And so the tour continues...

During our stay in Penang, we were told that our next stop was the Cameron Highlands; we pictured Scotland... Scotland it was not! After the seven hour, steep, twisty-turny, chugging bus journey (we were a little dubious as to whether the bus would actually make it) we reached our destination. A rather uneventful, plain little ghost town... with lots and lots of strawberries. Its only resemblance to Scotland was that it was very cold and rained A LOT. The whole way through the trip, Amy had been talking about the famous 'steam boat', (found only in the Cameron Highlands... found EVERYWHERE in the Cameron Highlands!) a massive boiling soup fondue type thing in which you threw in lots of different types of meat (yes, including jellyfish) and veg, let them cook and then gobbled them up.

That night we had a lovely, cool nights sleep... until the hour of 4am when a 'cock-a-doodle-doo' rudely rose us from our slumber. 'Courtesy is our way of life', read the sign above the front door of our hostel, courtesy my bum! Clearly animals were excluded from the vows of silence.

After our 4am, 5am, 6am, 7am wake up call we got up and joined our Rainforest Adventure Day (yes it was as hot and sweaty as it sounds). The first stop was a native, aboriginal village, where we experienced the blow-pipe(we trust all of you untravelled people know what that is), after little practice (first attempt... but we don't like to brag), we hit the target. Little did we know what was waiting for us around the corner...we LOVE rainforest trekking! A two hour trekk didn't look so bad on paper, pretty easy infact. We were unware of the mountainous factor involved. WHY DIDN'T THEY WARN US?! All this suffering to see that darned rafflesia (the worlds largest species of flower), to be fair it was pretty incredible and we saw TWO! Oh also,India, after a few collapses, is now aware that she probably has asthma. WHOOO! The village guide tried to carry India the whole way (much to her disdain) while shouting at Alice for no apparent reason and accusing her of crying- she hadn't shed a tear and infact was rather jolly. Our guide couldnt speak any english but oh could he mime- his attempts to explain the distance, relief, time to the next stop, time in total, number of flowers and how to correctly walk up a mountain all at once proved particularly difficult to understand. There were a lot of umms and ahhs and sympathetic nods.

The downward trekk was alot easier (we fell most of the way- those darned lianas, they look so stable), made more so by the stop at the waterfall half-way down; we stripped (to our cozzies)and jumped right in... oh the cold, cold refreshing water. Nice and wet we re-dressed and trekked on. After four hours we arrived back at the village, jumped(almost energetically) into our awaiting mini-van and headed to the tea plantation. Which was interesting and vast. Ask us anything about tea and we are there! Next stop was the butterfly farm, falsely named, as it contained more reptiles, flowers, beetles (and just about everything else) than it did butterflies! Yes, we did hold a scorpion- those spikey little critters! We are so hard-core.

The tour finished with a trip to one of the infamous strawberry plantations... there were lots of strawberries and strawberry memorabilia for that matter; think alarm clocks, keyrings, clothes pegs, cushions, balloons...again pretty much anything goes in strawberry world! On the way back we drove through the aptly named 'Landrover Town'..."over fifty landrovers" for a town with a population of 60. On return, absolutely knackered from our days activites (and the rooster's that morning) we hit the hay pretty early.

We woke up at 7am (well actually 4am again) only to find that the only bus in the Cameron Highlands (it would appear) was our bus and that it had a punctured tyre. Now in any normal country this would take 5 minutes to fix, but not here. No try an hour and a half! After the delay we finally made it onto the bus and made our way to Kuala Lumpur.

We arrived in KL (dahling) at lunch time, trecked through China Town and found our hotel (conveniently placed right in the centre). That evening, again under the advice of Amy, we headed to the KL towers... a short walk we had been reassured. Ha. 10,000 steps (unfortunately in the up direction) along a 'scenic' rainforest trail later (not forgetting the rustic swinging jungle bridges) we arrived at base camp. The tourist hub that is ground floor KL tower. 5 minutes later we bumped into 2 other 'tourees' (the swede and the american) and began ranting about the trekk up and when our anger was not mirrored on their faces, in fact confussion clouded their brows, we began to suspect the inevitable. We had been mislead. There was infact a handy little shuttle bus... the one Amy had forgotten to tell us about. Jokes. We made it though, and after all.. that is the most important thing (easier to say in retrospect!).
After relucantly parting with ALOT of money ('all inclusive ticket madam... look, formula 1 simulator, audio guide and winter wonderland all for $40 ' 'Great... but we only want to go to the top of the tower.' ' Not possible, no madam. one ticket only.'), we didnt go all that way just to turn around. We were going to the top of that tower (rip off or not!)!
When we finally got up to the top of the tower, the views were incredible. As per usual (no one had told us it would be the rainy season) the rain was brewing over the city along with a thunder and lightning display. It was pretty incredible... all this at sunset. And after a strangely confusing audio guide we made it round the tower and headed to the 'F1 simulator'- Simulator... not quite... more of an arcade game. If that. Thoroughly unimpressed, but rather amused, we made our way to 'Winter Wonderland'. Imagine really big, tacky penguines, a few reindeer, with a bit of fake snow ... In the midst of humidity. It didnt really work. Even less impressed than before, we made a swift exit and hunted down the shuttle.
That night we went to 'The Reggae Bar' and had a few interesting games of pool. We took the table... but we are both so bad that we needed partners. We attracted both old (a pair of old indian pool-lovers who had been hogging the table (they even had their own cues- thats how you know they're serious!) and who INISTED that we needed their 'help' and 'guidence'/ sleezy lessons) and young (we didnt mind the young).
The next day we hit the world's largest indoor theme park with Cheryl and Bryan (the Scotts). It was pretty big. And yes, we did go on the world's largest indoor roller-coaster. We are crazy! It was an adrenaline rush to be sure... India THRIVED on it... Alice shut her eyes and screamed. Really loudly. Thoroughly wore out the rest of the rides. It was a fun day.
That evening we went out to the Petronas Towers (the tallest twin buildings in the world) which were AMAZING and huge. We have some/A LOT of seeeeeerious photos.
Before we went, we had decided to hit the town hard after our viewing and so had come prepared. Now, we know we a are 'classy birds' but Kuala Lumpar is an expensive place... and so carring a mini vodka bottle (with coke only. obviously.) in Alice's shoulder bag seemed to be the only way forward. We sat on the steps infront of the Petronas towers siping out of our cleverly concealed bottle... to be honest we threw it away pretty swiftly. The mix was POTENT!
The rest of the group headed home and we went 'clubbing' with Evelina. Well, boy did the night begin there! The drinks were EXTORTIONATE! and so we were getting ready to leave when Evelina attracted the gaze of 2 Aussie men who kindly bought us each a shot of tequila. This, we thought, is the life. After we dominated the empty dancefloor, we turned around to see that Evelina had flagged down another victim. This time a group of Indians bought us a shot each. We humoured them... then fled full pelt and tracked down another club. Too expensive, awful music and so moved on. With few options left we hopped in the taxi and went back to our side of town (a rather long way) and went back to our favourite haunt- the Reggae Bar. Sitting at our table, Evelina felt a tap on her back... she turned around to find the (very angry) Indian man from the first club staring at her. How he had found us- we do not know. Were we back in India?! Rather freaked out, we made another quick dash... lucky we were leaving the next morning!
On to Melaka. On arrival we got the cultural bit out of the way. We went to Saint something (possibly George)'s Hill, visited the revolving tower and had a wander around. The next morning we continued on the cultural path and took a river ride with the rest of the group and then went to the maritime museum. All very interesting... but we were definately ready to chill that afternoon. Oh, what luck... yes our hotel did have a cheeky rooftop jaccuzzi... yes we did make the most of this.
That night we headed to the hotel's restaurant and lapped up some yummy cocktails and delicious food. Later in the night the live musician started playing. He was fantastic. As the drinks flowed... so too did our voices until the muician demanded a solo. Up went Amy... followed (when we heard her... delightful voice) by the rest of us to sing/shout the words of 'Easy like sunday morning'. It was beautiful. More drinks flowed and we headed to bed in the early hours.
The next day took us to our favourite stop (NAAAAAT), Singapore. I think you probably have a fair idea of our feelings for Singapore from our previous instalment.... just to let you know, our feelings have changed very little. Still no gum, still no rubbish, still no jaywalking (we defied this law- we are crazy fools! 19 jaywalkers are caught a day... its a dangerous sport.)... still no nothing!
Before the tour ended, we booked ourselves into the 'famous' night safari at Singapore Zoo. It wasn't quite what we had expected ( a massive zebra print bus ride... no flash photography allowed. India was lost!) but still alot of fun. We also got to experience a greaaaat traditional fire show... they didnt have much stage presence. Normaly watching people eat fire is quite cool, maybe even shocking. Not in singapore... 'shocking' (of any discription) is illegal.
The next day we headed to Sentosa Island.. imagine an island made entirely for tourists. They had made fake beaches and everything. FAKE BEACHES (only in singapore)! We did have a lovely hour sunbathing though.
That evening, the last night of our tour (sob), we had the 'treat' of a Singapore Sling at Raffles hotel. We never did manage to pin down the reason for Raffles being so famous.... but apparently it is and when 'one goes to Singapore, one simply MUST have a Singapore Sling at Raffles' and so we did. $27 (15 pounds) later we weren't so convinced. It was something everyone has to do... when in Rome.
The next morning after some tearful farewells, we jumped in the taxi with Cheryl and Bryan and headed for 'the hive'... more fondly referred to as 'the dive'. Where we hid away for three days trying to spend as little money as possible. We wrote alot of emails (we leached onto the free internet... bad decision Hive owners!) and India read a WHOLE book. FINALLY (3 days later) the time came to make our escape, we jumped on the plane and began our trip to Australia.


Thats all for now (you'll be glad to hear!).
lots of love xxxx

Laaaads on Tour

So off we got from the Delhi plane, only to be greated by Singapore's unbelievable/unbearable cleanliness. Forbidden- litter, chewing gum, smoking, waiting, standing, living, breathing. Now, we arent messy people (ahem) but who knew rubbish could be so refreshing?! We want India! Thankfully, we walked straight through the airport to our adjoining hotel. Checked in and went straight to our room where we made an almighty mess.... and ate as much chewing gum as possible and then stuck it to every wall... well, we didnt really... but we wanted to! There isn't much to say about the hotel, other than that we were charged FIFTEEN STERLING POUNDS to use the internet for a measely 30 minutes. Can you believe it? Apparently India isn't the only country crawling with scammers.
After staying up all night to watch Ireland BEAT England, with rather tired eyes we made our way to the classy 'Budget' terminal at Changi airport the next morning to catch our flight to Bangkok. We landed safetly in Bangkok to meet HUGE immigration ques and our taxi driver with the 'goodluck' hairy mole. Now, We're going to let you guess what happens next... surprise surprise, we were ripped off!
In our first hostel we met a guy called kirren/kierrem/kirram (never quite figured out which it was) who introduced us to a load of people. We had our first night out in Bangkok. Which was an experience. We will leave it at that.
We spent a few days in Bangkok (a few days too many!). Did the temples, the reclining buddah, (despite the attempts of many a helpful tuk-tuk driver (SCAMMERS!), who forcefully tried to convince us that every attraction was closed (at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Are they reallllly?!), coincidently each had an alternative attraction for us to visit... 'oooo big dancing budha only 45 meeetah') the river, the endless shopping malls... and just about everything else there i to see. It was alright, but not sure we'll be heading back there anytime soon.
We met up with our tour on the 5th March. It consisted of Amy (tour leader, notorious drunk), Barbara (aka Babs), Evelina and Stu (the Ameeericans), Bryan and Cheryl (the tuk-tuk scotts), Rolland (the sexy swede) and us (the heart and soul). We all went for a 'chilled' dinner, went to a Reggae bar and then hit the hay.
Early start the next morning and made the long arduous bus trip to the 'Death Railway Museum'. We'll let you do your own research, but it was an incredibly harrowing day and we suggest that if ever you are in Thailand to visit it. Alice spent the whole day in tears. After the museum, we had another long bus trip to catch the over night train to Krabi.
We love the over night trains. It was really very similar to the Indian overnight trains... except for the added bonus of the DISCO CABIN!! (A cabin dedicated to playing really, really, really loud music, to serving expensive beer, and to flashing disco lights. It was and unforgetable experience.) Ah, and minus the lack of air-con. It was stifiling. Sweat from top to toe. Which was nice. Eventually we caught a few winks and awoke in Krabi. After the 10hr train journey (followed by a 2 hr drive) the sea has never looked so appealing! We donned our cozzies and ran in expecting to feel instantly refreshed and revitalised... only to find that the sea was exactly the same temperature as the air. Hopeless! So we just crashed on the beach and had a 'wee' wonder around that afternoon.
That night, as was the common occurance, we all met up at 7 for a group meal... and a couple of drinks, and so began the dreaded night of the infamous tuk tuk (those bloody Scotts). After a few games of pool, we had a rather long walk to the club form our bar. Unfortunately the tuk tuks were too expensive. Bryan helpfully turned to Alice, "Tuk tuk?'' (pointing to his back), Alice in a drunken stooper (foolishly) agreed and hopped right on. India and Cheryl covered their eyes ('oh god'). Bryan began the running motion. He lent forward. His body started moving to fast for his legs. He became unbalanced. He fell... along with Alice, who halfway down lept off in a bid for freedom. Result= Two drunken heaps, wincing on the floor. Amy, Cheryl, India and the turned down (real) tuk tuk driver were in hysterics. This moment will never be lived down. Moral of the story, only take tuk tuks with wheels (preferably ones with lights and pumping music- rather aesthetically pleasing.).
Spent a few days in Krabi. Visited 'Phranang Island' (aka 'Fertility Island' due to the cave filled with large wooden phallaces), and another island (the name of which we cannot remember). We spent a day kyaking and elephant trekking (much to the horror of babs who had just stayed in an elephant sanctuary. Our argument went something like this... 'when in Rome!'). Kayaking proved to be quite an experience. Kayak ... a surprisingly tricky thing to manouver through mangroves. Especially when your tour guide finds 'the disappearing act' amusing. One minute he was there, the next he wasnt. We were apparently expected to find our own way out of an endless maze of tangled mangroves... with the odd monkey jumping on and hi-jacking out kayak. But luckily, due to our fantastic orienteering skills/ well trained lungs ("where the hellllllllll are you?") we made it out alive. We even had enough of the fighting spirit left to race back to the finish line... a race that we sorely lost. We maintain the belief that this was purely because alll of the other teams had men!
After the kyaking experience, it was time for the elephants and the clouds were looming with a vengence! The moment at which we had finally succeeded in hauling ourselves onto the massive elephants, the heavens opened. We trecked through the jungle with our 8 year old (crazy) elephant driver and an umbrella. All in all a rather adventurous day.
After 4 days in Krabi, we hit the road and made our way into Malaysia and down to Penang (across the 3rd longest bridge in the world, dont you know). On arrival, thanks to Amy's advice, we made our way to Penang Hill, we went up on the phenicular train and we were met by the most fantastic views- you could see the whole of the island, and beyond.. but views aside, once again under Amy's advice, we decided to stroll down the hill to see the monkeys. Stroll we did. And we strolled, and we strolled... and we strolled. Half and hour... yeah right!! After 45 minutes (and no monkeys) we had only made it about a quater of the way down the meandering tarmacked slope, (our legs have never been so sore!) and so when a pick-up lorry builder thing (little bit rickety) passed we ran after it arms aflailling (a sudden burst of energy), we waved it down, and hopped on top.
Penang gave us a few rather raucus nights out/in. Our hotel had a rooftop room which we dominated with our ipod speakers, our cheap thai vodka, and our awful drinking games. At one point Archie, the hotel man, came up to check we were all ok (not running amock) and we managed to blag the 'hotel mingood' 10 times too big t-shirt. Score! The tables have turned- the scammees have become the scammers!
We're afraid that this is all for now, we are knackered and singapore calls us.
Will finish the tour tomorrow, love to you all xxxx

From desert to Delhi...

Feeling marginally better, we braced ANOTHER long, gruelling bus journey to Jaisalmer (quite literally the middle of the desert!). Coincidently, we managed to scam a scammer. We convinced him to show us to our booked hotel...for some reason he thought we would be willing to change our minds and instead visit and stay at his 'luxury' hotel. We got out and stayed at ours...bad luck, thanks for the free ride though!
We got whisked in to our hostel by the delightful owner and... ALIIIIIIIIIII! Ali was basically a desert boy come skivvy, but he was the sweetest, most helpful, edible littlething that we had come across. Oh Ali we miss you! They organised our camel safari for us... that sounds like a scam but honestly it was the best price- 2 days,1 night...and our OWN camel minus stirrups. That was painful. We woke up on time but managed to arrive half an hour late, in keeping with tradition, it could have been a lot longer had Ali not been painfully hovering around us ("hmm...hmm... excuse me"). We hopped on our camels, our very big camels and rode off into the midday heat. The camel riding was just painful, really, really painful-and there was 8 hours of it, but when combined with the 'magic of the desert' it was all pretty incredible. Simon and Mr India were very ugly but served as perfect modes of transport!
When we arrived at the sand dunes, we were unloaded and our sore bums were given a well deserved rest. We had been out in the wild for only 8 hours and were already craving our 'creature comforts'(...dariy milk!)- we are pathetic. The Tribesmen, our camel drivers (aided by the group- we are all now professional chapatti shapers!) got to work and whipped us up a feast of local culinary delights. We gathered around the campfire and were sung local, Indian folk songs...pretty sure they made them up on the spot; rythmn... general tune... debatable. We were then coerced into bringing a little taste of our nationality to the fire! The Spanish sang a lament of some discription, the Slovaks refused- 'too cool for school' and we, the Irish, sang the Hokey Kokey... they loved it, we had the whole camp up and dancing around the fire. It was quite an experience. After a while everyone petered off to bed- bed, we slept under the stars, it was the most painful nights sleep of my life. Sand is really hard. But although we couldnt sleep the sky kept us ammused, it was incredible.
On arrival back to civilisation, Ali greated us with a big smile, "hello miss India" only to tell us that he thought we were 40 years of age... and he couldnt understand why we got so offended! Looking very 'sun kissed' we headed to the Fort, (yes another fort)... and yes another scam. That darned tour guide. "I take you tour of fort, 100 rupees" to which India replied "100 rupees in total for the whole fort?", "yes, yes, for you special price"- so we thought pretty good why not... we had the worst tour of our trip, which promptly ended at the entrance to the Palace (within the fort-the part that everyone goes to see) on a very sour note when he charged us double, on the premise that he had said " 100 each". So all in all we saw some back streets of the living Fort... and that was about it! Wahay! The Palace was actually quite interesting, with a fantastic audio guide, so sucks to you mr bad guide! That pretty much sums up our time in Jaisalmer; the next day we got up late and had a 3 hour lunch then headed for the train.
The 18 hour train... what larks! But actually it wasnt too bad (in comparison to our earlier experiences)- we had beds, and blankets, and pillows,and a really,really repetitively chatty carriage companion... luxury! We arrived in Old Delhi Station to be told, that to get to Agra, we needed to be in New Delhi Station- and so without the aid of signposts we managed to find the tube and arrived in New Delhi only to be told, that in fact,the tourist desk had conveniently been moved to the centre of Delhi...great! So bags in tow, we flagged down yet another tuk-tuk who assured us he knew the way to the Government Tourist Centre, in we hopped. 20 minutes later we arrived at a tiny and fairly grotty building... our suspicions were aroused. In went India. Out came India. She had bee asked our date of departure from Delhi and Oh suprise- "sorry mam, all trains completely booked till the 27th, but I can get you a car for 6000 rupees,no problem no problem", yeah right you can! Very, very, very angry we pulled out our bags out of the tuk-tuk and told the pig to bog off! Tracked down the number of our friends in Delhi who scooped us off the streets and out of the clutches of all the wicked people out there!
Staying with Clive and Sheila was just pure luxury. We had clean sheets, proper beds, a real shower, home cooked meals and great company... a glimpse of civilization. Sheila whisked usoff to the British High Commission and sorted our train down to Agra and then took us on a tour around Delhi. We did Delhi in style! We advise anyone reading this, who hasn't already, to go and see Slumdog Millionaire- just fantastic. Having experienced so much of what is in the film, it made our time in India so much more realistic.
The next morning, bright and early,we got the 6 am train down to Agra. Its unbelievable how something as incredible as the Taj Mahal can be surrounded by so much squalor-the litter was everywhere. Agra is a pretty miserable place, but the Taj is just breathtaking! We whiled the afternoon in the Red Fort avoiding camera flashes from all directions- we resorted to covering our faces with our scarves, they loved that. We had the most delicious meal (and the most expensive) in the Peshwari. We then headed back up to Delhi. The next day we had a tour of Old Delhi and the Spice Markets...we sneezed alot! Foolishly(?) Sheila took us to a jewellery shop where we spent a a ridiculous amount of money.
Saturday brought the end of our time in India, whejn we hopped on our flight to Singapore. We are now in Bangkok and start our tour tomorrow.

Speak soon, love xxx