It's time to do the last post of this blog. I have really enjoyed writing this blog and memorizing all the great developments during the trip. This trip was absolutely the most thrilling journey that I have made so far. Big thanks to one of my best friends Timo. Everything that happened was worth a lot=)
So until the next great adventure, stay tuned!
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Back to Finland=(
Again I needed to woke up after just few hours of sleep. The feeling wasn't so good after 3 weeks of backpacking and too little sleep all together. And to conclude this, I would have to travel over 24 hours before I would land to cold Finland again. Well, everything comes to an end at some point.
Taxi was waiting for me infront of the hotel at 5am. It took approximately 45 minutes for me to reach KL Central again. I had decided to go via train to the airport because taxi would have cost bit too much at that time. My budget was allready used. Well everything went as I planned. I managed to enter correct train which took me to right direction.
A little bit of wondering around in the airport...I was so tired that I wasn't sure where to go:D Eventually I got rid of my heavy backpack and went to the correct terminal. Just waiting and sleeping momentarily. Finally Malaysian airlines flight to Arlanda (Stockholm) was announced and there I was on my way to a plane...again. I had total of 6 flights during my trip so nothing new for me. I slept almost the whole flight. Nobody was sitting next to me so I had nicely room to use. Enjoyed again good meals and blameless service.
After around 13 hours of flying we landed to Sweden. The Airport was much smaller than I would have imagined. It was easy to navigate in the airport. Lots of signs were there to help the lonely tourist to find right way. After like three or four security checks I was in the correct terminal waiting for my Finnair flight to leave to Finland. Of course the flight was behind schedule so more total travelling time for me. Well few hours here or there didn't really matter at that time. Finally everything was in order and the plane was ready to roll.
Before landing I noticed some snow on the ground. That was actually a good thing. Before I left to the trip there were no snow nowhere whatsoever. It was now end of january so I was glad that winter had finally come. No more rain and slush! My aunt had again promised me a ride to Lauttasaari. It was nice to sit in a warm car waiting for you infront of the airport afterall I didn't have any coat with me=)After a quick dinner and chat, I had to say fairwell to my relatives again. I started my car and headed towards Lappeenranta. It was school day tomorrow so a quick return for me to my everyday life.
Taxi was waiting for me infront of the hotel at 5am. It took approximately 45 minutes for me to reach KL Central again. I had decided to go via train to the airport because taxi would have cost bit too much at that time. My budget was allready used. Well everything went as I planned. I managed to enter correct train which took me to right direction.
A little bit of wondering around in the airport...I was so tired that I wasn't sure where to go:D Eventually I got rid of my heavy backpack and went to the correct terminal. Just waiting and sleeping momentarily. Finally Malaysian airlines flight to Arlanda (Stockholm) was announced and there I was on my way to a plane...again. I had total of 6 flights during my trip so nothing new for me. I slept almost the whole flight. Nobody was sitting next to me so I had nicely room to use. Enjoyed again good meals and blameless service.
After around 13 hours of flying we landed to Sweden. The Airport was much smaller than I would have imagined. It was easy to navigate in the airport. Lots of signs were there to help the lonely tourist to find right way. After like three or four security checks I was in the correct terminal waiting for my Finnair flight to leave to Finland. Of course the flight was behind schedule so more total travelling time for me. Well few hours here or there didn't really matter at that time. Finally everything was in order and the plane was ready to roll.
Before landing I noticed some snow on the ground. That was actually a good thing. Before I left to the trip there were no snow nowhere whatsoever. It was now end of january so I was glad that winter had finally come. No more rain and slush! My aunt had again promised me a ride to Lauttasaari. It was nice to sit in a warm car waiting for you infront of the airport afterall I didn't have any coat with me=)After a quick dinner and chat, I had to say fairwell to my relatives again. I started my car and headed towards Lappeenranta. It was school day tomorrow so a quick return for me to my everyday life.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Genting Highlands, Malaysia
Getting to Genting highlands from Kuala Lumpur is really easy. Shuttle buses drive there hourly from KL central and it costs only a bit over 1 euro for a bus+skyrail. Skyrail is a gondola which takes you around 700meters up to 2000meters and where all the hotels and casinos are. We had booked the most expensive World club room from the World's largest hotel: The first world hotel. It is marketed as worlds biggest hotel with unbeliveable 6118 rooms. I don't know is that true but it was big! That I can say.
We were excited to enter the first world plaza and see all the theme parks, casinos, big Ben, statue of liberty, eiffel tower, venice with gondolas and much else. When we finally had found our way to the lobby of our hotel the place resembled us of a busy trainstation: Announcements, big groups of people queuing for the check-ins and big lobby with lots of signs. Well backpackers won't queue and we hit straight to the Worldclub special check-in where there was not any queue whatsoever. Man behind the counter first told us to go to register, or do some kind of other check-in but when we proofed him that we really had booked the World Club room things started to go much better. We got our room keys and were told to take the lift to the most highest, 24th floor, in the 1st tower. This accommodation was a little bit of contrast to our previous accomodations, for example in Koh Lanta we had a bungalow with cockroaches, flies and outside-toilet without flush=D
Without going too much into details we had good time in the first world plaza. The place itself is huge and we spent the afternoon just by wandering around, checking all the rides available. We also visited the Mr. Ripley's believe it or not -museum. We went to look through some of the menus since we were planning to have a good dinner. We decided to go back to the room, put on our new cashmere suits and see what would happen. Well the effect was nice, since we were pretty much the only Westerns in the plaza and now looked like the genuine businessmen would. We were called "sir" all the time and got much more space in the crowd than before. We ended up having a Asian buffet with huge variety of different foods, but unfortunately not many of them were really good for our taste. Well we picked couple of our favourite foods and got our stomachs full.
After dinner, we tried to make our way to the other side of the massive complex. We had bought tickets to the evening show, the Carneval. We paid a bit more from the tickets and were immediately led to the front row when arriving to the arena. The show itself was amazing with East European dancers, chinese acrobatics and the mad amazon woman with her crossbows.
After the show it was time to check out the casinos. One of the interesting thing was that in the casino there was nobody drinking alcohol. Apparently muslims here are having their kicks from gambling and other stuff. Well to be honest it looked like the casino was full of cigarette addicts. Everybody smokes with no exceptions. We wondered around for a while trying to find a texas hold'em table. Well no luck, since there was no texas in any of three casinos but we decided to check out the blackjack instead. It took a while to understand that the blackjack is called "pontoon" here. Timo played for a while and lost his money with serenity. I had a good seat and managed to made some profit. Well anyway it was getting so late that we went to sleep already. I had 4 hours time to sleep before I had to take a taxi to the airport for my flight back to Finland...
We were excited to enter the first world plaza and see all the theme parks, casinos, big Ben, statue of liberty, eiffel tower, venice with gondolas and much else. When we finally had found our way to the lobby of our hotel the place resembled us of a busy trainstation: Announcements, big groups of people queuing for the check-ins and big lobby with lots of signs. Well backpackers won't queue and we hit straight to the Worldclub special check-in where there was not any queue whatsoever. Man behind the counter first told us to go to register, or do some kind of other check-in but when we proofed him that we really had booked the World Club room things started to go much better. We got our room keys and were told to take the lift to the most highest, 24th floor, in the 1st tower. This accommodation was a little bit of contrast to our previous accomodations, for example in Koh Lanta we had a bungalow with cockroaches, flies and outside-toilet without flush=D
Without going too much into details we had good time in the first world plaza. The place itself is huge and we spent the afternoon just by wandering around, checking all the rides available. We also visited the Mr. Ripley's believe it or not -museum. We went to look through some of the menus since we were planning to have a good dinner. We decided to go back to the room, put on our new cashmere suits and see what would happen. Well the effect was nice, since we were pretty much the only Westerns in the plaza and now looked like the genuine businessmen would. We were called "sir" all the time and got much more space in the crowd than before. We ended up having a Asian buffet with huge variety of different foods, but unfortunately not many of them were really good for our taste. Well we picked couple of our favourite foods and got our stomachs full.
After dinner, we tried to make our way to the other side of the massive complex. We had bought tickets to the evening show, the Carneval. We paid a bit more from the tickets and were immediately led to the front row when arriving to the arena. The show itself was amazing with East European dancers, chinese acrobatics and the mad amazon woman with her crossbows.
After the show it was time to check out the casinos. One of the interesting thing was that in the casino there was nobody drinking alcohol. Apparently muslims here are having their kicks from gambling and other stuff. Well to be honest it looked like the casino was full of cigarette addicts. Everybody smokes with no exceptions. We wondered around for a while trying to find a texas hold'em table. Well no luck, since there was no texas in any of three casinos but we decided to check out the blackjack instead. It took a while to understand that the blackjack is called "pontoon" here. Timo played for a while and lost his money with serenity. I had a good seat and managed to made some profit. Well anyway it was getting so late that we went to sleep already. I had 4 hours time to sleep before I had to take a taxi to the airport for my flight back to Finland...
Back to Kuala Lumpur
We took a pleasant Airasia flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur and headed again to our accommodation in Chinatown inn. Double room for 20euros. Our plan was to have a good sleep before heading to Genting highlands with it's casinos. I was still interested about the nightlife because last experience was so good. After hard thinking, we decided to go to the market in Chinatown and just shop and have a good dinner. I bought a genuine Hugo Boss belt from the market to wear with my suit;)
It was nice to come back to our accommodation with airconditioner. We haven't had that luxury for over two weeks so no sweating this night. Also shower with warm water is worth mentioning=)
It was nice to come back to our accommodation with airconditioner. We haven't had that luxury for over two weeks so no sweating this night. Also shower with warm water is worth mentioning=)
Koh Phi Phi
We took a morning ferry to Koh Phi Phi island and wished to find some accommodation. It was peak-season and we had heard that pretty much all the accommodation is full. Luckily we arrived there in the morning and found a great room from Ton Sai at a guesthouse called P.P.Dreams. On our way to Phi Phi we met a German guy Stefan who also got a room from the same house. Later we saw people wondering around with their backpacks on. Poor guys had taken the afternoon ferry and couldn't find accommodation anymore.
Koh Phi Phi seemed to be much busier than Koh Lanta and you could hear Swedish all the time. Most of the people around were tourists but on the contrary to families in Ao Nang, you could mostly see young travellers there. After arriving to the island, you'll soon realize that there's something wrong with the streets. You can't hear the endless honking and smell the fumes since there's no cars or motorbikes on the whole island whatsoever. It's pretty amazing since Koh Phi Phi was totally destroyed by the Tsunami and now you can still see lots of construction sites around. Since there are no motored vehicles around, people are moving bags of cement with wooden carts. There's no cranes, so you can see men pulling ropes to lift up heavy stuff to the roofs. All this brings quite a relaxed and unique atmosphere to the life at the whole island.
Before and after The Tsunami
When the dark comes, the relaxed atmosphere turns into wild and booming nightlife. It's still nothing compared to the party island Koh Phangan but there's atleast some kind of fiesta every night. We used to go to great Thai dinners with our new German friend Stefan and after that check out the happenings at the nightclubs.
We were really keen to do some sporty activities so we booked a boat/kayaking/snorkelling trip from P.P.Sunset tour. It was a half day trip which started 3pm. I was surprised to see that there was only 9 people on the whole trip and we had a big boat capable of taking around 30-50 passengers. When the tour started we first stopped to do some kayaking and snorkelling. We steered our double kayak through big swells to tight, dark caves. Timo was afraid of bats and thought crabs are gonna fall on him from the ceiling so we didn't hang around in the caves for long. Well not seriously, but it was our time to do some snorkelling. I was expecting to see some dead corals again since there was other tourists already doing their snorkelling. It was a bit of an shock after entering the water and realizing that the visibility was alright and there was already quite a big group of fish surrounding me. After the snorkelling session we had seen some beautiful corals, clams, fish and a seasnake. Absolutely the best snorkelling I've ever had. The last stop on the tour was the Maya Bay which is seen on the movie "The beach". Not very special beach since it was a low tide but the limestone cliffs around the bay were really spectacular. We played some beach soccer with the local guides and I made a goal from Timos accurate pass. Hurrayh Finland. The tour ended by having a good dinner and watching the beautiful sunset onboard. Whole trip was 9 euros each and well worth it!
Even when people say Koh Phi Phi has changed I still think it's a great place for young people to go for a holiday. We said goodbyes to our German friend Stefan and headed towards Phuket airport for our journey back to Kuala Lumpur and Genting highlands.
Koh Phi Phi seemed to be much busier than Koh Lanta and you could hear Swedish all the time. Most of the people around were tourists but on the contrary to families in Ao Nang, you could mostly see young travellers there. After arriving to the island, you'll soon realize that there's something wrong with the streets. You can't hear the endless honking and smell the fumes since there's no cars or motorbikes on the whole island whatsoever. It's pretty amazing since Koh Phi Phi was totally destroyed by the Tsunami and now you can still see lots of construction sites around. Since there are no motored vehicles around, people are moving bags of cement with wooden carts. There's no cranes, so you can see men pulling ropes to lift up heavy stuff to the roofs. All this brings quite a relaxed and unique atmosphere to the life at the whole island.
Before and after The Tsunami
When the dark comes, the relaxed atmosphere turns into wild and booming nightlife. It's still nothing compared to the party island Koh Phangan but there's atleast some kind of fiesta every night. We used to go to great Thai dinners with our new German friend Stefan and after that check out the happenings at the nightclubs.
We were really keen to do some sporty activities so we booked a boat/kayaking/snorkelling trip from P.P.Sunset tour. It was a half day trip which started 3pm. I was surprised to see that there was only 9 people on the whole trip and we had a big boat capable of taking around 30-50 passengers. When the tour started we first stopped to do some kayaking and snorkelling. We steered our double kayak through big swells to tight, dark caves. Timo was afraid of bats and thought crabs are gonna fall on him from the ceiling so we didn't hang around in the caves for long. Well not seriously, but it was our time to do some snorkelling. I was expecting to see some dead corals again since there was other tourists already doing their snorkelling. It was a bit of an shock after entering the water and realizing that the visibility was alright and there was already quite a big group of fish surrounding me. After the snorkelling session we had seen some beautiful corals, clams, fish and a seasnake. Absolutely the best snorkelling I've ever had. The last stop on the tour was the Maya Bay which is seen on the movie "The beach". Not very special beach since it was a low tide but the limestone cliffs around the bay were really spectacular. We played some beach soccer with the local guides and I made a goal from Timos accurate pass. Hurrayh Finland. The tour ended by having a good dinner and watching the beautiful sunset onboard. Whole trip was 9 euros each and well worth it!
Even when people say Koh Phi Phi has changed I still think it's a great place for young people to go for a holiday. We said goodbyes to our German friend Stefan and headed towards Phuket airport for our journey back to Kuala Lumpur and Genting highlands.
Koh Lanta
Koh Lanta is located just South of Krabi. It's pretty laid back island compared to the nearby Koh Phi Phi. You can get a ferry to Koh Lanta from Phi Phi or from Krabi. We took a minivan from Krabi straight to Lanta, ticket included 2 ferry trips.
We had looked beforehand that there should be some fair-priced accomodation in northwest part of Lanta at Kaw Kwang beach. When we finally arrived there we realized how much this place must have changed since the publish of the latest Lonely Planet travel guidebook. The bungalows had been transformed to big resorts and we were offered orange juice by resort workers when we walked to the reception. The cheapest room available was 3500bahts(70euros) so we had our orange juices and left saying that we were looking a little bit cheaper option. It was quite late already and we were pretty tired by long day travelling. The only "fair" option at the area was a resort which offered us a basic double room with 1200bahts(24euros). We took it and decided to look cheaper accomodation for the next days.
We found out that all the budget accomodation is located in the Southern part of the island. Lots of backpackers stay at the Kantiang bay where you might find some nightlife but we headed further South. We got a bungalow close to a nice beach for 12euros a night. We spent there few nights just relaxing since there wasn't much of a nightlife going on. 95% of the island population are muslims which means there wasn't too much alcohol-filled parties around. I think it's a good thing and helps to keep up the island's relaxed atmosphere without pumping music and shouting tourists. We checked the island with scooters and went to trek to a small waterfall. There was elephant trekking available and also caving options. We went to the four islands tour with a longtail boat but weren't really impressed by tons of tourists and destroyed corals. Well, I had my first snorkeling experience so it wasn't so bad.
We had looked beforehand that there should be some fair-priced accomodation in northwest part of Lanta at Kaw Kwang beach. When we finally arrived there we realized how much this place must have changed since the publish of the latest Lonely Planet travel guidebook. The bungalows had been transformed to big resorts and we were offered orange juice by resort workers when we walked to the reception. The cheapest room available was 3500bahts(70euros) so we had our orange juices and left saying that we were looking a little bit cheaper option. It was quite late already and we were pretty tired by long day travelling. The only "fair" option at the area was a resort which offered us a basic double room with 1200bahts(24euros). We took it and decided to look cheaper accomodation for the next days.
We found out that all the budget accomodation is located in the Southern part of the island. Lots of backpackers stay at the Kantiang bay where you might find some nightlife but we headed further South. We got a bungalow close to a nice beach for 12euros a night. We spent there few nights just relaxing since there wasn't much of a nightlife going on. 95% of the island population are muslims which means there wasn't too much alcohol-filled parties around. I think it's a good thing and helps to keep up the island's relaxed atmosphere without pumping music and shouting tourists. We checked the island with scooters and went to trek to a small waterfall. There was elephant trekking available and also caving options. We went to the four islands tour with a longtail boat but weren't really impressed by tons of tourists and destroyed corals. Well, I had my first snorkeling experience so it wasn't so bad.
Ao Nang and around
From touristy Patong beach we took a local bus to Krabi and watched the great Waterworld movie on the way. A bit funny to watch Kevin Costner speaking thai. From Krabi we headed to nearby Ao Nang which is another beach resort area. We have been going out couple of times and I was also happy to meet new travel mate Andy from Germany. Timo had met him while he was travelling in Australia. It was nice to hear german afterall I started studying it in autumn 2006. I realized that my german wasn't good at all at that moment:D Well hopefully it gets better through time. There's so many Finnish people here in Ao Nang that you'd propably manage by speaking only Finnish. Not very cultural experience. We also went to the local tailor with Timo and ordered us some business suit. Cashmere with stripes, business look at the best!
We rented 125cc scooters for 4euros/day each with Andy and Timo and went around Ao Nang. We drove to Buddha footsteps at the nearby temple Wat Tham Seua(so called tigercave) and climbed all the 1237 steps up to the mountain. It was hard work in the burning sun and definitely good for your bum and thighs. We were respecting the culture by wearing long trousers and shirts even though there was many westerns pretty much in beachwear. I think we got much more out of it with the proper suffering.
After that we drove around the countryside, trying to find a beach, and kept on waving to all the local people and children which were waving back to us. We felt like movie stars since in every house there was someone giving us the wave and directions. We went to dinner for a local restaurant without anyone speaking English and ordered some Pad Thai, which is fried noodles with some seafood. The old owner lady of the place called her sister and we had to tell her in the phone if we wanted any more food and if we were satisfied with the spices. The sister could speak a little bit english and therefore worked as a interpreter between us and the kitchen. Well, we got really good portions and the food cost us only 25 bahts(~50eurocents) each. Finally we found the beach we were looking for and were surprised to see that there was still lots of uncleaned garbage from the tsunami and no tourists or locals whatsoever. At this point the time was running quite late and we had to head back to Ao Nang. We were very delighted by the pouring rain which hit us on the way back. What an experience driving through traffic with slicks-like tires, wet roads and toy helmets. We ended up soaked but finally made it back to the accomodation and well earned cold Chang-beer.
At the end of our stay, we had some nice local parties back in Ao nang. After one bigger night out, we headed to nearby Railey Beach just to lay on the beach. The beach is pretty popular and was quite full. Nice views and great rock climbing opportunities. We were scammed on our way back since we had bought a 2-way ticket to the Railey beach but it was valid until 6pm only. We had to pay 1 euro for the new ticket. What a rip-off!
We also met a girl from Timos home university in Finland and she was staying in Ao Nang with her sister. After big farewell party we had to say goodbyes to our friend Andy and the girls. He was heading to Northern Thailand and Chiang Mai and was planning to do some meditation there. The girls went back to school in Finland. We left to Koh Lanta with Timo and ended up having good, relaxing, days there at the Southern part of the island.
We rented 125cc scooters for 4euros/day each with Andy and Timo and went around Ao Nang. We drove to Buddha footsteps at the nearby temple Wat Tham Seua(so called tigercave) and climbed all the 1237 steps up to the mountain. It was hard work in the burning sun and definitely good for your bum and thighs. We were respecting the culture by wearing long trousers and shirts even though there was many westerns pretty much in beachwear. I think we got much more out of it with the proper suffering.
After that we drove around the countryside, trying to find a beach, and kept on waving to all the local people and children which were waving back to us. We felt like movie stars since in every house there was someone giving us the wave and directions. We went to dinner for a local restaurant without anyone speaking English and ordered some Pad Thai, which is fried noodles with some seafood. The old owner lady of the place called her sister and we had to tell her in the phone if we wanted any more food and if we were satisfied with the spices. The sister could speak a little bit english and therefore worked as a interpreter between us and the kitchen. Well, we got really good portions and the food cost us only 25 bahts(~50eurocents) each. Finally we found the beach we were looking for and were surprised to see that there was still lots of uncleaned garbage from the tsunami and no tourists or locals whatsoever. At this point the time was running quite late and we had to head back to Ao Nang. We were very delighted by the pouring rain which hit us on the way back. What an experience driving through traffic with slicks-like tires, wet roads and toy helmets. We ended up soaked but finally made it back to the accomodation and well earned cold Chang-beer.
At the end of our stay, we had some nice local parties back in Ao nang. After one bigger night out, we headed to nearby Railey Beach just to lay on the beach. The beach is pretty popular and was quite full. Nice views and great rock climbing opportunities. We were scammed on our way back since we had bought a 2-way ticket to the Railey beach but it was valid until 6pm only. We had to pay 1 euro for the new ticket. What a rip-off!
We also met a girl from Timos home university in Finland and she was staying in Ao Nang with her sister. After big farewell party we had to say goodbyes to our friend Andy and the girls. He was heading to Northern Thailand and Chiang Mai and was planning to do some meditation there. The girls went back to school in Finland. We left to Koh Lanta with Timo and ended up having good, relaxing, days there at the Southern part of the island.
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