kuala lumpur

Terminal Beresepadu Seletan is the bus station in Kuala Lumpur where the buses that run south of the city depart from and it's where I have just left as I make my way towards Melaka for a few days en-route to Singapore. It is located at the junction of 3 rail links that service the city and is linked directly to the train station via a covered walkway. inside the spacious and clean booking hall the times of the departing buses for the next couple of hours are displayed on giant boards, like the ones found in a modern airport. Booking a seat is as easy as walking up to one of the 18 open counters, choosing your destination, departure time and seat position on the coach, heading to the correct departure gate and boarding when ready. Everything is clean, efficient and straight forward and in less than twenty minutes I had bought my ticket, 2 hours worth of drinks and snacks for the journey, had a nice chat with a malaysian travelling down from the cameron highlands and boarded the bus with time to spare. Why couldn't all travel be this easy.

I had arrived in Kuala Lumpur just 2 nights before. On the bus down from Penang i had been talking to a teacher from Korea who was flying from KL airport the next day but hadn't had anything booked in the city, so we hopped in a taxi and made our way to the hostel I had arranged to stay at hoping that they would have room in a female dorm for her too. En route the taxi driver asked where I was from. "England" I said as this seems to get recognised easier than "UK" or "Great Britain". "And your wife, is she from Japan?“ he asked. I didn't know i had one.

At the hostel there was ample room available so checked in and split off in different directions. I grabbed a shower and a much needed shave to wake myself up after the 5 hours of travel, make my self look a little less worn and to cool off from the heat that the city itself contained . We then headed out to get some food.

Just a block away lay busy street food stalls and tables, as I walked through with my usual "no thanks"or raised "stop" hand it was interesting to see that Miji had a different tactic in play. There was little or no acknowledgement at all from her part from approaches and it worked like a charm, cutting through the usual barracking from the street sellers with hot knife like ease. Once we had chosen a place to eat the same level of control and authority was displayed when ordering food. Hand in the air and waving someone over to take our orders, there was no waiting for eye contact and you could tell that this was an environment she was comfortable in.

Over dinner I asked her about the canon camera she was using and she showed me some of the pictures she had taken over the last couple weeks including some of the art festival in Singapore that I had been told about by another traveller in Penang a couple days previously. I told her about the a77 I was using and she seemed to know a lot about it, so suddenly we had a common ground.

After food was done we walked the 20 minutes or so towards the twin patronas towers that lit the night time clouds brightly above them, stopping just the once for coffee as the rain became too heavy to ignore, ladies of the night passing regularly outside in their short brightly coloured dresses. We wandered around the base trying to get a decent night time shot, she sporting her canon, and me my htc 1x, which to its credit had performed remarkably well for a phone camera the last couple of months, and it kept up the good work capturing a couple of shots which could have almost have been used as promotional stills for Die Hard, if they had been taken 28 years earlier.

In the morning we headed off bright and early to the KL tower which stands higher than the patronas towers by virtue of being placed on a hill. It also has the advantage of having a 360 degree observation deck at the top to observe the city below. I took a few photo's of the landscape around but again found that the best photos I got were from watching my japanese wife interact with the environment and photographing her as she scoured over and captured the life that surrounded her below. I think these may be some of the best photographs that I have ever taken, a couple in particular would not look out of place in any gallery in the world. Its not a bad little camera truth be told and she was thrilled when I showed her the pictures I had captured. They are striking and pin sharp.

We spent the next couple of hours exploring a little of the city,communicating in broken English with exagerated movements and expressions. A completely different experience than i have had at any other point on my travels so far, and one of my favourites also.

After she had gone later that day to catch her plane back home I decided I had seen enough of KL. Its just another westernised city with crowded streets, busy traffic, big brand names on big flashing billboards with women walking passed you trying to meow seductively. It had been a good day but with time running short in Asia i hooked into the internet and booked a room in Melaka the following evening and set about working out how i was going to get there from the hot, sweaty sprawling metropolis that is Kuala Lumpur.

penang. pt2

It takes me a few days now before I start getting a feel for a place. The pictures I have been taking only interest me after I have been somewhere for a bit of time, cutting beyond the visual markers that you focus on while still finding your bearings to get something deeper. I look at pictures I've taken when I've just arrived somewhere and the the sex pistol's "pretty vacant" comes to mind, they seem to lack depth and soul.

On my third day in Malaysia, I traveled by the 204 public bus to Penang Hill. It costs 2 ringets for the journey, takes about 20 minutes each way on a bus that is modern, clean and air conditioned. Notes are stuffed into a locked fare box next the driver who will issue you the appropriate ticket when boarding. No change is ever available, much like the buses back in Bristol, except that 2 ringetts equates to about 40 pence which I don't think would even see you to a single stop on first bus's finest.

When you arrive at the base of Penang Hill you have a choice of how to ascend to the summit. You can either walk in blazing sun and 30 degree heat, or take a cool modern funicular railway carriage at the cost of 30 ringets. I walked.

To join the queue to get my ticket for the railway, it was a bloody steep hill and I'm not getting any younger. I wouldn't mind getting a little older though. This is now the self preservation society tour 2013 and anyone is free to join me.

At the top the heat was less intense with cool air being carried on a light welcome breeze. I perched myself at a table at the tea rooms which overlooked the bay below and ordered a Devonshire cream tea just 14,000 kilometers from the county itself, then supped in the blend and took in the wonderful view back towards Georgetown and surrounding areas. The photographs I took here did not do the view justice in any way shape or form, but I did get a nice picture of a scone that was smeared in jam and cream, and one of a man who was dangerously close to being devoured by a giant inflatable dinosaur. I guess some days you just make the most of what is presented to you. Today it just happened to be plastic and pastry.

Georgetown itself is a relatively small area packed with the sights, smells and sounds of the rich cultural diversity harboured within. The houses with small ornate fronts can be deceptively large within with the sense of space being enhanced further by the high ceilings inside. One of these houses that lies dormant and in poor condition with roots and branches scaling it's outer shell. I was told that the property extended back nearly 300 feet but its old "crazy" owner refuses to sell it for less than the over generous value that he's placed upon it. The converted cost to buy and restore would be roughly 800,000 pounds, around 4 times the cost of a smaller up together property in the same world heritage area, I asked my local informant if this price included the tree that was spouting out through the roof, exchanged smiles and carried on walkin'.

In the evening of the first day I got talking to Brad from Laandon and the following morning we both headed off to see the camera museum that was located just a few streets away. The vast number of exhibits displayed within included early 3D cameras and displays, box cameras, the short lived and maligned disc film Kodak camera, a rather opulent Russian Leica dressed in snakeskin finery, spy cameras and my favourite, a machine gun that was converted to use film instead of bullets in order to train the Japanese. The company behind the machine gun camera would eventually become Konica.

There is only 1 digital camera contained in the collection, a brightly coloured plastic Lego compact is rotated proudly on its own stand, a stark contrast to the usual muted colours in which cameras are usually adorned. A worthwhile inclusion just for being so, fun and appealing.

Following on from my recent decision to lose at pool in all the countries I visit from now on, we stopped in a bar equipped with necessary table for me to achieve this end, losing 2 nil whilst chatting to the owner of the bar over a few bottles of tiger. The owner "Mike" an ex-aviation engineer had taken over the bar from his brother who had since moved due to work commitments to Jakarta. He had been running it for 2 months and seemed to be enjoying his new direction, with his only gripe being the amount of paperwork that he is required to complete for the running of the bar. My only complaint was the price of beer, which was around the same as the prices paid in the U.K, a steep increase on what I had been paying in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. It wasn't enough to stop me though and the rest of the day was spent supping a few, eating and gently ribbing a bunch of English students whilst watching the Irish cruelly lose against the All Blacks at rugby after leading 17-0 earlier in the game.

The next couple of days I spent missing some great photo opportunities, drinking coffee and buying more clothes to replace my existing rags. The people I have encountered in and around Georgetown have been amazing, from the man in the queue at the post office who pointed me towards the correct window for stamps when he saw me looking a little lost with postcards in my hand, the lady in the coffee shop who conversed with me about travel plans and culture, the street worker who smiled and stopped to ask if I was enjoying Malaysia and wished me well for future travel, and all the staff at the Kimberley House hotel where I have spent my time switching rooms from dorms to singles, to doubles as I extend my stay there at relatively short notice. Its all been quite good fun.

As I said, it takes me a while to get a feel for a place sometimes. When I first arrived in Georgetown I wasn't convinced. But the more you delve into its scruffy characteristic streets, the more you undoubtedly discover to like about the place.

Barman mike said that its a place that takes a while, but that grows on you the longer you are there and I think he may be right.

I know I will have to return back one day though as I think there may still be more to see and do here. I have also been told that there are places that do really good breakfasts too. It remains to be seen.

Next stop Kuala Lumpur, I wonder if it will be warm there too.

penang 21st and 22nd nov

Georgetown.

The taxi driver dropped me off a few dimly lit streets from the location of my dimly lit hostel, I walked past it 3 times before I caught it on my final flyby, about to abandon my search. Inside was large and spacious, the receptionist pretty and gracious, I was going to rhyme, but I can't find the time, to write something with wit or salacious.

The beds were comfy enough but the dorm room itself had no widows. This has become my pet hate when staying in shared rooms as its easy to leave something behind when trying to get your things together by torchlight any time as some lazy bastard lies in bed as the day soldiers on regardless. In my experience it's been mostly Americans who harbour this habit, although not exclusively. It is however almost always that it will be American that happens to spout off if you happen to make a little noise when getting dressed in their room, the tendency to shoot from the hip before calculating possible reprisals is a trait I have seen too many times now when travelling. By no means all Americans, just a percentage tarring the rest of the nation with their brain out of gear mentality. This is my observation from my limited travel over the last 8 weeks through 4 different countries and should not be taken as scientific fact.

A single room was booked for my second night.

After dumping everything off time had crept to nearly 11 so I ventured to a busy street food  hall located around the corner, sat at small table and was served tea with a couple of dumplings. One contained spiced pork and the other a traditional sausage, both came from a raised stainless steel cooking contraption and I sat down and ate off the plastic plate they were served on. The flavours were so magnificent that even the rat that ran across he floor did little to dissuade me from finishing up. No one else seemed to care, so I didn't either. The whole meal cost less than a pound.

In the morning I packed my bag by torchlight making as much noise as possible and switched from the dorm to the single room that had been prepared early l by the mad as a hatter cleaner. I then took a stroll around Georgetown, a mix of old 2 story simple houses that are pretty but often run down, adorned with broken shutters and crooked doors, and the modern buildings that include hotels and offices with the spaces in between filled with temples mosques and churches. I stumbled upon a museum dedicated to coffee and chocolate, but the photography one that I tried to find eluded me. Everything here feels more western. The bike is no where near as prominent as the car, vehicles stop at lights and traffic jams occur. Could they possible be linked?

After a few hours as the heat took hold again I retreated back to the shopping mall located near to the hostel and got lost. This has so far happened in every mall I have visited in south east Asia, but its a cool way to spend the afternoon away from the humidity and swelter. Most have great Food places inside and after on 3 hours trying to eat my noodles with chopsticks I picked up some more replacement clothes in preparation of my arrival in New Zealand which is now only a couple of weeks away. My other rags have now become disposaware (tm ja if not used already ;)

I finished the day with a KFC, whilst this felt wrong on many levels, it was nice to eat somewhere that was rat free, at least on the surface.

I Just wish that somewhere would do a drink here that wasn't loaded with sugar, everything bar the water is. It's little wonder really that this region is suffering from an explosion in type 2 diabetes. The question really is how are they going to change the taste buds of an entire continent.

http://www.who.int/diabetes/facts/world_figures/en/index5.html

Thailand to Malaysia

Tue wed Thursday

After a beautiful spot of breakfast served by the delightfully happy ladies at the good dream 2 hotel and then almost forgetting to collect my clothes from the laundry I'm on the road again, this time to Penang in Malaysia. A journey which started at 11 this morning and should see me at my drop off in Georgetown at around 8pm, depending on how long it takes to cross the border. Travelling by air conditioned minivan is cramped and I somehow find myself wedged between a young teacher from england and a small tower of luggage which topples onto me through every over exuberant left hand turn the one handed driver throws us into. His spare is used to permanently attach his mobile phone to his head for him to chuckle and snort with an unseen on the other end. His wife? is sat in the front passenger seat along with a young child maybe 1 year and 6 months old wrapped snugly in a milkshake green coloured blanket. It has been raining consistently all morning and for once does not show any signs of letting up.

So the last couple of days in Krabi saw me exploring a little at my own pace. I'd seen beaches, temples and the town so decided to head out a little to the nearest settlement of note, Aonang. Scooter rental from the hostel for the day was an extortionate 150 baht and after chucking my passport down, signing away any rights I may have had and a quick demonstration of the vehicle, I was off on my way like the fat one from Chips, Chops. And no clarkes pie in sight.

The roads around Krabi are far quieter and in better condition than those I have encountered throughout most of the rest of my journey so far and I was comfortable enough riding along the wide open roads which ran through and around the rocky cliffs and towns that were seemingly joined together with power cables supported by wooden poles when they could be bothered to attach them. Finding Aonang was easy too. Not sign posted clearly by any official markings, Tesco had taken the time to adorn the sides of the road leading towards the town with plenty of green and white boards advertising their new lotus store due to open in the town  on the 22nd November. Where there were no advertising boards, I knew I must have missed a turning.

Every little helps.

The town outskirts slipped by without much more than a slight raised eyebrow at the Starbucks which seemed to have touched down in an alien land, but the shops that lay along the road adjacent to the beach front sat easy in their surroundings, even the burgerking didn't carry the usual brash American presence, looking more like a high class shack adorned with a counterfeit sign, it was quite refreshing, just like the giant coke zero I consumed while taking refuge from the powerful onslaught of the early afternoon.heat. I stopped for a while and admired the ocean views before jumping back on the scooter and exploring the surrounding roads for the next few hours, enjoying the breeze before returning back to the hostel with the bike tank topped back up at the local shell garage at around 60p per litre, and that was the expensive stuff. I told it to wear a jumper.

That evening I took massage number 2 and what a difference to my first experience that I had endured a few days before. I was shattered before this massage, after I was relaxed to a level I had only experienced at the hands of trained staff at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. I decided then to extend my time in Krabi just for one more day in order to prepare myself for the long bus journey that lay ahead of me. This final day was spent putting a few laundry items to be cleaned, buying some clothes to replace the ones I intend to ditch in Singapore and playing pool against the waitress in a cocktail bar, that much is true.

Well almost, actually the waitress in the Relax Bar just a minute stroll away from the Pak Up hostel, where the owner had made Barry and I feel most welcome when we had ventured in a few days earlier, and each time I had since. The food there was as warm as the welcome and twice as tasty, especially the ckicken with roasted chilli. I narrowly beat the waitress twice after she offered me a game, the owner beat me 2-1, but in truth utterly destroyed me. I should make it my new goal to get beaten at pool in every country I visit from now on, which may rule out any trip to Bermuda in the future. They have have plenty of pool tables there by all accounts, but the balls to play on them keep disappearing.

Something to do with the triangle.

Back to the trip. We were dumped in a taxi office at Hat Yai and then had a 40 minute wait for our connecting van to pick us up. We have mooore space here and the calf muscles my legs no longer feel they are on the verge of cramping every minute or so, like they did in the udder one. Leather seats too. With a beefier engine. The driver is called pat.

After 30 minutes travelling in the second van and still a long way the border, I feel the initial drop off time is going to be wildly inaccurate. Its still raining and now the night is drawing in. Its going to be long few hours yet before I reach my drop off, and I then need to locate my hotel after that. Randomly I can also smell liquorice, at least its not burning.

18.05. exited thailand

18.20. Entered malaysia and used my antibacterial wash for the first time in this new country. Handy stuff.

According to Pat our ETA is around another 2 hours from here. That's time enough for a little Robbie Williams and lilly allen to wind in the hours. They had to be small to both fit into my tablet.

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you,
sweet dreams that leave your worries behind you,
but in your dreams whatever they be...........
Do not p

By night the freeway to penang from the border could easily be mistaken for a stretch of motorway back in the uk, with similair bridges, roadsigns and flashing yellow lights. Only the sillouettes of the occassional  tropical tree top distinguishing here from blighty.

There's something reassuringly familar about it all.

19th novemgrrrr - tiger temple

Monday 19th November

If anybody ever suggests climbing to the top of the tiger temple located near to Krabi town as it sounds like fun, kick them hard. If they are still smiling after you have dished your blow then you can be pretty sure that they may not be of sound enough mind to be making such suggestions, as fun it definitely is not.

Four of us from the hostel, Laura, Kat, Barry and myself decided to go up and after breakfast crammed ourselves into the back of a taxi for the short journey out to its location. Another, Taru who had ventured up previously decided that bed was her preferred option.

The climb started easy enough with small shallow steps leading us in before steeper steps of varying angles and gradient took over,escalating us past tetchy monkeys who really took a dislike to me and people descending back from the peak. Our rest breaks became longer and more frequent as we made our way the 800 meters to the summit and for 1236 of those steps I was fine. Then came step number 1237, literally the final step and I suddenly came over very Ill, a feeling which took a good half hour, plenty of water and half a packet of menthos to finally shake off.

Sure enough, the view from the top was outstanding, but my thoughts were more preoccupied with thinking what sort of sadistic bastard would decide to build a temple in such a location. I suppose therefor its to its testament that there are no shortage of people, locals and tourists who were taking the path to enlightenment every single day. For me though once was enough. Once was definately enough.

Descending was easier on the lungs, but tougher on the knees and quads. To help put our minds somewhere else, Barry and I started up random conversations between ourselves with the purpose of being over heard by the passers by ascending. Topics ranged from the ludicrous cost of admission at the summit (there is no charge) to being the weirdest place to have found a McDonalds so far (it's a Burgerking). One couple searching misguidedly for motivation asked if the climb it was worth it, I said "no", smiled and carried on walking down, uncomfortably. down.

Perhaps the monkeys could see that I was trouble as they gave me much less attention than they had on the way up. All I know is that understand fully Taru's decision to stay in bed a little longer that day. It was worth the effort for sure, but twice would have been pushing it.


We didn't even get a free bowl of frosties.

Grrreat view.

Dropping into Krabi

The flight from Bangkok to Krabi was delayed 30 minutes, I'm guessing the reason was that the storm clouds were gathered and the lightening that flashed through them was occuring with majestic regularity. I carried on watching this display of raw natural power from my window seat of the Thai airways plane as it eventually circled and climbed into the night. It was something that was beautiful to watch but also thrilling and unnerving. I would be lying if I was to say it hadn't put me a little on edge.

Sat next to me on the flight was a young Vietnamese lady and the conversation opened with her asking me gingerly where in the world I was from. As I had found through my previous trip through Vietnam, as soon as I said I was from England and showed her my passport to see, she seemed to relax almost instantly and the conversation then flowed very easily from then on.

We talked happily for around half an hour whilst eating our in-flight sandwiches that had been lovingly prepared and wrapped in cling film by the airline staff. She asked about my children, I showed her the cat which drew a smile upon her face as she loved cats. She was the proud mummy of a 18 month old boy and showed me a few pictures on her phone of the little fella. I decided to use some of my learned Vietnamese charm and said "he's very handsome" and she proudly beamed back, "Yes, very handsome". After 40 odd years of struggling in the U.K, I may finally be getting the hang of this conversation malarky away from my native land.

It was at this point of the conversation that the plane started to bump and shake violently before plunging us out of the sky. With the plane engines engaged at full thrust to try and force flight and halt the rapid decline, my coffee cup ran off and hid away to my right and the lady instinctively grasped onto the top of my hand that had beaten hers to the seat rest between us. I truly believe that everyone on that flight at that moment thought that our time was up. It felt like an age had passed before the plane gave the impression that it was propelling forward again rather than straight down and this period had been spent in complete silence. No panic, shouting or anything that you might expect. Just absolute terrified silence.

After normal altitude was regained the tannoy stayed quiet,  there was nothing from the pilots or cabin crew to reassure anyone else onboard that we were now going to be ok and my heart continued to beat at "drug fuelled rave tent" levels for a couple of hours after. It makes you realise how precarious life can be sometimes and the landing when it came shortly after was met by a collective gasp of relief from all the passengers within. It was obviously great to be back on the ground, but I'm not sure that I will ever get over "Mucho Grande".

The shuttle bus from the airport to Krabi cost 90 baht and took around 25minutes to get us into the town. I then had another 5 minute walk with my bags as I stumbled along dimly lit streets before arriving at the Pak Up hostel where I was booked in for the evening. After checking the room and bed were all clean (it was very),  I went downstairs and booked in for another 2 nights before then organising some of my clothes in the storage locker under the beds whilst the room was still empty. It was gone eleven by the time I headed out to find some late night food. The need to eat being from diabetic necessity rather than hunger. My appetite was still in the air at 30,000 feet and my heart was still in my mouth making it difficult to get anything else past it.

The next day I took a little time for reflection, and in the reflection it was clear that I needed a haircut. I asked the lady on reception of a good place to go and after jokingly offering to cut it for me, she pointed me in the direction of a hairdresser just a small distance away. With the stylist dressed in what seemed to be a full length operating gown and facemask I wondered if I had wandered in for the wrong kind of snip and with an absence of a shared verbal understanding, I used a photo of me from before I left the U.K to help explain what I was after.  There was no need to worry. She took time and care to make sure that by the time she was finished with me I looked sharp as a pin, which considering the subject she was having to work with was something of a modern day miracle. Price was 100 baht, I gave her 200 which even then she was reluctant to take. I consider a 4 pound haircut something of a bargain, 2 just would have been unacceptable to me.

I wandered around Krabi for a while after, watching boats on the river, wondering why there were statues of apemen holding up traffic lights, looking in shops and drinking a little coffee before I went out to the Big C supermarket located just outside town via taxi, a journey which took about 20 minutes and 20 baht without haggling. Here I picked up a new set of headphones to replace my trusty old pair that I had managed to break the night before. I have found headphones to be one of the most useful bits of kit whilst staying in hostels. I then used the on site food court to get a little late lunch before returning back to the hostel via taxi once again.

The taxi's in Krabi tend to be medium sized pick ups with a padded seat running along the inside on each side and a plastic or canvas cover to protect the passengers in the back. The top end ones also have a tail flap to prevent belongings or small people falling out the back. There are a lot of small people here that need protecting.

By the evening it was clear that the last 7 weeks or so of travel had taken its toll, with my legs in particular in a state of constant dull ache, I decided that now may be the time to endure my first massage at the spa that was joined to the hostel. I spoke to the owner about which one to have being new to it all and she recommended the oil massage rather than the thai, a recommendation I was happy enough with as I had heard from many sources during my time in asia that the thai massages were a little brutal. As it happens the oil massage was brutal also.

I was pushed, prodded, clicked, elbowed and kneaded for the next hour from legs, torso, arms and head, swearwords frequently damned from rushing out by my bitten bottom lip. I wondered exactly what it was that this lady had hated so much about me, however by the time the lady had finished on my shoulders and scalp, I could have just fallen asleep on the spot. absolutely amazing. As I limped off back to my room she said I should be able to walk again properly in 2 days, the next day I was fresh as a 40 year old daisy.

The next couple of days were spent at some of the many glorious beaches, swimming the warm seas and snorkeling over coral reefs in the crystal clear waters. I saw Sid from "finding nemo" amongst many others as I drifted slavishly  back on forth on the ocean current, with a few of them raisin up to swim around me. I have now been snorkeling 3 times including my first experience on my fortieth birthday nearly 3 weeks ago, with each experience being better than the previous I'm starting to wonder what I do from here.

bangkok - the return

The queue to get through immigration at Bangkok was a mass of people, it took a while to snake through and clear. After working out which belt my luggage would be orbiting around I decided to quickly check an ATM on the way through and was thoroughly surprised that it didn't want to give me any cash using my debit card. No option again but to make my second cash advance in as many days off my credit card as I also couldnt change up the Vietnamese dong I had flown in with anywhere in the airport. It felt like HSBC were really doing their up most to dick me over onthis one. My mood was less than stellar and was further darkened when my checked luggage was not on the belt it should have been on. I was sent from one end of the baggage hall to the other and to places inbetween, finally locating my bag in front of a luggage desk, it could have easily walked. So after just the 3 hours at Bangkok International, I exited and boarded the train to the city, with an emergency subway roll stuffed into my large baggy side pocket on my safari -esque shorts.

The trains run from the airport runs every 30 minutes or so and cost around a pound for the 20 odd minute journey to the end of the line, where it's possible to join the BTS system to take you to the different points around Bangkok, I had about a 15 minute walk after my train journey had completed before I arrived at my hostel that I had left the month before, but the warm welcome Ireceived when I arrived made the hassles of the day quickly forgotten. I went upstairs, started a load of washing off in the machine then grabbed a couple of beers in the communal area and wound down.

The next couple of days were spent trying to sort out the bank card which had been blocked when I was in Vietnam. I had informed the bank in the Cardiff branch before I travelled that I was travelling south east asia, they had only recorded Thailand as my destination. I had travelled through Cambodia and a couple of weeks in Vietnam without concern, but only when urgent cash-flow had become a real neccessity as I escaped the wrath of the incoming typhoon had the wise folks at HSBC seen fit to put the brakes on ATM withdrawls using my debit, which has led to additional charges on my credit card as I have had to use that for cash advances.

It would seem that the "worlds local bank'" doesn't seem to understand that in Vietnam, cash is essential as there are few places that have the capability to accept chip and pin. The majority of the shops in Hanoi in the area I stayed were small shop fronts, cash only of which I had little. I had been told on my previous call to the HSBC centre whilst in Hoi An that the card was ok and that the ATM's were probably at fault, When I contacted them from Thailand, this was no longer the story and after a disjointed call I managed to get my card unblocked. Pretty annoying as the cash advances on the credit card came after this first call to the bank. Basically I received either bullshit or lies whilst in Han Oi, at at 1.49 a minute, that's pretty useless and costly.

The chap from the Fraud prevention unit was pretty ballsy too, Basically making out that they needed to know exact dates for each country, not sure he's really grasped the idea of travelling without access to phones or secure internet. The delay on the line meant I'm not sure he got the full force of my angst, and thats probably a good thing. but at the moment my feeling toward HSBC are probably the lowest they have ever been. They have profited nicely from bending me over and my diabetes control during this period has taken a hammering, which may prove costly in other ways.

on the plus side in Bangkok I have shared a few drinks and time with an old work colleague who is in Bangkok for a stag do, experienced the delights of the views from the skybar's 64th and live music shows. Ihave met loads of great people here again and felt confident enough this time to plug in a set of headphones and wander with the my own soundtrack drowning out the constant verbal barrages of "Tuk Tuk Sir?", "Lady?" and "something extra?" that are hollared almost consistently from all directions. This allows you to just see Bangkok at your own pace, without distraction and improved the experience no end,

So, it's maybe a testiment to Bangkok then that despite being hot, sometimes smelly and unclean on the streets with shizers trying to relieve you of your money left right and centre, I'm going to miss a lot of elements of it when I leave later today. The people I've had a chance to engage with have mostly been amazing, the foods delicious and the sense of life that pulses through the veins of the city has to be experieced.

When I arrived here in Bangkok on the 30th September, I couldn't wait to leave. A bit has changed in that period of time and I'm glad I've had to chance to experience some of the things Bangkok has had to offer.

It's quite a cool, sweat box of a city at times.