South East Asia Travels- Part one

So here goes my first blog entry for my travels around South East 
Asia...
So far it has been wonderful-
We arrived in Bangkok 7am on Friday 2nd September after a good but  
long flight via Mumbai airport ( which was manic and I lost Berwyn but  
only for 10 mins as security wouldn't allow mix sex lines!)
Bangkok was crazy... We tried to be proper backpackers and sus out the  
local buses to get to Kho San Road (main backpacker area) however it  
took us forever- 3 buses and a tut tut later we arrived on Kho San  
Road. Blaring music, lady boys galore and thousands of pad Thai food  
trolleys including fried insects.

After we checked in at Sawesdee Inn we headed straight for a massage- 4 
$ for 1 hour and it was perfect!
First night it Bangkok we under estimated the strength of Chang Beer 
+no sleep+ jet lag. So we ended up pretty tipsy and smoking shisha  
with a local guy and a lovely German couple.
After ordering more pad Thai at 3am we headed back.
First proper day in Bangkok we didn't leave room until 5pm due to  
sickness ....

2 days later we arrive in paradise Bali after waiting 8 hours at  
Bangkok airport to save paying for a room.
Bali was beautiful. We stayed in small bungalow called Tamin Ayu which  
was basic but fine.
We hired a motorbike and explored the Island for couple of weeks. We  
visited beautiful temples and stunning beaches with incredible sunsets.

Then we headed to Gili T which is beyond paradise, turquoise sea, no  
transport, hundreds of turtles and fun beach bars.
We stayed in cute bungalow at Lisa Home stay. We made great friends  
here, who we would spend all day at the beach with and have great food  
at the social fish night market drinking lots of bintang! (Bali beer)
We snorkeled everyday and had our own push bikes to get around the  
island on.

Although the weather stayed perfect the sea became rough and a tourist  
boat capsized where 10 people died. So from then on boats where not  
allowed to leave the island. So we just had to wait until we could  
leave paradise... In total we were there for 10 days which for such a  
small island is a very long time- it was hard to leave and move  
knowing its never going to be as easy as it in Gili T.
Finally we left and headed to Lombok. Lombok is famous for a volcano  
called Rinjani which everyone seemed to know about except for Berwyn  
and I. Most backpackers spend 3 days trekking to the top but we didn't  
have the time or the fitness! So we just did a one day trek a third of  
the way up to see and swim in breath taking waterfalls- however on the  
trek back down my shoe broke!
After one night in Lombok we caught boat back to Padang pai in Bali.
The sea was still rough but boats were going out- when we boarded all  
the seats were full so our options were to either stand inside and get  
sea sick or sit on the roof and get wet. So obviously we opted for  
choice b as it was 40 degrees. However we discovered the catch when  
the boat left the harbour. We had to hold on for our dear lives! The  
roof of the boat where we were sat had flooded and the boat near  
capsized over 20 times. Because the boat was going so fast and the  
roof was now the sea there was no way we could make our way back to  
the ladder to get inside the boat. So we just looked at each other and  
said " we've just got to try and enjoy this as we're here for one and  
a half hours! I spent the entire journey eyeing up the nearest islands  
to figure out if I could swim to land if we tipped over.
Needless to say we made in to Bali's mainland.
We headed straight to Ubud ( where Julia Roberts stayed in Eat Pray  
Love). We had been before but I had a cold so didn't see much. Ubud is  
the best part of Bali for me. Its not on the coast so no lovely  
beaches but its still very beautiful. Massages are very cheap! Monkey  
forest is the main attraction- the monkeys loved Berwyn three jumped  
ok his head and wouldn't get off- so bezza began singing the song from  
the monkeys!! And wouldn't stop...!

We spent 4 days in ubud and made some great friends.Berwyn did a  
cooking course looking over the rice padi's, he had a great time.

On 1st October we flew to Kuala Lumpar Malaysia. It was a good feeling  
arriving in the airport as it felt like we were back in civilisation!
KL is a brilliant city. We stayed near China Town in a vile hotel...  
But only for one night.
KL is full of amazing markets- seeing every fake designer thing you  
can imagine! I bought a yellow Casio watch for £2- when it lights up  
its a disco light- I loved it!! It also has very posh shopping malls  
with topshop Gucci etc but still v expensive.
The next night we took our first night bus to Kota Trengganu. It took  
8 hours and was ok- even though the engine conked out after 20 mins of  
leaving KL!
The next morning we made our way to the jetty and got our boat ticket  
for Perhenrian Island.
We arrived in paradise.
A tiny island. It takes 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other.  
This island doesn't even have horses- although it does have 3 metre  
long lizards! Called monitor lizard. The locals told us that the  
lizard's are scared of us and wouldn't attack but I didn't want to take  
any chances!
This island was made up of a couple of restaurants (only one sold  
alcohol) and dive shops. 

This place is the cheapest to do PADI  
courses- so we signed up for PADI Open Water, 8 hours a day for 4 days  
of diving and studying. It was fantastic but extremely tiring, but so worth it!

The day after we finished was my birthday :)so we were able to do a fun dive

 without any skills or learning things! 

The evening of my birthday was brilliant, a lovely group of us had a BBQ at a beach

 restaurant I had sting ray!! 

(by mistake, I didn't order it!!) After dinner we headed through the jungle to the other side of the

 island to Monkey Bar-where my friend arrange for them to sing happy birthday etc

 and I died of embarrassment! 

The cheapest and best drink on the island was MONKEY JUICE...it was kind of a rum, but vile to drink straight!

We spent the rest of our time on the island diving- it was fantastic, 

we are so happy that we completed the PADI as we 

can now dive lots more during our travels!

After saying our final goodbyes to all the great friends we had made on the Perhentian Islands

 we headed to the mainland to Kota Bahru to stay at a hotel that belonged to one of a friends. 

We traveled there with our lovely friend Jessica who we had spent the past week with :)

The next day we took another 8 hour bus journey to West Malaysia. 

When we arrived we got the ferry to Langkawi- an Island just off Malaysia.

It is very beautiful here, but to our disappointment there are thousands of jelly fish!! 

So many we cannot enter the sea :(

Tomorrow we plan to hire a motorbike so we can travel to the north of the island

 where they say..there is no jelly fish!

Berwyn has just come back from the local Irish Bar where Wales just lost to France...:(

Anyway, I will keep you all posted!

lots of love 

xxx