Kuala Lumpur. I never expected to find myself here! Feb 24

I arrived at Sentral (that is how they spell it) Station just after 6:00 AM and got a taxi over to the guesthouse I had booked online. I decided not to stay there because it was it was too tacky even for me and my standards are pretty low at the moment. The woman was nice and I just lost my small deposit.

That was a first, I usually like or at least tolerate my digs. Prices are a lot higher here. For the same thing I have been getting for 6 to 10 dollars per night I am paying 30 dollars here. It looks like there will be more of those prices both here and in Indonesia.


My guest house is very near this corner which looks like a mini Times Square. The hotel across from me is the Times Square Hotel. What a switch to be in a cosmopolitan center for a change.

Cityscape from the bus in the early morning.

Buildings to look up at!




You can see these twin towers from everywhere. They were the highest in the world until 2004. They allow a limited number of tourists to go up to the sky walk for viewing each day.

They have preserved some of the mansions from what they call the "Tin era" and they are scattered amidst the skyscrapers.

This old mansion is now a visitor center.

There is lots of green space in the city. These trees are dripping with lights.

I decided not to line up for the twin tower sky way because they have this and you can get a lot higher with no lineup. It is almost as tall as the one in Toronto.

Looking toward the twin towers from the needle.

The green space is amazing.

Here come the clouds that dumped on me on the way home.

You can see one of the old houses in the foreground and the towers behind.

Fortunately my neighbourhood has most of the shopping centres so I had something to do while waiting out the rain.

KL is supposed to have super prices for flights within Asia so I set a guy to work on a flight plan for the rest of my trip. Tomorrow I will see what he has come up with.

Yes, I am even thinking about the flight home. Where did the time go, only one month left.

Well, there isn't anything major to see here, but I am enjoying seeing the city so tomorrow I will see some more of it.

Hat Yai Feb 23

Hat Yai is a wonderful town for shopping. They have lots of stores and street stalls selling clothing and everything else at reasonable prices. The styles were nice too. It is too bad that the Thai are such small people. It is difficult to find larger sizes anywhere in Asia.


Outside the Odean shopping center.

I just wandered around after I checked out of my guesthouse until it was time to go to the train.

There are many motorbikes here too but not enough to make it crazy.

The town has risen up in the last hundred or so years so buildings like this are the originals.

They seem to get quite black from all the moisture and are just abandoned and left to decay.

Here is the train station, two blocks from my guest house.

A shot in the sleeper car. End to end people in bunks. I didn't sleep as well as I planned because they turned off the air conditioning at 1:00 AM and it got too hot.

Well, it still beats sitting in a bus even though it took a couple of hours longer. I got through immigration with no problems. I just got a stamp in my passport and there was no charge for Canadians. It is a thirteen hour trip on the train.

Beach day at Songkhla Town Feb 22

Today was a good day but I did lots of walking.

This is the clock tower where you go to get the mini buses. It is five blocks from my guest house. I was one of the last to arrive so I got the jumper seat, just a padded board between two regular seats. I can't complain though, even though there were twenty of us in the van including the driver everyone had a spot and it cost 27 baht which is less than one dollar to go more than 25 km.

They dropped me at Samila beach in front of this cat. I checked the map and started walking north along the beach to the aquarium. They have a fair selection of fish but the feeding show was the best. A guy in wet suit and tank went into the water with the fish. He hugged some of them before giving them the fish or spun them around and we saw how a sting ray moves food toward its mouth. Well, I was impressed anyway.

They have parks all over the town and along the shore but none of them seem to be cared for. Here is some playground equipment with a pile of rubble right beside the slide.

My worst fear over here is dogs. I had a close call today just walking by some houses when some dogs came to the street barking. I usually just ignore them and they stop once you are past their property but this one continued to follow me. I just kept walking at a steady pace without looking at the dog. I could hear his owner calling louder and louder but the dog didn't respond. Just at the point where I thought it was about to jump me the owner ran up and kicked it. It ran across the street and stood looking at me. I was still afraid it would wait until the owner went in and chase me again but he stayed out there and waited for me to walk away. Whew!

After the aquarium I walked back on the other side of the a small peninsula and there were some awesome views.

Here is a piece of art, an open door in the middle of nowhere. I was trying to get it in my self portrait. I need to practice my aim. The funky Russian hat looks good though.

Today's flower.

Here we are at the head of Samila beach again, close to where I started, and walking over to Chalatat Beach.

The Golden Mermaid statue is well know for being lucky and is also a religious icon for some.

I had a good beach morning with some reading and sleeping on the beach as well as lots of walking.

If you look closely, you can see part of a wrecked ship between the tree and the monument.

Next I headed into town and covered quite a bit of it before I could locate where the mini buses parked for the return trip.

Coming up this street there was a monkey and a lady selling bananas. I stopped to buy one and she said 10 baht. That seemed expensive until I discovered I had bought a whole bunch. She separated them and put then in a wicker basket for me to feed monkeys. There was only one monkey so I tossed it a banana and suddenly, there were lots of monkeys.

Now I didn't like the scene anymore and I know wild monkeys can be dangerous and they move really fast so I tossed the whole basket full of bananas onto the hillside and left while the monkeys were picking them up.

Just up the street was another vendor with bananas and he also had fresh corn kernels to feed pigeons. I declined the offer so he tossed some out and now the street was full of monkeys and pigeons. Then a couple of quick whacks with a stick and they were all gone, waiting for the next unsuspecting customer. Well, everyone needs to make a living.

Then I came to a lift to a temple on a hill. The temple wasn't noteworthy but I had good views of the town from there. It cost 30 baht to go up that lift and 27 baht to go 25 km earlier. How does that make sense?

Just grabbed this temple picture as I am on the street again and I have located the mini buses next door.

Leaving Hat Yai tomorrow on the 4:00 PM train to Kuala Lumpur. I am looking forward to another train sleep.

Hat Yai Feb 21

Bused over here this morning in five hours in a mini bus. Found a room easily thanks to Lonely Planet. I don't always use the places they recommend but when you don't find anything online it is helpful to have a couple of names in mind, especially when there are touts breathing down your neck. No touts here however and I walked to my first choice five blocks away. I am two blocks from the train. Location, location, location!


I wandered around town in the afternoon and booked my train to Kuala Lumpur on the night of the 23rd. They have a train to KL every night at 4:00 but since there is a beach handy here I decided to stay an extra day. Tomorrow I will spend the day at the beach.

I am also near all the big shopping stores and this place is a shopping Mecca.


Have to make this short as I am out without my cord and battery is dying.
The fact that I forgot to put a memory card in my camera today speeds things up too.


First hotel in a long while with no Wi-Fi. Surprise! I had come to expect it.

Last day in Krabi Feb 20

Today was one of those days you need every once in a while to regroup.

I slept late and got my packs cleaned out in the morning. There is always something to be thrown away and I found all the dirty clothes. I am really getting tired of the same clothes day after day.

I did some laundry and hung it on the clothes line on the roof. Then I went for lunch.

I got my hair cut at the little place around the corner. I lay down on this hair washing bed to have my wash and I must say it is more comfortable than the chairs.

Then off I went to explore the town. Along the road coming into town you can see these rocks in the water looking like breaching whales. That's what I thought when I first saw them and then I read it in Lonely Planet.

The kids were happy to be in the picture and that's good because you can see the size of this giant metal crab by the water's edge.

Traffic lights! They are center of the street in all four directions. Looks like some stage of early man.

I made a quick pass through the weekend market and by then the heat was getting me so I went back to the room.

Later I went out again and got my bus ticket for tomorrow to Hat Yai. It is still in Thailand but about a half hour from Malaysia. I will stop there a couple of days or however long it takes to get onto the infrequent train to Kuala Lampur.

Four Island Tour Feb 19

We were picked up in Krabi and transferred to Ao Nang to board the long tail boat for our tour.

We stopped at Poda Island first. The rock formations here reminded me of Ha Long Bay.
Here is the view from where we landed.

Nice white sand. It was the best one of all I soon found out.

A picnic area was provided and there was some accommodation farther inland.

We stayed a little over an hour and by then many other boats had arrived.

Next we headed for a snorkel dive spot passing many huge rocks.





Here we are passing "chicken" rock.





At the dive spot there were a lot of 4 to 6 inch fish which seemed to enjoy people.







Next was Tup Island, but actually we stopped on a sand bar between two islands. The tide was in but when it is out three islands are connected by sand bars.

From a hillside looking down on the beach.

Here we are landing at the last island at Pranang Beach. It is actually not an island but is treated like one because there is no road due to the rock formations. It is farther down the coast from Ao Nang.

It is a nice beach too. I didn't make it into the water here because I went exploring to Pranang Cave and took a wrong path back. I ended up on the other side of the peninsula but didn't know it and tried to walk back along the beach. I asked for directions as I went along but following them was getting me farther and farther away from where I needed to be.

Finally, I came to a travel agent who showed me where I was on a map and how to get back. She said the guides aren't allowed to leave anyone here so not to worry. She said she would make a call and see if she could get a message to him and meanwhile I started walking. I was back within 20 minuets but already half an hour late. I spotted my guide, who looks like Johnie Depp by the way, on another boat. He had let my boat go back on time and waited to go with me on another boat.

As it turns out, that extra little tour I did while lost was almost complete coverage of Railay Beaches as I had crossed the peninsula several times. I had planned to go there tomorrow as I heard it was nice but now I don't need to.

There are some rock climbing schools here too. I stopped to watch this guy climb for a while.

So now I think tomorrow will be laundry day and a chance to explore Krabi.

After all that sun and sand I shall sleep well tonight. I am starting to hear a thunder storm brewing too.

Krabi has heart. Feb 18

I have a super good hostel here for $8.00 a night. It is called "Pak Up" and I recommend it. It is located one block from the pier that the boats come in on from the islands, shown in the picture below, which was taken from the roof-top of the hostel.

I decided to stay in Krabi for a few nights and day-trip out to a different beach each day because the town is so nice and I am comfortable in my hostel.

It is wonderful to be somewhere where there are no touts bothering you. The people just go about their business and are friendly and helpful to interact with.

Today's beach trip was to Ao Nang, about 30 km from here by tuk-tuk. It was OK as far as the beach goes and the sand was definantly available to the public. Across the road from the beach there are no end of stores, restaurants and resorts.

I got a really delicious iced coffee made with Vietnamese coffee and walked the beach street looking in stores. If I can find a plain black or red t-shirt I will be able to wear the crinkle cotton shirt I bought in Koh Samui.

Then I walked the beach for a while and eventually got in the water and later stretched out in the sun. I lasted an hour this time before the heat got me.

The area is so lush and green even though the rains haven't started yet.

This picture is looking down the main beach street toward one of the many limestone rock formations.

To catch a longboat here you have to walk through the muddy sand and nearly hip-deep water to reach the boat.

I have booked an island hopping tour tomorrow and I expect to have to some unusual boat boarding then.