CHINESE REMEDIES AND JUNGLE MELODIES- South Thailand and Central Malaysia

......previously in Australia and Thailand, magical lands......

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travellers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

The break from Ko Fruitpoia was not as painful as might be imagined after such a long rest there. We were revived by the wonderful experiences this season, and ready for more, in places further along the road.

Bye bye till next time.....

KRABI / TRANG / HAT YAI

Although Krabi is a particularly busy tourist town at this time of year, with tourists constantly arriving and leaving for the various islands, we appreciate the casual vibe of the place, varied food (now with five different food night markets to choose from!), cheap prices (compared to the relatively expensive islands) and of course one of our favourite guesthouses, Swallow. We indulged in all the things we crave to be away from while on Fruitopia- electricity, internet, movies and 7-11 to name a few.

The fresh morning market held our attention, with some unusual offerings....

Shellfish, any ideas on the name? Krabi fresh morning market

Dried fish, Krabi fresh morning market

Mountains of mussels, Krabi fresh morning market

Skinned frogs- at least these ones were dead, Krabi fresh morning market

Vivid blue crabs, Krabi fresh morning market

We visited nearby Railey and Ao Nang beaches after an absence of several years, and were dismayed at how ugly such once beautiful places have become- Ao Nang the worse. They are no longer the perfect picture the travel agents all have on their walls. Grey concrete paths, rubbish and rubble everywhere, noisy and polluting long tails boats lined up for miles, not to mention the inevitable mass building of restaurants and hotels, have nearly spoiled the naturally gorgeous beaches and limestone scenery. Nevertheless, we made the most of the days out, and found ourselves amused by the feeling of being on another planet, with sun worshippers, glamour pusses (one in a tiara and sequinned bikini!), in a people watchers delight.

A bit different from what we're used to!! Railay beach

Trang and Hat Yai were short stopovers of a couple of days each, and we tried to see at least one new thing in each place, having visited these towns dozens of times. In Trang it was the Thungkai Botanic Gardens, where a forested area full of butterflies has been set up with walking paths, a canopy walkway, and is surprisingly well organised and signposted......and free. We also stumbled across a fabulous new hotel in Trang which, as well as oozing character (an old building very recently and beautifully renovated), had the bonus of a Trang street view from the wraparound verandah, was spotless, friendly, and only a few dollars more than the dive we usually stay in at 300 baht/AU$12! Trang's other huge draw is the new night market near the train station. We certainly felt we were entering in to the real south of Thailand, with the many different Muslim/southern Thai style foods on offer, such as kopi (strong, black, local coffee, sometimes served with condensed milk), biryani (flavoured yellow rice) and roti (see here on more on these brilliant breakfast foods!).

Thungkai Botanic Garden, Trang

Gorgeous peacock, Trang

Handsome devil on the balcony of our Trang hotel

Chinese temple, Trang

Southern treats for dinner, (chicken biryani, coconut juice, guava and our fav pumpkin custard)

In Hat Yai, we followed the advice of a fellow traveller, and stayed in the alternative guesthouse area around the bus station, instead of in the town centre, which, once we eventually communicated what we needed to the non English-speaking hotel workers, was much more convenient considering our short stay. The new places for us to visit in Hat Yai were a) the unexpectedly impressive Wat Mahapanya Vidayalai, a Chinese Buddhist temple with a huge, golden Buddha statue surrounded by dozens of lines of life sized Buddha statues, some containing the ashes of deceased monks, and b) the Hat Yai Municipal Park, a boringly named, but rather charming, shady garden with a large lake in the middle, and it was too tempting not to take a pedlo out on the water and feed the frenzied fish! Unfortunately, we didn't make it up the 1000 steps to see the various religious statues at the top of the hill, as Richard's recurring back problem flared up again, in a nasty fashion, and we decided the best thing to do was temporarily quit our plan for a slow trip back to Kuala Lumpur, and rush back to arrange some visits to the Chinese therapies hospital in KL.

Wat Mahapanya Vidayalai, Hat Yai

Wat Mahapanya Vidayalai, Hat Yai

Hat Yai Park

Yes, that's Sal asleep on the bus, under all that clothing!

THE RETURN OF THE BEACH BUM- Andaman Coast, Thailand

.....previous blog post, our "Best/Worst Travel List" for 2011.....

Warning: This blog contains many potentially boring, but beautiful beach photos!

Our time in Penang had been wonderful, and busy, and it was time to return to the beach. We crossed back into Thailand, and decided to try a few new (for us) islands. Everyone’s been talking about Ko Muk, so we thought we’d check that out first. After a night in Trang, we joined all the other tourists in a minibus to the pier. Trang is unusual in Thailand for having no cheap songtaews to get around in, only minibuses. We liked the vibe on Muk as soon as we stepped off the ferry. We had decided on a “resort” in the village, on the other side of the island, away from the atrociously named “Farang Beach” (farang meaning foreigner in Thai). Being relatively new to farangs in this village, the people were very friendly, and still a little curious about us. There were some tiny shops and stalls selling food in amongst the few “resorts”, which made for a peaceful atmosphere. We were very active, for us, on the island, walking through the jungle and rubber plantations everyday to the fantastic beaches around the islands and even getting up for a sunrise!! The scenery was really stunning, with the whitest sand being almost blinding, and because it was surprisingly busy, there were plenty of people watching, and chatting. An amazing sign of how things are changing, was the WIFI we had in our room.

Our tent on Ko Muk

A secluded bay we walked to

"Farang" Beach

Farang Beach

Rubber tree

Processed rubber drying

Wanting to avoid the tourist minibus thing, we decided to go for Ko Libong next. We hadn't heard much about it, which we hoped would mean it was quiet and less busy. We were very pleasantly surprised. The island is huge, close to the mainland, and very easy to get to, with a local bus, then small boat. There are four resorts- all on one side of Libong, and we found the one with the cheapest huts, in a lovely setting right on the beach, which turned out to be extremely cool in the day and cosy at night. The village was a great place to practice our Thai, with the villagers particularly welcoming and open. The village "restaurant" (a small partially covered outdoor affair), had some of the best food we've eaten in Thailand- all coming from one lady and her wok, and that alone was reason enough for us to hang around for a few days!. The children loved waving and shouting at us- something we have of course experienced in other places, but never thought we would see it on the very touristy Thai islands in this area. It is, so far, a very unspoiled place. People were really just going about their business (mostly squid fishing), and weren't reliant on the tourists for money. So we knew people wanted to talk to us because they were interested and friendly, not just to sell us something, which is how it can feel sometimes in Thailand.

Boogie boards, Ko Libong-style

Squid pots

Ko Libong

Ko Libong

Squid- big industry on the island

Our hut, Ko Libong

Although we had not long come from Ko Fruitopia, we were drawn back by the rumour of a sea gypsy festival. Being the sort of place that it is, many of our friends from December were still hanging about there, and we joined them for a couple more weeks bumming around. The sea gypsy festival is held in the local graveyard every year on the first full moon of March, to pay respects to the ancestors. It was quite a low key day, although many gypsies came from neighbouring islands for the spectacle, setting up picnics on the graves. The morning session was full of prayer for their dead, then the traditional drumming, singing and dancing started, with everyone joining in the shuffling-type dance round the "band". The sea gypsies are officially Muslim, but this spiritual ceremony is long established within their community, and we were surprised with introduction of alcohol to the celebrations mid-morning. Apparently for this one day, they allow themselves to become paralytic (men and women) to remember their fore-bearers! As the day got steadily more rowdy, we left the locals to their fun, which all finished at sunset.

Morning procession

Prayer time

Some of the graves

Traditional music

Things liven up

New friend

Muslim island women drinking... never though we'd see that!

The weather became more unpredictable, with what seemed to be the early onset of the monsoon, so we legged it back to Krabi for a few nights of blissful sleep with no ants, mosquitoes or mould growing on our stuff.

Another place that we'd been hearing the odd good thing about over the last few years, is Ko Bulon Lae, so we waited for some better weather, and bussed down to Satun, the closest big town to the island.

We liked this town so much that we nearly didn't make it to Ko Bulon at all! Its quaint small town feel and river setting charmed us, and ensured a return visit will follow. A sharp contrast, however, was the horribly overcrowded pier area of Pak Bara, the ferry starting point for Ko Bulon. We didn’t realize at the time, but it’s also the ferry terminal for Ko Lipe, the island flavour of the moment in Thailand, and we breathed a sigh of relief when the hundreds of Asian tourists boarded the Lipe boats, and left the terminal with only Richard and I in it! We enjoyed a nearly private speed boat ride to Bulon, sharing the boat with only one other couple!

Satun river

Satun kids

Outside Satun museum

Fish drying, Satun

Pretending we have a private boat- they think I'm weird

The wanna-be captain

The beauty of Ko Bulon is its small size, and its low-key, pretty beaches and gardens. There are a surprisingly large number of bungalows and restaurants for the dimensions of the place, but it still somehow retains its serenity. This is helped by the demographic of mostly middle-aged visitors, and, when we were there, the fact that it was just coming into the off season. Although we had a great bungalow at low season prices and enjoyed the gorgeous driftwood-strewn beach (the main beach area reminded me of a nice coastal caravan park in Oz), we were actually getting to the stage of being a bit beach-ed out (I know, poor us!), and the extreme mozzie situation was getting out of hand.

Local cops

The view from my shady spot on the beach, Bulon

Ko Bulon beach

Our hut

So, we decided to head back to Songkla for a few days, before heading back to KL, and onto our adventure for April and May.

.......next, our experience with a massive earthquake in Sumatra.......

BEACH BUMMING IT- Andaman Coast, Thailand

Since we last wrote, we've left Malaysia, and have been in the south of Thailand for two and a half months. The weather cleared when we crossed the border, and we've been lucky enough to have had glorious sunny weather pretty much the whole time.

Incredible sunsets, Ko Fruitopia

A relaxed Rich, Ko Fruitopia

Our wonderful host, Ko Fruitopia

We've spent most of our time on the somewhat similar islands of Ko Fruitopia (near Krabi), and Ko Chang- the small one (near Ranong). We found them both to be as yet unspoilt, with basic accommodation, good and cheap food, long staying travellers in the know and clear long beaches. We met up with old friends, and made many new ones, and generally had an amazing time swimming in warm water, relaxing in hammocks, gorging on seafood, enjoying long beach walks, fishing, sunsets, and good company.

Our hut, Ko Chang

Our beach, Ko Chang

Sunset, Ko Chang

We also visited the more touristy places of Phuket, Ko Phi Phi and Ko Lanta, and found they all have their positive sides too. We would like to revisit these places out of season, however, as the crowds were too much for us.

Day trip to Ko Phi Phi

Sal and her hammock

In between these paradises, we hung out in the pleasantly Thai towns of Hat Yai, Trang, Ranong and Krabi- always a favourite of ours.

Unique little local rickshaws, Trang

Ao Nang

Ao Nang

However, tomorrow the time has come to crank up a gear again, and get ready for Malaysia and India. We have a week or so in Kuala Lumpur and Malacca organizing our Indian visa before we fly out to Calcutta. It's been some years since we were last there, and we're so excited to be going back.

Rich and Sal

........next blog post, North East India- West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya.....