TravelStream™ news feed for member duxi on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/duxi en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 12 Nov 2006 04:31:10 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1160650800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1160650800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1160650800/tpod.html Sun, 12 Nov 2006 04:31:10 -0500 One Step at time...sell the house, quit the job, mmm, what next? Go to Asia!

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Langkawi, Malaysia

Here we go......My journey starts in Langkawki, Malaysia to join some friends on a sailing adventure. First things first....an essential few days for chilling out at a divine beach resort surrounded by friendly smiling faces, rustic bungalows and gorgeous island men donning sarongs.

Then it was time to cruise the dramatic limestone islands between Langkawi and Phuket on Simon's sleek new baby "HarAlley", a 50ft catamaran. What an amazing journey. I cannot describe the peacefulness of being on the ocean. Rising in the morning to an uninhibited sunrise (of course, those who know me well will be aware this was not a sight too often seen by 'sleepy head'); Mooring along side one of these magnificent islands to enjoy a scrumptious Thai lunch prepared by our cook, Da. I frequented a chair overlooking the kitchen in an attempt to get a glimpse of Da's secrets; An afternoon spent snorkeling the colourful underwater world of this region, to which is a new experience for me.....At first I had to control my near hyperventilation, the cause?.....Not sure if I thought the oxygen soon would stop flowing through the snorkel, so I had better suck in as much of it as I can while I can, or, the reason I prefer the give...I put it down to years of yoga practice in which you only breath in and out of the nose, thus there was a whole breath retraining process involved in snorkeling which you must only breath in and out of your mouth. This sounded to me like a perfectly viable excuse for my continuous convulsions in the water. Needless to say, once regular breathing was obtained, and I started to relax.....wow!......it's not just on the discovery channel or kids cartoons....Nimo and all of his colourful little and very large friends really do exist. Ok, so maybe I experienced a little oxygen overload....but the pretty colours, oh, the pretty colours....

Days were spent cruising the various limestone structures. There are hundreds and hundreds of these islands between Langkawi and Phuket, so similar and yet each so very individual. I could stare for hours in wonderment at just a single one of these intriguing islands.

This was the perfect start to my journey. An environment conducive of "de-working" myself.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1161248820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1161248820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1161248820/tpod.html Sun, 12 Nov 2006 04:30:20 -0500 One Step at time...sell the house, quit the job, mmm, what next? Go to Asia!

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Bangkok, Thailand

Diary: A fellow travel said to me before I left on this journey "The first time you feel like coming home, ignore it. You can only come home after the 5th time you feel like". .....Maybe it's the media fed fear of the coup, maybe it's being on my own, maybe it's Pawn and Lek making me feel like a part of their family and in turn me missing mine.....But today, for the first time, I feel like going home.

BANGKOK
Wow, talk about extremes. from the tranquility of Khao Sok National Park to the frantic city of Bangkok. The city is alive with the relentless beep of horns; aromas wafting from the street side food stalls; and the very present thick city smog. As for the coup, I've never travelled to Bangkok before, but it seems not much has been effected. Of course there is one very obvious addition....military personnel and armed tanks on the streets.

Ok, here's my checklist for Bangkok:-

- Avoid Khoa San Rd. (this is the street where the tourists flock; where the copious street side vendors selling cheesy tourist gifts hope to make a buck from a freshly arrived 'Farang' that hasn't yet fine tuned their bartering skills.)

- Visit as many of the hundreds of gold laden buddhist temples as is humanly possible.

- Ride in a tuk tuk. (Yay, this is great fun....for the first half hour, then you start to question how long it will take to get out all of the carbon dioxide that you've been sucking into your lungs.)

- Go shopping at the huge 'Chatachak' weekend market. (This thing is the size of a small town, well deserving of at least it's own post office, school and obligatory small town pub. It's too big to tackle all in one day, although this is all my shopping feet will allow. There is t-shirt stall after t-shirt stall, all selling the same design of 'Singha beer' or 'same same but different' printed on them. There are handmade crafts, clothes, clothes, clothes, plants, shoes, clothes, clothes, clothes, bags, drawings and more clothes, clothes, clothes. Aaaargh, I'm thoroughly exhausted.)

- Rise at 5.30am to see the monks perform their daily rite of Bintabaht(alms giving). (Each morning at dawn, saffron robed barefoot monks pour out of the numerous Wats(temples) onto the streets where the faithful are waiting to place rice, fruit, curries or sweets in the monk`s alms bowls. This rite gives the monks their only food source for the day, and the people offering the food gain brownie points to ensure a better incarnation in the next life. This is quite a sight to see, with the city still light deprived at this time of morning, the bright saffron robes are a burst of colour.)

- Sample some noodles from a street side diner. (Little ladies set up on the sidewalk with a portable kitchen (a gas bottle and a wok), and cook up scrumptious 2 minute thai meals. As soon as you taste this simple but delicious cuisine, it's no time before it become your staple food source..yum yum.)

- Take a day boat trip along the Chao Phraya River. (The river runs through the city and is quite often the quicker option to the roads for getting around. Not to mention a great way to check out the city.)

Bangkok checklist complete, there was only one thing left to do....catch up with the crazy French boys, Laurent and Sebastien. We all meet up and enjoy some of those yummy street side noodles, have a few beers and lots of laughs. Looks like I've found some friends. We all decide to head up North to Chaing Mai together.
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Phuket, Thailand

"HarAlley" reached her destination of Phuket, and now it was time to catch up with the girls!

Fiona found the most gorgeous beach resort...the Andaman at Bang Tao Bay, Phuket. Divine Thai style bungalows right on the beach, and I mean right on the beach...Large clay bowls filled with water and floating flowers were placed at our doorsteps to wash the sand from our feet.

Completely out of character for Fiona, Ang and myself, our first evening consisted of cocktails, cocktails, cocktails. Note: It is worth visiting Thailand if only for the abundance of bananas and limes, of which cost less than a dollar a kilo. Suffice to say, my favourite drink, a caprioska, contained, I'm sure, half a lime trees worth of fruit.....yum.

The next night we visited the very busy, very touristy area of Patong. A 'must see' for any visitor, and personally, also a 'must leave!'. I have never before been so exhausted from shopping. Market stall after market stall, all beginning to look exactly the same. It is an absolute maize...Certainly designed to make the tourist dizzy and weak enough to succumb to the constant call of "come in, come in, I have special price for you. Where you from?" The three of us decided to take turns at answering "Australia", for fear of repetitive strain injury of the tongue. I did purchase a pair of "Birkenstocks" for 180Baht (approx. $6.50)...they've surprisingly already lasted 5 weeks.

Day 3 we joined "Panwa Canoes" for a trip around the islands, including the famous 'James Bond Island'. Our charismatic tour guide, Jimmy (he likes to be called 'Jimmy Bond'....or 'Suzie' in the evenings!), was a bellyful of laughs. Of course, he zoned right in on the 3 Aussie girls and proceeded to be our personal guide and canoe paddler for the day. We explored a couple of hongs (an island with a cave system that opens into a lagoon at the centre). This at times, was rather hairy...we had to lie down completely flat in the canoe to get through some of the caves, and I mean completely flat....if you were born with the unfortunate feature of a large nose, you may be in trouble, God forbid you be even a little claustrophobic. A fun day was had by all. We completed the day with a boozy, giggly girls night at a local small retro bar (I say retro bar, but I think their music was just really out of date), And, yes, a touch of 'staying alive' disco dancing was in order...we were after all, the only people in the bar, so there was no fear of embarrassment....mmm, possibly the amount of alcohol contributed to the lack on inhibitions.

Our very hard week deserved us a little pampering. A visit to the 'Tarn Tara Spa' was on the cards. We arrived to the lush garden surrounds to be greeted with ginger tea and a delicious looking menu - not for dining, but for our skin and senses to consume. Once in our pampering rooms, we received the royal treatment of having an attentive foot massage, while at the same time, receiving a facial. This was only the beginning. Then the menu ingredients were delicately rubbed over our entire bodies. At this point I was glad we had made the wise decision of eating prior to our pampering, The aroma from these divine ingredients certainly smelt like they deserved to be on a plate rather than my body. After this, a step outside to the open air, garden shower for a rinse off, then it was back to the table for a full body massage. As you can imagine, we were all floating. The whole experience lasted over 3 hours....oh, and I forgot to mention the pebble spa, the sauna and the numerous colourful sarongs we were wrapped in after every treatment.

Afterwards, we met Simon in what must be the smallest reggae bar in the world (I'm talking, the size of my bedroom!). The Thai people leeeeerv their reggae. Note: worth visiting Thailand for the limes, bananas and also the reggae flowing into the streets. 'The Ska Bar' was propped on top of some rocks under a large banyan tree on Kata Beach. There seems to be no restrictions as to how close you can build a structure to the ocean....as the tide came in, our feet got wet. As soon as the staff heard we were Australian, out came the didg....man, can they play.

The time came to say goodbye to the girls and goodbye to Simon. I couldn't have wished for a better way to start my trip, with such good hearted people and so many laughs. Thank you
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1161151500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1161151500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1161151500/tpod.html Sun, 12 Nov 2006 04:26:32 -0500 One Step at time...sell the house, quit the job, mmm, what next? Go to Asia!

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Ko Lanta, Thailand

Although the ferry was jam packed with "Farang" (Thai for Foreigner), for the first time in 25 days I was on my own. A scenic route, stopping at the well known Ko Phi Phi for a few hours. There's a local story that during the Tsunami, a man in a dinghy caught a wave from one side of the island, over the top of the island, and landed safely on a beach on the other side of Ko Phi Phi. Talking to the locals of Phi Phi and Phuket, there are many courageous, sometimes humorous, but mainly tragic stories to be heard. The Thai people don't seem to dwell much in the past however, choosing not to focus on loss as we do with our Western traditions of having Anniversaries of Death. Instead they seem to step forward with a resilient and positive attitude, focusing on their gains.

The Ferry docked at Krabi, from there I was only a few hours in a mini bus from my destination of Ko Lanta. I have caught many a bus/taxi in my travels, but driving down a dusty deserted laneway, in the middle of the night, just you and a driver that doesn't speak a word of your native tongue, can overwhelm your mind with imagination and fear. Needless to say, I arrived at www.kantiangbayview.com to the sound of many a "Farang" partying the night away. The normally offensive to my ears sound of fellow travellers breaking the silence with alcoholic influenced noise was a relief to hear.

After a pleasant local breakfast of noodle soup, I decided to go on an elephant trek through the forests of Ko Lanta. My elephant, "Gahl" is a strong old male and his carer seems to consider this huge animal with the respect I am certain he's earned. Gahl's enormous feet carry me through the forest, bringing me to an opening where we stop at a beautiful waterfall, full, due to the recent rainfall. He then takes me to an ancient cave, where Banyan tree roots have penetrated the cave roof all the way to the cave floor. We return to the base, where with gratitude, I feed Gahl handfuls of bananas.

I finish my day back at the guesthouse beach bar, by playing jenga with the staff and two crazy Frenchmen, Sebastien and Laurent.

I leave Ko Lanta the following morning for Khoa Sok National Park.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1158303780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1158303780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duxi/an_asian_view/1158303780/tpod.html Sun, 12 Nov 2006 02:55:28 -0500 One Step at time...sell the house, quit the job, mmm, what next? Go to Asia!

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Khao Sok National Park, Thailand

Khao Sok National Park was a holiday within a holiday. I'm staying in a simple dwelling. A bamboo shack alongside the Cheow Lan lake, with a backdrop of magnificent limestone karsts. The Baan Khao Sok Resort as it is called, (however, the word 'Resort' really does not apply here)is run by the very sweet family of Lek, his wife Pawn, his mother Op, and his father. Oh, and not to forget the very cute pooch Mi Mi. The tranquility of the Park is consuming. The treasured moments of having a simple breakfast alongside this lake while watching the gibbons play in the trees and hearing the morning song of large hornbills, or spending time in the kitchen with Op while she shares some of her handed down recipes.

For the week I am here I am treated like a member of the family.

Adventure Day.....A group of travellers arrive and Lek decides to take us in a longtail boat through the Rajjaphana Dam. The Government in it's infinite wisdom, decided to Dam a large portion of the forest, leaving much of the wildlife, including tigers, gibbons, elephants and leopards stranded. Not the mention the people dwelling there. As I look at the tips of the tree cemeteries poking through the waters surface, I can only imagine the sight of the forests former glory.

We stop for lunch at one of the relocated villages that has now been transformed into a floating community. After lunch we trek for 2 hours through this leech infested forest. Mud up to our knees,crossing many a river. Sometimes the current is so strong that we either all hold hands or cling to a rope that has been slung from one side of the river to the other.

We reach what I think is our destination, the Namtaloo Cave. Ok, time to turn on our head lamps....this way we can see the cause of the stench - hundreds of bats. We follow the river inside the cave. Water at times up to our chins and flowing strong. There's lots of slipping on the wet cave rocks and crawling on our bellies to get through tiny holes. A few of the girls in the group start to get very upset. After an hour of this and only 100m from the cave exit and our very anticipated lost friend the sun, Lek tells us that we cannot go any further. He says the water in the next passage is too strong and will be dangerous. We are forced to turn back. "Cue twinges of fear".... possibly slight panic. I can hear the groups thoughts...."Wonder if the sun will still be up when we get out"...."I just made it going WITH the current, now we have to go AGAINST IT"...."Wouldn't the boat have expected us to go through to the end? Are we stranded here?". Ok, so they could have just been my thoughts, but I've got a hunch I wasn't alone.

The moment we spotted sunlight peering around a corner, the echo of relieved sighs filled the cave. We were home free!...and had only to get to the boat and avoid the leeches on the way.

LEECH COUNT: 3
(I hit the jackpot for the day, but hey, if the jackpot is 3, I don't think I did so bad)

That evening the beer was like nectar after the day we had had. We all sat around and talked about our humble adventure that through the day had made us all feel like "Indiana Jones".

Needless to say, the next couple of days were spent relaxing and taking in a few easy walks through the National Park, only encountering one addition to my sucking tally.

LEECH COUNT: 4

I'm sure in an attempt to remind us of the peaceful nature of the National Park, Pawn and Lek's dad took us all on a day trip to the natural hot springs. Thai men and women, some wearing shower caps, bathed in the warmth. We all tried eggs which had been boiled in the springs...tasty.

Tuesday 19 September 2006: I was due to leave for Bangkok yesterday, but decided to cancel my plans and stay at the Park an additional day.
Wednesday 20 September 2006: On waking received a text message from mum advising me of the Military Coup in Bangkok. I would have arrived there this morning. I surely have someone looking over me.
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