Pacific Hotel Narathiwat

... to do a short distance but ending up doing longer. Not that 100 is very long for us these days, but the unexpectedness messes with your head. Plus it has turned incredibly hot again. I have a horrible heat rash on my knees and the tips of my shoulders where the sun strikes most of the time, despite the factor 30 cream, which by the way is running out (yippee) means we can buy some decent non-gloupy stuff. Our plans to buy some bits and pieces to bring with us to the ...

... ostentatious gate up to celebrate this designation. We went to several museums, including one on Royal Ceremonies and the Royal Museum; they really seemed to be into their royalty there. The Royal Ceremony museum was interesting more for the house it was in than the museum itself. It was in a very large traditional Malay style house. These are large timber houses, somewhat similar to traditional Queenslanders in their ...

After getting off the boat from the Perhentians, we shared a taxi with a german to go to Kota Bahru, the capital of the province we were in. Although it is the capital, there is not much to see or do there. When we arrived we got a 4 person dorm shared with ze germans and then headed to the cultural centre for some traditional art demonstration. First they were playing this typical SE asian game where there is a ball made ...

... for our intended trip from the market to our Hotel but we asked him to take a longer route for him to show us another market nearby and at the end of the short ride, I pressed a RM50 note into his feeble hand and he gave me a very gratified look. We checked out from the Hotel and ordered a cab to take us to Kuala Besut. Kuala Besut : This is where most people go to take their ferry ...

Up late....nice. Updated blog today before we go to Perhentian Islands tomorrow...bit of luxury hopefully after jungle and hostels. Purchased sandals today....two pairs so I really did throw away my old trainers. I noted later that someone had taken them out of the bin....must have been desperate. At the hostel the manager Pawi asked us to talk to ...

... on the 6.00am jungle train down to Singapore. You can only buy tickets on the day of departure so figured it best to get there early.... a pointless exercise when the ticket office doesn't open till 6am!! Tried to buy first class seats but was told they only did 2nd so settled for that, silently preying that they too were nice cabins with beds. 6.28am the train rolled in.... all aboard!

... Perhentian Islands. It was a strict Muslim town with women covered up from head to toe so they looked at us as if we were aliens sent from another planet! The hostel was great and we were able to chat to them and organise getting to the island with them the next day. One noticeable difference between Thailand and Malaysia - lack of alcohol! In most places they dont even sell it and when they do it is soooo expensive. I feel a detox coming on!

... it sounds, an d I'll have videos up for you to see it soon enough. They also had a cultural dance performance in the evening, but i checked out the night food market, where i ate two meals (Nasi Kerabung and laksa lemak) despite not being hungry (Nasi Kerabung is blue rice, i had to try it!). Consequently, i went back to the guest house after all this to recharge before the dancing, and fell asleep instead. What a sellout i am. So that was ...

... back of mopeds with our huge rucksacks and without a helmet .We were off, all four of us speeding down the main road, clinging on to the guys' sweaty shirts. I have to say it was great fun but I can imagine what my mum is thinking! We got to the train station to find there was in fact no trains running nor had there been for the last week as the track is broken. The only way to get to Hat Yai (the place to get connections to the ...

... je vais vite diner un peu avec lui, et ensuite rebelote pour la plongee de 15h. C'etait sympa aussi (meilleure visibilite, beaux coraux) mais a une profondeur que je n'aime pas beaucoup, entre 9 et 14 m. En effet a cette profondeur les variations de pressions d'un metre a l'autre sont plus importante que lorsqu'on plonge plus profondement. Donc on est oblige d'equaliser tout le temps ... a la fin ca fait mal aux oreilles! Apres les plongees, une petite tasse de the des cameron ...