From Zurich we drove north, back into Germany (land of the free motorway) and up to Strasbourg where we crossed back into France (land of the very expensive motorway) heading for the Verdun area via Metz. We knew nothing of Metz and don’t know a great deal now but it turned out to be a beautiful city, albeit a very different part of France from the West and South in every respect.
Next destination was Verdun and then onto the Somme for a few days of WW1 history. There are cemeteries and memorials all over this part of France and all are both fascinating and moving. It’s not quite right to say we enjoyed some of the sites for obvious reasons but were definitely worth visiting. In particular the memorial to the missing soldiers of WW1 at Thiepval, the Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge and the Tynecot Commonwealth Cemetery were exceptionally well done and more than fitting.
To round off the military history and to pass a little time before our ferry back to the UK we crossed into Belgium and visited Ypres. Here, as well as watching the Last Post ceremony which takes place every evening at the Menin Bridge (and has done since the 1920’s), we met a Northern Irish retired Maze prison officer by the name of George Best. George was travelling alone in his van having left his estranged wife who is now his girlfriend at home in Belfast and according to his business card is an Independent Christian Minister. You can’t make this stuff up.
The last couple of days of our European trip were spent in a very wet Ostend. We are not sure there is a great deal to do in Ostend when the weather is fine, never mind when it’s pouring with rain. The temperature in the van at night was starting to get a little on the chilly side as autumn set in....
Once back in Blighty we had a whirlwind tour of the country visiting family and friends, a week in Cornwall, the next in Buckinghamshire and a week in Scotland. There is no particular reason for this of Sarah, Sara and Danny....
At this point we said goodbye to the van and swapped it for a couple of rucksacks, the Lonely Planet guide to South East Asia and two round the world tickets.
We flew into Singapore as a gentle introduction to South East Asia. It is spotlessly clean (some might say sterile) and so westernised there was no real culture shock. We also had the luxury of staying at the home of Ross and Grace whilst there for which we were exceptionally grateful when the jetlag kicked in a full 45 minutes after going to bed...Shopping appears to be the national pastime in Singapore and it seems everyone is trying to sell you something. As annoying as touts can be the sight of my knobbly knees in Chinatown did prompt an offer of ‘longer trousers for a shorter price’, which we liked very much.
Heading north once more we took the overnight train to Kuala Lumpur sharing our carriage with Zula, a Mongolian chef and George, a Singaporean now living in KL. Both were kind enough to point us in the right direction for our hostel, five floors of rooms made out of office partitions above a doctor’s surgery on the edge of Chinatown. Kuala Lumpur was a bit of an assault on the senses after clean and tidy Singapore. KL is neither clean nor tidy, the air is so thick and polluted it’s more chewed than breathed, and by law all vehicles must run without silencers. I may have made that last bit up but it seems like that. All good fun nonetheless and our first proper bit of backpacking...this is Sarah negotiating Malaysian immigration....
Obviously we made it onto the train...
We felt we only needed a couple of days in KL so had already planned to head north-east to the Cameron Highlands, where the temperatures are a little cooler and everything is a little slower and quieter. We did think a four mile trek through the jungle would be relatively easy after our hikes in the Alps and Pyrenees. Needless to say we got that extremely wrong, largely on account of the heat, humidity and mud....
We thought we had done quite well when we stopped half way round, only to meet a Canadian by the name of John who sauntered out of the jungle wearing flip-flops, carrying an umbrella and without breaking a sweat. It turns out he is something of an old hand..... Our hostel here was a set of old Nissen huts from the 1950s which had previously been a British military hospital.
Onwards once more to Penang on the north-west coast of Malaysia. It has now started to come as no surprise that backpackers hostels are not necessarily the most modern of places. The Western Oriental Guesthouse in Penang has a somewhat faded glory but a certain charm about it, including the outdoor rooftop bathroom. It has also started to come as no surprise when some of the faces from the previous hostel turn up in this one. We met up with Mandy (German), Oli (French) and Ari (French-Canadian) on the ferry across to Georgetown from Butterworth and shared evenings and days with them on Penang. Canadian John also popped up in the street outside our accommodation...he was an old hand at Penang as well......
After a few days we took a total of three buses and two ferries to cross into Thailand and reach the island of Ko Lanta on the west coast. We did like this bit of packing...
Here home was a wooden bamboo-thatched cottage a few yards from the beach...
and where we spent the best part of a week doing very little of anything except looking at things like this.....
and this..
We did hire a motorbike for a couple of days. ‘Motorbike’ may be a slight exaggeration,
but it did get us around the island....just. It wasn’t really made for the dirt roads, struggled to get up hills with both of us on it, the lights didn’t really work so it wasn’t great at night and starting it was something of a gamble. Rather embarrassingly a very nice young lady in uniform from the opticians in the main town had to come help me start it after lunch one day....there was quite obviously some Thai knack to it they didn’t tell me about or there was something wrong with it that she secretly fixed...definitely wasn’t my fault.....Still, it only cost three quid a day....
We’re Bangkok-bound on the sleeper train in the next day or so although heading straight out of the city west for Kanchanaburi or north to Ayuthaya, depending on where our mood takes us....
