Toys

Pictures of old toys at a museum in Hong Kong

Back home again

Writing this from our local cafe in Budapest. Eating breakfast out, having returned yesterday.

We had a long travel from Hong Kong. After spending the day at Disneyland, we had a flight at 2am (in the meantime went back to the Disneyland hotel where we had spent the previous night, had a swim and ate). The first flight was about 8.5 hours to Doha in Qatar, then 3 hours in the airport, then 5.5 hours to Vienna (and it was delayed a bit), then 2 hours drive to Budapest. From door to door it all came to about 24 hours travel.

Hong Kong is +6 hours so our body clocks are messed up of course. I got out of bed this morning at 5:30 having been half awake for a while, and found the two girls already out of bed and playing quietly. They are happy to be back with their ponies and costumes. Although on the way back Briana said she would have liked a little longer in Bali!

We had two days in Disneyland, which was just about right. HK Disneyland is not terribly large but has all the core attractions - Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland and "Main Street USA". Luckily for us it was not busy at all especially on our 2nd day, so we could often finish a ride, run back to the entrance again and get right back on. We did almost everything at least once and some things 3 or 4 times. Briana and F both happily went on the Space Mountain rollercoaster and enjoyed it a lot - no fear!

We stayed one night at the Disneyland Hollywood hotel, because then we got two days at the park for the price of one. Anyway it turned out to be a good idea for a number of reasons - it was close to the park of course, the room was spacious and family-oriented, good pool, close to airport, etc. And the girls were delighted when Goofy joined them in the swimming pool and on the water slide!

Before that, we had 4 nights in the center of HK, staying in the Western District of Hong Kong Island. The street where we stayed contained a long row of shops selling 'dried things from the sea' - shark fins, anenomes, eels, etc. Strong smelling stuff! We did a number of the main sights in HK although one would need a lot of time to see it properly. One highlight was the international dragon boat racing regatta which happened to be one, after which we had a traditional dim sum meal in a restaurant where absolutely everything was in Chinese and they had to not only translate for us but also recommend what to order, etc.

Before HK, we were in Java with 4 nights in Yogyakarta and 2 nights in Solo. The main reason to visit this area are the ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples are Borbodur and Prambanan (which are beautiful and atmospheric, but rather expensive to visit for foreigners). In the remaining days, mainly we just looked around the towns, saw some Sultan's palaces, visited some markets, and so on.

In a way, we were a bit undermotivated in the last week or so, with everyone thinking of getting back home and I have to admit kind-of counting the days until the return flight. Also, with Bali having been the place we liked the most, everything after it paled a bit in comparison.

Now we are just relaxing and unpacking. The lady who was supposed to have cleaned our flat before our return didn't do so, and as a result the place is rather dusty and a bit too many insects around so we'll need to spruce the place up a bit as well! Unfortunately our infestation of food moths have come back in anger in our absense so we'll have to sort that out.

Borobodur

Today we visited the very impressive Buddist temple Borobodur which is from the 9th century but was unearthed only in the 19th century, and drove up towards Mount Merapi to see where the lava flow destroyed a village only 3 years ago!

We had lunch at a restaurant along the way where every table is on an individual pavilion on a small lake, the fish there was so good we ordered a second, and when you are finished your fish you can throw the remains into the lake where the large lake fish eat it greedily! We could also take little bamboo rafts out on the the water which was good fun after eating.

It was raining heavily when we got back so Gyorgyi went off to finish the Batik painting course she started yesterday and we retired to our favourite cafe for cake and ice cream.

Fiona was over her high temperature yesterday but we took it easy, not to tire her out. She's fine today. And yesterday Briana was playing in the pool with some kids from the family that I guess own the hotel. They have enough English to communicate.

Tomorrow we will visit the Sultan's Palace in the morning and in the afternoon move to Solo and visit Prambanan along the way.

Yogyakarta

Arrived to Jogya yesterday. We got a taxi at the airport and told him we wanted a not-too-expensive, central hotel, with swimming pool. He brought us to a road with a lot of hotels, and we picked the 4th or 5th we saw. It's about 20 Euro a night for a quite simple room with a double bed and extra mattress, but the place is alright otherwise. (At the airport they wanted to sell us on a 5 star at 80 dollars.)

Unfortunately Fiona has a high temperature since yesterday morning and still today, so we haven't been able to do too much together. We didn't really do much at all yesterday and this morning went for a tour of the Sultan's palace but it was closed due to a Moslem holiday, so we cut that short too - anyway Fiona was very tired (it was only 9am) so Gyorgyi went off to do some sightseening and I went back with the girls to the hotel. Later on after she returned, I went off to the Malioboro area to browse the markets. Neither of us came back empty-handed! It's pretty easy to get nice souvenirs, whether simple t-shirts or nice artwork, and the prices are very low. Even when we know (later) that we paid well over the odds due to lack of local knowledge, it's still very little for Europeans.

The standard mode of transport here is rickshaw. They hold max 2 so we took two this morning. The girls wanted to go on a horse drawn cab so later on we switched to that for the trip back to the hotel. This is the cheapest place we visited. To put the cost-of-living here into context, you can rent a rickshaw for the day for 30000 Rupiah - that's about 2 Euro or 600 Forints. Internet costs as little as 3000 Rupiah an hour (20 Eurocents or 60 Forints) with better deals for longer times or happy hours. Laundry costs as little as 2500 a kilo which means you can have 5 kilos done for less than a Euro - that's perhaps a machine load. T-shirts are 15000 up to 25000 for the better quality - that's 1 to 2 Euros.

I'm in a pretty stylish place writing this called the Ministry of Coffee. I'd seen good reviews of their rooms on tripadvisor and as it turns out we ended up just 20 metres from them. They don't have any rooms free but a nice menu of sweet stuff, so I'm sure we'll drop in again to bulk out a little more before our return.

We've got 5 more nights in Java, and the main aim is to visit Borbodur the big Buddhist temple that was founded between 750 and 850AD, and Pramadnan the other big temple in the area which is Hindu. We might also take in the most active volcano in the world which is not far north of here... at least so long as it's not active at the moment!!! We'll fly out from Solo airport on Friday coming to Hong Kong. Our very last night in HK will be spent in the Disneyland hotel (not cheap but they give us a second days admission to the park for no extra charge - that'll wear the girls out for the night flight home to Europe!)

Leaving Bali :-(

Free internet in Denpasar airport.

Off to Java in an hour or so. To Yogyakarta for about 4 days, then Solo for a couple of nights before on to Hong Kong to end our travels.

We enjoyed Bali a lot, and Jimbaran was our last beach, so we made the most of it and ate lots of seafood on the beach-side restaurants. In fact, there's nothing else in Jimbaran except beach-side restaurants, where busloads of tourists are brought in every night! Full seafood platter for 2 with lobster, prawns, crab, fish, etc., plus a bottle of (Balinese, but not too bad) wine for less than 35 Euro.

Very busy and interesting fish market here early in the mornings... loads of boats disgorging their loads.

Sanur, Bali

On Sunday we arrived in Sanur, travelling via Klungkung (where we visited a big water temple and browsed around the local market) and Gianyar where we lunched on traditional Babi Guling (Roast Pig) and visited the "art market" which was mostly poor quality but interesting to look around.

Sanur is a out-and-out holiday resort, unlike places we visited earlier in Bali. There's a 5km long promenade along a sandy beach which has no waves and safe for swimming. Lots of nice hotels all along the beach (but we're staying in a cheaper place 5 mins away, which is fine and good value for the price although showing it's age a little).

Sanur is also totally flat unlike our previous locations. It's low season in Bali now so mostly it's relatively quiet. Sanur doesn't really have nitelife and there's a higher proportion of families and older people. (I think we're in one of those categories.) But there's a lot of nice cafes and restaurants and after staying in a very basic place for a week it's nice to have some European-style chocolate cake and other home comforts.

It's very humid here so we are continually sweaty. Luckily laundry services are always nearby and cheap!

Yesterday we saw a cremation, which just happened to be at a little temple right beside the beach we were on. They really burn the body right there, with lots of ceremony, and then put the ashes in a coconut and the go out in a boat to drop it in the sea. We saw leaflets advertising tourist trips to a cremation, so we saved 19 dollars by having it on our doorstep! The locals don't seem to mind tourists gawking at all.

We toyed with the idea of visiting the nearest island Nuse Lembongan for a night or two but the boat costs are a bit too high for such a short visit. So instead, from the 4 nights left for us on Bali, we will spend the first two in Sanur and the remaining two in the south tip of the island, not too far from the airport. We fly to Java on Saturday.

Fiona continues to swim better and better, now covering a couple of metres on her own underwater and learning to lift her head to breathe.

Padangbai

We are now in Padangbai, with a room in a hotel just beside the beach. We travelled here yesterday from Amed where we spent a week and did a lot of snorkelling and 7 scuba dives. The second hotel we stayed in there was very good for us, a very very quiet village, right on a good sandy beach for snorkelling (coral 2-3 metres out from the shore), some inexpensive restaurants, dive centre next door etc.


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Padangbai is not close to as nice, but it's ok for a day or two. It's mainly a port where boats go to Lombok, and I doubt anyone stays here for more than a couple of days. We had no accomodation booked and looked at 5 places when we got here and chose the most suitable. Much of the places we saw are small rooms for backpackers and we need something a bit larger and comfortable.

Since there's not much to do here, today is a "rest day" (haha!) We're now in a nice cafe at the quiet end of the beach, called the Topi Inn, and the girls are writing postcards while we do some reading.

Tomorrow morning we go to Sanur which starts to bring us into the busier south of Bali.

Marine life

Went diving again yesterday and saw amongst other things a Giant Turtle, 2 white-tipped sharks (1m or so long, not dangerous), a number of amazing lionfish, an eel garden, ... we went out on small Jukung fishing boats which just seat a few people, so we put on the wetsuits before boarding the boat, and put on the BCD (jacket) in the water. At the end of the second dive when we surfaced we could see a 'twister' in the distant sky under a storm which was coming in our direction... it disappeared after a little while.

And by now we have been out snorkelling twice in the bay with both of the girls, who are really excited by the colourful fishes and coral.

We have changed our plan and will next go a little south to Padangbai... want to see more of the quiet bays before we move to the busier areas in the south of Bali prior to flying out to Java.

Amed, Bali

We are now in the area of Amed on the west coast of Bali. It's a very quiet place, mainly a destination for scuba diving and snorkelling. We arrived here from Bali 3 nights ago. The place we stayed in - Hotel Uyah - was fine, but we cut short our planned 5 night stay there and this morning moved to a different hotel, mainly because the Uyah is not on a great beach and the place we moved to - Coral View Hotel - is on a superb beach for snorkelling. Also it is next door to the dive centre we chose to dive with because there is a Hungarian lady Viki working there.

Because we like it so much here we might extend our planned stay in the area by a couple of nights and do a bit more diving. Already we have done 3 dives - on Saturday twice at a wreck of a US ship from around WWII time, plus one on Sunday at a Japanese wreck. Another two planned for tomorrow. Both of these wreck dives were great - the boats are just metres off the beach, having originally been pulled-in for salvage I believe and in the case of the US ship, the 1963 volcanic eruption here broke it up and pushed it back into the water. The US wreck is covered with coral, and while the Japanese boat itself is not much it is just beside a reef. None of the dives were pricy as no boat was needed.

For both of tomorrow's dives we will go out in a Jukung fishing boat. The kids will stay at the dive center and someone will watch them. Briana and Fiona were really great when we went out for the dives over the last few days, someone watched them but they didn't complain about us disappearing into the sea!

Fiona has developed a lot of confidence now in the water. Within the last few weeks she has got comfortable putting her head underwater first, then swimming a little with her head down so long as she was held, then swimming on her own, and yesterday she went out with me to snorkel over a coral reef. Actually she didn't use the snorkel as such but held her breath and looked under the water using the mask. We were in waters about 3-4m deep and she had no fear, holding onto my neck with one arm. On the other hand Briana (who swims very well and happily snorkels in the pool), is finding it very hard to conquer her nervousness about going out into the sea. I am determined to get her out to snorkel with me before we leave here as the conditions are ideal - great coral and lots of colourful fishes just metres off the beach.

We travelled to Amed from Ubud with a fellow traveller Richard who works in the French embassy in Seoul. He hadn't dived in 20 years, so we were in good company as Gy hadn't dived in 7 and I was the same except a couple of dives last month in Thailand. Richard was great company for the trip, and joined us in the hotel we had booked so we had meals together for a couple of days too, and lots of good conversation. Otherwise the place is quiet, it's the low season. There are a very large number of French people on Bali for some reason.

We are really warming to Bali. The people are very very friendly, it's very cheap (typically we have a meal for 4 for around 15 Euro or so incl drinks, govt tax, service - and we are definitely not skimping), and the range of things you can do is large - top-class surfing on the East coast, cultural life in the town of Ubud, excellent diving on the West coast, ...

There is little wealth here. Apart from tourism the only occupations around Amed are fishing and sea-salt harvesting one month a year. The obviously very poor kids living around the beach (6-10 yrs old) had made little decorative weaved baskets containing salt, and were selling them to benefit their school. They spoke a little English, learnt at school, enough to introduce themselves and tell us a little about themselves. We bought a bunch of them to bring home as gifts, unfortunately that left a bunch of disappointed kids too whose baskets we couldn't buy. Briana gave them a Disney magazine she was finished with to bring to school, I hope they get value from it.

So, that's all for now...

We've only seen one or two instances of

Photos

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/patstephens99/PhuketKualaLumpurBali1#

Tooth Fairy and Auspicious Days

I forgot to write that the Tooth Fairy finally arrived, after a delay of a few days since one of Briana's teeth fell out last week. Let's just say the Tooth Fairy was not well-prepared for a visit to Bali and needed some time to get her act in gear. Luckily Briana expressed her wish for a little model of a cat with wings that she saw in a gift shop. And whaddya-know the tooth fairy delivered the goods. Now that's magic, Paul Daniels.

The Balinese have their own calendar in which a year consists of two cycles of 30 weeks, making a 420-day year. So much for Balinese Astronomy. Mostly this is used for religious purposes and to denote auspicious days for various activities like proposing to a girl or planting rice. Last Wednesday was strongly recommended for castrating an animal. Fortunately or unfortunately none were to hand at the time.

Misc news from Ubud, Bali

Yesterday and Today Gyorgyi is doing a course in "Tantsu". Meanwhile, yesterday the girls and I went to the local Ubud Monkey Forest which is a temple around which large numbers of Macaque monkeys run wild (and steal your food, hats etc). The girls were a little bit scared by the monkeys especially when one started to pull at Briana's skirt, but we spent a while there.

I can manage to do some decent running around here as it is a relatively rural area. I got out at 6 this morning for a long run on a quiet country road through the paddy fields. The highlight was coming round a bend and suddenly seeing a 100+ group of men around the road preparing for some feast (I guess) today (Sunday) - they were cutting coconuts and other foods - including butchering a cow right there on the road surface! So much for hygiene standards...

There is a shop near the hotel setting DVDs for 15000 Rupiah each, that's just over 1 Euro. They have a library including latest movies, US tv series, etc. All region-unlocked, so they say anyway. Of course one doesn't ask where they come from... :-) Unfortunately when in Kuala Lumpur I bought some for twice the price... a whopping 2 Euro!!! Will get some more here though. Of course I know they can be downloaded but at these prices...

We booked our flight to the larger Indonesian island Java for 23 May, which will mean 6 nights there before flying to Hong Kong. The Balians warn us not to expect too much in Java, that it's not nice like Bali. I can anticipate there is a big contrast - Bali has 3.1 million people, Java is a few times larger in terms of land-mass but it has 88 million. Perhaps a very rough analogy would be between Ireland and Britain - imagine meeting a tourist in Galway or Dingle (especially if the sun shined 365 days a year) who says they want to next visit Birmingham or Manchester, you'd probably try to change their minds! Anyway we were planning 9 days on Java in Jogyakarta and Solo but partly because of flight availability and partly because of advise, we will cut that shorter and it will allow us to stay one extra location in Bali which is just fine; Bali is very nice... and inexpensive too.

The girls finished filling up the drawing books we bought so today we bought some new ones, and as I write this they are busy beside me drawing and colouring-in their pictures of balinese dancers, flying ponies, and monkeys.

ATMs

The maximum amount most ATMs in Bali allow to withdraw is half a million Rupiah. That might sound a lot, but it ain't. Half a million works out at just 36 Euro. That gives some idea of the cost of living for the locals here, although it can create a bit of a headache if you want to withdraw enough money to pay hotel bills, otherwise they slap on an extra 3% credit card charge.

The biggest challenge is making mental calculations with an exchange rate of around 14500 Rupiah to a Euro. In the first day or two it's hard to know what you are paying for anything.

Ubud

Yesterday we arrived to an inland town called Ubud. It's a busy little town, with a lot of nice cafes restaurants and boutiques. Not a place with lots of nightlife but still a funky atmosphere.

Although we are staying right in the center our room (bottom half of a bungalow) is very quiet. The only disconcerting thing is that the doors don't really lock securely, because (according to management) they are traditional Balian wooden doors (and indeed they are very exquisitely carved). It's a little unnerving from a security point of view so I put all our valuables in the hotel's safe, not just the passports and tickets which we would routinely put in a safe.

The bungalows have a decent sized pool so the kids are happy. This morning Gyorgyi and the girls went off to see a Botanic gardens -- the highlight are the flesh-eating plants. I passed on that and strolled around.

We plan to be here for 8 nights. Maybe we will leave a day or two earlier and spend time somewhere in the mountains before our next destination on the east coast.

Flights to the island of Java need to be booked for later in May, which is not too easy as the airlines don't do online bookings and mostly need payment in cash. However Ubud has no shortage of travel agents so we should be able to sort it out here I hope. We don't have any accomodation booked there yet either so we might just wing it and find something there on the day.

One of the unusual things on Bali is the local's habit of putting the offerings for the gods lying on the street. These are usually a small decorative arrangement consisting of some kind of foodstuff like rice or ritz crackers. One has to be careful not to step on the things and it isn't always possible. The Lonely Planet guide book says not to worry about stepping on them, just don't aim to do it!

Tomorrow and Sunday Gyorgyi has a course planned, and with the girls I will probably visit the Monkey Sanctuary just down the road, where the monkeys run wild around a temple area. Caution is advised as the monkeys will happily pilfer your food, sunhats, etc.

No swine fever reported here yet, we're geographically about as far from it as we can get so hopefully it blows over before we return.

Now in Bali

First post in a while. During our week in Phuket, I couldn't access blogspot.com from the internet cafes - I suspect it is blocked by ISPs at the request of the government because I found some news reports from a couple of years ago that it was blocked during earlier political unrest. Then during our 6 days in Kuala Lumpur, I couldn't find a single internet cafe around the area we stayed - lots of nice cafes with free wifi but we didn't bring a laptop.

Now we are on Bali and except for truly horrendous traffic (narrow roads, constant stream of motorbikes trucks and cars), it's a beautiful place.

We didn't get too much done in our 6 days in Malaysia because Gyorgyi caught Dengue Fever towards the end of our time in Phuket and spent most of the time in KL in bed recovering or at the hospital for blood tests. (The doc in Phuket diagnosed food poisioning and it wasn't until she had a blood test in Kuala Lumpur that it was properly diagnosed. It is spread by mosquitoes.) Still, could be worse as I see Mexican swine fever is coming to a town near you soon.

That aside, we enjoyed Phuket and Kuala Lumpur. In both places we stayed in upmarket hotels which had kids clubs and so on, elaborate breakfast and dinner buffets, etc. Now we are back to basics, relatively speaking! - in Bali. Kuala Lumpur is truly a shopping paradise and we threw out some old clothes and bought replacements. I got a bunch of counterfeit stuff in the Chinatown.

While in Phuket we did an organized boat trip to Ko Phi Phi where we visited beautiful places but it was like being on a tourist production line - each place we stopped had 20 to 40 speedboats full of tourists pulled up to the beach to see the same thing. The girls liked it because they could swim with some fishes in shallow water and feed some monkeys on a beach but I thought it fairly horrible and will avoid package trips from here on.

Today in Bali I had my first surf lesson... in some quite heavy waves. It was fun although a number of bruises to show. Tomorrow we will tour around the west of Bali a little and then maybe I'll take another lesson the day after.

Gyorgyi still needs a lot of sleep but slowly getting her energy back.

For more news, here's an email I sent to a few people while on Phuket.

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We arrived in Phuket from Koh Samui last Sunday. Again I have to say that the airport in KS is the best I've ever seen. Apart from having a completely open air feeling that is impossible to describe in words so I have to upload some pictures, there was FREE SNACKS AND FRUIT JUICE. Yehayy.

We are staying in a Marriot here in Phuket, having run out of enthusiasm to find somewhere else before leaving Hungary. The room rate of about 80 Euro is not bad considering the relative luxury of the place (3 pools, large exercise room, kids play house, etc), but eating and drinking there is very expensive compared with normal Thai restaurant prices.

The area we are in - Surin Beach - is nice enough but fairly dangerous for swimming - big waves and strong undertow - which led to Gyorgyi putting her back out on Monday and I was lucky the same didn't happen to me. But apparently it's like this everywhere along the east coast at the moment - a bit stormy on some days, with occasionally Thunderstorms (not today luckily when we had a boat trip).

Gyorgyi's had a bad run of luck this week - first a crown fell out, then she hurt her back, and this morning she woke up with upset stomach and possibly fever which led to her missing our trip to "James Bond Island" today. On Tuesday we visited a private hospital's dental clinic and in the end it was decided not to do anything with the tooth because she has no pain, possibly it will have to be removed so better to do that at home in case of any complications. She also got her back checked - only pulled muscle - and got some physio for it and again on Thursday.

While she was at the hospital in Phuket town the girls and I went into the town center to look around. Not an especially interesting place but it gave us a reason to see it. We also visited a butterfly farm on the outskirts of the town after the hospital which was enjoyable.

The highlight of the time here was the Thai New Year's day on Monday - called Songkran. The day is an excuse for massive waterfights, with westerners a prized target. You have to imagine groups on people every few meters on the streets, with water guns and buckets and large barrels full of water, then lots of people in the backs of pickup trucks similarly armed driving around, with everyone throwing water over everyone else. Even motorcyclists get drenched which is pretty dangerous. The fire brigade goes around keeping the barrels filled-up. We armed ourselves with two waterguns the night before and set out in light clothing on Monday morning, actually with the intention of taking a tuktuk to the large Patong town. Well, we gave up on that idea after 50 metres when we were already soaked to the skin. So we just joined one of the groups of Thai people on the street
and spent a happy hour firing water at everyone in sight. This goes on all day but an hour was enough for us.

Our visit to Thailand is almost at an end now. On Sunday we fly to Kuala Lumpur. We've visited Bangkok, Chiang Mai in the north, the eastern islands Koh Samui and Ko Phan Gan and the western island Phuket. It's impossible to make any direct "which we preferred best" comparisons, as the north and the islands are completely different. The islands are heavily tourist-ised leading especially to much higher prices for food, transport etc, and a less natural experience of the real Thailand. On the other hand they are breathtakingly picturesque, and great for snorkelling and diving and boat trips. I'm sure if we came again it would be worthwhile to explore much more of the north, but I'd really want to see more islands too. We had been regretting not visiting Koh Tao which is the next island north of Ko Phan Gan - reason being that many scuba diving sites are around there - however we heard two people tell us that they didn't like it so much - good for diving but otherwise not a great destination. (We got a nice surprise on our last day in Ko Phan Gan when some people from Munich we had met earlier came back from Koh Tao for one last night on Phangan instead - they had changed hotel room 3 times during their stay on Ko Tao it was so noisy at their resort!)

Today we visited the James Bond Island (so nicknamed because it was in two JB films) by longboat. And a couple of other locations in the area. Nice day trip and beautiful scenery but gazillions of tourists. Tomorrow we have a trip planned to Ko Phi Phi and a beach where the fishes swim around you on the beach - good one for the kids we hope.

Must go back now to hotel and check the girls out of the "kids club" before it closes. Gy trying to sleep off her illness in peace and quiet.

Animals we've met

Some of the animals we've met, from Frogs to Elephants http://picasaweb.google.com/patstephens99/Animals#

From Animals

From Animals

From Animals

Silk

Pictures from Gyorgyi's trip to silk production in Chiang Mai now viewable at http://picasaweb.google.com/patstephens99/ChiangMaiSilkProduction.

And a couple of days ago in Ko Phan Gan she got to taste the raw material!

Reading list

We've gone though The Wizard of Oz, and James and the Giant Peach, and are half a book into the Narnia ("The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe") series.

Gy and I've been picking up books on the shelves at the guesthouses and resorts. At the moment I'm reading The Confederacy of Dunces, a wonderfully funny book that's been on my wish-list for a while. To give a reference point, the main character in the book very closely resembles a 30-year-old version of "Spoilt Bastard" from Viz.

Ko Phan Gan @ Tuesday

Since we arrived on Ko Phangan until yesterday the weather has been a bit stormy. Today's the first day without rain.
The island is much more basic than Ko Samui which is well developed and pricy. This island is a collection of small resorts and two towns. Some of the resorts are backpacker level, others like Haad Salad where we stay contain more 'family hotels'. We've only briefly been to the two main towns so far - Haad Rin when we arrived and last night in Thong Sala when we had to bring Fiona to a doctor, but more about that later!

It's a really relaxing laid back place, and not expensive like Samui. Nice atmosphere in bars and restaurants in the evening, even if it's not been too busy there are people there to talk to. The "full moon party" is on Friday so now we start to see more people arrive for that as it's a big event, all-night party in Haad Rin on the opposite end of the island but accomodation fills up everywhere.

Briana loves the pool here because it has a water slide and she can also jump in from high up, so we have lots of fun there. The sea is alright but not perfect for kids because there is a lot of shells small rocks and broken coral in it to hurt the toes. We were at the next beach Mae Haad on Sunday and it seemed a bit better for swimming.

We met a nice couple Markus and Kristina from Munich who have a 4 year old daughter Anna. Fiona liked to play with her so we often ate with them. Kristina's father is Hungarian and she speaks the language, although she was born in Germany. They went off to another island today, but we expect to keep in touch as they will visit Budapest this summer.

I mentioned that we had to bring Fiona to a doctor last night. She had been coughing for a couple of days and yesterday her temperature reached 39.2 at one point in the early evening. Gyorgyi got talking to a Thai man living in Europe who said we should be careful of Dengue Fever (which rightly or wrongly he called Donkey Fever!), so we headed off the the nearest clinic at Thong Sala, a 20 minute taxi ride. They didn't gave us any major reason to be concerned, prescribing some anti-fever medicine and antibiotics for the cough (probably unnecessary), and said to bring her back today if fever persisted. She was much better this morning luckily. Now I will get to see if the medical insurance pays out! Not too expensive though.

Yesterday I finally managed to get out Scuba Diving, at a site called Sail Rock. Because of the poor weather there hadn't been too many dives operating, and the visibility wasn't great but the dive site was very good with lots of fish, some colourful and a few biggish (butterfly fish, angel fish, barracuda, a grouper maybe 80-90cm long, lots of coral).
A german guy and I shared one divemaster and we had one 55 minute dive and one 47 min dive so got decent value out of the day. Not sure I will do another dive here because it's not too cheap and visibility poor so I can wait for Bali.

Gyorgyi has been getting some training in Thai Massage from one of the operators on the beach. She even got to help them work on a real live paying customer today! Gy and I have also had a few massages there and at the same place the girls got their hair braided, nails painted, etc. Although the weather has been good even if a bit stormy, the good thing about this place is that there is a lot to do. Gy and I also went to a pilates class together on Sunday and the girls played with the 8-year old son of the teacher (who sleeps in a tree house connected with the main house by a rope bridge - talk about ever boy's dream!)

Our flight to Phuket is on Sunday and we will probably stay here until then, as there is a boat which if it goes on time will get us to the airport in Samui for the flight.

I've given up trying to run here, as the island roads are up and down like a rollercoaster and I also had my heels nipped by a couple of dogs the other day. One got his teeth onto my calf and hand but luckily it was not serious about biting me - playful, but a bit too on the aggressive side for comfort. So the fitness level is gone to hell.

Probably we planned to stay here in this location too long, although it is very nice. Getting taxis around is quite pricy compared with the north of Thailand so it would have been better to have planned to stay 2 or 3 places in the same time rather than base ourselves in one location. Live and learn. We will look at our Bali schedule and if it's worth planning it any differently based on experiences here.

Thunderstorms

Stormy weather here. Nice sunshine for a while, then thunderstorms and heavy rain. The girls got their hair braided, nails painted. I went snorkelling.

Our children and other animals

One of the things here that's a little bit hard to get used to at first are the animals allowed to roam freely in bars and restaurants. Dogs especially, and cats too, not to mention the small lizards that appear on the walls everywhere!

The kids are a bit nervous around dogs, but so long as they see they dogs aren't going to leap on them, it's alright and they get quite friendly especially with the smaller ones. To my surprise they haven't freaked out at the lizards and other assorted wildlife like dragonflies. Last night Briana calmly said that something wet jumped across her foot. Mosquitoes are our Public Enemy Number 1 and we are heavy consumers of lotions and potions to keep them away.

The other day, I was on a sunlounger when a lizard jumped down almost on top of me from the bar roof, followed right after by the cat which was chasing it. The lizard sat still for a while on the neighbouring sun lounger, while the cat lurked underneath. Then the lizard took off, and was easy prey for the cat, who took it off into the neighbouring English pub for a tasty meal.

Haad Salad, Ko Phangan

Yesterday we moved to the next island to the north - Ko Phangan - which is a little smaller but a lot less developed than Ko Samui. We are staying at a nice resort called Cookies in Salad Bay on the north-west of the island. There's a great view down over a small beach which has a couple of nice resorts and a bunch of more basic bungalows and bars. No real town to talk of, just a small concentration of a few shops and motorbike hire places. Very very relaxed place.

Right next to us there is a relatively swanky resort which has just opened, it has lots of staff and not a single guest as far as we can see! They had two guys sweeping the beach this morning!

The boat ride here was fairly rocky. The weather has changed to unsettled night before last, and a few moments before we boarded the boat a storm came; the rain was lashing the boat by the time we departed and the sea got fairly rough. The ride was only about 35 minutes but most of us started to feel a bit green... and a few threw up. The next surprise was the road from the Haad Rin pier to our resort - for the first few km, a rollercoaster ride up and down hills and around sharp corners.

By the time we arrived it was nice and sunny again so we chilled out at the resort, eating, swimming, strolling around. I snorkelled out 100m to a small coral reef where there was a nice selection of fish.

There is a place nearby where a British lady lives giving courses in Yoga etc. I went to a Pilates class there this morning - been meaning to try this for a while. Enjoyed it. She holds it every day if enough people so I'll go again. Gy might do a yoga class and they have a special Herbal Steam room operating a few days a week, and there is a kids class on Sunday we could bring the girls to.

The plan is to do a few days diving here. Weather is not ideal for diving, rather stormy periods again today between the sunshine, but hopefully it will be good enough. Gy still has some ear pain and would like to dive but not sure yet when it will be possible.

Gy was kept awake last night by the people in the neighbouring room watching tv until late. Turned out to be Irish, fortunately leaving today so we don't have to complain :-) Also another Irish lady here originally from Sligo.

We are really chilled out now, just enjoying doing very little, hanging around the pool and beach, eating well (too much of course - smoothies especially are delicious here). Briana is swimming really well, Fiona still a little cautious but gaining confidence.

On the 9th, before we leave this island, there is a world-famous Full Moon Party - the beach at Haad Rin is taken over for the full night with trance, techno, etc djs. Probably we will go for the show (the music is fine for me, not sure for the others!).

Bangkok pictures

Uploaded our Bangkok pictures to the Bangkok albums in
http://picasaweb.google.com/patstephens99

after 5 days in Bophut, Ko Samui

It's now Sunday and we have been at Bo Phut Beach aka Fisherman's village on the north side of Ko Samui since Wednesday.

Until today we've done nothing at all except hang out on the beach. The Lodge where we are staying is very nice, we are on the top floor with a perfect view of the beach, and we literally walk out of the rear door and onto the beach. There are a couple of large trees which give all-day shade, so we get our sun loungers early in the morning and park there all day, eating breakfast there, running out to get some lunch when the street foodsellers (fresh fruit, meat on skewers, sweet rice) come along, and taking a break from the heat in the air-conditioned bedroom for a couple of hours in the afternoon, before a late afternoon swim and then out for dinner.

Yesterday an old friend of ours from Munich days, Ian, arrived here for 2 nights. He's travelling with his partner; they came from the island Ko Phangan where we go next. We haven't seen him for 6.5 years except once I met him briefly in Budapest a few years ago, so it's nice to catch up.

Today we went for a snorkelling trip on a longboat to two small islands off the south coast of Ko Samui. We were considering going to the Angthong national marine park but that's a longer trip. The snorkelling was quite good, with coral and a fair selection of fishes including some rays. The nicest part was feeding bread to the fishes out of your hands - they literally surround you in the water. Briana got in for a short time in morning and afternoon, and Fiona surprised us by spending a lot of time in the water and even trying a mask and snorkel for a while - considering she never likes to put her head under the water this was quite an achievement by her.
Most of the time she liked to put her hands around my neck and hold on with her head out of the water while I snorkelled around. She wasn't at all afraid of the deep waters.

We've been thinking of hiring a car for a day trip around the island but today we went along the entire east side of the island and it wasn't very attractive, so we might save our money and just stay on the beach until we move to Ko Phangan on Wednesday. We know the main Chaweng and Lamai beaches on the island only by reputation, which isn't good, so we won't miss much I think.

Going scuba diving from here is too expensive because of distance from the main dive sites so we will postpone that until we reach Ko Phangan where it will be cheaper (and it would be cheaper still if we would change our travel plan and stay some nights in Ko Tao where most of the dive sites are).

We've avoided most of the relatively expensive restaurants by eating each night in on of the very few ordinary Thai restaurants in town. The difference is mains ranging from 50 to 80 Baht (1 to 2 Euros) there, versus mains ranging from 180 to 450 Baht (4 to 10 Euro) at most of the eateries. We wouldn't care if it was just a 2 week holiday but over 3 months expensive eating out would add up. And anyway the Thai food is very tasty! However we can't resist the temptation to hang out after dinner for a while in a nice cocktail bar, usually spending a good bit more than we paid for dinner. Tough life.

We aren't following the news from home much but I note that Ireland won the triple crown and grand slam, Gyurcsany might be on the way out as Hungarian PM, and Man Utd are under pressure.

One other thing - Ko Samui has the nicest airport we've ever seen. This picture doesn't show much but sums it up. First of all, the bus from the plane is open-sided like the sort you find at a theme park. Then the baggage carousel is in an area that has a roof to keep the sun off, but no walls. The toilets have large aquariums. In fact it doesn't look like an airport at all, except for the runway.

(We flew here on a Bangkok Air Boeing 717 which was about 2/3 full, mostly westerners. The resort here is very quiet and we heard that the airlines are reducing flights.)

Bophut, Ko Samui

Styarted to upload a few pics to http://picasaweb.google.com/patstephens99 but the connection is too slow so will quit it.
Very hot here in Ko Samui. Guest House is fine and location right on the on beach is great; water incredibly warm.
We are in a very quiet area in the north of the island; just one short street. It's called Bophut beach.
But expensive here, everything twice to price of north Thailand so we are trying to be careful about spending money.

Sunday in and around Chiang Mai

Yesterday we visited an Elephant camp which was rather touristy but Fiona and I had an interesting Elephant ride. We went up and down hills and into the river but even on the flat the ride is fairly uneven. Although the camp claims it is dedicated to conservation of the Elephants (whose numbers are very much lower than a 100 years ago due to changes in forestation), it was an uncomfortable feeling to see the elephants not in use with a chain round their legs that allowed them movement of only a meter or two.

After that we visited Tiger Kingdom which I expected would be very touristy, but actually turned out to be a quite special experience. For a not-very-cheap fee you can spend 15 minutes "private time" with tigers of different sizes (or lion cubs). I got in with three 8-month old tigers (and 3 handlers!). Now, an 8-month old tiger is not far off fully-grown so these are not at all small. I could stroke them and sit beside them for photos. The girls got in with 2 baby lion cubs (and 1 handler) and could stroke and play with them - I could video them through an open window. Naturally we made dozens of photos too! It was worth the money.

In the evening we went back into Chiang Mai for the Sunday "walking street" market. As I wrote before, the quality of what is on sale in CM is much better than Bangkok, relatively little tacky crap, so even if we weren't buying it was interesting to "window shop". And the food stalls were excellent - not only different kinds of Thai food, but also lots of other like Sushi, fried fish, etc.

On the way we saw a Wat (temple) in the grounds of which, among other bizarre ornaments, stood a large statue of Donald Duck eating noodles.

Transportation in Thailand

As anyone who has already been here knows, public transport consists mainly of
* Tuktuks: have to negotiate - typical cost 50-70 Baht = about 1 Euro to 1 Euro 50
* Songthaews: shared taxi, fixed cost for any trip per adult 15 Baht = about 33 Euro cents
* Metered taxis: typical cost for a short trip is about 50-100 Baht = about 1-2 Euro.

Private transport consists mainly of motorbikes and pickup trucks. Pushbikes are fairly rare. Cars are much less plentiful than pickup trucks, and more often than not driven by women. What you don't see here at all are clapped-out 20 year old cars (like Hungary's Trabants)!

Petrol currently costs 28 Baht (about 60 Euro cents) per litre for 91 Octane and oddly it is cheaper (24 Baht, about 50 Euro cents) for 95 Octane. UPDATE: It turns out the so-called 95 Octane is really a poor quality Ethanol mix; real 95 Octane if available is much more expensive.

The Secret Garden

Since Friday we are staying at the Secret Garden 12km outside Chiang Mai. It's fairly much in the countryside and we hear lots of weird animal noises like from Geckos. In fact there are small lizards all around including on the bedroom walls and surprisingly the kids haven't freaked out.

This place is run by a German man Peter and his Thai wife Pai, and consists of about 10 bungalows around a nice garden with small lake and swimming pool. They have a big open air kitchen and eating area which is very relaxing, lots of books and CDs we can use, etc. All of their business comes via TripAdvisor reviews; the other guests are American, Spanish, US, Australian. Pai cooks Thai food for dinner each evening and the guests are welcome to join in. There's a trust system for drinks - we take what we want from the fridge and write it down. The kids love the pool so yesterday I stayed here with them while Gyorgyi went off to look at silk production factories and naturally she came back with another few metres of silk!

I went for a longish run yesterday along the main road and got stared at a lot by the locals. Almost got lost on the way back when I took a wrong turn.

Today we are off to see some elephants and tigers.

We have 3 more nights here before going south.

I got all our photos written onto a DVD, unfortunately the PC at his resort doesn't have a DVD drive so I can't upload them.

Chiang Mai 2

Yesterday we strolled around Chiang Mai. There is a 'Wat' (Buddhist Temple) on every corner. Perhaps it would be the same for a Thai person visiting Ireland, to see a Church on every corner. But these temples are very ornate, decorated with gold and dragons, and totally photogenic. Lunch was at a local Northern Thai cuisine restaurant, where most of the food was spicy, perhaps reflecting the Indian influence. Luckily they had fried chicken and spare ribs for the kids. We were given chopsticks as well as spoons and forks, which the girls could use fairly easily (if not correctly) with the sticky rice that practically has to be torn apart. Fiona's technique was to roll the rice into a little ball with her left hand and stick one chopstick into it with her right.

After lunch we visited the most ornate Wat in Chiang Mai - the Wat Chedi Luang - the buildings feature really life-like waxworks of past monks. The main template was being repainted so we could watch them repainting the intricate designs and applying golf leaf.

In the evening we went to a "Traditional" entertainment evening - obviously packaged for the tourists with food, dance show, hill tribe music etc. Very touristy but at least not tacky, lots of food, and didn't cost the earth.

Today after another big breakfast (sticky sweet rice, poached eggs with satay sauce, banana pancakes, fresh mango and watermelon, smoothies) at the hotel, we went to the excellent Chiang Mai zoo and went around it twice with the hop-on-hop-off bus. The distances were too far and the weather too hot to walk. Kids were getting a bit worn out.

One more night at this hotel and then we move a few km outside the town for 5 nights. We'd be very happy to remain at the current hotel which is lovely, but the idea was to "do" the town and then see the outskirts. And the next hotel has a POOL!

Vienna-Doha-Bangkok

We flew Vienna-Doha-Bangkok with Qatar Airways. The airline itself is good but the flight experience was not excellent.

The first flight was in a fairly old aircraft, an Airbus A320-100 or -200. It still had ashtrays and no individual tv screens, and the movies on offer weren't interesting. But we were fresh, had plenty of entertainment with us, and the time passed.

The second flight was supposed to be an A330-200 and according to their plane layout when I booked the seat the economy cabin had a 2-4-2 (or 2-5-2, maybe) layout. We booked 2 pairs of seats on the window. It turned out to be a 3-3-3 layout which meant we had 2 other people blocking our access to the aisle. Not convenient with kids. It may have been a Boeing 777 according to the plane types shown on their website. Luckily there was an individual entertainment system, and it was a night flight so we didn't need to move around too much, and the neighbours were understanding. Briana and I were sitting together, and we were delivered the meal, but then the girl went off and never offered a drink, so I was getting pretty thirsty and thinking of pressing the assistance button by the time someone arrived again which was 20 or 30 mins later.

The main problem was the guy behind Gyorgyi, a 50-something Mr. Chatterbox - he never shut up the whole flight long. Even with ear plugs in, I could hear him clearly from 2 rows away. At the end of the flight I heard him tell his neighbour it was great to have a good chat on a plane - not surprising since he was doing all the talking! And also no surprise when he said that he liked going to Thailand because the ladies in England have no time for him. Poor Gyorgyi could get no sleep at all and was exhausted when we arrived (at 7:10 AM Thai time).

Any problems?

The only problem we've had so far is that we've spent far too much money and my (new) iPod failed. It's not easy to spend less money and still have fun, but the good news is that the iPod has magically come back to life. The iPod was loaded with some eBooks for the kids and without that I would have to invent stories each night. Now that it's back in action, we started the Wizard of Oz last night.

So how is it, travelling with small kids?

Fun, but not always so easy!
The main thing is that we cannot do so much as we would do on our own, and of course the kids are not so interested in sight-seeing - they just want to play. They get hungry and thirsty at different times, so more stops are needed.
Fiona turns out to be a very good traveller - rarely complains, eats well, LOVES tuktuks, and even she didn't want to leave the Grand Palace in Bangkok she was having so much fun running around (she believed princesses live there and we weren't going to shatter her illusions and tell her it's just boring old monks). Briana, despite being older, is harder work - she has got a bit homesick, is more picky about her food, and yesterday was looking a bit pale - on the other hand yesterday she also said she wants to live here, so let's see!

In our first room in Bangkok we had a big double bed and a single bed - the kids shared the single bed. The first night Briana didn't want to share, so that took a bit of persuasion. It was funny to see them in the morning literally lying on top of each other. After that, they now really want to sleep together. However now in Chiang Mai we have two smallish double beds and for the first night we slept with one adult and one child in each bed. I imagine we will do lots of bed-hopping before the trip is over!

Chiang Mai Day 1

Yesterday early afternoon saw us arriving in Chiang Mai with Bangkok Air on an Airbus 320 nicely decorated on the outside with pictures of fish. The flight was quiet - not much more than 30 passengers - and almost all were "Farang" (literally I believe it means Guava, but it refers to Westerners). Despite being a low cost airline and the flight time only 1hr 15 mins, they gave us a decent sandwich, pastry, soft drink and the kids got jigsaws.

Immediately on leaving the airport - which is only 3km from the city - we realised how different Chiang Mai is from Bangkok. No high-rise, much quieter.

Our hotel Pak Chiang Mai is delightful. It's a small family-run place built around a courtyard where they have lovely quiet niches to sit and relax. The decking has an area where massages can be given, a kids area, and underneath it runs a little fishpond. The kids were really happy playing here although we were embarrased when Fiona decided it would be a good idea to feed baby powder from the massage area to the fishes. Luckily the owner wasn't upset and said the filter would clean it.

The hotel has two PCs for internet usage. It also provides as much bottled water as we like. And lots of other nice extras like jars of Thai sweets and snacks sitting waiting to be tried. It's really at the level of a boutique hotel and the family who run it clearly try to go the extra mile. Our room doesn't have any view unless the neighbour's wall counts, but it's very quiet.

We ate a late lunch at the hotel, where they serve Thai and some western food for street market prices. Only the owner speaks English so it can be a little tricky to explain what we need.

After a late afternoon nap we headed off to the Night Bazaar which was nicer than the ones we saw in Bangkok - more spacious, relaxed feeling, and not just tacky rip-offs. Gyorgyi bought a couple of meters of nice silk and some other items, as well as spending an hour tea-tasting - which was free so we felt obliged to buy some tea we don't need. The young son of the lady who ran the tea shop was sleeping behind her on the floor - and she is there every night until 1am.

The people and the food look a little different here - more of an Indian food influence (the area is not far from Burma/Myanmar) and more women dressed in Muslim clothes.

So far we've stuck to Thai food only, but gave in yesterday and visited a Burger King for the kids. Fiona is quite happy eating rice and noodles all the time but Briana shows a little homesickness and would like some home comforts.

While at the market it started to get windy and we felt some drops of rain. Since the vendors started to cover up, we decided it was time to get going too, jumped into a Tuk Tuk and scooted back to the hotel. After the heavy overnight rain, the hotel owner told me this morning it is the first rain in 4 months. The air is clear and cool this morning. Apparently the air quality here in the last week has been very poor, so this is welcome.

Today we plan some temples. We stay 2 more nights at this hotel which is just inside the old city (a 1 km square area surrounded by a moat), then we move to another hotel a few km outside the city in the countryside for 5 nights.

Now the mosquitoes are starting to feast on me. Time to get some repellent creams...

Morning run in Bangkok

For the first time I woke up early enough to go running and it turned out to be a great idea. Our hotel was only a couple of minutes from Lumphini Park, and there I found thousands of people, especially older folk, doing early morning activities - running, tai chi, yoga, even ballroom dancing! The circuit had distance markers and I went twice around for a total of just over 5km. This is a pretty short run for me but I was dripping sweat. This was at 7am. I walked another couple of km just to get a feel for the place. Very different atmosphere than later in the day.

The walk to/from the hotel was also interesting. The foodsellers that lined the street in the evening had been replaced with others selling breakfast - one stand seemed to be selling just hot butter toast - another made a fry-up: rashers sausages and eggs. It made me wonder if Thai people ever eat at home. The streets are simply lined everywhere with food sellers.

Bangkok

We've now been in Bangkok for a few days, still sleeping off the 6 hours time difference so everyone is very groggy in the mornings. We've managed to fit in quite a lot here before our flight tomorrow to Chiang Mai. Our hotel the The Inn Saladaeng is very nice and in a good location. Lumphini Park is nearby which has a big playground that our kids loved on the day we got here, and just across the road from it there is a big nightmarket and the "Joe Louis" Traditional Thai Puppet Theatre where we saw a fairly expensive but very highly regarded show. Each puppet is controlled by three people who move in unison with the puppet, and their movement is almost like dance.
We've also walked through the Patpong night market where we averted our eyes from the bar girls in skimpy clothes (we did?), taken a long boat ride on the river and canals, saw a snake/monkey/etc farm, visited the Grand Palace which really is breathtaking, been on numerous tuktuks (which Fiona adores), been to the Jim Thompson House, Gyorgyi bought silk in tiny family-run "factories" (a shed which doubles as their home) in the muslim area where we saw them work the looms, etc., I got four shirts made and delivered within 24 hours, lots of local food, and, well, that's quite enough. We're all worn out and need a holiday now!