Simon & Caroline's World Tour 07/08

Caroline did manage a half day visit to Kelly's school whilst I found some waterfalls with no water, but in the afternoon there was nothing for it but to enter the dark sanctum of the cinema and veg out to Indiana Jones, ah bliss...

With our belongings nearly shoehorned back into our rucksacks we checked into the Auckland hostel and marvelled at the space afforded to us, and the fact that we didn't need to convert the bed each night.

P.S. Cat - That jump was a cracker, right?! It's so easy to imagine you calm-faced jumping off that ledge, in fact did you run off? ;-)

But all good things must come to an end, and today we flew back to Sydney to meet Caroline's parents. Now you'd think with all this flying around the world that nothing would impress, but the Emirates airplane has the pinnacle of in-flight entertainment. Not only could you choose movies, music and games, the whole thing worked on a touch screen (jealous, Cat?) and also had live camera feeds from the front and bottom of the plane so you got a pilots view for take off and landing, who needs movies when you've got that!?

Arriving in Sydney was like coming home, it was easy to navigate the airport, we knew where the bus was going and recognised streets and buildings on the way to the hotel. Then there were the familiar faces of Caroline's parents to greet us to our home for the next few days - that's pretty permanent for us!

Feeling rejuvenated we braved the last stretch and made it to Bondi in time for a spot of lunch at Icebergs. We enjoyed our food whilst watching the brave swimmers facing the cold of Icebergs pool and the Bondi surfers catching some waves, albeit tiddlers.

Our day of Sydney highlights was rounded off perfectly with a glass of bubbly at the Opera bar, we had just sat down when the fireworks began to light up the harbour bridge - it was almost as if Sydney was welcoming us back. Unfortunately mum and dad were sleeping off a touch of jet lag back at the hotel and missed the fireworks but we appreciated them. Thanks Sydney, it's good to be home.

The climb finished and left us with half a day to fill, so braving the rain we caught the ferry across the harbour to Manly to promenade and eat fish and chips, well it's what you do!

Sydney wasn't much better though, but the hotel was in the shadow of the harbour bridge, and as we had free passes to go up the turret we idled away the afternoon in there. Unsurprisingly, I didn't take too many interesting photos (but I did take some Cat!), so here's a photo of Sydney sans Opera House. There was public outcry at the time, as the disused tram depot would be knocked down to make way for the Opera House, go figure!

The sun shone, the roads were blissfully quiet for a leisurely bike ride and the sun set over the ocean with a deep orange glow. All in all a great summers day, albeit in the middle of the Perth winter.

Feeling suitably chilled out after relaxing on the beach with my smoothie we drove back to my aunt and uncle's for a culinary treat that was a taste blast from my past. Singapore curry. It used to be a Sunday tradition in our house. And I was reminded that almost everyone in my family can cook a mean curry and I haven't learned yet (something for my to do list when we return.) My aunt's curry was delicious....

The only job left to do was pick up the hire car in preparation for our big drive north. It was almost tempting to get another campervan, but those days are over, and the lure of a car with cruise control was too much!

Unsurprisingly I didn't take any photos today, so instead here's one of the manta ray from Rottnest Island, the thing was huge (that's my shadow next to it!) and effortlessly swam around the shallows, it was definitely worth risking attack by pelican to see it.

500km later we reached Kalbarri, the first interesting place since Perth and the only place for the last 200km that was more than a petrol station. The huge waves of the Indian Ocean crashed onto the rocks whilst they dwarfed the surfers stupid/brave enough to be towed out by jetski to tackle them. Feeling bored of the car, we took a walk to look at the coastal cliffs, where the flat land abruptly stops and falls into the sea. The clouds stretched off into the interior of Australia until they met the horizon, just another sign of how big this place is.

The bay is also the first landing site for the Europeans, the Dutch who landed here 300 years before Cook. Neither they nor the French who followed showed much interest in the land, and as soon as they did, Britain was quick to claim it as their own.

Just to contrast my ramblings of how big a place Australia is, today we bumped into Dirk, the guy who rented our first camper from Sydney. So not only did we meet one of the few Australians we know in one of the remotest places in the country, it's also about as far as you can get from Sydney. Maybe the world is quite small after all.

The rocks stand upright in the patch of sandy desert, looking like a cross between termite mounds and a henge created by a very hyperactive druid. A convenient driveway weaved through the sandstone rocks and meant we didn't need to get out of the car, but we were glad to be out of it really. With our photos taken from every possible angle, we drove on to Perth, our little northern excursion complete and looking forward to the comfortable abode of Caroline's aunt and uncle (and of course her aunt's cooking!).

I'd also like to say a big thanks to Mel, my little big sister who compiled an album of photos of my life and stories from friends and family, along with getting it hand delivered to me here in Australia - it really made my birthday special. Thanks as well to everyone who wrote something, and I hope Mel gets reinstated on Facebook after being flagged as a spammer for sending too many anonymous messages!

By now we are becoming somewhat connoisseurs of flying and with our flight to Singapore we have now sampled the last of the airlines that we are scheduled to fly with on this trip. So how does Singapore Airlines compare? Well, we were a little disappointed with their inflight entertainment which Virgin Airlines still holds the top spot for. See how we research these important things for you! It's not all one big holiday you know :)

After almost ten months down under in Australia / New Zealand, Singapore was the culture shock we expected. The first thing to hit us as we stepped off the plane was the humidity which I'm not sure we will ever get used to. Then during our taxi ride to our hostel the heavens opened and the torrential downpour began. In just a few short seconds whilst running from the taxi into the door of our hostel we were drenched. Guess we will have to get used to this since we have come to this part of the world during monsoon season!

Our hostel is in the Little India area of town which as you can imagine has lots of character. But I'll get to that in a minute, first: the hostel. We chose it because it had good reviews and I can see why, it is clean and in a good location. However, the best way to describe our room would be bijou! There are two single mattresses on the floor and then just the tiniest space beside them to prop up our rucksacks. The toilet / shower combo is described as a Singapore special. Just imagine a toilet cubicle on an airplane, complete with the concertina door plus a shower over the toilet. Hindsight may be playing tricks on me but I'd almost say the shower toilet in our first NZ campervan was bigger. However small room and toilet aside, all is forgiven because our room has air-conditioning. Bliss.

We collapsed on our beds for awhile waiting for the rain to stop. When it soon became apparent that it had no intention of stopping, we braved an outing. We managed to duck and dive under shop awnings until we found an umbrella stand and then we ventured off towards Mustapha's, a famous shopping centre in Little India, known for stocking everything you can possibly think of at bargain prices. We managed to dodge the crowds and buy a few bits and pieces, the most exciting being Tiger balm (just in case we ever get a headache or an insect bite - hopefully not!)

My aunt had advised us to go in search of a banana leaf curry in Little India but unfortunately we failed on that mission. Although not for the lack of trying, in fact I think some of the restaurantuers that we asked if they had banana leaf currys were quite offended. One response was; No banana leafs, we have plates!! To absolve him of his indignation we felt obliged to eat at his restaurant and it was very yummy even if there was not a banana leaf in sight.

We decided to go to Bintan, firstly to see my parents who were spending the last couple of days of their holiday there but also because it is in Indonesia and so gave us an excuse to receive another stamp in our rapidly filling passports. The Angsana resort in Bintan is a little slice of paradise. Our room is luxurious, the pool area is lush and the beach is straight out of a travel brochure. We spent the day relaxing by the pool and diving in for a cool, refreshing dip now and then.
Dinner tonight consisted of freshly caught fish on the beach. Heaven. Already we never want to leave.

Caroline's parents left today too, the original plan was to spend a couple of nights, but then I'm not too good at reading itineraries! We had dinner down at the beach again, but this time with musicians and countless different types of Indonesian/Malaysian Satay skewers (including little squids!) - the prospect of Malaysia is looking better by the day!

Our next hotel, whilst not a touch on the Angsana in Bintan, is in the middle of Chinatown. We also arrived at the best time to experience Chinatown - dinner time! Our first call was to the food street, deftly avoiding the "pig liver" stall we made for the Thai stall and had spicy chilli chicken, the even hotter Mee Goreng noodles and pineapple rice - served in a pineapple! So simple and so nice.

Next was of course the markets, so cheap yet so full of useless tat, like silk tissue box covers, I mean who has a need for that? So we only bought three.

Around the corner from the hotel is the Buddhist Tooth Relic Temple, a modern (there's a car park in the basement!) temple, full of buddha statues and gold. The sceptic in me wondered why they emphasised inner peace resulting from giving money to the temple, and every brick and tile could be sponsored. I suppose they are at least being open about it, and there was a whole lot of gold to pay for.

That evening we went to the zoo, or more accurately the one and only Singapore Night Safari. Suitably laden with mozzie repellent we caught a tram around the park, making out the dusky shadows of animals as we drove past - the photo is of a rhino, and about as good as they got, so unusually for me, I just watched the animals. Finally we wandered around the walkways, constantly imagining mozzie bites, but seeing the animals when they are naturally active puts a new slant on a visit to the zoo. It would've been good if the bats in the walk-through enclosure weren't so active!

Next up was a return trip to Mustapha's in Little India. We must have been feeling in the mood for a little crazy but it was the cheap shoes that lured me there. We are hoping to go for drinks in Raffles later and I'm not sure they will let me in with my flip flops!
Cheap shoes in hand we set off to do the touristy thing around Clarke Quay (and buy yet another pair of shoes!). We found the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, a rather dapper looking man who was responsible for creating Singapore as the international trading post it has become today.

In the evening we met up with a local, my friend Faz from university. It was fab to see her despite the fact that it reminded me that it has been almost ten years since we left uni, man we're getting old! Anyway Faz took us to Arab street where we had a meal in a Morrocan restaurant almost at the entrance to the mosque (we made sure not to embarass Faz by trying to order a beer!). One of the most interesting aspects of Asia so far has been the food so I feel the need to describe the new things that we try. Tonight I had chicken tangine which is chicken and potatoes cooked in a clay pot and served with pitta bread. Very nice. Si had a kebab so I don't really need to describe that.

After our meal Faz drove us up to Mount Faber for a drink overlooking the views of Sentosa Island, the city lights and the oil refinery! She then dropped us off at our hotel where she informed us with a grin that we were staying in the red light district. (I hope she was joking!)

With 2 pairs of shoes to choose from and only one night to drink in Raffles, Caroline had to pick her favourite. Saying that, we needn't have got dressed up so much, the place was full of tourists (who'd have guessed!), and the floor littered with peanut shells that crunch unpleasantly underfoot, as the thing to do is eat peanuts and chuck the rest on the floor (if anyone knows why please let us know). But we had our one or two Singapore Slings, revelled in the colonial surroundings and left, another landmark done.

The train had left half an hour late, and the driver seemed intent on making up the time, but the train did not agree. Rocking furiously from side to side, it made me wonder what it would take for a carriage to come off the rails. To get between carriages required a leap across a wobbly bit of metal, with the tracks whizzing past underneath. Even after safely navigating that, there was the small matter of open carriage doors. Not so bad until you add the movement of the carriages. After several attempts I concluded that it was safest to just stay in our seats!

All fun and games though, seeing as we made it to KL in one piece. The taxi system here is the best, you pay at a counter in advance before even finding the taxi - no bartering, unexpected charges etc, just pay and go. Our British pounds stretch a bit further here (the taxi ride cost £2:10, how far could you go for that in the UK?) and so we have splashed out on a rather plush hotel, our room is great, and so long as you push your nose up to the glass of the window and squint a little, it boasts views of the top of the Petronas Towers, sweet!

We were in the mood for going up a high building today so we headed towards the KL Skytower, which is the fourth tallest communications tower in the world. We didn't think 100 extra metres (compared to the Auckland tower) would make much difference but when we got up there it really did. It was high and everything down below looked like little dots. Even Si wasn't tempted to do anything crazy like jump off from this height. Which was just as well since the 'adrenalin' entertainment in the form of a flying fox (only from the base of the tower which is at the top of a small hill) looked pretty tame. We weren't quite sure what all the screaming was about, we could only conclude that these people obviously haven't been to New Zealand.

As we left the tower we saw a couple of monkeys hanging around the sign that read 'Don't feed the monkeys' (ah, if only they could read!). The sight of Malaysia's answer to the kangeroo tempted us into the city rainforest walk to see if we could see anymore. Sadly the monkeys remained elusive, however we did encounter some wildlife, in the form of our arch enemies the mosquitos (is there no escape?)

On our way home we called into the Malaysia Tourist Centre and ended up trying lots of exotic Malaysian fruits, some nice, like the hairy mangosteen, some not so nice, like the rotten feet smelling durians, that are also banned from many public places, including our hotel!

We may have mentioned that it is hot here but just to paint a picture, it is so hot that merely walking down the street and around the corner from one sight to the next leaves you hot, sweaty and exhausted. The only solution was to do the lazy touristy thing and jump on the KL Hop on Hop off bus. It probably took a lot longer than walking by the time the bus navigated the congested traffic of KL but the air conditioned comfort made it so worth it.

We hopped off at many sights from Freedom square (with KL's answer to Big Ben), parliament house, the National Palace (reminiscent of Buckingham Palace where you peer in the gate but the most interesting thing to look at are the armed guards on horse back!) a colourful Hindu temple, the National Mosque (impressively simple inside but with the capacity to accomodate 15,000 praying muslims at any one sitting. Wow.) And lastly Central market where we practised our bartering and bought some more things we shouldn't have.

To get to the main Cathedral cave you have to climb 272 steps which in this heat is quite a climb but it's ok as there are several well-fed monkeys hanging around the steps to entertain you on the way. At the top and in the cave it is hard to notice any cave like features among the Hindu shrines and statues but once again it is the monkeys that steal the show.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about the Hindu religion (I know I should being a teacher!) but the myriad of colourful and interesting statues of the many gods certainly do inspire me to want to learn more. Like the huge green monkey/tiger/human god statue. Not surprisingly Si was very interested in the statue of the half cow, half topless woman god.

The next cave was a Hindu art gallery and the best word to describe that would be unnatural! There was not much regard shown here for the ancient cave formations since they were painted in bright rainbow colours which complemented the colourful Hindu art work beautifully! Through the back of the cave we were surprised to find an almost impromptu reptile zoo with snakes, turtles and mini crocodiles. We weren't really sure about the environmental / conservation policies here, especially since outside there were a couple of monkeys being kept in a cage whilst being taunted by one of the free monkeys leaping about on top of the cage!