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 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.

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.

To Thailand

We then took a plane to Phuket in Thailand. I had allready booked a flight before the trip with a price of 25euros. That's quite competitive I would say. Timo wanted to move to Thailand in a same flight. He booked his flight from Kuala Lumpur and he needed to pay total of 40 euros. Bit more than me but he could live with that.

Flight was really comfortable. The plane was or atleast looked new. Interior was covered with black leather and seats had enough space. We took a taxi from the airport and headed down south towards Patong beach. After we arrived, reality struck us pretty hard: There were absolutely too much tourists there. For example Englishmen running around half naked, drunk, pissing all over the streets and shouting all the time. That wasn't what we were looking for. Well regardles of that, we went to check Patong beach. Honestly it wasn't as nice that I had expected. Maybe it was due the weather afterall sun wasn't shining.















We wandered around the streets of Phuket trying to find some nice place to eat. Prices were pretty high probably because of the tourism but nevertheless we found a place near our accommodation. I have never before tasted thai food so I was pretty excited. Timo descriped me some of the foods in the list and ended up with Masaman curry. Chili and coconutmilk -based sauce with potatos, peanuts and fried rice...and I loved it!!! In Finland I really hadn't had any memorable experiences of chili but now I'm a big fan of it.

With our tummies full, we wanted to have some "dessert" beers and play some pool. Founded a nice place with friendly waitresses. Had a good time just relaxing, playing pool and board games. We also decided to move tomorrow morning somewhere else with less tourists. After thinking a while, the direction we ended up was Krabi and Ao Nang.

Poppys, Kuala Lumpur

There's a nice nightlife in KL. We had a little slice of it when we went to a place called Poppys. It is a club in a street with many other clubs as well so it's very easy to find. The entrance fee was around 6 euros and it included one beer, it was a bit of a shock...afterall we were in Asia! Well population consists mostly muslims so the culture takes a view of partying a bit different. Prices are like in Finland.

The club was packed with people, asian people. I think we were the only westerns there but on the contrary we had really fun with the locals. The big difference to finnish clubs was that there was not much people taking shots at the bar desk. However people were ordering whole whiskey bottles to the table with lots of blenders. We also accidentally ended up to one of these tables with bottle of whiskey. Had a great time!











































Partying with locals!

Sightseeing

Alarmclock rang and it was round noon. Timo had came back from his breakfasttrip and now it was time to go out and start enjoying Kuala Lumpur. Quick shower, bit freshen up and I was ready to roll.

On the first day we checked out downtown and some malls. There are lots of big malls in KL so it's really a place for shopper. In times square -mall there's a theme park including roller coaster inside and also an IMAX-theater with really big screen(21m high and 29m wide). We went to see some 3D imax films. The tickets were around 3 euros so quite cheap.





























On the second day we went to see the Batu caves. There's a hindu temple inside a cave and it takes 272 steps to entry. Lots of monkeys along the way up and we saw one monkey which stole a full camera film out of some lady's hand when she was changing the film. I wonder if she ever got that one developed...

































Third day and of course we went to see the twin towers and a grand new aquarium next to the towers. We didn't actually go inside the twin towers because you need to be ready and waiting infront of the complex around 6 o'clock if you wish to enter. We felt that the time was pretty insane and decided to go later to a televisiontower next to twin towers. There you can see the city at least same wideness.





























KL is a city where money talks. The streets are all trafficked and pedestrian have no rights. You can see that most cars give way to the more valuable cars and on the contrary the rented cars find it very difficult to find space in the traffic. You can also find it hard to breathe during the worst traffic hours because so much pollution in the air.

We visited in the most tourist attractions in KL. You will see most of the tourist attractions of the Kuala Lumpur in 2-3 days but you can still spend here more days atleast if you're into a very nice nightlife. It can be quite hard for your wallet though. Nightlife needs a whole different post...so more to come!

Arriving in KL

My plane started landing around 7am local time. Flight went really nicely. I enjoyed nice meals, movies and games and of course, some sleep. Points to Malaysian Airlines, absolutely nothing to complain! It took half an hour and there I was on new, inexperienced soil. The airport looked huge compared to Helsinki-Vantaa.

Got out of the plane and started searching directions where to go. Arrivalterminal was really big and there were so many signs showing different destinations so I was first bit confused. I was pretty tired and felt some jetlag striking but I managed to find my way to a train which moved people to different terminal. That reflects the scale of the airport. Never before have I seen people moved via train to a different terminal to pick up their luggage. I was hoping that my backpack would come there.

Got my stuff and headed to localtrain (KLIA ekspres) which would lead me straight to the heart of Kuala Lumpur, central station. Before I left from Finland, I checked that after arriving to central station, I would need to change to a different train which would lead me to a station called Pasar Seni. It is pretty easy to figure that out in your head but it's a whole different story when you do it concretely. Some wondering in morningtraffic and few questions asked and I was on my way to Pasar where I should jump out of the train and walk to Chinatown. That was the place where we had booked a hostel with my friend Timo. He was allready there after checking-in previous night.















Some scenery from KL

Map in the other hand and a cold trink in the other, I started walking towards my destination. Streets were big and readable so I didn't have any problems finding the right address. Chinatown Inn, not so glamourous looking but nice atmospheret hostel what I've heard. Afterall, it's the inside that counts;) Reception guided me infront of the correct room. I was excited. I haven't seen my friend over an year and now it was time to shake hands again. Knock knock...and there he was! Timo "Lepa" Tenhunen live and well.















Buddy old pal

We opened up some welcoming beers and talked through major things that had happened during past year. I was getting more and more tired so I decided to take a few hours sleep before heading to town and do some sightseeing. Timo went to have some breakfast to nearest McDonalds. Lights of and ZzZZZZzzz...