Kuala Lumpur and Singapore

Crikey, it seems like a long time since I've written a blog... Sorry about that chaps, we've obviously just been too busy enjoying ourselves to get round to doing something as mundane as blog writing. But now that we've got a few hours to kill (waiting for a ferry in NZ) I'll fill you in on some of our exploits...

After finally having our fill of Thailand, Ross and I decided to start our long and arduous journey towards Singapore for our flight to the wonderful world of OZ. We contemplated flying but it was a bit on the expensive side (and our money was dwindling fast) so, like the geniuses we are, we decided to get a train/bus medley down through the (apparently dangerous) Thai south to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Jebus Jones it was a long trip - 29 hours of travelling!! Can you believe it... And that was all pretty much spent sitting on the train or bus (apart from a few, paranoidly rushed [in S. Thailand anyhoo], border crossings). When we eventually arrived in KL we were in desperate need of a bit of shuteye/chilltime so we headed for a cheap looking guest house near where our bus dumped us. What a pap-hole it was! Even the rats avoided it it seemed (it appeared that they preferred fighting in the streets. They were big, but not as big as the mutant rats of Phnom Penh...) but Ross and I, being made of sterner (or possibly skankier) stuff than rats braved on in. After a brief respite we headed out into the town to see what we could see. As we only had a couple of days before we were heading to Singapore we thought we'd make the most of it. Unfortunately the beer was somewhat pricier than we'd expected, around 2 quid for a bottle of beer (compared to about 90p in Thailand or 15p in the Philippines for Ross) but we still managed to force a few down us with dinner, we thought it'd be rude not to. The following day was spent wandering around the various sights KL had to offer, the war memorial was quite a spectacular sight but not quite as awesome as some of the towers that dominated the landscape. The KL Menara Tower was open to the public so Ross and I decided to have a quick scoot up there to see what we could see. It was getting pretty misty and dark by then though so we couldn't actually see that much, but we did manage to get our first glimpse of the gargantuan Petronas Towers from the top. Spurred on by such sights we headed to the foot of the Petronas' to get some night shots. This was slightly ruined buy some scumbag stealing a tourist's bag but we campaigned on regardless (we were to far away to help unfortunately - needless to say if we were closer I'd now either be describing a victorious chase ending with Ross and I as triumphant heroes or a massive cock-up resulting in a brutal stabbing and a few months in hospital...). Other than this paltry excitement little else happened in KL so we headed to Singapore a couple of days before our flight out.

As with KL, Singapore certainly seemed a lot more developed than much of Asia, a good thing you may (or may not) think but with this development comes added costs yet again. Singapore was even more expensive than Malaysia and the shock was almost too much to take. We'd been living like kings for the past few months and to suddenly have to pay about 10 quid each for dinner was outrageous in our opinions! In order to save as much of our precious money as possible we decided to head to the 'Little India' area of Singapore as, we were told, we could find cheap accommodation there. This we did, in a little backstreet we found a family run place called Ali's Nest. And a nest it was, really friendly people (with a crazy, almost totally deaf Nan - still got images of the daughter shouting point blank in her ear that we had, in fact, paid. Genius, sheer genius) but the room was a bit of a dive. And when I say bit I actually mean massive. One of the many advantages of staying in Little India though was the fact the we could basically get curry on tap, and as curry happens to be one of mine and Ross' serious vices this could only be a good thing (I think we had about 4 or 5 curries in 2 and a half days!). As the prices were so cheekily high (there was even an added 'Sin Tax' on all the 'bad stuff', like alcohol etc.) we needed to find a cheap alternative to getting hammered on our usuals of champers and single malts. And luckily we did - Amsterdam. This badboy beer sported 11.6% proof and surpassed even the bumjuice tramps drink at home. Needles to say it tasted like crap; syrupy, malty crap. But we still managed to get a few tinnies down us and headed out (somewhat wonkily) into the night. We'd met up with a Canadian chap earlier that night so we agreed to meet him for some dinner (curry, of course). This we did, and the drinking and merriment continued late into the night. I spent basically all of the next day in bed (except for a curry in the evening). Ross managed to get up though and have a wander round the harbour, taking a few pictures of the buildings we've posted.

Right, that pretty much sums up the week we spent travelling from Thailand to Oz. Not that much to say but, as always, a good time was had by all and some treasured memories were etched in our sizable brains. I'll leave off now to let Ross tell you of our West Coast shenanigans in Australia and I'll rejoin you to blabber on about the East coast in a few days (or, more likely, weeks). Adios.

Sean

P.S. Some of the photos seem to be having a bit of a mare on this entry, no idea why. I'm hoping they're going to sort themselves out but if they don't I wholeheartedly apologize. You can see them when we're home anyway so don't get all mardy and impatient.

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