Malaysia - George Town

Sunday 8 July

We had a long day of travelling ahead of us, 4.5 hours to the Malaysian border and another 3.5 hours to George Town plus a few stops on the way. A mini-van picked us up at 7am and we had an interesting drive through Southern Thailand.  Rubber trees and palm oil seem to be the main crops. Houses are reasonably substantial and there didn’t seem to be the poverty we saw in Bangkok.

House on the Thai side of the border 

House on the Thai side of the border 

House on the Thai side of the border

We stopped and watched men cutting the palm oil fruits from the trees. They use a sharp knife at the end of a very long pole that is lifted up to cut the fruit. The fruit when cut fell to the ground with a thump.

a palm fruit

Palm fruit being cut

Ordering lunch was an interesting experience. We were at a food court and luckily there was some English on the menu boards so we had an idea of what we were ordering but the staff didn't speak English. Pointing, nodding and smiling did
the trick and we both got our meals without any surprises.

When we were a couple of kilometres from the Thai/Malaysian border both sides of the road became lined with stalls and there was a steady stream of people. Apparently goods are cheaper on the Thai side so people cross the border to shop. We walked across the border with our luggage and were stamped out of Thailand and into Malaysia without a baggage check. Our friend from Columbia wasn’t with us as the only way he could get into Malaysia was to fly in via an international airport. He had to fly from Krabi to Kuala Lumpur then to Penang to rejoin our group. It seems unfair the he had to go to this expense just because he comes from a country that has a drug trafficking reputation.

Stalls at the border

On the Malaysian side we had a different van and neither the driver or the van were up to the Thai standard. The van didn’t have room for all the luggage in the back so some was on the back seats. Also the seat backrests only had one position that being partially reclining! The drivers driving wasn’t all that great and when he nearly rear ended a vehicle he was following we all independently decided he wouldn’t be getting a tip today. The houses on the Malaysian side of the border looked quite substantial and some were quite western looking. We saw a few rice fields as well as rubber and palm plantations.

After arriving at George Town there was just time for a shower and quick settle in before going out for dinner. We walked to an Indian restaurant that was some distance from our hotel, but we were all happy for some exercise after a day of sitting. On the way it started to rain and for a start we could shelter under verandas but eventually we walked down the road in the rain. It was very warm and we soon dried out once the rain stopped. We ended up walking down the road as here, like we found elsewhere, the footpaths weren't continuous and were often at different levels. In front of one building you might have a nice tiled footpath but then you would have to step down to street level before stepping up in front of the next building. The gutters were huge, big enough to swallow a person; sometimes these were covered and sometimes open so we were careful.

The restaurant was a very unpretentious place with no walls on the footpath side. It was extremely busy with tables being filled as soon as they were vacated. The food was delicious and the meal and drink for Al and I cost about NZD14. There was no sign of rain as we enjoyed the sights while walking back to the hotel.

Street vendor

Street vendor

This street doesn't look busy but generally they were.
Crossing with the locals was a good way to get across

Monday 9 July

This morning we had a 4 hour guided mini-van tour around George Town. Many of the buildings we passed had an old English colonial look as George Town was the first British Colony in Malaysia. It was founded in 1786 and became a base for trading with the Malay states. Penang became an independent state of Malaysia in 1957. We visited the Fort Cornwallis, constructed c 1810, but today only the fort walls, cell block, chapel and some canons remain. The chapel was built in 1799 and is the earliest roofed structure from the colonial area surviving in Penang. British control over Penang led great growth both in the size and the diversity of Penang's population. In addition to small numbers of European settlers immigrants came from Siam and Burma India and China. With this diversity of cultures you see churches, mosques, and Buddhist and Hindu temples close to each other.

City Hall

Cornwallis cannon

Chapel at Fort Cornwallis

Our visit to the clan jetties was fascinating. Clan Jetties are unique Chinese settlements, homes built on wooden or concrete stilts along the wooden pier that extends to the sea or Penang Channel. Homes stand in a row on one or both sides of a wooden walkway about a couple meters wide. The jetties have been in existence since the 19th century and 6 of the original 7 remain. The residents of each clan jetty are descendants of Chinese immigrants and historically each jetty was controlled by a different clan. We visited the Chew jetty and walked between the houses passing close by the residents doorsteps. I guess they are used to tourists wandering by but as we walked so close to their homes at times I felt we were invading their space. We also visited a nearby Taoist temple where our guide explained how kau cim sticks (Chinese fortune telling sticks) were used.

Clan jetty (Chew Jetty)

Passing by the front gate

Thailand - Ao Nang

Thursday 5 July

Nothing was planned for the morning and as it was raining again we had lie in and relaxed at Morning Mist.  Today we were going to a small village and staying the night on a rubber plantation but the first stop on the way was just down the road to see some monkeys.  

We stopped near a temple and saw a group of 30 or more monkeys going about their monkey business.  Some were jumping into a large water tank to go for a swim, others were being fed peanuts, some were swinging on vines and others wandering around keeping an eye on the other monkeys so they kept out of trouble.  


















We arrived at our homestay after a 90 minute drive and received a warm welcome by our host Mr Ae.  The house was quite large with two double rooms and one large bedroom upstairs along with a lovely covered deck area.  Downstairs were toilets, showers and the family’s accommodation.  

Our Homestay

Butterfly

We were taken for a walk around the village and saw rubber plantations and were shown how rubber tapping was done. Also on the farm were pineapples, which they grow between young rubber trees for 3 to 4 years until it’s too shady for them, coconut trees completed the crop.

Rubber being tapped

Pineapple between young rubber trees.

Village house

Village house

Our hosts prepared a lovely meal for us and we spent the evening on the large deck, eating, talking and socialising with our hosts and their two young children.

Dinner is served

Songthaew

Friday 6 July



After an interesting breakfast of sticky rice parcels and other things we had a short mini bus ride to Ao Nang Beach.

We had half an hour to settle in at our hotel before getting a songthaew to the beach to start our Phi Phi Islands trip.  There were 26 of us on a 40 minute “fast boat” trip over a choppy sea out to the islands. We stopped at Bamboo Island and had 40 minutes to swim if we wanted and amuse ourselves before re-boarding and going to Maya Bay.

At Maya Bay there seemed to be more people and boats than beach! There were so many boats it took a while for us to have room to back up to the beach so we could get off.  We wandered down a short track that took us to the other side of the island before returning and getting back on our boat.  By now we were feeling a little bit like packaged tourists. 

Finding a gap to get to the beach

Maya Bay

Long tail boats at Phi Phi Don

We had a little longer at our next stop of Phi Phi Don. We had lunch, which was included in our trip, then we walked down the beach but as the tide was in there wasn’t much room. In December 2004 almost all of the island’s infrastructure was destroyed by tsunami and many people were killed. Today, as before many shops line the footpath as do restaurants, booking agencies and accommodation places etc. 

We boarded the boat again and after about 5 minutes anchored so we could go snorkelling. There was no coral worth mentioning but there were some brightly coloured tropical fish. We had a second anchoring spot for snorkelling and while there were less fish at the second spot there were some different ones. The water was very clear and nice and warm. In spite of the packaged tourist feeling it was a fun day out.

sea urchin

 In the evening after having dinner at a nice Thai restaurant we visited the Ao Nang night market, which was basically the normal shops open at night. It was a nice atmosphere and we weren't hassled to buy.

Main street Ao Nang beach

Saturday 7 July

Nothing was planned for today so we booked a kayaking trip for the afternoon. Our guide Kitty asked for a discount for us and without any haggling it was reduced from BHT 650 to BHT 400 ($25 to $15) . We spent the morning checking out the shops (again).

We had a 30 minute mini-van ride from our accommodation to the starting point for our kayaking. There was a group of about 15 people some of whom hadn’t kayaked before and 2 guides. After the novices spent time working out how to paddle we went out in the sea for a short distance before going up an inlet/river with mangroves and limestone cliffs each side.

We paddled between the towering cliffs, down narrow channels that opened into hidden lagoons and made our way through a maze of mangrove roots. 

a way through the canyon

paddling through a lagoon

past limestone cliffs and into the mangroves

there is a way through the mangroves and fortunately the guide knew where it was.

We spent 2 hours paddling in this marvellous place and without guides we wouldn’t have found our way through the labyrinth of channels.

Thailand - Khao Sok

Tuesday 3 July

Songthaew

Still a bit bleary eyed we left the train and had breakfast at a café before taking a songthaew to Khao Sok National Park where were based for the next two nights. A songthaew is a truck that has two bench seats fixed along either side in the back of the truck and it has a canopy overhead. The vehicle I had in my mind was quite a bit larger than the Nissan ute that came to pick us up. Our bags were loaded on top and the seven of us got in the back for a 2 hour road trip, which surprisingly wasn’t uncomfortable.

The road gradually climbed its way into the jungle and we passed rubber and coconut plantations and papaya farms before seeing glimpses of towering limestone cliffs though the trees.  It started to rain shortly after we arrived at our accommodation but had cleared enough by early afternoon for us to decide to go for a walk in the National Park.

We paid a small fee to enter the park and set off to walk to a waterfall.  It wasn’t too long before I discovered my first leech.  It was a nervous flick to remove the first but a calm removal after 3 or 4, after that they were just a nuisance.  You didn’t feel them bite and some fell off before we noticed them, where they had been was obvious as the small wound bled quite freely for a while.  The trick was to spot and remove them before they latched on.  We walked for about an hour before it started to rain, rain that quickly became heavy but fortunately we were a few metres from a shelter.  We waited in the shelter while it bucketed down and there were a few rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning.  After 30 minutes it had all but stopped so we retraced our steps.  We investigated a side track on the way back and found some rapids in the river but never saw the waterfall.  It was a little disappointing that the only wildlife we saw was butterflies (and leeches) but all the same it was very enjoyable.

Jungle track

Leech  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Soon after arriving back at our accommodation (Morning Mist) it rained again but it was very pleasant with temperatures in the mid 20’s.  We had been told that Morning Mist had the best food in the area and after the meal we were served at dinnertime we never looked elsewhere.  It was terrific food with lovely presentation and the staff were excellent.

The deck where we ate all our meals

One of the excellent meals

Mango smoothie - yum

Not good weather for seeing birds but I spotted this one

Friday 4 July

We woke to the sound of rain but fortunately it had stopped by the time we got up as today we had a day trip in the National Park on the Ratchaprapha Dam Lake.  The dam was built around 1980 to provide electricity for Southern Thailand.  The lake is bounded by jungle covered limestone cliffs and many limestone columns poke out of the water making small islands.  It is very spectacular. 

We had an hour’s minibus ride to the lake and once there we boarded a long tail boat that took an hour to get to a raft house.     On the way we had lovely views of misty mountains, most of them jungle covered and very steep.
   

The raft house was one of many accommodation places on the lake.  It was a series of buildings floating on bamboo and logs with not very stable floating walkways in front of some of the smaller accommodation rooms.

We had a multi course lunch then went back on the long tail boat for a short ride to where we had a 40 minute walk over a hill to get to some caves.  The thought of another encounter with leeches wasn’t particularly inviting but there weren’t as many of them this time and wearing socks with our sandals meant we had more opportunity to find them before they latched on.  The leeches were on the track and it was hit or miss whether they found you as you went by.

Our raft !

When we got to the other side of the hill we had a short bamboo raft ride to get to the cave.  The bamboo rafts didn’t look very seaworthy and once we were all on board they were barely above the water but we made it there and back with any drama.  The cave wasn’t very big but there were some nice stalactite and stalagmite formations.  After visiting the cave we retraced our steps all the way back to Morning Mist.  

Thailand - Bangkok

Friday 29 June 2012

We left home to join a two week Intrepid Travel trip going overland from Bangkok to Singapore.  As we didn't want to arrive in Bangkok totally jet lagged we had a stopover in Singapore.  When we checked into our hotel about 12 hours after leaving home and were very happy we weren't still in the air.  We had been well fed on the flight so we just went for a short walk, in a balmy 29C temperature, to get a little exercise before bedtime.

Saturday 30 June

Up bright and early in the morning to take the shuttle back to the airport for our flight to Bangkok.  After a three hour flight we were amongst the hustle and bustle that is Bangkok.  We took a taxi to the hotel and this almost an hour trip only cost about NZ$15.  It seems that fares are based on distance rather than the time taken.

After checking into our hotel we went out to find a late lunch.  That wasn’t hard as we only had to cross the road to find suitable place.

 Our hotel was near Kao San Road, which is well known for its street stalls and tourists.  There is stall after stall selling cheap clothing, handbags, trinkets etc.  With so much stuff being offered for sale and so many stalls selling the same things you wonder if anyone makes a living.
  

Lunch spot - our hotel is the white building across the road.

Typical street filled with stalls

Sunday 1 July 

Today we went on a half day trip to the Damnoen Saduak floating markets (cost NZ15 each!).  These markets are about 1 ½ hours mini bus ride from Bangkok.  They are situated on canals (khlongs) that were dug in the 1790’s to provide convenient transport to/from Bangkok.

Once at the markets we boarded a narrow boat that was paddled from the rear.  We were taken down a narrow canal lined with market stalls and filled with a mix of tourists in paddled boats, tourists in long tail boats and vendors in boats selling their wares.  Some boats had charcoal grills where food was cooked; others were selling fruit, vegetables, seafood, trinkets, souvenirs etc.  It was totally chaotic, a traffic jam at times with boats bumping their way through.  Some vendors based on the bank had long poles with hooks that they used to snare the tourist boats and drag them in for closer viewing of their wares.

charcoal cooker on the boat

floating market

We went on a long tail boat ride along some of the residential canals.  A long tail is a narrow wooden boat that is powered by what often seems to be an over large (usually inboard) motor with a long drive shaft extending to the propeller which enters the waters a couple of metres behind the boat. 

Today many of the canals have been filled in and converted into roads.  The floating markets are a tourist attraction but they give an insight to what life used to be like on the canals.  The houses that line the canals are lived in and people use a mix of boats and vehicles for transport.  The post obviously comes by boat as we saw mail boxes, house numbers and street names as we cruised by.

women preparing food

 Some of the houses lining the canals had boats dry docked or moored alongside. 

 I suspect that the polluted canal water was used for food preparation and dish washing as we saw people doing these chores beside the water as we went by.

houses by the canals

houses by the canals

Monday 2 July

Up early again and we went down the street to get breakfast.  Not far from our hotel we found a restaurant that was open and were shown to a table.  After waiting for 10 minutes no one had come to take our order.  We could see some of the staff near where the food was cooked were asleep so we left and found place nearby that was more open.

Our first excursion for the day was a long tail boat ride through some of the khlongs of Thonburi.  These are on the western side of the Chao Phraya river and Thonburi was an independent province until it was merged into Bangkok in 1972.

The houses along the khlongs were a mix of modern houses, old wooden houses, stilted shacks and dilapidated lean-tos and an occasional temple as well.  The tide line from the floods late in 2011 was evident on many houses, some of them would have escaped inundation but sadly many didn't.  Some of these would have been homes of squatters who having so little in the first place would have found the months of flood very difficult

Houses on the khlongs - note the flood line on the house on the left

  

We then went to Wat Po, one of the oldest and largest Wats in Bangkok. It wasn’t our first visit as we went there in 2008. We saw many Buddha, some standing, some sitting, a gallery of them in a row, a large golden one and the biggest of them all a reclining Buddha.

Reclining Buddha foot inlay

The reclining Buddha is 15 m high and 43 m long and is covered in gold leaf. The feet are 3 m high and 4.5 m long and are inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

Reclining Buddha

Reclining Buddha

Reclining Buddha feet

 some more photos from Wat Po

 

After looking around the temple grounds the group split up and four of us took a taxi to Chinatown.  We had spent time here before and were keen to go back as it is less touristy than the area around the temples.  We wandered amongst the mass of humanity for about an hour.  There was an amazing selection of food or sale with options of raw, hot or dried.  Many things seemed strange to us including pigs ears being chopped into pieces for sale.

We wandered into a large market area with stalls side by side and narrow walkways between.  Everything was on sale here – electronics, smart phones, porn dvds, shoes, gas cooking equipment, junk, clothing etc etc.  We came to an area where they were assembling switchboards.  I didn’t think it was an environment for producing reliable products.

We went back to our hotel area and found a place for lunch then went back to the hotel to freshen up before going to the railway station to catch the night train to Surat Thani.  We arrived at the station in plenty of time but then had to wait for a while as the train was late.  We were told this wasn’t unusual for Thai trains. 

The train was very comfortable & down each side of the corridor were single roomy seats  facing each other.  Our luggage was on a rack beside our seat.  For sleeping a pair of seats formed a bed and another dropped down from above.  When it was time for bed staff came to set up the beds, complete with sheets and privacy curtains.  After a busy day getting to sleep wasn’t a problem and before we knew we were being told to get up because we were approaching our destination.