The Perhentian Islands became our final destination on this trip. The name 'Perhentian' means 'a stopping point' which originated between traders who travelled between Malaysia and Bangkok Thailand during the British Colonial period, now a days its more of 'a static point' for modern day travellers and keen (or fearful) scuba divers because no one ever wants to leave. We caught the boat from Kuala Besut on the north eastern coast of Malaysia, during the 19 km ride the sea actually felt clement to my near bursting inner fear of deep water, at the same time the sea was as clear [View Full Entry]

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I decided to spend the rest of my travel time doing as little as humanly possible, I longed to kiss the mid day rays while stretched flat out on beauteous beaches. I promised myself not to engage in anything too taxing as I had finally reached that turning point in my journey where cultural saturation levels had peaked, my brain weighted with worldly experiences, my entire being felt drained of packing backpacks, moving on and sleeping in a different bed every night. I'd had enough of boring bus rides, tedious train journeys, bilious boat trips, treacherous taxis, taxing tuk tuks even [View Full Entry]

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We flew into Kuala Lumpur and headed for China town at the silly o'clock dark morning time where pre-dawn life was starting to wind down. Tired drunks clutched beer wearing ickle foam cooling jackets, torpid travellers slurping noodle soup saying nothing to each other. Listless hookers passed me by giving me the once over. City cabbies played roulette with weary nocturnal mortals who had enough partying for one night and just wanted to get home. Luckily we had pre-booked a room at a well known hostel, unluckily the room had already been taken by another 'Claire Hall' some 8 hours earlier [View Full Entry]

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Monday I was told by the more experienced travellers that Kuta is the arm pit of Indonesia and to save international blogging face we needed to get our barrings and move on. (But in reality we could not be bothered to do this and have stayed here for five whole interesting weeks.) Today I went to so called stinking armpit beach of Kuta to have long rest in perfect sunshine. I laid down, creamed up, headphones on. Today's choice of tunes Northern Lite 'Unisex' Closed my eyes, 45 seconds later sun went in, it stayed in for a silly long time, [View Full Entry]

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One morning I accidentally crushed a large beetle shaped insect beneath my bare foot, this made a loud crunching noise which made me feel a bit sick in my mouth. The cleaner man at our hotel looked at me in a pleasing kinda way then said 'Its OK, good riddance to it'. I asked him what he meant? He told me that all insects are scum and that he believed they were once the human souls of all the really bad people of this world like drug dealers, killers, child abusers, sex traders and so on. I looked at him for [View Full Entry]

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Bali means Island of the Gods, its religion is 93% Hindu which expresses itself through the many hourly, daily, monthly, bi-monthly, yearly, twice yearly, decade, end of century, beginning of century, summer, autumn, winter, spring, birth, 3 month of age, 6 months of age, reaching 17 and adulthood (teeth filing ritual), promotions, demotions, weddings and death, the final cremation ritual that lasts for days even years after a death. Each ceremony and every ritual has Bali's ancient history and it's colourful and rich culture woven into it, which is brought together further by the abundant cre [View Full Entry]

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Old Kuta Town......... My days turned into dusk, I slept. Dawn turned back into days, I slept more. [View Full Entry]

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To fully experience Bali I was told I must attend a Balinese family cremation as the Balinese send their dead to the Nirvana realms with such a passionate show of love and creativity this was one thing I could not miss. Within 24 hours of arriving into Bali I found myself stood in front of a grieving family home, in a strange village called Sangeh, which is north of Kuta and East of Ubud. I wondered who had died to give me this ultimate Balinese experience as no one would say? My boyfriend kept in custom and dressed in a sarong [View Full Entry]

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With his enemy is controlled by them! I suspect that the neck cracking skyline of this fine city of Shanghai was completely inspired by a certain new romantic influence of later day 20th century circa nineteen hundred and eighty, when a young team of visionaries from Sheffield Yorkshire called themselves 'The Human League' came up with something really great. There are no other words to describe Shanghai as every building as far as the eye can see is 'Empire State Human' Tall tall tall...........! 'Since I was very young I realised I never wanted to be human size....' [View Full Entry]

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We arrived by train on Tuesday afternoon, then left by train on Wednesday night. I was too tired then to find anything out, and Im too tired now to write anything. This is what happened in between..... [View Full Entry]

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