Malaysia, Singapore + Indonesia

Now we have traveled all the way to Indonesia, and we're actually about to leave to go to Australia. This is our last day in Asia! We'll miss the lovely islands, the prices and the food, but we'll be glad to get away from the litter and the horrible toilets.. Anyway, here's a few pictures from the latest bit of our journey.

Taxi boats! On Koh Phi Phi, Thailand









Traveling by public transport, south Thailand











On the border to Malaysia








The Perhentian Islands, which we fell completely in love with! We ended up staying almost two weeks on Pulau Perhentian Kecil, "Little Perhentian Island"






Relaxed beach atmosphere..








Our favourite restaurant!











Our bungalow owner's son playing in the sand











Looking sexy in this beautiful dive outfit. We took our PADI Open Water Dive course on the Perhentians. We also did a Deep Dive, meaning we can dive down to 30 meters anywhere in the world! While diving we saw sharks, a turtle, stingrays, Nemos and loads of aquarium fish!









Haakon and the moon..







Shopping in Kuala Lumpur!












Haakon and the Petronas Towers. for more pictures from KL, use this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2488&l=74eb6&id=501543997


After KL, we stopped in Melaka. Liv Grete in front of a Muslim tower in Chinatown. strange combination..










Singapore was expensive and busy and we didn't really like it much. so we went to Sentosa Island, which is "fake" meaning the Singaporeans built it.. picture taken from the Skytrain leaving the island.





We landed in Bali and went to popular Kuta beach (yes, the one with the bombings). it's CROWDED..! Haakon tried surfing and while Liv Grete waited on the beach loads of asian tourists came over and asked to have their photo taken with her..! they probably dont have time to make real friends so they photograph strangers instead so that it looks like they made friends.



On our way to Lombok. The ferry takes 5 hours..!! and only has wooden seats..








And so we started our climing adventure on Gunung Rinjani, the second highest volcano in Indonesia! We had two porters and one guide who made all our food and carried all our stuff. They only wore flip-flops, carried 30 kilos on their shoulders and still they we struggled to keep up with them! We took a 2 night/3 days trip and walked from before sunrise till after sunset every day... the guide wondered why Liv Grete was so slow on the way down, and Haakon explained: her leg muscles are broken...!



We reached the top! Well, almost that is, when we finally got up it was freezing and extremely windy plus there were clouds/fog all around. So we had to stop when we were an hour from the top (but only a couple hundred meters!). Still, it was so beautiful and definately worth it!





After exhausting ourselves on the volcano, we went to the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok, and just relaxed and ate loads :)






View from the top of Gili Trawangan, the last island we were on.








So now we're back in Kuta with all the Swedes, there seemes to be thousands of them! Anyway, now we're going shopping for our last bargains before we go back to expensive-land :)

Living a life of luxury in Thailand

Liv Gretes birthday celebration in Bangkok!

Liv Grete on the rooftop restaurant Sirocco (63rd floor) at the second largest building in Bangkok. Expensive? naah.

The meal was a surprise birthday present but was delayed for 2 days because of heavy rain- luckily it stopped. nLiv Grete had also just finished an antibiotics cure and had not been allowed fruits, milk shakes, ice cream or alcohol for a while, so she was spoilt a little.. :)

At the bar

Picture off the internet, as we were not allowed to take photos outside the restaurant/bar.

Bellissimo! What a view.

The two of us and a beautiful view in the background, you just cant see it, but its not the photographer's fault!

At the moment we're on Koh Pha-ngan, the little island in Thailand famous for its Full Moon Party. Tehy also throw parties like half moon, black moon, day-before-full moon, day-after- full moon, and Shiva moon parties to name a few.. Basically there's a party every day if you just look around a bit. But we're not here for the parties, just taking it easy and relaxing, have also rented a motorbike to scoot around and managed to get caught in a crazy monsoon-style thunderstorm while being slightly lost.. found our way back in the end but looked like drowned cats.

Back to backpacker life on the boat.. Haakon is tired after a long night on the bus.

And the luxury begins again! This is from our balcony outside our bungalow.

View from our bungalow!

Aaahh... we love Thailand :)

98 mosquito bites and Cambodia

We are now in Bangkok, also known as Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit..

After Laos we tried to race down the coast because of the expiry date on our Vietnam visa. This didnt work out, as in Mui Ne Haakon found out he just had to learn how to kite surf, and joined a 2-day course. the second day the wind stopped blowing so we hung around for a couple of days before we decided it was time to claim the money back and leave.. We only spent one day in Saigon, it was like the essence of Vietnam: way too touristy, hence also expensive, very noisy and lots of annoying people. Tuk-tuk (3-wheel motorcycle taxi) drivers must be the most unintelligent people on earth. Even if a tuk tuk driver sees you turn down 20 other drivers, he just has to ask! We don't get it.

Anyway, the coast of Vietnam was beautiful, perfect beaches all around, and quite cheap, we've become luxury slaves after being able to afford hotels with swimming pools and massages and manicures.. The food was really good and the people much more relaxed than in the bigger cities! Generally recommended in other words.

So here's our little summary in pictures:

In Hue: Cycling around was great!








Queen of the castle!








This is from Hoi An, possibly the most beautiful town we have seen. Reminded us of Venice actually, with the canals, boats and pretty houses.








There was also a beautiful beach..


















Lonely cow on island wants to get back to the other cows!







Oh how wonderful it is to be a millionaire! But dont get too exited, 100 000 Vietnamese Dong is only worth 50 NOK. Thats why we loved the Dong :)






In Mui Ne: The funny diving guy who gave Liv Grete all his shells while she was walking around waiting for Haakon who did his kite surfing course.






The only fun we had in Saigon was this ice castle in a fun park, almost like coming home! The park was really spooky though, as we came after dark and there were hardly any lights!







And so the journey goes to Cambodia..

Typical bus ride in South East Asia 1: nobody told you that the day you were going to Cambodia happened to be the last day of the Cambodian New Year, and that half the country's population is going back to Phnom Penh from their holiday and that you have to take a ferry to get there.. We waited for 6 hours at the ferry pier



Getting bored and starved and buying funny fruits from the fruit ladies











From the Killing Fields outside Phnom Penh, not a very nice place. Lots of people were killed here in the 70s during the Pol Pot regime. These are bones and clothes of the victims, every time it rains new pieces are washed out of the grounds, there's such a lot of it that they can't control it! Apparently Liv Grete looked very shocked and moved and was therefore interviewed by Canadian journalists, doubt that the documentary will be shown on Norwegian TV but still..



Angkor What?! Haakon isn't quite awake yet









We just about managed to catch a glimpse of it through the hords of Japanese!







Climbing the steep steps to the top of the Wat








The view from the top











On the top











We thought Angkor Wat was only Angkor Wat, but it isnt! There's loads of Wats all around, and some of the other temples were even more fascinating than Angkor Wat itself, and they were practically abandoned! This one Haakon had to himself..




Bayon, probably the coolest temple with all the Buddha and Jayavarman VII (we think) heads







Crazy silver-coloured Lord of the Rings - trees were growing on top of the temples, its just surreal. These were our favourites..































This little girl persuaded us to buy a bracelet AND to take a photo of her. They are so stubborn these little children, and there are loads of them everywhere in Siem Reap and around the temples.
Typical conversation:
-Hello Siiir, buy bracelet from meeee?
-No thank you.
-Where you from?
-Norway.
-Aah, I know capital Oslo. And I can speak German, ein, zvei, drei, vier, funf
-He he. You know a lot!
-Yes siiiir, and I like your hair! Look at my bracelet?
-OK I can have a look..
and then you end up buying one.

But they are better than the children who beg. They have these horrible monotonous, drawling voices, and they just go: "Heeeeeeelloooooo maaaaaadaaaaam..... Ooooonee daaaallaaaaaaah..."

New hairdo

Typical South East Asia bus ride 2: the travel agency told you you had to change buses once. The third time you change bus (and youre 5 hours late) suddenly it starts raining and thundering, and you try to keep dry near the middle of the little roof they placed you underneath. then it turns out that this roof is constructed so that all the water falls down the middle, which is just where you and the 50 others waiting thought keeping your luggage was a good idea.

Conclusion on Cambodia: we will have to come back another time as we did do a speed-tourist-kind of- race through the country, we have heard and really believe that its better outside the tourist centres of Siem Reap (where the temples of Angkor are)and Phnom Penh. But it was so hot and so humid, it was almost like swimming, one step outside of your air-conditioned room and you're soaked.. Oh, and the mosquitoes.. Liv Grete felt really unwell and went to bed early, spraying herself with 2 different types of mosquito repellent. And woke up with, yes, 98 mosquito bites!! These are not normal mosquitoes, they must be some kind of mutants that are resistant to all mosquito repellants!

On the bus to Thailand: Funny German who speaks fluent Norwegian and eats fried grasshoppers, also known as Cambodian snacks...

Today we went to the weekend market, which must be one of the (if not the) largest markets in the world, its got 15 000 stalls! If we left one stall we weren't able to find it again, it was just unbelievably enormous.. and so cheap! might be going there again.. :)

On Khao San, the famous little street which is really just like the rest of Bangkok, only there's a higher density of shops and pubs and everything else..

Perfect end of the day with a blueberry smoothie :)