one: Singapore, Krabi and Koh Phangan

So the kickstarter of my Asia tour was to celebrate the 21st birthday of one best friend, K - in Singapore and then in the beautiful Thai island of Krabi! I had 2 nights in Singapore and 2 in Krabi before heading elsewhere in Thailand. Although I didn't see much of Singapore, I liked hanging with the locals - it's not the most exciting city for sightseeing or adventurous tourists - and the SHOPPING. Thailand, however - I fell in love with it from the first sight.

My first impressions of Singapore (having really only been in the airport in the past) were of a westernised Asia - the streets are relatively clean and orderly, and everyone speaks English, but the signs also have Chinese, and there are food places/street stalls in the alleyways! It was the perfect transition from Australia into Asia, even if it was more low-key.

Capsules @ Little Red Dot: great hostel, cost a bit more than usual (around $35/night) but worth it for semi-privacy of the novel 'capsule' beds, good comfort, included breakfast and great friendly staff.

I spent my first night in Singapore with a uni friend, who brought me to a typical yum cha place and then shisha and beers on Arab Street. Arab Street was amazing; coming from Sydney, where there are few places that do shisha and they're all excessively over-priced, an entire pedestrian street of cheap shisha and decently priced alcohol was great. We went to a relatively expensive one, but I did have the novel experience of using vodka as a base instead of water - not bad! Apparently whiskey and cider are also do-able too - maybe on return to Sydney... [EDIT 02/02/15: Singapore banned shisha last November and these shops will no longer sell it by 2016. Sorry you missed out!]

Arab Street: the photo does no justice to this ridiculously long street filled with various shisha places.

The second day I went shopping with the bestie after her plane touched down. We dropped by the famous Orchard Road, but my real highlight was Bugis Street. You could buy anything and everything there, for a pretty damn cheap price! Bargaining totally acceptable too. The other highlight was the food: trying durian for the first time in a pancake, having chestnut and sugarcane water, Asian sausages and fish wrapped in banana leaves ... Some at Bugis Street and some at the biggest food court I've ever seen (but also forgotten the name of) - loved the Bugis Street treats, I'm a street stall girl all the way!

Bugis Street: the biggest mango I've ever seen!! Bigger than my head, I swear! Tasty strawberry juice from this stall.

After being spoilt at K's family dinner celebration with a great buffet (including sashimi), we hit the bar at Marina Bay Sands Hotel called KuDeTa (also famous for their infinity pool, which I would have loved to visit with more time and money ...) The view was incredible and the cocktails were great.

The incredible view from Marina Bay Sands Hotel's KuDeTa, with the lovely birthday girl and sis.

Next stop ... Krabi! Spoilt again despite it not being my birthday, we stayed at the Sheraton Hotel. We did a boat tour of the islands, stopping to cross the 'separate seas' just after low tide. These are formed by a high sandbar between two islands, which disappears in high tide but can be walked across. We also snorkelled and saw hundreds of hungry fish, plus cute parrotfish nibbling away at the coral - you can hear their 'beaks' underwater! Plus our local companion took us to his favourite lagoon where not too many tourists go, where we picked up starfish (man, they have weird suckers!) and I made the fateful foot injury stepping on coral, which has only just started healing 3 weeks later ...

How amazing is this view!! Pool by the beach at the Sheraton Hotel.

Although the stay was brief, we also wrote wishes on lanterns and released them into the night sky - a beautiful sight, and makes me want to come back to see the main lantern festival! (Although our guide told us generally the lanterns all wash up in Indonesia instead of floating up into the heavens romantically ...) The oher thing I want to come back for is the phosphorescent plankton - Joe (more details below) said if you go even just knee-deep into the water and disturb them a bit, they will glow beautifully late at night. For the return trip, I guess ..

We went all out and got a lantern with fireworks, shooting our wishes into the sky ...

Oh, and the food - the food was AMAZING. There is definitely much more to Thai food than pad thai and pad see ew! My favourites included a spicy mince dish called 'da pow' and the bird-feather seaweed. In particular, we were treated to the spicier southern Thai foods. I loved almost all of it, but the only thing I recommend avoiding at all costs is the green bean that comes fried or raw - looks like a green bean, but tastes much, much worse...

Some of the food highlights: mangosteen, stirfried rice served in a pineapple, and bird-feather seaweed (which is native to south Thailand).

After Krabi, I had a one day stopover in Koh Phangan. Planned with a college friend T, we thought we had perfect timing and would make the half moon party. As I sat on the ferry telling some people excitedly about my one-day plan, they replied, "interesting - there was a half moon festival last night ..." I stayed hopeful, thinking maybe it was a two day thing ... but it definitely wasn't. Still, I got some cheap bargains on the island (filling my backpack early), and chilled out at Chaloklum on the opposite side of the island for a while - free and unexpected entertainment provided by locals doing some group dancing on the pier.

Dinner at restaurant Hai Thong, watching the locals dance on Chaloklum's pier.

After dinner I joined T at the main party beach, Haad Rin. Even without the full/quarter/half/black moon parties, the beach always has a line of stalls giving out free shots (yes, actually free) from friendly Thais holding very inappropriate signs. Among other things, we played a game of popping balloons, and bought a full cup of whiskey for $6. Safe to say much fun was had, culminating in a scooter ride home at 4am to our bungalow in My Phangan.

Inappropriate signage at Haad Rin, which has apparently always been there ...

So Singapore was a nice ease into Asia; Krabi was a bit of a surprise luxury getaway that already had me falling in love with Thailand, its food and its scenery; and Koh Phangan was a heck of a party, even after missing the half moon party. After less than a week, I left familiar faces and ventured further into Thailand alone ...

Travellers crossing paths

I'm trying to keep these posts relatively short on words giving only the main highlights, but have met so many interesting people on the way that I thought it'd be fun to profile some of them.

So from this part of the trip, our guide J was definitely the highlight. Originally from Boston, he had been in Krabi for the last 3 years. He's passionate about craft beers, currently aiming to distribute his own beers and doing some cool things with bamboo - not revealing the whole idea here, but if you visit Thailand in the next few years and your beer comes with some sort of bamboo, he might be the guy to thank. We also got onto some cool topics like aquaponics: using the waste from an aquatic system with fish to provide nutrients for a plant ecosystem.

The budget

I couldn't really get an indication of what to expect from each country except 'Asia is cheap', so for the more pragmatic procrastinators, here's some more detail on the money side of things. If that's not you, jump down further for random in-country tips that aren't so easy to Google.

Singapore: Accommodation was $35 for the first night at the Little Red Dot, and provided on the second night. Shopping and food could be cheap, with a good-sized street restaurant meal around $10-$15. Flight cost about $300 with Scoot - beware, the aircon is too cold and you have to pay extra for a blanket, but oherwise great budget airline.

Krabi: Accommodation and food were paid for. Shopping seemed cheap, although there were relatively few touristy shops. Flight cost about $80 with Tiger, also good budget airline (no concerns raised since the safety scares).

Koh Phangan: Accommodation was $12 for a bungalow shared between 3 at My Phangan - not really clean, but a beautiful place with decent food; cost at least $1.50 (one way) to get a taxi anywhere good though. Shopping and food were cheap, with meals under $5 and Chang beer for less than $1. Bought a bag with elephant print (typical around Thai shops) for 110 baht. Bus and ferry only cost $7 (500 baht) with Lomprayah and I strongly recommend it, although it takes about 6 hours - easily booked at a travel agent or hotel in Krabi's town, Ao Nang.

Tips for Singapore?

• Singapore isn't a touristy city, but there's plenty to do if you love cheap shopping! Definitely go by Bugis Street, and scratch the sightseeing itch at Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

Tips for Thailand?

• Don't be scared away by Thailand's rainy season - July is a great time to visit the islands, with typically short showers every day or two, but mostly you can enjoy everything you want to - and all the other tourists will stay away.
• Rent a scooter/motor bike in Thailand's islands - the traffic is slow enough for less confident drivers, and it's much cheaper than hiring songthaews/tuktuks. Sharing songthaews (which look like red pickup trucks) are still relatively much cheaper than taxis in Australia though.
• If you tour through Thailand, save the shopping for Koh Phangan - bit cheaper than the more touristy destinations of Bangkok, Phukhet, Chiang Mai.
• Missed the moon parties? Just go to the beach anyway - no live DJs, but plenty of fun to be had, the drinks are the same, but less pickpockets and less people to get trampled by.
• Asian food is the best stuff in the world! Don't be afraid to try something different, like mangosteen, a Thai dish you haven't heard of before, etc ...