This picture was actually on the way back from Langkawi to Penang on the slow (and extremely cold) ferry back to some food at New Lane. Awesome sunset, we were all sitting outside until a MASSIVE storm engulfed us because it was simply too cold inside (I measured the temperate at about 23 degrees, none of us had jumpers or jackets..).

I miss Koh Lipe, friends, fun, sun, sea, diving and awesome food every day. I need another holiday stat! It’s quite a journey to get there, but it’s worth it and I’d do it again.

Yes I’ve actually processed all the pics and uploaded them, yes I love the Nikon D7000 Yes I will try my best to write properly about the trip soon..

And the other trips I’ve skipped over, I need to get my blogging mojo back – seriously.

RM48 for 1L of Absolut, RM3 per beer! It’s nuts.

We drove down to Penang late last night and took the ferry early this morning.

It was a uneventful trip – it was quite choppy though. It takes about 2hrs45mins to get from Penang to Langkawi and costs RM115 for a return ticket.

There are car parks nearby and they cost around RM5 per day.

Sadly it rained the whole day today in Langkawi so we didn’t get to go on the cable car or see the sky bridge (which was our point of staying over).

Hopefully we can see it on the way back as we have a few hours spare.

We are off to Koh Lipe at 9.30am tomorrow – its a 1 hour journey and costs around RM240 return.

Hope the weather is good there! Can’t wait to get stuck into my first dives in Thailand!

I’m updating from my iPhone in the hotel room after some good drinks and good laughs with friends – ah the wonders of technology.

Just got back from Redang, was there as the island was closing up – Saturday was actually the last day.

Yah it’s not long since my last trip – Finally Back To Scuba Diving – Pulau Lang Tengah – which was my first SCUBA Diving trip since 2005.

Kim only just got certified at Lang Tengah though, so it wasn’t a proper leisure diving trip as we had to layan the PADI Open Water stuff.

We went down to KT on Wednesday night, stayed in some shiteous hotel called Hotel Indah (never gonna stay there again) and headed over to the island on Thursday morning.

We even got a beautiful sunset on the way there.

Redang was awesome, the weather was flawless – sunny and blue skies all the way. It held off with the rain until we were eating dinner on the last night, which was fine – it cooled us down just nice.

The visibility was good, we saw a bunch of cool stuff and had a right laugh (1 crate of Carlsberg, 1 create of Tiger and 1 bottle of Absolut…).

The food was SO much better than Lang Tengah too (thankfully). Will do a diet update in the next couple of days, not so much to report tho as didn’t have a whole lot of choice on the island (carbs galore!).

Sadly there was a tragedy on the way back from the island, we’d already left much earlier as we had to attend a wedding in KL that Saturday night – so we didn’t see it..

But I’d prefer to remember it as a great holiday, full of sunshine, laughter, great dives and new friendships. Sadly, this isn’t the first diving buddy I’ve lost – but I sure do hope it’s the last.

RIP C, you will be remembered.

I must write about you soon.

Love ST.

It was a multi-purpose trip, in part to do some paperwork stuff and in part to get a food processor of awesome.

Singapore is an interesting place, I was never very fond of it really – a lot of people always ask me why I didn’t choose to live there instead of Malaysia. You can earn more there, there’s less crime, better shopping, more pork, cheap booze and so on.

But for me it’s to regimented, the people are too samey, there’s no good dirty back alley street food. I realise now that you can really enjoy Singapore when you have more to spend, the good found is on the upper end of the scale, the best shopping is in the branded zone and the booze is cheap(er) but still the better stuff is costly.

So if you’re earning plenty of SGD there, it’s probably a pretty decent place to live (if you enjoy shopping, booze and good quality food). However you if you like the country-side, driving out of town, driving up to Genting or anything similar – forget it.

Singapore is just a large city, that’s all. There’s shopping malls, well dressed people and of course MRT stations everywhere.

We had a good time there tho, we didn’t do much shopping really (or well our shopping was very focused – Food Processor, G-Shock watches from Bencoolen and booze from Mei-d-ya in Liang Plaza). We also had an extensive list of food to eat from our friends (a LOT were Ramen).

And of course a trip to Singapore isn’t complete without a night roaming around the riverside and a few pints at Brewerkz.

We were there at Liang Plaza anyway to eat Tampopo (some famous Black Pig Shabu Ramen – delicious) – so it was perfect to have a stroll after that.

There’s nothing quite like the Riverside in Malaysia, I think Straits Quay in Penang is trying to get that kind of vibe – but the last time I went it was still pretty empty to it didn’t have that buzz yet.

In a way it reminds me of Changkat too with the endless stretch of restaurants and bars, Changkat is sorely missing a microbrewery though and places selling foreign beer on tap! As a side note, Hooters was doing amazingly well and has a massive space now!

It was a good night out, had a few beers and some hot wings at Brewerkz before heading back to our decidely dodgy Hotel 81 on Lorong 18 (yes it was full of whore houses).

We even spotted Street Performer Willie on the bridge entertaining a large audience.

There were youths lining the bridge walls too with bottles of vodka and mixers, I guess open bottle/public drinking laws haven’t hit Singapore yet.

I have to admit I had a very enjoyable trip and I’ll probably be heading back down to sample more Singaporean delights (and buy back more Kilkenny draught in a can) sooner than expected!

This is my first time heading to a country I’ve never been to before and it’s exciting, plus the fact I haven’t really stepped on a plane for the past two years and haven’t had a holiday since I can remember.

I assumed being British and all I didn’t need a Visa for India…I was wrong, very wrong – in fact EVERYONE needs a Visa for India. For anyone wanting to apply, all the info you need is here – http://www.indiavisa.com.my/

Getting the Visa was actually a very pain-free experience.

Watch out India – here we come!

It’s not truly a holiday, but it is in part. I’m mainly flying over to attend a wedding of a very good friend and ex-colleague of mine who is getting married. But we extended our trip for a few days so we could take in some of the sights, sounds and smells of Hyderabad and the surrounding areas.

Either way we are both really excited about it, it’s our first time in a new country together and our first overseas holiday in a VERY long time.

I’ll be back on Monday 13th December, so don’t expect any posts before then. If by some miracle I can post (using my iPhone and WiFi) – I will. But don’t hold your breath.

Established in 1962, this was one of the first memorials to commemorate the brave Australian and British Prisoners of War who died in Sandakan and during the infamous death marches to Ranau during World War II. The memorial also remembers the people of North Borneo who risked their lives to help the POWs.

If you are interested to learn more about the marches you can read up on Wiki here: Sandakan Death Marches. Some pretty gruesome events with very few survivors, visiting the war memorial is a stark reminder of how cruel human beings can be to one another.

There are various flags around the place including British, Australian and Malaysian flags.

When you go in you are shown a video about the events that took place, it’s a very moving documentary and brought my mom to tears. After watching you can then take a walk around the grounds. The memorial is split into 4 gardens – the Australian Garden, the English Garden, the Borneo Garden and the Contemplation Garden & Pool.

There are various placards around the place such as this one, which explains some of the happenings. The motto is “Lest we forget”.

The pool in the contemplation garden.

And a poem/song by Nelson Short, one of the death march survivors.

It was a very misty day and we had a lovely soft view of the Kundasang valley and houses of the native people whilst we sat and thought about what had transpired over 60 years ago.

There were beautiful flowers and tributes all over the war memorial.

After that we headed on down to the famous Kundasang market, which I have to say was rather underwhelming. There was a lot of stuff there, but all the stores basically sold the same stuff and there wasn’t anything super interesting. Mostly fruits, vegetables, honey and flowers with a few other things like the odd cactus.

It was good fresh stuff though grown in the area and there were a few odd local fruits that aren’t found in Peninsular Malaysia. The honey looked tempting, but not being a big honey fan I gave it a miss.

And of course the Malaysian favourite, the king of fruits was seen in abundance.

For the lazy tourist (or for those with no idea how to peel/open the fruits) there was a good selection of pre-prepared, packaged fruit for your consumption. I gave that a miss too, if I’m eating it…I may as well open it myself!

Spotted this young fella too who didn’t look to pleased that his dad had left him to go and buy some groceries.

And well that was the end of that, with a last glimpse of the magnificent peaks of Mount Kinabalu shrouded in clouds we headed off back to civilization. We just made a stop at Menggatal for the most AWESOME beef noodles (ngau chap mee) I’ve ever had in my life. Makes me hungry now thinking about it, argghhh!

Anyway that’s the Sabah 2008 trip wrapped, maybe I can get around to writing about Sri Lanka now!

You can find all the posts from this trip here:

Sabah 2008 Trip – Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu

You can also view the complete set of pictures from this trip here:

Sabah – March 2008

Our guide was friendly with the people who stayed around the area that Jackie inhabited so he asked them to let him know when she came out, sure enough she did, they gave him a call and we headed on over.

First though he had to buy his secret stash, he knew what Jackie really loved..she snubbed bananas and all the other normal things but she has a real addiction for Betel Nut!

Although she’s comfortable around humans it’s still a little scary to know she’s strong enough to rip your arm clean out of its socket and beat you to death with the bloody stump…and well I can’t imagine that being very pleasant!

She seemed pretty chilled when we go there though, which was nice

Of course she was even happier when our guide busted out her version of crack, the betel nuts!

When she wasn’t been fed she was fairly interested in the surroundings, but well she was more interested in when the next nut was coming.

She would patiently wait while the guide peeled the tough outer shell so she could chew out all the good bits.

After a fair dose of nutty goodness she wondering round to the back in a fairly stoned manner and promptly lay down on the floor.

And yes she really did look high, glassy eyes and all!

I think she found the floor a little cold though because after a little while she got up, went inside and grabbed a piece of plywood from the building supplies.

She put that on the floor inside…then lay on that.

Looks comfy eh? She had so many human expressions and gestures…it was quite incredible.

A really amazing experience all in all being so close to such a powerful creature. We wondered back out after that and there were some other smaller monkey around, but after chilling with an Orangutan they just weren’t that interesting.

But well they weren’t so lansi and liked bananas at least..so we had some use for the bunches we brought along.

The trip was drawing to a close…just Kundasang market left to go. And well seen as though it’s March 2010 now I thought I’d better get these posts finished before 3 years passes since the trip!

Blogging about it kinda makes me miss the place, that’s why I prefer to write much later too…brings back different feelings and memories rather than writing about a place immediately after getting back.

Also I still haven’t blogged about Sri Lanka…so I need to get these posts done first!

You can find all the posts from this trip here:

Sabah 2008 Trip – Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu

We had a free and easy night so we asked the guide and some others where we could get some good seafood, we should have Googled it first of course but we didn’t have any access to the net and forgot to check before leaving. Our guide recommended some seafood restaurants just down from our hotel, so we checked those out.

They seemed well recommended by locals (Located at Sedco Squared named Twinsky Seafood/Suang Tain), but well we didn’t fare so well paying over RM400 for a mediocre meal for 3. After checking of course tales of people being slaughtered there. I didn’t take any pics cos the food didn’t look particularly good and well I was slightly pissed at having to fork out so much.

We headed back to the hotel for an early night and up in the morning to head out to KK National Park where we would be spending the next evening. We took a leisurely drive with our new guide Saat up to the park and stopped off at a few interesting sites and viewing points along the way.

Our first sighting of the mighty Mount Kinabalu was from quite a distance and it was still extremely impressive. It was around midday though so the light photography was definitely against us, in person though it was a fantastic view.

On our way we stopped off at the famous pedestrian suspension bridge Jambatan Tamparuli. It’s quite a spectacular structure.

And people really regularly use it!

This is our great guide for the KK/Mount Kinabalu leg of the trip Sat.

We stopped at another viewing point along the way just before reaching Kinabalu park to take some snaps of the mountain.

The contrast was way too high for normal photography so I tried a HDR blend, even then the mountain is a bit washed out because of the mist/clouds.

This is my mom enjoying the spectacular view.

Our next activity was to visit Poring Hotsprings and the Poring Treetop Canopy Walkway, we had to hike in a little way as the canopy walkway is at around 650m elevation. It was a really beautiful area.

The trees are CRAZY high.

The Canopy walkway is a MUST do when you’re in Kinabalu park, but it’s not the feint hearted or those scared of heights as these trees are seriously high and the walkway is seriously narrow. It was quite terrifying for me actually as the guide ropes at the side only came up to my waist height! They are obviously meant for far shorter people..it’s quite cheap too only about RM3 entry for locals and RM5 for foreigners.

The really scary thing? We weren’t even at the top of the trees! We were only 3/4 of the way up (which was still well above 100ft in the air).

It was a great experience indeed, after that we headed right into the heart of the park to check into our hotel the Kinabalu Pine Resort, a truly beautiful place and reasonably priced. It’s actually located in Kundasang where the famous market is.

We had a great steamboat dinner there and headed to bed early after a long, tiring day! The next day was to be our last in the wonderland that is Sabah before we headed back to the metropolis we call home.

You can find all the posts from this trip here:

Sabah 2008 Trip – Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu

We met up at Sg. Buloh rest stop at 12.30am on Friday night, some people were late though so we ended up leaving a little after 1am. We might quite a few stops as some people were sleepy and some monster treks guzzled the fuel.

Around 7am we reached the Kayu Bukit Hitam duty free shop and the place where we bought our insurance for Thailand, it was RM14! If you are going into Thailand with your car this is a must, also make sure you have a copy of your grant (owners slip/pink slip) or the original as the Thailand immigration will ask for it when you enter. Sun was rising and we grabbed some quick breakfast. There were 8 cars in total.

It’s also advisable to enter before 6am or after 9am as between those times the immigration queues will be crazy because of the busloads of tourists arriving.

The only problem with traveling at night, with your lights on you are a fast moving bug magnet..I washed my windscreen 3 times on the way there!

On the way in we stopped at the big duty free shop to grab a couple of bottles of Chivas for the evening entertainment. Immigration was pretty busy and it’s different from last time, it’s not like Singapore & Malaysia any more (drive through style) you have to park your car, go down and queue up with everyone else!

After you’ve got your passport chopped for entry you go to another desk with your car ownership details (the driver must have the same name and IC/passport number as the registered owner of the car), your insurance and your license. They will issue you a temporary permit to enter Thailand with your car for 30 days. Make sure you hand back the paper they give you when you leave, if not technically your car will still be in Thailand and they will fine you for every day you ‘overstay’ the next time you go in.

We reached the hotel finally but had some problems finding parking (I scratched my exhaust in some stupid underground carpark) as we couldn’t park at the hotel because the Thai PM was visiting! We also had some problems entering the hotel (metal detectors, armed guards etc.). We eventually got into our rooms around 10am, freshened up a bit then headed out for lunch. The hotel was B.P Grand Tower and was about RM80 per night (we got a very special rate and it’s off peak).

We had some great duck noodles and pork rice. The weather was great and there we were in Thailand, some of the others went for a massage and well having not slept for 1.5 days I promptly went back to the hotel and passed out so ensure I was conscious for dinner.

Pork Rice

The weather was fantastic! Rained in Malaysia all the way there and all the way back!

Dinner was at some fairly well-known hilltop restaurant in the middle of Hat Yai Municipal Park, Chivas for starters of course!

It was quite a big group with all the wives and kids, and a fantastic view of the city from the hill top.

The star of the night was the highly recommended pork knuckle and man was it good!

We also had some soft-shelled crab, 2 kinds of fried fish, tom yam and some kinda prawn sashimi salad. A great dinner!

After that it was back to the hotel, half the group headed to the pub and we went for some snacks and shopping. Grabbed myself a sweet Mitsubishi Rally team shirt for RM40 and a Singha beer t-shirt (only RM10)…and an erm..manbag *cough*.

Dropped the stuff off at the hotel and headed to Cowboy bar to catch the rest and to witness Nook the real Guitar Hero. Of course no Thai bar is complete without some pretty dancing girls, plus it was Halloween so there were all kinds of funky costumes.

I’ll try and find some time later to upload the videos of Nook whamming his guitar.

The next day we got up a bit late, headed out for some highly recommended Hainan chicken rice but the uncle had already sold out by 12:15! So went for another recommendation, pork kway teow. It was damn good!

Cooked oldskool style over charcoal.

Then back to the hotel to check out, here’s me on our floor (11th) with a view of Hat Yai.

Then it was time for the convoy back out, we left just after 2pm.

We used walkie-talkies coming and going back and it’s very useful, it makes driving so less stressful if you have a good convoy leader and a good sweeper.

Then all the way back to Penang for dinner.

It was a smooth exit from Thailand and a smooth trip back although it rained heavily most of the way which slowed us down, reached back Sg Buloh toll and home shortly after 1am.

It was a great trip but very tiring, I’d prefer to drive there faster next time and make less stops. Maybe make it past the border before 6am and catch some rest before lunch so I don’t have to knock out for the whole day! I could have done with another day though for some more shopping and some massages!

One thing I need to remember next time, is load my Garmin with Thailand maps..I’ve already worked out how to do it, I think it’ll help a lot and of course we can drive out and not get horribly lost.

You can see the full set on Flickr here:

Hat Yai – Oct 2009