TravelStream™ news feed for member guyandcalum on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/guyandcalum en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:02:30 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221825660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221825660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221825660/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:02:30 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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London, England, United Kingdom

Hmmm.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221825240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221825240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221825240/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:01:39 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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Bangkok, Thailand

We had been in contact with a friend we made in Buenos Aires who was in Bangkok at the time we were and as we only had about 8 hours to kill before our flight, said we could dump our stuff at her hotel. We met her and her friend on the Khao San Road, which is mad, and chucked our bags down. There are so many western tourists in this place it is crazy, we couldn't believe it. The markets are cool along the Khao San Road and we bought some cheap stuff and had some amazing Pad thai (thai noodle street food). As it was a sunday we went to the weekend market which is absolutely massive, something like 3,000 stalls. Calum and I split up from the girls and did some serious shopping, spending about 20 pounds on what seemed like a ridiculous amount of stuff. The weatehr was great and we did get a feel for Bangkok. We took a few tuk tuks (one of which offered us a special discount if we agreed to make a stop at his freinds suit shop and have a look. We agreed to this and sat down in this suit shop, had a look at a few suits and then politely declined and got back in the tuk tuk. It was really nice seeing Rachel and her friend and we all felt quite strange about heading home after so long (their flight to heathrow was the next day). We took a taxi to Bangkok's new airport which is so flash it is unbeleivable and after a few hours time killing in expensive shops and playing cards with our manky incomplete pack we got on the plane home. The end.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221824760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221824760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221824760/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:54:32 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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Butterworth, Pinang, Malaysia

The train was a few hours late but we had some good noodles and watched some more olympics and waited int he air conditioned rooms. The train was actually nice and spacious, because we had in for the night, we had a whole compartment kind of thing to our self - a bench seat each which would turn into the bottom bunk and then a flip down top bunk for later. Unfortunately the rest of our carriage was packed full with a malaysian tour group and the tour leader decided to shove all the school kids (who were just taking hte train to the next stop)into our compartment. Our bags were far to big to fit under the seats so we just had to leave them in the aisle which also made us unpopular. However after about 5 hours we found these Malaysians on the tour to be quite friendly. They laughed at us a lot and when they got their lunch (we had none) they took pity on us and gave us a box of noodles and proceeded to laugh a lot more at the way we ate with shopsticks and also how quickly we ate (we were very hungry). We made a stop at the Thai border and bought some food and were then offered dinner and beer later on so it turned out to be very enjoyable evening. At about 9pm a bloke came round with a load of sheets and withing about 15 seconds had our beds out and sheets on and pillows and everything, he was awesome. We slept really well and were a bit gutted to be woken up at 8am. We had thought by not ordering breakfast we would be able to sleep in but that backfired as we were woken up, told to get out of bed and then didn't get any breakfast. We arrived in Bangkok at about 11am. The train journey had been very interesting and quite pleasant, it was good to travel through thailand for a few hours only, it looked quite different to Malaysia.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221823560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221823560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1221823560/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:46:43 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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Georgetown, Pinang, Malaysia

We took the bus from KL up to Pinang Island, about a 5 hour journey, it was faster and cheaper than the train. Annoyingly they had moved the main bus station on the island (there is a bridge to mainland) to the south of the island so we took a taxi up to Georgetown. We had heard some good things about Georgetown, it is a old colonial town with some interesting buildings and architecture and as always in Malaysia, lots of different cultures and cuisines to experience. The food in Georgetown is particularly well known in Malaysia for being very good and we did our fair share of research on this matter. The first night we went to the food courts on the esplanade, mostly chinese and malay food here, and had some really good satay and noodles and some crazy fruit salad. We took a ride back in a rikshaw taxi thing with an old man pedalling away and puffing quitw heavily, we were a little concerned for his health but we all made it back to our hostelin the end. The town itself is quite different from some places we have been in Malaysia in that it appears very real and nothing is put on for tourists, although there are lots of hotels and hostels, as you walk along the street most other buildings are occupied by tradesmen and craftsmen, glaziers, carpenters, mechanics, wicker weavers, all working whilst seated or squatting on the floor, no workbenches in sight. Our hostel itself was a really cool building, an old colonial house with huge rooms with high cielings and a masisve staircase leading up to the dorms. It also had a funny kind of worship room/temple at the back with candles and incense burning at all times and intermittent chanting and cymbal bashing which was interesting. The guy who owned it (Mr Postman apparently was his name) was a bit of a nutter but a nice man who told us all we wanted to know about the town. We spent a few hours in a really interesting bar one day watching the olympics and chatting to the owner. The walls were full of plaquea and photos going back 40 years or so, all of different regiments who had come over to the bar from Butterworth where they were based with the Rifle Company Butterworth. Many Australian soldiers had been placed there and a few brits aswell. The owner was very proud of his bar and the history and was also a big fan of this Malaysian guy in the semi finals of the badminton in the olympics, he was pretty good fun. We visited little india the second evening and had some amazing curry. Little india was bustling at night, loads of street stalls selling clothes and food and bhangra music blaring out everywhere. We had read about this "Snake Temple" in the guidebook on Pinang and decided to check it out. We took a half hour bus and were a little disappointed to be honest. The temple itself was nice inside but under reconstruction so covered in scaffolding outside. The snake part of the name seemed to refer mainy to the snake farm right next to the temple which we had a look round. There were a few tied up monkeys and snakes in tanks and a guy trying to persuade us to pay him to kiss the venomous python he was holding. We declined and left. There were a few snakes in trees around the temple with signs saying "careful, venemous snakes" however we couldn't really work out whether it was just a gimic or not. There is some story about snakes taking refuge in the temple once and from then on being its guardians and although they are venomous have apparently never attacked. We were pretty seceptical and took the bus back to town where we found a massive shopping centre and wandered around for a few hours. In the evenings in Georgetown people start lighting masses of incense sticks of all sizes and burning fires of colourful paper, literally on the road, it was a bit bizarre but clearly normal for these people. We took the ferry back to mainland which was free and took us right to the train station at Butterworth where we would begin our final overland journey to Bangkok.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1219219620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1219219620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1219219620/tpod.html Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:34:16 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

The journey from Tasik Chini to KL was a bit of a long one, we had to get a bus back to Kuantan, get another taxi between bus stations (this time thankfully the boot did not jam shut with our bags in it) and then a bus over to KL. It was a sunday and the weekend had been a holiday in Malaysia so the bus station was really busy and all the bus companies were saying no tickets for any buses to KL until late at night, this was at about 11am. Somehow Emily found some guy who promised us that he would have 4 tickets to KL for the 12.30 bus, we weren't really sure how but he seemed ok and we hadn't paid him any money, he told us to come back and meet him at 12. We came back and he had 4 intercity tickets, which he had bought in advance and sold them to us for 5 ringitts more than he had bought them, they were all ligitimate and worked fine so we were happy to pay the extra 80p and arrived at about 5pm on Sunday. Kuala Lumpur was mad when we arrived, the girls had already been once and new a descent hostel near the bus station in China Town, we fought our way through masses of people fillinf the streets with all our ridiculous baggage and eventually got to this funny backstreet hostel, extremely sweaty. We had a wonder around the night markets in China town where fake watches and clothes and belts and dvds and perfume and ANYTHING can be bought for very little money. Within walking a few metres along the street I had already met 10 street vendors who claimed I was their friend and remarkably each one of them was offering the "best price in KL" apparently all as a special price for me only. When they found out I was from near London (their favourite city in the world) and that I was a Man United fan, they were practically giving the goods away! Still I haggled a little further and eventually got some good bargains. We headed out for some dinner, excellent indian food, and wandered over the road to the Reggea Bar which, although staffed entirely by lady boys, had a pretty cool atmosphere and was full of travellers and sheesha pipes, they played a couple of bob marley songs i think.....maybe 50 or so. The next day we woke up at 7am as had been the plan to go to the Petronas Towers, tickets to skybridge, which links the two twin towers, are free however you have to get there early to get one. Emily was just checking her lonely planet as we were getting ready to leave and saw the words "the skybridge is closed on a Monday", we went back to bed for a few hours. It turned out for the best, instead of the skybridge, we went up the KL Tower, the communications tower of which you can go right to the top and gain panoramic views of KL. The KL Tower viewing level is actually 270m above ground compared to the 170m skybridge, and the best part - you get a superb view of the magnifiscent Petronas Towers, rather than being on a bridge between them. We went up at around 7pm so got great views as the sun went down and then an impressive display as darkness set in and the city's buildings were lit up. KL seemed a really developed city and some areas are really beautiful in terms of modern architecture, I have come to really appreciate buildings having seen so many, good and bad. It is a busy place which I like and the streets are always bustling. We spent another day checking out some different markets and visited a hude mosque too.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1218520740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1218520740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1218520740/tpod.html Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:30:02 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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Tasik Chini, Malaysia

We had been looking for something else to do on our way back round to KL and had settled on a little place on the edge of Lake Chini, a small lake on the East Coast of Malaysia. So to get there we had to get a taxi back to Terengganu and then a bus to Kuantan and then a bus to Chini village and a taxi to Rajan Jones Guest House. Not an easy journey, and as it says in the guide book, often goes wrong. We arrived in Kuantan ok after a long journey from Terengganu and got into a taxi to get to the local bus station, bare in mind there are 4 of us, 4 big backpacks, 4 small bags and 2 guitars. We squeezed in alright however when it came to opening the boot (with mine and calum's big bags and Emily and Hannah's small ones inside) the driver seemed to be having difficulties. He looked quite concerned and got Calum and I to try to pull it open as he tried to release the boot using the lever in the driver's seat. Well it didn't work and suddenly he was getting back in the car and starting the engine, Calum and I automatically tried to get in and Calum got in the back door but as i opened to passanger door he closed it and said no just one and drove off, pointing to the end of the street. His mate who found the thing very amusing explained to me and the girls that he was going to fix the boot. An hour later he came back. Calum explained to us that firstly he had driven to see a load of his mates who did a lot of sitting around umming and aahing about what to do and giving it the odd shove, and then set off to Cheong Lee's locksmith who proceeded to fix the problem by bashing the lock off with a big hammer. Obviously our driver was a bit gutted at having his boot broken to the cost to 40 ringitt and tried to make us pay him because it was our bags which jammed the lock shut, we didn't pay him and all the waiting around had meant that we had missed our bus to Lake Chini, the 5.30 was the last one of the day. So we got a taxi with another crazy taxi driver who seemed more bothered about getting there in under an hour than getting there alive. He drove along the grass verge when there were traffic jams and made it to Chini Village in an hour when it says in the book a taxi should take about 2 hours. It was a bit more than the bus but still cheap and we wanted to get there that evening. The guide book only really recommends one place in Lake Chini which is Rajan Jones guest House and it seems that Rajan is the only reason that the lake is in the guide book at all. It says all this stuff about him speaking excellent english, giving us 3 meals a day and a room and organising all sorts of trips around the lake. We were in the middle of nowhere in the dark jungle looking for this tiny village where Rajan Jones lives. Eventually after asking in a few different villages, all very poor and tiny places with just wooded huts for houses, we found the guest house. Unfortunately no-one was there but we headed further down the lane and saw a table of people sitting around a table with candles on. We realised they were Rajans guests, 5 of them so far and pretty much the only existing tourists on the lake other than us. We found Rajan's wife and she was all stressed out about something, we eventually managed to work out that Rajan was in hospital and she had been left to sort all this stuff out and we just wanted to no if she had a bed for us. She kept saying yes there's room but 'is no clean!!' we tried to explain that if the room was not clean it was no real issue for us and that we weren't really expecting a particularly clean room in this wooden hut with no electricity and although she seemed reluctant she agreed to let us have it. She only had eggs and rice left so she cooked us that for dinner. As we got back to the rooms Rajan arrived and explained what was going on and said his wife would clean the rooms and we could go to them in 15 minutes. This guy must be over 70, he is an Malaysian Indian and speaks very good english, he has been living in this tiny village for 30 years and has been running his guest house since he arrived there. He says it is his life and he couldn't go back to the city now. He was really gutted about his foot (which had been operated on) which meant he couldn't walk so unfortunately a jungle trek wasn't on the cards for the following morning! The least we were expecting from this frail looking man was a jungle trek and we were quite content to do a boat trip instead, he obviously takes his hospitality very seriously. The boat trip on Lake Chini was interesting, Rajan got one of his mates to take us around in his little boat, in a 2 hour trip we went up the river around the lake, and visited one of the indigenous villages. We took some great routes through the reeds seeing turtles and eagles and some amazing kingfisher type birds and although this guy spoke no english and smoked about 40 cigarettes in 2 hours and chucked all the butts in the lake he was pretty entertaining. Apparently there are usually lots of lotus flowers on the lake at this time of year but unfortunately many had been damaged by storms earlier in July which was a shame. The village was inhabited by indigenous or 'Orang Asli' people, it was very interesting, they let us shoot their huge blow guns at targets and we wathed the kids play with their little wicker footballs. They had some monkeys tied up which was a bit of a shame, a downside to the smallscale tourism there, but also lots of pineapple plants and impressive, if basic, huts on stilts to look around.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1218519480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1218519480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1218519480/tpod.html Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:55:33 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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Pulau Kapas, Malaysia

The little boat just drove up on the the beach and chucked out bags over the front, we jumped out with them and wondered along to the Lighthouse Longhouse, at the end of the beach, there were only 10 people on our boat and after walking for about 5 minutes, us and the french girls were wondering along an empty beach. We found the longhouse tucked away in the trees just at the end of the bay. The longhouse itself is a traditional communal living set up used mainly in borneo, with one central dorm room and smaller rooms surrounding it, all 10 foot above the sand on  stilts. It was a really cool building and the staff were a good laugh too, all locals from Manang or terengganu, one guy was 42 and had been working in the Longhouse almost since it had been built, he said it has been a travellers longhouse for 20 years now. The island itself is much smaller than Perhentian and is much less touristy. There is very little to do there apart from mess around on the beach, or wander into the jungle or walk along the bays round to the end of the island where you can swim over to Gem Island, a tiny island with a little hotel resort on it. There are about 6 or 7 different accomodation options on the different beaches and none were busy, it was really great to be one of 10 or so people on a great long beautiful white beach. The snorkelling isn't as good on Kapas and there were quite a few jelly fish about too. The weather was amazing, scorching sun all day and then usually a couple of hours storm in the evening or night, amazing lightning flashing through the plastic sheeting that patched up the roof in the dorm room combined with the deafening sound of the downpours on the corregated iron made sleeping difficult at one point. Hannah and Emily, the english freinds we mad eon Perhentians arrived on our second day and from then on it was just us and them and a family in the Longhouse for a further 3 days. The family was an english guy and a german girl and their 2 little kids, 7 and 9. They were really nice kids, they have been travelling around Asia for 9 months, and had amazing knowledge and a cool perspective on travelling for their age. We played a fair bit of football and made massive sand castles and rafts and stuff, it was good because they got us doing stuff and their parents seemed pretty happy to do nothing for a while. Hannah being a teacher, was really good with them too. We all ate together in the evening and at breakfast and got along really well. It was nice to have people of different ages for company for a change, Calum and I said how strange it is that we haven't reallyt had a proper conversation with people over 30 or under 18 for about 6 months. Anyway amazing island, good times, really got into the swing of island life, waking up and doing nothing for a few hours and suddenly the sun is going down again, the heat makes you so lethargic. Left with Hannah and Emily to go south to Lake Chini.  
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1218518040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1218518040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1218518040/tpod.html Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:30:46 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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Kuala Terengannu, Malaysia

We set off early in the morning to catch the 8 o'clock boat back across to Kuala Besut, it turned out being 9 o'clock after a few boats came past, a man would shout "Ticket!?" and when we waved our pink ticket at him he would shout "Next boat!", so this went on for quite a while but eventually we got back across. Kuala Best is a pretty small place but quite lively, we grabbed some Roti Canai in a scruffy little side street and then headed to the bridge where we were told we could catch the Terengannu bus. Roti Canai is the traditional breakfast in Malaysia and its really good, its a kind of flat bread, served with curry sauce usually although you can have it with loads of different stuff, we have eaten it almost every day since being here. Terengannu is one of the larger towns along the east coast, we were only there as a stop over town before we got the bus to Manang to get to Pulau Kapas but it turned out to be quite an interesting place, we got a cheap room and wandered around the indoor markets, selling crazy amounts of saris and scarves and all sorts of amazingly coloured and patterned cloth. Also some wierd food including lots of dried fish. We were staying right next to a massive Mosque which was very impressive particularly in the evening. We headed to China town to gt some dinner and had some really cheap and very tasty fried rice and prawn stuff, and the best fruit juices ever, I think mine was mango and dragon fruit. Moving around with all our bags (now stupidly heavy and full - we have even had to start shoving clothes inside our guitars and stuff) is horribly hot and sweaty, so any transit journey from hostel to bus/bus station to bus station/bus station to boat etc, involves a lot of sweat, not much conversation other than disagreeing grunts about which way is the right way. Anyway we had a bit of a trek to the bus station and enjoyed the 2 hours of air conditioned travel. The bus conductor tapped me on the shoulder at the side of the main road and said this was the place to get off for Pulau Kapas, our next destination. There were a couple of french girls on the bus also heading there so we grabbed breakfast with them (some rice and curry wrapped up in banana leaves - 1 ringitt) and waited for the boat.  
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1217752260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1217752260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1217752260/tpod.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:17:17 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Terengganu, Malaysia

We took a long overnight bus from Singapore up the coast to the Perhentian Islands which we had been highly recommended by some french guys we met in Australia and really liked the look of. The bus journey was really cheap and pretty good, we did however have to wrap up in all the clothes we had in our day bags which amounted to a raincoat and a flag for me, because the air con was ridiculous. We also got served some wierd dinner, cakes which were green and looked like sponges and doughnuts with spicy tuna filling. The border crossing to Malaysia from Singapore was hilarious, it took ages to get through the Singapore side, there were about 2 passport control officers and about 300 people queueing, however the Malaysian side was stupidly fast, none of our bags were checked, our passsports were only checked because we noticed we were walking through the Malaysian gate and moved to the 'others' gate. The guy on the Malaysian passport check gate was playing online snooker on his computer! Not at all bothered. Anyway we arrived at about 5 in the morning at Jerteh, slightly wet due to a dripping fan above us and with no Malaysian currency. A taxi driver was conveniently waiting for us, as they always seem to be, and showed us where the cash point was. We met a couple of german girls who wanted to go the the Perhentians too and shared the taxi to the port at Kuala Besut, passing about 20 Mosques on the way, they are huge, magnificent buildings and its so surprising when the houses  and shops look so shabby and poor. We got some breakfast at a funny little cafe and booked our ferry. It is so nice to be back in a country where your money goes further again. Pancakes and tea and smoothies for breakfast in this place cost about a quid. The island we chose is Perhentian Kecil (Small) as apposed to Besur (Big). Besur has more resort-like complexes and is generally more touristy, Kecil has no roads and the only accomodation is huts. It was beautiful, the kind of island you don't ever think you would ever actually get the chance to go to. The ferry (max 10 ppl) stopped at Coral bay, the smaller of the two beaches on the island, accomodation is available on both and we weren't really bothered where we stayed, I think we just decided to get off at Coral bay because we stopped there first and it was so amazing! The beach and bay are dotted with little fishing boats and water taxis and the tiny white beach boasting 3 restaurants, one dive hut, and about 5 accomodation options. We found a hut for 65 ringits a night, so about 10 quid, set about 20 metres back from the beach in the palm trees. It's more expensive on the island than on mainland Malaysia but we were still surprised at how little money we spent. The walk across to Long Beach is about 10 minutes through the jungle, and although it is a nicer beach and the sea is an insanely blue blue, we preferred our quieter side of the island and only really went across in the evenings. We met a group of german guys and 2 english girls and had an awesome 5 days on the island, mainly relaxing and reading and sunbathing and snorkling and eating. The weather was amazing, hotter than we have experienced since Central America, really lovely. The sunsets across the sea were so cool. The first day we got there Calum and I hired some snorkels and went around the rocks at the edge of the bay, the variety and number of fish was amazing, the water was still only a metre or so deep, it was awesome. We sat on the big rock at the end of the point and i decided i would swim round to see if there was a beach around in the next bay. I swam about 20 metres around the rock and the sea got a bit deeper, some pretty big fish were hanging out down there and I went round one more rock and suddenly found myself about 10 metres from a shark about the 5 foot long! Although it bolted faster than I did, it was only because he could, I came flying back to the rock shit scared, I was laughing but also shouting  shaark which made Calum absolutely leg it back to the rock, he had no idea what was going on haha. It was such a rush, its silly but just because a big fish looks exactly like your steriotypical shark, you suddenly get scared. We decided to swim back round and Calum caught a glimpse of him too and we swam away pretty fast again. Later we found out that black tip reef sharks are not at all dangerous but also not usually that large around the bay, so we were pretty proud of our sighting. The next day we went on a snorkling trip with Jeffrey, a guy who worked in the restaurant next to our huts, his mum owned it and he grew up on the island, as we were his friends he gave us and the girls 'special price'. It was so cheap anyway and we saw some amazing fish. At 5 different snorkel points we saw more sharks, loads of amazing fish including clown fish and angel fish, clown fish are so sweet. Blue spotted Sting rays, and my favourite the turtles. Swimming about a metre above a huuge turtle, at least a metre in length, was one of the coolest things I have done. It was a superb experience, following the turtle as it slowly flapped its way forward, not particularly bothered by being followed by 5 snorklers. We dived down and had amazing views of it front on as it fed on some weeds on the sea bed, and then saw its head bob above the surface for air every 5 minutes or so, we followed him for 10 minutes or more, they are incredible creatures, so gentle and peaceful. That was the highlight of the past few days, but we did some other cool stuff, hired our kayaks and paddled round a few bays to 'romantic beach' it was like a paradise beach. No people, nothing but white sand and turquoise sea and a steep rocky cliff behind, we chilled out in the shallow water with Hannah and Emily for a couple of hours, just enjoying the place. We played a few games of beach volley ball with Jeffrey and his mate, got too hot. Had one really cool evening watching a storm approach, more lightning than i have ever seen illuminated this dark cloudy backdrop repeatedly for about an hour or so before the winds picked up on the beach and we had to run to the huts as the rain started falling haard. We ate some awesome food on the island too, fresh mangoes were honestly the best fruit i have ever had. Noodles in ridiculous amounts and in many different combinations with veg and fish and chicken. Barbuqued King Fish was awesome and Malaysian Lassis (kind of yogurty milkshake things) were also great. Monkey Juice is the only available alcohol on the island and pretty overpriced because alcohol isn't very readily available in Malaysia, being a Muslim country,good stuff though. We left the island this morning and it was an awesome break, so nice after Australia's hassles and prices and average weather.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1217156280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1217156280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/guyandcalum/1/1217156280/tpod.html Sun, 27 Jul 2008 07:19:27 -0400 Mexico City to Moscow

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Singapore, Singapore

We arrived late at night Singapore time after a really good flight. 7 Hours of films really nice food and drink and we got bumped up to the extra leg room seats. The help desk at the airport said the hostels were all full and the best option was a budget hotel not far from the airport as taxi fees went up alot after midnight. We walked out of the airport and hit a wall of muggy heat, sooo sticky. The budget hotel turned out to be in the middle of the red light district which our taxi driver found hilarious, us not so much. Our taxi driver was actually a really cool guy, told us pretty much everything there is to know about Singapore, its sights, politics and demographics within about 15 minutes. Just by driving through the outskirts of the city we could tell we were going to like it. The mix of cultures and languages is so bizarre. Made up of Indians, Chinese and Malays and then with English as the official language. The city is very cosmopolitan and western feeling in the centre and yet all over there are restaurants and shops and temples looking completely south east asian. We moved to Little India on our second day to a hostel we had been recommended. The journey on the bus showed us a lot about the city, with posh looking department stores and Harley Davison garages sat on the same street as dingy little restaurants called "Frogs leg Porridge" and "Pig Organ Soup" with tacky plastic chairs and tables supporting an array of different races. Little India itself is really great, the smell is fantastic 24 hours a day and the food is amazing! Loads of really cool little shops selling all sorts of indian clothing and crafts and crazy food shops too. Yesterday we visited a couple of temples and a few street shopping malls. Had curry for lunch and Chinese food for dinner and played scrabble and chilled out.  Today we headed over to China Town, walking through the main city centre around the river was really cool, it is such a clean and modern place. China Town was great to wander around, lots of stalls and temples and the smell of insense is everywhere. We have visited Buddhist and Hindu temples and both were absolutely beautiful. We also headed over to Sentosa Island, linked to mainland by road and tram, we took the tram over. The island is basically a resort, with many attractions dotted around and beach areas and parks, its really nice but feels veyr artificial and on a sunday it was full of people too.  
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