12th April 1992 Day 267

The Diary
Superb banana porridge for breakfast and then we went to the beach. A bit gravelly and a fair bit of rubbish about - somewhere between Kuta and Phuket. I went in search of a paper and found a whole town just off the beach. Well, more of a gold rush, R&R (rest and relaxation), Las Vegas style strip of bars, restaurants, discos, money changers, film developers, book shops, t-shirt shops and travel shops. So there is life here after all.

We booked a ticket out to Bangkok on the train for the 16th and watched the end of The Doors, all of Ghost and most of the Rumbelows League Cup Final. If would have been better if Boro were playing. 

I also phoned Christy earlier in the evening and had to pay 100B to make a collect call. I had to do it twice because the first time she wasn't in. I'd talked to her for about 15mins, discovered Sarah and Dave had split up and we'd just started talking about flights when they asked me to get off the phone. Apparently someone wanted to phone Bangkok. I told them what I thought about that and continued talking. They kept pushing a watch in front of me and telling me to get off. In the end I said goodbye and then had a big argument with them. I thought it was a real cheek to charge for the call and then try to throw me off when someone else turned up. I was fuming for the second evening in a row.


2012
It sounds like a perfect backpacker town (Lamai Beach). It's probably full of 5 star hotels and resorts these days.

The business model for the phones was obviously to get as many people on as possible. The only money they would have been making was the 100B usage fee so as soon as someone else turned up they wanted you off.


My mate played in that League Cup final.

11th April 1992 Day 266

The Diary
Christy's birthday and I hope she enjoyed it more than we did. Up early to catch a minibus to Phuket Town at 7:30am. The coach which was due to leave at 8:30am never materialised so we were put on two songtheaws to the bus station. Our bags were on one and we were on the other. Panic when we couldn't find them (the bags) but we eventually spotted them and boarded a nice air-con bus that left at 10am. We stopped for a meal break and they let on a load more people. Unfortunately there weren't any seats left so they filled up the aisle. 


At another stop we discovered the Tories had won the election. Gloom. We also found out all the trains were booked as the Thai New Year is coming up. When we got to the ferry I discovered that my hat had gone from the rack above. I'd seen someone looking at it so I'd a pretty good idea who'd got it. On the ferry I saw him, and the hat, straight away and grabbed it back. Wanker. 

The ferry took a couple of hours and we were subjected to a Thai version of Monkey (the crap Chinese show that used to be on Beeb2 around 5:30pm). By the time we reached the island it was dusk and we were given a knuckle whitening ride in the back of a pick-up truck to the Green Canyon Bungalows. My hat blew off on the way but I banged on the cab to stop the truck, jumped out and ran back to retrieve it, just after a van swerved to avoid it.


We had a quick look around what we thought was the town area. Very quiet. But what a crap day.


2012
I can't tell you how old Christy was 20 years ago as you'd be able to work out she's now 45. Damn, I've given it away. 


Monkey was actually a Japanese TV series based on a Chinese story. These days I'd know the difference but back then Japanese/Chinese/Korean was all the same to my uneducated eyes.

10th April 1992 Day 265

The Diary
How did the General Election go? We still don't know. Watch this space. We had our usual breakfast at the supermarket and then went to Phuket town. Not much to see there so we were soon back at Kata Beach swimming and sunbathing. Not much to gawp at this time.

Not much of this....

Or this...

Or this.

But plenty of this...

And this.

2012
In this day and age I'm sure we'd know about the same time as the politicians wherever in the world we are. Back then we had to wait for a glimpse of an English language newspaper.

9th April 1992 Day 264

The Diary
General Election Day. Another lazy day, swimming, sun-bathing and gawping but this time on Karon beach. Idyllic. The number of old European-looking men cavorting around with young Thai girls is amazingly high. Escorts, prostitutes or wives-to-be? I wonder.

The French Navy are in town (Le ship Jeanne D'Arc) in their Mothercare sailor suits with a little anchor on the chest pocket, riding mopeds and motorbikes round the island, trying to pull the Thai girls. They seem to be getting the more plump ones - obviously they haven't got as much money as the portly, balding older men.

2012
General Election Day in the UK. 

8th April 1992 Day 263

The Diary
Got up late , found somewhere for breakfast, which was a bit more difficult than anticipated as everywhere that advertised breakfast seemed to be shut. We then headed off to Kata beach and spent a lazy day sunbathing, swimming and gawping at an absolutely gorgeous girl that was sunbathing about 20 yards from us - on her todd. My thinking about sex ratio went through the roof. Even the evening's beef vindaloo didn't stop the hormones.

Me (not with gorgeous bikini girl)

August seems longer away than ever.


2012
August - anticipated end of trip and rendezvous with Christy

7th April 1992 Day 262

The Diary

On the road to Phuket

The Magic Bus was a minibus that took 8 hours instead of the advertised 6 to get us to Phuket. On the way we chatted to an Indian-Thai who was living in Singapore. He'd been to Phuket before so he quickly showed us the way to the bus area and we caught the bus - more of a lorry with seats - to Kata and Karon beaches for 10B each.

The prices quoted in LP were well out of date but we picked up a motel-type room for 300B. After looking around it soon became obvious that everything here, accommodation, food etc is double that of Hat Yai. It must be due to all the German tourists and the Club Med/big hotel scene that has arrived here. It's a good job we only want to lie on the beach.

6th April 1992 Day 261

The Diary
We caught the bus to Songkhla, a town that LP really over-rates. We managed to only pay 9 Baht instead of 14 as we didn't understand the currency. Cheap travellers.

We tried some Thai food for the first time. Mine was bearably hot but it had a very strange tangy taste. Not really to my liking. The topiary wasn't that great either.

Squid

Back in Hat Yai we went to our favourite video bar and this time for the price of 2 cokes we watched Dances with Wolves. I finally got to see the end of the film that had been so cruelly cut off on our way to Townsville over  2 months ago.


In the evening Oz reckoned someone came into our room and offered him a massage. I think he was hallucinating - sexual withdrawal symptoms. At least it wasn't the bible bashers that are in town.


2012
At todays exchange rates 9 Baht is 28 cents and 14 Baht is 44 cents. That's a 20km bus ride for 28cents. Bit of a bargain. This site tells me the ex rate on 6th April 1992 and so 9 baht was 46cents back then. Even so, it was pretty good value.


The first time we had Thai food on this trip. We ended up eating in a cafe that was in someone's front garden (hence the topiary reference). Can't remember whether it was no menus or menus in Thai only. Either way we took pot luck and got things we didn't recognise.

5th April1992 Day 260

The Diary
Last day in Malaysia and at the Butterworth train station we bumped into the German girl again and the American couple from the previous days bus journey and then a couple from  the Cameron Highlands who left on our bus to Tapah. Loads of small worlds.


The train was quite comfortable, for those with reserved seats, and the border crossing consisted of getting off the train, having a Malaysian stamp put in the passport, walking 5 yards up the platform, having a Thai stamp put in and then getting back on the train. Customs walked through the train, had a tiny glance at a couple of bags and that was that. Dead easy.

Once at Hat Yai it was easy to find the Cathay guest house, dump out stuff and wander out to look at our new surroundings. English signs were a lot less obvious and virtually everything was written in the very weird Thai script. Praise be for brand logos. Coca-cola always looks like Coca-cola whatever it's written in.

We discovered a video bar that was showing both FA Cup ties, so for the price of two cups of tea we watched Sunderland beat Norwich live and the first half of Pompey-Liverpool but Barry Davies had already given that one away. Here's hoping the FA Cup Final goes live to Nepal.

2012
You would assume that we were drinking lots of Coca-cola but I think we mainly drank water. I reckon I drink about 1 coke per annum.


The reference to the video bar reminded me of a travel book I read a few years later called "Video night in Kathmandu" by Pico Iyer. A good read for anyone that travelled in SE Asia during this period.

4th April1992 Day 259

The Diary
We went to the Snake Temple, which turned out to be a very average temple with a handful of snakes. On the way back I chatted to an American girl - who had been in Tokyo when the games were on - and we saw two mopeds under the back of a bus.

The highlight of the day was undoubtedly finding a curry house that could have been lifted straight out of England. It didn't have the flock wallpaper but it had everything else including naan bread and dips. The food was just like home and it was cheap. Shoestring didn't mention that one even though it was 100 times better than Dawoods in every way.

3rd April1992 Day 258

The Diary
Caught the bus to Penang Hill. It was so close to the bus stop we waited at the previous day that we could have walked it in a few minutes. Shoestring was a bit lax there. The Penang Hill funicular railway climbs 700m at a slow and mind-numbing rate and when you get to the top there's nothing to do but have a quick look at the town and return down. Unless, of course, it rains and you've got to sit in a cafe until it subsides. 

A backpacker in his room

Monk gunners

Newsagent

For the second evening in a row we had an excellent, cheap Chinese at the Hong Kong restaurant round the corner, only this time Oz managed to empty half the contents of his chicken curry kapitan down his shorts. He dashed back to change into his new jeans shorts a little Chinese tailor had tailored (well, what do tailors do?) for him (as well as fixing his rucksack and my two pairs of shorts). We also bumped into the German girl we shared with in the Cameron Highlands - the first "bumping into" for ages.


2012
Just in case you think I've been a bit negative about Penang Hill (and yesterday's temple), have a read of someone else's opinions.


It now looks like they have faster trains. 

2nd April1992 Day 257

The Diary
Oz went off to find out about trains and I went to post my rugby shirts and trainers home. PO boxes came in 2 sizes, too big and too small. It doubled the cost to send two small boxes so the man behind the counter suggested I send the shirts in a big envelope available from another counter. The other counter said they only had small envelopes but suggested I try a shop around the corner. I found a shop that packaged it all up and went back to the post office and queued up again. It was weighed and I was told to go to counter 19 to get the correct number of stamps. Counter 19 said go to counter 21. Eventually having affixed the stamps I had to work out 2 customs forms that were in French and Malaysian. I could have been in India already. 

That done, Oz and I went for food and then caught the bus to Tek Lok Si (or something like that) to see the temple. The temple turned out to be a bit disneyfied and artificial but there was an amazing turtle pool filled with thousands of tortoises, turtles and terrapins that were so crowded they had to walk and climb over each other. 

We waited for the bus to Penang Hill but it took so long to come we caught the bus back to town instead.


2012
I'm sure I was getting rid of the rugby shirts because they weren't going to be much use in the hot and humid conditions of the next few months. It was a bit of an effort getting rid of them though.

1st April1992 Day 256

The Diary
For the first time in years this day passed without me playing, been played on or being aware of an April fool's joke. Oh well, I still remember Lofty's memo last year.

The day raced by as we guzzled gallons of mineral water, walked round temples containing reclining buddhas and globes, visited Chinese clan houses, ignored Captain Klingon's mosque, trudged around a crap museum, scoffed our victuals in McDonalds, did an impromptu lap of Fort Cornwallis, developed some film, bought a lock and, finally, had a curry in Penang's answer to Indian Joe's transport caff.

2012
I remember Lofty's memo from my PW days in the London Docklands but I don't remember the contents. Maybe he does.


Australia's pretty berfet of April Tomfoolery compared to the UK. April 1st is usually a damp squib.

31st March 1992 Day 255

The Diary
As we set out back to the mainland it began to rain. When we reached the pier it was a storm but we had to dash through it to the bus station to catch the bus in 15mins. We were like drowned rats as we discovered the bus was full and the cats sat idly by ignoring the real rats that were escaping the rain.

After the rain...studying the timetable...

Oz booked us on a bus to Taiping which was in vaguely the right direction. Luckily when we got to Taiping there was a bus to Butterworth leaving in 10 mins. This time we got on. At Butterworth it was a simple matter and a measly 40cents to catch the ferry to Georgetown. We walked the km or so to the main accommodation street and and got in the Eng Aun Hotel straight away. After a bad start to the day everything had turned out well.


We had a dodgy curry at Penang's oldest restaurant and watched a poorly cut version of Cape Fear at the flicks. Good acting from Robert de Niro but I think the censor and the dolby surround man cost him an oscar.

30th March 1992 Day 254

The Diary
I went for a walk to the old Dutch Fort, the carved stone and the town and sent some cards and letters. Oz hired a bike and tried the Tour de Pangkor. I retired to the beach to be joined by Oz later on. It must be the low season - 3 people on several km of beach and not a seller in sight.

Another run, this time it was a bit hotter, and we had our evening meal at the same place as yesterday. It may be expensive but it's the only decent restaurant. Supply and demand rears it's ugly head.