Always drive on the bright side of the road...

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No don't worry! I'm not depressed, it's just the ad line used by a cheerful company who took us on a fantastic day trip today!

There's so much to talk about since the last blog. I haven't even discussed Kuala Lumpur yet so I guess I'll start there... A lot of people said Kuala Lumpur wasn't that nice and when the mass of skyscrapers came into view, I admit I probably thought they were right. However, just because KL is hard to find your feet in at first and has no centre to speak of, it turned out to be a diverse city nonetheless. It probably helped that we were staying in a very friendly and safe hostel. Those who read my last blog will know of 'The Haven' and my positive feelings for the place!

Walking down the street after we arrived, we really saw our area 'The Golden Triangle' properly. I think we had our mouths open all the way down the street! Past the people trying to entice you to get a massage and what I presume was a prostitute at the end of our street, there were the biggest and most extravagant shopping centres I have ever seen! There were flashing lights, adverts in every place you could think of (even on the handrails on the tram), most centres had 6 floors upwards and the windows were filled with clothes we could never afford! Joe's likening it to Brave New World were quite accurate I think- consumption really did rule the day! I think they're more Western than we are!

A little bemused, we wondered what to do in this city. Yet we had a few sights in mind (the few mentioned in the book that is). So we decided to get a hop on hop off bus and this turned out to be great fun. We got to see more of the city and got a sense of the place. We also stopped off at a indoor bird park and saw monkies eating rubbish whilst waiting for the bus again. A few days later, we stopped off at the KL tower which was amazingly high (see Joe's blog for figures!). It was nice to see the city from above. All these steps seemed to slowly help shape our opinions of the city and understand it a little more.

I think one of the funniest experiences we had was our stay in a 5* hotel! At first, the lack of character and dead atmosphere simply made us want to return to our hostel. Yet after remembering the delights of duvets (something all our hostels lacked) and making our way down to dinner- our opinions changed a little! I think Joe covered a lot of this in this last blog so I won't go in. It was just brilliant at this restaurant though! The staff were ridiculously attentive (they made me feel a little guilty actually), we had free softdrinks/freshly made juices, about 5/6 chefs working in clear sight and making lovely delicious food, and best of all- desert included! There really was so much choice it was hard to choose! There was fruit, cookies, waffles on demand, a chocolate fountain (I really want one of those when I'm older, though I'd probably never leave the house and get FAT!), small cakes, ice cream, and loads of small sweets to mix in and smother in chocolate.

Our stay in total came to 40pounds each, including that dinner and an equally scrumptious breakfast! We were sure they were secretly charging us for things but at the end, there was nothing left to pay. Good value or what!

Next, SINGAPORE. I won't spend too long here as due to travel issues, we only got to spend one night in Singapore and even then, both Joe and I didn't get a good vibe from the place. In fact Joe pretty much despised it! It's hard to put our finger on what we didn't like but perhaps with a little more time, it may have changed... Joe has been there already though. We didn't get much friendliness from the people and it was so hard to get around (you MUST have exact change, know where you're going and know which bus to catch from the numerous ones listed with similar numbers). It was very clinical there, everyone seemed to act as they were meant to and didn't seem too happy about it! The guesthouse we stayed in was quite strange though, it was on the 25th floor of an apartment block! Wasn't a bad place to stay at all really but we weren't too concerned with leaving, especially as we were heading for Cairns!!!

Next... CAIRNS! Sorry all for such a long blog but I have to catch up with all the things we have done and places we've been. I hope you're not too bored at this point... The flight was good. When we got on, we realised the stupid check in lady had seated us apart (only across the aisle) but I had specifically asked her about it! Joe blamed it on Singapore 😉 but luckily, as it got closer and closer to take off, the two seats next to me were completely empty! We were watching the door anxiously, pre-guessing that every pair of people who got on were obviously going to come back to the empty seats BUT no- after safely taking off, Joe moved into the seats next to me and we had a nice bit of room for the flight! The couple who had been next to Joe were happy too! So everyone won in the end.

First impressions of Australia were that they were very concerned with Quarrantine! I had to declare my croissant from the plane at customs but thankfully they let me keep it (he he). Our first real encounter was a friendly lady who sorted out our free transfer to our hostel, Caravella. We arrived at the hostel by around 9.30am and promptly fell asleep for several hours.

We get a free evening meal with our hostel so we headed there for the night. We're right near the pier so it was nice to walk down there after our nap and feel the humid air, hear some English floating around (I know it's not great to admit, but it's nice to be understood and understand things again). Dinner was okay, though the place that provides it is a bit of a 'meat market'- anyone who's been to Yate's in London will know what I mean... No offence to those who like that kind of thing.

A few snap decisions later and Joe and I were booked to go white water rafting the next morning and a rainforest walk the day after! Our pick up the next day was 6.30am so we went off to bed again.

At 6.30am and generally for most mornings, I'm terrible company. Yet Joe and I managed to drag ourselves to the front of the hostel and wait for the bus to pick us up. Turns out another woman (Juliette) from out hostel was going on the same trip and she struck up a conversation with us as we waited. That was a nice start and we were all happily chatting a bit by the time the bus pulled up and we found some seats. The bus was pretty empty as this point but after rushing round the hostels, we had around 30 people onboard, mostly rubbing their eyes and planning on a good sleep.

However, our guides were ready to wake us up a bit! The guy on the microphone (Cam, who later was our guide down the river) managed to get a chuckle out of most people and exhibited the friendliness that we've found quite common with a lot of the Aussie people. So we made our way to the Tully river and as promised by the guide, there were masses of sugar cane fields!

Now, I have never done anything like rafting in my life. I got a bit nervous the closer we got but also felt excited at the same time, so not bad feelings at all really. When we did arrive, we all hopped off and got issued a rather fetching life jacket and an equally flattering helmet. They we chose out paddles and headed down to the river. We were told on the bus that if we wanted to be in a boat with people, we should stick together and if not, create a bit of distance. Thankfully, Joe seemed keen still! Also Juliette hung close so we all ended up in the same boat plus three others- Laura/Ulrika and Sid (who all turned out to be very nice too!). And of course, our guide was the energetic Cam who welcomed us onto the bus at the start.

So then we board the boat (rather like a huge dingy, for those who have no idea, as I didn't really!) We were told about paddling and what to happen if you fell out. Cam told us there was one rope to grab on the inside and one on the outside of the boat, suitably named the 'Oh Shit' rope. Some of the instructions we were given were pretty funny, like 'go left' or 'go right' meant jumping to one side of the boat and squashing up to the person on that side! (That gave us a few good laughs, especially with Joe and Sid sitting together!) Also another good one was jump up and down, which helped when we got stuck on rocks and made us look like real idiots! hehe.

It all seemed okay and we set off to our first rapid pretty quickly. We were all hoping it would go well and followed the instructions, and as we slid down the rapids and held on for dear life- we made it! After that, my worry seemed to reduce. As long as we followed the instructions and held on tight, it all seemed to work out well. We did lose one of our team (Laura) on one of the first few but Cam rescued her quickly. Joe had a bit of a tumble but managed to stay in somehow! It wasn't surprising as he and Sid were at the front and Cam often used the rocks to bounce off and the front of the boat sometimes went up them part way and Joe and Sid were a bit verticle!

This really was one of the funnest things I have ever done! As well as the activity, all the people and guides were really friendly. Our guide also taught us a lot on the way and told us jokes throughout. When we were left alone a few times, our boat also had a good dialogue going on.

Rafting is excellent and you can have a bit of a unique experience as you get stuck in various places and have to get out, you can go different paths down some of the rapids and you never know whether someone will fall out or what the river will throw at you. Thankfully our boat were pretty good and we took each rapid well I think. It shows in the highlight DVD after because we weren't in it much! We didn't fall out really or worse, flip as one boat did. Unfortunately, one guide told his boat someone had died there recently by getting stuck between the rock and the boat, then the boat flipped and a girl got stuck in the same place. Thankfully, all were okay but that girl couldn't carry on. It seemed strange to a lot of people, and to our boat especially, that something we gained so much pleasure from could be so dangerous and even fatal.

Anyway, moving back to the nice stuff... There was one really funny bit! Our guide told us we were going down a drop and he wanted to make us do a wheelie with the boat. A bit confused, we sat on the front of the boat as he asked and held onto each other in a semi-circle. Then he turned the boat round and started towards the drop, holding onto our hands as well. (I hope that makes sense). Then as we went down the boat kind of bounced and he pushed us all off! We all landed in the water laughing and a bit shocked!

We also got to swim along in the river which was very tranquil and stopped for a BBQ in the rainforest. Afterwards we walked our boat up to the van and it really gave me a great sense of achievement. Rafting was almost a surprise activity, something we hadn't really considered doing but it turned out to be SO fun and valuable, something I'll never forget! Also, met some really great characters who we've seen around town and might keep in contact with along the way.

We have some funny photos of the day so I'll try put one of two up at some point. But seriously, if you ever get to try rafting- please do!

As I've rambled on forever, I'd better leave it there though still so much to cover! As I'm famous for in my family (with their birthday cards), I seem to have written a 'novel'. I hope I'll get some good reviews!

Love to all and happy 1st Dec!

Nikki xx

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Photos

A street in Kuala Lumpur
Can you spot the adverts?

Joe in a cage at the bird sanctuary
He's just out of control!

Me
Obviously...

Joe feeding the birds
He made a few friends here...