Couldn't resist popping into the world renowned Zoo yesterday, but unfortunately the photos didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but nevertheless it was a good day out. Took the cable car over to the Plastic Fantastic island of Sentosa, Singapore's little tourist heaven with artificial beaches overlooking oil tankers....lovely, but more importantly one last chance for tan top up! One last day on the beach.... I can't believe today has finally come. Today I go home. Mostly I'm ecstatic! Can't wait to set foot on British soil again, although I know it's probably be a rather large an [View Full Entry]

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It's sunday night and there's a certain something in the air here that I can't quite put my finger on. I'd been warned last time I was here that sunday nights in Little India can be quite mad, though I can't rememeber why exactly. Looking down from the safety of my dorm window Indian men are starting to crown the streets. sitting on curbs and talking in loud excitable voices. They walk arm in arm or hand in hand down the narrow roads making the whole affair look not dissimilar to gay pride, but no, I jest, gay pride is much [View Full Entry]

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I've finally found my Island Paradise here on Kecil.... The 5hour coach zoomed me up here from Taman Negara through the think jungle and over huge caramel rivers before I boarded the fast boat to this little island just off the north east of Penninsular Malaysia to find coral beaches, crystal waters and sweeping white sands. They say that Whitehaven beach in Oz is one of the most stunning but for me it's definately Kecil's Long Beach. The sea: I can't even begin to describe just how clear it is, (think of the idylic helicopter views shown in the holiday programs); [View Full Entry]

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Well, I made it to Malaysia, not that it's difficult to jump on a 30p public bus from Singapore! Caught a coach 2hours north up to Malaka, a little stop-over to break up the journey to Kuala Lumpur (KL to its friends). Malaka is quite a lively little place, full of Singaporean, Chinese and Indian tourists taking the heat off us travellers, (yes, I do view myself as a cut above the 'standard' tourist), however saying that, you don't get half as much hassle here as in Indo - thankfully! It's been hard to enjoy the lively Sat night street markets, [View Full Entry]

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Haven't felt well for days. Back in Kuta I'd woke up exhausted, head-achey and freezing one morning, had to put all my layers on and sit under the thin blanket before breaking into sweats less than an hour later. I hadn't even drank that much the previous night but the weird thing was that my lymph nodes were really swollen and sore but I guessed maybe it was really pulled muscles from my vain pre-clubbing push-ups last night. Flu symptons set in quickly and faded just as fast but then when I got to Singapore I developed earache, the pain from [View Full Entry]

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Ahh, civilisation. I seem to have gone from one extreme to another as I sit back and sup my Singapore Sling in the time-warped colonial settings of The Long Bar in Raffles; the origin of Singapore's most famous cocktail. If only I'd packed my white suit and matching hat, Mr DelMonte style.... Amazingly I exited Bali with almost no problems regarding my status as ilegal immigrant although I did get directed to Immigration 20 mins outside of the airport where I had to wait for 40mins, (the counter staff were at lunch...honestly this place has gone to pot since we left), [View Full Entry]

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Thirty Six aching hours of boats, ferries, tat-sellers, taxis, Bemos and a 'coach-full' fob-off in Bima by an angry ex-millitary man now in charge of a bus company that fired up our Italian's rage so much that the situation required poilce intervention. Still, we made it back to Kuta; town of cheap beer, good food, dance clubs, beautiful bodies and ... Australians. Tomorrow my tourist visa expires ... 3 days before I'm due to depart. Technically I'll become an illegal immigrant or something like that. I must ring the British Consulate - it's on my ToDo list but life and motivation [View Full Entry]

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Wong again Everywhere we turn, everyone we ask gives us conflicting information. On purpose? Flores has no Dragons. Spirits were low. Lambanbajo, a one-road dump of a village, whose only beach we renamed Syringe Beach, was dragging us down. Jack had been served a rotten tenderloin steak and although he'd noticed and stopped eating half-way through was caught by a 24hour, gut-wrenching case of food poisoning, meaning he spent most of the night pebble-dashing the porcelain squat toilet. We shared a twin room. The toilet door didn't close never mind lock. I was woken constant [View Full Entry]

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Think it's a Sunday, but it's hard to tell, days just haven't meant anything to me for so many months. After my travels in Ubud and Kintamani I got the bus and ferry over to Gilli Trawangan (165,000 3hours). It was a long and hasslefull travel where the standard tourists tricks were played on us laden-down and exhausted travellers: busses would stop for no apparent reason at ports and terminals where you'd be shepparded into restaurants and cafes, given menus and expected to eat, eat, eat while tens of street vendors attempted to emotionally blackmail you to buy, buy, buy their [View Full Entry]

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Slowly being lulled into sleep by the rhythmic chugging of the ferry's engines. I'm 3 hours into my 10hour journey to Gilli Trawangan, (I'd decided to take the slow option to save some rupiah), one of three little islands off the North East coast of neighbouring Lombok. Feeling a bit daft because I'd already decided a week ago to spend my time in the Gillis at the end of my trip, rather than in the middle so that I can relax and know exactly how much time I have. Never mind, I suppose everything happens for a reason, perhaps now I'll [View Full Entry]

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