From Singers to Malayers to Thai-ers... (Yeah, that doesn't really work...)

---

From Singers to Malayers to Thai-ers... (Yeah, that doesn't really work...)

Hello and a very happy new year to everybody back home!!I hope you all had wonderful festive periods and are looking forward to taking on 2013 with renewed vigour... (That, or aren't completely depressed that it's now January and there's like, nothing to look forward to for ages and ages except work and winter and coldness.. Ok, I'll stop...) and the best news for many of you in January, so far, is obviously that I've found time (and a computer) to write down another blog for your entertainment!

I'd like to dedicate a whole paragraph to why it's taken me a me six weeks to get round to doing a new blog, but seen as this ones going to take me long enough to bash out, given I've got three countries to cover NOT including these past 3 weeks in Australia (you'll have to wait with baited breath for that one...), a simple explanation of 'I've just been too busy and computer time has often been sparse' will have to suffice for now!

OK, so, let's press on. Last time I wrote, I was in our prison-cell hostel in Singapore, which is where we spent three nights at the end of November before moving onto Malaysia. Singapore was a spectacular city (I thought) but rather strange (Michael thought); It's like a metropolis melting pot of globalisation, capitalism and consumerism. It's a wildly affluent and successful little country with a huge economy, (14th largest in the world, actually), which is so evident from its beautiful and numerous sky scrapers, huge shopping malls, amazing business districts, ENORMOUS shopping districts, efficient road and rail systems... etc. Basically, it was completely Western and, apart from the lovely weather, felt in no way like we were still in Asia. However, although it was nice to be back in a clean country where crossing the road was relatively safe and the smell of sewers didn't permanently hang in the air, Singapore didn't really have any soul and character. Or history, for that matter, given that it was a random little port town owned by Malaysian tribes until the 18th century, where an English man called Tom Raffles (they love this guy) claimed it, made it officially British land, and turned it into an unbelievably successful port and trading city. Hence its wealth today.
So, very vague history lesson over, Singapore was still such an impressive city to see, and we basically spent our three days there sight-seeing the amazing buildings, going to an art gallery or two, and shopping in the unbelievable shopping district of Orchard road, (I say shopping, I mean, I bought a vest from H&M and we just looked after that...) where every Western brand of pretty much everything could be found. We spent ages in Gucci and Armani ogling the prices and trying not to get kicked out for being obviously poor, which was quite fun... We also spent a day on Sentosa island, Singapore's man-made beach, which was so fake it felt like a film set, and housed Singapore's piss-poor aquarium, which basically had a few crabs, a few big fish, and a moth-eaten dolphin or two. Still, it was a good laugh.

Anyway, after three expensive days in Singapore we were ready to get back to the 'real' Asia, and so our next stop was Melaka, a little Malaysia town a few miles south of Kuala Lumpur. We had a really nice two days here; eating amazing, tasty Malaysian food and visiting Malay-Chinese temples. After the hustle and bustle of Singapore, it was really nice to be a quiet little town that felt really authentically 'Malaysian', and we just took it easy for a few days; basically eating lots of food (I must say- Malaysian food is soooo good!), wandering around, and reading in the sunshine.

After Melaka we went on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, which felt a bit like Singapore mixed with Bangkok; it had its fair share of impressive sky scrapers (including the Petrona twin towers- the 5th tallest building in the world) and shopping districts, but it had real atmosphere and culture that felt more Eastern. We spent two days here, one of which was spent entirely in Kuala Lumpur's Bejuja Times Square shopping mall- one of the biggest malls in the world. This place was absolutely huge, and I mean, HUGE - two cinemas, a bowling alley, an entire theme park, archery courts, gyms, every shop you could think of, more restaurants than you might find in an entire city... We ended up going to the theme park, the cinema, AND bowling (and all for under twenty pounds each). The theme park was brilliant; it had a roller coaster which whirled around the shops- a very bizarre and frankly terrifying experience! We also watched 'Ted'- the Muslim censored version, which basically had any reference or implication of sex completely removed- resulting in loads of parts of the film not really making any sense, conversation-wise!

Our other day we walked round the city, taking in the Tripadvisor recommended sights to see, and generally being massive tourists. The Petrona twin towers and sky tower were both really impressive to see- see pictures we've just put up for a visual impression!

So... (am starting to find it hard to remember everything now- hope I'm not forgetting something crucial!) After Kuala Lumpur we went onto Penang, a British colonial island off the coast of Malaysia. To be honest, neither of us were that impressed by it; the beaches were far away and rubbish (by all accounts), and the 'worth-seeing' sights were pretty disappointing. One day we rented bikes (the worst bikes ever, I should add, absolute death-traps- my seat kept spinning off and the brakes didn't work!!) and cycled round to take in the 'areas of interest', and basically there were just a few old British forts or monuments (not unlike anything you'd see in Leeds) and a few mosques (again- just like you'd see back home). Without falling back on the 'if it ain't got soul, we don't dig it' characteristic of these blogs, it didn't have soul, so we didn't dig it... Plus it was absolutely boiling hot, we were riding on death traps, and so the whole sight-seeing day felt like a massive ordeal! However, the second day we were there was my birthday, so Michael treated us to a gorgeous hotel for the day and night. The hotel was, without doubt, the best hotel I've ever stayed in; beautiful room complete with four poster bed, leather sofas, flat screen telly, art work on the walls, antique furniture, jacuzzi, etc, etc, and so we pretty much spent the entire 24 hours we had confined in the hotel grounds to make the most of this passing luxury! After weeks in basic-to-poor hostels, the contrast was such a novelty and we took full advantage of this beautiful hotel! (Hotel Pagoda, if anyone wants to look it up!) The staff were amazing; they all came to our room to give me a cake and sing happy birthday, and there wasn't a thing they wouldn't do for us... We loved the hotel and have decided to get really rich now we can afford that kind of decadence all the time...

So, after a few lovely days in Penang (mainly down to the best day ever on my birthday- I should also add Michael got me a few other lovely presents and treated me to steak- what a guy) we went on to Langkawi for our final few day in Malaysia. Langkawi is another island further on from Penang, and it was absolute paradise; glorious sunshine, white sandy beaches, beautiful countryside... We spent our first day relaxing on the beach and dodging the sun lounger chargers (basically moving from sun lounger to sun lounger every time we were asked to pay... yes, we are tight!) and in the evening went out for drinks with our old work-mate Graham and some of his friends, (Hi Graham- you said you were reading this so let's see if you are!!) which was pretty surreal but really nice to have a little reminder of home, and chat about the good old days at the NHS IC! On our second day we rented a motorbike, which I wasn't allowed to drive, and drove all around the island. This was a brilliant day; we visited loads of beautiful beaches and waterfalls, got chased by a family of monkeys (I'm not even kidding- they were surrounding us- see photos!) and did a bit of trekking, where we got caught in a massive storm and nearly got struck by lightning up on a waterfall... All quite exciting! Asian weather is so dramatic though, after this huge storm passed it was sunny and clear again within an hour.

Anyway, after 11 nights in Malaysia, we set sail from Langkawi on to Thailand, where we were to spend our last 2 weeks in Asia. We absolutely loved Thailand, it really is such a wonderful country with so much to do and such lovely people. Whilst we enjoyed Malaysia, the local's hostility towards us was quite off-putting for a return visit, there certainly wasn't the friendly vibe you find in Thailand or Vietnam.

Our first stop was Koh Lanta, where we spent three nights. Our hotel for the first two nights was absolutely lovely and a massive bargain at 600 baht (about 11 quid); it had two pools, a private beach and little bungalows as hotel rooms. So we spent our first two days doing nothing much more than sun bathing by the pool, reading, chatting to the other guests, drinking beer and eating the local cuisine and it was absolutely lovely, so relaxing. After 2 nights though we decided we probably should see a bit more oh Koh Lanta, so we went ventured out into the main part and got a new hotel (slash prison cell), which was a bit livelier, but the nightlife was pretty tame as it seems people come from Koh Phi Phi (the party island) to Koh Lanta to recover and relax, whereas we were doing it the other way round!

... Oh dear, I've just realised what time it is- we're heading off the airport in an hour to catch a plane to Auckland!! So I will have to love you and leave you all... I will re-commence the rest of our news at some point this week!!

Stay classy homies...

Carls and Mikes... xxxx

---