End of the Islands

I've been traveling with Diane for a while now, and I have to say that it's been a fantastic time. She's great company and we've done so many activities when it was possible though some foul weather has come upon us and I still had fun despite it. We're not in Thailand anymore and I'm sad about that but I can see great things on the horizon.

The day after the last post we slept in late and in the morning got to meet our dorm mates. We're sharing the room with 3 dutch guys on a 2 week holiday with a very ambitious schedule. I guess that every schedule sounds like that to me since I've been without one for so long. Their names are Marco, Frank, and Micheal and they're nice guys who drink a little too much I think. I've been taking it easy more or less since the Full Moon Party. After breakfast with them we agreed to meet for dinner and Diane and I set off to explore the island. Of course it's pretty much the same as I saw last time with it's small streets, lack of motor vehicles, and various smells. I spent a good portion of the afternoon in an internet cafe finishing up the last post, and also sorting out some more details on my insurance claim. That claim has unfortunately met a sad end as I seem to have lost the police report. Yea, that's bad. I suspect that the bungalow owners took it but that's a pretty wild claim.

In the evening Diane and I met up with the Dutch back at the Rock and got dinner at my favorite restaurant on the island. Of course we all headed out for free drinks at the beach as well and had a fun night despite a misty rain. I guess I must be used to the tropics once I don't care if it's raining or not.

In the morning the sun was out and we vowed to hit Maya Beach once more on the boat tour. The last time I went to Maya, the tide was low and the sky cloudy so I felt like it could be enhanced by one more visit. Of course it started out with a long ride in a longtail and we did a little snorkeling. Diane was stung on the arm and leg by a small jellyfish that we never saw and the boat captain rubbed pineapple on the wounds which didn't have an immediate effect but after and hour the pain and swelling had pretty well subsided. I don't know if there was a relation. The beach itself was at high tide but there was a powerful rain when we pulled in that swiftly changed to scattered sun after we crowded under some cliffs with the other hundred people on the beach. I guess it was pretty this time too, but not significantly different than last time in overall beauty. Things just look better in the movies I guess. At least the limestone cliffs along the edges of the islands still take my breath away.

Later that night we had dinner with the Dutch again and then went out to the beach for more free drinks. I don't know if that should be pluralized since Diane and I only had 1 if you don't count one with dinner. It's so cheap to get a good cocktail here that it would be a crime to ignore them.

Rain. It's been here all along but now it's just starting to get silly. It rained this whole day but despite that I don't feel so bad about it. I guess that I knew that things were going to be trouble when I found out in the morning that the boat that we wanted to take to Ko Lanta wasn't available and that we'd have to stay an extra night. My back can't hardly take another sleep on these awful mattresses. Then the rain came on even harder than usual so we moved to D's Bookshop to read and use the free wifi on Dianes ipod.

After a long day of relaxing I think that we needed to spoil ourselves. We accomplished that in the form of an awesome seafood dinner where you go and pick your own fish and they cook it up in whatever style you like. Diane got the grilled barracuda steak with a mustard sauce and I chose the white snapper deep fried whole with a garlic pepper sauce and a side salad with shrimp. It was a really nice meal and actually cost about $18 all together which sounds like a lot over here but not so much if you're back home. Oh yea, it's Halloween night. Well, we didn't get around to making costumes for whatever reason and celebrated instead by getting Thai massages. I fell asleep towards the end of mine and we went to bed early. What a party!

Finally the boat was ready for us so the day before we bought the morning ticket and got out there 30 minutes before it was to leave at 11:30 but we found out they oversold and it was already full. They ended up taking us to Ko Lanta at 3:30 instead after another several hours spent at D's Bookshop. Of course it rained the whole day and when we got to Ko Lanta it was raining still. We didn't have a hotel reservation so we took a taxi out to one that was recommended in the book. It was full so we walked up the beach and stopped at a few different bungalow villages before finding one that was a good deal. We found a private bungalow with a good mattress and a pool for $12 a night. After having a good dinner of duck curry and cheap beer, I knew it was a good choice.

The next day was a bit of a pain in the ass. I realized the evening before that my passport was missing from its usula spot so after a few minutes of thinking about it I recalled that I had locked it up at the previous hostel on Ko Phi Phi and that I'd have to go back to get it. Yea, I screwed up but this was the first time in 8 months that I'd left it behind at a hostel. That said, I took the 8 am boat there and the 11:30 boat back but still had time to pick up a bunch of strange fruit, friend food, and a gift bracelet from the island vendors. I showed up back at the bungalow at 1 pm, passport in hand, and caught Diane as she was heading to the pool for a dip. I joined in and we had a pretty quiet afternoon of tanning and reading.

That evening we walked out to the main road which has a very small number of businesses along it and is mostly overgrown with jungle and mud. The one bar in sight caught our eye. It's the Bob Marley bar and it has the distinction of being the only self proclaimed reggae bar that actually played reggae music in Thailand. It was owned and managed by a Thai guy who calls himself Bob and mixes a mean Mai Tai. Bob is a good spirited guy, laughs much more than is necessary, and I suspect smokes a lot. I wish that I had D's pics of him. We also met a couple dive masters who hang out at the bar and we had a long evening of talking, playing ukulele, and drinking. That was fun. Oh, earlier in the evening we went to a tour company to buy Diane a bus ticket to Malaysia and had a revelation.

While we were in Ko Tao, there was a warm and windy day where some of the dive masters who had been there a long time told us that it was a sign of the coming monsoon. They said that we had one week of good weather left but we went on to Ko Phangan and didn't think about it again. Well, it turns out that when the monsoon hits the East coast of Thailand (at a totally different time of year than on the West coast) the road and rail connections throughout the country get massively disrupted. Several cities that Diane would go through to get to Malaysia were flooded disaster zones and I have the same obstacles if I wanted to return to Bangkok so as to meet Erika in Cambodia. Air travel is our only option for the next month at least. It wasn't much more expensive for me just to fly to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia with her and then to fly to Phnom Phen Cambodia as opposed to flying to Bangkok and then busing it to Cambodia. Also, it's more interesting to me to visit Malaysia anyways. That I'd get to spend a few more days with her before she meets up with her sister made it an easier choice as well.

In the morning, we got some food at a local restaurant that we loved the day before. They make their food cheap, spicy as hell, and the presentation is top notch. We told the waiter that we were going to rent scooter to explore the island and he drew us a map to reach a remote and beautiful part of the island. His advice was spot on. We got the scooters, drove to the ferry docks, and took a car ferry across a wide river to reach the northern half of the island. This half, called Lanta Noi, is largely unpopulated and completely devoid of tourists. The southern half (Lanta Yai) by contract is littered with bungalow villages, gift shops, and has lots of road traffic. When we rode onto Lanta Noi we were greeted with good empty roads and any time we passed a local they smiled and waved at we rare guests. It was refreshing.

We drove out to a desolate part of the island in the west and turned off the paved road and onto a muddy track through the woods towards the beach. The guy said that the sand there is wide and hard packed and good for riding but the way to it was loose and slippery. We got there ok though and rode into the bright sun to find a very long and completely desolate beach lined with tropical pine trees and warm shallow water. The sand was perfectly smooth and didn't have any flotsam or rubbish on it and I felt comfortable hitting 80 kmh after scouting it out first. We took a short break to kick off our shoes and wade into the sea, as we are want to do, and enjoyed the moment very much. Soon enough we went back to the road to do a long loop around the island.

There were some small settlements of mostly Muslim Thai farmers who had small crops of rice but other areas had been cleared and planted with rubber trees. I pulled off to stick my finger in one of the sap pots but they all seemed to be dry wherever I checked so maybe the sap is a seasonal thing. Some other small sections had been planted with oil palms but mostly it was just jungle. We waved at everyone and the kids went crazy when they saw us. We also stopped at a couple small fishing villages to get cold Cokes and to get a closer look at the locals. It was a really fun day.

After getting some grilled salty catfish from alongside the road, we made it back home safely. I watched the sunset with Diane that evening from a platform by the beach at our bungalow village. It was the best I can remember but that's not worth much when it comes to sunsets. Why do we love to see the same thing so many times? We got some rest and the next morning were picked up for a long day of travel.

First there was the 3 hour van ride to the city of Krabi where we waited 3 more hours for our plane. That took just one hour to reach Kuala Lumpur where we waited another 3 hours for a bus to take us 2 hours to Melaka on the coast. By the time we found a hotel it was nearly midnight and we were dead tired. It didn't even matter that the hotel was not particularly nice. I guess I'm still a little nostalgic for Thailand. The country was more expensive than I expected (I think the Czech Republic was cheaper) but the food and weather were so great that I don't care. Also, the hostels were generally poor in quality and quantity so that's no feather in its cap either. I guess what I loved about the country was the combination of the people (scammers and saints) and the land. It combines to a place with a lot of variety and beauty, even if I never did see anything North of Bangkok. I'll fix that some day.

In the morning we packed up and set out to find a new place to spend the next couple nights before Diane would meet up with her sister and I'd need to be scarce. Why is that? Well, she's got a serious boyfriend back home that she doesn't want to be with and her sister's going to give her hell if I'm there. She probably will anyways when she sees Diane's pictures but I don't need that drama. We had a GREAT run but I'm not moving to England and she's not moving to California so where does that leave us? I don't regret spending that time with her because it was very sweet even if it was also a tad fleeting. Oh well, it seems possible that I could run into her again still. It's in the works.

Yea, so the search for a new place. We went off into the hot weather, working our way closer to downtown, and visited several places on and off our map before we found a good place with strong AC. It's the beginning of the festival season and the town is packed with local tourists. Actually, the Indian holiday of Diwali was that day though we couldn't find any real celebration of it because the Hindu population of this town is so small. We even visited the 'Little India' neighborhood and didn't see anything special going on. So, with a hotel booked we set out to explore this unique town.

The city was originally a trading port and it's strategic position along the spice route made it a valuable asset to whomever could control it. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to capture it in the 16th century. The Dutch took it in the 17th and the English in the 18th. Late in the 19th century a native Malaysian government became strong enough to take it and it's been like that ever since. Still, many buildings from the Dutch and English period still stand and have become iconic in this country.

The town square is comprised of a few old Dutch buildings that the British painted 'golden gate red'. I hear they did that so that rust, red mud, and dust didn't show as much and would create savings in maintenance costs. In the middle is a fountain erected in honor of queen Victoria. Overall I'd say that though the town isn't the most scenic I've seen by a long shot, it's one of the nicest 'small feeling' cities in SE Asia though that doesn't say much. If it was transplanted to Europe it would be razed and rebuilt from scratch.

The main focus of Melaka is the famous Jonker Street which gained UNESCO World Heritage status in 2008. It was once famed for it's old buildings, quality restaurants, and antique shops but most of those shops have been replaced by tshirt, art, and crafts stores. The food is still good though. Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night the street is closed to cars and the food and trinket vendors set up for a festival night. This goes on all year long and barring bad weather the narrow street gets completely packed with tourists, though most of those tourists are Asian. There aren't really so many western visitors and the few I've talked to haven't been so impressed by the city.

I guess the best think about this town is the food scene. Besides Malay food, which is pretty decent, the most unique thing here is the Baba-Nonya food. The Nonya are Chinese immigrants that moved here in the 16th century and adopted the Malay language, dress, and food but mixed it with their own. They are distinct from other Chinese that immigrated later on and their food is a unique fusion of Malay, Indian, and Chinese flavors. Some of the things that I tried include the Puh Piah (a giant fresh springroll), Cendol (shaved ice smothered in coconut cream, palm sugar, rice noodles, and surprisingly good kidney beans), Laksa spicy curry soups, pineapple tarts, durian icecream (AWFUL), herbal jelly drinks, Rojak fruit salad smothered in teriyaki sauce, and the local favorite roasted chicken with rice balls. Some were good, some were great, but all very unique.

So on the first full day, we checked into a new hotel, walked down Jonker Street, and had lunch at one of many chicken and rice ball restaurants. The food was nothing short of awesome but I never bothered to take a picture. This one is of octopus balls which are not similar. I was too famished to think of it. Later in the day we visited a Chinese temple briefly and then made out way to the evening festival on Jonker Street.

It was crowded as all hell. Most of the food vendors didn't sell anything particularly interesting or substantive though I thought the jelly drinks were pretty good. Most of them are sweet, cold, dark green, and taste kind of grassy but are otherwise just odd. There were karaoke stands in many shops and at one large intersection on Jonker a huge permanent stage featured karaoke all night over huge loudspeakers. It's pretty horrific. There was no drinking on any of these nights because high taxes make beer and anything else unaffordable.

The next day we started out with a trip to a great Indian restaurant that serves the food on leaves and generally takes control of the orders since tourists clearly have no idea what to get. They just asked if we ate meat and wanted a lassi and went from there. We got some mixed veg dishes, biryani rice, and stewed lamb and chicken. The food was great and the mango lassi was the best I've ever had hands down. I've been told that Americans have a penchant for proclaiming this and that the best thing ever but here in Malaysia they have an even bigger obsession with world records. Every pastry shop that you walk by around here has photos of the year they made the worlds biggest pineapple tart or whatnot. It's pretty silly.

We also walked around the town marveling at the flower covered bicycle taxis. Each one is more overblown than the last and most have a loudspeaker system so that the occupants can blast the music of their choice as they ride. Popular hits include Queen, random club tracks, and the Eagles. We also escaped the heat of the afternoon (which is very significant here in Malaysia) by seeing the movie 'RED' at the local mall. I liked it. Later in the evening we hit Jonker Street again.

The next day was to be our final one together and I've got to say I'm pretty bummed out about that. Hmm... that was a good 3 weeks. We made the most of it by getting up early enough to visit a Chinese dim sum restaurant and get their locally famous bbq pork buns. Not as good as the ones in San Francisco in my opinion but not bad. We also took a short boat tour down the canal that cuts through the down town. Facing us in the boat were two European women, in the country for a few days, who complained loudly about the lack of grace and culture in this town but I can compare it to other cities in the region and come to the conclusion that it's not so bad. Still, it's hard to justify and UNESCO commendation.

In the early afternoon Diane caught the bus back to the capitol to meet her sister and I'm left behind. I'm going to fly to Cambodia as soon as I can to meet up with Erika but the cheap time to fly there is on Friday and today it's Sunday so I have some time to kill. I'm going to go north to see the city of Penang which is said to have the best food in the region and is an old British colony like Hong Kong or Singapore. I think the best things in Malaysia may be out in the countryside or in the jungles but I don't have time to see the best parts of that so I'll stick to the coast. Wish me luck that I find new adventure.