The final lap

We were rather sad to say goodbye to Kota Baru, after the amazing hospitality we’d had there. At the same time, we were so excited to be getting home to Seremban and completing our journey! We’d been able to get tickets on a night bus to KL, leaving Kota Baru at 9pm. So there wasn’t much scenery to be seen along the way, although the full moon lit up the countryside quite prettily.

The scene at the bus station was of utter chaos as we left Kota Baru, with Kelantanese returning to various parts of the country after celebrating Hari Raya Haji (which is a big deal in Kelantan & Terengganu) in their kampungs. We managed to find our bus with some help – it turned out to be an specially commissioned tourist bus, rather than a regular bus belonging to the bus company. We were quite relieved they were not using school buses as replacement buses anymore!

Snatched a couple of hours of sleep here and there, as the bus wound it’s way through parts of Kelantan and entered Pahang before reaching KL at 4.30am. We’d been told we’d arrive around 5.30-6am, which would have been perfect for us to catch the Komuter train to Seremban.

The last and final bus of our journey

Made our way to the Komuter station, a 5-minute walk away from the bus station, only to find that the first train leaves for Seremban at 5.37am. Since it wasn’t going to be that long a wait, we decided to hang out at the station in the meantime, me trying to finish the last of my chick lit, and Daniel playing solitaire on his phone.

Waiting for the right train to arrive at the station

Our train arrived, and we hopped onto our last train of the journey for the relatively short 90-minute ride to Seremban. It was quite odd to be passing by all the familiar landmarks of KL – where we’d been living before we went to the UK last year – without having been in KL for more than an hour.

Train to Seremban arriving at the platform

We arrived at Seremban train station at 7.15am, and waited outside the station for Mama K to pick us up, getting a couple of pics in while we waited.

Seremban train station early in the morning

Finally, we’re home!

We were really exhausted after the entire journey, and the overnight bus ride, but so excited to finally be home! After a good shower and yummy thosai for breakfast, we had a nap and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up with Papa & Mama K and Gweenie and Siva, who’d come back to Seremban just to see us! Oh, and Daniel managed to drop by at the barbers’ for a much-needed haircut and shave too!

New-look Daniel Rosien

However, there is still more to come on this blog although we have arrived…  drop by in a day or two and see…

Last stop: Kota Baru

Our time in Malaysia started in the comfortable environment of the Kelantan Golf and Country Club, where we met Uncle Nayagam. We enjoyed some cold beer and dug into some yummy mee goreng. As we started to relax after the trip from Bangkok, we were introduced to friends of Uncle Nayagam. He had also asked his good friend Ingrid to join us at the club. Ingrid is a German expat, who has been living in Kota Baru for over 20 years now, and when I asked where she was from in Germany the answer is unexpected. She was born in Hof, my hometown! So I have to travel 15,000 kilometers to meet a fellow Upper Frankonian.

The other person we get to meet is Anand, and old childhood acquaintance of Anushia’s (although they both didn’t seem to be quite sure of that) and a good friend of Uncle Nayagam. He invites us to go out with some of his friends later in the evening and we do not think twice at the temptation of some good Mamak food.

Anand picked us up a little later and we head out to the Mamak shop, where we meet some of his diving buddies from Germany, Korea and Canada and Kota Baru of course. We have a good time chatting and catching up on the latest news on Malaysia and the islands. It’s high time to go out and do some diving again! By the time we have had another drink at the new riverfront area it is time for a good rest and Anand drops us off at Uncle’s place.

Only the next morning, in daylight, do we realize at what beautiful place we are staying. We have breakfast on the veranda, which overlooks a little river and the rest of the garden with mango, mangosteen, ciku and passionfruit trees. The house is a real little oasis of calm at the edge of the jungle.

Good morning …

After filling out stomachs with a delicious meal of nasi lemak we head out to town with Uncle Nayagam and try to sort out our tickets for our last leg of travel to Seremban. Unfortunately, however, it looks that we will be stranded in Kota Baru for a little longer than originally planned. It is a holiday and all the train and bus tickets are sold out. The best option we have is a night bus to KL the day later, which lets us enjoy another day of Kelantanese Hospitality.

We meet up with Anand who takes us for a good Kopitiam (old Chinese Cofeeshop) Lunch before dropping us back at Uncle’s place, where we rest for the afternoon.

For Dinner we were invited to a treat at Ingrid’s place, where we meet up with the others from the Club. There’s a “Freistaat Bayern” Sign in the entrance area and pictures of Wunsiedel and the Fichtelgebirge around the house, making it feel kind of familiar. The dinner of Quiche and Gulasch with Pasta is delicious and the round up with Christmas cookies on the terrace under palm trees reminds us that its only a couple of days left until Christmas. We all chat long into the night and when we leave we are sad to have to turn down Ingrid’s invitation to come back for the Christmas dinner. We head back home with Uncle Nayagam and have a last beer sitting in the garden under the full moon.

Ending the day as it had started…

The next day starts with some gardening work just after breakfast – after all we have to earn our keep somehow. We help Uncle with getting the lawn back into shape, open some of the fallen coconuts for the chicken and take the overly excited dog for a walk around the garden. Half an hour later and we are sitting outside and having a beer. Anand drops by with a Kelantan specialty of Nasi Kerabu for lunch. As we still have the whole afternoon before our bus for KL leaves, he suggest going out to the beach. Although the beaches and the water are not all that nice during the monsoon season, there are still things you can do at the beach. Anand knows of someone who has set up a little surfing school at the beach and we decide to give it a try.

Teaching the chicken how to open their own coconuts

Taking out Fiver

We pick up Madeline, one of the dive buddies whom we met on our first evening in Kota Baru and take Yani, Uncle Nayagam’s helper, and head for the beach. The Surfing “school” is a little smaller than expected and there are only very few instructions from the young chap running the shop. Although the boards are not made for beginners we give it a try. The success is very limited and have difficulty getting two feet on the board and standing but it’s a lot of (exhausting) fun – spare the bruises on the leg and the occasional wack from the board swung against you by the waves.

First surfing attempts…

Then it is already time to think of leaving for our last bit of travelling and we head back via the market, where we pick up dinner. At Uncle Nayagam’s place we pack up, eat and say our goodbyes. It was a great time we had in Kota Baru and a really nice welcome to Malaysia with all the people we met there. [Thanks so much Uncle Nayagam and Anand, for having us and showing us around KB! We look forward to seeing you in KL sometime soon!]

Night market and full Moon in KB

the last frontier…

The train ride from Bangkok to Sg Golok, the Thai-Malaysian border on the East Coast, was supposed to have taken 20 hours.

Pulling out of Bangkok’s Station (after I got back in…)

Last View of the Chao Praya River and Bangkok in background

The ride itself was rather uneventful, but the train was very comfortable, and we had pretty scenery to look at during the daylight hours. Unfortunately, we had more daylight time than expected since the train only pulled in to Sungai Golok with four hours delay.

Scenery of Thailand’s south under Monsoon clouds

After walking for a little less than a kilometre we arrived at the border – the last border to cross on our journey. The Thai immigration was done in a couple of minutes and we walked across the bridge of the Golok River that was swollen from the monsoon rains of the last couple of days. Luckily the weather changed for the better just before we arrived and the floods receded.

Almost…

We walked under the giant “Selamat Datang ke Malaysia” sign and into the immigration complex. Anushia went through the electronic gate while I picked up the last stamp in my passport and we set foot into Malaysia.

…there

Kota Bahru, Anushia’s birthplace, was still an hour’s drive away, which we spent reflecting on the long journey here and wondering that it felt so sudden to be in Malaysia despite the three months we had spent on the road.

Looking back on where we’ve come from

When we arrived after a brief stint in a bit of a traffic jam it was already late in the afternoon. We found our way to the Royal Kelantan Country Club, where we were met by Uncle Nayagam, whose hospitality and company we were to enjoy while we staying in Kota Bahru.

One night in Bangkok

Despite all the recent activity in Bangkok everything seemed like it always was when we arrived in Bangkok. There was no sign that the political landscape of the country was (and continues to be) in total disarray and that this 10 million people strong capital had been cut off from its lifeline of air traffic for over a week.
Arrival in Bangkok

Deprived  of a good morning coffee, we wobbled out of the train and into a taxi and headed for the Banglamphu area on the river front. We managed to find a nice place not far from infamous Khao San Road and dropped our bags off before heading out for our much-needed breakfast and coffee.
A shower and a short nap later, we were out on the road again. We only had a little more than 24 hours to explore Bangkok, which of course does not do justice to such a huge and diverse place. Although Bangkok is so close to Malaysia, Anushia had actually not been here before and enjoyed this bustling city quite a bit, and I had a great time re-discovering some of the sights and memories of my previous visits.

We started off with a walk to the Chao Praya river and took the boat from there to get a bit of an orientation. We passed some of the major sights, including the grand (former) Royal Palace and Wat Arun, which looks very much like the temples of Angkor Wat.

Looking at Wat Arun from the river

We got off at the last stop, somewhere close to a Skytrain station, and decided to walk around the area  a bit in search of food. It ended up being a very long walk, as we passed just one huge shopping mall and lots of closed shops along this main road. There were many stalls selling various kinds of street food, though, which Anushia could not keep her eyes off. A couple of samples later, she was more than happy to keep walking until we found a place to have lunch at. ☺
After a late lunch, we headed into the Chinatown area and just enjoyed walking around and watching daily life. We’d have loved to head on to explore Sukhumvit, however, the infamous Bangkok traffic jams were in full swing, so we had to be content with sitting by the roadside and watching life pass by for quite a while.
The ubiquitous tuk-tuks all over Bangkok

We could not resist the “allure” of Khao San road, and just had to have a walkabout to see for ourselves this famous backpacker zone. It was very lively and full of people, a complete contrast to the sleepy street we’d had breakfast at earlier in the day. We actually had quite an interesting time, just people watching and wandering into random shops along the road. We also ended up picking up a couple of DVDs to keep us entertained on the train ride the next day.

Khao San Road in full swing at night

We spent our last few hours in Bangkok exploring the Royal Palace, which used to be the residence of the King. Today, it is largely used for ceremonial events. It’s a huge complex, with lots of lots of ancillary buildings housing various objects of interest. We decided to focus on Wat Phra Kaew, home of the famous Jade Buddha. The wat complex itself consists of many little wats and chambers, most of which are closed to the public. These wats are all very prettily decorated on the outside – doors covered entirely with mother-of-pearl inlay, mosaics formed of ceramic pottery pieces and of course statues of various mythical creatures.
Wat Phra Kaew in the Royal Palace

Only the main temple, housing the Jade Buddha, was open to the public, and we joined a handful of locals worshipping the surprisingly small Buddha statue, made entirely out of jade. Apparently the statue undergoes a change of costume presided by the king three times a year – for summer, winter and the rainy season. This time it was in winter gear.
Walking back to our hotel in search of lunch, we witnessed a scene that truly depicts Bangkok – a monk and a goth waiting to withdraw cash from the ATM. Truly a picture of modernity and tradition, religiosity and “rebellion”.
Typical Bangkok scene

All too soon, it was time to leave Bangkok for Sungai Golok and the Malaysian border. Although excited to be entering our last country of the journey, we were also a bit sad to leave Bangkok so soon, and to be nearing the end of our long journey home. We agreed that we’d definitely return to Bangkok in the near future, and really do justice to this amazingly lively city of contrasts.

Our train to Sg Golok

Breezing into Bangkok – for free!

A short tuk-tuk ride from the immigration checkpoint found us at the Nong Khai train station, where we were able to get 1^st Class Sleeper tickets to Bangkok – despite having been told by all the travel agents in Luang Prabang and Vientiane that they were all sold out. Nong Khai train station is a pretty little station which sees just four trains passing through each day. Our train was already waiting at the station, so we had a quick meal nearby before heading back and trying to board the train.

Nong Khai station

Our train waiting at the station

When we entered our carriage, we felt like we were entering a sauna! As it was an air-conditioned car, all the windows had been sealed. Unfortunately, today of all days, there was a glitch with the electricity supply, and the A/C and lights were not working. It was steaming in there, so we had to wait on the platform while the technicians tried to fix the problem.

Waiting…

…still waiting

Departure time came and went but the problem was still not fixed. We got talking with our fellow passengers, who were part of a tour group from Bangkok. They were not pleased either. The annoying thing was that all the other carriages were fine, it was just ours that didn’t have electricity supply!

Getting dark, and still waiting

The train officials tried to offer various options, including seats in the Third Class carriage (all other seats were full) but our fellow passengers were well aware of their rights and very vocal. We decided to just leave it to them to sort things out…which was a smart thing to do, as after an hour of negotiation, they managed to convince the train guys to fully refund the price of our tickets and let us travel in the 1^st Class Carriage anyways. The refund was compensation for not having electricity for the entire 12-hour journey.

12 hours is nothing compared to some of the journeys we’d been making, so we were more than happy to get our money back, and quickly boarded the train. Daniel became a somewhat of a hero after he started using his Leatherman to unscrew all the windows open, allowing much-needed fresh air to circulate in the carriage. We were soon on our way through the little towns and villages of Thailand, headed to Bangkok…for free!!

All settled in, with just emergency lights and no A/C

Vientiane

For a capital city, Vientiane is rather small and village-y…felt like Taiping to me. Daniel and I were joking that the diplomats who get posted here are either really junior officers or old fogeys who are put to pasture so that they don’t get into any further trouble before they retire!

Hence it was a bit of a surprise that the city seemed to be teeming with tourists the night we arrived from Luang Prabang after an 11-hour bus ride. We could not get a room at any of the hostels or guesthouses in town! Ended up choosing a nicer place (for a nicer price, of course) and got their last available room for the night.

We were rather tired after the long and bumpy journey – our Super-VIP bus was not all that comfortable, but at least neither Fred nor his relatives were in sight. The scenery was of course amazing, with beautiful green hills and valleys, grand limestone outcrops and pretty little villages along the way.

Scenery along the way

We’d decided to spend just one full day in Vientiane, so it was early to rise as we started our sightseeing activities. Turns out we needn’t have been in such a big rush, as there wasn’t all that much to see. We started off wandering around the major wats, trying to identify the architectural characteristics unique to Vientiane (largely to do with having a veranda adorned with wood carvings in front of the wat entrance).

Wats and more wats

Again, the wats seemed rather lifeless to us, with just a few shy young monks reading or chatting under the trees. Many of them seemed to be studying English, judging by the books they held, yet they seemed shy to strike up a conversation, and we weren’t sure if it was appropriate to initiate a chat either.

The one wat that we did enjoy more than the others was Wat Si Saket, the oldest wat in Vientiane. Although it’s badly in need of restoration, the wat has a nice air to it, and is also home to more than 8,000 Buddha statues. The bulk of these are tiny little figurines placed in little niches all along the walls surrounding the wat compound.

Wat Si Saket

A quick visit to the bus station to check on buses into Thailand for the next day led to us walking through Talat Sao, the biggest market in Vientiane. Although we only walked through a tiny bit, it was interesting to see all the colourful clothes and fabrics on display.

Colourful blouses at the market

We ended our sightseeing with a visit to Patuxai, which is said to be the Arc de Triomphe of Vientiane. Apparently it was built using cement donated by the US which was meant to be used for building the airport! From a distance it does look rather majestic , but up close, it’s very much a “concrete monstrosity” as the visitor information plaque states.

Patuxai – from a distance (the better view)

It was nice just to sit around the Chinese-donated musical fountain in the park surrounding Patuxai, just watching the locals having an evening out. We also discovered why all the hotels were full – there were tonnes of Thai tourists from across the border.

People around the fountain

We decided to splurge on dinner that night, for a good cause. We had an excellent meal at Makphet, a restaurant run by former street children and their teachers. All the profits from the restaurant go towards outreach projects to help street children in Laos. The restaurant itself was very prettily done up in green (Mama K would approve), and the food, especially the dessert was really yummy too!

Dinner at Makphet

The next morning, we had just a couple of hours to kill before leaving for the Thai border. We decided to visit Pha That Luang, the most important Buddhist monument in Laos. It is also the seat of the Supreme Patriarch of Lao Buddhism (sort of like the Lao Dalai Lama). Considering that we had to take a tuk-tuk about 4km out of town to get there, it wasn’t all that spectacular in comparison to all the others wats we’d seen so far.

Pha That Luang

After lunch it was time to head to the border, which we crossed on the Thai-Lao Friendship Bus. Border crossing into Nong Khai was uneventful, with no visa issues for anybody, thank goodness! There was only a EUR 0.25 fee to pay for crossing the Lao border on a weekend! Fair enough, the immigration guys need their share of BeerLao to make up for missing their Sunday at the local pub.

Crossing the Mekong again

Lazy days in Luang Prabang

The first thing we did when we arrived in Luang Prabang, was to reduce our pace. Despite being quite a tourist attraction, this little place in the middle of Laos still has the feel (and look) of a big village with no high-rises,  lots of green and – thanks to UNESCO – no big traffic. It’s got a very laidback feel to it too, well-captured in the street-crossing sign of a woman gliding gracefully across a zebra-crossing!

The first road-sign we saw

 

As we don’t have all that much left of the day after sorting out our accommodation for the night, we decide to focus on just one attraction on our first evening in Luang Prabang: A Lao-style table barbeque. In this case, the barbeque pit is in the centre of the table and covered with what looks like an old hubcap. Then come the ingredients and instructions. The meat goes in the raised centre of the hubcap which is greased with strips of pork fat. The rim of the hubcap is flooded with the clear soup, which then is filled with the leaves, sprouts, carrots, noodles, cabbage and an egg. The juice and fat of the meat runs off into the soup and, with generous helpings of chopped garlic and a few squeezes of like, you end up with a really good broth and some very yummy meat. The dessert is built in, too: the strips of pork fat, left on the barbeque throughout the dinner become delicious pieces of crackling at the end of the meal. Unfortunately we were too busy enjoying the meal to take pictures, so you’re going to have to try it yourself when you go to Luang Prabang!

We really did very little on day two. But the nice thing is that Luang Prabang doesn’t even make you feel bad about it. We changed our guesthouse, as our first find was a little far from the centre and also got quite cold at night. Even though we already are in the South-East Asian tropics, it still gets quite cold in Northern Laos.

Rise and shining…after a freezing night in our first guesthouse

An orientation walk around Luang Prabang made us look forward to exploring this place a little deeper – venturing into the temples and little alleys full of old colonial houses. Our dinner on the Mekong riverbank with the sun setting somewhere behind the hills further down the river made a perfect end to this lazy day. 

Sunset over the Mekong

Our new guesthouse is located right next to the alley where the daily fresh food market sets up early in the morning. We start Day 3 right there, exploring all the amazing (and sometimes disgusting-looking) fare on offer. Two neat rows of stalls line the sides of the road, with mostly women vendors selling vegetables, fruit, freshly prepared and cooked food, clothes, and meat. The ‘meat’ stalls were the most interesting – there were quite a few exotic-looking creatures up for grabs. We identified quite a few Freds, something that looked like a dog’s thigh, various types of little rats and mice, frogs, iguana, little birds and even something that looked a little like a mousedeer!

Market…and mice for sale

We set off for a walking tour around the sights of this ex-kingdom town. Compared to the Buddhist temples we had been seeing in Tibet the temples here in Laos are quite different. In terms of architecture and features they are very similar to the Thai ones. The roofs have gilded tips and nagas protruding from every possible corner and the relief works above the entrances are decorated with disco-ball mirror pieces that glitter in the sun.  The other thing about the temples and monasteries in Luang Prabang is that they are very quiet and there are only very few local people visiting the temples. It is  a big contrast to the bustling Tibetan monasteries  we visited – even in the Chinese-controlled state they are in.

Temple-life in Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang-style temple architecture – tiered and pointy roof

Beautiful carvings on doors and windows

One of the few non-temple sights on the walking tour, the former palace, now housing a museum, is closed. It is National Day today (Dec 2). Considering that modern Laos was built on Marxist-Leninist ideology – visible even today in the hammer and sickle flag flow in tandem with the flag of Laos on every official building -  there is very little activity. There are no parades of the glorious workers’ associations or other revolutionary remnants.

We walk down to the other river in Luang Prabang, the Nam Khan , passing pretty colonial shoplots and riverside restaurants. Spotting an interesting-looking restaurant right by the river, we go through a little village trying to find it and end up having a looooonng lunch there – Daniel orders a Lao specialty of grilled fish, which, in turns out, takes more than an hour to prepare. It was an entertaining enough wait, though, as the restaurant seemed to be a popular outing spot for Lao families and groups of youngsters alike. We pass the time watching fishermen fishing in the river and cats trying to fish for leftovers from the tables.

View of the Nam Khan and the little restaurant in the background

By the time we were done with our lunch and a coffee afterwards, the nightly handicraft market was just setting up. We spent an enjoyable time walking through the market looking at the various sarongs, scarfs, shawls, lamps and handicraft on offer. All were so pretty and tempting, we had to exercise great restraint to not buy up the entire market!

Next morning, we had a fabulous breakfast at this nice little cafe, and visited a wat right next to it. Unlike most of the other wats, this wat was almost entirely red in colour, which made it a little bit less mundane. J Visited the Royal Palace Museum, which used to be the residence of Luang Prabang’s royal family. The museum also houses one of the most sacred Buddha statues in Laos, the Pha Bang, making it somewhat of a holy site. So I had to pull on my sarong to cover up my legs in accordance with Lao custom.

Sarong-ing it at the Palace Museum

After a quick drink at the riverside, we walked around town a bit more before making our way up Phu Si, the little hill that overlooks Luang Prabang and the confluence of the two rivers (Mekong and Nam Khan). We were not the only ones hoping for a good view of the sunset over the Mekong, though, as the entire summit was crawling with tourists and their cameras, all jostling for a good view.

View from Phu Si

Temple at dusk

As we were not all that hungry, we snacked on a roadside meal of spring rolls and pad thai before heading back to the hotel and trying to make progress on updating the blog.

Our plans for catching the bus to Vientiane the next day change fast as I wake up with yesterday’s spring rolls making an unexpected re-appearance. L The rest of day was quite uneventful, as  I was busy holding my upset stomach and giving (not so helpful) ideas for the blog entries, which Anushia was took the opportunity to catch up on.

By evening, I was feeling well enough to wander around town, and fill my stomach with some pasta. We also discover that Christmas comes early to Luang Prabang, and Santa is in a jolly good mood as he makes me jump while buying bread at the Scandinavian Bakery in town.

Santa in Luang Prabang