Singapore, Malaysia and Phuket

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I arrived in Singapore early in the morning, and after a long flight longed for a snooze. So you can imagine my delight when I arrived at my hostel to discover that it was probably one of the best hostels I am ever likely to stay in. The only thing hostel about it was that I was sleeping in a dorm. But the cleanliness, the design and the services were far and above any other hostel I've encountered. Mind you, the same can be said for the price! I stayed in Singapore for two nights, and to be honest, I was rather dissapointed with the place, I spent two days walking about not doing a great deal. The place was sterile, expensive and rather boring. So I was certainly not shedding any tears as I boarded my train for the 7 hour journey to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

After booking into my hotel in KL, I got the monorail to the Chinatown part of the city. I explored the market, where everyone was pining for the tourists business. I purchased a pair of sunglasses for the pricely sum of 3 pounds. I commended myself on a haggling job well done, but then proceeded to lose the shades within the hour! I was only in KL for a night before my early flight to the Thai island of Phuket. Again I was not overly impressed with the city, but I suppose I cannot judge too much, considering I was only there for less than 24 hours. However, it says something when the most memorable thing about my time in Malaysia was getting ripped off by my taxi driver after my hour long journey to the airport. I was wary of getting ripped off beforehand, and asked my taxi driver to make sure the meter was running throughout the trip to the airport. However this did not stop the final bill being in the region of 50 pounds! At the time I informed the driver that this was much more expensive than I was led to believe by the hotel, and he responded by telling me that it really should be much more, and that he was giving it to me for a cheaper price. As it was on the meter I could not moan too much, so grudgingly accepted the price. However it did leave me in a bad mood for my flight.

It is worth mentioning that it was at this point of my trip when I definetly felt like I was on my own. In SA I met like-minded travellers everyday; but my first 3 or 4 days in Asia I did feel rather lonely at times, and therefore did not really enjoy myself.

However, on landing in Phuket I was hoping that this would be when the Asian part of my trip would truly kick into action. My mood was not improved on landing though, as i was greeted with dark clouds and rain. So i spent my first day snoozing and chilling at the hotel. The following day was much better though, with glorious sunshine pouring through my bedroom curtains as I awoke that morning. I spent my day chilling at the nearby beach, catching some rays and doing some hardcore book reading. That night, for the first time ever I had a night out for one. Phuket is full of westerners, bars and unfortunately, ladies of the night. I would not overly mind the latter, but the constant pestering becomes tiresome after a while, particularly because they could see I was on my own. Nevertheless, I still had an excellent night, sampling several bars, as well as many decent Thai cover bands (never thought i'd see a little Thai guy sing Metallica so well).

I spent the following day, chilling on the beach and again immersing myself into the world of Inspector Rebus (Thanks for the book Isla). The next day, i'd arranged to go on a boat cruise to a group of nearby islands called the Phi Phi islands, with one of them being the island where they filmed 'The Beach'. The weather again was great, and during the day I went snorkelling, relaxed and explored each island we stopped at. As that night was my final in Phuket, I decided to go out again. I spent the majority of my night at a nearby Irish bar, which although was expensive, had a fantastic blues band. In the process of my time there, I befriended three French guys who were on holiday. After the Irish bar, the four of us went to a nearby nightclub. The venue itself was good, but my goodness, if one is an unattractive western male, they should get themselves to Phuket - the amount of either old or overweight men who were 'enjoying the company' of pretty, young, local Thai girls was unreal (and I am pretty sure they were REAL women too). After sinking one too many drinks I made my excuses, bid farewell to my French chums, hopped on the back of a taxi motorbike and went back to my hotel.

I boarded my flight for Bangkok the next day, a little tender; but thoroughly satisfied with what had been an expensive, yet enjoyable few days in Phuket. Next stop Bangkok, and the start of my month long tour of South Asia.

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