AUSTRALIA (OZ) - Cairns

Australia, the largest island in the world, a continent in its own right has a population which is roughly a third of Great Britain!

We arrived in a rather wet Cairns after a flight from Singapore via Darwin. We had arrived during cyclone season. It would have been brilliant to get to every place we visited at the optimum moment but with the nature of a route is that you have to take it as it comes. This did however have a little bit of a negative impact on our Cairns visit.

We stayed in a hostel just outside the centre. Cairns is quite a laid back kind of place focused on the tourism genereated by something called the Great Barrier Reef. I would love to tell you how beautiful it is and what a fantastic experience it was but unfortunately the weather did not allow us to visit it. Boredom did come over us and the other visitors to the hostel and we therefore had a night out. Everyone had a good time although some people seemed not to remember much of it.

Now it was raining a lot there but it was in some ways very welcome to counteract the heat and humidity. Luckily we were not in Melbourne at that moment. It was 47 degrees there and so dry that the now infamous forest fires began. We just made do with high 30s. Here is a photo of Cairns in the 2 hours while it didn't rain.

We booked our Greyhound Bus ticket which would take us all the way down the East Coast to Sydney and across to Melbourne with as many stops as we wanted. We felt relieved that we would be able to take in the sites of somewhere else hopefully less wet. We had another night with one or two beers in the hostel bar and met a lot of other travellers including a girl who had just finished university at Portsmouth as well, what a small world we thought.

That night Karl and I entered a Killer Pool competition in the hostel. The other competitors were mostly local guys who came to the bar every night as well as the landlord, a big guy with big red handle bar facial hair, what struck me as potentially stereotypical for a remote area of OZ. Gradually each players three lives for potting balls got lost untill there were just a few of us left. Eventually after the other 16 were out, there was just me on 3 lives and the landlord on 2, it was obvious that he practiced on his pool tables a lot and i think they were expecting him to walk all over us. Unfortunately for him i ended up winning which bagged me the 20 something dollars and a lot of free games of pool, challenges from all the locals, including the landlord. It was a fun evening, the last one in Cairns, or so we thought!

Next day we arrived at the bus stop. We had heard many rumours about the busses. Several people had returned to the hostel because the bus was unable to start its journey. It turned out the situation was the same for us. Some towns further south had been flood to roof height, 9ft. It was unlikely that any busses would be leaving within a week, and we made the decision to look for a flight out as an alternative as we didn't want to spend another week, maybe more, in a cyclone hit Cairns.

The next day we got a on a flight to Brisbane.

SINGAPORE

Singapore is one of only a handful of remaining sovereign city-states. It sits at the end of the Malay peninsula and is just around 85 miles from the equator. It is the worlds 4th largest financial exchange after London, New York and Tokyo.

Arriving by bus was a great way to see the city. We passed huge areas of new development all part of a city moving in one direction, forwards, at great speed. We stayed in the Little India disctrict of the city which was lively area full of interesting aromas and delicious food.

On our first day looking around the city we explored on foot and stumbled across a brilliant building. I must apologise at this sort of moment for those reading this with no interest in architecture but Lasalle College of Arts was one of the best examples of a basic architectural concept. The building is designed as a sort of exploded cube, each shard takes on a different department within the college. All the departments are bridge linked and a tent like structure shrouds the entire building from above. The majority of public space is open, providing the large numbers of sudents places to meet, reherse and learn. All in all this is a brilliant way of maximising the use of the building. Some of these spaces also help the music being produced to permeate the outer cube into the surroundings beconing people in to have a look.The outside is monolithic in its "cubeness" but still manages to provide excellent shaded walkways all around bluring where the building finishes and the street begins. The building was given an award for the best new building in Singapore last year, and I am not surprised. Anyway, I have got the architectural speak off my mind for now so those who have fallen asleep temporarily, I hope, may now wake up.

Later we continued on our wonder through the city taking in the luxurious Raffles Hotel, the Singapore Concert Hall, Esplanade and Downtown Singapore. The contrasts of the massive skyscrapers and traditional terraces and colonial buildings make the city a very interesting place.

I was told in advance that the Singapore Night Safari is a must for any visitor and so one evening we headed off to go and see it. It is a really exciting experience, afterall it is not often that you head off to a tourist attraction in the evening when all is becoming dark. Seeing all the nocturnal animals was a truly unique experience and a great way of passing an evening.

We had the opportunity to visit Sentosa a resort island south of Singapore. It would be a great destination for any family visiting the city however it was not to my taste, extremely tacky and touristy. Something which was far more interesting however, but probably doesn't sound it to the majority of those reading this blog, was an urban deisgn exhibition in the city. The exhibition explained some of the difficulties faced by a city, with a population the size of Singapore, in such a small area. Also that day we visited the Tiger beer brewery which was a brilliant experience. The tour included mock up street scenes where walls retracted to reveal the next part of the tour. It also included a section of 3D cinema about the beer making process and a bar where we were asked to pour the perfect glass of beer under pain of downing it. I ofcourse messed up the pouring on purpose to gain an extra beer, unlike Karl who was just rubbish. Believe that and you will believe anything! lol.

We spent the last of our time on the final morning exploring Orchard Road famous for its shopping after making a stop at the post office to send some things home. Karl was in one of his normal helpful moods!

We caught our flight to Cairns via Darwin later that day.

MALAYSIA - Kuala Lumpur

The capital of Malaysia greeted us at the end of a bus ride from the Cameron Highlands. It was quite a busy time of year while we were there as it was Chinese New Year. We knew this was coming up and had therefore planned to spend it somewhere we thought would be quite interesting and lively. However many people started to inform us that it is a real family celebration and they expected KL to be empty! Never mind, we went anyway to see what would happen.

The first thing that is obvious in this part of the world when you get off the bus, which was a sharp contrast to the Cameron Highlands, is the heat. It can literally hit you as you enter it. The heat and humidity combine to form what can be a very uncomfortable atmosphere, one which you find yourself constantly seeking refuge. As we felt the heat eminate from the tarmac beneath us we sort relief in a nearby mall. This became a real recurring theme of our visit there, spending a limited amount of time outdoors. We did have the chance to see several interesting parts of the city, firstly and most obviously were the Petronas Towers, once the tallest buildings in the world. We got a ticket to go up to the skybridge and had to return for the experience later that day. Here they are!

...and the real ones!

Upon returning we got in a lift up to the bridge. It is approximately halfway up the towers and therefore does not have as good a view as one would hope for from one of the worlds tallest buildings.

During the day we visited other parts of the city including the Kuala Lumpur Tower. It was however a complete rip off to go up so we just looked at it from below.

Merdeka Square provided us with quite a surprise. A cricket pitch surrounded by the city. It is the location where the The Union Flag was lowered and the Malayan hoisted in 1957, consistantly making it the centre of national celebration. It is surrounded by incredibly diverse buildings including a cricket pavillion and church.

By keeping in contact with travel aquaintances we met on the way we were able to establish that some people we met in Beijing were in KL and we therefore met up with Eilis and John for dinner and a few drinks. After thoroughly confusing the lady splitting our bill 5 ways we headed our separate way on the monorail.

Fearing a mad transportation shortage at this celebratory time of year we booked a bus early. It turned out to be a very posh one which had armchair like seats with in built massagers. The journey past very comfortably apart from the interuption of border formalities entering Singapore.

MALAYSIA - Cameron Highlands

The Cameron Highlands are the Highest region of the mainland and benefit from all year round reliable weather, never too hot, never too cold. Because of this it is also one of Malaysia's favourite tourist destinations for both people from home and abroad. The British also loved it because of the climate and the fertile mountains and saw the opportunity to turn the area into the largest tea producing area in Malaysia. It is also famous for the trecks that can be taken in and around the area and after checking into our very picturesque and friendly hostel we sampled the delights of the scenic pathways. We were a little taken back by the Englishness of the area, particularly when arriving at Ye Old Smokehouse, a Mock Tudor pub/tea room.

It was like we hadn't let the countryside of England. It overlooked the local golf course which looked like quite a test. We did some investigation and made the decision to have a round on what had been described as the cheapest round of golf in Malaysia.

It would have to wait however as the next day we went on a fantastic tour of the region, take in a rose producer and the views from their land, strawberry farm, honey farm, tea plantation and visitors centre and an insect and animal centre. It was a brilliant insight into the area.

We learnt a little about the strawberries that grow all year round thanks to the excellent climate, the tea manufacturing process from plant to useable leaves at their beautiful site with a stunning visitors centre building and saw first hand some of the creepy crawlies that inhabit the Malaysian countryside including the mighty Rhinoceros Beetle which is one of the largest beetles in the world. Other delights that Attenborough would have been salavating over were lizards, snakes, toads, frogs and giant insects including a 10-12inch grasshopper, stick insects and mantises.

Next day while Clem was having a quiet morning Karl and I had a much longed for round of golf, the first for over 3 months. It was an interesting round with some pretty shoddy rented clubs, but still very enjoyable in some fantastic weather. The course featured a lot of water which Karl visited many times and used many of our allotted 6 balls each. In fact we found ourselves on the last tee, quite an intimidating shot with only one ball left each, we managed to keep the balls in play and finished the round, Karl having lost 10 balls, however he does hold a pose well!

We caught a bus from the Cameron Highlands south. Next stop Kuala Lumpur.

MALAYSIA - Penang

Penang is a region of Malaysia on the west coast. The residents are made up of immigrants from predominantly India and China making it one of the best places to get a takeaway!

I have never been to a place where the people of such different backgrounds get along so well. It seems as though the world could learn a lot from them. Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs, Protestants, Catholics and many other religions all in one place all living happily and neighbourly. When we arrived however there was much going on. A fire had broken out at a nearby restaurant. We witnessed the fire spread to the next building and threaten many more. Some firemen were already there and more were on the way, however it was at this point that we realise how lucky we are with the emergency services in the UK. The whole situation seemed to be dealt with in a less organised manner, people were all over the streets surrounding the fire, in the way of all the services making everything a whole lot more difficult. We walked around the city on a very warm day and saw many of it's highlights. By the time we had returned to the hostel the fire had been extinguished without crossing over to more buildings. We headed down to Little India for a brilliant diner. It was a Naan Set which was made up of a naan, tandori chicken and three dipping curries/sauces. The meal was delicious one of my favourites of the trip to that point. On the way out I expressed some interest in the way that a man was making naans in the kitchen. I was invited in to take a look by some very enthusiastic staff. They were fantastic and showed and explained what they were doing. Great way to finish the day.

The following day we explored some more of the city including the incredible housing located on piers over the water's edge. The construction of the piers could be seen as nothing less than amazing. We walked out onto them seeing the water beneath through some large gaps between boards. I noticed that some of the pier was held up by concrete buckets. Buckets filled with concrete and then placed in position ontop of each other to form piles. With time some of the plastic had split or broken away leaving piles of concrete in various angular bucket shapes. Later we went up the cities lookout for sunset and to see the city at night. Although not quite as spectacular as Hong Kong it was still a great view, although we did have some interesting company in the form of some rather large spiders floating overhead on their webs around the street lights.

Next day we boarded a bus to the Cameron Highlands.

MALAYSIA - Lankawri

As we queued to board the ferry and have our passports checked a girl came up to me and asked us what country we were currently in. I replied with the answer but couldn't help thinking the same thing about the previous 3 months! ha.

I can honestly say that the ferry journey on the western side of the Malay peninsula was a lot better than those to and from Ko Toh. It was smooth and calm and i certainly didn't hear the slightest hint of a wretch.

Langkawri is a beautiful island with beaches of the most powdery flour like sand that feels excellent between the toes. It has one or two very popular areas including the area we stayed in which has restaurants fronting the beach. Other areas including the one we visited the following day, in a rented car, include large waterfalls and a view point at 800m up with incredible views. Linked to the viewpoint was an incredible curved bridge hung from one centrally located structure. It was however a slightly unnerving experience to cross it, so much so Karl decided to wait for us on one side. After, we continued our drive around some of the island and took in the scenery.

After Langkowri we got on yet another boat, this time to Penang.

THAILAND - Ko Toh

When we got off the train, the next morning, we were ushered quickly onto a departing bus, apart from myself who needed to go and get some cash, so i got on the back of another moped and the bus picked me up further down the road. The ferry journey we had next was appalling. Ignore what i said previously about the bus journey from Siem Reap to the Thai border being bad, this was another level. The ferry was thrown from side to side up and down so much that what must have been about quarter of the boat was being sick around us, all we could do was try and fall asleep and ignore the wretching. After the most unpleasent 3 hour journey of our lives, which would normally take 1.5 hours in good weather, we arrived to Ko Toh. Ko Toh is a world renown diving Island and reputedly the cheapest place to learn in the world, unfortunately for me and my very tight budget it was too expensive, but over the next 3.5 days Karl and Clem proceded to get their Open Water diving liscence, good on them! While they were back to school learning all about the underwater world, bouyancy etc i was relaxing, reading, padling and going for the occasional walk. On the final night Karl and I went for a drink in town. The plan was for a quiet one but a group of travellers saw the opportunity to get us involved in their night out. They bought us some more drinks and we stayed out till late. The next day we had to return to the mainland in order to travel across the country to the west and into Malaysia. Before this, however, we had to cope with yet another awful ferry crossing, maybe marginally better than the first. Then we got on train and then bus to the next ferry terminal on the West Coast. This ferry would take us over the border and into Malaysia to the island of Langkawi.