Anyone who knows me will know I despise Bennidorm, Magaluf and all the other places around Europe that we, the drunken British, have ruined with our binge drinking, lobster sunburnt, arrogant yearly summer invasion.

Well the southern peninsular of Bali is exactly that for the Australians.

However during my three days in the area of Kuta, I can say that if I was forced to choose between Majorca and Bali, Bali would win hands down. The Australians are very loud mouthed like the Brits, but when they get drunk there is a lot less violence, they just seem to get friendlier. You only have to put up with the accent, which granted isn’t always easy, but compare that to the violent foul mouthed immature sewage the Brits export each summer.

Ok, enough friendly fire, I certainly don’t associate myself with the filth of Brittan, but I am British after all.

My favourite day in Bali was of course when we hired a car and left Kuta. Just like in Majorca you can find something other than the foul resorts if you make the effort to look, Bali actually has a lot more. Once your past Ubud, its back to genuine Indonesia. We drove right up to one of the bigger volcanoes on the island which was beautiful, passing villages and small towns on the way. An excellent snapshot of what Bali has to offer.

I am defiantly coming back to Indonesia one day, hopefully within the next few years. There is so much more to see, even in Bali. It’s actually a surprisingly large country, the 4th most populated in the world. Tourism away from the resorts in Bali is virtually nonexistent. Just a handful of travellers that have adventured off the beaten track from and around Thailand and head a bit further south. It’s quite comfortable to travel arround, people are friendly, few people try to scam you. The Indonesians like foreigners and welcome everyone. There are a few spots that are particularly popular with backpackers, which are great places to meet people to explore further into the country with. The only downside is you only have a 30 day visa on arrival, or 60 day if prearranged. 2 months isn’t really enough time to properly explore Indonesia, and many travellers end up doing a visa run to Malaysia and back. The Indonesian government want to increase tourism so when are they going to cotton on to extending the visa period. That will attract travellers and backpackers, which in time will increase holiday makers too.

Im in Cambodia now and despite this tropical storm thats reaking havock to all of South East Asia, I’m actually having a pretty good time in the rain. Will write about it all next week.

Time to hit the Vodka!

I said in my last post that I spoke with a local in Banda Aceh about the Muslim laws and customs. I have chosen to write about a few things that I discussed with him. This is as always, an interpretation, so any Muslims reading this who disagree with it, feel free to comment, I’m intrigued by religion and always eager to learn.

In Banda Aceh the Muslim laws are the strictest of all Indonesia, they have a separate police force to police it, and breaking many of the rules result in a public whipping in front of the congregation at the Mosque. Live music is illegal, and dancing is illegal. Women can’t be out past about 9 at night.

There are many other rules like this too. One thing they are trying to prevent is public affection between men and women. Our friend explained that it’s not necessarily to stop all interaction between the sexes all together, because then no one would ever get married! It’s to prevent those already married from straying. I asked him what happened to basic trust. He said that trust just doesn’t really exist in that sense. His wife naturally suspects he will stray, it’s considered normal to expect that. Even though he himself has never strayed and says he never would.

This is his description, not mine: Many years ago in a male dominated society, the men developed these rules to keep the possibility of their wives straying to other men down to an absolute minimum. I asked if the requirements for women to cover up all their skin in public come from the same fear. He said that’s not the written reason, but expects it may have been a strong factor. Reminding me that these customs are by no means new, but developed many years ago.

I’ve spoken to Muslims before about this, but they are always very reluctant to talk about it, often passing it off saying I just wouldn’t understand. This has striked me as suspicious, are they unsure themselves? Do they blindly follow? Why are they so reluctant to talk about their faith, after all aren’t they supposed to spread and teach it to others. Never has someone been so open to talk about it until now. Of course I understand that these are his interpretations of the rules, but it’s interesting that they are similar with my own predictions.

I still find a lot of it ludicrous, but I can understand bits and pieces. When the women want to swim in a pool or the sea, they have to keep on all their clothes, vale and all! It must be so heavy and uncomfortable! If a western woman perhaps doesn’t follow the rules, and goes into a pool with just a bikini on, all the men’s eyes are locked on her. No shame, they don’t try to hide it, they just stare. The wives of those men certainly wouldn’t like that their husbands are ogling over the clear white skinned western woman, and the boy friends of the western girls likely don’t like other men ogling at their girl friends. Now of course it’s different here, because those men literally never see women wearing so little, and in Europe we see it every day on TV, and even every night all the slappers on the town wearing miniskirts and invisible tops in freezing weather, so it’s not such a novelty. At home I personally look for women who don’t feel they need to bare as much skin as they possibly can to attract attention to themselves, but I’d be lying if I said my head doesn’t turn when a beautiful woman in a bikini walks past. But it’s just not such a big deal because we see it every day, and the women can choose how they dress for themselves, and choose what impression they give to those who see them, where the women here are just restricted without choice. Where we think it’s ludicrous to disallow women from socializing with other men, and even stop them from going out past 9pm, to them its normal and acceptable. And it’s essentially the same as me asking my girl friend to perhaps not go topless on the beach, but on an extremely exaggerated scale.

Now I really want to talk to the women about it. But unfortunately that requires me asking their husbands permission, and I find that unlikely as last time I spoke to a Muslim women on the street I asked for directions, and she didn’t make a sound until her husband granted her permission to.

Yes, joint as in the one you smoke…

It’s been an eventful two weeks since I last wrote on the ferry crossing to Sumatra. Motorbikes, volcanoes, ships on top of houses, and Air Asia air hostesses. I’ll try to keep it brief!

Arriving in Dumai from the ferry, we had to pay for visas. They really don’t see many foreigners, so they don’t have a proper visa printing machine. Just blank stickers, and they hand write it! Following that we had to wait for the X-Ray machine to warm up, they only seem to check the bags of foreigners, probably because alcohol is extremely restricted in Sumatra. My bag had a large bottle of Gin and a couple of litres of wine, but amazingly they thought it was Rik’s bag they saw on the screen. Opened his bag to find no alcohol so feeling rather stupid they made him eat a vitamin pill!

After dealing with transport to Toba, that afternoon we ended up teaching English in a small school. This was a fun experience, I’m very keen to do some teaching work in Asia, but I don’t want to take a chunk of time out to do it, now I’ve started Totem Films it would be silly to put it on hold for 6 months. So an afternoon teaching kids was great fun, and trying to explain why the economic crisis has happened, to a class of 15 year old Indonesians was certainly a challenge! We left exchanging facebooks, and hit the road to Toba.

Toba was a real highlight of this trip so far. It’s a massive volcanic crater lake, over 100km across, with another volcanic peak (50km across island) in the middle of it. Tuk Tuk is a small peninsular on the south edge of the island, full of guest houses and restaurants. It was completely deserted, literally a ghost town. Last time it was busy was in 1998 explained a restaurant owner. Since then natural disasters in the area and political unrests elsewhere in Sumatra have seriously affected tourism. I estimate there were no more than 30 foreigners in Tuk Tuk, and another 20 Indonesian tourists, which is crazy for a resort that has enough accommodation to cater for almost 1000. So why did I love this ghost town so much you are thinking! We joined up with a Finnish couple and rented motorbikes. Over the period of two days we covered over 350km! Biking around the whole island and up into the mountain, we passed tiny villages and settlements of the Batak people who live there. Kids would run after us shouting “hello mister, hello misses”. We got to see genuine Indonesian life, no tourist route, no guide, no book to follow, just straight out onto local roads and tracks into local areas. We even stopped at the odd place and had a drink, or ate at some of the local shacks, their equivalent of our pubs. It was an amazing two days that I will never forget.

I also loved the motor biking itself. I had never driven one before, only a twist and go fully automatic easy scooter in China last year. This time I had gears and the rest to deal with. I learnt the Indonesian way, the 12 year old girl who was holding her mother’s shop while she was out, drove the motorbike down the road and back to fill it up with fuel for me. Then showed me how to use the motor bike and sent me on my way. Flip-flops, no helmet, no t-shirt, and straight onto your typical Asian road where the only rules are ‘think fast’ and the fastest, first or biggest has priority. After a few km of that we were on gravel, mud, sand and all sorts of churned up surfaces. Euan Mc Gregger what were you moaning about on Long way down, it’s not that bad! I’ve always mocked motor bikes, as I’m really a car driving man. But to all those car drivers like me, I urge you, find one of those amazing curving and winding mountains roads that you love to drive in your car, and do it on a motorbike. It’s an incredible feeling, and you can apply most of the same techniques of driving your car to the bike. The feeling of rocking over to the side as you go into a corner, then powering out accelerating considerably faster than a car, with the wind in your hair… Really I now can’t decide what I like the best, driving my car or motor bike!

After Toba we made our way to Banda Aceh, the city at the very top of the Indonesian main land. Aceh was actually by a considerable difference the worst hit place by the Tsunami 5 years ago. It’s a shame that in the UK all we heard about on the news was the touristy places in Thailand. It’s really worth spending a day exploring this city if you find yourself in the north of Sumatra. There is a massive boat which has landed on top of a mosque about 8km from the coast. The locals now pray on the top of it as the mosque beneath is completely demolished. There is also a fishing boat even further inland, balanced on top of a house. The beach is nothing quite like anywhere else in the world. There is a flat plane of over 3km before you reach the water, all of which is now fresh plant life. It used to be dense jungle but it was all completely destroyed, so now there is nothing more than 5 years old which looks very strange. As you drive through it, you can spot the concrete squares on the ground, old foundations of buildings. Literally nothing is left but a smooth concrete top, everything was ripped from the ground by the force of the water. The only building which survived in this area was a mosque, and there are photos of that mosque surrounded by nothing for kms. Another strange thing about this beach is that is littered with massive chunks of corral which got churned up by the tsunami and dumped on the beach. As you stand on the beach and look across to a piece of steeply rising land opposite, you can see a strip of completely fresh vegetation, before it gets high enough to where the tsunami didn’t destroy the dense aged jungle life. I couldn’t estimate just how high that line was, but it’s much higher than you would expect.

The whole city is doing amazingly well, they have recovered and rebuilt remarkably fast in 5 years. A lot of that is obviously down to the large amount of aid from countries all over the world including ours. Through my travels I keep finding communities I admire, and this is another. If a disaster like this happened on the south coast of England, all we would do is whine to the government until they fix it, and complain that they didn’t have any precautions in place. It would be unlikely to see communities joining together, pooling funds and sharing the work between everyone. I think we would just be far too selfish.

That evening we met a local on the beach who we spent the rest of the evening with. He owns a construction company so obviously has plenty of work. Driving around he could just point to buildings he had rebuilt or restored. We learnt a lot from him about the area, including how Alcohol and weed are very illegal, but on special occasions the police provide both to people for free! Facts about the tsunami. He told us how when the tsunami came, it was a Sunday when most of the city come to the beach for the day. The water rapidly went out leaving bare coral for many kms. Nobody understood why this was happening, and they all just ran out into the sea to catch all of the fish flapping about. Of course they all died. He also spoke about the local customs, and a lot about the Muslim laws. I find this subject very interesting and often ask about it, but almost all Muslims are reluctant to talk much about it. I will write a separate piece about some of what I talked to him about later.

We then moved on to Pulau Weh, the island right at the very tip of Indonesia. Here everything just seemed to go wrong! We had a nightmare trying to get money because nothing worked, internet was impossible, electricity if we were lucky for a random hour of the day… Where we chose to stay however is stunningly beautiful. The water is so clear you can see the bottom no matter how deep you go. The coral is vibrant and healthy, and the fish are incredible. We had a little wooden chalet on stilts overhanging the water. On our balcony the view was framed by the leaves of two palm trees, looking perfectly east for the sunrise over the small jungle island 100 meters across the water. For a view like that people pay hundreds if not thousands per night in some places around the world. I paid £1.75.

I planned to get my PADI (diving qualification) here, as its one of the cheapest places in the world to do it. However on the first day i had a rather serious motorbike accident. It happened on a sharp bend about 200 meters from ‘Point Zero’ which is the John O’Groats of Indonesia. So unfortunately I spent the rest of my time there looking after my foot. I really should have gone to hospital, but it just seemed like too much effort! At least I’ve ticked that box, had a motorcycle accident.

On Monday I head back to the mainland to catch a flight to Bali. We were almost late because I had to make Rik carry my bag. I could barely walk on my injured foot, it was swollen so large it wouldn’t even fit in my shoe. Unfortunately the flight was cancelled, and we had to wait in Banda Aceh for two nights, on Air Asia’s tab of course. We met a Malaysian girl Teng Teng, and spent some of AirAsia’s money with her on steaks and imported wines. On the last night we got to know the air hostesses and drank gin watching the MJ funeral with them. Not a bad delay after all, and knowing the air hostesses on a flight is brilliant, I had a whole row to sleep on, and free food and drink!

Sumatra has been amazing, I am certainly coming back to Sumatra and seeing more and a lot more of Indonesia in the future. It seems it’s an often overlooked country, with so much to offer, and it’s very cheap. It’s certainly not for the novice traveller, or if you like your western comforts too much like showers and electricity, but it’s an amazing experience with a bit of everything to do and see. I’ll be back Sumatra, soon!

If you’ve read this far you deserve a reward! 10 days in Sumatra in almost 2000 words! Here’s a panorama i took at Toba that isnt on facebook

Here are the photos from Sumatra, except Pulau Weh, where I didn’t actually take any. It was too beautiful for photos, maybe next time because I will return there again one day, when I can actually walk and go in the water perhaps!

On the way to Toba & teaching:

Lake Toba:

Banda Aceh:

I’m sat on a grubby, falling apart ancient ferry in the dock at Melaka. It looks like they have just taken an old cargo ship, slapped in some old bus seats bolted together with bits of scrap metal and whatever else they could find lying around in the slums of Malaysia and Indonesia. They have a few TVs dotted around playing Muslim music videos with karaoke subtitles. No one has started singing along yet but we are thinking maybe if we start others may join in… There are two other westerners on the boat, Russian i think.  There are old grubby life jackets hanging out of holes all over the place, I doubt there would be enough for everyone so I’m eyeing which ones I’m going to grab if anything happens, which seems like quite a strong possibility! We have just been given some water and a snack, wow this is better than Air Asia! Not one, but two little cup cakes, some curious fruit paste, and a little cup of Indonesian water.

We have also been given a health declaration card which is standard now for every country after all this fuss about Swine Flu. They are obviously very conscious about the environment because they have just recycled the cards they had left from the last fuss about SARS:

I’m travelling with Rik, and have left Simon in Melaka. He isn’t so interested in Sumatra, so he’s heading over to Tioman for a week of relaxing on the beach. We have been in Melaka for two nights, not because Melaka is amazing, it’s certainly not, but we have been planning and looking up flights etc. We have had to abandon the plans to go to the next Full Moon party in Thailand. There is no easy quick way to get there and back and we don’t want to waste too much time in transit. After browsing over a map of South East Asia, and chatting to other travellers, we have a rough plan. After Sumatra I’m going to make my way to Bali, where I’ll catch up with Simon after Tioman. Then after partying there for a few days, fly up to Phnom Penh and spend a week in Cambodia.

Melaka wasn’t anything special, it’s an average town with a pretty Malay-Chinese centre. But it’s all there for the tourists, along with probably more museums than the rest of Asia put together! We met some good people in the hostel however, and had some great Pakistani food just outside of the central tourist area where the locals eat. Romé who I met in Tioman was also there and will be heading down to Bali. Also I met three British girls one of whom I actually briefly met at the ferry port in Kuala Basut over a week ago. I love how you just keep bumping into people you meet while travelling, it happens so often, and not just within the same country but across borders too.

So soon I’ll be stepping into Indonesia. The ferry stops at Dumai, a city which I expect sees very few foreigners. We know nothing about the city, we have no map, it’s not mentioned in the Lonely Planet, and when we arrive we need to find an ATM because we have no currency at all! We plan to make our way to Danau Toba, in the LP it says “you may find it difficult to leave” so we are expecting good things. However we have no idea how to get there, maybe a bus, hopefully direct rather than all the way to Medan and back again. Maybe even a boat up to Medan as both cities have major ports. “Welcome to Indonesia” a friendly text message listing the extortionate roaming rates, we must be getting close!

Lots of photos today! I’m sat in a cozy little jazz cafe in Melaka, sorting, uploading and even editted a quick video!

My last minute decision to stay on the beach gave me an extra 4 days, and it was still difficult to leave! It’s no surprise travellers get caught here and on many other tropical islands around Malaysia and Indonesia, Frequently when travelling I meet people who have burnt away months in one place, and I completely understand, believe me I was almost considering spending another 4 weeks on the beach and not travelling any further. These magical places don’t compare to the Costa Del Sol, or any tourist beach resort around the world. They are very suited for travellers, with simple shacks, little family run restaurants with cheap plastic furniture and a simple menu of local food. Bars on the beach with background music provided by anyone with an iPod, just the right volume so you can comfortably talk, relax and enjoy the sunset. Nothing is intense or heavy going, life is simple and the company is the best you will find anywhere in the world.

Something which will stay with me for some time is the trip to the village in the next town. A pilgrimage often taken to collect cheap beverages, yes – a beer run! Roads on this part of the island are about the width of an average pavement in England. Locals get around on motorbike, some of which have basically welded a wheel barrow onto the side of it like a make shift side cart to add space for additional people or whatever one needs to move. There are no rules here, kids of 12 years drive the bikes with their 3 younger siblings sat in the box, popping down to the shop to buy beer for Daddy. Shortly after starting to walk to Tekek, a local kindly offered to give us a lift. Ronald and another Dutch guy sat in the box, and me on the back of the bike. The driver had a Calsberg in his hand, and we were drinking Tiger beers. Cruising down the path, beer in hand, wind rushing through our hair, dense jungle on the left passing typical South East Asian shacks, and families. White sand on our right leading down to the clear blue sea about 30 yards away. The tangled web of electrical cables hung at the side dipping down and up as the motorbike chugs past. This is very South East Asia, and where I can imagine to most of you reading this it doesn’t seem like anything special or even uncomfortable, but I absolutely love it!

The weather on these tropical islands is quite something. The storms come and go in minutes. One minute it will be glorious sunshine, then you will notice the horizon going as dark as night. Suddenly a massive gale comes in, the air goes from completely still to throwing sand in your face in little more than 10 seconds, (there are a few photos of the palm trees in the wind). Everyone closes shutters and retreats into buildings, 3 minutes later the heavens open, and another 3 minutes the sun is back. Also often at night, you can sit at the sunset bar on the beach, and enjoy an amazing light show of a storm in the distance. Lighting bolt after bolt, triggering chains, lighting up the sky. I tried to photograph it, but it was so far away there wasn’t enough light to really capture the image I wanted, but there are a few photos for you to see. The night sky here near the equator is half of what we see in the northern hemisphere, and then late at night the southern hemisphere sky appears. The stars down under really are amazing, due to the earth’s position in the milky way, you see a much thicker band of stars, I attempted to take a picture without a tripod, it’s not bad, see it in the gallery!

So I finally left, early morning ferry before sunrise, and didn’t get back to KL for over 13 hours. I was unfortunately quite unlucky with all methods of transport that day. I spent over an hour lugging my backpack through the hot and humid streets of KL which was almost 7Kg heavier with all the cheap booze I picked up before leavening Tioman! Looking for a hostel with an air conditioned room available. Simon was due to arrive, and his first night after a gruelling 24 hour journey including 10 hours waiting in the dreaded Dubai airport, air conditioning was a must. Late that evening we met in KL Sentral station, and head into Chinatown for some eats, drinks and catch up.

We spent the next day wandering around KL, gave Simon a chance to acclimatise, and some time for us to think about where we each wanted to go next. We want to pop into Thailand for the next Full Moon Party, an absolute must for anyone who likes a good party, not just travellers but anyone! Until then I’m going to ferry over to Sumatra, and Simon is undecided between Sumatra, or going to spend a week on the beach that I’ve just come back from! After then we both want to go to Bali, yup more beach but I think quite a different atmosphere to Tioman. Everywhere I’ve been so far, I keep meeting people that are heading to Bali, it seems to be the place to be. In the evening we went to a travellers bar, bit more expensive than the street stalls where I usually drink, but we wanted to meet some people. We met five Russian girls all heading to Bali for a month of surfing! Decision made, and I’ve invited Damian down from Hong Kong to join us too!

So now I’m sat on a bus heading to Melaka, where I hope to meet Rik (If you haven’t been reading, I met Rik when I first landed in KL). He’s been swimming with turtles in the Perhentians for the last week and is ready for a dose of Indonesia with me. Also I hope to see Gibbon (Ronald) and Liam again, but there is a strong chance they have still not left Tioman!

Photos and goodies!

I have another video! Gibbon has an underwater camera and we (mostly him) shot some footage of the fishes, and us jumping off the pier. I’ve slapped them together with a track you might recognise that they played a lot at the Sunset Bar… Enjoy!

Photos from Gibbons underwater camera, lots of my favourite fish - Clown Fish, or Nemo as most of you will know him as:

A collection of photos of the fun we had on Tioman, in a random order because they are from loads of different cameras:

So after a couple of days in the city I already felt like escaping to one of Malaysia’s many glorious beaches. The two girls I met in KL were planning to go to the Perhentian islands, so I tagged along and also two guys from the hostel were heading the same way so they joined us to make 5.

After a long night bus journey, long wait at Kuala Besut and an exciting speed boat ride, we arrived little before midday. In the morning sun the Islands were beautiful, and we were all eager to get in the amazing sea. We settled for Kecil which is the smaller island where all the backpackers hang out away from all the tourists and package holiday makers. A Long white fine sandy beach with water as clear as the blue sky and then straight into dense jungle. The beach is lined with little bars, restaurants, guest houses and dive shops. Very cheap to stay, food is kind of pricy but still affordable, and the usual Malaysia highly taxed alcohol prices.

Three days of relaxing on the beach, swimming in the sea, drinking, building amazing sand castles and making friends. Ronald is fascinated by fish, and he introduced me to snorkelling.  We were staying in tiny wooden shacks with nothing but a foam mattress and a mosquito net. No electricity and an insignificant little fan that they turned on from 7 until 7.

We had a fantastic time on Kecil relaxing by day and drinking by night, the photos can tell the story for me. After a few days we head south to Pulau Tioman, another tropical island. The whole place is duty free so beer is affordable, this isn’t the only reason we chose this island… I promise!
Tioman is also stunningly beautiful, but in its own way. Again it’s a dense jungle down to the beach. We are in Air Batang, which is again the main backpacker stretch. The sea here is rich of corral and tropical fish. I’ve been spending hour’s snorkelling far off the coast, free diving to over 5 meters exploring the amazing world of vibrant sea life. I’ve already managed to brush a sea urchin, luckily not a lethal dose but it’s been a bit crazy, and also crashed into some sharp rocks cutting up the sole of my foot and my leg pretty bad! When not underwater I’ve been laying in the hammocks along the palm tree lined beach reading and relaxing. I have totally switched off here; my mind is free of thought and totally mellow. I don’t remember the last time I felt this relaxed, at least two years.

My plan was to follow the girls on to Singapore this morning, spend two days there with them and then go back to KL to meet my brother Simon who is flying in on Tuesday evening. But yesterday I changed my mind. I don’t want to leave, and I’m staying here with Ronald and Liam probably until Sunday before going back to KL. We have also met a couple from Australia and New Zealand, and a few other people too, so we will be spending our time relaxing together and enjoying the happy hour beers while watching the most amazing colourful sunsets on the horizon and tropical storms in the distance at night.

So I’m now sat just off the beach, with glass of freshly squeezed mango juice slowly typing listening to Air Pocket Symphony. The girls left early this morning and I vaguely remember them packing their bags around me while I slept, but when they came back to the room to say goodbye it was locked and they couldn’t wake me to say good bye. I had an absolutely fantastic time with you girls, really your two of the friendliest exciting people I’ve met while travelling and I cannot imagine anyone better I could have spent the last week with. Moley I look forward to catching up on Hayling beach in August, and Kitty Kat I’m sure one day I’ll see you again, until then I wish you the best of luck settling down into the real world in Australia, and don’t forget if you need any help, advice, or just a chat about starting your business, or even just to catch up, give me a call!
Check out the pictures from Perhentian Kecil:

On the way to Puala Tioman we passed through Kota Bharu where there was a fantastic little food market:

Finally I shot this awesome sunset time-lapse:

Ill upload pictures of  Tioman from KL next week!

Kuala Lumpur is a nice easy city for backpackers. It’s a very multi cultural city with lots of Chinese and Indians. There is a Little-India, and a Chinatown, and its around those areas where all the cheap accommodation and food is found. Street food is generally Muslim run, serving typical Malay rice dishes, curries and some noodles, averaging at 3.5RM. Chinatown is lined with Chinese eateries, a little more expensive, but often good food, and as they are not Muslim these are the best and cheapest places for beer. It’s not that cheap however, meals averaging at about 9RM and a big bottle of Tiger beer for a whopping 14RM. That’s of course down to the hefty tax on alcohol being an Islamic country. The other common area for travellers is towards the Golden Triangle. Here the accommodation is cleaner, more modern, but of course more expensive, and also all the main bars and clubs are here. But the prices are really astronomical, its where you typically find all the British gap year students who have come through Thailand on Daddy’s credit card.

I stayed in a little hostel called La Village. An interesting place, in a fantastic old building full of all sorts of curious decorations that travellers have left along their way. Loads of communal areas, including a fantastic roof where we spent one night drinking and chatting into the early hours with a fantastic diverse group of people all with their own stories, including a professional smuggler and a woman who ran away on her sister’s passport. I met a Dutch guy, Rik, who was on the same plane from Shanghai, we spent a couple of days hanging around and exploring the city.

Walking through the streets of KL is interesting. Little-India and Chinatown are hustle bustle, lots going on and smells and sights to tickle your senses. The sellers and stalls are not particularly aggressive with their selling style like you find elsewhere in Asia, so it would be quite comfortable for a less experienced traveller to wander around. Once you move out of this area its more modern Malaysian, just an average city, with general businesses and big buildings dotted around, including the Petronas Towers of course. It’s nice and easy to get around with the mix of trains, metro lines, mono rail and busses, all very cheap and efficient.

On the second night we met Helen and Kat in a bar on top of another hostel. After listing to their slightly awkward conversation with an American who was losing his marbles about UFOs and execution camps in Thailand, I jumped in to promptly change the subject! Kat is Australian, but been living in England for 10 years, and Helen is English, both from Hayling Island! We spent the next day with them exploring more of KL, and of course hit the Vodka in the evening! Rik soon had to leave to meet some friends in the Taman Negara region, but i hope to meet up with him again later perhaps for some Indonesia.

KL doesn’t have many sights, the towers, a couple of mosques, and a cave on the outskirts which is really just a waste of time. But it’s a nice city to explore for a few days. The heat is sweltering, by day you’re permanently wet from sweat, and at night it can be difficult to sleep unless you want to pay 30RM for the air con dorm outside of Chinatown. Certainly worth a visit if you are nearby, and anyone travelling around this part of the world is going to pass by, Air-Asia operate all its stupendously cheap flights from here, so you’re bound to pop by once or twice!

Check out the photos here.

Im now sat on a beautiful beach with Kat and Helen, and also Ronald (Dutch) and Liam (Irish). Its been a very lazy few days and we are moving on tomorrow, to another lazy Island! Will write more soon

Well here i am again, sat in the Mingtown hostel in Shanghai, at the foot of the stunning Marriot hotel towering up above me into the smog, typing another travel blog.

But this time its different in so many ways.

Firstly you will notice the page is a lot simpler than last time, no customised banner with photos from my adventures, and few additions to the default WordPress blog. This boils down to simply running out of time. I was really not prepared before i left this time. Anyone from home in Staffs knows I’ve been working myself to the bone right up until the moment I left, and I’ve even been doing a little work from here! When i booked this trip i seriously underestimated how well Totem Films would be doing by this summer. Ive come away leaving Graham, Tom and Damian with a packed whiteboard full of jobs which has grown since, and to make it even harder for them, Damian is of course off to China in July too! So one hung over afternoon on Jon’s sofa after the ball and still in my tux, I gave him, the WordPress master, the task of setting up this page for me so i just needed to theme it and start writing. Thank you Jon! Now he has gone back to writing his own blog The Adventures of Scribbleboy, which everyone should read, and his endless search for a job!

Next, im not actually travelling in China again, not yet anyway! I’m just here for a few days on route to further South East Asia, first stop Kuala Lumpor. It was cheaper to fly this route, and im still planning to come back to this amazing country at the end of the trip.

Also this time I don’t plan to write nearly as much detail as I have in previous years. I have used my blogs as more of a diary for me, which has been fantastic to read back, as without it I would have long forgotten so many things. However I never finish them due to lack of time, and also the posts are often seriously long, so only close friends and family, and of course other travellers would really read it. This time I’m going to write about just the things which stand out to me here, things i want to remember, perhaps people ive met, some things ive seen, whatever i feel like telling everyone about, and what i will enjoy reading back to myself in the future. So dont worry, this post will alsmost certainly be the longest, until maybe something so amazing happens I just have to write so much to describe it!

Another difference, is im travelling alone for the first time. Before you say “wont that be lonely”, really not, in fact you meet so many more people, and you are never ever alone.

The final difference, I plan for this blog to be more than just a travel blog. Travelling is a good way to get started, and i plan to keep it updated from time to time after a return with whats going on in my life. Hence its not simply called “Andrew’s Travel Blog” again, but “Work Hard Play Hard”.

So why “Work Hard Play Hard”…?
A few weeks ago, a Chinese girl living in Yunnan Province who I occasionally talk to asked me “how do you do so many amazing things in your life”?!
She was referring to what she saw on my facebook page, she watches me out dancing with friends, then the next day filming in Scotland, then Bath, then back in the office, then talking about travel plans… Compared to how she lives, working and studying long hours, and not having the opportunities we have in the west, what i do is amazing. I did my best to explain to her that i work very hard, and then make sure i find the time to do other things, take full advantage of the opportunities that perhaps we take for granted some times, or maybe don’t even notice. I explained to her that i live with the attitude “Work Hard Play Hard”, a common English phrase. I liked it, it almost perfectly describes me and how i live my life. So Ive chosen to use that as the title for my blog. Maybe it will change some time, but what does it matter, its only a name after all!

So that’s my introduction done. What did I get up to in Shanghai…

Good times! 30 seconds after I walked back into Mingtown, I met a couple from Manchester, great people on a two week trip. I also met up with Sushin, a quite poor Chinese guy making a living in Shanghai I met last year who also speaks Japanese and English, always a pleasure to talk to. Also of course, partying. Audrey, soo good to see her again, and Damaris, danced with her until 6am, and met some more of their friends. Real Chinese food, wandered around the amazing city… A perfect few days to acclimatise, and get back into the travelling backpacking mode, ready for whats to come. A few pictures on facebook, check them out here!

I have a long day of travelling starting early tomorrow morning, final destination, KL. I’m so excited!