crusing the beaches of malaysia

i must apologise to people who read my journal and who i also email. but it's just too much effort to write about the same events twice.

malaysia's going well. the perhentian islands were quite stunning, but not as good as railay beach in thailand. the best thing was the crystal clear water. we went snorkeling (snorkel - who invented this word? it is hilarious) and saw so many colourful tropical fish - big and small - the major highlight was seeing "nemo fish" (clownfish) peeping out from their anenemies (well, nemo can't spell it ethier). anyway - it was good. we're on the move again - heading south down the coast to another beach - this one reads really well. "situated on the south china sea"... "wind sculpted sand dunes" (rock on - dunes: i've been dying for some dunes to play in) ... "crashing surf" - it sounds amazing.

yea - i'm just after a huge dinner of indian thali (lots of samples of different dishes) and am very full and satisfied and not having racing brain waves. i ate shark for dinner last night. we decided to treat ourselves to a beach barbecue, and the choice was king fish, shark or barracuda. shark is nice enough, as fish goes. i'm not a huge fish person and it tasted a bit like soul. the sauce they had with it was wonderful, though.

so yea - that's my major news. getting buses around malaysia is trying. no one is very helpful (taxi drivers are like flies) and finding the local bus is hard. they have "express buses" which are like luxury coaches and cost a bomb. well - it's still only 8 euros or whatever, but the local buses are like 2, or something. and since we are budget backpackers, the difference means a nice dinner or food grabbed off a stall on the side of a street. that food gets really dull really fast. you can only eat rice and chicken so many nights in a row before you get bored of it.

yes - i guess i filled out this post well.
i really need a travel icon.

onwards to malaysia

ug, wierd o key here, so some wrds won't cme out.

we've reached malaysia, all safe and sound. the weather here is really hot - it feels as hot as india. thankfully it's not as humid as thailand. the heat i can bear, but the humidity - not at all.

we spent the last 3 days lounging about on the most perfect beach i have ever seen. fine golden sand, green turquise sea, mangroves and palms grwing up beyond the sand. the water was beautifully warm - i wanted to stay in it all the time. and of course, i built the obligatry sand castle. it was more of a fort, really. o_O

anyway. the trip has been going wonderfully. we have more lounging about on tropical beaches ahead, and some fun romps in natinal parks and KL and singapore to see. it should be fun.

bye.

babmoo rafting? yes please

ahh, thailand of the technology - look, i actually get to write more than once a week, amazing.

sooo... what's been happening? we headed north on a 17 hour train ride to chiang mai. sleeper trains are the way to travel. you wake up in your destination refreshed and ready for sightseeing. yea - we've been doing a lot of that. walking everywhere, my feet don't know what's hit them. i crash every night at about 10pm. not that that means much when askea drags me out of bed at 6 or 7. well... it's not that bad.
anyway, enough ranting.

chaing mai is a small city, nicely contained with most of the sights within an easy distance of eachother. so we spent the first day taking in 3 wats (temples) and i must say: if you've seen one wat, you've seen them all. they are beautiful, and interesting, but ultimately it's like visiting every parish church in ireland. anyway.
the other day in chaing mai was an adventure of small proportion. we booked a trip elephant riding, trekking and bamboo rafting. elephants are cute and lazy, trekking is gross and sweaty in this weather, but bamboo rafting - now that is something to write home about. it's just about the most fun i've had on our trip so far. i laughed the whole way down the river. excellent.
you sit onto this long narrow raft, held together by some rope and stuff and hold on as the river sweeps you downstream; around rocks, along bushes, into swells - brilliant stuff. we almost capsized at one point - the raft tilted dangerously over on its side, but the rafter dude straightened us and all was well again. we went just after a night's rainfall too - so the river was swollen, adding to the adventure value. brilliant. the only problem was that it didn't last long enough. ah well.

we're off to "the bridge over the river kwai" tomorrow, after going to see the grand palace. then onwards to the famed beaches of thailand. i can't really wait to get to the sea. i miss salty air. i actually bought a bikini too. me owning a bikini - there must be something wrong! anyway - it's a nice one, i feel somewhat comfortable in it.

right so.

thailand rocks!!

hello again,

first - i have to mention that i'm on a somewhat wierd keyboard. so sorry for any typos.

thank god we are out of india is all i can say. i totally couldn't wait to leave. it is such a horrible country. well - beutiful country, bbut way too much stress. we spent our first day in thailand wandering all over bangkok and looking at it's huge mall - mbk (8 floor chock full of stuff - there's a whole floor just for mobile phones).
we walked down kao san (the insane backpackers street) and got a bus to saim square. walked to the train station and got a boat home. yes, that did take the whole day. it's been fad.
thailand is a huge mix of everything from smells to people to experiences. it dosn't have the chaos of india and is way easier to settle into.

we're going to go see spiderman tomorrow afternoon. i can't wait :) we looked at the cinema lobby and it looks amazing.

i totally can't think of anything else to say. i've been up for 48 hours and it shows a bit. i'll try and get online for a bit in chaing mai.
i need sleep.