Umphang

Right these next couple of posts are going to be a bit short on words so i can try and catch up as i am so far behind.

Bus. Bus. Sorngteau. Get there. Eat. Sleep. Get up. Raft down river. See beautiful waterfalls on way.

 See rainbow waterfall.

 See lovely smaller waterfalls.

 See Thor Lee Su waterfall, most beautiful in Thailand.

 Swim in Thor Lee Su.

 Walk back through flooded forest.

Back to guesthouse. Small motorbike ride around village. Food. Bed. Next morning sorngtaeu, Mae sot. Eat. Sleep. Bus to Chang Mai. Done.

Sukhotai

First stop North was Sukhotai and a visit to the old town which on the day we were due to explore the weather decided to be unkind to us and it rained all morning finally giving way to some slightly better weather after lunch. This lead to some fun poncho wearing cycling and having the place pretty much to ourselves apart from the occasional air conditioned minivan that turned up at som of the temples at the same time as us. The central area was full of partially restored temples and buddhas and the overcast conditions gave the place a very moody feel.

 Not all of the temples have been restored however and the further out you head the more crumbling decay you find with statues beginning to miss parts and once beautifully rendered and detailed buildings becoming bare brick foundations.

 Until you got to some that hadn't been touched at all by modern hand, which ended up being the most intriguing as far as we were concerned as your imagination had to work much harder to see what was once here.

 The scarcity of people on the day that we went meant that it was much more common to have the many temple animals joining us and trotting alongside as we made our way on foot through the ruins

 Dotted around there were still many offerings in place including many smaller figurines that were dotted around the place.

 Finally outside the city walls we came across mine and Louise's favourite temple which was one supported on all four sides by elephants.

Well that was Sukhotai, definitely worth a visit but time to get off the beaten track a little and head over to Umphang in the far west just this side of the Myanmar border, this entailed two bus journeys and finally a five hour songthaew on something called death road, can't wait!!

Hidden Holiday House, Bangkok

Our next stop was Thailand, we flew into Bangkok and then made our way by taxi about an hour North to Hidden Holiday House near Nakhom Chaisri. We were the guests of Chris and Areeya who treated us like family friends and we stayed in a lovely raft house on the river which afforded beautiful views all through the day. Sunrise being a real treat as the sun rose up over the opposite bank and slowly flooded into our room.

 Of course we were always beaten to rise by our neighbours who were out fishing and tending the morning glory crop by the time we stirred

 With a lovely flat landscape we took advantage of the bikes for hire and toured the local area where there were many temples and things to see, the temple dedicated to all the darkness in life was one I liked with all the offerings being black and all the statues as well

 The ornate temples and roofs were as usual a sight to behold even though we were told that many of them are built just for the sake of it even if they never get used. It appears that they just have too much money and the way they use up the excess is to just keep building

 At least the monks keep smiling and to get one lawn mowing stood me in good stead for mine and Louise's continuing game of monk bingo

 On one of the days we joined our host Chris and an American couple, Heidi + Pete to go to the local floating market where the sellers drive their long tail boats into a specially constructed platform to sell their wares, a throwback to the days before roads (something our hostess Areeya remembers).

 One of the highlights for the kids was feeding little waffles to the catfish that surrounded the plat forms waiting for scraps

 On my birthday we hired bikes and rode to the provincial capital of Nakhom Pathom which has a truly enormous buddhist chedi which we spent quite a bit of time in as it was a long and hot ride to get there. As always there were lots of statues all plastered in the gold leaf offerings

 Louise's favourites the temple guards were well represented as usual with some particularly fearsome looking ones keeping an eye on you as you made your way round

 On one of the evenings a nephew of the family bought Louise his pet hedgehog to see, so very cute

 Like I said, we enjoyed great views all through the day, this was taken at about 10:30pm on my birthday, tripod + long exposure

So that was the Hidden Holiday House, a really lovely stay with lovely people. So much so that we took  Chris up on his sideline business which is running cycling tours through Lao and Cambodia. We are booked to 8 days down the Mekong in Lao to the border of Cambodia with him in the midle of April. So with that to look  forward to we left and headed North

Pulau Lankawi

Our final bit of Malaysia has been a two week stay on Langkawi just below Thailand. The island is a bit more of a holiday destination with lots of very nice beaches and an industry geared up towards visitors. We stayed at a beautiful place called Soluna guest house just off the main resort town of pantai cenang, Claudia and Aidi the owners house is pictured below with Aidi tending the fire with one of their cats keeping him company 

 ...one of their many cats...

 ....many many cats....

 ...and theneighbours cats. Lets just say there were a lot of cats, well looked after and well fed which was nice to see

 We got our first taste of the Japanese ladies bathing dress sense much to Louise's amusement

 We travelled the island extensively and managed to see some nice wildlife like  this macaque stealing a bag of crisps from an unsuspecting ladies bag

 A very lovely new to me species of monkey called the dusky leaf, a beautiful but very shy creature who only gave me a quick glimpse of his face to fire a shot off

 There were plenty of lovely spots to see and the waterfalls were just about still falling despite the weather on the coast being sunny and the temperature sticking around the mid 30's

LAngkawi was lovely and somewhere that both me and Lou enjoyed immensely, the placed we stayed was situated in farmland that gave us a peaceful base from which on several days we didn't leave. The beach was close enough to walk to and the food again was excellent. The lady who lived next door was happy to knock up a main meal for around 60p and made the best milo (really sweet iced chocolate milk) i've had since we got here. We have almost relaxed too much here and could have stayed longer but we feel its time to move on so tomorrow we make a move to Bangkok.

pulau Penang

For Chinese New Year it was only fitting that we headed to a busy China town so we went North again up the coast to Penang island and Georgetown where we stayed just on the edge of China town in a lovely little guest house. Georgetown is massively populated and busy all day long, the peaceful serenity of some of the temples we visited was a welcome break

 It wasn't long though before we were sucked back into chinatown and the chances to get more delicious nighttime food

 As the preparations for CNY started to ramp up it gave us the oppurtunity to see some of the most lavish lion dancing we had seen, back street in china town on the night itself

 The lion getting ready for the show

 ..and in full swing

 With the finale of the dragon dance being the icing on the cake

Only a short trip to Penang just for the celebrations and then we were off to more peaceful surroundings

Pulau Pangkor

North up the coast and a trip across the ocean took us to the small fishing island of Pangkor, quiet and only slightly developed for tourists this was a nice break from the noise and chaos of our previous destinations, less  than hour to motorcycle around and with only one road it was a great little spot

 The wildlif here is used to mingling with humanity and used our constructs to its advantage, two macaques using the power lines to move through the neighbourhood

 A white lipped malaysian viper that was getting cover from the rain as were we

 One of the local guesthouses fed the hornbills and finished the show by throwing bits of banana into the air for them to compete over

 It was a lovely spot and once we'd settled in it was perhaps worthy of more time than we gave it

Melaka

 

 

 

 

Ashort bus ride to the South west took us down onto the coast and the Unesco world heritage site of Melaka. A beautiful old traders town based around the river and the old port which once a hugely important and busy trading post for thi area of the world

 The streets were brightened up by many trishaws that had sound systems to envy any boy racer back in the UK, once again mainly pumping out that theme of the trip Gangnam style

 One of the main pulls of the place is the night market of Jonkers walk that happens over the three nights of the weekend, lots of lovely street food and dodgy knocked off bargains to be had

 As it was the run up to Chinese New Year we were able to see several lion dances that are used to bestow good wishes for the next year onto the businesses and restaurants througout the town..

 ..with each getting there own personal dance

 We spent an evening at a bar called Me and Mrs Jones who were very gracious hosts and we had a chat with this chap and his iguana who are local celebrities of the night market

So that was Melaka after just under a wek it was time to head out to some of the islands for a relax on the beach in the sun