We got a bus from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi - a town on the River Kwai, where the infamous bridge over the River Kwai is located. On my travels so far, I had heard very bad things about buses in Thailand, but from this experience, which was absolutely fine, even comfortable, I have decided that everyone who told me such things is either a liar or an idiot.
When we arrived, we then got what Jack called a "chicken bus" to the guesthouse. This was just an open backed truck where you all sit in the back on benches down the side. Otherwise known as "songthaew".
Our guest house was a cabin floating on the River Kwai and tied to the bank with a bit of rope. If that wasn't cool enough, I managed to find mashed potato on the menu - something that excited me immensely, as I hadn't had this since I left home. I wasn't sure if it would turn out to be vaguely edible, but I couldn't resist it, and when it came it was the creamiest, fluffiest mash as any other.
In the afternoon we went on a boat tour of Kanchanaburi. The boat was like a long flattened canoe with a motor. We were all expecting it to meander gentle along the river, but that was not to be. As soon as we pulled away from the bank, the boat sped along so fast we had to hold on to our clothes to make sure they were blown off us! It was crazy, but lots of fun. Amongst the things we zoomed past were lots of houses (yes entire, large houses) being pulled down the river by little boats. It seemed to be a normal thing here, but to me it was the most bizarre thing ever! One even had a disco on it!
First stop on the boat trip was the Jeath war museum. Kanchanaburi was was home to a Japanese POW camp for the workers of the Death Railway, connecting the Japanese army to Burma and India. It is also, as mentioned above, where the railway bridge over the River Kwai, that the allies notably destroyed, is located. 100,000 Asians and 16,000 POW's died building the Death Railway. The Jeath Museum contains photos and paintings of the camp and the building of the railway, all by POW's, and newspaper clippings, relating to the POW's who were held in the camp here. I found the paintings the most fascinating, as unlike the photos, which can be limited, they show how things were through the eyes of the prisoners, conveying their emotion more than a camera ever could.
The second stop was less depressing. It was the Kapoon Cave Temple. On the path to this temple were child monks, as young as about seven, with a big fish bowl collecting caterpillars. When you reach the temple, you have to climb down a ladder to get inside, as it is all underground in a claustrophobic, dripping, sauna-like cave made of limestone. Inside the cave were loads of young girls, all dressed in white, about the same age as the novice monks on the path, who followed us around, giggling. The cave was a series of small rooms containing all different gold statues of Buddha, it wasn't very big, but after ten minutes down there we couldn't take the heat anymore and desperately needed to escape into the fresh air. One thing I did manage to note before almost passing out, was how different the Thai Buddha looks to the Chinese Buddha! Like a totally different guy....
Third and final stop on this boat trip was the infamous bridge over the River Kwai. In fitting with the tone of this tourist attraction, as we pulled up by the shore, we noticed lots of people crowded round on the other side of the river. As we looked further at the commotion we noticed that amongst these people were a LOT of policemen. We soon realised why. Floating down the river, right by that point was a dead body. We never heard what had happened.
Slightly bewildered, we got out the boat and walked to the bridge above. The railway line across the bridge is still in use to day, however, being Thailand we were allowed to sit in the middle of it and take photos. Rather to my amusement, I noticed a couple place their baby in the middle of the train tracks to take photos. Soon after a security guard came out, blowing his whistle and waving a stick, then we heard the horn of the train. Despite the fact that there was a train a few metres away blowing its horn at people to get out the way, some tourists just didn't seem to have any interest in moving, so it took about ten minutes for the train to pass. As it did so a young boy waved out the window at me. As I waved back he giggled and ducked out of sight.
That evening I went for a walk around town. One of the main sights is the war cemetery - it consists of mostly foreigners though because the Thais didn't get too involved with the war, as they are happy to recall. One of the other main things I noticed was the number of dogs everywhere! As I walked there were many shops selling the beautiful tradition Thai dancing costume. There weren't really any shops for tourist, mostly practical kind of shops, such as tailors or mechanics. Though lots of places were selling offerings, ready for the Thai new year.
After dinner that night, we all went to a really chilled out bar called the Irish Gecko. When they ran out of what we wanted to drink, they hopped on a bike to 7-11 to buy it for us! The lady owner was really funny, completely wasted, yet still beating us all at pool. We played a drinking game called Ring of Fire (which always ends in disaster for someone) and poor Jack got destroyed. By the end of the night, he was wearing the triangle you use for setting up the balls in pool as a hat.
The following day (most of us feeling a bit worse for wear) we went to nearby Erawan National Park. Along the road there were more butterflies then I have ever seen in my life, just flitting about - it was beautiful. Amongst the butterflies were campaigning pick-up trucks with posters and megaphones for the coming up election.
When we arrived at the National Park we noticed that there were two different prices - local and foreigner. How cheeky!
We got out the car by a big puddle with hundreds and hundreds of butterflies crowded on top of it, drinking. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I got up so close that I could stick my hand amongst them and they just didn't care in the slightest. There were butterflies all over the park, but this was incredible.
The attraction of the national park is a 7 tier waterfall. As a bid to prevent littering (and thankfully one that works), you can't take any food or drink to the waterfall, except water, which you must check in at the entrance and leave a deposit to make sure you bring the bottles back out.
At the second tier of the waterfall we went swimming. There were hardly any people there and it was so beautiful. The water was an amazing azure colour with lush green trees growing all around. In the water were hudreds of fish that, if you kept still, would come and nibble away at you. It was so peaceful and relaxing there, we just floated around in the water and sat on the rocks, letting the waterfall above splash down onto us.
Then we climbed up all seven tiers. Stunning, but exhausting. In all the pools on the way up, local people played in the water. Boys swung from vines into the pools, while their parents lay on mats in the shade. Right at the top I got attacked by biting flies. Eurgh. So we went back down and by that point we were ravenous so ate packet after packet of crisps for lunch.
That night we went to the Kanchanaburi night market. It was so chilled out compared to what I had expected! Absolutely no pestering whatsoever! Here I had a dinner of corn on the cob with lashings of butter and salt...and a rather interesting sweet waffle, with sweetcorn in! It actually tasted great though. The other non-vegetarians went to a Korean barbeque - where you choose as much food as you want from a buffet and then cook it yourself on a little round metal cooker on top of coals.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
First Encounter with Bangkok
The first thing I thought when I arrived in Bangkok, was where were all the people? I had expected crazy hassle every step I took, yet when I got to the airport not even one person offered me a taxi and walking down the streets I was completely left to myself. Already this place had exceeded my expectations.
Though talking of taxis - my first encounter with one was somewhat interesting. For starters the taxi licence had the photo of a man on it, when the driver was clearly a very different female - perhaps the drivers mother I thought at first? But then decided it was probably, actually a completely random person. And then the driver got completely lost. As I had asked her to use the meter, at first I thought this was a scam to stretch the journey out and make me pay extra, but on arrival she knocked the price down 50% so I guess she genuinely didn't know the way to one of the most famous streets in Thailand, where I was going. It was slightly worrying when she stopped in the middle of the highway and ran out of the car to hail down other taxis to ask for directions, but I got there in one piece in the end!
Another assumption I had made about Thailand from things I had been told was how spicy the food would be, so I went to dinner expecting the worst, but it wasn't in the slightest bit spicy.... I did however eat egg for the first time! Wasn't so bad at all!
After dinner we went to the all famous Khao San Road - featured in the Beach and popular with backpackers. I thought I would hate it here but it was great! You could by really realistic fake driving licences, presscards, oxford or "lerverpool" degrees! I am definitely getting on of each when I go back there! The streets were lined with people trying to get you into their bars with signs saying things such as "Very Strong Cocktails - we don't check ID". However probably the best part of it was a stage featuring an excellent Elvis impersonator - the best I've ever seen, complete with insane backing dancers....the thing was though, the person playing Elvis was about 8 years old! He was amazing.
Another dominant feature of Khao San road was the buckets of rum - accompanied with red bull, coke and speed.... We decided a better option would be to stop off at Club 7-11 to pick up some drink and then drink it back at the hotel. This is where I first got to know our guide for the next month - Jack. He is the sweetest guy. It has only been about five years since he left the jungle for the first time, where he was part of the Red Karen hill tribe and hunted monkeys. He told us that the first time he ever saw a white person he was terrified and ran away. Since then he has been in the military, worked in a guest house and now has worked as a guide for about a year and a half. During this time he has seemed to pick up all the English drinking games and has gained a deep appreciation for cheesy American love songs!
Though talking of taxis - my first encounter with one was somewhat interesting. For starters the taxi licence had the photo of a man on it, when the driver was clearly a very different female - perhaps the drivers mother I thought at first? But then decided it was probably, actually a completely random person. And then the driver got completely lost. As I had asked her to use the meter, at first I thought this was a scam to stretch the journey out and make me pay extra, but on arrival she knocked the price down 50% so I guess she genuinely didn't know the way to one of the most famous streets in Thailand, where I was going. It was slightly worrying when she stopped in the middle of the highway and ran out of the car to hail down other taxis to ask for directions, but I got there in one piece in the end!
Another assumption I had made about Thailand from things I had been told was how spicy the food would be, so I went to dinner expecting the worst, but it wasn't in the slightest bit spicy.... I did however eat egg for the first time! Wasn't so bad at all!
After dinner we went to the all famous Khao San Road - featured in the Beach and popular with backpackers. I thought I would hate it here but it was great! You could by really realistic fake driving licences, presscards, oxford or "lerverpool" degrees! I am definitely getting on of each when I go back there! The streets were lined with people trying to get you into their bars with signs saying things such as "Very Strong Cocktails - we don't check ID". However probably the best part of it was a stage featuring an excellent Elvis impersonator - the best I've ever seen, complete with insane backing dancers....the thing was though, the person playing Elvis was about 8 years old! He was amazing.
Another dominant feature of Khao San road was the buckets of rum - accompanied with red bull, coke and speed.... We decided a better option would be to stop off at Club 7-11 to pick up some drink and then drink it back at the hotel. This is where I first got to know our guide for the next month - Jack. He is the sweetest guy. It has only been about five years since he left the jungle for the first time, where he was part of the Red Karen hill tribe and hunted monkeys. He told us that the first time he ever saw a white person he was terrified and ran away. Since then he has been in the military, worked in a guest house and now has worked as a guide for about a year and a half. During this time he has seemed to pick up all the English drinking games and has gained a deep appreciation for cheesy American love songs!
Friday, April 3, 2009
Malaysia
First impressions of KL = what a complicated city! I actually got lost before I even got through immigration. When you get out of the plane, you come into the gate into the terminal and there's one sign post pointing in the direction of arrivals, so you follow this down the corridoor and into the departures area, with all the duty-free shops, restaurants, lounges - everything except any sort of direction to tell you where the arrivals are meant to go. So I wondered around here for a bit before finally making it past baggage reclaim, immigration and finally even customs.
Now I had to find my way to the city centre - which is actually MILES AND MILES away. After going up and down in the elevator 5 times, I managed to find the floor which had the most expensive way to the city centre, however I wasn't up for another 20 elevator rides to find out where the bus was, so I got this "KLIA Express" which took me to KL Sentral Station.
I thought this would be easy enough, as the monorail to the area I was staying in "Bukit Bintang" also stopped at KL Sentral station. After walking round this station for about half an hour and asking more people directions than I can remember, one McDonalds and three maps later, I was almost ready to give up and die, when I saw the worlds smallest sign labelled "KL Monorail" pointing outside the building towards some scaffolding. I followed it. On reaching the scaffolding and finding nothing, I decided to walk around it. On the other side of the scaffolding I found a sort of make-shift scaffolding path. I followed this. Then, I saw what looked like a Monorail track above me! So I followed this for about 10 minutes and then found KL Sentral Monorail Station, apparently a different place from KL Sentral Station.
Dear god.
However, KL is not as bad as everyone makes out. I'd been fed lots of horror stories about this city, and expected some horrible grimy place where I would feel really uncomfortable and where I everyone would be really rude. I expected a massive culture shock with fanatical Islamic terrorists roaming the streets. I expected people to try and pull me in an alley way and rape me on every corner. Well actually, I thought KL was quite nice. Everyone was really friendly, things were chilled out, not masses to do, but it's a nice enough place! Maybe it was because I had such low expectations, but I thought KL was quite alright!
That night I went to Chinatown with a girl in my dorm. It felt just like being back in Hong Kong, which I felt kind of strange! We then found a reggae bar. It was a great place, with items on the menu such as "Reggae Rasta Vegetarian Soup", Bob Marley's greatest hits on repeat, and backpackers lying around smoking shisha. I liked it.
The next day, the girl from my dorm - Laura - and I, attempted to go sight seeing. This was just as complicated as my trip from the airport to my hostel. First of all we wanted to go to the Lake Gardens, which according to the map, contained a bird park, butterfly park, deer park, boating area, and many other things to do. So we got the monorail to what appeared to be the nearest stop and tried to follow the map to what looked like just down the street. All the streets had about 5 lanes either side, no crossings, no subways, no overpasses. It took long enough to find out how to cross a street (though we didn't always manage to do this), and after wondering around in the heat for 45 minutes we gave up and got a taxi. We asked the taxi to take us to the Lake Gardens. He took us to the bird park. Contrary to the map and the taxi drivers ideas, this was actually a different place, apparently half an hours walk away. We started to try and walk back to the Lake Gardens but the taxi driver found us and offered to take us there for free, as he was going back that way anyways. He dropped us off a pointed us in the direction to go, so we walked in the entrance he said and found ourself in someones house. Exiting quickly we walked back up the way to where we had seen a sign post. We didn't find that, but we did find the Butterfly Park, so we gave up and went here. While Laura walked around here, I carefully studied the map they had on the wall and planned our route to the Lake Gardens.
Finally we got there! It was some grass, with a building site in the middle and a murky stream running through it. Great.
It took a big lunch and some chocolate milkshake before we felt ready to attempt another destination. This time we studied the map extra, extra carefully and felt we could definitely find the next place. Back in KL Sentral Station again, I'm not even going to begin to describe our attempt to find the train to go to our next destination, except a brief part of it where some men, who quite obviously had no idea what we were trying to find tried to ask what we were looking for so that they could take a photo of themselves talking to us. As they attempted this without our permission and with us already in a very bad mood, they did not get an amicable response.
Eventually we made it to Merdeka Square, which in my opinion is the only real sight seeing attraction in the city of KL itself. There were some very beautiful Islamic looking buildings surrounding in, and also some rather oddly placed Tudor style buildings! It was conveniently close to Central Market, which was inconveniently overpriced.
Our next days activities were much more successful. The only difficulty in getting there was waiting at the wrong bus stop for about 10 minutes, but compared to the past two days this was fine. We ventured out the city to the Batu Caves - a Hindu temple, up lots and lots and lots of stairs, and in a cave. As you approach the temple there are loads of vegetarian restaurants and people trying to sell the obvious foreigners water. Then guarding the temple, is a massive gold statue of one of the gods, behind which y0u have the millions of stairs. A few attempts later, we made it to the top and into the massive, dark, dripping cave. Inside were lots of statues depicting scenes from Hindu legend. It was all very beautiful and entrancing, but i wished that we had a guide or someone who could tell us what it all meant.
At the back of the temple were monkeys, chickens and cats! Just roaming around, probably there not because the place was holy, but because they knew they could get fed by the tourists. There was a boy with a pigeon under his arm. I couldn't tell whether or not he was being cruel, but I found it best to give him a dubious look and then leave.
That evening I discovered Yo Sushi! My new favourite restaurant. Japanese food is undoubtedly the best food in the world. I went here 4 times in my stay in KL!
The next day Laura left for Melaka, where I was due to meet her the following day. I decided to spend my day alone here visiting the Malaysian National History Museum. So I planned on my map exactly how to get there, got off the train, walked to exactly where it should be, but it wasn't there! I walked around the area trying to find it, but it was no where to be seen. Eventually I stumbled across a tourist information office, it was closed, but on the side was the same map as mine....exactly the same except for the museum was missing. It seemed to have completely disappeared from existance. Very odd.
Next I was off to Melaka! A pleasant enough, 2 hour bus ride from KL. Here I went out to dinner with the owner of my hostel, to a very yummy and very cheap Buddhist restaurant. No idea what I was eating, but for just 3 Ringit (about 70p) I got to pile my plate high with delicious food from a vegetarian buffet. I then met up with Laura at her hostel for drinks. Here I played my first game of pool since the age of about seven, and actually it wasn't that hard! Not that I was any good, but it was my first time pretty much! I normally refuse to play on the grounds that I can't. We then went upstairs to play drinking games with the people in her dorm, and that's how I met Pete and Craig. It was a messy night. It took 2 hours for Pete and I to make the 10 minute walk back to my hostel (he kindly agreed to walk me home to make sure I was safe). But it was a pretty interesting walk! We saw a massive golden statue of Mr Universe from Melaka, complete with bulging muscles and holding weights. Even more amusing was the fire station, with the word "BOMB" written in 5 metre letters across the doors.
The next day none of us felt so good, but I introduced everyone to strawberry Fanta, and then everything was okay again. We went back to the bar in their hostel and played drinking games a second night in a row. This night the band from the bar joined us, and they were the most hilarious people ever. They told me that I had to take Craig back to Hong Kong, because he was very romantic, and HK was closer than London!
The following night was the night market, complete with kareoke competition. This took place on a massive stage, in front of an audience of about 100. The contestants were all middle-aged to old locals, warbling away love songs. There was one old man dancing away in front of the stage, on his own, but having the absolute time of his life. They all took it very seriously, and it was hilarious to watch.
I didn't feel like I saw much in Melaka, but then I'm not sure if there was much to see. We were staying right on the river, by all the pretty stuff and in Chinatown so we were in the heart of it really. And I had a good time, so that's what matters. Soon I was off back to KL - but this time with Pete and Craig in tow. I forced Yo Sushi! on them before heading up to Penang, where they were to meet me the following day.
I almost didn't get to Penang. Am starting to realise that yes I am infact completely incompetent when it comes to flying. I almost missed my flight because I am a total idiot and went to the wrong airport. I'm not even going to bother with the details of me running around trying to actually make my flight, but I made it. 45 minutes before departure. And yes, I'm the most useless person in existence. I will try harder.
Again I didn't see too much in Penang, but that's not because I didn't try. I went for a walk on my first day, and there were lots of temples and mosques and churches, but frankly I'm quite sick of this sort of thing at the moment. Once you've seen so many temples.... However a schoolboy did ask for my number, so I was quite impressed with the place. Another day Pete and I tried to find the beach, which was supposed to be really nice, but we failed and ended up in McDonalds. We did however make it Tescos one day - which was incredibly exciting and enabled us to cook some very, very satisfying pasta and potato dishes on Pete and Craig's portable cooker. It was so good to have home cooked Western food! We also made it to the Snake Temple, which was one room, with a few gold statues and a couple of snakes. Not the crazy snake pit filled, Indiana Jones adventure we were expecting.... and certainly not worth the 2 hour return trip, but oh well.
I didn't really feel like I saw much of Malaysia, but it was a nice relaxing break, and I had a good time, met some great people, so it's all good.
Next stop Thailand!!
Now I had to find my way to the city centre - which is actually MILES AND MILES away. After going up and down in the elevator 5 times, I managed to find the floor which had the most expensive way to the city centre, however I wasn't up for another 20 elevator rides to find out where the bus was, so I got this "KLIA Express" which took me to KL Sentral Station.
I thought this would be easy enough, as the monorail to the area I was staying in "Bukit Bintang" also stopped at KL Sentral station. After walking round this station for about half an hour and asking more people directions than I can remember, one McDonalds and three maps later, I was almost ready to give up and die, when I saw the worlds smallest sign labelled "KL Monorail" pointing outside the building towards some scaffolding. I followed it. On reaching the scaffolding and finding nothing, I decided to walk around it. On the other side of the scaffolding I found a sort of make-shift scaffolding path. I followed this. Then, I saw what looked like a Monorail track above me! So I followed this for about 10 minutes and then found KL Sentral Monorail Station, apparently a different place from KL Sentral Station.
Dear god.
However, KL is not as bad as everyone makes out. I'd been fed lots of horror stories about this city, and expected some horrible grimy place where I would feel really uncomfortable and where I everyone would be really rude. I expected a massive culture shock with fanatical Islamic terrorists roaming the streets. I expected people to try and pull me in an alley way and rape me on every corner. Well actually, I thought KL was quite nice. Everyone was really friendly, things were chilled out, not masses to do, but it's a nice enough place! Maybe it was because I had such low expectations, but I thought KL was quite alright!
That night I went to Chinatown with a girl in my dorm. It felt just like being back in Hong Kong, which I felt kind of strange! We then found a reggae bar. It was a great place, with items on the menu such as "Reggae Rasta Vegetarian Soup", Bob Marley's greatest hits on repeat, and backpackers lying around smoking shisha. I liked it.
The next day, the girl from my dorm - Laura - and I, attempted to go sight seeing. This was just as complicated as my trip from the airport to my hostel. First of all we wanted to go to the Lake Gardens, which according to the map, contained a bird park, butterfly park, deer park, boating area, and many other things to do. So we got the monorail to what appeared to be the nearest stop and tried to follow the map to what looked like just down the street. All the streets had about 5 lanes either side, no crossings, no subways, no overpasses. It took long enough to find out how to cross a street (though we didn't always manage to do this), and after wondering around in the heat for 45 minutes we gave up and got a taxi. We asked the taxi to take us to the Lake Gardens. He took us to the bird park. Contrary to the map and the taxi drivers ideas, this was actually a different place, apparently half an hours walk away. We started to try and walk back to the Lake Gardens but the taxi driver found us and offered to take us there for free, as he was going back that way anyways. He dropped us off a pointed us in the direction to go, so we walked in the entrance he said and found ourself in someones house. Exiting quickly we walked back up the way to where we had seen a sign post. We didn't find that, but we did find the Butterfly Park, so we gave up and went here. While Laura walked around here, I carefully studied the map they had on the wall and planned our route to the Lake Gardens.
Finally we got there! It was some grass, with a building site in the middle and a murky stream running through it. Great.
It took a big lunch and some chocolate milkshake before we felt ready to attempt another destination. This time we studied the map extra, extra carefully and felt we could definitely find the next place. Back in KL Sentral Station again, I'm not even going to begin to describe our attempt to find the train to go to our next destination, except a brief part of it where some men, who quite obviously had no idea what we were trying to find tried to ask what we were looking for so that they could take a photo of themselves talking to us. As they attempted this without our permission and with us already in a very bad mood, they did not get an amicable response.
Eventually we made it to Merdeka Square, which in my opinion is the only real sight seeing attraction in the city of KL itself. There were some very beautiful Islamic looking buildings surrounding in, and also some rather oddly placed Tudor style buildings! It was conveniently close to Central Market, which was inconveniently overpriced.
Our next days activities were much more successful. The only difficulty in getting there was waiting at the wrong bus stop for about 10 minutes, but compared to the past two days this was fine. We ventured out the city to the Batu Caves - a Hindu temple, up lots and lots and lots of stairs, and in a cave. As you approach the temple there are loads of vegetarian restaurants and people trying to sell the obvious foreigners water. Then guarding the temple, is a massive gold statue of one of the gods, behind which y0u have the millions of stairs. A few attempts later, we made it to the top and into the massive, dark, dripping cave. Inside were lots of statues depicting scenes from Hindu legend. It was all very beautiful and entrancing, but i wished that we had a guide or someone who could tell us what it all meant.
At the back of the temple were monkeys, chickens and cats! Just roaming around, probably there not because the place was holy, but because they knew they could get fed by the tourists. There was a boy with a pigeon under his arm. I couldn't tell whether or not he was being cruel, but I found it best to give him a dubious look and then leave.
That evening I discovered Yo Sushi! My new favourite restaurant. Japanese food is undoubtedly the best food in the world. I went here 4 times in my stay in KL!
The next day Laura left for Melaka, where I was due to meet her the following day. I decided to spend my day alone here visiting the Malaysian National History Museum. So I planned on my map exactly how to get there, got off the train, walked to exactly where it should be, but it wasn't there! I walked around the area trying to find it, but it was no where to be seen. Eventually I stumbled across a tourist information office, it was closed, but on the side was the same map as mine....exactly the same except for the museum was missing. It seemed to have completely disappeared from existance. Very odd.
Next I was off to Melaka! A pleasant enough, 2 hour bus ride from KL. Here I went out to dinner with the owner of my hostel, to a very yummy and very cheap Buddhist restaurant. No idea what I was eating, but for just 3 Ringit (about 70p) I got to pile my plate high with delicious food from a vegetarian buffet. I then met up with Laura at her hostel for drinks. Here I played my first game of pool since the age of about seven, and actually it wasn't that hard! Not that I was any good, but it was my first time pretty much! I normally refuse to play on the grounds that I can't. We then went upstairs to play drinking games with the people in her dorm, and that's how I met Pete and Craig. It was a messy night. It took 2 hours for Pete and I to make the 10 minute walk back to my hostel (he kindly agreed to walk me home to make sure I was safe). But it was a pretty interesting walk! We saw a massive golden statue of Mr Universe from Melaka, complete with bulging muscles and holding weights. Even more amusing was the fire station, with the word "BOMB" written in 5 metre letters across the doors.
The next day none of us felt so good, but I introduced everyone to strawberry Fanta, and then everything was okay again. We went back to the bar in their hostel and played drinking games a second night in a row. This night the band from the bar joined us, and they were the most hilarious people ever. They told me that I had to take Craig back to Hong Kong, because he was very romantic, and HK was closer than London!
The following night was the night market, complete with kareoke competition. This took place on a massive stage, in front of an audience of about 100. The contestants were all middle-aged to old locals, warbling away love songs. There was one old man dancing away in front of the stage, on his own, but having the absolute time of his life. They all took it very seriously, and it was hilarious to watch.
I didn't feel like I saw much in Melaka, but then I'm not sure if there was much to see. We were staying right on the river, by all the pretty stuff and in Chinatown so we were in the heart of it really. And I had a good time, so that's what matters. Soon I was off back to KL - but this time with Pete and Craig in tow. I forced Yo Sushi! on them before heading up to Penang, where they were to meet me the following day.
I almost didn't get to Penang. Am starting to realise that yes I am infact completely incompetent when it comes to flying. I almost missed my flight because I am a total idiot and went to the wrong airport. I'm not even going to bother with the details of me running around trying to actually make my flight, but I made it. 45 minutes before departure. And yes, I'm the most useless person in existence. I will try harder.
Again I didn't see too much in Penang, but that's not because I didn't try. I went for a walk on my first day, and there were lots of temples and mosques and churches, but frankly I'm quite sick of this sort of thing at the moment. Once you've seen so many temples.... However a schoolboy did ask for my number, so I was quite impressed with the place. Another day Pete and I tried to find the beach, which was supposed to be really nice, but we failed and ended up in McDonalds. We did however make it Tescos one day - which was incredibly exciting and enabled us to cook some very, very satisfying pasta and potato dishes on Pete and Craig's portable cooker. It was so good to have home cooked Western food! We also made it to the Snake Temple, which was one room, with a few gold statues and a couple of snakes. Not the crazy snake pit filled, Indiana Jones adventure we were expecting.... and certainly not worth the 2 hour return trip, but oh well.
I didn't really feel like I saw much of Malaysia, but it was a nice relaxing break, and I had a good time, met some great people, so it's all good.
Next stop Thailand!!
Singapore
The initial amusement of Singapore wore off as soon as I got to the Thai embassy. At the moment they are doing free tourist visas to try and entice tourists back after the riots, however they make it so complicated and were SO rude that it's a wonder there's any tourists going there at all. So I went to pick up the form that I needed but there were a few things I didn't quite understand and I wasn't sure exactly what type of visa I needed, as the website makes no sense and there are no guide notes to the form. Therefore, I thought it only reasonably to ask the lady processing the visas a couple of questions, especially seeing as there was no one else there and she was just sitting doing nothing. As I approached her, the rudest woman I have ever met stepped in front of me, saying "No flight, no visa!" I tried to explain that I just wanted to ask a few questions about the visa, as I wasn't sure what type I needed, but again "No flight, no visa!" Well that established that I wasn't allowed to approach the lady at the desk. So I tried to talk to the woman standing in my way, but all she would say was this phrase, then walk and stand a few feet away from me. I followed her and tried to ask her another question but she barged past me and went and stood a few feet away in the other direction. This ridiculous process went on for some time until I couldn't contain my anger any longer, so I stormed out before I erupted into something that would have got me kicked out.
Well I worked out from my extremely annoying encounter that I wasn't going to even get to talk to anyone without a flight in and out of Thailand (which I personally think is stupid thing to buy without first getting the visa, but there we go). So I bought a flight in, a flight out and proceeded to try and fill out the form without any idea of what type of visa I was supposed to be getting and only guess work to help me fill in the half of it that seemed ridiculous or didn't make sense. In the end I had to give the name, address and telephone number of someone in Thailand who could vouch for me and someone in Singapore who could vouch for me! This was completely, ridiculously, stupid. What tourists would generally have this! It was because I was staying over 30 days (58 in total) that I had to apply for a visa, unfortunately visa runs overland are now restricted to 14 day periods in the country. Luckily I was able to get people in both countries who knew me to let me give their details, but I have no idea what most people do!
Well as you can imagine, I was completely fuming, when I was on my way back to my hostel that afternoon, and matters were only made worse by my next encounter. It was 3pm, in a perfectly respectable street in Little India, I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, no short skirts, no make up. Remember that I'm in sterile Singapore here.... A middle aged Indian man comes up to me and walks along side me, saying something under his breath. I could hardly hear him, he was being very discreet about talking to me, but I worked out that he was asking where I was from. I told him England, then tried to work out what he was whispering next and suddenly realised that he was asking me for sex, in a totally serious manner, as though I was a prostitute. In London or somewhere I may have expected this, but Singapore?! Shocked, and very much conveying my shock in my voice, I told him firmly no, and walked five times as fast. He ran along beside me calling "I always pay!" I was appalled and now over my initial shock I turned round and shouted at him. The attention scared him away. I was now even less a fan of Singapore.
I spent the rest of the day grumbling to myself in my hostel.
On a more pleasant note, my friend from HK happened to be in Singapore on business for the time that I was there, and I was quite glad of a familiar face. She took me for dinner that nice in an organic vegetarian restaurant and I had such a nice meal, I forgot how good it felt to eat good, healthy food. Not that the food I had been eating in Bali was bad, far from it, but this was the kinda meal that made you feel like you'd just done your body a massive favour.
I returned to my hostel that night much happier, and in a far better mood to receive my crazy room mate. Apparently he was travelling on the money that the Norwegian governement gave him because he "thought too much". He refused to talk about China because if he gave his views on communism the Russian's (who are tracking people from Northern/Eastern/Central Europe everywhere) would kill him. During his sleep he tossed and turned so violently, and coughed a very pronounced, ridiculously fake-sounding cough that I, the worlds greatest sleeper, couldn't get the tiniest second of sleep. A very bizarre guy.
Well Singapore so far had been really weird, so I decided to try and actually see some sights, have a normal, holiday type experience, and the hostel I was staying at - an excellent place actually, called the Inn Crowd - had free guided tours of the local area of Bugis. It was really interesting actually, and our guide, one of the hostel workers was great. First of all we went to a beautiful green and yellow mosque, covered in moons and stars. Some of the girls on the tour - English, surprise surprise, were wearing little dresses and didn't understand that to go into the mosque they had to cover up, so that caused a bit of a problem, but I had come prepared so I went off to explore it by myself. It was just as pretty as any of the great churches or temples of other religions, though I found myself thinking that the lampshades and carpets would look quite good in a house of my own.
Next we went to a Chinese temple where our guide taught us how to ask the Goddess of Mercy our fortune. We each took three incense sticks and lit them on a gas lamp. First we faced south, bowing and waving the incense, praying to the south; then we faced the Goddess to do the same. After we had prayed, we put the incense in the giant incense holder as an offering and went inside the temple. Here we collected a container of bamboo sticks, and knelt before the goddess, shaking the container and focusing on a question we wanted answered until one of the sticks fell out. Then we had two moon shape chips that we needed to hold while praying to the goddess and toss them on the ground. If the chips were opposite ways up, then the stick belonged to us. Our stick would have on it a number, that we would look up in a book, providing the answer to our question.
The book told me that "the path is misty" as an answer to my question about a future career in international diplomacy/human rights that I am considering, but then went on to say that travellers would face difficulties. Uh oh.
Our guide told us that Chinese are very superstitious people and sometimes if they are told of a bad fortune from this Buddhist temple, they go to the Hindu temple next door to pray for a better fortune. So this is what we did!
Next we went to a local hawker center selling all types of local food. Here I tried some very strange bright pink, very sweet, drink in a plastic bag and an ice cream sandwich. Think I will stick to the nasi goreng. Rather unimpressed by this food, I went to meet my friend from HK, Fleur, in her hotel. Her company is putting her up in the hotel in an executive suite, which means she gets access to the executive lounge and is allowed to bring guests. Cue free cocktails all evening.
The following day I decided to go to Sentosa Island - the place I had seen so many adverts for whilst studying my inflight magazines at work in HK. I imagined it to be a bit tacky, but thought I may as well see what it is all about. Actually I was quite impressed. It was sort of a big theme park island, with a revolving/elevating look out tower, a giant "Merlion" statue, an aquarium, animal centres, eco-trails, go-karts, a giant ski lift type thing, a museum on Singaporean history.....and gorgeous beaches! Not something I would have expected in Singapore, but they were nicer than the beaches in Bali even! This island also contains, conveniently labelled, the most southernly point in continental Asia. So I went and stood there, gazed out to sea for a bit, and took a photo. All in all, I was quite impressed. I only had a look around and spent a few hours there, but it's the kind of place you could take the kids for a long weekend and have a very pleasant time.
For a final activity in Singapore I had to go to Raffles hotel with Fleur for a Singapore Sling. For those of you who don't know, Raffles is a very posh, very famous, very colonial hotel where people have afternoon tea, and that type of thing. It is where the cocktail "the Singapore Sling" was invented. It was rather nice. Just to make sure I didn't get mistaken for a classy person like everyone else there, I asked if I could nick a few free coasters to keep as a souvenir. The waiting staff were quite amused, so happily consented.
My flight the next day was at 7:30am, so I needed to be at the airport at 6am, before the first MRT would have got me there. So in order to save money on an overpriced taxi and accommodation for that night, I decided it would be a much better idea to sleep in the airport. So much for a tropical climate! I almost froze to death! Horrible night, not doing that again! (I give myself about a month before I come up with the same "clever" idea again.)
Well I worked out from my extremely annoying encounter that I wasn't going to even get to talk to anyone without a flight in and out of Thailand (which I personally think is stupid thing to buy without first getting the visa, but there we go). So I bought a flight in, a flight out and proceeded to try and fill out the form without any idea of what type of visa I was supposed to be getting and only guess work to help me fill in the half of it that seemed ridiculous or didn't make sense. In the end I had to give the name, address and telephone number of someone in Thailand who could vouch for me and someone in Singapore who could vouch for me! This was completely, ridiculously, stupid. What tourists would generally have this! It was because I was staying over 30 days (58 in total) that I had to apply for a visa, unfortunately visa runs overland are now restricted to 14 day periods in the country. Luckily I was able to get people in both countries who knew me to let me give their details, but I have no idea what most people do!
Well as you can imagine, I was completely fuming, when I was on my way back to my hostel that afternoon, and matters were only made worse by my next encounter. It was 3pm, in a perfectly respectable street in Little India, I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, no short skirts, no make up. Remember that I'm in sterile Singapore here.... A middle aged Indian man comes up to me and walks along side me, saying something under his breath. I could hardly hear him, he was being very discreet about talking to me, but I worked out that he was asking where I was from. I told him England, then tried to work out what he was whispering next and suddenly realised that he was asking me for sex, in a totally serious manner, as though I was a prostitute. In London or somewhere I may have expected this, but Singapore?! Shocked, and very much conveying my shock in my voice, I told him firmly no, and walked five times as fast. He ran along beside me calling "I always pay!" I was appalled and now over my initial shock I turned round and shouted at him. The attention scared him away. I was now even less a fan of Singapore.
I spent the rest of the day grumbling to myself in my hostel.
On a more pleasant note, my friend from HK happened to be in Singapore on business for the time that I was there, and I was quite glad of a familiar face. She took me for dinner that nice in an organic vegetarian restaurant and I had such a nice meal, I forgot how good it felt to eat good, healthy food. Not that the food I had been eating in Bali was bad, far from it, but this was the kinda meal that made you feel like you'd just done your body a massive favour.
I returned to my hostel that night much happier, and in a far better mood to receive my crazy room mate. Apparently he was travelling on the money that the Norwegian governement gave him because he "thought too much". He refused to talk about China because if he gave his views on communism the Russian's (who are tracking people from Northern/Eastern/Central Europe everywhere) would kill him. During his sleep he tossed and turned so violently, and coughed a very pronounced, ridiculously fake-sounding cough that I, the worlds greatest sleeper, couldn't get the tiniest second of sleep. A very bizarre guy.
Well Singapore so far had been really weird, so I decided to try and actually see some sights, have a normal, holiday type experience, and the hostel I was staying at - an excellent place actually, called the Inn Crowd - had free guided tours of the local area of Bugis. It was really interesting actually, and our guide, one of the hostel workers was great. First of all we went to a beautiful green and yellow mosque, covered in moons and stars. Some of the girls on the tour - English, surprise surprise, were wearing little dresses and didn't understand that to go into the mosque they had to cover up, so that caused a bit of a problem, but I had come prepared so I went off to explore it by myself. It was just as pretty as any of the great churches or temples of other religions, though I found myself thinking that the lampshades and carpets would look quite good in a house of my own.
Next we went to a Chinese temple where our guide taught us how to ask the Goddess of Mercy our fortune. We each took three incense sticks and lit them on a gas lamp. First we faced south, bowing and waving the incense, praying to the south; then we faced the Goddess to do the same. After we had prayed, we put the incense in the giant incense holder as an offering and went inside the temple. Here we collected a container of bamboo sticks, and knelt before the goddess, shaking the container and focusing on a question we wanted answered until one of the sticks fell out. Then we had two moon shape chips that we needed to hold while praying to the goddess and toss them on the ground. If the chips were opposite ways up, then the stick belonged to us. Our stick would have on it a number, that we would look up in a book, providing the answer to our question.
The book told me that "the path is misty" as an answer to my question about a future career in international diplomacy/human rights that I am considering, but then went on to say that travellers would face difficulties. Uh oh.
Our guide told us that Chinese are very superstitious people and sometimes if they are told of a bad fortune from this Buddhist temple, they go to the Hindu temple next door to pray for a better fortune. So this is what we did!
Next we went to a local hawker center selling all types of local food. Here I tried some very strange bright pink, very sweet, drink in a plastic bag and an ice cream sandwich. Think I will stick to the nasi goreng. Rather unimpressed by this food, I went to meet my friend from HK, Fleur, in her hotel. Her company is putting her up in the hotel in an executive suite, which means she gets access to the executive lounge and is allowed to bring guests. Cue free cocktails all evening.
The following day I decided to go to Sentosa Island - the place I had seen so many adverts for whilst studying my inflight magazines at work in HK. I imagined it to be a bit tacky, but thought I may as well see what it is all about. Actually I was quite impressed. It was sort of a big theme park island, with a revolving/elevating look out tower, a giant "Merlion" statue, an aquarium, animal centres, eco-trails, go-karts, a giant ski lift type thing, a museum on Singaporean history.....and gorgeous beaches! Not something I would have expected in Singapore, but they were nicer than the beaches in Bali even! This island also contains, conveniently labelled, the most southernly point in continental Asia. So I went and stood there, gazed out to sea for a bit, and took a photo. All in all, I was quite impressed. I only had a look around and spent a few hours there, but it's the kind of place you could take the kids for a long weekend and have a very pleasant time.
For a final activity in Singapore I had to go to Raffles hotel with Fleur for a Singapore Sling. For those of you who don't know, Raffles is a very posh, very famous, very colonial hotel where people have afternoon tea, and that type of thing. It is where the cocktail "the Singapore Sling" was invented. It was rather nice. Just to make sure I didn't get mistaken for a classy person like everyone else there, I asked if I could nick a few free coasters to keep as a souvenir. The waiting staff were quite amused, so happily consented.
My flight the next day was at 7:30am, so I needed to be at the airport at 6am, before the first MRT would have got me there. So in order to save money on an overpriced taxi and accommodation for that night, I decided it would be a much better idea to sleep in the airport. So much for a tropical climate! I almost froze to death! Horrible night, not doing that again! (I give myself about a month before I come up with the same "clever" idea again.)
Journey to Singapore
It took me 14 hours to travel from Bali to Singapore. This is about the same amount of time it takes to get to London. It was ridiculous. Don't ask me how I managed to take this long, because the answer is, I really, truly, do not know. However I kept myself amused with some interesting cultural differences. The first being in the departure lounge in Bali's domestic airport. Most airports no longer have any smoking area left, they were phased out ages ago. Bali's domestic terminal smoking "room" consists of a corner of the departure lounge, with a six foot tall screen round it, this kept me entertained for a while. So long in fact that I completely missed the boarding calls for my flight until I heard my name being called over the loud speaker. Here I would like to point out that this was nothing to do with my incompetence. The screen with my flight's gate number had a different number to one my boarding pass. Unlike all the other passengers who chose to believe the boarding pass, I chose to believe the screen. All the other flights on the screen were boarding, but still nothing came up for mine, so I assumed it must be on "rubber time". Thing was that the screen was actually broken, the announcement for boarding could only be heard at the actual gate itself, and I was sat, totally oblivious, on the wrong side of the terminal. I know it sounds typical of me, but it wasn't my fault.
Anyways I made the flight just about, despite some annoyed stares from the passengers who had been kept waiting. I just grinned back at them and found myself ready for my next source of amusement. I was flying "Value Air" a VERY budget Asian airline, and like Air Asia in that when they take off and land they play music over the speakers. Fittingly for a budget Asian airline, the song playing during take off was the old disco song "Staying Alive."
Things were pretty boring after this until I got to Singapore airport and the ATM started talking to me. Up until this point I hadn't really wanted to come to Singapore, I was just here for visa reasons, but this made me rethink - if this was what the rest of Singapore is going to be like, I am going to be extremely entertained. So the ATM politely, and in the Queen's English I might point out, thanked me for using it and made sure I took my card, money and receipt. I couldn't help but wishing it would have come out with the phrase "You don't have enough gold!" in a very computer-game-esque, deep, knight's-of-the-round-table-type voice.
On the MRT (underground train) next to the no smoking, no eating or drinking, and no explosives signs complete with their fine warnings, there was a sign for no Durians. A durian is a rather smelly type of tropical fruit. This kept me laughing all the way to my hostel. Perhaps I am too easily amused.
Anyways I made the flight just about, despite some annoyed stares from the passengers who had been kept waiting. I just grinned back at them and found myself ready for my next source of amusement. I was flying "Value Air" a VERY budget Asian airline, and like Air Asia in that when they take off and land they play music over the speakers. Fittingly for a budget Asian airline, the song playing during take off was the old disco song "Staying Alive."
Things were pretty boring after this until I got to Singapore airport and the ATM started talking to me. Up until this point I hadn't really wanted to come to Singapore, I was just here for visa reasons, but this made me rethink - if this was what the rest of Singapore is going to be like, I am going to be extremely entertained. So the ATM politely, and in the Queen's English I might point out, thanked me for using it and made sure I took my card, money and receipt. I couldn't help but wishing it would have come out with the phrase "You don't have enough gold!" in a very computer-game-esque, deep, knight's-of-the-round-table-type voice.
On the MRT (underground train) next to the no smoking, no eating or drinking, and no explosives signs complete with their fine warnings, there was a sign for no Durians. A durian is a rather smelly type of tropical fruit. This kept me laughing all the way to my hostel. Perhaps I am too easily amused.
And back to Ubud
On the final day of our trip in Bali, we drove back to Ubud, via a Hindu temple. We parked up on the opposite side of the lake and commissioned two canoes to take us across and into the temple.
Literally seconds after we stepped out of the canoe, Chloe and I were grabbed by some Javanese men, their arms put round us and cameras taken out. I wouldn't have minded this at all, apart from the fact that they didn't ask, but just grabbed us like we were objects, less than animals. So we stopped the photos from being photos, shook our fists and growled. Well not really. But we did get away without our images being violated and a few angry glares.
Once we were actually allowed to look around the temple it was a little bit of a disappointment. It was so full of tourists, unlike the other temples we had seen which we just us and the locals, that it didn't have the peace and mystery that I felt in the other places. It felt like the gods had left the place long ago, and it was just a sell out show.
Back in Ubud, I really felt like I wanted to stay. It's such a lovely town, with great people, and such a good atmosphere. Every other shop is an art shop, there are beautiful bamboo restaurants serving delicious food, the locals sit around playing guitar, excited to just chat to you, with no ulterior motive. However the last night was a little bit...interesting...
Chloe was staying in a homestay with a friend of our group leader - Wayan - so that night we went out with him to a reggae bar. There was a really good live reggae band, with the worlds happiest singer, people were losing themselves dancing and there was just a great holiday atmosphere. Though annoyingly, one of the guys we were talking to sat down next to me and kept edging closer and closer. I kept edging away until I was squashed up against Chloe, but he didn't get the message and sooner or later was practically sitting on top of me and staring intently at me, despite the fact I was facing the other way. I felt quite uncomfortable. In this kind of situation in London, Hong Kong, or any other Western country it wouldn't have been a big deal, but when you're in a place where the culture is so different from your own, it's hard to know what people's agenda is or how they will react to things.
Then, a the biggest Balinese guy I had ever seen, covered with tattoos as far as his forehead and lots of big gold jewellery came along. He was Wayan's friend. Earlier in the day Chloe had met him, and a Dutch lady had told her to stay away from him as he was "bad news", but he seemed nice enough, and his presence seemed to scare the other guy away so I was happy! However, when it got to the end of the night he was so insistent on taking me home, it was kind of unnerving. We had to pretend that Chloe needed to get something from mine, but even then he followed us half way there and was very difficult to dissuade. We had to get Wayan to come with us so that Chloe would be okay going back on her own. So as much as Ubud was lovely during the day, at night, things were a little bit on the worrying side.
Literally seconds after we stepped out of the canoe, Chloe and I were grabbed by some Javanese men, their arms put round us and cameras taken out. I wouldn't have minded this at all, apart from the fact that they didn't ask, but just grabbed us like we were objects, less than animals. So we stopped the photos from being photos, shook our fists and growled. Well not really. But we did get away without our images being violated and a few angry glares.
Once we were actually allowed to look around the temple it was a little bit of a disappointment. It was so full of tourists, unlike the other temples we had seen which we just us and the locals, that it didn't have the peace and mystery that I felt in the other places. It felt like the gods had left the place long ago, and it was just a sell out show.
Back in Ubud, I really felt like I wanted to stay. It's such a lovely town, with great people, and such a good atmosphere. Every other shop is an art shop, there are beautiful bamboo restaurants serving delicious food, the locals sit around playing guitar, excited to just chat to you, with no ulterior motive. However the last night was a little bit...interesting...
Chloe was staying in a homestay with a friend of our group leader - Wayan - so that night we went out with him to a reggae bar. There was a really good live reggae band, with the worlds happiest singer, people were losing themselves dancing and there was just a great holiday atmosphere. Though annoyingly, one of the guys we were talking to sat down next to me and kept edging closer and closer. I kept edging away until I was squashed up against Chloe, but he didn't get the message and sooner or later was practically sitting on top of me and staring intently at me, despite the fact I was facing the other way. I felt quite uncomfortable. In this kind of situation in London, Hong Kong, or any other Western country it wouldn't have been a big deal, but when you're in a place where the culture is so different from your own, it's hard to know what people's agenda is or how they will react to things.
Then, a the biggest Balinese guy I had ever seen, covered with tattoos as far as his forehead and lots of big gold jewellery came along. He was Wayan's friend. Earlier in the day Chloe had met him, and a Dutch lady had told her to stay away from him as he was "bad news", but he seemed nice enough, and his presence seemed to scare the other guy away so I was happy! However, when it got to the end of the night he was so insistent on taking me home, it was kind of unnerving. We had to pretend that Chloe needed to get something from mine, but even then he followed us half way there and was very difficult to dissuade. We had to get Wayan to come with us so that Chloe would be okay going back on her own. So as much as Ubud was lovely during the day, at night, things were a little bit on the worrying side.
Lovina
Finally we drove to out hotel - with a swimming pool and real people! Wow! We were back in civilisation again.
That night at dinner, Chloe and I decided to check out the local bars. There wasn't a great deal of choice (namely two bars next door to each other) but we headed for what seemed like the best option, containing only four people with whom we sat. The drinks were very, very expensive. There was a live cover band playing, who I actually thought were very good. They reminded me of the Philippino bands in Hong Kong, though these guys got a great deal more of the words wrong. The other Europeans we were sitting with left, leaving just the bar staff, Tim from East Timor and a guy sitting on his own - so I invited him over. Turns out (and I believe this story as it wasn't the person in question who told me, and the concept seemed to fit him very well) he was a Dutch lottery winner, trying to immigrate to Bali. Anyways he paid some of the boys at the bar to drive us to the nearby "Volcano Club" and paid for ALL our entries.
So we rode to the club - me, Chloe, the Dutch lottery winner, Tim from East Timor, the bar manager and the band. Chloe and I went on the same bike, for safety reasons, but we were so weighed down that we couldn't go as fast as the other bikes, so failed miserably in the attempt to race. It wasn't half as scary - being on a motorbike - as I thought, but actually really fun, and made more so by Chloe making shadow puppets in the headlamp!
The club was in the shape of a volcano, with a rotating dancefloor. It was all black inside with swirling, glowing patterns on the walls and ceilings - like the inside of a volcano. Here we met a guy from Jakarta and an O'Neill sponsored surfer from the Gilly(sp?) Islands, and all proceeded to the dancefloor to partake in some of the most stupid dancing I have ever done, including salsa, ballroom, and a local dance called "the Joggette". We also drank some of the local spirit, Arak. At first I thought this was actually ok, but later that night Chloe was sick, Tim from East Timor passed out! And the following day I felt like I was going to die.
At the end of the night, the guys discussed who would get to take us back to our hotel, while Chloe and I discussed whether we would be safer getting in a car with a drunk driver, or on a bike with a drunk driver. There was no other option to get home. Our logic was that we would be less likely to die in a car because they are bigger.
That night at dinner, Chloe and I decided to check out the local bars. There wasn't a great deal of choice (namely two bars next door to each other) but we headed for what seemed like the best option, containing only four people with whom we sat. The drinks were very, very expensive. There was a live cover band playing, who I actually thought were very good. They reminded me of the Philippino bands in Hong Kong, though these guys got a great deal more of the words wrong. The other Europeans we were sitting with left, leaving just the bar staff, Tim from East Timor and a guy sitting on his own - so I invited him over. Turns out (and I believe this story as it wasn't the person in question who told me, and the concept seemed to fit him very well) he was a Dutch lottery winner, trying to immigrate to Bali. Anyways he paid some of the boys at the bar to drive us to the nearby "Volcano Club" and paid for ALL our entries.
So we rode to the club - me, Chloe, the Dutch lottery winner, Tim from East Timor, the bar manager and the band. Chloe and I went on the same bike, for safety reasons, but we were so weighed down that we couldn't go as fast as the other bikes, so failed miserably in the attempt to race. It wasn't half as scary - being on a motorbike - as I thought, but actually really fun, and made more so by Chloe making shadow puppets in the headlamp!
The club was in the shape of a volcano, with a rotating dancefloor. It was all black inside with swirling, glowing patterns on the walls and ceilings - like the inside of a volcano. Here we met a guy from Jakarta and an O'Neill sponsored surfer from the Gilly(sp?) Islands, and all proceeded to the dancefloor to partake in some of the most stupid dancing I have ever done, including salsa, ballroom, and a local dance called "the Joggette". We also drank some of the local spirit, Arak. At first I thought this was actually ok, but later that night Chloe was sick, Tim from East Timor passed out! And the following day I felt like I was going to die.
At the end of the night, the guys discussed who would get to take us back to our hotel, while Chloe and I discussed whether we would be safer getting in a car with a drunk driver, or on a bike with a drunk driver. There was no other option to get home. Our logic was that we would be less likely to die in a car because they are bigger.
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