepilok was on the way back to KK from Sandakan, so we would be making a head-start for the following day's driving anyway. We rocked up having researched a few places to stay beforehand, we rocked up – the turning up to places with nothing booked is becoming more alluring all the time – and went to a few places to check them out. One such place – Paganakan – was up a pretty steep hill that I couldn't get the car up for love nor money, so we settled for a place real close to the orangutan sanctuary at a reasonable rate. At 2 pm we went to the sanctuary, saw a promotional video of the place and headed to the feeding platform for 3pm feeding. As we arrived there was one Orangutan on the ropes and she was soon joined by a smaller, younger orangutan. Soon enough they made their way over to a closer platform and got themselves some tasty snacks. Another rangy was waiting in the wings, very politely for her turn and once the other 2 had bugged out, she moved in and had her share. It was interesting to learn about the creatures and see a few of them in action, but overall it was a bit of a lame experience, coming after Africa!!

Kota Kinabalu (Again)

We drove back from Sepilok after breakfast in about 5 hours so returned to KK Times Square hotel at about 1. Returned the car to Mr Kwan and checked in again. Again he gave us a King size room for a cheaper rate. He was ever so helpful! We just chilled out for the day after all that driving, headed for the Kohinoor again for Indian food and their amazing garlic Naans, and the rest of the food was always polished off! The waitress welcomed us back again as that was the 3^rd visit we made!

Next day we took a free shuttle to the mall, bought another book for bookslug Jenni, a postcard or 3 for some people and then headed to the post office, which was open this time, and shipped a package home. After that, we headed to the island – Manukan. We took a ferry across (small ferry - 8 people...) at 1pm. Had some lunch and did some snorkelling. A very strange pink looking fish kept swimming at me then stopping when I turned to look at it. It was a weird showdown really! There were loads of fish just around the shore so it was good to see them. Jenni read her book and complained at the lack of sun loungers!! We took the ferry back at 5pm, the last one off the island, and went for some Italian food again at Fratinis. We were lured by the 50% off pizza and pasta dishes before 6pm. We also knew we had an early start the next day. Surprisingly, the food was awesome!

The taxi we took back to the hotel was a nice guy so we arranged for him to come pick us up next morning at 5am to take us to the airport.

Penang

Not much to say about Penang. A little island, just off the Malaysian mainland, linked by a bridge to Butterworth. Not famous for much apart from it's food. It was quite a historical place, the brits settling in Georgetown back in the day and there were plenty of museums and the likes.

Our flight was early leaving and about 40 minutes arriving into Penang. We took a cab to Georgetown and headed for Hutton Lodge. They had a room, so we took it as it looked a nice, clean, friendly place. We were able to check in, even at 10am, so that was great. We had a wander out, only round the corner really, past the local market (stinky!), grabbed some drinks – I think we're addicted to 100 Plus in asia – and headed back to the lodge. We then went to the mall, thought it was a bit dead, most of the shops boarded up, so we had a little nosey around, had some lunch and wandered a little further. We then found the proper mall, round the back – interconnected with where we were!! So, off we went looking around, found a cinema and decided we would go for a 6:40 showing of Terminator. Headed back to the lodge as we were knackered. As we woke up at about 6:15pm, we realised we were a bit late for the movie, so headed out for the 9pm showing. Ended up watching the 9:20pm showing of Night at the Museum 2 after having had some local food. We'd already booked our ferry tickets for the following morning and arranged a cab to take us to the jetty. Aren't we organised!

Langkawi

Langkawi is an island off the west coast of Malaysia, pretty much as far north as you can get without being in Thailand. In fact some of the neighbouring islands belong to Thailand. It was hit by the Tsunami back in 2004, but wasn't too badly damaged. A few resorts were hit and only 1 fatality. It is probably the biggest resort type place we have been to yet, all watersports and island hopping, scooters and beaches.

Took the 8:30 am ferry which took about 2:45 hours via another little island. I'm not the biggest fan of boats, catermarans and ferries, probably less so than fishing boats, dhonis and other smaller vessels. This was no fun for me and having been described as “yellow” by my lovely wife, I guessed outside was where I'd rather be! I was OK after that, soon joined by a pasty looking wife who only managed a little bit of spew! After arrival, we headed for the bakery, got some bready snacks and hired ourselves a car. Bit of a crappy Proton, but did the job. We then headed to the Celang Beach area of the island, lots of hotels, bit resorty, but seemed like the place to go. We cruised the strip and picked out some places to try and stay, ended up in the AB Motel. Clean, beachfront, had a balcony overlooking the beach and sea and a reasonable price. Deal.

Great mexican food, the people here seemed really friendly, but a lot of whiteys!! Took our little car up to the cable car and seven wells waterfalls. The cable car was pretty high, steep, fast and scary looking, all the things that make Jenni tremble slightly, so we headed for the waterfalls. 150 metres. 10 minutes walk... Yeah, right. Maybe to the bottom of the beautiful waterfall, but not to the top where we headed. 638 steps up and more sweating.. Got to the top, dripping, to find several pools of water heading to the top of the precipice and over. Noticed some kids arrive with their parents, after a few minutes the dad went running in to the pool a little higher than where we were and I guess had to save his drowning kids. Stupid idiots. His mobile phone got a bit wet!! So after a bit of wandering about around the pools, getting Jenni to put her feet in despite the tiny fish, I went for a dip. Just jumped in the pool (the rocks were real slippery mind) and splashed around. Used the drops like water slides and had a bit of fun. Jenni joined in eventually, she was very brave.

We tried to dry off a bit and headed down to the bottom of the waterfall. There, a monkey had stolen someone's bag and gone up the tree to eat their bananas... When he came back down, we left as he was not scared of humans one little bit! It was a beautiful waterfall though. Still damp in the pants area, we headed back to base. I didn't fancy the cable car ride – on my own – with thunder rumbling around, so just went back, did laundry before heading out to dinner at a thai restaurant. The food was delicious and fairly cheap. Next day, since we both got a little sun burnt at the waterfall, we just relaxed, read a little then went to the mall for dinner and to find a bum t-shirt for each of us. The shopping, however, was pretty dire. Stuff like Dr Cardin and the likes, knock off gear! The centres were pretty grotty too and not that cheap, so we went back for more Mexican food – it was that good!

Had a bit of trouble handing the rental car back at the airport. The question “Will there be someone there to give the car back to?” must have been lost in translation as there was pretty much no-one at the airport, let alone someone to pick up the car. Thankfully on such a small island I was able to call the guy and he came and picked up his car before we had to leave. We got our Air Asia flight to KL with no problems, looked for our flight to Bangkok, couldn't see it on the boards... Turns out that they just change the time of your flight when there's a delay! We went in the premier lounge at KL. Some nice food bits and bobs and a bit more relaxed than the regular lounge. We know for next time, too...

Our overall impression of Malaysia was that it was kind of dirty, the people didn't seem to take much pride in the cities and for keeping them clean. KL was not a nice place, but we enjoyed Sabah and would recommend it.

Singapore

Singapore Air

The flight was fine, but the seats were pretty uncomfortable, service wasn't the greatest either. I'd heard such good things about Singapore air, but they mustn't have been talking about economy! Annoying subtitles on the movies and everything. At least we were on time!

Chapter 2: Asia

Singapore

Arrived at about 5:15 am and even at that time the baggage guys are more switched on than at home! People seemed to be stalling on their way out of the plane so we walked first and were pretty much first at immigration. We were scanned on the way down the steps to see if we had swine flu – we didn't... Our bags were out soon after, we grabbed them, got some cash and headed for a taxi. It started pouring with rain, a fact that didn't go unnoticed. The temperature was also stiflingly hot – especially what we had become acclimatised to! So, I told Nikki we would be arriving at around 7 or 8. We rocked up at 5:45. Woke her up, had a chat before she went to work and we settled down to sleep. After a few hours catching up on sleep we headed to the pool – a nice change from the previous 7 weeks – and chilled out some more. Met Mark, another TGRD person out in Singapore, lounging around there too. Nikki's place was an apartment in a complex called “Treetops” and it was very swish! Maid service, free breakfast, good location, all good.

After not venturing out of treetops on our first day, the next day we actually managed to leave! We spent the morning in bed, by the pool and relaxing before heading out via the subway to Chinatown, poking around the market stalls on the streets and venturing into the Buddha Tooth temple. We wandered down from Chinatown to the offices in the main Central Business District, a fine, tall stock exchange building was our choice of loitering spot. Nikki met us and we headed to Clarke Quay for happy hour drinks – only $20 for a jug of cocktail – that's about 10 of your english pounds. Cheap in Singapore. We got a little carried away and ended up eating at about 11:30 in boat quay – chinese food – before ensuring Nikki got home late at 1am on a school night!

Next day went the same kind of way, relaxing, headed for Little India for a wander around, grabbed some fine Indian / Nepalese food and walked back – must have been 3 or 4 miles. It was made easier by seeing the sights of “Orchard” - the shopping mall stretch. Boy, they love their shopping! We saw the queue starting for auditions on Singapore Idol and a guy asked us if we needed help and directions getting back – we were just checking out how far it would be to walk! We knew where we were going, but thanks to you, helpful guy, anyway!

Saturday was hot, Nikki went to the zoo and we just stayed and relaxed in the sanctity of an air conditioned room, did washing and Jenni embarked on a Bones marathon over the next couple of days, to catch up on the ones she hadn't seen. Headed to Chinatown for something to eat.

Sunday, we headed to Sentosa island, like a sort of fun resort off the coast of Singapore. We took the cable car – which Jenni didn't like – across to the island. We had a wander about, went to Underwater world, like an aquarium with touch pools for stingray – the people were so stupid though, grabbing at them and so on. Annoying. Like when there was a pool of Starfish and some guy was picking it out of the water right in front of the sign that says “don't pick up the starfish”. Yet the staff just let them get on with it. There was a nice tunnel feature with a walkway so that you could see the fish underwater. After that we headed back, took the cable car at sunset which was quite nice then had dinner in a food court. A bit scary, but we managed. Grabbed some apple pie and ice cream on the way home and took some back to make heatstroked Nikki feel better too. More Bones ensued..

We had to be up and out by lunchtime on the Monday as we were moving on. It had become difficult to leave somewhere that was so nice and welcoming! We could have stayed for a while. It was nice to be able to get to know Nikki better as well.

We did get to see the four floors of whores, some ladyboys and other exciting things in Singapore!

It's funny, after all their money spent on buildings and having a great city, I expected more of their central train station. A little run down, the food court a bit disgusting to be fair and yet again we were scanned for swine flu on our way out! We got our immigration form for Malaysia and headed through. The immigration guy stamped it and off we went. The train we were catching went direct to Kuala Lumpur and took 7 hours, so we were hoping for a nice quiet, bit luxurious seat – but I only booked 2^nd class. It was alright, but no first class! The train stopped at Woodlands checkpoint on the way out of Singapore, we got stamped out of Singapore, but not into Malaysia. That story will no doubt drag on...

Overall, Singapore was very clean, very safe and that leads to it being a bit sterile. It's fairly expensive too but some things were reasonable too. Wouldn't want to spend too long there under my own money!

Rest of Africa

Jeffrey's Bay

We again had breakfast at Tsitsikamma and packed our stuff. We had loose plans for the day and headed to Jeffrey's Bay, not knowing if that would be our final destination for the night. We got to Jay-Bay and checked out a couple of places and scoped the main strip. It was quite a relaxed vibe so we decided to stay at Ubuntu backpackers. They had free wireless internet but there was to be no downloading or uploading. Unfortunately (for them) I seemed to inadvertently download some updates for the laptop and no-one could use the internet later on!

Watched some of X-Men again as someone had it on DVD, then we went for a drive down the strip and visited the Billabong shop (everything was small in comparison to big old me!). Jenni got a few bits and we headed back for a few drinks – Robertson natural sweet rose wine!! Not just a pretty bottle.. Later still we headed out to eat, went for Mexican in the end. Great Chilli con carne and Enchiladas plus great wedges. Best wedges ever?

We had an early morning stroll along the beach at JayBay. Disappointing sewage pipes going to the sea, rain coming in, no “Supertubes”, in fact lame waves all round. So we left JayBay tired (as the bed squeaked with every move) and a bit anti climaxed. A change of plan saw us heading for Port Elizabeth and Loryn's house as her mountain biking competition only lasted the morning. So we drove to Seaview game and Lion park, in between Jeffrey's Bay and Port Elizabeth.

Seaview

We got our tickets from the man at the gate and drove at no more than 40kph around the park looking for animals. We saw some antelope and giraffe before we got to the Lion enclosure. There were dozens of lions roaming around their enclosures, making all sorts of loud roars. There were also 3 Tigers looking grumpy. We found more, younger looking lions around the corner that gave us some good shots before we headed off to the restaurant and cubs area. We paid 50 Rand each to spend some time with the cubs; we opted for the 3 boys – about 6 months old – Marley, Dutch and Abalone (I think). We spent about ½ hour in their enclosure, able to stroke them, watch them playing with each other, sleeping and so on. We got good pictures of us kissing the lion cubs before Dutch growled at me for doing so....

Port Elizabeth

Satisfied, we left the Lion Park and headed for Port Elizabeth, and headed for the beach. We met Loryn & James at the Red Windmill of Pro Dive at Hobie Pier. From there we trekked out to their pad in Charlo, a nice place with pool and a gate! After relaxing and doing some washing – oh the luxuries – we headed to the beach to watch James kite surf – looks like hard work controlling the wind and a surf board! After that we had Braai back at their place. Good conversation and home luxuries were great.

Loryn worked the next day so I headed to Greenacres hospital to have my stitches removed. The doctor came to check out the work and seemed impressed by progress, no problems with the stitches and they were taken out. We had a wander round the Greenacres mall and bought some stamps to send letters home. We picked James up from his mum's house – he'd been applying for jobs – and headed to the waterfront to look for curios and then ended up in the casino. 20 Rand deposit for a card and then I put 10 rand on the card, we had a little go on the machines before cutting our losses at 10 Rand! We bought garlic bread and fruit for dinner as James was making Bobotie. We got the stuff from Woolworths, which turned out to be the M&S of South Africa! The food was great – hopefully we'll get the recipe.

Addo

After 2 nights at Loryn's, clean washing and a package of stuff to send back to UK in hand, we left and headed for Addo Elephant Park. Stopping at a post office on the way to send the package. 294 Rand and somewhere between 3 weeks and 3 months for it to get back to the UK!

We drove out to Addo past a massive township area, stopped at the backpackers place amongst the orange trees and then headed for Addo. Had an evening self game drive seeing a Lion sleeping, Buffalo, but no Rhino that we are still waiting to see, nor any elephants!! Ah well... A night at Hillbilly central followed – the place was huge, but the whole village seemed to go in and help themselves, the flat was nice, but the bathroom door broken – OK if it's just you, but there was another loud european (maybe dutch) couple arrived in the adjoining sharing room. Not great!

Mthatha

Anyway, we drove on, aiming for East London. We made it by lunch time, stopped at a crazy windmill ranch burger place that served you like at a drive in Movie, had a toilet break and decided that we did not like East London... So we carried on driving, thinking that we'd go to Coffee Bay. But our plans changed again on the way... Coffee Bay was a long way off the road, so we carried on to Mthatha, home to Nelson Mandela. We turned up at the backpackers place and they had a room with DSTV so I could watch the Champions League Final in the comfort of our own room with a few drinks.. We had dinner at Mike's Place and then had to watch United get beaten soundly by Barcelona 2-0. A part of me wishes I could have been there, and it's my fault we lost as I didn't go... But part of me is glad I didn't have to see the beating first hand..

Durban

Made Tuna sandwiches and Jenni drove the first leg to Durban, twisty and turny and slow – through crazy towns full of harzardous driving and people everywhere, not a white face in sight... Once we reached the coast again, we returned to normality!

In Durban, it was more the city life we were expecting. Busy streets, but we found our way to Happy Hippo Backpackers near the uShaka marina (place to visit later). We thought we'd take a look and were very surprised by the place. So new (like a converted warehouse), it had nice rooms, awesome showers and nice staff. We had heard much about the Durban curries, so we headed down the waterfront area and had dinner at Copper Chimney. Food was great, but they didn't have water, and I was gasping! Serve spicy food, but no water, what sort of crazy logic is this!! We had a nice drive around and stopped for water and snacks before heading back to 'appy 'ippo's...

We went to uShaka marine world, which was conveniently positioned around the corner from happy hippo's. So we walked there, had a Wimpy breakfast and got our student combo tickets that enabled us to go into both Sea World and Wet and Wild. Sea World had a dolphin show on as we got there, so that was good timing, getting it out of the way, and we mosied on round looking at the penguins and into the aquarium. Lots of fish, sharks, turtles (at feeding time) and other undersea stuff. After a brief lunch stop we went into Wet 'n' Wild – an aqua park with slides and the likes, but the water was pretty cold when we tested it. No matter, undeterred, I headed for the slides, a little wary of my post op condition. I started on Jika-Jika, a blue ring that went nicely down with the water. Cuda, Squid, both regular water slides, just powered with loads of water.. Much more than usual places. Mamba was a tube slide – darkness, almost. Duzi river was a lazy river kind of ride. Then there were 3 kamikaze style slides rising in height and steepness. One last slide was in a ring straight down a bumpy slide. I did them all twice :) and it was so much fun. I do enjoy being a kid again! Ice cream on the walk back to the backpackers! We were going to have dinner at The Cargo Hold, a restaurant at uShaka but they had a dress code and Jenni didn't have the relevant footwear, so we cancelled and went to the casino instead..

We had dinner at an all you can eat buffet, which was surprisingly nice considering my expectations. We then went to the cinema and saw Angels and Demons. We didn't gamble our savings away! Again the cinema was pretty cheap, but the whole complex was amazing, safe inside and everything there to do.

St Lucia

We drove a couple of hours north to St. Lucia – only one way in and out of the place – in the wetlands. We tried very hard to like the place, but there really wasn't a lot going on. We took a drive down to the estuary and beach, walked along a long boardwalk to the water. The hippos and crocodiles were right there, only a matter of metres away in the estuary and yet we tiptoed up to the edge! There were a lot of people fishing there – the catch must have been good to warrant that proximity to hippos and crocs! We watched for a while and headed to the very local, yokelly boat club. Had a look at some more crocs and hippos and went back to the backpackers lodge. We had self made dinner and relaxed when the sound of drums intrigued me. I ventured outside to find a bunch of zulu dancers performing, so I watched and inevitably was invited up to dance with them – a task that I did no questions! Got my photo taken with them and they seemed like nice guys. I remember the dog barking his little head off at them! Someone left the tv on next to our room and it was 4am when Jenni switched it off. A disappointing stay really.

Hluhluwe

We left early from St Lucia looking forward to another day of game driving, but after ½ hour, Jenni realised that she left her earrings at the hostel, so around we went and back to St. Lucia. On the way we noticed that Hluhluwe (pronounced Shlu shlu we) was signposted where we had come from (if we avoided the highway) so after getting Jenni's earrings, breakfast and coming back we went straight there. We got to the gate around 11am and paid our fees, then headed in. We took a left, went to the Imforlozi side first and saw the usual Zebra and antelope, but nothing more than that, so we turned back and headed for the Hluhluwe side. Not long after getting there a car came past and wound their window down, a helpful chap let us know there were some elephants just further along by the side of the road.

Jenni was driving and we rounded the corner and came to a little bridge. The elephants were not by the side of the road, they were crossing the narrow bridge. We had no option but for Jenni to back it up, we thought they'd cross the road and head off. No such luck, as it turns out we backed up quite far and still the elephants fancied taking the road route. As Jenni reversing usually ends up hitting a tree, we switched quickly, I ran around the car... Still the elephants came at us. A car came past them (sneaked around) and said it's fine if you stay still. Trouble is, on a narrow road, who is the boss? Jenni had earlier read in the leaflet that there had been some “unfortunate incidents between elephants and cars”, so we heeded the 50 metre advice! I decided that I could get round him if we sat still and nudged round, but as soon as I went to go, he wheeled around into the road, ears flapping and truck flailing. I decided to back up some more until he went off road again! They were soon gone and we trucked on, hearts beating a little faster!

We were still searching for the elusive rhino to make up our big 5 viewing and eventually we got to some. Why do they always have to be in the middle of the road? And with huge tusks/horns? Thankfully the small herd (about 5) of rhino were just trying to cross the road and before long we were able to pass, not before a Japanese guy tried to go through the middle of them and almost got himself skewered! His passing comment to us was “High Lisky!”

Time was getting on, so we took one last turn-off to head out and find some big cats. Jenni had a headache from all the fierce sun and looking, so had her eyes closed as I climbed a hill. Just as I was nearing the top, over the brow came a huge Bull elephant, striding down the 1 car wide road. “Whooah!” I cried and stamped on the brakes, waking Jenni up. I let it roll back down the hill, round the corner, out of sight, out of mind. I guess the ellie wanted to take the road as well though and he was a little bigger.

So I backed down some more, sunlight in my back window and mirrors glaring in my eyes through the thick layer of dust we had accumulated on the trip round the park, I thought I could see a nice turning spot, so I could select zone 5 and escape! But with the panic of the elephant hurrying towards me and the lack of vision, I mistimed my turn and ended up back wheels down a wheel rut and unable to go forwards, or backwards at the little tree that was there! So, we were stuck – thankfully just off the roadside – as the elephant picked up pace down the hill. I turned off the engine and waited. Here he came, striding down, trunk flapping side to side. Jenni was not looking. The elephant stopped by the front of the car, had a look, then carried on his merry way... Phew! Jenni thought we were toast!

Nonetheless, we were still stuck, the gates closed in 1 hour and I didn't fancy spending the night there! We tried for what seemed like an eternity to get out, backwards, forwards, jamming stones under the wheel to get some leverage when a car came down the hill. 2 german guys were in it and they were able to help me push out... Free. Granted, we did the pushing where there may or may not have been Lions, Leopards, Cheetah and other wild animals!

We still had to get out, but our nerves were shot, only to go to see some Rhino at a watering hole and we almost ran them over they were so close to the road! No more! So we headed out the park and saw some black rhino on the way. Great, hadn't seen any Rhino then saw both types in one day! We headed to Dave's backpackers place just outside the park and had a few drinks, a braai and relived our scary tales!!

Johannesburg

A driving day! Through lots of roadworks, stop-start for a long way to Johannesburg. We headed for shoestrings – why not end africa as we started!! We were able to pack all our stuff up, purge the unwanted stuff we had accumulated over the past 3 weeks and relaxed. We actually went out for dinner, had italian, then back to finish off our flight preparations.

Next morning we were up earlier than necessary, banking on our priority passes getting us some pre-flight lounge action. They were all closed bar the ones departure side. So, after dropping the poorly hire car off, we had to wait for check in before we could get to the lounge. Turns out, when I changed the flights, they hadn't actually been changed. Great. It didn't matter though, we still made it on the flight to Singapore. African adventure was finished!