Our Extra 24 in Singapore

We rushed to the Singapore airport on the 27th only to realize when got there that our flight was on the 28th, so we decided to make the most of our extra day in Singapore. We checked into a very nice hotel with a view overlooking the city, then explored the Arab side of town. We had an incredible turkish meal, then sat in a shisha lounge and enjoyed turkish coffee and milo while smoking flavored tobacco from a shisha pipe, or hookah. Arab street had some beautiful carpet shops but late at night was no time to make any serious purchases. We returned the next day and browsed through a stunning collecction of middle eastern carpets, and eventually purchased some to send home (in the mail now we hope). We had one more great morrocan meal before rushing to catch our flight on the correct date. PS: as Sam was writing this blog Alix just locked herself in a bathroom, and someone had to help her out, she has only almost lost her passport once too :P

Our Langkawi Christmas Adventure!

Our Christmas day was fairly relaxed, we hung out on the beach most of the day, then got massages right on the beach while someone played a bunch of cover songs on an acoustic guitar. We exchanged photos, music and stories back at our hotel with Greg and Lisa (that's Greg above drinking a beer with a monkey). We went out for Indian food that was fantastic then hung out at a reggae bar on the beach. The waitress there recomended a place called the Sunba. We formed a human blockade across the main street and demanded, well asked, for a ride to the bar from the first car that crossed our path, they were happy to abblige. The Sunba was horrible, except for one malaysian pool player with a really cool mustache. We caught a taxi back to our hotel, from a taxi driver giving out free butt pats. We saw that our Indian restaurant was still open at 3am. We stopped and got some of the worst Indian food from the same place where we had just had some of the best, sardine masala we think. We said our farewells to Greg and Lisa because we had to catch a taxi to the pier at 6:30am the next morning. Our taxi never showed up so we hitched a ride with about 5 minutes to spare before our boat left for the mainland. From there we caught a 7 hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur that took 9 hours. The bus station in KL was the closest thing I've seen to hell on earth (Sam's point of view, Alix thought the culture was awesome). We quickly booked a night bus to Singapore in to spend as little time there as possible. We were woken up at 3:30am buy a bus driver screaming "Chakbala Chakbala!" He told us to follow the people ahead of us, not mentioning it was customs, then drove off with our passports, we chased him down and eventually made it safely into Singapore. After about 22hours of travel we paid $4 to crash on the couch of an already full hostel. Merry Christmas!

Sam jumping off the waterfall in the middle of the jungle of Tarutao. There were many good sized fish in the pool and the jumping rock was excellent.

Koh Tarutao and into Malaysia!

We had no expectations of Tarutao but when we arrived it was exactly what we were looking for, an island still preserved as a national park, with one place to stay and one restaurant, which made decisions quite simple. Notice we were the only ones on the beach in the picture above. Here we met Greg and Lisa who we have been travelling with (they are the couple in the top backround photo that look strikingly similar to Sam and I) and having a great time with for the last week. A group of us hiked along the river to a beautiful waterfall deep in the jungle, and the group was very unique, as you can see in that top photo on a ride we hitched with some Thai workers on their way home. One night, all the girls went swimming in the ocean and the water was lit up with phosphorescence, it was amazing! Sam and I were supposed to head back up to Phuket to catch our flight to Singapore, where we catch our flight to Bali, but we ditched those plans in a spur of the moment decision before we had to catch our bus to Phuket and headed down to Malaysia with Lisa and Greg because we wanted to spend Christmas with friends and explore a new country. So, tomorrow at 6:30am we will begin our 15 hour journey on a bus back down to Singapore. Yesterday we rented a compact car that the four of us barely fit in (driving on the left here!) and went to another waterfall and explored the beaches here. Merry Christmas!!

WARNING!!: Do not scroll down any further if you have a weak stomach or children are present!

These are our new friends from San Francisco, Greg and Lisa.

Koh Lipe

We were disappointed at first with Koh Lipe, because it was not the unspoiled and pristine Thailand that we expected because we were greeted with piles of burning trash and glass on an over populated beach. But, it was a small island with paths through the jungle, and we found an amazing bakery as well as a place called the Karma bar where we met some people who were teaching English in China, but decided to move to this island to work on the beach with this view posted above! We stayed at sunset beach and saw the sunset, then the next night we stayed on sunrise beach and saw the sunrise.

Koh Lanta!

Well we've stepped out of paradise.,.. and into heaven. The beach we're on in Koh Lanta is amazing, very similar to Karon Beach but without all the tourists. When we arrived at our resort Bob Marley was playing and continued to play for hours, perfect. We ate an incredible dinner of fresh King Mackrel right on the beach while fire-dancers got down to 'Hotel California.' We asked the fishermen who caught the Mackrel if we could go fishing with him the next day, they were happy to have us on board. They took us out to some beautiful islands where we snorkeled in a turqouise lagoon (picture above). The water was crystal clear with the best reefs and most marine life either of us have ever seen. Tomorrow we hope to make another voyage to Koh Lipe which from what we've heard still resembles the unspoiled beauty of Thailand. All is fantastic, we just wish everyone was here to enjoy it with us. Love Sam & Alix

After about 7 hours with just one bite this sailfish made the day one to remember, they say sailfish isn't very good to eat but we've found that to be untrue. We've been enjoying it for the last two days and the staff at our hotel will be enjoying it for weeks to come. Everyone at the resort came including the staff come out to see the fish when we brought it in right at sunset, we (or should we say the fish) were the highlight of evening.

Koh Phi Phi!

We have arrived on Koh Phi Phi, and are truely enjoying it's magnificence. Limestone cliffs hang over turqouise water filled with beautiful coral and fish. Today we took a long boat to the surrounding islands (Bamboo island and Koh Phi Phi Lay), both were spectacular and we are already thinking of doing the tour again (only 15$, all day, lunch and snorkel included). Yesterday we hiked through the jungle to a stunning viewpoint where most of the island was in view. We cracked some fresh coconuts for lunch and had nice conversation with a very friendly old Thai man who lived at the mountain top, who recounted his experience of the tsunami in 2003. Times are better now on Koh Phi Phi and there is a very sleepy island vibe to this place, reggae eminates from most bars, but the techno still prevails in the night scene. We watched fire dancers on the beach under the full moon and partied all night with our newly found friend from Wales, twas a jolly good time. We are still having a blast, more to come soon.

Much love to all, Alix & Sam

Sam's new favorite sport, beach ball.

Alix on Monkey Beach, Koh Phi Phi, there were actually monkeys on the beach, and incredible coral reefs in the water.

Alix striking her pose on the beach where 'The Beach' was filmed. (Koh Phi Phi Lay)

A Beautiful lagoon on Koh Phi Phi Lay, just one of many.

Karon beach, Phuket, Thailand!

Is this paradise? Does anyone want to move to Thailand with us? The water is cyrstal clear, turquoise, and warm! The sand is beautiful as well, such fine grains it feels like fresh snow under our feet, but warmer, obviously. Loving the fruit, and tonight we are going to try a lobster and fish (eyes and all) dinner. Sam was almost denied entry to the country at the airport, they brought up his picture from our trip 3 years ago and he looks so different now, there was some minor questioning. Glad to be on the beach finally, this place is amazing.

Nocturnal Zoo

Last night, we went on a night safari to the Singapore Zoo to look at all the nocturnal wildlife. We were right up close with leapords, rino's, zebras, and plenty of animals we had never seen before, not to mention a great fire dancing show. Today we are getting our fix of all the cheap and fresh juices that you can get anywhere. Singapore is known for it's lime juice, which is very refreshing. Wherever we go Alix gets stared at by everyone, intensely, blonde hair is not so common here. We've had waiters order our meals for us twice without even presenting a menu, one experience was delicious, the other pianful. We were asked if we liked chicken and cheese, both of us responded yes, he said "I bring you chili chicken and chili cheese", both were so spicy we couldnt come close to finishing our meal, and went to bed with horrible stomach aches.. Today though, the server asked "Do you like chicken?" We hesitantly said yes, but we got a great banana leaf plate meal with chiken and rice on top, with curry and yoghurt sauce to mix with it that was much more appetizing than the later experience, very cheap too. Singapore has proved to be a very difficult place to find a room. We are leaving for Phuket in a few hours, and can't wait to be on the beach.

Singapore!

Our flight to Bangkok was still cancelled so we have opted to come to Singapore and try to work our way north into Thailand, the only problem is that everyone else here is in the same boat. Everyone we talk to is supposed to be in Thailand as well. This means all hotels are full and all trains and buses headed north are booked. We wandered around for 5 hours, and were about to lay down in the park for the night, before finally finding a place with one room left just before midnight, yikes! Singapore is hot and muggy, but a very clean, well kept city with very friendly people. The Indian culture is very prevalent here, all sorts of nice smells permeate the streets, from incense burning in temples to hookah smoke oozing from the Indian sectors. We had a delicious lunch in the traditional Singaporean style, eating off of giant banana leaves instead of plates, at a retaurant that claimed to have the largest serving of curry fish head (not what we ordered). We have been spending most of the day trying to figure out where our next destination will be, and how we will get there, and whether there will be any rooms available. Right now it looks like we will fly to Phuket in southern Thailand, as we are ready to get out of these bustling cities and onto some nice white sand beaches.

Hong Kong!

All is well in Hong Kong, the buildings are huge and numbering in the thousands, and we have come to realize Chinese food is not what we thought it was. Last night we did some bar hopping at the tips of skyscrapers, a self-guided tour of the highest bars in Hong Kong, $20 drinks were worth the million dollar view. The skyscrapers here strecth as far as the eye can see in every direction and there are many more still under construction. We have to walk through a guantlet of watch and suit salemen outside our hostel every night, but we have learned to pay them zero attention or they will hound you all the way down the street. The food has been very... strange to say the least, where'sthe chow mein? All we can find is fish giblets and beef intestine stew, well we did find some great curry but pretty much everything else has a fishy, or week old fishy taste to it. Alix found a morning Tai Chi class on the Promenade which she has fallen in love with, Sam enjoyed it as well. The airport is still closed in Bangkok, so we are flying to Singapore today, and we will figure out how to make it to Thailand from there (maybe a train up the coast). All is going great, and we are having a blast, we can't believe we're only 4 days into our trip, we've had so many experiences already. Hope everyone is well, Much Love, Sam and Alix. ;)