New York

Long time, pas de visage! As you might have guessed, I have now come to another continent on the other side of the world. The trip here was probably the longest I've ever flown; starting in Bangkok, the flight to Doha, Qatar, took about 8  hours. There I had to wait 2 ½ hours for my next flight that would take me to New York JFK. That flight took 14 hours. So all in all I was travelling for 24 hours. After being here for 4 days so far, the jet lag is starting to wear off although I still feel it at about 11 pm, because the time zone I'm used to is 12 hours ahead. Or behind, I've lost track now.

New York is amazing. This is my first time here, and now I really know what people mean when they talk about the city's magical atmosphere. I mean, I already want to live here. To anyone who hasn't been here yet, you'll know what I mean when you visit. Because you will.

The best thing about being here for 2 weeks is that I don't have to stress and squeeze everything in at once. So far I've been walking around just  to get to know the city better, which becomes rather easy because of the grid plan. I've been to Times Square, which was absoutely packed with people who also wanted to stand and stare at all the neon adverts. One day it was so hot, I went to Central Park and just lay down in the grass. Later I strolled on and saw a very talented brass band playing jazz, so I sat down and watched them for a while. A little further on were three guys doing break dance moves and other tricks. In the end one guy jumped over three other people. That was pretty cool. Loads of entertainment!

Might take a trip down to Ground Zero today, and in the next few days I was planning on visiting the Met to check out the Alexander Mcqueen exhibition.

Peace

Next Destination!

Whoa. A lot has happened since last time I wrote. But it's still difficult to know where to start... Ok, arriving in Phi Phi is a good place to start I guess! Upon arrival the weather was really nice, and the crystal clear water was truly inviting. But before we did anything we had to find accomodation, which is really a pick and choose game because of the massive amount of hotels and bungalows that existed here. We found one that was the same price as the luxury room we'd stayed in in Phuket - but didn't quite hold the same standard. The lights seemed to live a life of their own and only worked occasionally, while the A/C turned itself off every 10 minutes or so. In the evening we met up with our new found friends Gary and Chloé (we met on the bus to Phuket the week before), and went to see a movie at Banana bar where they were showing a movie with Russell Brand in (can't remember the name). Later we went to Slinky's for a big beach party!

Day two we went on a long-tail boat trip to Maya Bay (where they shot the film The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio), Monkey Beach, and also some snorkeling in beautiful lagoons. Unfourtunately I didn't bring my camera, but I recommend you to search on google for Maya Bay or Monkey Beach, because it was absolutely stunning!

Day three, our last day on Phi Phi. A British diver convinced me to go diving, he said I would not regret it and that it would be the best thing I'd done in Phi Phi. He was right. It was fantastic! For the first dive my instructor gave me some pointers and told me how the equipment worked. When he'd made sure I was on top of everything we went down. The "training" bit took like 10 minutes, great! The instructor was a fairly serious American guy, but he was very clear about all the do's and don't's. For example, he showed me a button that inflates the swimming costume I was wearing, and he said: "If you push this button when under water, you will shoot to the surface and the pressure will cause your lungs to explode. So don't do that". I can tell you, I didn't even look at the bloody thing.
Anyway, I saw loads of cool stuff! Multi-coloured fish, black-tip reef sharks, barracudas, amongst many others. If you haven't done it, I highly recommend you to try it!

Now I'm at the airport in Bangkok, where I have to wait 14 hours for my flight to New York. Bad planning Joel... But who cares, I'm going to New York!!!!

Peace

In Phuket

We are now in Phuket - quite the opposite from the calm muslim island we just left. I'll get to that in a minute. First I just want to tell you about what we did on our last day in Langkawi. We took a taxi to The Seven Wells waterfall, which is basically what it sounds like. The taxi driver was kind enough to wait there for us to return, without charging anything extra. The waterfall was quite a climb - almost 500 steps in a vertical angle, and when reaching the top I realised that I really should start working out again when I get back. There were loads of little monkeys running about freely, which was awesome. I've got some pictures of them which I'll post later.

Anyway. Phuket is an extraordinary place. We are living in an area called Patong, and our hotel is only 2 minutes from the beach. I say hotel, actually it's a resort. With a pool. And the room we live in is vast. With a balcony. True story. We went to a Tourist information upon arrival, who claimed he could fix us a room in a deluxe resort for 1400 Baht/night (which comes to about 9 euros per person). We thought that there must be a catch, but he said that the hotels are desperate in the low season. We trusted him, and now we are living quite exquisitely. Not really the backpacking experience, but hey. The thing I don't like about the place is the widespread prostitution. There are more "massage parlours" than shops, and when you walk past they shout "Mister! Mister! Massage!". Yesterday they even started pulling my arms and squeezing my buttocks, which was rather intimidating. Tomorrow we're probably heading to one of the nearby islands, Koh Phi Phi, for a day or two.

Peace

Back to Thailand

Hello everyone. Langkawi is truly beautiful. We are staying at a beach motel which is literary 3 metres from the beach, and the sea is crystal clear while the sand is soft. We bought a football and played all afternoon under the hot blazing sun; everything seemed perfect. Then the trouble started. first, we all got very sun burnt. I couldn't lie on my back last night because it was stinging too much. Second, I tore up the skin on my left foot sole, so I had to walk around like a cripple for the duration of the evening. Then to top it off, the beach town is completely dead this time of year, so there is nothing much to do after sunset. But hey, these things happen. We decided we had to leave pretty soon, because this would be unsustainable after a few days (especially since it's raining today, which means no beach). So we booked a ferry and bus ride to Phuket in Thailand, hoping this will finally give us what we want; a mixture of relaxation, activity, and night life. The trip takes about 7 hours. Whooppey. I've finally got some pics to show you, here they are below!

View of George Town, Penang.

Parascending on Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang.

Myself, and the Sunset at Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang

Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang

Malaysia

We landed at the International airport in Penang, Malaysia, on Sunday afternoon and took a taxi into the island's main city; George Town. Looking out from the taxi's window I notice a quite distinctive difference from Thailand and Laos; here on Penang, an old British colony, things seem more modern and all signs and shops are written in both Malay and English. We ask the driver about what the local inhabitants think about the British people, who ruled the little island for almost 200 years. He said that they are very good people because they helped the island up on its feet, building hospitals and schools and setting up an industry. This I thought was surprising, I just assumed that the people of an old colony would dislike their past "owners". Then he added: 'but they took alot of our money'. oh well, it lasted for a couple of sweet minutes at least.

Penang is a very beautiful place. Lots of green trees and mountains, churches and mosques, old buildings etc. There are even some old heritage sites. But we are 20 years old, and we all like a good night out after a long day. The nightlife in Penang is... well, frankly a bit shit. It had loads of potential, but there just weren't any people there. Where are all the Singha-tank-top-clad British people when you need them?!
Today was a lovely day and we spent the entire time on the beach in Batu Ferringhi. I had a lovely fried rice with mixed seafood for lunch. Tomorrow we're off yet again to another island two hours by boat from  Penang. It's called Lankawi, but I call it Malawi for some reason. It's supposed to be really nice, so let's just hope!!

Peace 

Additional surprises!

Finally I can write again. The blogger web page has been down for a couple of days, but is now back up running! So, what has happened? Tubing was a surreal experience, but enjoyable nevertheless. We didn't actually use the rubber rings because people had told us they weren't worth it - what really happens is that you drink, and occasionally jump in the river!

Even though I'm glad we did it, none of us felt we had to stay and do it again. It's a bit like going out to a club at home but outside and a warmer climate. So without plan or agenda we took the local bus to Vientane and hopped on the night train to Bangkok. That was yesterday. We wanted to go somewhere that combined beach life with activities, so we went to the travel agent in Bangkok and asked them to check for flights in the nearby region. She found cheap flights to an island called Panang in Malaysia; none of us had been there, and I hadn't even heard of the place, so we went ahead and booked 3 tickets. So tomorrow (Sunday), we are off yet again! Very exciting.

Peace 

First few days

So finally we can play catch-up. I was picked up at the airport by Leo and Linus, and together we took a cab to the hotel. The hotel was quite fancy even for western standards, and we paid a reasonable amount of 300 Baht per person (about 8 euros). The first night was celebrated at full calibre, exploring the interesting nightlfe of Bangkok.

Day 2 we booked our train tickets for Laos - a 12 hour journey. The train would depart 20.00 the next day, so we still had one night left in Bangkok. The taxi drivers are very keen to help - even though they have no idea what you are saying. We asked one driver that evening to take us to a specific "discodancingbar"; nodding and repeating the word "yes" he started driving in the wrong direction. He took us to a place called "Snop" (swedish word for penis), and we thought it couldn't get better.

Now we're in Vang Vieng, Laos. It took in total 16 hours to get here. After the train journey we split a mini van (basically a 4-by-4 range rover) with a dutch entrepreneur, a weird german and his little thai boy. This is the place for Tubing - a strange local tourist activity whereby you sit in a rubber ring, floating in the lagoon and getting hauled in by various beer-generous bars. today is rainy however, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Pictures will come shortly!

Peace

And We're Off!

So finally the day has come. I've checked-in my brutally heavy rucksack at Heathrow terminal 4, and as I'm writing this I've just come off the 9 hour flight with Mumbai as the destionation. The flight was pretty good. I had my own TV with movies and tv-series, so I watched Knight and Day, Kick-Ass, Ace Ventura, and some old episodes of How I met your mother. So I didn't get an enormous amount of sleep, but hey, why sleep when you can be awake. When I arrived in Mumbai the security officers said there was "a small problem" with my transfer. Oh Shit, I thought. But in the end the only thing that needed to be done was a little scribble on my ticket with a ball-point pen, something I probably could have done on my own. So now I'm kicking back in a big fat armchair with an Iced caffe latte, waiting to board my plane to Bangkok. There, my dear fellows Leonard and Linus will meet me at the airport (hopefully).

So Long!!