Cherating, Malaysia – Singapore

Day 321 – 331

1 – 8 March, 2009

568km

Total: 33,073km

Soundtrack:

‘Almost With You’ – The Church

‘The Final Countdown’ – Europe

‘Where Are You Now?’ – The Audreys

‘Not Far To Go’ – Silver Ray

‘Chaos In The Heat’ – Bill Laswell

‘Bridge To The South’ – Julian Joseph

‘Southbound Pachyderm’ – Primus

SK: Our last two nights in Malaysia were spent out of towns and on the beaches of the South China Sea. The upside was little traffic, no obnoxious hoons hanging out of car windows impolitely acknowledging the presence of foreign women, and no negotiating surprise one-way streets and blocked roads. The downside was … well, there wasn’t one.

Cherating was a typical sleepy holiday town, scattered with resorts, and with a main road bordered by shops with gaily-coloured Hawaiian-type shirts and batik dresses flying like kites in the breeze. Clichéd, yes, but at least this was off-season, and the town wasn’t crowded. Read the rest of this entry »

Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand – Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

Day 313 – 320

20 – 28 February 2009

1,525km

Total: 32,505km

Soundtrack:

‘Hallelujah’ – Leonard Cohen, John Cale, Jeff Buckley, et al

‘Devil Gate Drive’ – Suzi Quatro

‘Maybe the Last Time’ – James Brown

‘Proton Saga Kelabu’ – Jaidi Arifin

‘Too Hot to Move, Too Hot to Think’ – The Triffids

‘Big Chief Chinese Restaurant’ – Guided By Voices

‘Real Men’ – Joe Jackson

‘Ghost Town’ – The Specials

‘Call To Prayer’ – Yusuf Islam

‘Rain’ – The Chills; Not Drowning, Waving

‘Better Be Home Soon’ – Crowded House

We teetered between that pleasant sensation that comes with familiarity and concurrently an annoyance at (literally) covering old ground. While the landscape was still wondrous and inviting, much of the joy of travel is the regular encounter with the strange, the new, the unexpected, and so at times we felt a sense of opportunity lost. But then again, the southern Thai peninsula doesn’t provide road travellers with many options; squeezed between the azure sea on the east and the ominous and fraught Burmese border to the west is Highway 4, with various small roads that head to towns and villages peeling off it. To head north or south there’s really only one option.

We continued somewhat sullenly noting the various ‘lasts’ of the trip. We were now heading south for the last time. There would be plenty more ‘lasts’ to come in the next couple of weeks.

(Pic: Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand)

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Pakxe, Laos (2), – Cha-Am, Thailand (2)

Day 304-310

January 11-17, 2009

1,530km

Total: 30,980km

Soundtrack:

‘Romance in Karaoke Hell’ – Ed Kuepper

‘Down on the Border’ – Little River Band

‘We Are The Champions’ – Queen

‘Grinnin’ In Your Face’ – Sun House

‘Cloudbusting’ – Kate Bush

‘Holiday in Cambodia’ – Dead Kennedys

‘Cambodia’ – Kim Wilde

‘Border Song’ – Aretha Franklin

‘Ken Lee’ – Valentina Hasan

‘Angka Dar Qotdam’ – Khmer Rouge

‘Too Much Monkey Business’ – Chuck Berry

‘Endtroducing…’ – DJ Shadow

The mood in the truck as we drove back to Pakxe in southern Laos from the Cambodian border was subdued, to say the least. Maddy was sad that she would not get to see the famous Angkor Wat, but understood that it seemed impossible. Once in a while one of us would utter how frustrating and unfair the whole episode had been, and coming up with some innovative, yet not all that helpful suggestions. Raffy’s suggestion of just getting a decent run-up and bursting through the border did get us thinking, but not all that seriously.

This was, therefore, one of the few times we had to retrace our route. It seemed like such a waste of time and effort to be going back to the place we left two days ago, but it seemed we had no choice. We were finally resigned to heading into Thailand and making our way south without going to Cambodia.

(Pic: Maddy biding her time at the Thai border)

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Raffy’s Luang Prabang boat

I was playing down at a Mekong beach in Luang Prabang in Laos when I had this great idea. So with my mum I walked to the end of the sandy bit of the beach and found some blue plastic tarp and then some plastic string and some bamboo, and with the plastic string mum helped attach and cut the string and made a half sink half float boat!

I rolled up my shorts and launched my boat and then I saw a hole in my boat which was obvious so mum and I did some changes.

(Pic: my blue tarp boat)

Luang Prabang, Laos – by Maddy

Soundtrack:

Revolution – The Beatles

Keep Yourself Alive – Queen

Beautiful Life – Something For Kate

It’s The Life – Grant Lee Buffalo

Life During Wartime – Talking Heads

There’s More To Life Than This – Björk

Time Bomb – Nick Barker

Wrong Side Of The Road – Tom Waits

Laos is great. Not only the country itself, but the people, the food and the atmosphere. My favourite town, Luang Prabang, is on the mighty Mekong River, and is probably one of the most relaxed and slow-moving places we’ve been on this trip. Driving in was easy, but like almost every Asian country (well, south east Asian country, at least) the dodgy Chinese scooters and motorbikes and cheap, crappy trucks were a bit annoying.

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Tha Thom, Laos – Dom Kralor, Cambodia

Day 299 – 306

5 – 13 February, 2009

1,820km

Total: 30,103km

Soundtrack:

‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ – Oasis

‘Saturday Night Fish Fry’ – Louis Jordan

‘Border Crossing’ – David Olney

‘The Great Big No’ – The Lemonheads

‘No No Song’ – Ringo Starr

‘Idiot Grin’ – Do-Re-Mi

‘Tears Of Rage’ – Bob Dylan

‘The Disappointed’ – XTC
‘They Made A Mistake’ – Afrika Bambaata

‘Nature of Power’ – Vince Jones

DB: Sandy was met at the open front door of the dusty Tha Thom Guesthouse by a girl about the same age as our Raffy. She spoke no English and our Lao was rusty, to say the least, but with pointing, hand actions and the ever-present smiles that seem to be an innate part of Lao culture we were provided with a small, dark room.

The sun was now below the horizon of forest and houses, but flicking light switches didn’t improve the situation. The girl shook her head and instead provided us with a few candles that had been melted on to the tops of empty soft drink cans. Upon further investigation it seemed that the entire town was in fact wired for electricity and all the houses had new retro-fitted cables and lights, but none of it worked, save for the few fluorescent globes hooked up to car batteries. We remain unsure if all the wiring in Tha Thom was completed before electricity actually got there, if this was a regular power outage, or if someone just forgot to pay the bill.

In the fading light we went for a stroll along the track, past small restaurants and homes with children playing joyfully out the front and animals rummaging for the last morsels of food before heading home to bed. We were parched and settled in at a restaurant for lemonade and Beerlao which, in one local guidebook we found, was recommended above local drinking water and seemed to be consumed on a similar scale. Very quickly we became a local spectacle, like the circus had rolled into town. People came and watched us from the street while children played games and performed tricks for our amusement. Raffy and Maddy began a game of football with an old plastic bottle and, in turn, made the Lao kids laugh. Read the rest of this entry »

Ayutthaya, Thailand – Tha Thom, Laos

Day 286 – 298

20 January – 4 February, 2009

1,788km

Total: 28,283km

Soundtrack:

‘Is It Just Me?’ – Wendy Harmer and Angela Catterns

‘Bombtrack’ – Rage Against the Machine

‘Stay On Track’ – Deborah Conway

‘The Dirty Boogie’ – Brian Setzer

‘Little Time Bomb’ – Billy Bragg

‘US Forces’ – Midnight Oil

‘Theme from the Dirtbombs’ – The Dirtbombs

‘Many Rivers to Cross’ – Jimmy Cliff

‘Diesel and Dust’ – Midnight Oil

‘Three-Five-Zero-Zero’ – Hair

‘Purple Haze’ – Jimi Hendrix

SK: It was with big hugs and sadness that we separated from our friends. We had enjoyed a fabulous beach holiday together; a hiatus in both our trips that nourished us.

We retraced our route north up the number 4 highway, headed for the former royal city of Ayutthaya. After a roadside stop for fishball soup for lunch, we negotiated our way around Bangkok (except for one glitch that had us heading back into, rather than away from, the city), and soon left the built up world behind.

(Pic: Obama Fever is everywhere! Ayutthaya, Thailand)

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Varanasi, India – Cha-am, Thailand

Day 267-286

1-20 January, 2009

Soundtrack:

‘Take Me To The River’ – Al Green

‘Jump in the River’ – Sinead O’Connor

‘Night Train’ – James Brown

‘If It Takes All Night’ – Roxy Music

‘Night and Day’ – Cole Porter

‘Day and Night’ – Nina Simone

‘An Inch An Hour’ – Tragically Hip

‘Today, Tomorrow and Forever’ – Patsy Cline

‘All Day Sucker’ – Stevie Wonder

‘What A Day That Was’ – Talking Heads

‘A Place Called Home’ – PJ Harvey

‘Happy Home’ – Maurice Frawley and the Working Class Ringoes

‘Barflies at the Beach’ – Royal Crown Review

‘Sycamore and Sand’ – Art of Fighting

(Apologies for the tardiness due to a recent lack of internet access)

DB: We were awake early, if not a tad grumpy, for our dawn boat ride on the Ganges. We have read and heard much about this fabled river and were keen to take it all in, hook, line and stinker.

Again, the car ride from our hotel was akin to the Blind Dukes of Hazard on speed with a death wish, but finally we were introduced to our boatman and led through a madding throng of drivers, touts, stall holders, hangers around, and tourists. Then, boarding the boat in the half light, we began to slowly grasp the magnitude of the holy city of Varanasi, its relationship with the waterway and the confluence of past and present, sentient being and spirit, myth and reality.

(Pic: The Ganges, Varanasi, India)

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Delhi-Jaipur-Agra-Varanasi, India

28-31 December, 2008

Day 263-266

Soundtrack:

‘It’s the Life’ – Grant Lee Buffalo

‘Teenage Mother’ – British India

‘Waiting for a Train’ – Jerry Lee Lewis

‘Slow Train’ – Blue Ruin

‘Mystery Train’ – Junior Parker, Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins, Paul Butterfield, et al

‘The Morning Fog’ – Kate Bush

‘Body and Soul’ – Coleman Hawkins

‘Hayride to Hell’ – Hoodoo Gurus

‘Six Days On The Road’ – Taj Mahal

‘Rat’s Revenge’ – The Rats

‘Rat In Mi Kitchen – UB40

‘It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry’ – Bob Dylan

SK: Sunday morning, 7.00am. We were ready for our jaunt around the countryside, excited to be off to see Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi. We had ended up having booked a driver and car to Jaipur, and then to Agra as the trains were all full for these legs. Jassi, our driver, was a serious young man, responsible, and good behind the wheel. He was from the mountains in the north – it must have been a shock for him when he first moved down to the city. He picked us up in a clean little Tata for the first leg to Jaipur on that foggy, foggy morning …

An hour out from Delhi we passed four crashes within two hundred metres of each other. Despite the carnage, trucks, buses, tractors and cars fought to cover ground as fast as they could even though visibility was down to ten metres. The vehicle debris strewn on the road obviously wasn’t enough of an incentive to slow down. As the sun fought the fog to our left, we crawled down the road, our driver fortunately not feeling the pressure to speed with the other traffic. The two lane highway had become four lanes, as the traffic impatiently spilt into the emergency lane, and then created another lane somewhere to the left of that. Or to the right. It was hard to tell. Slowly the four lanes merged back to two as we picked up speed past the last crash, the remains of which were quickly swallowed by the whiteness around us. Read the rest of this entry »