Kris & Sam in SE Asia

PENANG

love_boat_captain — Sun, 7 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It's our first night in Penang and we're about to go and check out the night life. KL was very different to Thailand. There are a barely any western tourists and the city contains a mix of of cultures (Chinese, Indian, suadi arabian...pretty much a mix of all the cultures within the asian vicinity). One thing i wasn't prepared for was the stares!! walking down the street on our 1st day in KL in shorts and a singlet i attracted many death stares, i've never felt more awkward in my life! The majority of Malaysian citizens fully cover up with head scarfs and all, so the next day i made sure to wear pants and a t-shirt. This attire seemed to go down a lil better with the locals.

Kris and i were caught in massive downpour two days ago as well. after walking half an hr to the bus station we were certainly drenched (the bus that drove past me and splashed me with a gallon of gutter water didn't help...EWWWW!) The shopping malls are fantastic here as well! Massive! (I'm unable to take full advantage of them though due to kris's short attention span and inability to appreciate shoes!) One shopping complex was even equiped with theme park rides! Kris and i jumped on a roller coaster within a shopping mall, it was awesome!

Anyway, after a 6 hr bus ride into penang we're finally here which means we'll be home soon enough.

love k and s. oxoxoxoxo

Destination Malaysia

love_boat_captain — Wed, 3 Dec 2008 16:36:00 GMT

We're off to Malaysia 9:00pm tonight!! Two nights Kuala Lumpur, 3 nights Penang and then 1 last night in KL. Then HOME!!! It'll be nice to leave Phuket and do some more sight seeing around the unknown.

So far in phuket we've just lazed around, talking to fellow Aussies and making friends with the locals. Last night was our last in Patong. We said goodbye to our Thai bar friends after a very vigorous game of jenga and some other board game that lasted at least 20min. Also our luggage seems to have spontaniously expanded over the past few nights? It seems to be showing symptoms of dysmotility. Fingers crossed its under 20kg! Otherwise i'll be wearing a few layers of clothing home.

Hugs and kisses, S & K

New Plans

love_boat_captain — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:32:00 GMT

Due to us not being able to enter Bangkok we've had to cancel all our plans :-( All previous bookings are now cancelled and we won't be going to Cambodia or Bangkok anymore (To reach Cambodia we needed to go via Bangkok). This is really upsetting, both kris and i were especially looking forward to the temples in Cambodia, Angkor Wat, the River Quay festival and the bangkok markets. To make the most of our situation though we've now booked air tickets to Kuala Lumpur and are staying in there for 7 nights. While we're there we'll probably see singapore but nothing is for sure anymore, we can only wing it from now on. So all our new plans are completey voidant of Bangkok and we'll be flying home via asian airways from kuala lumpur if all goes well, fingers crossed!

All of this uproar has united all tourists, everyone from all nationalities talk to each other and we've made a couple of friends, so in that sense it hasn't been too bad, lol, the sunny side of an expensively inconvienent situation.

Also i ran into Andrew Maloney and his GF Renae from high school, small world, lol.

Hopefully these plans will stick!! Anyway, it's time for dessert, we'll keep ya'all posted on the hap hap. Missing you all!!

Love Kris and Sam (especially Sam) mwa oxoxxoxoxoxo

Past few days

love_boat_captain — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:40:00 GMT

Hello to all

Much has happened since our last exchange of words. Kris and i went on an elephant tour and WERE RIPPED OFF!! We paid all our tours in advance...or so we had thought. We rode the mammoth beasts, which are beautifull and kris even rode on the head of one (he told me to make sure i informed u all of his obvious bravery). Once the elephant trek was over we went to continue the tour...only to be advised that we owed the 1400 baht?? After some arguing that we'd already paid, kris and i gave up the rest of the tour activities that we had planned with the company and went home, paying 1400 baht (around $60)!!

FRIDAY - We miss our plane to Cambodia due to the protesters blocking and bombarding the airport. They've been protesting for 5 days now and no one is comming into or out of the country. We're currently stuck in Puket untill this anti-gov protest resolves. We've re-booked a flight into Cambodia on Monday but K and i have decided that if nothing resolves by tomorrow day we'll book a 10hr bus ride into Bangkok and then catch a connecting bus to Cambodia, This'll end up taking around 20hrs but it doesn't look as though we've got much of a choice. Untill then we're just winging it, and constantly watching the news. Also we won't be getting home on the 7th as planned. Probably be home on the 11th with all this but it depends when the airports re-open. Mum, melissa and Laura, can u please tell work that I won't be home untill about the 11th? We'll keep u posted on everything. Got to go!

Love Kris and Sam. MWA oxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoox

Day 6

love_boat_captain — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:37:00 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday we didnt do much at all. We lazed on the beach until about 4 and then headed back into Patong for some people watching. We also saw the new James Bond movie. The cinemas are really good over here. You can pay extra to sit on Gold Class chairs but still cheap (around 7 dollars). It is also funny seeing all of the thai advertising.

Today we have been trying to speak to our travel agent for our flights to Bangkok. It looks as though if things dont get fixed soon we will ahve to wait here until it all blows over. Thai airways pay for the extra nights of accomodation. Hopefully we still get to go into Cambodia because that is what we were looking forward to the most.

Later on this arvo we are going on an elephant trek.

Parentals - If you get this message before the close of business today, can you follow up with the travel agents and make sure they are on the ball. We have e-mailed them but have not received a response yet (although I only sent the e-mail 1 hour ago).

Thanks everyone, we will keep you posted on how we are going.

If worst comes to worst, we may cancel our Thai flights, get the refund, and go to Kuala Lumpar :-)

Kris and Sam

Day 5

love_boat_captain — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:08:00 GMT

Today we did a sea canoe trip in the phang nga bay area. It was really good. Canoed through heaps of caves under massive mountains. Some of the gaps getting into the cave were really tight. had to lie down into the canoe to get through them. We then we to James Bond island 9named so because Roger Moore was there for filming of one of the movies. It was okay but a big tourist trap. The tour guides were really good. They dressed up as lady boys and made Sam dance with them. She is currently in the shower which is why I am the only one here. We are about to get some dinner and go to bed (very tired).

We have a day off tommorow so we will head to the beach, get a massage and then go into Patong for some fun. It should be a pretty tough day.

All of our flight worries have been sorted out. I am pretty upset at our travel agent So i will drop in and see her when I am back in BrisVegas.

Mum, see my comments on the other post regarding the registration.

Hope everyone is good.

Kris

Day 3 & 4

love_boat_captain — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:40:00 GMT

After writing the last post we headed into Patong for some action. IT WAS AWESOME. Erin, you are a loser for not liking it. Booked all of our tours which included 1 day trip to phi phi island, 1 sea canoe trip in phang nga bay and james bond island, and a half day elephant trek (same one as erins). All up the tours cost us 120 AUD for all 3 after some hard bartering. After this we went up a back-street and got some curries and found a bottle-o and bought a 8$ bottle of rice whiskey.

The next day (day 3) we went out to phi phi island and this was great but very commercial. Chilled by the beach and met some good people. For dinner we went to what we thought was going to be a cheap place for a feed but ended up paying way too much. Everything is really cheap but we still seem to be spending heaps somehow.

Today (4) we met up with a personal driver (Mr Sam) and he drove us around the island. He was great. Funny Guy. Loved to dance while driving. Took us to all of the good beaches, a cobra farm / show and into phuket town.

Running out of internet time so we will leave you there.

Erin - Dont know, maybe at sams house with the belt. Will sort out later (hows the rabbit)?

John - Get stuffde

Tess - I love justin more than you.

Laura - Keep the hug demons comming, lord knows i need them ;-)

Thanks for posting comments, keep them coming.

Terry, Pam, John and Carrolyn - Dont stress about the tickets, it will get sorted out.

Love,

Kris and Sam

Flights

love_boat_captain — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:40:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

we have come across a problem.

Our resort has advised that when they checked our flights to confirm for us, they have not been sent through to Thai Airways by our travel agent (meaning we have no flight).

We are sending her an e-mail now to ask why and get this fixed but we need you to help us out by following up and with her and hassling her until this is sorted out. We have booked and paid for a tour tommorow and will not be able to do so. The flight which is not confirmed is from Phuket to Bangkok flight number TG202. If you can comment back to this post and let me know how you went, that would be great. After we send this email we will call her in the morning and get the process started.

Her details are as follows:

Livia Palmieri - Flight Centre

Phone 3229 9211

They will have all of our itenary because they booked everything for us (or so we thought).

Thanks heaps for your help (in advance).

Kris and Sam

Day two

love_boat_captain — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:20:00 GMT

Ok, so i'm useless hey. well guess who slept for an extra 5hrs after his little journey entry?

The breakfast buffet was the best thing since sliced bread!! We ate extra so we didnt have to worry about eating anything at lunch. After brekky we went and sat down at the bar across the road which has cheap beers / massages. We are going to get the massaman curry from there shortly. Went into Kamala beach today. I got fitted up for a suit and sam got fitted up for a dress. We had each of the tailor shops bidding agaisnt eachother. I ended up getting 1 jacket (hugo boss impersentation), 3 pants and 3 ties for 140 AUD. Sam got her dress tailored for around 100 AUD. We also went and chilled around the beach for the rest of the arvo. We are heading into Patong shortly to get some tours booked, have a drink / eat, and hook up with some lady-boys. We are happy to see evrything here is still cheap after the economy melt-down. A bootle of waters costs 30 cents, twisties are 50 cents, beers are around 60 cents (local) and massages are still cheap too.

I hope evrything is well.

We may try calling tommorow (but dont get worried if we dont, not sure how these phones work yet).

Love,

Kris and Sam

Arrival

love_boat_captain — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:36:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

We arrived safely after an interesting night on the plane / transferring between planes. Didnt have too much turbulence (even with the storms around). I am at the resort creating this journal while Sam sleeps. She is useless. Slept the whole plane ride, then even managed to sleep in the van from the airport to our apartment. The place we are staying is great. No fruit platter on arrival though (like what erin got). People are firendly (or trying to sell me something overpriced). It is funny seeing all of the crazy people over here on the roads. I managed to spot a family of 4 squeezed onto one moped. This place reminds me of Fiji. I am about to go wake Sam up and go into town to get some food and supplies. Hope everything is well.

Kris