Singapore

The weather has been great this time round in Singapore. Blue skies and hot, humid sunshine.

I had a look around Orchard road on my first day to have a look around the gigantic shopping malls. There are so many and they are all 8 floors and more high. People enjoy shopping here for sure.

The next day I went over to Sentosa which is an island just south of Singapore. I was not that impressed with this island. It was pure make believe. It is also soo tiny. Managed to walk around it in 30 minutes. The island is a big tourist resort with man made beaches. The sea view is of huge tankers and boats going to Indonesia. The water was full of fish, but it did not tempt me enough to take a dip.

I have been chilling a lot this week. Taking in all the buildings and surroundings. I did the China Town walk, and Little India walk and visited the small Arab district. The buildings and people change quite dramatically on this small island. I am staying close to Little India. It is fairly quite Monday to Saturday. Then on Sunday the district is overflowing with people enjoying their one day off.

I spent one day on the east of the island and hopped over to Pulau Ubin which was a fun island to cycle round. It was full of coconut trees and swaps and huge spiders. The area on the east of Singapore is different from the city centre. Here is the prison and the RAF barracks. I could not say it is run down, as no where I have been in Singapore could be described quite like that, but neither was it the same atmosphere of the city. It looked out of place, like it did not belong to Singapore.

China Town is pretty and decorated with lanterns and orange blossom. I went down for the Lunar New Year's Eve. I did enjoy myself, but everything was in Chinese and really quite cheesy, with local pop groups and dances. so I did not really understand what was going on. There was a small lion dance too which was cool, but I could not see the stage so well, though I was right in front of the fire crackers, and thought I was going to die when they were lit. They went off very quickly. so much smoke came out of them. All the crowd close by all jumped away from the barriers.

Walking back to the hostel from China Town was interesting. The air smelt of incense as people were attending the temples and making their prayers for the New Year. People were offering flowers and mandarins and incense. And of course it was raining, so it made me feel like the New Year has really begun.

Today most things are closed. Will head out today and tomorrow to take my final pictures of Singapore. Tomorrow night I head for Dehli so will a new place to encounter.

Singapore is very easy. There is clear information for everything and is so well organised. It is clean. There are details about the history everywhere and it is quite difficult to get lost as everything is signposted. People compare Hong Kong and Singapore. I felt that Singapore is very friendly as people will just offer their help, kindly. Singapore is very flat and does not have the dramatic views that Hong Kong does, which makes Singapore even easier to walk around.

Penang to Melaka

I am now in Melaka. I leave for Singapore tomorrow. I have been so lazy over the past two weeks.

I was so happy to leave Penang, with all my bed bug bites. Arriving in Kuala Lumpur was great. The bus journey was quick and easy. I booked in to a different hostel than the one before. This one was fine, but not as nice as the previous one, but it was only 2 pounds a night. Can't complain.

I was in the girls dorm, but the dorm we walked though was the guys dorm, and every morning is smelt so bad. The guys always drunk so much every night and smelt that way too. Unfortunately I had to walk through this in order to get to the bathroom, so there was no way to avoid this.

The main reason for me returning to KL was to get my Indian Visa. So this was the first thing that I did. I went to the Malaysian Tourist board to find out where I needed to go. They gave me the address, and I knew where to go. Well so I thought. The address they gave me was incorrect. The address was now something else. They vaguely told me where to go. I had to keep asking people where I needed to go. A few hours later I finally got there, and it turns out that it has moved and is only a 2 minute walk from where I am staying. Great as I had to return to get the paperwork sorted, but not so great as it took me all day to find this place!!

I had seen most of the sights in KL already, so decided to teach myself how to crochet and knit. Thought that this may help me with some of the long bus journeys I have to do. I was also inspired by the haberdashery that was opposite the hostel. So I spent some of my time learning how to do this. It was actually a great way of chatting to people in the dorm too and picking up travel and craft tips. I know all you guys in the UK could do with scarves, gloves, hats and thermals as I hear it is so cold. Here in the tropics I guess its not needed so much. Maybe you will all have some handmade crafts as gifts when I return.

My Australian friends got in touch with me and said that they had some friends in KL, so I hung out with them for a while. It was great to chat about non-travel things. We went out for a banana leaf curry, and I know I should be eating with my hands now, but shamefully I am still asking for cutlery. Once in India I guess I will be eating with my hands all the time. For now, I will use cutlery.

I spent more time in the different parts of KL. The city is getting ready for the Chinese New Year. There are red lanterns everywhere. Where Christmas trees there are now ox's as this year is the year of the ox. There is orange blossom with red envelopes on, sadly I don't think they contained a red banknote. The shops are just filled to the brim with decorations, the same way shops in the UK fill up with Christmas decorations.

I spent sometime in Little India eating all the great food, and looking at the bright silk clothing. I admired the temples and the buildings. I also walked through the City Jungle and went to the park. The park is full of monkeys. People stop and feed them peanuts from their cars. The monkeys were actually very cute, especially as there were babies and the mother was carrying the babies under her.

I finally left KL once my India visa came through. This journey was very quick, and a little bit too bumpy for crochet.

I am now in Melaka. Its fun here. The hostel is very friendly. We go out for dinner every night together. The food here is great. There are lots of churches and temples. There is a Dutch and Portuguese influence. Big Chinese population too. The entire streets are decorated with lanterns and we get spoilt each evening with a Chinese Dragon Dance and Chinese music, though the karaoke is not great.

The art in the shops is wonderful. There are lots of local artists here. All painting and carving away. Its quite a dreamy sort of place. Again a mix of European, Chinese and Indian people and buildings.

I went to one of the Islands just off of Melaka. It was empty. The boat journey was very rough and over crowded. We walked around the island and watched hermit crabs and monitor lizards on the beach. The sea was totally calm on the other side of the island as though we were in two different places.

I leave for Singapore tomorrow afternoon. Looking forward to seeing the Chinese New year in there, then I fligh to Delhi the day before my birthday. So I will end up sleeping all day on my birthday. I arrive at 2am Indian time.

Once I am done with India I will be home! The time has gone very fast. Looking forward to seeing you all, but am enjoying being away too.

Penang, Malaysia and Christmas & New Years in Thailand

Leaving the Cameron Highlands was a bit sad for me. I became very attached to the place. Thought about it a lot even though I was not there and had other places to think about. Descending 1000 meters in to the tropical heat was a little bit of a surprise too. I acclimatise so quickly these days to the temperature changes.

The journey to Penang was simple and easy. The hostel was an interesting place. It was dark wood inside and like a kung fu house. I really liked it. Though the two ladies sharing the room with me liked to be naked a lot. It was there way of dealing with the heat, but I just did not want to see them that way. I was still wearing a lot to sleep in as I was used to wearing so much in bed in the Cameron Highlands, and I guess the nakedness was too much for me. The ladies were actually really lovely and interesting people, but would not talk to each other, so I was often in the middle.

Penang is a real mix of cultures and buildings. A lot of colonial buildings left from the British with Chinese, Hindu and Islamic temples and architecture. Very interesting place. I got to see a dragon dance outside on of the temples, just by chance.

The people are all very friendly, always asking where you are from and how old are you and if you are married. It puzzles the locals that people are not married in their early 20s.

Penang was not my favorite place though. I did not explore as much of the island as I should have. There was much more to see than George Town. It kinda seemed a bit lost to me. Stuck in the past and trying to come forward in to the modern day, with out trying.

Plus I was looking forward to seeing my friends in Thailand and getting back on the beach. The bus journey was dreadful to Thailand. I can't believe how fast we were going. The driver could win any Grand Pix. We got to our destination alive. I just kept my eyes closed. What else could I do. I kept telling myself this is the way they drive over here. The other drivers know what to do. It will be ok.

I was heading to Phuket to be picked up by a friend of a friend. She is managing a yatch and it was beautiful. I spent some time with her and her family before heading north to Khoa Lak where we met up with Brian. I could only stay out for a couple of hours. I was so tired and hungry. I was dizzy and was only drinking soda water.

Next morning I got to appreciate Khoa Lak. Beautiful beaches. Sadly this area in Thailand was the worst hit by the tsunami. The area I was staying in was destroyed by the tsunami. The hotel I stayed at was on the beach front and the wave came in 200 meters from the hotel. Scary. There are warning signs everywhere. We went to look at the memorial sight. There is a ship that was one nautical mile out to sea and was washed in 2k from the shore. The boat was a police boat. It was somber but beautiful at the same time. Everyone has gotten on with their lives.

The town was very quite, but fun. We went to a waterfall and found a temple off the beaten track. We should have used a 4x4 but the car managed to get us there.

Christmas eve we went to a bar with live music. I drank a bit too much. I was dizzy again and this time it was from the vodka and tonics. It meant that I spent far too much time in bed on Christmas Day. When we got up at around 2pm we went to have dinner by the beach. It was beautiful, though it was raining. Just like being in England, although I heard it was sunny over there. My starter was a spicy fruit salad with peanuts, which was fantastic, then Thai green curry, and of course I asked for it to be spicy too, then I had vanilla ice cream, which is not Thai but was decorated with an orchid. I loved my food, plus I was drinking coconut juice from a coconut. Then proceeded to alcohol a little later on.

Boxing Day was lazy too. We soon moved on to Phuket. We stayed on Kata Beach, which was beautiful. I tried to have a go at diving. I think I will have to try it again. I managed to relax in to it but definitely need to try again.

New Year's was fun. Spent some time on the beach, watching the thousands of fireworks go off. Some nearly hitting us. Safety is not a priority here in Asia. I set off a baloon to welcome the New Year wishing everyone good fortune for the year to come.

On New Year's Eve during the day I went on a boat cruise to caves and islands off of Phuket Island. We saw these amazing limestone caves that opened up in to a lagoon. We kayaked in to the caves. The colours and shapes were very interesting.

We went out at high tide, so the entrance to the caves was very small. I was unsure that we would be able to fit though the gap. Once inside it was so dark. We had a flash light which helped. The passage was not very long, and opened up to this perfect lagoon. We were enclosed by the rocks that were above us and in the middle of a mangrove. It was beautiful. The roof of the cave was so low that we had to like down in the kayak. Which made coming out of the cave even more spectacular as above were beautiful green leaves of so many colours and bright blue sky and the water around was an aqua green.

Once we had finished in the caves we took a look around James Bond Island- the Island that is in 'Man with the Golden Gun'. I could be misquoting, but I think it was from that film. The island itself is tiny. We were on an island opposite as it is too small to actually go on, so we got some great views.

Shortly after the New Year arrived I had to make tracks back to Malaysia. They only grant 15 days when you travel by land into Thailand and I did not want to get another fine.

The journey back was fine. Changed buses three times, which is the Thai way to travel! I went to Penang. I wish I had not. I needed to get back to Kaular Lumpur and wanted to break up the journey. I had an encounter with bed bugs. Everywhere was fully booked. I had to stay in a disgusting place. I have so many bites on my body. Next morning, I got straight on a bus to KL. I can still feel things crawling on me!

Today I queued up to apply for my Indian Visa. Hopefully it will be ready in 5 days. So I will be here for at least a week.

I am not sure of my plans from here. I may head to Singapore and go to India early or visit nearby areas. Just waiting for some inspiration then I will know what to do.

Happy New Year to you all. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx