Goodbye Beautiful Perth

I had quite forgotten how beautiful Perth is - with King's Park, and the Swan River, the clear dry air, clean streets and windy street corners.

We managed to use every last gram of the 30kg baggage allowance we had purchased, plus a bit more than the 7kg carry-on, and some extra in our laptop bags, and lugged our recent purchases safely back to Kuala Terengganu. We even negotiated the LCCT in KL at one of its busiest times - how come so many people can be up and about at 5:30am? Mind you, we love the LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) because it is so compact and they are very efficient,  no-fuss about getting everyone through as quickly as possible.

So now we are back in Kuala Terengganu, also with its own kind of beauty.

And the air is warm and moist, and we have our own kitchen, and our own bed ... feels like home again.

A few days to veg out before we get packed again - this time with just little bags to pack - and off to Kathmandu for a week.

Family Time in Oz

We went to work with our bags in the car, and then drove straight to the Kuala Terengganu airport for an afternoon flight to Kuala Lumpur. Then we had a 6 hour wait in the airport for our red-eye special to Sydney.

8 hours of sitting up in an airplane seat ... ergggh.

We went to pick up our rental car in Sydney airport, and they offered us a free upgrade to a Falcon XR6 - nice car! And brand new - only 7km on the clock!

So we had a pleasant drive down to Shoalhaven, south of Wollongong. (We had to put the bags on the back seat because it took us a while to work out how to open the boot!)

 We stayed at the Shoalhaven Heads Motel, just around the corner from my (Ruth's) mother's home, and right on the banks of the Shoalhaven River where it opens into the sea.

Then we drove further south to Bega to spend time with my brother and his wife. I had time to enjoy some pleasant walks with Jean, walking the dogs by (in) the river.

We stopped in at this delightful little restaurant on the top of the hill (with great views) for a delicious lunch.

Peter and my brother, Mark, had a couple of fishing trips, coming home with a good supply of Flathead.

 They are not the most beautiful fish in the river - but very edible!

Jean and I bonded over her new iPad 4, comparing with what I have on my (older) iPad 2.

Back in Shoalhaven,  we enjoyed Mum's very pleasant little garden with its fresh vegetables.

 There were a couple of little tasks which Peter was glad to be able to help out with.

We took a trip to Bunnings which of course was just so much fun. (If only there was a Bunnings in Kuala Terengganu!)

And Mum and I shared some times solving problems on the computer.

Finally it was time to drive up to Sydney to fly across to Perth. Virgin (airline) had inexplicably changed our plane booking a few hours earlier than the booking we originally made, which meant that we had to wake up very early and drive through thick fog in the mountains and then creep through peak hour traffic in the outskirts of the city in time to return our beautiful green car and catch the plane to Perth.

The flight across the country takes about 5 hours, and Virgin nowadays provides a meal and inflight entertainment for a couple of its routes (Melbourne to Perth, and Sydney to Perth) which made it much more bearable. But as we got close to Perth we were warned to return to our seats and tighten our seat belts in preparation for a rough ride. We had to circle the airport 8 times, making us over 20 minutes late, because other planes were having difficulty landing. We heard on the news later that one plane had 4 attempts before landing successfully, and others had given up and gone elsewhere.

Many of the passengers were very panicky, and there were a lot of frightened voices and some people grabbed the sick bags as the plane bounced around in the air, swinging side to side as it approached the runway. Even once we were on the ground the plane kept rocking around in the strong winds.

We picked up our rental car (blue this time) and set off for our accommodation. But soon we found many blocked streets with fallen trees and branches. We had to drive a long way around and work our way back to reach the apartment which would be our home for the next few days.

That's the apartment block, right on the freeway - of course the freeway wouldn't have been here when they built it back then. This handy footbridge gets us into the city centre in about five minutes.
 

(The freeway - looking south.)

We have a little glass-enclosed balcony, with double-glazed windows which do a good job of keeping out freeway noises.

Across the footbridge, very close by in the city centre, is Dome - a great place for a delicious breakfast.

Of course, the best treat is a chance to spend time with at least some of my kids ...

Daughter, Jo, lives not far away with husband and sons:

 Taj - definitely a child of the modern era!

And Thomas, just one year old and full of cuteness. Daughter Bea was there too, multiplying the pleasure!

Three days left - and tomorrow is a visit to the dentist - bleh! The dentist in Kuala Terengganu is ok in an emergency, but it's worth taking the time to check with the dentist here who knows me.

I still have a daughter and a brother to catch up with, hopefully. Then back to Malaysia for a few days before we fly off to

Kathmandu (in Nepal) ... because it's there and it has an interesting name, and because we can. :)

Short Break in Krabi (Thailand)

With a few days of holiday time to spare we thought we might just drive on up to Thailand. It seemed like a plan - and then we discovered that our rental car can't be driven across the Thai border. So with Thailand so close we could almost taste it, we decided to go anyway and fly there.

Getting to Krabi.

Krabi is on the west coast of Thailand, slightly north of Phuket - as you can see from this map. The resort where we stayed is only accessible by boat, being on a peninsular among the steep cliffs and islands.

To go anywhere from Kuala Terengganu, we have to go to Kuala Lumpur first. We were delighted to find that we could fly to KL, and then to Krabi in the same day and not have to sleep over in KL.

We were met at Krabi airport by a man holding a sign with our name on it (it's always a comfort when they do that!) and whisked away in a white van through the town of Krabi.

 Clearly we weren't in Malaysia any more ... but in many ways it is very similar.

 We noticed a lot of motorbikes, as well as these vehicles

but we were a little surprised to be asked to shift out of our comfortable air-conditioned van and into one of these.

As it turned out, the tide was really really low,

And the van couldn't go along this narrow jetty to where the boats were now accessible from.

So then we caught our first sight of the long-tailed boats, the water-taxis that run all over the place here.

These boats have a tall prow - unlike the local Malay boats where the prow reaches out flat like a platform - and the owners like to decorate it with coloured cloth streamers.

The boat motor is huge like a truck motor, and sits up high spewing black smoke with accompanying loud noise. The propeller is at the end of a long shaft, about 4 metres long. But the ride is comfortable enough on the wooden seats.

We set off around the headland with a boatload of other tourists.

All around were islands and cliffs, and the ocean was beautiful and clear.

Here and there we saw tourists climbing the cliffs.

Railay Bay Resort

We had booked ourselves into a privacy chalet at the resort.

We had a lovely, spacious air-conditioned room, and a private courtyard with our own outside spa bath.

The dining area right next to the beach provided a lovely relaxing setting for meals.

 

The bay, surrounded by beautiful cliffs, is a great spot for swimming, with plenty of space for the long-tailed boats to come and go.

Island Hopping

We booked an island-hopping tour on the second day, visiting 7-8 islands and beaches.

 We set off in that white speed-boat with our bathers, towels, snorkels etc.

The scenery was spectacular, and we didn't mind too much that we had got wet up to our knees getting into the boat.

Our first visit was (if I remember rightly) Bamboo Island. The beach was beautiful and there was hardly anyone there.

Except for this monitor lizard who seemed to think that we were on his turf.

Then we went on to an enclosed bit of ocean.

Dozens of boats full of tourists had already come through the narrow gap in the cliffs to have a look at this idyllic section of water called "The Room" - or "bilik".

 Just outside the "room", the boats stopped one by one to look into this cave where a number of local workers live full-time in order to get the much-coveted swallow's nests.

Then we went to see the bay where the movie "The Beach" was made (with Leonardo Di Caprio). In the movie it's a beautiful isolated place ... in real life it is packed with tourists!

It was difficult to actually find a parking space for the boat, and the beach and pathways were overrun with visitors.

A tiny swimming area was roped off, to stop swimmers mingling with speed-boats, and Peter had a bit of a dip and some face-time with local fish.

 

Then we went to Phi Phi Island (that's pronounced "pee pee") where we all trooped ashore for some lunch, and a wander up and down a narrow lane lined with tourist stalls - there was nothing there we wanted except we found a little air-conditioned shop selling ice-cream, out of the madding rush for a few minutes.

By now the tide was very very low. We had to wade out to the boat, and some boats had trouble getting out of the bay. We headed out just a short way, and everyone jumped in for some snorkeling. The Asian tourists grabbed life-vests because we were in fairly deep water - Peter and I float regardless.

Peter dived down with our little Lumix camera, and took some nice shots of the local life.

The coral itself wasn't madly colourful, but there were lots of colourful things in and around it.

This angel fish led Peter on quite a chase before he managed to snap it.

Our guide, Nicky had warned us about these - the sea urchins - stepping on them can give a very painful sting - and said this was why we should stay in the deeper water so we don't have accidental stings.

Then he surprised us  all by bringing one on the boat for us to have a close look at it. The thing was writhing around in his hand as he held it high and dry.

Exploring Railay Bay

That evening there was a delightful sunset to watch looking out from our restaurant.

The next morning we went walking across to the other side of the peninsular, and then down another path to a third beach at the end of the peninsular hidden between the rocky cliffs. We had just settled into the warm, clear water at the deserted beach, when the tourist boats arrived with hundreds of Asian tourists visiting a cave with some sort of a shrine in it.

We disappeared into a watery cave for a lovely swim.

There are a number of little islands and caves right close to Railay Bay,  so we rented a canoe and went for a bit of a paddle around.

After all the climbing in and out of boats and swimming and walking I was beginning to feel my age (aagghh!) and Peter persuaded me to make use of the spa - I had a relaxing massage with this delightful little Thai lady!

The tide went out again, too far to even allow a decent swim in our own bay. So we retired to our chalet and our private spa for a few hours.

In the morning it was time to get up and head back to Malaysia,

Yeah, it would be nice to visit Krabi again some time!

And it's nice to be back in Terengganu.