Some things we would prefer not to repeat!

Although its all been wonderful, there are just a few experiences we could have done without:

An emergency trip to the doctors /hospital in three out of the four countries we visited! Thankfully no serious harm done.
My leech bite – yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck…….did I say yuck?
Mosquito bites – we’ve been through 6 bottles of insect repellant but we’ve still been itchy most of the time!
Being asked for the 15th time in one day if someone can take a photo of Susie. Gets wearing for all of us, but especially Susie.
Chinese tour groups at breakfast buffets! There’s definitely a culture clash. Eventually we had to give in and teach the kids to push in instead of waiting patiently.

Our favourite things

As the trip draws to a close we have been deciding on our favourite experiences during the trip. In no particular order we think:

Swimming! And boy we’ve done a lot. It’s been great to see the children improve and Luke learn to dive.
The overnight trains – the adventure of climbing into your own little bed on a moving train and being somewhere completely different when you wake up!
Climbing s live volcano – the sense of achievement, the beauty of the scenery and the learning experience.
Riding bikes together. We’ve ridden old ones, new ones, funny ones and broken ones but we’ve enjoyed them all and the speed they take us through the countryside and villages with everyone waving and shouting to us.
Enjoying the fantastic hospitality of Tony and Ally and cathcing up with the cousins. A fabulous way to start our trip. Thanks again guys!
Elephants. Feeding, hugging, washing, riding we’ve loved it all.
The Perhentian islands – truely a tropical paradise with amazing diving, snorkeling and an amazing hotel with unbelievable food. Happy to recommend if anyone is ever thinking of visiting. One day we might go back…..
Last but not least the people we have met. The entertainment value of Susie being trated like royalty (shame we onlynfound the t-shirt which said “no photos please” in the last few days!). The kindness and consideration of just about everyone we have met, from the man who invited us to his home, to the train conductors, the hoteliers and the innumerable random people on the street.

There are so many more things we have loved, this is just a very small selection!

Chiang Mai – the end

We have thoroughly enjoyed our last few days outside Chiang Mai. The horse riding we planned didn’t work out terribly well. It turned out that they had misunderstood that we were only here on holiday although we had been clear about it from the start. When they finally understood they didn’t want us to ride at all. We did eventually persuade two pony rodes out of them for Luke and Susie but as this only involved being walked on a lead rein around the arena they quickly got bored!

Emma and I really enjoyed our one day cooking course. We visited a market where Emma’s food knowledge easily outstripped that of most of the other (adult) attendees! The difference between ginger and garlic anyone? We then went to the location for the cooking where we each had our own workstation and wok. We learnt to make a soup each, pad thai and a curry each starting with the curry paste. The instructor and other group members were good value and we had lots of fun. Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera so no photos of our food! We packed up most of the food and brought it back to our hotel where it was reheated for the whole family to eat for tea. By no means the best Thai food we have eaten, but not too shabby either 🙂

Yesterday we had our day with the elephants. We were able to walk amongst them, feeding them bananas, hugging and stroking them. Some of us were even kissed by a baby one. A funny but not altogether pleasant experience.

We then had a lesson in basic elephant commands before we each had a turn, astride our own elephant at putting them into practice. True to form, susie showed no fear and was first to mount up and have a go. All the kids did very well and were very brave as it is quite a daunting experience!

After some lunch we took our elephants out for a walk in the “jungle”. Because of the kids ages we were given a professional mahout to ride in front, one for each child / elephant. Phil and i had to ride behind with luke and susie. I have to say that riding on the back, as opposed to the neck, of a large elephant is a very uncomfortable position and there was more than once when I felt like I might fall, particularly as my rope to hold o to had slipped. However we sll stayed on, and the kids loved being on the front. Afterwards we all had “elephant legs” with a strange gait :-). Finally we took the elephants into the water where we washed them and they sprayed water over us. Lovely to cool off and great fun for everyone. Even the baby ones came to join in.

We were dropped off at the Saturday walking street for a few last minute souveniers before our ride back to the hotel. Just time for a nightime swim under the stars before bed. What a fabulous day to end our trip.

Today we are packing and travelling home. Three aeroplanes – a short one from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, then Bangkok to Dubai, and finally Dubai to Gatwick. No doubt we will be very much looking forward to our own beds once we get there.

Kanchanaburi

We’ve had a lovely few days in Kanchanaburi.  It’s a funny place with an entirely separate tourist village away from the main town.  It’s a funny mix of World War 2 history (it’s where the bridge over the river Kwai was built), backpackers and middle aged men searching for Thai wives.  We have done our best to avoid the latter which hasn’t proved too difficult as they only hang around in bars which also sell egg and chips and steak and kidney pie!

 

Our guest house has had bikes to borrow, inckuding a pink tandem with an extra child seat on the back.  In the absence of any other bikes to fit, Phil has cycled this with Luke and Susie on the back while Emma and I have had our own bikes.  We spent a day exploring the area including temples and war cemeteries.  Very sombering to see the scale of them, and they are only for the allied troops and not the 100,000 or so local drafted labour.

 

We also fitted in a visit to the Erawan waterfalls – seven tiers, although we only climbed as far far as number five.  Stunningly beautiful and somewhat eerie with a pale turquoise colour water.  We swam in pool number four where you can slide down the waterfall like a theme park slide.  Lots of fun, but none of us much liked the very large fish which nibble you in the water.  Rather like a fish spa only a full body version with fish 10 or 20 times the size.  Rather disconcerting and uncomfortable if not actually painful.  Luke was particularly bothered by them and didn’t manage to swim.

 

We took a tour which took us for elephant riding andbamboo rafting.  The elephant riding was more successful than our last experience witha trip through the jungle and into the river.  It feels very precarious going up and down hill on the back of an elephant!  We were able to feed the bananas at the end of the trip.

 

The bamboo rafting was nice but not amazing.  We were towed up river and thenfloated back down.  Pleasant enough.

 

We also rode on the tourist train across the death bridge and on for about 30 minutes.  It’s a popular tourist trip and as such was very busy.  The river is in flood at the moment because its rainy season.  We’re lucky that we haven’t as yet been too impacted by the rain. It seems to be mostly in heavy showers in the late afternoon early evening and we haven’t got significantly wet so far.

 

Today we leave Kanchanaburi and head, first by bus back to Bangkok and then by overnight train up to Chiang Mai.

Update

 


A lot has happened since we last updated the blog! We enjoyed Our time in Beristagi, being in the mountains means that the temperature is lower and for the first time we used our fleeces although still only in the evenings. We terrified the people running the food stall so much they wouldn’t speak to us. They just ignored us until eventually another diner took pity on us and translated. We got BBQd chicken, soup and rice and it was amazingly tasty.
The next day we met our guide, Barus, early to climb up Sibayak. We drove for a short time to the start of the path. The first 20mins or so of walking were on tarmac. Susie whined incessantly about how tired she was and her legs hurting. We could see Barus calculating how awful his day was going to be! However as soon as we hit boulders and scrambling all the kids were happy and bounded ahead like mountain goats. As we got closer to the top we could see, and hear, the steam escaping from vents around the crater. We felt different temperatures of water in different pools as we went up. We climbed right to the crater but not inside as the sulphur can cause unconsciousness. We then climbed up a very narrow ridge to the highest point. Amazing views all around. We employed the Hunt, hands, feet and bottoms policy climbing back down. Fairly hairy but we were glad we had done it.
There was then a long walk down steep stone steps to hot springs on the other side of the volcano. We all had wobbly legs by the end! The hot springs were very welcome although somewhat smelly. The locals thought we were great entertainment as we moved from the cooler pools up to the very hot ones.
Stiff legged we spent the next day catching up with journals and some maths homework and learning about volcanos online.
We had a private car to take us to Bukit Lawang – another terrifying experience of Sumatran driving, probably not helped because we asked the driver not to smoke in the car.
Bukit Lawang is by far the least developed in terms of amenities of all places we have visited, although visited by far more tourists than any of the others as well! The car has to drop you off at the bus station and it was a 30minute walk with our backpacks along the river to our hostel. There’s no luxuries like flushing toilets or sinks here!
We visited the orangutang feeding station and were lucky enough to see a mother and baby and the big boss! Very impressive. The following day we did a one day trek.
Bike, our guide, collected us with a swagger and set off at a clip through town with the kids trailing behind. Phil and i thought we were in for a poor day. Fortunately we then collected Agus our assistant guide who immediately took to Susie and engaged everyone. Bike turned out to be a good bloke who was talked to death by Emma and Luke with very good humour. We were lucky enough to see a wild orangutang, feed Thomas Leaf monkeys, see Macaque monkeys and white faced gibbons, hear (but not see in time) a hornbill flying over us and lots of interesting insects, plants and reptiles. We stopped for lunch by the river and had a very tasty meal followed by an amazing fruit salad which Argus created in front of us. We then walked back through the river, very wet trainers! Everyone else was much entertained by a leech which bit me. It doesn’t hurt, in fact i didn’t notice it had happened until i found blood everywhere but it dies make me squeamish if i think about it!
All day Susie had been carried by Argus and we thought initially she was taking advantage of his happiness to carry her, but by lunchtime it was clear there was more to it than that as she fell asleep across my knee. By the time we got back she had a raging temperature and was very drowsy.
On friday we stayed around the hotel with Susie quite unwell and both Emma and Luke also under the weather. We made two attempts to get Susie to a doctor but without success although we did get her antibiotics.
On saturday, with no sign of Susie improving we have reluctantly cancelled our rafting and BBQ by the river trip and abandoned our only prebooked hotel room to move to Medan. We have gone upmarket to the Marriott where we have soft beds, air conditioning and a doctor on call. Hopefully he will be here soon (our appointment was 30mins ago now) and Susie will get on the mend. Tomorrow we are scheduled to fly back to Malaysia.

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Danau Toba

It is as stunnngly beautiful here as we remember from our last trip and the weather has been fantastic with a combination of sunshine and dramatic storms.  Yesterday we rented three bikes for me, Emma and Luke and a motorcycle for Phil and Susie.  We wanted bikes for all of us but much searching proved that it wasn’t possible to rent a bike small enough for Susie to reach the pedals and the handlebars simultaneously, or a child seat on an adult bike.

 

Concerned about the safety of the motorbike we requested helmets, no problem we were told.  They handed us a helmet just for Phil.  We considered for a while, but the choice was no helmet or no trip so we went ahead.  We had a lovely day exploring the local countryside and villages.  Emm and Luke cycled brilliantly, coping eith uneven roads, honking horns, kids running to try and touch them and everyone shouting hello.  Luke had a few tumbles off the unfamiliar bike, mostly from being to interested in looking at things other than the road ahead, but no serious damage was done.

 

For lunch we found a german run hotel with a fantastic bakery.  Today we have walked back from our hotel in the cool of the early morning to take advantage of the bread, rolls, cakes and buns in the breakfast buffet.  We will catch the boat around the island back to our hotel for more swimming in the lake later.  The kids are practicing their olympic diving from the diving board!

 

Tomorrow we move on again, to Beristagi and hopefully climb a live volcano if we can find a guide.

Batu Ferringhi to Danau Toba

 

We journeyed to Sumatra today and it has to be one of the longest days since we arrived from the UK.

It was a dizzying mix of flights, timezone changes, restricted eating options, long car transfers, boat rides, financial worries and mosquitoes to boot.
We have made it however to Samosir Cottages on the small Samosir Island at the centre of Lake Toba, formed in a huge caldera.
It began simply enough, we had arranged a car to the airport but there was no time for breakfast before check in.  We had a western breakfast at the only place open.  You will be familiar with Ronald McDonald and his happy crew!
It was disconcerting as there was major renovation work going on meaning conversations had to happen round jackhammers.  Still it was simple enough and we waited in departures for our plane.  We didnt know what sort of aircraft we would have for a 1 hour flight.  It was a surprise to discover our 11:00 flight did not arrive from its prior journey until 10:35 and I thought everything was going to be late.  But no frills flying means no food to turn round so just fuel and a quick check over and we were in the air at 11:07.
We arrived in Medan, I spent the entire flight filling in immigration forms, and were waved towards Westerner corner.  Essentially everyone who looks like a backpacker has a $25 visa to purchase.  This was news and since all the children also needed one it cost nearly all of our emergency £100 we had in the local currency.  Next was customs.  I carry a pen knife and scissors in my main backpack so had to declare this and go through the red channel.  On the declaration form the sharp objects tick box is the same one as narcotics, psycotropic agents, firearms, explosives and drugs.  I was expecting fun and games but was waved through without a word.
We were met by Mr Sam a tour operator who had driven the 5 hours to meet us from Parapet and also hustled by just about everyone else in the airport.  This included 3 money changers, 4 carry your bags sir etc.  We xplaines we needed the loo and to get some money and we agreed to put our bags in the car.  Not more than 10m from the car a nice chap I supposed was with Mr Sam helped me put my bag in the car and showed me where the toilet was, even though I knew perfectly well.  He then pointed out the ATM I had spotted and waited by the car.  As it turns out he was another”helper” and wanted 1100 rupiah.  This is about 10 pence but having just given all the smaller notes to Visa man I had nothing but 100,000 notes.  Mr Sam paid him for me and I knew it would be covered by the transfer fee.  It was never going to have been possible to get to our destination on public transport.  It would surely have taken 2 days and the kids were already struggling so tough as it was we made the right decision.

The car journey was frightening, there is no other way of putting it.  We very nearly had 2 serious incidents, one where we undertook a lorry that was turning left and another where we began overtaking on a blind right hand turn on the brow of a hill into a motorcycle.  Quite relieved to have made it.  We stopped for a coffee over looking the lake.  Being locally made and costing 40 pence it was joyous.  
On the way we saw cocoa trees and beans drying in the sun, coffee trees, mango trees and rubber trees.  One big plantation belonged to Bridgestone tyres and we drove through it for 10km with trees as far as the eye could see on both sides.
At 18:00 local time so an hour behind Malaysia we boarded the last boat to Samosir and were last to be dropped off as the sun set over the mountains.  There must have been 50 shades of blue on the horizon it was spectacular.
We had a meal at our hotel where someone had accidentally tipped the salt container over it (or so it tasted) washed down with a couple of litres of water!  Finally we retired at 20:00 and here we are with the kids awake at 07:30 pondering how we will approach the day to tour the island, swim in the lake and work out how long we want to stay.
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The halfway point!

Today we have reached the halfway point of our trip – five weeks gone, and another five to go.  It seems more than five weeks since we left home but I suspect the second half of the trip will feel much shorter.

 

We have been busy since we last updated the blog.  Everyone was well enough to thoroughly enjoy our last day in KL at the Sunway Lagoon water park.  We went down all the water slides, and most of the fair rides as well.  There was some random height measuring going on.  The official height restriction was 1.1m for all the rides, but at some rides Susie stood well over the marker and at others a good 10cm under.  In the end, after some debate, there was only one she was not allowed on.  We arrived as the park opened, and left as it closed.  We all slept well that night.  Phil has taken some footage with the waterproof camera but video is proving difficult to edit and upload so it may not be seen until we are home!

The following day we caught our bus for Penang.  Ramadan caught us out again – the six hour bus was broken only by a toilet stop and not the expected lunch one!  The kids thought all their Christmas’s had come as they ate bisuits and crisps for lunch :-). We made it to our hotel on Bayu Ferenggi by about five pm.  A quick dip in the pool and off to look for tea.  It turns out there is an excellent hawker centre ( well Penang is famous for it’s food) nearby which we have frequented every night.  The sweet rotis with cndensed milk have been a hit, as was Emma’s oxtail soup!

 

While we have been here we have visited Georgetown where we took the opportunity to buy our 20 hour overnight train tickets to Bangkok for later on.  The lovely lady behind the counter informed us all days after ours are already booked solid due to the end of Ramadan but also told us that one or two days a week the train is cancelled on the day!  Fingers crossed it is not ours…..  We enjoyed walking around the city, looked at Fort Cornwallis and the museum as well as taking in the architecture and soaking up the culture.  At lunchtime we stopped in Little India at a small restaurant where we liked the man cooking rotis at the front.  We sat down and when asked for our order mentioned rotis.  “only lunch menu now” we were told.  We looked hopefully for a menu but none was forthcoming so we asked “what’s on the lunch menu?”. “banana leaf set”.  So that’s whar we had, and very tasty it was too!

 

We have also visited Kek Soo Li temple, been up Penang hill and played in the Youth Park. All good fun.  Now we have to pack up again, we are off to our third country – Indonesia – with a flight to Sumatra tomorrow.