Iain Plank

So after 1 tuk tuk, 2 trains, 1 trickshaw, 2 buses, one taxi and 2 boats – I finally arrived at my destination. I’d left Chang Mai 50 hours earlier and arrived on the Perhentian Islands off the NE coast of Malaysia via Bangkok, Sungai Koluk, Rantau Panjang, Kota Bahru, Pasir Puteh and Kuala Besut.
I’d left Manoj and Anneli both doing a Thai Massage course (and hoping that I’d reap the benefits when I next saw them) and had gone to the Perhentian in search of sun, sea, sand and… scuba !!

The Perhentian Islands
The Perhentian Islands are the typical palm trees, white sandy beaches, crystal clear water, nice coral – type islands – you’d hate them ! Perhentian Kecil (small island) where I stayed has no mains electricity or water – they are obtained through generators and wells. The vast majority of visitors are backpackers and these concentrate on Long Beach on the Eastern side of the Island. I stayed on Coral Bay on the west as it was where I’d got off of the boat and I couldn’t be bothered to walk the 10 minutes through an unlit jungle to get to Long Beach. Besides, the Dive Centre I wanted to use was on Coral Bay !!! Accommodation for me, was basic – an A-Frame hut with a mattress on the floor. Showers and toilet (complete with geckos and frogs – yes frogs!) were shared.

Rescue Diver Course
The main reason I’d come to the Perhentian apart from the obvious medicinal qualities – was to dive. I did my PADI open water several years ago and my advanced a couple of years later and I’d been thinking for a long time of doing my Dive Master qualification. The Dive Master is a professional divers qualification that allows you to work for Dive Centres as a dive guide – it’s also, so I have been told, useful for getting cheap dives as most Dive Centres like Dive Masters to dive with them for added security. The Dive Master is also a long way towards becoming an Instructor. It takes, full time, from 3 to 4 weeks and as you’d expect is quite involved. I’d wanted to fit it into my travels as it’s a perfect opportunity to dedicate the time to it and to use the qualification so to speak.

Before the Dive Master though I have 2 other courses to do: The Medic First Aid and the Rescue Diver which take 1 to 3 days respectively. Once I have these, I can go for the Dive Master.

Manoj and I have a flight booked for Borneo in 1.5 weeks and it’s not enough time to do all three courses but is long enough to get the Medic First Aid and the Rescue Diver courses out of the way! Then I’ll think about the Dive Master after we get back from Borneo.

The Medic First Aid course is a good general first aid course including Artificial Respiration and Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) – useful to know whether you dive or not. The Rescue Diver course is about being aware of stress, what causes it, how to recognise it in yourself and others, handling it and basically looking out for potential problems and dealing with them before they become serious. It also teaches you how to deal with emergencies: making rescue plans, organising rescues, searching underwater, rescuing
conscious and unconscious divers both on the surface and underwater, dealing with panicked and tired divers, towing and carrying techniques etc.

It has got to be one of the most demanding courses that I have ever had to do ! Not only was there a lot to learn mentally, but it was also extremely demanding physically.

The course was well worth it – I’d wanted to do a first aid course for ages and I didn’t want to feel impotent in an emergency situation and my diving was changed by the Rescue course – I’d feel so much more confident in my own ability and in my ability to help others.

Manoj and Anneli arrived the evening that I’d finished the course. It was good seeing them again after almost a week. Took my braids out – back to being a standard long haired hippy !!! We stayed a few more days diving, snorkeling etc before heading back to Kota Bharu on the mainland where it was time to say goodbye to Anneli.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow”
We’d met in KL and the three of us thought that we’d hang out together for a day or two depending on how it went – that was 5 weeks ago and since then she’s become a good travel companion and most of all a good friend. Most of what you have read about we all experienced together and together have enjoyed lots of good and special times. She’s well missed !

Jungle Train
To get back to KL to catch our flight to Kuching, Sarawak we decided to catch the Jungle Train. Basically it’s a train that goes through the jungle – nothing strange there then !! What to say ? It was 3rd class, old,
surprisingly comfortable (although after 8 hours it didn’t feel so good), full of locals and their belongings (sometimes it seemed like they were moving house), long, slow, over 2 hours late, with occasional momentary glimpses of nice scenery !! It was an experience – good to say “done that” and not feel obliged to ever do it again.

We stayed in KL for a night before flying off on our next adventure…

Talk to you soon…

Hi everyone,

At last I get around to writing another update – would you believe that its over a month since the last one ? Time has absolutely flown by and so much has happened.
But before I begin thanks to all of you that sent me emails. It is really good to hear from the “real world” and to find out what’s going on with everyone so please keep them coming.

So where were we when I last wrote – Penang I think. Well let me tell you what happened next…..

Thailand
A short 10 hour bus ride from Penang takes you over the border to Thailand. What can I say as an overview ? In Malaysia you may not be able to speak the language but you can have a go at pronouncing words or guessing as to what they mean. In Thailand you don’t have a hope as they use a different script. Thailand is the only Buddhist state on earth and in almost every town you’ll find a ‘Wat’ which is a Buddhist
temple. You can have lots of pointless conversations like:

– “What’s that ?”
– “Wat”
– “That over there ?”
– “Wat”
– “The thing I’m pointing to that’s what ??”
– “Yes”

Totally confusing ? Another thing that Thailand is full of is Tuk Tuks. These are small passenger vehicles like a tricycle but with a noisy two-stroke engine – hence the name. Endless fun can be had trying to fit as many people as possible into one of these contraptions – we managed 6 !! But I jump ahead of myself.

Krabi
Our first stop in Thailand was a beautiful place called Krabi. It’s on the southern west coast and is famous for its limestone cliffs that rise abruptly out of the sea. The James Bond film “The man with the Golden Gun” was filmed in the area so if you imagine the island with the dwarf then you can picture Krabi – although
there’s not so many dwarfs now. Also, as some of you have noticed from the photos, I had my hair braided. Don’t laugh !! Actually it was really good. for a long time my hair has been too long to be short and too short to be long and braiding just solved the dilemma by making it neat and maintenance free.
That’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it !! We spent some time on Railay beach before heading over to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee) for some sun, sand, sea and……snorkeling.

Ko Phi Phi
Phi Phi was the island that recently caused a stir with Leonardo di Caprio because his film crew dug up a beach or something. It is quite a beautiful place: palm trees, white sand, crystal clear warm water – you would have hated it !! If you look at the Photo gallery you’ll see a picture that I took from a viewpoint on Phi Phi and you’ll see how truly awful it was. It was also where I did my first diving of the trip which was quite nice. The highlight being a wreck dive called the King Cruiser and Anemone Reef. Phi Phi is a bit of a party island and we frequently found ourselves at the Reggae Bar bopping away to the song of the moment: “Funk Soul Brother” by Fat Boy Slim. After 5 days of absolute hell, diving, snorkeling, drinking, dancing and eating some of the best food you’ve ever tasted we went back to the main land and took a train to Bangkok…

Bangkok
Bangkok – the city of 1001 things to do with a ping pong ball !! Actually I quite like Bangkok. Lots of Wats (don’t start that again) but some of them are really quite beautiful – especially by the Grand Palace. As usual we spent a lot of time walking around and getting a feel for the place. In the evening we went to the Patpong area which is the touristy Red Light District. Interesting place !!
There’s a market in the street and its “You want to buy a watch ? Sarong ? T-shirt? F**k ?” – As if its the most normal thing in the world to be selling. We wanted to go for a drink there but in most of the bars the girls dancing on the tables heavily out numbered the punters (you could see from the street before you ask. Don’t give me a hard time). We ended up in one of the few non-sex related bars on the street called Radio City. It was full of people and the live band’s lead singer was dressed as Elvis and doing Elvis numbers. Really good ! For the second set he came back dressed as Tom Jones and did his songs.
Weird ? Its not unusual… . We had a great time. The toilets provided quite a surreal experience as well, as I’ll explain. Went to relieve myself – as you do, and while I’m standing there doing the business – as you do, the young male attendant comes up to me bowing and holding a hot flannel which he proceeds to put on my neck – as you generally don’t ! So I’m standing there not quite sure what’s going on and he proceeds to give me a neck and shoulder massage, and quite a good one too !!
Dilemma time – I’d finished the purpose of my visit to the little boys room but am actually quite enjoying the massage – do I:

a) Let him continue
b) Pack my lunch box and leave
c) Hit him

Well, I just packed everything away, coughed a little and proceeded to the sink to wash my hands. I left him happily bowing away and went back to my seat. That happened each time I had to go to the toilet. Manoj went to experience it – nothing happened !!! Strange world.

Chang Mai
After Bangkok it was a 13 hour train ride up to Chang Mai in the north of Thailand. Its funny. In Europe if someone suggested an 8 hour train ride I’d think that they were mad. Here you think “Thats good only 8 hours”. Your perspective changes somewhat. The trains are actually very cheap, clean and comfortable.

Chang Mai is a nice city which has a very relaxed feel to it – especially after the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. We were extremely lucky as we ended up in a hostel called Orchid House. The food in Thailand is probably the best that I’ve ever tasted, so on the first day we decided to do a Thai cooking course. We started in the local market being shown and buying the different ingredients and in the course of the day made 7 different dishes – all of which were quite edible. Thai food is for those cooks that don’t want 5 things going on at the same time – you just prepare everything and throw it together !
The main reason people go to Chang Mai is to do a Jungle Trek – we were no exception. Orchid House was run by a qualified guide who organised treks only for the guests. He had 14 years experience and his brother worked for the National Parks authority meaning that he could get permits to areas that no other treks went to. We wanted to avoid doing a touristy trek and invading someone’s village and gawking – with this trek we managed it !!
We were taken in the back of a pick up truck to our starting point. A small village about 1.5 hours to the SE of Chang Mai. We’d just got out of the truck and our guide explained that we had a 2 to 3 hour walk to our first destination and its started raining. No drizzle – we are talking torrential downpour !!! Within around 2 minutes we were soaked to the skin. That pretty much set the pattern for the trek. We seemed to spend most of our time wet. Even when it didn’t rain we ended up having to wade across deep rivers with our packs above our heads – so still ended up getting wet. But what fun !!!
There were 9 of us doing the trek and we were lucky to have a really good group of people who thought that the weather simply added to the adventure !! We trekked through thick forest, rode elephants, swam in waterfalls, rafted down river on flimsy bamboo rafts and stayed with the locals in the villages. They seemed genuinely pleased to see us and kept giving us their home-brewed rice wine !! We got back absolutely exhausted but feeling totally exhilarated !!
Going through my diary I’d like to quote an extract which may be amusing. It’s from the second night of the trek….

“Great achievement tonight – I’ve sussed out squat toilets !! No really !! I was tempted to try and contain myself for the 3 days of the trek but realised that this was a tad unrealistic. So it was off to the shed to use the squat toilet ! Now, I’m not sure what it is but I just don’t like squat toilets – call me a soft Caucasian if you like but there seems to be something odd in trying to have a dump, making sure that you aim correctly, keeping your trousers and pants out of the puddle of water (?) that invariably lurks just in front of them, and trying to keep your balance – all at the same time. It’s perverse !! I’m always too scared of not judging the angle right and shitting in my pants or just generally falling over ‘mid-flow’ – so to speak !! It’s just too stressful. But today, real progress was made. I think that it’s because I’m generally fitter now and can actually bend my legs correctly etc – hence getting the angle of drop correct etc. The balance is also better due to the low, more streamlined position – Sussed !!!! I still wouldn’t say that I like squat toilets but at least I’m not afraid of them any more !!”

Chang Mai is also good for live music. At the Riverside Cafe we heard some good bands and at the Bistro a Jimmy Hendrix type guitarist. Song for Chang Mai ? “Give it to me baby” by The Offspring

I spent nearly a week in Chang Mai and left Manoj and Anneli doing massage courses and headed back to Malaysia…

Take care,

Iain

Hi everyone,

So after months of telling everyone that I was going to do a world trip Its suddenly happening. This is the first update of many (hopefully) to keep you up to date with what is happening to me and to share some of the experiences.

The flight from London (Sat 17th April) to Singapore was 12 hours and reasonably uneventful – no forget that, it was totally uneventful. Haven’t really suffered from any jet lag and feel adapted to the time already.

Since starting the trip time has flown and loads has happened. I’ve already finished 1 diary and 9 rolls of film !! We’ve met loads of people and seen some pretty amazing things some of which I have only dreamed about before. It was difficult to decide on a format for this – I’m not going to regurgitate my diary as I’m sure you’ve better things to do with your time so I’ll simply go through some of the highlights up ’til now and some impressions.

Singapore (Lion City)
We arrived on 18th April as the first stop of the trip. I really liked Singapore, It appears at first to be a very clean, green and organised place with a good infrastructure. A tad too clinical perhaps but nice. It provided us with an easy introduction to
traveling. We stayed at the YMCA complete Air Con, Gym and pool. Prices compared to the pound are very cheap for
accommodation, food and entrance tickets to the attractions.

If you like going shopping then Singapore is the place – I have never seen so many shopping centres in my life. Orchard Road is the famous one and it is just Shopping Mall after Shopping Mall after Shopping Mall (Stop salivating girls!!). Asians seem to have a slightly different way, from westerners, of viewing competition. If they see a store that is successful then instead of thinking:

“That’s a good idea I’ll open one the other side of town where they don’t have one yet”

they decide to open it next to the original one and try to put him out of business !! This attitude leads to areas that seem to specialise in a certain product. We found a shopping mall that only sold watches ?! In another they only sold electrical items and software and in another they only sold Lamps.

Actually its a dream for male consumers because then you only have to go to one place, check all the prices, buy what you need with the best price and then get home, put your feet up, grab a beer and spend the saved time watching the sport on the telly.

The food in Singapore is unreal – excellent quality, choice and price. They have lots and lots of so-called “Hawker” places. These are basically small stalls
that sell a certain limited range of food. Put them all together and you have a great choice. I tend to like Japanese food and although it is more expensive than the other food its still dirt cheap – a good Teppanyaki for $8 (thats about GBP3.00 DM8.00).

Singapore has quite a few contradictions which seem unbelievable when you think how efficient they are. Firstly the transport system appears good, lots of busses and the MRT which is like the
underground but strangely enough they haven’t produced a map to show you where the busses go or how they interconnect, so planning a route to somewhere unknown is virtually impossible !! Also software is unbelievably cheap in Singapore: Microsoft Office 2000, brand new, $16 (GBP6.00, DM16.00) and completely pirated but its not off of a market stall but from one of
numerous legitimate shops in a shopping mall !!

The people are a mix of Indian, Malay, Chinese and westerners. They are not unfriendly but more
courteous than sincere. We were very politely but firmly asked to leave a tower block.

Highlights

• Zoo and Night Safari. Animals in natural looking enclosures and always somewhere where you can see them. They had all sorts of animals and even a special Snake enclosure which you can walk through and see snakes on the trees at the side of the path. They even had a sign saying “Please do not touch the snakes” – as if !!! Its even built in the middle of the forest and you were sometimes left wondering if there were more animals
  outside the zoo than in it !
• Sentosa. Sentosa is an island to the south of Singapore and is a kind of park with lots of different areas. It’s really good, if a bit artificial. The Underwater world is good and has a Perspex tunnel 80m long through the Reef and Shark tanks which give an amazing view of the animals. Here also I was able to part fulfill one of my dreams. I have always wanted to dive with sharks – strange but true. I would like to dive with them in open water but at the underwater centre there was the opportunity of diving with scuba gear in the tanks and not just looking but also touching and interacting with the sharks, rays and Moray Eels.
  This was a chance not to be missed !! So in I went. I was more nervous of the people than the fish !!! I hadn’t dived for a year and a half and then having to do it in front of loads of tourists was horrendous. It was Ok though and the sharks etc were amazing. Funnily enough the Moray was one of the best – it was beautiful and feels the way a Wispa chocolate bar tastes. (Use your imagination).
• Friends. I have a friend Pauline, who I met through some German friends whom she met in New York and who I met in Cairo confused yet ??). She is Malaysian but lives in Singapore and works for Singapore Airlines. It was great seeing Singapore with her as we saw some things that we ordinarily would have missed – Including Bernies BFD and Elvis’ – a bar in the Concourse centre where the atmosphere was great and with lots of good music and dancing – we even ended up on the tables. We also met some of her friends which made it even more special. Including a small Indian girl call Haini, with a sweet face, lovely smile and a very natural and easy going personality who turned out to be a Narcotics Officer in the Singapore police !!! You never can tell !!
• Singapore Sling. A trip to Singapore would be incomplete without trying the famous cocktail or 3.

We stayed in Singapore for 8 days in the end before moving on to Malaysia.

Malaysia
First stop in Malaysia was Melacca a small historical town on the west coast. The accommodation changed to what was more normal – bare room with a fan and shared cold showers and Mandi (basically a sink of cold water and a plastic saucepan) !!! Could be worse – at least the toilets are western style !! Actually its Ok – its so hot that a cold shower is normally quite welcome.

The Malay people are very friendly and helpful – sometimes a bit too helpful. I’m sure that if you asked them about a place whose name you made up, that they would give you directions rather than see you disappointed at their lack of help. Very sweet, unbelievably frustrating !!

The Malay language is also quite funny. Imagine English spoken by a Chinese person and then written phonetically and then you have the basis of Malay (Grossly simplified I know but humour me). This leads to words like Restoran (Restorant), Ais krim (Ice Cream) and Teksi (Taxi) after a while you find that you can pick up bits and pieces. If Singapore was cheap then Malay is unreal. The currency is called a Ringget but everyone calls them dollars, or in our case Ringlets or Onion Rings. There are just over 6 to the Pound and when accommodation costs RM10 a night and good food at a hawkers place RM4 then you get some idea of the prices.

Pulau Upeh. This is a small island 25 minutes boat ride off of the coast of Melacca. We read somewhere in an old tourist leaflet that turtles laid their eggs there. This, we thought, was something not to be missed. We tried to get to the island but the boat times and frequencies had changed and it basically took a lot of effort to get there. On arrival we found that the Island was an exclusive resort charging RM200 a night !!! Being determined and they having a special offer we got a luxury chalet with aircon, evening meal, breakfast and a days use of the pool and other facilities for RM60. Expensive by Malaysian standards, nothing in pounds. When we asked how many were staying at the moment they replied “2, including you !!”. Basically we got the island all to ourselves, with exclusive use of the pool, great food, etc for 10 quid!! They did say that the turtles laid from March through to August but mainly in June and July and so although theoretically we might see one we would have to be very very lucky. I guess that we must have done something good a some point in our lives as thats exactly what we were !!! You cannot imagine the feeling of seeing this immense Leatherback Turtle heaving itself around in preparation to laying its eggs. I was so happy and awestruck that I thought that I was going to cry !! Also on the beach were literally thousands of hermit crabs – another amazing sight.

After Melacca we went up “to the Big, Bad city of KL” (Kuala Lumpur). If you imagine a big black rapper type saying that then you get the meaning. (If you know Sean Gilkes then he’s a good role model for the rapper !!! Cheers Sean !). KL is hot, full of traffic but good. Crossing the road is not for the faint hearted and there is even something called Malay Merge which is the act of vehicles joining the flow of traffic without even bothering to look if anything is coming !!!

In KL the two increased to 3. We are now traveling with a Swedish girl called Anneli from Malmo. She’s just stopping in Asia on her way back to Sweden after being in New Zealand for the last 8 months. Everything is purely platonic – not that I have to justify myself – and its actually really good to have someone else to talk to and a bit of variation. We’re not sure how long the three of us will stick together but at the moment its cool. A few days were spent in KL (yo brother!) replacing my wardrobe to something lighter and more suitable (perhaps more backpacker’ish), seeing the KL Tower and the Twin Towers which are the biggest twin towers in the world and are shown in the film Entrapment which is showing at the moment (I’m beginning to sound like a tour guide), and some other things the Batu caves I’ll see next time because we are going back – more of that later.

Currently we are on the Island of Penang – which means Betel Nut. The Betel nuts is chewed by the older women in the region and apparently gives then a bit of a buzz. It also turns your teeth red which can be stomach churning when they give you a nice smile !! Here we are staying with another friend of mine, called Amanda (Grenfell for those of you that are interested). She is teaching at an International primary school here. Its great to see her and again its good to get a personal perspective of
what’s happening here.

It seems that the integrated Malaysian culture isn’t quite as it appears on the surface: with government controlled seemingly anti-western media and press and official discrimination against Chinese and Indian Malays apparently rife. Don’t get me wrong, the people are lovely – whatever the ethnic background and I have never seen any kind of racism on the street but it seems that in official circles all is not well, with, for example, Malays always given precedence for university places and paying interest free mortgages while other pay interest. We have also heard that English is not longer taught in Malay schools. This seems ludicrous, not because I think that English is best but because in today’s world it is difficult to get far (particularly in international business) without it !!

Oh well…..

So where do we go from here ?? The basic route for the next couple of months is..

Sunday we’re into Thailand (Krabi, Ko Phi Phi and the Similans (which are great for diving) then back into Malaysia to the Prehentians, the Cameron Highlands and then KL again. Then to Kuching in Sarawak (Borneo) for some real jungle traveling, back to KL and then into Indonesia (Sumatra, Java and Bali). We are obviously keeping an eye on things there but we’ve met quite a few people who have said that it fine as long as you avoid crowds and demonstrations and don’t look Chinese !!! So unless someone mistakes me for Buddha I should be alright !!! Talking of which I have lost 4Kg (1/2 a stone) since being away, so soon I’ll be a lean, mean, something or other !!

So thats about it for now. Take care and drop me a line sometime.

With affection,

Iain

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