Malaysia WOW WOW WOW

He he he, well I guess that was the best way to describe my last day in Melaka (or Malacca). I really really liked that town so much, every day I would discover a different street and all of them were so charming. But the big 3 wows were for the strangest Hindu celebration I witnessed that morning. I suddently felt I was back in India again, lots and lots and lots of Indian people, Indian food, loud Indian music, and they all were wearing their most beautiful costumes, of course all the ladies looked like princesses and I felt so shabby on my tracksuit pants... Anyway, the celebrations started and I was shocked to see men with spears all over their bodies, in their cheeks, tongues, lips, in their backs they had lots of hooks and some men had little pots of milk hanging from those hooks, others were carrying something very heavy on their shoulders with lots of peacock feathers and many strings that were attached to their bodies through dozens (maybe hundreds!) of piercings. That sounds quite gruesome but actually there was not so much blood involved, and there was the music accompanying these men and it was like a fiesta, everybody seem quite happy, everybody except the little babies I saw who were crying so much because they were shaving their heads... Ah! and another good thing... Free food! yoohooo: 3 different kinds of curries with rice and a drink made of cucumber and yoghourt and spices, tasty!
After so much "partying" there was another surprise in store (?): the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations, more delicious food, more beautiful costumes (but only wear them by the dancers), lion dancing, kung fu fighting, fireworks, etc etc
I felt a bit sad leaving the Guest House in Malacca on the way to Singapore, Malaysia had treated me very well (except for some mosquito bites in Kuala Lumpur, and some dodgy hotel rooms...).

Malaysia WOW WOW

Well, this double wow is obviously for the Petronas towers, they look huge on TV but in real life they are even bigger! Kuala Lumpur is full of high sky scrappers but also of lovely parks and dirty food stalls, hehe. I did enjoy my time there, I even got to see the end of the Tour of Langwaki, a very famous bicycle race in Malaysia andI also went to a free concert in Merdeka square. That last one was a bit funny because there were not so many people watching the concert, every one was sitting down on the grass and nobody was applauding, a very different reaction compared to the Spanish audience, where everybody would be dancing and cheering...
Estoy escribiendo desde Bali y me he retrasado una miqueta con el diario, estoy viendo tantas cosas, tantos paises, paisajes y gentes diferentes en tan poco tiempo que necesito digerirlo primero antes de escribir nada.
Malasia es un pais que me ha sorprendido muy gratamente. La verdad es que no estaba en mis planes visitarlo pero conoci a un aleman en Camboya que me hablo muy bien del pais y como estaba de camino hacia Singapur pues me anime. Desde el mismo dia de mi llegada me gusto muchisimo. Hay un poupourri de culturas increible: chinos, malayos, indios,... En algunas ciudades, como en Malacca, se nota ademas la influencia portuguesa, holandesa y britanica, ya que esa ciudad habia sido colonia de esos paises. Pasear por las calles de Georgetown (Penang) y Malacca es una delicia por la arquitectura tan bella y se ven ciudades muy limpias. Cameron Highlands es como estar en la campina inglesa con plantaciones de te y mansiones de estilo Tudor y ademas hacia fresco. En Kuala Kangsar vi la mezquita mas grande de Malasia y seguro que tambien era la mas bonita porque parecia sacada de un cuento de las Mil y una noches. Y Kuala Lumpur, la capital, que decir! pues una capital muy moderna con uno de los rascacielos mas altos del mundo, pero tambien con unos parques muy bien cuidados y limpios y llenos de fauna y flora exotica, pues una de las cosas que mas me asombro de Malasia es la cantidad de jungla, de arboles inmensos e insectos y flores que nunca antes habia visto.

Malaysia... wow!

I have already visited four places in this country: Penang, Kuala Kangsar, Cameron Highlands and now I am in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and I must say that I have been positively impressed by all of them.
Georgetown (Penang Island) was incredible, what an amazing city, from the ferry it looked so modern with lots of high buildings, so I thought I was going to be disappointed... totally the opposite! There is an amazing buzz over there, lots of people from different backgrounds: Chinese, Indians, Malays and they all seem to get on very well together. There are so many Chinese temples, and Hindu temples and mosques, sometimes next to each other. The houses are beautiful and I couldn't stop taking pictures of pretty streets of Chinese shops. It is also a very clean city with a good transport system, so you can take a local bus and in less than one hour so can be in a deserted beach or in the middle of the jungle! In one of the bus rides I met a local fisherman who told me that now life is hard after the "disaster" (tsunami) and that on the sea there aren't as many fish as they used to be before 2005... Life is not rosy for everybody, but at least he kept smiling. People in Malaysia are really nice and helpful and everybody can speak English, which is very handy.

Kuala Kangsar. Well, that was such a surprise. Small town, not that pretty, but just keep walking 10 minutes out of town and suddenly you are in the middle of a fairy tale. That is what I call a MOSQUE, huge, white and golden, beautiful palm trees, I can't wait to download the pictures so you can have a look. And after that... a PALACE from Aladdin, and then a museum, and then the houses in the middle of a jungle-like forest, and again friendly people welcoming me to their country...
But I must say that the hotel in Kuala Kangsar was terrible and expensive, and not much choice there since there were only 2 hotels in town, and the other one was even more terrible...

3rd surprise of the trip: Cameron Highlands. After being in Aladdin's town I found myself in a Jane Austen book. That is now Malaysia! that is England! Cool weather, Tudor houses, nice trimmed gardens with pretty flowers and tea plantations with tea houses offering tea, scones and strawberry jam, I definately didn't expect that in a tropical country! Also, walking around was such a pleasure and actually it wasn't that English after all... I saw huge butterflies, strange insects and tropical flowers and primitive trees that you wouldn't dream to find in Britain.

South of Thailand (Spanish and English)

Hola, estoy escribiendo desde Malasia pero no queria olvidarme de deciros que pase unos dias muy agradables en el sur de Tailandia... aunque no fui a ninguna isla paradisiaca (para eso esta Fiji, jejeje). Desde Nakhon Pathon cogi un tren y fui sentada 15 horitas de nada hasta Nakhon Si Tammarat, una ciudad que me gusto mucho, quiza porque no habian turistas y se podia ir caminando a todas partes y daba la impresion de ser una ciudad tranquila. Aqui visite el templo mas sagrado (que raro, no?) del sur de Tailandia y la verdad es que era bonito de verdad, ni purpurinas ni mosaicos de colores y estatuas doradas (bueno, alguna si que habia... pero menos que en otros templos) y la estupa central era blanca. No se si lo explique anteriormente pero en Tailandia es normal que a partir de las 6 de la tarde a la gente le de por hacer deporte, se ve a gente corriendo y haciendo ejercicio por la calle pero sobre todo por alrededor de los templos, porque hay mas espacio, y en el parque. A veces, ejercicio lo que se llama ejercicio pues no es muy intenso, en Nakhon si Tammarat vi a un par de senoras sentandas en un banco y moviendo los brazos de arriba abajo como si en cualquier momento fueran a despegar, pero nada alli se quedaron y estoy segura que despues del esfuerzo se fueron a comer unos tallarines con corteza de cerdo*.. En fin, que ese dia yo me sentia tambien llena de energia y me uni a unas iaias que hacian aeorobics, pufffff, diez minutos dure! que cansancio, no seguia el ritmo para nada y para mas inri por alli habia un senor grabandome en video, o sea que de aqui a dos dias seguro que ha ganado en "Videos de Primera" a mi costa, no es justo!!!!!

* Si si, cortezas de cerdo! a los tailandeses les encantan y he visto paquetes, paquetorros!!! de por lo menos 20 Kg, lo mas raro es que en vez de comerselos diractamente del paquete los echan en la sopa, eh???? que asi no estan buenos!!! que estan buenos cuando crujen!!! en fin... que hi farem...

Despues de tanta excitacion cambie de ciudad y me fui a Sangkhla, que tambien me gusto mucho porque habian casas muy bonitas (la planta baja de cemento y la segunda planta de madera) y ademas habia una playa inmensa pero desierta y un puerto muy grande y como no, un templo en lo alto de la colina, que por supuesto TENIA que verlo... nunca en mi vida he visto tantos templos y siempre escaleras arriba, arghhhh, pero este valia la pena por las vistas (el templo ni me lo mire). Desde la playa se ven dos islas: una es un raton y la otra es un gato que se ahogaron, y la colina es un perro que llego a Sangkla pero se murio del cansancio y la playa de arena blanca son los pedacitos de una bola magica de cristal que llevaba el raton en la boca, blablblblba, es una historia muy larga....
No queda mas que contar de Tailandia, excepto que en el sur la comida PICA MUCHISIMO, casi me muero una noche, no sentia ni la lengua ni los labios, me lloraban los ojos, el cuello me picaba, vamos una tortura de curry y para colmo la senora me dice "... y aqui tienes la salsa de chile" what?????

POSTDATA: que ya he puesto fotos de Vietnam y algunas de Laos!!!

Well, in case anyone couldn't understand what I wrote in Spanish... I am in Malaysia now, beautiful place, but don't want to say anything yet, I'll tell you in a later post...
Small summary: South of Thailand, no islands for me, only visited 2 places on the East coast, Nakhon Si Tammarat and Sangkla and loved them. Really pretty towns and not too touristy, very relaxing, food VERY SPICY and more expensive than in the rest of Thailand. In Nakhon Si Tammarat there is the holiest temple of South of Thailand which I actually quite liked, I loved the white stupa, it looked very elegant and not so tacky like in other places where there is too much shiny stuff and gold. Also I tried my first lesson of aerobics, and didn't quite make it (everyday there is free aerobics in the public parks of every Thai city, that's good, but I am too lazy, that's bad). I was the worst aerobics girl and to top it all the guy was recording the class and I think he saw me and thought there was some material there, so I bet he and his mates are having a laugh now about the most un-coordinated person to visit the town, anyway....
Sangkla, beautiful town, beautiful houses and atmosphere, nice beach, nice people, nice food... specially for those who enjoy pain and suffering and numb tongues and lips and red faces... the hottest curry EVER! I loved Sanghkla but again I have to be in Singapore end of February so I had to say farewell to Thailand (BEST FOOD IN SE ASIA hands down!) and hello to Malaysia..

West of Bangkok

From Ayutthaya I skipped Bangkok and went to Kanchanaburi. That town's main attraction is the bridge over the river Kwai, famous because of the movie and infamous because all the thousands prisoners of war and Thai people who died building that bridge and the "railway of death" during the WW2.
In Kanchanaburi I stayed two nights sleeping in a bamboo hut on the river and visited the WW2 museum which was terribly tacky, seriously I have never seen such lack of good taste and decency. On the first floor there were black and white pictures all mixed and with no sense at all: a portrait of Napoleon next to a picture of a Mongolian riding a horse and then a Dutch prisoner in Kanchanaburi! also the titles of the portraits were all wrong, for example Napoleon was marked as Bismarck, Lincoln as George Washington, and so on... But that wasn't enough... On the second floor of the same museum there was an exhibition about... Miss Thailand!! So wrong...
The bridge was full of tourists and most of them whistling the soundtrack of the movie...
So I left Kanchanaburi to Sanghklaburi and what a beautiful town I found! I thought I would never see anything like that in Thailand because this country is very modern so every single little town has its 7/11 shop (convenience store) but Sanghklaburi hasn't... hurray! It felt a bit (only a bit) like being back in Laos. The scenery was breathtaking, a massive lake and nice mountains around and the most beautiful flowers and the people so relaxed...
Of course I ended up staying there longer than previewed...but in the end I had to leave. I wanted to take a train to the south of Thailand and the train was leaving from Nakhom Pathom. When I got there I had a few hours to kill so it was my big opportunity to see... tachan tachan... the biggest stupa in Thailand, yippy!!!!!!!! In this country it seems there is a constant race to see who gets to build the biggest thing, sometimes the temples are like theme parks: the biggest sitting Buddha, the biggest laying Buddha, the holiest temple, the highest chedi,... In Sangklaburi I saw a massive laying down Buddha but it was just too funny, I don't think he would make it to the Guinness books of Records, maybe as the tackiest?
The biggest EVER stupa was surrounded by the night market, yes yes, my favorite place in every town and I celebrated it eating sweet beans, yummy!

Going South

So I hitch hiked from Mae Sai to Chiang Mai, 4 hours in the car of a very kind Thai family who dropped me at the backpackers district. Chiang Mai was OK, but I was expecting something else. It is a very big town, very modern and although there is plenty of pagodas, temples and the old wall it seemed too touristy, even the huge night market was full of cheap tacky souvenirs so I decided to take a train to Lamphun. The train ride was nice and only 5 Bat! On the train I met a group of students and one of them gave me his bracelet, so nice! I can't believe how nice Thai people are, always friendly and with a nice smile in their faces. Lamphun is like a mini Chiang Mai, it's got everything: the market, the temples, the old city wall, all of it minus the tourists, yoohoo!
From Lamphun I took a bus to Sukhothai, there aren't direct buses so I stopped first in Lampang. I arrived late in Sukhotai but I found a lovely guest house and the next morning I rented a bicycle to visit the ruins of old Sukhothai. Very impressed!! They keep the old town in very good condition, even if you are not so interested in visiting ruins is delighful just to ride around the nice gardens, the entrance of the town is 40 Bats and you can visit all the temples. Sukhothai was the old capital of Siam during the 13 and 14th century, the whole place is full of stupas and ruins of the ancient temples.
After Sukhothai I took a bus to Phitsanulok because there is a train station there. I left my backpack at the station and went to see a temple called Wat Yai, which is famous in Thailand because it helds the most beautiful sitting buddha. Well, I don't know if it was the most beautiful, but it was nice enough, all shine and gold. In front of the Buddha people were shaking a wooden cup with wooden sticks, so I did the same thing. After a bit of shaking one stick falls down and there is a number on it, so you have to ask for a piece of paper with that number and in the paper is written your fortune. And my fortune was that I would have good luck traveling south, how cool is that!! After so much excitement I decided to treat myself to a foot massage...
From Phitsanulok I took the train to Ayutthaya, which was the capital of Siam after the Sukhothai period. The train ride was great, I ate grapefruit with sugar and chili, delicious! and I made friends with a Thai guy that had an old book about Thailand in English, so I learnt many things I didn't know about the country.
Ayutthaya was nice. But a tiny disapointing. Of course, after visiting Angkor Wat Ayutthaya is a bit of a let down because the temples are khmer style and there are very ruined, also there is a fee of 30 Bat for each temple you want to visit, and the path for the bicycle is not as smooth as the one in Sukhothai, but in any case I did have an excellent time there. I bought food at the local market and I had a picnic in the old town, then I rode the bicycle around all the temples and far into the new Ayutthaya where I discovered many other ruins of temples and stupas that maybe were not so popular but still lovely.

Ja veieu que no paro!! De vegades em penso que soc en Willy Fog, pero la veritat es que no s'em fa gens pesat, m'encanta moure'm d'un lloc a un altre i quan trobo un poble especial llavors descanso. M'estic atipant de veure temples i mes temples i ruines i estupes i budes gegants, i tambe m'estic atipant literalment. Em penso que m'he engreixat uns 6 kilos ja! i m'he hagut de comprar uns pantalons nous, es que la cuina tailandesa deu ser la millor del sudest asiatic i tambe deu portar un fotimer de greix i de sucre, perque no ho entenc, em paso tot el dia caminant amunt i avall i anant amb bicicleta, pero be, no problem!
La ruta que segueixo va de nord a sud: del Triangle d'or fins a Bangkok i de Bangkok cap a l'oest.
Vaig en autobus o en tren, que es super barat i la millor manera de coneixer a la gent d'aqui. Ara estic viatjant amb un noi japones que es diu Atsushi i ja vam coincidir a Vietnam, despres a Laos i ara a Tailandia! El mateix em va passar amb una noia de Taiwan, la Nai Chi. Ens vam coneixer anant de Tailandia a Cambodja i despres quan menys m'ho esperava tornavem a coincidir: Cambodja, Vietnam i Laos, pero ella ja ha tornat cap a Taiwan...
Doncs be, despres de Mai Sae i de passar un dia a Birmania vaig anar tirant cap a Chiang Mai (gran ciutat, maca pero massa trafic, soroll i turistes), Lamphun (un poble que havia estat ciutat reial i on encara es conserven ruines de l'epoca, a mes d'un temple molt gran amb el gong de bronze mes gran del mon!!), Sukhothai (PRECIOS, sobre tot les ruines de la ciutat antiga, no pas el nou poble que no te res d'interessant...), Ayutthaya (ciutat molt moderna pero plena de temples i ruines, em va agradar pero els temples son de l'epoca d'Angkor Wat i es clar... "no hay color"...).

Golden Triangle

Sabaidee Ka my friends! (that's hello in Thai). I am back in Thailand. I have started traveling from the north, crossed the Lao border at Chiang Khonk where I spent a night in one of the nicest guest houses in my trip, Thai people are very friendly! From there I traveled north to Chiang Saen. Chaing Saen is a smallish town full of ruins, in every second corner there is an old stupa in ruins and the city still preserves the old walls of the citadel, in the evening by the Mekong river there is lots of street restaurants full of local people enjoying barbecued fish cooked inside bamboo canes, the food there was really good. On the second day I rented a bike to visit the Golden Triangle which is about 10 km from the center of town to the north. I wasn't that impressed, the scenery of course was nice and to know that 3 countries converge in there is very interesting but it was full of tourists on tours and a massive golden buddha on a boat, a bit tacky really. What I really wanted to see (and I did see) was the Hall of Opium, a new museum which tells the history of that drug. It's a new museum and I spent almost 3 hours in there, it was very very interesting.
From Chiang Saen I took the bus to Mae Sai, what a strange city! The whole place is a HUGE market selling Chinese products, I was very surprised because that city is on the border with Burma so I was expecting to find Burmese products... Anyway...On my second day I went to Burma. I know it was a hard decision for me, to go or not to go, but in the end I was glad that I did it. The same morning I arrived I met some Buddhist monks, they were very kind and shared their b'fast with me, and although I was a bit reluctant they started talking about politics, so I felt good that I went there, because they need to be heard and it is difficult for them to explain their situation when the government has cut all means of communication. The name of the town I went to is Tachileik and it is just on the border, the tourists can't go further up, no more than 5 km and the monks told me that behind the hills I could see there were some rebels hiding.
After a very interesting morning with the monks I walked around the town in the afternoon, Tachileik being very backwards compared to the Thai town just across the street. I saw there was a wedding celebration and I was nosy and looked inside the restaurant and I was just soooo surprised when they invited me to join in the meal. I wasn't prepared for that! Funnily enough just before some lady had put some "Tanaka" on my face (the yellow paint they use to protect the skin from the sun) so I was in the wedding eating steamed rice and chicken with a yellow face and probably every body was wondering who the hell was I, but seriously nobody paid any attention and the happy newly wed couple seem very glad I was there because now I am in their photo album!
That same evening I left Mae Sai to start traveling southwards. Outside town I hitch hiked because the last bus had left town and there were not buses anymore until next morning, the bus station was far from the town so I didn't want to come back again... I was very lucky and a Thai family stopped their car to take me to Chiang Mai (over 180 km) but that is another adventure outside the interesting Golden Triangle...