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 :PWednesday, December 31, 2008
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
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!Wednesday, December 24, 2008
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!
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.Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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
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