A day at the zoos

Today I had the privilege of visiting three animal parks in Singapore.

To get to the zoos from Chinatown I had to catch the MRT to Ang Mo Kio town, then transfer to the 138 bus which takes you to the zoo. It was pretty easy, but took about one hour each way. I did the exact same thing in reverse on the way home.

After spending several weeks emailing Singapore Zoos trying to find out how to book for the jungle breakfast (better known as breakfast with the orang-utans), all my emails bounced back. I have been unable to call the zoo since arriving in Singapore, as I refuse to buy a very expensive sim card for my phone just for three days here. So I decided to just walk up to the zoo this morning and see if I could get in. 

And thankfully I was very fortunate. $29 SGD later I was enjoying a buffet breakfast, commentary from the various animal keepers for the animals who attended our breakfast, and I had my photo taken withorang-utans  who were less than 4 inches from my back. We were obviously not to touch them, but they were allowed to touch us and at one point I did feel a tap of an orang-utan hand on my shoulder. Awwwww!!!!  The breakfast itself was pretty ordinarily, of a similar standard to what I would expect in this part of Asia. But at the end of the day, who gives a toss because I had breakfast with orang-utans!

After breakfast I rode the zoo tram around the whole trip one time just to get my bearings and to figure out what animals I wanted to see. It turned out to be pretty much all of them, the enclosures here are fantastic - you are literally just feet away from animals. There are, of course, electric fences in place to keep the animals and humans apart, but they are very discreet. 

The absolute highlights of the Zoo visit for me was the orang-utans, followed by the elephant ride. It was pretty expensive at $8 for about a five minute walk around a very short circuit, but for the novelty factor it was awesome. At least I could go home now safe in the knowledge that these elephants are not being mistreated, as they are in other parts of Asia where similar activities are offered.

There are lots of things to see and do at the Singapore Zoo. I bought a park hopper ticket, which gave me three parks for $69 Including unlimited rides on the zoo tram. You get lots of animals, a lot of space to walk around, lots of shade, places to sit down and a variety of food outlets. It is definitely the best Zoo that I have visited and was well worth the six years wait!

After a quick lunch at one of the food outlets, it was off to the River Safari. This park has only opened recently and very disappointingly the whole of the Amazon section was closed. It would have been nice if they could have mentioned this on the website, considering the amount of money paid for tickets. Apparently tickets are discounted by $10 to make up for this, but apart from a few fish, beavers and some manatees there is only the giant Pandas to look at in this park. 

Personally I think it is a complete waste of time and money to visit this park before they sort out opening the Amazon section. Don't get me wrong, the Pandas are fantastic and I did really enjoy watching them, but seriously, why open a park if it is only half available for the public to visit? Get your shizzle together!

By this stage in the day it was only about 2:30 PM and I had almost five hours until the Night Safari park opened. I decided to catch the bus back to Ang Mo Kio town and visit the mall next to the bus station. There wasn't much there, so I spent most of my time using the free Wi-Fi to upload some photos on Facebook and check my emails. I took the bus back to the zoo, arriving just before 6 PM. I figured it would be good to have dinner and watch the fire show before the Night Safari officially opened. The fire show was entertaining, but to be quite frank I saw a much better one in Borneo three 

years ago. The food at the Night Safari is totally overpriced and is pretty crap too. I would suggest you eat before you arrive.

The Night Safari itself is fantastic. I elected to let the maddening hordes of people ride the trams first, 

while I walked the three walking trials. I do have to say that the golden leopards completely freaked me 

out, they keept jumping at the glass and the enclosure netting and it was very freaky in the dark. After walking the three trails (naturally I avoided all bats and flying squirrels, stuff them for a joke!), I jumped on the tram and did the circuit. 

This morning I got talking to a lady from outback Queensland while we were in the queue waiting for our photos to be taken messy orangutans. She told me they had done the night Safari the previous 

evening, and had the most hysterical guy in the train doing the commentary. The second I got on my tram and the commentary guy started talking, I knew it was him. Imagine Borat talking in a high-pitched yappy Singlish accent, with a twist of Richard Simmons thrown in for entertainment value. Priceless!

After the tram ride it was time for the creatures of the night show. This was highly entertaining, it featured otters recycling. Yes, you read correctly. Three or four otters came out and have obviously been very highly trained as they were able to recycle aluminium cans, plastic bottles, and paper cups. It was totally cute. 

At one stage they allegedly had a lost animal - it was "on the loose" (Maggie, some sort of snake, I 

believe she may have been a python). They then "found" Maggie and asked for a Macho man from the audience to come up and help them. They dragged some poor Japanese man up on stage, put the python around his shoulders, made him pose and then switched off the lights and ran away for a couple of minutes. It was absolutely hysterical, the guy was absolutely crapping himself.

The show ended, and I had done what I had come to do, so it was time to catch the bus and train back to the hotel.

It is hard to accurately describe the awesome experience that is the night Safari. If you are in Singapore 

you absolutely must do it.

Back to Malaysia tomorrow, so time to go and pack!

Tuesday bus tantrums

After eating god only knows what for breakfast at Clark Quay today, I decided it was time to do the river cruise. The key difference between the one I did in 2007 and the one that I did today was the fact that in the bum boats have been cleaned up and are now eco-friendly electric boats, not the stinking diesel fumes and cassette tape player commentary that I experienced in 2007, which I was of course expecting to have experienced again today. A bit said really, clearly the greenies and hippies have taken over.

After some more bus dramas which I didn't mention yesterday, namely one of the hop on hop off  buses apparently starts and ends at the flyer, where you may have about a one hour wait until the next bus leaves. Would be nice if they mentioned that somewhere before you get stuck here. However, I was able to catch another line bus over to the orchid gardens. I didn't bother wasting my time with the botanic gardens - been there, done that.

The orchid gardens are still fantastic. It was an extremely hot day and I was sweating like crazy, however there were lots of shady areas and a few new bits and pieces added to the orchid gardens that were not there six years ago. Yes, I did take about another 500 photos of orchids! My entrance fee was included as part of my Singapore pass.

I decided to forgo lunch st the overpriced cafes inside the gardens and walked abiut minutes to have lunch at the food court nearby. Yes, more roasted pork rice and iced lemon tea. I know it is a little boring to keep eating the same thing all the time, but when you have the dietary dramas that I do, it is sometimes the safest option. Who needs to be sick every single day?

Back to Suntec on the bus for a little more light shopping. I went back to the dress shop that I saw yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to be able to find dresses priced two for $10 up to $10 each. $20 later I had four dresses in a size medium. OMG, they are awesome. One of them is absolutely beautiful, I may be wearing it to a friends wedding in the next few months!

More stupid Singapore Flyer arriving bus drama later, I'd had enough and elected to catch a cab back to Chinatown. I visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, arriving in time for prayers. I then caught the
MRT to Paya Lebar station and visited the Geylang Serai night bazaar, nothing much has changed there!

The first time I came to Singapore, I stayed in this area and was delighted by this night market for Ramadan. Watching people buying food for the dinner after breaking fast is really interesting to watch. I was also privileged enough to enjoy a very beautiful sunset. It was the first decent one I have ever seen in Singapore, mostly because I have only ever been here in October. I think the smoke haze from the recent fires definitely added to the beauty of the sunset. I have been very fortunate in that I have enjoyed mostly sunny weather and blue skies this time around, which is a big contrast from the first time I came here and it was overcast for three weeks straight!

After a complete waste of time MRT ride to Tanjong Pagar where I found that the juice bar that I had a group on four was unexpectedly closed, it was back to Chinatown for dinner, a Durian Crunch McFlurry and I bought a few more dresses. Yes, I did say Durian. I actually quite like Durian, even after the initial smell of dirty socks and first taste of dirty socks, it is actually very nice!

So, here I am back in my hotel. I am very excited that tomorrow I will get to have breakfast with orangutans, and finally visit Singapore zoo and Night Safari, as well as the newly opened river safari. It will be a very long day and I expect at some point I will need to bunk off to a shopping mall, but it should be awesome.

Monday - with a quack quack here

It's Monday night, which means I have been back in Singapore for about 36 hours. It's not been all milk and honey this time around.

So far I am finding Singapore to be 50/50. The MRT is still pretty awesome, althoh there's some damn long walks between lines and platforms in the same station. Food is pretty awesome. Trying to find free Wi-Fi around the city is nigh on impossible. On top of that inconvenience, people are rude, pushy, intolerant, sarcastic, have no idea of customer service, are arrogant and unhelpful on the whole.

I had to go to Suntec this morning to pickup my Singapore Pass, which gives me a Singapore Flyer ride, River Cruise, two days off on hop off bus transport, a duck tour in a Vietnam war amphibious vehicle, and a pile of Museum tickets. I arrived at Suntec at about 8:30 AM having taken two trains on two different lines with a big ass walk in between platforms from my hotel.

I found pretty much everything that had been so popular six years ago at Sunctec no longer existed, including the food court which was the biggest one there. Closed for redevelopment they say. Vendors  in the Asian Hawker Stalls nearby told me the food court has been closed for redevelopment far longer than it was supposed to have been and they are rapidly losing business.

Try and find anything for breakfast was an absolute nightmare. I found a bag of melon slices, some toast and an iced coffee. Try and find brown bread in this part of Asia. Go on, I dare you! It's pretty available in Malaysia but Singaporeans clearly like their blood sugar on roller coasters. Trying to find FODMAP-friendly food in general on this trip has been a challenge and there have been days when I've
been really crook either within hours of eating (total FODMAP overload) or the next day (Metformin and FODMAP conspiracy) but that's all part of the fun of travel.

After one of the strangest breakfasts I've ever had, it was back upstairs to the Duck tours counter to pick up my pass. I had a swag of paper receipts stapled to a timetable for the HIPPO (hop on, hop off) buses and promptly went for a walk around Suntec as I had about 45 mins to kill. There were a couple of sporting goods stores on sale but even with their sale prices they were way more expensive than home. Guess I'll stick to buying my gear in Malaysia or Aussie then!

It also suddenly dawned on me that I probably didn't have enough cash for the day, so i went in search of Wi-Fi so that I could log into Internet banking on my iPhone and transfer some money to my TravelCard. Do you think I could find any Wi-Fi? I walked around and around and around Suntec, even in the IT mall level of Suntec there was no free Wi-Fi. I finally found it outside Giordano clothing store. It was too slow for description but it served the purpose.

The DUCK tour was pretty good. The commentary was in very amusing Singlish from a nice young chap. Basically you jump on board a Vietnam war amphibious vehicle, which is essentially a truck that turns into a boat. It was actually pretty cool, The one that I was on was used to transport ammo during the Vietnam war for the US Army. I wasn't really happy with the fact that I was on a vehicle that had assisted in killing thousands of people, but they did point out it had been chock-full of thousands of bulletholes, taken to Singapore, completely revamped, entered service as a tourist vehicle and was now doing virtuous activities for the good of people. That did cheer me up a bit

We drove down the road a bit then it was splashdown time! We went down the Singapore River around Marina Bay where we got a pretty good view of most of the awesome landmarks and a very entertaining running commentary. Then we got back on dry land, drove around the city a bit more and then returned to Suntec.

By this stage I was getting very grumpy and felt like Kung Fu fighting everybody in sight. It was clearly time to check my blood sugar, seeing as how I haven't had a fantastic breakfast. I tested and found that it was under three, so it was time for an emergency Pepsi mission. The only place I could find postmix Pepsi was at KFC - nothing else was open and so I smashed down a Pepsi with a mashed potato and then 15 minutes later when i was back up in good blood sugar level land, I had a piece of chicken. At least it would tide me over until I found some decent food.

Then it was time to walk off the sugar so I hit the shops. I did manage to see a couple of places that would be good to return to, then remembered that I only had 48 hours of bus time, so best I go and do something. Seeing as how the brief rainshower that slightly soaked us on the duck tour was gone and the sky was clearing, I decided it was time to ride the Singapore Flyer.

The Singapore Flyer is 165m - 5m higher than the London eye. I caught the Hippo bus to the flyer. I exchanged my voucher for a ticket, and boarded a cabin with about ten German people. The flyer ride was awesome, it takes about 30 minutes to do the complete circuit and the views are just incredible. Sadly there was still a bit of smoke haze around from the fires in Indonesia, so we weren't able to see the Indonesian islands. I bought a magnet in the souvenir shop and had an iced coffee.

Next it was back on the bus and over to Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay. As I was very short on time, I elected to pay the $2 SGD fee to ride the tram shuttle over to the domes at Gardens by the Bay. Unfortunately the flower dome was closed on the day of my visit, and I did not have time to return the next day when it would be open. As a result it only cost me $14 to visit the cloud dome. The domes themselves are beautiful and definitely well worth a visit. There were lots of interesting flowers and
plants to look at. Plus, they are also air conditioned - LOL.

I jumped back on the bus to Funan IT Mall and a couple of other random malls that really weren't worth my time, then I caught the bus to Tanglin Mall. Imagine my delight at finding a Brunetti cafe here. I had a coffee, used the free Wi-Fi, had a snack and then decided it was time to venture down to Orchard Road. It was time for "shopping lite" - i.e. one top and some groceries. I stupidly checked my emails and as a result "last bus missed dealing with work emails". Not happy Jan!

I caught the MRT back to Chinatown where I purchased lots of souvenirs, a few dresses, cushion covers and some slippers. Well, okay, three pairs of Chinese brocade slippers. LOL. I walked around the corner to the hotel, we I dumped my bags before returning toThousand Taste hawker food centre for roasted pork rice for dinner. I love the fact that I can walk three minutes from my hotel and be surrounded by about 50 different hawker stalls!

So that was Monday. I did have a very structured and highly planned itinerary for this trip, but as per usual I am winging it each day as I wake up. Obviously there are some things that I cannot avoid, like plane rides and train trips and needing to be certain places at session times, but sometimes it is good to just take the minimum amount of stuff with you, walk out the hotel door and see where the road takes you!

Can...or not. JB to Singapore, Universal Studios and Adventure Cove Water Park wrap up

Today it was early rise and shine time once again, only this time I was doing the border crossing from Malaysia to Singapore via Woodlands.

For those unaccustomed to border crossings from Malaysia to Singapore by bus, it's a bit of a non-event. I boarded my shuttle at Tune Hotel Danga Bay in Johor Bahru. We were taken to the CIQ (Malaysian checkpoint) where we all got off the bus, went through immigration and customs, had our passports stamped to say we'd left Malaysia and got back on the bus.

We drove over the bridge to Singapore Woodlands Checkpoint, where we got off the bus with our luggage (well, okay, I got off the bus with my luggage), went through Singapore immigration and customs, had my luggage scanned, my passport and entry/exit card stamped and then got back on the bus. In true Singaporean style, the border crossing was quick and efficient.

Some 30 minutes later we arrived at Resorts World Sentosa. I looked around for a locker but even the ones that were SGD $30 per day were too small for my suitcase, so I had some breakfast and got a SGD $10.80 taxi to Backpackers Inn Chinatown (a hostel and guest house set up in an old Chinese shop house in the heart of Chinatown). Custom here says that the taller the shop house, the more money the original owner had. This is three stories high so I'm guessing the dude was loaded back in the day.

I dumped my suitcase with the boys at the hostel and set off for Chinatown MRT station. I bought an ez-link card for SGD $12 and whacked another $10 on it, figuring that would get me around as needed for the next few days. I then caught the MRT to Harbour Front station at Vivo City Mall, and used my ezlink card to pay for my SGD $4 monorail and island admission back to Sentosa.

First stop on Sentosa was Universal Studios not long after opening time at 10:15am. I hadn't yet bought the express pass as it's SGD $50  and I figured I'd see how I went. After learning wait times were up to 75 mins on some rides I thought "stuff it, I want a good time not a long time" so I coughed up the SGD $50 for the one-ride-only version and stashed my stuff in a very expensive locker (SGD $4 per hour).

Be careful, the lockers don't give you change and will often eat your money!

Second stop was the Jurassic Park ride. This was after the first stop involving a quick bash through the boring and clearly aimed at kids Madagascar Crate Ride. The Jurassic Park rapids ride was actually pretty fun and yes, you get drenched. I then hit the roller coasters - Revenge of the Mummy (most of it is in the dark and it was pretty good), the Canopy Flyer (wicked) and Transformers 3D (aweome). Sadly the others were broken and closed for the day so no going upside down 5x for me!

After a quick walk through New York and Hollywood, I hit the Enchanted Airways baby roller coaster and then it was off for photos with Optimus Prime, Beeteljuice, Sesame Street characters and Kung Fu Panda. I took a few photos of the walk of fame stars and that was that. All done.

In summary, Universal Studios Singapore is a boring as bat poo park with very few rides and it's really expensive. Save your $74-$79 and don't bother - it worked out at about $12 per ride, so not worth it. Go to Legoland or Adventure Cove Water Park instead.

I then had lunch at Ruyi. I was enjoying my rice and pork when some dude and his wife decided to stand right in front of my table and stare at me while I was eating. They clearly wanted my table but had no manners and didn't feel like asking how long I'd be. So, I started eating my lunch at a rate of about six grains of rice at a time and started right back at him. After about 20 forkfulls Mr Eye Problem got the hint and turned around. I kept eating slower than a wet week because quite frankly, he was being a twit. Eventually another table freed up and he moved on. As soon as they sat down, I wolfed the rest of my lunch and bolted. Idiot awaiting table pounce like cat so I slow down lah. Annaliese 1, rude couple 0.

Adventure Cove Water Park is awesome. My tip is to get here early if you're going to go, so that you're not taken out by feral children and feral German tourists on the water slides and the Adventure River. A good way to just cruise along in a tube and wait for your lunch to go down is on Adventure River. It's a long, long river that you can just float along and enjoy the sights. At one point you go through a tunnel with fish overhead, it's pretty cool. The Bluwater Bay wave pool is pretty awesome too but be warned, you may get sucked into the deep end corner and it gets a little frisky over there. I had a chill out at the lookout area where there are giant bean bags you can relax on.

After an ice cream, it was into the long, long monorail (Sentosa Express) queue for a ride to Palawan Beach. Things have changed immeasurably on Sentosa and Palawan is not the same. All the food court is closed for redevelopment and you can't get a patch of sand at Palawan beach now to save yourself.

Next stop was Go Green Segway Adventures, where I had two Segway Fun rides. Believe me, they were fun! I had to safety up with elbow and knee pads plus a helmet, then graduate from a short training session before I was let loose on the fun ride course. There was a girl in front of me who clearly didn't pay any attention and twice drove her Segway into the bushes. There's always one! After my rides I spied a cute little black and white kitten who gave me cuddles then fell asleep in my arms. I miss the cat now. Darn it.

I walked over to Tanjong beach, which is now a total joke. The Tanjong Beach Club has been built and taken over that beach too. Six years ago, I was the only one swimming there. Now, I was the only one not drunk or playing beach volleyball. I guess you really can't stop progress. I sat there dumbfounded, disappointed and a bit depressed.

After the shock of Tanjong, I rode the beach tram back to Beach Station and caught the free shuttle bus which runs from 6-9pm from Friday to Sunday, the the lobby of Vivo City Mall. I caught the MRT back to Chinatown and found a great little hawker food centre called Thousand Taste where they do a mean roasted pork noodles for SGD $3 with soup. Sitting down at the table, I was soon joined by a couple from Chelsea (Melbourne). Small world!

After dinner I headed back to the hostel where for the first time in ten days I didn't have to do my laundry in the bathroom sink. There's a pretty good and fairly quick washing machine here, so I updated the blog, finished a movie, hung up the laundry and now, having seen geckos in the bathroom, I will be going to sleep with the sheet up to my neck.

I've had no mobile internet all day, so it is nice to be back online with free unlimited WiFi.

More tomorrow - the plan was to do the duck tour and the hop on, hop off buses - so we'll see.

Legoland, where lifelong dreams come true

OMG - today was the single best day of my entire life. I finally got to cross a big ticket item off my 100 Things List and I got to go to Legoland!  It was the best day of fun I've had in a really long time. I give it 10/10. Here's the 411:

I was in the hotel lobby at 9am to wait for the shuttle to Legland. It cost me just RM15 return and would easily be RM50-80 in taxis. Book the shuttle through the hotel!

Legoland Malaysia is awesome. Lots of rollercoasters, a log flume, miniatures of famous Asian buildings and landmarks made of Lego, a whole academy where you can play with Lego, a Lego brick shop...amazeballs!

I started with the miniature landmarks and then hit the log flume twice, where I was absolutely drenched. RM10 later spent in the drying pod and I was drip dry status. Next stop were the roller coasters - the Dragon one, the Dragon's apprentice one and the Technics one. They were awesome. I rode the Dragon one three times, the Dragon's apprentice one twice and the Technics one three times. I also went on some of the kiddie rides because they were there and I could. Plus, I rode the train around the park once too.

Around the park are staff members who are delighted to take photos of you. I had my photo taken on the log flume and bought it - RM30 later...I now know not to do that at every ride and it should be good pratice to avoid doing this tomorrow at Universal Studios in Singapore. Legoland sure empties your pockets - food and drink is very expensive and word to the wise, don't buy your Lego sets at Legoland. I saw the same set I bought at the park, on sale in Singapore for $10 AUD less than what I paid for it. Ugh!

Best advice I can give you is eat breakfast before you go to Legoland. A good, big breakfast. Get everything done (get on all the good rides EARLY) then when you are done head back through into Mall of Medini and have lunch or dinner there. Don't have it at the park. The signs at the entrance also say no outside food or drink but I wasn't checked. I am diabetic though and need to eat and drink regularly, so if I had been accosted I would have been fine!

I got everything done in about five hours. I then caught a taxi to Jusco Aeon Mall at Bukit Indah where a friend told me there were suitcases meeting my rigid specifications on sale. My specs? 4WD, Purple, internal zips (i.e. the kind you can't pop open with a ballpoint pen, check out the videos on YouTube!), hard shell, large. Finally found one for RM260 which worked out at $91 AUD. It's a very large case and would have cost me at least $250 AUD if I'd bought it back home so I'm well stoked!

It was RM25 in an executive taxi to the mall using the meter, but only RM20 back to Legoland in a normal taxi without a meter running. The return taxi driver thought he was ripping me off...more fool him!

I arrived back at Mall of Medini just in time for the shuttle van back to the hotel. I dumped my bag and headed back to the Delizio pizza joint for dinner where I had grilled chicken in black pepper sauce with coleslaw (didn't eat that) and wedges again. Awesome and only RM14 (about $5 AUD).

Have to pack now for Singapore so will upload the photos when I get there!  Or just check on Facebook...lah!

Hello Johor Bahru - we meet again!

It was my last day in Kuching today and surprisingly I had run out of cheap things to do within my limited timeframe. I really do wish I'd had more time here but that's life - besides, I can always come back!

This morning I had my breakfast at Riverside Majestic then checked out of my room and left my bags at the hotel. A Kangaroo keyring gift to the front desk guy meant I didn't have to pay RM2 per bag to store them (how nice!) so I was then on my way to a 1.5hr pamper package booked at Ratu Aspari beauty therapy in Kuching. It was a foot spa, back massage and back scrub. I took a taxi over and enjoyed every second of the treatement with these delightful ladies.

I had a walk around a nearby mall trying to find a decent suitcase after my treatement but couldn't find anything satisfactory, so decided to give up and try in Johor Bahru (JB) instead.

It was getting close to the time I needed to head back to the hotel and I couldn't find a taxi stand. There were no cabs in sight and Kuching is world renowned for having almost zero public transport. Rather than panic, I decided to start walking back towards town. About ten minutes later, an executive taxi came past so I flagged him down. Cab drama solved - and he used the meter!

Since it was only RM12 back to the hotel, I decided to have him wait while I quickly grabbed my bags, so he could take me to the airport. I'd paid RM26 from the airport to the hotel, and ended up paying RM32 in total from the spa all the way to the airport via the hotel. Awesome.

I did the document check for my flight and then headed to Old Town White Coffee (my new favourite chain) for an iced coffee and a sit down. I had my coffee and a chicken sandwich thing and then headed through to board my flight, with a brief stop for a Kuching magnet at the airport.
old town white coffee


The flight out of Kuching invovled my sitting in stupid aisle seat as I was hoping to grab the Causeway Link shuttle to CIQ then a cab to Tune Hotel Danga Bay in JB. The seat sucked, the flight was really quite bouncy, screaming babies could be heard wailing from the back of the plane and I had one cute and very well-behaved baby making goo goo eyes at me from across the plane aisle.

Once again and as per usual with Air Asia based on my five flights in eight days, the plane left early, took less time than schedule and landed 20 minutes early. Sadly I had internet dramas on arrival and needed to get some cash out from the ATM but couldn't transfer any money until I had internet access. Once I transferred it and yanked it out of the ATM, it was too late for the shuttle. RM44 later I was in a taxi on my way to Tune Hotel Danga Bay.

The taxi driver, a nice young Chinese man, loved me because I'm an Aussie (I've given up on saying I'm a kiwi as it confuses people when I then have to explain I live in Australia) and so is Hugh Jackman. Turns out he has a man crush on Hugh Jackman and he is going to see Wolverine at the movies tonight.

I checked into the hotel and had every piece of info I needed about my Legoland tickets, transfers and bus to Singapore on Sunday provided by the awesome lady at the front desk. The room was fantastic and I'd taken the liberty of ordering TV with my room as I'd read that there wasn't much to do around the hotel. This was right.

For dinner I went for a wander I'd read on Trip Advisor that there's bugger all food around. What a load of crap - there's an Indian restaurant above the hotel lobby, a Fish bazaar across the carpark, a Pizza place two minutes walk from the front door, another Indian restaurant two minutes walk from the pizza place and a 7-Eleven in the hotel complex. Some people are just thick!

I chose the pizza joint and had a beef pepperoni mini pizza for dinner with oven roasted hand cut potato wedges and a drink. It set me back all of RM11, which is about $3.50 AUD! I returned to the hotel via teh 7-Eleven for an ice cream and was unfortunately in time to watch the drivel otherwise known as 2012 the movie.  FYI, it was shit. Don't bother watching it.

This is my second visit to JB and although I'm spending two nights here, I won't get to see much of it as I'm here only for Legoland and maybe a suitcase!  Last time I was here it was chaos - but that was after I'd been in Singapore for three weeks. This time it already seems cleaner, better organised and much less chaotic, but to be fair I've only seen the airport, the inside of a taxi and the hotel. Oh well - first impressions are good!

Must away and get an early night - Legoland tomorrow!

A Sunshiney Thursday in Kuching

I must get better at blogging on a regular basis, as I'm starting to get senile or I'm losing the plot! I can't remember what I've done from one day to the next. Must be too busy having far too much fun!

I needed a quieter day today, having been on the road for a week now and being in my third city. I woke up at stupid o'clock today and rolled back over for a nap. I finally dragged myself out of bed at 8:45am and had a shower before heading to the Riverside Majestic for their international buffet breakfast, courtesy of two Groupons that I bought from Australia - one for today and one for tomorrow. 

The breakfast spread is actually pretty good - they had beef and chicken sausages, waffles, french toast, hash browns, toast, sweet buns, baked beans, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, cereal, juices, fruit, sweets and a variety of Malay stuff that I can't eat. As soon as you walk through the door of the restaurant a pot of coffee appears before you. Love it!

After a hearty breakfast I set off in a taxi to the Cat Museum. It's quite a way out of town - I was thinking of walking as according to google maps it's just under two hours to walk there, but it was already 30 degrees so I sucked up the RM25 taxi ride instead. Entry to the Museum itself is free but if you want to take photos (and you will), it's another RM3-6 depending on whether it's a phone camera, camera camera or video camera. 

There's over 2000 items of cat memorabilia here, so give yourself at least an hour to get around it all. It's definitely worth a trip if you're a cat lover. But word to the wise, perhaps have the taxi driver wait for you as unless you get lucky, it's a long hot wait or a long hot walk back to town! I let mine go so had to google the number for a taxi company, then wait over an hour for them to turn up. Hmph!

Once I got back in the taxi, I had the driver crank the aircon and drop me off at the main taxi stand outside the Riverside Majestic. I went for a walk around the various malls and shops, before discovering there is a marvelous place called Hartz Chicken Buffet in Sarawak Plaza. I decided to come back for dinner and spent the afternoon just wandering around the shops. I was mentally converting the prices of things I found and liked back to AUD and finding that yes, Malaysia is dirt cheap for shoes. Like, stupidly dirt cheap. 

Next stop was the River Cruise. I was going to pay RM60 direct with the operator but spotted a banner in my hotel lobby offering a 50% discount for Tune Hotel guests. I went back to the hotel en route and grabbed the voucher before redeeming it at the boat jetty. Awesome - another $10 AUD I don't have to spend!  The river cruise was just fantastic - we had three cultural performances, orange juice, Kueh Lapis (Sarawak Layer Cake, not found anywhere else in Malaysia) and a stunning sunset to enjoy. My tip? Stay at Tune and pay half price. 

Returning from the River Cruise I went back to Hartz for dinner. Here you will pay RM19.90 (about $7 AUD) for their buffet - which is very good value! The food is pretty good, some is a bit fatty in places but there's plenty of it - fried chicken, grilled chicken, curried chicken, roasted chicken and various accompaniments. After a good dinner, I went for another walk along the river frontage before retiring for an early night and a movie. 

I got back to my room and decided to start the packing stress drama performance once again. This was my third city in a week so I was starting to get a bit over the packing  it to be quite frank. Carry on bags are great for saving time not having to fart around with luggage at multiple airports, but next time remind me to carry on a bag with wheels! I do have the carry on bag thing down to a fine art now, so we have progress!

Tomorrow I'm off to Johor Bahru (JB) in the early afternoon so will post again once I get settled tomorrow night. 

Ciao

Out of Samsara, into Nirvana

I still couldn't sleep after finishing Wayne's World last night so I decided to get this blog up to date and therefore i stayed up all night. Oops.

I had to be at the airport at 5am for my flight to Kuching so I figured I may as well just stay up. I did set six alarms just in case and I got about an hour of power nap in between blogging sessions. Checking out of a Tune Hotel is easy peasy - hand over your key and towel and you're off. 

I did have a great Chinese taxi driver who was asleep in his car with his wife outside the hotel. He did use the meter, however he also spent the entire journey telling me about all the white man countries he's been too. It was very interesting but it was far too early in the morning! All I could really think about was getting my hands on a nice cup of coffee.

I completed the document check for my flight and then went through to the departure lounge. I parked up at the boarding gate for a while and surfed the net, uploaded some more photos and had a quick look on Facebook. 

Once again my Air Asia flight left early, came in ahead of schedule and didn't take as long as anticipated. This was my fourth Flight with Air Asia and they have all done this - left early, taken less than the scheduled flight time to arrive and obviously arrived early at the destination. No other airline I have flown on in living memory has been able to do this.

Having left Samsara behind, we arrived in the Nirvana that is Kuching early. I needed a coffee badly, so I sat at Old Town White Coffee and had an iced white coffee. I then caught a cab to Tune Hotel Waterfront Kuching in Jalan Borneo.

My first impressions of Kuching are that it is very green, lush and pretty. This is from what I could see coming in to land, as well as what I saw on the cab ride from the airport. Lots of green, lots of palm trees, lots of lush prettiness. Quite unlike Melbourne, which is back to being dry and brown and shrivelled again.

Arriving at the Tune Hotel Waterfront Kuching, I was very happy with my second Tune Hotel experience in Malaysia and this hotel certainly did not disappoint. Unlike Penang, there were no armies of nasty little ants marching around. The room had a view of the Hilton Hotel next door and I could make out a tiny glimpse of the river.

Despite what people are saying on Trip Advisor, I have had plenty of space as a solo traveller to move around the room in both Tunes I have stayed in. Sure, trying to do yoga gets a little squishy but you deal with it. Gees, what do people expect for about $10 AUD a night? Cavernous expanses of rooms? Get real!

First stop after dumping my bags was Deli Café Patisserie on the Waterfront esplanade for a slice of strange Hawaiian pizza and iced coffee with grass jelly in it. Yes, another Groupon deal. It was a good snack after my flight and I was starting to get a little peckish. After Deli Café, I walked along the row of shophouses and bought a few small souvineirs, including another beaded bracelet, similar to the green and pearl one that I bought in KK three years ago, except this one is red and white.

I spent a while looking around, bought another Sarong (this time it was red, with a Borneo design on it and made in Borneo) before it was off to Odyssey Spa at the Grand Margherita (via the cat roundabout, which I'll post a photo of once these camera dramas get sorted, probably from Singapore now) for a one hour traditional Borneo massage.

I won't go into the dramas I had with having booked a female masseuse and then rocking up to find a teenage boy (oh HELL no!), but after a word with the hotel manager it was sorted an hour later which gave me time to look around the shopping mall next door.  The massage itself was wonderful. What makes me giggle is that here the masseuse gets up on the table with you! So strange. Mind you, these ladies are tiny so they probably need to do so to get into your knots and tangles! 

I walked back to the hotel and it was check in time. Again, I wasn't disappointed with my room. The bed was of course extremely comfortable, the shower powerful and the aircon cold and breezy. The location is excellent and the staff super friendly and helpful.

I had a two-hour nap to make up for the lack of sleep from last night before waking, updating Facebook, downloading my photos to my iPad and then setting off in search of Tandoori Palace for a North Indian Tandoor Ramadan Buffet dinner. I found it pretty easily with the help of GPS on my iPhone (never travelling without it - awesome dude) and arrived at smack on 6pm. I had a great meal with naan bread, tandoori chicken to die for, a nice bitey butter chicken, rice, veges and a rose flavoured milky drink that was amazing.

I was lining up for seconds (having not had lunch) when two Aussie guys who are originally from Sydney rolled in and asked me to join them. They were an absolute scream - one lives in KL and the other in Texas, so we were comparing notes on everything. After dinner we went our separate ways - them off to enjoy a $1.20 AUD Tiger Beer and me to have a walk up the esplanade before bed to try and get some of the awesome dinner moving through my digestive system.

I met a lovely Malay man at the Night Bazaar down past the square white tower who was selling the Songkot hats worn by Muslim men. He told me all about the history, the different types, about the different heights and it was really interesting. Turns out he's also a taxi driver and gave me his "name card" (as they are called here) for next time I come back to Kuching as he can drive me around - awesome! I now have contacts in Langkawi, Penang and Kuching who are reliable and awesome!

After my walk I went back to the hotel for an early night with a movie. And here I am - utterly exhausted and ready to sleep.

I'm loving Kuching so far and can't wait to go exploring tomorrow.

Goodnight all!

Triathlon shops, Tesco and Tour de Bus

When I planned this trip, I crammed a lot of stuff into the itinerary each day so that I could pick and choose what I wanted to do on any given day. The way I see it, I can always come back to do anything I missed at a later date, unless someone (or trip advisor) told me that activity was totally shit house, in which case I'd be glad I gave it a wide berth.

This morning I had the luxury of a sleep-in. After yesterday's full-on action packed itinerary, I needed a quieter day. Today I hit the triathlon shop in Penang Plaza, only to find it closed. Bugger. So i went to the Giant supermarket downstairs where I was able to buy razors and two pairs of cute socks for RM1 each ($0.34 AUD). Awesome! Then I walked back to New World Park for breakfast at Old Town White Coffee.

I returned to the hotel, dropped off my new socks and walked over to KOMTAR to catch a bus to Queensbay Mall. The sign at KOMTAR said RM3.40, the bus driver only wanted RM2 - after I put my money in the cash slot. Moral of the story? Always ask the bus driver and don't believe everything you read!

One hour later I was getting off the bus at the shopping paradise that is Queensbay Mall. They had a Borders bookstore which in Australia recently met its demise, so that was exciting. I bought myself a journal and some new pens and highlighters for less than half the price of what I'd pay in Mebourne. Double awesome.

After that exciting development, I had a look around the shops. I still cannot eat over how cheap  shoes are here and how comfortable they are. I could have bought 10 or 20 pairs but seeing as how I'm with carry on bags only for a few more days, I fought temptation and won. After another lunch at Kenny Rogers Roasters where I finally had some pasta, I caught a bus to Weld Quay.

For those of you not familiar with Penang, George Town is located on the island Pulau Pinang. From Weld Quay you can take a ferry to Butterworth on the mainland, Peninsular West Malaysia. From Pulau Pinang the ferries take passengers and vehicles to Butterworth. As a passenger, you can ride from George Town to Butterworth free of charge; on the way back it's just RM1.20 (about $0.40 AUD).

There's nothing to do at the ferry terminal in Butterworth, rather it is more of a connecting hub to both local and long-distance buses. If you want to catch a bus to Thailand, Singapore, KL or other Malaysian destinations, you can do so here. You can also take a taxi to the Butterworth train station for a long distance train.

I got off the ferry and decided to go somewhere. being the mainland, there had to be a Megamall somewhere! I noticed on the side of a bus that it went to the Megamall, then Sunway Carnival Mall, then to Tesco. I've never been to a Tesco, so decided to stick out the 1hr bus ride and check it out.

The bus driver was awesome, he took me to Tesco (end of the line) and gave me half an hour to check it out before he would leave. Tesco was great, would have loved a little more time but if I'd had it, I would have bought stuff I didn't need and then would be paying excess baggage!

My little Tesco expedition cost me a whole RM5.20 (about $1.80 AUD) and I got to see quite a lot of Butterworth on the bus ride. I love getting on buses and trains and riding them to the end of the line in any city, just to see where they go. It's a great way to get to know a city and experience life like a local.

On returning to Pulau Pinang I went back to the hotel and headed out for dinner at the bistro in New
World Park. I had a lovely three course meal including drinks for RM25 (about $8.50 AUD). After returning to my room to spend an hour packing my bags, I was really wired and couldn't sleep. I have lots of movies and books on my iPad, so I've watched the rest of  Wayne's World 2.

Rest tomorrow - I'm off to Kuching, back to Borneo!

All templed out

Today I had the very distinct privilege of being the only person on a private tour of Penang. I'd once again paid for two people for a city tour (half day) and luckily got the car and driver all to myself! Awesome!

My driver was a gorgeous little old Baba man (Peranakan descent) who took me to lots of places which I'll outline below in bullet point format. He was just delightful, gave me so much information in so much detail about where to go, what to do, how to get there, what to eat etc - he was indeed a guardian Angel!

• Peranakan Museum - this was absolutely stunning. My granny would have absolutely adored this place, so many beautiful antiques, lovely things to look at, very very pretty and absolutely overflowing with history and cultural significance.. If you haven't been yet or are planning a trip to Penang, you must go and see this place. I'm a big fan of the Amazing Race and this was also a pitstop on the Amazing Race Asia.

• Khoo Kong Si Clan House - another site of cultural significance in Penang. The Khoo clan can trace their ancestry back hundreds of years; it's a good way to kill an hour. There was a newly married couple there on Monday having their photos taken; they are Khoo descendants. The detail that went into the clan house is just astounding. All hand-carved and hand-painted. Wow!

• Chocolate and Coffee Boutique - you get a tour at lightning speed from a staff member who talks faster than I do. You also get to try lots of tiny bits of their chocolates and drink shot glasses of their coffee for free. Durian white coffee was interesting, chilli chocolate nice and spicy - personally I prefer my coffee without the aroma and taste of three week old gym socks!

• Photo stops at Fort Cornwallis, Indian Mosque - "don't waste your time with Fort Cornwallis" said my driver. I took a couple of happy snaps from the outside. As a descendant of the British Empire, once you've seen one place the English roared in and took over, you've seen them all. Yawn. The mosque, however, was beautiful.

• Crown Pewter factory - I witnessed a very quick demonstration of how they make pewter tankards. I managed to escape without buying anything, the Aunty gave me a cup of tea but it wasn't as nice as the lemongrass and ginger tea I had at Alun-Alun Spa in Langkawi. 

• Burmese Buddhist Temple - stunning! Free to visit, although between here and the Thai reclining Buddha temple across the road I happily donated about RM12 for offerings and candles for Mum, Granny and Sue, I also donated some money to the monk for a blessing. I preferred the Burmese temple to the Thai one. The Thai one was a little theme-park like. This one was very peaceful and closer to Tibetan style. 

• Thai reclining Buddha temple - the reclining Buddha is beautiful and so big! This temple also has people's remains in urns around the walls behind and underneath the reclining Buddha. There's all kinds of statues and opportunities to part with some ringgit for donations, I lit more candles for Mum, Granny and Sue here. 

• Tour drive through of Chinatown and Little India - crazy traffic, motorcycles everywhere, lots to see. Also had a drive down the "Harmony Road" where there are temples, churches and mosques for Islam, Hindu, Buddhism and Christianity.  All four are represented on one street. Very cool. 

• Kek Lok Si - Kwan Yin temple. OMG - amazing. Normally I'm not taken with Chinese Temples but Green Tara (Kwan Yin) is my favourite Buddha manifestation and her puja is my favourite and go-to practice, so this was a great honour to visit. There's a gigantic (no exaggeration) bronze statue of her here that is up the hill - you can walk up or down, or take the mini cable car/funicular railway. This is a must visit if you're a Buddhist - if you're not it is still amazing! 

After a long day of walking around in the hot sun, I caught a bus back to town from Air Hitam then went on another bus ride to Gurney Plaza for some dinner and window shopping.  I had a Groupon for BBQ plaza, which is an awesome place where you cook your own dinner on a small grill thingy.  I had Aussie lamb, marinated sirloin, pak choy, rice, pumpkin and an angry bird fish cake (that was really gross). Photos to follow.

Gurney Plaza is awesome - lots of shops, a supermarket, plenty of food options, movies, a brand new gym (Jatomi Fitness) and much more. Right next door is a brand new mall that opens tomorrow. Personally I can't be bothered coming back for it. 

Jatomi gym is pretty cool, their website "does big talk" but when I went for a look they were cold, indifferent and one person there called me fat (well, not in so few words), so I pulled rank and pointed out I've lost over 60kg and am a PT, Zumba Instructor and run a gym. Many apologies followed.

By now the mall was about to close, so I left and went out to the bus stop back to town. After 25 mins of being harassed by Taxi drivers, the bus pulled up. RM1.40 bus ride vs RM30 taxi ride? I'll take the bus thanks! I arrived at KOMTAR, changed buses and got back to the hotel about half an hour ago.

Best I hit the hay now, last day tomorrow and I want to check out Queensbay Mall!

Farewell Langkawi and Screw You Penang!

After a nice chilled-out morning of packing and having breakfast, I made a short trip to Underwater World Langkawi to kill some time in air-conditioned comfort. RM 38 later I was in, oohing and aahing at all kinds of birds, fish, rays, sharks, molluscs, sea plants and then...I found myself being chased by Otters.

I went into the touch pool enclosure for a look, which you are allowed and encouraged to do. There's a sign saying beware of the very cute but very-nasty-when-provoked otters, which I took a fleeting glance at and went, "huh, what otters?".

No sooner had I uttered these words had the little buggers decided it would be a great idea to see what I was all about and started chasing me towards the exit! I managed to slam the door shut in the nick of time, but they were literally trying to get it open. About two minutes later I figured out why - their keepers arrived for feeding time. I might mention that there was no sign saying that feeding time was at 11:45am. Crikey!

The highlights of the Underwater World visit for me are the eagle nosed rays, the penguins and the HIIT (high intensity interval training) sprint out of the otter enclosure. I don't need to go back again, it's been done. But it was a good way to spend a couple of hours out of the sun and heat.

With all that excitement over, I had some lunch and headed for the airport in a cab (RM 18). I cruised around the airport and bought a Lightning cable for my iPad so that I could charge it, seeing as how my adaptor plug had overheated and died a horrid death the day before.

I boarded the one Air Asia evening flight to Pulau Pinang (Penang to the rest of us) and was suprised with another drinking coconut. Thanks me! It was a very short flight - we left early, arrived 25 minutes early and I think the flight only ended up being 25 minutes! It was really hazy around Penang island, so my photos aren't great.

 Thanks to Lonely Planet I knew that I could get a 401 or 401E bus to KOMTAR (big shopping centre with a bus terminal underneath) for about RM 3.40 instead of upwards of RM 40 in a cab. So, I walked out of the terminal, turned left and walked up to the bus stop. 

Within minutes said bus arrived and I managed to get a seat. Quite an achievement apparently! About an hour later, we arrived at KOMTAR and I dragged out my trusty iPhone to get walking directions to Tune Hotel on Jalan Burma. Ten hot and sweaty minutes later, I spent eight minutes at an intersection waiting to cross the road and finally just went for it.

Two minutes later, some A**hole on a motorcycle decided to try and run me down on the footpath, so I went postal at him (not my finest five seconds) in Italian. It's safer than swearing at them in English - and more fun with the appropriate hand gestures. I felt better. He got he message, apparently my facial expressions are universally understood.

I arrived at Tune Hotel Downtown Penang and was in my windowless room within five minutes, but discovered that there were tiny red ants all over the bed. Heck, not even my fleapit hotel in Langkawi had extra guests in my bed! After a quick trip to reception, I was immediately given another room (this time with a window and a view, directly across the hall to minimise inconvenience madam), a security guard to hold the doors open and a voucher for 24hrs of free WiFi to make up for the drama. Awesome! Thanks Tune :-)

It's my first time staying in a Tune hotel and yes, the rooms at Tune are indeed basic, just a bed and a bathroom. But the bed is heavenly and the showers are awesome. There's just enough space for one person in my double room, so any ants are definitely not welcome. All I need is a bed and a shower, with enough space to pack my carry on bag at the end of my stay.

The location of Tune Hotel Downtown Penang is fabulous. Under 10 minutes walk to KOMTAR, there's a Giant supermarket less than five minutes walk away, the 101 bus (to Batu Ferringhi etc) and the bus to Gurney Plaza from KOMTAR and the Jetty stop across the road, there's a 7-Eleven next to the entrance, New World Park food court and shops next door and a nice cafe in the lobby. There's hawker stalls all around and no shortage of awesome food nearby. Across the road is a laundry and I can highly recommend Shir Elegant de Beauty just down the road if you need a massage or facial treatement!

After checking in, I decided to head back down the road to KOMTAR in search of this elusive adaptor for my iPad. I didn't find it at KOMTAR or Prangin Mall or even the IT mall. I found it at 1st Avenue in an awesome shop called iStudy which does Mac and Apple stuff. Brilliant. RM119 later, I have all my photos on my iPad mini.

I had dinner in the food court on the top level of 1st Avenue and then headed outside. Over the road I found a Tibetan Buddhist shop where I was able to buy a new Mala (Buddhist rosary beads). I found one for RM58 which is basic yet pretty and functional, as I discovered on landing in Penang that mine had broken!

After this I jumped a cab (RM12) back to the hotel. I certainly won't be jumping in cabs again if I can avoid it - so expensive! I'll re-read the public bus info I have on my iPad and see if I can get where I need to on buses.

I have a big day tomorrow with my half day tour of Penang, so I'd better get some sleep. Fingers crossed it works out to be another private tour as I've paid for two people again!

Island hopping and cab jumping

Today I got up VERY early and headed off on an island hopping tour. We went to Lake of the Pregnant Maiden, Pulau Beras Besah, eagle feeding and zooming around in a speed boat driven by a kid of all of 15 and his little brother. To say I was a little freaked by the kids driving was an understatement, but captain kiddo could spin that boat around on a 5 sen piece with military precision. When he grows up he should join the navy. Seriously!

Lake of the Pregnant Maiden is lovely. I didn't swim as it's freshwater and I had a chunk out of my finger from a few weeks ago (grating pecorino and grated my knuckle instead) which hasn't quite healed yet, so I didn't really want every communicable disease my doctor warned me about coming to fruition. It did look nice and it was a freakin hot day, but I saved my bathing for Pulau Beras Besah.

There were a few too many tourists at Lake of the Pregnant Madien, particularly of the kind that don't read signs about not feeding the monkeys. I saw monkeys feeding on fried chicken and oreos. Hardly a nutritious diet, but the stupidity of the other tourists really got me. Everyone gets the same advice - no plastic bags or Monkeys may attack you, don't feed the monkeys, don't try and pat the monkeys, etc. Some people just choose to ignore it and wonder why said monkeys chase you halfway down the pier.

Next stop was just off the coast of another island where we witnessed eagle feeding. My boat captain didn't throw much out to the eagles, rather he waited for them to circle and navigated us into a gap between the other boats. I got a few happy snaps and a short video, can't say it was the most riveting experience and to be honest I'd rather have skipped it altogether and gone to another island.

Eagle feeding is a controversial activity here. The greenies are trying to stop it because the eagles now hear speedboat engines and know food is on the way - which makes the eagles too lazy to catch their own food and dependent on humans for food. I rather happily agree with the greenies on this - could they not set up an Eagle sanctuary or breeding program or something less destructive to the local flora and fauna that we tourists could visit, that would help rather than hinder the eagles?

The final stop on the itinerary was Pulau Beras Besah where we had a whole glorious hour to sun ourselves, swim in the beautiful water, walk on the gorgeous sand and generally chillax. Well, not all of us. Once again, some silly tourists decided to leave food and drinks lying around and the worst pickpockets in Malaysia (the Probiscus monkeys) started going through their bags! I had a lovely swim and a bit of a lounge in the sand before it was time to jump back on the boat and head back to dry land.

Once back in Cenang, I dropped my gear back at the resort and jumped a cab to Kuah Town. Kuah is about 30 mins in a cab from Cenang and is the sea arrival point for ferries from Penang, the mainland and Thailand (Satun). It's RM24 to get to and from Kuah, so I chose to get dropped off again at Langkawi Fair shopping centre to hit up Billion for a pair of sandals. I found a gorgeous red and black pair of Dr Cardin sandals for just $14 AUD which are really comfy. For some reason, I had to go down two sizes - then I realised that they had funny sizes printed on them!

After wandering around Langkawi Fair in search of food, I walked over to Jetty Point via Lagenda Langkawi, an alleged tourist attraction / theme park  / don't waste your time there. Arriving at Jetty Point, I had lunch at Kenny Rogers Roasters (don't bother, the chicken was as dry as all hell, although the muffin and iced coffee were nice) and went in search of an adaptor to connect my SD card from my digital camera to my iPad mini so I can download my photos. Apparently this cannot be found anywhere in Langkawi, so I guess I'll be buying it in Penang then!

After Jetty Point, I went to Langkawi Parade, allegedly a megamall. Again, lots and lots of nice shoes and a half decent supermarket, but beyond that unless you want accessories for your Samsung phone, don't bother.

Back to Cenang and out for dinner. As it is my last night in Langkawi, I've had a nice dinner of Tandoori chicken and naan and rice, then went for a walk to finally watch a magical Langkawi sunset. I also found a shop offering menicures, apparently it will fix all men problems (or the lady running it has seen "Legally Blonde" more times than I have.

Off to Penang tomorrow, so I'm going to chill out for a while before the crazy packing begins again!

Life's a beach and then you cable car

You should all be very proud of me. I've managed to sit still on the beach and just watch life go by with no pieces of technology for three hours in the last two days. OMG! This is huge! 

Today I ran, swam, walked, trekked through the jungle to a waterfall, rode the steepest cable car in the world (more on that later), checked out eagle square, drank ginger & lemongrass tea (now hooked on it), visited the black sand beach, did some duty free shopping in Kuah, had a traditional Malay massage and still found time to chill on the beach at the resort. That's 16 jam packed hours of fine holiday fun. I'm a little sunburnt, a lot happy and pretty relaxed.

I booked this tour months ago through Asia Web Direct and to be honest I was a little annoyed at the time at having to pay for a minimum of two people, whether there was one or two actually going on the tour. However, I  had the tour guide/driver and car all to myself today so we were able to cover more ground than we would have if I had been part of a group or pair. Five fantastic destinations today and no crap to have to see - awesome!

I'm particularly stoked with myself because I did the cable car ride all on my own, with no chemical courage and I have a squillion awesome photos of the ride and the view. It literally is the steepest in the world. If you're scared of heights, come see me - I used an NLP technique to get over it and stay calm - and believe me there's no way in hell I'd have done that before NLP. $9 AUD well spent to test it out, wonder if I can claim that on tax as a coaching business expense?

I'll pop up the photos of today ASAP, unfortunately they are on my digital camera and my apple camera connection kit for my iPad and iPhone doesn't work with either. Stupid apple! I need to buy a whole new kit for my iPad mini and a new digital camera with Bluetooth I think! I haven't been able to find this kit in Langkawi so looks like I will be buying one in Penang, hopefully tomorrow!

In other news, today we also covered Telaga Harbour, the black sand beach (Pantai Pasir Hitam) with the ugly concrete plant at the other end, Telaga Tujuh (seven wells waterfall), Eagle Square, Kuah town (with a quick duck into Langkawi Fair duty free mall for a pair of sandals for $3.70 AUD and a batik sarong, both bought at Billion for half the price I would have paid in Cenang) and then back to Cenang in time for dinner, which I ate at old town white coffee.

Tomorrow I'm off island hopping and eagle feeding. I get to watch the famous Langkawi Eagles diving for food, visit the lake of the pregnant maiden, avoid monkey attacks, swim at a private beach on a remote island, hike in the jungle and lots more. Better remember the sunscreen, insect repellent, change of socks, drinking water, Camera batteries, sunglasses and bathers!

I am also hopeful that I will be able to go back to Kuah town and do some more duty-free shopping that I can then post home to Australia. I did make sure when I was packing for this trip that I brought
 a whole lot of old clothing with me, so that I could throw it away as I went along and replace it with awesome new stuff in smaller sizes.

Getting late so I'd better get to sleep, night all!

Goodbye Satay, hello Kuala Lumpur

I'm sitting in the LCCT in KL, waiting for my second flight of the day. I'd heard from various people that this place is like Avalon Airport in Melbourne, but I disagree. The LCCT may be noisy, chaotic, crazy, a bit grubby and poorly (and very confusingly) laid out but it does the job.

I've marvelled at their selection of lollipops, had 21 minutes in a massage chair for RM7 (about $2.40 AUD), bought a Nescafé coffee in a can, had a random guy rub his head on my shoulder (within seconds of my yelling out "what the hell do you think you are doing?" the airport security guys were on him like a tonne of bricks) and have been hell sick for the past six hours.

Goodbye Satay indeed. I tool all my usual pills at the airport last night and checked by blood sugar at Melbourne airport and again inflight. 5.5 = perfect both times. I really enjoyed the Chicken Satay that Air Asia pre-sold me for dinner, until after I'd had three mouthfuls of pancake breakfast with creamer (not milk). 

Within 30 minutes the plane was bouncing and I had to disobey the fasten seatbelt sign to run and talk to the big white telephone. Without getting too graphic, I technically haven't taken my 14 pills from last night now! 

I don't think it was the chicken - I think it was the creamer. I feel seedy now but haven't been sick since and that's usually a classic sign of a fructose or FODMAP reaction. I'm feeling seedy because I'm tired and dehydrated.  Like hungover seedy!

We got off the plane in KL to be greeted with rain and a sea of bright red umbrellas to ferry ourselves into the terminal. We landed at 7:01am and by 7:30am I was out of customs and immigration with SIM cards for my iPhone and iPad. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Melbourne Airport! 

Flight wise, the upgrade to two extra empty seats was awesome because I had a whole row to myself and had just enought room to snooze for about four hours. Mental note to self, next time bring the squishy pillow. The seats were brand new, very comfy and still smelled of brand new leather. The seat pitch wasn't a challenge and I fit nicely between the armrests with no squash. 

The flight crew were fantastic and really looked after me when I got sick - they gave me an extra blanket, bottle of water and five sick bags! It was a nice plane and very quiet, hardly any engine noise and I was over the wing right on top of the engine. 

If you're flying Air Asia long haul or overnight, do yourself a favour and apply for the Optiontown upgrade ESO (see previous entry), it was so with the $28 AUD or whatever I paid to get an entire row to myself. 

Anyway, in a couple of hours I'm off to Pulau Langkawi. 

More later!

And we're off!

As I type this, I am sitting at the gate lounge waiting to board my flight and for my adventures to start.  

Part one involves travelling from Melbourne to Pulau Langkawi via KL. I have an overnight flight to KL, then a few hours on the ground at the abomination of an airport otherwise known as the LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) before boarding my next flight to Pulau Langkawi.

I'm flying Air Asia seven times in the next 25 days, so I should be an expert on them by the time I get home. Tonight is my first flight with them and I've taken the liberty of pre-purchasing a comfort kit (pillow, blanket and eye mask) dinner, breakfast and a Malaysian SIM card for my iPad. 

I received a good news email this morning from Optiontown, advising me that my upgrade to empty seats option (ESO) had been confirmed, so I now have three seats (an entire row) to myself on this overnight flight to Kuala Lumpur. I am really happy about this, as after having a roller coaster last few days I really need some sleep. With three seats to enjoy, I will have just enough room to fold myself up like an accordion and take a six to seven hour nap.

If sleep evades me, I have 17 movies, 20 games, 350 books, 23 music playlists and 75 hours of Tony Robbins to entertain myself with on my iPad. I came prepared!

For most of the next three weeks I will have carry-on baggage only. I wanted to prove that I can travel with the bare minimum and still have an awesome time. I'm going where it's 25-34 degrees with 60-100% humidity and cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. I don't need jackets or coats or Melbourne clothes, although I may regret this when I get back to single digit temperatures again in a few weeks. 

We will be boarding shortly and the plane looks half empty, so far with no screaming babies or rambunctious toddlers in sight. 

More tomorrow, let the adventures begin!

18 Days to go...

Welcome to my latest adventure log!

The first thing you need to know about me is that I don't do holidays - I have adventures. The key distinction is that I don't sit on my butt on some poolside deck chair when I go overseas, I get out and grab life by the horns!

I'm off on my next adventure in just over two weeks, which takes me to eight cities in Malaysia and Singapore in a 22-day period.  There will be planes, trains, buses, taxis, trishaws, bicycles, Segway tours, roller coasters, monorails and maybe a rental car involved. There will also be theme parks, indoor archery, Boeing 737 Flight Simulators, Batik Painting, River Cruises, Cat Museums, Temples, Mosques, Caves, Shrines, markets, malls, hawker stalls, food courts, fancy restaurants, beauty salons, beaches and much, much more!

This time, I'm visiting:

• Langkawi via KL's LCCT Airport from 18-21 July
• Penang from 21-24 July
• Kuching from 24-26 July
• Johor Bahru (and Legoland!) from 26-28 July
• Singapore (including Universal Studios!) from 28 July - 1st August
• Kuala Lumpur from 1st to 3rd August
• Malacca (day trip) on 3rd August
• Ipoh (including Lost World of Tambun!) from 4-7 August
• Back to KL from 7-10 August
• Return to Melbourne on 10 August.

More info to follow.