The journey home

We'd booked the shuttle bus from Ubud directly to the airport, and since out flight was leaving at 21:35 we had a lovely easy last day in Indonesia. The shuttle bus arrived spot-on time, and there was no traffic to the airport, but once through check-in and security we found our flight was delayed by a couple of hours. Amazingly, this was one of the longest delays we've had on the entire trip, and given our next flight wasn't until late afternoon the next day, we didn't have anything to worry about.

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur late at night meant no public transport, not even an express bus service (the last one had left 30 minutes earlier). Again we were lucky to meet another couple in the same situation, and so we all shared a taxi into the city centre. We got dropped off at the door of Wheelers hostel, which I'd rung from the airport to ensure they were still open. So we went straight to bed and got up late the next morning, hoping to grab a nice lunch in the Old China Shop restaurant (and after grabbing a couple of gorgeous cakes from the bakery around the corner from Wheelers).

So after another fantastic lunch, I felt just a tiny bit rushed having to get a metro to the main city terminal to connect with the airport bus, but in fact it literally only took a few minutes before we were seated in the comfy airport bus and on our way directly to the airport.

Check-in was smooth as ever, and our flight left for Stansted, London spot-on time again. The flight was 13 hours, and although we didn't bother paying for the entertainment system (on which you could watch movies and stuff), I managed to get a good bit of sleep.

After a strange delay getting our baggage in London, we strolled about Stansted and once we found the Ryanair check-in desks we just plonked our bags down on the floor and went to sleep, along with the couple of hundred other passengers doing exactly the same thing (this was at about 23:00, and our final flight to Dublin was at 06:30).

So after a great sleep (the airport was really quiet, and everyone seemed to be considerate of everyone else sleeping), we were the first ones in the queue for the bag-drop. Again security and customs was all easy-peasy, and our flight to Dublin left on time.

So after 25.5 months on the road we finally arrived back in Dublin at 07:30, picked up our bags straight away and headed out to Sarah's awaiting parents in arrivals. After a quick teary reunion, I was dropped back to me Ma in Malahide, where the smell of a freshly cooked Irish fry greeted me as I walked in the door.

Pottering about Ubud

For the next few days we both just pottered about Ubud really. I was going to rent a bike and explore the environs, but in the end I just couldn't be bothered, as it's quite hilly around Ubud and I was just feeling a tad lazy.

The first day we walked the couple of kilometers to a famous restaurant, Mozaic. Apparently it's rated by some as the best restaurant in Indonesia. It was nicely decorated, but nothing special really, but after looking at the prices we decided it was too steep at this late stage in the trip (US$65-US$120 per person without drinks). So instead, I had a quick look at the nearby Neka Museum (I just strolled through the shop into the museum, thereby bypassing the ticket-desk, while Sarah waiting outside too afraid of getting 'caught').  Then we just crossed the road to check out another well know place, Naughty Nuri's. We had to try their famous martini, but it seemed to me to be pure gin and therefore disgusting. But the spare ribs we tried where probably the best I've ever tasted (not that I try ribs often).

Next day I used the internet for a good bit and then checked out a few more of the town's cool cafes. We booked a local specialty of smoked duck in the cool local restaurant beside our hotel (Dewa Warung), which we had late afternoon the following day before getting the shuttle bus to the airport for our 9:30pm flight back to Kuala Lumpur.

So all-in-all it was just a nice few days relaxing, reading and strolling about Ubud before the long 2-day, 3-flight journey home.

Back to Bali - this time Ubud

I had to haggle hard with the bemo driver to take us to Mataram so we could get a connection to the ferry departure point at Lembar, but at least he agreed to drive there directly without the usual stopping to pick up other passengers. At Mataram it was fairly easy to get another taxi to Lembar, although in general it seems that short-distance public transport in Bali and Lombok is rare if not non-existent. The bemos seem to have disappeared or are not too common, with agency-sold shuttle buses and taxis being the only way to get around - which of course leaves you wide open to being ripped off all over the place.

Anyway, we got to the harbour at Lembar very easily and quickly, and without getting ripped-off much. The ferry ticket was straightforward as we'd gotten the ferry to Lombok in the first place, so I knew the correct price (although I actually got the tickets from a very suspicious-looking tout right in front of the official-looking ticket collector dude).

The ferry was another easy, relaxing crossing. But at Padang Bai I couldn't see any sign of a local bus, or a bemo or even an official taxi to take us to Ubud. Luckily an English couple approached us and asked if we were heading to Ubud, and so together we managed to negotiate a decent price with an unofficial taxi guy (of course he tried to mess us around on the price, but thankfully the English couple knew the ropes and played the 'walking away' game very well). So again we were in a comfy taxi heading directly to our intended destination, and an hour later we were in central Ubud.

The nice English couple headed straight off to a place they knew while we grabbed a fantastic lunch in the guidebook-mentioned local place of Dewa Warung. It turned out to be a fantastic Nasi Campur - even better than Fatima's on Gili Air, and cheap-as-chips too at 10,000 rupiah. After lunch, and while I watched the bags, Sarah strolled about looking for somewhere to stay. The best place happened to be just a few doors up the road (not in the guidebook of course), and was a lovely quiet place (Sudana, only 70K a night with huge breakfast included).

That night I tried to find the place that had posters advertising the movie 'Home', but I started off walking the wrong way, and so only found the place well after the movie had started. So as compensation we had a nice lamb biryani in a nice Indian place before an early night.

Senggigi

Arriving at Bangsal with Richard and Claire gave us extra bargaining power with the taxi drivers, and in no time at all all 4 of us were relaxing in a comfy taxi on our way directly to Senggigi on the Lombok coast.

The first few cheapy places we tried were all full, but luckily we got decent rooms at the lovely beachside hotel of Lina's (125K, no brekkie - the president was making an appearance in the town the following day, so rooms were scarce I think). It was still just late morning when we'd all settled in, so after showers and resting for a bit I went for a refreshing swim. As I was heading back to the room, Richard arrived at the beach with his Waboda ball (a present from a mate back home apparently). This high technology 'invention' is basically just a bean-ball that bounces along on the water when you throw it to someone, and Richard had been keen to try it out for ages apparently. So needless to say I was keen to try it out too (Richard had dragged Claire down to the beach to 'play', but she didn't seem too keen really!). It was quite a workout firing the ball back and forth, and it was good fun - it would have been great to have little goal posts!

Later that afternoon all 4 of us strolled along the beach to explore a bit, and to try out snorkeling (well, just me and Richard snorkeling while the girls lay on the beach). Richard (who is a very experience scuba-diver and general water-baby), found a cool white spotted moray eel under a rock and quite a few shrimp, but I'm pretty sure we weren't in the best snorkeling location.

After a great dinner that night in central Senggigi it was a fairly early night and the following morning after a very tasty breakfast at the local bakery we said goodbye to Richard and Claire as they set off for a tour of Lombok and Flores. It was weird saying goodbye to them as they continued on their travels - they still had over 3 weeks of traveling, while we were heading home in less than a week. Even though I've been on the road now for over 2 years, I actually felt a tad jealous of the fact they were heading off adventuring to Flores and Kimodo, while all we had left was a few relaxing days in Ubud before going home.

But I planned on heading to Ubud the next day, and so for the rest of that day I rented a bicycle and explored the coastline north and south of Senggigi, while Sarah just relaxed on the beach and used the Internet to investigate jobs back home. Using the bike I checked out a cheaper hotel that had been full the day before, and getting a lovely room I cycled back to Sarah and we relocated (only 60K a night and a good deal quieter as it was well off the main road, although the nearby Mosque woke us both at 5am!).

The coastline was lovely, with lots of sandy coves and headlands rising gentley to provide commanding views. I had lunch in a cozy little bakery/cafe in Ampengan about 14km from Senggigi, I stopped off a very large and ornate Chinese cemetery, and I took a detour through a very local fishing village (lots of the locals starring at the Westerner, with kids laughing and pointing and saying 'Hello Mister!' all the time - I don't think many tourists cycle through normally). It was a lovely slow pace to explore the beaches, a couple of which were almost totally deserted, while a couple more were packed with locals (it was a weekend). I was literally the only Westerner I saw on the packed local beaches.

We could have stayed another day in Senggigi, but after exploring with the bike I thought I'd seen pretty much all of it. There were a few interesting looking restaurants (and I was tempted by the Sheraton hotel, around which I had ambled about of course), but in the end I decided Ubud would probably offer more culinary options, and so the next morning we headed off - this time without a pre-booked ticket, we'd just wing it.

Diving and relaxing on the Gili Islands

The Gili islands are all so small, and so close together that diving from any of them allows you easily dive all the sites in the general region. So in retrospect I reckon we definitely picked the best island to base ourselves, as Gili Air has a bit more life that Gili Meno, but isn't as crowded or touristy as Gili Trawangan.

The Irish owner of Blue Marlin had explained to us that the PADI diving rules had changed in recent years. Before you had to complete a full, and expensive, Advanced PADI diver course to be allowed dive deeper than 18 meters, but the term 'Advanced' was thought to be putting people off, and so now PADI have split up the advanced course and they allow divers to be certified for each of the individual dives that previously had made up the complete Advanced course (i.e. deep dive, navigation dive, search and recovery dive, etc.). So Sarah now had the option to simply get certified for deep diving without any of the other (basically in my experience) unless dives that make up the full Advanced certification. The certified deep dive cost more of course ($60 instead of the usual $35 fun dive cost), but once completed she would be free to dive any site I would be able to dive, and basically frees her up to dive anywhere.

I thought this was a great initiative from PADI, and so Sarah's first dive was a deep dive with her very own personal instructor. After successfully completing that dive she was now free to dive practically any fun dive site in the world.

So our first dive was at Shark Point, and it turned out to be probably the best dive of all 5 that we did (you also get a further discount for doing a 5-dive package). Although myself and Sarah weren't together (she had specific stuff to do with her instructor), we were both in the same area. It was a fantastic dive with great visibility and no currents or swell. I got to see two big white-tipped reef sharks, both really close, a few turtles and lots or other life (Sarah got to see sharks and turtles too, and 3 octopuses, 2 of them free swimming).

After our dive we got dropped off on Gili Trawangan to explore it for the day, and although it had some great looking bars, cafes and a couple of very tempting restaurants, we never bothered to relocate there. Basically the main stretch of beach was quite crowded (although the snorkeling from there was great), and I suppose in the end we just felt really relaxed and comfortable on Gili Air.

Since we had lots of time to spend on the Gili's we spread out our 5 dives over the next good few days. It gave us plenty of time to check out the various restaurants and to discover the cool little shack of Warung Fatima that had the best Nasi Campur I'd had so far tasted in Indonesia, and by far the cheapest at 5,000 a pop (although she put her price up to a cheeky 8,000 while we were there - still well below the usual 15,000 - 40,000 of everywhere else!)). Fatima herself was a mad 'auld dear, with a crazy toothy smile and a cackling laugh, and although her shack had no sea views like all the 'proper' eateries, her personality, seriously tasty Campur and honest prices certainly made hers my favorite place on the island (a young Aussie traveler who sat beside me there one day said he loved the place too but he couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was that he specifically liked - when I said it was simply it's 'honesty' I really don't think he had a clue what I was talking about!).

Anyway, on our third scuba-dive we met a lovely English couple who happened to be on their honeymoon, Richard and Claire. They weren't your typically stereotyped honeymooners pretending to be all loved-up though, in fact they were totally relaxed and laid-back about everything. Their wedding had cost the princely sum of 1500 pounds and their honeymoon was a very respectable 5 weeks long - both were in their early 30's and had traveled extensively before, so they were pretty savvy compared to your usual Epsilons.

We ended up diving with them for our last 3 dives, and then traveling back to Senggigi in Lombok with them for a couple more days. Our remaining dives were all very good I must say, although I think most of my previous dives on this trip have been in pretty poor conditions by comparison.

Our last dive was on a 'wreck', which was just a pontoon, but it turned out to be a huge pontoon and I was well impressed (I got to see a couple of really cool free-swimming cuttle fish, changing colour in real-time and everything, and a huge octopus, although he was mostly hidden inside his rock).

In fact we left Gili Air a day early because Richard and Claire were heading back, and it just made things a bit easier to travel independently as a group. So after 11 days of wonderfully relaxed lazing about, chatting with Richard and Claire over Bingtang's and sunsets, and good scuba-diving, it was time to head back to Lombok.

Early in the morning we grabbed the same brekkie we'd had every single morning at Lucky's (banana pancake and tomato/egg jaffle), and strolled to the public ferry departure point. After waiting about an hour (and finishing our hastily grabbed breakfast), we were back on the local boat to the mainland of Lombok, and on our way to the local Indonesian tourist town of Senggigi.

Gili Air

It was fantastic to just relax in our lovely wee hut at Lucky's on Gili Air for the first couple of days - basically we were in no great hurry to do anything much. Those first couple of days were spent just walking around the tiny island itself (about 90 minutes to circumnavigate the whole island on foot), and popping into each of the 3 scuba-diving operators on the island.

All the operators on all 3 of the Gili islands have a price fixing thing going on, but on arriving at the 3rd of the operators on our island it turned out the owner was an Irish woman. After chatting to her for a bit, she offered us a 10% discount if we went with them (they do offer a 10% internet booking discount, but she gave it to us 'cos we were Irish!). Since the other 2 places didn't offer any discount, and all 3 were pretty much identical otherwise, we went with the Blue Marlin operation (and anyway, they had a lovely pool and a cool general hang-out area with hammocks and free coffee, and we could use their snorkeling gear whenever we wanted). They also offered to drop us off at either of the other two islands after a dive, which we used to check out the main Gili island of Trawangan, although I assume the other operators would have done the same.

Anyway, after picked a scuba operator, but not yet booking any dives, the next day we just got the island hopper boat across to Gili Meno to check it out. Again it's a very small island, and we walked right around it in a few hours, stopping off at various spots to swim or for Sarah to sunbath for a bit. It's labeled as the quietest of the 3 islands, and it certainly seemed to live up to that when we were there, but it did have some great stretches of beach. At 4pm we hopped back on the island hopper boat back to Gili Air, and booked our first scuba dive for 8:30am the following morning.

Getting to the Gili's

The next day we had at our leisure as I used the internet (in vain trying to find the best way to get to the Gili Islands off Lombok - the Internet can be a real pain sometimes when looking for very specific information!), and then instead just walking around Kuta shopping for the best ticket price through an agent. The best price I could find was 140,000 rupiah ($14US) each, which included all transport to the island of Gili Air and a pick-up from our hotel (most places advertised 185,000). I found this at a fairly non-descript place on Poppies Lane, a pretty cool laid-back backpacker laneway that I hadn't noticed in Kuta before (although it is in the Lonely Planet of course).

So the next morning our taxi arrived at 6:10am and our driver ran into another hostel looking for a third passenger who it turned out had canceled - leaving just the two of us in the lovely comfy, modern air-conditioned taxi all the way to Padang Bai, about an hour's drive away. It's from here that the public ferry leaves for Lombok (you can get a fast boat direct to the Gili's, but it costs 690,000). At Padang Bai we had to wait nearly 2 hours before boarding the ferry (basically the agency leaves you waiting around until enough tourists arrive to fill one of their shuttle buses on the far side).

The ferry trip was an easy, relaxed 4 hours, and we got picked up on Lombok and taxied (via Mataram) directly to Bangsal. From here we were deposited at a restaurant about 200 metres from the harbour and told to wait. After about another 2 hours we were told to move down to the harbour itself, and after a further 30 minutes waiting around (basically for more tourists to arrive to fill a boat), we left for the 30 minute boat ride to Gili Air.

Once on the island I traipsed around and found fairly cheap accommodation (85,000 a night with a great breakfast included), at Lucky's Hostel, which turned out to be a great place, although a bit far from the scuba places and the main stretch of restaurants (but a much better location for watching the sunsets). Our rustic hut was right on the beach and even had an extra double bed on our veranda, which was a great spot in which to read.

Basically it had taken us a full 12 hours to get door-to-door from Kuta to Gili Air, and that was after paying for a single ticket to cover all the various hops in taxi, shuttle bus, ferry and local boat. But along the way I was noting the cost of each hop, and although it turned out we had paid a very fair price, the delays along the way were unnecessary really. If you make you're own way you can just hop in the next taxi, ferry or shuttle that's leaving, whereas if you travel the whole way with a single operator you have to wait until they have a full load before moving on. Anyway, on the way back to Bali I now knew we should be able to do it quicker and even cheaper, which was exactly how it turned out.

But for now we had safely arrived on the very pretty Gili Air. After just about catching the sun setting into the horizon as we arrived, we had a lovely dinner at Lucky's and I was really looking forward to a relaxing couple of weeks on the islands and hopefully getting in some good scuba diving.

Final days in Bali

So we got up early in the morning to rent a moped from our hostel (Senem Beach Inn), and after a nice Gado-Gado breakfast at Made Warung's I started driving towards Sanur Beach (rather than try and drive directly to Ubud through the chaotic city of Denpasar).

Although the road signs at first were promising, it didn't take long before I was completely lost. Every street looked identical, with no identifiable landmarks to get your bearings and very little signposting or street name signs, so trying to get to the beach was a nightmare. After literally an hour of driving around in circles, and down laneways and side streets I eventually found a place that I could identify on our crappy tourist map (thank god for KFC!). So once parked at the beachside, I had a very long and relaxing walk along the beachfront to try and relieve some of the stress of the drive.

It's a nice beachfront area, although very quite and mainly made up of expensive looking resorts, so I'd reckon any time spent there would be pretty boring really. The sea was very calm too, with the ocean breakers crashing well off-shore, so in fact this resulted in the sea being a bit dirty in places.

So after about 2 hours walking up and back along Sanur beach it was back on the bike and off to Ubud. Luckily this time I didn't get lost at all, and so we arrived in mid-afternoon. I found a highly recommended restaurant (Warung Ibu Oka) very easily, and although it was really packed, we managed to grab 2 seats at a table for 5. The place is famous for serving a single dish - suckling pig, and so the tiny menu only offered a few variations. Myself and Sarah both had the 'special', and it was really fantastic. The place is a real local institution, so the food was really cheap too, so we got completely stuffed there!

Then I drove round to check out the local Blanco Museum, but they had a cheeky admission charge, so instead we checked out the famous Ubud Sacred Monkey Forest. I'd been here before, and it's still a great little spot for a stroll, although not as big as I remember. There were millions of monkeys around of course, and they were entertaining as always. After the forest we drove through the town a bit more, and stopped off for coffee and milkshakes at the very stylish Three Monkeys cafe, which backs onto a gorgeously lush paddy field.

I wanted to give myself plenty of time to drive back to Kuta before dark, so we set off around 5pm. But not too long into the drive I was totally lost again. Asking various clueless locals for directions was fruitless as always, but eventually I found my way onto a familiar major road. But once we hit Kuta I got totally lost again (and by now it was just getting dark). Myself and Enda had walked around Kuta a fair bit, but I couldn't recognise anything I drove past. Again, just after driving around and around I eventually spotted some familiar landmarks, and I made my way to a road along which I knew how to get home. But of course, the traffic was now totally clogged up, and I was getting worried about running out of fuel.

But eventually, about 7:30pm, we made it back to our hostel, with the bike running on fumes I reckon. I think it was probably the single most frustrating day of driving I have ever had anywhere, and I was mighty relieved to get home. We just grabbed a beer and a bite to eat at our hostel and went to bed, meaning we'd have to spend the following day sorting out where to go next, and how to get there.

Bali and the Kavanaghs

Our flight arrived in Bali pretty much on time, and so after advice from Enda about visa processing taking ages, we ran past all the other passengers leaving the plane, and arrived at the immigration desk before everyone else. It meant we went straight through without any problems (the immigration guy not even noticing Sarah's brand new passport), and outside the terminal we got a taxi straight to Legian, near Enda and Tracy's hotel.

The first hotel place we tried turned out to be lovely, so we dumped our bags, had a shower and strolled to Enda and Tracy's very fancy hotel (our place was lovely, although on our very first night there I was rudely awakened at 3am by a cat falling through the roof and crashing directly into my head! Obviously at first I had no idea what had happened, and felt the 'creature' run across my chest. Sarah leapt up and turned on the light, and then we saw the poor terrified cat trying to escape. Sarah opened the door of the room, and out the poor thing scurried, as I was left bewildered staring at the gaping hole in the roof (it was made up of quite flimsy panels)).

Anyway, arriving at Enda and Tracy's hotel, it turned out that they were on their first holiday 'date-night' in a very fancy restaurant about 25 minutes taxi-ride away (Ku De Ta). So after waiting for them in their apartment-style room with their babysitter, they arrived back and we all went out for dinner (well, just me and Sarah eating of course).

Over the next 5 days myself and Sarah would stroll over to their hotel and spend the day swimming in their pools, sometimes using their spare breakfast vouchers (all 3 of them had been sick for a day, and hadn't eaten much at all), and generally just lounging around in blissful luxury. We had kinda planned on heading to Ubud for a day, or going to the WaterPark nearby, but in the end none of us could be bothered to leave the hotel. Myself and Enda had Flyn a couple of times (while the girls shopped, or Tracy had a facial), just taking him for long walks along the beachfront, or shopping for sunglasses in the markets.

Generally we just a fantastic time relaxing, chatting, and eating and drinking in the evenings in lovely fancy restaurants and bars. It seemed like a long time since we'd spent days of pure luxury, but as with meeting up with other mates around the world, the splashing out was all very much worth it. Enda and Tracy took us out to dinner in Jimbaron, which is famous for it's seafood, and we got a great table right on the beach in front of the crashing waves. Another night we took them out to the justifiably famous stylish beach bar of Ku De Ta for a couple of drinks (the bar/restaurant could easily be from the most fashionable districts of New York or London), before a brilliant Italian meal in nearby Trattoria and more drinks in Hu'u, before heading back to relieve Flyn's babysitter.

Saying 'Goodbye' to Enda , Tracy and Flyn brought on a wee wave of depression at the thought of us having to head home soon too, but naturally that passed after a bit! We headed back to our nice wee hostel needing to look into what we were going to do with the 3 weeks we have left, but first I'd decided to drive to Ubud for the day.

KL

Although the weather was misty and cloudy (largely due to huge forest fires in Sumatra apparently), we decided to check out the city's massive observation tower. This involved a quick metro journey and then a walk through a densely lush jungle park. But due to the poor weather conditions the girl at the ticket counter suggested we try another day. So after watching a 'building of the tower' video we headed across to a nearby 5-star hotel (the Shangri-La) to check it out.

I had read that this hotel has one of the best restaurants in the city, and after checking out the impressive buffet at the Japanese restaurant we tried to make a booking in the famous French restaurant, Lafite, for that evening. But Lafite was fully booked that night, it was closed on Sundays, and we were flying out the following evening, so instead we decided to give the buffet in the hotel's third restaurant a go.

It was still quite early, just midday, so I read the paper in the hotel's very impressive lobby area and then before the crowds got too big, we heading into the buffet. It was absolutely huge, with various cuisines - we had plates full of huge prawns and crab, Malaysian curries, sushi, Western roast meats, salads, an Italian section and of course loads of amazing deserts (after a long breather reading the paper again at our table).

So after that very long, drawn out lunch-dinner we strolled to the Petronas towers, once the tallest buildings in the world. We knew you needed to get there early in the morning to nab one of the free tickets to ride up to the cool sky bridge that links the 2 towers on their 41st floors, but it was only a short stroll from the Shangri-La, so we headed over there to see what we needed to do the next morning.

As it turned out, as we were about to leave the ticket area, an Indian guy approached us and asked if we wanted a couple of tickets for later that evening. It turned out that he had gotten a bunch of tickets earlier that morning, but now a couple of his mates couldn't make it. So after killing about 45 minutes in the attached shopping centre, and 10 minutes watching the Petronas promotional video (basically a TV advert with rubbishy 3-D technology), we were taken up in the lift to the SkyBridge. The weather was still hazy, but the views were still impressive, and just the fact that you're standing on a mad bridge 41 floors above the ground that links these 2 really cool-looking towers was mighty impressive I reckon.

The tower complex also houses a concert hall, but after checking for tickets at the desk for that evening (which they had), it turned out they had a dress code that Sarah couldn't fulfill, as she didn't have any dress shoes, just flip-flops, runners or hiking boots.

So we strolled down the road a wee bit so I could check out a fancy hotel I'd stayed in 10-years ago when Spence, Annie and Mikey came to Malaysia for their holidays and met myself and Hanno. The hotel has changed a bit, but it was still cool to stroll about and remember my few days staying there. We also helped ourselves to free Internet there for a few hours too!

The next day we checked out central sights, mostly around one of the city's main mosques. The mosque itself was a nice building, but in keeping with Muslim tradition everything is quite simple. A cleric guy there approached us and asked if we had any questions, so we got chatting to him for about 30 minutes. He had perfect English, and was fantastic at explaining some of the basic ideas of Islam and their traditions. He even gave us a free Koran and a bunch of leaflets explaining Islamic ideas in simple English.

After that we strolled to a monument to one of Malaysia's founding fathers, and then on to the worlds largest aviary, but that was a tad pricey. Instead we strolled about the nearby orchid and hibiscus gardens before heading back to the centre. We had a great meal in the atmospherically cool Old China Shop restaurant before heading back to the hostel.

The day before I had heard from Enda that the Indonesian visa takes up a full passport page. This caused a fair degree of panic, as Sarah's passport doesn't have any blank pages left. After checking as much as we could on the Internet about ways around the situation we had decided that probably the best option would be to just chance our arms and try and persuade the immigration guys to place the visa sticker over existing stamps (and probably needing to bribe the guy). We found this out on Saturday, so we couldn't ring the Irish embassy (to ask if they could just add extra pages to her passport, which I very much doubted), or the Indonesian embassy until the morning of our late-afternoon Monday flight.

So anyway, on Monday morning Sarah gets up and rings the Irish embassy. As feared, the girl told Sarah they can't add extra passport pages. The girl then told Sarah she'd ring the Indonesian embassy for us to ask if there was anything they could do. An hour later and myself and Sarah are packed, checked-out and back in the internet place to ring the Irish embassy again to see what the Indonesian guys had said. It turned out that the embassy said there was nothing Sarah could do - she would be refused entry to Indonesia (of course, the embassy has to take the official line, they certainly couldn't have suggested bribing an immigration official!).

Anyway, the girl then suggests that Sarah come to the Irish embassy and apply for a temporary Irish passport that would allow her travel, but the chances of getting the new passport for our afternoon flight that day were slim to zero (as the girl's boss wasn't in the embassy for some reason). So we headed straight to the embassy in a taxi, and Sarah pleads with the lovely girl to try and get the passport processed quickly. The girl keeps saying it would be impossible, but I could tell from her general body language that it should be possible, it just meant hassle for them, and working through their lunch hour. It also meant Sarah had run out and get fresh passport photos, fill in an application form, get that form signed by a commissioner of oaths (another taxi ride away) and pay 80Euro!

Amazingly we managed to get all that done and Sarah was handed her new temporary passport after about 2 hours. Totally relieved and with a fair bit of time to spare, we bundled ourselves into a taxi and headed straight to the airport (it wasn't that much more expensive than the express train anyway, even though it's 73km away). So even though we'd had a very stressful weekend worrying about the passport situation, the extremely helpful Malaysian staff at the Irish embassy really were fantastic and saved the day, and at 4pm that afternoon we were on our Air Asia flight to Bali.

Getting to Malaysia

We arrived at the bus terminal nice and early (as we had to leave lots of time in case traffic was bad, but in fact we flew in), so we had time to use the Internet for an hour and then got a fantastic Thai buffet lunch in a fast-food kind of place.

The bus was another comfy air-con deal, with seats that reclined really far, and so I had a great nights sleep (and this was the cheapest bus option, so I don't know what you're paying for when you get a more expensive bus). We stopped at about 11pm at a food emporium place, as is usual on long distance bus trips, but as I was just strolling about I noticed that people from our bus were all sitting at communal tables sharing buffet meals of food - like a family in a Chinese restaurant (the same big circular rotating plate in the middle of the table that you see in Chinese restaurants). The people certainly didn't all know each other (nobody was talking to each other), so I asked the hostess from our bus was the food free, and she says 'Yes!' and points me to a seat at one of the tables. So I run back to grab Sarah and we both sit down to our free dinner, which turned out to be fantastic too! We had gorgeous big juicy prawns, and fiery chicken curry with rambutans for dessert - it was great.

It was weird that probably the two best Thai meals we've had on this trip (and this was our 3rd time in Thailand), were in a fast-food place in a bus terminal (58 baht each), and a free dinner included in a bus ticket in a food place in the middle of nowhere. Both meals were catering to Thais as very few tourists take the Government buses (especially from Bangkok to Hat Yai, mostly they take Koh Shan Road buses direct to tourist destinations like Phuket or Koh Samui (which generally involve some kind of a rip-off along the way, as I know from repeated experience)). But also, our guidebook is the 'Shoestring' one for South-East Asia, so it doesn't list any fancy restaurants for Thailand, so that's probably the main reason I haven't been blown away by the Thai food on this trip.

So anyway, our bus arrived on time in Hat Yai, which was early in the morning. Many of the operators for buses to Malaysia weren't open yet, so I just strolled about and eventually got money out from an ATM that didn't charge a fee. After checking with a number of places I took the cheapest option for a bus to Kuala Lumpur (450 baht each, after offers of 590, 550 and 500). By simply changing bus myself in Hat Yai I had saved nearly 1500 baht over getting a bus all the way from Bangkok to KL (and that would have requiring waiting around and changing bus in Hat Yai anyway, so the operators in Bangkok were really ripping people off, and luckily I didn't fall for it - I almost did though).

So at 8:30am, we had a free tuk-tuk to the actual bus departure place, we grabbed some brekkie nearby and then our bus arrived and left for KL spot-on time at 9am. This was a super-comfy bus with just 3 seats across, and big fat cushiony seats, so we both had more sleep on the 8 hour journey to KL.

As we got off the bus in KL it started to rain heavily, but of course in the tropics, the rain generally doesn't last long, so after sheltering for 10 minutes we headed off and got a lovely hostel nearby. Once settled in there and showered we were told they had a free buffet dinner that night in the rooftop bar. Now, I generally don't expect much from a buffet, especially a free one, and especially a free one in a cheap hostel - so in fact I asked could we change to a free breakfast instead, but they said no. So up we went to check out the free buffet, and my god, it was fantastic! I'm not sure what had been going on for the past couple of days, but somehow we seemed to be blessed with the best food in months that was cheap-as-chips, or completely free. Needless to say we both got completely stuffed (the mashed potato was heaven-sent!).

So after that I needed to walk off some of the excess food I'd gobbled, and so we strolled up to nearby Merderka Square (the famous centre of the city), and just popped into a famous restaurant I remembered from my last time in KL (the Coliseum), and then checked out the Little India food market before going back to bed.

It had been super-easy to get all the way from Bangkok to KL, and not so expensive either (once you do it in stages), and now we had a couple of days to relax in KL before flying to Bali to meet up with Enda, Tracy and the FCK (their son, Flyn Conor Kavanagh!).

Back in Bangkok

So leaving Koh Chang we got up early enough, and strolled up to the village to get a songthaw to the ferry. After all the usual connections to and from the ferry and Trat (much quicker and coordinated this time though), we arrived in Bangkok Eastern Bus terminal around 5pm. A quick ride on the SkyTrain, a wee wait for a number 15 bus, and then getting seriously stuck in traffic (one set of traffic lights held the bus up for nearly an hour, so it was lucky I had resisted Sarah's demands to get a taxi from the bus station). After taking so long we were both pretty hungry, so we popped into a recommended vegetarian place for dinner (Arawy). I thought the food was fantastic, although Sarah didn't like it much, which has been unusual for us.

Anyway, then it was a stroll back to the Merry V Guesthouse near Koh Shan Road (Sarah getting worried it might be full - but of course it was practically empty!), and then we used the Internet for a bit before bed.

Next day I got up and got a bus out to the Southern Bus Terminal to check out buses to Malaysia (and getting a bit of a shock at the high prices - so I only booked as far as Hat Yai, as you have to change bus there for KL anyway), and then after heading back to Sarah I headed out to Siam Square for the day while Sarah used the Internet.

I was very impressed with the Siam Paragon centre. Although being the Buddhist I am(!), I wasn't impressed with all the consumerism, flash lambourghinis and designer clothes shops, I was more impressed with all the free taster's they were offering in the Gourmet market on the ground floor (and the cool orchid exhibition they had). The Gourmet market is a seriously huge supermarket of very upmarket (i.e. heavily pre-packaged) food goods, and the nearby food stalls and counters were just irresistable. So I just spent the whole afternoon just pottering around and exploring, and for the first time in my life I think I might have gotten a small insight into why Americans seem to be so entralled by the idea of a shopping mall.

Anyway, by late afternoon I had to head back to Sarah at the hotel, where we ordered a bite to eat and then I used the Internet some more to try and catch up on this blog. We had a leisurely day the next day, as the bus to Hat Yai is an overnight bus leaving Bangkok at 5pm. So after a nice lie-in and a Western breakfast in a cafe we checked-out, and used up all our remaining internet credit before getting a local bus to the bus terminal (it feels a bit weird as I come towards the end of this trip after being on the road now for over 2 years, but getting another overnight long-distance bus seems like a new beginning for some reason...).

Koh Chang, 10 years later

The bus journey to the Thai/Cambodia border was effortless as always, and with no queues at all with either immigration it was all a breeze (although a very sudden, and short-lived, downpour got me soaked walking the 200m between the border posts).

On the Thai side I had to wait around for the minibus to depart towards the travel hub town of Trat. Once at Trat I had to wait around again for over an hour for the songthaw to fill up before heading to the ferry departure point. Once there it was just a short wait for the ferry to arrive, and after a quick turn-around I was off on the 1-hour ferry crossing. Then it was a 45-minute songthaw to Lonely Beach, getting dropped off at Siam Hut, where Sarah was sitting in the doorway of hut 24D waiting.

Due to all the waiting around for transport connections, it was nearly 8pm at this stage, and poor Sarah had been getting worried about me. After a very quick shower it was out for a tasty dinner in the nearby local restaurant, and then a well-deserved early night for me, exhausted as I was by the long day of travel.

The next day we just relaxed on the lovely stretch of beach beside our hotel, swimming in the sea to cool down from the fierce heat. That night we had a good laugh at that night's party place - it was very much low season, and so the various bars alternate their party nights, offering free finger food and cheap booze, of which we freely partook of course.

The following day was again just chilling out on the beach, and although I was very careful of the fierce sun, I still managed to get sunburnt again! Both myself and Sarah thought we were sitting in the shade, but somehow I still managed to get burnt whilst reading the newspaper. So after that I really needed to avoid the sun completely, as so the next day we rented a moped to explore the island properly.

First stop was the small village of Bang Boa, which is weirdly built on a pier extending out into the sea. The tide was out when we got there, so the pier extended out over muddy flats, although the lighthouse at the very end was nicely over pristine water and gave nice views back along the 'town'. We had a tasty curry breakfast here before heading back on the road.

We stopped off at Thor's Palace for a few more nibbles, as it was a fairly hyped place, but we both thought the food there was just average. Then we trekked all the way out to Long Beach, as Sarah thought the blurb about it being 'amazing' sounded good. It turned out that after quite a rough ride when the road turned to bad rough track (and the moped suffered a few nasty-sounding cracks), that the beach was nice, but certainly nothing special. All the hype is based on the fact that the area is undeveloped with just 2 places to stay, but being low-season, our beach at Lonely Beach had much the same number of people hanging around (and had a lot more options for food, drink, etc.).

So then I really wanted to revisit the main stretch of beach on the island, White Sands beach. This was where I had stayed 10 years ago, and which was definitely one of the highlights of my last big trip. I knew that the whole area had been seriously developed in the intervening years, but when I got down to White Sand Beach Resort, which was, and still is, the last resort at one end of the long stretch of still pristine beach, it really hadn't changed that much at all.

It was still a long walk along the beach (the resort had no road access at all 10 years ago), and with me wearing my rain jacket, socks and long trousers to keep the sun off, I must have looked a right sight in the searing sun. Anyway, the resort has certainly moved up-market (the bungalows on the beachfront were 1200 baht in low-season, when 10 years ago I think they were 150 baht in high-season!), and the huts are far more sturdy now (and therefore far less romantic of course), but the location is still fantastic and the rustic feel of the development, and the individual-ness of the isolated beach-front huts has been well maintained.

So after that nice wee trip down memory lane (and a yellow curry in the restaurant, which was nothing like the amazing curries I remembered from 10 years ago), it was back to Siam Hut for a sundowner before bed.

We could have stayed another day on Koh Chang, but with me having to avoid the sun completely, and Sarah getting a bit bored with it all after being there over a week, we decided to head back to Bangkok and start organising getting down to Malaysia.

Phnom Penh

My pickup arrived spot-on time at 06:30, and dropped me to my bus a few kilometers away through the city, and then off I went to Phnom Penh, a journey of about 5 hours. The bus was again really comfy, and the roads were great and the countryside lush, so I arrived feeling pretty fresh.

First thing was to get money from a nearby ATM, then lunch at a nice-looking local diner place I'd passed (more lovely local food), and then a bit of a stroll to check out hotels. I settled on the last one, Tat Guesthouse, a nice cheap place that also just happened to rent bikes - a real bonus. So that evening I just strolled about the local area, and was again struck by just how clean, neat and tidy everything seems to be. The roads are in perfect condition, the streets are wide, the traffic seems relatively light and the whole region seems to be totally flat. So after another tasty curry dinner near the riverfront it was a nice leisurely stroll back to bed.

But one thing that did really annoy me was the constant approaches of the tuk-tuk drivers asking where I was going, and did I want a ride. It was the same in Siem Reap, and I had noticed in Phnom Penh particularly that nobody walks anywhere. Even though the pavements are wide and in good condition, they are just used as car parks with cars parked perpendicular to the road, and thereby making it awkward to walk along. Anyway, like in Siem Reap, an MP3 player was invaluable and Marilyn Manson at full volume was just the ticket for easily ignoring their constant pleas - and afterwards having the bicycle meant no hassle at all.

Next morning I got my bike and off I went to the famous Khmer Rouge prison, S-21. This prison was notorious during the reign of Pol Pot as it was used to interrogate and torture many thousands of Cambodians before they were moved out to the nearby Killing Fields and executed. I spent the whole morning here, as it was really quite other-worldly. There are obvious comparisons with Auschwitz, but here they have no qualms about showing lots of gruesome photos of dead bodies, which I found the most disturbing thing about the whole place.

It's incredible that the place used to be a school, and is right in the middle of a busy city, but the way they've presented everything there was very impressive, and it was really informative (although the English documentary movie they showed was a bit rubbish).

So I had lunch across the road from the 'school' in a lovely modern restaurant and sat out the usual hourly daily thunderstorm in great comfort. Then it was back on my bike and off to the national museum after riding down along the riverfront (although they are currently building something along much of the front). The museum was quite small, and was mostly just statues, bronzes and the like so I didn't linger that long. Instead I headed to the nearby Raffles Hotel to check out the restaurant and bar there.

The Elephant Bar is famous, and justly so I reckon. It has a lovely colonial feel to it, and the happy hour beer (a cool half-yard of ale) was great value, given that I got a big bowl of tasty nachos to go with it. The restaurant menu was very expensive of course, but it had lobster and so I reckoned I might give that a go the next evening when I was properly attired (I had arrived in the posh bar, ordered a beer and popped into the toilet to freshen up a bit after cycling around the city all day. It was only when I saw myself in the mirror that I realised what a total and utter knacker I looked in my ripped shorts, and totally bedraggled looking T-shirt that is full of holes. I had a right cheek swanning into such a swish hotel looking like I did - so after a wee chuckle and a shrug I felt quite proud of myself really!).

I only stayed in the Elephant Bar for one beer and then hopped back on the bike and explored the city a bit more (having the bike in Phnom Penh was really the perfect way to get about, even more so than Siem Reap).

Next day I took the bike again, and this time headed out to the Killing Fields themselves. These are about 12km from the city centre, and the guidebook said they were clearly signposted. Well, the book was wrong again, and I ended up going the wrong way and added about 20km to the ride out there (at least I got to see a lot more of the city outskirts, not that there was much to see).

But after all that extra cycling, the Killing Fields site doesn't have that much to see either. The on-site museum was small, empty and closed, and the site is really just a number of marked graves and a nice poignant pagoda that displays a large number of human skulls reclaimed from some of the graves. It was a nice peaceful place to stroll around for a bit though, and I relaxed there for a while after my overly long cycle. On the way back to the city I stopped off to use the Internet to avoid the daily rains and then after heading back to my hotel for a quick refreshing shower, I got back on the bike and explored yet more of the city's cool cafes and bars.

I didn't bother eating at the restaurant at the Raffles Hotel in the end, as the place was completely deserted and so had no atmosphere (and the last time I ate lobster in a deserted fancy restaurant it hadn't turn out so well). So instead I just went to the cool FCC bar for a couple of happy hour beers sitting on the terrace looking out over the river, and then got dinner at a cool outdoor local restaurant. Again the food was really tasty, and I really loved the nighttime atmosphere there, being the only Westerner in the place, and the whole outdoorsy-ness of sitting on a plastic stool and being right on the corner of a busy road intersection.

As with Siem Reap I was very tempted to spend another day just relaxing in Phnom Penh, but I decided to head off the next day back to Thailand and catch up with Sarah again on Koh Chang. So it was a not-so early morning stroll to the bus depot and hopping on the bus to the border, which yet again was really comfy and left spot on time.

Siem Reap

First impressions of Siem Reap, and the journey from the Thai border, where all very good indeed. Everything looked so clean, neat and tidy, the road was in perfect condition and had very little traffic, so we zipped along. Nobody seemed to be beeping much either, which was a great relief after four and a half months of it in India and Nepal, so everything was so easy and just a real pleasure.

The first thing I noticed about the town of Siem Reap was the number of fancy hotels all along the main approach road. They all looking the same though, with none of them having anything distinctively characteristic about them (at least from the outside). So after getting settled in the lovely Jasmine Lodge and watching a rerun of the Champions League final I strolled into the town centre. Again here everything seemed really well kept, with the bars, cafe and restaurants all looking very swish. I settled into a nice looking place for a beer (US$0.50) and stayed when I say how good looking the food was that other people were getting. It was a delicious Cambodian soupy dish call Amok, and so my positive first impressions just kept on coming.

Although tourism numbers are well down in Cambodia (probably like everywhere at the moment), the town had a good buzz about it, so I hung around until quite late. Next morning after a big US$1 breakfast I hired a bike and set off to explore the town properly. The idea was just to potter about really, but it turned out the map in my guidebook was pretty crap, and so I soon lost any idea of where I was and ended up surrounded by lovely forest. But having a bike of course, means you're never too far away from anywhere, and I still had a vague idea of where the city was, so I just kept going.

Eventually I come across this mad arched gateway in the middle of the forest. I stop to take a wee video, and then continue on and next thing I know I'm looking at one of the most famous structures of Ankgor Wat - Bayon! It was obvious I'd stumbling onto the Ankgor site via a side entrance, and not having a ticket I was a bit nervous of getting nabbed and fined. But after riding about for a bit it was clear that the ticket inspectors only check for tickets if you actually enter a temple - just riding around the site seemed safe enough (in fact, the whole complex is so large that many locals pass through various sections of it as they go about their daily business).

So I spent the next couple of hours riding around the complex just getting my bearings. It was great, as this meant I could now just get a single day pass (I had planned on getting the 3-day pass, as there is no 2-day pass) the following day, and I'd already know my way around. I did get the worst sunburn of the whole trip though. I had applied suncream of course, but it was just so hot and humid all day, that I should have re-applied it a lot more than I did.

So very early the next morning (5am), I get up and set off for Angkor Wat again, hoping to get there for sunrise. I had to cover up as much as possible after getting burnt the day before, so I looked a bit stupid wearing a rain jacket on such a hot day (to cover my arms), and with my T-shirt pulled up over my mouth and tucked in behind my ears (to protect my burnt neck). But luckily since SARS a few years ago, the swine flu now, and general traffic pollution, a lot of people cycle and ride their motorbikes with face masks, so I actually looked pretty normal really!

Unfortunately, on the way to the site I took a wrong road (again my guidebook map was wrong), and it meant I had to backtrack about 10kms to find the one and only ticket office. Having gotten my ticket I arrived at a recommended temple a little after sunrise. There was just one other couple there, so it was nice and relaxed, but the view of distant Angkor Wat itself wasn't as impressive as I was expecting.

Next I strolled about the main temple of Angkor Wat itself. Again the whole site was relatively quiet, something I've now noticed all over Cambodia - I even read yesterday in the paper that the tourism board of Cambodia is asking operators to reduce prices to get more tourists. Anyway, the murals were impressive (although most of the most famous one is being renovated at the moment), but all-in-all I wasn't completely blown-away like all the hype seems to imply.

So I spent another few hours riding about and checking out various temples before riding all the way to the town (about 8km) for a shower and another really tasty lunch. While I was eating the daily thunderstorm struck, so I just relaxed and sat it out - within an hour it was hot and sunny again. So I rode back to the site to ride around the major sightseeing route and see more of the famous temples, including my favorite one with huge trees growing up, over and through the ancient stone buildings.

It started to get dark while I still a good bit away from the entrance (the site really is huge, which is one of the most impressive things about it all I suppose), so I had to race back towards the town, not wanting to crash into a big pothole in the dark. As darkness set in the cicadas started, and at first I got quite a fright - I thought it was some weird kind of air-raid siren (they are one of the loudest insects in the world). Then millions of them started their piercing calls, and it was quite amazing really. As it got really dark the whole surrounding jungle seemed to completely come alive with loads of mad-sounding insect calls, it really was amazingly atmospheric.

So back in the town, it was yet another delicious dinner that night (it seems you just can't go wrong with Cambodian food), and a well deserved early night after the serious number of kilometers on the bike over the past 2 days. I was seriously tempted to stay on another day, as I really liked Siem Reap, and I could have just ridden through the Angkor site again at my leisure, but instead I decided to move on down to the capital Phnom Penh.

Cambodia, at last.

So at the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet I was immediately accosted by the usual moto-taxi guys, and bargained a price to the border, about 15 minutes drive away.

The guidebook had warned me of plenty of scams at this border, so I wasn't surprised when the driver turns off the main road, with the border clearly visible straight in front of us. He pulls up outside a travel agent guy, who of course comes running out and starts pushing forms in my face telling me I have to apply for the Cambodian visa with him. I knew this was the first of the scams, and so told the driver to take me the border immediately. He's a bit hesitant, looking at the agency guy, but I'm insistent. At this point, I see a Westerner guy walking back from the border (he was clearly going the other direction), so I called him over and asked him what the story was with visas etc. He explains that the agency guy is trying to scam me, and that you can get the visa at the border itself. He tells me that the border guards try and scam more money out of you though, and if you refuse, they'll leave you waiting for hours, but eventually you'll get through.

So anyway, I again insist that the driver take me to the border, and he agrees (obviously I haven't paid him a cent yet), so off we head again. Just before the border he pulls over again, to another agency place! This time I can see the border is just 100m in front of me, so I pay the driver, ignore the touts pushing the same visa forms in my face, telling me that I HAVE to fill them in (I just tell them politely 'Oh well, in that case I'll be back so'), and walk straight over to the border. I saw a group of 4 Westerners filling in the forms there, and was tempted to go over and tell them they were all being scammed (the agency charges 200 Baht to fill in the forms, which are free really), but I just couldn't be bothered - they'll learn eventually I suppose, maybe.

At the Thai border the large queues moved quickly and I got through easily. I knew the problem would be the Cambodian side. Luckily, there wasn't any queue at all at the visa-on-arrival counter, and a nice big helpful sign over the booth stated the visa charge was US$20. A 'helpful' border guard gives me the form, lends me his pen, and smilingly states the charge is 1000Baht (US$30). I, of course, say 'No!', and I point at the sign over his head. He then sheepishly tells me to talk to the guy behind the counter, who also suggests 1000Baht.

I had been expecting all this of course, and had deliberately emptied my wallet of all cash except a single US$20 note. I made a very deliberate show of opening my wallet and giving the guy the 'only money I had', telling him, and showing him, I had no more, and pointing again at the sign. He then sheepishly asks for an extra 100Baht, which was a bit pathetic of him really, but I just repeat that I have no more money, and that the visa is US$20. He backs down pretty quick, smiles, and just takes my passport and money, and tells me to take a seat and wait.

Now I'm kinda worried that I'll be left sitting there for the whole day, but just 2 minutes later I'm called over, and handed my passport with the visa in place and the guards are all smiles and 'Thank you's, and off I go.

So with the border stuff sorted out with no problems, the next issue was getting transport to Siem Reap. As soon as I get through the Cambodian immigration the touts are on top of me trying to push their bus services, but I can see immediately that their prices are outrageous. They offer a free shuttle bus to the 'station', so I hop in that (I'm the only passenger), and the bus drives about 400 meters to a tour agency office. So ignoring their pleas and their very helpful information that they had the only bus going towards Siem Reap, I walk on and start asking shared-taxi drivers for prices to the town of Sisyphon (half-way to Siem Reap).

Naturally the prices start crazy high, so I walk on and ask the next guy, and then the next. You always need to let the next guy know you've just refused the price of the previous guy, and so after a few of these guys I eventually get a fair price (according to the guidebook anyway, you can never be completely sure what a 'fair' price is with local fluctuations). With shared-taxis the driver will generally wait until he has a full taxi, but generally they'll leave within the hour if not full, hoping to pick up extra passengers on the way. It was a very slow day when I was there though, and so with just 3 passengers (instead of the usual 6), and after waiting about 45 minutes, we headed off.

The road from the Thai border to Siem Reap used to be the most notoriously bad road in all of South-East Asia for backpackers (apparently a local airline bribed the Government into not improving the road for many years, so that people would pay the extra to fly). Anyway, the road has finally been upgraded - even my guidebook from late 2008 talks about the road being a nightmare, and I just read that they only finished it less than a month before I got there. So it was a total breeze flying along brand new tarmac to Sisyphon. Once there I transferred to another shared-taxi, waiting about another 30 minutes, and headed off to Siem Reap with just 2 passengers (so I had the whole back seat to myself).

Along the way the taxi driver stopped to grab a bite to eat, which turned out to be a small plastic bag of fried crickets. He kindly offered one, and of course I took it - and I swear it was actually very tasty. I've tried fried maggots before, which only really tasted of the oil they were cooked in, and had a big of crispyness to them, but this cricket was genuinely lovely and had a good bit of 'bite' to it. At another stop later in Cambodia I saw stalls of fried crickets, but also huge fried cockroaches and a massive pile of big, black fried tarantulas. I'm afraid I didn't have the nerve to try either of them, which I kinda regret now - if I had someone with me who was game (certainly not Sarah I'm sure), I'm sure I would have. I didn't take any photos even, which was really stupid - for some reason I assumed I'd see lots of these types of stalls, but in fact I only saw it once more and they didn't have any of the spiders.

Anyway, once at Siem Reap it was the same story with the taxi driver - he left me off a little outside the town, with more moto-taxis pouncing on me when I got out. But I wanted to head to a guesthouse a bit outside town anyway, so I just walked there in about 10 minutes. I got a great big room there for just US$3 a night, with attached bathroom, fan and cable TV (Jasmine Lodge). Then I headed out for a top-notch Cambodian curry in the lovely centre of town, and then a few US$0.50 beers to celebrate finally getting to Siem Reap, on this my 3rd attempt (the 1st attempt was when I was with Hanno 10 years ago, but I got 'stuck' on Koh Chang - the 2nd attempt was from Vietnam with Sarah, but I'd screwed up on the Vietnamese visas and lost a few days sorting them out in Hong Kong, and so skipped Cambodia again).

Back in Bangkok

Our first day back in Bangkok we just relaxed in the Khao San Road area, not doing very much. The following day Sarah just relaxed there again, but I fancied getting out and exploring a bit. I also wanted to check out the Government buses to the Cambodian border (the tourist buses from Khao San Road are all notorious rip-off merchants).

So I hopped on a local bus to the SkyTrain, got a train to Mo Chit and started walking towards the bus station. It all looked very straightforward on the map, but turned out to be a major hike - I really shouldn't have even tried it. But of course, once I started I wasn't going to quit, and after wandering around for ages, I eventually arrived at the bus station (and one big consolation was that I spotted a huge, fat 6-foot long snake right in front of me as I strolled though the park - and this was right beside people's family homes). So I got the information about buses to the border, and then strolled back to the SkyTrain, but this time took the metro to Sukhumvit (the subway is new, and very like the one in Hong Kong, all extremely modern, clean, slick and air-conditioned).

So I strolled about Sukhumvit, checking out Cheap Charlies, the historic Atlanta Hotel, and the famous Cabbages and Condoms restaurant. Had to wait nearly 30 minutes for a bus back to Sarah, so when I got back we just popped outside to the street stalls for a quick dinner (eaten under tarps as torential rain came down, but only briefly of course). Next morning we got up early and both got taxi's to different bus stations - I was heading to Cambodia while Sarah headed to Koh Chang.

The Cambodian visa takes up a full passport page, and Sarah's passport is almost completely full, with no blank pages at all. I had tried 5 or 6 times to get an online visa for her, but every time the website was down, or would report an error during the application process. This is the third time I've tried to get to Cambodia, so we decided that I'd just head there on my own (my passport has plenty of space), while Sarah would head to Koh Chang and wait for me to catch up with her there.

So I got to my bus station at 6:29am, and as I get to the counter the girl asks if I want a seat on the 6:30am bus. I ask her if I have time, and she says 'Sure!', and so I get the ticket, run around the corner and hop on the bus. Literally 2 minutes later it's pulling out and off I go towards the Cambodian border in cheap, air-conditioned and rip-off-free comfort.

Back in Kolkata

The overnight bus from Siliguri left spot on time, and turned out to be a very comfy bus, with loads of legroom and a seat that reclined way back. It meant I slept really well for most of the journey, and in fact it meant I slept all the way through a major cyclone!

The cyclone (Alia) swept up through Bengal, right along the route of our bus, and actually initiated a very early monsoon (12 days earlier that expected). The monsoon resulted in major landslides and flooding, and at least 60 people were killed, many of them in the region of Darjeeling. We saw on the TV, and read in the local papers, over the following couple of days that hundreds of tourists had been stranded in Darjeeling, as the access roads had been cut-off. It turned out we got out just in time - literally.

Although we didn't escape completely unscathed. At about 6am, when we were due to arrive in Kolkata, our bus suddenly stopped in blocked traffic. After about half-an-hour our driver realised that traffic wasn't going to get moving any time soon, and so turned the bus around, and dropped us all off at a very nearby train station (Krishnanagar). We'd gotten a cheaper bus, less than half the price of the luxury bus, and as we turned around, we passed that 'luxury' bus stranded in traffic.

Very luckily for us, Krishnanagar turned out to be a major train hub, and within 5 minutes of getting tickets (after queuing up in the huge, but quickly moving line), our train pulled out of the station and heading off toward Kolkata. We got seats straight away (as Krishnanagar was the starting point for the train), but of course it was completely packed well before the nearly 3 hour journey to Kolkata. Along the way we saw hundreds of uprooted palm trees and lots of general damage caused by the cyclone - it was just so weird that I'd slept all the way thought it (a French guy beside me on the train couldn't believe I hadn't noticed the bus being buffeted about!).

So it meant we arrived about 4 hours late, but I didn't mind that in the slightest - I realised we had been blessed to get out of Siliguri at all, and to be arriving at Kolkata at all. Kolkata had also been hit badly by the cyclone - I saw lots of uprooted trees, and apparently people were protesting about power cuts and stuff (I read that loads of ATM's where out of action too, but the first one I went to worked fine - luckily, as I really needed to get money to pay for our accommodation).

At Kolkata's Sealdah train station I decided to try and walk to the tourist area of Sutter Street, where we'd stayed before, and although I thought I'd screwed it up a couple of times, we eventually arrived at our destination of one of the best little local restaurants in all of 3 months in India (can't remember the name, but just down from Sutter Street towards Park Street).

That evening we went back to the restaurant Peter Cat for dinner. I'd seen Fried Chicken Liver on menus a few times, and had been keen to try it (Sarah hates liver, and as we always share it's awkward for me to order it). Anyway, seeing as how we were early to the restaurant and this was one of our last meals in India, I ordered the liver as a starter, and my god it was amazing! I reckon it was one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. It came with a really tasty sauce, and was perfect with the slightly pickled red onions you always get in Bengali restaurants. It was a big serving though, so I asked if I could just eat half and take the rest away, but I just couldn't stop nibbling away at it, and so finished the lot. It had an amazing texture, like the best foie gras I've ever had, and was just so melty. Sarah tasted a tiny piece, but I swear she went 'Yuk!' before it even went into her mouth.

So given all the cyclone problems in Kolkata, I decided to play it safe the next day and make sure we could get to the airport in plenty of time for our 9:25am flight to Bangkok the following day. So it was back to our usual Kolkata breakfast spot for more of the delicious local fish dish (white fish fillet coated in tangy sauce and cooked in a banana leaf), before using the internet for a bit. Then it was on the metro to a famous restaurant called Kewpies for lunch.

Kewpies is a lovely fancy restaurant, and the food was great (Sarah getting a thali and me picking-and-mixing), although quite overpriced really (Peter Cat was a fancier place and much cheaper). Then after a relaxing coffee it was back to collect our rucksacks and head out towards the airport. This involved the metro, and then a local bus, which got well and truly snarled up in rush-hour traffic. We were in no rush though, and once out by the airport Sarah found a decent place to spend the night. After a light dinner I strolled over to the airport, just to see how far it was (it was only a 10 minute walk), and to see if I could re-confirm our flight. After a bit of mad running around I couldn't get any confirmation at all, and so rushed back to the hotel area to find an internet place to print off my online flight confirmation (online bookings usually just need a reference number, but Air India Express didn't give me one, so I was a bit worried).

Anyway, all was well the next morning, and we checked in no problem. The flight left Kolkata early, arrived in Bangkok early and we even got feed onboard. So we were back in Bangkok for a couple of days and needed to work out where to go next...

Darjeeling

Oh boys, is Darjeeling a confusing wee town to arrive in, especially in the dark! Although we had two guidebooks, both with maps of the town, the fact that it's built sprawling over the ridge of a steep-sided mountain, and is made up of winding narrow streets and laneways made it a very tough job to find your bearings. It was poor Sarah's turn to do the route-finding to the guesthouses, and it took about an hour to find the first of those places.

But once we had our bearings, and Sarah raced around checking out the options we settled on a nice quiet place. It's high-season here at the moment, mainly due I think to the fierce heat down on the Indian plains - so there are far more Indian tourists than Western. It turned out that quite a few of the guesthouses were full, so I think we were kinda lucky to get the place we did (it isn't mentioned in the guidebooks). But it turned out to be quite damp, so we moved down the road to a much cheaper and drier place after just 2 nights.

One of the highlights of the Darjeeling area is trekking in the mountains, but after checking it out it turns out that guides are mandatory. I really hate the idea of having a guide for 5 or 6 days, and so decided to leave the trekking this time - also the weather forecast (such as you can forecast in the mountains), didn't bode well, and in fact it's turned out to be raining every day we were there, sometimes just briefly, at other times in prolonged bursts. So I reckon hiking with our lack of proper rain gear would have been pretty miserable.

Our first full day we spent getting the lie of the land, and checked out all the Top-End hotels. Obviously in such a famous tea place, all the top hotels do fancy High Teas, so I was hunting around to see which place looked the best. By far the best of the hotels, I thought, was the Elgin. It was modern and spotless and had a nice relaxed atmosphere, and so it won the day (the Windamere was nice, but just too old-fashioned, and not in a nice olde-world way either, more in a damp, musty, 1940's kind of way). Of course, the High Tea itself was quite a disappointment in the Elgin - it was just very plain sandwiches, a load of tinned biscuits and some tasty pakoras, and it cost a relative arm and a leg (we should have just ordered one between us - d'oh!), but at least the surroundings were lovely and relaxing and it was a nice place to read the local papers (so I came back a few days later to do just that again, but without the high tea).

The next day I went strolling about the town while Sarah lingered on the Internet. I visited the fairly impressive zoo, where they are successfully breeding snow leopards, red pandas and Tibetan wolves - all of which I saw close up and running about, and all of which were fabulous looking critters. Attached to the zoo is the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, which was worth a look, but at this stage I've read and seen so much about Everest it's getting a bit jaded.

Another of the 'things-to-do', is to ride the famous Toy Train that was the original means of getting to Darjeeling. This is a narrow gauge railway (the tracks are just 2 feet wide), and they still run steam powered locomotives along the route for tourists. We waited a few days before trying to book the train, in the vain hope that the cloudy and rainy weather might clear up a bit. But after 4 days we needed to try and book a train from Darjeeling to Kolkata to catch our flight to Bangkok on the 28th, so I planned on doing all the train bookings in one go. But when we arrived at the train station, the booking office was closed for the day, and so we had to come back the following morning.

Next morning at 8am there were large queues at the 3 ticket desks. As I said this is high-season, and so the Indian trains are always mad crowded. It turned out that there were no seats on any trains to Kolkata for the following 4 days, leaving us with the bus as the only option. We have to get back to Siliguri to sort that out, so fingers crossed we won't have any problems there. But at least we managed to book seats on the Toy Train for the following morning.

The next morning we woke to the best weather we'd yet had in Darjeeling, and so we were both looking forward to the train ride. We got to the station at 10:40 and took a few photos of the tiny (hence Toy) Train plodding along and connecting with the 3 small passenger carriages. So after the engineers spent about 5 minutes filling the water tank, and pouring oil all over the pistons and main workings, we set off. The going was pretty slow I have to say, but it really was quite a novelty to riding along been pulled by a steam engine. It really had to labour up the slopes, and the chugging was quite cute. But the poor old engine (literally 109 years old apparently), just wasn't cut out for it that day. About half-way to Ghoom we stopped for about half-an-hour for some repairs, then continued for a bit before attempting a steep section of track 3 times before the engineers called it a day and sent us back to Darjeeling in a passing jeep. At least we got a full refund back at the station with no fuss at all, so we ended up having 1.5 hours of steam-train travel for free - nice!

Darjeeling is also blessed with some mighty fine restaurants, although I think you can say that about just about any town in India. But I was particularly delighted to find that the nicest and most atmospheric of these places was also really, really cheap (it's rightly mentioned as the 'Best Pick' in the Lonely Planet). Obviously, given the history of this trip so far, I have no problem paying out a lot of money for good food in a nice restaurant with great views, but when you get all that and for pennies, it really is a joy to just sit back and relax. So needless to say, given the weather and everything, I've been pretty much camped in Glenary's since we arrived! In fairness though, the town has another cheap top spot, The Park, but I think I still prefer the atmosphere at Glenary's.

All-in-all we spent a full week in Darjeeling. It rained every day I think, although mostly intermittently, and I only got fleeting views of the distant mountains, usually in the later afternoons. But it was a lovely spot all the same, and the weather, apart from the rain, was very pleasant and cool. The morning we left it was raining hard though, as apparently the monsoon rains have arrived in India 10 days early, and so after a nice pongol breakfast at the Frank Ross cafe, we hopped in a jeep to take us to Siliguri to connect with a bus for Kolkata. Due to the trains being chock-a-block I was a bit worried about getting a bus on spec, but of course the first bus company I tried had seats for that evening.

So we left our rucksacks in the bus office and headed across the road for a fantastic lunch in the well-known local restaurant Khana Khazana. After our huge lunch there we just killed time on the Internet avoiding the rain and waiting for the 5:30 overnight bus back to where it all started in India nearly 4 months ago, Kolkata.

Getting to Darjeeling

So our bus from Janakpur arrived at the border on time, and we completed the effortless formalities very quickly (no queues at all). The next problem became how to move on to our next destination - Darjeeling. I had thought we could get a shared jeep from the border direct to Darjeeling, but everyone was telling me we had to go to Siliguri first.

Of course, you can never, ever trust the information taxi or bus-drivers give you, but after checking around a bit (and changing the last of my Nepali money into Indian), I decided to hop into a nearly full jeep that was clearly leaving for Siliguri immediately. I think you do have to get to Siliguri first, and our jeep, although crowded, was quick and not too uncomfortable.

At Siliguri I started asking around for another shared jeep to take us to Darjeeling, and initially it seemed that it was too late in the day (being about 4pm). I checked across the road at the local bus terminal, but it was definitely was too late for a bus, so I checked around a bit more, and I found a couple of jeeps advertising Darjeeling. So after the usual nonsense over the price, I went back to get Sarah (who was looking after the bags), and we hopped into another jeep for the trip up to Darjeeling.

Again this jeep was quick and fairly comfy, although unfortunately the weather quickly turned very cloudy as we climbed the mountain roads, and so any views were obscured. It was just before dark when we arrived at the famous hill station town of Darjeeling.

Janakpur

The bus to Janakpur was scheduled to leave at 6pm, so after strolling round Kathmandu for the day we decided to head to the local bus station early, as having been there a few days before we knew there was a good internet place nearby. After the usual haggling with the taxi driver we got dropped off near the station, but the internet place had no power.

Throughout our 6 weeks in Nepal power cuts have been extremely frequent. In fact, in Kathmandu load-shedding was in operation for 16 hours every day! Apparently this was due to a lack of rain water over the previous months, and since so much of Nepal's power comes from hydro stations, they have been severely affected. It's interesting that life and business seem to continue fairly normally though - many places have generators, and those that don't just use candles, and the restaurants all use gas of course.

So we had a couple of hours to wait around, but at least the bus left on time. It was quite a comfy bus too, and I would have had a decent enough sleep if it hadn't been for the kid behind me. She was on her mother's lap, and so every time the kid turned over or moved about she'd kick the back of my seat. I guess this is perfectly acceptable behaviour for Nepali's though, as no amount of complaining on my part made any difference.

The bus also arrived in Janakpur pretty much on time, so after a very confusing walk into the town Sarah sorted out the accommodation. The guidebooks had alluded to the fact that this town caters mainly to Indian pilgrims, and not Western travellers. This became very quickly apparent when Sarah checked out the recommended guesthouses, as all of them were pretty grim and all of them expensive. Anyway, the place we stayed was actually pretty nice (and the owner guy claimed he was giving us a room upgrade at no extra charge, which I think was true).

So, as usual after an overnight bus journey, we slept for a couple of hours before checking out the town. The main temple complex was pretty cool alright, and very busy later that evening, with loads of Indian pilgrims milling about and the ladies all wearing mad colourful saris. We also strolled up to the Big Monkey Temple, which houses (imprisons really) a poor overfed monkey, and checked out a couple of the towns many water tanks (sacred washing places).

We ate in the excellent air-conditioned Family Restaurant for lunch and later, while Sarah rested back in the room, I returned for tasty snacks, a couple of beers, and one of my favorite things to do on the whole trip - poring over the guidebook deciding where and how to get to our next destination.

I decided to head towards India early the next morning, and so after haggling with a cycle-rickshaw guy he drops us off on the main road (I had asked for the bus park, but it turned out that the buses did stop at this point too - I was just worried about getting a seat, but it was fine). And so we headed to the border, and again after zero border queues or troubles, we were back in fabulous India.

Kathmandu

The plan for this, my second visit to Kathmandu was to explore the town a bit more than I did 10 years ago (last time we didn't have a Nepal guidebook, just one focused on trekking).

I also really liked the idea of cycling to Daman, which is supposed to have one of the very best viewpoints in all of Nepal. But it's also supposed to be one of the toughest, most gruelling bike rides in the country, and obviously being Nepal, that's saying something. I really fancied the challenge, although of course Sarah was nervous about it. I thought we could just give it a go, and if it turned out to be too much we could just turn back or stay in the nearest guesthouse. I really thought Sarah'd be able for it, as she's been really strong on the hikes, and we've cycled some tough roads on this trip already (riding up mountains is far more mental than physical anyway - it's really all about finding a steady rhythm, and simple self-belief of course).

Anyway, I finally decided against it, as Sarah was too worried and it would have been pretty hard on an unfamiliar bike. Still, if she had done it she would have been really impressed by what she's capable of, but it'll just have to wait until next time (I reckon when I come here again I'll hire a decent bike for a week, get used to it by riding around the Kathmandu valley first, and then tackle Daman once I've 'broken-in' the bike).

So instead we walked the 3 walking tours in our guidebook, which was a lovely way to spend the day. We also popped into the Snowman Cafe, a place famous for it's cakes. I went here 10 years ago too, but don't remember being overly impressed with it. It's just a simply little cafe, but I thought I'd give it another go. This time I was completely blown away by their chocolate cake - definitely the best cake since Brazil, and we went back there 3 more times for more of the same.

We only hired a bike for 1 day to ride to Patan, which is just a few kilometres from Thamel, where we were staying. It was a great day, and having the bikes gave us the freedom to check out buses to our next destination, and head back to a cheap internet place we'd found a couple of days before. Patan was very impressive I must say, and the museum there was interesting (although I certainly wouldn't class it as one of the best on the entire sub-continent like the Lonely Planet claims).

Another place I really wanted to go back to was a fantastic Indian restaurant attached to one of Kathmandu's fancy hotels - Ghar-e-kabab (which sounds like a really bad name for a Bollywood actor), which is in the L'Annapurna Hotel. I'd gone here loads of times with Hanno and Ray last time, and was keen to try it again. When I checked it out, it turned out the whole hotel has been remodelled, and the restaurant has moved buildings. But it was a really fantastic meal, one of the highlights of the trip, even better than I remember from years ago. I think we were lucky to have a good number of other people in the restaurant, which gave the place a nice ambiance, and they had really great unintrusive live music from a 4-piece traditional Indian band.

After such a great meal at Ghar-e-kabab, I decided to really treat ourselves with dinner at Nepal's best restaurant, the Chimney in the famous Yak and Yeti Hotel. The menu here was continental, with lobster and Chateaubriand steak being the obvious choices for me. This time however, it turned out to be probably the biggest disappointment of the whole trip. The restaurant was almost completely empty, and the food was terribly bland - the lobster was tough, and the steak quite tasteless (we ordered a bottle of French Merlot though, and that was the best part of the whole meal). It all cost literally 3 times what the fabulous Ghar-e-kabab cost (6000 rupee as opposed to 2000), but what made the whole thing really disappointing was that I woke up at 3am that morning feeling decidedly ill. 10 minutes later I was throwing the whole lot up into the toilet. Incredible to think that the only 2 times on this trip that I've had any kind of illness at all have both been caused by fancy-dancy restaurants.

Anyway, again I was really lucky, as after throwing up I felt much better, and the next day I felt OK, but just a little 'stomachey'. We decided to stay an extra day in Kathmandu so I could rest and recover (we had booked a bus to Janakpur for 6pm that evening), and by the next morning I was feeling 100% again.

So with another full day in Kathmandu, we got up early, strolled down to Durbar Square (and the Snowman again for one last chocolate cake), used the internet and then just strolled around the lovely old town.

It's been nice to re-visit Kathmandu again. It actually seems less polluted than last time, and the traffic seems less chaotic (although maybe I'm just more de-sensitised to crazy traffic these days). The shop sellers also seems less 'hassley' than I remember, something I noticed in Pokara too. And thankfully the Ghar-e-kabab restaurant is still a knock-out.

So now we head back towards India, breaking up the journey by stopping off in the pilgrimage town of Janakpur, an 11-hour overnight bus journey.