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Published: October 17th 2011
Hi Everyone,
Thank you for all your comments - we enjoy reading them! We had one last day in Koh Phi Phi and luckily the sun shone!! We headed down to the beach and I put on my factor 50 and Anton decided to go for factor 30 on his brown bits and factor 10 on his white-vest imprint. Big mistake....we both ended up looking like lobsters and we only sunbathed for an hour or so as we had to catch our ferry after lunch. The ferry ride back to Phuket was a bit hairy and Anton suffered feeling nauseous but we made it back without seeing his lunch!!!
We arrived back at Phuket and had already pre-booked the same hostel that we arrived to (without pre-knowledge that we didn't like it), so were dreading going back. However, we arrived and we taken up a few floors to a different room and this one was nice and didn't smell. We had an evening in Phuket and enjoyed it at a very cheap but very delicious restaurant (people were actually queuing to get in - no other restaurant was that busy).
Another early morning rise (we were up before the sun at
5am) to catch our plane to Singapore. Flight was good and we arrived in Singapore lunch time.
We had pre-booked our hostel and had directions in hand on how to get there via the MRT (like London underground). A few hiccups in getting our ticket but we finally made it onto the correct train and headed towards Little India. 4 changes later, we were at the correct station and heading towards our hostel. Luckily, our hostel was about a 5min walk from the train station.
We got into our hostel and were met with a list of rules that we had to sign before being allowed in. The man took us to our room and both our hearts sank...it was the smallest, grimmest, dire room we had seen. We had obviously been lucky in Koh Samui and Koh Phi Phi because we paid a fraction of the cost to stay in lovely ensuite rooms there, and here we paid 25pounds to stay in a room that had bunk bed with horrible brown sheets and about 2feet to walk around, plus we had to share a bathroom. I could have cried and it made me feel extremely homesick!! Anton je'ed us
up and we went out to explore and find the tourist information place on Orchard Road. We found the tourist info place quite easily and the lady gave us lots of information on the open top tour bus. Over dinner at TGI Fridays (we both needed something that reminded us of home and some comfort food), we decided we would get up in the morning, find the bus stop for the tour bus and book a ticket that would allow us to go on the bus, on a river ride and on the Singapore flyer (like the London Eye). Still feeling homesick, I begged Anton to look at some hotels with me as I really didn't want to go back to our hostel. We went in a 'Welcome Inn' and 'Concorde' hotel on Orchard road but they were both nearly 300 pounds a night! I then resorted to looking at last minute rooms online but Anton finally persuaded me that we were backpacking and had to take the rough with the smooth. We headed back to our grotty room, got our sleeping bags out and bedded down for the night. In the morning, I woke up to 4 bites on
me (I later found out from Sharon that Singapore is known for bed bugs!!!) but we got up, ready and then heard some heavy rain!! Rain macs on, we headed to the bus stop towards the end of Little India. On the way, Anton decided that his rain coat was too hot and that he would prefer an umbrella - so into the local 'Trago Mills' we went, aka 'Mustafa Centre'. After much deliberation, Anton chose a lovely black umbrella and we headed out into the rain. About 5meters down the road, the umbrella handle broke!!! I couldn't help but laugh! So back into trago mills we go, to get a refund! The till operator was the slowest man we had ever met and it took him 5 mins to get a manager!!! She wanted us to have another umbrella or a credit note, but Anton fought for a refund and succeeded. He decided that he should 'man-up' and not worry so much about getting his hair wet!!
We found the point where the tour bus should have stopped and waited....and waited....and waited...and waited!! A few other people came and waited and went and then a rugby tour came and
finally we saw the bus wizz by on a different road to the one we were standing on...great! The rugby tour people said there were roadworks at some of the stops and the bus would not stop at these - they decided that this must have been one of those stops! They decided to walk down to the next bus-stop and we followed. By this time we were wet and hungry and getting a bit grumpy. As we were walking, we spotted a Macdonalds and hopped in for lunch whilst the rugby tour people carried on. After lunch, we found the next bus stop and waited....and waited....and waited....and waited! After about 40mins we gave up waiting and thought we'd use the map to walk to Raffles ourselves! We made it, very easily and enjoyed a lovely Singapore Sling in the Long Bar and nearly ate them out of monkey nuts!!! We had a look around the shops and found the Raffles Museum - it was actually very interesting and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
After Raffles we had decided to make our way to a bus stop that we would be able to catch a bus to the Night Safari. Got
a little bit lost and ended up in a fabulous hotel and then the door man very kindly pointed us in the right direction. After a shorter amount of waiting, the bus arrived and we went to the night safari. We had dinner as soon as we arrived as the queue was massive and we weren't overly fussed about getting in first. Another healthy meal at 'Bongo Burgers' (we would have embraced the local cuisine at the park but it was more expensive than the burgers, so they won) The park was really good and felt very strange walking around a zoo in the dark! We weren't allowed the flash on our camera, so our pics aren't great. We watched a fire show, went on a tram ride through the park and watched an animal show. The night ended and we went back for one last night in our five star prison cell! This time, sleeping bags were done up firmly and no little blighter was getting in to bite me!!! (The Singapore bugs didn't seem to like to munch on Anton!)
Morning came and no bites!! With renewed vigor, we strolled out to catch the sight seeing tour bus
once again. The weather was fine but I took my raincoat and Anton thought he'd be fine without his. We thought we'd take the train to Bugis and catch the bus from there (we thought we would have more luck) We arrived at Bugis and were walking to the bus stop when we spied a KFC!! It was nearly midday, so we thought we'd have an early lunch. We know we should have gone to the hawker centres but when you're hungry and the local transport doesn't seem to be on your side...convenience wins. As we were in KFC the heavens opened and it didn't stop raining all afternoon. After a discussion, we decided to not pay $49 singapore dollars for a tour in the rain, a boat trip in the rain and a trip in the flyer in the rain with poor visibility. An afternoon looking at the shops on Orchard road and having a lovely ice-cream was the second best option. We nearly went to the cinema but the choice of films ended too late and we wouldn't of had enough time to get to the airport for our flight to Bali.
We headed back to our hostel,
collected our bags and headed back to the airport via the trains (we were pros now!)
The flight to Bali was good and we arrived about 11:30pm. At the baggage claim, porters came and took our bags. We were both confused and were not sure what was going on, they escorted us to the exit and then demanded a tip from Anton for carrying our bags! Anton was very calm and explained that we were backpackers and had no money and luckily, they left us alone! We caught a taxi to our hostel and were dropped of at the top of a lane. We walked down the dark lane to our hostel and found a note on the desk telling us our room was upstairs. We had a private room with a bathroom but had to walk through a dorm to get to it. Luckily, when we arrived, there was no-one in the dorm. The room was ok and we had a good sleep.
The next morning we decided to head to the beach. The owner, Axle, gave us a map and off we went. We didn't quite realise that crossing the road, actually meant dicing with death trying to
cross a very busy dual carriage way!!! We made it out the other side alive and made our way to the beach. On the way we stopped at a hostel/hotel to enquire about their prices as they were closer to the beach. As we were stood outside the hotel, the women workers inside started screaming and then ran outside. All of a sudden, there was a rumble and the whole building shook! All the residents ran out of there rooms onto the street. There was some falling debris but nothing hit us. After the rumble everything went back to normal and one couple went back into their room to find a big crack!! We decided not to stay there! Further down the road was another hotel and we were able to see a room. It was cheap so we booked in for the following night.
We spent the next few days relaxing and chilling as we had had such a busy couple of weeks. We have walked the whole of Sanur beach, took us over 2 hours and have sunbathed a lot!! We plan to stay in the hotel we are in until next week and then we are going
to catch the ferry to an island called Nusa Lembognan. We also plan to go white water rafting and go on an elephant safari
We also have a pool table at our hotel, so Anton has had great pleasure in beating me every time. However, I am one up on the Uno championships!!
Hope you are all well,
Lots of Love from
Kate and Anton
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxx four special kisses for Thomas, Lauren, Erin and George
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Helen
non-member comment
Seperated at birth!
Kate this blog made me laugh so much as I know it's exactly what I'm like, we were obviously seperated at birth! When I travelled Europe with Mike I often tried to convince him with my fluttery eyelashes to let our budget stretch to a nice hotel instead of a dive hostel and when I went with Millie this summer I even offered to pay for a hotel from my own savings rather than our joint backpacking budget to get me out of sleeping in a rusty tin caravan! But hey ho those are the joys of experiencing another culture and it's all worth it in the end because those are the stories that you remember and laugh about for years to come! Keep the updates coming, it's lovely to hear what you are both up to and we all love the pictures as well! Have fun and keep your homesick chin up because there are plenty of wonderful experiences for you around every corner. Lots of love helen xxxx