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Published: November 5th 2009
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Gorilla grip doing the business...Thanks age and SareyWelcome to week four of the blog, bought to you by your favourite “bloggers”.
This week I have had writer's block so I have handed over the reins of blog responsibility to Kate. Over to you Kate…………..
Hello readers I may not be as funny as Matt, but I will try to keep it a little briefer than Matt as I heard on the grape vine people were falling asleep at desks last week, so please forgive us and I hope you enjoy this edition!!!
We left Saigon/HCMC last Wednesday, after finding a last bakery to sample and enjoy the delights!!- Weight Watcher (WW) gang please forgive us!! Ho Chi Minh City Airport was really quiet and we watched planes taking off whilst having a drink and speaking to Uncle Bryn!
On the flight I was by the window and Matt sat next to me with a Singaporean next to him. His name was Raymond Foo “no L” at the end he said!! But he should have said his name was Raymond For-god’s-sake-stop-talking! He chewed Matt’s ear off for the full 2 hour flight! Matt couldn’t even get a word in, and yes for all my family
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Before........ he did talk even more than Margy!! (only messing with you Mum!!) So although we would have liked a listening-break he told us lots about Singapore (as well as himself and how he was smuggling things into the country……it turned out just to be a toaster though!). He asked if we wanted to share a taxi with him, so we thought - why not, so he dropped us off at our chosen spot in Little India, we held out money but he refused to take it and he paid for the full taxi!! Nice one Raymondo!!!
This was our first “back packer hostel”. It was called The Inn Crowd and it was a really good location. We walked around the area once we dropped our backpacks off and found a local bar to have a Kingfisher Beer. We asked if we could just have a drink but the man had a persuasive manner and before we knew it we’d ordered a couple of Samosas, Chicken Tikka and Popadoms! Well you’ve gotta get in the spirit of things! We followed this up with an Indian meal and lots more beer! (again WW fans please forgive us for we have sinned!)
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After.......... Singapore is a fantastic city, a lot like USA crossed with Britain, loads of amazing shopping malls, if we were not on a long trip we would have had a huge shopping spree, but we resisted as the backpacks are already back-breaking! We took an open tour city bus and toured all around the sights which was great. Thanks to our sponsors, Matt’s Nan and Judy and Steve, we decided to treat ourselves to the classic Singapore Sling in the Long Bar in Raffles!! It was brilliant!! Felt swanky and it was good to dress up/make a little effort after living in flip flops for almost a month!
We spent two nights in Singapore then decided to go into Malaysia, so as we are loving the buses we got another 4 hour trip under our belt. We had to get off to show our passports to the Singapore authorities and then again once we had crossed the bridge into Malaysia. The buses just get better and better over here, we had so much room it was really easy to lye back and relax on the reclining chairs with leg rests! Matt made another friend on the bus (he
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Little India, samosa man. really is attracting them all! ) this time it was a friendly Indian man who was keen to share all of his food with Matt. I had decided to try to sleep so pulled over my hood and laughed to myself as I realised Matt was having to eat this food! Matt was saying “its very spicy” and the guy just said “yes proper Indian food”!! I chuckled to myself but after a few minutes I realised Matt was still being fed by this man and I couldn’t leave him being tortured having to eat something he was obviously not enjoying but the man would not take No! So I “awoke” and happily ate all of the snacks in matt’s hand! We were both happy with that!
Our first stop in Malaysia was the town of Melaka. This was a beautiful small town, it was once ruled by Britain, then I believe the Portuguese and Dutch. The architecture is lovely, so we strolled around the town taking in all of the sights. It has its own version of the London Eye called Eye of Malaysia so we took a ride, along with about 40 eight year old children and
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Gareths new chevy? enjoyed the view and waving continuously to them in their capsules! The local popular food here is Pineapple Tarts so I did the correct thing and got involved! Lovely, Mum if you want to bake these when we‘re back I‘d be more than happy to sample them for you!! Here we stayed with a lovely family in the Old Town Guest House, it was the most friendly and homely place we have stayed, full of Ikea type furniture as it was owned by a French chap and his wife from KL. We enjoyed it so much there, they have a daughter called Sara so we sat at breakfast singing nursery rhymes and drawing picture with her! So Good. The weather was pretty mixed with torrential rain and thunder storms both evenings so we spent two nights there then headed, by…….. you’ve guessed it….. bus to Kuala Lumpur.
KL is also a great city, really modern, loads of sky scrapers, shopping centres and it has a mono rail which makes getting around very easy. We went up the 4th tallest tower in the world the Menara KL which is just over 400m tall. This gave us the most fantastic panoramic
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I'm sure I din't park here!! views over the whole city, including the Petronas Twin Towers which are stunning. On the way to the tower we got the monorail then as soon as we got off there was torrential rain and an amazing thunderstorm the whole sky was being lit by the flashes and the rain was like nothing we have seen before. This must be the edge of the Monsoon rain.
We also got complimentary tickets to the small Zoo they have at the bottom of the tower, a pony ride and F1 driving experience. So we experienced all of this. The “zoo” was mainly snakes and spiders (which I kept well away from). Whilst we were there it was feeding time so we saw a poor live mouse being put in a snakes tank and it became a game of Snake and Mouse not Cat and Mouse! This was pretty sad to watch so as soon as it was clear the mouse had no where else to hide we walked on.
Matt found it hilarious when I took the Pony ride, as we realised it was for kids. The man said you had to be under a certain weight, asked me to
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Singapore shopping centre. stand on the scales, due to the pineapple tarts, bakery, Indians and lots of beer it was no surprise to see I was overweight, however he said it was still fine for me to ride the pony! I was concerned about the pony’s back but thought, just go for it , Jess and Sandra will be proud!!! Well from the pictures you will see that sight is nothing to be proud of and if I thought there was anyway I could persuade Matt not to put the picture on I would not be sharing this story! Quite embarrassing especially the huge helmet, the fact I was only 1 foot above the ground, and being led around the smallest car park in the world - twice!!!!! Well I hope it at least makes you laugh! We followed this with a more local dinner than what we usually opt for. This one was actually cooked on the street (see pic). Matt picked a good dish with help from the waitress, I however chose a not so good option as it came with what appeared to be raw egg on top!! Loving to try to be local though!!
After 2 days in
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more shops KL we decided we had seen plenty of the city scene and needed some beach love, so hopped on a flight to Langkawi which is North West Malaysia. We got here yesterday and it is a fabulous island. For anyone that has seen "Lost" just picture that. Beautiful lush green mountains, waterfalls and lovely white sand beaches that are as fine and soft as talcum powder with calm blue seas lapping up to wash away the white soft sand from your skin!! We hired a car today and went around the whole island, it is only 400,000sq ft so would take around 2 hours to drive the whole way without stopping. We stopped at a beach that Matt had heard about and it was the best beach we have ever been to. Stunning, quiet, almost deserted, hot sand, warm water and just a few islands to look out at on the horizon. We are in heaven!!!
Think we may stay here until we fly to Oz as little could beat it!
Sending Love Kate and Matt xx
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Wendy
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Hi Guys, The beaches look stunning and the shops very inviting as for the prawns and the pineapple tarts my mouth is watering just looking at the photos. Raffles looks just like a scene from an old movie, very impressive. What an amazing adventure! You have managed to see and do so much in such a short period and have been kind enough to share it with the rest of us. Enjoy your stay in Langkawi, can't wait for the next instalment to arrive on screen. W x