Feb 2006

• you'll have to Google it if you can't work it out.

17 February

Bangkok on my birthday! This was where our onward journey through Asia became slightly more tricky than the fairly easy introduction in Hong-Kong would have us believe.

Quickly overcoming a few irritations at the airport (mobile stopped working, no-one seemed willing to change travellers cheques), we hopped on an airport 'backpacker bus' heading to the infamous Khao San Road, near which our hostel was situated.

First to hit us was the heat; around 32'C at 6:30pm. It never really gets any cooler than this so aircon is a real boon. The next shock was the traffic; gangs of seemingly suicidal moped riders weave in and out of the traffic at high speed, squeezing through the narrowest gaps between buses and generally cutting up anything in their way.

On arrival we dumped our stuff at the hostel (the Thai Cozy House - very nice; we'd recommend it to anyone) and popped round the corner to the Khao San Road to find something to eat.

Wow - busy, busy, busy! Khao San is basically a huge mix of shops, restaurants, hostels, street vendors, taxis and loads and loads of backpackers. Being fairly tired after the somewhat delayed flight from Hong-Kong we perhaps didn't appreciate the full 'experience' offered by Khao San but quickly found a good restaurant to have a 'blow-out' birthday meal before heading in for the night.

Over the weekend we visited the Grand Palace; note - once again, the photos don't do it justice(!)

and also took in further exploration of our surroundings at Khao San. Something of note here is that the street vendors in Bangkok can sell you absolutely anything. Walking around, we spotted stalls selling false teeth, counterfeit driving licences, all manner of offensive weapons, clothing of every variety and just about anything else you care to name.

As our next stop was Kanchanaburi (on the River Kwai), we decided on Sunday to walk to the railway station as advanced ticket purchase had been advised. It looked fairly walkable on the map. The map lied.
A lengthy hour in the heat later we arrived at the station to be told that we needed to buy our tickets the next morning... D'OH!

We took a (thankfully cheap)taxi back.

Imagine a place where every street is like Oxford Street in London, but contains ten times as many people no matter what the time of day or night. Now add in a continuous flow of heavy traffic everywhere, a heavy dash of the Orient, and some of the ambience of Blade Runner and you've just about got Hong Kong.

To be fair, once you've got used to the jostling crowds and the russian roulette of crossing the roads it's not too bad a place to spend a short while.

We were only here for two days, and to make the most of it we crammed in as much touristy stuff as we could; thus here's the obligatory picture of the Star Ferry which we took from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island:

And of course, the famous skyline as seen from the Star Ferry at night on the way back:

A visit to the zoo and botanical gardens was a bit disappointing as most of it was shut down to prevent the spread of Avian Flu (lots of birds here), but we did take the Peak Tram up the (very) steep hill which overlooks Hong Kong and took in some exhilarating views.

The walk back down was very pleasant but the day was particularly hot and humid and so, by way of a change, we found a decent looking pub to have a few beers in.

Enough said.

The flight to Hong-Kong was long and uneventful. Rather than bore you to death, here instead is my all-time favourite Zebra piccie:

Saturday 11 Febuary - another long drive to Pretoria. We had chosen Pretoria over Jo'burg for our last two nights in South Africa as it sounded a little friendlier and secure.

Curiously, we encountered our second 'lost booking' at the hostel here, despite having already paid a deposit. This was speedily sorted out though, and we ended up with a great room.

Heading into the trendy (and studenty) Hatfield district of town to do a bit of exploring and have a drink we discovered that it was the University's Rag Week and thus huge areas were being cordoned off ahead of a night's festivities.

We hung around (in the pub) expectantly, but the procession of rag floats that our waiter had suggested would be passing by didn't materialise and so we headed off to eat instead.

On our way through South Africa we had occasionally visited a chain of steak restaurants called 'Spurs'. The food is great and (comparatively) reasonably price and so we headed there tonight. Having drunk a few beers earlier and then three cups of coffee with the meal, I needed to spend a penny. On entering the gents I was suprised to see that each of the porcelain urinals was filled to the brim with fresh ice cubes. Highly impressed by this innovative approach to lavatorial hygiene, I let loose. BIG mistake. Too late I realised that the ice cubes were probably the cruellest practical joke Spurs staff could play on their male customers. Suffice it to say that no amount of handtowels or imaginative use of the hand dryer could undo the ensuing carnage, and so I skulked back to our table appearing to have recently showered.

The next day was spent shopping around Hatfield and saying our last farewells to South Africa, and on Monday 13th February we handed back our trusty Corolla and boarded the 12-hour flight to Hong-Kong.

Leaving the Umfolozi Game Reserve we were heading firstly for Ulundi. The minor snag here was that the road had not yet been built... cue 50Km (and therefore 3 hours) of potholed, lumpy, bumpy unsurfaced road. Feeling seasick we were glad to hit the tarmac'd road to Dundee, where we stopped for a traditional South African lunch of KFC.

Our stop for the night was a highly recommended hostel at a place called Winterton, still some distance away. Mindful of its high reputation we had booked a week in advance and asked to be included for supper, and had been asked to call again on the day were arriving to confirm these arrangements. All seemed well.

On arrival we were taken aback to find that (despite confirmation)a room had not been reserved for us, and nor were they willing to provide supper for an extra two guests. We learned a lesson here - don't believe all that you read in the guidebooks. The owner rather begrudgingly gave up his room for us, and we left early the next day for the final leg of our journey to Johannesburg, via Pretoria.