Chris' Travels

Day 38 - Back to Bangkok

So I'm back in Thailand. I'm happy about that. The few days in Malaysia were worth doing, but not so brilliant. And I'm exhausted. I know that's crazy and I'm not working blah blah blah but the last week has been harder, mentally, physically etc. I'm Looking forward to a break, When I find somewhere to take it.


Day 32.

Got up nice and early heading for a place called the Cameron Highlands. Basically its Some mountains near enough halfway back to Thailand from Kuala Lumpur. The unhelpful bus driver who would do nothing but grunt became even less helpful when with 60 km to go, he decided he didn't want to drive up the very narrow twisty road to the top of the mountains and kicked us out onto a Local bus, on which there was no seats and no air con. So I stood, for 25 minutes until a seat became free. Also met the most annoying Australian guy, about 60 ish, Who then decided he wanted to come and sit next to me for the remaining 2 hours of the trip and tell me all things I already knew about, well everything. We arrived at the top and it really was COLD! well compared to Kuala Lumpur which was about 35 degrees when we left. Found a guest house, Got some more naff food from a restaurant and collapsed into bed mid afternoon. Later Went to go and get food and who should I bump into.... The Australian from the bus, and he decided that he would show me a good restaurant. It wasn't . It was rubbish, he carried on giving "great" advice about everything (yawn) and was then sitting in the common room when I got back to Hotel. So a few of us sat around, while the (now quite drunk) Australian carried on and on. Luckily we all saw the funny side (there was about 7 in attendance for the lecture, all my age) in fact at one point I had to walk away. It got too amusing.

Day 33.

Rolled out of bed just in time for an 8 o'clock tour of the local sights. Firstly a butterfly farm which also had insects and stuff. I held some things This Rhino Bug (or whatever it was called) was amazing.


These Scorpions where scary!


And the butterflies were, well butterfly like, Though they had golden Chrysalis which was pretty cool.


Then we were whisked off again on crazy roads to a strawberry farm. Hmmm. We've got those in England so me and Susan (a New Zealand girl) sat around and had a strawberry milkshake to pass the time.

Finally we went to the highlight of the area, A Tea Plantation. The brand was called, no jokes, "Bo" But there was no sign of Craig David or Kes for that matter but it was still good. Pretty amazing views over the plantation, and had a great cuppa and huge chocolate cake to help keep me warm. Nice.
We did stop at a Honey farm where apparently there were bees and stuff, but again we weren't bothered so we eat Fried sweet potato from a stall instead.

And that was that. In the evening had another horrible meal. Susan and Johann a Swede I'd met the night before wanted to have a steamboat: Basically its a big pan put on your table and you put all kinds of fish and stuff they provide into, boil it for a minute and eat it with soup. There was Squid, Fish balls, Cuttle fish, Fish wanton, Pork skin, something they called "beef" but wasn't, and other kinds of fishy stuff. I was not impressed. To be fair I did very well and eat quite a lot, and tried everything, all was well. Until the last mouthful, which was extremely fishy, and made me feel very sick. I was sure I'd die of food poisoning the next day but didn't. We sat around the hotels "camp fire" after that chatting long into the night.


Day 34. Not having enjoyed the cold too much I wanted to get away from the highlands now I'd seen what I'd come to see. I again rolled out of bed, seconds before my bus was leaving, I got there, but Realised I might have to become a little more punctual, for my time in Malaysia at least.
I was going to A place called penang about 5.5 hours north of the highlands. It's an island not far from the Thai Border. The lonely planet says something like it shouldn't be missed. I'd say you can miss it very easily. It was a dump. I'm not going to waste my time talking about it here. I watched some football in a bar, went to bed vowing to get out the next day.

Day 35. And get out I did. It was actually one of the journeys I'd (geekily) been looking forward to. It was a train all the way from Butterworth, Malaysia, all the way back to Bangkok. A cool 22hrs. I thought I'd get a little bored, so saved my mp3 player battery, left some of my book to read etc etc. As it happens I didn't need either of them.

I met another girl from new Zealand and an American Guy called trey at the station before we even climbed aboard. We were all feeling happy about getting back to Thailand, we'd all been in Malaysia for short trips, and hadn't had the best of times. So it was no surprise when we hit the border and cleared customs things improved, IMMEDIATELY. We got served some really good food. We got served beer. The Thai staff knew how to smile unlike their Malay counterparts. The girls got very excited because the guards let them smoke out of the train door despite a sign warning of a 2000 Baht fine for doing so.


It just turned into a brilliant night. We kind of gathered some other western folk around us, I guess because they could hear the noise we were making. Most people went to bed for no good reason at 8.30. We stayed up playing nearly silent charades until 1. It was a relief to be back in Thailand. It's not that I hated Malaysia, the highlands where cool, the rest of the place was ok, it just didn't appeal to me like Thailand does. So there we go. As with Kuala Lumpur vs Bangkok, Thailands wins the "Best country I ever visited" award still.

Day 36.

I had slept pretty. The train had fold down beds that where surprisingly comfortable, I opened the curtains and watched the scenery fly by for a bit. Then had a great breakfast (I kid you not) and chatted to trey for the rest of the journey. Back in Bangkok me and trey went and got a hotel, this time I stayed more in central Bangkok than the tourist ghetto of Kho San road. Food. Bed.

Day 37. Woke up at 2pm. I had been pretty tired as I'd imagined. Did a bit of shopping. Went to a bar again with trey in the evening. He's actually alright. The nicest American I've met on the trip. A pleasant surprise.

Day 38. So today I've felt tired again. Bangkok's great but gets you tired quite quickly. The weather's better than last time I was here, it's 28 degrees today, unlike 35 last time. Wasted most of the day with taxi drivers not taking us where we asked, taking the long route to a place to charge more, dodging touts, getting food I didn't order and generally dealing with the normal nonsense. It was like it had all been saved up while I'd been in Malaysia so on my return every tout, taxi, agency worker were out to get me. I found it more annoying than fun today but take the rough with smooth etc.

And finally. I've found I'm a people magnet. No. Not a babe magnet, just people in general. This is more than paranoia. I've tested my theory scientifically over a number of days, AND 2 different countries. It's a fact. I cannot walk anywhere without people banging into me. Now to be fair I'd noticed it in England before I left, and I know that we all get this occasionally, we go left so does the on-comer, we go right and ditto. But it's serious. People cannot help but wander, with some force directly into me. Sometimes when they're approaching head on they aim for me. I know this because I've watched the pavement grooves as I walk and on-comer,well, swerve for me. The minute they see me they want to bang shoulders, or brush my hand, or better still stop dead without warning so I bump into them. It can't just be because I'm very handsome (as I keep getting told). I've tried different techniques to try and avoid this unnecessary contact. They don't work. Of the things that could be frustrating on this trip, this is the one that bugs me. The only solution: I'm going to take a taxi. Everywhere.

posted by Chris @ 1:39 pm