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chrischarly

700 Blog Entries
6 Trips
5148 Photos

Trips:

Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Chris and Charly Down Under
Chris and Charly's African Adventure
Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
Chris and Charly's mini trip to The States
Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/chrischarly



Buddy List

Jason Kester
Jason Kester
butchop
butchop
chris_j_knight78
chris_j_knight78



HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!!

Ko Lanta, Thailand


Chris' birthday present from the staff
Chris’ birthday! Chris had a great day today especially loving the fact that I was practically his personal slave for the day unable to say no to him today as the response would be, ‘It is my birthday though’…

Chris and I in the pool
No, I’m only joking, it was a fantastic day! We got up, had breakfast and everyone say ‘Happy Birthday’ to him and the staff gave him a decorated flower piece, which was really pretty, and a great touch.


Enjoying a nice swim

Nice handstand Chris!


Happy Chris

Blinded by the sun


Our pretty towels

Wondering how our tapas lunch could be this expensive!

Then they gave us a lift to another resort, which had a swimming pool so we chilled out there for a while before having a small tapas lunch before walking back to our place on Long Beach. It was a mission of a walk as we underestimated just how far it was, we had to climb over rocks for ½ an hour before we finally came to the beach.


Having a break midway on the rocks

Camp Chris


Chris' birthday cake

Enjoying white wine out of a tumbler with ice, nice!

At the end of the walk every part of our bodies were sweating so we jumped straight into the sea, which is in fact warm so didn’t cool us down a great deal but it helped! We then went back, showered and found some gin, tonic and wine to have with our special Surprise dinner cooked by the 3 Mum’s of the place, who sang Chris a 'Happy Birthday' for the 2nd time today...


Us about to go to dinner

Chris and I


Eating durian for dessert

Enjoying a G&T


Chris happy with all the food in front of him

Chris happily tucking into some crab

Perfect day, but unfortunately we ran out of time for Chris to have his massage, but can save that for tomorrow!



permalink written by  chrischarly on July 6, 2011 from Ko Lanta, Thailand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Back to Krabi to go to Koh Lanta

Krabi, Thailand


The ferry
Today we sadly left Railay as it was so lovely here, but we wanted to find somewhere a little less touristy but equally as nice for Chris’ birthday tomorrow, so headed to Koh Lanta. We took a long tail boat from Railay to Krabi but it dropped us off somewhere different to where we took the long tail boat a couple of days ago.

A ferry like the one we were on
As it wasn’t high tide, we had to wade through the mud and the sea, which at points I sank almost to my knees in the mud, so I was drenched by the time we walked to the edge. Not exactly ideal for the start of the journey. When we booked the transfer to Koh Lanta, the lady told us that once we got off the boat, a mini bus would be waiting for us to take us straight there.

Enjoying a nice Chang beer
This of course wasn’t the case and thinking about it, transport is never that simple, efficient, and easy in Asia! We were picked up by a mini bus, but only to take us to an office on the outskirts of Krabi.

Happy days
There we sat for 30 mins before being told we needed to get on a pickup truck to another office in town. We then waited at office number two for 1 hour before departing, this did mean Chris had time to go to buy some rolls and cheese and made lovely cheese rolls.

A frog outside our door
Eventually after the minibus left, it took about 2 hours including 2 car Ferry crossings to get to Koh Lanta and the lovely Long Beach Chalets.

Long beach on Koh Lanta
We then took a walk down to the beach about 5 minutes’ walk away and although it wasn’t as nice as Railay, we had it practically to ourselves apart from 4 other travellers walking by, so was great!


permalink written by  chrischarly on July 5, 2011 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Beautiful Thailand!

Railay, Thailand


Going for a swim
After getting in a 2am and then messing around on the computer for a while we didn’t wake up until 12.00.
We then wandered out for some brunch and then over to Phra Nang Cave beach.
The beach was amazing with warm, clear water and beautiful scenery all around.
I was completely ‘Wowed’ by the sheer beauty of this beach.
We spent the afternoon chilling then went back for a few hours before going out for some scrummy Thai food.


Cute monkeys

A monkey about to rip down the posters


The walk to the beach

So beautiful here



Perfect beach

Amazing beach!


Enjoying a swim

Lovely beach




permalink written by  chrischarly on July 3, 2011 from Railay, Thailand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Railay Firedancing

Railay, Thailand


Our longtail boat

Waiting for more passengers for Railay

Feeling quite a lot better this morning, we decided it was time to venture to Railay (or Rai Leh), an isolated beach area a boat ride away from Krabi. We went to the long-tail boat harbour at 11am and had to wait until there were 6 passengers, about 90 minutes. But it was nice to just sit and watch the world go by.


Captain

On our longtail boat Krabi to Railay


Charly struggling up the steps to our bungalow
We took the boat along the coast and came up to East Railay with amazing limestone cliffs surrounding a very mediocre beach.

Nice view from beach
We disembarked and took a walk along to the end and up some steep steps to find Railay Garden View resort. Chris had already researched and found this place on the web with great reviews. Chris went to have a look and the chalets were nice but they wanted 600Baht (£12) a night for them. Chris, using his best skills, managed to negotiate them down to 350Baht (£7) which was within our budget.


Beach at low tide

Mudflats and mangroves


Long Tail Boats on East Railay

Very scenic


Cliffs around the Beach at East Railay

Interesting new boat?!


High tide

High tide


An American couple who also took a chalet joined us and we all went out later for dinner and to watch the 11.30pm fire dance that actually started at 1.30am.


The whole stage on fire!


firedance

Still performing the fire dance even though it's raining

It was awesome and we all had a great night.


permalink written by  chrischarly on July 2, 2011 from Railay, Thailand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Feelin' pretty sicky :(

Krabi, Thailand


Eating yummy sandwiches after our dodgy bellies
Today we didn’t actually leave the hostel until 6pm. I spent the whole night last night and day today running from the bed to the shared bathrooms so I suppose quite an active day after all. It’s typical though that the one time we are ill we pick a place where there is no bathroom inside the room and it would’ve been lovely if we could’ve afforded air-con and a bed that didn’t feel like a slab of wood! Anyway, by 6pm I was desperately craving a nice ham and cheese Sandwich; something plain and reminded me of home, so we slowly and weakly went on the search remarkably Chris found me a cute café that served my dream dish and put a smile back on my face!



permalink written by  chrischarly on July 1, 2011 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Satun to Krabi

Krabi, Thailand

We decided to leave Satun today and move on to Krabi. We took a rickshaw to the bus station only to find out that the next bus wasn’t for 2 hours. Oh well, we were in no rush. There was a little shop selling food and got some fried rice with squid (think this was the cause of tomorrow’s bad stomachs!).

A frog in the restaurant

We were about half way to Krabi when an Aussie lady came running down the bus screaming for them to stop, and something about a door open. We thought someone had fallen out the back. It soon became apparent that the luggage door had opened (at 90kmph) and 2 bags had fallen out. Ours were quite near the door so I had a moment of panic, before running outside and seeing ours still there. Phew! There were a Swiss couple who got on later than us and they were not so lucky! They got a moped to go back and pick up the slightly scratched and ripped rucksacks. Note to self: always make sure the bags are well inside the luggage hold.
Got to Krabi and found a really nice guesthouse for £4 a night, went out with 4 Swiss to get some yummy dinner at the night market.

Thai fishing boat

permalink written by  chrischarly on June 30, 2011 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Did nada

Satun, Thailand

Got up late, went for a walk and lunch, read our books, surfed the net, went out for dinner, went to bed.


Huge bathroom at our hotel

Cool bar


Funky decor at our hotel

View from our hotel

permalink written by  chrischarly on June 29, 2011 from Satun, Thailand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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To Thailand...

Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia


On flight to Hat Yai
We got up at stupid o’clock (3:45am) this morning to catch a taxi to the airport about 10 minutes away and then checked in quick and easily for our Air Asia flight returning once again to KL before flying to Hat Yai in Thailand. We arrived in Thailand at around midday (2 hours behind of Indonesia) and booked a shuttle bus to take us to the bus station in Hat Yai. That was the plan but the bus driver dropped us at the train station. We wanted to go to Satun and there is no train station there.

On rickshaw to Hat Yai bus station
We were touted to take a minibus for 700Baht, when we knew the price should be about 180Baht. We then tried to get a taxi to take us to the bus station and even they were trying to overcharge us. Damn them all!

Our amazing bedroom
After getting a bit pissed off, and very hot, we decided best thing was to walk away from the train station, aka tourist rip off area, and after walking a few minutes got a taxi to take us for the right money. We immediately managed to get a minibus for the right fare. Rip-off Touts 0: Chris and Charly 1

Our nice cheap noodle place
We arrived in Satun a few hours later and found a really nice guesthouse that we had seen on LP-online and Trip advisor. They only had an AC room for 550Baht, but we were too tired to care and it was really nice and we managed to get it for 500Baht. They had free super-fast Wi-Fi so we made the most of it and chilled the afternoon away before going out for our 1st Thai meal. We were not disappointed and even Charly liked it, Thai food 1: Charly 0.We headed back to our room thought about watching a film, realised we couldn’t be arsed so fell into a deep sleep.



permalink written by  chrischarly on June 28, 2011 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Last day in Indonesia

Jimbaran, Indonesia


Looking back at the beach
Sadly our last day in Indonesia. 28 days is so not enough time here. It was not the nicest of days raining on and off and very grey and cloudy, but a nice temperature to walk about, so that’s what we did all day; walked aimlessly along the streets and beach of Jimbaran.

Just landing
Just before sunset, Chris wanted to walk to the far end of the beach right by the runway of Bali airport to watch some of the planes taking off to help build up his excitement about flying tomorrow.


The airport from the beach

Air Asia flight just landed

permalink written by  chrischarly on June 27, 2011 from Jimbaran, Indonesia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Dead sealife and hidden local transport

Jimbaran, Indonesia


Chris outside our place
Today we lazily got up and ready to travel to Jimbaran. As Ubud is mega touristy, it was difficult to find cheap transport as everywhere has rip-off tourist shuttle buses and ‘Tourist Information’ here doesn’t mean anything as no one offered up any information on local transport.

Chris and I
So as usual, we worked it out for ourselves, as if you look hard enough and walk to the market area and haggled hard to the local bimo drivers to take us to Batabulan using our limited Bahasa (Indonesian lingo)to try to give the impression we had been here a long time so knew the correct fare.

A very strange statue?
Once in Batabulan, we once again had to haggle hard to get local transport to Jimbaran. It took about 3x as long to get there, but it was over ½ the price it would’ve been if we took tourist transport, so we were happy when we finally arrived. The bimo driver did however drop us off quite far out of town, to save on fuel,

Wavy sea
so we had a long walk to find somewhere to stay, where we had to negotiate our butts off to find somewhere cheap. Bali sure is hard work if you are a stingy backpacker! We did find somewhere though in a kind family’s home along a backstreet alley, but it was lovely

Me finding a dead baby dolphin, sad!
and good value. We then walked down to the beach and walked almost the length of it trying to find some cheap and tasty seafood for dinner, which was unfortunately not possible, so we ate in a local backstreet restaurant instead. All over the beach, there are dead fish carcasses, which

Dead dolphin :(
have been thrown away by the fisherman so walking along the beach was like an obstacle course dodging dead fish guts and bones. Yuck. But what was even worse was that we saw a dead dolphin lying on the end of the beach,

A blue marlin's head!
which we think must’ve been caught by a fisherman by mistake, as not far away from it, we saw the remains of a blue marlin’s head. Very sad.

permalink written by  chrischarly on June 26, 2011 from Jimbaran, Indonesia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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