Just four more sleeps and its over!

Hi Peeps, I can't believe the trip and journey of a life time is about to come to an end. Well naturally there is still lots of stuff to do and planned and in Singapore too, but this will be my last Odyssey blog with all the chums I have journeyed with from good old Blighty to Singapore, where I get off for a few short days in KL before flying off to start my next leg teaching in Sri Lanka for over two months or so.

We have arrived in Malaysia at last and took the venicular up a very steep hill that overlooks the island of Penang where we stayed in George town. This very modern and slick transport soon whisked Mandy, Denis, Wendy, Colin and I up through the clouds at a very hasty rate of knots to a view that took your breath away when you reached the top.

A Mosque with gaily painted statues of gods and icons at the very top of the island.

My what a big canon you have Stevie. Oh yes, it had to be done did'nt it?.....Well I thought it was funny. Anyway, having spent a good couple of hours wondering around it was time to make our way back to the venicuar station. Denis poked me in the side and pointed to a small cafe menu - 'Devon cream teas sold here' and I guess that is still the infuence the old empire has on places like this today, and no we did'nt stop mores the pity!

A few days later and we are in the Pentian islands, remote islands off the Malasian east coast only reached by boat. The island we stayed on had no roads and behind my wonderful room was well....just jungle with only the beach in front! Those Odyssey guys know just how rough it can be on the road and reward you from time to time with these fantastic out of the way locations. Pre dinner cocktails with Denis on the veranda and only three small restaurants to choose from and nothing else......fab.

The island was staked full of wildlife from huge fruit bats, flying squirrels and giant lizards to monkies playing on your roof.

All too soon bags are packed again and we are in Kuala Lumper. If there is a large land mark you will find some one from the group doing it or already done it. And this is the KL tower, a huge telecom building built on rock and the lift to the observation deck at 250m straight up!!

Mandy, Denis and I at the top listening to comentary as we stroll around looking at the view. As you can imagine 250m is quite high and I kept well away from the edge....just in case.

The big towers across the way as you probably know are the Petronas towers, the highest double towers in the world, they truly are massive.

Denis and I strolled to them after the KL tower and had lunch in the massive mall at the base of the towers. While having fab fish n chips (sorry guys but some times you just have too), two Malay guys who work for Petronas sat with us (in my ignorance, I thought it was just the name of the towers not a company that own them). It turns out one tower is full of Petronas staff, a multi national petro chemical company and the other tower is let as offices. Quite beutiful when you see them as close as we did.

The old girl in a lonely car park. We've had our last trip in her now, having done probably just under 30,000 ks not all in Calypso as she wasnt allowed in Vietnam, or Cambodea and most of Thailand where we did pick her up again towards the end. Its almost time to start saying a few thanks and this is my first one. Jim has been our driver over the entire trip, through smooth road and rough, from very early starts to some very late finishes Jim has remained cheerful and ensured the old girl has been well serviced. Thanks Jim, oh just one thing, have you completed all the paperwork now..........?

Our last stop in Malaysia is in Malacca, a very funny quiet sort of place. Its quite large with over 600,000 people living here. A couple of local guys Denis and I were talking to over breakfast said the major industry here is tourism. We were advised to walk through a Chinese cemetry, the largest outside China, while some graves are the traditional sort, the one above was made like this and I just wonder.......why?

It started off as a long trip, now I wonder where all the time has gone. We have travelled way off any normal tourist route, seen sites and visited places I may never see again all with the security, safety and knowledge of CJ. Thanks mate, this journey has been a real eye opener for me and was what I needed to move on and for that I shall be forever grateful.

Pete and Kirsten, you have a great company a great team and trips that just knocks the socks off anything I've ever done before. I truly hope you go from strength to strength and look forward to booking with you again.

Russel, Sylvia, Keith, Sandra, Colin, Wendy, Zoe, Susan, Denis, Ben, Lucy, Aoife, Clare, Jen, Sally Mel, Emily and Mandy, my deepest thanks must go to you all. You have been my best pals throughout my journey through thick and thin, through my highs and lows. Some may even think I'm still not safe to be let on my own and to that I say, yep you are probably right but you have to start some where.

For me I've learnt so much about myself, other people and just how darn easy it is to travel. I've had a few mishaps on the way too. Broken my toe, been in hospital twice and was on a morphine derivitive for four days (thanks again Sylvia, your an angel) didnt eat much for nearly two weeks, hence the weight loss but I'm fine now. Had a couple of colds the gippy tummy just once, fell out the truck and was mugged in Laos (which by the way was my fault and a very cheap lesson learned), the odd cut, burn and bruise, masses of mossy bites and a good dose of sunburn (you'd think I'd learn by now wouldnt you) and necked more pills than in my entire life before. But through it all, tried to remain erm.......cheerful......erm.....well most of the time anyway.

For those of you who have followed my blog, I hope you have found it reasonably interesting. To family and friends you know its not the end and I've still at least 12 more months of travel to do before I get back to dear old blighty. The blogs will not be so frequant but I will top that up with personal emails.

Love and big hugs to you all, Steve

Thailand, land of smiles and much more!

Where to begin, so much has happend since we arrived in Thailand and what great people the Thais are. Always with a ready smile and a great sence of humour too. I must also say I've lost my heart here, so much so I've rejigged some plans and come back again for almost a month over December and January. Spending time in both Chaing Mai and Bangkok with some people I've met here in various places after dark, if you know what I mean.

CJ has been talking about arranging a 'gentlemens' night out for ages and finally it was get showered we are going out. I was a bit nervous not knowing what was planned for us but the night started out with real ale and proper bangers n mash....phwoar!

we all went on to a Gogo bar where girls dance rather nicely and this is where young Stevie had a bit of an awakening, left the boys and went out into the dark night on his own..........

After just three quick nights in Bangkok it was an overnight train to Chaing Mai where its same same but different. Its a really cool place and even watched a bit of Mai Thai boxing, absolutly facinating and extremely quick with no replays so if you blink you miss it. The boxers come round after each match with a tip box, you tip what you think the match was worth. I sat facing the ring, beer in hand in a nice comfy chair and on the table was a game of connect four but bigger. It all became very clear what that was for when a young lad challanged me to a game for 100 baht which is 2 quid. "Nope that's too much" (thinking I'd be kind and not take too much off this kid). Well, this young lad of about 10 whooped my ass and then proceeded to whoop the couple sitting next to me as well in just three rows, what a blast!

The original bridge over the river Kwai is no more, well there is a tiny bit in the museum but this is its big brother and the focus for many visitors which you can also walk across. A train still uses the bridge and did just that a just a few minutes after this piccy was taken.

Two guys in cerimonial costume at the museum. A bit tired these days but for less than a quid well worth an hour of anyones time.

This big mother was having a kip at the museum and has a face only a mother can love. I think he was eying me up for his supper.

Again the sadness that is war. This was actually a very serene and tranquil spot and I like to pay my respects to our heroes who aged from just 19 to 44 were killed such a long way from home. There are Dutch, Australian, Gurkha and New Zealand guys and girls here too and its difficult to keep a dry eye when you read some of the mesages on the graves.

We are now on beach week on Ko Phanagn, leaving port for pastures new, all excited to be having a holiday wihin a holiday and all with seperate rooms.....bliss

The sea and sky are blue, the pace is slow, the local people not the least bit pushy and very relaxed about their island life, well why wouldnt you be too.

So this is my prison for seven nights, what a bummer eh? Well I'm taking this for the team OK and suffering healthy breakfast of fresh fruit, museli and yogurt. BBQ snapper for supper and Rum n cokes pre and post dinner with Denis aahhhhh. Life is so hard and tiring too with the beach just yards away.

Should you want to suffer the same as Denis and I are at the resort of 11 bungalows, called Baan Mananli. Its run and managed by a great young Israeli couple who ensure your stay is as comfortable as possible and while I bang away at this blog in my hammock and watch the waves gently lap against the sand you may want to suffer the same as I am.........

Cambdia was both brilliant and very sad!

I'm not sure where to begin with this countries blog as I've had both the worst and best time in any country so far.

So let me begin with the bad bit and a little recent history. Pol Pot came to power and decided the country needed to be cleansed. In his eyes the country needed to start from zero again which meant killing millions of people and emptying towns and cities and forcing everyone to grow food or some other menial task which included children working as well!

Some people were tortured for up to seven months and these were the rules that those that were about to die had to abide by. 'You can you not cry out if you are being electrified' are just one of the ghastly rules. We saw torture rooms, blood stained floors, tiny cells and photographs of men woman and children who were brought here.

It made good sense to use existing buildings and schools and collages seemed to be used a lot. This place was S-21 and one of many across the country. The exercise bar above was also used for torture. People were hung upside down until they fell unconscious, then dipped in foul excrement water to wake them up before doing it all again. To ensure the 'cleansing' went on towards the end, guards were tasked to kill other guards and so on until only a minimum of people involved were left.

One prisoner jumped to his death from the top floor rather than endure any more torture. Barbed wire and fencing was quickly erected to prolong the agony here. Our tour continued on to the killing fields where thousands of people were finally murdered and dumped. I decided I didn't need any more horror and dropped out of this part of the tour.

I needed a beer and sat down near our hotel in town. I was re-reading the entry leaflet at the table and the bar owner struck up a conversation with me. He said he remembered the horror and was only ten years old at the end of it all. I tentatively asked "do you have family remaining"? He was orphaned and all his family was killed apart from an aunt. I asked again how he was cared for and by whom. At that time you were on your own, there was no help, no government and no money so he hung around with older boys. I just cannot begin to imagine what these people who are very friendly, kind and giving went through. I think we were all very quiet and reflective for a couple of days. I also think this is something that you should do, to see the horror of what man will do to another man and I think it makes you richer as a person and I'll probably never moan again about petty things back home.

Jeez, after that I needed cheering up so I toured the Royal palace with the girls the next day. What a great place and the King still lives out the back. Well not quite the back, you can get a glimpse of the royal residence and gardens if you stand on the veranda of the royal throne room on the right hand side above. You can just see the roof of the Royal Palace on the right.

All the buildings were very beautiful and ornate and crammed full of gold, silver, scriptures, statues, royal relics and armoury. Phnom Penh for me was culturally the most eye opening place on the trip so far. It makes you think about life in a very different way and makes you appreciate what you have and how lucky we all are to be doing this trip.

There is a lot of what can be best described as begging from kids who are selling all kinds of stuff you don't want so you don't buy. Some don't even have shoes and are dirty, some might even be sex slaves............

Phew, lighten up peeps. After a very nice coach trip to Siem Reap and settling into our very nice hotel with pool it was time to hit the town. I don't think I have seen so many bars, clubs and restaurants in my life. Its all good tucker reasonably priced and very nicely presented by cheerfull waiting staff too.

So, you all know I don't pay attention, I have the memory of a gnat and I get bored easily. So jeez, when this trip was organised for Ankor Wat (one of the worlds most amazing er.....things). I thought bloody hell, I hope I can make a couple of hours of this before falling asleep. To tell you the truth we had to be up before sunrise (in plain language bloody early). We arrived by Tuk Tuk and had a great local guide. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that there are a number of bars along our street. Steavy was walking back to the hotel late one night and a lot of gorgeous girls were sat outside one of them enticing customers in. If I hadn't of been so tired I probably would have had a beer there. Going past the bar again the next morning I said to the guide there were a lot of pretty girls outside that place last night. He giggled and said "lady boy"!!!!!

Ok, so after some jaw dropping and thinking 'thank my lucky stars'. I pretty much hung out with other people for safety after that.

Back to the plot. Ankor Wat is spread over hundreds and hundreds of acres. Built by many kings, added on by others and some parts damaged by others. This all depended on what religion was around at the time. There are many parts to it. Some in more disrepair than others. This area was only rediscovered comparatively recently being completely overrun by jungle - still is in some parts. Here endeath the history lesson!

What I did find though was an unusual peace here, I marvelled at the construction, the size and shear beauty of it all. I managed to stay the course (all six hours or so) but some of our hardier travellers stayed for the rest of the day. It is true that my short tour was just that and to appreciate Ankor Wat and all that it has its probably a good idea to hire your own Tuk Tuk and driver and do this place over a couple of days and create your own unique tour.

Elephants are now used to transport tourists around the site, they are actually well looked after. 40,000 elephants were used to help construct all the major Wat structures and temples here over a 37 year period. All the limestone and lava rock came here by river and quarried 67klms away.

As this is real jungle the bird and plant life was incredible and you also get monkeys. OK that might be their real name, they were actually called long tailed something or others - but cute none the less. We spent only six nights in Cambodia, but that's long enough for me to make my mind up to come back.

Currently in Bangkok, my goodness so much temptation.............

Well This is Rather Nice

When you are thrust among like inded folk, there is generally a theme to everyones train of thought and generally that of alcohol, food, accomodation etc. I on the other hand never need to think about wetting ones whistle as I do it almost constantly. So it was a complete suprise to me when Zoe and Susan suggested a cocktail party. Your tent buddy and you think of a cocktail, a name and make it on the beach. I don't have a tent buddy as my dear pal Paul had to return home, so I made one of my own to ensure we had an extra one to drink. I'm not sure how many there were in the end, but a round dozen springs to mind. Thanks to Zoe and Susan for supplying the 'buckets and straws' After each cocktail was sampled, you gave it a score based on concept and taste. So my cocktail was based around a lot of Googling to find an authentic Vietnamese speciality and a lot of shopping to get just the right liquor. Anyway after much theatrics and with a genuine cocktail umbrella and real fruit I might add, I named mine Phoo Ca Wei. And how did it get that name? Well its quite simple really, after just two of these puppies you wake up the following morning and say "where the phoo ca wei"?

So Denis and I are in competion to suck up the most without taking a breather, gosh it was hard work slurping all those lovely coctails, on the beach, in the sun, with blue sky and surrounded by lovely ladies. Some even wearing bikinis!!!!!!!

Jungle Beach is a really cool place if you find yourself at a loose end and need some well earned R n R. Most nights, erm.....each night we skinny dipped in the warm China sea with just the sneeky boy sea snake floating in the water to frighten the girls. Sally especially enjoyed this activity which made the naughty sea snake even more active!

After breakast it was swim or lie down, clearly I was lying down at this point, not sure though if this was after the cocktail party the night before. No matter as everyone had a jolly good time, thanks to the Odyssey peeps for finding this place. It must be hell doing the research!

Another cool town on our agenda was Hoi An, a great place to have clothes made to measure and young Stevie had five new shirts made to add to his wardrobe.

Palm trees in Hoi An after the weekend revelry. A big open air disco down by the river saw locals and tourists boogeying away and the DJ dancing on a table. Not quite what you expect from Vietnam is it?

Our last stop was Ho Chi Min city, much larger than Hanoi and not as mad. A great place to walk around and very nice tourist police to help old codgers like me, to cross the road. Asking directions from one young man who clearly wanted to impress, he blew his whistle to stop the traffic at a cross roads and then beckond Denis and I to cross. About half way across this wide boulivard the lights must have changed and all the traffic surged towards us. "Keep walking, keep walking" was the only advice the young guy could say. It was then a quick walk back to the hotel to change undies!

We are in delightful Cambodia now and another blog in a few days time or so. Angkor Wat tomorrow at 5:15 am and one of Cambodias biggies so now it must be nearly bed time.

Lovies to family and friends

Vietnam - I Love You!

Jeeps Peeps, I have no idea where to begin with this leg of the tour. We are maybe 10 days in but whose counting? Still some cool stuff to do like Jungle Beach, where more shinanagings are planned and a little later Ho Chi Min City still to visit.

This trip is just getting better and better, thanks Odyssey Peeps - this is just the best thing I have ever done. If you are thinking of doing something like this, save, beg, steal or borrow the cash from the old man but book it!!!!

Above shows what effectively used to be the river border between old north and southVietnam or in our guides words the communist and capitalist bridge. This was just one of our stops on a *** tour. What a great day but a quite sad to see unarked graves of lads and lasses of just 17 who as yet, have no name.

War memorial near the bridge, or maybe they are not called memorials as we know them, but the feeling is still the same.

All the might, money and power of the US going to rust!

The equivilent of seven tons of bombs per person where dropped on Vietnam and Cambodia.

A local hill tribe and 'granny'.

Or maybe birth control is not practiced at all?

Oh yes, this is still the way a lot of goods are carried.

Our dinner boat arrives, shame about the thunderstorm later on that evening but rain here is warm.

A bit of culture chaps? Mandy is great at organising stuff, and this day tour was guided by Hanoi kids and while they are not kids but young adults - the tour was great, their English very good and we were just as keen to learn about Vietnamese life as they were about ours. Thanks Mandy.

The village house was in a museum of Vietnamese culture and all the big houses (like the one above) were constructed by each minority tribe craftsmen who were brought in to build them in the traditional way. Lots of different houses each with its own unique style and shape.

We had a fab lunch chosen by the Vietnamese kids in a local busy restaurant. This was my pudding - shan't be having that again! It was a bit like frog spawn and snakes in the same glass, now you get the picture.......YUK!

Ho Long Bay swimming with the jelly fish and yes the lady was selling Pringles and cokes and while you may on the very off chance have a little pocket in your cozzie with cash in. How the heck are you going to eat bloody Pringles!

If you come to 'Nam' also come to the bay, it'll be one of the best things you do. We had a boat to ourselves. Stayed over night, had fantastic food, great company and with a view to die for. Thanks Charlie.

Stevie tucking into fanny....woah there young man. The ice cream was eaten in Fannies, nope that's not quite right either, erm.....lets just say it was bloody lovely and leave it at that.

While these soldiers looked very smart in their Sunday best uniform at the Ho Chi Min mausaleum, they actually marched a bit camp swinging their arms across themselves rather than from side to side and I found it difficult not to smirk, but the mausaleum was a serious place so I didn't. I did however find seeing 'Uncle Ho' really quite moving.

All our valuables safetly removed and I worried that the soldiers looked camp. Steavie what do you look like?