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