Singapore

Well here we are at the end of our far eastern adventure :(

It's been a blast and there have definitely been some memorable moments to savour. Its been hard taking so much attention from the locals. Even though we are used to the few discreet glances of admiration our celebrity staus in London brings (!), getting used to 100+ lasting stares per day has been difficult for us to deal with, and we are considering heading out to a celebrity retreat to help us deal with the trauma ;0

It has been great though.... as ever Singapore is beautiful... shiny and new, glistening and pristine and they serve the best fish curry in the world. Official. And for GBP1.50 you'd be hard pushed to find a better deal anywhere else on the planet. Also, the kids here have to be the cutest in the world (unofficial). We're thinking of adopting one... either that or stowing one in our luggage!!! ;0

We managed to avoid the torrential downpours to make a trip (via a very scary cable-car ride) to Sentosa Island which is a bit of a holiday/getaway for Singaporeans. Luckily for us, there was a live Jazz performance happening at one of the beaches (see pic), which was..... Nice! Actually it was nice- spending the whole evening chilling out in the open air bar, watching the jazz, sipping on our Tigers/Kingfishers* (delete as appropriate)

peace out, rache and tom xx

p.s. didn't actually mean the bit about stealing or stowing the kids..... (just in case eh...)

Koala Lumpur

We're not slumming it any more, thank goodness! Penang was beautiful but due to our luxuriousness for most of our trip, we had to do some serious down-sizing and succumb to a 3GBP per night hostel for the duration of our island stay. This was delightful and it was nice to get down with the locals and lizards, but the air-con, mini-bar, room service and use of large swimming pool of our KL hotel was more than welcome (lightweights, us?!).

So far we've seen most of the sights, been up the KL Menara Tower, travelled on the driverless metro system lots and been stared at a mind boggling number of times - what joy!
Right now, we're in Times Square shopping complex which houses the 2nd largest indoor rollercoaster in the world. Lets see if we make it on it later on....

Pulau Pinang

Landed in Penang Island after a looooong train journey (22hrs) from Bangkok (still amazed at the train service, meals and all). The island is rather interesting and somewhat strange in that it appears to be in some sort of time warp, especially wandering around Georgetown at dusk. The almost ephemeral quiet atmosphere and many empty bars is reminiscent of the Eagles' Hotel California - "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave"!! This is emphasised by some of the guests in Hotel Noble - the guest-house we are staying in. They seem to be stuck at the table in the large communal area, forever reading and smoking cigarettes seemingly with no care to actually see Penang itself. The hippy gear and horizontal attitude for people who should know better (40-somethings!) doesn't help; we just smile nonchanantly and run by as fast as we can - it's a shame the table they've chosen is right outside our door!

We've been a bit sucked in by the Georgetown vibe ourselves and only left the town on Saturday for a day trip to the beach area (Batu Faranghi was too touristy and the beach sucked whilst Teluk Bahang was a lovely little fishing village, but way too quiet to stay too long).

Locals checking us out (looking perplexed & confused) count : 20+ per day (lower than Cambodia and Vietnam but still somewhat annoying all the same) :)

Train to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow evening - catch up with ya then xx

8 mile

Well, what a stay in Bangkok! James and Nong (our hosts for the duration, whose apartment and accompanying pool and gym facilities were second to none) showed us the classier and luxurious side to the city, one which we had previously neglected, due to our backpacker ways, back in 2001. The first nights were spent enjoying lovely Thai and Italian meals, with the grand finale at Q bar on Wednesay- which happened to coincide with James' celebrations after a talk to 300+ people that day, and Everton losing to Thailand in Bangkok that day (good news for James, a huge Liverpool, and now Thailand fan!). Q bar was host to none other than Ice-T, rapper extraordinare (to host an 8-mile rapping showdown), and unbeknown to us until we entered, the whole (rather disconsolate) Everton team!!!! Would have been nice to get a photo, but I don't think they were in the mood somehow ;) Thanks again James and Nong, and the other couple who kept us entertained on Wednesday night!

Wat You Looking At

Today was interesting - had a late day as the only remaining attraction we hadn't seen - the Royal Palace - opened at 2:30pm. It's an amazing complex with beautifully adorned buildings, grand architecture and many orange robed monks wandering around. Despite all of this spleandour and grandiosity, we - humble old Tom & I - seemed to be the centre of much attention, hilarity and giggling gossip. Having often been compared to Posh & Becks, we're quite happy to accept a few odd stares and envious looks now and then ;) , but this was way off the hook! Practically one third of the visitors seemed to think we were part of the attractions and had no qualms about staring for an inordinate length of time. We found it difficult to see where their amusement emanated from (see bottom photo)!! To be honest, it did get rather upsetting as the paranoia kicked in and we began to wonder if we'd left the hotel without getting dressed!


Anyway, a swift exit and a few drinks in the Ginger Monkey calmed us down as did a few games of Connect Four (Tom won but only cos he cheated!). Now we're cooling off next to the Mekong River and looking forward to staying with James (Evans) in Bangkok. Peace out y'all! xx

Phnom Penh

When our trusted (American!) guide book mentions that Cambodia isn't fully geared up for tourism yet, they mean it! Not to say it hasn't got some nice hotels and good facilities for tourists or posh travellers (us!), as it has, but echoes of its turbulent past are still very much in existence, with constant warnings from taxi trivers to keep safe, and police and security guards pretty much at every corner. There is only one way to go however, and that is upwards, with more people coming here, meaning more tourist dollar and word-of-mouth recommendations only increasing its reputation and movement towards a more open and tourist-friendly place. So far, we've had a great time though (past the fending off 100+ requests a day for a tuk-tuk ride, guide book, guide or just plain begging) and look forward to our next two nights here.

The journey here was certainly memorable, including a 400m trek/crawl from the Vietnam border (from our lovely a/c bus) across a seemingly no-mans land (in 35+ degree heat) to the Cambodian checkpoint (and rickety non a/c bus) with the difference in roads and transportation quality between Vietnam and Cambodia gleamingly obvious.


Onwards we travel and explore...

Vietnam

Well, we've been living luxuriously for past few days. Flew business class from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh, which was very nice and we're staying in the hotel where President Clinton stayed in 2000!
Vietnam is very hot and a little sticky. We've been a bit wiped out from the heat and jet lag so have put the hotel facilities to good use - swimming in the pool, relaxing in the sauna & steam rooms and perhaps a yoga class later!
We have managed to fit in some sightseeing as well! Once we'd got used to crossing the roads without killing ourselves on our first day (the streets of Ho Chi Minh are staggeringly full of motor-cyclists who own the road, despite the consistent, insistent honking of horns by the few impatient car drivers), we took a long hot walk down to the Saigon river which was a little disappointing (more of a building site with water - bit like the Thames in parts!)
Yesterday we discovered the backpackers area - which is somewhat reminiscent of Ko Sahn Road (Bangkok, Thailand) in that it is full of vest top & short short wearing westerners with bad sun-burn! It's a good place to hangout though as there is much shopping (fantastic if you want beautifully embroidered handbags or a baseball cap) and lots of good, reasonable places to eat.
After a siesta - it's too hot to not nap in the afternoon! - and a dip in the hotel pool, we headed back here for dinner and a drink in GoGo bar which was full of backpackers but very cool none-the-less. You can probably tell we are a bit snobby when it comes to traveling and spend much time in denial that we are as touristy as the other tourists - sigh!
Anyway, today, we're taking it easy again in preparation for our bus journey to Phnom Penh (Cambodia) tomorrow morning. Bus leaves at 8:50 and arrives around 5pm if all goes well!
Till then x

Ho Chi Minh street seller

Departure

Yesterday, we said good-bye to our Clapham flat of 3.5 years. It didn't feel too sad though as with all our possessions packed up, shipped off or in storage, the flat hasn't felt quite like home for a few weeks. It's very bare and a little sad looking as was our ex-housemate as he waved us bye-bye! He's a little bear and very sad looking! Just kidding Us!!

Tom's parents helped us pack up the last few bits for storage - it's amazing just how much stuff we have (okay, I will admit that most of it is mine), and even more amazing how much of it we've managed to squeeze into a 25sq ft space.

They came with us to Heathrow where we met my Dad too after a hair-raising moment of thinking we'd have to unpack our cases as we were well over the weight-limit (how much? erm, just 10 kilos over our 80 kilo limit!! We are emigrating for goodness sake, well, sort of...) oooops! We are forever indebted to the lovely, lovely woman on the airline desk who let us off the extra weight charge, but warned us that Singapore check-in staff may not be so lenient - gulp!

The flight was fine - we watched a lovely movie - Millions - to which a few tears were shed. I can assure you they weren't all mine! We arrived at Singapore, Changi airport this morning and are now sitting in the luxurious Raffles lounge killing time before our 3:05pm flight to Ho Chi Minh. Well, I'm killing time; Tom is busy as always, booking trains and checking transport routes - bless him!

Best go help him and then help myself to some more free food & drink - lovely jubbly!