David Muir

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Travel Blog Posts


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David on tour
February 5th 2013

I was back in another airport waiting for another flight, this time to Medan in Indonesia, to go back in the rainforest again. The flight only took an hour and caught a taxi to Kampang Lalang which could loosely be described as a bus station. From there I caught a minibus to Bukit Lawang, on arrival a guy came up to be and offered me a lift to my hostel for 5000rp. There are 14,000rp to £1 so when I went to the ATM to withdraw £100 I instantly became a millionaire – woohoo. What the guy didn’t say was that he was going to give me a lift to the hostel on his scooter which made for a very cramped journey with my backpack and daypack! It was no surprise at all to me that ... read more



Days 18 - 19 - Singapore Zoo

Published: February 13th 2013Asia » Singapore » Singapore Zoo
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David on tour
February 4th 2013

I was off to the famous Singapore zoo today but I totally messed up with my travel arrangements to get there, I made a cursory glance at my itinerary and remember it said to get to Woodlands MRT station from where you get a bus. However when I got there after 50 mins to the tube I couldn’t find any bus to be seen, after walking round looking like a complete numpty for 10 mins a lovely old lady took pity on me and asked if she could help. After a little laugh when I told her my destination she explained that you only got off at Woodlands on Sundays the rest of the week it was Ang Mo Kio station – Doh! So I then had to buy another ticket to take me there and ... read more



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David on tour
February 2nd 2013

The next day I had a morning in Kota Kinabalu before my flight to Singapore, KK as it’s commonly known is the capital of Malaysian Borneo. It certainly isn’t a beautiful city and this is largely due to the fact that we bombed it to the ground in WWII when it was occupied by the Japanese. There is a new shopping centre which is a great escape from the heat and humidity and a good place to get some food. My brief stay here soon came to an end when I caught my flight to Singapore. I would be saying at the Matchbox hostel in Singapore and instead of bunk beds they have capsules (see pic below) stacked on top of each other – far better and private than bunk beds. I had a bit of ... read more



Days 14-15 in tropical paradise

Published: February 13th 2013Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Mabul
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David on tour
January 31st 2013

The following day was my only day of rest for the whole trip, I had no snorkelling trips planned and would be spending it lazing round the resort. My plans were changed somewhat as I did intend to do some snorkelling on my own around the reef that borders the island of Mabul but it rained virtually all day so spent the time just chilling. Mabul Island is full of contrasts at one end is the local village which consists of shacks on stilts and little electricity or plumbing to speak of. At the opposite end is the Mabul Beach resorts which are luxury chalets on stilts again but this time over the coral reef itself. Then in the middle are the Uncle Chan’s, scuba junkies and the homestays / longhouses. I couldn’t fault scuba junkies ... read more



Days 11-13 Mabul - A Piscine adventure

Published: February 13th 2013Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Mabul
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David on tour
January 29th 2013

Today I was headed for Semporna – gateway to Mabul and the Islands in the Celebes sea, this meant I had to be up early to catch the 07:00 Dyana bus from Sandakan to Semporna (this passes the turn off to Gomantong caves). The journey took 6½ hours and I finished up the day at scuba junkies dive resort (in the loosest sense of the term) in Semporna ready for my snorkelling trip to Mabul the next day. There is nothing to see in Semporna but you need to stay there is you want to dive the northern Islands in the Celebes Sea, a couple of them are fantastic to visit and have crystal clear water such as Mataking and Sibuan. ScubaJunkies advised me that Sibuan was a great place for snorkelling, however, nobody else wanted ... read more



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David on tour
January 27th 2013

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David on tour icon
David on tour
January 24th 2013

I slept a little better the previous night and after breakfast I made my way back to Kuala Lumpur with Uncle Han. The driver wasn’t the best, he never indicated, drive way too fast, I don’t think a minivan was meant for high speed turns but we eventually made it to KL and I checked in to the Step-In guesthouse for my last night in KL. I had previously booked my ticket for the skybridge for 20:00 but just before I was due to set off one of the regular thunderstorms commenced so I got a little wet on my walk to the Petronas Twin Towers. I decided to take a detour to Bukit Bintang which is one of the main tourist hotspots of KL, its full of hotels/hostels, restaurants, bag-snatchers, whores and drug dealers what ... read more



Days 4-6 Taman Negara

Published: February 13th 2013Asia » Malaysia » Pahang » Taman Negara National Park
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David on tour
January 22nd 2013

Taman Negara – I was up early, jetlag or not to catch the bus from Uncle Hans, to be found in Chinatown unsurprisingly. My destination was Taman Negara, which is purported to be the oldest rainforest in the world (130 million years old). The journey initially involved a drive of 4 hours from KL to Kuala Tembling and then a 3 hour boat journey up the river to Kuala Tahan. Most of the occupants of the bus/boat had taken the package that Uncle Hans offers which is 3 days 2 nights but I didn’t see the point in travelling 2 days to spend just 1 day in the park plus I wanted to do some exploration on my own so just paid for the travel and a night jungle walk.The journey in the boat was bum-numbing ... read more



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David on tour
January 17th 2013

On the flight into Dubai I was met with a marvellous sight, the cityscape with its skyscrapers was facing me and as it was sunrise they all were covered in a golden glow. Towering above all of them was the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.I’m not a big fan of Dubai but that sight was enough to change my mind (for a minute at least). I caught around an hours kip on the flight which meant that I’d lost virtually a whole nights sleep, that combined with the time difference meant that I arrived at the Hostel at 23:30 in a very tired state but wasn’t ready to bed so I headed off to the off-license for a few beers to help me sleep. Malaysia is very cheap for backpackers but the one ... read more



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David on tour
July 19th 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maKAzaoBks8 We were heading back to Reykjavik from Akureyri in a roundabout way as we still had two days left. The drive took us across northern Iceland travelling west and then down the western coast. Throughout this portion of the drive we noticed that decorating many of the deserted farmhouses was what appeared to be Banksy graffiti! Not too far after setting off we were distracted by signs for a seal museum, we weren’t sure what to expect from this i.e. whether it would have anything to do with seal hunting. We weren’t particularly bothered with the seal museum but we had read that seals could be seen off the coast nearby to the museum. This did result in a 2 hour detour across quite rough gravel roads but we had plenty of time. After what ... read more






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