February 14, 2004

Singapore

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A great 6 hour train journey (first class for a change!) took us across the water from Malaysia to Singapore. First impressions wern't great as Singapore station is very dull and run down looking - however that does not compare to everything else in Singapore, which is brand new and state of the art. To start with the underground is more effecient that any Swiss watch...it's all A/C'd...has safety doors...mobile phones work underground....everywhere has plasma screens giving details of every train arrival...you never have to wait more that 4-6 mins for a train...they have a EZ link card which you can top up with money for use on the trains and buses (no exact money required) - can you tell if we like it here???

We stayed in the Little India section, which was very convenient to get around, if not a little too fragrant at times! it is also far to close to the best electronics shopping plaza - The Sim Lin Center, where we had a couple of shopping weakness - hence the new Gameboy Advance SP, portable DVD/VCD player, DVD writer and some Oakley sunglasses!... just as well we cleared our credit cards before we left the UK :-)
Our hostel was The Inn Crowd, which has to be one the best hostels ever concieved - it's like an IKEA showhouse - clean, contemporary, groovy decorating, A/C, free internet and run by the most friendly of people. If you need to great cheap place to stay them check out http://www.the-inncrowd.com/

There is so much to see and do here, they advantage of it being a relatively small island/country, is that everything is easy to get too. Apart from the overwhelming number of shopping plaza's and modern buildings, there is so much history here to see. We took a 30 min boat journey along the Singapore river out to the harbour, for the best views of the city and waterfront area.
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To get a good view of the city, we took a roof top tour of one of the Suntec City skyscrapers. It's only about 45 floors high, but for a better view you can go to the 76 floor of the Swiss Hotel as they have a bar there!

Of course the boys couldn't visit Singapore without the obligatory visit to the Raffles Hotel for high tea! View image

After too much retail thearapy, we needed to beach action to chill out (if that's possible in 32c heat...), for this we went to Sentosa which is an island next to Singapore - in fact it is the southern most tip of continental Asia - we took the 100m high cable car over the harbour, where there is a free monorail around the island, which is a great way to see everything. Of course we headed to one of the great beaches (if not a little too perfect...) View image
There is also a cool rope bridge across the small bay swimming area.. View image

We also checked out the cinema and local theatres (Marriage of Inconvenience and The Odd Couple).

Claudia and Kathy took our advice and came down to Singapore and stayed in the Inn Crowd too, so we had a good home cooked meal (thanks Kathy!) and enjoyed a few sherries - good luck to you both on your further travels.

Our final observation is that Singapore is much further advanced with technology that any other country we've visited, WiFi is massive over here and almost every coffee house (good ol' Starbucks!), shopping mall and even the beach bars on Sentosa have free access! - the rest offer free regular pc internet access. David fortunatley managed to stop me buying the PDA phone just in time!

Posted by David at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

Taman negara

Early morning start for a three hour bus ride to Jerantut, and then another three hours on a boat along the Trenggan river. We finally arrived at the Mutiara Taman Negara Resort.
and then...... David yet again fell on his fanny!....an unfortunate incident with a dodgy plank at the river jetty....not nice...ended up going to some bizarre jungle clinic, fearing a luvly pneumothorax!....luckily after some pokings and proddings it appeared to be only a couple of cracked ribs. Stacks of drugs were prescribed(thank gawd!), and he had to get on with it really!.. Never had a rib injury before and its really painful!.
After the afternoon dramas(I had some choice complaints for the resort manager), he sheepishly accompanied us to the clinic and sent over a basket of fruit!....mmmmm...... emm,, do they have claimsdirect in malaysia?? He paid for the drugs so that wasn't too bad.
Took a night jungle walk with our guide, the luvly Angie. (not Watts). She was really nice and very keen to show us all the jungle beasties that come out at night. The humidity even at night in the jungle is stiffling.
Our accomodation was fantastic in wooden/bamboo glam chalets with ensuite and ac etc.
Next day we took a short boat ride to the canopy jungle walk way, which is 50m high and is secured only by cables and ropes to preserve the trees. It was very scary indeed, but great views.
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Due to davids wee tumble, kris toddled of with the rest of the group on a 3 hr jungle trek to the Teresek Hill for a wonderful view of Mount Tahan.
Later in the afternoon we took another boat ride up the river via the rapids(getting very wet)to Orang Asli (aborigines) village to observe their way of life.
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Here they showed us how to make their poisoned darts and blow pipes and also how to make fire with just some dried wood and vines. We got to try out the blow pipes, shooting at a target!.. The local people were very friendly to us.
We took our meals on a floating restaurant which wasnt really that brilliant to be honest. Our advice to other travellers would be to take the free and easy package rather than the full board one which would give you more flexibility and save money.
It was great to spend some time in the worlds oldest rainforrest( 130 millon years old) The journey back to KL was the exact reverse but a bit quicker as it was downstream this time.

Posted by David at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

K.L.

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Our bargain flight with airasia was excellant!...on time and nice leather seats(squeezy jet and ryan hell doesn't have a look in !) Only and hours flight from Penang. Got a cab to Chinatown and checked into the hotel Furama. This hotel turned out to be really nice, we got an excellant corner room on the 11th floor with views of the Petronas towers and the Menara tower..cool! Its allegedly only a 2star but we found it better than most of the three stars in the UK. They dont do breakfast on site but you get vouchers for the bakery accross the road which was really tastey.
Chinatown itself was really busy and lively as they were still in the middle of their newyear celebrations so it was dragon parades and firecrackers/fireworks constantly! There was soem amazing cheap knock off stuff in the market as well like new release dvd's for a pound and watches for one pound fifty. We stupidly forgot to get some!, just meant to go back and never got round to getting any!.
Visited the old Colonial Merdaka square with its massive flag pole and cricket pitch and colonial architecture. The mix of old and new is very stiking.
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Hooked up with a couple of fellow travellers from bootnall.com(we all get around a fair bit) ,Cathy from Delaware and Claudia from Long Island. Really nice girls, we had a few meals out and a few drinks. Excellant transatlantic comedy chat about the differences in our cultures and languages.
K.L itself is a very busy moden city, with good transport links , it has an LRT sky train thingy, so its easy to get about in airconditioned bliss. The humidity is really stiffling in KL.
Took a visit to the Lake Gardens which are really beautiful. Not the easiest place to get around - it has a shuttle bus, but it doesnt seem to run, we spent 3 hrs in the park and didnt see any moving! Also it has some decent maps, but the paths are very badly marked, and a lot of the exit gates are closed, so its a bit frustrating!. Just next to the lake gardens is the bird park which is the worlds biggest aviary, its really cool inside with rivers and waterfalls and some of the bird species room free inside the massive netted enclosure.
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Took up trip up the Petronas towers(currently the worlds tallest buildings), its an excellant free ride up to the 45thish floor and you get to spend a few minutes on the sky bridge. Also went up the menara tower which has an impressive observation deck with amazing views over KL
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Now off to the jungle for the boys.....

Posted by David at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)