Christmas Island.

Accomodation on Christmas Island always looked like it was going to be a bit of an issue, and is something I have been trying to resolve for quite a while. From what I could find out on the internet, there is no form of cheap hostel or backpacker-type accomodation, and the only options on offer on the Christmas Island Tourism Association website seem to be expensive resorts and luxury cabins. There is no way I can afford $150 per night for a couple of weeks!

So helped out by Katrina at the Christmas Island Tourism Association I got in touch with the local newspaper, The Islander. The paper is published fortnightly, and they kindly placed an advert for me, asking if anyone could help me out, by maybe renting me a room or lending me a couch for a few nights.

I also finally decided it was time to find out more about "couch surfing", which has been mentioned to me a few times as I have travelled. I registered at couchsurfing.org, which is a network of fellow travellers who help each other out with travellers accomodation - a couch to stay on - surf the world from one couch to the next. I think it's a fantastic concept, as I already know that you meet some amazing people while travelling. I will certainly be offering a couch if and when I ever settle in one place again.

On the website I found only one person on Christmas Island with a spare room to offer, and contacted Braydon, fully expecting his couch to be occupied for the crab migration season. Not many backpackers ever make it to Christmas Island, he has only hosted three people, and I would be welcome to use his spare room. Brilliant!

I finally landed at Christmas Island at around 7pm, about 11 hours later than scheduled, and the friendly customs officer asked if I had found any accomodation yet - he had seen my ad in the local paper! I was met outside the airport by Gordon, who had also read about me in the paper and had emailed me. He runs Island Taxis, and had kindly offered to give me a tour of the island and drop me off at my accomodation. However, it was now dark, and the open air cinema had just started it's showing of "The Taking of Pelham 123". "I also run the popcorn stand there," Gordon told me, so I quickly rang Bray. "I'm at the movies!"

Gordon knew Bray, everyone seems to know everyone here, and pointed him out on the outdoor cinema bench. We said a quiet hello, but couldn't speak much more for the next couple of hours, as we watched the movie, which was pretty good.

On the way to Bray's apartment we had to weave around on the road quite a bit to avoid the occasional crab, and on just outside the flat I got my first close-up look at one of the Christmas Island red crabs, which was climbing up the wall there! It was pretty big - seeing thousands all on the move together will be awesome!



Thanks to Gordon for the airport pick-up and potential accomodation, and Bray for the spare room. Can't wait to see the crabs out in force over the next few days!

Deja vu again.

It's been another long day of travel and waiting today. I managed to get a few hours of sleep last night on the airport floor in a quiet corner tucked away behind the closed restaurants. There were a few other vagabonds bedding down there too.

I got up at around 5.30am, and went to check in, and we were in the air shortly after the scheduled departure time of 7am. It's a two hour flight to Christmas Island, and on the way the captain informed us that the island was shrouded in fog, and we would have to hold for a while. Eventually the fog cleared a little, and a landing was a possibility.

I got a brief glimpse of the island through the thick dark clouds as we lined up, but on the bumpy final approach full power came back on just before touchdown, and we climbed steeply again. The captain told us that conditions had been to bad to complete the landing, and as the forecast offered little hope we had to make the two hour return to Singapore.

The rest of the day back at the airport seemed to slip by quite quickly, helped by a fantastic complimentary meal, and access to the premier lounge. I am now a fan of premier lounges! It's a whole new world in there! Free beer, wine, coffee, food, TV, internet, massage chairs, and more. The rest of Singapore airport is really good too - X-Box games, a gym, gardens and relaxation areas - plenty to fill a day on standby.

Our flight was re-scheduled for early evening, and the same small group of people sat in the same seats again in an almost empty plane, and there was plenty of humourous chatter about the familiarity of the occasion.

We followed the same route out again, except this time Singapore was lit by the last rays of sunset, instead of the first rays of morning, and we were served dinner instead of breakfast. On the flight south we flew by a huge thunderhead, lit from inside by spectacular flashes of lightening. I managed to catch one photo of the cloud lit from within.



Despite the problems, SilkAir did a great job, and the staff really looked after us. I seem to have developed a really relaxed attitude to the travel recently, and am simply enjoying the journey for it's own sake. It helps that I have plenty of time to spare at the moment, as the crabs aren't going to disappear from the island anytime soon!

Malaysia to Singapore.

After my overnight stop at Butterworth I was up early to stock up for the day on the train. However, things didn't start too well as the restaurant that the night before had told me that they were open 24 hours a day, was now closed. "Holiday!" explained the guy cleaning the place.

I finally found some breakfast and bought some food and drink supplies, and made my way to the station, ready for the long day ahead. With typical Asian efficiency, there was no sign of the train at 7am, and it finally arrived at around 7.30. It was almost an hour late when we set off at around 8 o'clock.



The time was never made up, and at the end of the day, we were supposed to get in to Singapore at 9.30pm, but were an hour and a half late. By then the local rail link to the airport had stopped, and I had to get a taxi, negotiating in Aussie Dollars, as I had no Singapore currency, and there was nowhere open to change money, and no cashpoint either!

Anyway, I finally made it to Changi airport, and am now sat on the cold floor at midnight, waiting for check-in to open around 5am - another long night ahead!

I have been pretty lucky with the flight to Christmas Island. Because the timing of the migration of the crabs has always been a bit vague, I have held off buying a flight, until dates became a bit firmer. There is only one flight to the island per week, coming in from Kuala Lumpur, and I eventually decided that Saturday 28th November would be the ideal date to fly in.

However, by the time I had made my decision, something had happened with the airline that ran the flights from KL, and a new airline had stepped in to fill the gap on a temporary basis. The new flights are now from Singapore to Christmas Island, and the big advantage is that with Singapore being closer than KL to the island, the flight is now cheaper by $200. It's still not fantastically cheap, as you really are a bit of a captive audience - it's the only way to get there from Asia, unless you sail.

The downside is that the new, temporary service ends tomorrow too, so as far as I can tell at the moment, I am on the last flight in from Asia, with no idea when, or even if, the next flight will return to Asia! Oh dear!

Back on track.

I have been on so many flights over the last sixteen months of travel, that when an alternative is presented, it is usually very appealing. While searching for flights from Bangkok to either Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, I stumbled upon a website about rail travel in Thailand and Malaysia, where it was suggested that it was possible to get all the way down to Singapore for around $50 to $60, way less than half the cost of a flight at the moment.

When I arrived in Surin last week for the Elephant Round-Up, I made sure that one of the first things I did was to book a train ticket back to Bangkok, as I had read that the trains back filled fast, and if I left it until the Sunday, it might have been hard to get a ticket. The best option appeared to be the overnight sleeper train on the Sunday night, which left around 10pm, arriving at 7.30 the next morning in the city. Ticket price - cheaper than the day train, at less that $13.

The sleeper trains are great. The carriages are pretty old, but the whole journey is so atmospheric. Returning from Surin, the beds were already made, and you just climb in and settle in for the night, as the train rattles and clanks steadily westward. In the morning you are woken at around 6am, and the top bed is folded away, and the carriage returned to seating configuration. At each station people board the train selling food and drinks. It's a slower pace of travel, and it's nice to just stare out the window watching the country pass by.

And so after a couple of days back in Bangkok with my ex-brother-in-law Tony, going out as often as possible to eat and drink beer, I made my way once again to the railway station yesterday afternoon. I had decided to take a sleeper train again, taking a couple of days to head down to Singapore.



Stage one of the journey is from Bangkok, right down through Thailand and across the border into Malaysia. Departure was around 3pm yestarday afternoon, and I shared my seat area with an interesting Italian guy who had been living in India for over 30 years.

At around 8pm the seats are converted to beds, and I had chosen the bottom bunk for this trip, discovering on my previous journey that they are bigger, darker, and have a window when you wake up - well woth the extra couple of dollars. I slept really well, and in the morning lay in bed watching the world go by again.

Beds were changed back to seats again, and I ate the last of my food, having stocked up for the journey with the very last of my Thai Baht. We eventually crossed into Malaysia, where I saw one of the most amusing border crossing signs I have ever seen, and I've seen alot of border crossings recently too! This one described what could be classed as "hippy" characteristics, grounds enough to deny someone entry to the country! I managed to snap a picture of it subtly when none of the border guards were looking! Brilliant. Click the picture below for a bigger version that you should be able to read:-



Around lunch time arrived in Butterworth, a mainland port town just by the island of Penang.

I was tempted to take the ferry across to Penang, but by the time I had changed some money, sorted out the next part of the rail journey which starts early in the morning, found a hotel and had something to eat, I really couldn't be bothered. I have been to Penang before, so decided to have an easy afternoon and evening, and took a bit of a stroll around the rather industrial Butterworth.

I hadn't realised that tomorrow is a big holiday in Malaysia, and I think I was lucky to get a ticket on the train leaving at 7am. I'm not particularly looking forward to this next section of the journey, 14 daytime hours from here down through Kuala Lumpur and onward to Singapore.

The timing is pretty good though, as I can get to the airport there late tomorrow evening, crash there for the night, and be ready for the early morning flight out to Christmas Island.

It's certainly going to be a long few days of travelling! My thanks to Tony for his wonderful Bangkok hospitality. Good to catch up again.

Goal 66 - Elephant Round Up.

The main elephant show at the Surin Elephant Round Up takes place on both the Saturday and Sunday mornings. I had gone shopping for a ticket on Friday, and had bought a ticket for the second show on the Sunday, as Saturday was selling out fast.

This morning I wandered to the stadium, buying a couple of BBQ sticks for breakfast on the way from one of the many street-cart vendors. One of my favourite things about Thailand is that you never really have to consider food. You can simply wander around, and there is a wealth of great stuff on sale from carts or small roadside restaurants anywhere you go.

I bumped into Irene again at the entrance to the stadium, but had to go our separate ways, as we had different tickets. For a while I sat chatting with the Thai family in the seats next to me, and enjoyed the show, which ran to pretty-much the same timetable as the rehersal I had seen on the Thursday morning.

Once again, my favourite part was when over 200 elephants streamed into the stadium from all directions, and circled around in the centre - absolutely breath-taking.



When the elephant tug-of-war was announced, an invite was issued for the "farangs" (foreigners) to come down onto the field, and I couldn't resist the chance to join in, meeting Irene again on the way to the middle of the stadium. Our team of around sixty of us were fairly easily beaten by the incredibly strong elephant.



Irene was pretending to be a press photographer, and simply stayed down on the edge of the field, so I did the same, and had a brilliant front row view of the elephant football game. Next we waved cameras about and blagged our way into the expensive seating, and high up in the stands had a great view over the whole field for the mock battle finale.



What an awesome spectacle the whole event is. This year is the 49th time the festival has been held, so I suspect next year will be a huge event, and I would heartily recommend that any elephant fan should make the trip to experience this incredible gathering.



Thanks again to Irene for her "press-photographer" skills, and for blagging one of the Surin 2009 floor mats for me as a fantastic souvenir.

Goal 65 - Riding in the Elephant Parade.

Well, here's another example of achieving a goal in a manner way beyond what I could have hoped for or expected. I had heard rumours that tourists could ride the elephants (for a fee, of course!) in the Elephant Parade, as the elephants make their way from the start of the route, which is right outside my hotel, to the Elephant Buffet Breakfast site.

I was up early, and in the hotel lobby I got chatting to Irene, who was also wondering about riding an elephant in the parade. We decided to pool our resources and share the cost of an elephant taxi, and before long Irene had found us a pretty large elephant for the journey.

Outside the hotel preparations were in full swing, with colourful floats, dancers, and elephants all arriving in the square. Irene introduced me to Darlien, our 30 year old female elephant, and Peter, our mahoot.



When the time arrived we climbed up onto a tall fence, and then one foot on Darlien's huge head, and up onto the seat. It seemed very high up, but the ride was very smooth and steady, and we soon relaxed.

The parade began, and we all filed down the main street, which was wonderful - a huge long line of elephants ahead and behind us. The atmosphere was very festive, the parade route lined with school children, families and holiday-makers.




The journey lasted about twenty minutes, and we were eventually dropped off at a tall platform just before the elephants entered the roundabout area, and on into the buffet.

Irene and I followed a couple of elephants into the buffet street, and I was slightly surprised, having lived mainly in health-and-safety obsessed Western countries, that nobody seemed to mind, or wanted to stop us. But we weren't the only ones, and the street was filled with a mixture of people and elephants, all wandering together. Both busily taking photographs, Irene and I soon got separated in the crowds.

The elephants tucked in with enthusiasm to the huge spread of tasty elephant treats, and I wandered around happily among them. It was incredible to freely wander around among the huge animals, and I was amazed at how relaxed and gentle they were when you fed them something. All the elephants seemed very aware of people around them, and always avoided collision, but you had to keep a wary eye behind you as they tended to approach quiety, and were right behind you before you knew it.



I loved every minute of it, picking up some bananas or corn, which seemed to be the favourites, and offering them to a passing elephant, which would collect them gently with it's trunk, if it wasn't already well stocked up.

The atmosphere was wonderful, and I walked the length of the buffet a few times, sometimes taking pictures, sometimes just enjoying weaving in and out of the groups of giant creatures towering above me.

What an absolute delight! Thanks to Irene for joining me aboard this goal, and of course to Darlien and Peter.



Some video of the event here:-



More pictures courtesy of photographer Boaz Rottem:-

Pachyderms practicing.

A speedy and exhilarating, but quite nerve-wracking ride on the back of a moped taxi through the Bangkok morning rush hour traffic got me to the train station in about twenty minutes flat, a journey that may have taken around an hour in a taxi cab. The 2-car train rattled slowly eastwards for around seven hours, and I got off at Surin with quite a few other fellow travellers to be greeted by several elephants and their handlers waiting at the station entrance.

I wanted to linger a while, but also knew that I should secure a hotel room as soon as possible, as the town's accomodation fills fast in the build up to the weekend's festivities. I had met Joy on the train, a veteran visitor to the Elephant Round Up, this being her fourth time, and she suggested I try The New Hotel first, right by the railway station. As I passed the elephants, one reached it's trunk out, and I patted it - the first time I have ever touched an elephant.

I managed to get a room without trouble, in the mis-named establishment. It has been many years since this place could have been called new! However, even when the price per night doubles for the festival weekend, the cost of my room only becomes around $10 per night. Marvellous.

Joy gave me directions to the wonderfully vibrant street market, and I dumped my bag and went for a spicy dinner, chosen from the vast array of tempting and mysterious foods on offer. After a quick chat with a few other regular Round Up veterans, I decided to have an early night, as I had discovered that there is a dress rehersal for the weekend's big elephant shows first thing in the morning at the stadium. It is not advertised, but you can go along and watch if you want.



I was up early and bought some breakfast (fresh pineapple) at one of the street vendor's carts, and then walked to the elephant stadium. I found a good spot at the front just before the start of the rehersal. The place was packed with school groups and hundreds of other elephant enthusiasts.



The show was pretty spectacular, but the best moment by far was when all the elephants filled the stadium field at the same time, approximately 250 elephants streaming into the centre of the football-pitch-sized arena from all four corners, circling around in the middle, then all sitting down. It was quite breath-taking.



I watched entranced as elephants played football, threw darts, painted and twirled hula-hoops, and one elephant easily beat a group of 30 volunteers in a tug-of-war. After the show rehersal I wandered the streets, fascinated by scenes of elephants wandering around in the busy city traffic. I took a walk past the Elephant Buffet Breakfast site, which is scheduled for tomorrow morning, and was amazed at the staggering amount of food being prepared. I guess 250 hungry elephants can get through alot of fruit.



After lunch, back at the hotel by the railway station, I made a start on this blog, but was interrupted by elephant trumpeting just outside my window. I went out to investigate, and grabbed a bag of sugar cane from one of the mahoots (elephant handlers) and fed an elephant. It really is incredible to be able to wander around freely with these huge creatures, and to have it nudge you with it's trunk for another piece of food, which it delicately takes from your hand. What an experience.

Check out the video from today's pachyderm practice event:-

One night in Bangkok.

Well, three nights in Bangkok, actually. My ex-brother-in-law Tony has lived in Bangkok on and off for around six years now, and I haven't seen him for over four years. So I thought that as I passed through Bangkok on my way to see the Elephant Round Up, it might be a good chance to catch up again.

I have passed through Bangkok a few times before on my travels to and from Australia, so it is nice to be back again. It's a huge, busy, chaotic, fun city. One of the things I like most here is the huge wealth of really cheap, really tasty food choices. Absolutely everywhere you walk there is a huge array of little street carts cooking all sorts of tasty-looking foods. A decent chicken-fried-rice as a pavement restaurant costs around a dollar, and is usually delicious.

Today I had a few practical things to do out and about, so met Tony close to the school where he teaches English, and we went for an early lunch. Afterwards i took the bargain tourist ferry along the river, a fantastic 20 Baht (around 60 cents) to travel almost right across the city on the river.

The river is a splendid chaos of barges, ferries, long-tail boats, floating restaurants and assorted other craft, all vying for space on the crowded water.



At my ferry stop I made my way to Bangkok-Backpacker-Central, the must-see Khao San Road, packed with dreadlocked, baggy-trousered travellers from all over the world, scouring the fantastic street market for t-shirt, flip-flop and DVD bargains.



A cab ride took me to the railway station, where I booked my ticket for a seven hour train journey tomorrow to Surin, to the east of Bangkok.

All organised for the next two goals now, I hope, although accomodation arrangements in Surin are a little sketchy at the moment - I'm sure it will work itsef out, it usually does - so we're off out for a few beers tonight!