Food Critiques of Penang

4th to 9th October - Penang & Cameron Highlands

Our next stop off in Malaysia was Penang, a place i’d almost dropped from visiting as i knew very little about it, all i’d read online was the sheer quality of food and that, no surprise, interested me. Another boat and a good five hour minivan ride and we landed at our hotel where bags were dropped and we headed straight to a close by mall. After several months out here i’ve fairly mastered the whole ‘traveller’ appearance of sandals and no interest in shaving however within minutes i felt as out of place as i did when we first arrived in New Delhi! We walking around the mall looking for bits and bats and everyone was dressed up in jeans and shirts, not a sandal in sight! None the less it didn’t stop us from exploring the whole place and having an evening of normality. Our first full day was hilarious, hands down one of the funniest things we’ve done out here. We planned to walk around the streets of George Town to spot all the street art created by Ernest Zacharevic along with seeing some local temples. We walked past this side street that was renting out these colourful, six seater buggy type carts and we instantly got one for an hour. Driving around beeping these comical horns and peddling to the fastest the thing would go. Almost everyone we saw burst into laughter and started photographing us, six British guys on this thing causing mayhem of the busy roads. For further comical value i even filmed us pulling up to a petrol station and attempting to fill the buggy, the staff saw the funny side thankfully. We managed to see a lot more of the town which was great, until i jumped off for a quick photograph to find the guys had began peddling off and i ended up chasing them down Little India, one of the close by districts. 
     During the evening we managed to visit a Burmese temple, Dharmikarama. Fairly interesting as far as temples go with loads of interactive things to do. As mentioned earlier the food was incredible in Penang, there was two meals that stood out, firstly a lemon chicken dish served with rice and accompanied by a three layered ice tea. It was absolutely jaw dropping, i love the Chinese dish and it had blown any others out of the water by a mile. Secondly we read of trip advisor about a place down town that did the best roasted duck, they weren’t lying. Apart from the fact it was served quite cold (thats normal out here) it was brilliant. I think half a duck cost something silly like £4. On another day we got another few places we wanted to see out of the way, starting with The Snake Temple which Ingham had been to a few years back on a family holiday. Unfortunately there wasn’t as many snakes as expected and the place seemed very quiet, but none the less i’m glad we went. If we didn’t, i’d of been kicking myself thinking about how it could of been. Kek Lok Si was next on our agenda and after being dropped off by our taxi in the wrong place we walked through this market for a good 10 minutes before reaching the place, however we saw much more doing it this way including this pool with gigantic terrapins, never seen anything like it. I use to own a few when i was younger and they didn’t get to a 10th of the size. It was a huge temple with loads of complex architecture but absolutely no information that i could find, so because of that it wasn’t the best. 

     I’d been looking forward to Cameron Highlands quite a lot ever since planning this trip to Asia, unfortunately it didn't live up to expectations, this could of been due to the weather, constantly throwing it down during mid-day or simply we struggled to find where the hikes began as there was no wifi at all! None the less we had several days of relaxing instead but still managed to go and see the most famous strawberry farm in the area. A waffle, cheese cake and milkshake later (of course everything was strawberry flavoured) definitely helped make my decision that the strawberries grown here were superb. We were happy to leave the area but also felt quite underwhelmed, i'm sure the areas great but unfortunately we didn't get the best of it! Onwards to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia where we couldn't wait to meet two more friends from home, Paul and Jenny.

 Lanterns going into a local temple in George Town

 One of my favourite street art pieces

Two more that can be seen around George Town

 Interesting architecture was everywhere

The guys in our six man speedster

 Rival speed squad...

One of the street vendors clocking me while i photograph him

 The best lemon chicken i've ever had!

 Dharmikarama temple. You had to throw coins into cups that read 'prosperity, health' etc.

 Ingham, Rob and Dan

 Taken from the bell tower at the temple

 One of the only snakes at snake temple!

 A farther and daughter feeding the terrapins

 I said there was quite a few of them!

 Kek Lok Si Temple

 Street vendor just across from our hostel at night

The view from our apartment in the Cameron Highlands

The Malaysian Beaches

29th to 3rd October - Perhentian Islands

Our day began still on Koh Phangan with a ferry we were told arrived at 10:00AM, turns out our information was completely wrong and getting down into Malaysia was going to be a lot more difficult that first thought. With a wait near the ferry until 3:00PM, on the mainland of Thailand it didn’t get much better, we waited a few more hours until nearly 8:00PM before catching a night bus for a further 11 hours to the boarder! It was the longest day we had endured yet racking up well over 24hrs. A brisk walk at sunrise got us to the Malaysian boarder and through we went, ready to begin yet more travel to the Perhentian Islands. I don’t know how but i began speaking to a local guy, he was quite possibly the happiest man i’ve ever seen, he had travelled loads himself and went off telling me about his journeys to England, Canada, Italy etc. He gave us loads of tips for our destination and after we failed at bartering a taxi to the right price he actually argued for us and got a price everyone was happy with! His wife wasn’t too happy for waiting around whilst he helped us, i think they were off to Thailand themselves for a little holiday. I felt like i was back to real travelling once more, Thailand sapped that drive i had in other countries, everywhere we visited was built for tourists and you don’t see the real people of the country. After an hours drive there we are again sat on a tiny speed boat shooting towards what could only be described as paradise! The two islands looked beautiful with white sand beaches and crystal clear waters, in comparison to other islands we had visited there was nothing on Kecil, the smaller of the two. We chose this as our home and grabbed somewhere with air conditioning for the first night, mainly to recover after the journey. 
     What came over the next two days was such a shame as we had high hopes for Perhentian, every meal we had on the island was average at best, as an example, i ordered a spaghetti carbonara one evening, i know that typically Western food is worse but its never horrendous. The cream and butter had split making it look grim but half way through i decided to tilt the plate and sure enough i managed to pour around 100ml of oil straight out of the pasta. I wanted to complain but with the staff being so relaxed they just wouldn’t of cared even if i did. One restaurant actually turned us away because the chef “couldn’t be bothered to make anything”. We were in paradise but angered at the lack of enthusiasm the people there had. Luckily on our third and final day the entire place was redeemed with the smallest of things. We simply booked a snorkelling trip which turned into one of the best activities in Asia so far. Our boat driver and guide topped it off with generally being great! He couldn’t of been better and instantly glued with the whole group, tormenting me with the fear of sharks and even throwing bread at us whilst were in the water so fish swarm at us! It was a great laugh. The coral and array of fish was insane, i’d never seen anything like it and we had so much time there. The fish in a multitude of colours would swim all around you, hundreds of them. Each time we got back into the sea we thought it couldn’t get any better until i scratched a big thing off my bucket list, our guide took us to turtle point and went around gently until he spotted one about 10-12 meters down and in we got. I got the chance to swim literally side by side with this huge turtle, i kept up with it swimming for some time before the turtle began going deeper. It was absolutely amazing and even now i’ve a smile across my face that i got to do it! To top the whole day off i moderately conquered my fear of sharks! After a few moments of panic stood in the boat, our guide threw fish heads into the sea to lure the sharks and shortly after i was in as well. The black tip sharks never got too close thankfully and i’m so glad i did it! At one point i saw three swimming together with the largest being around a meter and a half. Sure they’re not great whites but this will do for now! 
     I felt like i could now leave the island happy in knowing i’ve got the most out of it. I’d still advise anybody to visit just for that experience, the near no wifi, electricity blackouts for up to six hours and the feeling of being cut off from the outside world was actually really good. It allowed you to remember the fun of exploring and just lounging around. Wifi i’ve found out here is typically just a distraction. If i could access my blogs and photographs just once a week, i’d be happy with that!

The 'almost' deserted island we planned to stay on for a few days! 

And our 30 minute boat journey to the island was on a fairly small boat

 This is just to show how crystal clear and blue the water was

 We were literally surrounded by thousands of these fish whilst snorkelling

 Me after just jumping in!

 One of the turtles we swam by throughout the day

The Islands we Craved

12th to 29th September - Phuket, Koh Phi Phi & Koh Phangan

As we flew into Phuket i was gob smacked at the beauty of the green islands scattered through the light blue sea, it looked absolutely amazing, that was me itching to get exploring! After a short taxi ride we arrived at the best accommodation we had yet, big rooms, comfy beds and a damn good pool, best thing was it was all below budget. With me being far from healthy and the guys just wanted to relax thats exactly what we did for several days, hanging out by the pool and eating at the hotel. Our second night however, we decided to go to a quiet bar and have a few drinks which i was just about feeling up for. After a cheap sweat and sour chicken we were directed to a place called Bangla Road, even though i'd researched Phuket i'd never heard of it and wow we were in for a surprise. The place was more hectic than Bangkok! Instantly we had 20+ vendors offering us ping pong shows, night clubs, you name it. We settled down in a bar on the far side where you get offered matches of connect 4 and jenga for free tequila shots from the staff which in turn made our 'quiet night' into a much bigger event. We spent hours going from bar to bar laughing with people and getting the main part of our drinks for free, i'd admit this was the best night we had in Thailand so far, much better than what Bangkok had to offer. For the next two days of our stay in Phuket i stayed in, trying to eat plain food and try to get back on track. Several of the guys headed out for yet another round of bars and told me of their crazy antics the morning after, at times i was glad i stayed in, not to mention how bad the weather turned, a tropical storm had come down from Vietnam and began battering the surrounding islands of Phuket.
     We set sail once more to Koh Phi Phi via a quick taxi followed by two hours on a ferry. If you've ever watched the film 'The Perfect Storm' you'll understand around how choppy and dodgy the ferry was. Waves were bouncing off both sides to the point where the window next to me began leaking! Ingham hates the sea and generally anything to do with it, he slept for the first half of the ferry thank god but woke up half way through and quickly went pail! I don't blame him, even i was a little on edge! We jumped off the boat into the relentless rain and quickly found our new home for 7 nights, it looks absolutely nothing like what we booked but it was a bed and air conditioning, got the basics at least. The first two days it rained again none stop and we struggled to do anything apart from eat and sleep but finally the clouds began to clear and we had the choice of two very different beaches within a 5 minute walk from us. Firstly an incredibly shallow and slightly murky water bay which was good to just lay in, where as the other side was deeper and very clear. I didn't drink a drop during my stay at Koh Phi Phi as i began to get even worse, one night whilst the guys went out to the parties on the beach i was getting stomach cramps and started to actually pass blood... Sorry for the information! But this obviously got me incredibly worried and the next morning i went straight to hospital, they took a blood sample and asked a million questions, thankfully i was told my chances of survival are very high and with some antibiotics for a stomach infection i was on my way and within a few days i was beginning to feel my real self again.
     Nearly two weeks of feeling horrible got me quite down in the dumps as i'd done next to nothing but we finally headed out and began sea kayaking which was awesome, i bought myself a snorkel kit and parked up our kayaks at a place called Monkey Beach which, you guessed it, had loads of monkeys on it, that was fairly cool but the actual snorkelling here was much better! I'd never done it before and to be swimming with these fairly large, colourful fish cheered me up no end, only panicked once about sharks as well! We did the same on another day because we enjoyed it that much and later on hiked up to Koh Phi Phi viewpoint, nice and easy hike with a cool view of where both bays almost meet in the centre of the island. We bought most of our food from this restaurant called Cosmic which did surprisingly, really great Italian food for damn cheap, it sorted me out in terms of staying away from spice and grease whilst recovering. It was a good place for a none alcoholic drink and a few card games. Our time, even with a week there passed very quickly and before long we had planned our trip over to Koh Phangan for the biggest party of the month, the full moon party!
     Koh Phangan mainly consisted of sitting around the pool and drinking beer, that was our aim for the island and it was definitely achieved, its not something i’d do again on this trip but with five of your best friends you’ll struggled to have a bad time! It was nice to chat to other people as well, they had mainly arrived just for the Full Moon Party but because of that they brought a different, fun vibe with them. The beach was littered with bars and loud music every night we went down but the best place by far was Mellow Mountain, a really relaxed place where everyone sat with cushions on the floor. After one of the nights we jumped into a pick-up truck for our lift home, about a 30 minute drive with crazy roads and fast speeds... It was once way to get an adrenaline rush! All six of us were bouncing around in the back whilst the driver couldn’t care less, great fun though, it was like being on a rickety roller coaster. The Full Moon Party itself was like any other night on the beach but with 10 times more people, getting anywhere became a struggle but the atmosphere was brilliant, everyone was in high spirits and there to generally have a good time. We sat on the beach and watched the sunrise in the traditional manner of the party, it was a good ending to a great night. 

 Sunset at Koh Phi Phi Viewpoint

 Enjoying the beaches for the day

Monkey Beach which was only a short 15min kayak away

 Leaving the islands and heading off to Malaysia

The Thai Mountains

6th to 11th September - Pai & Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai and got ourselves onto the minibus heading to Pai, even further into Northern Thailand, we never originally intended on heading this far but with previously meeting up with Jenna and Josh, we wanted to continue with their route. The 3-4 hour journey was not only the best luxury public transport we've had so far but the views were amazing, mountains surrounded us whilst the clouds rolled through these huge valleys. This to me felt like the real Thailand, the Thailand i'd seen millions of photographs of and where i wanted to be. We jumped out of the minivan at the main market in Pai, i'd read about it being a great night time market with shops, food and bars. First thing we noticed was absolutely zero pestering. Not one person came and tried to sell us something, it was a far cry from Bangkok... Thank god. Jenna and Josh headed off to their own accommodation whilst Ben passed me his phone and i rang ours. To my surprise the guy was English! Turns out he's from Brighton so getting picked up was nice and easy. That first night we were starving and ventured down the hill where our new home was and into town, down the hill however, there must of been a pack of like 15 dogs. During the day they're harmless but at night time, they follow you, barking and at times its a bit unsettling! I kept thinking, just you wait, tomorrow we'll have scooters and you won't go for me then! The next morning thats exactly what we did and from then on, they stayed at a distance haha.
     The scooters here seemed great due to the vast countryside which was filled with little gems, the first day with them we travelled out towards a waterfall, where after a small walk we were knee deep in water exploring and then grabbed some food at 'Strawberry Farm', didn't have any strawberries but it was definitely the best pad thai i'd had so far! Getting towards the late afternoon we had heard of Thom's Elephant Camp, a local lady who's family had cared for elephants over several generations. I'm usually very wary of anything involving elephants as i think they belong in the wild, end of. However this appeared to be a well kept place that genuinely cared for the elephants. It was completely free to go stroke them and throw some bananas straight into their mouths, entertained us for a good 20 minutes before one of the ladies there told us that the elephant here, whilst pointing to one in particular, will pick you up. Surprisingly with not much peer pressure Robin decided he would volunteer as tribute and off he walked towards the elephant and within a split second it had wrapped its trunk around his legs, dragged him into the air and began placing Robin in his pen. All at the same time me and the guys had broken down in laughter as Robin furiously grabbed at anything in distance to 'save' him from impending doom. The elephant placed him down reasonably safely as the woman ran in to try and help and before long the elephant then tried to pick her up, it was all far too much for us and tears were almost shed on my part from laughter. I'll always remember that time when Robin almost got eaten by an elephant. The next day we relaxed a little more and simply drove around on the scooters for most of the day before trying to find somewhere to watch sunset, we struggled at first trying to find a good spot but finally settled on an open valley where you could see a storm rolling in across the distant mountains, not a bad view at all.
     The next day i began to deteriorate, i had a reasonably dodgy tasting chicken roti the night before and wasn't feeling great so sat around for the first half of my day, later on the guys had come back and decided to do nothing at all so me, Ingham and Robin headed off to do Pai Canyon, a walk everyone recommended doing if you're in the area. It was fairly awesome, the views were great and half of the hike was more like rock climbing as the path was incredibly thin at points and it dropped down then back up again. We watched sunset which was unfortunately quite underwhelming then shot back on the scooters as it got dark. That night i got worse and worse, turns out i'd got another bad stomach and it kept me in a horizontal position for the final two days of Pai. With our time there done we set back off in the air-con minivan back to Chiang Mai for our final day before heading South and with me still in poor shape we only went out for some food, but it was still eventful to say the least, we saw a sign for a buffet after a near 20 minute walk from our hotel and like eager kids we ran in, paid and got sat down only to realise that we had to cook everything ourselves. Challenge accepted. But it went wrong fairly quickly, all the meats, definitely cut off, were laid out with noodles, rice etc and we just picked up a tray of foods and began boiling our meats. Yes boiling. It was all we had, a pot of water and we had to make do. In all honesty i tried to stay out of the cooking but the guys pulled it off somehow and the food was reasonable. I pretty much just stuck to two bowls of rice since i thought i was dying from the inside out. I'd really enjoyed Pai but can't say i really experienced Chiang Mai, it seemed like too much of a built up city and thats why we didn't give it much more time.

 Having a break from the bikes at Strawberry Farm

 My interesting protection for several days!

 The walk down to a waterfall we found

 Finally a group shot!

 My favourite and only good elephant photograph so far

 Watching the storm come in over the Pai mountains

 Pai night market

 The dodgy, thin path up Pai Canyon

 A hike wouldn't be complete without some climbing

Not great light but at least we saw a sunset at the top!

Bangkok Has Us Now...

1st to 5th September - Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok one night before Robin, Ingham and Ronchetti joined us on our travels so with one swift move of dropping our bags off at the hotel we shot out towards Khoa San Road, the main backpackers spot filled with food, drinks and live music. It had already hit 1:00AM upon our arrival the street was still booming where we met several interesting people, firstly a Thai guy who asked us where we were from in England, he then went on to show us a tattoo on his arm showing the hatred he has for Scousers! Odd but i’m not gonna argue with the guy! Our night only lasted a few hours as we had to get up early in anticipation for the others, so only a few beers down, we headed back. As we awoke we grabbed our things, laughed about the night before and set sail to find our new hotel and wait for their taxi to arrive. Sure enough within an hour here pulls up a taxi with three guys from the Ribble Valley… When you’re half way across the world and have been for near two months, seeing familiar faces is a very odd experience. Smiles and hugs everywhere to be reunited with our best friends and then we got straight out into the busy capital to show them the bartering, street food and generally colourful atmosphere that Bangkok has to offer. We spent the following two nights heavily intoxicated, I’m not going to lie. We travelled up and down the backpackers area meeting people, drinking, dancing and then finally doing something i’ve hugely wanted to try, eating insects! We bought a big bag and shared them out between us, the crickets are far too crunchy however the meal works are surprisingly good! Everything was soaked in soy sauce so the taste probably wasn’t how it should be. The one thing i’m still not to try are the tarantulas, this is a hurdle for another day i think. I keep telling myself to overcome my fear of spiders i must eat one, i’m unsure if this is good logic but you never know! 
     Bangkok was great fun and a brilliant catch up as we also met up with Josh and Jenna another two from Clitheroe who are travelling together but luckily we are doing Thailand at the same time. Then by sheer luck i saw on Facebook that Daniel, a guy i knew back from school was visiting Thailand and with a quick message he ended up joining us during the nights out. On the third morning me, Robin and Ingham decided that Bangkok obviously has more to offer and we set off in tuk tuk to see the local temples. Our first sighting was nothing great but we knew our driver had taken us to the wrong one! We asked to get dropped off at the Golden Mount and he thankfully obliged and we told him he can go. This temple was great, we set off walking up the steps and firstly saw all the large bells hung up along with a gong. We got slightly childish and starting ringing them all before moving further up the hill to the actual Golden Mount which was amazing to see but also the views from up here were crazy, we could see across most of Bangkok, i hadn’t realised the sheer amount of sky scrapers until this point. After this we got a new driver and headed towards Wot Pho, the temple of the reclining buddha which is build on a large area of land with loads of different things to see inside. The attention to detail across the complex was superb with monuments and large spears facing the sky everywhere. Then we finally got around to seeing the reclining buddha, i had seen photographs but never thought it was actually as big as it was! The thing was ginormous! Photographs just don’t do it justice. If i knew anyone visiting Bangkok i’d advise this temple, we spent an easy hour and half here and only left due to being starving. 
     The next and final morning we decided to do something where everyone talks about, the floating markets, its always a mixture of good and bad experiences at them and we hoped we would strike lucky but unfortunately the experience wasn’t great. When we arrived after the long drive our taxi driver told us we couldn’t walk around the markets and we had to pay for a boat, this is a lie and i knew it. We argued for a good 10 minutes before the other taxi driver came across and offered us the boat for a reasonable price, reluctantly we accepted just to get away from my driver! The markets themselves were too quiet and we spent hardly any time there before the boat heading back to shore. Not impressed to say the least! The taxi had waited for us and we jumped back in. He didn’t say a word for most of the drive home and i had fallen asleep during this time in the front. I woke up with this driver screaming in my face “GET OUT, YOU PAY NOW”, by far the worst wake up call i’ve ever had. We were 200m from our hotel and he refused to drive us forward and instead began grunting and screaming like a wild animal. I asked him several times to please stop shouting and it just didn’t seem to sink in. Even when getting the money out to pay him, he threatened to call the police! We did absolutely nothing wrong, he was simply angry because we didn’t fall for the tourist trap that he would surely get commission for. I’m very glad we didn’t encounter him again, could quite easily of put his windows through! 
     With that fiasco over and done with we had a small nap and then set sail for our last night in Bangkok where we met up with Megan, a friend from back in Sri Lanka and a few others she got to tag along. It was once again a great night full of laughter and i’m pretty sure at one point i started working for an insect selling stand, shouting out to foreigners telling them they’re ‘good’. “Step right up, step right up, best bugs in Bangkok”. With a couple of sales and my commission (a few crickets) i was on my way again to the next bar. Bangkok as a whole was so much fun but i felt like at times we didn’t do it properly, i wanted to explore much more than i did, hopefully i will make up for this on our next stop of Chiang Mai and Pai in the north of Thailand.

The bells at The Golden Mount (Wat Saket)

 At the top of Wat Saket

This huge, reclining Buddha is at Wat Pho, it totals 46m long!

 I also became quite obsessed with the temples attention to detail, including spears from their roofs

 The entrances are guarded by huge Chinese warrior statues

 Some of the guys in front on their boat at the floating markets.. Not that impressive of a place

The only passable photograph i captured whilst there

Sri Lankan Culture at Last

24th August to 1st September - Kandy, Adam's Peak & Negombo

After the amazing train journey that was Ella to Kandy we stumbled out of the train station and bartered a tuk tuk driver into taking us up the mountains to our new 4 person apartment. Our first impression of Kandy was quite expected, busy but yet full of greenery. We arrived at our new place and were greeted by a lovely couple who had only just opened up, tea was instantly served and we noted our own kitchen so decided for the first night Christine would cook something traditional from China, we both headed down to the shops in town and bought loads of stuff including breakfast however when attempting to buy sausages i was turned away by the Sri Lankan worker who explained due to the festival happening, no meat or alcohol could be served. No alcohol for me isn't a problem, but meat... None the less the meal was great and after a couple of games of yaniv, the card game, where i betted and lost my bed for the night, we decided to get some sleep. The next day was absolutely packed with interesting things which came by complete chance, we started our day quite poorly, rolling out of bed late morning and only getting into Kandy centre for turn 1:00PM. Our tuk tuk dropped us off at Kandy lake where we had a quick walk around, seeing loads of people, mainly families, already sat down awaiting the evenings parade of elephants and dancers. Within 10 minutes we had been asked by a local to attend a small ceremony where the different performances would be shown to foreigners in a bid to attract more tourism. Reluctantly at first we accepted but soon found out it was free and pretty cool! Around a group of 100 sat down as we watched and photographed these elaborate dancers with drums and got to see one of the elephants all dressed in gold and silk. It was interesting to learn about the festivals heritage and i believed we purely found this ceremony by chance. As the hours went on through the day we had visited one of the markets and bought a few new thinner pieces of clothing to keep the days heat at bay we bumped into this Sri Lankan guy who swore blind he knew us from our accommodation, i instantly thought this was a scam as he told us about a market for locals and that we should go there. He walked us down the road five minutes to its location, took us in and started to show the price differences. He wasn't wrong! It was so much cheaper from fresh fruits to clothing. After a few more minutes with this man we explained we wished to walk around alone and just like that he said thanks and headed off. I was expecting for him to at least ask for a tip, but thankfully we must of been in luck. We got the ingredients bought for tea and ended up at this small fruit and spices stand where the owner began feeding us a variety of different fruits.. Jack fruit, dorian fruit and papaya. It was far from a bad discovery and with a quick, friendly chat and a photograph together we went our separate ways. We had discovered that this local market meant near no haggling required and no pestering. Soon after the sun began to creep below the horizon line and the streets were getting bare, we knew everyone was off to watch the festival begin so we walked to the starting point and took a seat near the end due to it being so packed. Within 20 minutes the police had began closing the road we were sat on, turns out the festival doesn't head down this route! We grabbed our things and shot down the road trying to find a good spot for when the festival began, however so many of the roads had been blocked off we walked for a good 10 minutes before finding this smaller road which was already filled with locals. We decided to get settled here, moving forwards when we could to try and get the best views for the festival. As most things are in Asia, it started almost an hour late and with a poor standing area we saw very little and the festival itself went quite slowly. None the less i'm glad i saw a mixture of elephants, fire dancers and people dancing on stilts. For me, the best part was seeing an entire city come to life for this once a year festival and just how excited the locals got, a good comparison for our country is when the queen visits your local area and the masses appear from nowhere!
     The next morning we got up nice and early ready to push the journey forward to Adam's Peak, one of the most popular hikes for visitors. The hike is typically a pilgrimage for buddhists who would complete the hike for sunrise and begin morning prayer at the temple of the peak. Our train journey was not great by any means, even with second class tickets we stood up on the rickety edge of this train for three and a half hours before finally arriving at a town near by to the peak. From here we got a heavy walk ten minutes up the road to the bus station and luckily ours was just leaving so we jumped on and within a further hour we had reached our accommodation. Bags in our rooms and tea in our bellies the four of us headed out to grab something to eat, i was craving a large meal knowing our hike would be done with no breakfast so we went into a restaurant just down from where we were staying. I was optimistic about the food literally until the moment it was placed in front of me. Not completely sure what i ordered but it was some form of chicken with tomato sauce served with friend rice. The chicken was so dry it was tough and the rice had so much grease i'd expect it to be sieved first. By far the worst meal of Asia so far! Instead of making me feel ready for tomorrows hike i felt ill. Straight to bed i decided where i still only managed around two and a half hours before my alarm shattered my sleep, with a look outside whilst getting my hiking boots on we saw that it was raining quite heavily and knew it was only going to make the morning harder. At this time i was considering calling it a day and going back to bed, however, i knew that i wanted to challenge myself on this trip and it would be the largest hike so far! Rain coats on, we set off. It was a good 40 minute walk before we even reached the start of Adam's Peak where the steps began, when i was told it is a total of 10,400 steps all the way up and down i thought it was quite reasonable, considering a typical staircase. I was completely wrong. Every single step was different in both size and distance apart which meant concentration was a must, within an hour the rain became almost unbearable, i was drenched down to my boxers and my feet was squelching. We wanted to try and take shelter somewhere but the steps were just surrounded by dense looking forest and it was still pitch black. We continued onwards until we saw a group taking a break, they asked how long it had already taken and by the reply we realised how quickly we had done most of the hike, this gave us a new lease of life which was sorely needed when we saw just how steep and slippery the last 20 minutes was! Most of the steps were only large enough to fit your tip toes on and they spiralled left to right making it very difficult. The fog began to surround us and visibility was incredibly poor when all of a sudden another hiker coming back down said we're only 2 minutes away and sure enough we had arrived in no time! We could see absolutely nothing haha! But it was expected, with it being the rainy season i knew the odds were stacked against us but really wanted to do the challenge none the less. We cut up a pineapple for breakfast, took a few group photographs and got heading back down quickly as it became so cold, the coldest i've actually been so far. The walk up was breaking my thigh muscles but the walk down, my calfs were on fire! Thankfully cramp stayed at bay but i realised i was healthier than originally thought, tough mudder must of sorted me out in some way, shape or form. After the long stroll back to the accommodation we grabbed some well deserved breakfast and got to sleep for a good three hours before once more, waking up feeling rough and getting three buses and a six hour train drive to Colombo and to finish off, an hours tuk tuk drive to Negombo where we stayed for nearly a week! We had said goodbye to  during the journey as she went white water rafting but she reappeared on her last day in the country with a bottle of wine, we all relaxed playing cards and said our farewells once more. Negombo wasn't a great place but it gave us time to relax, regroup our plan and get ready for the hectic month that will be Thailand. Sri Lanka, you've been nothing but great to us!

 Young boy on the train from Kandy to Ella

 Everyone hanging out to see the mountain views

 Pulling up to a station

 I wanted his spot the whole journey, so instead i photographed him...

 Kandy Lake

 As the crowds began to arrive for the celebrations

 I'm photographing Ben but sure, a smile is always welcome!

 Dancers with drums

 Dancers once more

 Catherine photographing the photographer

 The local market filled with fresh fruit

 Our new best buddy

 One of the elephants during the festival

No views from up Adam's Peak but heres one of the temples near the bottom