Phuket to Bangkok

Well folks, Phuket was over much too fast. We had six nights there and spent most of the time lazing about our hotel… in hindsight I think we should have started somewhere more low key and ended in party town Patong Beach. Not all was lost though, three of the boys got half sleeve tattoos (pics will be added when I have a faster connection) and the weather was agreeable. We hired beach chairs on our last day for a few hours and soaked in some serious Thai sun rays. Plus I learned how to drive the moped we'd rented for the week and even how to drive it with Andy on the back!!
On our last day we went to a travel agency to book a bus from Phuket to Surat Thani where we would catch a night train to Bangkok. The travel agents told us we could get a minibus (think large van) to take us to Surat Thani that wouldn’t leave until noon (instead of 7:15am) and would cost the same price. We had to round up the troops to get the money sorted out and when we came back about 5 minutes later the time had changed from noon to 12:30 and the arrival time from 4 to 6pm! Whatever, we’ll just book it.
So the next morning we checked out and waited for the minibus to pick us up at our hotel. Little did we know that this drive would not be just from point A to point B. First, the minibus was about 20 minutes late. Then we watched as the driver stuffed all our luggage into the first row of seats because the truck space was pretty much nonexistent. When we finally got going we quickly realized we weren’t headed in the right direction… that was because we had three more passengers to fit in our already full to the brim minibus. First we picked up a guy in a cowboy hat in Karon Beach. The driver played around with the bags again. Next we picked up two more girls in Kata Beach. A few people thought it was unbelievable that everyone and their bags was going to fit, but somehow we and it all did.
So we finally got going in the right direction. This lasted about 10 minutes because as we drove over a manhole, or some sort of grate in the road, a loud POP occurred and the hub cap went rolling off into traffic. Our driver stopped and retrieved the hub cap and then pulled into the next gas station. We’d obviously blown a tire, probably because the bus was beyond capacity. We all got out the van disappeared. I think we hung around the Esso for about 30 minutes before the bus came back and we all piled back on.
The rest of the ride was smooth sailing minus the driver stopping to go to a bank and Andy drinking too many Changs and begging Dan to ask the driver to stop so he could pee (he almost did this twice, haha). We finally arrived at the Surat Thani railway station at around 6pm and amazingly there were 2nd class air conditioned sleeping berths available on the train that came in less than 20 minutes. We scrambled to buy tickets, beer, and some food before the train arrived and before I had time to find a toilet the train arrived.
We found our seats and ate our train station chicken curry (not bad, very hot!). Then we broke into the Changs and played a 20THB game of poker. It was certainly a nice way to travel. Train staff came around at about 9pm and changed our seats into beds and we all called it a night before 11pm.
We were awoken the next morning at around 4:45am by a thai woman’s high pitched call of “Coffee? Tea?” but in thai. By 5:30am we were all kicked out of our bunks so the staff could turn them back into seats and have the sheets ready for the cleaners in Bangkok.
We arrived in Bangkok on time pretty much, just after 6am. We unloaded and got taxis to the notorious Khoa Sarn Road. We hung out in Subway until about 715, and then went in search of a hotel with 4 rooms available. We found one on the third try and went straight back to sleep for a few hours.
At around 9:45 we were back on the streets and were immediately approached, accosted? by tuk-tuk drivers with an offer to show us the sights in the city for only 10 THB each. Since this was what we were looking for we took up their offer and hopped in three tuk-tuks. The tuk-tuks took us to a big golden Buddha and a temple that was closed, the Tourist Authority of Thailand (where we got our Muay Thai Boxing tickets!) and also three suit shops. Somehow the tuk-tuk drivers get free fuel by bringing people to these tailors. At the first two we just walked in said we didn’t want anything and walked out, but at the last one they got Andy. He ended up buying a cashmere peacoat for 3000THB. He got it at that price because he was the first customer of the day and it was lucky for the shop to get the first customer and it didn’t matter if there was no profit on their first sale… or something like that. He goes back for his fitting tomorrow morning and will be able to pick it up before we go to Laos next week.
We had some lunch on Khoa San Road, took a short nap, and then hit the streets for some shopping.

Patong, Phuket

Hanging out at Rabbit Mansion

After our first night in Rabbit Mansion we decided we'd stay for the whole 6 nights we are on Phuket (despite it being focused at French tourists) .We've been renting out mopeds since then and the drive is quite short and fun, of course. The past three days have pretty much been the same- just walking around Patong buying stuff (so far I've only bought a pair of Gucci sunglasses... oh and a new camera!). The weather has been pretty agreeable- partly cloudy and the ocassional freak down pour.

We had a big night out on Friday- drinking Chang beer (6.5%) and Mekong whiskey and coke before taking a tuktuk to Bangal Road. Andy thought it would be funny to start off at one of the all lady boy bars without telling anyone it was an all lady boy bar. It was indeed funny, although the boys figured it out pretty quick, well except Dan. hahaha.

We went to another few bars and ended up at Tiger Discotheque (nowhere as good as the clubs in Bali). Andy wanted to see a local band perform there and was crushed to learn that the amazing lead guitarist had left.

The next day was trouble on the bikes day. There is a busy intersection on the beach where the police like to pull people over. First Gianluca got pulled over for not wearing a helmet- he bribed the cop with 500THB instead of having to go to the police station and pay 1000THB. Next Andy (with me on the back) got pulled over and fined for not having his drivers license on him (it's actually in England, oops). A 30 min trip to the police station and a 300THB fine later and we were on our way. While I was waiting with the bike some strange older Swiss man came up to me asking about renting bikes- like I'm some sort of expert? haha

Today was more of the same. Rob went for his big half sleeve tattoo, which is supposed to take 12 hours total. We went up to visit him throughout the day a few times and it looks great. I don't think it will take that long to finish.

Tonight theres a big football game on live from Europe: Man United v Chelsea. We'll be going to some bar to watch it.

I've been loving the Thai food here and had possibly the best curry of my life the other night (Thai yellow curry).

The KL

About 9 hours of flying later we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Customs and all that was a breeze and we quickly found a cheap shuttle into the city. Then we hopped onto a komuter train to our 5 star hotel- The Legend Hotel…. It wasn’t as 5 star as we had expected but was still pretty nice, plus it had a great view of the PETRONAS Twin Towers. I suppose when you have the special internet price you’re going to be put in most basic room (we didn’t even get the plush bathrobes, boo). All tired from traveling we grabbed some average food and called it a night.
The next morning was more of the same, hanging around in the rooms, then checking out and going out in the city. We headed straight to PETRONAS Towers only to find out that the daily 1640 free tickets were all gone, so we’d have to come back another day.
Next we had some bad lunch at a rip-off restaurant. The fact that no one was in there before we came in should’ve been a sign. Oops.
After lunch we went back to the hotel, grabbed our shit, went back to the airport and checked in and waited around for our next flight- to Phuket, Thailand!
It was only a short flight, but it scared the shit out of me- we took off into a lightning storm. Andy wasn’t much help as he tried to make me more scared by faking worried looks etc. But we made it in one piece and again customs and shit was easy as.
We didn’t really know where our hotel was but quickly discovered it was pretty far from all the action in Patong Beach so we told reception we only wanted to stay 1 night instead of 6. He was pretty pissed and refused to give us the price we’d been quoted via email. Oh well. We dumped our stuff and took a 5 minute tuk-tuk ride into the beating heart of Patong to find a better place to stay. We ended up having a few Changs at Bar One first and played the nail game before going to a hotel Andy had stayed before. The woman at reception gave us a good price for 5 nights so we’ll probably move there. It doesn’t have a pool but it’s a 5 minute WALK to the beach rather than a 5 minute drive.

Cairns and East Coast Quickie

So our weekend in Cairns went quick. I learnt that my trusty old camera couldn't be fixed there, only in Sydney apparently, and it would cost $100 and take 6 weeks. Australia, or at least Far North Queensland, keeps getting better and better; Julia had a similar problem with her camera and took it to a guy in AMHERSTVIEW! $60 and a short wait!
Anyways, I dressed as a pirate for Halloween and will post a pic later. We partied a little bit but really had our minds on getting down the East Coast and on a plane out of Oz.
The road trip began Sunday morning. We drove 650km to Airlie Beach, stayed the night, and left the next morning before 8am. Then drove like 12 hours to Noosa Heads, almost thought we were going to have to keep driving because we got there past 9pm and most of the accomodation options's receptions were already closed. But we found a nice-ish hotel that was the same price as a hostel and had a queen bed! YAY!
The next day we slept in, then had lunch at the surf club on the beach, and then drove down to Surfers Paradise. We walked around a bit, I had a drip coffee at Starbucks! and then called it a night before 10.
Last day in Australia was a short one: 5am wake up call. Airport by 6:45am. Dropped of the minivan (no worries and we didn't even buy the extra insurance, yay!), checked in and flew away!

Peace the F*CK OUT

I did it; I left Tully! We are now in Cairns on the brink of our big trip. We are a group of 6: Myself, the English boyfriend Andy, Italians Tommaso and Gianluca, and finally English Rob and his significant other Japanese Sachiko Morikawa (she goes by Mori). We’ll meet up with two others: Manchurian Dan and his mate who none of us have met Carl. But for the weekend we are in Cairns for 2 nights to let loose and celebrate our freedom. A few weekends ago Shawshank Redemption was on TV and Andy likened Tully to an institution. I couldn’t agree more and am glad to out of there at last.
Here is a quick summary of our trip:
Cairns for 2 nights, where on Sunday we’ll rent a car and start driving down the East Coast towards the Gold Coast.
One night in Airlie Beach
One night in Sunshine Coast
One night in Gold Coast/Coolangatta
November 4th fly from Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia
One night in KL at the FIVE STAR HOTEL “The Legend” (we found a sweet deal online)
November 5th fly from KL to Phuket, Thailand!
A couple weeks in Thailand followed by a week in Laos followed by 2 more weeks in Thailand that will include the Full Moon Party on Ko Phangan
December 8th fly from Krabi, Thailand back to KL
One night in KL
December 10th at 1am fly back to Australia

After that we’ll go our separate ways: most of us will fly to Melbourne and some will go back to Gold Coast. I’ll continue my marathon travel day with a flight to Sydney, then a flight to LAX, and finally a flight to YYZ with a December 11th 6am arrival, yay!

Anyways, since I’ve now returned to civilization stay tuned for regular updates. Asia has free wifi coming out its ass and I intend to take full advantage. Hopefully I’ll get my pics up to date too (that includes the rest of New Zealand from February, ekk!, and the rest of my Australia trip and mofo-ing Bali!).

Tully; End of Days

A few weeks ago I got a very bad sunburn on my chin and ended up getting antibiotics for it. This also resulted in a week off work. I applied for my second visa though and got it, phew!
I write this now on Thursday, October 29th, the day before we leave Tully for Cairns and beyond. I couldn’t be more excited. When I finished work yesterday I had a huge smile on my face the whole ride back into town from the farm. Our timing couldn’t be better in my opinion; it rained all day yesterday, the first time the weather has been like this since my arrival in Tully… wettest town in Australia my ass. Rumor has it that the area will only get half the rain it usually does this summer… certainly not good for the 40+ banana farms that call Tully home. Wait, I don’t actually care!
Tonight we’ll celebrate our imminent departure and tomorrow I will post this blog and others using free wifi in Cairns. Yay. Yay. YAY!

PS Bad news: my camera is broken!

Still in Tully, UGH

Note: This was meant to be posted 6 weeks ago but the stupid internet café was being retarded, so here it is now…

Yes, I’m still in Tully after over 4 months and will be here for another 6 weeks. But there is now a light at the end of this horrible tunnel.
Let me update you… I worked at the first farm for 7 weeks and was ‘let off’ because the farm was running low on fruit and I wasn’t staying that much longer. They’d come around earlier in the day asking everyone how much longer they were planning to be working there. I didn’t really have a plan as to what I’d do after my 3 months of work (to qualify for a 2nd year of working holiday visa) was up but I knew I wanted to get the fuck outta there. So I told them 6 more weeks. Wrong answer. With 20 minutes of the working day left they came around and laid 8 of us off. Bollocks. Motherfuckers. I ended up not being able to find a job for 2 weeks. Andy pulled through with getting me a job at his farm because for some freak reason they had tons of fruit ready to pick while almost every farm had hardly any. This farm was the other end of the spectrum- tiny! Very few employees and far fewer paddocks (ie banana tree fields). I liked it way more. I got to ‘stack’, which is taking full 14kg boxes of bananas and putting them a certain way on wooden pallets. When there were 11 rows of boxes (about 7ft high I think… 2 pallets were on special elevators but 2 others were just on the floor and I had to lift the boxes over my head to get them up there) I would move the full pallet with the FORKLIFT and prep them for shipping (date stamp, tie a string around it a few times, write the destination on it). I also got to drive the tractor at this farm and go outside into the banana paddocks and “deleaf” (take excess leaves off the banana trees) and “string” (tying string between the trees so they don’t fall over. The bunches of bananas can get heavy and the roots of the trees don’t go very deep so they often fall over and the bananas are ruined; stringing prevents them for falling over). I also saw a crocodile in the river that runs adjacent to the farm. Yeah so 3 weeks and 2 days of that and then there wasn’t enough fruit to keep me and 3 other backpackers employed. I was really angry at first but calmed down… this part of the year is supposed to be when things REALLY pick up and farms start begging backpackers to work for them. So my first unemployed day I called a few farms and then the next day one called me back and gave me a job! At the new farm I get to drive the tractor for the boys who pick the banana bunches off the trees and I do some stringing. The owners are very nice and appreciate hard workers; it’s going well so far.
In 6 weeks I’ll leave Tully with 5 new friends and we’ll head down to the Gold Coast, get on a plane to Kuala Lumpur and spend 5 weeks in Thailand and Laos. After that I’m coming home for Christmas. I return to Canada December 11th and will stay for about a month, flying back to Sydney January 11th from LA. In the meantime I’ll keep working at the banana farm and saving up money for Asia and beyond.