31st August - Singapore

I woke up at 7.30 this morning to a very rainy morning. Where we could see nothing but the skyscrapers and lights of Singapore when we looked out of our 26th storey window last night, today there was just a big, fat cloud sat on it all and we could barely see to the next building.

We took a walk to the famous Raffles hotel and enjoyed a wander round looking at how the other half live. We could barely even have afforded a tea-towel in the gift shop should we have wanted one! A whole section of the hotel is dedicated to posh shops, something which seems to be pretty typical of big cities this side of Asia. Even the historical monuments on the map seem to have a big 'S' next to them to show that they have been turned into malls.

The museum at Raffles was great. They've collected together lots of different artefacts, letters and memorabilia from its inception and it was all just so wonderfully old-fashioned. I especially liked the newspaper articles depicting the adventures they'd had with animals in the hotel: the 15ft python that was found under a discarded coat,  the last tiger of Singapore that was shot in the lobby and the wild boar that the dorrman wrestled to prevent it coming in!

We did pass a lovely little cafe giving away Oolong tea and incredible little pineapple cakes so we took advantage of that. Barely anyone who came in walked away without at least 3 boxes ('That's $75 dollars please Madam') but we felt like we'd done our bit by bringing in the punters just by sitting there. I seriously could have been tempted by a box of 10 but thought my waistline would not appreciate since we would have to scoff them all before getting on our flight to Oz tomorrow.

On our way to find some greenery to walk around, we stumbled across an exhibition and asked to have a look. The info from Singapore 'What's on" website trumpets:  'Sound artist Joel Ong creates a kinetic sculpture that draws its inspiration from both the visual and sonic aesthetics of the locomotive engine. The project builds on the historical, social and cultural significance of the engine, particularly on its acoustic refrain within a lineage of iconic soundmarks that are reminiscent of the age of modernism.' What our uneducated, unartistic selves experienced were 'a few Roomba vacuum cleaners with radio mics and speakers bolted to them which made a dreadful whiney noise'. (Matt)

We paid a visit to Fort Canning Park and played on the cool four-person swing for a while before taking in some of the more historical artifacts, including a lighthouse that used to be on the edge of Singapore before they reclaimed more land, the actual fort and the outside of the 'Battle Box'. It's a lush and green park so we enjoyed just walking around, looking at a few interesting trees (including a bulbous one and a spiky one) and chuntering about some of the crappy sculptures that were there. One of them looked like a bit of a kids climbing frame had come loose and jammed in the ground.

We popped into a bookshop cafe in the search for lunch but they didn't do anything substantial. It would have been a nice place to hang out but we were too hungry. They did invite us back for a book opening that evening. We were told that we wouldn't know the book but that there would be food! How did they read us so well? I think they were a little worried that no-one would turn up but we'd be more than happy to help. They also recommended going to the food court at the nearby university, which turned out to be a good call.
After lunch, accompany by a side-order of feeling a bit old and poor (Seriously?! A shop selling Prada and Paul Smith in the Student's Union!), we enjoyed a decent cup of tea at a newly-opened student-run cafe/bar. It was trying to be something that it wasn't - for instance, they led us to a 'table for two' like a proper restaurant but then insisted we paid first because it was 'self-service' - but they had squidgy sofas.

Since we just missed the deadline for the dress-code yesterday, we made a concerted effort to get to Marina Bay Sands before 6pm so we could snag a pass to Ku De Ta rooftop bar and avoid paying $20. Not as though the dress code is fair! How can they say they we can't wear shorts and vest-tops when their uniform seems to be such a miniscule and revealing dress?! How dare they find Matt's knees and my bingo wings offensive in the evenings!

I really wanted to go into their awesome infinity swimming pool but it was obviously for hotel guests only. It goes right to the edge of the building so you can have a swim and then get your breath back while you peer 57 floors down to the bay below.

Thanks to our pretense that we were actually going to buy a drink at the fancy bar, we did get a good look at the city from great heights and marvel at how neatly planned and grand it all is. Unfortunately it was still too foggy to get any decent pictures. Even more unfortunately, Matt started feeling really crappy and burning up with a fever so we left to take him back to bed for paracetamol and a sleep.

It was an extra shame because we were both quite looking forward to the 'Night Festival', where there were all sorts of things going on around the city.  Oh, and of course the fact that we're meant to fly to Australia tomorrow. They wont even let anyone in with a box of chocolates so I really can't see us getting through quarantine with a fluey man.

While Matt rested, I spent the rest of the evening writing this, looking at the gaps in the blog and beating myself up about how many there are and how much I've missed. At least it means that they might be a little more brief than this - which is good for anyone reading them but not so great when it comes to making them entertaining or remembering them in the future. Grrrr, must try harder.

30th August - Singapore

Kuni left for work at 7.30am so didn't see him in the morning. We still got up reasonable early and took a brief walk around Arab area nearby. There was a nice mosque we'd have liked to visit but there were too many school groups milling around so we gave it a miss.


Instead we took the MRT to the Botanical Gardens. They were huge, with lots of different themed sections so we walked through the 'healing' and 'evolution' gardens. We tried to go to the 'toxic' garden but it was only accessible with a guided tour. We saw lots of plants and enjoyed reading the information, especially in the 'healing' garden but there weren't actually many flowers in bloom. I did get to shout at some annoying naughty kids though so that was fun!

We walked around lake and were followed by hungry fish and terrapins looking for food and then to the ginger garden. I had no idea there were so many types of gingers or how pretty they were, nor that bananas are from the ginger family. We thought about going to the orchid garden but time was getting on and we wanted to get back to Marina Bay Sands so we could go to the top so we headed back to the MRT through the climber trellis garden.

Marina Bay sands is like a different world. Expensive, classy shops set in an almost impossible looking building. We were going to take Kuni's advice and go to the bar on the top of Tower 3 instead of paying for tourist access but the dress code had kicked in.



Instead we headed to the newly developed Garden by the Bay. It stands on an area of reclaimed land and is already huge but more development is planned. In it stands a number of 25 - 50ft tall 'supertrees' - vertical gardens with conical tops and a Conical towers with vertical gardens - some of which are linked by a sky walkway.

We were hoping to see te 'Garden Rhapsody' light and sound show but were a little early so took a walk around and crossed the bridge back towards Marina Bay to get some pictures of the landscape, including the Singapore Flyer (like the London Eye).

The Garden Rhapsody was pretty corny but is was still interesting to watch the Supertrees light up in time with the music and giggle at the music they used.

Back over at Marina Bay Sands we caught the end of their light and water show. It was much more modern but even more cheesy. Fountains created arcs of water that looked like snow-shakers while images were projected into them. We were there just in time to see the images of two young pop stars warbling 'What a wonderful World' before streams of fire were shot into the sky. We decided we'd like to see the whole thing and so went to amuse ourselves in the shopping centre for a while.

Many of the shops were too classy for us to feel comfortable in so instead we played for a long while in a shop selling massagers. I had a viscious foot massage while Matt messed around with the 'world's first' hat massager and the head massager that looked like a brain control device. There were also weird goggle eye-massagers (awful sensation), iphone massage chairs and one that you plugged into the computer. We weren't hassled at all and they only payed attention to us when we were stood my something stealable so we were there for quite a while.

We couldn't afford the food court so we sat on a bench eating cut-price sushi and watching fat ladies on the vibration machines trying to wobble themselves thin in 5 minutes. I was really glad we did when I suddenly realised that I had left my bag in the massage shop. This was the first time in 7 months so it wasn't bad going for me and at least a did it in one of the most crimeless countries in the world.

We were back outside just in time to watch the 9.30 water, light and music show (check it out on Youtube) and were lucky enough to sit by the bubble-making machine.

After that we spent some time looking at the crazy water feature outside the the mall. It was basically a giant, transparent, perspex sink where you can watch the water swish around and drain through the 'plughole' into the shopping centre below, creating a waterfall inside. It also carried conversations so we giggled at the intentional and unintentional snippets of conversation that we heard from several metres away.

We took to circuitous route back to the flat round the bay, past busy bars, and via the war monument and just generally took in sights of the city.

We were dog tired but just had the energy to top off the day with some fruit shopping so we's have a nice breakfast before tomorrow's explorations.

29th August - KL to Singapore

The morning was lost to packing and sorting but by lunchtime we were ready to say our goodbyes and make our way to do a few last-minute jobs before heading to the bus station. We were feeling quite pushed for time so when the taxi-driver stopped to refuel (and charged us for the privilige!), we changed our itinery slightly and went straight Bujaya Times Square.

We picked up tickets, changed money, had lunch and had our last wander around one of the consumer-crazed malls of Singapore before going to the bus bay.

The bus itself was great! There were big, plush (though psychadelic-coloured) seats with inbuilt massagers. The bum-squeezing, bone-shaking, life-fearing buses of earlier in our trip seemed like a distant memory.

The bus-driver really went to town shouting at a couple who dropped a bit of litter on the bus so we also got our first taste of what Hong called 'this unforgiving and punitive island state'.

Such was the level of comfort that I completely forget to blog and instead just vibrated away while I chilled out with Matt, listening to podcasts for nearly 6 hours.

Border controls were less scary than I imagined (especially since I later realised that I'd smuggled in chewing gum) and we were through them quickly. We arrived in Singapore and were immediately in awe of all of the imposing, stunning and outright bonkers buildings and structures!

Another benefit of Matt choosing that bus was that it dropped us off rather close to where we were having our first Couch-Surfing adventure. Our host, Kuni, was still at work so we went for food at one of the local restaurants. Matt's 'herbal mutton', bubbling and sizzling away made me realise that we were soon to be leaving the incredible food of Asia behind.

Kuni's apartment was on the 26th floor of a sparkly apartment block with very unflattering lifts. He showed us around the small flat (the view from our room was simply amazing!), gave us the keys and then went out for dinner.

When he came back he gave us lots of advice of what to do around the city. There was so much that we found ourselves wishing that we were here for more than 2 days. They have a night zoo!

Kuni himself wasn't particularly chatty but he was a very nice guy. He's travelled all over the world and has been to 109 countries! He has also hosted over 1000 couch-surfers! In fact, we were 1006 and 1007! We milked him for conversation for a while and then let him go to bed as he hasn't finished work until 8 and he started again early in the morning.

28th August- Kuala Lumpur

As a celebration of our last day in KL, we spent until mid-afternoon chasing after some computer memory for Matt's new toy. We were meant to be meeting a guy who Matt had contacted on the internet but, in real Malaysian style, the 12pm meeting time had been put back to 2pm and then 3pm. However,  the guy had arranged to meet us at the 'Digital Mall' and so we looked around for what Matt needed there. By the time we received another text asking if we could wait until 3.30pm, we were already on our way out of the door with what we needed.

The best thing about going there though was when I stopped to ask for directions from a work-man in the park. The man I ask didn't speak any English and pointed me (actually with fingers and not the creep finger-less knuckle-point so common here) towards  workmate who did. I started towards his mate but what I didn't realise, until the man grabbed my shoulder and I felt myself sink slightly into the ground, was that the work-man was actually concreting a new path through the park and had just got it to the nice, smooth, even part where it can be left to dry. I offered to sign my footprints but he didn't seem too impressed.
After sharing a 3-course lunch: a sweet tofu pudding from one street stall, a freshly cooked spring roll (I scolded my mouth) from another, and some economy rice with veg from a third one, we considered going to the Butterfly Park. I'd lost my oomph by this point though so we went back to Tim's so Matt could diddle with his new RAM.

In the evening we went out for our farewell meal with Tim, Shirin and Carl. It was our last chance to try new Malaysian food so they took us for Soto - a noodle soup with a kind of corned-beef and potato burger in it. It was actually really nice and made me feel like I was being more adventurous with food. However, compared to our Laos friend Katie, who posted on Facebook that she had eaten cow's brain and pig's trotter for dinner, it was nothing.

Tim fancied a meaty dessert of satay but the restaurant was next to Lake Tittiwangsa (how many jokes are in that name?!) and so we went a walk around there first. We spent a good deal of time playing boys-against-girls 'Alphabet body-shapes' (Hey Zeena, remember Chillingham castle?) against the backdrop of the Petronas towers. Hopefully Matt will include some pictures of that and then you can try and guess what letter we're making.

  

The down-side of so much silliness was that we were too late for satay dessert and no one knew a good place to get fried ice-cream so we all just went home to bed.

4th August - Taman Negara - Kuala Lumpar

Because of last night's discomfort, I was surprised when I didn't wake up until 9am, along with everyone other than Matt.

After a breakfast of fruit cake, we set off back to Tahan, where we picked up our bags and showered before grabbing some lunch and waiting for the local bus to Jerantut.

Jerantut was bigger than I realised and would perhaps have been an interesting place to walk around but we managed to get a connecting bus straight to Kuala Lumpar.

The bus was too cold as usual but did have reclining coach seats and a cool little lever than you cold press to make the coupled seats move an inch or two further apart. I used the extra elbow room to catch up on the blog a little.

3rd August - Taman Negara

We packed up what we needed (mostly about 8 bottles of water), left our main bags at the guesthouse and collected our tatty 'mattresses' from a nearby hostel before going for breakfast at Wan's floating restaurant. I couldn't stomach the floppy toast so Matt got a super-big breakfast and I stocked up on snacks for the journey instead.

After a quick shopping trip and bat trip we were on our way to Bumbun Tabing. It only took an hour and half to walk there and so we had all day to relax in the rainforest before our evening of looking out for tigers and bears.

We dropped off most of our things, thanked providence that there was a shower and toilet there and headed to the river for a while. Bumbun Anjing was across the river and we had debated going there (simply because it had my name in it) but we'd decided against it because it meant actually wading through the river to get there. It did mean that there was a path down to the riverside though and we spent some time there, paddling with the little fishes and watching boats of tourists go by on the disappointing-looking 'rapids' trip. I suspect Matt washing his shirt in the water was actually the highlight of the trip for them.

When I got hungry, we made our way back to the hut to discover some of the food we had brought with us. It was disappointing but entertaining. The tin of tuna mayonnaise we'd bought (because it was pretty much the only protein option) looked, smelled and tasted something like potted meat and what I thought was a chilli version of some crisp-like things we'd already tried and liked turned out to be what I can only describe as fish-jam flavoured. I gave the tuna a go but no amount of 'Cheezles' could mask the flavour and was just a waste of decent cheesy crisps so I stuck to those instead.

We didn't want the leftover food attracting any unwanted visitors in the night so I naughtily catapulted our fishy friends into the rainforest in the hope that they might improve our chances of seeing bears, washed out the containers and hid them in several layers of bag.

We found a way of attaching our mosquito net to the bed above (2nd use in 6 months!)and watched from the window and listened to the jungle sounds until it started getting dusky. Just as I was planning to use the daylight left to enjoy a shower and then settle down for some night-time nature watching we heard the sound of monkeys - and the answering sound of Westerners returning their cries. We couldn't help but be disappointed when four others joined us in our little bubble.

After they'd all jumped in the shower and settled in, it was pretty dark. They did make a bit of an effort to just sit and watch but were still quite chatty (especially after one of them found a huge spider in the bathroom) so we gave up and went to bed to wrestle with our mosquito net while our companions played cards and chatted.

At one point during the night, I woke up certain that I could hear something big outside but by the time I'd untangled myself from the net and woken Matt up for the decent torch,  it was gone.

My favourite belonging (neck and neck with my bumbag no less), my rectangular inflatable pillow, had sprung a leak and kept flattening out within minutes of being reinflated. Combined with the hard wooden slab of a bed and the mosquito net, it began to feel like a pretty long night.

2nd August - Taman Negara

A pretty slow day today. Which is a relief in as much as it doesn't give me so much to write up!
We'd originally planned a longer walk to stay in a bumbun (hut) overnight but didn't want to risk a long, hard trek with loads of stuff so we arranged to stay at a nearer one tomorrow night instead.

We took a short walk in the forest but soon came across a sign that said it wasn't advisable to go much further without a guide and so headed back. We took a quick detour to check out an even closer bumbun so we knew what to expect and enjoyed a peaceful few minutes looking out over a swamp at the birds and butterflies playing nearby. Just listening to the sounds of the rainforest in the day was great and I found myself wishing that I knew more about nature so I could identify what I was seeing and hearing. It did make us look forwward to our overnight stay where we might get to see and hear even more interesting animals.

We bumped into a couple who had been trekking on their own for several days on the boat and they told us a little about their experiences of camping both with a tent and in the bumbuns. They'd seen a bear, come face-to-face with several scorpions and face-to-leg with a few leeches too so it sounded like we were going to have some fun.

Back in the village we looked into hiring bigger backpacks and 'mattresses' (sleeping mats) but most of the decent ones had already been taken for the longer treks and so we decided to see how much we could cram into our daypacks and try to make do. Given how much water I drink, the biggest concern was water rather than food and so the negotiations of how much water we needed began.

The evening was spent chilling out, resting my blisters and trying to hydrate as best we could so that I didn't get any more stupid headaches.

1st August - Taman Negara

We tried to return to Nusa for breakfast but, in a pattern that was set to continue for the rest of our stay, it was closed whenever we wanted to eat. Instead we ate at the place next the the minimart, stocked up on snacks for our trek and went to the office to get the permits needed for ourselves and our camera to enter the forest.

We crossed river by boat and visited the office there in the hope that we could get more information on where to actually go walking for the day. The guy there was slightly more helpful and pointed out a route that didn't need a guide.

We'd read that most of the forest had walkways but it turned out that most of them were in the process of being re-layed and so the walk was a lot more authentic, and a lot harder, than we'd anticipated.

Our first stop was the canopy walkway. Someone had graffitied a sign to it saying that it was partially closed and 'not worth it' but we headed there anyway. It was indeed only half open but we went on it anyway and it was good fun. It was very high up in places and quite difficult to walk along as it swayed an awful lot but it still felt safe. We weren't sure where to walk when we got to the other side so we returned to the starting point where we'd seen a sign for Bukit Teresak where we wanted to go. We were told off by the guy when we got back but since he had no choice but to either let us walk along it again or to let us get off, we were allowed to continue.

Walking up Bukit (which means 'hill') Teresak was a bit of a challange in places. It was only a couple of KMs all the way up and back dwn again but much of it meant tackling tree roots, fallen trees and slippery slopes that required the use of ropes so it was good fun.

We didn't take many pictures because, as great as it is to walk through what is allegedly the old rainforest in the world, on camera it just looks like trees. We did get a few snaps of more interesting looking trees and a few of the creepy-crawlies that we saw but nothing more exciting than that.

We returned very hungry but were too gross to go straight for food so we headed back to our multi-coloured room for a much-needed shower before heading down to the floating restaurants. We were a little earlier than the night before and so managed to get a table at 'Families', which had been packed the night before. The food was ok but not as good as Nusa so we weren't sure what all the fuss was about.