Homeward Bound

Back in Bangkok we spent the next two days shopping. We brought souvenirs for everyone, we brought presents for ourselves and Christmas presents. As we didn't have long to go now we packed our bags to the bursting and then sat in the street with a pad thai and thought about our long journey back. And it was long.

We flew from Bangkok to KL on our last AirAsia flight. We then spent the night in KL airport before flying back to Chennai in the morning. We spent the day in India, you guessed it, shopping. Hitting fast fashion and fashion folks (the local factory outlet clothes stores) we stocked up on clothes, souvenirs from Spencers plaza and cheap toiletries and jewelry from CityCentre. We retired early to bed with a Dominoes Pizza to get the early morning flight to Delhi the next day.

True to the Indian tradition our driver was late. 5am in the morning with no one to call and no taxi's about we frantically waited for the driver to come. An hour passed, then an hour and a half, then 2 when he finally turned up. We rushed to the airport and got there just in time to check in and fly off to Delhi to fly back to Heathrow.

But it was at Heathrow were the worst happened. We had to rush to catch a bus as it was when Rory, apparently looking like he had a bomb stuck to his back, was picked in a random terrorism selection. The man was very polite as they asked him about his trip, where he was going and exactly what he was wearing, but it wasn't welcome after 3 days of travelling, little sleep and a rush to catch a bus. We missed the bus, and brought a ticket for the next one in 3 hours time. But luckily the bus was so late (2 hours) that we managed to get on it anyway. The journey from Heathrow to Taunton was terrible. British traffic. I was so tired I can't remember it in much detail but we were on the bus for hours, about 6 I think, I remember it being as long as the plain journey. Only we couldn't sleep on the bus in case the motorway cleared and we missed our stop. What a welcome home. Rory's parent picked us up in the Taunton and took us back to their house where we slept and slept and slept. It was a trip of a lifetime but it was also so nice to be back in a bed we knew.

Thanks for reading!

p.s. we thought it was all over until I got really sick back in Loughborough with a bug I undoubtedly picked up from the day stop-over in India. It just had that Indian feel to it. But a weeks course of paracetamol and I was fine, looking forward to our next world adventure, whenever and wherever that may be

Kanchanaburi

Only about two hours away from Bangkok by bus (or a bit longer and a lot more beautiful by train) is Kanchanaburi, I major WWII point. It played host to the death railway, and you will all probably know of it thanks to the film 'The Bridge over the River Kwai'. We decided to go inland instead of out to all the beautiful islands because we had seen so many beautiful islands in Malaysia and Vietnam so decided to do some historic tourism instead. Once there we found a nice little 'hotel on stilts over the River Kwai' which was as quaint as you can imagine. We decided to save a bit of money by going for the non-ac cold water option that worked out as a few quid a night. This meant we could splash out a bit more on excursions!

Rory and I headed off to the JEATH museum one morning. Run by a monk it served the purpose of reminding everyone how terrible war is through many photographs and newspaper articles. It left you feeling a bit depressed, especially as on the way there and back we passed the POW cemetery with the hundreds of unmarked graves. There were also the thousands of marked ones that told of men as young as 18. It was kept beautifully though, much better than the Chinese cemetery next door.

We went on an excursion one day that took us to a bit of track that the POW built that's still in use today. It stretched alongside part of a hill and if you walked along the tracks a bit (with a steep drop to your right) you come across a cave. Now occupied by a massive Buddha and smokey from the years of prayer, this cave used to be where the POW hid when their allied friends bombed all their work. You can go all the way in to the dark dank batty back quarters and just imagine the terror and suffering.

We caught a train from there and took it along part of the death railway. The scenery was beautiful. It dropped us off near the infamous bridge, no longer in use since they built a second one, and we walked up and down it looking at the tracks with the dates stamped in them and the sections that looked different to the rest as they blown up and rebuilt. You could imagine the area being beautiful and tranquil (except of course when it was being built), but now it is surrounded in floating restaurants and tourist stores.

We went for a walk up a hill that followed a 7 tiered waterfall. Each tier was as beautiful as the next, and they obviously take really good care of the area. We walked all the way to the top before we allowed ourselves a swim. Once in we discovered that those pretty little fish that we saw in all the pools on the way up were actually horrid little hidden nibblers. They swam up to you as soon as you put a foot in the water and in the style of a Chinese fish foot massage, nibbled your skin. Even if your not scared of fish (which Pippa was making it all rather funny) you get a big shock when a big blighter comes up to take a little nibble. The water was filled with limestone which meant you couldn't see what was happening, making it all the more startling.

The last excursion we did was an elephant treck. I had promised Rory we'd go on one since we couldn't do it in India. The ride consisted of about 20 minutes through the edge of the jungles on little park benches strapped across the elephants back and ended with a swim! Yes, at the end of the trail we dismounted, the park benches were removed, and sat bare back on the elephants in the fast moving river Kwai as they took us out and lowered into the cold water. We were given a little bottle of soap and a brush and they waited expectantly for us to scrub the back of their heads. It was all rather cute. Luckily the one that Rory and I got didn't squirt us with his trunk like some of the others did. I made Rory be the first one to go out there and he looked so unsure of what was going to happen it made us all laugh!

Back at the hotel we had befriended a little black kitten which we called shadow, because he followed us around everywhere and sat on us whenever we sat down. Our little hut had a balcony which we read on in the evenings in the company of shadow and a couple of mosquito coils. It was a very peaceful place and we were sad to leave. On the last night we (Rory, me, Pippa and her friend Bex) went out for an Indian meal and a sheesha with Thai beer, said goodbye and then Rory and I departed homeward bound the next morning whilst Pippa and Bex went south to the tourist islands.

Thailand

Okay, we we're bad, I know that. We were supposed to write this in KL airport on the way back from Thailand to India (on route back home), but it was an all-night transfer so we were to tired. Then we were too busy, too forgetful and too busy again, but the trip needs rounding off.

We flew from Hanoi to Thailand (again, overnight in KL), and were very impressed with Bangkoks new airport (for e.g. at the immigration desk there was a nifty little face finding camera that snaps photos of you as you approach the desk). We then took a bus to Khao-San Road. This is the tourist centre of Bangkok complete with blackpool lights, shops selling everything, lying rip-off tuk tuk drivers and pop-up night bars were you drink cocktails out of a bucket. Out hotel was located just off Khao San road, so we did a bit of exploring the first night before hitting the sack.

The next day we took a river taxi out of old bangkok to the new, and found ourselves in shoppers paradise. You could walk around 5 massive shopping malls without your feet ever having to touch the pavement. There were lots of car showrooms (for Rory) and cinemas (for me). As usual we ended up in the cinema, but this one had a twist- at the beggining of the film the national anthem played accompanied with a short film showing the king in his glory days and you have to stand with your hands at your side and watch respectfully- they love their king out there.

We headed back to old bangkok in the evening to meet up with Rory's friend from Devon Pippa, and her friend Bex. They were just starting there 3 month tour as we were finishing ours. We all went out for a welcome dinner of Thai curry and a couple of Thai beers. Then some mohjitos in a blues bar. Then a couple of those infamous buckets. Then a few more beers and buckets. Then some rum and coke (a bottle of rum there costs £1.50). Then we sampled Khoa San Clubs, then had more rum and coke. I blame Pippa and Bex.

The next day we explored the Grand Palace and the emerald Buddah (with a bit of a hangover). The palace was beautiful, there was so much gold and detail in every statue, roof, nook and cranny. The gardens were beautiful and we even stubled across some rooms were every inch of the walls and roof were hand painted in a detail that must have taken ages to paint. We went on to explore some temples and found the worlds longest reclining Buddah.

The next day (I think, it has been a long time) we took a bus to Kanchanaburi

Cat Ba

Wow, it's a long time since either of us posted anything, sorry about that. Since the last post we've been to Cat Ba and come back, and then been to Bangkok and meandering off in Thailand, and now we're back in Bangkok.

The journey to Cat Ba (an island off the coast) should have been fine - you get on the bus and pay a combined fare for the bus to the port and then the ferry to Cat Ba. It didn't work like that, of course, we were kicked out of the taxi at the bus station (a slight exaggeration) and then as soon as we mentioned "Hai Phong" (the port) we were pointed towards a bus - it did say Hai Phong on it, I think, but it hardly mattered, people were actually poking us onto the bus. We found that it cost less than we expected it would.


(Cat Ba is the island; Hanoi isjust off to the left. You can drag the map around.)

The journey to Hai Phong was fine. Once we got off the bus however we discovored that the port to catch the ferry was a long way away from the bus station, and so we had to catch a long and therefore rather expensive taxi (well it didn't cost more than four pounds for the entire taxi journey but for Vietnam that's expensive!) through a load of industrial estates to a makeshift port to catch the ferry we shoulds have gotton a bus directly to. Ah well, you learn from these things.

Cat Ba was beautiful- the scenery was amazing. Jungle on the inside, a few rice paddies, lovely blue ocean with karst limestone scenery just like in all those pictures advitising the area. We got off the bus and found an empty hotel (they're all pretty empty), we we're there only guests for most of the time. Then we explored the area which was pretty much just a street of hotels and restaurants overlooking the bay filled withj lots of little boats which we throught was strance- they filled a massive area of ocean. There were also a few beaches a small walk away, accessable by rickerty wooden walkways built over the ocean around the cliffs seperating them. They were rather built up beaches with a restaurant, shops and huts you can pay to use, but it was low season and the beaaches were pretty much empty, so there was lots of unused sand to go around!

The second day we took it pretty easy- we slept in, had a leisurly lunch and a beer by the beach In fact I'm not really sure what we did that day we took it so easy. The next day we had signed ourselves into a boat trip. We were on it with a group of five spanish guys who were extremly friendly. The boat tpook us out through all those boats in the bay and we discovoured why there were so many- it was a floating village! Up close you could see all the little houses floating in the water, cmplete with little boats for getting around and pet dogs. There were more little water settlements along the way as well, all just as interesting as the scenery around us!

The boat tour first took us to a cave we explored- we got off the boat and went deep into this cave with only one tourch in the hands of the guide which was an experience. The cave was massive complete with bats and dripping stalagtites, and miraculously noone got injured! We then sailed away to a beatiful laggon where we got on some kayaks and exploired the aread, going through a long natural archway into a secluded pool area, and then into another cave. Same as last time (one tourch, 7 followers, oh and the guide didn't speak a word of English) only this time in kayaks in a pitch black cave, an experience we wont forget. The day continued with a pleasant Vietnamese style lunch on board, some snorkelling and diving off the boat, and a long leisurly trip back (where almost everyone fell asleep due to the combination of food, sun and the gentle rocking of the boat).

The next two days unfortunatly weren't as eventful. I started feeling ill on the boat ride back and speant the next two days only getting up from bed when Rory was hungry (I couldn't let him eat alone). I managed to finally starve the bug out of me enought for us to spend the final day by the beach. We swam again the final day and the water was wonderful- it was soo warm and clear and the sand fine- you could wander a long way out before going out of your depth. The next day we took a mini bus back to Hanoi (booked it all the way through this time) and headed back to the jazz club for our last dinner in Vietnam.

Fwd: Hanoi 2

Right...where was I? The internet's going a bit funny here, but I
think I was talking about the prison.

After the prison we wandered further to the Văn Miếu (Temple of
Literature). It was basically a university for very accomplished
scholars. The archetecture's very chinese and old, and in between the
gardens and trees there's a complex of buildings and quaint tablets
mounted on stone tortoises (Hanoi has a bit of a fixation with
tortoises) with a lake in the middle. We slowly wandered through,
taking it in, and then inside the last building was a stage - after a
few minutes a band of musicians started playing. It was amazing; they
were so talented, and of course they were playing on instruments we'd
never seen before. We stayed for a while and a tour group arrived, and
when they started "audience participation" we slipped away. On the way
back Alex bought a small souvenier water puppet as we looked round the
gift shop. The chess sets were beautiful but there's no way I could
even fit it in my bag!

We walked back via the Lenin Monument. It wasn't spectacular, just on
the way...but I'm not quite sure why it's there, even. Incidentally,
the hammer and sickle symbol is as about as prolific in Hanoi as the
Vietnamese flag, which you can generally see one or two of wherever
you happen to be standing in the city.

Back to the hostel for a bit of a rest (the room's up four flights of
stairs so even if we didn't need one before, we definitely did by the
time we got there) and in the evening we ate at a resturant
specialising in vegetarian food, that we found in the Lonely Planet.
After, we headed next door for a beer (cheapest in Hanoi, according to
the Lonely Planet) and then somehow ended up in two more places for
beer as well. Alex is beginning to get a taste for Eastern lager.

The next day we headed to the train station to book tickets for the
next stage of our journey. The train station itself seemed to be
reasonably efficiently run, but the standards of the rooms and seats,
etc was the same as you might expect in India (or maybe a bit worse!)
The person behind the counter managed to explain to us that you could
only buy tickets from two hours before departure, so we went back
empty handed. It was a good job too - one of the guys that runs the
hostel suggested that the bus was a lot easier, as it includes ferry
crossing and transfers, etc.
We took a taxi back and then headed out, vaguely with the idea of
finding a mall that might have a cinema in. We eventually found one;
compared to what we're used to it was a bit disappointing, but I
suppose we've been spoilt by KL and Singapore! There was definitely no
mall. We went in search of cinemas (the Lonely Planet has a few in it)
and, as it started raining, we discovered that the first no longer
existed, and the second only showed two films a day (both fairly
rubbish and neither for several hours). So we headed back, stopping to
eat a cafe on the way.

In the evening, I forget where we ate, but we did go to a Jazz Club. It
was really expensive (one cocktail cost as much as a meal elsewhere)
so we made our drinks last and watched the live band, sitting in
squashy sofas bathed in the glow from neon signs on the walls. It was
really good!

The next morning we began our journey - to Cat Ba island, a small
island off the coast that we thought would be relaxing (we still
haven't had enough of sea and sand!). The journey
was...interesting...but I won't go into that now.
We're still at Cat Ba at the moment; I'm sitting on my own in the
internet cafe because Alex hasn't been feeling that great for the last
couple of days. We've both had the odd bout of illness while we've
been travelling, it's just the different foods and waters (and maybe
some questionable cooking) and they only seem to last two or three
days.

We're here until the 17th, then we're heading back to Hanoi for a
night, and then flying to Bangkok the next day.

Hanoi, Vietnam

We arrived in Hanoi at about 8 in the morning, having spent the night in the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal of the airport. The taxi in was fine, and we got our first glimse of the Vietnamese countryside. The oddest thing is the buildings - in slightly built-up areas, you get really long, thin, tall houses, often painted in bright colours. The nearest I can get to a comparison is Amsterdam, but of course in Amsterdam all the houses are side by side and often here, the houses on either side are one-story dwellings, so this one tall thin building looks decidedly odd.

We had booked a room for several nights in a widely-known backpacker's hostel. It had the usual bright colours and sofas etc and I can see why it gets such good reviews, but to our bleary, sleep deprived eyes it was crowded and busy and we couldn't move into our room until about twenty past twelve, having arrived around ten (we suspect a mess-up on their part that they didn't admit to us; they blamed another couple not checking out in time and then put us in a luxury room with tv, dvd player, kettle etc for one night. We didn't complain).

As usual, much of the first day was spent sleeping or resting. We emerged as it was getting dark and walked to the nearby Hoàn Kiếm Lake, in the centre of the Old Quarter. I think Hanoi is probably even worse than Bali when it comes to scooters. It's absolutely incredible how many there are and they fly around all over the place, with little or no obediance to things like centre lines or traffic lights. Crossing is a totally different skill: if you waited for a gap in the traffic you'd be there forever. The secret is to edge out a little at a time - as long as you are moving slowly and predictably the scooters will "flow" around you. It does mean that you sometimes realise you're in the middle of a huge road with mopeds flying past on both sides, but you get used to it. And avoid cars and anything bigger; they won't "flow" around you.

We ate in a little resturant we found. I was pleased to discover that they don't give you a knife and fork - you have to use chopsticks! Alex was less impressed at the idea; I just like showing off, I think.

We found ourselves outside the water puppet theatre, and we (mostly Alex, actually) decided to buy tickets for the next show. I've never heard of Vietnamese Water Puppetry before, but it's really amazing. The music and voice actors were live, and the slapstick, lively performances were really entertaining, and often a little bizarre. We both really enjoyed it, and I took loads of pictures.

We headed back for a (relatively) early night. The next day we didn't do anything until we had to check out of that room and then strangely had to wait until 12 to get into the other one (I thought it was empty..?).
We headed out and made for the Hoa Loa Prison (it's now a museum), with interesting and sometimes gruesome exhibits (like a real-life, used guillotine). Generally it was well done, although their description of the treatment of US pilots differs substantially to what you might find elsewhere!
We went on to the Temple of Literature, but I'll have to talk about that next time - I've run out of time again!

Bali

AirAsia are pretty good, except when it comes to Indonesia it seems. The flight from Jakarta to Bali was delayed, but worse than that it wasn't advertised. The check-in desk wasn't announced, the number of the gate was different on the ticket to what the board said, and the flight wasn't shown on either gate! But we got there in the end.

We arrived late at night and, with our backpacks on, we searched the area for a place to say (cheap, preferably with a pool). We were directed by a whitey to a place round the corner that has decent rooms for 50,000 a night (about 2 pounds 60). I thought it was fine, but Rory being a snob made us move the next morning to their sister hotel, 5 pounds a night but much cleaner (which I was thankful for, I did keep expecting to see a cockroach every time I looked at the floor!)

We rested from the night of flying by the pool, and for the first day that's pretty much all we did. As the sun set we walked to the beach to watch it, and we were surprised by the sheer amount of surfers there were! Australians everywhere, and the local activities that follow them- people selling things on the beach, surfboard renters, surfing schools, motorbike rentals and the lazy people laying on beach instead of surfing (like us)! The whole area we were staying in was pretty touristy really, both a blessing and a curse. There were plenty of nice cheap little restaurants dotted around the busy roads (shops, tourists, motorbikes and surfboards), and after we had dinner we wandered back to the hotel, stopping at a 'tourist information center' to book ourselves a snorkeling trip for the next morning.

Up early (8am!!) the next morning for breakfast, and then picked up in a jeep to take us and a couple of girls from France across to the other side of the island where there are less surfers and more fish. There we split up, and Rory and I were given a private boat to take us out to the coral. That part I really enjoyed, it was a quaint little fisherman's boat, long and thin with two wooden outriggers roped on (and a little motor strapped to the back). Rory had never been snorkeling before and there was plenty to see, but it didn't quite match up to the Red Sea or the Maldives etc. However they did give us little bags of bread in to feed the fish with, and once we were in the water and got them out the fish swarmed to snatch bits of the bread right out of our hands! We even saw an evil looking eel at the edge of the coral!

That afternoon we spent by the pool again, and ate in a different restaurant that showed the new Harry Potter film projected onto a big screen. This is the life.

The next morning we decided to be brave, and wandered down to the beach to inquire about surfboarding lessons. We bargained a guy down to two two-hour private lessons including board and a surfing top for about 5 pounds each and headed to the ocean. I had never been surfing before (and Rory had but a long time ago), but I found it pretty easy-once you were up there! You have to get up pretty fast though, and after dragging the board out and energetically jumping up, balancing, falling/jumping off and battling the waves to get out again we got tired pretty quickly. However by the end of the morning we could each say we rode a few waves all the way in, without looking scared/stupid/like a novice. The afternoon was spent recovering by the pool of course.

On the morning of the forth day we were still tired from yesterdays strenuous activities, so swam or read by the pool. However in the afternoon it started to get a bit crowded by bored Australian surfers (we heard 'there's no surf dude' more than once) so we walked up and down the shopping streets looking at what was on offer. As the sun set over the sea we wandered up the beach north to the next little town and found a restaurant there that was showing Balinese dancing. It was too expensive for us though so we were cheeky and just ordered a cheap local beer each and watched the show for a while, before wandering back in the direction of the hotel, stopping off to eat at a place more in our budget (but surprisingly a really nice place, with the best food we had so far!).

On our final day we checked out of the hotel early and hired ourselves a little jeep for the day. With it we headed north- past the beautiful hills of stepped rice-paddies to the arty village of Ubud. Here there's a monkey sanctuary, where tourists come from around, buy a load of bananas and then act surprised when the monkeys jump at them to get the bananas. The place was actually really beautiful- with butterfly's, Balinese temples and tall dangly jungle trees. There was even a bright fat lizard that fell form the tall tops of a tree inches next to Rory with a loud 'splat' before running off (I named him the kamikaze flying lizard).

We then drove further north, getting steadily higher till we came out at a hill town overlooking a deep valley and the a volcano on the other side. Neither of us had seen a volcano before so we drove down to the valley and around the crater lake in the middle, looking at the weird large volcanic rocks lying around as it they were thrown there(which of course they were, as the volcano last erupted in 1991 we found out). We ate lunch at a very pleasant restaurant in the hill top town overlooking the breathtaking scene, before getting back in the car and heading back to the airport.

Jakarta

We arrived at Jakarta airport at nearly midnight. It was all pretty painless...we met two girls from Leeds and we shared a taxi with them to our hotel (they hadn't booked anywhere, and our hotel was right in the middle of the main backpackery area, Jalan Jaksa). We checked in fine; the description of the room in the Lonely Planet was accurate: clean, but a little heavy-handed with the mothballs.

Jalan Jaksa is bright and colourful, full of little stalls selling everything and lined with cheap restaurants and guest houses. We were fortunate (!?) enough to arrive at the annual Jalan Jaksa carnival, which meant that there were processions meandering up and down and a stage at one end of the street.

The first full day we went to the bank to get some money, and the ATM managed to freeze on us - after deducting the money from the account but before giving us cash or reciept - so we spent most of that morning in the bank waiting, or talking to reluctant Indonesian banks on the phone, or trying to communicate with a helpful security guard who knew no English. We walked down to a nearby mall (Plaza Indonesia) to kill some time and eat something. So around we wandered, eating in a food court in the basement and pondering the other problem, getting a Vietnamese visa.

We had thought that Vietnam issued visas on arrival, but they don't - you have to apply in advance via an embassy. We tried calling the embassy in Jakarta but there was no reply.

We got back to the bank as the tecnicians arrived to fix it: they gave us back the card that had been stuck in the machine and assured us that no money had been taken from our account. Still, we took pictures of the security guard's badge, just in case.

It had been a long, tiring day of waiting and stress, and so we went back to the mall and saw a film in the cinema. The cinema was amazing! It was quite expensive by Indonesian standards, costing 50000 rupiah (about 2.50 in GBP) for a ticket, but you could barely touch the seats in front with your feet, and the seats were big, squashy armchairs...amazing.

We ate back in Jalan Jaksa while the celebrations were going on, and then (shamefully) went back to the cinema for the midnight showing of another film. Unfortunately, the nearer cinema wasn't quite as comfortable (but still good, and half the price) and we both enjoyed the film immensely, because it was so laughably awful! Seriously, if you want to know how to make a good film, you can learn more by watching one really terrible one than fifty good ones.

The next day we went to the old colonial Dutch section near the harbour. There wasn't that much to see - the square was being dug up and re-paved - but we found a really good restaurant facing the square (Cafe Batavia), and we spent most of the afternoon there. It had black and white pictures hanging absolutely everywhere, big sofas, live music - really colonial and comfortable (and expensive..but not by English standards).

We headed back through the Freedom Square, with lots of people playing football and shouting "Hello, how are you" and "Lovely Jubbly" and things at us. We walked past a massive and vaguely phallic monument (Lonely Planet's words) and back, not to the hostel, but to Plaza Indonesia to cool off and ended up watching yet another film - it was just so comfortable!

The final day we hit the huge, crowded, cramped malls in the North selling everything from fake DVDs and clothes to mobile phones and accessories and shoes. We worked our way down this street, eating at some fast food place and even going in a place with an amazing curved escalator! We took a Bluebird taxi (reliable, curteous, metered) back to the hostel to get our bags and then on to the airport to catch the incredibly delayed flight to Bali.

Langkawi

Okay, this needs some explanation .
Instead of renting a car and exploring Taman Negara, we took a ferry north to the island of Langkawi, and booked a flight back to KL. The car hire is really expensive, especially if you want to pick up and drop off in different cities, and the roads aren't that great so we'd have to drive most of the way down to KL before heading northeast. That, and the fact that it was forecast to be really rainy in Taman Negara.
The ferry was pretty comfortable actually, and after arriving we took a taxi to the main touristy bit of the island - Pantai Chenang - and wandered up and down looking for a place to stay. The places listed in the Lonely Planet guide looked a bit...dirty...so we walked on, and eventually found a really nice place, just off the beach, and somehow ended up in a deluxe room complete with TV and minibar! (It cost the same as our tiny, non-ac room in Batu Ferringhi.)
We had a wander up the road; for some reason, Langkawi is designated a duty-free zone, so there's plenty of shops selling perfumes and alcohol (a can of beer costs about 15p and apparently a Jaguar costs about 15,000) which is fine unless you are looking for a can of beans. So we had a look in some duty free shops and bought the usuals (bread, peanut butter etc) and went back for a nap. In the evening we ate at a restaurant on the beach and then played cards and raided the minibar back in our room.

Neither of us remember the next day very well, so we probably slept in and read, and ate, and slept some more (we might have made it out onto the beach for dinner).

The third day, we went on a boat trip to a nearby island, where we hired a paddle/solar boat thing and explored the lake in the middle of the island, and watched the monkeys. On the way to another island with a white beach (which was full of people like us, trying to find a deserted white beach, and idiots feeding monkeys) we stopped to feed the eagles! The guide threw some meat in the water, and eagles emerged from all sides, circling above us and then swooping down to pick up the meat. It was awsome.

In the afternoon we hired a car and set off to explore some of the less touristy parts of the island. We soon discovered that it's all pretty touristy, but we did find a few waterfalls that didn't have anyone else around...there were some huge spiders though - we're not entirely sure what they were, but they looked poisonous. Alex liked the butterflies. We also did the really long walk up a hill to the top of a waterfall (Seven Wells) which was tiring. From the top you could see this awesome cable car, which was absolutely huge, and I found it much more interesting than Alex(!).

The next morning we flew back to KL. We weren't bothered about the prospect of spending most of the day in the airport because, as previously mentioned, KL airport is amazing, but we soon discovered that Air Asia flies out of the Low Cost Carrier Terminal which is more like an Indian airport. So, we took the shuttle to the main building, and spent the afternoon there - we got back in time to wait for the delayed flight to Jakarta.

Batu Ferringi

Batu Ferringi is just up the road from Georgetown, on Penang Island. Getting there was easy - or could have been - but instead of taking a taxi at a cost of RM35, we walked on to the bus station - a non-air-conditioned bus cost RM2. It took longer, but you gotta do the bus thing sooner or later, or you're not a real backpacker, right?
So, we got off a stop too early and so ended up walking some way along the road that runs parallel to the beach. It was hot and the bags were heavy, but by now we're used to walking after all the walking up and down Georgetown that Alex made us do*...! Along the way we came across a giant wooden ship sitting a little way back on the tarmac (it turns out it's a restaurant, and Alex remembered it from last time) and then another building more obviously a restaurant but just as over the top, red pointy fin things sticking out the roof, and if you looked carefully there appeared to be tanks of fish just inside the entrance. I'll get back to that.

*I've been teasing Alex about this...it's just because she wanted, quite rightly, to see all the places in Georgetown that were familiar. But still, don't worry, I'm sure I'll pay for that comment : )

We arrived at the guesthouse eventually and there was a slightly awkward scene when we discovered that the room didn't have AC, which we thought it would have. We decided to stay anyway (it turned out not to be a big problem, actually) and after resting in the room for a while through the heat of the day, we decided to take our resting outside onto the beach.

The beach is great, you can see the bay in the distance and the sand, while not extremely fine, is comfortable enough... it's quite "lively" and by that I mean boats and banana boats and jetskis and horses and quadbikes zoom up and down the water/beach (select as appropriate) and some of the bars play Gwen Stafani and that bloody Umberella song at volumes that can be annoying. But anyway, we set down our towels and bathed away the afternoon.

After going back for a shower (the showers, incidentally, weren't great - but I'm starting to enjoy cold showers) we ambled back along the main road and came to the restaurant I talked about earlier, called Eden. Going in, there's a huge array of eels, fish, lobsters, crabs etc in large tanks, and walking past that there's an array of tables and a modest stage. We ordered a modest meal of rice and things (although, we did end up having several drinks and a bizarre ice-cream thing that included, as well as strawberry icecream, sweetcorn and butterbeans - very weird) and as we ate it there was a performance of Malaysian, Chinese and Indian dancing, that was very amusing (partly because the woman announcing the dances had a very unique talent for English).

By the time we headed back, it had been dark for a while and the pavements had been transformed into stalls and makeshift shops selling all the usual tourist stuff, t-shirts and knock-off DVDs and games and things, as well as some paintings and carvings that had a bit more merit. We're old hands by now and smiling and saying no-thank-you. The secret is not to stop walking.

The next day, we did next to nothing, shamefully. We walked to the bank where we had a bit of a fight with a cash machine, and then spent the rest of the day reading at a bar on the beach, and drinking milkshakes and ice teas until it started raining, so we went back to the room for a while. We went to a really nice restaurant we'd walked past the day before - it wasn't on the beach and, as a consequence, the decor, food and service were all really good. The service was a little frightening, actually - you'd finish a plate and before you could blink it'd been whisked away.

We wandered back along the main road, through all the stalls again. I ended up buying a couple of games for my Gameboy Micro. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before - I bought it in Singapore, basically because it's impossible to walk through endless electronic malls without needing to buy a gadget of some description, and this was the cheapest thing I could find.

The third day, we did nearly nothing, again. I could get used to this. We emerged at midday, and spent the afternoon at the bar on the beach, and then, without getting up, ordered food at the same place and ate it as the sun went down. We had an earlyish night, because we were catching an early ferry to Langkawi the next morning for which we needed to be up very early.

Penang Part Two!

On the third day of Penang we decided to go to the Fort- Fort Cornwallis. This is the first point of British landing in Malaysia, to rival the Dutch's hold of the country for trading. We learned about the history of the island and the East India Trading Company, avoided the 'wild' horses that roam the place, and played with the old cannons. There were also two very impressive birds there, that said hello when you said hello, good-bye when you said good-bye, and wolf-whistled when you walked past. Amazing. The fort was also nice, smaller than those of India and more for show than for use. I liked the massive ships mast they erected in it, so when a ship approached the people in the fort could raise a flag- a sign to get the fat rich people in charge down from the cool Penang hill to meet them.

We brought an ice-cream each and then walked near the beaches in the direction of Gurney Drive until we found a taxi. We didn't, though we gave up pretty early as it was a nice day for a walk and to see more of the city, and walked the long walk all the way to Gurney Drive. The point of this destination was of course to see the other half of the old Uplands school from behind. I could feel the anticipation as we got closer and closer, past those tall apartment buildings that weren't there before, the old buildings, hotels and shops and- I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! The whole site was boarded from view- I mean completely, with massive sheets of metal from below the pavement 6 feet high. We were lucky to find little holes hear and there for a pin-prick view of the place.

We walked round the side (the tiny bit of land left between the building and tall apartments to the right) and through the hedges we managed to get a proper view. I wish I didn't. With no one in there you wouldn't think it would age that badly, but with the windows boarded up, the whole place overgrown, and the white walls stained it looked- defeated. It was also a bit worrying to see the stacks of building equipment where the swimming pool used to be. Darn. (P.S. Sorry to those of you who don't get the importance of this and instead find it a bit of a dull read, it is aimed at the ex-Uplanders and Penangers like me who used to love the old place. So I will change the subject.)

Back to Gurney plaza for a rest after all that walking. We ate a very nice meal at the new food court looking over the sea and browsed the shops again. From the food court I could see Island Plaza, another old haunt of mine, so we walked there also. The same old story as Midlands I'm afraid- empty shop slots, they even closed down the old cinema and indoor go-carts! We stayed for only a little while- for a Coffee Bean drink and then headed back to Midlands (so Rory could buy some more games for his GameBoy) and Gurney Plaza for a movie.

Our forth day there was pretty much spent booking the last bits of the trip we hadn't booked. We planned to go to the snake temple but time seemed to get away from us as we looked up car hire etc. It's expensive, the drive to the jungle in the middle a day long at least, and the forecast there rain rain rain- not worth it. So we walked back to the fort where the ferry's run from and got ourselves two tickets to Langkawi. We booked a flight from the island back to Kl (as we intended to drive there) and then headed to Komtar (the tallest building in Penang, marking the centre of Georgetown, housing a shopping mall) for something to eat, shop and spend a pleasant last evening in Georgetown.

The next morning we packed up, had our toast and banana cake, and took a bus to the north of the island- Batu Ferringhi (in English- White Mans Rock, tourist destination).

Penang!

After seven long years of waiting, many moving of houses, and much teasing from Colin about the downfall of my beloved island, I am finally back in Penang!

Arriving in the airport after our short flight from Singapore, a flood of memories hit me. The shops, the waiting halls, the taxi stand, even the view of the green island and lovely blue seas as we are landing. But, in the taxi on the way to the hostel (in the centre of Georgetown, the main city of Penang and an area I hardly ever ventured into before) the years that have passed become more obvious. More rustic than KL or Singapore, Penang has many more Chinese temples, little shops, dirtier streets and old, rather dilapidated malls. After we checked in I was eagerer to see my parts of the island again, and so we headed out on foot to walk the cornice towards my old apartment building.

On the way we passed Wat Chayamangkalaram, a Chinese temple with the third (I think) largest reclining Buddha statue. The temple was beautiful, with the red and gold decorations everywhere that you think only exist in the movies. Unfortunately the minister or something was visiting so we weren't allowed inside the main part where the golden statue was, but we could see it well enough through the windows. From there it was just a short walk to my old apartment building.

I managed to sweet talk the security guard into letting Rory and me enter unescorted, and we walked round the beautiful swimming pool in the centre to our old ground floor apartment- Mum, it is exactly the same as it used to be! I wont bore everyone with the details, but it was amazing to be back there with all the memories flooding back (like all those times May and I beat Colin at table tennis, or my14th birthday party etc). We then walked down the road to Uplands school. This was a bit more heartbreaking. The primary school has indeed been knocked down and the front of the old secondary school blocked from view by a new modern glass filled building selling houses and apartments. I was disappointed, but forewarned about this destruction of history(!), and took comfort in the fact that later I could walk round the back to see it in full.

We then wandered over to Midlands plaza. This place is nothing special, only to me as a place where I would spend almost everyday after school with my friends. However, the warnings Colin etc gave me still didn't prepare me for the downfall of the mall. With more than half the shops closed, and my favourites lost forever, the visit to Midlands was nothing more than depressing. However I took comfort in the building itself and the few shops that had survived (McDonalds, KFC and a couple of DVD shops) and Rory fully enjoyed himself by purchasing many (cheap!) computer games and cartridges for his new Gameboy. At least the less-than-legal side of Midlands is still flourishing!

A short walk away from Midlands lies the culprit of the downfall of the old Malls. The new mall. Gurney Plaza. Large, fully air conditioned, new and full of western (as well as a few local) shops, this is the new hang-out for the locals who turn there noses up at the old. To be honest, it is pretty nice. We wandered around for a bit before deciding to give our feet a rest in the (as usual) cinema. After the film (Disturbia- weird but pretty good), we brought some snacks and drinks and took a taxi back to the hostel, Hutton Lodge.

Day two. After a simple yet pleasant breakfast of toast and banana cake at the hostel, we waited out the heat of the day relaxing and reading up about what tourist stuff we wanted to do on the Island. We decided on Penang Hill first, and took a taxi to the funicular railway station. We brought tickets for the next available train (in an hour and a half, they are only small things), and wandered the area. We stumbled across a 110 year old small Chinese temple, built into and around a cave in Penang Hill called the Bat Temple. When we went inside we discovered it was accurately named, as on the roof of the cave slept many black bats! The women who ran the temple told us the cave was best at dawn or dusk, when hundreds of the little animals fly in and out through the temple to the cave.

The funicular railway ride up the hill was unfortunately also less spectacular than it used to be. What was once a peaceful beautiful ride up the hill was now a game of 'how many people can we fit in each carriage'. The answer: too many. More than the recommended maximum allowance that the 50 year old trains were made for anyway, which made it a bit of a thrill ride. However my years in India prepared me for this, and I elbowed my way though to reserve us each a seat by the window, where the views were as spectacular as usual. At the top, when you look past the hundreds of signs telling people not to litter or feed the monkeys (and then past the people feeding the monkeys), the whole of Georgetown makes a spectacular view. You can see the tall buildings, the little houses, the smaller hills, the temples and the long (once the longest in Southeast Asia, but it has long since lost that title) Penang bridge that joins the island to the mainland. We wandered around the top of the hill, looking at the view, the little stalls, and as usual trying to avoid that ever-present loud man with an extremely large snake from putting the fed-up looking poisonous animal on your shoulders. You have to love this part of the world!

Then we saw the sign. The sign that made Rory start to dribble. The sign that said 'Devonshire Cream teas'. The man at the gateway to this hilltop restaurant called Strawberry fields pleasantly explained the 5 ringget (70p) admission charge to this sanctuary as 'a way to keep out the common riff-raff' (if not in those exact words then something close but probably a bit more politically correct), which is of course taken off the price for Malaysia's best tea and scones with cream and jam. Which indeed they were, not that we had stumbled across another place that sells them in the month of travelling! The garden was beautiful, immaculately kept with jaw-dropping views of the island and scrumptious food, so we stayed for a late lunch/early dinner. It was then time to head back down the hill as the sun set, and back to the centre of Georgetown where we enjoyed a very well made Mojito and a banana split before bed.

I will write more on the last two days of Georgetown soon, as we are now off for a few days of beach life in Batu Ferringhi. Just to let you know there has been a change in plan- due to the excessively large price for renting a car for a few days, the two full day drives it would take and the reviews of Taman Negara we have heard, we have decided to instead take the ferry across to Langkawi, and do the beaches (and some jungle!) there, before fliying back to KL LCCT and on to Jakarta!

Singapore (2)

The second day we took it reasonably easy. We slept in late and when we eventually emerged we took the MRT to Orchard Road and wandered slowly West, occasionally going into a mall if we saw something interesting, or if it looked nice. I found a store that sold bits of camera, and nearly bought a lens and adapter for my camera until the bloke started getting rude. Anyway. It's a nice area, wide and bright and western, loads and loads of people, and quite a lot of construction (of malls, of course).
On that note...I don't see how they can all be making money; surely McDonald's, say, has to have an outlet in each mall, or they'll lose that share of business, right? And the same follows for all stores. So if you walk into a store in Orchard Road, you'll probably find the same stores as there were in the last mall. Every new mall competes with all the others, yeah? And every new mall means that all the big shops have to outfit and staff another shop, which is competing with the previous mall, where they also have a store. It doesn't seem to make good business sense, but what do I know, eh?
We reached the end of Orchard Road and found ourselves in a Hard Rock Cafe. Mostly, it was good just to sit down in an air-conditioned space (notice a pattern?) and we just had coffees before heading back. A lazy day.
On the 20th (I think, it's hard to keep track of the days - is it Saturday today?) we decided to go to Sentosa, an island on the South coast that's best described as a well-developed tourist attraction. We got there by cable car, which was very exciting, or at least felt exciting after being stuck in a queue for ages for a ticket. Incidentally, how do you get to the cable car station? Through a mall, of course! Dangling over the island we could see the beaches, the diggers and cranes that were presumably creating another beach, or hotel, or something, and the dense jungle in the centre of the island, as well as a huge grey statue in the centre, which I'll get onto in a minute. Emerging through the gift shop onto the island it was obvious that it was geared for tourists - big open paved areas with cafes and Ben and Jerry's and things. We took the escalator (they love their escalators) down and gradually, this huge statue came into view...at first, it looks like the head of a lion, but as you get nearer you see - wait, is that...scales...a fish tail?

Looming over you is this giant (you can go up to it's head and stand in it's mouth for a fee) fish-lion thing. They call it a mer-lion. Everywhere you go on this island you see little statues and trinkets of this ungodly piscene/feline frankenstein, dreamed up by a tourist council that's short of ideas (I paraphrase the Lonely Planet). Maybe I'm being a little harsh. It's not ugly, as such, and it would be majestic if it wasn't so bizarre.

we headed off round the island. It's quite nice, really; there's little pedestrian train things, and lots of beaches (full of people) with convenient islands a little way out to hide the scores of ships in the bay (Singapore is allegedly the world's largest port, or has the largest turnover, something like that). So we wandered around, stopping to buy tickets for the show in the evening, and in some gift shops, etc, and eventually ended up in Underwater World, an aquarium. It was pretty good, again full of people, but there were some good exhibits, especially a display of shark eggs at various stages of development (you could see the shark wriggling inside) and, like the one in KL, an underwater tunnel. I think we would have been more impressed if we hadn't been to the one in KL, and this one was less imaginative and more crowded and expensive, and the exit was through a gift shop, but we still enjoyed it.
With our aquarium tickets were tickets to see a dolphin show. The pink dolphins were very good, balancing balls and jumping through hoops and the like - if you've seen a dolphin show you'll know what it was like, but it was still impressive. At the end, we decided to pay to have our photo taken with a dolphin! We lined up and then when it was our turn slowly waded towards it and stroked it's back, while we had a photo taken of us. The skin is rubbery and surprisingly lumpy and rough, actually! So now, we are members of the elusive band of people who have touched dolphins.

We grabbed some food from a 7-eleven (cheaper than fast food) and sat on a bench in the shelter to eat it, because it was raining.

Eventually it was time for the show. It was a bit weird, to be honest. The "actors" were mouthing along to dubbed voices and jumping up and down a lot, but there wasn't really a plot to speak of. The effects were amazing, though - they had multicoloured lasers projected onto walls of water, as well as video and animation, and loads of lights and fountains and fireballs and fireworks. The story was terrible, and I can't help feeling that, given the same number of fireball machines and fountains and lasers, something you'd see at Alton Towers would have better acting, story and choreography, but to be honest, that made it even more enjoyable.

We power-walked back over the island to beat the queue and took the cable-car back in the dark, seeing Singapore lit up around us.

The next day, the 21st (maybe) we went to Singapore Zoo and night safari. (Argh, I'm running out of time again). They say the Zoo is amazing, and it really is - the exhibits are buried in the jungle and you wander around through a rainforest to get to them. There's a canopy walk where the monkeys roam free above you (although we didn't see many) and orang-utans are free to go where they like. There was lots to see, and although we left it a bit late, we saw most of it. In the evening, we went to Singapore Night Safari (next door). After the entrance fee it turned out that you had to pay again to go on the tram tour thing (which they didn't tell you beforehand - Singapore's a pretty expensive place, to be honest), so we walked around instead, which I think we enjoyed more. The animals were dimly lit (photography was impossible) and there were bat caves to walk through (fruit bats are really big!) and things. We ended by going to a nocturnal animal show, that was amazing - the animals were really, really well trained, and I had no idea that otters could be trained like that (it was sorting plastic bottles, cans and paper)! By the time we headed back it was pretty late, but the MRTs hadn't closed yet.

And the next day, Penang!

Singapore

The overnight train was great. We had our own compartment with en-suite including a shower (Have you ever had a shower on a train?!) and TV. It was pretty noisy but we have earplugs, so it was fine. We were rudely awakened in the morning by a bloke who gave us some customs cards to fill in, and then rudely awakened again when the train stopped for customs, another new experience. Cue panicking and rushed dressing, and hastily filling out the customs cards, and dashing halfway down the platform, to be told that we needed to take all our baggage with us - cue dashing back to our bunks to cram everything in our bags and then rushing to the customs building, where we joined the back of a very long, very slow-moving queue! Oh well. Apart from that excitement, the journey was most enjoyable.
Singapore train station is a bit old and dilapidated, but then, with six arrivals and six departures a day, all to Malaysia, I don't suppose it gets much use. After asking directions from the inquiries man (who was very nice and gave us a map) we strolled out into Singapore.
First impressions - very developed. The raised highways and wide roads were similar to KL. I think if we hadn't just come from KL I would have been more impressed, but to me it seemed like it was all very modern and new a few years ago - although it's still very efficient, the concrete's a bit dirtier and the kerbs are a bit more scuffed. Although we've all heard about it, it was still wierd that, because the crossing-the-road man was red, no-one crossed, despite there being no cars. Apparently Singapore has relaxed its no-jaywalking laws (or enforcement), but most people still obey them.
After a short but tiring walk, with our bags, we arrived at the metro station. Singapore's metro is called the Mass Rapid Transport system, which I think is awesome. What's wrong with "metro", I have no idea, but still. Mass Rapid Transport. It sounds like something from Total Recall.

The metro's very efficient and easy. We bought multiple-use passes that you charge beforehand and then just wave at the ticket readers (still in your wallet, if you like), which I, of course, never tired of. Dotted around the stations and trains are screens showing how you should be vigilant for terrorists (in a rather sensationalist fashion...I can't believe that a similar film in London would actually show a train exploding). "Who is this man? What is in his heavy bag? Is he acting suspiciously or nervously?" As we were foreigners with huge, bulky bags, we felt slightly nervous. Which, of course, incriminated us even more. Still, when we got off the MRT we remembered all our bags, thankfully, or they would probably have been detonated in a controlled fashion...

The hostel was easy to find once we got out of the station. Our room was comfortable. It was brightly coloured and air conditioned. We rested for a few hours, and then headed out to Little India, a couple of stops down the line. We found a hawker centre and ate brunch (or maybe lunch) and then wandered on to a couple of cramped malls dealing exclusively in technology and gadgets and things. Which, of course, interested me more than Alex. To be honest, some of these malls are nicer to spend time in than others - the big chain shops are very western and let you get on with it, but in the older, more cramped malls, if you stop or show an interest in anything they will start talking at you. Still, it's not as in-your-face as India. Wandering on, we eventually found ourselves in Chinatown.
Chinatown, Singapore is very much like other Chinatowns we've seen - maybe not as crowded, but still full of T-shirts, watches, cufflinks etc of dubious authenticity...this time, we didn't buy anything (except a dragonfruit juice each). Eventually, Chinatown spat us out the other side, and we wandered East again, ending up in a collection of modern, huge malls. Of course, we were compelled to wander through them, casually heading towards the cinema. We watched The Bourne Supremacy - we're rapidly finding that the attraction of cinemas isn't just the film, but also it's a nice, air conditioned place to sit down for a couple of hours!
We emerged and headed downstairs and out, where we were confronted with a huge, brown floating donut-type thing, allegedly the world's largest fountain, the Fountain of Wealth. Neither of us was particularly impressed by it, but there were benches and I think we bought a juice of some sort. We were more impressed by the booming and cracking and the colourful reflections, off shiny skyscrapers, from fireworks that were being set off somewhere nearby. Eventually, they turned the fountain off and people started walking up to the middle and going round it multiple times. It turns out that it's meant to bring you wealth, or something, but as it was built about ten years ago, I don't know quite how that superstition got started!
We decided that as we weren't far away, we'd head over to Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling. Along the way we got caught in immense crowds through the malls that we walked through (in Singapore, often the easiest or only way to get somewhere is through a mall; this is especially true of MRT stations) but eventually we made it, and after wandering around the hotel (which, unsurprisingly, is also a shopping centre) we eventually ended up in the Long Bar (where the Singapore Sling, a cocktail, was invented). It's a really quaint place, all dark oak and high ceilings, with a spiral staircase. And, strangely enough, loads and loads of peanut shells on the floor, from the peanut boxes on all the tables and the bar. There was a pretty good live band, but we only stayed for our drinks (we couldn't afford any more, the two drinks cost more than two nights accommodation) and headed back, on the MRT, to the hostel.


I'm getting worse, only one day this time! I'll write some more as soon as I can, gotta go. Take care!

KL (2)

By the way, there's a few pictures of us on our Flickr page. I'll put some more up when I manage to find an easy way of uploading them!

The third day, we started by strolling over to the mall (again) and going into the amusement park. The rollercoaster was surprisingly good (4 inversions! In a shopping centre!) and we went on all the other stomach-churning rides. I also had some corn...stalls which, in England, would sell Coca-colas and crisps and hot-dogs, here, sell Coca-colas and smoothies and sweetcorn with butter in little cups, and mashed potato with gravy. What a great idea!
Anyhoo, we had a few goes on the arcade...they're easy to find around here, and of course, they're about a sixth of the price, and then we headed out.

We took the futuristic and smooth monorail to Jalan Kuching, a main street that's flanked by pretty statues and colonial buildings, as well as some more modern, Islamic architecture. Strolling south, we eventually ended up in Chinatown. Like most chinatowns, it's a busy, bustling, colourful scene...we walked up and down Jalan Petaling, the main street crammed with stalls selling knock-off T-shirts, knock-off sweatshirts, knock-off watches (We both bought one, mine loses five minutes every six hours and broke shortly after), knock-off ties and cufflinks, knock-off zippos, knock-off DVDs, and other stuff. Once upon a time I would have found this bewildering, but after India, this was easy! We killed a few hours there, nearly buying lots of things, and then eventually headed futher afield with the vague idea of finding something to eat.
We ended up in front of a massage shop (parlour?). Don't worry, it was very upmarket and respectable! We decided to treat ourselves - an hour-long reflexology foot massage and then a back massage came to less than the cost of hiring a towel at a spa at home. It's a bit wierd watching someone spending an hour massaging your feet, but it was quite nice. An hour and a half later, we were both feeling very relaxed, comfortable and energised (although that might have been the green tea).
On the way back, we stopped for a sheesha (or, hookah) at an Arabic cafe, where Alex showed off her Arabic to the amazement of all (not least, me) and then ate at a traditional hawker court. It was refreshing to eat somewhere so lively and the choice was good - and it's nice not having to wait for the bill! Of course, it's really cheap, too, which is good. We headed back on the monorail.

Our last day in KL, and we felt we had seen plenty of malls. We went over to the Lake Gardens, a set of gardens and parks, with, unsurprisingly, a lake in the middle. It was good to get away from the traffic and noise, and the park was empty. We strolled down to the lake and had an ice-cream. We didn't hire paddle-boats, because they had a really long break for lunch and we didn't fancy waiting for an hour and a half in the heat. For the same reason we didn't go in the deer park. There's a bird park and a butterfly park, and we went over to find them, but they were expensive so we didn't go in. Maybe we were tired of deciding not to do things, but when we saw the planetarium we went in (well, it was only Rn1). It wasn't particularly groundbreaking, but it was fun, and it was a bit of a novelty to be in the cool and dark, with glowy things hanging from the ceiling, and buttons to press, etc. I don't know what plasma balls have to do with space, but it's always fun to be able to light up a flourescent tube with your bare hands.

I don't remember where we ate...we must have had something, because the train left pretty late. I might fill this bit in later. [edit: Alex says we ate in a food court again.] But anyway, we went back to the hostel for a shower and to get our bags, and then took the monorail to the station to catch the overnighter train, down to Singapore.

Kuala Lumpur

The flight wasn't enjoyable. An overnighter, I was sat next to the biggest Indian in the world. He was huge...it's no exaggeration to say that he took up a quarter of my seat. So I was very uncomfortable for that four hours, and neither of us slept.
Arriving at KL airport was a pleasant experience. We were met by a cool, vast corridor of glass and steel; signs were plastisized and lit, and there were phones and internet kiosks in stainless steel terminals sticking out the floor.
Alex says it's her favourite airport. I know why. (Also, it's got a small forest in a glass box in the middle!) It's a complete surprise after India!
We had a small crisis in the airport...none of the ATMs would take our cards. Alex made a very expensive call to the english number on the back of the card, and after numerous security questions, they declared that there was nothing wrong with it. Luckily, she had some ringgits from last time she was here, so we had enough for a taxi to the hostel. The taxi driver was very friendly - explaining what various buildings were, and his opinion of the Iraq war, and things - but we were very tired. I was more amazed by the state of the roads and infrastructure and the way people drove and the quality of their cars (smooth and wide; very good; curteously and within lanes; high and mostly Protons, respectively). The hostel is amazing - basic, but very friendly and colourful, free tea and coffee and cornflakes and toast (all from Tesco, bizarrely) and our room is simple but adequate. The first thing they did was to sit us down with a map and explain where the tourist attractions were and how to get there, and suggest some routes around.
We couldn't check in until later, so we went for a wander, with the idea of finding a bank to sort out our cards problem. KL is really nice - clean, and quiet (no horns), with wide pavements and frequent crossing points to navigate the wide, well-marked roads, traffic lights, and plenty of skyscrapers full of air-conditioned shops and malls and banks and hotels (more of that in a minute), and - how could I forget - monorails gliding overhead on concrete pillars, banking into the corners...anyway, I was very impressed, as you have noticed. Probably the fact that India has none of these things made it even more amazing. Not that I don't like India! I'll be really interested to see the rest of Malaysia, actually...it's incredible to think that theres all this here, and yet in the jungles there's still tribes living in communal huts.
So, anyway, we eventually sorted out the card thing after speaking to several banks (you have to tell your card company that you're in Malaysia! After mentioning it to the second girl at the call centre, she says, "Oh yes, there's a note about Malaysia..."). We went into the mall that's opposite the hostel. It's got ten huge floors of shops, two 5-star hotels (apparently), and an indoor amusement park with a rollercoaster, and and IMAX theatre. We would spend a lot of our time here.
We wandered back to the hostel to check in and had a sleep. In the evening, we wandered back over to the mall and ate on the food court floor, with a fellow traveller we had met in the hostel. Then, we went to watch Transformers on IMAX. Awesome.

On Tuesday we took the monorail to the KL Tower. It was quite a stroll to get there; I'm sure there's an easy way but we went up through the forest and nature park in the very middle of the city, and it's not small (and it's not flat either - in fact, it's a pretty steep hill, which I suppose is a good place to start if you want to build a really tall building). Eventually we made it, and with our wallets slightly lighter we shot up the express lifts for a bird's eye view of the city. Unfortunately it was quite hazy, but it was still an impressive view, and the electronic video and audioguides were very talkative, even if they did digress. We shot down again, and strolled back through the forest, which I might have mentioned, is quite big.
We ambled over to the Petronas Towers. I should point out that KL isn't really that big - it's fairly easy to walk from one point on the map to another. So anyway, they're really big and shiny, and you can feel the cool breeze of the AC even from outside. Inside is another huge mall, which we had a look round. You can't go up the towers unless you are there by 8:30am and queue for a ticket, so we had a coffee, and then took the monorail back (via our favourite mall to buy bread, cheese, pringles and peanut butter...we didn't feel like eating out).

As usual, I've run out of time...we've got to shoot off now to get the train to Singapore. I'll post the other two days as soon as I can.

Chennai 2

The second day in Chennai saw us browsing the city again. First we went to Fast Fashion and Fashion Folks to stock up on factory outlet shirts and tops (Prada, FCUK etc at 4 pounds each), and then to the newly opened subway for lunch. There Colin departed for a meeting (but no talk of work on holiday!) and Rory and I went to the 'Snake Pit'. As the name suggests, the Snake Pit was a park with all the different snakes of India labeled as either dangerous (venomous) or non-dangerous (non-venomous). I particularly liked how they put the Boa Constrictor in the latter category. It was good to know all these snakes could have been slithering feet away from us in the Jungle of Mudumalai!

We wandered around for an hour or two amongst the snakes and the pits of crocodiles separated from us by a knee-high wall. However it was the hundreds of primary school children running around everywhere shouting hello at us that was more scary! We decided it was time for some more shopping and went to Spencer's Plaza, an old favourite of mine due to the the mix of expensive western shops and little stalls to practice your bargaining skills. If, when you go, you block out all the calls and people trying to drag you into shops its bargain paradise, but the shopkeepers can get a bit tiresome so we left for the oasis of Park Sheraton hotel. (Mum- everyone from Gem Palace says hello!)

We met up with Colin again and had haircuts all around at the salon in the Sheraton (much cheaper than England), and Rory looks clean-shaven again finally! Colin decided to treat us to a drink at the Sheraton bar, and we indulged in a little western life of overpriced beer and gin and tonics. We could only afford to stay for one drink and headed off to Bella Ciao, a pizzeria near the beach run by an Italian friend of ours, for food, further drinks and good company. As always there were many offers for parties but it had been a long day, so it was time for bed!

The next day was a more relaxing day but started in pretty much the same way. We first went to the Crocodile Farm, a lot like the Snake pit but more crocs less snakes. It was designed in pretty much the same way (pits of animals you walk around), but this one had up to one hundred crocodiles in some of the larger pits! Not a place you wanted to fall into. We did get up close and personal to a baby croc that a keeper was holding and gave it a little stroke (crocodiles are surprisingly soft!), and also went underground to see the bigger ones swimming around in their tanks. There were some turtles in that tank too, and fish, who were surprisingly brave and swam up to those sharp teeth! But the crocodiles weren't interested and just watched us lazily (we probably looked yummier than small fish!)

After the Crocodile Farm we went to Mahabalipuram. This is an area of old Indian Cave temples, marvelously carved with pictures of people and animals. The signs said they were from the 6th and 7th centuries BC, and they held their shape really well sheltered from the elements in 'cave' like cavities in the rock. We strolled around the monuments eating ice-creams and taking photos up to 'Khrisna's butter ball', a large round(ish) boulder that is (naturally) balanced on top of a slope! I always think it should roll down into the buildings on the other side of the road, but it never does!

It was then time for some relaxation so we headed off to Ideal Beach, ordered a sandwich and a hammock each and read, gently swinging in the breeze between palm trees, and listened to the waves. We also went for a swim and some body-boarding in the rough waves, where very unfortunately Rory lost his nice watch that I brought him for Christmas. This dampened (pun, get it? awful I know) the nice relaxed mood a bit, for it was a very nice watch. But we managed to cheer ourselves up in the swimming pool by playing games and swimming till it got dark and we had to get out due to the sudden monsoon rain storm! (Note: Today in KL Rory brought a new watch, a Seiko titanium like the old one but a higher class with more dials and half the price of the one from England). As the storm subsided we headed back into Mahabalipuram for dinner and the back to the guest house. However the rain stopped pretty quickly so we had time to squeeze in a couple of races of go-carts on the way back (Rory won both times, just narrowly beating Colin in the second race). We had the whole track to ourselves and no safety requirements to worry about apart from a helmet, so we pushed the go-carts to the limit!

The final day in Chennai had a lazy start (yet again), where for breakfast at lunch-time we went to Mocha bar for sandwiches, milkshakes (with at least a slice of cake in each) and sheesha. We browsed some shops on the way back, mostly things Colin needed, and then relaxed with a movie back in the room. When the movie ended it was time to pack up and meet some old friends from India for dinner at a Chinese restaurant (Patrick and Elizabeth Davenport), and then say good-bye to India, hello Malaysia!

Chennai

So, we took a domestic flight to Chennai. The flight was unenventful, thankfully, because I was feeling a bit ill...
Our driver picked us up from the airport, and drove us straight to the guesthouse where we would be staying. Chennai is a lot more open and green than Delhi, and so has a slightly more relaxed atmosphere...there's also not as many tourists (probably because there's not a lot for tourists to see) and so there's less people hounding you. It's still India, so there's still traffic and people everywhere, though, and rickshaws and traffic jams, and stalls at the sides of the road (and trees in the middle of the road), but by now, I hardly notice that kind of thing!
The guesthouse was really nice. Large and open with lots of marble everywhere, our room on the second floor was spacious and comfortable - probably the most luxurious place we'll stay on this trip!
We went for lunch at a cafe called Amethyst...it had a secluded outdoor area with trees and shrubs and stuff, so it was a really nice, relaxed atmosphere. I didn't eat because I was still feeling ill. We decided to see what films were on at the cinema, with a view to watching a film later, and, on our way to the beach, we stopped and bought tickets to Die Hard 4! Alex warned me that going to the cinema in India is a different experience to going back home - especially in a big action film with someone like Bruce Willis in there was likely to be cheering and clapping.
So we went to the beach, and ambled down the sand for a bit. We all had goes at shooting baloons with air rifles - although the "bullets" were seeds and rolled up foil, it wasn't hard - the baloons were about 2 metres away, and attatched in rows to a wooden wall, so it was pretty hard to miss! Still, shooting things is always fun. We ambled back (Alex bought a coconut and the woman hacked the top off and gave her a straw) and then went over to CitiCenter, a shopping mall, to pass the time until the film. It's easier to find western clothes here than in Delhi, but it's still not that easy! Still, we found plenty to occupy ourselves with.
The film really was a different experience to back in England - for a start, the tickets cost about 95p each, and the popcorn the same, and once we got in, the audience really did cheer and laugh loudly (and often not at the points that I would have cheered/laughed loudly at, even if I had felt the inclination). Couple that with a couple of power cuts, and you have the Indian Film Experience! I enjoyed it, to be honest!
We all felt full from popcorn, and I still wasn't feeling that great, so we had the driver (who, we discovered, wasn't particularly talkative) take us back to the guesthouse for an early night.

I've run out of time again, I'm afraid! I'll do the other days tomorrow.

Love to all!

KL Airport

Very quickly - it's  about 6:30 in the morning or something, we've just arrived in KL airport... it's nice to come somewhere modern and new with glass and steel and plastic instead of just plaster! And get this - I'm writing from an internet kiosk in the arrivals lounge! Anyway, must get on...we have a monorail  to catch...

Ooty (and Coimbatore)

The trip to Ooty took about two hours. The first half was going through the jungle, and then we emerged out onto the hills; there was a particularly memorable sequence of 36 numbered hairpin bends, which were fun. The scenery is completely breathtaking, mountains of green with their tops in the clouds, and valleys with lowland areas visible in between. The road wasn't in too bad a condition, although it did get bad as we neared Ooty!


Ooty itself is quite a large place, set high in the hills. There's lots of evidence of colonial settlements, and we passed plenty of schools and technology academies, etc. It does have traffic, poor quality roads, cows, etc though so in some respects it's pretty unremarkable as a city. The climate, though, is very different to what we've been getting used to - it was cold! Being high in the mountains made it quite a drizzly and chilly place. I quite liked being cold, after being in the heat and humidity.
We had a drive around while Colin got his bearings and found the hotel that he'd been to before. It was an old place, and the main building used to be the hunting lodge of the Ma Ha Raga. It had lines of old photos along the long corridor to reception, which was a large dark wood desk behind a large dark wood wall. It seemed like quite a nice place, and after some impressive negotiation over price by Colin, the porter showed us to our room.
The rooms we had requested were in the "cottages" built probably for whiteys to live in over the hot summer months. They were large, with a few small rooms, old carpets and furniture. We ordered food in our rooms and ate it while they lit the fire in the corner, and then played cards around it. We were cold, that night, for a change...
The next morning we headed off pretty early after a satisfyingly English breakfast. We had a drive/stroll round Ooty and then headed back towards Coimbatore.
On the outskirts of Ooty we saw a building halfway up a hillwith "TEA FACTORY" written on the side. This (no surpises here) was the tea factory that we had talked about stopping by on our way back. A few minutes later we had bought tickets (about 13p each) to go inside and see how they make tea!

I won't go into great details, but suffice to say I found it very interesting, but then, I would! It's clever how most of the work is done by gravity: the leaves are dried on the top floor, and then pushed down a hatch, where the chopping and turning and firing are done by conveyors. It's then raised again, and the sorting of the different weights and the fibrous tissue are done by rollers and sieves, again using gravity. At the end of the tour, they even give you a cup of tea (although, tea here is usually served completely white - no water - and very sweet). I left very happy, having been to a real Indian tea factory.
Up the hill was a little tea shop, which also sold dry tea and other bits and pieces (medicinal olive oil, rub it on your skin, etc). Above the shop was a plantation, and for a small fee (about 7p) we strolled up to have a look. We saw the rows of tea trees on the terrace, stole a few leaves for our own personal experiments, and even met some women who pick tea! Of course, we couldn't understand each other, but we looked cheerfully at each other, and they were kind enough to let us take a couple of pictures.

The road back from Ooty was really good. Hilly and windy, but wide and smooth - probably one of the best roads in India! I drove some of the way in the 4x4 Colin had borrowed.
We arrived in Coimbature later, and went straight to Colin's apartment. We were all shattered, so we ordered a pizza from Domino's, and had an early night - we had to catch a plane early the next morning!