Phuket = Disgusting. Koh Pan'gnan = Awesome

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From Koh Phi Phi, I hoped on a boat for a 2 hour amazing boat ride from Koh Phi Phi to Phuket Town. Watching the cliffs of Koh Phi Phi fade away in the distance, the wind at my back and the sun in my face, it was the most beautiful boat ride of my trip.

We arrived in Phuket Town and headed for Patong Beach which was suppose to be where all the action was.

It was awful.

We arrived in the evening and began to explore the nightlife. Let me paint you a picture of the nightlife in Patong in 1 sentence:

Fat, dirty old white men chasing after 20 year old Thai prostitutes. There are more prostitutes than there are tourists in the this area. Aside from prostitutes, there are go go girls dancing all over the place as well as women soliciting ping-pong shows, fire shows, banana, tennis ball, and all kinds of rediculous shows you could possibly think of... to give you an idea of what these "shows" are, let's just say that they all involve one particular part of the female anatomy... enough said. And they, tried selling to our female friends as hard as they tried to sell us...creepy.

There was no backpacker scene and no decent bar to have a beer and chill out. It was like a dirty version of a Thai Vegas. We stayed 2 evenings, 1 full day and got the heck out of there.

We took a bus from Phuket to Surat Thani on the opposite coast and then a really cool overnight boat to Koh Pan'gnan, one of 3 islands off the south East coast of Thailand. The larger one was suppose to echo Phuket so we skipped it altogether and headed straight for the one that is famous for its "Full Moon and Half-Moon" Parties. Full Moon happens once a month on Full moon (duh) and same goes for half-moon. Unfortunately our timing was a bit off and we arrived in the middle of both and it was pretty low key. Still, the main tourists are backpackers so we met some cool people and have been really enjoying ourselves. We rented mopeds the last two days and toured the island. When I say "we", I mean Arnold and I the dutch dude. Our Aussie friend Toni decided to stay behind in Phuket (I know what you're thinking, but it wasnt because of that...). We plan to stick around until half-moon party on the 26th (which is in the jungle!!! woohoo!!) and then either head to the smaller of the 3 islands called Koh Tao (divers paradise) or head back to the mainland.

The beaches on this island are the nicest I have seen but the scenery isnt as nice as Koh Phi Phi. I will be posting pics soon of my trip thus far.

Pat

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Beach Paradise

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So after two big cities, I took off for an island called Langkawi located off the North West Coast of Malaysia.

the taxi ride from the ferry to my hostel was mental. My 60+ year old taxi driver pulled up to a sports car and proceeded to engage him in a race which found us zooming at 140km/h on small local roads while I was clutched my seat for dear life and tried to avoid soiling myself.

I checked into a hostel called Gecko and was lucky enough to meet some really cool people... Gus from Sweden and Arnold from Holland.... Arnold actually looks like the real governator.

For the next two days, we rented motorcycles for $8 a day and the three of us took off exploring the island. it was my first true motorcycle experience and i found it to be incredibly liberating. we found waterfalls, monkeys, gorgeous beaches, sunsets... and ripped those roads apart.

At night we partied at bars along the beach and met lots of backpackers... our group of friends grew. the parties were not crazy, it was a pretty low key island which was nice, not overly touristy.

I met my first ever Maldivians (people from The Maldives, islands off the south coast of India that are expected to disappear over the next decades due to climate change). They were 3 sisters who were on a vacation and they were awesome fun! i must visit those islands some day.

After several days on the island of Langkawi, Arnold along with an Aussie named Toni and myself took off for Thailand, more specifically Koh Phi Phi, the island where they shot The Beach.

The 3 of us are currently splitting a hotel room so its dirrrt cheap the way i like it. This island is much more touristy and party crazy than Langkawi. It is also much more naturally beautiful... the beach scene is gorgeous, with amazing rock formations jutting out of the sea and gorgeous white sand... it truly feels like paradise.. when i thought of SE Asia, this is what i pictured.

The first few nights here was party central... one popular tradition they seem to have here is to play with fire at the bars... alcohol and fire, genius... right. The first event was a huge jump rope that was lit on fire and anyone can go and skip rope. I had to try it.... no major damage. Then later on in the night, several drinks later they bring out a big ring of fire that you can jump through. i had met a fellow Canadian from Ottawa and had the brilliant idea to jump through it with her...bad idea. the hole wasn't quite meant for 2 people so i ended up kicking over the ring and it fell on my fellow Canadian and burnt her leg....i felt terrible but thank god only minor burn. I bought my Canadian friend a drink and put myself in a time-out. That's the last of my fire experiences for now.

Arnold, Toni and I will leave for Phucket tomorrow. I heard snow has already arrived in Canada.... suckers.

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Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

First impressions of Kuala Lumpur were positive.

I took my time and spent 3 nights to take in Kuala Lumpur. Since it was already dark by the time my bus entered the city, I was blown away by the towering glow of the Petronas Twin Towers (the ones from the movie Entrapment). Once again, I was surprised at how modern this city was and also by the amount of western influence. I also learnt that they drive on the left here.

Within a few days, it was also evident that this was the most diverse city I had ever been to. Chinese, Malay, Indian seem to share this city quite seemlessly and although I heard stories of discrimination, I didn't see any.

Most of the backpackers stay in lively Chinatown, which is where I stayed my first two nights at a new hostel called Bird's Nest. Super friendly owners and I met some cool backpackers. I met this german guy named Dominic with a crazyyyy story: he had just come back from the jungle of Malaysia in the Cameron Highlands. Him and a british guy were too cheap to get a tour guide, instead chosing to go into the jungle on their own. They ended up getting lost for 2 days with no food! They built a raft out of bamboo but because it was built so poorly it could only support the weight of their bags, so they were stuck swimming alongside it and drinking the water from the river to stay hydrated. Finally two days later, a tour happened to be in the area and spotted them. By the time he came out of the water, he had dozens of leeches stuck to his legs and in his shoes! That story blew my mind. I skipped the jungle.

I took it easy while in KL chillin out in the hostel and going to bed reasonably early. This was due to necessary recovery time from the late nights with Doug and also the cost of beer! Malaysia is an Islamic country but rather than outlaw alcohol, instead they chose to make it available but tax it at a crazy high rate. Proportionately to everything else in KL, beer was really expensive ($2 at store/$4 in bar).

Eating in Chinatown and Little India, I learnt that a lot of people dont bother with utensils here and just scoop their food with their hands... even messy rice...I thought that was kind of gross.

My third night I had the luxury of staying at my friend's ridiculously nice apartment. This friend named Jerome I had met while studying in France. He was unfortunately out of town while I was there, but was gracious enough to offer me his room. I met his two roommates, these really cool girls from Iran. I got a crash course in Iran politics and lifestyle... and even the pleasure of tasting some Persian food. Through the girls, I also met a German guy named Johanes with an incredible story. Johanes has been traveling by bicycle for 2 years. He started in Germany near the Swiss border and headed through Eastern Europe, down into Turkey, into India, Nepal, Tibet and now into SE Asia....all by bicycle. To save money, he uses couch surfing or will even pitch a tent like he did in Tibet (and went 3 weeks without a shower). His goal is to go around the world on his bicycle and he has given himself about 5 more years to do so.

Impressive sights of KL:
- KL Tower (5th tallest in the world) had an amazing view of the city and of the twin towers.
-Petronas Twin Towers bridge observatory (free)
- Buta Caves: religious caves 45 minutes outside the city with the tallest statue of some religious symbol in the world

Other impressive KL Stuff:
-Malaysian people are really tourist friendly and helpful.
-Almost everyone speaks a decent amount of english here and eager to speak too...
-Malaysians are obsessed with world records (hence how i knew KL Tower was 5th tallest and statue was 1st)
- Malaysian food is really good. had this fluffy doughy ball with chicken in the middle...mmm

After a good time in Kuala Lumpur having met some really unique and fun people, I jumped on an overnight bus for Kuala Perlis, where I would take a boat out to Pulau Langkawi, a gorgeous island off the North Western coast of Malaysia. oh, and the island is a duty free haven so there is no tax on beer :)

After 2 very big capital cities, I was craving the coast and a small town vibe.

Un gros merci to Jerome for being so kind to offer me his room.

PS> Langkawi is incredible. I'm actually leaving tomorrow for Northern Thailand after 3 amazing days on this island. Stay tuned for details of my Langkawi experience...

Beijing with Douggy Boi

My trip has begun with an awesome first five days in Beijing...to top it off, complete with a kick ass tour guide named Douggy B. to show me the "real" Beijing. actually, doug is one of my best friends and he is living in beijing for the next year to study mandarin, getting pretty good at it too.

Things started off with Doug showing up at the airport with a sign reading "D. Radcliffe" in english on one side and Mandarin on the other. He was going to shout it out when I walked into the arrivals hall and then snap a pic to make people believe I was the real Harry Potter and get them in a frenzy.... clever Doug. Unfortunately doug got off at the wrong terminal and missed me by 5 minutes so he wasnt able to pull it off. Plus when i did see some dude holding up a sign, I had to double take to realize it was Doug since hes been training pretty hard and slimmed down... u sexy beast.

Doug took me to this kick ass pekin duck restaurant the first night and i got to meet two of his close buddies gil and andrew. from there we hit up a house party that consisted of 20 guys and 2 girls so we didnt stay there too too long. from there we hit up this model party in a lounge in the Westin hotel called Touch. i felt really short here. it was a bunch of tall skinny russian chicks. from there we went bar hopin in sanlitun a strip of bars and restaurants. the expat community is really tight here, doug and his friends ran into quite a few peeps they knew. All in all it was a solid first night.

During the subsequent days, i visited all the classic tourist spots: Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Great Wall of China, Beijing 2008 Stadiums Water Cube and Birds Nest, Tiannamen square. I was lucky enough to be in Beijing during the 60th Anniversary of Republic so it was 9 days of holidays and people from around the country were coming to beijing on holidays and also to witness the huge parade that was going on in tiannamen. From the rooftop of doug's apt, we were able to see three different fireworks displays going on simultaneously...how fitting for a country that invented fireworks.

Some low lights of Beijing included a tipsy doug wanting to try on my only pair of jeans (since now we are almost the same size) and realizing they were too tight after breaking off the zipper.
Also, some horse play in the street after a night of many drinks, ending with a head butt from doug snapping my glasses (my only pair). Thank God everything in beijing is dirt cheap and quick, and the jeans were fixed in 20 minutes for $2 and new baller glasses were made in 10 minutes with $30. oh, and while they were hard at work on these items, we couldnt help ourselves to a custom made shirt ($20) and custom suit ($140)... u gotta love china.

Let me say this about Beijing. It was nothing like what I expected. I pictured Beijing as one huge Manhattan Chinatown; dirty, smelly, over crowded, fish heads in the streets... it was nothing like that. Beijing is super modern, huge wide streets, big cars, brand new infrastructure (subway, airport, ect), clean, efficient, sprawling, awe-inspiring buildings... i kept thinking to myself that it kind of reminded me of a huge Las Vegas. Picture the width of the Strip and the huge casinos that line it on each side... alot of modern beijing is like that. Massive, stunning buildings line wide streets and at night everything lights up. Then there is also more traditional areas of Beijing but even these are kept clean and have been modernized with cafe's and stylish retail shops.

Beijing blew me away. It is obvious to me, that China is well on its way to becoming the next world superpower.

I flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Monday morning from Tianjin, an industrial city 30 minutes via high-speed train from Beijing. The flight cost $79 CDN and I thought I had gotten a pretty good deal. Then I realized the flight was over 6 hours long! I got a crazy deal! I never thought how big Asia is, picture Beijing - Kuala Lumpur is further than crossing the Atlantic...

Stay posted for my Kuala Lumpur experience...

A big shout out to Doug for his generosity and hospitality... as always. I had a ball.

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