Mountains, mist & Kota Kinabalu.......

After our Sarawak adventures, we decided it was time to move on and check out what the rest of Borneo had to offer. We jumped aboard yet another plane (our carbon footprint is getting pretty big now!) and headed for Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

After a slightly turbulent flight (Tom was not happy) we headed into the city centre. Kota Kinabalu itself is nothing really to shout about, another sprawling city which stretches for miles along the coastline. After dropping off our bags, the heavens opened and the streets became a sea of water. Not really ideal weather for exploring! Feeling tired and a bit homesick, we decided to skip yet another meal of noodles and rice and treat ourselves to a tasty Italian dinner. Oh pasta how I have missed you! A glass of wine would've made the meal perfect but our measly budget would not stretch that far :(

During breakfast the following morning, we got chatting to a Dutch couple about their travels. Turns out they were pretty much doing the same trip as us, but in reverse. They had been travelling through China and the phillipines but also in New Zealand, for eight weeks, exactly the same time we have planned.

After chatting away over our 'luxurious' breakfast of mini bananas and toast, from that moment on we would be pretty much inseperable for the next few days. For four days we explored some of the outlying islands, relative paradises (not really on a par with the Thai islands but stunning nonetheless).

After spending the day on this tropical island we yet again met some real 'characters' This time a really loud Polish guy who was bragging how he took what he wanted from wherever he went, things that he said that HAVE to be taken if found, and if light enough.

This Polish couple were actually from Cambridge of all places and stood with me, necking back his pile of Tiger beers, whilst bragging about how little he can do in the UK and be paid a relative fortune for it. His missus then came and piped up about all of the places they have been to in the world on the back of being paid British wages. Fair play to them. He then went and spoiled my bitter understanding by diving into the water and breaking off a huge piece of coral, a highly endangered part of an otherwise precious ecosystem. I wanted to throw sand and gravel in his face but this guy just didn't grasp the meaning of protected species. Which is kind of the same for most of Asia unfortunately (not just unintelligent Poles) especially when you walk past the shark fin specialist restaurants. Oh and the turtle meat stew stalls. We've said it many tomes on this blog and it doesn't mean to be said really but animal and environmental welfare is a completely secondary notion...

Anyway from the islands the four of us went in search of traditional Malay food and found a fantastic place that created really fresh halal chicken dishes, especially the sweet and sour chicken, really thick and tasty sauce with very tender pieces of chicken. It went down really well with tea tarik, my new favourite tipple, essentially just sweet, frothy, milky tea. So good.

The next day we all arose early and headed towards Kinabulu National Park, home to mount kinabulu and almost 3000 metres above sea level. From being completely covered in sweat to shivering like a wet dog in an hour was a strange sensation. Our driver up there, a small Chinese man called Jo Kong, was definitely a character. Turns out he was a retired police sergeant and definitely had the hair to go with it. In fact I told him the whole way that I wanted hair like him, he loved it! Anyway, after a few minutes chit chat this guy was fine, after nearly two full hours of the same conversation over and over again it was painful.

Eventually old sergeant kong pulled up at a place high in the mountains called D'Vila lodge. It had the look and feel of a disused tin mine but after talking to the owners and looking at the room we all decided that despite it being as basic as basic gets, it was cheap and had everything we needed, basically a bed....

So three night we stayed up in the mountains with our new Dutch friends Arlette and Sioux. We had some amazing games of scrabble, eat some great food with the vegetables picked right from the mountainside before us and walked around the national park. Disappointingly the weather was just horrific. It rained hard for the whole time we were there, shrouding mount kinabulu, SE Asia's highest, in a thick blanket of dense fog. For us it was a pain in the arse, for the climbers who had come from across the globe and paid literally thousands to climb the mountain for a clear view, it would be devastating.

After saying our goodbyes to our new Dutch friends we waited outside for our bus back to Kota kibabalu. The hotel staff informed us that we would just have to DIY outside the hotel and wait until a big yellow bus appeared. We waited for almost an hour in the freezing fog for a bus that when arrived was as full as was humanly possible and had the full-on whiff of a mixture of shit, piss and durian. Probably the worst combination of smells you ever could imagine. Well, maybe rotting rat would come close. We were on that bus for two hours, shell sat next to Borneo's answer to a pebble and I next to a man who insisted on grabbing onto the headrest in front of me instead of the one directly in front of him, why???

After one horrible bus journey we were then dropped unceremoniously into a bus station some miles out of town where we then had to cross two main roads with rucksacks to a waiting bus that was being driven by what looked like two ten year old boys. The bus was jam packed and had no particular route other than driving around in a random direction shouting at various passers by if they wanted to be squeezed on, which they invariably did. We were then dropped for the second time closer to the centre of town but what seemed like a rundown asda carpark. We were pointed in a particular direction which we duly followed around the maze of roads that is downtown Kota kibabalu until we reached lavender lodge, our hone for the next three nights. Another epic and ultimately challenging journey!

The next two days were then spent making sure we had everything ready for the next leg of our trip. Our voyage south to the antipodes and three and a half months spent counting every single penny, living off baked beans and self-made sandwiches. But you know what, we cannot wait.

After nearly six months spent travelling through a literal sweatbox, eating rice for every meal, drinking 10p beers, being cheered/mocked/heckled/loved/smiled (delete where appropriate) at or all of the above in the space of a day. Having to learn the (unlearnable) art of an Asian road crossing, getting used to squatting to go to the toilet, then learning to love it. Making friends for life from the four corners of Europe half way across the world. Learning to laugh when you arrive ill-prepared and without the slightest grasp of the local language at 6am on the morning in the pouring rain. And last and definitely not least, coming to the dawning realisation that here, here amongst the carnage and the anarchy, the noise and the grime, here is where the future lies. And what a future that could be. I for one, want in....

Much love, Tommo & Shell xxx

Cool as cats in Kuching........

Hey everyone, hope all is well back home! Starting to miss it.....in a way!

So in just under two weeks our Asian adventure will draw to a close, before that a Borneo adventure awaited us as we boarded our flight for the short swing over the south china sea to Kuching.

Before we knew it, we were on another packed highway, in a place that looked not one bit like the Borneo images you might conjure up in your head, you know, all dense rainforest and smiling Orang-utangs. In reality, this could be any-city, Malaysia. We were excited to be here and couldn't wait to explore but the huge malls and the rampant traffic just reminded us of other cities in peninsular Malaysia, not really what we had in mind but we'd give it a good go!

At the hostel we plonked our bags down then went in search of food. We found in the guidebook a place called the top spot food court which had rave reviews. Turns out this place took the whole top level of a large multi-storey car park and was inundated with stalls, all selling every kind of seafood you could possibly imagine, it was unbelievable. Whole Malay and Chinese families, some fifteen or so strong, sat around a large round table where waitresses piled plates of lavish seafood on top of each other. You just cannot believe that people can eat so much, it was incredible. Giant prawns, crabs and huge fish swam around in tanks all waiting to be chosen by the next customer. The prices were much cheaper than at home, maybe ten pounds for a kg of crab and maybe the same price for a huge whole sea bass or red snapper. Very cheap but still out of our budget unfortunately but we did manage to gorge on giant juicy prawns and the most tender calamari, beautiful.

Back at the hostel we were just shattered, we felt and looked ill. For the last four weeks we had steamed around towns and cities in the tropical heat and in flip-flops and it had last caught up with us. The next day, we slept late, ate an even later lunch and then took a picturesque boat tour up and down the Sarawak river that splintered it's way through the city like a giant brown snake. Kuching itself was instantly appealing and they had done a great job of sprucing up the waterfront to make a fantastic riverside walk all with the backdrop of the opposite side of the river to keep you entertained. On the opposite side stood a small White palace, an old fort, many traditional houses and the Sarawak state parliament, which has my vote for most impressive building in the world, it is simply stunning. Whichever way you look at it it doesn't fail to make you smile. It rises up like a solid gold circus tent but much grander and in perfect symmetry, whoever designed it must have been listening to an inspirational speech or something whilst he was putting his plans together, I can't express how great it is.

The next day we woke at 5.30am in preparation to go and see the Orang-utans in their semi-wild open habitat at Semangoh. We would have to catch a public bus twenty kms out of town and then be dropped off 2kms away at the park entrance. Funny thing was that when we went up to pay the park entrance fee we were met with a huge White notice with the words 'we now in fruiting season, chances of seeing orang-utans are zero, or maybe less than zero', in typical Malaysian gusto. Typical we thought, but on we went up the hill and through the trees to the centre where thankfully we were the only people around, this would not last...

About forty minutes later a few other people started to arrive. By 9am, just before feeding time, there must have been 200 people there. After a short briefing by the park ranger we were off into the woods to try and catch a glimpse of these amazing creatures. The park ranger had drilled it into everyone that noise would not be welcomed. This didn't stop the hoards of Chinese and Malay tourists who let their children run wild. it was infuriating, more so that they just didn't care. Morons!

Anyway, after about half an hour the tree tops started to sway and people started to get excited. All of a sudden two young ones appeared to peruse the selection of fruits available. Due to it being fruiting season many of the beasts were capable of finding food for themselves but for these little ones the chance to have food provided for them was too much to turn down. The best bit was watching the youngest of the two grab a coconut and spend the remaining thirty minutes trying his hardest to get inside it! He tried everything he could and eventually the coconut split and he could enjoy it's contents. The centre was a good place to visit and they are obviously doing a gallant job with these creatures but you can't help but feel that this is just another zoo showpiece.

The following day we decided to follow the lonely planet walking tour, taking in a slice of kuching's long history of British colonialism mixed on with it's obviously large Chinese population. I think we really got a feel for the place and sampled some fantastic local Sarawak coffee. We also had smiles and hellos from a lot of people, something which always warms the cockles in a new land! By now we were fully integrated into local Kuching life. We knew the best places to eat and drink and had some great games of scrabble back at the hostel (rock and rollers us).

The next morning shell and I got up at six to catch a very early bus up to Bako National Park, one of the highlights of Borneo's many natural sights. On the bus we met a couple of german guys so we could share out the cost of the boat journey to the park. When we got to the jetty the rain was already heavy and we also had to wait for nearly an hour as the tide was so low. Once on a boat though the beauty of Bako became instantly apparent, even though it was wet and miserable. We did a 7km looping trek through the jungle with one of the german guys called Sebastien. We were pretty shattered at the end as it took us through some wild and undulating terrain and as the rains were particularly heavy the tracks had turned to rivers, a real rainforest experience.

We did manage to spot a few bits of wildlife on the trek including a truly huge spider (biggest I've ever seen), a cheeky macaque monkey and a family of wild boars but the elusive proboscis monkey (the ones with huge red noses) remained to be seen...up until the journey back. Our boat driver suddenly pulled the boat to the right where there, high amongst the trees, was a small family of them. They were incredible and amazing to see in the wild.

Kuching and Sarawak had been great. Much like our journey north into Sabah, our options would be cut really short by how expensive it is to actually do anything in Borneo. It's incredibly cheap to stay somewhere and to eat but any tours and activities are just so expensive! Even so, for a few days Kuching is a great place to kick back and recuperate after mistreating our bodies for the past few weeks!

Anyway, were really missing everyone at the minute. We think its just the fact were right in the middle of our trip. Its also incredibly hard to keep having to say goodbye to new friends all the time, i really hate goodbyes.

Just a few days now until we leave Asia after nearly six months! Hope we can speak to some of you soon!

Much love, Tommo and shellface xxx

City trekking in Kuala Lumpur.....

Arriving in KL after escaping unharmed from pyschoville we wondered off the bus (as luxury as we have had so far we reckon) and into another chaotic bus terminal where groups of Indian men started eyeing us up suspiciously. What was instantly noticeable was the extreme difference in temperature, it felt almost as if you had been draped in a large, hot, wet blanket. It must have been fifteen degrees hotter. After some initial confusion and disorientation that comes with being in a new, large city we got our act together and found the metro system and the stop we would have to get off at, Masjid Jemak, right in the heart of Little India. According to the directions on the website our hotel was a matter of metres away from the metro station, should be a doddle we thought. Our first mistake was turning right when we should have turned left. Our second mistake was to keep walking in 35 degree heat with backpacks on in a huge circle, only to return once more to the same metro station where we had been 30 minutes previously. We then saw the hotel, next to the metro station. Idiots.

After our Cameron highlands lunatic asylum experience we were hopeful that the hotel room we had booked turned out to be as good as the increase in budget would suggest. Thankfully it was, it was beautiful. The bed was the biggest I have ever seen and the huge flat screen tv was a nice touch (not that we'd get to watch it!), we even got a selection of free biscuits, chocolate bourbons! We felt like royalty!

Anyway, after a much needed shower (we started to smell like soil), we were off into KL central to seek out cheap eats and to try to get some bearings. We found another cheap food court in another huge mall and gorged, despite the crowds, on two chicken claypot dishes. They are basically incredibly hot (as in ouch to touch) clay pots with various vegetables, rice and tender chicken. Really tasty.

The only problem, and we were pretty sick of it by that point, were the crowds, there were people everywhere. We were just fed up, Penang and the Cameron highlands were good but due to the national holidays it was just hard work. Fortunately today was the last day of the holidays so we were hoping that as we progressed through the next three days the crowds would start to ease a little, we hoped!

After an incredible nights sleep we both started the day with bundles of energy, so good! Nothing will beat the feeling you get in your first full day in a new and exciting city on a long trip. As we walked out of the hotel the sudden rush of heat, noise and aromas hit us, you've gotta love it. Our first call was a small southern Indian cafe where we munched on fresh roti and daal dip, apple juice and ginger tea. The guys in there were great and showed us an authentic Indian breakfast, we liked a lot and would be back.

From there we hit Merdeka square, a large cricket field flanked by impressive Tudor and Georgian colonial architecture. This was the site of Malaysian independence from Britian in 1957 but still maintains all the pomp and pageantry that you would expect from a city and a country with a big colonial past. We got some great photos from this area so you should take a look. Only thing at this point was the heat, it was just so hot!

From there we stopped at Masjid Jamek mosque, a huge and highly significant mosque in this conservatively Muslim country. We picked up some literature to try to understand this highly misunderstood religion before walking round to take in the surroundings. To do this though we both had to cover up so were thankful for the free hajib and headscarf (see photos-I look like a choirboy, Shell would make a good Muslim).

From there we joined the lonely planet guides walking tour of Chinatown, even though by this point, it was probably 1pm, we were beginning to melt. the tour was excellent. We stopped at a fantastic Taoist temple where a Chinese woman told us all about the Chinese new year, she literally popped out of nowhere bless her! This year is the year of the dragon and people born in a dragon year have to spend hours praying and generally work hard to appease the spirits compared to someone born in a rat or a pig year (mine and shells). She said the pig and the rat go well together, I'd agree, and if the last hotel is anything to go by then we also, much like our symbolic counterparts, like lying in filth. For lunch we stopped for delicious noodles and Chinese tea at a cafe that has apparently been open for 200 years. It was beautiful. It also occurred to me that Shell probably likes tea and coffee just as much as I do now, my mission is complete.

Back in the centre we headed towards the mammoth Petronas towers, KL's most famous landmark, and for good reason. As far as skyscrapers go it really is the dogs testicles. At one point they were the tallest buildings in the world, now they have the elevated default position of the worlds tallest twin towers, since 2001 of course. To look at they look as if they are going to be propelled skywards at any moment, they are magnificent and and a true feat of engineering. We got the obligatory photos before heading into the adjoining mall, KLCC, to check out yet more rampant Asian consumerism.

Out in the park we were stunned when two friends, a man and a woman, who looked as though they had just met for the first time in years were reprimanded by not one but two policeman, all for a short embrace. Its hard to understand when touring a strictly Muslim country and even though you have to accept it, these two people simply hugged for a matter of seconds. Did they really deserve the whistles and subsequent embarrassment?

From there we ate once more in the cheap delight of another shopping mall before returning back to the hotel shattered and sweaty ready to hit the sack.

The next morning we visited our friends at the local Indian cafe once more before following the guidebooks walking tour once again, this time of Little India. The tour wasn't as impressive as the previous days and took us to some strange and irrelevant sights, like a solicitors and an Indian clothes shop. I think they wanted us to admire the arty deco architecture, it just looked like Fratton to me.

From there we went by foot once more in search of Menara tower, the sixth largest tower in the world, can't really miss it then can you. We paid the entrance fee and took a lift to the viewing deck, 220 metres above the ground. It was an awe-inspiring sight, the 360 views were simply staggering and the position of the tower, in the middle of KL, meant that the views of the Petronas and surrounding buildings were even better than we thought. We even had an audio tour via one of those headphone sets at the top though every set they gave me seemed to break on entering my orbit. They gave me five sets that seemed to explode on impact, they were perplexed and the look on their faces were ones of pure disgust.

Also, as part of the ticket, we were given the opportunity to take part in a formula 1 simulator. Turns out Shell, as it happens, seemed to be a bit of a natural (grrrrr) and I seem to have the ability to make the car face the opposite way, even if it seems impossible to do so. I even had the indignity of the two members of staff snigger at me as we left due to being lapped by my girlfriend....there was nothing I could say.

From there we again walked (walking would be a prominent feature here) through the city to a mall that promised an indoor theme park, an indoor theme park! Even saying those two things together conjures up disbelief. We arrived expecting a trampoline, maybe even one of those rides you get in gypsy fairs that seem to want to dismantle every time they pick up speed. Instead the three floors of this mall had been turned into a mini Alton Towers, complete with rollercoasters and gravity defying contraptions. Impressive stuff.

If KL looked impressive by day then by night it looked almost surreal. The Petronas towers took on an almost otherworldly glow and surrounding it were other less tall but nonetheless impressive buildings. I guess Hong Kong or Guangzhou would be it's immediate equal out of the megacities we have visited but KL, unlike it's heavyweight Asian counterparts, seemed to gleam with the freshness of a country with a a very prosperous future.

Our last day in KL will probably go down as the day in which we walked the most of anywhere we have been so far on this trip. I did a 100km trek before we left the UK and my legs had that knowing feeling that we'd at done least a quarter of that distance during the day. Our first port of call was Batu Caves, a huge cave system 13km out of the city. After numerous wrong turns and at one point actually walking down a motorway (seriously), we finally found the correct metro station to take us there. Already the temperature was hovering around 33 degrees and we still had to contend with the 272 steps to gain access to the caves. Apart from many more potential monkey attacks from the vicious macaques on the way up, we managed the ascent pretty well. I think we're both feeling pretty fit at the moment.

The caves were huge and were guarded at the entrance by a 120m golden statue of a Hindu god. Unfortunately I think we had missed the areas most famous annual celebration, Thaipusam, where Hindu men tie very heavy items to parts of their bodies, including the genitalia, in a sort of masochistic show of religious devoteeism. Damn.

We then, maybe foolishly, decided to walk for the rest of the day. First up were the KL lake gardens, a huge, British designed and built, area of lakes, gardens, deer parks and tea houses. The fact that this was in the middle of a city was quite simply astonishing. Maybe on a par with NYC's Central Park for grandeur. After deciding that we didn't want to spend any more money on entrance fees we then decided to work back to Bukit Bintang, the unofficial centre, to eat at one of the delicious Arab stalls. We had been walking, in the heat of the day, for around five hours non stop at this point so made the 'mirage esque' food court and collapsed in a sweaty mess onto some chairs. KL, over four days, had finished us. After chomping down the last pieces of amazing chicken Shwarma's, (a Lebanese wrap-truly amazing) we dropped into to a coffee house and didn't move for hours. We did manage to book our tickets to Borneo though, Orang-utans here we come!

KL has been fantastic. We weren't too sure what to expect from a city that we had been told was just too sterile, too modern. Don't listen to them. It is a fantastic place filled with a heady mix of cracking food, a hundred different cultural influences and bags to see. We had a blast. Next stop, a bus further south to the historic colonial city of Melaka. Onwards!

Much love, Tommo and Shellface xxxx

Hanging in Penang...

For the past few months as we have zig-sagged our way around Asia, Malaysia has been in some respects a bit of an afterthought. Not that it deserves to be so, as the more we read, the more we learn that there us so much to see. Its just that it's never been a country that stands out like the big hitters of Thailand or Vietnam. Now we're here though, we realise we are probably in one of the most culturally diverse places we have ever been to.

As we said before, we were truly sad to leave Bangkok behind after a fun filled six days and an incredibly two months in Thailand. Our flight down to Penang went by without much fuss, despite mild turbulence, and we managed to hire a taxi with ease to take us up to georgetown, Penang's UNESCO listed city. As we drove, two things became apparent. Firstly, there were many more cars on the road, very expensive cars at that, replacing the hum of battered old motor bikes. Secondly, the traffic moved in an orderly fashion, they had rules!

Driving through the old town towards our hotel we instantly got the impression that this was a curious mix, we'd never really seen anything like this before. You'd have to say if your being totally honest, that it wasn't the prettiest place. Only first impressions though!

After dumping our bags we quickly went in search of some of Penang's famous hawker food, essentially street food of various varieties spanning a number of cuisines. Our first stop was a place called Kapitan, a Muslim-south Indian restaurant famous for it's roti chanai's and tandoori chicken. the roti channai's were amazing, really light, almost pastry based breads cooked in the tandoori oven. We also had some amazing turka daal to go with it, a tasty lentil dish that everyone seemed to be eating.

The next day we woke absolutely shattered, the past few days had been really busy-almost non-stop but we both wanted to get out and explore the city of Georgetown. The town itself had some very attractive parts, the British colonial buildings were very impressive, they had been meticulously maintained to make sure they retained their former glories and looked as good as new.

After a good old tour around the unesco heritage buildings we walked on into little India, were we stood and sniffed up all of those delicious smells! The place was very loud, almost every shop pumping out vicious Indian pop music to try and shift a few of their Now; Bollywood compilations. It was a great sight though and so very different to the sight of Asia we have had elsewhere on the continent.

By this point, and we're not expecting sympathy here, we were so tired. The last couple of weeks had definitely caught up with us so we headed back to try and chill out, you know, listen to some decent music and set curry puffs, but found it increasingly difficult due to being in one of the noisiest hostels we have been in. Basically, most of the accommodation in Georgetown is within extremely old buildings that have absolutely no soundproofing whatsoever. That meant the Chinese people above us actually sounded like Robocop wearing corrective walking shoes. We also had a locked door in our room that after closer inspection opened to the adjacent room! It was locked ofcourse but meant that we heard all sorts of noises from that room and whenever they put their light on it lit our room up. Oh well, at least we didn't hear the guys upstairs taking a dump, oh yeah, scrap that, we did.

The next day we waited patiently for a bus that would take us to the centre of the island to a lookout. We did indeed wait patiently, for an hour! In the end we gave up and caught another bus to a small national park, the smallest in Malaysia in fact. We went because it sounded cool but in the end spent four hours on a long jungle trek. You see the guy at the park headquarters told us it would take 2 hours there and back. He lied. After two hours we didn't even make our destination, a beach at the other end of the jungle. Instead we walked through steamy jungle, all in flip-flops, for 10kms! We had a great time though and even though the flip flop combination wasn't a great idea, it made us hungry for more treks! Need to buy footwear first I suppose.

Being tired anyway probably wasn't helped by a 10km jungle trek but that night we were so shattered that we hopped out for more food, this time an indian-Malaysian combination called nasi kandar before heading back to the hotel to rest up before tomorrows four hour drive up into the Cameron highlands.

Penang was an interesting place, it has some very attractive buildings and the food, even though we didn't do it justice, was fantastic. It does feel strange to be in Malaysia though, it is so very different to Thailand. The mixture of Indian, Chinese, British and Malay cultures is fascinating, if not a little strange but the biggest thing is the fact that order, or something resembling it, had now been resumed. Give me chaos!

Anyway, onwards! To tea, hill walks and scones!

Much love, Tommo and shellface xx

Bangkok, round two!

After three full days in Bangkok already the prospect of another two could, to some I guess, be a little overwhelming. We couldn't wait to get back out there!

After sitting down and planning our assault for the next few days we ventured outside once again into the intense heat of inner city Bangkok and headed for Bangkok's very own Chinatown. Arriving into the thick of it you instantly got the feeling that if you didn't like crowds, dirt or suffered even slightly from claustrophobia then this wouldn't be the place for you. It was, in every sense of the word, insane. We have experienced madness in hong kong, several places in china, Hanoi and Saigon but this was as if someone had turned the notch up to full blast. At one point, after almost army-crawling down a sidestreet, we found ourselves trapped by delivery trucks on either side. We got out by climbing over several stacked boxes...

After buying a wicked teapot and cups for our imaginary home we made our way out of the chaos and headed towards the metro so we could make for the air-conditioned sanctity of another mall, we had many choices! In the end we made our way back to terminal 21 where we ate the most amazing food I think we have had in Thailand. Yet again, the food court proved irresistible. It's almost as if every small food station is trying to outdo each other. The food was out of this world! We ate crab, shrimp and pork dim sum and the most tender stewed pork you can imagine. I hate to bang on yet again about food but it was astonishing.

From there we took in another film at the cinema, how could you not for two pounds! It's like nineties prices! This time we watched a film called five days of war about war reporters in Georgia after the Russians invaded three years ago. Great film about such a recent subject, go see. Once out we took a walk down Sukhamvit road, quite possibly the busiest road in the world where we passed through 'cowboy street', a brightly neon lit street that catered for the mostly fat, old western men with a fondness for young Thai girls. We have seen it now for two months, more than that if you count Saigon too, but it still turns my stomach. It is both sad and depressing that the only way they can get their intimate gratification is by paying some young girl who's only interest in you is when you will next give her some baht.

Anyway, after walking for another hour we eventually found a place doing 40 baht draught beers so decided to pull up some chairs! Leaving a couple of hours later, slightly worse for wear, we made our way back to the hotel where we once again paid a visit to the pizzeria!

For our last day in Bangkok we decided to concentrate on the old town area. After sipping green tea in a great little tea room we walked around the tightly packed streets until we came across koh San once again. As we walked down the street a small guy essentially grabbed me by the arm and shoved me into a barbers chair. Although I needed a haircut the site of the big Thai guy plugging in his giant razor was enough for me so in a flash threw off my towel and cloak and dashed down the road! Shell was in stitches. I was happy I'd escaped the demon barber of Bangkok.

We did manage to haggle a bloke down for two lonely planet books (Malaysia and new zealand) to a reasonable price before we headed for a coffee. After booking our flights and next hotel for malaysia we made our way back towards our hotel for a well earned rest, we were shattered!

The time has finally come to not only leave a city we have completely taken to but a country that has been our hone for nearly two months now. When we look back, hopefully in years to come, about our time here, we can have nothing but broad smiles. We know this isn't the hardest place to travel in the world and we certainly aren't breaking down barriers here but Thailand represents a culture and a people that are crucially unique. I guess one of the big reasons people keep coming back here is for it's natural beauty, the beaches, the mountains, that sort of thing. You can't really blame them. For me though it will eternally be the smiles. The feeling that even though everyone is trying to get on, no one takes life too seriously. A smile really does go a long way. And I suppose that is Bangkok, a city with an international reputation, not always for the better. It's huge, dirty in places, wildly chaotic and suffers from choking pollution but ask us to go back and both shell and I would bite your hand off for the ticket. I think you could compare it to smoking, ultimately dangerous and bad for your lungs but highly addictive.

Next up, Malaysia and a country we know next to nothing about. We are in the process of frantically searching through the lonely planet for inspiration. We can't wait though, a whole month until we fly to Perth. Asia, in this instance anyway, is definitely our oyster.

Peace and love, Tommo and 'face 'xxx