Malaysia Bound

We travelled first class from Singapore - wanted to slum it a bit but first class was all that was left, shame.

We had to stop at a small town called Gemas for about 8 hours. This town had nothing, apart from a restaurant. Our train was at midnight and the restaurant was open til midnight - perfect. You can guess what we spent our time doing. Eating and drinking, this time the drinking involved alcohol. For the first time on our trip we had more than 3 beers each in a night (In Varkala we were lightweights). Even better was that when we left this Austrian dude, who had had more beer than Rella and I put together, much more, decided to pay our bill for the evening. He was working nearby as an engineer, so had more money than us. We gladly accepted and ran!

We then boarded our train heading North to Paradise, again first class darling. It arrived at about 11am after a good nights sleep. We took a taxi boat to the Perhentian Islands. We chose the little island (Kecil). A jungle island fringed with white sandy bays greeted us, and that was about it. Most of the island was closed as the monsoons were coming.

We got our hut right on the beach, and settled into five days of sunbathing, scuba diving, snorlkelling and surfing - gert lush twas.

Diving we saw a turtle, a shark, lots of big puffer fish and Rella's favourite Nemo. When you swim right up to them they come out of their anenomie to 'attack you'.

Heading off to the West Coast of Malaysia today ( in 8 hours) and are stuck in nothingsville hence the mass of Blogs today. Keep reading there is more below!!!

Photos to follow - this internet cafe sucks. XXxxXXxx

Singapore Slingin'

We arrived in Singapore at about 6am. The first thing that we noticed was how clean it was and how quiet everything seemed. We had booked hostel dorm beds (really slumming it now!) in the centre. To get there we took the MRT (tube). Air con on platform and in train, clean and really efficient - take note Mr Livingston(e)!?

Once we dumped our bags we headed off for some sight seeing - serious sight seeing. First stop was the Arab quarter, no one wanted to buy Rella for any camels so we moved to the Esplanade theatre, which looks a bit like armadillos mating.

Next we took a bumboat river cruise to see central business district and other sights (including the Merlion) from a fish eye view. It was then on to China town and some dodgy fodder, didn't fancy the frog porridge though - wonder if it came with honey?

The day concluded (after a quick nap) with a singapore sling and freeish monkey nuts in the Long Bar of the famous Raffles Hotel.

The following day we went to the Shangri La hotel for Breakfast - we were too late, still that saved us about $50+ dollars and an inch or two on the hips. So we headed off to the botanical gardens where we saw turtles in the lake and the most amazing orchid garden.

During the afternoon we visited Sentosa Island. It is a kind of resort / theme park off the southern tip of Singapore. Here we went to the aquarium, and watched a dolphin show, where, after it had finished we got to pet one of the (PINK) dolphins in the water.

Tired and broke we wandered across the fake beaches and stumbled across the most comfortable flip flops ever - Crocs, they rule (RIP Steve Irwin). Rella had been wearing her 75p flip flops since Mumbai, the blisters were not too pretty, and my feet were killing me. You bounce with these babies.

With the credit card back in the money belt we took a cable car back to Singapore, and collapsed in a steam boat cafe where we cooked ourselves mountains of fresh tiger prawns, crab claws, 'meat', and veggies for just shy of a fiver each.

Day 3 we were off to Malaysia by train.

One thing we haven't mentioned is how expensive we found Singapore from India. It was worlds apart. I loved India, but also really enjoyed Singapore - another must visit place, but don't forget your credit card!

10 Reasons to Visit India

In no particular order:

1. Food! Masala Dosa for Brekkie, Paneer Butter Masala for Lunch, Blue Marlin Keralan Style for Dinner, and a couple of Thalis inbetween.

2. Side partings, moustaches, tight jeans and dodgy checked shirts; the pre requisites for being an adonis in India.

3. Religion. It is everywhere to celebrate and be the reason behind everything, plus a God is always found as a flashing dashboard accessory.

4. Being able to pick your nose, fart and burp, plus eat with your hands (or all 4 at once) in public without being considered inpolite or rude.

5. The infamous Indian Headwiggle. It can mean pretty much anything and nothing and is widely used when greeting, purchasing, selling and saying goodbye, a little headwiggle gets you a long way in India.

6. Spending less than 10 quid a day (between us) and feeling like you have done things to excess.

7. Cows, they're everywhere, from roads to beaches. Needless to say a cow charm (and it's a boy!) has been added to Rella's bracelet.

8. Decoration and Colour. Everywhere and everything is colourful, flowers, saris and even the lorries.

9. Sunsets on beaches, in the desert and through the jungle.

10. Smiling. You can smile at anyone and have it returned tenfold, especially if you throw in a little head wiggle into the bargain.

India is a place that we will miss and look forward to returning to another day. Well worth the time, effort and money - you should try it sometime.

Varkala

We spent the best part of a week in southern India in a place called Varkala, another spot by the sea. It was very relaxing and we didn't need to do anything other than decide which cliff top restaurant we wanted to eat at or which beach we wanted to visit (the white beach or the black beach).

We spent quite a lot of time at both, but in the end, we preferred the black beach as there were fewer groups of young men trying to get an eyeful of the wanton westerners in their swimsuits. Quite often you would catch these boys/men pretending to use their phone and then turning it to get a picture of women sunbathing. Others were less subtle and just sat there and ogled. Not the most comfortable situation to be in (particularly when you have spent the last month scoffing delcious curry)!

We ended up drinking here and got drunk(ish) for the first time on a trip so far - are you impressed?! The company was good and we spent a lot of time in one particular bar where lots of travellers hung out. Twas good fun.

The place that marked the end of our trip was Trivandrum, here we investigated the town and finally (much persuasion needed) saw a 'Bollywood' film (he enjoyed it!) We are not sure of the plot completely but Ed describes it as this;

"Fat bloke, jilts fatter bird at the altar. Gangsters fight and then dance randomly. Fat bloke meets fit girl starts living with their family. Fat bird and her family hunt fat bloke down. Fit bird family disown fat bloke for not mentioning jilting fat bird. Fat bloke's mate gets it on with fat bird. Fit bird's dad forgives fat bloke and all ends happily - of course all was in Hindi, so maybe a bit wrong plus it was really, really loud. I wrapped up bog roll to stuff in my ears as ear plugs."

A great end to our India trip, plus we finally got to see a Tiger - shame it was in a zoo!

Tigers, Elephants and Caterpillars

Fresh, steaming clues...surely it can't be far away

After a 5am wake up call, we headed by jeep into the jungle, on the promise of tigers, elephants and leopards. As we stood in the back of the open top jeep ( Ed complete with Indiana Jones hat) we felt the excitment as we spotted clues left by animals living nearby. TWO hours later, we had only seen a couple of black dots that we were assured were monkeys, a giant squirrel and a couple of pretty butterflies.

After breakfast we set off into the jungle on foot, hoping that we might see a few resting wild cats or a couple of wandering elephants. Only a few moments into the walk, we started to wonder if we actually wanted to see anything wild, as our guide was armed only with flip flops and his trusty umbrella. We didn't need to worry, TWO further hours later we had seen nothing but a couple of colourful caterpillars and a number of leeches trying to get into our shoes, up our trousers, down our jackets. ONE hour later we saw the trees move as a monkey leapt away from us (we didn't see the monkey). After the trek was over I removed my rain coat. The leech count is now Ed - 1 Rella - 4. It was not nice!!!!

A number of hours later, after a boat ride (still no animals), another jeep ride and finally there was a sighting - far away, you could hardly see it, but it was an elephant. Thank god for that!

Bus Ride to the National Park

It was only about 4 hours from Munnar to Kumily, and this was without a doubt one of the funniest experiences in India to date. In India, women are supposed / tend to sit at the front of the bus, whilst the men sit at the back. Showing our ignorance to this subtle 'rule' we both perched our bums right towards the front of the bus.

Our journey commenced at about midday, and by 3:30 it was of course the end of the school day. I had already given up my seat on the bus to a young lady, probably coming from university, much to her and her friends suprise and amusement. Then the kids got on. The bus was fully seated with about 10 sweaty pitted girls standing, when at least 50 kids get on. I am standing at the front, wearing my prized camel hat, and some how they all squeeze on to the bus, ankle biters all around me, only girl ankle biters (all the boys are, of course at the back of the bus). It was a squeeze and a half especially when the driver slams on the brakes (a regular occurrance) and I get every female ankle biter launching into me at great speed. As an aside an elderly women missing most of her bottom front teeth was vomming, what looked like aloo masala (potato curry) all down the side of the bus. Funniest vomit point was just as the bus pulled away from dropping some passengers off - they might have got a hair wash!!

Leeches and Tea

Blooming Flower Location

We arrived in Munnar a rich tea hill station on the edge of the Kerala / Tamil Nadu border, after a bumpy 5 hour bus journey. The people here are extremely friendly, if not a little bizzare. I don't know what went into the tea up here, but we had a fair fiew cups to get in the spirit.

A couple of hours after we arrived we were checking out the town, and a tuk tuk comes past beeping its horn, and with a wave a voice comes out, hey Ed - it was out driver from earlier, but it was a surreal moment.

Next day we went on a tour to see a flower that only blooms once every 12 years, and the flower was blooming, as I went to create a piece of Knight Art with the camera, I must have inadvertantly picked up a leech.

The Blooming Flower

I only found out in the mini bus later, when I saw blood oozing through my trousers. The trousers are the zippable ones you can make into shorts, which I did to reduce the blood staining on my only pair of trousers!

However taking the bottoms off, I noticed a trail of blood heading North and my thoughts turned to Oh boy, I hope he hasn't latched onto the old fella!!! 1 rupee later and I visited the toilet - all was good, thank god!

P.S. Check out the tash on this dude - he made a cracking cuppa chai for us!

The Indian Einstein of Mumbai (formerly Bombay)

OK so there we were checking out a bit of Bollywood magic at the cinema just up the road from our hotel. It was all Hindi so I wasn't tempted by a couple of hours of whining singing and screwing in lightbulb dancing (have you seen these dudes in action!!).

So we stepped outside and were confronted by an elderly gent looking similar to the chap below...

He wanted to speak English with us and asked if we could sit with him to have a beer. We offered him a beer and off we went. Well, he was nuts, completely crackers. Apparently he was a law lecturer at the Mumbai University but was sacked a couple of months ago. It became apparent quite quickly why - he did and said everything in 3s or 5s and became quite aggressive if you interrupted him or refused more beer!!

After an hour we made our departure and promised to meet him the next evening again. Oh and by the way he didn't like cricket. He, and I quote:

"I spit cricket, I piss cricket, I shit cricket... I spit cricket, I piss cricket, I shit cricket... I spit cricket, I piss cricket, I shit cricket". He did too literally spit little bits of peanut, beer and cucumber all over the place!!

So next day and Rella decides that she is unwell, so muggins here goes it alone - oh boy. Another hour later I left the same bar, with the waiters doubled over laughing much as they were the night before and me wiping bits of peanut from my face and arm... "I spit cricket......"

On our first day in Goa we were talking to a German couple and telling them the story. A few days earlier they had heard the same story from an Argentinian couple! I wonder how many other tourists he has nabbed and scrounged a few beers off since then?!

Our favourite picture so far... this is the Ganges at dawn - what you can't see are the million and one tourists all clicking madly behind us!

We have tried for hours (yes it's still raining) to add further pictures to our Blog, after a few the computer gave up and will only allow us to add as we create new posts - oh joy! If you have the time, inclination or curiosity to have a look at our snaps we have saved rather low quality snaps (in no particular order to shutterfly, try the link below;

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Acs3DRozas2LiI

or you can wait for the epic photo show on our return!

Goan Sunshine!

Once the rain had stopped...

Well we've finally arrived on a beach, and for the last couple of days we've been soaking up.... THE RAIN!!

It's been twatting it down. The monsoon, which should have passed has been hanging around to say hello, and boy does it say it loudly!!

This morning we were awoken by the thunder, lightening, and in particular a power surge to our room which caused the light to turn on for an instant.

Today hasn't been too bad, it didn't rain after 10am, and we have been body boarding in the surf left over by the monsoon. Still it could be worse - we could be at work! Guessing we won't be getting much sympathy from you guys.

Have a look lower down to see our first published picture on the Blog... More coming soon...