Beware! Huge entry ahead. 30 march to 12 april

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At Tioman we had a severe communications failure since the internet cafes were too expensive. And in Singapore we just didn't have enough time. Now, however, we have at last arrived in Sydney and prepare to explore the final country of our trip. So far it almost feels like we have come home. It's not as hot and, especially, not as humid. It is also strange to see all the white people, where did they come from? Hot showers, nice beds and nice people, what more can we ask for?

Starting with Erik's first four days after the break up in Melaka: When he sat on the bus on his way to Mersing all of a sudden the bus decided to drive into a big garage and make some repairations of some sort. Therefore he arrived just five minutes after the last ferry to Pulau Tioman had departed. Shit! He went to the nice Omar's Backpacker Inn.
Well on Pulau Tioman he checked into My Friend's place and discovered, to his pleasure, how exaggerated his expectations of the food costs had been. He met quite a few nice people there. His neighbour was a French-Australian sugar cane scientist who kindly showed Erik around. Also staying at My Friend's place was an Italian guy who lived near Venica and had been travelling for fifteen months, and subsequently had quite a few stories to tell.
On the day Erik went to the Monkey bay, a far off beach where he was supposed to be able to see sharks and turtles, he met a Swedish-Egyptian New Yorker with family and relatives all over the world. That day he arrived sweaty and exhausted to what could have been Monkey Bay but after discussing it with a couple of Austrian guys who came shortly after him, they decided it couldn't be an trudged on. After an extra twenty minutes walk and a monsoon rain they arrived at the very beautiful beach/lagoon and luckily an abandoned house that offered some shelter outside. When the rains had subsided and Erik had changed he went out to snorkle, which was quite a walk since it was extremely shallow for about a hundred metres. He met the Austrian guy who were on his way back since he just had seen a couple of sharks and didn't dare stay any longer. Erik got quite excited and set out. He went out to some snorkelling expedition boats who were anchored in the north side of the lagoon. He found it very amusing to see that they were snorkling with big lifejackets. That was apparently the bad parts since he barely saw any fish at all and the corall wasn't that amazing. So he took a swim to the deserted south side. After a couple of minutes he saw a young, beautifully solemn green seaturtle. And shortly after he saw some quite big sharks who were curious and circled him a couple of times. He also saw a baby black-tipped shark, who was very afraid and swam off as fast as it could.

On the day of Hannes' arrival Erik waited for him on the two first ferry arrivals of the day, grew tired of it and went out snorkelling. He discovered two different corall fields which were quite extraordinary as you could see the same type of corall for tens of metres. On his way back he saw that the evening ferry had arrived and saw a strange person that might be Hannes walking on the jetty. He proceeded to swim home. When he barely had reached the beach he saw Hannes walking on the beach walk and hailed him from the water.

We sorted out the accomodations and then planned a little for the following days. Erik had booked a dive trip for the next day so he advised Hannes to go to Monkey Bay. As the next day was very cloudy with sporadic rains, Hannes just relaxed by the chalet all day long instead.
Erik had a fun day and the best diving experience so far. The first dive site was meant for advanced divers but Erik had no problem going through the little caves and handling the currents. His breathing was as good as he had ever managed, which means that he saved air and managed to stay on the same level in the water. That was what made this dive so great. The fish weren't nearly as good as on Sipadan but the coralls were brighter. The second dive wasn't as good but he at least saw some sharks and a sunken fishing vessel. He also got to see a really big morae eel.

The next day Erik decided to accompany Hannes to the Monkey Bay but after an hour of jungle trekking we instead stopped at Monkey Beach, cirka twenty minutes from Monkey Bay. After two, for Hannes, great snorkelling expeditions we had both seen quite a few bluespotted stingrays, a seaturtle and some batfish. Hannes also happened to see a big black-tipped shark just five metres away, which he thought was extremely cool. We of course also saw the "usual" extreme amount of aquarium fishes.
That evening we went to the bar and Hannes finally got to see some football (Erik too).

The last whole day on Tioman dawned and Erik again experienced pain in his ear (this time the other one), to our great dismay. This meant no more snorkelling which in turn meant mostly doing nothing (i.e. relaxing). A short one-on-one volleyball game was played, consequently with lots of refreshments after.

The following day Erik's ear got much better, cancelling the planned hospital visit. We took the ferry back to Mersing and then a bus to Johor Bahru, where we tried to get rid of the last Ringits (Erik failing) on the bus station. We then took the bus to Singpore, experiencing some small troubles with customs and buses.
Finally arriving in some kind of MRT (mass rapid transit) station, we had to go almost through the whole city since we were going to NTU (Nanyang Technological University). Our Taiwanese friends we met in the Philippines had a room in a student block there and we were welcome to stay with them.

The following days they took great care of us, showing us Singapore, introducing us to their friends and helping us loan some "smart elegant" outfits. The city tour included the Haw Par Villa, where we saw the ten parts of Hell according to Tao/Bhuddist beliefs. We all thought most punishments were inconsistent with their crimes, for example cursing was punished by the person being thrown onto a tree of knives, refusal to pay rent led to being pounded by a stone mallet and cheating during examinations was awarded with having the intestines and organs pulled out. Murder only resultet in head and arms chopped off while prostitutes were drowned in a pool of blood.
After going through hell we went directly to the national museum. They had a really good indigenous food exhibition. Erik couldn't remember when he last was so satisfied by a sandwich as in the Novus cafe, which was partly due to our over-consumption of Malay food. We both realized how hungry were for Western food. And therefore we ate sushi that evening after visiting Chinatown.
That night we tried the Singapore nightlife, starting off with a Singapore Sling for 26 Singapore dollars in Raffles Longbar. Erik really enjoyed it while Hannes managed to trade his away with one of the girls.
We then went to the very good nightclub Dbl O had a really good time dancing, listening to live music and talking. We also met Carl our Swedish aquiantance from the Philippines there.
We stayed out till five and were therefore very tired when getting up at 8.30 to go to the Swedish embassy to get Erik's new ATM card.
We also visited Santosa, Singapore's huge, very fine but very fake beach. Sadly with a harbour view, enormous tankers floating just a few kilometres away. Erik finally got some sleep on the beach.

Our last night in Singapore had the best of finishes. We dressed up in our borrowed clothes (the only thing ours were the boxers) and went to one of, if not the, finest restaurants in Singapore: the Raffles Grill. We had a three course dinner, including wine, compliments of Erik's grandparents. It was the best dinner in a restaurant either of us had ever experienced.
Before the entree we got a small snack consisting of fried potatoes (i.e. two French fries), coliflower pure and frog pate with a small piece of bread on a toothpick, which was exceptional.
Then we got the entree. Hannes had ordered a carved salmon, which meant that they brought out a whole piece of salmon and carved it by the table, adding chives, creme fraiche and capers. Hannes was, in relation to what it costed, very disappointed with it since he had had similar stuff but much better at home.
Erik had the Fois Gras, which by far was the best one he had ever had in his entire life. It was served with toast and thin, dried apple slices.
Before the mains we got some kind of mushroom on a mirror of white sauce. Hannes thought it was quite good while Erik liked it very much.
As a main course Erik had fillet of Venison with parsnips and sauce. Though the meat, partly, was a bit too rare, which was his own request, he liked it very much.
Hannes was extremely happy with his Brittany Codfish served with pure of baby pumpkins, which more than made up for the entree. One of the best pieces of fish he has ever eaten.
After the main course we were served a small creme-fraiche panna cotta with mango on top. Hannes thought the mango was way too strong and completely ruined the taste of the panna cotta, but they were very good separately. Erik thought it was excellent.
As dessert Erik had a Rhum raisin parfait with a pear soaked in sweet wine. It was wonderful.
Hannes had a berry marmelade with fresh berries and foam on top. It was a very good ending of the dinner and eating fresh, and very very ripe, strawberries and raspberries in the beginning of april was extremely pleasing.
When we had finished it we got a final treat consisting of a piece of chocolate with cookiedough, a strip of refreshening parfait and an orange blob of something quite like meringue.
Hannes, at the end of dinner, asked if they knew of a special kind of cheese we had had in our national service. They didn't have it but we got a free taste of a similar cheese.
Satisfied with our dinner we went back and packed our bags in anticipation of the morrow.

Yet again we slept only three hours before heading to the airport which we can imagine why it was voted as the best airport in the world. We quickly found our way to the boarding point and enjoyed (as much as you can enjoy a flight) the seven hour flight with the Qantas airline 747.
Arriving in Sydney we easily found a shuttle bus to our hostel and we are now going out to explore a bit in the city.

We would last like to make a final big "Thank you" to Pinchun and Anchi for their wonderful hospitality. Also thanks to Shunyi and everybody who helped us borrow clothes.

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Comments

[Nicklas]

Sunny sweden beach:P
Hello! Hope you are doing great in Australia. You have to come back soon. In May? Here in Sweden the spring has arrived with sunny weather at last. I am working my ass off but everything is just great and I am longing for the summer. I hope Liverpool can beat Chelsea tomorrrow. Are you going to see the match? Gustav says hello too. Take care. Hope to hear from you soon.