Our Trip...

Hi there,

Seeing as Dom has written the last weeks worth of travels I thought it was about time I made a reappearance.

Getting to Singapore was due to take 4 hours on the bus, although from our bus journeys prior to this we had learned to be quite skeptical. For a while there actually we thought the bus that we had bought tickets for didn't even exist. About 4 hours later, yes we had reached Singapore, the border of Singapore, but it was to be at least another 1.5 hours before reaching the city. It had crossed our minds how were going to cross the border, but we didn't really think much of it. It turns out that you are turfed off your bus into a customs office where you must pass all the baggage and yourself through an x-ray, then are interrogated with questions about your goings-on before being turfed back out onto the street where the bus is there to pick you up. We have to admit that we were a bit crapping ourselves as we had heard that the security in Singapore was quite tight, and there we were with an absolute bucket load of pirate DVD's picked up in our travels along the way - all the effort we had gone to to keep them safe could be wasted in a matter of minutes. Luckily though they didn't pull us up on them. Also the thing with all the questions I think was all for show as the girl who we gave our pssports into for checking was obviously in training, and I think her trainer was trying to prove a point. She was asking to see a copy of our ticket which proved we were leaving Singapore in 3 days, we tried telling her it was an e-ticket and that we had the confirmation in our e-mail as no actual ticket existed, but she didn't quite seem to understand. Also she kept asking where in Singapore we were staying, again...no understand...book hotel...as you go along?...Grrr. We ended up just writing the name of any hold hotel just to shut her up then listened to her warning of always carrying plane tickets with us - some people...

So anyway, the same routine every time we arrive in a new city, get cash, find accommodation, settle in, read the guide book, explore the area. We have been very fortunate so far that we have not had any trouble finding accommodation every time we arrive somewhere new. When we arrived in Singapore it was a whole different story. We already had a general idea that the option of cheap mid-range hotels were limited and that it was mainly the choice between posh hotel or hostel. We had seen one hotel in the book which we checked out first, it was grand but we thought we good find somewhee a bit closer to the city centre (this was in the arab quarter), 4 hours and about 20 hotels later, we went right back to the first place - Doh! By this time it we had settled in, got cash and read the book it was actually time for dinner, so we just went to the Indian across the road before heading to bed eager for the next days adventure.

So our first full day in Singapore kicked off with a tour around the city, to be honest after all the nature we had had recently we had already decided that we wanted to stay the entire time in the city. We started walking in through the Arab quarter where we were staying. We had a stop off in Raffles hotel along the way which is the original posh hotel, we took a couple of pictures from the outside which was fine, we then walked into the lobby at the same time as some other people when a man in the hotel uniform came rushing over saying that men were only allowed into the lobby if they had long trousers on! So all these men, including Dom were escorted out of Raffles leaving the women to watch and laugh, it didn't matter that we were wearing shorts, so I hung back and took pictures of the inside.

We carried on into the city following this, through this mall, that mall and the other mall, it didn't take us long to realise that Sinagpore is just malls and hotels! One of the malls has the Fountain of youth or longevity or eternal life or something, anyway we walked around it three times as you're supposed to and hopefully we will reap the benefits. This exploration took us through an enormous arts culture centre they have out onto a promenade by the sea - very rosemantic. We took a walk along, past the people putting up decorations in preparation for the Chinese New Year tomorrow onto an area known as boat quay. Boat quay is just that, a quay, but it it lined with bars/restaurants the whole way - it serves everything from bangers and mash to butter prawns and everything inbetween. To no surprise we decided to stop off for half an hour, which actually turned into dinner and the rest of the night. Our excuse is the guide book reccomended spending a night on boat quay, so we were doing one of the best things Singapore had to offer!! While we were there the weather did a flip turn, so even though it was suny when we go there, about an hour in, the heavens opened up. What we came to learn was that it actually did this every day around the same.

The next day we were a little bit hungover, but we weren't going to let that spoil the occasion, it was Chinese New Year!! What a fantastic time to be in a city that has a Chinatown. The only thing is that Chinese or not, everyone uses this as an excuse to shut-up shop, so it was actually like a bank holiday in terms of what was open and stuff. Still, we took a stroll down Orchard road. Apparently this could actually take anywhere between an hour and a day depending on the amount of shopping you did. And there was us thinking it was not possible for anymore shops to appear in a city than we had already seen. To be honest, most of the shops were closed, which didn't really matter, as whats the point in us walking into shops if we neither have the intention or money to buy? Still, it's a part of Singapore that had to be seen.

That night was Chinese New Year, and where better to spend it than Chinatown. We walked down to Chinatown but to get there walked through another area where there was a massive celebration going on, music, dancing, singing (which could have broken glass), food stalls ad everything Chinese you could imagine. When we eventually got to Chinatown there the party had already gotten started as well, there were decorations hanging from every streetlight and there was a huge stage set where there was Chinese traditional dances going on. We had been warned by several people that it would be crowded so we had expectations in mind, but this was just havoc, all the roads had been blocked off to the area and the roads then had further barriers down them to keep people apart in different areas. Before the new year actually set in we found a spot where it was possible to sit (on the road mind you). Finally the New year came around, it was celebrated with a big countdown, then a really impressive fireworks display. It went on for at least five minutes (which is alot of fireworks if you think about it). But then it all came as a bit of a disappointment because as soon as the fireworks came to an end, the whole celebration seemed to stop. So we did as every single other person seemed to do which was head back to where it was they came from. This turned out to be an impossible task as there were thousands of people trying to get through the same streets all in opposite directions. There was also market stalls set up on the side of the streets which just sold every piece of crap under the sun (crap meaning cheap chinese toys - plastic wind up ones, cuddly toys, sweets, tacky gold decorative things and alike). It took us ages to get back to the hotel, but in a way it was worth it.

The following day was our last in Singapore, our flight wasn't until 11pm so we still had the whole day. We spent it at a theme park on Sentosa Island. Sentosa island is basically a small island off the south coast of Singapore which has bee coverted entirely into a resort island. It has on it a theme park with insect world, butterfly park, cable cars, dolphin shows, beach resorts, golf course - im sure you can imagine the rest. As with most places like this, we were queuing for about an hour before we got in. We visited all the different areas including watching a dolphin show (the heavens decided to open up as soon as this started though). It was a grand way to spend a day, but the place is a tourist haven, from golfing buddies to screaming children - so one day was definately long enough unless of course you like golding and screaming children.

So here now is the end of our second adventure (we called China the first, Thailand/Malaysia/Singapore the second). Our third and final adventure is India, which is where our next flight was bringing us to.

Next Stop, Delhi.

Team Domro

Our bus to KL left at 10 so we got up early for a look at the tea planatations,unfortunately as it was Monday the factory was closed but we saw the fields and fields of tea and that was enough for us.
We got the bus which took the usual 6 hours because it stopped every 10 mins for a break!Anyway we got there late afternoon and after a monorail and train stop we found a nice little hotel and booked in for 3 nights.The weather was gorgeous when we arrived but after dumping our bags and getting changed for dinner it was absolutely pissing it when we went to leave the hotel. That evening was spent strolling round the city and finding a Chinese place for dinner.
The first day in KL we decided to hit the Chinatown and Little India areas.Firstly we headed to a huge electronics superstore were all the shops sold the same things but at different prices.Roisin was up to something as she asked for time alone to go inside the shopping centre.I just sat there wondering wot was going on.Anyway after a 45 minutes she came back and we headed to the Chow Kit area of the city. This area is famous for markets and the first market we saw was brill.It was a fish,meat and vegetables market.There was such a great atmosphere in there.They were slicing and dicing huge junks of meat while the fish were still hopping around in their baskets.Also I had my liverpool xavi alonso shirt on and all you could hear as I walked through the market was calls of ALONSO/LIVERPOOL/GERRARD! It was great fun.We continued our walk through the city to Merdeka Square a huge open area with the Malaysian flag standing tall in the centre.Its the worlds largest flag pole apparently (wot about the Spire?). After that we headed to the Covered Market. Now that was a market. Clothes/Souvenirs/Games and of course Pirate DVD'S.Now we had already bought a rake of movies and tv series in Bangkok and HongKong but we decided a few more wont hurt.Luckily enough we stumbled across a guy who told us all about the pirate dvd industry. How they were made and the differences in qualities in the different countries. He told us all the the dvd stands work togther and carry walky talkies and that if one of them spots the police they all call each other and leg it. He had a store selling regular dvd's so all he had to do was put the pirate ones away.Anyway we bought a couple more off him and he advised us to check the ones we had bought before. That night we went back to the electronics store as Roisin had to be back there at 8 o'clock for some reason. She headed up leaving me in a bar downstairs. About an hour and a half and 4 large Tiger beers later she came back. I was a bit pissed as you can imagine. She had a couple of bags in her hand.Very exciting stuff.She was gonna wait till the next day (Valentines Day) to give it to me but I convinced her otherwise. I opened up the bag and Wah Yah it was a PSP (Portable Playstation for the none techno heads). It was cool to have one as I always wanted one.Now I can play that instead having to sit through all the knobs singing You Raise Me Up on the X-Factor.
The next morning was an early start to get up to the Petronas Towers to manage to be one of the lucky 900 to get tickets for the Sky bridge. We managed it but we didn't need to be there as early as we where,the queue was the usual Malaysian mess. So after checking all our Dvd's on the hotels dvd player-(only 3 out of like 13 we needed to replace).
We got to the Petronas Towers and it was worth all the queing and messing around earlier on. Stunning views and it was so cool to be a building like that.Got some great photos and walked across the skybridge.We also got some great ones from the outside.It's just a colossol building which towers above the KL Skyline.After that we got the dvd's we wanted from our DVD friend!
Now today was Valentines day and we were gonna go for a nice meal but I bought a good bottle of wine (Impossible to find in Asia) and we just drank it in our hotel room.It'll be a shame to leave KL as we thought it was a great city full of life and variety. With Singapore to come though we can't really complain.

Team Domro

Our second day in the Cameron Highlands began with a four hour trek through the jungle with our German trek leader John. There was 8 of us and we set off at round 10am. The jungle was dense and very humid,we began with a steep climb through trees and forest.It was a beautiful jungle with different types of weird and wonderful plants and butterflies.It was a struggle going up at first especially after just having breakfast! We made it to the top after round 30 mins.After a breather John told us we had to go down,now if getting up was hard this was way harder.It was steep,very steep! One of the girls in the group had a bad fall and hurt her ankle.John told her if she couldn't continue the only way out of the jungle was by helicopter! She struggled through but id say it was hard for her. I discovered that when I went head first into a pile of trees and plants,I was basically arse ways with my foot caught in the tree.I eventually got myself out,just cuts and brusises thank god. When we eventually got to the end it was vast fields of plantations,with vegetable farms.Nature at its best i suppose!After that we had another climb up before we saw a wonderfull waterfall and headed back to the guesthouse throughly deserving a shower and some food.It was hard work but you felt great and after doing it.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing after the trek although that night we decided to go for the local speciality called Steamboat for dinner.Steamboat is basically a big pot of boiling soup which they bring out to your table and light.They then bring out all types of meats and vegetable for you to put into the pot at your own discretion.It was good fun and cultural but a bit too much hard work for dinner.
After dinner,we just wanted to get some sleep but unfortunately we were joined in our room by about 10 cockroaches!We killed them all and left their carcasses in the walls and on the ground for the guesthouse staff to see. A good but tiring day,2 moro its off to KL.Really looking forward to getting back to the cities after being in the sticks for the last while.

Team Domro

Well after 4 days of absolute bliss it was time to move on,as hard as it was. The Cameron Highlands was our next stop.We set off from Langkawi at 6.30am,a taxi picked us up from the hotel and we got a ferry to Kuala Kedah,were we knew we had to get a taxi to the bus station for a bus to Ipoh.Fortunately there was a English guy heading to the bus station so we shared the cost with him.When we got to the bus station there was a bus leaving for the Ipoh straight away.We got straight on,knowing it would take 4 hours.Unfortunately we hadn't eaten all day and didn't have time to get snacks for the bus journey.We got to Ipoh at round 1pm,we were told when we bought the bus tickets the bus was direct to the Cameron Highlands but when we got to Ipoh we had to change BUSES!
After sitting around for about 30mins waiting for the bus to leave it eventually set off.

Now we knew this bus would be slow as it was mostly an uphill drive in a crappy bus but when he was going 20km/hr up the hill you can imagine our frustrations,especially seen as we still hadn't eaten a thing all day. There was lovely scenery on the way up,mountains,fields etc.They had so many farms along the way including Strawberry,bees and of course the tea plantations.

The bus was bringing us to Tanah Rata,famous area for backpakers and
when we arrived at the bus station,there was buses from all the guesthouses awaiting the tourists.We had decided to stay in a a particular but unfortunately when the driver brought us there all the rooms had gone.He drove us to another guesthouse called the Peak View?We took a room there for 2 nights.We dropped the stuff and headed straight for the restaurant for food.

The Cameron Highlands is famous for its walks and mountain treks and had over different treks for people to go on.Most of the guesthouses have an unofficial guide for taking guests on the treks.During our meal John this guesthouses guide introduced himself and said he was heading on a mountain trek in the morning if we would like to join in.Of course we said yes,and thats was the next days entertainment sorted.

After that we walked the 5km into the near by town of Brintang. When we got there was a huge market on,selling local foods,souvenirs etc.The highlights of the market were the numerous strawberry items,homemade drinks,ice cream etc.Also they had teas from the tea plantation. After the market we decided to go for a drink.Roisin had been craving a glass of Guinness so we went into this bar that had Guiness advertisements plastered all over the wall.She ordered one of the bottles of Guinness,the bartender poured it,when she drank it her face dropped,it tasted like shit.It's true Guinness doesnt travel well.So we changed for a Tiger beer and after walked the 5km back to Tanah Rata in 45mins.A quick Curry was follwed by me staying up till 1am to watch the Liverpool v Newcastle game which we somehow manged to lose,thank you Pepe Reina.
Anyway the trek was to come so plenty to look forward too.

Team Domro

Our taxi picked us up from our hotel for the 8.15am ferry to the island of Langkawi - We hadn't originally planned to go here but after a glowing recommendation from Nick and Colby (from the China tour) we decided it was too good to miss. We hadn't actually realised where Langkawi was so was a bit surprised when we found out it was going to take around 2 and a half hours to get there. It was freezing on board as the a/c was going full throttle from every angle and I only had shorts and a t-shirt on - felt like Beijing again. Once we docked we actually ran into trouble as the ATM wouldn't accept my credit card - while we were fussig about this we had the hassle of every taxi person in the building asking if we wanted a taxi every five seconds, roisin went mad at one of them in the end. We did eventally get a taxi (not from the guys that were hassling us) and went to the Cenang area.

Cenang beach is one of the more popular areas on the island, both our book and Nick and Colby had said it was the place to go though, so logically we went. We got the taxi to drop us in Cenang and went to find a place to stay. Luckily the hotel across from where the taxi dropped us had Beach chalets for 35 ringitt a night (about Euro 7.50). I was kinda unsure but after we checked the chalet it seemed fine and we decided to go for it (its only catch was no hot water - but you didn't need it in this heat anyway, oh and no a/c, but we had a fan). Anyway its not everyday you can have your own beach chalet on a tropical island!

After we dropped the bags in the chalet, we had a gorgeous lunch in the Red Tomato Cafe were they baked homemade bread mmmm... before we hit the beach. Wow, it was unbelievable, white sand, blue sea, clear skies, we were thinking Thank U Nick and Colby. We got a couple of deckchairs and just sat on the beach for the entire afternoon, had a couple of fresh pineapple and watermelon juices and basically soaked it all up. The sea was a lovely temperature, not to hot or cold. Once we soaked up the main sunrays for the day we got changed and headed for the Lighthouse restaurant for a few cocktails and watch the sunset on the horizon. This place is actually a seafood restaurant and while the food looked amazing, it was a bit out of our price range, anyway we were concentrating on the cocktails. We got a nice little table on the beachfront and had a couple of potent cocktails to start. The place got even more gorgeous as the sun went down and it was just the most stunning setting ever. We were really getting into the cocktails at this stage and decided to have one called an AK47! Well this cocktail had brandy, whiskey, vodka, cointreau, gin, rum and just for a laugh lime juice! Well it certainly hit the spot and we decided that a couple more Jim Beams with coke would finish the night of nicely. As we hadn't eatan in the Lighthouse we had to find somewhere before all the restaurants shut up shop for the night quickly, we eventually settled in a Muslim restaurant and had some lovely satays and fresh battered prawns - muslim restaurant is just our own term for them, Langkawi (as is most of Malaysia) is predominantly muslim, and alcohol is not welcomed in a lot of places, so the restaurants that didn't serve alcohol we just called the Muslim restaurants. In fact, the next day we headed to 'best breakfast place in town' (Rough Guide 2006) which turned out to be crap as (it being a muslim place) did not serve bacon or sausages.

After breakfast we decided to take more of Nick and Colby's advice and rent a car. Well as you all know (or don't) im useless and havent learnt drive yet so it was down to Roisin. The fact that she was didn't have her license with her didn't put them off renting the car out to her so we got a little punto lookalike and set out to explore the island ourselves for a day at the extortionate price of 50 ringitt (Euro 10). We firstly went to the airport to try my credit card again but it was again refused, i was starting to get a bit worried but couldn't let it take over the day.

Langkawi had a number of tourist attractions which we decided to go to. Of course the scenery of the island as we were driving was stunning. We firstly went to the Langkawi cable car, which looked out over the island. It wasnt a very easy experience as the car was swaying in the wind as we went up over mountain after mountain. You got just gotta try not to think about it and definitely dont look down! When we got up though the scare was worth it as we could see the whole island from these viewing areas which included a suspension bridge which also swayed in the wind. Still it was great to see and we have some fabulous pictures.

After another scare on the way back down we wanted to go the Seven Wells which is in Telaga Tujuh and consists of waterfalls and natural pools. The booked had warned us about monkeys parading the walk up to the waterfalls and that they can be aggressive if provoked-great! We got there and there was monkeys sitting on the roofs of a couple of cars next to where we parked. We got out slowly and made our way to the first waterfall passing round 50 monkeys along the way - and no we didnt provoke them. The first fall was lovely, really quiet area, the only people we met were 3 Australians who told us there was a natural pool down the bottom of this fall which is great for a swim. We said we'd check it out so went down to have a look. We decided not to swim there but to just dip our feet and hands in. Just as we were about to leave we Mossie repellent into the pool...as it floated away I went to take my shoes off to jump in and get it. Roisin beat me to it though by climbing out onto a jut of rock and grabbed it,soaking herself in the process. That was pretty funny.

Anyway it was time to face the 367 steps which lead up to the seven wells, another waterfall area. After about 3 steps the was sweat dripping off us, it was a fairly steep climb, we stopped about 4 times on the way up, but i tell you it was sooooo worth it when we got there. This area was made up of these natural pools, considering the climb you had to make to get there it was unsurprising that there were only a few people up there swimming. This place was definately not one where we could refuse a swim. We got changed and made our way into the first pool. Now these pools are very easy to get into but very hard to get out of, the rocks are so smooth like silk you just fly into the pools and slip all over the place - great fun though, and i have to say probably the most refreshing swim i have ever had. We swithched pools a couple a times and decide to face the natural slide, it was basically a rock so smooth that you go straight down from the top pool into a really deep pool down the bottom - was fantastic fun.

After spending about an hour at the pools we headed back down to the car where luckily no monkeys had climbed onto. We then went to what is generally said to be the best beach in Langkawi called Tanjah Rhu. It was like a scene from that crap Beach movie with Leo Di Caprio in it. Stunning beach though. As we had already been swimming we just had something to eat at the seafood restaruant next to the beach and again went for fresh prawns. Prawns being the only seafood we actually bought as it was surprisingly expensive to eat fish in Langkawi. Afterwards we decided to head to Kuah, the capital of Langkawi. There actually wasn't too much to see there to be honest although we found a nice food market, so we headed back to the chalet after a fantastic day.

The next day we decided to take the car for another day and go back to the Tanjung Ruh beach we were at yesterday for the day. We got our stuff togther and and headed off. We stopped in a crocodile farm along the way which was really cool as they had huge crocodiles in ponds and swaps, it was great cause they were going for each other and everything - you could here a big crash every few minutes. They also have a disabled croc, he has no teeth and a bucked jaw. We got to walk over a bridge with shit loads of crocs underneath, it was scary as they tend to look at you like they are gonna strike at any minute. Luckily they just went for each other and we made our way to the beach.

We got to the beach and there was literally about 10 people on it, which so nice. We lazed around for the afternoon and swam, saw just the one jellyfish which was lucky. We found out that in the high season you cant swim in the sea cause it is full of jellyfish (its the low season now). Well we got burnt like crisps on the beach even though we had a loads of suncream on. Unfortunately its one of the sideffects of our Malaria tablets that we are more at risk to the sunrays - They got it right. That night we decide to go look for somewhere to have dinner and hopped into an Irish bar for a quick drink. We got a jug of Tiger and had look at the food menu, which included Irish Stew! The staff of course were all locals, they greeted us with Conas Ata Tu which being the Gaelige Connaissuer I am I knew wot they were saying straight away. Anyway we had a another couple of jugs of Tiger and after a few chats with some English couple decided to just have dinner there. Roisin went for the Irish stew and I had the beer battered cod and chips. It was great food and the stew tasted better than anything you would get at home. You can tell that ever since we got to Langkawi it has been Western food all the way - sick of noodles, curries, rice...its like a take-away every night.

Our last day in Langkawi was spent on Cenang beach soaking up the luxury for one final time. We spent all the day in the shade mind since we had turned into lobsters from the previous day (bit sensitive). That night we ate Malaysian and our Langkawi paradise had come to an end. We would seriously recommended anyone coming to this part of the world going to Langkawi and hopefully we will come back some day ourselves - reckon we might have a few who wouldnt mind coming with us!

From Paradise

Team Domro