southeastasia – Kiwis Do Fly

It Is Always An Adventure, Visas, Flat Tyres And Snakes

Published on August 23, 2024 by kiwisdofly23 Comments

Cows joining us for our afternoon beers at the beach

Getting into Thailand is never been difficult for us. We have been here each year for the past three years. We never planned it that way but there you go, we are here again. We have never had to be here for more than 30 days, so never thought about the visa requirements. This time we are in for a longer stay. The Thai government increased the stay in Thailand for a lot of countries from 30 days to 60 days, effective from 1 June. Perfect timing, we are arriving on 11^th. But, Alas, No. On arrival, the immigration guy said this was in fact, only a concept. 30 days it is then; we will get an extension. This trip we require exactly 60 days.

I was curious to know how this extension thing works. We had been told by friends in Thailand that it is easy, just go to the place and pay the money (equivalent $85NZD) and voilà, extension granted. This sounds good, but being me, I was still a bit concerned. What if they say no for some reason? I feel immigration people have so much power it is frightening. Quite often it seems to be an opinion, or interpretation of the rules by the individual guard, and if they got up on the wrong side on the bed that morning, then you are screwed! And have you ever noticed that different airlines seem to have different rules? Picture this, same day – New Zealand passport holder number 1 – Go to Malaysia on Batik Airline, you need an onward ticket from Malaysia to board the plane, New Zealand passport holder number 2 – go to Malaysia on China Eastern Airlines – you do not. Go from Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico on InterCaribbean Airlines, you need an onward ticket from Puerto Rico, take the same route the day before on Frontier Airlines, and you do not. (we actually missed that flight all together – but that is ANOTHER story all together!!) Really??

The people at the immigration office in Hua Hin were so nice. We ended up going twice as we needed proof of where we were staying in Thailand, along with photos, our passports and the signed application form that we already had. We were given the correct paperwork from our awesome homeowners landlord and within minutes we had our extension. Our friends were right, it is very easy, job done!

As we have been to this part of Thailand recently, it takes no time to settle back into the old neighbourhood. Our homeowners head away on their adventure, and we are left with 2 adorable big dogs. Our daily routine starts with 6am dog walk. We were introduced to a French family at the end of the street with 2 dogs and we end up enjoying our daily morning walk together. It is so wonderful to meet people you know will always be friends, our different nationalities and language challenges makes no difference.

We are very lucky and have been left a car and bicycles to use. We head out on the bikes a few times until one day we stopped for coffee, and when we got to get back on the bike, I realise I have a flat rear tyre. We are about 6 km from home. So I start walking the bike and Chris cycles back to get the car.

Chris heads out on a journey a few days later alone and wham! Another flat tyre. But, this time he was about 8 km from home. If anyone knows Chris you will know – of course he did not have a phone on him. So a long, hot walk back for him. This time there are 3 punctures in the one tube, so a new tube goes in. A few days later we notice that the front tyre on the other bike is flat. Another patch! We realise that the thorns from the trees along the beach road are killing us!

Our friend Cristina very kindly has now lent us her motorbike. This is more like it! BUT… First time out – guess what! Flat tyre – Yes, it is true! We had been at the Wyndham resort to celebrate my birthday. On the way there we were thinking that the tyre felt a little soft going over the bumps – but with 2 large Kiwis onboard……. what did we expect! One completely new tyre later, we start to wonder what it is with us – 6 wheels and 6 punctures, not bad odds! Thankfully that was the last of the flat tyres.

It was incredibly hot for the first few weeks, and then the rain started. At last, some relief from the heat. We manage to fill our days with dog walks and food hunting. I joined a group and did yoga a couple of times a week and played cards and board games once a week. We try all the local restaurants and marvel at the price of some of the menus. You can eat incredibly cheap here if you stick to the local places. $3 for two, flat rice noodles with chicken, Pad Thai, including soup. And so tasty! We love it how they take your order and start chopping, bit of this and a bit of that and within a very short time you have the most delicious meal in front of you.

A bit more expensive at the bigger restaurants but still, very cheap for us spending New Zealand dollars. We occasionally cook eggs on toast at home, but there are so many places to eat around, so why dirty the dishes at home?? Occasionally we crave a burger or something like that but we love Thai food so much that we never get tired of it.

fish cakes, fried cashews and tempura veg and squid – and of course a couple of large Chang!
Honey toast with ice cream – actually really good!
Mango sticky rice – one of my favourites!!

It is interesting, the condiments for the Thai food. There will always be bowls or small packets of fish sauce with small green chillies, chilli powder and sugar. Sugar goes into almost everything and then you have the opportunity to put more in, it is quite different to what we are used to. This is not unique to Thailand, it is the same in Malaysia. There is quite a problem of diabetes here, I guess you can see why.

Squid boats on the horizon starting their night fishing

Oh the snake!! Driving into our drive we see a green tail disappear under the gate. It is an electric gate, runs on steal wheels along a rail – you know the type. Not sure what the tail belonged too, lizard? Snake? Gate opens, park the car and go to see where “it” went. Oh no! the gate wheels had chopped the snake right in half! You could not have done this if you tried, the poor snake. He was not a poisonous one and he was quite pretty but chopped in two places! Unbelievable!

Next house sit is back with our dear friend Cristina with all the dogs. We only spend 3 days here this time as she takes a well-deserved weekend off. All the dogs remember us! There are a few new ones, but it takes no time to win their affection. There are a few there who we would dearly love to bring home, but importing dogs from Thailand to NZ is pretty difficult.

A bit of gardening with Tank and Rosie supervising

Last house sit is in the same neighbourhood as the first, 2 dear wee cats, Mumma and daughter. They are pretty timid, but it doesn’t take too long for them to come round, especially the Mumma. We continue to visit with friends from around the corner and eat our way around the district.

One of our favourite things is to go down to the beach about 4pm, have a couple of large Leo’s sitting in the bamboo salas, watch and listen to the ocean, order some ridiculously cheap food, and just enjoy our surroundings. This is what it is all about!

One of our favourite spots to while away an afternoon
Caught in a storm – what is one to do??
Feet in the sand, delicious food and great company – this is the life!
Walking with the girls

We spent 2 months in Thailand, 3 house sits, 46 dogs, 2 cats and 1 snake later we are heading back to Australia. We always have such a wonderful time in South East Asia, it goes too quickly!! Sad to say goodbye! But we will see you again!

Thank you for reading our story

Retimed To Langkawi

Published on June 24, 2024 by kiwisdofly2Leave a comment

We seem to be faced with many reschedules, cancellations and delays to journeys these days, it is becoming a bit of a worry. Is this a thing now or is it just me?

Flying over Mount Taranaki, North Island, New Zealand

Last year our flights to South East Asia were changed last minute, and we had a major re shuffle just days before flying. Now this year, similar things happened.

Chris had a flight booked, a through ticket, Auckland to Langkawi. We have had a couple of bad experiences with 3^rd party booking sites in the past, so now we always make sure to book with the airline itself. Not sure if this is recommended by all, but we feel it must be a little safer. On the long journeys we like to book afternoon flights, so they go through the night and with a “get to the airport 3 hours prior” we don’t have to get up at stupid-o’clock to get to the airport.

So, Chris is booked for Sunday night 1800 take off, Auckland to Langkawi. A few weeks before, he received an email – your flight has been retimed. What’s this new word we keep hearing – retimed?? Hmmmm, is that to make it not sound so problematic? Anyway, his flight is “retimed” to 0630 Monday morning. Really? That means getting to the airport at 0330!! NOT our favourite thing to be doing.

The flight has two stops, Perth and Kuala Lumpur. Remembering this is a Through-ticket, the first 2 flights have been retimed but the KL – Langkawi leg remains the same – that is, it is leaving KL before it arrives. Well, this wont work. A couple of emails later, they change that leg to work with the rest. Nice.

4 days before the flight, another email to say the flight has been retimed. And again, only the first half changed, which means, again, that he would arrive in KL after the flight to Langkawi has left. No mention of this in the email, it is as if they don’t notice it, or mention it, then it isn’t a problem. It is a problem for Chris though, how is he meant to get to Langkawi? There is not other flight until the next day. So he chooses, this time, for full cancellation and refund. Cutting it fine though, this is 4 days before he is due to be meeting me in Langkawi to start a house sit.

A new ticket is bought, leaving Sunday night (no stupid-o’clock get up) arriving in KL in plenty of time to get a flight up to Langkawi – but via China! Oh Well, at least he will get there, though be it, the long way round.

Meantime, I am flying from Brisbane to Langkawi, a through ticket, booked through the airline, via Denpasar and Kuala Lumpur. And I DID have an early get-up! I Checked-in online so line up to drop my bag. Where is your onward ticket from Malaysia, she asks? Eh? You cannot board the plane without an onward ticket from Malaysia, she said. Really? We have been to Malaysia several times, is this new? I really think that different airlines have different interpretations of the rules. Chris did not have to have a forwarding ticket. But you cannot argue, you cannot question, they have all the power in the world to stop you from boarding the plane at the end of the day. So over to a chair I go to book and pay for a flight out of Malaysia. Done.

Back into line. You have to pick up your bag in Kuala Lumpur, she says. Dam, but this is a through ticket! Why? Again, you cannot question. Ok, whatever you say.

My plane was 90 minutes late leaving Brisbane, we didn’t get off the plane in Denpasar, 1 hour on the ground. I won’t have much time in KL to get to my Langkawi flight.

On arrival at KL, I see on the board that my flight has been “retimed” yay I have an extra hour to get through. I go through immigration, (by the way, he didn’t want to know about my onward ticket!!) I make my way to the carousel; my bag is nowhere to be seen. I ask at the lost luggage desk, he says that as I am effectively in transit, then I should have gone to the transit desk air side and my bag would have been there. Oh? I say, dam, missed that memo.

Ok so I have to get back through. By now I am running out of time and feeling a bit panicked. I am talking to Chris on the phone, he is here at the airport too but at terminal 2, and about to board his plane to Langkawi.

I finally find the place to go through to domestic departures and show my boarding pass to be told that my plane has left! Eh? Did I miss read the board? I actually did question this this time and took the lady to the board to show her, I had also received an email about the retiming, so I was pretty confident that I was right. So yes, the flight had NOT gone, and she let me through.

I got to the gate and told the attendant that I didn’t know where my bag was, that I was told to pick it up and it might still be at the transit desk at international arrivals, but I didn’t know where that was. He was so very kind and said, Madam, take a seat and relax, it will be fine, you bag will be on the plane. So, I sit, and the plane is delayed again, so I have lots of time to unwind the tight coil of worry that has wound up around me. At least I was at the gate, and I had not missed the flight.

I arrived in Langkawi and there was Chris to meet me and, to my amazement, there is my bag!! Miracles do happen.

David, our home owner, picked us up and we went to Cocos bar and that first Tiger beer did not hit the sides and was delicious.

As the sun goes down on Langkawi, so good to be here!

We made it!

Thank you for reading our story!!

Tiga Pulau – Three Islands

Published on June 29, 2023 by kiwisdofly23 Comments

Langkawi, Malaysia

Tiga Pilau, this is the name of the place we are staying here on Langkawi Island, Malaysia. We only found out the other day the significance of the name, we couldn’t work out the reason for the reference to tigers. It turns out that Tiga is Malay for Three and when you look out from the beach right Infront if us there are three islands, it really is quite beautiful. They are three of 99 islands which make up Langkawi. Beyond those three islands, you can see more land, it is a magnificent backdrop and it is actually Thailand that you can see.

Langkawi is approx.. 478km2, 29km long by 16km wide, 99,000 population. Only 4 of the 99 islands are inhabited. Fun fact – Langkawi is an amalgamation of the Malay vocabulary “helang” (eagle) and “kawi” Sanskrit for the bird’s reddish-brown tone.

It is a very easy and cheap flight from Kuala Lumpur, less that $40NZD each. Our lovely home owners were at the airport when we arrived. This is a really popular place for Malaysians to come for vacation as it is only an hour flight from KL and you are transported into another world. A lot slower world. The term “island time” springs to mind.

We have 4 days with our owners. Doing the usual familiarisation of the house, pets, and surrounding community. We find that there is everything you could ever need right here in this village. Then it is our turn for a trip to the airport to see them off on their 8 week trip to Europe and Canada.

We have 2 dogs here to look after and a separate little house which is used as an Air BnB, which has guests for the first week. The property is huge with loads of trees and lots of grass to mow. There is a jungle area out the back as well, complete with monkeys! And lets hope – no snakes!

The house is amazing, it has been built to blend into its surroundings. it is completely open throughout the main areas which allows the breeze to come straight through. The pool is right in the middle of the house which has an air-conditioner effect of keeping the place cool.

We have settled into a nice routine with walking the dogs on the beach morning and night, doing a bit of garden maintenance in the mornings, picking up fallen branches, leaf raking, mowing and trimming, then we head off to explore in the afternoons. We are so lucky to have been left a couple of Ebikes, kayaks and a car.

Being right on the beach means we, almost always, have a breeze. It is so hot here. We thought that Vieques, Puerto Rico was our hottest location so far with its high humidity, but we think this tipped the scale. So having the sea right there is a Godsend! It is a sandy beach but from the mid-tide water line there are lot of rocks so it is not the best for swimming, but we only have to go 2-300m down the beach and are able to get in for a dip. We have found that just a 15 minute bike ride from here is Tanjung Rhu beach. What a beautiful spot! Wide white sand beach with water a bit clearer than our beach, lots of shade trees AND a restaurant! We spend a bit of time here, reading our books under a tree and dipping into the water to cool off – the sea temperature is hardy cooling though at 30°C (86°F), it is like a bath and you depend on the breeze after you get out to do the “cooling”. The water generally on this side of Malaysia is not the crystal, gin clear water that we have seen in other places, but still pretty good.

Tanjung Rhu Beach
Locals will light little fires right there, under the trees, to cook their lunch

Langkawi is a duty-free island! Yes that is a fact! It was awarded duty-free status in 1987, to make tourism more affordable for Malaysian tourists, since then, international tourism has also increased. So the beer and spirits are very cheap. The wine is about what you would pay at home – but it is duty-free, so doesn’t really make sense. A bottle of New Zealand Mud House Sav is 55MYR, but a litre bottle of Stoli Vodka is 34MYR ($11 NZD) and a 24 case of Tiger is 60MYR. But you must admit, there is nothing nicer than an ice-cold beer on a hot day! And at those prices, we are not holding back!

The food here in Malaysia is wonderful and Langkawi is no exception. Here in our little village we have many restaurants and food stalls. You would never go hungry in this place. And everything is so reasonably priced too! There are also dry goods supermarkets, fruit stalls and veg shops. Sweets stands, ice-cream, fried bananas – everything for Breakfast lunch or dinner and everything in between. Thai food, Malay food, western food, fried food, steamed food, noodles, rice, chicken, fish, anything you could ever desire. It is always a bit of a lottery as to what will be open and when. Breakfast goes until about 1pm and lunch is still considered lunch at 4 in the afternoon. I think you just eat when you are hungry and eat whatever you feel like at that time. It is not unusual to have curry for breakfast and it is quite palatable especially if it is at 11am. Nasi Lemak and Roti Canai are usually eaten in the first half of the day.

Nasi Campur – rice with smorgasbord of many dishes
one of our regular Nasi Campur restaurants
The burger stall

We have the best night market of the island. There is a Night market every single night somewhere on the island. Our Market is on a Friday night and it really is fantastic! There are so many stalls, all the stall holders are so friendly. We just cannot help ourselves and always come home with enough food for two days! Fried Chriken, Koew Teow, sweet corn pancakes, Nasi Goering, Vegitable Baji etc etc etc…. a lot of it is “deep fried goodness” as my gorgeous friend Karen would say – but oh so delicious! Each dish will usually have some sort of sauce in a small plastic bag tied up with a rubber band to go with it, yumm, Friday is our favourite day of the week.

Our village is called Ayer Hangat, we are on the North side of the island. With the geography of the island we are actually facing West and we get the most beautiful sunsets. We are a bit away from Pantai Cenang, which is the really touristy part of Langkawi. We are also on the opposite side to the main town of Kuah (which, by-the-way, means “gravy”!) This part of the island is very traditional, not so many tourists over here. It is so funny when you see a car over this side with a big red “M” sticker on the windshield, to get a free drink going through the McDonalds drive-through. It seems so crazy to think that only 20 km away is a McDonalds, KFC, Shell Gas, cappuccino’s and latte’s, when we’re out here in this very traditional village, with food on the street and a cash only society.

We love cycling through the Kampongs, the little villages in behind the main roads. The roads are so narrow, one car width, sometimes gravel, sometimes tarmac. It’s absolutely beautiful and so peaceful. There is a variety of traditional houses and really huge modern homes. There are always kids running around, playing on the streets. They always have a big wave and “Hello”. As you look up you can see the mountains behind, so rugged and lush covered in jungle. Cycling alongside a little stream almost reminds me of the towpaths and Holland except when you look around you see banana trees, coconut palms, the odd little grove of sugar cane, it’s all very green and lush and very much Asia. The water in the stream is pretty milky looking but there are still Lily pads and Lily flowers. Then you come to the rice paddy fields and the roads criss cross the paddy fields. Bright green rice fields, with cows seeming to be roaming free. One of our favourite places to go.