From there I went to Georgetown near the Thai border and spent a few days exploring the city on a motorbike, played the trumpet with a guitarist friend in the markets and found time to try lots of different foods, such as stingray, frog, cuttlefish, grasshoppers and scorpion... Not that I would really recommend any of them!
From Malaysia I crossed the border into Thailand and after a few days on the mainland I took a boat to the island of Ko Phi Phi to meet some friends that I had met in other countries. It is a tiny island where the film 'The Beach' was shot. It has so many white beaches and is good for snorkeling and relaxing. The sea was so warm that we couldn't stay in for long and had to get out and sit in the shade! We had a bamboo hut on the beach and I spent most of my time swimming in the sea, reading in my hammock or out on a boat that you could rent to go snorkeling on the reefs
Whilst I was on the island I got up early one morning and rented a kayak. I paddled out to the headland and then across the bay to the opposite side. When I was half way across a huge fin popped up out of the water beside me and started circling the kayak. I was more than a little scared to put it politely so I paddled rather quickly to the cliffs... not that I could have outpaced a shark but there's not really a lot else you can do! Anyway, after a while it lost interest and swam away, but it was certainly an experience to provide an interesting anecdote at dinner parties!
After a week on Ko Phi Phi I took the night bus to Bangkok and spent a couple of days at the markets, museums and temples before flying home for the weekend for a friends wedding. After 3 amazing days with friends and family I flew back into Bangkok and spent a couple more days with an old school friend exploring the city and more temples. It was great to be in Bangkok but its not somewhere you want to spend too long because its so hectic and loud. There is a lot of interesting culture there though - not all of it is high class!
From Thailand I caught the bus into Cambodia and finally arrived in Siem Reap. Because it is the rainy season the fields and villages are all flooded and we are having to wade through the water to get to the market. It rains hard at about 4pm each day for about an hour during which time you have to be inside because the rain is so strong that it is painful!
Today we got up at 4am and took a tuktuk to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat which is the biggest religious site in the world (248 square miles). Obviously we didn't look at the whole of it, but we explored many of the most famous temples, including the one where Tomb Raider was filmed. Whilst Angelina Jolie wasn't actually there today the site was so impressive and great fun to explore.
Tomorrow we are going by boat to visit a floating village and market on a nearby lake (though all the villages seem to be floating at the moment due to the floods!) and then in a few days to the capital Pnomh Penh. I have until the end of the month to travel through Vietnam, Laos and back through Northern Thailand to Bangkok ready for a flight to Myanmar (Burma) which has only recently opened up to tourists. More in a couple of weeks!
