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Archive for January 2010

Bali, dogs and motorbikes

January 29, 2010 Bali, Davide and Kiki No comments

The proposal for Bali foresaw in the order:

6pm: arrival, pick the car up preaviously rented online.

Leave the airport located near Kuta and reach in around an hour the little village of Ubud.

But everything was going wrong…The flight from Kl took off two hours late, cause of a tropical storm, it wasn’t a relaxing one at all.(with remarkable and hysterical Vane’s interferences to scold the bad-behaved passengers in order to forbid the use of their electrical devices). We reached bali in this way, two hours late. As it wasn’t enough, we lost an infinity of time at the immigration office, because it was supposed to pay cash for the visa, but we didn’t have money and there wasn’t the possibility to withdraw. So with a funny game among us make by: “you stay here, I go there.” “leave the passaport to guarantee you will not get away, cross the border explaing that you had left your passaport to another man over there, and …. Where is our luggage???” Eventually in a desert airport we found our way off. But by that time was to late for the appointment with Arif Ailman (the man of the car) We had tried to contact him before, but with no luck! After that, as if by magic, we met the typical weird Italian fellow, who had got the situation and immediately try to help us giving his mobile. Before leaving he didn’t forget to scare us about how difficult can be driving to Ubud during the night, narrow and dangerous streets, no traffic signs at all and a many other stuff. Finally after long argues among us about what to do we get the car.

We are on our car, driving on the right side, to make things even easier, armed just with an embarassing drawn by me map, our trip start. From that moment everythings started to be magic.

Everytimes we stopped asking informations about Ubud, believing we were irrimediably lost they said “keep going stright you are on the right way” for some hidden reasons it was impossible to get lost on the island… and the next days we would have the confirmation, everywhere we would decided to go, with no cognition of cardinal points we definitely have reached our destination. Balinese people are fantastic, always smiling. The island is overcrowded of ferral dogs that we always tried not to hit, but over all there are as many motorbiles as you can’t never image…(ask Simo! he hated them because they were everywhere) The damned bikers are helpful as well. It happened to us to ask infos to a fellow who was talking with his mobile, so we have been scorted by himself. At 11 we reached our awesome hotel without noone of the difficulties that they had foreseen. Some fellows were wating us awake, and brought us to our apartments… yes becouse they were very luxorius and huge: canopy , spare bed, wide bathroom, each with its terrace where every morning they serve the breakfast, everything in front of an ancient swimming pool in a fabulous environment… hang on i forgot a detail: the price 10 euros per night…

All the rest can wait till tomorrow!!!!

Chiara

Kuala Lumpur, the west in the east

January 28, 2010 Davide and Kiki, Malaysia No comments

KL is a young city, the newborn of the southeast Asia, it just exists since over 150 years, it is the most active after Singapore from the economical development point of view.

Kuala Lumpur, the muddy mouth in Malaysian language, in 1857 was a settlement point for Chinese miners, now is the capital of a country which obtained the independence from the United Kingdom just in 1957.

The Petronas Tower are KL’s symbol par excellence, 490 meters high, they had the highest record since 2004. Luxurious and massive, they should be a dream comes true for the inhabitants of KL. A dream about glory and modernity.

We looked astounded at the towers for a couple of hours as well.

We slept in a color full bizarre but funny guesthouse, standing on the ground of a skyscrapers forest in a narrow street rats crowded in the city center.

KL is not crowded and obstructed like Bangkok, is modern clean and efficient. The air that you can breath can be the same of a big Italian City. No smell, no pollution in comparison with Bangkok.

The religion plays a big rule in the characterization of the city, but the will of Occident and modernity win over all.

That’s it unfortunately I can’t have more than a first impression of KL

Tomorrow we are going to live again, next stop Bali.

Ko Phi Phi Don, I could live here!

January 27, 2010 Davide and Kiki, Phi Phi Island, Thailandia One comment

As soon as you get off the ferry it seems to be at the south east Asian sun splash. Color full stalls everywhere, indigenous rasta-men covered with Thai tattoos busy working both leather and wood. The heat is suffocating, lots of people (they seem are not feeling the heat) go past us smiling with over-relaxed looks. The Island is invaded by guys coming from all over the world. Some of them often decide to stop and live some months or years here. Here where everyday is a party on the beach and the days of the weeks are all the same, always Sunday. .

Wandering around the Island in search of our bungalow, we noticed the tsunami safety signs. The traces of the last big tsunami are everywhere even if 5 years are passed.

The rubble everywhere and the rushed re-building mode give us evidence of it. Anyway it’s a little heaven! Beaches are incredibly white and the water is so clear and full of tropical fish. Of course the best beaches are that ones you can only reach by boat, we went by kayak.

The days in Ko Phi Phi went by very quickly. Swimming and having fun at the party on the beach during the night. We had so much fun thanks to two American mates Sean and Zac. They are two young English teachers somewhere in China. We spent some days all together in Krab as well.

In the ferry boat, coming back to Krabi while Simo was recovering from his illness I found my self covered with bubbles like an allergy reaction to something that I must have eaten.

That night in krabi we met Massimo and his wife Om.

He is from Bologna, and when he left Italy he had the same idea as us… to go to Australia, but on his first stop he fell in love with Om, who now is the mother of their two daughters.

The little restaurant, which you can easily find on the main street of Krabi in front of the river is named LA PANZA. We ate something incredible in Thailand: the Gorgonzola, and then we had some delicious tagliatelle Bolognese and pizza.

The day after Sean and Zak left Krabi to go to Kopangan to the full moon party, we were going to KL.

Chiara

All you can eat

January 25, 2010 Davide and Kiki, Thailandia 2 comments

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Chiara nel suo progetto

The restaurant where we had eaten showed this sign, the food, indeed, was really disgusting!!!! This is why, Simo and Vane had to remain in their room the next day because they were feeling unwell and you could easly imagine way … especially Simo suffered from tummy ache for few days. Me and Davide spent the day wandering around the city. e started from Golden Mountain, the highest spot of the city, where stands an amazing Buddist Temple, that you can reach by a little path running all around the hill. For all the length of this track there are huge tibetan bells that buddists can play so that their prays could be heard. Stunned by the repeated strokes,at the end of the tour, we went down the mountain and it was like walking into a hotsmelly oven. We were going into the city’s government area, where among all Ministry’s buildings, stands the palace of the old beloved king BhumibolAdulyadej Rama IX. He, who came to the throne in 1946, enjoys considerable prestige, in his country and all around the world, to have assured to the country a socio-economic stability, even during the most difficult political events. Its reign is also the longest of the modern area. The palace is surrounded by a wide moat, plenty of something like a slimy and thick primitive soup, where live catfish big as me, big lizards and turtles all enormous. They live squashed together like sardines in a tin.

All the ponds in the city of Angelsare full of aquatic life. We believe the reasons for this is the favourable weatherconditions and Buddhist who according to their culture buy and release fish and snakes back into the water. The Buddhist culture believe that animals represent the obstacles overcoming, the victory over the pain, and the achievement of relief.Fish are one of the eight symbols of good luck and they are really important for locals. In the afternoon we took refuge in the famous MBK, mostly for the airco. We soon came to realize that shopping in the major shopping outlets was too expensive and unreliable products, especially hi-tech items. If we rule out original and certified shops (we bought a canon lens) where you pay a little less then in Italy, everything else is a fake. We couldn’t try out any electronics tools. Their motto is “ First buy then try”!! Not really encouraging! (We saw all different size of iphone:big, small, square never seen on any apple store). Our advice for the shopping in the 7-floor shopping center is to buy beautiful handmade pieces, or not bad fake of any brand, if that is what you like! That’s enough city, tomorrow we are going to the sea.

Chiara and Davide

Bangkok, the smiling city

January 22, 2010 Thailandia One comment

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Bangkok, or as our guide Chai called it: CityBangk is caotic, polluted and sizzling. Its inabitants, that seem to be almost all women, they have a particular skill in showing their white teeth, expanding their mouth in great smiles. Their looks are most of all relaxed and peacefull, although the stifling heat and the not so actracting life’s condition, and even when they look tired or worried, they have always a great smile ready for you.

We saw busy women doing humbling jobs, as bent down cleaning streets with tiny brushes, we saw sweaty men working hard in building sites even after the sunset… and they gave us the most gorgeous smiles. There are also “bloody” beatiful girls but there is no vanity in their behaviours. There is instead simply sweetness, this is the differnce between east and west. Also their helpfulness, distinguishes them for sure. We happened to be approached by somebody, who noticing we were lost, tried to give us information and advices, finally, sometimes, they actually couldn’t help us and in this case they had been apologizing for a long time to us, with humiliated looks forgiving we didn’t ask them anything!! And, who knows, maybe it is their friendliness that makes tourists fall in a thai-trap when they buystuff for a price double or triple of the real one. That is anyway cheaper in comparison to Europe. It happened to us with Chai, who approached us in the street telling he was going in the same direction of us…

Eventually it was a valuable meeting, he showed himself to be a good guide. He took us to visit Temples, he explained us all rituals and sacre art, he took us into the river slum as well, place we couldn’t be brave enough to see alone. They did neither seem streets, it was like passing through home shacks where people live. They live squashed togheter along the river… The sacre river which is their transport link, their market, their sever their way out… Chai hasn’t demanded any money to spend all that time with us, but at the end, the boat trip has cost 3 times more then what indicated in LonelyPlanet. We didn’t want to deal with him, we were satisfied, we paid without worring about their hidden business.