Brave or Foolhardy – Page 4 – The ramblings of the Davies family

August 14, 2012August 14, 2012

Butterworth to Bangkok

We boarded the overnight train in Butterworth and enjoyed saying goodbye to Malaysia which we have enjoyed so much.

The border crossing was as border crossings do and Susie threw a tantrum at the immigration official refusing to have her picture taken. That was awkward! We got back on the train after and the dinner lady was at our table waiting to take our order. We went for a selection and whilst it did not look like a great picture what arrived certainly welcomed us to Thailand. I pigged out on Red Curry. Hat Yai was where the food was presented and we shunted around picking up more carriages. It is a very large town and instead of the usual shanty town view there is a Mall in the distance.

I was really glad we have gone with down stairs beds on the train this time and apart from the people camping out on my bed the overnight trip through central Thailand should be quite relaxing

If anyone tells you it is cooler to be on the top bunk on overnight trains ignore them! The bottom bunk is bigger, better appointed and has better views of the countryside. Not least is you dont have to do gym in order to get to the loo. A huge bonus if you have need for the loo frequently like me today. Still recovering from Sumatra. It is odd that yesterday we were still there.

We are just arranging a possibly awesome finale to the trip. There is still space left at a place called elephant stay which looks to be on the other end of the “interacting with elephants” spectrum from the experience we had near KL.
It says we will spend 3 days with a specific elephant and look after it. The cost is very high ostensibly for the high cost of maintaing elephants properly and contributing to their protection. www.elephantstay.com

It is now 06:26 and whilst everyone on the other side of the window are tending flocks of cows and buffalo in the Thai forest, I have just been served a paper cup of coffee. It might be because I have only seen a sunrise and a sunset in Thailand so far on this trip but the prospect of the next three weeks here is looking very rosy indeed. I have missed Thailand so much.

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August 11, 2012August 22, 2012

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.

August 5, 2012August 14, 2012

Berastagi

We arrived in Berastagi yesterday. A place which we had not fondly experienced last time we came to Sumatra but were determined to make the most of it this time and I think we have achieved that.

Today we ascended the local dormant volcano with a guide “Barus” . It was a short steep trek for one hour to the crater where we were hissed at by the sulphur vents. Susie made it without any significant delay or coaxing required, fairly hopping up the last 20 mins through the rocks once it stopped being boring.

The views and the immediate surroundings were very photogenic so adding some photos from our Lake Toba trip here we present a fair few of the things we have encountered in the last 5days.

August 4, 2012August 4, 2012

Travelling day

Today we took a car from Danau Toba to beristagi, a journey of about four hours. First we hiked a couple of miles with our rucksacks back to the German bakery which we had previously enjoyed for breakfast. Having taken full advantage of the buffet options, we caught the 9 am ferry to Parapet. There we were met by our prebooked car to drive us to Beristagi. The journey involved more random acceleration and deceleration, hairpin turns and blind overtaking it. I took my mind off it by spotting me favourite uses for a moped. They included twelve (or was it 13) children on one scooter travelling home from school, the man with a full size fridge freezer strapped to the back of his (how do you balance that?), the one with a home-made 6ft by 6ft “windscreen” made from bamboo and sheets of plastic, the ones converted in mobile hawker stalls who can pull to the side of the road, pop up an umbrella and cook you whatever you would like for tea, and the one with chickens on the back! I also noticed that in the UK we seriously underutilise the opportunies to honk our horns. Here you need to honk at every other vehicle and most of the pedestrians you pass. Plenty of value achieved 🙂

We’re staying somewhere a bit more upmarket in Beristagi but the altitude means that the temperature is lower. I think this might restict our use of the outdoor pool. Phil and Luke have braved a local barber for haircuts. luke looks like a different child – his hair is very short now! He’s happy and i’m pretending i don’t mind the lack of curls!

We’ve booked a guide for the climb of Sibayak tomorrow. We are all excited to climb a real live volcano, although there’s been no actual activity for a long time!

August 3, 2012August 3, 2012

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.

August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

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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July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

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.

July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

KL Photos

It has been a little light on photos and I have a load of kids journals to upload but the hotel has one drawback and that is a very slow internet connection.

We move to Penang tomorrow on the bus so maybe at the next hotel it will be better.

For now I have some pictures we took around KL and at our trip to the water park today. See if you can spot the famous landmark.

Orchids we have seen everywhere in the last 4 weeks, absolutely beautiful. The suncream on the lens gave a soft focus look 😉

Susie on a horse at the wild west rides in Sunway lagoon.

An awesome fillet steak rare on a sizzling hotplate for £6!

Luke at KLCC where the shoes police are working overtime!

The famous landmark

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July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

Steaks, stomach upsets and soft play!

We’ve been enjoying our time in KL. We have explored the various parks and playgrounds and we did a bus tour of the city. We were expecting an open top bus with commentary as per the UK but all the buses bar one were completely enclosed and there wasn’t a commentary! Made it rather less interesting than it might have been….but we used it to go back to the KLCC water play (with swimming costumes this time!) which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. We have been entertained by the apparently full time presence of two police officers whose only role appears to be to whistle at anyone who tries to enter the water area with shoes on! They take it very seriously…..

We have been finding that even somewhere as multicultural as KL Ramadan causes some challenges for us. We walked home through the Kl city walk looking for tea. Loads of restaurants but none of them open. Eventually we gave up and went back to an unhopeful looking one, open but deserted. It turned out to be a brilliant choice. They had boardgames to play while we waited, a waiter in love with Susie and delicious Indian food, all for less than £10. We were sad to leave.

Yesterday Emma had our first stomach upset. I can’t quite believe that we had made it very nearly halfway through our trip without issue, we must have cast iron stomachs. We think Emma’s was probably brough on by her falling over into what appeared to be an open sewer the day before. Although we cleaned her up and antibacterial gelled her, it seems some germ escaped our efforts. Anyway, Emma recovered within a few hours but by that point we’d already made the decision to keep her at the hotel for the day with Phil while I took Luke and Susie to an indoor play centre to keep them occupied and away from any potential germs. Much fun was had!

In the evening we decided to venture to a hawker market slightly out of the centre with great online reviews. It’s called Suzi’s corner which entertained our Susie! Turned out no taxi driver had any idea where it was. The first taxi took us in the right direction through awful rush hour traffic. He was very unhappy about the whole thing and tutted loudly throughout. He eventually dropped us off without having found it. We walked a mile or so without finding it before getting in another taxi who drove us round in circles for a while before eventually finding it, only about 50 meters from where we had got in! By that point the kids were tired and hungry and Phil and I were pretty stressed. However it turned out to be worth finding as the steaks were the best we have ever had! Very unexpected in such a location. A much simpler taxi ride back to the hotel.

Today we will try again for the waterpark. Everyone seems well, the sun is shining and it’s time to get dressed.

July 23, 2012July 23, 2012

Ideas

I have been waiting for the time when my brain will settle enough to start having some good ideas.
You know you say to yourself “if only life wasn’t so hectic and I just had a moment to myself”?
Well I guess that time has come but I am surprised it has taken 4 weeks. It was really busy before we went away and I think having the children with us means there is less quiet time since we are all in one room most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying that part but I recharge my batteries by being quiet and still so it took until the children had found a really engaging park before we got that peace. Jenni got her nose into a good book and I pondered. The luxury of this has not escaped me and I felt very privileged to just “be”. There is this pressure, perhaps I perceive something that is not there or make it real but pressure nonetheless to do something really constructive with this time.

Life at work is upside down enough to park trying to solve world information security problems by studying how nature does it and making extrapolations, theories etc. but I have had a crack at safe drinking water in hot countries! I guess the science centre about oil exploration was timed perfectly with my mind quietening as we looked at renewable energy. I was looking up how reverse osmosis (ro) for drinking water works as most of the bottled water out here is made that way. It explains that oil rich countries use this because the amount of energy required for ro processing is high and can easily be met by burning oil resources.

It occurred to me that whilst solar energy is unlikely to meet the scale needs of a population in replacing oil a more personal production method could be created for very poor countries with a non-potable water source.

Maybe someone has thought of this already but my idea is to use a solar parabola furnace to condense the dirty water and then to take this condensate and pass it through an ro filter maybe using steam to provide the positive pressure required.

It is not going to generate large quantities and clearly needs a consistent light source but the strength of the sun should not have to be high if the right conductive element is chosen to heat the water.

Anyway where was I? Ah right the blog. Well today we visited the Lake Gardens which has a huge play area. We got on well with the man driving the road train on account of him driving us round twice before asking where we wanted to go and then within 5mins of getting there asking him to take the girls to the loo! Ultimately it was just too hot to really enjoy the gardens, people do say to see it before 10:30 in the morning and we were there English style at 12:00 midday!

We are back in our hotel now really enjoying the aircon and having booked our hotel for Penang on Friday. With that and the bus tickets organised we have completed any pre-planning before we go to Sumatra now so all we have left to do is enjoy ourselves.

We are horribly bitten from the onslaught of mosquitoes yesterday at KL tower forest. We had not predicted the existence or tenacity of the rotten insects and so even though we didn’t stand still through the 59 minute episode of traipsing up and down myriad flights of stairs in the forest the volume meant we could not escape. Emma has been so badly bitten that she is now on anti histamine pills and looks like people have been throwing tomatoes at her legs.

I have downloaded some nice pictures from the camera though so lets see if they come out.

This is where we are now [geolocation]

Susie loves the shower caps provided in hotel rooms!