MICKs South East Asia Top 5

Ok I decided to give my top 5 South East Asia experiences. I would definitely recommend the following if you are tripping around Asia. It was hard to pick the top five as we have done so much in the last few months but.....

in at Number 1: Tubing, Laos.

We all agreed that this had to be number one. It was the craziest thing we done on our trip so far. We spent two days on the river floating from bar to bar. The zip lines, swings, water slides, and mud baths are serious craic. Some of the pictures speak for themselves.

Number 2: Chu Chi Tunnels

Chu Chi Tunnels is one of the best tourist attractions in Asia. We definitely recommend going to see the tunnels if you are in Saigon. We crawled 100m through one of the tunnels. It was one of the hardest things we did so far.

Number 3: Padi - Open Water Diving Cert

We completed the 4 day PADI diving course in Koh Tao. A great experience. The course consisted of class work, an exam, basic diving skills in a swimming pool and finally diving in the ocean. We reached a dept of 18 metres where we had a dance off, we did the Marcarena and also made a human pyramid. We have also dived the Great Barrier Reef since Asia so we have another dive to add to our dive log books.

A video of our diving in Koh Tao will be uploaded here in the near future.......

Number 4: Ankor Temples, Phnom Penn

We visited the Ankor Temples in Phnom Penn. The largest is Angkor Wat, which is a massive temple and is even on their national flag. The ruins of Angkor are located in the middle of forests. The place is breathtakingly beautiful.

Number 5: Live bands in the Philippines

There are unreal live music bands all over the Philippines. Every bar we went to had a band playing on a stage. They really like American music and some would give Beyonce a run for her money. Special mention to the band Blush....If you are ever in Manila look them up!

Philippines

Apologies for the lack of updates. We've been to a few remote places that didn't have electricity let alone internet and also had a bit of camera trouble (3 cameras bit the dust in 2 weeks). This entry is brought to you by Conor "Chingy" Murphy, from Milltown that came to visit us. I'll start it off as he arrived a few days late (Cheers American Airlines!).

Our landing spot in the Philippines was Clark Airport near Angeles City. We had heard that there was a good nightlife there, but on landing discovered that WAS is the most important word in the sentence. Until 1990, USA had a huge army presence there, but when they withdrew (wahey!), it basically left 1,000 unemployed prostitutes and a string of sex tourists. We landed at 12, went for lunch and a walk through town and were out of there on the 2pm bus. As close to hell on earth as you can imagine. So we arrived in Manila a few days early in the lovely business district of Makata. A bit expensive for our budget, but we did find a lovely Irish bar and a hotel by the bay and settled into to watch the Lions test. Dissapointing result, but we did make some nice contacts with a few Scots. One was the regional manager of the largest employer in the world which happens to be a security firm. Handy if we got in trouble! Anyway, they enjoyed our rendition of Irish songs. Conor (Chingy) arrived the following day so I'll let him take it from here.....

Thanks Marcus - I corrected all your grammar mistakes above! When I got to Manila I made my way to a different hotel and slept off a massive journey which took me from Haiti to Brazil and onto Manila via New York! I spent my first day visiting a guy I know who runs a manufacturing plant in Manila - very obvious why Ireland can't compete when it comes to manufacturing. Met up with the guys (Minors) on the first evening which was emotional to say the least! Everybody is in top form and for all the mothers out there - they're looking sharp! Manila is a strange enough city. It's absolutely massive, but there's surprisingly little to do there. The whole sex industry is quite disturbing and some of the things you see around the streets isn't very pleasent. Intramuros is probably the best tourist site - it's an old Spanish quarter from colonial times. Needless to say that due to the lack of cultural sites there was a few hours spent consuming different types of food and local beers. In the excitement of it all, there was dance-offs in niteclubs, drinking at some great on-street bars and listening to unreal live music bands who would put their Irish counterparts to shame. Along the way we befriended one particular band called Blush and had a great night in the lead singers 39th floor apartment the night before we left for Borocay Island. The same night we were informed by staff at the Irish Bar that the 'all you can drink' ended the previous Saturday due to a group of Scots and Irish. Tut tut.......

Getting to Borocay was nothing short of priceless and due to flight bookings, the Minors left before me. At check-in we were all weighed individually which was a little strange! We arrived separately at Kalibo airport and then faced a 2 hour bus journey to Caticlan port where you get the boat to Borocay. When I finally made it to Caticlan, it was dark, the Minors were already in Borocay and I hadn't notion where! When I got to the island the only place that was open was the police station. I made my way over to the man in charge and asked him did he see 5 white lads passing through earlier who were probably looking around for accommodation tips. After a few shouts and banging on a table this woman appeared and said, "yes, there were 5 white boys here earlier. They are staying in the Borocay Holiday Resort in room 208. Take that tricycle and you'll find them". Without even thinking about it off I went and sure enough when I made the resort there was Kevin Ed tearing up and down pool like a fish. Magic!

Borocay was pretty cool to be fair. Very relaxed, beautiful beach, good bars and good food and a welcome change from Manila. We were pretty well behaved throughout - activities ranged from walking, swimming, doing laundry and eating. The nightlife is pretty good - very random niteclubs frequented by some interesting characters. Mick is showing signs of becoming a psychologist when he goes back to work. He has a particular knack of talking to complete nutcases and making them appear normal. Shakeys pizza was becoming a firm favourite, but a local dish called Topsilong (beef, rice, soup, veg) for less than a €1 was also popular. How you like them apples D2 €12 lunch people?! We watched the 3rd Test in the Lions tour - the same night Keeffe informed us that he was beginning to forget simple maths. Those long bus journeys have taken their toll.......We had a great day out which culminated in meeting the lads at a Hobbitt Bar! The owner loves Lord of the Rings apparently.

We left Borocay (can't remember exactly how) for Cebu. Had to reroute to another airport coz a plane had crashed at the airport the week previous and was still on the runway. Long enough trip to a city that doesn't really have anything to do. We were only there for a night before heading to another fantastic island called Malapascou. Our hotel was right on the beach and next to a great little bar/restaurant. We behaved ourselves the first night and took it handy due to a snorkelling session planned for the following morning. I'm very proud of myself for taking part given the extreme fear of the open sea that I have, but to be fair I was hanging on to the side of the boat for the most part. The coral and all those small fish were pretty cool. During one part of the session we were taken to the wreck of an old Japanese warship from World War II. The second night can only be described as the 'attack of the Red Horse'. Red Horse is a Filipino beer that comes in a pint bottle with no reference to the alcohol content. Earlier that evening Mick and I arrived back to our room which was under water due to a leak in the roof. Cameras, clothes, books - DEAD! Needless to say a few bottles of Red Horse were consumed. Our collective dance and singing qualities were on full show as we serenaded a group of Canadians and a brilliant crew from Italy. Mick, Trick and I led the dancing from the bar-top while Ed caused havoc with a stunning version of 'Katie'. A great night. The GREATEST night!

Our third day was spent hanging around. The weather wasn't great so fellas caught up on some sleep and missed reading. The worst dinner ever was held at an Italian restaurant on the island where the pizza tasted like warm, cornflakes box with a lot of tomato sauce and cheese - not the best preparation for the local Friday night disco on the beach. All shapes, sizes and ages were in attendance and the performance of the night had to go to a 7 year old boy who tore up the beach with some ridiculous dance moves. The Italians tried in vain to compete, but your man was having none of it. The night itself was a great end to the Philippine adventure. It's a great place to visit once you get away from Manila. The people are fantastic - very hospitable and helpful and it's very reasonable. From Malapascou, we made our way back to Cebu for an onward departure to Singapore.

South East Asia..........Done!

Apologies for the lack of blog posts recently. We have been hopping from remote island to more remote island and the Internet facilities haven't been great (think two cans joined by a piece of string). The posts will be a bit backwards too because we had a special guest for the last few weeks, our favourite senior; Conor Murphy. He is winging his way back to Haiti now and will be doing the update for the Philippines shortly.

We flew from the Philippines to Singapore last week and with a bit of time to kill before our flight down under we decided to head north to Malaysia and the beautiful island of Tioman. This was a bit of a last minute call but turned out to be a great idea because the island is amazing. We stayed in beach huts just off the beautiful white sand beach of Salang.



Salang is meant to be the liveliest part of the island but it was pretty quiet when we got there. We spent a lot of our time between Four's Cafe and Bak Bok Rock Cafe. Bak Bok was a beach shack practically overhanging the water. Its tiny but great fun, one of the nights there we were practically the only customers and still managed to drink the bar dry. BiBi (our favourite barman) had to race up the beach for more supplies. We then proceeded to finish them too!

Our last night in Tioman saw our tearful farewell to Conor. We sent him off in style with another epic night at the Bak Bok. Mark threw on the ipod with the playlist from the Great Friday going away party and BiBi seemed to have learnd his lesson and was well stocked for the night. God knows how we got up for the 7:30 ferry the next morning!

We headed back to Singapore and Conor caught his flight back to Haiti. He looked a shadow of the man he had been just a few weeks earlier.














Singapore is a very clean, modernized city when compared to some of the other places we passed through in South East Asia. Yesterday we took in the Singapore National History Museum and caught a cable car over to Sentosa island. There we had a street luge race as a way of deciding who was most qualified to drive the camper van we are thinking of renting in Oz. See Mark and Mick getting set up in their ultra powerful machines below.

After a stewards enquiry the finishing order was
1st - Mick - used his low drag well to just pass Conor at the line
2nd - Conor - should have won but got cocky and started celebrating early
3rd - Mark - early favourite but really let himself down on the day
4th - Darragh - benefited from flying start but not being able to steer proved a hindrance
5th - Eddie - might as well have not turned up his head was someplace else

Last night we met a few of Conor's work friends (Gill and Michelle) for a night out in Singapore. It is a really expensive city compared to what we are used to, prices are around what you would pay at home.

So the South East Asia leg of our journey is over and we are heading to Oz in a few hours. We'll all be a bit sad to say goodbye.


PS: Guess what we did this morning (see below). We're going to Hollywood baby!!

Malaysia

I'll be honest with ya, I wasn't expecting much from Malaysia. If it weren't for the fact that our flight out was from KL, we'd probably have given it a skip. It would have been a monumental mistake. We only had a week there, but it was one of the best spots so far.

The trip from Thailand was a bit of a journey. 3 buses to the border, got across about 10pm, then hopped in a few taxis and headed to the nearest town, Kuala Besut. We spent a night there but after all the traveling we were just ready for bed. Next morning we were up early and on the first bus to the port. There were two options when we got there, a slow boat and a fast boat. We splashed out and got the fast boat - they weren't lying. Two outboard 200 horsepower engines. Think formula one car on water. We absolutely flew across the South China Sea.

The thing about Malaysia, is that most of the population is Muslim, and non drinkers, so the government know that they can tax drink as much as they like, and it won't affect the voters. So they do. Heavily! Coming from the 8 weeks we had endured, our bodies deserved a break, so we decided to take a few days of detox. We ended up staying a week on The Perhentians, most of which consisted of afternoons on the beach, sunset games of beach volleyball (the 5 of us managed to somehow win a set against the locals; an average height advantage of two feet each probably helped), and then a rather large evening meal at a restaurant owned by a lady from Carrick on Suir.


We had planned to do a few activities there, but our laziness kicked in, and the fishing and diving trips were put on hold. The one day we did something was a snorkeling trip. We had expected to see coral and a few fish, but as you see from the previous blog entry, we were greeted by Turtles and Black Tip Sharks. The boat driver assured us they wouldn't bite, but there was one moment, when there were about 6 of them circling us, that I wasn't too confident. Kevin Eddie versus a Shark could be a good storyline for Jaws 5.The last night before we left was a bit of an adventure too. Having booked the 7.30am boat off the island, we decided to get an early night and were in bed by 12. We were reading and listening to music for a while but once the lights went out, Ed spotted a rat - a BIG rat. So Ed "informed" us, and we turned on the light for a look. Sure enough there was a fairly sizable animal on the wardrobe. At this point, 5 of us were in boxer shorts standing on Ed's bed, Darragh with a skipping rope for protection (the Rat's natural enemy). If you looked in the window you'd have been worried. So anyway, deciding that there was no way we could sleep, we went down to the bar for a nightcap. We regrouped and tried to come up with a plan for the night. Option 1 was to sleep on the beach, but then it started raining so that was out of the question. Option 2 was to go back to the room. Having a quick think, we realised that the rat only came into the room when it was dark, so the lights were to stay on anyway. Then we decided that the rat would figure out we were asleep, so we needed some noise, preferably conversations. There were two options on the iPod - the Michel Thomas Spanish lessons, or Darragh's collection of Ray D'Arcy podcasts. We went with Ray, hoping that the rat wouldn't figure out that he was listening to an Irish Morning Radio show. We fell asleep eventually - Trick woke at one stage to see a rat climbing into the frame of my bed, but thought better of waking me thankfully. We survived!

Kuala Lumpur was our next stop, and a lovely spot. After the rat adventure we decided to go for the posh area of town and found a lovely hostel walking distance from the shopping malls. KL is very western, quite like times square. The shopping centers are amazing. Very posh altogether. Mick wandered into what he thought was a car showroom at one point - turns out it was the car park! The food court of the shopping center was about the size of Dundrum Town Center.

The sightseeing was a weird experience. The Petronas is free to go up, but unfortunately you need to be there early. Well, earlier than we were there anyway. So we went up the 460m KL Tower instead. It was 8 Euro to go up which we thought was a bit steep, but the views were well worth it. It made the skyscrapers below look like a Lego city. In addition, for some strange reason, included in the price with the ticket to go to the top, was entry to a zoo, a Telephone Museum, a pony ride, and a trip in a Formula 1 simulator. Not too sure what the logical connection is, but it justified the price to some extent. The Zoo was a bit of an awakening. Spiders, snakes, and all sorts of life threatening creatures - all of which seemed to live in Australia. Not looking forward to meeting them again!

The F1 simulator was interesting too. We're planning on renting a vehicle of some sort in Australia, and this was a bit of an audition for the drivers seat. I finished a respectable 10th in the race, Ed somehow crashed on a straight, and Darragh went one better, toppling his vehicle! They can cook or something!