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Published: February 6th 2007
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Me and Emma
First Day in our 'cell' in Singapore Hi Guys,
Thought I'd write my first Blog, can't guarentee it will work but I'll give it a go!!
We are currently in Bali, which half an hour ago I would have said was beautiful sunshine but unfortunately it has just started raining...again...!
We flew into Singapore last Sunday and stayed just on the outskirts of little India, in what I would best describe as a tiny cell!! nothing we could do though as we had pre-booked beacuse we didn't land 'til late, and at least it had air-con! We only stayed ther 2 nights, just enough time to book a flight to Jakarta from a little island just off the coast of Singapore. We intended to go back to see the sights but after wandering around for the day and not being particularly enamoured, we have decided to skip the obligatory drink in Raffles and the night safari (sorry Jane, I'll never know if your impression was any good!!) and head staright to Kaula Lumpur when we leave Indonesia.
After a very long day of buses, boats and planes (turned out it wasn't much cheaper than flying staright from Singapore, but live and learn!) we arrived
Jakarta
Our little street in Jarkarta before the rain! in Jakrta, they would only give us a 30 day visa, despite begging, so it will be a bit of a whistle stop tour.
Jakarta was a bit of a let down, and that was even before it started raining! but once the rain came, it didn't stop, I was expecting a couple of hours but after a day and a half, we decided we woldn't get to see anything any way and waded, knee deep in water to try and get a train out of there. We managed to get one that night, and from what we've seen in the papers, it looks like we were lucky we did, really bad flooding has meant a huge evactuation and a lot of people stuck, so very glad we got out when we did!
We headed staright to Yogyakarta where it was, you guessed it, raining!! we found a lovely place to stay with a four poster bed and cute little garden, bathroom was scummy, I hate showering over a squat toilet, but I'll get used to it!
Despite the rain we actually managed to see some of Yogya, though not the palace as we kept missing the
opening times, typical! It was a really nice city, very busy but much better than Jakarta, lots of tuk tuks and I was constantly one step away from being run over by a freak moped!
We went out to Borobudur, a buddhist temple and one of the seven wonders of the world. It was really beautiful, though there has been lots of damage from vandals, lots of Buddha's missing arms and legs, apparently because of 'bad tourists' I would have loved to see someone try and get one of those in their rucksac, I can barely fit my walking boots in!!
We turned out to be quite the celebrities in Borobudur, with people filming us and taking sneaky photos, eventuallt someone asked to take one with us, and the flodd gates opened, about 20 peoeple later, the novelty had rubbed off and we thought it was best to leave!
The next day we jumped on the bus and went on a 14 hour bus ride to Bali, it was a beautiful journey, lots of paddy fields and very grren, though a bit hairy at times as the rain had followed us and we were driving through massive
puddles, and swerving to avoid deeper bits. 20 hours later ( we're getting used to Indonesian timings now!) we arrived, and here we are, staying in a gorgeous little room just down from Legion beach, with a tropical garden outside and even a pool, oh and a proper toilet, yay!! And we've finally found some sunshine, a bit too much actually, we got a bit lost on our way home from the beach and ended up walking for ages, and I'm now very rosy, spot the English hey!
Well that's about all we've done, not a lot really but we are absolutley exhausted already and I'm sporting some rather lovely large bags under my eyes, but nothing a few days on the beach can't sort out!!
We've got a few days here, than up to Ubud, which is supposed to be great for Baliniese culter and art, up North a little more, then over to Lombok and the Gilli Islands. From there we want to go to Komodo and Flores but we'll see how much time we have, it might have to be an arranged 3 day tour, just so we can at least see them.
Thats
all for now, hope you are all well. Keep e-mailing me, I want all the gossip!!
Take care
S xx
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Clem
non-member comment
Hey, glad to hear you're enjoying the start of it all! Seeing your pics outside ruined temples makes me very nostalgic and jealous (i think this comment will precede all future emails i send you!) Im still manic with my course - have sorted work experience for easter and have an 'informal chat' with another ghuy from radio jackie in south west london on thurs. However, am not so busy that I havent been spending most nights in the pub! (You can take the girl out of the boozer...)