Thailand

As we had been enjoying lots of sun and beaches during the last weeks, our souls were longing for some intellectual action. We headed up north to dig into Thailand's past in Ayuthaya and Sukhothai.

The first city hosted several "oh my big Buddha"-statues and temples scattered around and on its island city center, so we opted for some biking and boating.

Temple madness!

While we got into Sukhotai, we bumped into Hanna and Magy, two geschnitzelde vegetarian German teachers. We gently invited them on the back of our rented scooters and took off.
Literally riding through a Unesco World Heritage site, watching gravity warped columns and high-fiving our friend Buddha, girls on the back, camera in the right hand, melting ice cream in the left hand.... - a typical day, I'd say. The day ended with an evening which started with one tequila shot, followed by 'a few' cocktails which soon exceeded our daily budget by a factor ten.

German madness!

Things changed quickly in Chiang Mang when we agreed to get active again. We pushed our limits and decided to examine the secrets of Thai cuisine. We both got certified and look forward to impress you all when we get back in Belgium...

Thai food madness!

The two days after we had to trek into the jungle to get rid of the palm-oil-fat layers we gained. An elephant ride through rivers, sweating, trekking, rafting, campfire animation, playing football with the local Messi's and Ronaldo's...; we did all the obligatory things for a tourist in Thailand.

Jungle madness!

The group spirit was more than awesome and we met Yafa and Ines, two ever-smiling Tunesian girls who perform jungle treks in pyjamas. We decided to meet up after the trek and went out for disco-bowling. Time flies while throwing strikes, so we ended up in a closed Sin-City like shopping center.

Since it was raining outside, we started up the luna park around midnight and laughed the night away until we finally were 'friendly escorted out' by three security guys who couldn't even find a key to actually kick us out.
A tuk-tuk ride later, we were snoozing our last night in Thailand. This touristy country looked same same but was different thanks to many surprises, great moments and new friendships.

Forza Italia in Thailand

The trip in southeast Asia continues. We left Malaysia accompanied by fellow travellers Steven and Kim from Belgium (http://stevenenkim.blogspot.com/) and literally walked into Thailand. Travelling here is a mix between the struggle to find transport, the hassle to negotiate the price (you can bet we fight for every Baht!) and the adventure to explain the final destination. Luckily it's not always that difficult. We travelled quite a lot through Singapore, Malaysia and now Thailand by train. Not only are the air-conditioned wagons extremely comfortable, it supplies us some great panoramas and it is a great opportunity to meet people. (We remark that walking through the train is not advised as the doors are a swinging-open invitation to fall out).

Travelling by train: as beautiful as it is

This time we met three crazy Italian beauties, who were 'as a coincidence' travelling in the same direction. We decided to bundle our forces and share as many túk-túks as possible. We checked out their physical capacities (don't get us wrong) by taking them to the Tiger Temple neer Krabi, where they had to step up more than 1300 steps under burning sun rays. They succeeded the test and so we invited them to join us to the Ko Phi Phi island.

Traditional pose (?)

Now, Ko Phi Phi is something different. Let's say it's an island where palmtrees were waving on steep rocks, where coral-blue waves were flirting with blissful white beaches and where a guy named Leonardo Di Caprio came to smoke some big pot in the movie "The Beach". The latter automatically transformed the island in a mekka for tourists, so things changed. Palmtrees are waving next to plastic bags, coral-blue waves are filled up with empty bottles and tourists are flirting during huge parties on the beaches.

 LTR: Fran, Tiger, PIMP and Vermicelli

 The Leo effect

However, Forza Italia-Belgium booked a boat and we drifted around the nearby islands, looking for footprints of Leo. As Simona (aka miss Vermicelli), Laura (aka miss Tiger) and Fran (aka miss Heart) were responsible for some bikini action on the front of the boat, we snorkled around and gifted ourselves with another layer of tan.  [no pictures available]

Officially we didn't party, we didn't sweat and we didn't even learn new Italian bad words.
Up to you to believe us or not. Ciao!

Malaysia - even hotter than it sounds

Unfortunately the heat and humidity are not more forgiving in Malaysia than they are in Singapore. Upon arrival by aircon'd train in Kuala Lumpur however, we were kindly welcomed by Uncle Nathan and Auntie Maureen and their family. They took mercy on our souls and hosted us for a while, showing us around and letting us cool down in their pool. We were pleasantly surprised when Uncle Nathan took us to a Belgian beer bar where he showed us that also Malaysians know how to appreciate a great beer. In the meantime Auntie Maureen dared us to add diverse spices to some of the delicious meals. While Dimitri made some worthy and respectable attempts, Auntie was not ready to declare us full Malaysians just yet.

We visited some of the impressive mosques and Hindu temples and wandered through the busy market streets. One of the highlights were the amazing views from the top of the Petronas towers, the highest twin towers in the world. We had a great time, but eventually it was time to move on and we said our goodbyes to Uncle and Auntie, thanking them for the wonderful stay we had.

We made our way to Melaka, a Unesco heritage site - it soon became clear why. It boasts a rich history of colonialism and has one of the most peaceful riverbanks we have seen.

Some might consider it foolish to attempt a trek through a jungle in this strangling heat and humidity but that's exactly what we did at our next stop, the Taman Negara, or National Park of Malaysia. It's filled with deadly animals such as green vipers, panthers, tigers and... Germans. We met Michael and Linuz, two hilarious and adventurous fellows who soon became travel companions. Somewhat disorganized, they made our bus and boat wait while they overslept and realized they still needed an ATM...

Nobody keeps track of time in the jungle however and we were soon hiking through the treacherous environment, carrying along a massive amount of water. We came out of the jungle exhausted, with our clothes soaking in sweat. Despite the horrible stench, the hostel let us back in and we celebrated our trip with some well earned Tiger beers.

The Germans joined us east to the tropical Perhentian Islands, one of the most chilled out places we have been so far. Gorgeous backdrops with palm trees next to mesmerizing beaches. Dimitri dived around a shipwreck while the rest was out snorkeling and soon we had forgotten all about the harsh jungle conditions. We enjoyed milk shakes during all times of the day and invented questionable dance moves at night. Removed from all the problems of the world, but still connected to the results of the Olympics, life was mercifully easy...

From Jakarta to Singapore

The adventures in Indonesia made us anxious to travel to its capital, Jakarta. Although spat out by many for being a grey dusty megapolis, it was interesting to absorb life observing an ants nest of almost 9 million Indonesians. And, frankly, it was a cheap pit-stop on the air-road to our next destination, but shhtt!

Try to imagine; túk-túks and up-market SUV's surrounded by thousands of loud motorcycles, intersections with up to 40 lanes and - if they were present - sidewalks with deadly pits. Pour a sauce of a 30+ degrees temperature and a layer of exhaust-fog over the city and you get our first impressions of Jakarta.

But we didn't give up: Dimitri decided to check out the new TransJakarta bus system. His verdict? The system is great: the clean, air-conditioned busses speed over exclusive bus lanes while a conductor ensures that maximum passenger numbers are not exceeded and Dimitri is not (intentionally?) sitting in the woman's coupé (true story).

Graham confirmed his euro-hero status during a soccer game with locals. He was enthused enough to play on barefeet like them and was motivated enough to ignore the big blood blister forming on the sole of his foot. The locals were charmed however and we suspect that out of sympathy they let Graham score on purpose.

Although we only stayed two days we got a lot out of it. We took a badly negotiated túk-túk and discovered traffic, traffic jams and slums, went up the 'nasional monumen' for a glimpse over the city, checked out the activities at the docks in a rowing boat and played chess with the locals. We stumbled on a local flee market and impressed sales man with our bargaining skills in Indonesian. And, last but not least, we ran into the cheapest Mc Donalds ever - 3 euros for a whole menu... Actually, by then, we decided to love Jakarta!

We waved Indonesia goodbye and embraced beautiful Singapore. The ultra-clean automatic spaceship metro was just the beginning. Rich, multicultural, high-tech yet colorful, filled up with different religions and a great example how to organise traffic in the city. You just have to love it and so we did.

A lunch in a food market in Chinatown wrapped up our schedule as we both were called on-stage and had to perform some tricky dance-moves for a crowd of enthusiastic Singaporean Chinese. Next moment we were picked up by expat Monté, who dragged us in the decadent night life.

Nature lovers as we are, we were longing for some green again and so we headed to the Singapore zoo. But action lovers as we are, we were longing for some adrenaline so we headed to the rollercoasters of Universal Studios. But explorers as we are, the show must go on, and we left Singapore for our next destination: Kuala Lumpur.

100m: New World Record!