Krabi town and my last days in asia

So in a surprisingly fast period my time in asia is coming to an end.
i have had a fantastic time and met some wonderful people. i am writing this update from Suzies hostel in chinatown Kuala Lumpur. metres across the road from my first hostel where this whole journey began, its nice to be moving onto the next leg of my journey from a familiar place. almost like i have come full circle in my asian journey
My last week was spent in Krabi town on the west coast of thailand, I arrived here just after i left Saumi island and luck was on my side, As our ferry left the island the torrential rains began, and two days later the population of samui had to be evacuated by the Thai Navy!! I have never seen rain so heavy last for so long, flash flooding and rivers bursting their banks all over thailand, 38 emergency zones were declared and we felt extremely lucky in krabi being based on a hilltop!!
During my time in krabi i stayed in the Pak-up hostel, certainly one of the nicest places i have stayed in thailand, I got on very well with james the manager and all of the staff there. I rented a bike the next day and drove around krabi and the surrounding area, one of the nicest places i saw was Tiger Cave Temple, it is a massive buddist temple with some very nice scenery and a jungle trek to see some of the caves. However the greatest part of the temple is a 1237 step climb to the top of the mountain where there is a statue of budda and a 360 degree view from 600 metres above sea level!











Krabi town itself is a very nice quiet place with a friendly local population. I stayed here for 6 days as we were basically trapped by the torrential rains,
Busses and trains were cancelled in places and leaving the hostel was the same as taking a shower. thankfully the hostel had great facilities ranging from tv, internet, restaraunt, and a great common area at the back.

In the town there was a great food market with a wide variety of thai treats,




After my week in Krabi i got a bus ticket to kuala lumpur,
Now upon booking this ticket i assumed i would be taking a direct bus journey from krabi to malaysia. However in thailand nothing works like that, so after 3 pointless stops, and then 5 hours in a cramped minibus with an entertainingly irate driver we were dumped in Hat yai city, I wandered around for a while with Phil and Dom two diving instructors on their way to KL, we were all reasonably sick of travelling this way with cramped bumpy vans and cranky drivers, but all of our complaints were quelled when we saw the "fancy" bus we were going to spend 7 hours on. it was luxury compared to anything we had seen in thailand so far. So equipped with charged mp3 players, junk food, and three reclining seats on the top deck in the very front we cruised to our destination, the only delay being the border checks at the malaysian border, which although boring and time consuming went off without event.

So now i am just relaxing in my hostel writing emails and drinking coffee, taking it easy before my flight at 9am, arrive at the airport at 6am, Until then i will sign off and hopefully i will update again in the next week once i have found my feet in the land of oz.

And i leave you once again with another random selection of photographs

Food Market


From the top of the tiger cave mountain


Dragon guards to the temple


All geared up to bike around the area again


A golden budda statue

IM LEAVING

Yes I have actually unearthed an old blog of mine,
I have chosen this one as its a glimpse at the old me and hopefully future posts will portray someone a bit different

So yes back to the issue at hand, I'm leaving, I know its all a bit sudden. even I'm a bit shocked still to be honest.
really it all kind of snowballed last week when I was coming home from work, I got into a conversation with a work colleague who had just bought a beautiful new dog, I was thinking to myself how much I would love to get my very own furry sidekick. I grew up with dogs and always make friends when I meet a dog, they’re much easier than people.
So as I day-dreamt about what dog i would buy and how could I make a reasonable case for buying a st Bernard or some such other huge canine, it struck me that were I to leave the country I couldn't plan on taking a dog with me around the world. Coincidentally that same week I had seen some old friends on facebook posting about their plans to travel to various countries around the world, and so here I stand. Basically all at once I realised that if I were to actually follow my dream and travel the world then what better time than right now?
So after drafting a few preliminary ideas about where i would go I have settled upon this plan. I am to travel to Australia where i have acquired a 1 year working visa, but first... I fly into Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, where I have 6 weeks to travel to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and perhaps even Vietnam.
Wherever I go during this time I must return to KL in order to fly out on the 3rd of April to Sydney Australia! Yes I am going on my own, and yes it could be the best... or worst decision I have ever made. Either way I think it will be exactly what I have been looking for. I don't want to go partying and could care less about the full moon party and other such festivals, the journey I intend on following is not exactly a spiritual one but certainly a foray into the realm of personal development and realisation of true personal values.
The heat is going to be difficult, along with the strange new cultures and interesting food, but I look forward to it all with a tingling excitement.
After deciding upon this route I looked into the actual processes of leaving the country and all of the relevant steps one has to take. Little did I know of the plethora of paperwork required in order to travel the world.
Travel insurance as well as cancelling current car insurance
Australian working visa and Thai 60 day visa
Flights from Shannon - London -Kuala Lumpur - Sydney
Accommodation in Kuala Lumpur for the first 6 days
Vaccinations for a range of daunting diseases
Written notice to quit my full time job at Star Systems
Setting up online banking, and applying for a credit card
Selling everything including my car which requires a lot of expensive advertising
Re-writing my CV which at this stage is 5 years out of date
and et cetera et cetera....
So that’s everything for now, I am now in the process of doing everything it takes to remove myself from my comfortable nest here and prepare for an undefined detour of unknown proportions.
Wish me luck! Also if anyone thinks of anything they want to buy from me I am selling everything!!!