Lombok & The Gili Islands

Turtle Sanctuary - Gili Trawangan

We arrived in Bali and got picked up at the Airport by Andrew & Simone. It was really good to see them again. We spent their last 5 days with them in Kuta before making our way over to Lombok. We left Bali from Padangbai which is in the South East. From here we took the Local slow ferry over to Lombok. And yes it was slow! 5 hours later we were docking at Lambar. Approaching Lombok was breathtaking. It was a beautiful lush green islands filled with mountains. Unless you see it, it is hard to believe how lovely it really is. We found our driver who would be taking us to Senggigi. Another mini bus ride with more amazing scenery. We drove past local villages, Burning rice fields, waving children and a stunning sunset. Senggigi was just a stop over. We arrived in the early evening, ate in a tasty restaurant, slept bad as we were next door to what seemed like their only night club and left early in the morning to get to the Gili Islands. The drive from Lambar to Bangsal took us up the whole of the West coast. Bangsal is where you catch a small boat over to the Gili Islands. Gili Air is the smallest and the most populated Island closest to Lombok. Gili Meno is in the middle and is the quietest and Gili Trawangan is the biggest with the most accommodation and restaurants. Catching the small boat over is quite an experience. The locals are also using the boat as their main transport to and from the Gili's. So imagine 20 travelers and 40 locals battling it out to squeeze past the engine, climb on board the rocking boat, walk across the seats as the middle is packed with cargo and find a spot to sit without sitting on a pineapple. Oh and if your not quick enough to get on that boat then you will have to wait for the next one, which can take up to a few hours in low season. Our boat was meant to have 25 people max but we counted at least 41, not including the extra weight of the cargo, bags and double mattress which was balanced on top. With no life jacket in site, Sam was not feeling to confident on board. It took about 30 minutes but we survived and soon found a room in the village. From Gili.T you can see all 3 Gili Islands and Lombok. And on a clear day you can see Gunung Agung on Bali at 3142 metres high. With no transport on the island, it was good to breath in some clean air. Especially after Kuta! The only problem is that the only transport on the island is a Cidomo aka Horse and cart, so you do breath in Horse s**t but that made us feel a little bit at home in the countryside again. We walked the whole island in under 2 hours. It was hot but we enjoyed it. We only spent 6 days on Lombok & Gili.T but enjoyed our short time here. We are glad we popped over from Bali.

Singapore..... again.

Three months into our trip it was time to get back to Singapore before flying to Bali.
We really enjoyed Singapore last time so we thought we'd spend a few more days here before flying out. We arrived in Singapore at 10:30am found the closest MRT underground station which took us to our guesthouse. after dropping off our bags we headed to Orchard Road fore some food and a look around the malls. The next day we walked along Clarke Quay and stopped for a pint of ale in the brewerkz, where they brew their own ale. It was nice to have a decent pint of their finest hopback ale. We carried on walking down the river to the famous Singapore lion where we seen a Asian soap being filmed, and a super model having a photo shoot. That night we made our way to the night safari and started the evening by watching a Bornean tribal fire show.
We then watched the creatures of the night show before hopping on the night safari tram and beginning our tour of the park. As well as the tram we also walked the safari trails it was strange walking through a zoo at night. We seen some really interesting animals such as fruit bats, flying squirrels (which we actually saw fly), and the clouded leopard. By the time we arrived home it was gone midnight. On our final day we got the monorail across to Sentosa island, which now hosts a universal studios. All buses and transport on the island is free. We got the blue line bus to fort Sentosa, a fort that was built by the British and used in world war 2. The soldiers surrendered to Japanese and fort Sentosa become a prisoner of war camp for three years, until the end of the world war. After the fort we went to underwater world which has many different species of sea creatures a dolphinarium and UV jellyfish tanks. We spent a few hours looking around before heading to Sentosa beach for a beer and a pizza (extremely tasty) and enjoy watching the flowriders. We still cant believe how clean and efficient Singapore is by far our favourite city.

The Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

We left the Cameron Highlands at 8:00am and arrived at 4:30pm at Kuala Besut in the north. From there we took a speed boat for 40 minutes to Kecil the smaller Perhentian island. Upon arrival we were very excited, the islands were very beautiful with crystal clear waters like we have never seen, and we were told that there were many sea turtles to be seen. We found some basic accommodation on Panjang beach and slept in a wooden longhouse which was also home to many monitor lizards which lived beneath, one which was 5ft in length. We only had electricity during the night for our fan to keep us cool as the whole island is run on generators.
We took time to explore the island and walked the jungle path to Coral Bay. Walking this path lead to Matt breaking his toe on our last evening. On the third day we booked a snorkeling trip around the islands. We stopped of at some really great sites and the best coral reef in the Perhentians. Shark point was fun as we actually seen sharks for the first time, we seen a few black tip reef sharks the biggest one being two metres. After shark point we were taken to a secret spot between the two islands to see the turtles. The first turtle we seen was huge, Matt kept up well with his fins and was lucky enough to see it mate. The other turtles were a bit smaller and more relaxed so
we had plenty of time swimming with them and watching them surface for air which they do every 10 to 15 minutes. We finished our trip at turtle beach where the turtles go to lay their eggs, this area is protected and was absolutely beautiful. The rest of the time on the island was spent relaxed on the beach, drinking banana and strawberry lassies and doing a bit of bodyboarding. The Perhentian Islands are definitely worth a visit.

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Adios Thailand, hello Malaysia

Our 2 months in Thailand were complete. We came back to Koh Phangan with no Full Moon Party to relax on the quiet island. It was only a short stay but it was good to be back again. We returned to Light In Bungalows and was surprised to find that we were recognised and greeted with warm smiles. Before we left Thailand, we thought we couldn't go without experiencing a Elephant trek. So we paid for a 1hour ride on Nelly. It was quite scary really, we were sat on top of this huge animal, trusting it with our lives. But we survived. And we enjoyed it, we got taken to a great view point where we could see the ocean & mountains filled with lush Thai trees.

Since we have gone into April, we noticed the temperature rise quite a lot. It was now
unbearable to sit in the sun. This made us look forward to the coolness of the Cameron Highlands.We left for Butterworth, Malaysia at 06:00am and after a few change overs & a long mini bus ride we finally arrived at 10:30pm Malaysian time. We only stayed in Butterworth for the night and got up early once again to catch the 8:30 bus to the Cameron Highlands. The 3pound bus ride took us on a 6hour journey with the best views & scenery we have ever seen. It was like a Jungle in the sky, Huge mountains with clouds covering the tops, Plants, Vegetation & Tea Plantations.
We were 5000ft above sea level and the air was crisp & clear. We arrived at Tanah Rata early afternoon and found somewhere to stay almost immediately. We put on our trousers for the first time in 3months and had a look around the town. As it started to get dark, we threw on a jumper and drank a cup of tea, crazy! It wasn't that cold but we were used to it being a lot warmer. The cameron Highlands is a good place for hard core walkers. On our first proper day we walked the Jungle path 4 to the Parit Waterfall & Watch Tower. What would have been a nice Waterfall was a little bit smelly with trash floating around at the bottom. And the Watch Tower with a great
view was collapsed into a pile of wood. We were quite surprised that we came across this in such an amazing place. Robinson Waterfall was better but we were still not impressed.We had a busy few days visiting strawberry farms & enjoying the best strawberry juice and sundae's. The Butterfly & Insect farm was also fun. Our favourite day was our tour day. We were the only people doing the tour so it was nice, our tour guide Nick was really good. We drove up to the top of Gunung Brinchang. The highest point in Malaysia accessible by road. 6,666 feet above sea level. Trekked through the Mossy Forest and got to try some wild Cinnamon. Stopped at a view point overlooking 234 hectares of Tea plants. Visited the BOH Tea Plantation, danced and tried blow pipe hunting with the Orang Asli Tribe and finished the day with a dip in a really nice & clean waterfall.....at last!

Koh Tao, Thailand

After a while away, we were ready for Island life once again. We caught our bus from underneath Hua Hin clocktower at 8:00am and after another maniac bus ride, arrived at Chumphon 4hours later. Chumphon is were Southern Thailand begins and were we caught our Catamaran to Koh Tao. We didn't expect the boat ride to be so bad but when the employees started giving out sick bags & tissue before we even set sail, we started to get worried. And right we were to worry. As you all know for the last 2years we have caught the Brittany Ferries crossing from Plymouth to Santander and every time we have both complained about how bad the journey was. Well we both felt even worse on this boat. For over 2 hours we had to put up with a very choppy ride with more then half of the boat vomiting, unfortunately we came under the sick category! poor us!
But as soon as we started to approach Turtle Island (Koh Tao) the sea calmed and the sun was shining again. And the boat ride was totally worth it. We found a room just before Hat Sai Ri Beach. Koh Tao is very big on caring for the environment, not every place has 24hour electricity and like everywhere else in Thailand, toilet roll down the loo is a big no no! Our first few days where cloudy in the mornings. We even had a 10minute downfall a few times. But the sun always found us by mid afternoon and by the end of our time on the island we found it extremely hot. On our second day, we decided to walk the South West coast of the island and had a amazing day. By following our Koh Tao map, we came across secluded beaches and paradise. We also found some great snorkelling spots. Koh Tao is one of the worlds most popular places to get your open water diving certificate, its also pretty cheap to do so. The waters are crystal clear, shallow and filled with coral reefs and tropical fish. Some of the marine life around the island include The Whale Shark, Black Tip Reef sharks, Blue Spotted Stingray and much more. We were lucky enough to see a puffer fish.
We went on a snorkelling boat trip that took you around the whole island. It was a great day and a funny one too. We started of by climbing down onto our boat "Thai style" which is by stepping of the pier, down onto the bars on the side of the boat and swinging onto it. Then you have to climb over 2/3 boats to get to yours! After this we realized our boat was stuck in between 5 other boats and the end boat was sinking. It was filled with Thai men trying to put pressure on one side of it and a machine pumping out the water. Everyone was screaming instructions to each other and after 20minutes we were on our way! We stopped at shark bay.......and saw no sharks! gutted! And also snorkelled in some amazing reef sights with Beaked Coral Fish, Harlequin Sweetlips, Parrot Fish, Long Fin Banner,Titan Trigger, Butterfly, Double Barred Rabbit Fish and sooooo much more species that only Leanne and Dave would know. We ended our boat trip on Nang Yuan Island, we came here 3 years ago and was again blown away by the beauty of it. Nang Yuan is 3 islands all joined together by a huge sandbank and surrounded by massive boulder rocks and live coral....so no fins allowed! After plenty of Musaman Currys, fried chicken in ginger and spring onions and banana & coconut shakes, our week on Koh Tao had come to a end. This is a very beautiful, peaceful and amazing island and we will miss it.
Our time in Thailand is nearly over and we will finish our last 4days back on Koh Pangan. We cant believe it has gone so fast.

Phetchaburi, Cha-Am & Hua Hin. Thailand.

PHETCHABURI
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There was no reason at all to stay in Pattaya any longer so we made our way to Phetchaburi, on the upper southern gulf of Thailand. It took us about 5 and a half hours and cost us a fiver each.
phetchaburi is an old Thai town not really seen by tourists, we only noticed a handfull of westerners in our two day stop. We hired a taxi driver for a few hours to take us to Khao Luang & Bandai Caves. The caves were nice and cool inside with plenty to see. Bats hanging from the cave tops, large buddha's, monks and monkeys. After this we went to Phra NaKhon Khiri
and caught a cable car to the top where we had a look around King Mongkut's palace. it's a national historic park, where sam was asked to cover up her sexy legs. Cobblestone paths then lead us to temple Phutta Sai yat and Sa Bua. At the top there are great views over Phetchaburi and the palace.

CHA-AM
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We caught a local bus to Cha-Am which took about one hour. Cha-Am is full of modern Thai culture and is a getaway spot for Thai families. It reminded us of being at the british seaside without the fish and chip shops. The long beach is full with multi coloured deck chairs, buckets and spades and screaming children. A blackpool for the Thais. The few shops and restaurants
that were there, closed early. But they did have a few sleeze bars where we could play pool and laugh at the good old english causing trouble. Another short stop before making our way further down the upper southern gulf.

Hua Hin
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It took us 40 mins to get to Hua Hin and we travelled there in a kitted out mini bus with widescreen tv and surround sound. The driver dropped us off outside the Hilton hotel where we didnt stay. Hua Hin also has a very large beach but is more accomodating to tourists. With plenty of bars and restaurants. Still not a place we would come on holiday too. In the evening we had a look around the night market and walked through the streets of Hua Hin. The following day we
visited the "famous" Hua Hin railway station. The train station features a beautifuly restored royal waiting room and a steam train. We then walked to the kings summer palace which was supposed to be open to the public, we were not allowed in so maybe he was there.

Pattaya, Thailand

Another 8 Hour journey took us from Koh Chang to Pattaya. From Pattaya we should be able to get to our choice of destination, Phetchaburi.
Pattaya is a really busy resort, popular with old & young white men looking for a Thai gal. It's not really a place we would choose to go but we both ended up having a nice 2days.
On our first evening we visited the Pattaya Central Mall. It's a great modern place, with lots of shops to look around and a cinema/bowling complex on the top level. We had a look around and thought we would treat ourselves to watching Alice in Wonderland in 3D. It was great. We both really enjoyed it and as we were sat there I think we both forgot we were in Thailand. At the beginning of the film whilst they are playing the trailers, they play a short film and ask you to stand and pay your respect to the King of Thailand.
On our second day in Pattaya we went to see "Big Buddha" . It was interesting to see because it was so huge! All around it there are lots of different types buddhas for every day of the week, they all have a meaning and the Thai people all come here to worship.
On our way back from Big Buddha we caught a taxi moped. Us and the driver on 1 bike, crazy!
Next we will be catching a local bus to get us to the Upper Southern Gulf.