Farewell to Sydney

Us at the Opera House

Hard to believe that it all came together in the end...months of thinking about it, weeks of preparing a plan and then within two viewings of the van and a mere 5 days of advertising – Lola was sold, and sold at a higher price than we paid all those kilometres ago!  It was bitter sweet; we love that campervan and were SO sad to see her drive away, but what a relief that it went without having to reduce our price, without having to put up ‘urgent’ posters at the hostels....just brilliant really!

Sunset View on the Manly Ferry

We had been house-sitting for one of my cousins in a suburb just outside of Sydney.  Just perfect for us sorting out the van, getting our return trip organised and for exploring Sydney.  Kay & Pete and their two children, Emma and Luke arrived back from their holiday the day after the van sold and very kindly let us stay for the remainder of our time in Australia.  It was lovely to spend time with the family and get to know Emma & Luke.  Emma showed us her amazing ballet skills and she performed on the recorder in a big concert at the Opera House while we were there; Luke found a new play friend with Chris and spent a lot of time playing draughts with him and showing off his toy car collection!  Kay & Pete spoilt us with cooking us meals, treating us to take away and letting us sample lots of Aussie wines!

Chris at Sydney Airport

After I finished my admin work and a couple of days doing after school care, we made some time for some sightseeing.  We went for a lovely walk with Pete & Emma in the Royal National Park there were some amazing coastal views.  Me & Chris had a day trip to Manly on the ferry across the harbour, it was just lovely and on the ferry back we watched the sunset behind the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it felt really special, I was even a little teary thinking about us leaving Australia behind.  We had another great day on ‘Pete’s Northern Beach Tour’ where we visited some of the beautiful beaches and view points north of Sydney.  We even saw where they film Home & Away!  Picnicing has become a favourite past-time and we had a couple lounging in the Botanical Gardens, it’s just so beautiful in there, could have stayed staring at the view for hours. 

Batu Caves

We left Sydney yesterday, backpacks packed again!  As glamorous as ever, we departed on Air Asia and landed in Kuala Lumpur.  It was really, really busy and then we realised why – for the 2^nd year in a row we are in Malaysia for National Malaysia Day!  Tired from the flight this Asian business was a little overwhelming, but fresh faced today, it’s not been too bad.  We’ve had a lovely day out of the city at Batu Caves, a large Hindu Shrine built into the caves.  It was a beautiful setting in the cliff side and fun to watch the mischievous monkeys stealing the religious offerings!  We headed to Little India for lunch and filled up on roti & curry for a mere £1.60 including drinks...we’d forgotten how cheap Asia can be.  Enjoying seeing all the little shrines dotted about again, the smell of incense and the food stalls...haven’t missed the sewage smells and the squat toilets though!

Off to Bangkok tomorrow.  Very excited for a curry & a Chang!

Miss you all, 3 months and 7 days till we’re home!

Kat & Chris xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End of Malaysia, A Memorable Entrance to Singapore & Java First Thoughts

So our return to Kuala Lumpur was soured by us both picking up the flu!  We stayed a couple of days to organise a few things (like our Indonesia visa and picking up the fixed Sony Camera) but then once both us could survive without being next to a toilet we headed to Melaka!  Melaka was where we chose to recuperate and as we were both still a little ill, we decided to spend almost a week there – almost unheard of for us to stay somewhere so long!  It’s a nice little town, full of history of English, Portuguese and Dutch invasions, full of culture having a China town and a Little India and it had nice cafes, a big shopping mall and home comforts such as Pizza Hut for when we started to eat again!  We didn’t do a lot but the week went quickly and soon we were feeling well enough to move on again.

Our next destination was Singapore.  We had been very lucky and met a lovely English couple (hello Alice & Con) when we were in the Perhentian Islands and they very kindly offered us their spare room in Singapore!  This was great news as Singapore is expensive.  As any good house guest we brought a bottle of wine with us as thanks; not realising that you are not allowed to bring anything over from Malaysia to Singapore!  So we got stopped at the border, Chris got taken into a room and after some form filling the great ‘fine city’ issued him with a $8 bill and we were on our way...or so we thought!  The bus had only gone and left us there!  And we had only 1ringgit and 1Singapore Dollar (courtesy of Canadian Kyle) and not an ATM in sight.  After a minor panic, lots of pacing up and down and worried looks, a coach driver took pity on us and let us on his bus for the measly 70p we owned!  Sadly his bus went in the opposite direction to where we wanted to be – but we made it into Singapore and to Alice & Con, only a mere 2hours later than planned – they appreciated the wine too.

Pulau Ubin

We had a great few days in Singapore.  We enjoyed a walk, hawker food, beers and some drunken tree climbing on our first night at the East Coast Park.  On the 2^nd day Alice & Con took us to the beautiful Pulau Ubin.  We went over on a bumboat from the mainland and then hired bicycles to explore the island.  We admired the scenery, from turquoise lakes to the mangroves and we saw plenty of wildlife; hornbills (!) monkeys, lizards, fiddler crabs with their one huge pincer and lung fish - it was great.  The 3^rd day we explored the marina area to see the skyscrapers, shopping malls, theatres and huge casino that has 3 hotel blocks with a huge boat lying on the top of them on the 57^th floor – it was very Vegas!  Our last day we decided to go to the zoo as so many people have told us how good it is and it didn’t disappoint.  The enclosures are all quite big (the Orang-utans are free roaming) and the animals seem well stimulated.  We spent the whole day there, mostly entertained by the various monkeys, gibbons & apes!  We also saw Komodo Dragon being fed, Giant tortoises, White Tigers and Pygmy Hippos to name but a few! For our last evening we were spoilt by Alice & Con and we got taken to an Ex-pat place that did amazing egg, chips & beans and had a big cider collection!  We enjoyed a Westons Cider & a Hobgoblin – oh how we’ve missed them!

Over to Java and back to haggling Asia!  We had almost forgotten what it was like after being spoilt in Malaysia!  Everyone has been very friendly so far, although they normally want to sell you something!  We have done a lot of travelling so far, as we didn’t want to spend much time in Jakarta.  The trains have been really nice as we’ve plumped for slightly more expensive business class (less chickens & goats!), the journeys scenic – paddy fields, hills, volcanoes and coconut trees and the temperature has been surprisingly pleasant, not nearly as sweaty as we expected!  We are now in Yogyakarta which has a nice backpack feel to it.  We went to Borobudur today, a cool Buddhist Temple which has dozens of latticed stupas (look like bells) which each contain a Buddha.  The scenery was amazing with volcanoes in the distance and the early morning light (we were there at 6am!) made it look all the more impressive.

Next we head to Mount Bromo (a volcano) and another early morning wake up; as every tourist knows – you need that sunrise picture for your collection!

Lots of Love K&C xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kuching = Cat

Our week in Borneo has come to an end but what a brilliant week it’s been! We’ve been staying in Kuching which means ‘Cat’ so whenever we see one we’ve enjoyed pointing and yelling ‘Kuching!’ at it. Kuching is the capital of Sarawak and a great hub for travelling to the nearby National Parks and wildlife centres. Whilst we’ve been staying here the Regatta festival which involves long rowing boats racing each other and the World Wakeboarding Championship have been taking place on the waterfront making for some great viewing when we’ve had the time!

Whenever anyone hears the name Borneo they think of orang-utans and we travelled to see these marvellous ginger apes for their breakfast hour at the Semenggoh Rehabilitation Centre. They slowly swung their way over to the feeding platform for fruit, rocking thin trees or branches back and forth until they could gracefully get to the next tree. It was really amazing to see the orang-utans so naturally using all four limbs going hand over foot spinning like a Catherine wheel to get down ropes and when they walked on two legs they looked so very human. An hour soon passed by and as the fruit ran out the seven orang-utans that had come to see us slowly climbed and swung their way back into the jungle where they emerged from.

Shortly Before I Dragged Kat in to the Waterfall!

We visited Bako National Park by bus then speedboat where we met Kyle, Simon and Michelle from Canada who we did some trekking with that day and have met up with numerous times since. We headed to the waterfall which we didn’t intend to swim in as we’d forgotten to bring our trunks and bikini but as we were dipping our toes in I slipped and dragged Kat with me – fully clothed! After that we figured we might as well enjoy the cool water seeing as we were wet already! We then headed to a private beach where we were the only people for a while and enjoyed some more swimming and watching the crabs scuttling by. Along the way we saw some very ungraceful Proboscis monkeys with their big bellies and long red noses, some bearded Warthogs snuffling around and wild monkeys who attacked me for my bag of rubbish. All in all a great day with a few beers to round it off!

For the rest of our time in Borneo we visited a crocodile farm and saw the crocs jumping high in the air for fish at feeding time. Michelle’s very kind local friend Vincent drove us (all five from the Bako trek) to an Indonesian market where we crossed the border into Indonesia without needing a visa, to the Fairy Cave to explore and we stopped off on the way home at a Chinese food street where he bought us loads of delicious local food as the sun was setting. We visited a Cultural Village to see local tribes traditional houses complete with a dance performance and we also all visited Kubah National Park on our last full day where we trekked to a ten foot high waterfall - with the intention of swimming this time! We had a few more drinks with the guys in the evenings and even tried the local rice wine which tasted a lot like strong cider but you drink it in a shot glass and it is bright green!

We’ll be heading back to the big city of Kuala Lumpur tomorrow with its HUGE shopping malls and interesting Mosques and Chinese temples. We really enjoyed our two days there before Borneo and we’ve got a few more planned when we get back to get our Indonesia visa and do a few day trips out of the city.

Hope everything is okay back home!

Love Chris & Kat xxx

Cream Teas, Turtles & a Rainforest!

Each place that we’ve visited in Malaysia has been very different – Temple hopping to tea plantations and rolling countryside to beautiful clear waters and beaches to vast rainforest – and we’ve loved each part of it. 

The culture is also very diverse in Malaysia and we find ourselves often saying “doesn’t that remind you of China” or “not had Daal like that since Nepal” and perhaps more strangely – “don’t you feel like we’re in Devon!?” – that last one would be directed at the Cameron Highlands.  It is a strange mix, but it seems to work together well.  The Malaysians are really very friendly and all seem pretty laid back.  Everyone speaks good English, which makes travel easy.  The plugs are English sockets!  They drive on the left side of the road.  They enjoy a good brew and they sell Cream Teas!  Diversely, we’ve eaten mainly Indian food here!  There is Chinese influence in all their temples and for the first time in our trip we’ve seen lots of ladies in burkas and Mosques are found all over the place.  So it really is a mix of cultures and landscapes but its proving to be one of the most interesting places we’ve visited.

Us at Robinson Falls

So the day after our last post we had our English Countryside day, we had scones and tea then went for a country walk to visit a couple of waterfalls.  It was lovely and that evening we curled up in our blankets (its a chilly 23 degrees in the Highlands!) and watched a film on the laptop.

Our next destination was the Perhentian Islands, recommended by Greg & Jade for its diving.  So a long bus journey and then a speedboat over and we landed on our little stretch of paradise – Kecil Island.  No roads or cars just the 2 main resorts, Long Beach & Coral Bay which are on either sides of the island, but easy to reach either side by walking the 10min jungle path.  Our main purpose of being here was to do some diving, so we booked on for the next morning.

The whole diving experience was different this time.  The resort was so quiet that we could choose which dive sites we wanted to go to, we could pick the time and we would go out just for one dive rather than the usual daytrip on a boat.   The boat was a small speedboat and instead of having to go to a pier by car to catch said boat, it just pulled up to the beach and you’d carry your gear the short distance from the shop to the boat.  The other BIG difference was that when we arrived to the dive sites – we were the only ones there!  Even though there are loads of different dive companies we never met anyone else which makes it an even nicer experience!

Coral Bay

We did 3 dives in all.  The first and probably our favourite was the pinnacle.  Visibility was good there were schools of fish all around us, we saw lots – particularly liked the stingrays, squid, batfish and ‘tripod’ a sea turtle that only has 3 legs, he was sleeping when we passed him!  Our 2^nd dive was to a shipwreck.  It was quite poor visibility (which meant I missed seeing the bamboo shark sitting under a rock!) but it was  cool to swim over and under the masts and we went into the cargo hold which had an air pocket – so 12metres underwater we had our face out of the water in the air pocket!  The last dive we did was at a site that has a series of rocks underwater, so there you could swim through some rock tunnels which was cool, there were lots of small fish here, nemo clownfish, bannerfish, angelfish, shrimps and these tiny things called nudibranch.  The diving was really good fun and we enjoyed doing an early morning dive then relaxing with our books in the afternoon.

We are now in Taman Negra – a huge jungle/rainforest National Park.  We arrived yesterday after an epic journey!  The town is a little odd in that it is under major construction and we’re not sure what is open and what is closed.  But we have a bed and we have located cheap riverside restaurants!  Today we ventured into the jungle – totally covered up after hearing leech horror armpit stories from G&J! – and off we went to the canopy walk.  Set 30metres up in the trees is the canopy which allows you to walk above the jungle to view it from above.  The National Park is said to be 130 million years old and it is a vast sea of greenery.  The canopy walk was great and with no signs of the leeches, we headed up to a viewpoint where we found a couple of sleeping bats!

Tomorrow we change from rainforest to city as we head to Kuala Lumpur.  And our flight to Borneo is on the 13^th so there will be many Orang-utan photos to view soon!

Love & Miss you all.  K&C xxx

End of Thailand and Start of Malaysia

A Mini-van – Bus – Ferry – Bus – Pickup Truck – Bus – Mini-van – Ferry – Walking Taxi – Pickup Truck journey later we arrived in Koh Phi Phi! There are no roads on Phi Phi which is lovely as it’s only a small place; basically a sand bar full of pubs, accommodation and shops between the islands iconic Karsts.

Kat at the Viewpoint during a break from the rain!

It rained most of the time we were in Phi Phi but we really enjoyed our time there. We wandered around the shops and restaurants during the day and ventured up to the Viewpoint when there was a break in the rain for a fantastic view. At 10pm each night all the bars along the beach put on a ‘Fire Show’ so we walked the length of the beach enjoying them for free. On our last night we watched a boxing show put on by a bar where Farangs (foreigners) boxed each other to get a free bucket and we also saw two traditional Thai Boxers take to the stage. In comparison to the clumsy attempts of the foreigners the Thai boxers were very slow and methodical probing the other boxer’s defences and when they were sure there was an opening they put huge amounts of power into a punch or a kick sometimes sending the other boxer flying into the air!

Leaving Phi Phi we took a bumpy ferry over to Phuket where we then flew down to Penang in Malaysia. We’d booked into a hostel that had a recording studio as they advertised that you could jam with the owner! We had to take things at quite a relaxed pace in Penang as everywhere was hugely busy because of a national holiday and celebrating the end of Ramadan. The first day we went to the nearby National Park and had a nice walk seeing crabs and monkeys. In the evening I had a jam with Aslan (like the Lion from Narnia) the owner of the hostel and a few of us then helped him prepare a curry for the next day’s festivities although for some reason we only started to make the curry at 10pm. We went to bed just after 12am and it was still being made...

On our second day we had a walk around Georgetown with Tim and Anya from Wales who we met at the hostel. Georgetown is the historic quarter of Penang that is filled with British Colonial Architecture, Mosques, Chinese Temples, Indian Temples and a Fort! We had lunch at Little India (a cluster of Indian shops and restaurants) and enjoyed seeing the Chinese Clan Jetties near the docks that house a lot of Chinese families and even a temple at the end of each Jetty.

Later that night the celebration was in full swing at our hostel and we were given free curry and cakes! Kat and I thought we might watch a movie in the lounge whilst everyone else was drinking and getting ready to go out. I asked Aslan (the hostel owner) if he could show us how to switch on the TV’s 5.1 surround speakers. He said no problem he’d show us after he finished getting ready. Clearly already drunk he came into the lounge a few minutes later and had obviously forgotten what I’d asked him to do as he said to me “you should play the drums” and then we had a 40 minute jam session where he kept forgetting the lyrics to songs until he announced “I need a drink” disappeared and we didn’t really see him again that night!

The next day due to the busy holiday traffic we squeezed onto a very full bus heading towards Georgetown and decided instead of sweating for an hour journey on the bus we'd visit the Floating Mosque just a few kilometres down the road from us. As it was nearby we also visited a Toy Museum which was full of Chinese and Japanese tourists all taking millions of pictures. I got to meet Batman and Leonardo the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Kat saw Shrek and Po the Kung Fu Panda.

Kek Lok Si Temple

Our final day in Penang we woke up early and went to the Chinese Kek Lok Si Temple and what an impressive and lovely sight it was! We both thought that the restoration work seemed a lot better than the restored Chinese temples that are actually in China! After seeing the Pagoda and 30.2 metre high Buddha statue we headed back to Georgetown again and shopped around the tallest building in Penang the Kom Tar where everything was really cheap!

Yesterday we caught a mini-van to the Cameron Highlands which is the largest of the Malaysian hill stations. It’s a cooler climate up here and seems completely different to a lot of Asia and more like an Alps resort. Today we did a half day countryside tour to a tea plantation, a rose centre, a bee farm, a butterfly farm and a strawberry farm. The weather was fantastic; sunny but not too hot! We enjoyed a cup of Boh tea, fantastic countryside views, had a shot of honey, I held a scorpion, enjoyed Strawberries with cream and a Strawberry muffin. A great day!

Fields of Tea!

We’ve got one more day in the Cameron Highlands where we’re planning to do a few walks before we move on to the Perhentian Islands to do some dives.

Love C&K xxx