from KL to NZ

---

---

Couple of apologies to make to start with:

Apologies for my lack of attention to my blog. I'm now actually in New Zealand, but have been so busy catching up with my friends Karen & Stef (and daughter Rhionna) that I haven't got around to updating for a while. Anyway this will bring you all up to date (well up to arriving here in NZ) and I promise to pay more attention next time....

Secondly - there are no pics on this blog as it's just too painful to try and download them at the minute so there may be an extra load next time.

And a couple of announcements: Happy Birthday for 3rd June to my sister Katie, and congratulations to Pete, Gemma and Joel for the arrival on 3rd June of baby Esme who I'm sure is as gorgeous as Joely Jubbins was when he was a babe.

So, before I start on my adventures in Kuala Lumpar, I still need to finish off my couple of days in Singapore. I decided to live it up a little on my last day and early evening went to Raffles Hotel to have the ubiquitous Singapore Sling - it was invented here so it seemed the right thing to do. I almost made it into the main entrance before I was redirected by the bell boy into the side entrance to the Bar and Billiard Room!! Anyway, having perused the cocktail menu I was swayed by the Champagne cocktail - the most expensive cocktail on the menu at 28 Singapore Dollars (about a tenner). I made sure that I ate all the free nuts so that I got my monies worth!

I followed my Champagne cocktail with a drink at the Equinox Bar which is on the 70th floor of one of the city centre hotels and has great views of loads of twinkly lights all over the city. My beverage of choice here was a bottle of Corona and I spent a pleasant evening chatting to a French guy who mistook me for an Aussie girl he met a couple of weeks ago in Bali - mmmh that could've been a line.....

The bus trip to KL from Singapore was comfortable enough - until I realised I couldn't find any of my Malaysian currency! I got the taxi driver to take me to a cashpoint though before I got to the hostel and settled in (and found my currency in the bottom of my back pack!). There have been amazing thunderstorms every night, but during the day it has been scorchio. I have visited the main tourist attractions here - the Petronas twin towers, which are the highest in the world. Unfortunately you're not allowed to the top although you can go to a viewing deck on the 41st floor but hey, there are some council flat blocks that tall in Bristol (namely Nelson Mandela House in Bedminster!), so I didn't bother. I met a Filiino lady there who told me that in her dialect of Filipino the word for 'right man' is the same as for 'woman' - not sure if she was trying to tell me something but I made a sharp exit....

Off to the KL tower - the 4th highest telecommunications tower in the world which offered some great city views. I also did the nature walk through the park there, but unless you have a fascination with different types of leaves I wouldn't particularly recommend it unless you just want some respite from the heat.

Went to Chinatown for dinner one evening, which was very atmospheric and had some really good food. Wandering through the markets was great but I'd had enough when the food stalls started giving way to stalls selling dodgy watches, bags and t-shirts - all designer brands apparently! It was whilst in Chinatown that the very low critter count went up - with a number of sitings of cockroaches running arount place - vile things.

The Batu Caves are worth the visit - so long as you remember it's Batu Caves not Bat Caves - I'm sure there are bats there at night but only monkeys during the day. I climbed the 272 (count 'em) steps up to the Hindu temple at the top, then climbed them back down again and had very achey legs!

I flew across from KL to Pulau Tioman - having been told that the journey to airport would take 45 minutes I booked the cab for 6 am and it only took 10 mins to get here. The airport wasn't open until 7 am so had to wait for the Malaysian equivalent of Dominic to come and open up.

Also discovered that I have completely messed up on my currency! I found the ones I had in my rucksack - all hidden away, then when I got to the airport this morning I remembered that there are no cashpoints on Tioman and panicked and forgot that I'd found the stash and got another stash out of the cashpoint at the airport. Then I found the original stash so I am now a ringgit millionaire but don't need to be as I can charge everything to my room here!!

Have spent a lovely few days on the beach listening to my i-pod and reading - I now resemble a tomato although I was very good and used factor 15 and retreated to the shade on a number of occasions for snoozing purposes. It was very restful though just lazing about on my arse and not traipsing round cities climbing tall buildings and things.

I was warned by my friend Karen in Auckland that NZ are having the wettest winter ever, ever ever..... so I may have wet rot and/or trench foot soon. However, I have arrived and it has been beautiful so far.....

Coming soon on Baker's travels - possum shooting in the dark, horse-riding, stunning beaches and handsome surfers......

---

Comments

[Bruce]

You lucky son of a gun!
Hi Carole Sounds fantastic, don't forget to do the bungee jump over the shotover afterall you are in the country where Mr Hacker invented bungee jumping. Regards Bruce

[staceyjamie]

Hey carole, I love the way you write, you have made me laugh out loud. I like to write and take ridiculous amounts of pictures to, so at least we have that in common. I see from your page that we are also travelling to some other of the same places, how cool. Redundancy sucks, but longggggggg extended, beach/beer/temple vacations rock!