Kyoto used to be the capital city of Japan hundreds of years ago and so it hosts some of the best temples in the whole of the country as well as many festivals around the year, we were luck enough to be there during Gion Matsuri.

Gion Matsuri

During our time in Kyoto it rained pretty much every day.  There was some doubt about whether this festival was going to be on but they decided to go ahead with it anyway.  Pelting with rain we stood in shelter and watched the people outside move around huge shrines chanting rhythmically.  Eventually the progression moved down the road and away from the temple.

Nijo Castle

One of the many UNESCO World Heritage sites in Kyoto, Nijo Castle was founded by the famous Tokugawa.  It served as a the residence for the Tokugawa shogunate when they were in Kyoto as well as a show of strength for the other feudal lords around the area.  It has been painstakingly restored by the Japanese.

Within the Castle is the Palace where the shoguns actually lived and held court. Recently restored, you can walk around the palace and learn about the history of the Tokugawa shogunates.  It also has some very interesting, although in Japanese, information about how they restored the palace.

Nishiki Market

Along this old, and very long, road Nishiki Market has everything you want from an asian market.  Food, drinks and trinkets line the road, there’s plenty of samples to try.  If you want fresh fish, sweet things or fruit then you’ll find what you want.

Himeji Castle

I think Himeji Castle is my favourite place in the whole of the Kansai area.  It’s beautiful to look at and the more you learn about it’s intricacies the more wonderful it seems.  I visited it last year but it was still under reconstruction at that point and covered in a protective scaffolding, so I was very excited to come back and see it for a second time when it was fully on display.

Constructed over 700 years ago Himeji castle was built as show of strength and power.  Although never under siege it has wonderful techniques for protecting the castle, all explained wonderfully by our guide.

It’s also incredibly beautiful.

Next to the castle itself are some beautiful gardens which you can visit for only an extra 50 yen.

Himeji is the most impressive castle I’ve seen in Japan and I was so happy to go back there again for a second time.

Next stop

Next we’re heading all the way up Japan to the northern island of Hokkaido.  It’s my first time to this colder part of Japan.  It meant to be an untouched wilderness and I have big expectations.

After visiting the main city on the island of Palawan, Puerto Princessa, we booked a ticket on a bus heading up to the top of the island bound for the tourist town of El Nido.

El Nido is a tiny collection of buildings, almost exclusively aimed at servicing the needs of the tourists that visit.  You have the usual collection of guesthouses, restaurants and tour operators that you see in any place like this.

We had heard about El Nido from other backpackers and blogs and wanted to explore the islands that are around the El Nido bay.  We quickly booked an island hopping tour that involved some snorkelling.

But before we went island hopping I read about the local cliff, Taraw.  There was a hidden path that went up the cliff and held amazing views from the top.  I also read that it wasn’t for novice climbers, you needed good footwear and stamina.  We found a guide and headed up…  After finishing it I kept thinking maybe I should have headed those warnings because we ended totally exhausted and I was shaking from the exertion, but we did it.  Here are some pictures from the climb.

And here is the view from the top, totally worth it.

Once we’d recovered (the next day) we went hopping around some local islands.  There are a few tours to choose from (A, B, C, D) but we chose the one with a few lagoons, tour B.

We were picked up and sailed about 40 minutes to Small Lagoon where we drifted slowly through the shallow, crystal clear waters.

Next we went to secret lagoon, a small lagoon only accessible by a cave entrance during low tide.  Nothing spectacular but interesting.

Our last stop before heading back was big lagoon, a long and shallow lagoon with a surprisingly deep end.  You can choose to snorkel or kayak down.

The tour cost 1300 pesos each and included a very nice buffet lunch.

A good day out for not so much money!

As we got into Vietnam and spoke to people that had recently been on the trip we started getting slightly different views, tales of bad boat companies, cramped conditions and rats.  

We decided that this was not a time to penny pinch on the experience, and to actually weigh the options before us to make a choice that is frugal but not to the extent where we sour the experience.

Costs

You can get a Ha Long Bay tour for as little as $40 or as much as $200 per person, with a whole range in between. Having heard the tales of rats and bad food from people at the lower end of that range we decided to go up just a little from the bottom and paid $87 each for the experience. This included one night and two days on Ha Long Bay, food for the time we were there, as well as transport there and back.  It also included some limited activities while we were there, such as kayaking.

Activities

For our tour everything was prearranged with very little “free time.”

We were picked up first thing in the morning and driven the three hours to Hanoi to Ha Long Bay – half way we stopped at a rest point for 30 minutes.  One of those typical places where bus companies are paid to drop customers for a while.  Overly expensive food and drinks, and plenty of tourist tat for you to buy, should you wish.

When we arrived on the boat we were given the keys to our room straight away, it was rather nice, even had an en-suite.  Very small, but didn’t feel cramped – and to be honest it’s a boat cabin, you can’t expect any more for that money.

We were sailed out into Ha Long Bay itself to enjoy the thousands of islands that dot this area of Vietnam.  We were not alone, there were hundreds of other boats around us.  Our guide said that there are 300 overnight boats in Ha Long Bay at any one time.  We spent some time just looking out at the islands and enjoying the peace and quiet.

We were unfortunate that there was lots of rain as we were moving into Ha Long Bay, a thunderstorm in fact.  Once it hit we sheltered in the boat and were fed a good lunch while the rain cleared.  There was some talk that if the rain didn’t clear we wouldn’t get to kayak, but thankfully it did and we moved to the kayaking station.

In a little mini bay you could kayak a two person boat around to your heart’s content, but if you wanted to go into the little cove with monkeys and interesting plants you had to pay 50,000 VND each – we opted for this.  It was a little short, 30 minutes, but it was interesting and I enjoyed the combination of drifting lazily and some speed.

After the kayaking we went to a pearl farm.  Not much to see really, a very basic introduction room with examples and very little description of what was going on.  There was a room where you could see them implanting the “seeds” into the oysters that, hopefully, became the pearls later.  It seemed very clinical and quick, they opened the oysters and were done in a matter of seconds.  Depending on the type of oyster they are then left for a number of years to grow a pearl, then they are cracked open and the pearls, if there are any, are removed.  The oyster itself is used for meat.  I did feel a little educated but I feel they could do with some more descriptions of what is going on.

Then it was back to the boat again to be taken to the “Surprising Cave”.  This is a series of chambers, each bigger than the last, full of interesting rock formations.  Having seen many caves in the past I expected to be bored, but there were things there that I didn’t expect.  The ceiling of the cave was pock marked, like a golf ball – I have no idea how that could have formed.  The last chamber was massive and we spent about 15 minutes just walking through it.

Our last stop of the tour was a beach island.  You could choose to either relax on the beach, or climb the steps to view point at the top of the hill.  We opted for the latter and set off up the hill.  Very tiring, by the time I got to the top I was breathing hard and needed a rest, but it was worth it.  The view was incredible.  Hundreds of islands stretching in all directions with boats and floating platforms dotted in between.   I’ve never seen anything like it before and I think it’s my favourite memory of the whole time in Ha Long Bay.

Back to the boat again and we enjoyed a very good, and varied, evening meal.  It even involved a demonstration on how to make Vietnamese spring rolls, which we even got to eat!

The morning after there was just time for a quick breakfast before we got back on the boat to go back to Hanoi.

I think Ha Long Bay was the highlight of our trip to Hanoi.  The city itself is busy and crowded, it was good to get away from it to somewhere that’s calm and serene.  It’s quite expensive on a backpackers’ budget but I think it’s definitely worth the money, just don’t go for the cheapest price!

Where next?

After Ha Long Bay we are flying to our next country, the Philippines.  We will spend a few days in the capital city of Manilla.  It’s home to an ancient Spanish fort built when it was a colony, as well as quite a few old churches and a cathedral, all built in a western style.  I can’t wait to walk the old walls and try to see what’s different from back home.

Getting there

Kampot is a large town with plenty of road links, one direct from Battambang.  However, all the buses still go via the central hub in the capital city, Phnom Penh.  This means an hour or so wait in a hot, sticky open air bus station, we used the time to catch some lunch at a local (and air-conditioned) Chinese restaurant.

Overall the journey from Battambang to Kampot took just over 12 hours and was not enjoyable.  I don’t think the “10 and 2” position for holding a steering wheel applies in Cambodia, the drivers are totally incapable of going more than 30 seconds without honking their horn at something, multiple times.  No catnaps were had on this bus.

The bus drops you off at either Kep or Kampot and at both towns within 10 minutes walk of pretty much any hostel and less than 5 minutes walk of some very good ones.  There is no need to get a tuk-tuk or a taxi, honestly, despite what the drivers tell you.

Getting Around

Kampot is a small town, you can walk from one end to the other in 30 minutes so there’s no real need to use any forms of transport.  The main eating and tour company area is right on the river-side and all within 5 minutes walk of each other.

Kep is around 40 minutes drive from Kampot and if you don’t want to rent a motorbike you can get a local bus for $3-5 each way.  Kep town is very small also, much smaller than Kampot.

If you want to go to attractions that are outside the towns, such as the pepper farms, salt fields, Bokor hill station, then you can rent a taxi or take a tour – tuktuks are not powerful enough to get up the mountain roads to take you.

The taxis are, frankly, a very expensive option.  We were quoted $15 to just take us to the pepper farm and back to Kep, a full day tour including the pepper farm, salt fields, a local cave and country side roads was only $12 per person.  It’s one of those rare, and annoying, situations where “doing it yourself” is actually more expensive than an organised tour.

Things to do in Kampot and Kep

Kampot and Kep are great places to just relax, we ended up spending more time here than in our plan.  There’s also plenty to do and see if you move outside of the towns themselves.

Bokor Hill Station

Just north of Kampot is Bokor Hill Station, a long abandoned French settlement nestled high in the hill.  A welcome retreat from the heat down in the town, this collection of buildings and stunning views are well worth a visit.

There are many smaller buildings as well as a few larger ones, such as this old casino.

As well as this Catholic church.

You can walk all around and inside the buildings, although all the fixtures and fittings have long been removed.

Everything isn’t so perfect when you move a little away from the old abandoned town.  The entire national park has been sold to a Vietnamese company and is currently being redeveloped.  Your first glimpse of this is a huge 30m high witch statue that greats you as you come up the mountain.

Their plan is to cut down national park forest to create a multi-square mile residential and entertainment area, complete with new casinos and hundreds of houses.  They have already started building lots of houses and you can see them scattered throughout the national park.

The plans are already in place and building commenced.  Bokor National Park will not be the same in 5 years time…

Ecran Noodles and Movies

Ecran Noodles is a small restaurant that doubles as the area’s only cinema.   The food is excellent and the noodles are hand made fresh for each dish.  You can watch the chefs amazing skill as he manipulates a lump of dough into long, chewy noodles.

We choose to get dumpling soup and I would recommend that to anyone that wants to visit Ecran’s.

As I said, Ecran’s also doubles as a cinema.  There are a few private rooms with 50″ televisions that you can watch any movie you wish.  They had literally thousands of movies in their catalogue.  We chose to watch The Killing Fields, a movie about the history of Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.  Quite a sad movie as it’s based on the true life of a Cambodian that survived the genocide of over a third of Cambodia’s entire population in the late 1970s.  I would recommend that movie if you want to learn more about the, very recent, history of Cambodia.

Kep Crab Market

If you love fresh crab then Kep is a great place to eat it.  They catch it locally and cook it in front of you.

We ordered 4 crabs, and after we had finished we wished we had ordered more.  They were delicious and the fruit bought from the market complimented the crab.

If you like any sort of seafood then I would recommend a visit to Kep Crab Market as they have it all, and cook it all.

Pepper Farm

All around the Kampot province are, supposedly, the best farms for pepper in the world.  The soil and climate are both perfect for making good pepper.

You see them all over the hills, tall bushes of pepper plants with their pods of spice.

There are four types of pepper grown – black, green, red and white.  We couldn’t see any white but we did manage to see, and taste, the other varieties.

It’s all grown and picked by hand.  Workers remove each pod manually and place them into a wicker basket before they are taken to be dried in the sun and manually sorted into colour and grade.

Salt Farms

Up in the hills around Kep are a few salt farms.  They take salt water from the sea and leave it to dry in the sun.  Once it evaporates enough you can get salt… a lot of it.  They collect it in woven baskets and leave it to dry some more before packing it and selling it locally.  A very simple operation that allows money to be made from nothing but water and sun.

Sunset River Cruise

A quick, and inexpensive ($5), cruise up the river to watch the sunset over the hills.  We were originally worried we wouldn’t see anything due to the clouds, but they actually made the sunset more beautiful.

Where Next?

Kampot is our last stop in in Cambodia. Next we are heading to the capital, Phnom Penh, to catch a bus to Ho Chi Minh City (formally Saigon), Vietnam.  Time to go to our fourth country…

Most people have heard of Angkot Wat, the amazing series of temples at Siem Reap in the north of Cambodia.  Only recently opened to the public and massive in scale, Angkor Wat was once the capital city of the Khmer empire.  Long abandoned it now lies ruined and restorations funded by many international organisations is seeing it slowly brought back to the splendour of its past.

Getting There

We took the bus from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  A reasonably good experience, the bus took around 12 hours and we were fed twice and given a bottle of water.  It stopped a couple of times for us to stretch our legs and go to the bathroom.

The only sticking point was that the bus let on a visa tout from a company with an official looking badge who proceeded to tell everyone that they needed to get a visa before reaching the Cambodian border.  This is not true, you can get a visa as you cross the border.  People shouted to tell others that what he was saying is not true but still, unfortunately, a few people did still fall foul of this scam.

You can also fly direct to Siem Reap International Airport, Cambodia.  There are flights from lots of airports, including Bangkok, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Getting Around Siem Reap

The town centre is actually quite small – you can walk from one end to the other in less than 3o minutes.  Of course there are still plenty of tuk tuk drivers wanting to make your journey shorter (and your pocket just a little lighter).  As long as you’re not wanting to get somewhere through the hottest part of the day, 11am – 2pm, then I would advise you just walk, you never know what you might find on the way.

Things to do in Siem Reap

I can’t help but start with the biggest reason everyone goes to Siem Reap – Angkor Wat.  It’s the only reason that Siem Reap is on anyone’s map, the town itself gets 100% of its income from the tourism industry.

Angkor Wat

It’s impressive, really.  A capital city from over 800 years ago left to ruin in a Cambodian jungle.  Dozens of temples, walls, moats and other buildings.  Entrance fee is $20 for one day or $40 for three days.

I enjoyed our day there, and our driver, Panha, was excellent (by the way here is his website and he’s also on TripAdvisor).  Although due to Angkor Wat regulations, he couldn’t join us in the temples themselves, he told us before and after about the temples and the history of the city.

At the end of the day I think we had seen enough temples for quite a while.  Although each was different they were starting to look the same to our tired eyes.

I think maybe spending a longer time there rather than trying to cram it all into one day might allow you to appreciate the dozens of buildings more.

Koh Ker and Beng Mealea

The day after we visited Angkor Wat I asked Panya to bring us to the ancient temples of Koh Ker and Beng Mealea.  I know I just said we were seen enough temples but Koh Ker captivated me as soon as I saw the photo on trip advisor.  Here we are in South East Asia and I see a temple that looks like it should be in South America, I had to see this this!

It’s just as impressive as it looks, you can stand on the top and look around at the countryside, breathtaking. The temple is so much higher than the tree tops that you can quite literally see for miles.  I think Koh Ker is my favourite temple in Cambodia.  Just don’t stray away from the marked paths, the land-mine signs are no joke, the Khmer Rouge booby trapped this place back in the 1970s.

Beng Mealea has all the scale of Angkor Wat but none of the restoration.  It’s a crumbling, broken ruin of a temple, but it has character – seeing the trees taking back their claim over the rock.  It was once the scene for an Indian Jones movie and you can see why from the pictures, very impressive.

Fish with Soy

Sorry, Soy, I couldn’t resist that little joke.  Actually we went net fishing with a guy called Soy.  A great experience if you’ve never fished before.  He talked us through the process slowly and demonstrated with obvious great skill.  We must have caught 30 small fish, most of which we returned to the water before cooking the rest for lunch.

It was much easier than I expected, but harder than I had hoped, to throw the net accurately and efficiently.  Next time I see a fisherman throw a net to catch fish I’ll think more about how much they’ve practiced that skill.

 Where next?

I’ve heard tell of a place where bamboo carriages, powered by lawn mower engines, rattle along a bent and twisted railway at dizzying speeds.  That place is called Battambang and it’s only a 6 hour bus journey away…

It seems to come down to whether you are willing to take a risk in the future or pay a little more now.

After reading about it a lot online I think I can sum it up like this:

On the border

• Cost: $30
• Length: 1 month
• Pros
  • Cheaper
  • You can use any Cambodian entry checkpoint
• Cons
  • You need to bring passport photos to the border with you
  • Potentially long, hot waits at the border and there has been some allegations of corruption and asking you to pay more
  • You may be harassed before you even get to the border with touts offering you their visa service. We even heard from one tout that you couldn’t get a visa at the border, which at that point we knew he was lying.

Visa before

• Cost: $30 + a $7 application fee
• Length: 1 month
• Pros
  • You know you have your visa in your hand
• Cons
  • More expensive
  • You have to carry around two or three copies of the visa on your backpacking trip; but you can staple one of them to your passport
  • Can only be used at main airports and sea ports (you can’t use it when entering from Laos)
  • You can only get the visa for three months in the future.  Look familiar?

In the end I decided to get it before hand, and the process was quite easy with just one little hiccup.  You need to

1. Decide who will be your primary contact. As I am dealing with all Visa applications for our trip, that’s me!
2. Fill in that person’s details on https://www.evisa.gov.kh/ContactInformation.aspx
3. You will then be asked to fill in information about each person that’s flying.
   • Some of it is required and some is optional.  Because we don’t know where we are going to be staying when we are there I couldn’t fill in that information so I just filled in our entry and exit information.  Didn’t seem to cause any problems…
4. Pay for your visa using a credit/debit card
5. Wait…
6. … and wait …
7. … and wait beyond the period they said you should wait

Okay, so they say it should get back to you before 5 working days.  10 working days later I hadn’t received anything so I chased them via email… 1 hour later I had the visas in my inbox, success!

Shame I had to chase but at least we have them.  Definitely easier and less than the Vietnam visa.  No sending my passports off in the post.

Does anyone have any experiences with getting a Cambodian visa on the border? Talk about it below.

If you like elephants, fruit and supporting human rights (and to be honest, who doesn’t?) then there’s no better way to spend a couple of days than Chai Lai Orchid Resort.

Nestled in the Mae Wang mountains, an hour outside the Thai northern city of Chiang Mai, the Chai Lai Orchid lodge is within an elephant park that offers amazing scenery and activities while you’re there.

The prices are high for a backpacker and the place is certainly aimed at tourists, but as you delve into the history of Chai Lai and the work that is being carried out you will honestly forget about the high prices and just relax and enjoy yourself.

History of Chai Lai Orchid Resort

Created by Alexa, one of the founders of the excellent Daughters Rising charity, who visited Chiang Mai in Thailand and discovered the appalling trade in women and young girls around the area.  These unlucky souls are sold into sex slavery, sometimes by their own parents.

In order to provide a source of income and a future for these women, Alexa founded The Chai Lai Orchid.  Many of the girls working there are from the Daughters Rising charity, given an opportunity for training and a real fulfilled life working in the successful Thai tourism industry.

It’s these noble actions and goals that allow you the justify the high price you pay for visiting this incredible jewel in the mountain.

Accommodation

We stayed in the least expensive option at The Chai Lai Orchid, an Eco-Hut.  A simple wood shack without air-conditioning but, thankfully, a fan and mosquito net.

The king size bed was very comfy and there was a small balcony overlooking the river.  We spent very little time in the room but it was comfy enough that, even though it was small, it never felt crowded.

We payed 1200 THB per night (about £23/$40), although there are other options with more beds and with air-conditioning.

Each room includes a complimentary breakfast, which has good food and plenty of coffee and tea.

Most rooms overlook the path which the elephants are moved along so you can quite often see them just walking in front of your hut, trust me this never gets old no matter how long you stay at Chai Lai.

There’s also a cafe in which you can sit and watch the river below.  The mahouts are always bringing the elephants down to the river to wash them and play with them. We were jut happy to sit here all day looking at the elephants getting bathed or fed.  It’s a magical sight as these elephants are not the ones you see chained up in other parts of Thailand – they are respected and looked fed which every elephant deserves but the reality is so far from this.

The Amazing Mountain Adventure

We took the full day tour, the “Amazing Mountain Adventure.”  It is a very full day, it started at 06:30, finished at 17:30 and in the end we were totally exhausted.

Our day started by trekking in the jungle to find the elephants where they had been left to eat and sleep during the night.  We had two older female elephants and a young baby elephant.

Once the mahout had woken the elephants up they walked over to us and laid down in front of us, at which point we climbed onto their necks, bareback, and they stood up…

I thought the site of an elephant walking straight towards me was scary, but being on their necks without any sort of harness, legs dangling behind their ears was a different level of scary… especially when they move their heads from side to side to rip bamboo from the floor for their breakfast.

Don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely amazing experience in retrospect but it was intense, Serena’s and my hands were shaking after we got off the elephants.

We rode the elephants through the forest and to the river, on the way we met an American couple and their son who would stay with us for the rest of the day.  My favourite part was the little baby elephant who ran around making mischief and having fun.

At the river the elephants get washed and cooled down before you dismount.  Yes, you’re in the river getting squirted by an elephant and their handlers, but at least all your fear sweat gets washed away.

Then it’s time to recover.  We went back to our room, shower, get changed and enjoy the breakfast at the riverside cafe.  Eat well because you’ll need the energy for the next part of the day, the mountain hike.

In total the hike took us about 6 hours, but we had three rest points throughout.

We walked through a local hill tribe, learning about the history of how they were expelled from Burma (Mynamar) and found a home in Thailand, how they made their living by making cloth, and how they grow most of their own food locally.

This food is currently a concern as there has been an unseasonable dry spell in Thailand right now.  We are visiting Thailand during their wet season but it hasn’t rained once.  Our guide said that it hasn’t rained in over two months, not a drop.

We saw the problems with this as we walked through the rice paddies.  Dried up and unused terraces down the hill-side surround this area.  Places where locals would normally grow the food they need to live are totally barren.  We asked our guide, Sing, what the people eat instead of rice… “They don’t.”

Our first rest point was after we had trekked up the side of the highest hill in the area. Amazing views over the surrounding countryside and a little shade.  If we had attempted this trek in England I don’t think it would have been that challenging, but under the full heat of the Thai sun at around 40˚ Celsius it was hard – we drank about a litre of water each before that first rest point.

The going was a little easier then, downhill and towards our lunch rest point.  Epic scenery all around and the occasional wildlife spot broke up the trek with lots of little moments of excitement.  Sing made us all hats from local leaves to take the heat off our heads, stylish!

Lunch was at a small water fall with a number of small pools you could move between in the water, defiantly refreshing.

Sing cooked us lunch, a quick noodle and vegetable dish that was delicious and well needed after a long walk.

There was also a local woman selling goods she and her family had made, Serena bought a blanket but there was lots of small items you could buy.

Another hike through the forest, thankfully all under cover this time, took us to a refreshing waterfall.  Again we took some time to relax and enjoy the water.  I think this is the most impressive waterfall I have swum near, the force of the water was so impressive that it’s hard to swim up to the waterfall itself.

Yet another hike after the waterfall, the theme of the day, and a short car ride and we found ourselves at the Wang river, the same river that crosses the front of The Chai Lai Orchid resort.  We hop on a bamboo raft with our driver (pilot? punt-er?) and head off down the river.

The low rain makes this an interesting trip, with the raft risking getting caught on rocks but our cheerful and playful expert driver avoids most of these… until he offers me the chance to control the raft.  Not being an expert I got the raft caught more than a handful of times on the 2 hour drift down the river.   It’s also more tiring than you would expect to constantly punt a raft trying to avoid rocks and direct the raft down the river, especially when your expert driver is behind you rocking the boat (literally) trying to make you fall off, all the time laughing as you stumble to regain your balance.

Once we had drifted down the river to the lodge I was totally exhausted while Serena had quite enjoyed her relaxing ride on the raft.

We finished off the day by washing baby elephant in the river and feeding it, it even gave us each a kiss on the cheek to say thank you!

We won’t easily forget our time at The Chai Lai Orchid, being introduced to these amazing creatures and learning more about the challenges that many people face to just survive in the world.

Where Next?

We are heading to Chiang Mai city itself to explore the temples and a local festival that’s happening there.  We’ve also heard about a waterfall that’s made from a mineral deposit that’s actually so sticky you can actually walk up it.

We didn’t know much about this city coming into it and the little we did know came from the hostel owner of where we stayed in Kuala Lumpur at the start of our adventure.

Although not developed as a tourist centre it turned out that there are many things to see and do in this ex tin-mining town – even if the tourist information centre was closed at the time of our visit.

How to get there

Situated on the main land of Malaysia and on main roads and railways it is very easy to get to from pretty much anywhere.

Coming from the Cameron Highlands we took a bus down which cost us 18RM each. The journey took about 3 hours, of which a good two-thirds was spent going around mountain roads, not too good if you get a little travel sick.

Where we stayed

We found a reasonably cheap hostel (30RM) just outside of the city, Bed & Bike Backpackers Studio.  A tidy, clean, modern and open plan room housed all the beds and the common area.  We were impressed by the owner of the hostel, Eva, who spoke very good English and gave us some very good ideas about where to go, what to see and what to eat.  All excellent recommendations, try the chicken tikka just up the road from the hostel!

The only negative thing with the hostel is that it is just a little bit too far out of the centre of Ipoh and the public transport is quite bad.  There is just one bus that gets to the hostel from the centre and the last bus is 7:30pm.  After a couple of days this became quite tedious and so we decided to move on from the hostel.

Eva has told us that she intends to relocate the hostel right into the city centre.  If she is able to do that and keep the look, feel and cost very similar to what she has now then I think she will have a great hostel!

After Eva’s place we moved to Abby by the river for a couple of nights, also costing 30RM.  This is right in the city and within walking distance of the main attractions.  The Abby lacked the character of Eva’s but it was right where we wanted to be.

Getting around in Ipoh

Public transport is something we tried and then gave up on in Ipoh.  It’s not terrible, just quite unreliable.  There’s no obvious bus stops, and in fact we saw most locals just flagging the bus down anywhere.  I guess this works if you know the route, but as we didn’t then spent a long time trying to find where to get the bus. There’s no good maps of where the buses go, where the stops are, or the time table at each place.  I know in England we say our public transport is terrible but I think Malaysia has a lot to catch up on outside of KL.

In the end we walked most of the places within the city itself and relied on locals we met in the hostel to show us around some places, we even rented a car for one day to see some of the sights further away from the centre.

What to do in Ipoh

Although not set up as a tourist town there is lots to do and see in Ipoh and the surrounding areas.  We spent 5 days there in total and this is what we did.

Ipoh’s famous murals

Created by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic, these murals dot the city centre.  It’s your job to find them all!  In total there are 7 “original” murals and many copy cats.  We found all of them.

Han Chin Pet Soo

A surprise find, Serena had heard about this briefly but hadn’t mentioned it to me.  We were walking around trying to find the murals and she spotted this museum about the history of Ipoh from the point of view of the Hakka Chinese that were the predominant people here a hundred years ago.

The building itself is an old private members club for those Hakka Chinese working in the tin mining industry when it was still a big industry in Ipoh.  With the decline of the tin trade (and frankly the ageing of the members themselves) the club saw less and less use to the point where it was rented out to a private company which turned it into a museum.

I didn’t know what to expect coming into this museum but I found it fascinating.  It told the history of tin mining in Ipoh as well as how the metal is actually mined.  It also went into detail about the history of the building and how it was used during the various periods of its history, including the gambling, women and opium use that was rife at the time.

They have restored this building to an incredible level of detail and gone beyond, giving details about the history of Ipoh itself.

Very much worth a look!

Kellie’s Castle

A collection of old buildings built by a Scotsman, William Kellie Smith, that emigrated to Malaysia for his family.  Now a historical site and gardens.

Definitely interesting if you like historical sites – there’s plenty of information on the history of the buildings and how they were used.

Concubine Lane

An interesting, short street containing lots traditional shops and accommodation. At the end of the road is a bar run by an Englishman built in the style of an English Pub, “Big John’s”.

Gua tempurung

Ex-tin mining cave formation, this is a huge and impressive collection of natural formations.  Our guide pointed out interesting structures.  After a nice gentle walk through the formations our guide took us off the path and deep into the caves.  No lights, no walk way, no safety.

We made our way through flooded tunnels and tight holes.  Sliding down sheer drops to follow the course of an underground river, eventually coming out where we originally came in.  At no point did we have to put our heads underwater, for which I was grateful!

In total the trip took about 3.5 hours.  If you’re scared of tight places then I wouldn’t do this tour, but if you’re not then I would give it a go.  Very interesting.

Temples

We saw three temples in Ipoh, Sam poh tong, Kek lok tong and Perok tong.  Impressive structures but all pretty much the same as each other.

I think my favourite was Kek lok tong, it has a very impressive garden at the back with a lake.

What’s next?

Next we are going to Penang, an Island off the west coast of Malaysia.  Renowned for food and culture and a short bus trip away.  Time to tantalise our taste buds with more spectacular Malaysian food.

Oh and during our stay in Ipoh we met a guy that owns a hostel in Penang, you just can’t beat a local to show you around give you all the top tips on where to eat and what to see…

After our visit to the Perhentian Islands we decided to do something completely different and visit a forest.  This could have been driven by the fact we both got sunburnt on the islands (“I don’t burn, anyway it’s overcast” – Serena – April, 2015). We were sore – Serena’s shoulders had been burnt and carrying the backpack was quite painful for her. My arms and legs resembled lobsters – it was time to get out of the sun and get some cover from the blistering sun.  What better forest to visit than Taman Negara (Malay for ‘National Park’).  It has wild animals, breathtaking views across a forest canopy and local indigenous tribes living in villages barely changed for hundreds of years.

Transportation to Taman Negara

Situated right in the middle of the main Malaysian peninsula it’s quite easy to get to Taman Negara from any part of Malaysia – we travelled by minivan direct from the Kuala Besut jetty.  You can also get there from other areas such as Kuala Lumpur and the Cameron Highlands.  We payed 85RM each for the privilege of a direct route there, but you can organise to do it totally by public transport, which is slightly cheaper but also much more hassle.

Time for a little rant.  If you’re not interested, skip to “Top Tips” which tells you everything you need to know.

We did find the journey quite exhausting and worrying.  The first boat from Perhentian is meant to be at 8:00am, by 8:45 we were still waiting for our boat.  As Taman Negara, like the Perhentian Islands, does not have any ATMs our plan was to visit the supermarket after getting off the boat and before getting on the bus – we also intended to get breakfast there.

After getting off the boat late we were told to stand and wait, unable to go to the supermarket. We were then moved, stood and waited again, then eventually marched through the heat to get to the bus company’s office.  Through all this the communication was terrible, we didn’t know why we were going to each place, how long we were staying there, what we were waiting for.  Eventually we were able to nip out of the bus company office and grab some unhealthy snack food from a local shop to eat on the way.  Not a nice experience to be carrying heavy backpacks though the heat, while hungry and not knowing how long we were walking for.

Top Tips: Eat breakfast before you attempt this journey! Don’t assume there will be time between getting off the boat and getting on the bus.  Taman Negara, like the Perhentian Islands, doesn’t have an ATM – ask your minivan driver to stop at an ATM on the way, ours was very nice and helped us a lot.

The journey was very long, in total it took us 7 hours with a 1 hour break for lunch.  We also swapped minivans at this point – which was great as the first mini van’s air-conditioning was broken.  You also stop off at the main tour company’s offices a couple of hours before you get to Taman Negara.  Here they give you lots of useful information, such as hostels and what there is to do – of course they also try and sell you tours, but more on that later.

Arriving at Taman Negara, or rather Arriving at Kuala Tahan

Most modes of transport to Taman Negara will drop you off at the little town, Kuala Tahan, just outside of the park.   This town seems to be there purely to service the tourists that visit the park with little in the way of housing for local people, however there is what seems to be a school.

The town has one main street with small shops, restaurants and lots of tour companies.

Just outside the town, 2 minute’s walk away, is a river that separates the town from Taman Negara itself.  Along the river are floating restaurants and yet more tour companies offering the same guided tours.

That’s really all there is to this little tourist town.

Accommodation

Our minivan driver give the other passenger directions to where his accommodation was, but as we hadn’t pre-booked anything I walked around Kuala Tahan asking for prices and looking at rooms.

Typically you can look at paying 40RM for a private room with a fan, or 70-80RM for a private room with air conditioning.  If you’re wanting to go to a dorm/hostel then it’s around 15-20RM for a bed in a fan room or 20RM for a bed in an air-conditioned room.

We chose an air-conditioned bed in Mahseer Chalet Dorm, we were lucky and the first night there was no other guests and so it was as good as a private room at half the price.

The dorm was reasonably clean and the air conditioning good.  The bathroom was inside the dorm itself and had a shower and flushing toilet (something of a luxury in Malayisa).

They also had on site laundry with same day return, very useful.  There was only one usable power socket in the dorms but that was enough for two people, I wonder how usable it would be with a full dorm of 6 people.

In all it was very basic but at that price you can’t complain.

What to do and see

Although you’re in a town outside Taman Negara you can easily get to the national park yourself.  It’s on the other side of the river with boatmen charging 1RM per person each way.

You’re free to walk around an explore the park yourself and there are many trails, from a few km long to dozens of km.

The many tour companies all seem to offer the same tours at the same prices, with any difference being around 5RM at a maximum.  There’s also combined (“combo”) tours with group two or more trips together with a small discount, possibly 10-15RM.

Some of the tours on offer were:

• Tour to the Canopy Walk, a rope bridge through the trees, and up Bukit Teresek, a local hill with good views over the top of the canopy
• A visit to the local indigenous people’s (Orang Asli) village.
• A night safari on a 4×4 vehicle through the Palm Oil plantations to try and spot the wildlife.
• A ride up and down some rapids on a boat, prepare to get wet.
• A night walk through the forest.

There was one place who offered an overnight fishing trip, which we really wanted to do but unfortunately, through some miscommunication, it was a lot more expensive than we had budgeted. The trip included a local guide and the hire of the whole boat. You started from 6pm till the early morning learning and fishing and staying on the boat overnight. Maybe next time!

Canopy Walk and Bukit Teresek, or “Please tell me how I can get hot, sweaty and tired as quickly as possible?”

On the first day we decided to go to the Canopy Walk and up Bukit Teresek ourselves rather than doing the tour, the guide cost 35RM per person and doesn’t cover the fees for entering the park, crossing the river or doing the Canopy Walk itself.  The guides are only really there to show you where to go but everything is so well signposted we didn’t really see the need.

The fee to enter the park and take photograph was 6RM per person, if you don’t want to take photographs it only costs 1RM.  Including the 1RM river crossing and 5RM to do the actual Canopy Walk it cost 13RM per person to go do it ourselves.

As we didn’t have a guide we could take it at our own pace, for which I was very grateful.  The total round trip was was over 5km (3 miles) and had over 1200 steps upwards.  The heat, combined with the humidity in the forest, made this a very long, tiring and frankly sweaty walk.  But in the end we got some brilliant views through and over the canopy as well as seeing and hearing lots of wild animals which might have been scared away by a large tour group.

Orang Asli Village

Just up the river from Kuala Tahan is a village of around 70-100 local indigenous people called Orang Asli (Malay for “original people”).  This village is one of many throughout the Taman Negara area.  There are around 4,000 Orang Asli in the forest and surroundings.  This is rapidly growing, mainly due to the lack of family planning leading to each family having 7-10 children.

We went on this trip with a guide, combined with the rapids boat ride it cost 60RM per person, by itself it cost RM40.

When we arrived at the village our Malay guide talked to us about the history of the people, how they survive in the forest and what tools and natural materials they used.  After that a tribal member demonstrated some of their survival skills – how they made fire, created blow darts and the glue used to bind them and how they used the blow darts to shot animals in the trees, such as monkeys and birds.

After that we walked around the village, we were able to look everywhere except inside the huts themselves. It was quiet, our guide said many of the tribe members were out hunting, but we did see the huts and how they grew bananas to eat.

Night Safari, or “How many people can sit on the roof of a 4×4 vehicle with no seatbelt without falling off?”

A pretty basic concept – pack as many people onto the back and roof of a pickup truck as possible and drive around a Palm Oil plantation until you spot some unsuspecting wild animal at which point you point torches at them and take photos until they run away.

That was a slightly stupid description, sorry, it was actually quite fun.  Although cramped it wasn’t painful and the vehicle drove slowly enough that we didn’t feel in danger of falling off at any point.

The tour lasted a couple of hours, most of which was spent in anticipation of the next creature spot, watching the search light move around the plantation hoping to catch a glimpse of something moving or a pair of eyes shining back at you through the darkness.

The few animals we did spot mostly stared back at us, or move away as quickly as possible.  We saw a couple of lemurs, plenty of birds and a couple of wild cats.  A little disappointing you might say, but still worth the trip and the 40RM per person we spent.

Boat Rapids

We did a combo tour with the Orang Asli village and the boat rapids, together costing 60RM although this tour would have cost 40RM if we had done it separately.

The boat picked us up at one of the floating restaurants that doubled, as most of them did, as a tour company.  From there we were taken up the river a few miles, through some light rapids from which we got wet, a little.  It was interesting but in my opinion I wouldn’t say it’s worth the 40RM if you do it separately.

Night Walk Through Taman Negara

We didn’t do this tour, but it is a couple of hour walk through the forest from 8:30pm.  You hope to spot wild animals that only tend to come out at night, such as lemurs, wild boars, etc.  It costs 40RM from most tour companies.  We mainly didn’t do this because of the short time we had in Taman Negara, but I also think that we could have done it ourselves.  The forest is so well signposted that would be difficult to get lost in the forest unless you strayed from the man made walk ways.

Leaving Taman Negara

Our next stop after Taman Negara is the Cameron Highlands. There is a minivan service direct from Taman Negara (with the usual 1 hour stop at the tour company’s offices so they can sell you lunch), however we decide to do something slightly different.

After having a 7 hour bus journey a couple of days before we wanted to break it up a little.  We took a boat from Kuala Tahan to Jerantut and then a minivan to the Cameron Highlands, a cost of 80RM per person.  It was a nice little ride down the river and on the way we spotted a wild boar and some water buffalo, unfortunately we went by too quickly to snap any photos.

If you’re looking to go to Kuala Lumpur from Taman Negara there are minivan services too, for around 70-80RM.

If you’re looking to do it all yourself there’s a bus to Jerantut which has a bus station where you can take public buses to lots of locations.

Last Thoughts

We both enjoyed our time in Taman Negara – it was a welcome change from the beaches and cities.  We stayed two nights, but it could possibly have even been one night if we had known what we were doing going into it and organised better.

If you enjoy jungle trekking I’m sure you could spend longer, but if you just want to see all the highlights then you could get an early bus, do it all in one day and then leave the morning after.

Where Next?

It’s time to move on from Teman Negara.  We are trying to work our way from the Perhentian Islands, on the east cost, over to Penang which is on the west coast.  From there we can explore the city and go to the beaches on the island of Langkawi before our flight to Thailand.

Looking at a map our next stop is the Cameron Highlands, a series of towns 1500m high in the hills.  An escape from the heat and humidity of the rest of Malaysia for the English in the past, and hopefully for us…

PADI Open Water Course in Perhentian Islands, Malaysia.

During our time in the Perhentian Islands I have been doing my PADI Open Water Scuba Diving course.  We decided to do this at the start of the course so that we can enjoy the dive sites together later during our trip.  Serena has already done a lot diving a few years earlier so she took a quick refresher course as well.

I did the course at the Quiver Dive Team centre on Pulau Kecil Perhentian with an instructor called Karim, a very friendly Egyptian.  He greeted us when we stepped onto the island and talked to me about the course, what it entailed and there was availability to start the next day, which was a total winner. There were other dive centres at Coral Bay Beach where we stayed, however we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere at Quiver Dive Centre.

I’ll talk about the actual experience in a few minutes but some hard facts first.

Facts

What: PADI Open Water Scuba Dive Course

Where: Quiver Dive Team centre on Pulau Kecil Perhentian

How much: 950 ringgits – at time of writing £177/$262

Boring stuff: 5 modules of theory and 6 exams (one for each module and 1 final exam)

Exciting stuff: 2 confined water dives and 2 open water dives

Course Structure and Instructor

The on land training was quite simple: watch a few videos and answer some questions.  There’s a small amount of science and maths involved but they’re not too challenging.  If you remember your GCSE physics about pressure and are comfortable reading spreadsheets then you’re ready to rock, if you’re not then don’t worry as they teach it quite basically.

I think in total that took almost a full day, the videos were about 4 hours long in total and the exams took another couple of hours.

On water training was a total of 4 dives.  The first two were in confined water, although because this is an island with no fresh water that involved a roped off part of the sea, so there was still plenty to see and experience.  The last two were boat dives in the middle of the sea: taking the boat out, plopping off the boat and enjoying the scenery/wildlife.

I managed to do all of this in two and a half days, even squeezing in a fun dive on the afternoon of the third day,

Then you’re done!  A certified PADI diver, able to dive up to 18 metres.

Experience

It’s hard to describe the experience in one word, so I’ll try a few.

Scary, exhilarating, liberating.

The scary part I’m sure I don’t have to describe too much.  You’re under water, under a lot of water.  So much you can’t see the sun anymore.  Your life depends on some metal strapped to your back and your own control over it.

It’s not actually that difficult to get in the water and suck air from a cylinder, there’s just a lot going on you have to think about.  Don’t sink too quickly, don’t rise to quickly, blow air into your mask, squeeze your nose and blow to keep your ears from hurting, keep breathing constantly.  That lasts one’s rather important, if you don’t keep breathing your lungs could burst … no joke.  Feeling scared yet?

But once you get past all of that and actually start to enjoy what’s going on around you you can see why so many people enjoy this – I can start to appreciate why Serena has been on over 60 dives and progressed so far in her training.

I didn’t see as much as Serena did in one of her fun dives, but I saw some stingrays, triggerfish, clownfish (Nemo, found him!) and lots and lots of coral of all shapes and sizes.  Serena managed to see a turtle… so jealous.

I think the worst part was sat waiting for the other divers to surface after I used up all my air quicker than them.  Rocking from side to side … I feel ill just thinking about it.

It’s all an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world, even if I do feel ill and absolutely exhausted after it all.

Right now I’m set up to go on all the dive sites we encounter going forward in our travels: Langkawi, Bali, Borneo, Philippines here we come!