Thailand Take Two (Probably shouldn't have)

Sa Wat Dii. After much discussion and research, we decided to go against the official NZ Government advice and venture into South Thailand. Coincidentally, the day we arrived back in Thailand, all hell broke loose in Bangkok. Sorry to those of you who may have been watching ONE NEWS and fretting over our safety. Not to worry though, as we were over 800kms south of Bangkok at the beaches of Koh Tao, Koh Pha Ngan, Krabi, Ko Phi Phi and Phuket. We will spare you a day by day break down of our long days on the beaches only metres from our bungalows and just let you know about the following.



PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: We all know the movie but if you throw in a boat, its sums up the 24 hour period we spend getting from Kuala Lumpur to Koh Tao. Needless to say that we were absolutely shattered.



TO DIVE FOR: It wasn't in the game plan but after enjoying the snorkeling in Malaysia so much and learning that Koh Tao is one of the best and cheapest places to learn to scuba dive, we just had to give it a go. After four months away from any formal work environment, hitting the classroom with our instructor (otherwise known as the little dictator) to start our PADI Open Water Diver Certification was a challenge. Nevertheless, after one day of classroom theory, one day of learning basic scuba skills in a swimming pool and some nightly homework, we were ready for our final exam and to demonstrate our basic swimming skills. The morning of the third day was D Day. We had to pass the final exam, swim 200 metres non stop and tread water for 10 mins to be allowed to undertake our four open water dives and gain our certification. We aced the final exam with 100% (was there any doubt), Thorpedoed the demonstration of our swimming skills and were excited about our first four open water dives. Descending into the open water off Koh Tao without the confined safety of a swimming pool was a thrill not only because we were breathing under 18 metres of water but it felt like being in the middle of an aquarium with huge quantities of crazy coloured fish and coral reefs. We successfully completed our four dives demonstrating the basic skills acquired to complete our certification. We now look forward to finding other awesome dive spots during the rest of the year. Random trivia for your next quiz night: SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.



WWW.SORTED.ORG.NZ: In an attempt to stay on budget, we now have many 'tightarse' strategies up our sleeves. They include but are not limited to: Not checking out of our room without taking the complimentary soaps or fresh rolls of toilet paper; An air conditioned room is unnecessary and extravagant, as fan rooms suffice as long as you have a cold shower before bed and perhaps intermittently throughout the night; If your ticket operator has not mastered the English language, you can pass off your NZ drivers licence for student ID to get discounted entry; Eat where the locals do and not the tourists, it will be half the price and probably taste better; and When bartering in Asia, you will get the lowest and fairest price by pretending to walk out the door.



OI OI OI? We have been mistaken many times since we left home for being Australian, even by our friend Daniel from Melbourne, who thought we were from Queensland. However, the last few days in Thailand have been ridiculous. We have walked around to choruses of touts putting on really bad fake Australian accents as they greeted us with "Gidday Mate". One taxi tout even yelled across the road at us "Aussie Aussie Aussie OI OI OI". We have now started replying with "Kia Ora Bro" which one tout thought was Zimbabwean.

By the time you read this, we will be winging our way to Singapore for two days before attending Dave and Char's wedding in the Gold Coast this weekend. After that, we have a whirlwind 10 days back in Wellington and Tauranga before heading to Africa.

Take care and we might see some of you soon.

Love Kirsty and Rodney.

Mixing it up in Malayasia

Selamat Pagi or in reality, given the wide mix of cultures, everyone just says "Hello". For our brief excursion into Malaysia, we focused on Peninsular Malaysia, spending time in Kuala Lumpur, the Pulau Perhentian Islands and the Cameron Highlands.



SHARK BAIT: We spent four well earned days relaxing on the white sand beaches and in the warm turquoise blue water of the Perhentian Islands. Without doubt, the highlight (perhaps for Rodney with the exception of the many topless Swedish sunbathers) was snorkeling around the islands. There are many snorkeling operators to choose from, see the picture below for the one which caught our eye. The large number of technicoloured fish and coral gardens were great but no match for the giant turtles, or our encounters with Jaws. OK, the black sharks were only about 1.5 metres long but they were still sharks!





CUPPA TEA AND A LAY DOWN: After spending so much time laying down on a beach, we returned to our active ways with two full days trekking in the jungle of the Cameron Highlands. Our mission? To search for the tea plantation with the best cup of tea and scones. After trekking over 40km by early afternoon on the second day, a major rain storm had us searching for an alternative way home. We gave hitchhiking a go and eventually found refuge on the back of a small truck which took us to the main road; within a minute we had waved down our ride home with a friendly concrete truck driver. We were laughing all the way home.



SUGARY GOODNESS: After four months eating predominately the local food of the country we were visiting, the first major crack in our armour appeared in Malaysia. Most of you know that we are both big fans of ice cream and after a few minutes reliving the traditional end of the mountain bike season 2 litre ice cream eating competition, we were off to the nearest minimart for a container of ice cream each. Now we can't call it a race as Kirsty, not renowned for her eating speed, forfeited before we even began. Nevertheless, in a short period of time, we had destroyed two containers of Kings chocolate ice cream. Not quite Tip Top Goody Goody Gum Drops or Hokey Pokey but good all the same.



We are in Kuala Lumpur until tomorrow, when we venture back into Thailand through Phuket (not Bangkok, don't worry) for sometime on the famous southern islands of Ko Tou, Ko Pha-Ngan, Ko Samui and Ko Phi Phi.

Hope you are all well,

Love Kirsty and Rodney.

Thailand - Part One (Hopefully)

Sa wat dii

Within hours of crossing the border into Thailand from Laos our lovely government changed their Thailand travel advisory high risk status from being limited to Bangkok to including the whole of Thailand. At the advice of our travel insurer (i.e. if you want to remain insured) over the days that followed we made arrangements to leave Thailand. For the record, we felt extremely safe in Thailand and found the people lovely. Lets hope they can sort out their current issues.



Before we left we managed to explore Northern Thailand from our base in Chiang Mai. We focused on experiencing Thai culture, especially the food element. The highlight was a one day Master Chef challenge at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. It will come as no surprise to you all that the winner is still in dispute. Either way, whether cooking and eating, or just simply eating, it was great to broaden our repertoire of Thai food. We enjoyed our old favourites of red/green curry and Pad Thai and discovering new favourites such as Khao Soi (crispy wheat noodles and fresh rice noodles with fresh veges in a curry soup), Yum Mar Mour (Spicy Papaya Salad) and Khao Niao Mamuang (mango sticky rice desert with coconut sauce).



So............ we arrived in Kuala Lumpur yesterday to start our Malaysian leg of the tour a few weeks earlier than anticipated. We hope to get back to Thailand for the southern islands and beaches if the Red Shirts and Thai Government start playing nicely (it will be fine Mum, honestly).

Before we run away, congratulations to Adrian and Carolina Millar on the birth of Sebastian on Sunday morning. Weighing in at over 9 pounds it looks like he will be following his father into the forward pack.

Till next time, Kirsty and Rodney