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South-East Asia 2016

June - December 2016
A 181-day adventure by Joel Read more
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  • TravelerSouth-East Asia 2016
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    Day 50

    Day 50: Island Hopping

    August 4, 2016 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Figured that today we'd check out one of Kota Kinabalu's biggest tourist attractions, the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. It's a group of small islands in a protected marine reserve a couple of kilometres off the city coastline. No hotel breakfast so we grabbed a couple of pastries on our way over to the nearby jetty, though we'd slept in a little and didn't get there until after 10am.

    Originally we were hoping to do Gaya Island since it's apparently the quietest and least developed, but most of the boats weren't running there today so we picked Sapi Island instead basically at random. We grabbed our tickets, snorkel masks and fins and waited in the departure area. We waited for nearly 20 minutes before someone came back very apologetic - apparently because we'd put the ticket away they didn't notice us! Not off to a great start.

    The speedboat was only small, about a 15 seater, and took us first to Mamukan Island which looked postcard perfect. Bright white sand, clear waters, gently swaying palm trees and not too many people on the beach. And most of the people on our boat hopped out, while we were the only ones who stayed on for Sapi. Beautiful, we thought. If this one's so sparsely populated, ours should be even less so!

    Famous last words. As we rounded the point of Sapi Island we could see that it had much the same features: clear water, beautiful white sands, coral formations under the water, and several thousand Chinese tourists sporting lifejackets. Oh dear. We hopped out and explored a little bit, but I was absolutely gutted. The beach here was much smaller than the earlier island and as densely packed as Bondi Beach on Boxing Day. We walked a hundred metres in one direction to see if it got any better or there was another beach, but no dice. About the only highlight was another proboscis monkey sitting in the trees near the park entrance!

    Although it was now about 11:20 we decided to see if we could get back to the other island, as neither of us wanted to spend a minute longer than we had to on Sapi. Nothing against Chinese in particular, and they're very polite and respectful in small groups, but in a large crowd like that they all tend to yell at each other and it becomes intolerable very quickly.

    After some effort we managed to find the guy in charge of our boat company, and explained our situation. He was fine with us going back to Manukan, but we'd have to wait for the scheduled 12pm boat (by now it was about 11:40). Write-off of a morning, but at least it was hopefully going to have a happy ending.

    And it did, thankfully! The boat left on time with a few other people, and although Manukan island was more populated than we realised (a lot of people were sitting in the shade of trees a bit back from the beach where we couldn't see them earlier), it was infinitely preferable to Sapi. We walked a couple of hundred metres down the beach from the jetty, found a good spot and hopped in the water.

    It was very warm, probably close to 30 degrees! Visibility wasn't brilliant, maybe 4-5 metres, but not too many people about so we relaxed in the water for a bit. It had been a long morning so we were both just glad to finally have a swim. After a bit we wandered back to the pier and bought a cheap lunch from a stall (Shandos had an okay fish burger and I had a godawful microwaved pizza). Wandered a little more while our suncream soaked in, then hopped back in the water and did some snorkelling at our previous spot.

    Quite a few fish around in the water, including trumpetfish, moorish idols, angelfish, and much more besides. The visibility would come and go though, annoyingly, sometimes it would be clear out to 7-8 metres and then it would drop back to only 2-3 metres. No coral to speak of either that I could see, I guess by now it's been completely trampled. Mid afternoon we decided to switch ends of the beach and see what the other side held. After a short walk of 5-10 minutes, we discovered the reason that hardly anyone went to the other end of the beach - the water was full of rubbish!

    Lots of large floating debris like plastic water bottles, shopping bags, chip packets, cigarette butts etc. At least we didn't see any condoms! Still had a quick dip in the water but the constant flotsam made staying in fairly unappealing. Retreated to the beach where we lazed around and read for a while, and indulged in a bit of people watching. Probably the funniest thing we saw was a not-young-enough-to-get-away-with-it Chinese boy of about 7 swimming around completely naked but for a lifejacket. And he was using the waist strap of the lifejacket as a make-shift G-string that covered his butt crack and modesty. Gross.

    Our boat showed up at 4pm and we were back at the hotel by 4:30pm, we relaxed and had showers before heading downstairs for dinner a bit after 6:30. Apparently the Italian restaurant on the ground floor of our hotel is one of the best rated places in KK so we gave it a shot. Not disappointed - Shandos's squid ink pasta was great and my pollo e funghi pizza was a million times better than the "pizza" I'd had earlier in the day. We paid for it though - 2 wines, 2 beers, a starter, a pizza and a pasta came to 160 RMY all up, or just over $50.

    Back upstairs to the hotel around 8pm from the packed restaurant and time to relax and turn in. It's tiring doing nothing but relax in the sun all day!    Read more

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    Day 51

    Day 51: A Familiar Face

    August 5, 2016 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    A good day today - the first time since leaving Sydney that we've met up with someone we know! Our old friend Anthony Yong was in town, as some of his family live here in Kota Kinabalu (though they're originally from Sandakan on the eastern coast). Yong was here to visit family with his wife and 2 year old son, but unfortunately they weren't able to meet us.

    After a quick breakfast of bread rolls, we met Yong downstairs at 10am. Without planning a whole lot, we decided the best option was a food tour of the area although we'd already done some exploring ourselves. He took us firstly to a Chinese noodle house where I had a fish ball soup while Shandos and Yong both had laksa. I had to buy a second coffee because a bee was picking at the condensed milk and then fell in to its death!

    We wandered south through the markets and bought a couple of small things before heading further down to the Imago Mall, not too far from where Yong's family live. We went to a couple of different food places, one specialising in egg tarts (delicious!), and another with kaya-filled pastry. Kaya is a local spread made from palm sugar and pandan and it's incredibly sweet - but very tasty of course, especially for an unreformed sweet tooth like myself.

    We stayed down here drinking coffee and munching for a while before we headed out for another wander, Also managed to catch a brief cultural show put on by the shopping centre, which Shandos and I both got dragged into! It seems to be a very new mall and they're trying a lot of different things to attract new business. While we'd been inside a tropical downpour had started, so we hopped in an Uber back to the main part of town rather than walking in the rain.

    Since we hadn't eaten for 20 minutes or so we agreed it was time for lunch. We were hoping to have bak kuh teh, a Malaysian herbal pork soup (looking at the pictures I'm fairly sure it was one of the dishes we had in Malacca), but neither of the Chinese places we went to were serving it! Bummer. We consoled ourselves with a third Chinese joint serving Hainanese chicken rice, though mine was quite bony and I wasn't super impressed.

    Yong had to leave us around 2pm due to family commitments, so we said our goodbyes and agreed that we'd meet up again before we left Sabah. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to planning, sitting in a small cafe because our hotel wifi was quite poor. After a couple of hours research and discussion, we decided that we'd do a day-trip to Mount Kinabalu and the nearby hot springs tomorrow, come back to Kota Kinabalu and skip entirely on visiting the eastern coastline of Sabah.

    There were a couple of reasons for this decision:
    - it's apparently not particularly safe there. Apparently they have an ongoing problem with Filipino pirates coming ashore in small boats to kidnap and ransom people. The lawless southern Philippines is very close to the coast, and the Australian government advises against travelling to the area (the UK and US travel warnings are less severe)
    - there isn't really that much to see that we haven't already seen. There's an orang-utan sanctuary, a jungle river cruise, proboscis monkeys and some beaches.

    Ultimately it looked annoying to get to, risky, and not very rewarding considering we'd already done most of those things in Sarawak. It also didn't help that neither of us are particularly taken with Kota Kinabalu! Unlike Kuching which was basically unscathed, KK was completely destroyed during the war so there's basically no still-standing history here.

    With that decided, we booked our tickets to Thailand for Monday instead, so it's only a difference of a couple of days. I managed to fit in a haircut before we popped out late in the evening for a meal at one of the best Chinese places in the city. A giant pork knuckle in Chinese herb sauce plus a pile of noodles, steamed rice and two drinks. 41 RMY or about $13.50 AUD. Nice.    Read more

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    Day 52

    Day 52: The Mountain

    August 6, 2016 in Malaysia ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Up early this morning, as our planned road trip to Mount Kinabalu and the nearby hot springs was going to be done by public bus. The only tours we could find the previous day were either full or very expensive (220+ RMY each!). So it was alarms at 6am, out the door by around 6:20, a quick roti canai at the 24 hour Muslim restaurant next door and then a 5-minute walk to the bus station.

    Annoyingly, the mini-van we were intending to take was doing the typical developing world thing of "it leaves when it's full". There's no schedule, you just tell the driver where you're going, hop on, and wait. It's not a huge bus - just a Toyota Hiace van with 12 seats, but hopefully you're on a popular route! I think there were six others when we boarded at 6:45, but it wasn't until 7:30 before we had a full complement and heading off into the city traffic.

    Although the city and the mountain share a name, they aren't actually that close together. The entrance to Mount Kinabalu national park is some 80km from the centre of town, and the drive by minivan takes about 90 minutes. Unfortunately for us today was looking pretty overcast although not threatening imminent rain, but it meant we didn't get much of a view of the mountain as we approached. It's a bloody huge mountain though, the summit is just over 4000m high and it's much more jagged than other high mountains we've been on/near.

    Eventually we hopped off the bus at 9am at the park entrance, paid for our tickets and headed inside. Actually climbing to the summit was definitely out of the question as it's a 2-day 1-night affair, staying in huts high up on the mountain. Permits book out many months in advance, and it would require a lot more cold weather gear than we currently had (ie none). But it's a national park and there are still plenty of trails with good views, so we set about exploring.

    Followed one track down a stream for quite a way before ending up at a small botanic garden. Apparently there's an estimated 8000 species of plants on and around the mountain, simply because of the ridiculously varying climate: an alpine moonscape sticking out of a tropical rainforest. We wandered around looking at the displays, but I have to say that plants probably aren't my favourite things in the world. Emerged from our trail at the main road leading up to the summit trailhead a few kilometres away.

    We started walking along the road as it didn't look that far to the trailhead on the map, but when we passed a 2km marker and realised that it was another 3km to the end and up some very steep hills, we decided to stop. At this point we hadn't eaten for 5 hours, weren't carrying snacks and only had a small amount of water, so going much further was really out of the question. Luckily we decided this just as we reached a memorial to earthquake victims who were killed last year while climbing the mountain. From what I could gather most of the groups were Singaporean schoolchildren (all aged 12-13 or so, very sad).

    So back down we went. I had a mishap on a tight hairpin bend while sticking close to the gutter to avoid a large bus - there was an extremely slippery patch of concrete with nothing to indicate (ie no moss etc), so when I put my foot on it I immediately tumbled over. Nothing too serious, just a grazed left knee, a jarred upper back and some slightly grazed hands, but I'll live.

    Back to the gates by 12pm we had lunch at a restaurant and headed out to the main road to try and find transport to our next stop - the hot springs another 30km further down the road. I was a bit concerned because if the minivans only left when they were full we could potentially wait ages for one that couldn't let us on, but we got extremely lucky and a half-full van pulled up within 5 minutes! I was extra glad because it had also started drizzling at this point, which thankfully it hadn't during our hikes.

    We arrived at the end of the line in Ranau township about 15km from the hot springs, and the minivan driver offered to take us the rest of the way for some extra cash. We agreed and off we went again! I forgot to mention that the day's first driver had been a total Schumacher wannabe and the second driver wasn't much better, but with just the two of us in the van and I assume no "schedule" he calmed down and I only thought we were going to crash a couple of times in the next 20 minutes.

    The hot springs were actually a bit of a disappointment. Although we didn't have to pay to get in (our Kinabalu ticket already covered this area), there wasn't a whole lot authentic about the place. The original hot springs were roped off for swimming, and all the other areas were packed full of Malaysian daytrippers from KL and the requisite Chinese tour groups as well. We soaked our feet in a hot bath and had a wander around (Shandos also paid a couple of ringgit to look around the butterfly sanctuary), but overall it felt like a very low budget Wet'n'Wild. Maybe if we'd had more time to look around and properly swim it would've been better - we both had our swimmers but I wasn't inclined to swim because of the graze on my knee which had bled a little.

    Back out the gate and on the transport hunt again. No taxis and no minivan service, but a tour bus driver spoke to his "friend" who drove us back to Ranau town for 45 RMY. Not the best deal but we were feeling a little stuck. Once there our luck turned again - the minivan back to KK was leaving at 4pm (it was currently 3:40) so we bought Magnums from a nearby supermarket and waited. We set off at 4pm promptly with a very empty van (just us, the driver and two others), so I guess the "when it's full" rule doesn't apply late in the day. Who knows.

    Nothing to report from the journey home - Shandos processed photos while I listened to music and watched the rugged scenery go by. Quite a long trip as the trucks struggle with the mountain passes, and it was after 6pm when we got back to KK. Up to the hotel room for a quick shower and freshening up before we went back to the same Chinese place as last night. I'd found out afterwards that it was renowned for chicken wings in a honey & garlic glaze, and Shandos wouldn't take no for an answer! So we had that along with a sweet & sour fish fillet dish, rice and two drinks for 37 RMY. Sorry to keep bringing it up but the cost of eating always puts a smile on my face.    Read more

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    Day 53

    Day 53: Last day in Malaysia

    August 7, 2016 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Last in Malaysia today, and we had basically no plans other than meeting up with Yong. So we slept in and did a bit of online stuff before heading for the Chinatown Sunday markets a couple of blocks away. Lots of stuff on sale: food and drink obviously, handicrafts, clothes, phones and accessories, people with microphones selling those useless kitchen implements advertised on late night TV and junk mail catalogues. There were even a couple of stalls selling pets - mostly fish and rabbits, but some kittens and puppies too. They were all in a handful of crates and didn't look that happy - it was a little distressing.

    We bought a loaf of banana bread since it was only 5 RMY and we were hungry, so we polished the entire thing off! Not the healthiest breakfast we've ever eaten, but a very tasty one! We washed it down with a 1 RMY mango juice. Yong was tied up with family commitments, so we headed for a cafe where we passed a few hours online, drinking coffees and munching on a bit of food. I had a "bruschetta" which was minced beef, dried garlic and cheese grilled on small bits of bread (not quite what I expected but tasty nonetheless), while Shandos had a waffle with yoghurt and fruit.

    Eventually we got a bit stir crazy and decided to wander around one of the large malls here in KK, so after dropping our laptops back at the hotel off we went. Not much excitement to be found unfortunately - I think once you've seen one large Westernised shopping mall, you've seen them all really. Still haven't heard from Yong, but we'd talked about going to the Sutera Resort Marina (where his brother-in-law is a manager) for a swim and maybe a hit at the driving range, so we set off on the 30 minute walk south to the shopping centre nearby (the same one we'd visited a few days earlier).

    Enjoying the air conditioning after a hot and sweaty walk, we grabbed a couple more snacks and a smoothie from Boost Juice and finally heard from Yong! We agreed to meet at 4pm at the Sutera Resort, so off we went. But right as we arrived, bad news. His little boy was being sick and they needed to take him home, so the meet was off. Bummer.

    Oh well, that's just what happens when you have kids I guess! We had a look around the hotel/resort area which looked pretty fancy, but we weren't keen on talking our way into the pool area. We were now several kilometres out of the city with no plans and no real idea of our next step. When in doubt: alcohol! We hopped into an Uber rather than a regular taxi and got a lift back to the pier where we'd had sundowners on our first day in KK.

    We had a couple of drinks here and enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine before deciding to head to the Shangri-La sunset bar. This was way back down the other end of the city where we'd just come from (in fact even a bit further), but with Uber it's scarily cheap and you aren't at risk of being ripped off by a dishonest cabbie. So off we went. The sunset bar at the Shangri-La hotel was out on a point, directly facing the sunset and surrounded by beach and breakwater rocks.

    But it was packed to the gills with noisy Chinese tourists waving selfie sticks and staring at their phones. I was already a bit put out by the 25 RMY entry fee for non-hotel guests, but at least it included a drink. But there was nowhere to sit, and a staff member scolded us for sitting on a lounge whose sole occupant for 10 minutes was a backpack. So we moved, and took a couple of photos of the sunset, at which point we were scolded again by a different staff member for standing in front of someone. At this point I was ready to throw a drink on someone.

    Thankfully a nice English couple were just leaving, so we sat on their couch and nobody else spoke to us. The sunset was nice enough though heavily obscured by cloud banks on the horizon, but the whole venue just had such an odd vibe to it that I couldn't enjoy myself. The live band weren't that good, the prices were outrageous (28 RMY for a Tiger - it's about 12 in town), and everyone there seemed to be more interested in their phones than the environment or their company. Weird.

    We got out of there pretty quickly after sunset and caught another Uber back into town. Had a good discussion about Malaysian politics with the driver, a young guy who had some choice words for the government. Lots of corruption and back-handers going on apparently, and the national government is terrified of Sabah seceding.

    At this point we were pretty tired and it was 8pm, so we had a quick dinner at a semi-fast-food pasta restaurant near our hotel, headed upstairs, packed and crashed. Early start tomorrow for a 7:10am flight to KL.    Read more

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    Day 54

    Day 54: Over to Thailand

    August 8, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    Not much to report today other than travelling! Early start leaving our hotel at 5:45am, taxi to the airport where we had a quick Maccas breakfast and then boarded our flight to Kuala Lumpur. It was the longest flight we've had for a while, over 2 hours and 30 minutes! I listened to a couple of podcasts and dozed.

    Arrived in KL about 20 minutes ahead of schedule (a first for AirAsia I think!), but we checked in to our onwards flight with no problems and set about waiting around for a few hours. As usual we killed time by eating and drinking.

    Our flight to Surat Thani was quite bumpy and turbulent, we even had to wait in a holding pattern for about 20 minutes while a storm passed over the airport. Thankfully it didn't stick around too long and we landed without incident. We'd booked a connecting ticket with AirAsia all the way through to Koh Samui (a flight to Surat Thani still on the mainland, then a bus transfer and a ferry trip over to the island). It was semi-organised chaos just outside the arrivals hall; someone met us just after getting off the plane saying our bus was ready, but then disappeared and after our 30 minute wait for immigration there was no sign of them.

    Eventually we figured out where we were supposed to be and soon boarded a bus for the 90 minute ride to the port. Thailand feels much more rural than Malaysia did, and everything's just a bit more unfamiliar since their language has its own script (Bahasa Malay and Bahasa Indonesian both use English letters), the first time we've had that. The rhythm of the bus moving caused me to fall asleep, and I didn't really notice the majority of the journey.

    It was gloomy and overcast when we arrived at the port, but the ferry was waiting and we hopped on. 20 minutes later at 4pm it departed, and immediately the skies closed in and bucketed down rain. The ferry took about 90 minutes to cross the channel, but we could see very little due to the rain. Thankfully it slackened a bit by the time we put in at Koh Samui, but still sprinkling.

    As we got off the ferry I slipped down a metal staircase, jarring my back and giving myself a small cut on my forearm right where you'd lean it on a table. I've also just noticed while typing this that some of the LED pixels in my laptop screen don't look quite right, so they must have taken a battering as well. At the port we were a little stuck - we hadn't booked any onward transport and with no Thai SIM cards yet and no Wifi, we didn't really know where the hotel was or how to get there, other than that it wasn't far away.

    The people at the dock weren't especially helpful, but we managed to find a minivan leaving that could squeeze us in. They charged us 400 baht though which is about $16 AUD - I think the ferry itself was cheaper. And of course we were at our hotel within 5 minutes! Definitely too far to walk especially in the rain and approaching dusk, but not far enough to avoid feeling ripped off. I think after travelling for a while those are the environments I detest most - where the locals have a massive information advantage over you and leverage it to the fullest extent. It's not a Thai thing, you get it at all ports all over the world. Very aggravating.

    Our hotel is OK, right on the beach and has a nice looking pool which we'll hopefully investigate tomorrow if it stops raining! No plans as yet to do anything else. Dinner in the hotel restaurant where Shandos enjoyed her Thai salad but I was disappointed with my bland penang curry. Not the greatest of days all in all, but at least we're here safe and sound.    Read more

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    Day 55

    Day 55: Relaxing in Koh Samui

    August 9, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    After the disappointment of all the rain last night, no sunset and a long day of travel, we were both very happy to open the curtains in the morning and discover almost entirely blue sky! We grabbed a hotel breakfast quite early (about 7:30), got ourselves ready and were settled on a pair of sun loungers on the beach before 9am. Here we stayed until about midday, swimming, listening to music and doing some reading.

    The beach was pretty good - very clean though the water wasn't that clear, a little choppy but you could walk out probably 50m or so without even reaching shoulder depth. And of course it was bathtub warm! For lunch we visited one of the two restaurants across the road; we just chose the closer one essentially at random but again I was quite disappointed in my meal. The pad thai was very bland again, almost the equivalent of ordering pasta and getting spaghetti topped with ketchup.

    Back to the beach by 1pm and our sunloungers, though the weather had closed in a bit and storm clouds were looming. Sure enough, within the next 45 minutes a gale whipped up, stinging the sand against your skin as rain lashed down and thunder boomed. We beat a retreat to our room and whiled away a few hours online, Skyping the Cleavers and my dad. It's actually a bit easier to organise Skype to Australia now that we're in Thailand, since it's a 3 hour time difference. The 2 hour difference we had in Malaysia meant that Skyping before dinner wasn't an option as we were usually out, and by the time we'd finished our dinner it was too late in Australia.

    Eventually the weather cleared a bit and we ventured back outside. The wind had subsided but it still was sprinkling on and off and not that pleasant. We grabbed two longnecks of beer from the store across the road (total cost = 120 baht or about $5 AUD) and sat on our loungers, watching the clouds drift past and the sunlight fade away.

    Went to the other restaurant across the street and happy to report that the food was excellent! I had a very tasty red curry with pork, and Shandos's minced pork & basil dish was also great. We even lashed out on a dessert of fried bananas and ice cream!    Read more

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    Day 56

    Day 56: More Relaxing

    August 10, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    Since we'd had mostly good luck with the weather yesterday, we wanted to spend a bit more time here, as we'd originally only booked for two nights and would be otherwise checking out today. But instead we booked an extra night and settled in for another day at the beach & pool. The weather wasn't as great in the morning, with cloudy skies though no rain around.

    After hotel breakfast we parked ourselves on sun loungers and again set about doing nothing. Shandos went for a long walk up and down the beach while I worked on trying to remove my farmer's tan. We had lunch at the same venue as we had dinner last night, and it wasn't a fluke - we both had pad thai which was very good and definitely in line with expectations.

    After lunch Shandos had itchy feet and decided to walk to a Cultural Centre about a kilometre away. I wasn't particularly interested so returned to the beach, though it spotted rain briefly and I returned to the room for a little while. The weather cleared by late afternoon in time for another swim and a great sunset, although a cloud bank on the horizon meant we didn't quite get the "sun dipping into water" magic. Still fantastic colours though.

    At various points during the day we both had a quick look at the resort next door called Nikki Beach Club - a fairly well known hangout for supposedly the rich and famous. Several of our friends have visited on their trips to Thailand and it's known for being a good party venue, but during the day it just felt odd. There was a pool facing the beach with a DJ blasting out disco house tunes, but then there were two scantily clad women dancing suggestively on podiums while kids in floaties splashed around the pool below them. And the venue was probably half empty, with mostly only old folk (50+) in attendance. Probably very different on the weekend, but the dancers were a very odd touch. We didn't stick around as the drinks and food were essentially Sydney prices; much better to get a couple of longnecks from the shop across the road!

    Dinner again at the same restaurant for the third time in four meals, and again not disappointed with green curry chicken or a chilli jam cashew nut stir fry. Or the mango sticky rice dessert!

    Shandos also spent a couple of hours planning out the next few days - after checking out of here tomorrow we'll spend a couple of nights at Chaweng (the main town on the north-eastern side of Ko Samui), before getting the ferry to Ko Phang An just to the north. We'll stay there for about 5 days and check out just before the infamous Full Moon Party and head to the smaller island of Koh Tao - a bit more rural and great for diving (although I can't dive due to my epilepsy).    Read more

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    Day 57

    Day 57: East to Chaweng Beach

    August 11, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Our bonus day used up, it was time to go and check out the other side of Koh Samui - the touristy side. Another hotel breakfast and a quick laze around the beach before checking out at midday. We had lunch for the third time at our now-favourite Thai restaurant, where the food was still excellent, and we wished the owners well.

    Our taxi arrived at 1pm on the dot, a pre-paid 800 baht for the 20 minute drive around the island's perimeter. I know I'm getting irrationally angry about it, but 800 baht ($32 AUD) is both literally and figuratively highway robbery. As I've alluded to, I assume the taxis here are all run by a cartel/mafia sort of group which fix expensive prices for tourists. There's a separate bus system in covered ute trays that the locals use, but again there's no fixed prices and foreigners get charged outrageous amounts. I know Thais have a reputation of being very friendly, and most of them are, but at least pretty much everyone we dealt with in Malaysia (and Indonesia to a lesser extent) was being mostly honest with us.

    Anyway. Our new hotel is at the southern end of Chaweng Beach, the main town area on Koh Samui. It's much more built up here, with endless hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, food carts, shops and stalls, people selling all kinds of stuff. Unfortunately it's one of those places with no beachfront - the main road is 100m back from the sand and the space in between is occupied by giant hotels (some fancy, most not particularly). We were staying only a stone's throw from the beach, but to actually access the beach you either have to trespass across hotel property or walk 10 minutes down the road to a side-street.

    We checked in and dumped our bags, eager to head out and explore. Room is very nice - we'd actually spent a bit more on this one and used up some of our "free night" credits with hotels.com, so that the $90/night cost actually worked out to about $30/night. Bargain! The hotel isn't too large, and has a small rooftop pool as well as a small pool downstairs near the lobby and restaurant. We headed out into the heat but didn't explore too far as we wanted to hit the beach.

    We also wanted to get away a little from the madness of the main street. It's easily the most touristy place we've been since Seminyak and Ubud. Westerners on scooters flying up and down the streets, everyone trying to talk you into their shop, taxi drivers yelling "taxi yes hello my friend" from a block away to get your attention, vans driving circles advertising all sorts of things - the full moon party in a few days, muay thai kickboxing fights, the local go-kart track, the beach club that was next door to our previous hotel.

    We eventually just trespassed through a hotel and walked onto the beach, found a spot in the shade of some palm trees and set up camp. The beach itself is absolutely beautiful - pristine white sand, no rubbish, very clear water and very warm too. We were definitely glad we visited this side, as the beach was definitely better despite the tourist hordes. The weather was better as well, no rain although it was a bit overcast, and the wind was much lesser (I'd guess we're now on the leeward side of the island).

    We chilled on the beach for most of the afternoon, people watching and enjoying the water. Lots of vendors wandering around selling ice creams, sarongs, tattoo designs and even bikinis! Go figure. Late in the afternoon we went back to the hotel and decided to check out the rooftop pool. Not much view other than of the mountains, but it was nicely landscaped and a good environment for chilling out. We had room service bring up a pair of mojitos for sundowners which we enjoyed in the pool.

    After our swim we freshened up and headed out for dinner. Found ourselves an outdoor food court where we got a bunch of stuff grilled up and a couple of beers for a pretty cheap price which we were happy with. Wandered around the town which had only gotten more intense as all the restaurants have hawkers trying to entice you in, plus all the others who were still there from the afternoon! We retreated to the beach, and ended up walking almost the entire length of the beach (at least a kilometre if not two). There were some quite expensive beach club type places at the end which we declined to patronise, so we started back along.They looked nice, but I don't really get the sense in paying 200 baht for a cocktail when there's a guy just back down the beach selling them for 90 baht.

    So we stopped at one of the cheaper places and had another cocktail, sitting on loungers on the beach in near-darkness. Nice environment, except for the noisy Israeli backpackers who kept walking past. Our cocktail bar closed up at 9pm so we did the long walk back to the hotel, stopping only for a banana & peanut butter pancake!    Read more

  • TravelerSouth-East Asia 2016
    1
    111
    Day 58

    Day 58: Chaweng Beach

    August 12, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    Another day of relaxing in beautiful Koh Samui. Today we had absolutely no plans other than the beach, so off we went first thing! Our room didn't include breakfast so we went to a fairly average restaurant around the corner. Nothing but basic refuelling fodder, but at least the price was right!

    Our splurge for the day was renting a pair of sun loungers on the beach. It was 200 baht per person per day, and included access to a hotel pool along with a toilet, a shower and best of all - access to the hotel's wifi! That's about $8 AUD each which isn't too bad, considering we got there around 10:30 am and didn't depart until nearly 4pm.

    We swam, relaxed, swam and people watched. I skyped mum for a bit in the afternoon though the connection wasn't great. Lunch was a pretty laid back affair as we didn't want to leave much cash lying around on the beach, so we just had some off-brand Oreos we'd bought at 7-11 in the morning, along with a freshly grilled corn on the cob. Reasonably filling and very cheap.

    The people watching was hilarious - Russians in bizarre outfits, dodgy old European men with 18 year old Thai girls, topless Americans, a Japanese couple with a gigantic inflatable unicorn, and of course the drunken Israelis. They've been the big surprise here - there's enough of them that there's a whole block with food and accommodation signs almost entirely in Hebrew. Again I'm surprised at how few Australians are around, but I guess during our winter most people head to Europe for holidays rather than Asia. Maybe?

    We left the beach around 4pm and walked back to the hotel. Spent a bit of time in the room showering and recuperating before heading back out. I'd heard there was a good brewery not too far away, so we hopped in one of those local "buses" (really just a ute with a sunshade and you sit in the tray) and got a ride most of the way there. But neither of us knew the protocol about fares or payments, so I paid when we hopped out and I'm pretty sure we got hugely ripped off again - 200 baht each for a sub-10 minute ride in the back of a ute. Fucking assholes.

    The brewery was still 10 minutes walk away so we were a bit tetchy when we got there, having also had a "discussion" about payment for the ride - I'd wanted to get a taxi in the first place but was overruled. Neither of us particular enjoyed the brewery either - the beers we tried tasted OK but it was run by an English guy and the beers were all far too warm for our Australian palates. I can understand room temperature beer in a cold climate, but not when it's 34 degrees outside!

    So we left the brewery a little disappointed and now hungry as our lunch wasn't that substantial. There was a large shopping mall nearby that we'd seen the previous night which we checked out quickly and bought a new sunscreen (ours had run out today, and it's bizarrely expensive in Asia). We were hoping to find a burger van that we'd also encountered the night before, but alas it wasn't there, so we headed to another food market that we'd seen from the ute.

    Lo and behold the burger van had its permanent home in the food market! The burgers were excellent, and with proper meat patties rather than the miserably thin slices of processed meat we'd gotten in Malaysia. Another ultra-cheap cocktail (80 baht / just over $3 AUD) with dinner and we again did the long slow walk back to the hotel through the crowds of hawkers.

    Stopped at the same pancake cart for a pineapple banana and chocolate pancake this time which was again amazing. Shame we can't go back tomorrow! Little wonder that south-east Asia's backpacker circuit was sometimes known as the "banana pancake trail". Off to bed early-ish despite it being Friday night in a party town; we've got a 10am pickup tomorrow for the ferry to Koh Pha Ngan.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth-East Asia 2016
    1
    Day 59

    Day 59: North to Ko Pha Ngan

    August 13, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ 🌬 31 °C

    Time to move places again! We had a quick breakfast of takeaway croissants in our room before the bus pickup at 10:30. Fairly short drive to the pier where we waited an hour or so for the boat to arrive. This boat wasn't a ferry, instead a large catamaran type boat (similar to what they use for whale watching in Sydney) with three large decks and a capacity of several hundred people.

    We boarded with no problem and set off at about 12:50, around 20 minutes late. It's only about 20 minutes on the boat over to Koh Pha Ngan so the boat ride was over very quickly. We started off on the open-air upper deck, but it started raining about halfway across the strait so we beat a retreat downstairs and stood the rest of the way. Met someone from the hotel at the dock who drove us to the hotel (sitting in the back of a ute, Thai style) which of course cost us 300 baht or $12 AUD for a 15 minute ride.

    Ko Pha Ngan is known as a party island, and is home to the infamous Full Moon Party each month. Thankfully the full moon is a few days after we leave! It's a smaller and far less developed island than Samui, and once we left the dock behind it was only a minute or two before we were out in the countryside. Our resort is right up on the north-western coast in a very quiet area, situated between two nice beaches and with a few shops scattered around. It's very hilly though, as we were soon to discover.

    The accommodation itself is very rustic - we don't have air conditioning or a TV, no housekeeping either. It's basically just a clifftop shack with a bed, a hammock on the balcony and a wet bathroom. Comfortable enough I guess, though we weren't planning on spending much time there. We had a quick lunch at the hotel restaurant which was reasonable enough, and then headed out for a quick walk. We didn't get far over the hills before deciding that we'd probably prefer the beach, so we headed instead down to the hotel's private beach.

    Down a very steep set of stairs that brought to mind a Hardy Boys mystery or something, the beach itself was fairly small and with quite choppy surf. It was approaching low tide too so there wasn't much water that didn't have rocks, coral or seaweed underneath it. We persevered for a little while before retreating back up the enormous hill to the hotel and walking over to the beach in the next cove south.

    This beach is much much larger, and with far more water for swimming in. We relaxed, swam and chilled out here for a few hours until late in the afternoon. Briefly hit the hotel pool for a test run on the way back before a shower and freshening up, then we walked to the hotel next door to sample their restaurant. It was one of those "international" restaurants that had basically every country's cuisine on the menu - I went with a plate of nachos that turned out surprisingly well!

    Back to the hotel before crashing in bed around 9:30pm.    Read more

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