In the big wide world

Long time, no speak

b_mc1989 — Tue, 8 Dec 2009 00:03:00 GMT

Ok where do I start? I went to Chiang Mai for a 3 day trek, it was quite fun apart from there wasn’t much trekking involved. We just went to shed loads of waterfalls which was fun but got a bit same same after a while. I jumped off this 10 meter high waterfall after getting the balls to do it, but landed front first & was in a hell of a lot of pain. It’s really hard to surface again once you’re in the water because the pressure of the waterfall is pushing you down. We did this bamboo rafting which was the most fun of the trek, the boat sunk many times. The only thing I didn’t like was the elephant trekking because I hate the way they treat them, they have this big hook thing which jab the elephant with if its not doing what they want. Once I was back from the trek, a few of us went to see a Muay Thai boxing match, & I was quite disappointed with that just because it was a bunch of little kids about 14-16 kicking the shit out of each other.

My next stop was Pai, 4 hours north of Chiang Mai. It’s a little hippy town where you can just chill out & see the scenery. One of the nights I spent 5 hours sitting round the fire chatting to people & only drunk one beer! But I did have a bottle of Thai whiskey before hand lol. Me & Dominic rent a bike for a couple of days & drove up the mountains. Pai has some of the most amazing views that I’ve seen so far, I would recommend everyone to go & see it. The roads are like out of a top gear episode, with curves every 50 meters or so, it’s the most attention that I have had to pay while driving or your go off the side of the mountain!

The next stop was Chiang Rai where the long neck tribe live. Its was my plan to go & see them but I decided against it because it is so commercial, so we didn't really do much there apart from go to a Thai disco, which was quite fun because we were the only frang there & I was playing my "embarthon" game (you have to dance as bad as possible & the next person as to beat it) but non of the Thai people wanted to play, they just looked at us like we're ting tong! (crazy). Dominic saw this "girl" that he thought was fit & trying to get her to dance, but he didn't believe me that she was a ladyboy! After a while I started to think she was a she when I was pissed, until she spoke deeper than Barry White! At that point we got the fuck out of there.

We went on a 2 day slow boat trip down the mekong river to Lao & just started drinking at 11am which was not really a good idea, but it was a 6 hour journey & not much else to do. We meet some nice people on the boat & drunk with them for like a week. The first stop in Lao was Luang Prabang, which was sort of a nothing town just bars & restaurants, but we rented a push bike & went to this waterfall, which was quite shit after all the the waterfalls I saw in Chiang Mai. The bikes kept on braking & some local guy came to help us fix it, to be fair we were going off road on a non off road bike.

From Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng we decided to hitchhike, because A: we thought it would be a funny story & B: we were too tight. First of all we got a turk turk to the petrol station, thinking that we could get picked up by a truck going that way. So we got some locals across the road to write us a sign, which clearly didn't say what we wanted it to say by the reaction we got by people going past. That cost about 15,000 in total for the turk turk there. After just over an hour or so, I managed to convince a Lao couple to take us to the next town over, or as far as they were going. It was sort of like a pick up truck but with a roof. We sat in the back on a mountain of pillows, it was so fun just chilling there seeing all the little kids on bikes behind us waving & laughing. Once we got to the next town (like 1/8 of the way there) they tried to charge us 10,000kip, & we were like what the fuck! We're hitchhiking, the whole point of that is that we don't have any money, but in the end we just gave them 5,000kip. So once we were there at what ever the name of this god forsaken town was, we sat back down with are signs & played the waiting game. We so decided to ditch the signs & walk & just flag people down on the way, we must of been walking for almost an hour maybe more, time really didn't matter at this point. Walking & walking up this steep long winedy road, with are big backpacks in the baking sun starting to think that maybe this wasn't such a great idea. Suddenly some truck stops & picks us up, we chucked are bags on the back & sat in the front with the guy. Amazingly the guy took us the whole way, so we gave him 50,000 when he was getting petrol, it was the least we could do because we would of been stranded in the middel of nowhere. It would of been like 105,000kip (10 pounds) each. So it only cost us 70,000kip together, so we saved a fair bit of money.

OK this is where the crazy shit happens! Vang Vieng, the well know place in Lao, where you do the "tubing". That is where you go down the river in a massive rubber ring on the Mekong river, & each bar you pass they toss a rope to you & pull you in. There's are about 10 odd bars down the river, but most people only make it to the first 4! I didn't get a tube once because its such a waste of money, cause you can walk to the first 4 bars. The drinking starts at about 1pm & you don't stop till you drop! On the first day I went, I was so wasted I was in bed by 7pm & got carried home by these two English girls I met in Phuket, to be fair I forgot to eat anything before I went! After a couple of days there I landed a job without even asking for one, it was the bar I got wasted in the first day lol. I say a "job" all I had to do was hand out free shots, bands & get people to have a good time. It was a pretty sweet job, I "worked" like 3 hours got all my booze free, my accommodation, food & transport covered! I was there for 11 days & by that time I knew about half the people there. I had a lot of fun there ; ) but I got sick of drinking every single day & night so I had to leave in the end.

From there We took a 26 hour bus to Hanoi (Vietnam), it wasn't that bad though because we just got some valium. The bad thing is that we had no money & no way to get any at this time. They kept wake us up on the bus for food stops, which was annoying. The nicest thing happened on one of the stops, this Lao woman who was on are bus paid for us to get some food. I felt really bad because she's much poorer than us, but we were starving at this point & accepted.

Hanoi was my time to chill out & relax for a while after going mental for almost 2 weeks. The only thing is plans never go the way you plan, especially if the hostel your staying in offers FREE beer! It was still chilled out compared with Vang Vieng, but I did have 1 or 2 days of not drinking because of the travel mainly. On one of the days there, I went to the prisoner of war camp & went for a wonder after that, & found somewhere to eat. It was good food & these locals asked me to come & sit with them which was quite cool but hard to talk to them because of the language barrier. They ended up giving me a few free local beers, & then for some reason we went kareoking in the middle of the afternoon! The songs were so cheesy but it was funny plus more free beers! On another of the night we went to a Vietnamese club with most of the people from the hostel & the owner. The bad thing was it was not a very accommodating club, they didn't let us leave the table & when we did they started pushing us & telling us to stay at are table. The owner of are hostel took me aside & told me to do what they say because it turns out it was a gangster club & they had guns!! What was the point in the first place letting us in there if we're not aloud to dance or talk to anyone, so a couple of us went to another club which was meant to be a friendlier place. It turned out to be the same but just without the guns. We found another place just 2 minutes away from that which probably was the place "Hill" the owner was on about, the only problem was it was a gay friendly club, or at least I was getting a lot of attention from them anyways. Only me & Brian stayed in the end, because we were like "fuck it where else is there to go". There was still girls there having a good time too, so it wasn't all bad. I stayed in Hanoi about 5 days & had lots of fun there too. So now I'm in Ninh Binh, I brought a open ticket to go all the way down Vietnam, I'm leaving tonight for Hue which is a very old town with loads of temples. I'm sure I've missed stuff out, got spelling & grammar mistakes but its hard to remember so much when you don't update for so long, & I can't be bothered to check it over!

Hope you enjoy reading this, as much as I have writing it.

Still on the road

b_mc1989 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:27:00 GMT

I keep on forgetting to update my blog, sorry to anyone who cares & wants to know what I have been doing. So since Railey I've had a few things happen, some I'm going to tell some I'm not. I went to Phuket for some reason just because it was the closest town to go to, but I'm glad I did go. It was great timing as well, because I got there the day the vegetarian festival started. Its a Chinese festival that happens every year, when there God comes down to earth. So the rules are no meat, no smoking, no drinking & no sex for 9 days. Its safe to say I didn't do very well with that. One of the night we went out to the festival, which was just outside are hostel, me & Jose had a beer in are hands & we didn't realise that it was a big NO NO! We just tried to drink them as quickly as possible because we were getting some evil looks. There were paraids every day going past the hostel & loud repetitive music playing 24hours a day! which really get on your nerves after a while. The food that was sold up & down the street was good, but I have no idea what it was really or what it was called. Its nothing like vegetarians in the UK eat, or anywhere for than matter. In the festival there was a group of men (the chosen ones) that the God had came inside of them. This was crazy it had them "feel no pain", so the did all sorts of messed up stuff to them selfs. They would slit there tongue with a blade, cut there backs with axes, pierce poles though there cheeks & loads of other stuff! On the last night of the festival they did this fire walk. Its not the same as an Indian fire walk, they have four guys carrying these fire works, while there going off & every one in the street through more fireworks at them as the walk down the road. Its crazy, you cant see course theres so much smoke, you cant breath & it feels like your ear drums are going to explode, & also I had one blow up in my face! To be fair though, that was just one they had millions being through at them. This Kewe from the hostel brought shed loads of fire works, just because there so cheap here. He had this roll of fire cracks, like 200 or something, but he didnt unroll it & he had 200ish cracks blow up in his face in a mili second. Anyways alot of crazy stuff happened in Phuket but theres to much too tell in too little time.

So after that I went to Koh Phi Phi in the end for 3 days, not because I wanted to I just followed the crowd, but had a great time there of what I can remember. I got fairly burnt on my neck & my leg, but not from the sun, the burning skipping rope of death! Not a good thing to do at the best of time, let alone when your wasted. I also did this big burger challenge & when I say big it was massive, about the size of my hand and as tall as my fore arm. Oh a wait theres more, an insane amount of think chips, onion rings dripping with grease & a breakfast bowl of coleslaw! Its hard to describe but your have to see the pictures when I sort it out! The challenge is to eat this heart attack on a plate in half an hour & you get it for free, but if you eat it in under 14 minutes you win 1000 baht (20 pounds). How in the hell some one could do that in 14 minutes I don't know. I did quite well, I finished the burger & had about 2/3 of the chips & onion rings, but when it went past 30 minutes there was no point putting my self through more pain. I didn't go out that night, just had a number 2 & fell asleep at like 10pm, surprisingly though I was still hungry in the morning.

After that I went back to Phuket for a couple of days to see the end of the festival, then spent a night in Ranong & now I'm in Bangkok. Bangkok isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I have been avoiding the hooker, ladyboys & ping pong songs area. Already seen all that in Patong (in Phuket), just window shopping though not making a purchase. Its good a came here though, because I met up with Dominic the guy I got lost in the jungle with. It was very weird when I went to see his m8s, because one of them I met like two weeks in to my traveling & it was just crazy seeing her again though him. Now Im heading to Chiang Mai tomorrow & so are they so I've got people to travel with again, who I already know.

I'll try to update more often if I can, but I'll be heading to Lao in a few weeks & I don't know whats that going to be like for Internet. Till next time x

This & That . . . . .

b_mc1989 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:41:00 GMT

This is just a quick update as time is money when your paying for the internet!

I'm in Thailand at the moment on a beach called Railay, but before that I went To koh phangan (an Island) for the full moon party. It was mental there were about 6,000-10,000 people there, not that I did a head count. They had all sorts of music there all across the beach to try & katter for all people tastes. After that I went to Koh Lanta, also an Island near Koh Phi Phi. I didn't want to go to Koh Phi Phi though course its just a pisshead Island & I just came from one of them. Koh Lanta was a nice chilled out hippy place, & I did as little as possible. I went to those two Islands with this guy from Finland that I was travelling with for two weeks, before we went to different places. It was nice to have some to travel for a while, who was on the same page as me.

So now that brings me back to where I am now, Railey near Krabi. I went there course its meant to be one of the best places for rock climbing, & it is amazing! Its got beautiful view when your hanging off the side of a cliff. It was 800 baht for a half day rock climbing, which is only 16 pounds! I don't mean to brag but I am a natural born climber, & I think I have found a hobby for life if not a career.

Anyways I'm having a great time & don't think I'm going to be home any time soon. Its just a much better life style, cheaper & the people you meet, other travellers & the locals. I think I have been bitten! By the travelling bug, & once that happens there's no going back. The only reason why I would go back to England is for my friends & family, if it wasn't for that I would stay for LIFE!

Miss you all, hope everything is ok in your life's?

Jungle Cubs

b_mc1989 — Tue, 6 Oct 2009 16:57:00 GMT

This is really one of the things in your life that will stay with you for ever & make you who you are today!
Basically the story starts I went to Tamen Negara in Malaysia, one of the largest jungles in the world. Its 130 million years old & just insanely big beond belief. On the first day of being there a met these two Germans, Maggie & Doninic. Doninic thought it would be a good idea to go on a two day hike, about 14km there & 12km bk, fucking long by anyone's standards really. Anyways I though it would be good to have a proper jungle tour, rather than just walking though a little one on a Island. We got some supplies, like food & water & heading into the jungle. We got the boat to the entry point at bout 10am & started are long, long trek. It took us about 6ish hours on heavy terrain though the jungle, crossing streams & hills. Got bit many a time by leaches, & if you have ever been bittern by them you will know they thin your blood, so you bleed a lot when you take them off, & I mean a lot!
Maggie left us at the so called resort 1.5km by are very basic hut we stayed at. The resort was abandoned there was only a few locals living there, that gave us some water, because by that time we were clean out of it. The hut we stayed at was a viewing point for animals, on account that there was a salt water pond there. The hut its self just had plain wooden bed with no mattress & was very uncomfortable all I had was my jacket as a pillow & a spare T-shirt I brought with me.
The next day we started are trek back to the main land, but along the way of following the trail something went horrible wrong & the trail was blocked quite a few times by fallen trees, which wasn't the uncommon but made it more difficult to see the correct trail. We were walking & suddenly became apparent that the trail had gone! We tried to follow it back but couldn't find it, so we tried to find are own way back as there was nothing else we could do. After a while of trying to find the trail again, we decided to follow the steams back to the river so we could find are way back home. We couldn't follow the streams on the side of the bank because the jungle was to think, so we had to just walk though the streams, which fucked up my walking boots proper bad but we had no other choice. After a a good few hours of doing this, we though its going to get dark soon & we wouldn't make it back in time. So by this point we were deep, deep into the jungle & we made a hut out of sticks & many big leaves, it was quite a good hut we thought it did the job of keeping us dry & giving us somewhere to sleep. The only choice was that we would have to build a boat to go thought the river as it was to deep to walk in. So the next day we started on are Noah's arc without the animals. We made this out of bamboo & vines to tie them up, using nothing else but a rock as are only tool to brake them up. This was a long & hard task to do it must of took us about six hours ish & after all that it was more like a submarine, it could only take the weight of are bags & we had to just hold on top the side of it as we swam down the long river. The water was so dark that you couldn't see what was init, which was probably a good thing. The water lever kept on changing from one foot to six foot within a couple of steps. The was so many rocks & logs in the water that you couldn't see that you kept on smacking you legs on & swearing to high heaven, its not like anyone could hear you anyways.
After a few hours of doing this & shouting for some one to hear us & only getting the reply of fucking bird calls, a tour guild passing wassailed back, which at first we just thought it was another fucking bird, but the we noticed them coming from the bushes & just felt such relive that we're not going to die. The first thing he said was "what the hell are you doing in the water" which was quite funny, now we were safe & able to get some food, as we hadn't eaten hardly anything for two days!
This is why you should never go into the jungle, NEVER!!!

The Beach . . . .

b_mc1989 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:22:00 GMT

I arrived on Small Island off Malaysia on Wednesday of last week, called Tioman. On the first day here I just lazyed around in a hammock reading hitchhikers guild to the galaxy & having a little swim in the sea. Let me tell you hammocks aren't as comfortable as they seem, as I found out the hard way & had many a scratch on my back. Now I know you should put a towel on it first. In the evening, after what I sure was a very nice dinner, I went down to the beach bar for a couple of beers for a night cap & ended up getting invited to join a large group of people who had also got here that day I believe. Next thing I know it’s turned into quite a few beers & mixers until there’s just a couple of people left. I was still by far on that night the most sober person. After that the happy hour became the normal SORT OF THING!!!

A couple of days in after we all got to know each other, we had a few drinks at Bruce's new place because one it was cheaper & two there it’s cheaper. It was a very long night, & after going all the way to the other side of the bar for the promise of the jungle bar being open, me, martin & Gary, played a very long card game of cheat by the beach, which we didn't seem to notice that it was now day time & people were walking around. Basically ended up with a very large bowl of noodles & an insanely big cup of coffee!

Anyways there is much more story’s to add to this, like the jungle trek, but it’s hot in here & I don’t feel too good. Sorry but I will try to update the story soon, or maybe others will do it for me, without being to rude.

Also the people I have been drinking with have been between the ages of 23-32. So it wasn't a load of silly young people drinking games.

Just updating the story, now I’ve got free internet & not hanging out my tree.

We went on a jungle trek from one side of the island to the other. It was a 10km hike thought & meant to be a 2-3 hour trek, but we charged though it in 1:45 minutes, it was savagely hard climbing up to the top, I could have filled a bucket with sweat the amount that was pouring off of me. I didn’t see many animals which were a shame, but at least I did something worth wild, rather than just sitting around on the beach drinking.

I’m back in KL now, & planning my next place to discover in the name of Ben!

Gallery: Pictures

b_mc1989 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:05:00 GMT

Kuala Lumpur

Last night in KL

b_mc1989 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:48:00 GMT

At last im going to move on from here & see some more of the world! But not 100% sure where. I think im going to go to Singapore somewhere via the train, so that way I can see move of the country, rather than flying over the top of it & missing out on all the sights & sounds. I've just got to get on the right train for a start, then find a place to stay, & lastly see what im going to do! Should be a fun day tomorrow, it will be nice to get out & see move. I've been abit lazy the first week & haven't been seeing or doing as much as I wanted to do, but its still early day & im finding my way. Going to pay cards now, so I"ll update soon . . . .

Batman & Robin

b_mc1989 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:55:00 GMT

Today I finally done something! I went to the batu caves after find the bus, but I was well scared I was gana get off in the wrong place & kept asking the driver. It was a 272 step climb to the cave, which I thourght it wouldn't be hard, but it did leave me abit nacked. I also went on a tour in the dark cave with a load of bats in, but none were vampire bats lol. I also held a massive yellow snake, which was about two meters long & felt quite nice & soft ( I've got some pictures but still cant unpload ).

Went to the KL petronas twin towers which was boring as hell, But got some nice pictures at least. They showed us a little film about how & why it was made, then we spend about 20mins waiting to go to the bridge. It was a complete waste of time, but my time means nothing out here + it was free so can't complain to much.

Im really getting sick of KL & want to move on elsewhere. There's not much to do in the city, I want to go to a little town & have some peace, its to loud & busy here.

Another Day been & gone

b_mc1989 — Wed, 9 Sep 2009 23:14:00 GMT

I have spent another day being a bum & not doing anything. My iner time clock is still fucked I think, I didn't go to bed untill bout 4-5ish last night. The whole city doesn't seem to sleep, the markets are always open with crazy hindu music bumbing or fireworks going off. I didn't get out of bed till bout gone 1PM today lol. By the time I decided to go out into town it was about 4ish. I did try & go to the buta caves but I couldn't find the bus, its not just me being bad with direction its just jampacked with market stalls, which makes it hard to find any thing or note landmarks.

I managed to find somewhere that serves beer (tiger), so all I have done is have a few beers & have something to eat. I had a fish haed curry today, it wasn't to bad once you get over the fact your eating a head lol. At least it didnt still have the eyes & month still there, you wouldn't of even known what it was if you didnt ask for a fish head.

I've met a few friendly people at the hostel & had a laugh with them. I have been out for a meal a couple of times with this one guy called jamie that comes from london, hes about my age & has been traveling for about 9 months, so hes been telling me about the best things to see & do :).

Just finished watching pulp fiction, now forest gump is on lol. Going for some food & then im going to have a early night so that I can get some stuff done tomorrow.

Speaking to the locals

b_mc1989 — Tue, 8 Sep 2009 23:17:00 GMT

I went out this evening for some dinner at about 6ish ( locals time ) & had this beef thing with onions mixed init, with like a pancake wraped over it + some red onions & a curry sauce on the side. Anyway, on the way back I took a different route back & ended up getting lost abit ( I would of found my way back in the end ). Then something amazing happened! A 50year old malaysia man called nelson that spoke perfect english, came up to me & asked if I was ok. Im standing there with a little map thinking im going in the right direction, turns out I was going the wrong way lol ( unlike me ). He went to a english school in malaysia & new a hell of alot about the country & the language. Anyways back to the story at hand, he ended up walking me back to my hostel & we went to a little market & had a ice tea ( I thought it was all ment to be cold, I didnt know you made a normal tea then put ice init lol ). After a while I just wanted to get back to my hostel because he wouldn't stop talking, he was nice but in small ammounts. He was talking about actors & singers that have been dead for a life time!!

Im hungry again now! I think im gana have to go get some more food, or a beer or two. ( I haven't had one since I got here :(, I know hard to belive but there not easy to come cross )

P.S. I cant post any pictures cause I left my camera's connection cable at home lol

First night!

b_mc1989 — Tue, 8 Sep 2009 13:09:00 GMT

As soon as I got off the plane I was strock with the most intense heat, the air was so warm at first it was hard to breathe. I got a taxi from the airport & arived at my hostle 11pm local time, I didnt really do much apart from get sum food next door, It only cost 1MR which is about 20p. I have no idea what it was or what was in it really, but oh well!

To day Im going to explore the city & take in some sights & sounds. . . .

Back from my little walk about, didnt really do much lol. Tried to find something to see or do but not much luck. I had a nice lunch at a market stall, it was very cheap for all I got. Every place that I have eaten so far, (two places lol) the staff are very nice & can't seem to do enough for you!

Im going to try & see some hindu caves tomorrow, so if I dont update tomorrow Im dead in a cave getting eaten by vampire bats! So untill then, wish me luck :)