Thailand Island Paradise via Malaysia

Clearly my stamina in keeping this web page current is fading. It has been a while, and we have traveled many miles since my last entry. This will have to be a summary of sorts I suppose. I am currently composing this from paradise. We are on a small island in Thailand the Andaman Sea (West of peninsular Thailand) called Ko Ngai (or Ko Hai - it has two names). There are only 4 resorts on this island, and no town, so it is really quiet. The water is that brilliant turquoise color, and the sand is like talcom powder and stays cool under your feet. Our little place is called Ko Ngai Villa, and is the budget option on the island. Small concrete or bamboo bungalows with electricity only from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM. Nothing fancy, but in a lovely grassy setting surrounded by palm trees. The beach is about a 30 second walk from our room. The water is warm, yet refreshing, and there is a coral reef that surrounds the island, so snorkeling galore and calm water for swimming.

But first, what happened between Singapore and Thailand? A lot of transport. In hindsight, we definitely should have had my parents meet us in Phuket. We did way too much overland travel between Singapore and through Malaysia, with not enough interesting sights along the way. Leaving Singapore is an interesting story though. My parents first border crossing was hilarious (although mom may have a different word to describe it). We booked an overnight train that left from the border town in Malaysia, so we had to get to the Malaysian train station by bus from Singapore. The shuttle bus up there was fine, but the border crossing was a bit of chaos. It was a Friday night, and a lot of Malaysians commute to Singapore to work, so it was about 6:00 PM and the roads were packed. As our bus approached the border "checkpoint", everyone started filing out of it as the roads were clogged. We found a friendly face in the crowd and were reassured that we should walk from there. So we did and we got officially stamped out of Singapore. Then we followed the crowds back onto a bus, and continued up the road in "no mans land" as we hadn't officially entered Malaysia yet. Then the traffic piled up again, and everyone piled off the bus again. One very nice local took us under his wing and guided us in the right direction, but it was still a bit hairy because we had to get off the bus in the middle of the road, weaving in between several moving buses and huge trucks that all started honking at us to get to the correct queue. Mom likened the feeling to being a Mexican immigrant trying to cross the border. We did feel a bit vulnerable. Regardless, we got to the immigrations/customs, and were officially stamped into Malaysia.

We had to get to the train station early to claim our tickets, so then we had about 2 hours to kill at a marginal station. Here's an antedote that Paul and Carl will appreciate. We're sitting in the station - mom, Keith and I on the floor lined up on the wall leaning on our packs. Dad is sitting about 3 feet across from us in the chairs. We're talking about money, so mom asks dad, "How many Ringets do you have?" To which dad responds, "How many radians in a circle?" It was too funny. (My dad is just a 'tad' hard of hearing).

The deluxe overnight cabins that we had were very nicely designed, but very poorly managed/maintained. Our toilet didn't flush, the food was awful, the sheets wouldn't stay on the bed, and for a sleeper train the mechanisms of the train and the tracks were very loud. Despite our private quarters, none of us slept very well.

The train took us to Kuala Lumpur (which if you read this blog closely you may have called my bluff by now - it is not a city of 22 million, but only about 2 million - the entire country of Malaysia has 22 million people in it! oops.). We had decided not to stay a night there because of how big the city is (again, oops), and easily transferred to a bus that took us up to Cameron Highlands - northeast of KL. The bus up there was another transport day to be forgotten - a very old bus, with no leg room and seats that you have to assemble before sitting down in. We all slept well that night.

Cameron Highlands is known for its tea plantations. Its a hilly, green, lush and very peaceful place to hang out. But it was cold and rainy and foggy, and both my parents were quick to point out that it feels just like Gig Harbor. After one day, mom kept saying, "Let's get to Thailand!". We enjoyed the views of the tea plantations, let dad recover from a bout of illness, then headed out (this time on a VERY nice VIP bus). Dad was against a long travel day, so we stopped over in a small, nontouristy place called Ipoh, Malaysia, where we spent a full day exploring before catching an overnight train to Thailand that left from Ipoh at 1:00 AM.

Ipoh turned out to be a reasonably interesting city. It is known for its limestone caves. We gave my folks a good experience on a local bus to get out of central Ipoh, before hiring a personal taxi to drive us from sight to sight. Our first and main stop was to a huge cave - the largest limestone cave in peninsular Malaysia (forget the name at this point). And it was massive. We think the ceiling of this cave was almost as high as a big sporting stadium like the Kingdome or Key Arena. Massive. And of course the structures inside were equally massive. Like cave formations on steroids. Then we stopped a silly little castle that a white man with a lot of money built, then peeked in at some Buddhist temples that were built into more caves on the road back to Ipoh. We spent the evening at the hotel above the train station where we rented a room for storing stuff and hanging out. The hotel was again not well maintained, but had a great open air balcony, perfect for playing cards and waiting for the train.

This time, no personal sleeper cars, but a bed in a common bunk car. So one car of the train made up entirely of bunks. We were late to buy tickets so we all ended up with a top bunk, where we had to sleep with our backpacks. Pretty funny to see dad try to get comfortable in such a small space. We all slept on and off as again, it was a loud and rocky ride. But not long after we awoke, we entered Thailand! And after a smooth border crossing, we got off in Hat Yai. Hat Yai greeted mom and dad with their first transportation touts who the were able to ignore beautifully. We moved right on from here and settled down in Trang, a town a bit closer to the coast that would be the jumping off point to the islands and a heck of a lot closer to Phuket than Singapore was! Sorry mom and dad, hindsight is always 20/20! After all that travel, we were all ready to get to an island and stay put for a while.

Trang was a nice place, and it was quite fun to watch my parents get into the traveling way. They are more social and ask more questions than Keith and I, and were off exploring the town with more vigour than either of us - finding good coffee shops, prying travelers for info, etc. We also found the Thai people (those who are not selling transport) to be absolutely lovely. They want so much to help us. We were standing on a street corner in a downpour after probably the most miserable bus ride of my dad's life. A minivan stuffed with 17 people and seats that required my dad to have his knees way up on the seat in front of him - this after being promised an express bus to Trang that we paid a premium for! Anyway, this lady saw our confusion, asked where we wanted to go, and went so far as to call the hotel on her cell phone to get accurate directions and then flag down a tuk tuk for us to make sure we didn't get wet or lost. So cute. And my parents were chased down the street in their quest for finding a coffee shop by someone trying to lead them in the right direction.

We only stayed one day, and then booked a boat out to this lovely island, where we've been living it up. The first day was just a getting settled day. The next day we rented kayaks and explored our side of the island while jumping in to snorkle periodically. We sit on the east side of the island, so that night we walked through the jungle of the interior (it's not a very big island - about 5km in diameter) to the 4th resort which is very much isolated (the only way is on this trail through the jungle) where we thought we'd get some sunset views. Not quite far enough west, but a nice walk through the woods. The only downfall is that once you crest the first hill away from our beach, the wind stops and the mosquitos swarm. Within 5 minutes before I had a chance to put on the Deet, I had about 10 bites!

Yesterday, we went on a snorkle trip where we stopped at 4 different islands and a beach for lunch. The snorkeling is fantastic. Lots of very diverse coral, fish, I saw a sea snake, and the coolest clams. The one downfall is that all the boats stop at the same spots to snorkle and they feed some of the fish. This creates very aggressive fish. The only ones that seem to care are these small gold and black ones, but it's kind of creepy because as soon as a boat and the people hit the water, there they are. Following you around. Sometimes they even peck at you! I got "pecked" the first time while we were snorkeling from the kayaks, and Keith loves to tell everyone how those little fish scared me right out of the water (after I got bit, you see, I climbed back into the kayak for a 'break'). The highlight of yesterday was the Emerald Cave. I want dad to write the description of it because I'm no good at describing things like this. It was surreal. You swim about 90 meters through a cave and emerge in a mini paradise. Perfect sand beach, crazy tropical plants with leaves as big as a small person, and sheer cliffs all around. It felt like we were standing in a movie set. Dad says it formed from a giant sinkhole. We hadn't brought our cameras so no pics, but dad took a picture of a picture on the wall.

And that brings us to today. Finally a day to recover. We're doing nothing but hanging around in the shade (we all got a bit burnt yesterday), swimming, catching up on internet, and eating. Life is rough.
Just tried to get some pictures up, but the USB on this computer doesn't work. Internet is very limited here - in fact I am surprised they have it at all (we're using the computer from one of the fancier resorts....). Our next stop is Ko Lanta, a more developed island, so we'll try to get some pics up there. I'm sure that's exactly what you all want to see - tropical beaches, tanned faces, etc., while you are freezing through the cold NW winter.