Goodbye Asia......For Now

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Right, been a few days since I've last posted, in fact im not even in the same country, Singapore to be precise, but I'll head back a few days and fill you in on whats happened!

Luke and i didn't get to see much of Kula Lumpur on our first day, its pretty difficult when you dont get out of bed until 3pm ( damn hotel rooms without windows, its so confusing ), but in our defense we didn't go to bed until 7am! Anyway, we both felt like we couldn't go anywhere until mike arrived, if you haven't read other posts we left mike over a week ago on Ko samui as we headed to Ko phangan and he headed to ko Tao. With our brilliant minds, not, and the magic of facebook chat we decided against the conventional and sensible idea of booking somewhere in advance where we could all meet and went for this option instead. "Mike, when we arrive in KL we will find somewhere and book there, and then send you a message, so when you arrive get to an internet cafe and check your facebook, then come and find us." im sure you can all see problems with this plan of action, so add to this the fact that we forgot to ask him what time his train leaves and arrives, please, feel free to call us idiots.

Still, we were confident everything would be Ok, and in the end it was. The trouble was, that while we sat in all day, at some point we got hungry and went to find some food. In this time, without us knowing, mike had arrived, and been turned away as there was no room (yes, you'd think we'd have booked him a room, but you just read how we planned the whole trip, and hindsight is a wonderful thing Luke keeps telling me) and went and found somewhere else to stay. Luke and i, unbeknown to this came back and sat down to watch a film, all the time thinking, he'll be here soon.... Finally, i checked facebook and had a message from mike telling us he'd been and gone etc (hours before) and that he'd see us tomorrow. but he was on facebook chat (crafty little bugger) and ten minutes later after 9 days and a couple of countries passed, Mikey was back. or so we thought.

See after a well deserved beer (and I'm referring to the 22 hour mini-bus journey) we decided to go to the Petronus towers the next day. For those who dont know, which was me until i went, the Petronus towers are the tallest twin towers in the world (452 meters) and a must to see if you ever get to KL. the only problem is they only give out a certain amount of tickets per day. we were told to get there before 7, so Luke and I arranged to meet mike at 5.50 outside our hotel. now I'm fully aware this is becoming quite a story, but it needs the build up for what happened next and it starts with when mike said "if I'm not there then come wake me up" yea that's fine we said, considering Chinatown was just one block and he was on the other side. 5.50 comes, we're waiting, no Mikey. overslept we think, and we strolled down to his hotel, get his key ( hotel staff just hand out keys, so comforting) and went up to his room, only to be greeted with an empty bed... we must have missed him we thought, so Luke went one way and i went the other around the block so one of us would bump into him if he had doubled back. when we both got back to our hostel and none of us had saw him, we both thought 'that was weird'. we'll wait here i said, he'll come back. but after ten minutes and he hadn't i told Luke wait there while i went back to his hotel. still no Mikey. by know half hour had passed, and i was slightly worried. see mike had only arrived at 9 last night, he hadn't seen anything but Chinatown and the only place he knew how to get to was his hotel and ours. a literal 5 minute walk. maximum. when i got back to our hostel for the second time and he still wasn't there i was confused. his hostel said he left at 5.45 but he wasn't at ours at 5.50 and we walked the way he would have came. our reception said he hadn't came in so we wondered where the hell he was. no after a few more times around the block, and the time fast approaching 7.30 it was no light, the streets were beginning to bustle and mike was no-were to bee seen. we came to the conclusion that he never made it to our hostel and that he had gone missing. it may sound stupid, but what other logical explanation could there be except that he went to the towers as the hostel reception said he may have done. ridiculous, he knew to meet us at our hostel and for a start he has no idea where they are!! Funny that, because after getting back to our hostel for the seventh time that morning (yes i counted, i was more than worried by now) the little bastard was about to walk into our hostel!! After general relief followed by anger followed by relief had set in he told us in these actual words " i thought you went on without me, so i got a taxi, dunno why you were worried, i was by myself for 9 days." brilliant.


Still a bit of good news to come out of this, is while he got to to the towers and realized the ticket counter doesn't open till 8.30 and we weren't there, he simply put his hat down at the front of the Que and got a taxi back. We all rocked up at 8.10 and strolled straight to the front of the Que, i knew he was my brother for a reason. we paid 40 ringgits to go all the way to the top (your only there once) as the other option is just the skybridge, which connects the towers halfway up. we go to do both and mike and i felt a bit sorry for Luke when his anxiety set in on the skybridge. he's not scared of heights, but the thought of it falling, so i guess mike and i jumping up and down to 'see if we can get it to move' didn't do him any favors. oops. The view from the top is breathtaking, you look down on skyscrapers as if they're nothing, the feeling of being on top of the world was quite literal at that moment. nice. Kuala lumpur is an amazing city, for the whole of our time in Thailand it was just a place we had to go before Singapore for us and we nearly skipped it altogether. i can tell you know we would have regretted it, i cant recommend it enough. its like i would imagine new york to be; buildings to make you feel like a borrower (remember that program ha) a mono rail system that can get you anywhere in the city for ten pence, and trust me, its a damn big city. shopping malls that are ten floors high, and seriously, the one we went to had a rollorcoaster in it, on one floor. genius, although i don't think english health and safety would agree. killjoys. so so much to see, we ended up staying for four days. I haven't mentioned the hostel we stayed in ( we all moved to one the second day so we would be in the same place, clever aint we) was so cool. i use the word cool as there's limits to what vocabulary i had at my dispense. clean, no. tidy, no. bright and cheerful, no. spacious, um no. in fact, you'd find it hard to find any positive words except cheap, and it was damn cheap. but sometimes, and we've been to places that are clean, tidy and spacious, have t.v's fridges and hot showers, places have no character. when your backpacking, trust me, it makes all the difference. this place just had it. even the reception, where there was 50 plus pairs of flip flops just on the floor ( no shoes inside ) made you smile. worn couches on every floor just to sit and chill on. the fourth floor common room, with a battered t.v that had every channel you could think of. trust me, there's something cool about sitting around, playing cards and watching English football with people from around the world that you just don't get at other places. and we all loved it. before i forget to mention, its called oasis.


Still, all good things come to an end and we eventually did leave KL, for Singapore! 5 hours they told us. yea, 9 hours later and we did arrive, only just mind. see the immigration is a bit confusing. the coach drops you close to the boarder and gives you a local bus ticket. here you wait for the bus to take you to singapore bus station, via two immigration points; Malaysia exit and Singapore entry. No-one told us this, or where to go after, or what bus to get back on, or in fact anything. And you'd think from the glares we were evil! luckily, and somehow we're always lucky, a Malaysian lady named Anita who studied in Manchester (she told us, 'tis not a guess) and spoke perfect English helped us every step of the way including pointing us to a few hostels when we arrived. finally. you see, half the fun is finding somewhere when you get there, so we never book anymore. As I've said, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and we ended up in a 24 bed dorm with no westerners and paid 20 dollars ( ten pound). Welcome to Singapore.


Today we went to Singapore zoo after hearing so many people tell us how good it was, and trust me, other zoos just pale in comparison. that's probably due to the fact that they had white tigers there, only the best animal you'll ever see, and sadly it will be in a zoo, as there are none left in the wild. Although, for safety reasons, that would work in your favor, i wouldn't fancy my chances against one anyway. id love to say i saw more of Singapore but we just haven't had the time. Its expensive compared to the rest of Asia, but like all things, it depends where you go and what you buy. little India where we're staying is nice, and a 24 hour mall nearby sells absolutely everything. apart from that i can only mention our recent addiction to fast food. see we've spent the past month eating nothing but pad Thai and fried rice with chicken, more or less anyway! But for some reason, and I'm guessing the stupidly low prices of KL (they're were practically giving it away) we've managed 5 McDonalds and two KFC's in less than 5 days. well, we cant eat well all the time.


I'm pretty sure this is my longest blog yet, but i wanted to finish Asia before we fly to Australia tomorrow, so thank you for those who've managed to drag themselves through this, and my next blog should be from Cairns Australia pretty soon.

Scotty

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