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Hello!!
Well its been a while but that's because we spent longer than expected in paradise! but paradise came with a small price, a very very bad and expensive internet connection.
So here's what we've been up to since we left Melbourne and headed to Singapore:
After a nice flight with Air Singapore we arrived in the Little India district of Singapore where we stayed for three nights. Our time there was spent looking round the big city/small country, eating nice food and getting bitten by bed bugs at the hostel! Yeah poor Verity got pretty badly munched on but it's ok, the bites have all cleared up now. One of the highlights of Singapore was going for the obligatory Singapore Sling in the "Long Bar" at the "Raffles hotel". The Drink itself was overpriced and weak but the best bit was the large bowl of peanuts on the table that you crack open yourselves and then throw the shells on the floor!! The whole place was covered in peanut shells, it was great!!!
After Three nights in Singapore we crossed the border to Malaysia and headed to Kuala Lumpur. To do this we had to
get a coach from Singapore which was great considering we were the only passengers on it. We had a whole VIP three seat across, not the usual four, coach to ourselves which hardly seemed worth their while considering the seven hour journey only cost 54 Singapore dollars for the both of us. KL was good, we stayed in a nice hotel right in the middle of crazy China town for very little money. While there we went to the National History Museum and to The "Batu Cave" which was a huge cave next to a huge gold Hindu Statue, filled with Hindu shrines and riddled with wild Monkeys. We also had to climb lots of steps to get up to the caves and at the top we had a great view of the KL skyline. Also while in KL we met up with my friend Hannah Roberts who I met on the Hadrien's Wall challenge a few years ago. Hannah works for IBM and was there on business and she very Kindly offered to take us out to dinner at the Hilton where she was staying. We swiftly accepted the offer and we all had a great evening. Many Thanks
again Hannah if your reading this!
After KL we took a bus to Tanah Rata, a small town in the Malaysian Highlands also known as as the Cameron Highlands. Here we were relieved to be up high and in a cooler climate after the humidity of Singapore and KL. In our one full day in The Cameron Highlands we took a really great tour which included great vistas of the Tea plantations of the "Boh" tea estate, the hightest point in the area with a huge lookout tower, a rather muddy jungle trek and the "Boh" tea factory where we enjoyed a pot of Malaysia's finest tea and cream scones to go with it! And all of this in one morning!!!
After 2 nights in Tanah Rata we headed to The Perhentian Islands, Malaysia's show piece Islands on the North East coast and our very own paradise. We stayed on Kecil Island, also known as Small Island, in a backpackers resort that had its own little secluded bay and beach as well as huge Monitor Lizards, non poisonous snakes and a working monkey who is used to climb the trees and get down Coconuts so we could all
have lovely coconut shakes. We spent our days here snorkelling with small Reef Sharks and Clown Fish (Nemo) at sunset, eating amazing food, Kayaking to secluded beaches on other Islands and lazing around in hammocks. In fact it was so nice that we ended up staying for a week instead of the few days we had intended.
So now we're in Koh Lanta, an Island off the West coast of Thailand staying in a resort that's costing us around 4 pounds a night but looks like it should cost at least 40! To get here we thought it would be an easy overnight bus across Malaysia and then another mini bus straight to Koh Lanta. But here is the final transport list that we (Me, Verity, Paul and Dave, two guys from Aus and UK who were staying at the same places as us in Cameron Highlands and the Perhentians) took on our epic 27 hour journey to get here. Small water taxi, big water taxi, taxi, overnight freezing air-con coach (after spending 4 hours in KFC waiting for the departure time cos there was nothing else to do), minibus, tuk tuk, public bus with crazy interior colours, another
tuk tuk, another minibus, ferry, another ferry and finally a pick up truck supplied by the resort we're staying at! As your can imagine we were pretty tired last night so after a couple of Chang beers and a Red Thai curry we all headed off for an early night.
Until next time folks, keep the emails and comments coming. We have noticed the comments on the blog have dwindled lately so your communication would be appreciated!
Love to you all
G&V xx
PS. This week our time left traveling has turned into single figures! 9 weeks this Thursday and still so much to get in!!!!
Update: There were a couple of things that I missed when I first wrote this blog. On our last night in Singapore we went to the "night safari" at the singapore zoo. We were treated to a show of nocturnal animals including wolves and leopards and also took a train ride around the zoo to see all the animals at night. I also forgot to mention that we had baby turtles hatching on our beach in the Perhentian islands which was pretty special!!!
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Nic and James
non-member comment
Hey you two, Glad to hear from you both, we hadn't heard anything for a while and I was beginning to worry about my little brother (and Verity of course) on the other side of the world! Sounds like your having a fab time and I'm so impressed how much your doing and seeing and not just the easy places to get to. The Perhentian Islands sounds absolutly gorgeous and it must be great to see monkeys and Monitors in the wild, although the snakes would be enough to freak me out - poison or no poison! Anyway, keep the messages and pictures coming when you get the chance. Lots of love Nic and James