The Voluntary Instinct

Volunteering in Khao Lak

We arrived at the busy site in the back of a pick-up. They were building 30 brand new 3 room bungalows. The operation was being run by a German construction company. I was quickly paired up with Wayne of New Zealand. Wayne had made the trip here purely to help out for six weeks. He had saved cash and ensured his business back home would survive his absence. Wayne was great. Good heart.

Our mission was to install window frames to the bungalows. Wayne had been working alone before I turned up. I'm not sure if my arrival helped, I felt I was at least good for his morale! Here is Wayne shaving the edge off a frame in order for it to fit.

My work only lasted 3 days before the volunteer effort was over. The contract was up and it was time to hand the work over the to the Thais to finish. Everything was almost complete, just a few fiddly bits and these bungalows were ready to house the people who had lost all but their lives. This is Wayne and I before the final hand-over.

This was a good experience. I met some great people giving their time and effort to help these unfortunate people. The volunteers came from all over the world to help. Some specifially just to help and others, like myself, lending a hand because we could. The work needed all over Khao Lak was massive. I hope they have returned to some sort of normality a year on from this tragedy.

Similan Scuba Adventures

Dive Dive Dive ! !

Theday after finishing volunteering it was off on a four day, four night dive trip to the Similan Islands. These islands sit about 60 km off the west coast of Khao Lak. We set off in the evening and steamed full speed all night. I was looking forward to the diving, which I had heard was amazing.



















Amazing it was! We did four dives a day for the four days, including my first night dive. Each and every dive site had a completely different make up. Up until this point I hadn't realised how beautifully varied diving can be. The aquatic life was stunning. Although I have no photos of it (you'll have to believe me!), we saw Manta Rays at Koh Bon. Two or Three giant 3 metre wide Mantas circled us for a whole 45 minute dive. This had to be the highlight of the trip.














There were two dive staff and five 'customers' aboard this boat that could carry up to 40 people. We had the run of the roost! Four meals a day and beautiful scenery.

The Similans are a group of nine islands arranged north to south all of similar size and all but one uninhabited. They are actually a national marine park. As a result there is no fishing allowing the aquatic life to flourish. The water was 31 degress centigrade. It was like jumping into an ocean-sized bath everytime we entered the water! This is a Titan Trigger Fish. I have to thank Ina for these photos. Ina was a german instructor.



















We found Nemo too. This clownfish was beautiful and the Anemone had this stunning purple colour to it.



















This picure below is a giant Table Coral with its very own inhabitant. Just underneath on the left you can see the resident Giant Moray Eel. It had a name, something like Emma.















Everybody on the boat was great fun. When we wern't enjoying ourselves blowing bubbles underwater we were fooling around on the baot. Lots of fun. It was great being away from land for a few days. Sea trips can be soul soothing. I have many great memories of this trip.

Back to Roots in Phuket

Cruising Phuket

Because of our good beahaviour on the boat, Ina and Claudia invited us back to thier place in Phuket for the week to celebrate the Songkran fesitval. Songkran is a big Thai festival which is celebrated by a mammouth water fight on the streets. We geared up for wetness and headed out. Before we even reached the town we were ambushed by revellers on the side of the raod at traffic lights with a hug bin of water and water pistols! We walked the streets and bought cheap water guns. The next few hours were spent getting very wet indeed!

Another day we cruised down to The Phuket Aquarium, which had just opened. Not a bad display of life. After seeing it all in the flesh on the Similans it seemed a little too tame to get excited about. This is a photo of a lionfish. Their spines are highly poisonous. Luckily this one was behind glass!














We did a few dives from Phuket. This photo shows me over a Leopard Shark with a message wishing my Dad a Happy Birthday. I thought I would try and do better than just sending him a card and personalise it a bit! Its a shame its a little blurred, but you get the idea!

Beautiful Phi Phi

Road to Recovery

Koh Phi Phi is another island that was all but destroyed by the boxing day Tsunami. A stunning island which consists of a sand bar joining two huge hills. All of the development has taken place on the sand bar, so when the tsnami came in everything was washed out, everything. Shells of buildings remained. People lost friends and family. This was yet another place where nature had unleashed its horrifying torrent of destruction.

Lucas and I got a room and went for the usual walkabout to see what was happening. I knew that Joe Meakin, a dude from back home, was currently living and working on Phi Phi so made it my mission to surprise him with an appearance. Phi Phi is such a small island that the chances of bumping into him were astoundingly high.

And bump into Joe I did! He was running Tiger Bar. We headed to Tiger for a few beers and to catch up. We planned a day trip to Maya Bay, the beach where they filmed The Beach.

Here is a picture of that famous beach. I must say it looked very different from the scene in the film, but it was recognisable. See if you can spot Mr. Di Caprio!

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Here is Lucas, Joe and myself on a boat coming back from Maya Bay. It was a great day out. We did a bit of snorkelling in the bay itself and also walked to the beach the back way, through a passage that looked like it was made for a film, it wasn't. Please excuse Lucas' hand gesture, call it an accident if you will.

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Phi Phi island was wicked. Good fun, as always, was had by all. A few nights there and we were on the move once again. Next stop was Krabi, or Tonsai beach to be more accurate.

More Chilling

Tonsai Beach

We took the boat from Phi Phi to Krabi Town, the bus from Krabi to Ao Nang and finally the boat from Ao Nang to tonsai Beach. It was a long day filled with moving. Finding accomodation on Tonsai was no problem and it was cheap!

I think by this point Lucas and I both knew what we were looking for in a place. Tonsai had it. We needed beach, bar, and every other ingredient needed for a big session of chilling!

Tonsai was surrounded on both sides by these huge liemstone cliffs. As a result many people come here to rock-climb. Everyday we saw people hanging on for life half way up these huge faces.


















Travelling is full of surprises. One surprise walked striaght up to us and said "Hey". Steve aka Captain America was staying next door to us. It was good to catch up with him again. He had stayed for a further two weeks on Koh Phangan while we were off diving. Heres a picture of the three of us doing what we did best. Chilling.














Tonsai was another fire-spinning hub. Everynight, without fail. I never tried it. I don't have the coordination for that type of thing. I'd only end up with 90% third degree burns. Watching was much easier.














I captured my photograph of lightning just after a sunset. I wasn't aiming for it I just caught it, by accident! Its not the most stunning picture of lightning you will ever see.

Malaysia

After two full months in Thailand it was time to move on again. Uncharted territory. We crossed the border overland with no problems. Jumped in a taxi sharng with a nice dutch couple, Sonder and Manja. Our destination was Kota Bahru. It was from here we could take the boat to the Perhentian Islands. We had a little trouble with the Taxi driver communicating our desired destination, but we got there in the end!

This was my final few footsteps in Thailand.

Boats with flags, is all I can say about this picture. This was taken just before we got on out speedboat heading for Perhentian Kecil.




















Perhentian Kecil

This island was beautiful. I'd be hard pushed to say it but I think it was more beautiful than any of the islands I had visited in Thailand. Maybe Phi Phi was on a par with it. The water was crystal clear and the sand was powdery and almost white. The green was greener than any green I have ever seen. This is a view of the beach from the path coming down from the huts we were staying in. It looks quite nice doesn't it!?

Lucas and I went out for a dive. The boat driver had snuck off with the boat when we were supposed to be going out so the guy gave us an hour to grab breakfast and a 50% refund for the day, making it a very very cheap days diving. The diving was brilliant. I don't think I've ever been in water as blue as it was there. Bluer than blue.

A couple of evenings we decided to tuck into the bottles of Sangsom we had brought with us from Thailand. These nights were forgettable, in the sense that I can't remember much of them! This picture shows from left to right: Manja, Sonder, Me (looking a bit tanned), Will and Lucas. I had to make the picture bright because I was blending in with the background!

Welcome to the Jungle

Taman Negara

From The Perhentians we headed on train to the Tropical rainforest national park in Taman Negara. The humidity was high and the canopy was dense. All the signs were there to say this really was a tropical rainforest!

We walked around exploring the different trails that were open and mapped. Some of the life was stunning, both animal and plant. My finger was poised on my camera trigger full-time.

We met a group of three English girls and took a look at the Canopy Walkway. This 'rope bridge' was suspended 50 ft above the ground amongst the tree tops. It was surprisingly long and sturdy. They recommended a 5 metre gap between walkers to avoid stressing any one area too much.

Big Buildings in KL

Kuala Lumpur

Lucas and I took the train south to the Malaysian capital city, Kuala Lumpur. I'm not a huge fan of big cities anywhere in the world soI didn't have massive expectations about this one. I was pleasantly surprised. KL is a very modern, clean and navigable city. There is clearly a lot of money there and as a result the city is well looked after. We didn't have long, so we organised of plan of action for the couple of days we were there and got stuck in.

The world famous Petronas Towers were at the pinnacle of the priority list. One can't come to this city and not see these spectacles of modern architecture. It involved an early start to join long a queue to get our hands on the limited free tickets for the ascent to the skybridge 44 floors up the 88 story buildings. The skybridge is a connection between the two towers put there as a safety measure to avoid any evacuation problems if 9/11 was to re-occur here. This is me on the skybridge posing for the camera.

Walking around KL I found a few tributes to my name. There was a brand of beer called 'Carls'.

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Lucas and I were in a stationery/bookshop and found these office items with our names printed on them.

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I also found this. The world-famous CARL Punch! I can't believe they haven't been sending me royalties on all this blatant expliotation of my name!

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This picture reminds me of the kind of city KL was. Tropical and advanced. There was a lot of order here. People got on with their lives. It was quite a stark contrast to the Malaysia I had seen up until this point.

Bali Bliss

Bali

We picked up cheap flights with Air Asia from KL to Denpasar, Bali. Travelling from Malaysia to Bali overland would have required far too much effort and time, so we opted for the easy cheap flight option. Cheating in a sense, but also wise.

Bali was a magical, magical place. The pictures will do most of the talking here. Everyday I was presented with opportunities to snap fabulous pictures. The sunsets on Bali was magnificent, like no other I'd seen previously.

Lucas and I got a room in Legian slightly north of the terrorism plagued Kuta. Leagian was lively but not over the top like Kuta. We got a nice big aircon room with en suite and balcony very cheaply.

Not long after arriving we hired motorbikes and cruised south to Ulu Watu on the southern tip of the peninsular we were staying on. Ulu Watu is one of the surfing meccas in Indonesia with world-class waves rolling in everyday. It was the first time I had encountered waves with such raw power. We sat and watched the dare-devil surfers waiting to catch a break. The guys out there were clearly not beginners!

We stayed until sunset, which, as you'll see, was a bit special.


I picked up an underwater housing for my camera on the cheap in KL and had plenty of opportunity to get some pics that wouldn't be possible without it. This was taken on our day trip to a beach, the name I'll have to update after consulting my diary.

I also snapped this whilst there. There were some great surfers there. I had a go but quickly realised it was something that takes a lot of practice to get good at. Plus it was a touch dangerous for the inexperienced. Sitting and watching was as good as taking part for me!

Here is another sunset taken on the beach at Kuta. The colours, as you'll see, are stunning. This picture was taken with a touch of tampering on the white balance, but the result is pretty cool. The Frisbee sunset.

We got a couple of days diving in too. Our first trip was to the north of the Island to Tulamben. Tulamben offers an old U.S. Warship wreck sitting at around 20 metres underwater. This was a memorable dive, and one of the best I've done to date.

The only time I was seen standing up on a surfboard in Bali. I couldn't resist!


We took a cultural tour up to Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali. Ubud was great. One of the major attractions in Ubud is the Sacred Monkey Sanctuary. Monkeys walked the grounds free to interact with their human onlookers. This is a great picture of a mother and child.

They were extremely well behaved, up until the point where one decided to jump on my head and check through my hair for nits!



This I took in the grounds of out guest house in Ubud. I was getting totally obsessed by photography by this point.

We booked another dive trip out to Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida, the two islands off the east coast of Bali heading for Lombok. The diving was again very nice indeed. The water was a little too cold for me. The silly thing is it was 27 degrees C! Not cold really, its just that I had been used to diving in the bath-warm waters of Thailand and Malaysia. 27 degrees had a bit of a chill to it! This is myself at the end of the second dive of the day.

After the days diving we got dropped on Nusa Lembongan to stay for the night. What a beautiful place this was! Another gem! I was due to fly to Sydney, Australia in a couple of days so unfortunately we could only spend one night here. However one night was enough to take this picture, which, for me, is without a doubt the greatest sunset picture I've taken.

To Australia it was. Another continent. The end of my Asia chapter and the beginning of a very new and different chapter.

My six months in Asia were phenomenal. Truly an experience of a lifetime. I gathered enough memories to last the rest of my life and for this I am so wonderfully lucky. I left Asia feeling content that I had seen and done everything and more than I ever imagined.