Travels in Asia: 2005

Hey all,

sorry, little time plus have been spending the last few weeks on islands where internet is either increadibly expensive or non-existant.

Today finally made it off the islands and are waiting for a night bus to Kuala Lumpur and will write probably some more from there.

Jordan finally arrived 4 days late basically.  We did a head-over-heels tour of Bangkok and then headed by night bus to Ko Pha Ngan.  4 hour boat ride after the bus ride finally got us to an amazingly stunning beach that seemed to come straight out of a postcard.  However, on the first day(afternoon) there I wasn't feeling to well so spent most of the day napping in our cabin and on the next day the weather was miserable so we got to spend the time in our bungalow or in restaurants.  And unfortunately that was it for our time allotment for Ko Phan Ngan.  From there back to the mainland, where a bus was to take us to Krabi but after being taken from one bus to restaurant, told to wait for another bus, then taken to yet another restaurant we finally managed to cover the 3 hour bus journey arriving after 9pm in Krabi when there were no more boats.  Instead we spent the night there and caught a boat out bright an early the next day, climbing over tide, clifs, rocks and caves with our big backpacks to get to Ton Sai beach and some cheaper accommodations.  That night we met up with Liz and spent the next couple of days rockclimbing and relaxing in the water.

Aug 17th bright and early we caught a boat back to Krabi where we were supposed to have a 5.5 hour bus journey to the Malaysian border since I needed to leave Thailand (my visa expired on that day).  Well... we made it to the border at 9pm - slightly more than 5.5 hours and slightly pissed since by then the border was closed, we had no cash and now I was in the country illegally.

We had just a bit of Bhat left, enough to get a hotel for the night that I felt afraid of sleeping - especially on the bed - ended up climbing into my sleeping bag with the hopes of avoiding the bed bugs.  The next morning made it to the border where they forced me to pay a 200Bhat fine - with us only having 120 and them not accepting US cash.  Eventually I confinced a motto driver to excange a couple US $, paid the fine and got to the other side where we needed to catch a taxi but had no money for it.  Eventually the driver agreed to take us to a twon with ATM machines and then to the east coast of Malaysia from where we caught a boat to the Perhentian Islands. 

THese Islands are turlly paradise on earth.  We spent the last 7 days there.  Relaxing on the white sand, swimming in the crystal clear blue water and taking our open water scuba diving course - I'm finally PADI certified although half death with one of my ears being completely plugged and not wanting to unplug for the last 3 days.

But yeah... the beaches were simply stunning - although the food was no where as nice as in Ko Samet.

And tonight off with a night bus to Kuala Lampur and 2 days later to Singapore from where we fly home on the 30th of August.

Take care all.

Kasia & Jordan

PS:  Nancy:  Should I get in touch with some profs or do you think i'd be fine doing all that when I get back in?  You wouldn't mind helping me out with cover letters?  And a get-together sounds great.