Darwin

So, we arrived in Darwin thurs morn and were knocking down the doors of hostel at 5:50am to let us in, or at least take our bags off us!Lucky enough, someone came around the corner at 6am with a key!and also there was a bed free for us in hostel, someone didn't show up the nite before. slept till about 2pm, wrecked after flight, only left us sleep for ~1hr on plane, though they did give us free tiger beer.

Darwin a nice relaxing, very easy going place and fitting in nicely here, booked a trip to Kakadu Park for tomorrow morn, 3 days, 2 nites in park, meant to be really good, also sorted for trip to Alice Springs and Ayres Rock next week, all booked through our friendly hostel staff here at Chilli's Backpackers!

Noticing change in spending money though straight away here, compared to Asia, things priced very similar to home. Beer is good though, mite stay away from the bitters i'd say. Weather, well, really warm, thats all I can say, only difference between here and Bangkok, is that no clouds here, at all, well ok there is some cloud, maybe 2 clouds. Trying to upload some photos at moment, so hopefully can show them soon. Later, Kevin

Singapore

Singapore was really good, so easy to get around the city on their metro,even with backpacks! Really clean city too, stayed in Chinatown, a hell of an improvement on previous chinatown's we've seen in Thailand/Malaysia. Down by the Singapore river area is nice, went on a boat trip up the river, seeing the sights.

We were told by so many people to head to the zoo, and yesterday we spent most of the day there as well as going on the night safari. The night safari is brilliant, going around on a tram in darkness so close to the animals. Some parts u can walk yourself as well. Only problem we had with last few days was weather, thunder/lightning storms every-day. Not as warm though as we thought it'd be. Today we took it easy and just went to a science museum here, thiough we left half way through as we were wrecked from the zoo yesterday!
Tonight we fly to Darwin around 11pm, going to be a long nite as I'm not sure if we can check-in to hostel when we get there, might have to stay in airport.

Later, Kevin.

Kuala Lumpar and Melaka

Since last post, travelled to Kuala Lumpar and stayed 3 nites there. impressive city with monorail/metro/skyscrapers. lots of traffic again. 1st sight u see coming in is the tv tower and almost adjacent to it the petronas towers. hotel was grand(ya get what u pay for) staying in chinatown. Sight-seeing trip included the KL tower, petronas towers, national museum, an aquarium and a butterfly/insect park!! View from KL tower was class, able to go around and have 360deg view of city. thought eiffel tower view was better, more to see in Paris.

Big disappointment with petronas towers, weren't able to go up to viewing area, all tickets for day we wanted to go were sold out by 9am(something lonely planet didn't tell us, get there early to avoid disappointment!)And it was our last day, still ticket girl didn't give in to that nor saying "we came all way from Ireland to see this specially" ;)

Biggest thing over last few days though were Sinead's results coming out on Friday, and brilliant news, she's PASSED, no more accounting exams, fully qualified now, she'll be on more money than me pretty soon i'd say! Had a good nite friday celebrating!

Travelled to Melaka yesterday (~2hrs south of Kuala Lumpar). Spending 2 nites here, then leaving for Singapore in morning. Nearly done with asia now, seems to be flying by, heading to Darwin on 21st. Melaka is a nice enough town, similar to Penang a good mix of a lot of asian people. Not upto much here, taking it easy for a few days, before we've to brave another capital city! Later, Kevin

Penang

mini-bus trip to penang yesterday was some experience, driver trying to make up for being slow in getting out of Krabi, drove like an f-ing maniac, was driving in middle of road for most of it, dodging bikes and cars on both-sides of the road! hotel, though its same rate as one we stayed in bangkok, is much nicer and decent, have a proper toilet and shower, there's actually a shower basin!and trurning the tap for hot water, actual warm water came out, 11th floors up imagine!

Penang is nice but not much to it, will do us for a couple of nites anyway. Food, room-rates similar to thailand, but beer more expensive. heading to kuala lumpar in morning (via another bus) for 3 nites. were meant to be heading up to Cameron highlands but plans changed as bus strike at moment with company that runs it. prob goin to stop off in Melaka now instead before Singapore.

Woke up with another bite on my leg this morning, and I thought the ants mite be gone, and got bitten this afternoon by something on my arm. christ i'm wrecked and its only 5pm, time for a nap before heading out I think. later, kevin

Back from Ko Lanta

Weather was better than forecasted and way hotter, so much so that I got sun burnt, had a nice relaxing time in Ko Lanta, hotel had its own beach (though a bit rocky), good bar and nice restaurant as well as pool. Went on a day trip to a small island 40km south of ko lanta called ko rok. something out of a postcard, really white sand, and in the middle of a coral reef, trip also spent snorkelling with the fish-ies on the reef, pretty cool and can't wait to go again on the great barrier reef!

Back in Krabi now, just off ferry, and getting bus ~6.30am tomorrow to Penang in Malaysia, bye bye thailand!

Bangkok -> Krabi

Since last update, got back to Bangkok in one piece and got some sleep on train this time. Spent two more nites there, took in National Museum, golden buddha and vimanmek museum (palace built by Rama V).

Woke up on Monday(5th) with 10 bites on my legs of some kind, think there may have been something in the bed as Sinead had some too(but they liked me more ;). Headed off on early flight out of Bangkok to Krabi with Nok-air (nok is bird in Thai apparently), funny though as pilot was irish.

Krabi is some relief from Bangkok, just a quiet sea-town. No tuk-tuks anymore thank god, instead we have an endless choice of boat-trips being offered our way, at some stage I feel we may have to give in and actually go on one as there's f-all to do here otherwise!

Heading to Ko Lanta for 4 nites tomorrow morning, should be nice, though weather forecast is poor, warm, but very overcast and maybe some rain! Through hotel here, have arranged transport from Krabi to Penang in Malaysia, via some bus of some kind, be interesting to see how that goes, that'll be next Monday (12th).

Money-wise, still can't believe how cheap things are out here, no probs with getting good grub and a few beers at nite without breaking the bank. Thats all for now, later, Kevin

Chaing Mai (trekking + cooking course)

Spent today doing a thai cooking course which was really good, cooked a load of different dishes and got to eat them all as well, stuffed now.Must try some when I get home ;)

3 days before that were spent trekking. Was really good, lots of walking and also had an elephant ride as well as some bamboo rafting. Stayed in forrests overnight high up in mountains in log-cabins. Evening were spent haveing a few beers around a camp-fire. Guide also gave us some of his home-brewed rice whiskey, pretty strong stuff! Walking was tough sometimes because of the uphill bits but also the heat/humidity. We were in a group of nine in total, 2 german couples, 2 dutch girls and a french guy. Really good to be out in the middle of a forrest and away from the motorbikes/taxis! Tomorrow evening, overnight train backj to Bangkok for two more nites, then flying onto Krabi!

Later, Kevin