where in the world is matt

Set on the East coast, the Perhentians are two small islands which translate to small and big. Kecil being the smaller is where the majority of people stay as the larger is more for families hence the accommodation is set up for it, but being on either at this time of year was strange. It was like the bandits are coming so you best get out of town. Alot of guesthouses/restaurants were closing and heading out of Dodge before the monsoon season closed the islands for 3 months. This occurs at the end of October/start of November and for us was the 24^th so we had 4 days before we had to catch the last boat. Really was strange watching as each day people left, to the point that on the 22^nd I arrived on one beach to find the whole thing closed down, rather eerie as that morning there had been people roaming around it.

It made for quite a nice quiet spot though and as the group had grown to seven of us, we were freer to haggle and get discounted rooms with nice sea views. We stayed at long beach (on the sunrise side) as its ‘larger’ of the two but not necessarily the nicer. On the opposite side of the island is Coral bay, where the majority of the dive schools reside and everything seemed to still be opened.

Other than spending every night getting smashed on the beach and going swimming the activities are mainly snorkelling or scuba with the Perhentians being famous for both. Personally marine wise I wasn’t that impressed with either. My dive was interesting, the first without any real supervision and just 4 of us on a speedboat with different gear in a strange new location. It was an experience because im so used to lush colours and coral and this was all hard and quite alot was damaged. There wasn’t as much variety to the fish or size and the current proved difficult to try and swim and remain buoyant in, but it’s what makes the experience of diving worthwhile. All the different situations and sites you find yourself in. From just the one dive I was offered my DM internship and IDC at cheaper rates – the number of dives for a DM going up from 20 to 40 – and free diving there for life with the company and the offer of work in February, something to consider.

The snorkelling proved to be alot better. Perhaps because of the diving making my lungs stronger, I found I was the only one that would dive to the bottom and chase the fish which meant I had my own little world to myself – though remembering I don’t have a tank on proved to be a problem the first time I went down.

We went to four sites around kecil, a reef, an open water reef/light house, shark point and turtle bay. The first was shark point, ive never seen sharks in open water and of course these weren’t dangerous. Black tip sharks, about 1m and a half in length, they were mainly swimming around in the shallows not doing much. Abit to nippy for me to keep up with but I managed to get fairly close to them before they went into deeper waters. Still cool to see.

Again at the second reef there were a couple of sharks but more small fish, mainly dorsal fish that with a prompt of bread thrown in became a mini frenzy to try and snatch from people’s hands. As a reef it was mainly large hard coral that only housed small nemo fish – brilliant because they always have a frown on and are the best fish to annoy in the world as they swim back and forth, sometimes coming close enough to catch.

Turtle point made the day for me. Having dived on Tao I seem to be the only person whose never seen a green turtle, they have become rare nowadays but they aren’t that rare as everyone else on the OW final saw one – bar my dive buddy and I – so this time I was ready and already with my gear on for when the captain pointed one out, I was already off the boat while it was moving. They swim fast and I was the only one to actually see and keep up with this as people faffed to get gear on before I was already half way across the bar. Amazing and graceful, this one had two feeder fish following it along, and it was happy enough going steady with me shadowing it, and seeing its head pop at the surface to grab some air, though unfortunately a boat came by and scared it off. After searching around for it again for some 10 minutes the captain spotted one and off I went again, this time with a few more people in tow. It proved to be the same turtle, but it led straight to a massive leatherback. It was at least three times the size of the green turtle and was just simply lying at the bottom munching on some stalks it had found. When it saw me, all it did was look up and carry on chomping. After awhile it decided that too many people meant it should go for a swim. This one swimming off just as lazy but due to the size of it, it went off at speed and was abit of a chore to keep up with. After awhile I gave up because I was shattered, it had a distinct advantage so was clearly going to get away. How they survive in such an area is beyond me as there is nothing at the bottom bar sand and it’s constantly used as a taxi route between the mainland and the two islands.

After the discovery of coral bay, the evenings were spent bbqing on the beach while watching the sun go down before retiring to our side of the island to drink and swim on the empty island.

The ride back was alot smoother though still at warp 9 on a speedboat, shortening the journey time but also alot of people’s kneecaps. Being on the front the first time wasn’t the best but still enjoyable. From here the plan was to go to Tioman but due to the east coast closing, I didn’t want to travel all the way to the port of Mersing to find it shutdown, so I decided to stay with the group and travel across land to Penang, an island id never been before where I could then take the train down to KL, and then bus to Malacca and Singapore.

It’s now been about a week and a half since any real update due to the lack of knowing what to write about really for the Cameron Highlands. It can mainly be summed up as

Strawberries. Tea. Chilly. Trekking.

It’s about your lot really.

Set as the largest state in Malaysia, the CH are famous mainly for trekking and trails boasting to have the tallest peak on the mainland. This is all true, but what they don’t tell you till they get there is that they are obsessed with strawberries. It’s like a wicker man style, everything is about strawberries. If they aren’t trying to sell you the jam there’s hats and earmuffs, t-shirts and pens. If it can be turned red and have seeds put on it, they’ll try their best to turn it into something berry related…

Slightly less obvious but still in plain view is their tea. Boh tea to be exact. Something like 108 hectares make up each plantation and thers about 5 of them around the centre of Tanah Rata. Founded by the Scots, Boh is the largest exporter of tea from Malaysia to and around Asia – hence never ever hearing of it back home… – and has excessive amounts of brands including my favourite. The teacino. The vanilla one tasting like a cherry bakewell in a cup, but this aside the CH are used mainly for agriculture due to the temperatures being like that of Europe.

Something that is noted in the architecture. I swear you could have been walking through a valley in Switzerland, the housing style was very tall and free standing in quite a Bavarian manner with the Asian equivalent of pine trees and alot of daffodils growing alongside, making it a refreshing – emphasis on at night – change from spending the past 8 months in shorts and t-shirt sweating it out. By day it was bright with a mild breeze that still allowed for summer wear, but by evening it became quite brisk with the need for hoodies and jeans.

We stayed in the Twin Pines guesthouse in the attic rooms which for 12RM were exactly what they said on the box. A mattress on the floor in a room where standing upright was impossible due to the denting the roof, simple but effective except the walls were rather thin to the point that hearing five different people snoring makes it abit difficult to sleep if you’re me.

Activity wise, it might have been different at another time. The fabled peak season – which you never see because everyone goes on holiday either in summer, or winter if you’re old and rich – might have brought more people as the faces you see are far and few. The majority being Chinese or Indian – which led to delicious thali food – and the odd tourist who disappeared by day because they were following the tour group package of going for a jungle trek at 8.45 every morning. Opting against this and to save some money, we got a map and followed some of the trails separately. One of which leading to Robinson falls, very anticlimactic as a fall, but if you carry on further to route 9/9a (we weren’t sure which we took or if they joined or split at points) then it entails a 3km trek into the jungle coming out at a watercress farm. Brilliant. Except we are now 10km south of where we are staying due to the winding roads, and no-one really wants to go through the mission of the jungle again. Ok, let’s walk. But there isn’t any form of taxi because everyone drives around here as it’s rather remote. No problem, we hail down a truck after four of us stand in the road waving rather camply to hail transport. We are then told to pay money to avoid the police to which we respond with, we’ll just lie down in the truck bay. And so this led to being crushed by metal scaffolding on the bends every time you swing round and getting covered in alot of dirt, but it made the trip more worthwhile.

Trips range from half day to full day, either trekking or sights around the area. We opted for the half day trip which took in a temple – rather naff and built mainly for tourists – rose garden, tea plantation, insect village, bee farm, strawberry plantation and some market no-one was really fussed about.

The temple was modern and seemed added purely because we aren’t meant to have temples in the west. The rose garden was interesting to say the least. Not so much roses as a mass complex of raggedy flowers and cacti that led upwards to a strange boot house – clearly designed for children – and a separate hillside that once climbed provided views around one side of the valley. The tea plantation offered much of the same with views of tea fields with a trip down to the factory and a chance to sample the Boh produce. The strawberry farm a letdown, or perhaps to obvious, that it was simply unbloomed strawberries but a sample of the local jams and fruits again a nice change from having Asian fruits. The insects were pretty cool, not a huge amount but it was cool to hold a leaf insect.

It seems that alot of tourist locations have popped up around Malaysia that are meant to be what people are interested in, but not anything much about the country hence the trails and treks are overshadowed by their income being turned into a show.

From here the plan was to go to the Perhentian Isles, famous for diving and aquatic life, but rumours were around that it was closed already. Every year it closes for 3 months when the season ends for the monsoon season. This was proved to be a lie though as it was just that tour companies were lazy and wanted to fill buses before sending them on their way and we managed to get a minibus that would take 8 or so hours – more than the 5 promised – to get there.

Again a considerable lack of updates since Tao due to their having been no real change from lying around on a beach or diving or drinking in the same places. Tao is one of those places that I love and already want to be back there, I think diving is still in my blood, along with all the nitrogen that’s buzzing around my brain and its started niggling at me when I’m not there. But the plan is to return before the end of the adventure and do some more diving there, as well as pick up a few things left there.

From Tao the trip was a night ferry to Surat Thani where we were bundled into a minibus at 6am and taken to Hat Yai and put on a larger bus that would take us the rest of the way, the remaining 18 hours of it…

The stop at the border was beyond a joke, the least organized ive ever seen. 9 booths and people queuing for miles back, of course we picked the one line that the man either hated his job or was so so bad at it that I think we were there for nearly an hour and a half before even being allowed to leave the country. From here the bus travelled another five minutes before stopping for the arrival to Malaysia cards. Some day someone will invent a far more efficient system to travel around Asia…

In the 6 years since I was here last the visa system has changed and from 60 days, you now get 90 days for free in Malaysia. Pretty good if I knew of somewhere to spend this much time. Being on my own now and a little older the country was my proverbial oyster and so Kuala Lumpur was to be an interesting experience as ive never stayed in it as a tourist rather with family. Its alot more expensive. Drinking wise anyway, food and accommodation isn’t too bad and it’s nice to get some proper Chinese food, in particular getting some bakwa (a kind of Chinese jerky) which is hard to come by back home.

Currently staying next to Chinatown at a place called Le Village. A backpack vibe hostel (?) that has the rundown student feel to it that makes it quite a popular place, sometimes with rather strange people (you know who you are with your linen pants, om tattoos and dreadlocks..) but the prices are flat rate to similar buildings around the area, currently paying around £3 for a twin room so it’s cheaper than the Thai islands but around average for other places.

So far KL isn’t quite as I remember, as a city it’s beautiful. The road network reminding abit to much of home. And it’s very clean, to the point that it seems clean of people. For the capital city it seems the populous isn’t with it, irrespective of work. The first main day was spent with a visit to the Petronas towers, too late to venture to the 41^st floor for the glass bridge, but still by day and night it’s amazing to see lit up across the skyline. At the base is the KLCC, a shopping centre that caters for the richer clientele with the high price brands and one of my favourite book shops, for which I’m not allowed to touch because I spend too much money…

The best way to get there is of course the LRT; the rail system around KL is one of the best in the world I feel. It’s so efficient you can miss your train at least 20 times and still not be late to anywhere. It’s clean and cool and worth paying the 10RM to travel around for the day not even going places. A short walk from Chinatown and you get dropped off right at the base of the Petronas towers.

The second day was spent with an extensive walk to the KL bird park which boasts to be the largest free flight atrium in the world, whether or not this is true I don’t know because Singapore claims to have the largest bird park in the world. Perhaps if they joined forces they would have some unstoppable bird city. We can but dream. It was impressive and makes a change from the caves/temples/waterfalls around the rest of Asia, but it actually is abit to far from. The city is lovely but not for me, in the next couple of days the plan is to head back up north abit to the Cameron Highlands to get some trekking done in some of the oldest rainforest in the world. Finding transport is a different story entirely with very few travel agents around, oh how I wish for the ease of Thailand.

Again an exceptionally long delay in the blogging due to the lack of being on land.

Firstly however, the chore that is getting a visa extension from Rangon in Burma. I recommend if you dont have to do it there, then dont. From KP I took a boat to Surat Thani again before being ferryed between several minibuses and excessive waiting. Finally the minibus arrived in Rangon, 4 hours later then stated.

This meant that I had to stay the night there - and there is nowhere to go there.. - and get into several arguements with regards to cost of sorting a visa out. In the end I decided that 500 baht was a joke and did the local tuk tuk and boat combination return and ended up paying 180. Alot cheaper though perhaps not as efficient. The guesthouse (kiwi house) is right next to the bus station so if you find yourself needing to get back to the islands, dont go with their pricing which is beyond extortinate. I was quoted 1,100 to get to Tao. I ended up paying 120 for a local minibus, and had the bus arrived in Champohn 3 minutes earlier, I would have taken the 450 ferry. However it didnt and I had to kill 9 hours to take the night ferry.

It seems everytime I try and get to Tao its a chore and I end up taking the night ferry. This time however it wasnt as painful and the beds were abit more sound, however again there was a considerable lack of pick up from the port. Perhaps its the arriving early and they just dont try, but I knew where the dive resort was so I walked there instead, a 20 minute walk to Sari beach.

Diving with Ban’s varies in cost, I paid 9,800 for open water whilst a friend paid 9000. They claim to be the cheapest though others do have OW for 1000 cheaper. They are though the largest on the island with possibly the nicest accomodation included for the price, a room to yourself instead of a dorm, with Big blue offering the same price (9,000 though you have to buy the book for 800).

The course takes 4 days, orientation and a video in an afternoon, more theory and pool practice the next day, day 3 is 2 dives and theory with exam, day 4 is 2 more dives with certification and youve passed. Its that easy, and you can now dive to 18m. You follow this up with doing the advanced course, another 7,000 but this allows you to dive to 98% of the world with night dives, navigation and up to 30m (you can actually go to 40m for recreational diving) which equals an adventure diver. Doing two more dives makes you advanced, and if you then work on 4 more dives of either of these you become a specialist in that field.

From here you can progress to rescue - which i start tomorrow - and then onto dive master. Im thinking of developing these to become an instructor but due to constraints with the visa, im going to get rescue then head to Malaysia in 6 days to meet friends.

Every month, for those that dont know, there is whats known as the full moon party on Koh Phangan. This started as a going away birthday for someone in the 70’s and for some reason it has been celebrated every month since. Its become quite a tourist thing but having been in Thailand several times, I have missed it every time due to location elsewhere.

An average of 30,000 people descend on the island to party under the moon every month, though this month due to it having just passed peak european holiday season the average number was meant to be 8,000 people.

From Koh Chang a boat and bus ride to Bangkok with a 20 minute breather in Bangkok before taking another bus that evening straight down to Surat Thani to arrive in the morning of the 21st, before another boat to Phangan meaning a 28 hour stint of travel.

Arriving at Tongsala, the main port and town, a taxi took us across the island to Haad Rin, two beaches of sunset and sunrise around the town. The sunrise side housing the full moon party and sunset being a 10 minute walk outside meant a more sensible option with issues of theft and noise being factors.

Managed to find a moderately priced bungalow at Sun Beach for 400, which was a 5 minute walk down the beach to the pier and quite close to Corals, which houses pool parties every evening.

Having been on KC it was a nice change to go to somewhere busy, though i was suprised at the number of israelis there, literally it was possible to trip over from the number on the beach. Without stereotyping the majority are out there as sex tourists so it was a mild hinderance when out with female friends, but not a problem in the long run.

The two nights leading to the full moon have several main parties on the western side of the island but due to the location and days of arrival, these were missed in favour of staying local and checking out sunrise beach. The actual day of the party was spent mainly at Same Same which had a live band that played pop music and classics for the majority, but when everyone cut to the beach they finished their set with several metal covers which made a nice change from the pitbull remixes and rnb that seem to be the mainstay of the beach.

Apparently there is an entry fee of 100 baht which also gives you a wristband, though this seemed to be avoided - not intentionally - and instead the remainder of the night till around 5am was spent down on the beach. There seems to be 3 main areas down the beach at drop in, sunrise and around the mushroom mountain area.

On the 25th everyone went their seperate ways and I went to sort a visa extension in Burma again.

Due to the shocking pricing of the internet on the islands and the lack of much to write for the first week on my return to Thailand there has been a considerable lack of development on the blog for which I apologise.

We’re now on the 26th, so I have to go back to the 13th when I actually arrived to backlog where ive been.

Arriving on the 13th in Bangkok after a horrible 13 hour trip out of Cambodia, I spent the next few days there tying up with friends on trips home who i’d met in Laos. Nothing new asuch as it was spent on Koh Sahn and Ratumburi, an area opposite which id never actually been to.

On the 16th when we went our seperate ways, I headed back out towards Cambodia and south to Koh Chang to visit a friend for a few days before he flew home.

Koh Chang is rather dull, and very strange for the people that visit it. Traditionally its where the Thai’s tend to go for holiday so there are alot of expensive resorts, but its slowly becoming touristy. Perhaps the time of year, but there werent people there and the bars and restaurants made it a ghost town. Due to the layout it was difficult to get around without a bike and even then the hills are very steep. The views made up for this with spectacular sunsets over the 4 outlying islands.

Most days were spent hunting for good spots on the beach and finding which bar had the relevent party on that night. Staying at Bailan beach meant a spell over the hills every night to make it to Lonely beach for the backpacker area.

It would be interesting to see how it is during the busy seasons, but I dont think ill be visiting there again.

Battambang is crap. Theres no other way around it, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The fact that it has no tourism isnt a bad thing, its just that there isnt anything at all, and this is not in anyway shape or form charming.

The 4 hour bus turned into a 6/7 hour trip with the constant stops and having to go all the way to Sisophan before going back on yourself. Why they simply don’t have a connecting road, I don’t know. The boat trip - apparently the best in Cambodia - sounded interesting but due to the amount spent at Siem Reap, the bus was the cheaper option, and with a few days to kill before a return to Thailand (for visa reasons).

Upon arriving disappointment set in straight away. Its the second largest city in Cambodia but there isn’t anything to it bar alot of shops that sell clothes and mobile phones. Traditionally the buildings are meant to be french colonial, but those that still exist have fallen into disrepair. Even finding a restaurant proved to be more trouble then its worth. A walk in a loop down to the furthest bridge and back up the riverside also provided nothing of a centre.

I decided to give it a go though, and staying another day to explore the sights, I went to ride the bamboo train. Pretty much what it says on the tin, it uses an old railway track and a train made of truck axles and a bamboo platform with a lawn mower engine on, to ferry people and goods the 3km (it could have been longer) trip between villages. Traveling at speeds of around 15km it felt like a rather un-secure rollercoaster, as kinks in the track would occasionally jolt you, the plastic mat you sat on providing little contact for you to grip. The trip is about half an hour there and back and makes for an interesting experience. Apparently it will be dissolved when they finish the major rail works across Cambodia and a more modern track is put in, but this isnt likely till 2015 minimum finances pending, so don’t feel you have to rush to it.

The other major site to the area is a mountain that houses one of the killing sites, a cave that people would be beaten and thrown through a skylight into the cave. However after hiking left right and centre over the mountain as far as the temple peak (anticlimactic modern temple) and halfway back down to eventually find the cave, hidden away, it doesnt say much about the history or hold much as its a dead end that you can climb into but there is nothing to gives away what happened there.

The next day I bid a hasty retreat back to Thailand, a trip that proved to be around 12 hours with the start stopping and changing of buses. From here a few days in the centre before heading to the isles again.

The final day in the iron man visit to Ankor was spent finally seeing the sunrise - a simple solution instead of missing the alarm was to just not go to sleep - so a chilly 5am start and possibly the whole of Japan camped out at the entrance to the main temple opposite the pond/lake. Have to say the sunset is far more impressive with the clouds, but its still pretty amazing seeing the sunrise over the largest religious site on earth.

A brief return to SR before heading out again, this time 60km to the furthest temple in the complex of Banteay Srei, with a combined stop off at Kbal Spean (national park). KS was first as it was furthest is a national park that houses Hindu sculptures in the river bed, a 2km walk up the mountain (hill) to the worlds smallest river, but some of the most ornate sculpture work ive seen for awhile given the conditions its under. There are only about 9 blocks along the river, no-one seemed to be able to say where they had come from - not aliens, just was it used as a temple..

The only way to get back down now is the same route as the entrances have changed since my guide had been as a youngster.

The return journey included a stop off at Banteay Srei which was anticlimactic as the last temple asuch, more ruin then brick work it didn’t seem to have much to it, and was a very quick look before moving on.

A return to Ankor to view the sunset from Bakheng was marred by a storm cycle, that although passed, left to much cloud cover for a sunset, and poor maintenance of the jungle line meant that you couldnt see much of Ankor itself. The temple was a pyramid style structure which in its hey day would have a magnificent entrance way of stone steps leading up the hill. Nowadays it instead has a winding path that can be taken one way by elephant, or foot another way.

After the bus ride that of course turned out to be nearly 9 hours, and a frantic rush for the bus due to them ‘forgetting’ me, im glad i prearranged where i would be staying as arriving at night i had no clue where the centre was. Instead a man waving my name on a card greeted me and took me to the garden villa, which has been hit and miss.

I recommend and i dont, the room i have for the price is excessive in size rather then cost. I just dont have a need for a room that big, but for the price its pretty good. Possibly due to my complaints as the first room was filled with sand and the sheets stale which kept setting off my asthma. Also they managed to lose some of my clothes and also hand me washing back that was wet. Very strange… but the rooftop bar is nice and its a good meeting place.

The city itself doesnt have much by way of sites to see, but it does have a very good drinking hole in the form of bar street, probably designed and marketed to the tourists who come purely for Ankor, and well deserved it is.

Yesterday afternoon i went to see the sunset and purchase a ticket for the temples. $20 for a one day, with a three day entry being $40, this can be spread across 7 days or consecutive as what im doing. Though with the viewing of sunset I was allowed access to Ankor Wat so technically im getting 4 days.

Today i did the whole site on a pedal bike ($1 from all guesthouses normally, though its a standard road bike with no suspension, asian standard means its a chore to ride without gears) which was a silly idea as it became a 38km ride with getting out from town and around the main area, there are temples further north but they dont tend to be visited as they are 30km from the main site. Most people will do the 1 day and see the main three. Ankor Wat, Bayon and the tomb raider temple - the name has escaped me at present - and maybe stop at a few of the others. I decided to spend the day exploring rather than being a tourist and stopping to snap every few minutes and fell in love with Bayon as a temple. It has thousands of stone relief faces jutting from every wall and tower, very interesting. You cant help but get a little tingle when you go through the gates or past the temples, they are the largest site on earth and some of the oldest.

Tomorrow the plan is to wake and catch sunrise and travel on the back of a moto to take some snaps and catch the other half that i rode past but didnt explore due to the heat and distance ridden.

Kampot itself is a rather small town with not much to do as its also rather inflated accommodation, but I was staying at a place with a group of people i’d met in Sinville so it was rather nice.

Bodhi Villa is 2km out of town on the other side of the river offering very basic rooms with a nice chill vibe on the bamboo decking out into the river. Other then a change from beach and ocean to decking and river there was little to it. It was nice to have a few days doing nothing but playing guitars and pool but it was also a place that you can get sucked into.

After the chore of getting there via a taxi scam that they make you wait for 2 more people in the back OR you can pay $3 now (Y). I think not.. and so we played the waiting game of who would cave first which of course they did, so 2 hours later then planned we arrived in town.

Town itself is not geared for tourism, few guesthouses with little by way of amenities or drinking holes for the average westoner, with even less to see in the area. The main sites boasted are a series of caves 10km away that boast to be older then Ankor, circa 5th century and made from limestone. There is also Bakor national park which hosts a variety of wildlife from tigers to elephants, all of which you cant apparently see. There is a weather station and village abandoned atop a 1km ascent which sounded interesting as its deserted, with orange lichen and mist giving a ghost town feel, but due to roads being worked on in the area and the need for a 250cc bike to get to the top I decided against it as I didnt feel comfortable doing it, specially on my own as everyone else was to lazy to venture out.

Did swing by Kep which is famous for its crabs with Kampot pepper, more of a chore to get to the flesh then seems worth but competition is fierce so youre likely to get abit for your buck. Kep is listed as a site to see but its anticlimactic, specially this time of year with high water levels preventing use of the beach, another reason I didnt go to Rabbit Island with the troupe as the weather is to problematic.

I decided instead that a week and a half of lying around was time to head and see something, so I took the bus back to the capital but due to times I was unable to pick up a new camera and travel straight to Siam Reap the same day. So another night was spent by the riverside and I await my 7 odd hour bus to Siam Reap for some Ankor WHAAAAAAAAT