Ok, so i am back out of the hospital (since Wednesday) but cannot travel far for about a week or so. I need to go back each day so they can clean the open wound and rewrap it. Other than that things are going better. I am walking almost as normal and other than keeping my foot dry (which can be a pain in the rain season) i dont have many limitation. Trip should continue as normal in a week or two soo stay tuned, should have some good stuff up soon.
Things are going well here except for the huge freakin hole in my foot. I am now walking again almost as normal and the infection is gone. I am off the IV except when they give me my antibiotics and the wound needs only one cleaning a day. The doc wants to keep me here for a few more days so they can continue giving me antibiotics but as of today (Sunday) he is thinking of releasing me on Wednesday. If you would like to be completely grossed out feel free to send me an email and I can send you some pics of my foot pre/post surgery. I was thinking of posting them but thought better of it (its pretty ugly).
Ok, so as many of you already know I am now in a Phuket Hospital (Thailand) at the moment. Instead of typing the same Q&A over and over why not blog it right? Thats kind of what i set this up for, not expecting to use it in this manner.
So I didnt stay in Singapore long, only three days before heading off and that may have been too many (keep reading a while and that will make sense). The time i did spend was nice and one of the highlights was seeing one of the newer Chinese temples (see pics below) and mostly strolled around the city with a fellow CSer. Did hit a club on my last night with a few friends which was pretty entertaining but the weekday nightlife seems to be pretty tame. Already booked my ticket to Hong Kong from Chang Mai (with a short stop in KL Malaysia, yes again) so I now have to cover all of Malaysia and Thailand within the next month and I plan to do it mostly by bus.
After Singapore I headed north to Thailand via Malaysia. Of course I needed to stop and see my JB friends for one last night on the town before heading up to Penang Island in northern Malaysia. The bus ride there was one of the best I have ever had. First they only had 3 seats to a row with big comfortable chairs, but even better was the country side. Huge rock formations and large palm tree plantations throughout the ride. Penang is a very lovely city that I haven't heard much about. My host in JB was able to connect me with one of her friends that lived there to put me up for two nights and show me around the island. It is a decent size and it is filled with large hotels and apartment buildings but also has plenty of nature throughout. From the mountain tops you can see over the city and the whole way down is covered with trees. The island is very calm and peaceful at night and the food there like all Malaysian food is top notch. My friends there also took me to snake temple which was interesting as there were actual live snakes throughout the temple. Although, from what I have been told there are much less there than there used to be. I didnt get a chance to go to the beaches but they seemed pretty ok. Not quite as tropical as KK but they seem an alright place to visit. There are a surprising number of resorts for how the city first appears driving in. It seems more of a commercial town than anything but it keeps a nice mix and I didnt seem to notice many tourists for the amount of resorts which made me enjoy my visit more.
From there on to Thailand, Phuket to be exact, arrived today and have a hell of a story for you but I am not posting it until completion. All I will say is it is not for the weak of stomach and certainly not the highlight of my trip....
Well finally made it down to Singapore and it isnt quite what I had expected. Honestly I was thinking a town more like Manhattan with tall buildings tightly packed through out the city. I was quit a bit off, the city is very large and not so tightly packed (in most areas) with plenty of plants, trees, gardens, and parks everywhere you look. Of the cities I have been to only Geneva rivals its cleanliness and the organization is unmatched. All trains, buses and other transit run on a tight schedule and frequently. On the transit website you can see exactly when each bus gets to each stop, how long it takes down to the minute and how much it costs. Getting around the city is much easier with a card you can pick up at any train station (for a fee of course) and when entering/exiting the buses and trains you simply tap the card and it deducts the fare.
Spent my last day in KK on Sipi island and walking through the markets. They sell all kinds of food here and its fresh and cheap. Was able to get a chicken sandwich, fried bananas, some watermelon, and some breaded and fried sweet potatoes. Later that night flew to JB on Air Asia. The airline is crazy disorganized but cheap and comfortable. My flight was supposed to take off at just after nine but didnt start boarding until 9:30ish. There are no assigned seats and when the gate opens its a rush for the door haha. They cool the inside of the plane with a water mist that is quite refreshing though.
Arrived in Johor Bahru on Thursday night to a very warm reception. Three couch surfers were there to pick me up from the airport and take me around town. Fresh off the plane we went to a local market to grab some late night grub. Malaysia is the place to eat, we had sting ray, squid, and chicken in a spicy sauce that rivals anything I have had so far. The food only got better in JB from there. Walked around the city on Friday and below are some of the pictures of JB. Not much of a down town area other than a mall and a few big buildings but the people as elsewhere in Malaysia could not be more friendly. That night they took me out to eat again and then off to the duty free zone on the boarder of JB and Singapore for some drinks.
Day 2 got an email from another CSer inviting me to stay at her place and come to her BBQ. A muslim women in her 50's so i was not quite sure what to expect. She is awesome, very friendly, great sense of humor and just all around fun to talk to. The place is very nice and there is no shortage of food around here. First they grilled up some chicken and hot dogs, then on to pasta, then cole slaw, some type of fried ball with sweat potato and coconut inside (similar to above but not the same) and finally two types of marble cake. It was hard getting up when I was done, but since we were in the comforts of her scenic garden I didnt want to anyway. Very relaxing watching the chickens run around and the frogs croaking and the lizards chasing each other all over the walls.
The next day her and a friend showed me around the city by car. Below are some pictures of her mosque, a muslim grave yard, two of the state buildings, and the palace (for JB sultan). After seeing some of the sites we went down by the sea and purchased fresh mussels ($3 for a HUGE bag of them).
Today I am off to Singapore so stay tuned, this should be interesting......
I know its been a while since i have blogged so I am posting two blog, one of Malaysia and the remainder of my Cambodia experience.
So I arrive in Kota Kinabula Malaysia on Saturday May 31st without hotel reservation. BIG MISTAKE, there is a city wide festival going on and every hotel, guest house, and hostel are fully booked. I had no idea this was even going on, and still would never expect this type of problem in a city this big with this many hotels. After asking around I have 2 taxi drivers and a random dude from the street calling all over town looking for a vacant bed. Did I mention I purchased a sim card for my phone but the phone battery was dead? After about 2 hours one of my taxi drivers says we can take a shot of driving about 20 min away and seeing if the next small town over (which has three hotels) has a vacancy. They dont..... so we drive a bit further and find a small place with a room left. This place was one of the dirtiest places I have ever seen. I didnt even want to go to the (shared) bathroom but managed to make it through the night. It was late and I was tired so I didnt take pics, sorry.
The next day the party was over (of course I miss yet another event by one day) and hotels begin to open up. The place that I am at (step in lodge) is very nice but more of a dormitory/hostel feel to it. Malay people are amazingly friendly, maybe the most friendly I have yet come across. Above is a perfect example of there kindness. My second day here I signed up for a monkey tour. A bus takes you about 2 hrs to a series of canals in southwest Sabah that are guaranteed to have monkeys. About 25 minutes into the tour I was starting to doubt them but they ended up coming through with three different kinds of monkeys. One of them you will not find anywhere else in the world, the long nosed monkey. Its pretty crazy looking and they were very active jumping from tree to tree. Unfortunately they were too far away from the boat to get a good picture but I was able to snap a few shots of some of the other monkeys along with a couple lizards and some water buffalo. The tour came with some really excellent food (which is standard around here). The wetlands are well preserved in this area and its a nature lovers paradise.
Day three its time for scuba. The water here is really clear and scuba was highly recommended to me. The islands directly across form KK are a national park (TAR Marine Park) and well kept so I decided to do my scuba diving there. The first dive was less than exciting. We did not see much but water and sand. I am still not sure why they chose that spot for a dive but what can you do? In between dives we eat lunch at Sipi Island which was awesome. Midway through lunch my scuba buddy tells me to follow him around the corner because there is something I need to see. He was right, there were at least 10 Kimono Dragons walking around. Not just babies either, but some damn large lizards (see pics). The second dive was much better and we saw everything from angle fish to garden eels and some spectacular corals. All in all well worth the money.
Day four I took a Jetty over to one of the other islands in the national park to lounge in the white sand and snorkel the sallow waters. There are extremely beautiful nature trails that run throughout the island as well. Only about $10 for round trip boat ride and entry to the park makes this a must do if your in the area (again see pics below). Note to my moms (and brother), notice there is nothing about drinking in this blog!
Tomorrow I go over to main land Malaysia and from there to Singapore. Should be interesting with the strict laws there but Singapore is a must see for me.
Phom Penh is a crazy place. The parks around the city are extremely well kept and even in the rain season the sun seems to always be shining. Its big enough that there are plenty of places to go especially if your looking to relax and/or hangout. But its small enough that in a 20 minute drive you can be completely surrounded by nature. On the other hand the population seems to be very densely populated. After being in NYC for the last three years I though nothing walking down the street could phase me. I was wrong, the roads here (and Siem Rep) are pure madness. There are no traffic laws, just suggestions at best. They drive like we walk. Most of the major intersections dont have stop lights or signs. If your within 100 feet of anywhere it is proper etiquette to drive down the wrong side of the road so you dont have to cross back over it. Handling the intersections is like playing a combination of jinga and frogger. You slowly ease through the intersection and hope that all the cars coming towards you stop. As everywhere in this country motor bikes are the norm and if someone can sqeeze through any size opening they are going to go for it. On top of that most have 2-5 people on them or something way to big to be on the back of a motor bike. The tuktuks are as prevalent here as the yellow cabs in NYC but unlike NYC if you stand there long enough saying "2 dolla" someone will take you where ever you want to go. There are also plenty of motor bike taxis if you happen to be by yourself. These are so quick, efficient, and cheap its a wonder they have not caught on in the states.
On our second day we were checking out a guest house on the lake and two small boys came paddling by on small wooden boats. After a short discussion we end up agreeing to pay these kids a buck a piece to take us around the lake for an hour or so. Next thing I know we come up on a small villiage in the middle of the lake. The group of houses had barbed wire fence around it and the kids explained in broken english that was there home. Traveling over the lake was very peaceful and there weren't too many bugs fling around but the ones that were there were huge! We also had a tuktuk take us about 20 minutes outside of the city to a island on the river which was very nice. The sand was perfect but the water was less than clean. We rented a small hut on the water for the afternoon which was perfect for storing our stuff and getting some shade. But even outside the city you cannot escape people seeing white skin and trying to sell you anything and everything. If your looking for anything made of cloth, hand made, and cheap Cambodia is the place for you.
About three or four days in we end up meeting up with a local couchsurfer and her Nigerian friend Victor. It ends up he has an extra room in the apartment he rented for the month so we score a free place to stay. Really good guy that showed us around the city and taking us to some of his hangouts. One of his spots is a Nigerian bar. Its really mellow there and they have traditional African food which by the way is slap your grandmother good. I do find it funny sitting in the place with 5-15 Nigerian people, two Khmer girls and me (sometimes Nate). I have no idea what the heck anyone is saying 90% of the time haha. On Sunday Victor took me to church with him. Let me testify that these are God loving people. We got there a bit after 8 am and didnt leave until almost 1pm. The service was 3 hours but it went by pretty quickly. Almost everyone in the church gets up and gives there own sermon and they have a set of drums and two guitars going on some of the songs. On the street later VIctor gave one of the small children some money and next thing we know we are surrounded by them. The beggars are one of the hardest parts of being here. There are soo many that are handicapped that you would literally run out of money in a day if you gave each one a dollar but with most of them its hard not to.
Next I am off to Malaysia to do some more scuba diving and see what the more conservative SE Asia is like. Below are some random Cambodian pics. (biker transports bananas, stadium, cardio workout in the stadium, fountain in the middle of PP)
