fter a very brief stint back in Delhi, only because we couldn't get on a flight to Bangkok the same day as our Kathmandu-Delhi flight, we headed on to Thailand. My goodness, I never noticed how clean and orderly that country is. Imagine if I had returned to Canada or Australia right from India - I would have been gob-smacked for days. As it was, I spent the first day wandering around open-mouthed and enjoying the peace and quiet. We even went to McDonalds - hmmm, little burgers for the first time in 6 months! - and everyone did exactly what they should. No one cut in. No one let their children make a horrible mess and scream and shout. No one left their stuff behind on the table (and floor, and chairs...). It just all worked. Ah, amazing.We have spent most of the two weeks post-India not doing much at all. In Bangkok we walked around, shopped a little, both got haircuts (mine is very short now and a nice change). We flew from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and did the same - walked and shopped (though didn't get much as that city is expensive!).
About a week ago we flew into Kota Kinabalu (KK) and onwards to the dive resort of Layang Layang. The diving there was fabulous! We saw a whole school of hammerhead sharks (!!), a huge turtle, some nice reef sharks, some enormous tuna, a few excellent lionfish, as well as all the usual suspects who hang around on the reef. Housekeeping staff provided a new towel animal everyday, much to our delight.
The downside was that the resort was a bit of a dump, the
dive groups were twice as big as they should have been (11-12 people), and simple things like mask de-fogger were missing. All in all, glad we went, won't be going again.
dive groups were twice as big as they should have been (11-12 people), and simple things like mask de-fogger were missing. All in all, glad we went, won't be going again. I should also mention that Phil fell through a step (the wood had rotten away) about 15 mins before our last dive, just as we were heading out to get suited up, and got a nasty gash on his leg which meant we didn't go out diving. Not to worry! We got Phil all pumped full of tetnus shot goodness when we arrived back in KK yesterday and even fanagled some free t-shirts from the resort. Except for some soreness (which seems to be a 50/50 split between his gash and where he got his injection!) and a cool scar-to-be he's doing well and in very good spirits.
The upcoming plan is roughtly this: we are heading to Kuching for a few days (national park, museums), then onto Melaka (near KL). From there we will head North back to Thailand for a few weeks of loafing in the sun at Krabi and Ko Phi Phi (maybe Phuket as well?), then back to Bangkok where we are hoping to take a quick hop over to Hong Kong to see some friends of Phil's, then back to Australia for early June. This is all very likely to change.
Sorry for not keeping the blog up well lately! We'll try to update more often. Now, we're off to eat satay!
