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Published: February 8th 2008
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A'up
sorryit's bin a while!!!
we left you in the cameron highlands and since then we'v been to Kuala lumpur, Melakka, Johor bahru and now singapore!!
KL; we stayed in kl for 7 days and it was quite a nice city'everything is pretty clean and there's some wicked architecture, however a return to the lowlands meant a return to the heat which hit 40deg some days. we tended just to operate during the afternoon and evenings which meant we didnt get up till late. we we'r right in the middle of china town which was bustling in preparation for new year.
the day after we arrived was a hindu festival called thaipusam were over a million pilgrims make their way to the batua caves 13 km outside Kl. some of them carry massive images of deities on their heads ,attached to their boddies with HOOKS!!! aswell as things through their tongues,some of it looked quite bloody.
to get to the main cave you then walk up 200 or so steps (past a massive gold statue) into a massive chamber which was impressive on its own, let alone with 1000's of people in it, the air was heavy with incense and
the temperature on the way out as you were crammed into the crowd was intense,but it was a brilliant experience.
we also visited the petronas towers sky bridge and went up kl menara tower at night which was even better as the whole city spread out below you.the rest of the time in kl jut seemed to slip away however we saw quite abit of the city and even had an unsuccessfull attempt at getting an indonesian visa (bloody red tape).
Melacca, you might notice ive spelt that differently , its spelt so many different ways no one seems to know which is correct, however it was soooooooo laid back and a very quaint town to while away a few days , we even went to see rambo 4!!! other than that it was again a very lazy few days sitting out the heat and reading (helly got thru first 3 harry potters in about 5 days).
Johor Bahru, we decided to stay here to waste a few days before going to singapore, and we were greeted into the city with rain, which you'd think we'd be glad for, however it just got more humid (why do we
brits always complain about the weather??). after a bit of a walk we found a nice homestay called footloose which had lots of cats and 1 extremely cute kitten.we spent 3 days there as it was a lot cheaper than what we were going to get in singapore. but it did feel like we were just wasting a bit of time.
customs to singapore was really easy( they deal with 100,000 people a day so it should be) and we pretty much just hopped on and off the bus a couple of times flashing our passports. Luckily we had reservedd our accomodation in advance as singapore was quite busy with tourists and where we were stay was full. Its a bit on the expensive sind to what we have been paying for accomodation but at 8 punds each its not bad for the city centre. Singapore is quite westernised even compared to KL and is thus quite expensive so we took advantage of the hostels kitchen and cooked for ourselves which was a lovely change from eating out and MSG in every meal!!
We'v had late nights again whilst being here as a lot of the Chinese new year
celebrations are best in the evenings.Plus its been bloody hot AGIAN!!!!!!
In chinatown all the streets are lite up with fancy lighhting and Micky Mouse!!(cause its the year of the rat)(pauls year!! squeak) The streets were packed with stalls selling everything from fruit to clothes to chinese decorations and lots more. On new years eve we went to china town to watch the MAIN stage?? which was meant to start at 9pm but didnt actually start until gone 10 so our feet were getting a bit tired having stood in pretty much the same spot for well over an hour And then, well the performances didnt really seem that well put togetherand no one seemed exactly sure what was going on. In other words we weren't impressed!!
(in pauls words it was sh**!!!!!)
So we decided to head over to Hong Bao park where there was more celebrations happening and it was soooooooo much better there. There was a big stage where there were lots of different performances including lots of singing from various people, a woman spinning from th top of a pole by her neck!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bit strage if ya ask m but very impresive. Some girl spinning pots
and barrals on their feet whilst upside down(hope you can picture that one!!)and lots of othere stuff. The place had a very festive feel about it with street stalls selling lots of foor and there were soooo many lights in the trees and rat lanterns. The evening rounded off or should we say the new year began with a very impressive fire work display.
We are eaving Singapore today back to JB breifly before our flight to Borneo tomorrow morning which we have to check in for at 4am so we'll be "sleeping" in the airport tonight!!
Thats all for now, enjoy you comfy beds tonight
We'l try and put some photos on soon
Any one got any gossip??!!!
Love lots
Paul n Hele xx
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Jackie Negus
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hello from D of E
It looks like you are having a fantastic time. We are all so jealous, I think its time for us to start living the exciting life instead of working all the time. Jen (my daughter) and her partner are now on their travels, they seem to be doing things the opposite way round to yourselves. they have been to Borneo and Singapore and are now heading toward Thailand. We will be winging our way to Phuket in a couple of weeks for Andrews wedding. I've told Jen to keep her eyes open for someone who needs an haircut and looks like Jesus. We are enjoying reading you blog, keep them coming. Best wishes Jackie