Hayden's Adventures in South East Asia!

Once arriving to Malaysia and discovering that I had 90 days in the country with no visa i could tell that i was going to enjoy it much more than my time i just had in Bangkok Malaysia seemed to have a really god transit system. I took the train from the airport right into the center of town, all of the public transit seems to be super clean and almost sterile. Once i got to downtown China town I found my hostel and checked in and then went and found some food. Wandering around the streets they were super busy and since I was feeling pretty tired after a day of traveling i found a restaurant where i had a good seat for people watching. I noticed that there seemed to be a lot more local people that were from different countries around like world like India, China and places like the Middle East and South America. Also the time i was there i noticed a lot of what seemed like high school kids who were glad to discover that they could buy cigarettes without getting ID'd i

It probably doesnt make much of a change yet but you can now get access to my blog by simply typing in: www.HaydenDavey.ca or www.HaydenDavey.org Eventually ill get a better website up and running and they hosted at one of the above so you can bookmark them now and not worry about it later!

So i forgot about being back in Bangkok! i had to come back to this place because thats where I would be getting my flight. Not sure if i mentioned how much I disliked Bangkok in one of my earlier posts. But this time I contained myself to the Silom and Siam Square areas which are a little bit less touristy. Found a nice Hostel (WE Bangkok) and planned on just hanging out there till my flight. While there is saw the option to do a floating village tour which was something i didnt get to do the first time i was there because of the floods. Cost me about $22 and was about a 2 hour drive away from Bangkok. Once there i discovered that it was another $5 to get one of the little paddle boats which was the main reason i wanted to go. Kinda regret spending the money on that too. The boat ended up carrying about 10 people in the boat with you so we kept stopping for wherever anyone wanted. I wasnt planning on buying anything so i got bored quickly. All the things th

Bam! Hayden's in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Some of you may wonder how I got all the way from islands near the border of Cambodia to Malaysia? Well after my Cambodia visa ran out and I made my way to Thailand I went into a small phase a depression. When you hear about people going to South East Asia you often hear about just a couple weeks some times 1 even in Thailand. From what I have encountered these people are usually younger people who come here to get smashed or European or Russian families coming for a cheap vacation where they can flaunt all their money. Coming from a lesser visited country such as Cambodia where many people come to volunteer and see Angkor Wat and what not. Of course there is still some partying but you can stay away from it if you choose not to. From what I have experienced its been harder to do in Thailand. After many conversations with my Mom, debating many possible options some even included coming home we came to the conclusion that i would simply go

My first stop after leaving Cambodia was Ko Chang, an island right near the border. From my bus over the border I got a ferry which reminded me a lot of BC ferries. Once on the island I hoped in one of the pickup trucks waiting at the ferry terminal to take me to "Lonely Beach" which was one of the many beaches on the island. I found a nice cheap dorm room and hung out there for a couple days. One day I visited a waterfall, saw a really cool plant shadow From there I went to a smaller island near Ko Chang called Ko Maak. Here is the beach and the little cottage I had. The scenery was very nice and you might be able to tell by this post that I don't sound like I did very much.  Cause I didnt. More about that in the next post!

Just after new years I left Sihanoukville to an island that was about a 2 hour boat ride called Koh Rong. I was told by another traveler that it was amazing and that I should check it out. Most people stay on one side of the island where most of the resorts are. As you can see below here is one of the bigger places called tree house bungalows or something. As you can also see there isnt much beach. Here is the beach my place was on And there were no other buildings on that beach as well so we had the whole thing to the guest staying at Broken Hearts Guest House and the few people who hiked over the whole island from the other side to come see the view. I spent two days with a group of people I met on the boat just hanging out on the beach. One of the guys had a slack line so that provided a lot of entertainment. Its a lot harder than it looks if you ever get a chance to try one. So two days of just beach, beach, and more beach. We would break up days

I planned on finishing off my Cambodia trip in Sihanoukville which is the major beach town in Cambodia. I stayed at the beach 10 min out of town called Otres Beach. Much nicer than serendipity beach which is a lot of tourists and local people selling. Here are pictures I just hung out It was great Super relaxing More photos in the Sihanoukville album on the left remember to comment and pass on!

The main reason the people go to Battambang, city south of Siem Reap, is to ride on the bamboo train. After the Khmer Rouge lots of Cambodia's railways were abandoned. Over time the local people have begun using them for their own transport. The bamboo train or "Norry" is a rickety bamboo platform on 2 axles powered by a motorcycle engine and a belt drive.  As you can see there is only one track and the trains go both ways. When two trains meet the one with less people on it gets off and the disassemble the norry and take it off the rails to let the other one pass and then they put it back on again. It was some really nice views in the surrounding farmland At the end of the rail there is a brick factory. A bunch of kids run around trying to give you a tour around the factory, but its really small and kinda self explanatory. They use the by products of rice to fuel the kilns which are made of the same bricks they produce.

So this is kinda like the last post where there wont be very many photos in it, but not because I didnt take any! cause I took way too many to choose any good ones. so here is the link to the photo album and please go browse them at you leisure because there isnt really any specifics that I want to talk about. The photos in the slide show below are from all of Siem Reap not just the temples so you might have to skip ahead a bit. I decided to get the pass for 3 days which is good for a whole week (you have to ask for it) to see the temples of Angkor. I got a tuk-tuk driver who drove me to my hostel from the bus stop's card so my friend and I called him up and he said that we would pick us up the next morning to go see the sunrise. So we got up at 5 and went outside to meet him. He ended up not being there but his friend was there to take us. He was also a great guy and we paid $12 for him to take us around the whole day and drinking water was included! We got to Angk

One of the last things that I did in Siem Reap is visit the flooded forest. It was over priced to do by yourself or in a small group because the boat they gave you could fit about 20 people. But we went all the way there so we did it anyways. All the buildings are propped up on stilts. They have everything they need in the village School Pigs in the .. yard? All the families had similar boats to these which they zipped around in. We paid another $5 to get a paddle boat to take us around in the forest. It was super quiet and still in the trees, really green and refreshing. On the trees you could see muscles all in the bark of the trees from where the water rises to during the wet season. More peacefullness Afterwords the big boat took us out to the lake where we hang out for about 30 min. The lake is so big that you feel like you are out on the ocean, also very peaceful On the way back we saw some girls coming ho