No more solo travelling?

I had such a good time travelling overland from Bangkok (Thailand) to Penang (Malaysia) that early this afternoon I started thinking that maybe I should keep on travelling and forget any thoughts of going home. And then I had this afternoons bus journey from Penang to Kuala Lumpur.

I left Bangkok on Monday afternoon. The train was late departing but I didn't much mind, I had the pleasant company of British father and son (adult) who were rather enthusiastic about trains. They were going elsewhere and left after 5 hours, and then the beds were set up for sleeping. 

The train compartment, 2nd class air conditioned, was really very nice: clean, well serviced, and not crowded. The beds were very good. 

In the middle of the night more people boarded, and in the morning I was making friends with more travellers. On leaving the train we had gathered a group of 7 people and we all headed off for money exchange, food and accommodation. 

The group spilt, but we were still 4 for accommodation and dinner. I was enjoying all this company. 

I decided that before leaving Penang I needed to see some of the island and its famous beaches. So in the morning my new Korean-American friend and I headed off by public bus (#101) to sightsee, and we walked a jetty and visited the national park too. Then we had a wonderful lunch before I said goodbye to catch a bus, alone, to Kuala Lumpur. 

And then I had the bus journey. On the bus journey a 28 year old muslim Punjabi-Singaporean was seated next to me. And, aside from the little while that he slept, he spent the rest of the 6 hour journey hitting on me. It was most annoying. He agreed with almost everything about me (annoying!) he liked my eyes, thinks I'm pretty, likes my age (about 10 years his senior), likes my opinions, my tastes ... It was really very tiresome. He wanted to take me out in KL, but I refused. 

To all those people who have questioned why I'm bothered when I travel alone and I get hit on, this is exactly the reason: 6 hours, with no means of escape. Exactly. I need a travel companion.  

Photo: Georgetown, Penang.

Bangkok: love it!

Bangkok might be the centre of the backpacking universe. And as I'm heading towards home, with a head full of ideas on what to do next, it's a great place to spend a few days. I've even decided to stay in the centre of the backpacker world: Kao San Road. 

It's great. I love South East Asia. I trust Asians. I feel comfortable again. (Since my robbery in Spain I haven't been feeling too trusting). Of course, I wouldn't go hiking alone in Asia, although I think I'd probably be okay if I did so. 

I've been doing all the things a tourist in Bangkok should: getting clothes tailor made, Thai massages, canal trips (public transport and the cheapie organised by the Bangkok tourist office), being taken for a ride by tuk tuk driver (okay, the price was too good to be true and I ended up being taken to more shopping sites than tourist sites). 

And now I'm leaving Bangkok: by train to Malaysia. From there I'm flying home. 

Transport strike

Aye aye aye aye...
It is 20 Feb and I am in a town called Bijapur, and there is a bus strike. I saw it on the news last night but since I had been at the bus station at 6pm making enquiries and the news report was only referencing it to the cities I figured my intended bus would still be running.

So I got ready early, got to the bus station and found nothing happening. Just a lot of staff hanging around. One was kind enough to tell me that it was about fuel prices and so the trains would still be running. So I have come to the train station.

My destination is Mumbai. I need to be there tomorrow to meet Louise, so although I had thought of stopping on the way, with the transport strike I have decided to go the whole way.

The direct train was sold out. So now I will change 3 times to get there. But at least I have a solution.

I have a 2 hour wait for the first train... But at least the train is quicker than the bus. So I leave 2.5 hrs later and arrive just 1 hour later.

Btw, Bijapur is well worth stopping in, people are really pleasant and the main sight Gul Gumbaz is awesome, particular if you can get there before the noisy Indians (it opens 6am, I got there at 8, and with just me, a man singing, and another man the whispering gallery sounds were splendid. Then a crowd of noisy Indians arrived.)

Let the adventure begin!

I arrived in the middle of Friday night. Strangely, although my flight was on time as scheduled it had to wait for landing- because the airport was being cleaned. I figured this was my first introduction to how India does things.

(5 Jan)
For my first days I had arranged to stay with an Indian family friend from back home who was home visiting family for Christmas. In those first days (4 nights) I was treated like royalty. I was shown all the major sights of Cochin - Fort Cochin, the Chinese fishing nets, and the Kathalali dance performance; and spent a day in a houseboat on the Kerala Backwaters.

(6 Jan)
The Backwaters are listed in most the major travel guide companies as amongst the top to do things of the world. It's a series of waterways: lakes and canals, a 900 km network. Typically people travel the backwaters in a houseboat and with a group of 17 from my friends family we did a day trip on a 2 bedroom houseboat (with lots of lounging room up top the bedrooms were largely ignored). I loved it and I thought it was enough without staying overnight.

(7Jan)
The next day we departed from his family and, with a driver, headed to the tea plantations of Munnar. Whereas Cochin had a stifling heat and humidity, Munnar was wonderfully cool. We stayed in a wonderful resort outside of town, away from the constant blasting of horns, and with wonderful accommodations and foods. Unfortunately the tea museum was closed on Monday so I'm none the wiser about tea. We spent the afternoon driving to Top Station for the big views but it was shrouded in mist.
www.camelotmunnar.com

(8 Jan)
The next morning, despite my offers to take a bus, they drive me another 5 hours to meet my travel companion, Louise, in Madurai. The trip involved 17 hairpin bends in 30 minutes.
Louise had gotten tired of looking for accommodation and settled for something particularly horrible and my Indian host was horrified to see where he was leaving me.
As the guide book says, it's dank. It's also grimey and very unclean. But I have used my own sheet, pillow slip, mosquito net., eye mask, and ear plugs. I survived. Today we'll move on and in Trichy we'll find better (I promise!). But hey, this private room was $7 ... I might stretch the budget for something better.

Madurai has a most impressive Hindu temple which we visited already. Most funny is that the place has 4 gates for entrance and we managed to exit at a different gate to where we went in, but didn't realize. Before entering we had to remove our shoes and exchange them for a ticket... And we went to 3 different gates to request our shoes before we finally found the correct entrance way.

(9 Jan)
Today we move onto Trichy. Like most
places in India it has another proper name but I'm an Aussie, so I'll go with to easiest. Today will be my first Indian train!

Photos will be posted later. (I'm writing from a blogger application on my iPhone).