Hayden's Adventures in South East Asia!

Look what arrived!

2012-05-28T12:28:00.001-07:00

I got knock on the door today, it's my package I sent from Cambodia. It seems to have been trending around all over the world by boat since December. Now I've got my old camera that broke in Vietnam, the jacket I got made in Hoi an, and my sleep mat and mosquito net I didn't end up using.

Home!

2012-04-30T21:26:00.003-07:00

I'm home!
actually ive been home for a while now
I was planning on coming home on the 14th of April and I wasnt going to tell anyone and i was going to wait for my mom at arrivals because she was going to Toronto to visit my sister.
I told a couple close friends and of course almost everyone ended up finding out.
While hanging out at my friends place I decided that although it was amazing there and the beach was wonderful i decided to see if i could make it back a bit early.
I changed my flight for $15 dollars and was heading home on the 9th.
I took an overnight bus back to Bangkok and spent one night there before flying out.
The day i was set to leave i decided that i couldnt stand that city any longer so i left for the airport 5 hours early. While waiting in line to see if i could drop my bag early they asked if i was travelling alone at the baggage check. I said yes and he asked if he could move me to an earlier flight because the one i was supposed to take later would be delayed and i would miss my stopover in Hong Kong. I said of course and i got a security escort right through the airport all the way to my seat on the plane. We took off a few min later and everything was great.
I hung out in Hong Kong airport for 4 hours and then hopped on a plane again had some dinner and then fell asleep. when I woke up i think i was somewhere over Alaska so I slept mostly the whole flight. After some breakfast is was a couple hours and then we landed in Vancouver.
As we came into the city we did a big loop around and it amazed me. So many lights and everything was so clean and organized.
It felt so amazing to be home, i literally couldnt stand still while i had to wait in the line for customs and what not.
When i stepped outside i forgot how nice and clean the air was.
i took the skytrain home and then a taxi from the station to a couple blocks away from my house and then walked the rest of the way.
I went to the front door and rang the doorbell and my surprised parents greeted me.
The next few days were spent going around to all my close friends houses and surprising them because no one knew i was in the country!

Even though im home and it feels amazing i will keep updating with videos and memories and other little things that i find interesting.

Thanks for following, its meant so much to me to know that while i was gone there was people at home who put the effort in to keep up with what i was doing.

Koh Lanta - running away

2012-04-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

umm not too many photos for this one.
not any actually
Koh Lanta which was the next stop on the Thai island list was a super chilled out place which I even forgot to take pictures of. We booked a place as we were leaving Phi Phi and it ended up being this pretty nice resort with a pool and everything. One day we went paddle boarding which is pretty nice to do for a bit but its not actually that exciting and gets old pretty quick. Another day we rented bikes and rode around the island which was nice and peaceful but still nothing too exciting.

Also Thailand is really touristy, and not my kind of place. Really long to explain what its like but i will dedicate one post to it eventually giving my thoughts.
So one morning I decided i was going to go to Cambodia. Went to the travel agent and she said i could leave in an hour so i packed my bags, said goodbye to my friends and got on a bus to Bangkok, Once there i was going to see if i could find a bus to a Cambodian border and then work my way back to Ortes Beach in Sihanoukville where my friends had opened up a beach bar and bungalows.
So overnight bus to Bangkok and once there I switched bus stations and got on a bus to... somewhere. not sure where it was exactly but the lady said Cambodia and thats all i could get out of here. I ended up at the Poi Pet border in the north west of Cambodia. I had to navigate my way through the tourist border visa scams and made the through with no extra charges. Then i hopped on a bus that was going all the way across the country to Phnom Penh. I didnt know if i would get there in time to make the overnight bus to Sihanoukville but i thought i would try anyways. Once arriving in Phnom Penh and giving directions to my moto driver about how to get to the riverfront in downtown Phnom Penh (somehow he didnt know) i got right onto the bus to Sihanoukville. Once there i didnt get ripped off cause i new the actual price to get to Otres from the bus station and made it to my friends place around 6am. Its weird travelling places that youve already been before cause you remember a lot of things that you have already seen and you know whats going on and how everything works which is really nice.
So if anyone was keeping track i left around 10am one morning and arrived at 6 am 2 days later, quite a lot of travel and waiting around cause i didnt buy just one ticket to go all the way. this is how the local people travel though. they just kinda go to a bus station and take a bus that might or might not take them closer to where they want to go. Not my favourite way of travel but i did it and at least i know now!

Koh Phi Phi - boat trip

2012-04-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

So this is mostly about the boat trip cause i didnt end up doing very much else.

the island of Koh Phi Phi are amazingly beautiful. Like unbelievable.

Lost of stuff to see snorkelling

The water was super shallow all around the island.

water was really nice and beautiful

Tourists in Thailand. enough said.

(ed hardy speedo)

Lots of fish

fish fish fish

Us snorkelling

We stopped at this little bay thing that was completely enclosed by mountains, the ground was super sandy and the water was super warm. couldnt have been more amazing.

Unidentified sea creatures.

Nemo!

Last stop was Maya bay which is the beach where they filmed the film "The Beach"

really not much to do there at all. and its kinda a coral graveyard in the water so its not so nice either.

If you want you can pay a ridiculous amount to spend a night camping there.

Once the sun starts to go down its like a mass exodus because the tide is going out and it gets too shallow for the boats to leave if they stay in that bay for too long.

For more photos check the album on the left! Remember to comment and pass on!

Phuket town

2012-04-05T20:35:00.001-07:00

First stop back in Thailand!
Got the the airport, bought some sim cards, found a nice place to stay, booked a boat ticket to Phi Phi.
It was Thailand. Super easy and we were loving it.
Not much to do in Phuket town cause it is just a town.
Went to see the Hunger Games. It came out on the 22 in Thailand and because of the time change we saw it earlier than everyone back home which is always something to brag about(not.)
no pictures in this post cause there wasnt really anything to take pictures of.
bought a case for my camera though finally so i can take underwater pictures!

For more photos check the album on the left! Remember to comment and pass on!

Bali - Ubud and Kuta

2012-04-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

Bali is beautiful

I wish that we could have spent more time there but we ended up getting stuck on gili. To make up we spent 3 nights in a place called Ubud and did a day tour where we saw soooo much.

We saw a traditional Balinese dancing. it was really cool cause there was no instruments. The men who were seated all around chanted and made a whole bunch of different sounds it sounded like there was music coming from all around you.

They also made the setting by changing how they were sitting and moving around. at one point they turned into a snake that was transformed from an arrow that was shot by the evil king.

afterword there was a man who was dressed as a horse danced around on burning coconut husks. i didnt really understand the reasoning but it was impressive all the same.

We went to a bunch of different temples which were all very intricate.

Harvested some rice with some old ladies who tried to charge me for it after.

The scaffolding they have there was made of bamboo and fabric ties. pretty amazing.

Saw some rice fields

We went to one temple that had spring water, the locals were preforming some sort of religious thing at all the taps and the children were not happy about it. the water was actually really really cold.

They had a koi pond with these giant fish. i mean they were huge, you cant really tell by the picture but they were about the size of my leg. probably bigger actually.

we stopped at some gathering from one place to the next. not sure what was going on it just seemed kinda like they were all waiting for something but it started waiting so we left.

we stopped at a touristic coffee making place.

Tried Luwak coffee which is made from the beans that have passed through the digestive system of a civet. wasnt anything exciting actually, just tasted like earthy coffee.

we got a try a whole bunch of really good tea for free though.

Afterwords we went across the street and we got my friends to try durian for the first time.

It has a very interesting and distinct flavour. Ill post a video later when I have faster wifi.

for lunch we went to this panorama hill to have a buffet lunch. very tasty, nice view.

Next stop was mother temple, the oldest temple in Bali. when we got there they told us that "we were very lucky" cause there was a "special ceremony happening today and the temple was closed" and "we were allowed to go in if we were accompanied by a local" all we had to do was pay a small donation.

We probably would have paid but my friends that i flew to meet told me there was a ceremony the day that they went.

So i told them that i think we would be ok just going around the outside and not going in the main part.

So we walked all the way to the top in the little temples surrounding the outside and then walked right back down the middle. there was some people who had paid for the local to accompany them for the ceremony that didnt seem to ever take place. But also some who were just wandering on their own.

We walked way up tot the top where is was really quiet and peaceful.

Last stop was another rice terrice.

here is a guy who doesnt know that he is going to have to tip the local for using his basket and hat for the picture.

Bali is great,

Except Kuta.

Kuta sucks.

Super touristy and people are drunk all the time. No fun at all, unless you want to do that.

Everywhere else in south east asia uses old waterbottles to hold petrol for motorbikes cause they are so available . In Kuta they use Absolute Vodka bottles. Enough said.

its just the closest place to the airport so we spent a night there.

For more photos check the album on the left! Remember to comment and pass on!

Gili Islands- Snorkelling, cyclone, hanging out

2012-04-02T04:42:00.001-07:00

(this is probably going to be all over the place because I have a lot of days and events to cover)

So the early morning travels started from Pulau Weh, then I got a ferry to Banda Aceh, next a flight to Kuala Lumpur, I raced off my flight and through immigration than ran with my luggage to the Air Asia booth and asked for the next flight to Bali, I just about got one an hour later but then it would have been an extra $90 because I had luggage to check and you have to give them 4 hours notice. So booked a flight 5 hours later and then went in the Starbucks and hung out with a girl who was on her way to Singapore who i also got the flight from Banda Aceh with. While sitting in Starbucks I though I recognized a guy who was ordering his drink, so I went over and discovered it was one of the guys I befriended on Koh Rong in Cambodia! He was headed to Borneo with one of the other girls from Koh Rong and I was on my way to Bali to meet the other 3 of their group. I couldnt believe how small of a world it was. Anyways i got my flight to Bali and when i arrived i wandered around the town Kuta where i was trying to find somewhere cheap to spend the night so i could get a bus to go meet my friends in the morning.

After meeting up with my friends in the north of Bali we decided to head over to the Gili islands. Being the budget travellers we are we decided to take the slow ferry over to Lombok ( the island just east of bali) and then drive up to the north and get a local boat across to the Gili's. We ended up getting a ticket with a tour company because it would cost the same as what we figured out it would for us to do on our own. Once we got the Lombok we discovered that "it was too late to get the ferry to gili" (probably wasnt) and we had to spend the night in a town on Lombok. It was weird cause they didnt take us anywhere specific to spend the night which you might expect in a tourist trap so we found a cheap place and decided that it would work out better anyways because we would get to check out accommodation before all the fast boats got there.

We found a place and then just hung out, went snorkelling, ate good food. Walked on the beach, stuff like that.

Gili Trawangan is really nice, We did a day trip to one of the other islands which was really nice as well and had really good snorkelling.

Here is a flip flop tree.

Watching the sunset

There were some beautiful sunsets that could be seen from the gili's

After a couple days my friends had to leave cause they were on their way to NZ and Fiji( super jealous) and i thought i would just hang out because my friends from work were coming from Australia soon and it didnt make sense to go back to Bali and come back because they wanted to come to Gili.

Here is a man that was using a piece of packaging foam and his flip flops to paddle out to his boat.

I went to the other two islands, Gili Meno & Gili Air, and eventually decided that Gili T was the best. The other ones were much quieter and less places. So everything was more expensive and honestly the people there just didnt seem to care so customer service wasnt very good.

I headed back to Gili T and got a room at the same place I was staying at the first time.

. My friend from back home came and we had a great time chilling out and going snorkelling and sitting in the sun. Then the cyclone came, apparently we got the tail end of one that was making its way up from Australia before it turned around and it was super stormy. All the fast boats were cancelled so lots of people were stuck on the island because they bought return tickets.

One day my friend and I were sitting eating lunch and watching a group of people trying to get into a local boat from the back to go to lombok so that they could fly back to bali. The waves were pretty big near the shore. The boat rocked like crazy once, twice, and then the third wave came crashing over into the boat and people went nuts! everyone was trying to get off this boat all at once, locals from every direction were running towards the boat to help people off and to see what was happening. in the end everyone and all of their stuff was soaking.

This is the giant Grass hopper that jumped out of the tree onto me

Here is a baby sea turtle that they had in the reserves on all of the islands. They collect the eggs and release them once the turtles are hatched and big enough.

We saw a bunch of full size sea turtles while we were snorkelling as well. Every time I went I saw at least 1 but usually 2 or 3 of them swimming around. The coral and fish around the Gili's was so cool as well. Kinda the same as on Pulau Weh but a lot more soft coral. There was also lots of bigger rocks with swim through's and what not. Lots of christmas tree coral where when you get close it sucks in on itself and disappears. Once while I dove down to swim around to this really cool looking coral my friend pointed out that I had just swam super close to this weird squid thingy. it had tentacle like things hanging around its mouth and wavy fins all around the outside.

My favourite part about snorkelling on Gili was that around there was beaches pretty much all around the island, once you go underwater just off the shore there is a bunch of short seaweed that makes it look like there is a big lawn around the whole island. Keep going a little bit further and then its like the lawn ends and it turns into a crazy coral jungle! then just past the coral ring it just drops off and there is coral going down the whole wall, super cool.

It was really sad after the storm finally cleared up we went to go snorkelling one last time before we had to leave and I was super bummed out about the damage that happened to the reef. well whatever was left of it, which was not much at all. The ocean was all foggy because of the silt that had been churned up and once you dived down deep enough to see the coral was wrecked. Most of the fish were gone as well, really sad to see.

None of the islands had any cars on them, there was only horse drawn carriages and walking paths which made it really nice and really chill to hang around.

Those horse carts came in very handy when one day the guy in the room next to ours had an allergic reaction to peanuts and his epi pen didnt work. My friend and I had to rally the locals to help us carry him to a horse cart and take him to the small clinic.

He ended up being alright and bought us pizza a couple nights later to thank us.

For more photos check the album on the left! Remember to comment and pass on!

Pulau Weh - Iboih Beach

2012-03-25T18:23:00.002-07:00

First off there were the spiders that were all over, they were massive and always decided to build their webs on the only path along the coast.

So I decided to take a vacation from travelling and settle down somewhere for a bit. And I dont think I could have picked a nicer place!

Pulau Weh is and island on the very north west tip of Indonesia

I found a nice bungalow for 60000 ID (about $6) a night and just hung out for 2 weeks.

There were lots of monkeys on the island but unlike some other places in asia they didnt try to steal things so they werent a problem.

One day I rented a motorbike and drove around the island for a bit.

I though I was heading to a waterfall in this picture but I never made it :/

I did make it to Kilometre 0 however, which is the very most western point you can get to.

This is the view from the restaurant at my bungalows where you can see the island Pulau Rubiah just across the island . Just on the other side of the island is a great snorkelling place that they call the Sea Garden. Most days I would swim across to the island ( About 10 min) and then walk the path over it and go snorkelling for a few hours on the other side before swimming back.

Right infont of my bunglaow there was amazing snorkelling as well.

Sadly I didnt have an underwater camera so I couldnt get any pictures to show you :(

So ill kinda just have to describe them as best i can.

Here are some cats chillin on the rocks.

After snorkelling for days by my self I decided I needed to make it more exciting because after a while coral does tend to look all the same. So I made up a game where I flip upside down and spin around, then when I open my eyes I look for a fish. The first fish I see I have to find some coral that matches the same colours of the fish. It can provide endless hours of fun.

Once while over at the sea garden I came across a giant black eel like thing that was about the same size as me! spent a little while just looking at it but it wasnt really moving at all so I got bored and moved on.

On the other side of the island as well there was always this massive school of medium size blue fish, they were literally everywhere once they swam by you. I though it was pretty cool until one day i noticed these really big dark grey fish that would dart around in and out of the school of fish hunting them. I decided from then on I would separate myself from the school in fear of accidentally getting bit.

Another fish a really liked was what I called a Japanese fish. They were pretty big and vertically flat and their scales were all gold,blue,black and green so they looked kind of like those Japanese paintings.

A lot of fish I made up names for just because I didnt know their actual ones.

On the morning of my last day I had to get up at 5 to get a taxi to the ferry port on the other side of the island, walked all the way along the path to the little village where I got the car and thats when i started a long day of travelling.

I decided not to go to Jakarta and had friends that I met in Cambodia that I decided i was going to meet in Bali. I had a ticket booked to fly to KL where I figured it would be easiest to get a flight to Bali so I was hoping I would be able to get one that day.

For more photos check the album on the left! Remember to comment and pass on!

Lake Toba, Lake Maninjaiu, Bukittinggi [UPDATESD: actually with bukittinggi this time]

2012-03-09T22:13:00.001-08:00

I decided to make a detour to the south with the Canadians I met when I was climbing the volcano.

First stop was lake Toba, The largest volcanic lake in the world!

So one morning were climbing a volcano and the same afternoon we are spending the night on an island in a volcanic lake.

It was super sunny and beautiful there, kinda of reminded me of the Okanagan .

All the houses were in this style which is traditional to Sumatra.

These were our rooms at "Hotel Carolina"

One day we rented motorbikes and explored the island and areas around it.

Lots of rice fields and fish ponds in the lakes and surroundings.

After riding around we decided to go to the hot springs which we found out when we got there were pretty developed. The local people had attached all sorts of pipes and drains to the natural part of the hot springs and had it pumped into bathing pools all over the area. We had to pay 10000 IDR to get in for an hour. About $1. Once there we found out that the water was really really hot so we ended up sitting on the side for the 30 mins we could last.

One thing I ended up doing there was running around and around the circle to try and make a whirlpool. Sadly I didnt have enough mass to do it by myself .

Back at the hotel we went and hung around on the lake for the afternoon because it was sunny.

There was a wooden diving board which was made of three 2x4's nailed together. As I walked out to the end I heard the wood cracking so as soon as I got the picture I was off.

I do really miss diving though, I think its definitely the longest I've gone without being on a real diving board.

Next stop was Lake Mananjau which is another lake just south past the equator. We got a share taxi there that ended up being 5 hours late, and then another 15 hours drive till we got there. I was lucky and got the passenger seat in the front where as my friends got squished in the very back. Apparently it was a horrific and scary drive along the roads in the night because of how bad they were and all the cars that were flying around but I was lucky enough to sleep the whole way through.

Once we got to the lake we found it really hard to find accommodation because everything was really expensive or full or really dirty. But eventually we found a place just before the downpour started. We only spend one night there because there really wasnt anything to do.

Then we were off to Bukittinggi

Bukittinggi is a typical Indonesian city about halfway down Sumatra

It was pretty brick and concrete in most places but we found one house with a little greenery.

One day we went to the canyon and the japanese tunnels

There was some pretty nice views.

Down the tunnels we go.

During the war the Japanese were forced to dig a network of secret underground tunnels.

Not really sure why because we didnt have a tour guide and not many people spoke english but it was still pretty cool to go explore.

A lot of steps to get down to them.

there was many different rooms once we found as well such as this conference room

and this movie theater.

After we walked over to one of the bigger shopping centers near the main square.

I was surprised to see that there was a bunch of mascots walking around that people could take pictures with.

I was even more surprised to find out that all of the costumes were occupied by kids working for tips.

Here is a prime example of Asian fashion.

I should have bough it.

For more photos check the album on the left! Remember to comment and pass on!

Berastagi - climbing Mt Sibayak

2012-03-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

First stop in Indonesia!

After I got off the plane from Singapore I hopped on the back of a motorbike who took me to the local buses that go all over Sumatra.

I climbed into a pimped out minivan with all sorts of animal print and frills and we were off to Berastagi!

It was a ridiculously crazy ride back and forth, up and down the sides of mountains. And just to my luck there was a huge thunderstorm and cars in Indonesia dont seem to be waterproof.

After I found somewhere to stay i wandered around town and found myself on the top of a hill that overlooked all of Berastagi.

The next day I met up with some people from Montreal and we set off to climb one of the two volcanoes in Berastagi. The path to the two was pretty easy as it was paved mostly the whole way, the only trouble we really came across was this one part that was completely covered by a land slide

We were told that there was a big crater at the top so once we got to a big plateau we were quite confused when we didnt find one.

we thought it might have been this big concrete pool like thing? but we really werent sure and there was no one else around to ask.

So we did the obvious thing and posed for pictures pretending we were at the top!

then we saw some more people with a guide heading up a small jungle path that we overlooked so we ended up tagging along.

there was a bunch more stairs along some cool cliff side scenery.

since it was still early in the morning the clouds hadnt cleared yet which made it look like we were on the top of the world.

then we got to the crater! i was giant! really cool feeling to be walking right through the middle.

there were some super loud gas vent and the rocks around them were stained yellow from the sulphuric gas.

There was also a big lake right in the centre of the crater.

it was really interesting walking down after because it was so peaceful and i never really realized how loud the escaping gas was until i couldnt hear it anymore.

Overall i felt pretty accomplished as we headed back to town.

Next stop: lake Toba!

For more photos check the album on the left! Remember to comment and pass on!

Singapore - Night safari, Scuba gear, and the lost iPhone!

2012-02-18T21:57:00.000-08:00

Singapore!

I dont know why but I was super excited to spend a couple days in Singapore.

Maybe because I thought it would be a nice break from south east asia and live the western life for a little bit.

Everything is super clean and really well kept.

I really liked all the different buildings that they had there too.

The pace of Singapore is so much faster than every other country as well. which I loved because although slowing down to local pace in other countries sometimes can be nice but other times I felt like a was moving like a snail.

Their streets were really interesting as well. Also many of the street names were interesting unlike the random names that we have back home.

They also had some interesting benches around too:

I didnt take too many pictures of me in front of cool buildings cause i was by myself and didnt really feel like asking people. Plus i have huge stop over in Singapore in about a month so ill take some then.

These 4 buildings obviously came as a set:

I just walked around for most of my 2 days that i was there cause all the fancy arts and shows were pretty expensive. I did but some snorkel gear though. I ended up spending $200 Singapore dollars which is about $150 and got mask, snorkel, fins, boots, and other little accessories which i think is a pretty good deal considering they were all good quality stuff.

The other thing that i did in Singapore was go to the Night Safari!

There was a fire show at the entrance

I walked around for it bit before sitting down for some overpriced dinner at Z'bar

They had a really cool mangrove walk where there was fruit bats and flying foxes and all sorts of other things that you could walk through the cage with.

I saw all sorts of new animals that i didnt know existed.

like the Indian spotted mouse deer.

Then i took the tram and saw some of the other more famous animals like lions and elephants and giraffes

I got the shuttle back to the city and got dropped off at the marina which is amazing at night. everything is lit up and looks great.

I was walking across the bride as you see below and i notice a rectangular object just sitting there all by its lone self.

I turned it over and it turns out to be an iPhone 4 (or 4s im not sure there was a case).

I never know what to do in this situation especially on the other side of the world.

So i just sat down beside and and though i would hang out for it bit and maybe the owner would come back looking for it. I didnt want some other less honest person to come by and swipe it and i had nothing better to do. After a while i thought maybe i can call someone and they can come get it. Since it had a passcode i had to use voice control and guess some names that might be in the contact list ("mom" "sister" "home"). home ended up working and i was trying to explain to the lady on the other end of the line that i had this persons phone but she just kept saying that i had the wrong number. then his girlfriend ended up calling me on the other line so she said that he was coming and he was wearing a red shit. So i waited there and eventually he came running over with his iPad. He ended up shaking my hand like a million times and saying thank you a bunch more times. then he said "i feel like i should take you out for dinner or something" so i was like "you dont have to do that" really hoping that he would because that tiny dinner that i got at z bar was not filling at all. but then he lead the conversation back to thanking me and then we parted ways.

so i walked back to my hostel and filled myself up on some chicken rice before going to bed

For more photos check the album on the left!

Remember to comment and pass on!

[updated] Boy am I excited to get home... I mean listen to what is waiting for me.

2012-02-17T04:41:00.000-08:00

You can leave me a voicemail too.

Simply call my Google voice number:

(312)985-6526

And I would love to hear from you.

If you want I can even post it on my blog.

[update]

I have heard many concerns about long distance charges and what so now you can call me from your computer!
Just click the button below and it should connect you to my voicemail free of charge

not 100% it will work but I thought id give it a try

Langkawi - Time to relax and big decisions!

2012-02-13T03:36:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I find a place to settle down for a bit and just relax. As hard as it is to believe travelling gets pretty tiring.

So I spent a week sitting on the beach

Reading my book

Tanning

This woman was doing the opposite.

Best way she could find to stay out of the sun I guess.

Couple of good skype conversations with my parents I decided 2 big thing

1. I'm not going to go to Borneo. (The island that is home to the west part of malaysia) There wasnt really much that i wanted to see there that i could see other places and it would cost much too much.

2. That I'm not going to get my PADI certification for scuba diving. I've been scuba diving before and even had my junior PADI something rather so I decided i would invest a fraction of the money the PADI course would cost into getting some good snorkelling gear.

For more photos check the album on the left!

Remember to comment and pass on!

Penang......

2012-02-10T22:34:00.000-08:00

Next stop was Penang, a city on the wast of Malaysia about half way up the coast.

As backpackers we didnt find much to do here. Walked around, looked at some old buildings.

we hiked though a park one day to get to this beach called turtle beach. Sadly it was so average that i forgot to take pictures

But here is a picture of a building in china town.

Around the building there were wire sculptures like these that told about historical thing in the town.

This one was about Jimmy Choo

Just some phone cases a found while wandering around one of the big malls.

While walking around the mall we decided to try some "SoyaSoya"

you got to pick your pudding flavour and they kind of pearls that you wanted on it.

Looks delicious right?

This is how tasty it was:

One day after walking around we made our way to this park near the ocean because we heard there would be some sort of Chinese new year things happening. We got there to find out this was one of the locations that "Astro", the big broadcasting company , was hosting a televised celebration.

There was a whole tv crew, random hosts, performances like singing and dances.

Eventually we got bored and since we had been up and about all day we decided to go to sleep.

I ended up being in the shower when it was midnight and forgot that it was chinese new year and all the fireworks and firecrackers that went off scared me half to death.

I have more videos of the performances and ill try and update this post when I get a better internet connection

For more photos check the album on the left!

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Catch me in "Cinta" Malaysian TV3

2012-02-07T19:05:00.000-08:00

On the way back from the tea plantation we decided to stop at this cottage on the way back to town that is supposed to have the best tea and scones in the Cameron Highlands. They were sadly disappointing and overpriced. We couldnt even walk around in the garden because they were filming a Malaysian soap opera there. As we were paying to leave we told the director that if they needed any western extras they we could sit in. Half joking half serious and they said that they would pick us up later that evening!

We got a ride back to the hostel and prepared ourselves for the camera. Basically tried to make ourselves not look like backpackers and waited for them to pick us up.

Once back at the cottages we sat around for a very long while while they were finishing up with the scene that they didnt need us for.

We had a little break for dinner where everyone feasted on 2 huge garbage bags of durian.

My first time trying durian, not my favourite fruit for sure. Kinda like a mix of garlic, cheese, and other unknown tastes.

We had to pretend eat some really disgusting food, It had been sitting out all day but they said to make it look like we were actually eating it. They knew how bad it was because you could see how sorry they were because the food was made by the sub par cottage kitchen.

Us and the star actor.

The extras, director, make up and crew.

We saw the star actor later in his finale on our TV back in the hostel.

I dont know when our episode will air but if i can find it on the internet ill be sure to post it!

For more photos check the album on the left!

Remember to comment and pass on!

Cameron Highlands - tea, tea plantations, clouds, tea leaves, some more tea

2012-02-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

I decided my next stop would be the Cameron Highlands which is in central peninsular Malaysia.

The elevation there is a lot higher so it was nice to cool down a little but from the heat that I have been used to every where else.

One of the main attractions is the tea plantations.

From here you can buy a cup of tea and watch them from the balcony harvesting the tea leaves and throwing them in a basket on their back.

Some very nice views.

You can also go walk among the tea fields where we tried cutting some leaves.

Very nice balcony at the cafe.

The other thing that people do is go to the look out point which is at the tallest mountain in Malaysia (so all the signs said)

When we got there we discovered that it was super foggy so we couldn't really see much.

And here are some clouds that I thought were interesting enough at the time to take a picture of.

On the way back to town we found ourselves becoming extras in a Malaysian soap opera called Cinta. But thats for the next post.

Remember to comment and pass on!

More photos in the album on the left.

Kuala Lumpur - Sickness & City tour

2012-01-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

Once arriving to Malaysia and discovering that I had 90 days in the country with no visa i could tell that i was going to enjoy it much more than my time i just had in Bangkok

Malaysia seemed to have a really god transit system. I took the train from the airport right into the center of town, all of the public transit seems to be super clean and almost sterile.

Once i got to downtown China town I found my hostel and checked in and then went and found some food. Wandering around the streets they were super busy and since I was feeling pretty tired after a day of traveling i found a restaurant where i had a good seat for people watching. I noticed that there seemed to be a lot more local people that were from different countries around like world like India, China and places like the Middle East and South America. Also the time i was there i noticed a lot of what seemed like high school kids who were glad to discover that they could buy cigarettes without getting ID'd i guess so they were all running around smoking and gossiping with eachother.

I headed back to my room and had a nice sleep.

Next day i woke up and had some toast and jam then i went to meet up with one of my friends that i met in Vietnam for a bit. I was planning to spend the day with her but my stomach really wasnt feeling good so i decided to head back. Once i got back to my room i was glad i decided to head back because it only got worse for there. I spent the day lying in my bed with what felt like a sword sticking in my stomach. Every time i moved it made it hurt more, and staying still was making my joints and muscles get sore too. After a hours and passing out at some point i woke up to the guy who works at the hostel was preforming his evening prayers beside my bed. I gathered the strength to walk across the street to find some liquids at 7/11 and then went back to bed. I was feeling better by morning so not sure what that whole episode was but im glad its over.

Next day i decided to do the KL Hop on Hop off tour which should cover most of the tourist sites.

First stop was Little India. Wasnt very impressed with that, just some Indian restaurants and hotels with Indian names.

There were a couple other places like the national museum, birdpark, parliament building and other stuff. Most of which so expensive i didnt go in.

I didnt get to go up the Petronas Twin Tower but got some good photos. Also there is a really nice mall underneath where i spent some time in.

Lots of things were decorated for Chinese new year

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More photos in the album on the left.

New ways to get to Hayden's Adventues in Asia!

2012-01-28T07:54:00.000-08:00

It probably doesnt make much of a change yet but you can now get access to my blog by simply typing in:

www.HaydenDavey.ca

www.HaydenDavey.org

Eventually ill get a better website up and running and they hosted at one of the above so you can bookmark them now and not worry about it later!

Back in Bangkok! and not to happy about it

2012-01-27T07:52:00.000-08:00

So i forgot about being back in Bangkok!

i had to come back to this place because thats where I would be getting my flight.

Not sure if i mentioned how much I disliked Bangkok in one of my earlier posts. But this time I contained myself to the Silom and Siam Square areas which are a little bit less touristy.

Found a nice Hostel (WE Bangkok) and planned on just hanging out there till my flight.

While there is saw the option to do a floating village tour which was something i didnt get to do the first time i was there because of the floods.

Cost me about $22 and was about a 2 hour drive away from Bangkok.

Once there i discovered that it was another $5 to get one of the little paddle boats which was the main reason i wanted to go. Kinda regret spending the money on that too.

The boat ended up carrying about 10 people in the boat with you so we kept stopping for wherever anyone wanted. I wasnt planning on buying anything so i got bored quickly.

All the things they were selling were just little trinkets. none looked like the homemade handicraft that i was expecting.

There were some boats selling food quite overpriced.

They were selling lots of hats, including ones that doubled as collapseable fans.

Some of the boats had jet engines attached to them which often caused big puffs of smoke or splashes in your face as they went by. Made the whole thing quite noisy as well.

Back in Bangkok i spent most of my days just wandering around the streets eating or sitting in the hostel using their wifi.

I also re discovered that people in Bangkok try to be much too trendy and there are many of those type of backpackers that spend weeks there just going out every night getting drunk. Not my thing.

Saw some cool buildings. there are lots of new ones going up in Silom.

And heres the lady that I walked by many times in the alley on the way to the skytrain.

If you didnt get the hint dont go to the damnernsaduak floating market.

More pictures check the albums on the left!

remember to comment and pass on!

Travel Changes!

2012-01-26T07:39:00.000-08:00

Bam! Hayden's in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Some of you may wonder how I got all the way from islands near the border of Cambodia to Malaysia? Well after my Cambodia visa ran out and I made my way to Thailand I went into a small phase a depression.
When you hear about people going to South East Asia you often hear about just a couple weeks some times 1 even in Thailand. From what I have encountered these people are usually younger people who come here to get smashed or European or Russian families coming for a cheap vacation where they can flaunt all their money. Coming from a lesser visited country such as Cambodia where many people come to volunteer and see Angkor Wat and what not. Of course there is still some partying but you can stay away from it if you choose not to. From what I have experienced its been harder to do in Thailand.
After many conversations with my Mom, debating many possible options some even included coming home we came to the conclusion that i would simply go out of the country order. I have some friends from work who are in Australia right now and then they are going to make their way up to Bali afterwords. So I decided to hop over the Thai beaches and I will do Malaysia, Singapore, & Indonesia and meet them in Bali to fly to Phuket with them. That way I can do the Thai islands with friends which I think will be much more enjoyable.

Ko Chang & Ko Maak

2012-01-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

My first stop after leaving Cambodia was Ko Chang, an island right near the border. From my bus over the border I got a ferry which reminded me a lot of BC ferries.

Once on the island I hoped in one of the pickup trucks waiting at the ferry terminal to take me to "Lonely Beach" which was one of the many beaches on the island. I found a nice cheap dorm room and hung out there for a couple days.

One day I visited a waterfall, saw a really cool plant shadow

From there I went to a smaller island near Ko Chang called Ko Maak.

Here is the beach and the little cottage I had.

The scenery was very nice and you might be able to tell by this post that I don't sound like I did very much.

Cause I didnt. More about that in the next post!

Koh Rong - Night Time Boat Journey

2012-01-23T06:59:00.000-08:00

Just after new years I left Sihanoukville to an island that was about a 2 hour boat ride called Koh Rong.

I was told by another traveler that it was amazing and that I should check it out. Most people stay on one side of the island where most of the resorts are. As you can see below here is one of the bigger places called tree house bungalows or something. As you can also see there isnt much beach.

Here is the beach my place was on

And there were no other buildings on that beach as well so we had the whole thing to the guest staying at Broken Hearts Guest House and the few people who hiked over the whole island from the other side to come see the view.

I spent two days with a group of people I met on the boat just hanging out on the beach. One of the guys had a slack line so that provided a lot of entertainment. Its a lot harder than it looks if you ever get a chance to try one.

So two days of just beach, beach, and more beach.

We would break up days at the beach by going up to the restaurant in the forest where the food wasnt very expensive considering they could charge you whatever they liked cause there was no other places selling food. But I dont think that I have ever had to wait that long for food in my life. It took forever! there must have only been one burner in the kitchen cause when we all went to eat together the dishes would come one by one and take forever!

Also the beds were super super super basic, and the buildings were really run down. But we were paying for the beach I guess.

And it was totally worth it.

Lots of great photo opportunities

So one the time finally came where we had to go back to the mainland we packed our bags and got on the boat to take us around to the other side of the island where we would get a bigger boat. At about 3 the were paddled out in a basket boat to the little boat to go around. Bouncy ride in the nice sunlight to the other side of the island where we ended up waiting at the pier because there was another boat unloading food supplies. About 15 min later we hopped off the boat and got onto the one we though we were taking to the mainland. Then one of the ladies asked which place we were staying at that night. We were pretty confused and told her that we were going back to Sihanoukville. She said that our boat left 10 min ago while we were waiting for a spot on the dock. She asked our driver and he told her that we were staying on the island. This was all in Khmer so we had no idea the conversation went on. She said that we could go over to the other dock and try and get back with the dive shops boat. So we all grabbed all our bags and ran as fast as we could to the other dock across the beach. Once we got there the lady told us that the boat was too full and she couldnt put any more passengers on it. Obviously safety was more of a concern so she helped us negotiate with one of the locals who said he had a boat that we could charter.

First he wanted to charge us $150 to take us back to the coast and we said no way. The lady that worked at the dive shop was trying to convince us that even though we were "Barang" (Khmer name for "European person") it didnt mean that we were rich. We were willing to pay $10 each and there were 7 of us. He wouldnt go lower than $90 even with us threatening to sleep on the beach and get another boat in the morning. Eventually forked out cause it was getting late and we just wanted to make it back.

We all piled on this fishing boat and were pretty excited cause it was the first time that any of us had chartered our own private boat. About half an hour later after watching a nice sun set there was a loud noise and the boat slowed down to a stop. The driver was going around doing things and saying stuff in Khmer which none of us could understand. We guessed something with the engine was broken and he kept pointing this way and that way. So we decided to wait it out and see what happens. Maybe another half an hour later a boat a little bit smaller and without a roof pulls up and they start throwing our bags over onto it. So it looks like thats our new ride back.

Here is our engine an our driver who we had to put all of our faith in.

Eventually it got dark and the ocean got rockier. We were bouncing around in the waves being sprayed with salt water and shivering as we were all dressed in our hot Cambodian day temperature singlets and shorts. For 3 hours we occupied ourselves by huddling, trying to sleep, huddling for warmth, and chatting. About half way though we discovered that there were cockroaches on the boat which i accidentally threw one that crawled onto my hand onto the face of my friend who was laying across from me. In the end we made it and the clouds cleared just as we were coming into the port around 10:30pm.

One of the families who lived I guess in the building on the dock said she would call some tuk-tuks for us but they wanted to charge us $10 for each of them and since there was 7 of us we would need two. we eventually got them down to $7 and $8 just because we wanted to find a place to stay.

As we walked out to the road a pick up truck pulled up in front of us and said "town" we said yes please and all piled into the back. We arrived onto the main street of Sihanoukville in style for a low fee of $10! Quite I successful night I would say.

I think just the people that I was with made my whole time on Koh Rong super amazing and I'm so glad I spent it with them.

For more photos see the Koh Rong album

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Sihanoukville

2012-01-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

I planned on finishing off my Cambodia trip in Sihanoukville which is the major beach town in Cambodia. I stayed at the beach 10 min out of town called Otres Beach. Much nicer than serendipity beach which is a lot of tourists and local people selling.

Here are pictures

I just hung out

It was great

Super relaxing

More photos in the Sihanoukville album on the left

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Bamboo Train - Battambang

2012-01-16T15:39:00.000-08:00

The main reason the people go to Battambang, city south of Siem Reap, is to ride on the bamboo train. After the Khmer Rouge lots of Cambodia's railways were abandoned. Over time the local people have begun using them for their own transport.

The bamboo train or "Norry" is a rickety bamboo platform on 2 axles powered by a motorcycle engine and a belt drive.

As you can see there is only one track and the trains go both ways.

When two trains meet the one with less people on it gets off and the disassemble the norry and take it off the rails to let the other one pass and then they put it back on again.

It was some really nice views in the surrounding farmland

At the end of the rail there is a brick factory.

A bunch of kids run around trying to give you a tour around the factory, but its really small and kinda self explanatory. They use the by products of rice to fuel the kilns which are made of the same bricks they produce.

Angkor Wat

2012-01-15T06:26:00.000-08:00

So this is kinda like the last post where there wont be very many photos in it, but not because I didnt take any! cause I took way too many to choose any good ones. so here is the link to the photo album and please go browse them at you leisure because there isnt really any specifics that I want to talk about.

The photos in the slide show below are from all of Siem Reap not just the temples so you might have to skip ahead a bit.

I decided to get the pass for 3 days which is good for a whole week (you have to ask for it) to see the temples of Angkor.

I got a tuk-tuk driver who drove me to my hostel from the bus stop's card so my friend and I called him up and he said that we would pick us up the next morning to go see the sunrise. So we got up at 5 and went outside to meet him. He ended up not being there but his friend was there to take us. He was also a great guy and we paid $12 for him to take us around the whole day and drinking water was included!

We got to Angkor Wat while it was still dark and we navigated our way to a building to watch the sun rise. As it started getting light we noticed that the whole sky was cloudy and we didnt think that there was going to be a sun rise at all. So my friend and I got a head start as soon as we could see where we were walking and got to see all of Angkor Wat before all the crowds came.

From there we were ahead of the pack! so the rest of the day we got to see most of the temples in relative quiet.

There isnt much description I can give for them because I saw so many over the 3 days. Most of them were pretty much the same, had different stories behind them which I knew from the "Ancient Angkor" guide book I bought. The whole thing would have been a whole less interesting without it because every temple I saw it gave a little description of which way to walk and what to look at.

You will see many kids offering the same book for $1. Then you discover that it is $1 to look only and you dont get to keep it. I ended up buying it from young couple with a stand for $10 and they threw in this bamboo thing that made a twangy sound thing which was good fun for about 5 min.

At one of the temples the security officer who checks the ticket asked how much I paid for my book and I said $10. He said his was only $1 and I should have come to him. I replied yeah but I get to keep mine not just look at it. Him and his friend laughed "oh he knows!" so apparently this is some big joke that they all have going.

Some temples, especially the ones further out,were pretty cool. Had some interesting little things to notice. I think that 3 days was a good amount of time to spend there. You can buy a 1 week pass but i cant imaging what you could possibly be looking at the whole 7 days because I was done with about half the day left for all 3 days.