OMG-we're back home in the Hunter to around 45 degrees C after magic weather in balmy Bangkok, perfect also in Phnom Penh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia but heavy rain in sthn Thailand for much of our time at Koh Lipe which forced us to change our travel plans. You just have to roll with the punches! What a trip! Don't know where to start so I'll do a re-cap tonight and post tomorrow.

Still recovering from an awful flu bug we picked up in some sleazy cheap bar somewhere. Think it was the Hotel California in Phnom Penh. What a hoot! You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave! I love that song! Run by a lovely yank with parents to match. They made our stay so wonderful. It's a great city for shopping, food & nightlife!

Happy 2006 fodorites.

I can't wait to read your trip report, especially about Koh Lipe. I'm considering heading there in April.

Lyndie, good to hear from you! We missed your posts. Looking forward to hearing about your trip.

Welcome home and happy new year!

Hi there LA_FadeAway & laurieco-nice to hear from you two & hope 2006 brings you only good stuff!

Well here goes with the trip report.

Flew Gulf Air into Singapore 3.45 am Nov 14 & waited around until the MRT opened at 5.30 am so we could get to Kranji MTR for a bus to Senai airport in Johore Bahru and our Air Asia flight to Penang. The Gulf flight ex Sydney was good, half full as usual so I stretched out & caught 3-4 hrs sleep. My partner sat behind a Gulf pilot from Tonga who liked scotch whisky as much as my partner so they attemped to break the inflight scotch whisky drinking record over the 7.5 hour flight time.

Anyway arrived Penang and walked 200-300 metres with our backpacks attached to the bus stop for a 3 ringit bus trip to Georgetown. The benefits of a backpack!

The weather was a pleasant 28 degrees and we quickly found our terrific Chinese Merchant House hotel, right near little India & a short walk to the pirates houses near the ferry wharves. 18 ringits a night. I sure am cheap! But all we need is a clean comfy bed as we planned to be out and about for the duration of our stay. Sometimes I can't do without cable, hot water & a heavenly Westin bed, but sometimes I can!

We did some tourist stuff like the cable car & caught a local bus out to the beaches which have not improved since our last visit 20 years ago.

Penang is on our short list of places to live for a few months a year since India's prices are rising & Sri Lanka has become unstable again. We like the food, the climate, the public transport system, the cultural mix of people & of course the shopping. BTW Air Asia was on time & we had a good flight. A big surprise & quite unexpected.

After 5 days in Penang we caught the ferry to Langkawi. The less said about Langkawi, the better. We both felt it was a great destination for others, not us. No public transport, expensive taxis, food & accom compared to Thailand & overall we wasted 3 nights there. Sunset Beach Resort was OK but nothing special. We hired a car for 3 days & loved Barn Thai for lunch. We saw & swam at a wonderful beach but it was not our kind of island.

Hopped a ferry to Satun, Thailand & a songthaew & bus to Pakbara wharf for the very magic, Koh Lipe!

Now, my idea of fun is not a 3 hour boat trip out to an island 50 kms out to sea. Nor am I enthused by wet transfers, i.e. waves of 1-2 metres rolling the longtail transfer boats around whilst we were attempting to cross from the ferry to the longtail & avoid falling or dropping our luggage overboard. All this in sight of the beach on Koh Lipe, but the ferry cannot get in as it's too shallow. But it was all worth it! Koh Lipe is not going to be like it is for long. It is paradise.
It is small & perfectly formed, nothing like me. It has around 10-15 different places to stay and the best is Mountain Resort, after intensive nosing around by yours truly. A close second is Andaman Resort and a poor last choice is Leepay Resort where we stayed! We were told accom was tight on the island and we should book. Wrong. You do not need to book unless it's a public hol in Thailand or its mid Dec to mid Jan. Buy a one way ferry ticket & if you're sick of the remoteness of the area or the weather is bad then you can catch a speedboat back.

We spent an idyllic 3 nights with a leaking roof over the toilet, one fine afternoon and pouring rain. We ate the second best Massaman curry in Thailand and met some great people, many Finns & Swedes on Koh Lipe. We swam every morning & night & the water is like the Caribbean, warm & crystal clear. Or as it was before the hurricanes last year.

The weather really got to us so we caught a ferry back to Pakbara & hopped a local bus to Hat Yai. It's not a bad town, has great shopping & good cheap hotels. We caught a bus to Songkla & spent a great night at the night market & bought stuff we'd seen in Samui & Bangkok on our last trip for much cheaper. i.e. tshirts, knock off clothes, costume jewellery.

More later. All the best. It's cold here now, darn 23 degrees. This country's weather is truly weird!

Nov 30-flew Air Asia Hat Yai to Bangkok and arrived late afternoon at our priceline hotel, Regency Park Bangkok at soi 22, Sukhumvit. Our room was unavailable until 9 pm due to a plumbing problem and we could either wait around until late evening or trudge over to the Novotel Lotus!

We will never stay at an Accor hotel again after our shabby treatment by Regency Park Bangkok's staff. Enough said!

Next morning we caught a taxi to the fabulous Westin Grande on Sukhumvit. It was around 12 midday and our room on level 20 was ready for us. What a room! The beds at the Westin are magic. They call them heavenly and neither of us have slept so well as we did at the Westin. Even our own $3000 bed can't compare to the Westin beds. Unfortunately, the pool area at the Westin is small but still OK. The staff are very friendly & helpful & the location is hard to beat. Right by Asoke BTS & Sukhumvit subway. Their room service pizza was most authentic. Surprised the hell out of us as pizza is one dish we don't usually find cooked to our liking, in Asia. Simple Mozzarella & tomato with herbs. Nothing else! After 2 weeks of only Asian food, it was delicious. Bought some great red wine at Villa Supermarket on Sukhumvit. Expensive but oh, so nice with the pizza!

Shopped till we dropped next day and had great Vietnamese at the Loft, level 7, Central Chitlom. The food court is one of the best, as others here have said here & even though it's pricier than MBK's the atmosphere is better.

Our second night at the Westin, we ventured over to Suda, on Soi 14, one of our favourite places for great Thai food & cold Singhas for the bargain price of 290 baht.

Dec 3 and it's over to the Shangri-La for a couple of nights. Well, has this hotel hit the skids? Our last stay was July 2003 and we found it difficult to fault anything much about the place. Except the Phuket lobster being unavailable, for the price stated on the menu.

This time, it was like a different Shangri-La, more a Pansea! The girl who checked us in was distracted & unfriendly. The room was in dire need of maintenance & overlooked the front entrance. We had a river view from the side which was nice but we certainly knew we were priceline guests and no other room was available, they said. We headed off to the pool for happy hour margaritas but had a great deal of difficulty explaining to the pool bar staff what exactly happy hour meant. I'd rung the pool bar to check that happy hour was what I thought it was, so when we got down there no-one seemed to understand that two drinks for the price of one actually is Happy hour and subsequently each time we were asked to sign our check, it was for the wrong price! i.e. we'd be charged for 2 drinks, not one. How weird! After 3 attempts we ended are requesting that a manager needed to be called. Not staying at the Shang again, either!

We discovered a terrific little Indian restaurant opposite the Shang. The food is exceptional & is run by a Nth Indian guy who really knows how to cook fine Indian food. Lovely Thai staff and great value for it's location.

More later. Happy days! Hunter verdelho or a sparkling pinot is calling!

lyndie---hope things got better....ratt probably told them you were coming...

what floor were you on a the sh-la

What a comedian!

Can't remember what floor, but I think it was level 12.

First time we ever felt like priceline guests!

Decided to bite the bullet and stay at the Marriott at the end of each trip and the Westin Grande, when we fly in. Both are just too good, compared with some of their opposition.

How's the India trip planning going? Let us all know!

Dec 5-it's off to Phnom Penh on air asia. Arrived 9 am & hopped a taxi to the Hotel California 2 (US20 per night for a 2 bed room). Great bar, super breakfast & the best baja tacos and Asahi beer for US75 cents a can. We were in heaven. Right by the river & run by a yank from, yep, you guessed it California. He has 6 lovely Cambodian bar girls working there & they were absolutely charming serving males & females with equal delight & laughing & chatting with us all night! Great little hotel!

Hit the Russian Market for fab Columbia travel long & short pants & Wrangler shorts for my partner & lots of great xmas gifts & souvenirs for our families.

The guy who owns Cal 2 had his folks staying at the hotel. We clicked with them & teamed up most nights for drinks & some shopping at the local Lucky Supermarket for imported wines & food. Had my hair washed & blow dried & a pedicure-all for US9. I could easily live in Phnom Penh. Rents are a bargain and the city is easy to navigate. Sophisticated & friendly, we thought. One would need to skip the city in the heat, but in December it was perfect. Friends is a fine casual cafe for some of the best cafe we've eaten & some Aussies run a little cafe next door to the FCC which was very good.

Lots of Americans living & working in Phnom Penh so we made many new friends who were invaluable in supplying us with local info.

Neither of us needed to visit the Killing Fields but my partner wanted to go to the museum, where horror stories & pictures of the Khmer Rouge occupation were displayed. I know it happened but I found the thought of it too upsetting to view.

We walked around the city most days and came to really love Phnom Penh. Plan a return trip to Cambodia, tacked on to our 6-7 month India trip Mar 2006.

Flew back to BKK Dec 10 and hopped a bus down to Pattaya for the Pinnacle Jomtien Beach. Waste of 3 days for us. Pattaya had nothing of interest to us. The beach was dirty & uninspiring. The resort was barely 3 star & the German package commandeered all the deck chairs, day in & day out. Shooping expensive as the market is the euro dollar! Anyway enough said.

Dec 13-fley Cathay BKK to Colombo for another taste of Sri Lanka. More later.

Lyndie

Glad you liked Phnom Pehn. I found Cambodia absolutely magical, but then it was also my first trip to Asia. Was there in 2000 -- and have wanted to go back since. Now I'm afraid I've waited too long -- Angor had always been a childhood dream and I don't know if I can bear it all built up. I was over there on a film shoot so had very little time but what I remember most was an almost eerie sense of quiet. We shot at the FCC and watched the sun rise over Tonle Sap, did one shot circling the central market on an open bed truck where we just drove around in circles for several hours -- all the people on motorcycles (whole families) -- it was amazing. I remember being so overwhelmed I couldn't really frame shots in my camera -- just pointed and clicked after awhile.

For anyone who's been to Cambodia -- here's a web art piece I did on my return. I don't think anything has ever affected me quite as much as that trip. I am very much looking forward to a buddhist sense of time and space in Thailand -- though expect things to be quite different.

http://www.heelstone.com/banner/

Lyndie - I think the best nights of sleep I ever had in my life were in the Westin Suk two years ago. They really are a heavenly bed. Nothing I have experienced since then has even come close...

Great report! I am jealous of all the travel time you have. 7 weeks now and a long trip to India coming up. I want your life!!!

Hi Jennifer & SJLBK. I checked out the website link, Jennifer. Those landmines are another reason we did not venture too far out of the city! Phnom Penh is not "just another Asian city" to us. We really had the most magic time there and hope we can get to know more of the interesting locals who live there, both ex-pats & local business people. Cambodians are some of the nicest folk we've met, in all our travels!

Affirmative SJ, those Westin beds are magic and yes, we are truly blessed to have been given the opportunities to pursue our travel dreams. We've given up a lot to do it, but that's what you sometimes have to do, to live the life you want! And hey, my life is far from perfect so don't go wishing for it! LOL!!!

Back to the report-if I don't do it now I'll never get around to it!

Dec 13 arrived midnight on Cathay. The duty free shop in Colombo is very cheap for wine. US5 per bottle for Chilean reds & US10 for our favourite Aussie quaffing red.

Colombo is a 3 hour flight from BKK and we grabbed a quick taxi to Hotel Silversands, Negombo, for a few hours sleep before we caught the bus & hit the shops of Colombo, next morning. I love shopping at Odel's and simply cannot help myself! I become a shopaholic the minute I enter that store. Picked up some beautiful silver & brass jewellery. Stored our luggage behind the front desk & headed for Delifrance in Odel's and some real coffee after a month of only a few good cups!

Hopped an autorickshaw, manned by the craziest Sri Lankan we've ever met. He got us to the station in around 4 minutes, headed up one way streets the wrong way & dropped us at the rear of Fort Station. We had a short wait for our jam packed train to Ahangama, around 3 hours ride (US1.50), standing all the way because all the 3rd class passengers take over 2nd class & all the 2nd class passengers put up with it! Crazy place, Sri Lanka!

Arrived at the very beautiful Easy Beach & the guesthouse we'd chosen for 3 nights of eating, drinking, swimming & total relaxation. Had the best pepper steak we'd had for a while & attempted to avoid the beach boys who continually accost tourists and who need a few choice phrases hurled at them before they back off!

The beach here is not as nice as at Nilwela but it's pretty good and you can swim all day in crystal clear warm water. The sun there burns the hell out of those people who are on doxy for malaria control. Us included!

We usually eat street food for lunch in Sri Lanka & India. Sri Lanka has some of the best Rotis in the world! Triangles of unleavened bread filled with potato, peas & sometimes fish or chicken. They cost 10-15 rupees (US 15 cents) and 3 for lunch is a good nourishing meal. Along with a chilled Carlsberg, of course.

We enjoyed our stay at Ahangama & then headed down to Nilwela by bus, via Matara. The buses are a comfortable way to travel. We usually avoid the local buses and try to flag down the intercity buses. We were lucky & had a seat for the 2 hour trip to Nilwela.

Unfortunately our favourite guesthouse in all Sri Lanka has undergone some changes and we checked out after only 3 nights.

More later. Happy travelling!

Lyndie

I know what you mean about Phnom Penh being different. A lot of our extras were expats, photojournalists, world aid workers. We found them all at Happy Herbs. Just the concept of a pizza that could be regular, kind of happy or very happy -- was so very different. The actress and I ordered a regular but it took so long to come we had a few happy slices while we were waiting and went into those crazy giggles you only get when you don't get high very often. I had red bunny eyes the next day. One of our extras had flown into Myanmar to interview the woman who is still under house arrest -- had to smuggle out her tape in a wig. It was a very surreal experience. And unfortunately, the land mines are very real.

Lyndie, I'm enjoying your report. I'm still hoping to go to Sri Lanka in September, I'm hoping the unrest there doesn't get out of hand. Did you experience any trouble? If Sri Lanka becomes too dangerous, we have Japan as a back up plan.

Hi Jennifer & laurieco! Jen, I'm very glad I missed the happy pizza. I'd still be at Happy Herbs! The landmines issue is one which can be easily forgotten but the reminders are seen every day, in the streets of Phnom Penh. I had to try real hard not to burst into tears & I'm a real toughie!

laurieco, what to say about Sri Lanka? When we arrived we immediately grabbed a few newspapers and caught up with what was being published in the broadsheets. It did not look good mid December & it's worse now. I'm just waiting to see how the Govt. retaliates over the patrol boat murders in Trinco, last week.

We'll be monitoring the situation there, as I know you will. It's such an interesting country to explore, but I'm not keen on wasting my travel time there if there is a very real safety risk. I'd even convinced my partner to head East to Trinco & Arugam Bay on our next visit. Now I'm not so sure. I certainly felt the tension this trip. People seem to be waiting for the next round of agression instead of looking forward to a peaceful life. So very sad & not good for anyone!

It really is a shame and as you said, good for no one. I'm usually not afraid to travel to areas that are considered risky but if I am going to have real concerns about my safety, then there's really no point, is there? I have no problem going to areas that run a moderate risk of a terrorist attack but this situation is a whole different ball game and appears to carry a much heavier risk.

hi laurieco-the risk of a tourist being hurt or worse, killed is small, I believe, in Sri Lanka, imho.

The problem for us is that I believe the airport may be targeted if a politician is flying anywhere. Any place where govt. ministers are staying or travelling to or from, or there is an army or navy presence, is a target for violence.

I still want to return to Sri Lanka, but I will be reading & researching the net and talking by email with contacts we've made. I believe it's safer than Bali, for us tourists, based on the number of visitors hurt or murdered over the past few years! I love the country so much I think we'll just have to wait and see.

I might add that the tsunami aid which was misappropriated by govt. officials remains a sore point with locals. Many people are hoping the new govt. acts responsibly to help those who still have not rebuilt due to lack of funds or stupid new building codes. There are many new cars owned by Govt. ministers, in Sri Lanka. The pay must be good!

As a tourist, one does not have to get involved in local issues, but they are obvious and locals we met discussed their frustrations with us. We are not the kind of people who stay remote from locals, and sometimes this can colour our own opinions.

If you just want to fly in, get an air conditioned van/driver to drive you around and you stay in upper class hotels, with armed guard out front, then you would not know much or probably care much about local issues. Not criticism is intended here. You'll know what I mean by this, I'm sure.

For us, staying in small, family run places, most were a positive experience, but after a few arracks the truth about how they really feel, comes out. And it was not that way in August, when the peace accord was still holding, albeit by a few threads. Now it seems like a very fragile thread.

I believe the Norwegian Govt. has given up trying to broker a new peace accord, from what we read in the newspapers. They successfully brokered the last one and now, after 3 years, the agression simmers away still! Sorry to rave on, but I'm feeling down for Sri Lanka & Sri Lankans! All the best, whatever you decide to do.

laurie:
I hear Sapporo is beautiful in the fall.
Aloha!

I'll be monitoring the situation over the coming months and eventually decide. I want this trip to be special, it is after all my 50th birthday trip. Hard to believe, I still feel like I'm 20, in my mind anyway

I would rather go to Sri Lanka since I've never been there but I loved Japan so much that I've wanted to go back since I left there. I'll keep Sapporo in mind. Eric would like that, he likes the beer ;-)