Time's flying!

Blimey, what a lot of blogging we have to do!

Monday 3rd December

What a weird start to the day! Dave went to get his hair cut. Simple process you might think, just a shave all over. Not the case.

After what seemed like the end of the haircut, the barber gave Dave a full back massage. And then proceeded to baby-wipe his whole torso. Not sure why, but that's what happened.

After the camera problems we'd booked on another half-day trip to Maya Bay and then to watch the sunset from the boat. We went snorkelling and kayaking and got the pictures we were after. We watched the sunset from the boat after a hearty meal of rice and vegetables.

When we got back on dry land we decided to splash out and book tickets to see a legend play in Australia. Not Dave Kilner, but someone almost as famous...... Elton John!

It was something we'd both wanted to do and so we booked flights from Sydney to Melbourne, and tickets for the concert. The date was set... 16th December, in Werribee (near Melbourne).

We had pizza for tea (a Thai speciality), then packed our bags (again!), then went to bed as we had to catch the 2pm boat across to Krabi on the Thai mainland.

Tuesday 4th December

Got up and checked out of our home, and jumped on a taxi boat round the bay to catch the 2pm ferry. We got the 2pm crossing as planned, and arrived in Krabi around 3.30pm. We got a taxi to 'A Mansion' (that was the name of the hotel!) as recommended by the LP (that's Lonely Planet to those in the know).

It was a lovely hotel, much to our delight. We went for a walk round Krabi, which is a really relaxed place and a lot less intense than the previous few weeks of chaos. We bought watches off a bloke who claimed they are genuine...

We went out for some food and got chatting to an incredible Swiss bloke. He'd had an accident years before and was brain damaged from it. His English was better than ours! He was away travelling for a few weeks to give his wife a break from looking after him. Absolutely incredible guy.

We ended up in an Italian restaurant to have a drink, and as is always the case, the unplanned nights are always the best. We sat there listening to a brilliant duo playing electric guitars, playing everything from Guns N Roses to Dire Straits. They were supposed to finsh at 1am but after several cries of 'One More' from us, they finally stopped banging out the hits around 1.45am.

We got back to the hotel and watched Charlton vs Preston. What a rubbish match.

Wednesday 5th December

We got a taxi to Krabi airport (which had to turn round and go back to the hotel cos we'd left the CD of our photos there!), and strolled in.

Security is not an issue in Krabi, it would appear. We got lost and after breaching about 5 security barriers / doors / lifts we found our way to international departures.

We flew to Kuala Lumpur (KL from now on...) and got a bus to the city centre and found our new, amazing home. The Haven Guesthouse. When we arrived, Murphy and Jonny (two blokes we'd met in Ko Samui) were there! Out of all the hostels in KL, we'd all chosen that one.

It's by far the best place we've stayed so far. Clean, fun, cheap, and full of brilliant people.

We had some food, bought a bottle of vodka and played some pool. Then bed.

Thursday 6th December

With the vodka still present in our systems, we had a steady day, looking around Times Square shopping centre. A lot of KL has a New York look and feel to it.

We then realised that none of our bank cards worked in KL, which meant we had no money!! Dave's Dad to the rescue, transferring money Western Union styleeee.

We then went to a bar we'd heard about, called the Sky Bar. It's on the 33rd floor of the Traders' Hotel, and has no roof. And a swimming pool in the middle of it!

Very expensive but lots of fun looking out over the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower.

Friday 7th December

Went back to Times Square to go to their indoor theme park. It's on the 5th floor, naturally. We went on a few rides there, including a brilliant rollercoaster!

Then we headed across town to the KL Tower. It a huge tower with 4 floors at the top of it. The lowest one is the observation deck (about 950 feet up!). Above that is a restaurant (by reservation only, 3 days in advance!), a function room for weddings etc, and the top floor is a broadcasting centre.

The view is incredible from there, and you're almost level with the top of the Petronas Towers.

When we returned to earth, we spotted a zip-slide. Dave got stuck in and got all harnessed up, and proceeded to fly along above the road, hanging from a piece of wire rope wearing a silly helmet.

That evening we went to another bar-on-a-roof, this time called the Luna Bar. Our taxi driver believed we are Aussies and proceeded to slag John Howard off all the way there.

The Luna Bar is even more swanky (and expensive!) than the Sky Bar. It was the 3rd birthday of the bar, so there was a big party going on with a DJ on a stage on legs in the swimming pool.

Dave did a bit of DJing (not quite sure how that happened...), and then went home. Via the Sky Bar. We don't do ground-level drinking any more.

Saturday 8th December

Did nothing all day apart from eat 6 slices of free toast with Marmite.

Sunday 9th December

After staying up all night, we went to the Petronas Towers at 7am. It's free to go up, but you have to queue early to get your tickets as only a limited number can go up each day.

We got the 9.15am slot, and after watching a 3D presentation about how wonderful Petronas PLC are, we headed up to the 41st floor.

When the doors open, you walk round a corner and there it is. The Skywalk.

It's a glass bridge joining the two towers together, and it feels a bit strange being suspended that high up! The views are amazing though, and it's something not to be missed.

That evening we went to see 'One In A Million' being filmed. It's the Malaysian equivalent of 'X-Factor'. It's filmed 'as-live' but was due to be screened a week later.

We cheered, whistled and screamed for a bloke called 'Iz' (who we'd never met, but was a friend of the person who got us the tickets!). He won out of his pair, which means he's through to the last 12! The winner gets 1 million ringgit (about 115,000 quid.... still can't find the pound sign)

We came back via our new local, the Luna Bar, and finally got to bed about 6am.

Monday 10th December

Got up at 2pm and went to the KL Aquarium. Saw lots of fish (and cats and monkeys for some reason), and got a taxi back.

You ain't seen rush hour til you've seen KL rush hour. Our 5 minute taxi ride (it was raining!) took an hour, and by that point we were cutting it fine to make our 7.30pm bus to Singapore.

We made it about 7.15pm, and our bus turned up. At 8.45pm.

2 hours in to our journey (on a luxury bus by the way), the bus stopped for no apparent reason. We both went to investigate (due to our extensive mechanical training) and it turned out the bus had a puncture. More delays.

We finally got moving again, and reached the Malaysian border. Se we got off the bus and got stamped out of the country.

50 yards down the road we stopped again, got off again, and officially entered Singapore. God knows what that bit in between is called. Malapore or Singyia I assume.

We arrived in Singa'pore at 4.15am (should have been 1am), and found our new home, the 'Fragrance Hostel'. It was more like a 5 star hotel!! The showers were super-powerful, and we had a 6 bed dorm to ourselves for 3 nights!

Tuesday 11th December

Got up at 12pm, and walked to the MRT station (their tube) and headed for the Harbourfront. From here we got the (very high) cable car to the island of Sentosa. It was bit scary but we made it!!

Sentosa is Singapore's own 'Island Resort' (their words), and it had some good beaches and is, like the rest of Singapore, immaculately kept. You can't imagine how clean Singapore is!

There's a big 'Merlion' standing tall on the island. It's Singapore's national symbol - half Lion, half Mermaid. We climbed up inside it, and you can look out from its mouth or stand on top of its head, so we did both!!

Dave then went on a ski-lift thingy up a big hill, while Matt stayed safely on the ground, and came back down a the hill on a racetrack riding a luge. It's like a skateboard that you sit on, with handlebars (nothing like a skateboard then really).

We got the monorail back across to Singapore and looked round two, very clean, shopping centres. One called the Harbourfont (no idea why) and the other called Vivocity. Most prices are similar to English ones. Probably to pay all those cleaners.

We strolled back to the hostel around 7.30pm, through the Little India area of Singapore.

Wednesday 12th December

We went on a boat trip along the river today, and got a good view of the city skyline from the water.

Matt's camerawork was once again tested as Dave decided to go on a very big swing thing.

You're hoisted up backwards while sitting / hanging in a metal cage. When you reach the top, it's the rider's responsibility to pull a cord to release the ride, sending it swinging high over the river.

The best feeling EVER!!

We headed back to the hostel and went for food a couple of doors down in the Countryside Cafe, and then headed out to the Raffles Hotel, to have a Singapore Sling (we're very posh 'n that) in the 'Long Bar'.

Across the road from Raffles was another bar. A VERY high bar....

71 storeys above 'The Stamford' hotel, is the New Asia bar. You can tell you're in a stylish bar, mixing with the rich and famous, when you walk in to the sound of Bon Jovi blaring out!!

So we lived on a prayer for a bit, and then called it a night. Off to Sydney tomorrow....

Thursday 13th December

Got up at 5.45am, and got a taxi to Singapore airport. Tried some local cuisine in the form of a McDonalds breakfast, and got our flight. (It was on a Boeing 747, claimed Matt - Dave just knew it was far too big and heavy to be able to fly.)

After a fairly bumpy flight and some lovely in-flight food, we arrived at Sydney.

We met a really cool bloke in Sydney Airport before we went through immigration. He had a hat and everything:

You're not going to believe this bit......

The very first words that anyone said to us in Australia were... HOW ARE WE?

The immigration guy really did say it!! What a welcome to the country!!

Then we got a train to Central Station, which is on the same road as our hostel. When I say on the same road, it's a bit like saying that London is on the same road as Leeds, which it kind of is....

Pitt Street is a very long road. After a bit of a walk we saw our hostel, beaming out dirty orange light, like a can of tango in a puddle. (What the hell am I talking about?!)

The Maze Backpackers. Our new home for the next 28 nights. What a dump.

To put it politely, it's like being in prison. A dirty one. With a load of people who just arrived back from Ibiza. There isn't even a power socket in our cell. But there is a filthy chair so that's ok. And we do have a fan, which is covered in crap and is too high to reach to clean it.

Apart from that, it's perfect!! Complaint on the way to STA Travel......

We headed out for a short walk, got some food and went to sleep.

Friday 14th December

At 4.30am, it turned out we were both awake, so we got up and made some pasta!! By this point we'd had a grand total of 6 hours sleep in two nights.

Dave did some washing, and we killed some time reading books (us... and books!!) til 9am came.

We were both very tired but couldn't wait to see the sights, so we got a bus (eventually) to the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Words can't describe how amazing it was to see them. After years of seeing pictures and seeing them on TV, it was incredible to actually be there.

To get a better view of the opera house, we caught a boat to Manly. We'd beeen told it's a lovely place, and it is. The boat takes you past the Opera House and then a half-hour journey gets you to Manly Wharf.

We saw REAL surfers there and everything!! Very clean and laid back, somewhere we're thinking of moving to after we complete our jail term here.

When we got back to Sydney Harbour we opened a bank account each, which means we have to get jobs now to put money in them. Rubbish news.

Because of our messy sleeping patterns, we both crashed out about 7pm and woke up at about 11.30pm. The only way to get back to sleep.... go for a beer!!

In Sydney (and possibly all of Australia) you can only buy beer in a liquor store or in a bar. Not in shops like 7-Eleven or any convenience stores.

Bizarrely you can buy beers in a bar to take out, which was our plan. Anyway, that didn't happen, and we ended up in Scruffy Murphy's bar, just around the corner from Cell Block H.

It was interesting to say the least. We think we might be in a rubbish bit of town.

We got to bed about 4am, and now it's Saturday. Elton John tomorrow night!!

Speak soon, Dave and Matt xxx

We're still alive!!

Hello!

Sorry it's been so long since we blogged, but you know what it's like, beaches to sit on, beers to drink....

So, first things first. Dave's toe. Definitely broken, but getting better every day. It's ok to walk with shoes on now, but still need to be a bit careful when barefoot.

Anyway, enough about all that. Something else is broken...... THE CAMERA!!

The 'waterproof' camera, it would appear, is not 'sea-proof'. We'll get to that bit later, but for now there's no pics. There will be in the next couple of days though.

Wednesday 21st November

This was the night after the toe incident, and we had to do a runner from the hotel. Ideal timing. Long story short.... all the shenanigans in the sea the night before led to the unfortunate loss of our hotel room key. When we got back that night, we had no choice but to go to reception and claim that we'd handed our key in, and therefore they must have lost it.

Eventually they agreed to let us in the hotel room with the spare key, but wouldn't leave it with us. No key = no electricity. So we slept with no air con and no lights and only 19 fully working tootsies between us.

The following morning we decided it wasn't a good idea to go past reception and get told off, so we headed along the beach and checked in to the 'P & P Resort'.

We went to the beach for a while, and in the evening returned to the beach party and set off firey lantern things. They're kind of mini hot air balloons, and you set fire to the bottom bit, and it floats off in to the sky. For MILES!!

Then we went to the Mango Tree club for a drink or three, and by 3am we were ready to watch England lose to Croatia. So we did. In an English pub called Black Jack.

It was full of England fans, and three Croatia fans too!! After a quiet word from one of the rather large England fans, they left. Anyway, we lost and McLaren walked away with 2.5 million.


Thursday 22nd November

Really lazy day, played frisbee on the beach (Matt had to go and fetch it if it landed too far away!!)

Also, we met an Irish lad in Speedos who had just recovered from Dysentry.

Had an early night after a couple of drinks in 'Solo' bar. Very refined.

Friday 23rd November

Another lazy day, then in the evening we went out and played Jenga and Connect 4 with some locals. We lost.

We made the fatal mistake of dancing again, in a club full of locals, and looked very silly, but we're used to that now.

We ended up back in the Jenga / Connect 4 bar which was simply called 'Snatch'. Best bar name ever!!

Saturday 24th November

Tonight is full moon night!

Unsurprisingly we had a lazy day, and were due to be picked up between 10.00 and 10.30pm to get a boat across to Ko Phang An (everywhere you look it's spelt differently!). Our taxi finally turned up about 11.30pm and the rudest man in the world drove like a nutcase for half an hour to other hotels, wondering why people weren't still waiting to be picked up!

We eventually got to the seaside and had to wait for ages for a boat to turn up, so we had a beer on the beach.

Finally our speedboat turned up, and after a very exciting (and bumpy) ride over, we arrived on Ko Phang An about 1.30am.

We got stuck in to the buckets of vodka (you buy a bucket, a small bottle of vodka and a can of coke, then chuck it all in with loads of ice, and hey presto!)......

.......and then we discovered an official 'sleeping area' on the beach!!!

So Matt went and got about 20 winks, while Dave laid by the sea pondering life's big decisions... Shall we get another bucket now or later....?!

The party was amazing, thousands of people in various states dancing on the beach and in all the bars. I think we've lost the pictures though on the damaged memory card. Gutted.

(NEWSFLASH...... We've got the pictures back!!)

We waded (fully clothed) out to our return speedboat about 6.30am, and finally got to bed about 7.30am. Brilliant night.

Sunday 25th November

Got up about 1pm, feeling a little bit tender, and booked our bus/boat to Ko Phi Phi. Had some food, packed our bags and got to bed about 1.30am.

Monday 26th November

Got up at 5.40am (!) and got picked up by minibus to go to the pier. Got the 8am ferry across to the mainland.....

......and got a bus from there across to Krabi on the West side of the mainland. It took about three hours so we both got some sleep.

When we got to Krabi we had to wait about 90 minutes for the boat, so we munched on some lunch.

Got the 3pm boat across to Ko Phi Phi Don, which is the inhabited of the two islands.

When we arrived we walked around in sweltering heat with big rucksacks until we found the Andaman resort. About 20 quid per night for air con, private bathroom (with flushing toilet!) and our own pool!!

Life's tough out here.

Went for some food (everything's a lot more expensive here than on the mainland and Cambodia etc), and then went to an Irish bar for a drink, then Apache bar, then Hippies. Hippies is amazing... More on that later!

Tuesday 27th November

Got up late (can you believe it?), went for some food. We watched 'The Beach' in a bar, and then went to the Reggae Bar. This bar is crazy. There's two full size boxing rings in the bar, and every half hour or so, there's a proper thai boxing match. In between these fights, tourists are encouraged to get in the ring and beat each other up for a bucket of booze!!

So we watched some scores get settled, including some girl fights. The place is awesome!!

We ended up in 'Hippies' again for the end of the night. It's a brilliant place, and only really gets going about 2am. It's right on the beach, and there's fire shows to watch, and you can paddle / dance around in the sea while you drink. It's such a nice bar, so relaxed and a really good atmosphere.

Wednesday 28th November

Dave woke up and had a sandwich full of ants.

We both got a sandwich the night before, but Dave left a little bit on the bedside table. When he woke up he started munching on the remains, and when he looked down at where he'd left it, there were loads of ants running around. Tasted ok though.

Today was world record attempt day... Matt claimed he could hold his breath underwater for 1 minute and 35 seconds. Dave's first attempt was a whopping 1 min 45... thus battle commenced!

After lots of deep breaths and near-death experiences, Matt's lungs proved superior to Dave's, with a cracking time of 2 mins 15 secs!! Dave only managed 2.05. Livid.

Had some BBQ chicken and sweetcorn, and went to Reggae bar to watch more people fighting each other. Played pool with some Aussies (we won!).

When we got back to the bungalow there was an Aussie asleep on our front porch. Don't think it was pool-related though.

Security man got rid of him though, and we slept, safe in our beds.

Thursday 29th November

We got a boat at 9am to go and visit 'The Beach' from the film. We went kayaking and snorkelling, and saw some amazing fish swimming right next to us. We had to clamber through a cave to get there, but it was amazing.

Far too many tourists and speedboats but still pretty special.

Then we were served lunch on the boat (rice and chicken, yum yum!), and moved on to 'Monkey Beach'. Here, there was a beach, and a monkey. See what they did there with the name?

After a bit more snorkelling and kayaking we got back on the boat and moved on to another beach. Simply paradise. Totally clear water and soft white sand.

We met Mr Universe (well, he thought he was), and headed back to Phi Phi Don.

Had a nap, some food, then an early night.

Friday 30th November

Really lazy day, played some frisbee in the pool, went to a bar called Carlito's for food, and ended up in Hippies bar chatting to a bloke called Andy. He's from Westminster and he's a Charlton fan.

Saturday 1st December

We've been away a whole month!!

More pool / frisbee action, and went to the BQ chicken place again. You get half a chicken, salad and chips (they're on the menu as 'Friend Fried', and that's not a typing error!).

Not sure how much it would cost to get Matt fried, but we're looking in to it.

Went back to Reggae Bar again, and saw a Swedish girl get beaten up, and then a drunk English bloke get beaten up. They wear head protection so it looks worse than it is!

You'll never guess where we ended up... Hippies! More beers and paddling, then bed.

Sunday 2nd December

We went for a walk to the viewpoint today. It's 1000 feet above sea level, and you have to start the walk at sea level. Matt decided the steps and height might not be such a good idea, so Dave ventured on alone.

After going up about 100 of the steepest steps in the world, and then a long walk on a steep winding path for what seems like an eternity, you reach the top.

The view is incredible over the islands, and hopefully the pictures from our new disposable camera will come out ok.

We've booked another boat trip tomorrow, so hopefully we can get some photos of the amazing places we saw a few days ago.

And now it's now, and we're going to get some food.

Speak soon!!