Krabi

We are now getting towards the end of our stay in Krabi. It has been really nice to spend some time in a place that is just busy enough and has got a nice feel to it. The pictures below is of the street lights on the main street…..how cool is that. Krabi has been inhabited since prehistoric times and was given city status in 1872. It was one of the twelve royal cities known as Ban Thai Samor.

    

Yesterday we did another full day tour with a local tourist company. The tour was kayaking down a mangrove filled murky water, looking at caves, but most especially one of the caves has ancient cave paintings.  Then finishing the tour with a swim in a mineral spring.

After the shock of having to wake up early the van to pick us up was late, Murphies law is alive and well in Thailand.

So into the kayaks it was and an hour or so paddling to cave number 1 called ‘Tham Lot’ in the ‘Thanboke Koranee’ national park. The park is about 20 years old, created mainly to save the mangrove forests and restrict oyster farming, and to protect the caves and the cave paintings.

         

Paddling through caves is a hoot! The picture below is the figure of a mermaid rock…….it took me a while to get it.

Next we went to cave number two called ‘Tham Pee Hua Toe’ The cave paintings are believed to be 3000 years old, painted by sea gypsies as our guide told us. The most famous painting is the ‘Big Headed Ghost’ as shown below in the first photo, the second is of two hands (six fingers on one of the hands) and on the last photo?  Looks like a space ship to me  but then again I do like science fiction

         

Then a loooong paddle to cave number three which once you went through it led to a lagoon inside a mountain. Very very nice indeed

            

Lunch was another success in the edible department so next onto the mineral springs Phu Tara. Very clean water and a bit chilly as it was only 26 Celcuis. I think we are getting a bit soft.

Then back home and another day done and dusted. Tomorrow we start thinking of when to move on to our next stop which is Ko Sumui. Nicki has been there before so it should be easy street for us.

Famous last words.

Penang and Krabi

So it was goodbye Penang and hello Krabi.

Had time for a quick morning drink as we left Penang and after two months of travelling we are still not able to get the drinks we want.                                                                                                                                                  Black coffee with sugar and tea with milk were transformed into coffee with no sugar and tea with milk and sugar. There is room for improvement in our communication skills, maybe time to try a new country.

The bus trip to Krabi was good. The bus was not to crowded, 11 people, three backpacks for 12 seats, we now consider this luxury. Plus working AC and Thai top 40 hits for eight hours of travel.

No hassle at the Thai border and once we got to Krabi the locals had a choice of hotels/hostels to choose from at the bus station and before you know it the owner of our hotel picked us up and life was easy.

Krabi has the island where part of the Man with the Golden Gun was filmed, many beaches reached by boat, rock climbing, temples, jungle, and generally a relaxed atmosphere with bugger all traffic. And no traffic is a biggie around here.

view of Krabi river

So today we have been on a day tour via bus. First up a complex of Buddhist temples called the tiger temple which was very nice. It was named after a tiger (surprise surprise) who lived in the area but was eventually scared away by the Monks around. The temple has been there since 1975.

Nicki has another string bracelet made by a monk to add to the others on here arm. It is soooo hard to refuse giving donation after donation when these orange robed monks rush out to give you bracelets. Yup they is not stuuupid at all.

The only thing I found really odd for these monks is that they had no respect for the health of their dogs. They were the most manky looking dogs I have seen with really bad skin.

Next came the highlight of my day as we went Elephant (note the grammatically incorrect capital) riding. I think me and Tong bonded. Wow but what amazing pieces of machinery they are, big, graceful, smart and not comfortable at all. Do not take a Elephant on a trip from Nelson to Chch. We did about an hour, managed a short Elephant sprint towards the end of the ride (really uncomfortable) and got to feed him and the end. Tong the Elephant was one happy camper and so was I. 

We should leave these animals alone to get on with their lives.

Then onto a hot spring where we and another 20 people got into a hot spring terrace thingy about the size of a large parapool. But it was ok, nice and cosy especially at 42 Celsius.

Then onto a hot spring waterfall, then another pool named the Emerald Pool after lunch. And amazingly lunch was not a disaster, not much chilli, no fly covered food and seconds and thirds if one needed it. i think we ranked it one of the best set menu lunches we have had so far. And believe me food that you like is not that easy to find most of the time.

hot spring waterfall

emerald lake

blue lake

         

Emerald pool was nice as well, temperature of 32 Celsius the size of a olympic size pool so much more room for the fifty or so people. Then a swift walk to the Blue pool and that was the day. Every one asleep on the way back especially the poor English who watched their team exit the Euro 2012 last night.

Penang–Malaysia

So we finally decided to catch a train up to north Malaysia, Butterworth and catch a ferry to the island of Penang.  First we caught a tube to Woodlands station, then a bus to Woodlands train station, then a bus, over the causeway which links Singapore to Malaysia, to Johor Baru, the closest Malaysia town past the border.  We bought tickets for a train to Kuala Lumpur, then a sleeper train to Butterworth.  Once we had the tickets we crossed the border back into Singapore to spend a last night with Paul before repeating the whole thing again the next morning.  The reason being that tickets are mega under half price in Malaysia compared to Singapore. Next morning with packs we had the easiest border crossing ever!!!!  This is me waiting for the causeway bus.

We were really excited about getting the sleeper train (first train was 2pm until 9.30pm, then sleeper from 11pm until 7.30am)

    

    

So we arrived in Butterworth and caught the ferry to Penang easily.  We arrived so early we decided to do one of our famous walking tours!  First, a bit of history…
Penang Island was part of the ancient Buddhist-Hindu Kingdom of Kedah in 7th century, Kedah became a Muslim Kingdom in 12th century with pre-british settlements on the island.  It was founded as the first British outpost of SE Asia in 1786 by Captain Francis Light.  Penang was home to Malays, Chinese, Indians, Armenians, Achehnese, British, Burmese, Japanese, Germans, Siamese and the distinctive Peranakan culture (straits-chinese) which makes in one of the most ethnically diverse places in Asia.  Penang’s capital, Georgetown (where we are staying) in 2008 was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Georgetown is listed for ‘Malaysia’s best restored and readapted colonial buildings as well as traditional Chinese, Malay, Indian and Straits eclectic architecture, and UNESCO recognises the city’s amazing religious pluralism and living heritage in the form of traditional trades, crafts, arts that are still widely practised’!

First photo on our walking tour is the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Clock tower completed in 1902.

Next was Fort Cornwallis, built by Captain Francis Light in 1786 originally built of nibong palm (palm trunk), but later to brick.  It still largely intact and has a chapel, gunpowder magazine, and lighthouse.  It was used by all empires in WW1 and WW2.

    

statue of Captain Light

lighthouse

    

The first photo is the city hall built in 1903.  We also saw town hall (no photo as Andre was in charge of the camera) which has an amazing concert hall upstairs built in 1880, which had an exhibition on of celebration of 50 years of the Peace Corps! And also used to be Penang’s National Library.

The next photo is St George’s church, which was the first southeast Asian Anglican church designed by a military engineer/painter Captain Robert Smith in 1818.  This church is located on the street of Harmony along with the Church of Assumption (1787, with original manual pipe organ still in use) and near to Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Sisters (1859)(where we felt we shouldn’t take photos) and close to a mosque, Taoist temple, and Hindu temple, no wonder its called the street of harmony!

city hall

    

This is Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (blue house) took 7 years to build from 1896-1904 by master craftsmen from China. The mansion has 38 rooms, 5 courtyards, 7 staircases, 220 windows.  It is also where Oscar-winning Indo-chine was filmed.

    

We even got guided to the Christian cemetery, where we did find someone we recognised!

    

So our question is how come she got married in the movie as she was already hitched? We think the movie ‘The King and I’ is a sham of a mockery of a mockery of a sham…..

The last photo is Andre going into the reggae bar opposite our hostel

Singapore

Well, Singapore has been an eye opener!  We stayed our first few nights in China Town, the hostel was rather interesting.  It was above a karaoke bar (no Hayden, Andre did not manage to make me practise ready for November!) and luckily we booked a room.  Otherwise we had to stay in a bunkroom, with a curtain instead of a wall!!!!!  Must have been hard to sleep at night.  We meet an awesome guy who works for the hostel, Sheraz, from Pakistan, and actually he made our time there so much fun, as you will see later in the video!

We walked around Chinatown and saw the famous temple Sri Mariamman Temple. We were a bit worried as we were staying in Mosque Street that we would get the 0422 morning wake up calls but this has been banned in Singapore…..Now that is what I call progress

    

We did another one of our famous walking tours, although we didn’t get lost this time!  The following photo I had to take for my Dad, one of the oldest coins in the world…..

A museum of the early settlers of Singapore, the well is meant to bring good luck, but ultimately this museum was a temple, that changed to an amalgamation of different cultures as a school for underprivileged (early 1800s, very cool)

         

         

    

The following pictures are from the Thian Hock Keng temple which is currently being renovated, the main worship part was not able to be photographed but was amazing!

         

For our last night in the hostel Sheraz took us out to Arab street, known for the Hubble Bubble tobacco pipes!

And then we met up with Paul, Andre’s friend from NZ, and went for dinner at a Steam Boat where you pick loads of food and its thrown in a massive soup pot in the middle of the table! We got a little carried away trying to spice up the soup so plenty of perspiration on the top lips after that meal.

Paul offered for us to come and stay at his apartment in Singapore.  The apartment has air-conditioning, hot shower, TV, massive pool and really central.  We stayed a lot longer than intended!!!!  And have been slack on the whole blog front, too busy lying by the pool! See the action shot of Nicki doing what she does best.

One thing that did go according to plan is that we managed to get the camera that Andre had won after buying travel insurance for our trip. This machine is water, dust, drop and temperature proof and we have tested this piece of kit to the hilt during our time in Singapore.

To shown how great it is please see below the picture of the ‘Football Bar’ taken while immersed in a pint of expensive beer.

I am impressed with the science of camera manufacture…….see the detail of the photo…..bubbles and colours huh.

Next are a couple of photos of Nicki and some of her new found friends

Paul and Paul

And Nicki’s ‘Man’ friend from Orchard Towers, very cute.

So we got tickets now to go by train to Penang.