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Ladyboys and Skyscrapers - Sam's Entry
Good evening. The events of the last few days have left me chilled out, freaked out and dazzled to the very core - in that particular order.
We left our blogging in Ko Lanta, and then went to Phi Phi, which was by far my favourite. The water was pristine, aquamarine blue, and you can see right to the bottom for metres and metres down. The beaches are also famously beautiful, and packed with people and bars too; we jumped straight into the action and joined in the "Free Bucket Beach party" after a few rounds of pool in an Irish bar. The whole night was a much needed break from constantly worrying about rationing money; it was difficult to do on the islands, because prices were hiked and tap water isn't drinkable so it was impossible not to constantly buy drink. Interestingly, my appetite is more or less gone - I rarely even need 3 meals a day and never snack, it's just way too hot. What we have been eating has been excellent - tried a Masuman curry last week, which is a green curry with Muslim Indian spice influences.
We were staying in a dorm in Phi Phi with a lot of people, and it was the worst place in the world for Dave to get ill - we suspect it was from a dodgy ice cream, as it was the only thing Dave had that I didn't that evening. After about 6 hours (we'd taken an ealy night as well) the food poisoning kicked in with all its fury, so we moved to a comfier place on the beach with air-conditioning the next day, where Dave recovered a great deal and slept all day vomit-free. Without him, I was bored out of my mind and went to lie in the sun where I fell asleep and ended up with sunstroke, so I was feverish and vomiting too by the end of the night (brought on my gulping down 2 litres of water, then realising they'd sold me it out of date... how can water be out of date?... Thai water can!). Our party days should have been over, but we made a heroic decision to stick to our plan of hitting the Half Moon Party on the other side of Thailand the next night, and got on an all-day bus and boat to get there. It was pretty rough, and we didn't do the party justice. We got a taxi into the Ko Pha Ngan jungle at 10pm and were met by hordes of people in glow-in-the-dark body paint, massive BBQ stalls, a large jungle enclosure surrounded by bars and a massive DJ booth pumping out trance. We hung on in there for hours, and the place got pretty mad, so it was good to stick it out and say we'd conquered the Half Moon even though we wern't on top form.
Ko Pha Ngan itself was really nice - I shudder to describe a white-sand tropical beach as just "nice" but we were getting used to it! I am saddened to say that my new memory card, all $40 of it, broke, and I had to format it, losing 40 photos. Again, luckily uploaded half of them. I have no faith in technology anymore, and am considering fashioning my own pinhole camera out of palm trees and developing pictures in a cave where nobody cn let me down.
On the subject of outrageous plans, I have two confessions to make; seen as this whole year is a bit of a surreal break from reality and responsibility, I decided to undertake two gruelling challenges; 1) to become a vegetarian, and 2) to grow a beard. My first goal failed within two days, although I still choose vegeterian options if it's cheaper. My second challenge is sadly ongoing (undertaken by both of us - Dave's blonde hairs failed him and he gladly abandoned ship weeks ago) - you may have noticed that I am becoming progressively fuzzier in my photos. It has not gone well, and after I've broken my previously held non-shave record on Christmas Eve, I will get rid of it. I am two young to grow a beard, and am sick of the constant banter from Dave. Let this be a public surrender.
Anyway, we slept a lot on Pha Ngan and made a 100% recovery - been feeling better than ever! On the advice of a person we met, we took a boat to Ko Samui, another island nearby... and got the full blast of modern, debauched Thailand we'd been waiting for. Chaweng beach was massive - beautiful, lined with palm trees, crappy bars and jet skis... excellent waves. We found a not-so-cheap bargain along the parallel road, which came with a fridge and air-con (luxury) and we even got a discount because I tried to do a kickflip off the bed and snapped it in two. Dave scolded me like a child and told me I'd have to pay for it - but our owner was actually grateful I'd owned up and said it was the quality of the bed. Very, very lucky escape.
That night, and the night after, we explored the night market and hammered out a great deal for shark steak, which was delicious - sort of like swordfish except less meaty. Finished off with Pad Thai Kung on our last night which was festooned with mutant shrimp. We then shot some pool, with typical thrashings occuring on night one, and a few hard-fought wins against a string of losses on night two (my pool is really improving). My personal lowlight / highlight of the nights, can't decide because it was so interesting, was walking down the bar alley. Every bar and fake massage parlour was loaded with gangs of escort girls dressed in bunny suits and devil costumes, desperately catcalling every male for attention and service. Never have I been so indecently caressed. Also had our first proper run in with ladyboys, one of whom gladly let me take a photo with him. The morning afterwards, when we were waiting for the Singapore bus, I made friends with a ladyboy called Ping, who'd been working the street with no luck all night. I tried really hard to treat hm/her as a human being, and after I got past the awkwardness of refusing a number of homosexual acts, we chatted about the weather, Thailand and my travelling plans. By the end it made me sort of sad sitting next to him/her, getting abuse thrown his/her way from passing tourists on motorbikes, calling him/her scum and a freakshow and this and that. The scale of his/her strangeness was almost terrifying, and the urge to laugh or lash out is strong, but I think it's a test of tolerance generally to try and be kind to people.
We got the bus, and it took 30 hours...
And now we're in Singapore!
Singapore is completely out of place in Asia. As we were shuttling into the central area I thought that this would be what England was like if it was in the tropics (and generally better governed). It's unbelievably well-kept, the hedges are trimmed, the streets are clean, litter and chewing gum is banned, the buildings are torn down and modernised every 5 years... and the skyscrapers are immense. We spent all day using the skytrain, which is better than the London tube, and taking photos of the massive metal + glass towers. Dave took a special interest in the Singapore Cricket Club, and we were both shocked to find it was officially Christmas season. It's funny that you only really know it's Christmas around the world because of the displays in shop windows. Singapore practically IS a giant shop - I'd say there are 4 complexes the size of Bluewater, all connected to each other... all the central banks and businesses have their own station on the tube... it's a giant tax-dodging capitalist playground.
Having no money to splash out with, we decided to mostly window-shop, a concept which sickens me, but doing anything out here is ok because it's 6000 miles away and thus ok. I also had some lime juice which did the job of lunch.
Going to Australia in a couple of days - really looking forward to the idea of non-lethal tap water, actual milk, cereal, being understood by people, getting my camera fixed, smoking being illegal in pubs, actual pints of beer, lack of guilt about eating chips instead of rice, people that don't lie to you and beg in order to take your money, and post-Christmas, when I can shave my bumfluff off and see my brother and stepdad who are coming and staying in the hostel with us like hardcore backpackers.
Love the odd email and Facebook comment, really apprieciated.
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Singapore: Dave's entry
Hello from Singapore!
We just arrived here this morning after a monster 30 hour bus journey, for much of which my only sustinance was yoghurt and oreos. So I can honestly say i'm a relieved man to be sitting well hydrated and full and ready to recount my stories this evening.
After our last blog we headed off for the idllyic little island of Ko Phi Phi. After a short boat trip from Ko Lanta we touched down and instantly recognised the calibre of the place. We checked into our dorm room at "The Rock", the 16 man warehouse of a dorm that had failing fans and a door that wouldn't shut, needless to say it was the cheapest accomodation on the island. We waited for an hour to secure our luxurious beds for the night, the beds that had to be made by yourself, I never though domestic skills would be one of the skills aquired whilst travelling! The rest of the day we explored the small but very charming island before settling down on the beach to catch some rays. That evening we also enjoyed a stroll out on the elongated beach, the tide in Phi Phi takes the water out so far that you can walk out and admire the bay from afar. We managed to get some really good photos but nothing can really do justice to how special this little island is, not only is it incredibly scenic but it's people are genuine and kind and the beach party was well, a beach party. We spent hours on the beach, dancing and drinking into the early hours of the morning, fuelled by the free buckets on offer at the bars. At 4am we decided enough was enough and to head back to the dorm, i say decided as if at that point we had any real clarity of thought, frankly i have to admit we didn't. You have to enjoy the chances to let your hair down (literally my hair is a mane now) when they present themselves and we certainly did.
The next day we headed off to the nearby island of Ko Phi Phi Leh. The site of Maya Bay - the famous beach from the movie "The beach". The trip as a whole was fantastic, I managed to see 3 black tip reef sharks, a neon blue family of Octopus and a collection of colourful and wonderful coral and tropical fish. The trip was such good value for money costing us less that 10 pounds! Luckily i managed to force myself to liberally apply suncream so the days expedition left me a nice shade of brown rather than the ever feared lobster red. The excursions finale was an hours stop at Maya Bay, and it was evident straight away why this place is so revered and visited. The clear, turquoise water blending with the clean white sands as the sun shined down on us in the late afternoon made for a picturesque setting and one that will stay in the memory for a long while. It was a really enjoyable day out on our longtail boat and after the previous nights shinanigans I was certainly feeling ready for the comfort of my sandy dorm room diy bed.
Unfortunatly despite the early night and the solid evening meal i was struck down with a horrible case of food poisining. After falling asleep just after midnight I was woken up every half hour or so past 2am with nausea and vomiting. It was awful because despite my best efforts the bed got soaked and everyone was woken up by my noise and constant trips down the hill to the shared bathroom to empty the bucket. The receptionist did her best to be unhelpful, finally offering me clean sheets and a bucket at about 4.30am. I was really struggling and not a drop of the 6 litres i consumed managed to stay down. I finally crashed out at around 5am before waking up again at 8am to more nausea and vomiting. Luckily the people who were sharing the hostel with us were very kind indeed and all provided me with help, water and even antibiotics. After the struggles of getting down to and back from the bathroom the night before Sam and I decided to delay our departure for Ko Phanang until the 9th and book into a hotel with an en suite for the coming evening.
That day i spent in bed, sleeping, I had finally managed to stem the flow as such but just felt totally exhausted and did so for the next 3 days! Unfortunatly Sam seemed to be on the recieving end of a similar dose that evening due to some out of date water consumed and spent the night hurrying to the bathroom with nausea. So we were both feeling awful, together, helping each other through. Despite serious exhaustion Sam and I decided to soldier on and make the trip to Ko Phanang the next morning, in order to arrive the same evening on the 9th in time for the highly anticipated Half moon party. In reality, we attempted to do the party justice but only managed to brave 4 hours before deciding enough was enough at 1am and heading back for bed. Such an effort was indeed commendable and we battled through a beer each just so we can officialy say we partied at the half moon. Stories were more valuable than health at this point. Travellers currency and all that.
The day after the half moon we relaxed, we slept and we watched movies, just about what we needed while still trying to recover from our unshakable tiredness. We made the decision that we would leave for Ko Samui on the 11th and nothing, not even the prospect of frisbie on the Sunrise beach would keep us. Arriving in Ko Samui on the 12th was, well interesting. A dear old friend recently described it to me as a "Microcosm" of Thailand and he was correct. I wont go into detail about the dodgy massage places, the pushy taxi drives, the ice cream vendors selling more than just twisters, the smell of the sewer and the ladyboys. I'll just say that despite mitigating circumstances we managed to enjoy ourselves, whiling away hours on the beach and at the pool table, sharpening our skills ready for Australia. We also managed to eat a piece of Shark Steak whilst in Samui, which was delicious but failed to match the heavenly barracuda sampled in Cambodia. Unfortunatly we didn't quite have enough money to go for the crocodile steak though i can assure you we tried to haggle down the price of eating such an audacious meal.
We said goobye to Samui at around 6am on the morning of the 13th, and we spent the next 30 hours on a collection of different buses on our way to Singapore, where we arrived at around midday today, so 2am gmt. The few memories of the monster bus journey were good ones. The first was of the generosity of a student we met who after hearing our story of malnutrition due to the journey broke his chocolate bar in half and shared it with us. It was the first cadburys I have had since leaving home, I wouldn't have cared what it was though, the gesture meant everything. The other memory I have was of franticly running around at 3am in the morning, trying to find a cash machine to pay for my order of 3 dunkin donuts at the garage minimart. I failed. The minimart atm was offline until 6am. I had to sacrifice the doughnuts and the caramel latte planned, I was amused though by the mere situation. 3am in Malaysia, in flipflops, running around a car park like a madman, driven purely by the desire for calories and saturated fats.
It's 9pm here now and we have spent all afternoon and early evening exploring the delights Singapore has to offer. We visited the famous raffles place, home of the towering financial district and met a lovely kiwi guy who gave us a few tips on where to go and what to see and told us the history of the place too, a free tour guide always helps! We also managed to see the SCC, the Singapore Cricket club, located in the shadow of the financial districts skyscrapers and i mused on future Old Wills tours to South East Asia. Then we shopped, and you can shop like nowhere else here. There are countless super malls all filled with designer stores. Despite the urges i had to restrain myself and limited the damage to an acceptable 50 pounds. Then we waited patiently for the sunset and for the christmas lights to illuminate the famous shopping district of the Orchard. The lights and the music and the massive christmas tree (new york style) made me realise how far into the festive season we are and think of home and loved ones. I hope that you are all enjoying christmas, it's a time for being together as we always get told and being away has made me realise the importance of family and friends at this and all times of the year. I hope your all getting stuck into the christmas songs on the radio, I certainly sang away whilst shopping today much to the amusement of Singapores retail staff.
We are currently staying in a hostel in the Little India Area and we are just about to head out for some dinner in Chinatown. I feel marvelously cultured!
Take Care All. I'll blog again before Christmas day. Merry christmas all the same though.
Thinking of you all.
David
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