Banana Pancakes

After recovering from the little bout of revenge my stomach inflicted on me for my over-indulgences in Malaysia we made the long trip to Koh Lipe, in the Tarutao Marine park of Southern Thailand. This involved a bus to the infamous border town of Sungai Kolok and from there a minibus to Hat Yai, crossing the whole town and avoiding the touts trying to rip us off before boarding another minibus to their pier at Pak Bara and then the over-crowded speed boat to Koh Lipe. It was not a particularly enjoyable days travelling! It was a good introduction to Thailand though and immediately prompted us to raise our guard to scams after the relatively relaxed attitude in Malaysia.

Koh Lipe is famous for longtail boats owned by sea gypsies bobbing in the turquoise sea. What the guidebook doesn’t tell you is that the whole small island is over-crowded and over-developed and that there are so many longtails that it is difficult to get off of the beach and into the water. When swimming out to snorkel around the small offshore islands it is necessary to keep an eye out for longtails speeding past, unless you want to lose a limb on the way! If you have not head of Koh Lipe it is probably because the pace of development here has been so quick. Just a couple of years ago it was a relatively deserted island in the slightly dodgy deep south of Thailand. It was used as the setting for one of those desert island reality shows and all of a sudden it had become the new Koh Phi-Phi! In a couple of years it bypassed the whole backpacker island phase of bamboo huts on the beach and has become a fully fledged holiday island, we couldn’t move for the numbers of Scandinavian tourists around, most of them pushing prams along the only road on the island, the cunningly named Walking Street. It is a beautiful place however and on the positive side it does mean there has never been any Full Moon or Trance party scene on the island. You can walk around most of the island in 45 minutes, using the 3 beaches – Hat Pattaya, Sunrise Beach and Sunset Beach - as trig points and you can find some relatively budget accommodation off of the beach. Our only regret was that after we plumped for a room with a bin overflowing with dirty nappies opposite our patio we discovered somewhere that we could have pitched the tent I am carrying around South East Asia at a beachside resort for a quarter of the price. Damn. At least the weather was good, we arrived after a long period of unseasonably bad weather and met a few people heading in the other direction grumbling about rain but we were welcomed by clear blue skies, and they followed us from Koh Lipe to Koh Phayam and onwards.

Transiting Hat Yai once again we made our way north along the Andaman coast to Ranong and from there took a ferry to the small island of Koh Phayam, the ferry sailing past the southern tip of Burma en route. Koh Phayam is the polar opposite of Koh Lipe, or at least the quieter beach, Ao Khao Kwai, is. Here there are no big posh resorts, just classic bamboo huts on the beach, most with the Bali style outdoor bathrooms and no electricity except between sunset and around 11pm, i.e. no noise. From the beach you can barely make out the huts through the thick jungle and even when the resorts are pretty full the place still feels deserted. The close proximity to Burma is revealed by the women wearing that powder on their faces to protect against the sun in the Burmese style and there are many Burmese options on the menu’s – such as delicious green tea salad and Burmese curry. In fact, they tasted better here than I remember the food in Burma tasting! The only downside to Koh Phayam is that there are no coral reefs around so no snorkelling and the sea itself is a darker shade of green so not so photogenic, although it is evocative of some of my favourite Subcontinental beaches.

One of the first things we noticed about Thailand is how quiet and relaxed everyone seems to be, especially compared to Malaysia where the collective exuberance often leads to a crescendo of annoying screechy voices! I don’t know if the Thai style can be attributed to a tonal language, which requires an absence of emotion in speech in order to be understood or whether the strong belief in saving face, i.e. not losing ones temper in public, also helps keeps the volume down but we were taken aback by the peace and quiet on our first few bus rides here.

Feeling relaxed after a few days lazing on the beach it was time to head north. A night bus took us to Bangkok where we simply crossed the whole city in the early morning before rush hour and jumped on another bus to Sukhothai, an ancient city in Northern Thailand. This was the one place in Thailand that I regretted not visiting before so I was excited to get there this time. Just 12km from the new town lies the ruins of one of the original Thai kingdoms that thrived during the 13^th and 14^th centuries. The kingdom of Sukhothai was eventually absorbed by that of Ayuthaya, but that is another story and one I may come to in a few weeks time when I re-visit Ayuthaya. Nowadays it makes a very enjoyable day or two to hire a rickety old bike and cycle amongst the ruins of Old Sukhothai, stopping at the various stupas and temples along the way. The city is divided into five main zones – Central, North, East, South and West – but we only visited the Central and North zones. The two highlights for us were Wat Mahathat with its collection of Buddha statues, some sitting some standing and Wat Si Chum with its sitting Buddha hidden behind a wall, with just a thin gap revealing the statue inside.

Of course we have also been enjoying the cuisine here immensely. I could live on a daily diet of banana pancakes, pad thai and red (or green) curry all washed down with a fruit shake or a bottle of Chang! The Thai soups are especially good as well – the hot and sour Tom Yam Goong (with prawn) or the rich and creamy Tom Kum Kha (Coconut Chicken) are probably the most filling soups I can imagine, even the classic fishball noodle soup, Kuay Tiew, served on every street corner manages to keep me going for a few hours and saved us a fair few Baht on Koh Lipe! The only grumble I have is that after these classic dishes I do find some Thai cuisine to be a little bit too Chinese and surprisingly bland at times. I think that is why I always preferred Malaysian food, Thailand has the big star meals but I can visit any small hawker stall in Malaysia and be extremely satisfied, something that doesn’t always happen in Thailand. Also, most Malaysian food is at least partially prepared meaning there is barely any waiting time, which suits me. In Thailand most food is made to order and therefore takes longer, trying my patience. I have also noticed the old trait I remember from Laos where the chef cooks one dish at a time, regardless of what the whole order consists of, e.g. there is an order for pad thai, vegetable fried rice, another pad thai and a jam sandwich. One pad thai will come, then 5 minutes later the fried rice, then a few minutes later the second pad thai and after all that the simple jam sandwich. Surely it would be easier to do the two pad thai together and make the jam sandwich at the same time as something else is cooking?

Neither of us had the urge to venture further north to Chiang Mai or elsewhere, having spent a lot of time there before so we returned straight to Bangkok. The reason we didn’t stop in Ayuthaya as we passed through was due to Monika never having been to the Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok so we arranged our journey to spend an exhausting day wandering around the stalls of Chatuchak, browsing at vintage clothing, shoes, souvenirs, flowers, furniture and of course all kinds of food and drink treats. The rest of the time in Bangkok we spent touring some of our favourite spots – Wat Pho and Wat Arun by the river, although the coach tours pulling up outside put us off actually venturing in, as well as Wat Saket, the Temple of the Golden Mount, with it’s 360° panorama of Bangkok. We left Jim Thompsons House and the Floating Market for our return to Bangkok at the end of this trip. After hearing some horror stories regarding the cost of cheap guest houses in Bangkok we were relieved to find that Sweety Guesthouse, just north of the Khao Sanh road still offers a variety of rooms, the price determined by your choice of fan or air-con, window or no window, private or shared bathroom, lightswitch or no lightswitch and a new one – plug socket or not. We went for a VIP double which has a fan, lightswitch, plug socket and TWO windows. We had also heard that Khao Sanh road had become really seedy these days and that the sex tourists had moved here from Patpong but we are happy to report that it is not true, Khao Sanh road is still Backpackerland, even if most of them are 18 year old Scandinavians these days! The stalls and cafes and guesthouses have now spread further south of Khao Sanh as well, taking in the area of West Banglamphu right up to the river front. There are some cheap guesthouses here as well although most seem to be massive places with thin walls and a lot of noise. We have also become firm friends with half a dozen bureau de change clerks in Bangkok as we have been visiting each day to boost our collection of pristine dollar bills for our trip to Burma. Bills with even so much as a bent corner or a fold down the middle from a wallet are generally not accepted there so we have been doing the rounds once or twice a day to collect the best specimens that they have been keeping for us! We fly on Wednesday and will be there for three weeks.

Z Malajsie do Thajska.

Ahoj pratele a kamaradi,

naposledy jsem psala z Kuala Lumpur, kde jsme byli jen na otocku, vyzvednout si vizum do Barmy, ktere nam bylo uspesne udeleno. Do Barmy letime 28.brezna z Bangkoku, jinak nez letecky se tam zatim neda dostat.

Z Kuala Lumpur jsme se pres mestecko Jerantut dostali do Narodniho parku Taman Negara. Predstavovali jsme si to trochu idilicky s tim kempovanim v dzungli. Na jedne strane reky byla turisticka vesnicka Kampung Kuala Tahan a na druhe uz jen vstup do parku. Tam se dalo kempovat, ale v kempu nam rekli, ze jsou tam divoka prasata a rozcupujou nam stan, kdyz ho tam nechame pres den. Tak, ze tam budem kempovat a rano stan zabalime a nechame si tam veci a pujdem na trek a vecer zase rozbalime. Na to nam rekli, ze si tam bohuzel veci pres den nechat nemuzem, ze nemaji uschovnu a ze bysme si museli kazde rano prevezt veci na druhou stranu reky a pak se vratit! No proste jsme nakonec nekempovali, ve vesnici jsme nasli postel za skoro stejnou cenu jako za stan (teda bez vetraku, okna a dveri) a cernej mrak se na nas akorat hnal a zacal slejvak. Cela vesnice se naplnila turisty a vecer nebyla jedna volna postel ve vesnici, a byli jsme za tu nasi radi, prselo celou noc. Rano nam bylo receno, ze Malajcum zacali tydenni prazdniny a vypadalo to, ze vetsina malajcu se rozhodla pro trekking v Taman Negara. Takze cesty byly rozbahneny a vsude strasnej rev, nastesti vsichni sli stejnej 3km okruh. My jsme meli v planu 20 km okruh, ale trochu jsme se precenili, to se proste nedalo. Cesta byla bahnita a plna korenu a podlejzani spladlejch stromu. Nebylo az takovy vedro, ale ta vlhkost nas zabijela, kazdej kilometr zdimani tricka a do toho pijavice, nastesti neskakali ze stromu jako na Borneu, ale lezli po botach a ziznivy se procucavali ponozkama. Fakt odpornej pocit:( samozrejme jsme si sebou nevzali sul (ktera jedina pomaha, kdyz uz se zakousnou) a kazdych nekolik minut jsme je odstrelovali z bot! Po 6km jsme se vysplhali na nejakej vrchol a rozhodli, ze tohle se proste neda a vratili jsme se zpet. Takhle jsme si uzili opravdovou dzungli.

V Jeratutu jel zrovna vlak smer Kota Bharu, jaky stesti. Tenhle vlak zas tak casto nejzdi a kdyz jo, tak Jerantutem projizdi ve 3 rano nebo v nejakou nelibou hodinu. Tak znama zeleznice dzungli, jizda to byla pomala, ale velice prijemna. Vlak byl plny, malajske rodiny se vraceli z dovolenych u pribuznych. My jsme byli docela hvezdy. Jedna 10ti clena rodina se kterou uz jsme se zakecali na nadrazi se s nami chtela fotit celou cestu, kazdy dite melo svuj smart phone.

V Kota Bharu jsme nasli ubytovani, odhodili batohy a rovnou jsme nabehli na nocni trziste s jidlem. Nikdy nezapomenu na grilovany krevety, ktere jsem tu jedla, kdyz jsem byla v Malajsii poprve. K veceri jsme si dali modrou ryzi varenou v kokosovem mleku (mistni specialita) s krevetovym curry a i dokonce meli zakusky!

Dalsim fascinujicim mistem v Kota Bharu je centralni trziste asi nejpestrejsi trh v Malajsii. Prodavaji zeleninu a ovoce, maso, koreni a latky. Nakoupili jsme 2 igelitky ovoce a Allan udelal ovocnej salat. Hned jak jsme dojedli, tak to v nas zacalo bublat, me bylo jen nevolno, ale Allan prosedel zbytek dne na zachode a slo to ven vsema otvorama!

Druhy den uz bylo lepe a my jsme se museli rozloucit z Malajsii. Vyrazili jsme brzy rano, meli jsme pred sebou dlouhy den. Jeli jsme pres hranicni prechod Rantau Paniang- Sungai Golok a pres Hat Yai a Pak Bara a stihli jsme posledni lod na ostrov Koh Lipe.

Ostrov Koh Lipe lezi v nejjiznejsi casti Thajska. Je soucasti souostrovi Tarutao. Tak trochu jsme ocekavali ten opravdovej raj na zemi. Skoda, ze jsme tady nebyli o nekoli let drive. Z bambusovych chatek na plazi se staly betonove rezorty. More ma porad krasnou barvu a je ciste, ale ostrov trochu nezvlada odpadky a ve vnitrozemi se to vsechno hazi na hromady. Ubytovani jsme si nasli ve vnitrozemi ostrova, bohuzel ceny na plazich jsou opravdu premrstene a ani nema cenu smlouvat na nasi cenu bysme se nikdy nedostali.

Zpatky do Hat Yai a nocnim autobusem do Ranongu, hranicni mesto s Barmou. Tam jsme zamirili na ostrov Koh Payam, kde jsme ten raj nasli. Klidek a pohoda, elektrika jen 3 hodiny denne a pekny levny bambusovy chatrcky a nadherny zapady slunce.

Za par dni letime do Barmy, tak se moc tesime a asi o nas mesic neuslysite!

Mejste se fajn.

Zdravi Monika a Allan

Trying to do Australia on the cheap...

...is not easy. But there are some ways that you can maximise your time and money and see as much of this interesting country as possible.

The route of our trip was:

Adelaide - Mt Remarkable National Park - Port Augusta - Woomera - Coober Pedy - Flinders Ranges (Wilmena Pound) - Barossa Valley - Coorong NP - Naracoorte - Coonawarra - Canunda NP - Mt Gambier - Picaninnie Ponds NP - Port Fairy - Great Ocean Road (overnight in Peterborough and Johanna Beach) - Geelong - Wilsons Promontory NP - Philip Island - Mornington Peninsula - Melbourne - Mt Koscuisko NP - Canberra - Blue Mountains - Botany Bay - Sydney - Byron Bay - Coolangatta - Surfers Paradise - Brisbane - Noosa - Rainbow Beach - Hervey Bay - Fraser Island - Bundaberg - Airlie Beach - Whitsunday islands - Townsville - Cairns and Port Douglas - internal flight from Cairns to Ayers Rock - Ayers Rock - Kings Canyon - Alice Springs - internal flight from Alice Springs to Darwin - Darwin - Kakadu NP - Pine Creek - Katherine Gorge - Timber Creek - Lake Argyle - Kununurra - Halls Creek - Fitzroy Crossing - Derby - Broome - internal flight from Broome to Perth - Perth - Wave Rock - Kalgoorlie - Esperance and Cape Le Grand NP - Norman Beach - Albany - Cosy Corner - Denmark and surrounding beaches - Southern Forests - Margaret River - Bunbury - Fremantle - Perth

The main purpose of our trip was getting out into the nature so the highlights for us were the drives up into the South Australia outback and the drive from Dariwn to Broome and around South Western Australia.

Visa - most nationalities can apply for a eVisitor tourist visa which is free of charge and is valid for one year, although each visit can be a maximum of 90 days and employment is prohibited.

Accommodation - In Adelaide we stayed at Adelaide Motel and Backpackers on Hindley Street for 2 nights, finding a great rate of A$17 per person on Hostelbookers. It was a nice, comfortable start but after this we mainly slept in our car at designated rest areas along the highway, occasionally pitching our tent as well. It is legal to do this in most places, look for signs permitting 8-24 hour overnight stops. They were easy to find in most places and made even easier if you invest the A$65 in the Camps Australia road atlas. It uses the quality HEMA maps and has extensive notes for camping spots all over Australia. We made do however with just sneaking a look at it whenever we found it, using the standard HEMA map that we picked up for A$11 in a discount book store and using the website 'ozcamps' for other tips. In Western Australia and other places there are local maps offering the same free camping ideas. You will soon meet a lot of locals doing exactly the same thing. These maps also include a number of free campsites, mostly with very limited facilities - some of the best are - at the Narung winch ferry in Coorong NP (SA), Johanna Beach on the Great Ocean Road (Vic), just north of Townsville (Qld), Norman Beach and Cosy Corner either side of Albany (WA) and inside Kosciusko NP, although of course you have paid a park entry fee so it is not exactly a free camp. We used this kind of accommodation for over 90% of our time in Australia. We are regular swimmers anyway so managed to get a shower every few days at a municipal pool (around $3-5 entry) or of course at most beaches where they have either an outdoor shower or sometimes a hot indoor shower provided by the surf or lifesavers club. These are especially prevalent along the Queensland coast. So just pick up a map, look for the rest stops and hope you get there before they fill up! They are the Aussie equivalent of the Kiwi DOC sites. If you don't fancy bush camping like this then the next alternative is to ply the backpacker hostels network across the country. A dorm bed in one of these typically costs around A$25 but the downside is you will have to share your time and space with the legions of young, inane, loud backpackers that infest the east coast. I am not sure what happens to these people when they reach Australia, it is as if they receive a double lobotomy and all they can understand is beer, sex and screaming hysterically at unfunny things. I prefer the peace and quite of sleeping outdoors somewhere under the twinkling Southern Hemisphere night sky.

Where we didn't bush camp are as follows:
In Melbourne we received 3 nights at the City Centre Budget Hotel as a Christmas present. The rooms are around A$60 per night and there is free wifi and a great rooftop terrace kitchen. The rooms have fridges and kettles. In Sydney we stayed at the Lane Cove Holiday Park which is actually inside some sort of nature reserve to the north of the city. We did not realise when we booked it but it comes highly recommended by Lonely Planet. Unpowered sites there were around A$35. As my mum came to visit when we were in North Queensland and the Red Centre I cannot really give any ideas of budget sleeping. In Port Douglas we rented a 2-bedroom apartment at Nimrod Resort for around A$100 per night and in Ayers Rock Resort were upgraded to a room at the Outback Pioneer, normally A$250, we paid A$150. In Alice Springs we stayed at the Alice Springs Motor Inn, a family room for A$65, very friendly and helpful and a very spacious room. In Darwin we stayed at the Melaleauca on Mitchell Street - a cheap backpackers with double rooms for A$56 I think, although it was very crowded and noisy and the rooms were so humid the walls were sweating! Finally, Broome has some great deals in the off season such as dorm beds at Beaches of Broome near Cable Beach for A$20. The hostel next door charged A$15 but Breezes is a steal for the extra $5. A really clean modern place with a lovely pool and massive kitchen. Breakfast was included and you can get wifi access through Global Gossip for about $9 for 24 hours.

Transport - Australia is not an easy country to travel around by public transport. Buses go from town to town but that means that you cannot stay out in the bush and would be forced into the backpackers. There are a couple of backpacker buses that ply pre-determined routes around the country but again these restrict your accommodation options, and do you really want to spend your time on a bus with the same people for kilometre after kilometre. The other drawback is that Australian towns are not really all that exciting, Adelaide and Melbourne are alright for a few days and Sydney is the jewel in the crown but the others tend to be nondescript and identical, the same shops on the same streets. One place that did appeal to me was Bundaberg, somehow it had a personality totally different from other Aussie towns, and I am not even talking about the presence of the famous rum distillery! All this means the best transport option is to hire your own vehicle, be it a car or campervan there are dozens of operators putting various people on the road from the clapped out Wicked campers, to the new style Spaceship and Jucy Toyota Previa's and up to the behemoth Apollo, Britz and Maui campervans. If you book ahead and visit in the shoulder season you can probably get a good deal on one of these. We also found a couple of great deals from Hertz. They offer one-way specials, a small Toyota Corolla cost us A$1700 for 51 days car hire picking up in Adelaide and dropping off in Cairns. We have private excess insurance from Worldwide Insure which cost us £15o for the 51 days. For the subsequent car rentals we also have an annual policy for £55. This was not valid for the longer rental as the annual policy covers only up to 31 day rentals. A litre of unleaded fuel in Australia costs around A$1.28-1.80 with an average around A$145. A full tank of fuel in the Toyota cost around A$65 and lasted for around 750-800km. Hiring a car in the Northern Territory is more expensive as almost all one-way rentals come with a 100km per day limit. Try sticking to that on those journeys! Hertz was cheapest again - A$290 for a 3 day rental including one way drop off fee. It is worth noting that some firms such as the Territory owned version of Thrifty (www.rentacar.au) waive the fee if you hire for 4 days or more. So it works out better to spend at least 3 nights between Ayers Rock and Alice Springs. Above the 100km per day extra kilometres cost 0.25c. We used Thrifty for a 12 day hire between Darwin and Broome. It was probably a bit long but it kept our additional costs down and the scenery through the Kimberley is so spectacular you don't mind taking it slowly. This 12 days cost us $422 plus the 0.25c per kilometre extra. Finally we had a rental with Hippie Campers for a 17 day rental starting and finishing in Perth. Whilst the initial rental was attractive at $37 per day and we were upgraded to an Apollo Hi-top the catch is that they charge the entire excess to your credit card, as if assuming that you have already had the accident, as opposed to just blocking an amount like most car hire companies would do. They also charged us for a full tank of gas when this should have been included, although this was later refunded. It was nice to have the extra space but you can feel like a bit of a twat driving around in one! Fuel consumption was around 10-12l per 100km so quite a bit higher than the average "economy car". The other option is to buy a car and sell it again when you leave. This is probably the most economical option if you are a group of at least 2 people and you will be in Australia for at least 2 months. We heard that it can be pain selling in a different state to which the car was registered which could cost a bit and require extra time so check this first. Remember also to allow enough time at the start and end of the trip to buy and sell the car! A one-day pass for the Syndey transport network including Manly Ferry costs A$21.

Entry fees - Entry to most national parks is around A$8-12 dollars, this includes Flinders Ranges, Botany Bay, Ku-Ring-Gai Chase etc. Exceptions were Ayers Rock and the Olgas at A$25 per person, Kakadu also A$25 and Mt Kosciusko A$16 but this included camping. Wine tastings are normally free but it is good manners to buy at least one bottle every few cellar doors.

Food and other essentials - we generally self-catered for the whole 3 months. A camping gas canister cost A$7.50/11.50 (small/large). Food for 3 days for two people bought in Woolwortsh or Coles cost around A$60 although we do eat a lot of fruit, yoghurt and muesli and other items that are quite expensive. Our general diet consisted of muesli with fruit (banana) and yoghurt for breakfast with juice and filter coffee or porridge and coffee; then something like cheese, salami and tomato sandwiches or hummus with carrot and cucumber and ryvitas for lunch, maybe with some crisps and then an easy to cook on a camp stove instant meal for dinner. You could reduce this by around half if you only ate porridge or white bread with jam for breakfast, tuna or sardine sandwiches for lunch and instant noodles for dinner. We hardly had any exceptions although we did have a takeaway curry on New Year Eve for A$12 per person from Wynyard metro station in Sydney. Some of our meals in the evening were a little more substantial - mince for bolognese is relativly cheap, as are chicken thighs so it does not cost much more to make a curry or bolognese. There are also gas powered BBQ's that can be used for free all over Australia, in cities, parks, by beaches, everywhere. These are great and you can soon become addicted to barbequed meat! A pack of sausages or burgers costs around A$5 or a steak for around A$15 per kilo.

A beer in a shop cost around A$5 for a big bottle, we only went to a pub in Airlie beach that gave us a free beer. A slab of 24 beers from the cold room cost anything from A$35 up. A bottle of Australian wine cost anything from A$5 up in the same supermarkets. The Barossa Shiraz and Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon were the obivous favourites. You can get these in cleanskin varieties for around A$5 and I would recommend these as the wine will almost certainly be better than a branded cheap wine. A litre of Bundaberg rum can be found on special offer for around A$30 and goes down great mixed with Ginger Beer (a Dark n' Stormy they call it).

When we did treat ourselves to eating out we went to Hungry Jacks (a Burger KIng franchise) where a breakfast meal (muffin or wrap with hash brown and coffee) cost A$4.95, a dinner meal (Whopper with fries and coke) is around A$7. Another fast food chain - Red Rooster does chicken dishes at slightly higher prices. Neither are particularly good or to be recommended but they can be found everywhere. Fish and Chip shops are as good as in New Zealand and cost around A$6-10 for a meal. One of the big highlights for us was having a Pie Floater in Vilis Pies in Adelaide, a truly Australian meal, a delicious meat pie served in pea soup with ketchup on top.



As I mentioned spending an hour swimming to loosen up the tired muscles and then a hot shower to feel sparkly clean afterwards is a great way to spend around A$4 for entry, some of the best ones were in Canberra, Townsville and Naracoorte.

One splurge we did make was to go on the Great Barrier reef snorkelling trip, at a cost of NZ$170 per person. Very expensive but it did include lunch and the snorkelling was some of the best we have ever seen, not quite as good as Indonesia though. I also took the one day Fraser island tour, keen to see the worlds largest sand island but at A$180 I felt it was over-priced and not worth it. Lake MacKenzie is beautiful though. We also took a budget 2 nights, 3 days Whitsunday Island cruise on the Venus ship which overnighted at Hook island resort. This meant we would not be stuck on the boat if we were with a massive party group, although luckily we were not anyway. This cost A$342 for the cruise per person including Marine fees, double room upgrade on Hook and 2 nights camping in Airlie Beach and free car parking for the duration, a free drink and a $10 beer and meal voucher for a local bar. It was a good deal.

We spent A$60 per person per day for 84 days, although this includes the 3 trips, without these it is closer to A$50. Travelling in this style you could easily reduce this down by being slightly more frugal with food or by hitchiking rather than hiring cars but we wanted the freedom to stop wherever we wanted.

Exchange rate: £1GBP = A$1.50, 20CZK=A$1

The New Straits Times

Another impressive flight from Qantas took us from Perth to Singapore. We took the chicken and the pork and by the time we were whisked through Singapore’s ultra-modern and efficient Changi airport we were already a little bit worse for wear.

It was great to back in Asia, we hadn’t realised but we hadn’t visited the Far East since our trip from Hong Kong back to Prague in 2007. Over three days we re-acquainted ourselves with the various cuisines of Singapore – Chinese wonton noodle soup at a hawker stall on Lavender Street, South Indian masala dosai in Little India, crispy roast duck in Chinatown and, of course, authentic Malay Laksa, from it’s place of origin in the suburb of Katong (although I have to say I now prefer the giant bowl you get at Apium near Smithfields market!). Another meal we had that is very unique to Singapore is Scissor Cut Curry Rice, a mix of egg, belly pork, veggies and chicken all cut up at high speed by a guy brandishing a pair of scissors and served on a plate of rice. We washed all these meals down with a hot glass of tea, served with an inch and a half of condensed milk in the bottom!

It was Monika’s first visit to Singapore so we started out by covering the main sights – wandering around the temples and fragrant markets of the Little India quarter, surveying the CBD from a vantage point above Fort Canning, wandering through the icy shopping malls of Orchard Road and the clean and modern Clark Quay area – which resembles any “waterfront” area in any city in the world, i.e. shiny bars and restaurants with no charm whatsoever! We hurried through to Chinatown, much more at home amongst the steaming pots of bright yellow boiled chickens and the scores of guys offering a “best price” on whatever camera or computer equipment we so desired. We emerged unscathed into the southern area of Chinatown, visiting the Temple of the Buddha Tooth Relic around which a much slower pace of life can be observed, old guys playing mah jhong outside. Heading back to the north of the centre we passed the tourist attractions of the Marine district – the left-field (for Singapore) Merlion sculpture now facing the giant casino that looks like it has a boat built on top of it and crossed the Cavenagh bridge to the statue of Stamford Raffles, grandfather to all that Singapore has become. Although we did not stop for a Singapore Sling we did have a wander around inside Raffles Hotel, still the enclave of the filthy rich and famous when in Singapore. I would love to come back and stay there some time, the building has lost none of its colonial splendour and charm and whilst inside it seems that the world stopped turning sometime around Somerset Maugham’s 3^rd G and T back in the 1920’s sometime! An area of Singapore that I didn’t appreciate so much on my previous visit was the Islamic area around the aptly named Arab Street. I recalled it as being a collection of primarily wholesale shops, selling building equipments and such like but this time we found streets full of fabric and rug shops clustered around the beautiful Sultan Mosque.

What people most often hear about Singapore is how clean and efficient and modern everything is. Whilst in the centre this is true, and very impressive, this does a disservice to these other areas of Singapore which are providing the city with its fuel and motivation to keep going – the colonial buildings around Little India and Kampong Glam (the Arab/Malay quarter) absolutely teeming with humanity, people still doing the same jobs they have been doing for 50 years. This, I think, is the heart of Singapore.

Escaping the high flying city lifestyle we crossed the causeway to Malaysia and headed straight for Tioman island. We knew we had really arrived in Asia at this point as the bus taking us from Johor Bahru to Kota TIngii broke down half way and then, once we had changed buses at Kota Tinggi and raced to the port of Mersing just in time for the last ferry, everybody erupted in panic screaming fire and jumped back off the boat and on to the jetty. It turned out not to be a fire but rather a fire extinguisher that had set itself off under the weight of someones luggage, people carting everything from microwaves and air conditioning units to giant boxes of instant noodles back to the island. Luckily it didn’t happen after we had left the port as I am sure everybody would have jumped in the water. Considering there was a major ferry disaster a Tioman island a couple of years ago, that situation wouldn’t have been funny.

We were shocked to find Tioman so crowded as it was still the rainy season and by the looks of it there hadn’t been a sunny day for months. Finding accommodation here used to be very much a buyers market so we were shocked to arrive on Air Batang (ABC) beach and find the first half-a-dozen places that we enquired all full! When we eventually found a small beach hut we realised that Tioman is still a nice place to relax, despite the hordes of people around, although busier the island is still laid back and the people very friendly. There are new duty-free laws which make alcohol much cheaper than on the mainland and further entice visitors, despite this however there are not really any loud, all-night bars, but there are a few places offering happy-hour drinks and you do see the occasional tourist, probably got lost on the way from Thailand, surreptitiously adding a shot of vodka to their bottle of Sprite. I really don’t understand why it has been made a duty-free state as most of the local villagers of Tioman are Muslims many of whom find the increased presence of alcohol quite unsettling. I don’t see why people should be able to visit somewhere and enforce their culture, if they want to drink they should do it elsewhere, or at least be discrete. Nevertheless, as I mentioned the locals here are unfailingly polite and so never really voice their disapproval.

One of the highlights of visiting Tioman island used to be the overland trek from Tekek (close to ABC) across the island to Juara beach on the east coast and the walking trail through the thick jungle is still there. There is now a 4x4 track connecting Juara and Tekek which means the walking trail looks even less frequented these days. The 4x4 road has prompted quite a bit of development in Juara and it is no longer the secret tropical paradise it once was although it is still the nicest actual beach on Tioman. Due to the bad weather we trekked over and back in one day rather than schlep our backpacks over there for an overnight stay. This meant a sweaty 20km return trek from ABC, which at least helped burn off some of the gorging we did in Singapore!

Leaving Tioman we found the ferry overbooked and had to fight for places, sadly we saw a group of people who had been at the front of the queue left behind in the melee, but at least it displayed that some safety precautions are in place. We crossed back to Mersing and got the last seats on the bus to KL leaving that evening. Those of you who are acquainted with KL’s Puduraya bus station will remember a noisy, dark warren of ticket offices and crowded platforms, with more than a few unsavoury looking characters lurking around. We were all ready for arrival at Pudu station when the bus pulled up at a gleaming new bus station a few kilometres south of the centre. This new station, known as TBS, serves all southbound bus traffic from KL and is really impressive. The downside is that if you are stuck in a Sunday evening tailback and arrive after the last bus and metrorail have left then you have no choice but to stump up for a taxi. That is unless you are able to sweet-talk the security guy to let you bunk down in the customer services office until the morning. (If you are interested, I made a visit to Pudu station to see how it looked now it only serves northbound traffic. To my amazement I found it had been given a total facelift, shiny white floors, glass partition walls and functioning escalators. Previously it appeared that the only thing holding the whole place together was the grease and grime, not anymore!)

In any case we only wanted to spend the morning in KL to apply for visas for Myanmar before heading down the coast to Melaka. The visa application was surprisingly easy given the chaotic nature of the Myanmar embassy and the sudden increase in interest of visiting Myanmar. In fact trying to negotiate the clogged, snarling rush hour traffic of KL was the hardest part of the whole process. Well, that and having to get new photos developed at the embassy as ours were turned down due to having a too dark background! The reason why we chose to apply here is because we heard that in Bangkok many people get turned away each day, the embassy cannot keep up with demand. It sounds like Myanmar is changing fast, apparently already unrecognisable from my previous visit, according to recent visitors. We shall see when we get there.

Melaka is worlds apart from KL, the compact centre easy to navigate on foot. A former Dutch and Portuguese colonial enclave with British, Chinese, Indian and Malay influence, the buildings are still well-preserved and form the main centre from which the city extends outwards. We explored the classic colonial buildings of the Stadhuys, Christ Church on the east side of the river before climbing up to the ruins of the Church of St. Paul, with a view over the town. On the other side of the river sits Chinatown, the other main area of town traversed by tourists. I cannot recall visiting the Chinatown last time but this time we lost entire days meandering through the alleys and crooked streets, the ramshackle buildings propped up by the occasional mosque or Chinese temple. This area is still very much industrious, every square foot of space put to some sort of purpose.

Melaka is one of those rare places where it is really easy to just slow down the pace of life for a few days, watching the world go by from one of the Indian cafes that are churning out roti canai all day and night. Roti canai is the typical Malay breakfast – a thick, greasy pancake served with a small bowl of spicy sauce. Very tasty. It is just enough to tide you over until lunchtime, which is most often Nasi Lemak – a package of rice cooked in coconut milk served with anchovies, boiled egg, peanuts, cucumber and spicy chilli sauce. This is the most common lunch and is served often wrapped up in a small banana leaf packet. In Melaka there is also a Buddhist restaurant, Amituofoh, that offers rice and vegetable curries every mealtime for a voluntary donation, it was worth the experience just to go along and try it.

Kuala Lumpur has never been on Monika’s or my top five lists of places to go in Malaysia but we spent a couple of nights there whilst we picked up the visas. Walking in Chinatown around Petaling street is an experience, trying to get through without being offered fake watches and perfumes and wallets is a real challenge and in the evening the same vendors set up stalls and offer cheap happy hour beers, and are possibly even more insistent that you plop your arse down on one of their stools. Across the road are a series of food stalls, here we tried the famous Bah Kut Teh, which translates as Pork Rib Soup but also includes various parts of pigs innards in the spicy, aromatic broth. It is very tasty and we enjoyed it immensely, it even felt a bit therapeutic until we got the bill and realised we needed to brush up on our Malay language skills a bit!

The Little India area of KL is quite over-rated and twice now I have found little more than a bunch of fabric stores and small cafes, although the Masjid Jamek is a very beautiful mosque squeezed in the middle of it all. We did find ourselves at the bottom of the Petronas Towers without quite meaning to though, having walked right through the Indian and Malay (Kampung Glam) districts and I have to say I really do find this building amazing, I think one of the feats of modern architecture. From the new to the old the next day as we stopped at Merdeka Square on the way to the metro station. Formerly an open cricket ground the square is home to the old Royal Selangor club, the place to be seen in the colonial times and still one of the most opulent dining venues today. On the other sides of the square sit a giant flagpole, one of the world’s tallest but to my eye not as tall as the one in Amman, Jordan, and facing the Royal Selangor is the Sultan Abdul Samad building, with its mix of Moghul, Moorish and Victorian styles. I had forgotten how impressive it is just to sit in here and gaze around, with the diminutive St Mary Cathedral sitting opposite the north side of the square completing the 360° view.

We were heading to the station to take a train to the Batu Caves, 16km from the centre. The main cave sits atop a 272-step staircase which climbs up the side of a giant gold statue of the Hindu Lord Maruga. Within the cave is a Hindu shrine and temple with dozens of monkeys climbing over and around the various statues of Hindu gods. For me this is probably the most impressive highlight of KL and should be on any visitor’s itinerary. Apparently each February there is a pilgrimage from a Hindu temple in Chinatown all the way out to the caves at which point the caves and steps are totally packed with devotees.

We started our trip across the peninsula by heading for the massive Taman Negara national park. Unfortunately we did not realise that we were arriving on the first Saturday of school holidays so we found the gateway town of Kuala Tahan to be totally packed. We had planned to camp within the park itself but were warned off by the park officials tales of wild pigs coming daily to wreck tents! We found a place to stay back in the town, not a moment too soon as we suddenly saw the same people walking round in circles looking for a vacant bed! We did manage a couple of short treks in the park although the walking was quite demanding due to a recent deluge of rain turning many of the trails to mud. Even trails which we were recommended by the park rangers were closed. Once walking we also found the heat and humidity very exhausting and our planned 20km trek soon turned into a 10km round trip to Bukit Indah, a summit with view over the Tahan river. The final challenge within Taman Negara is to avoid getting attacked by leeches. Recalling our experiences in Borneo where Monika especially became an involuntary blood donor we were careful to avoid them and almost succeeded, just one little puncture wound each. They were not as aggressive as their compatriots on Borneo, these ones simply chase you along the floor as opposed to jumping on you from the nearby branches! It was interesting to experience a national park here but I must say that the organisation and management of this park is disappointing compared with those in Sarawak and Sabah, they didn’t even have any facility here to leave luggage whilst trekking, if they had we would certainly have made an overnight trek to one of their hides and spent the night on the lookout for tigers or other wild cats! Instead we spent the night trying to block out the noise of about 60 kids staying at our guesthouse, the parents seemingly oblivious as they sat watching the badminton on the telly.

There is a train journey in Malaysia that is also famous as a tourist attraction. This is the Jungle Railway that connects KL with Kota Bahru going via the Taman Negara region. We picked up this train in the small town of Jerantut and spent the afternoon jolting and jerking our way through the jungle to Wakaf Bahru, just a few kilometres from Kota Bahru. The jungle here is really thick and, so far, not affected by the palm oil plantations that have spread across most of Malaysia, both on the peninsula and over on Borneo. At some places the train stops seemingly in the middle of nowhere, only for people to emerge from the jungle and get on the train, others disappearing into the jungle and women selling small bags of guava amidst all the coming and going.

The northern terminus of the ‘Jungle Railway’ lies just a few kilometres from the town of Kota Bahru, capital of Kelantan state. This is one of the most conservative states in Malaysia whose government is constantly trying to get sharia law introduced. What it means to the average tourist is that you have to be a little bit more careful with how you dress but other than that the people are just as friendly and welcoming as anywhere else in Malaysia. I mention this only because we heard a lot of people being put off visiting the region for this reason. It would never cross our minds to even consider that there would be any difference but I guess you can never doubt the power of the Western media!

Apart from the train journey Kota Bahru has two other sights that were very much of interest to us. The first place we headed after we arrived was the night market, dozens of stalls offering all manner of tasty foods, with the local specialities including nasi kerabu (a mixture of spices and the blue pea flower giving rice a blueish hue, hence the English name ‘blue rice’) served with a choice of curries – I went for King Prawn - and all manner of meat satay – grilled skewers of meat coated in a peanut sauce. There is even a stall knocking out all sorts of sweet treats such as coconut fritters for dessert. The other highlight of Kota Bahru for us was the daytime market, with fruit and vegetable vendors taking over the central ground floor, surrounded by butchers and fishmongers. The upper two floors are lined with spice and dry goods stalls and fabric and clothes retailers. From the top floor the view over the commerce happening around the vegetable stalls is a very impressive sight and a perfect way to finish our trip through Malaysia. Tomorrow we will cross the border to Thailand, going through the slightly dodgy Sungai Kolok crossing, and trying to get out of the town as soon as we can!

You might be wondering why we took such a winding route through the Malay peninsula on this visit. Well, it is because Monika had never been to Singapore, Tioman island or Melaka and I had missed Kota Bahru on my previous trip down the east coast. Neither of us had visited Taman Negara but we have both been to Penang, Cherating, Perhentian islands and the Cameron Highlands which are the other major highlights I guess. Neither of us was interested in visiting Langkawi and we needed to get those visas in KL! This was our 3^rd extended trip through Malaysia – two through the peninsula and one around Sarawak and Sabah, and little Brunei, on Borneo. Whilst there is nowhere in particular we really would love to come back to, Malaysia (and Singapore and Brunei) are the sort of countries that it is such a pleasure to travel through – the people are so friendly and welcoming and you hardly ever feel like you are being ripped off or taken for granted. The food is really tasty and under-rated, I prefer the variety of meals available here to Thai food in all honesty and you can easily become addicted to the sweet cups of Teh and Kopi. Travel is so easy and comfortable, especially in Malaysia where the intercity buses are still of a standard that National Express can only dream of.