A piece of paradise

This place has come straight of a postcard and into reality, one glance produces at sigh of content..*and relax* which is just what we needed to do..especially after our journey up here! on Sunday we eventually managed to get our thai visa and head over the border- arrving at the train station just in time to jump n the delayed early train as it pulled out of the station..as we stood in the corridor a though a occured along the lines of oh **** weve just boarded a 13 our train ride with no food drink or entertainment..arg! i was already so thurst i went up to the first (non armed) guard and asked where i could get some water..they only sold beer..beer it is! The army guys protrolling the train then proceeded to laugh at the britishg girls who had started drinking already at 11 in the morning..i feel somewhat pushed into this typical english stereotype! Anyways after a sleepless 13 hours of dashing out to sheck the station stop everytime we pulled up ( as we had no concept of time and or a way of finding out) we arrived in chumphon at 3am, to sit on the platform with a random bunch of travellers waiting to get the next set of transport to Koh tao the next morning.
Needless to say it made this place all the more heavenly when we got here!- for the first time me and em have our own room..with balcony 2 mins from the water..on a quiet little bay called sharks bay..i have even seen a shark! we have great snorkling the clearest water i have ever seen and well, ife really doesn' get much better than this...

Throw those curtains wide

As it turns out, it was actaully one of the best couple of days weve had- Russel a kiwi we met in Kl met up with us and took us on a whole host of adventures . he is what he likes to call an experience junkie and we tagged along. First up we met this local called Abu who took us round the city by night in his car - serenaded by the crazy frong album! he took us to a huge down town market, then out to the beach ( a more local malay version of blackpool minus the roller coasters) here we came across a group of all ages having a jam - we were immediatly scooped up into the hubub- handed instruments and played..it was alot of fun and far less intimidating than the expeirence with local we had had before! heading back to the hostel we arrived at 10 minutes to 12- the supposed closing time to find they had locked us out and that there were several gates meshes and padlocks that were just not going to let us in- dashing back to where we left Russel we managed to catch him and crash at his hostel-which the obliging owner let us do for free.
Next day we headed out to a small coastal village that russel had been recommended- again we hopped on bus with no real idea where we were going just a name..one the bus driver didnt recognise- he actaully stopped the bus several times to ask people were this place was! eventually he dropped us somewhere random..we meandered along in a vague direction- eventually a band of teenage boys rocked up on mopeds and escorted us to a random car which said they would give us a lift.. turns out it was only round the corner! Here we bumped into another Abu who offered to teach us to surf- as there were quite alot of muslim school children around me and em felt we would have to do it fully clothed and that it would be an impossible task so while russel went for it we struck up a game of frizzbee with the local kids, it was really really grate watching them slowly come out of their shyness and join in until we were all leaping about all over the place..they all waved and called as we had to leave but we left them the frizzbee ..they had obviously never come across one before. After a spot of questionable food Abu took us on a tour through his qaintly ramshackle village..goats cats and cow roamed free- there was a monkey sitting eating watermelon on an old fridge and hundred of fish laid out to fry amounst the rustic fisher boats. Beautiful. At one point we stopped at his friends house as the boys called out to russel to play footy- they produced tea and a traditional malay marble game which i tried and failed to conquer, we finished the trip by meeting Abus 90 year old grandmother, an amazing lady who we found crosslegged on the porch of the house with her cat.
This is the type of traveeling that we really want to do..and all the time it was waiting round the corner for us.
Back in khota bharu, we headed to this amazing nightmarket for food then round the corner to a bar..i say bar i mean table out side a garage in a backstreet - drinking is actually illeagl here as its a muslim state but they have to be leaneant towards the chinease but it certainly makes it more entertaining know that if they were caught there would be lashings and canings involved. seriously. Yesterday we stopped via an off lisence which was litterally a dodge iron gate which you made the exchange through, Russel bought alhol for a group of 19-28 yrs old..they passed around a beer with a straw between them. It really is a whole different world.

Kotu Bharu

Kota Bharu for a city has very little in it. Even the jungle had more places to eat than here! Worst of all we have to stay for another 2 days as the muslim weekend means that the thai embassy is shut friday-saturday. Already we have resorted to buying colouring books to while away the hours... nothing like a good bit of old fashioned fun eh?
Had a real interesting breakfast on the way back from the embassy..tea that tasted like chocolate as it was sweetend with condensed milk..toast which was crispy bread buttered with some weird sticky stuff and a 'half boiled egg' which i presumed to mean soft boiled. How wrong; It was so runny i actually checked that it was hot. served in a bowl with some vinegar..i swear there was even a raw egg mixed in as well..just for good measure. In typical fashion i ate it..if locals and body builders can do it then so can i.. apparently no i cant. yuk. Em is already ill..currently in bed with what we think is a mild migraine. this is going to be a very looong long couple of days.

Im a celebrity- get me out of here!

In the last couple of days we have been papped more than britney on a bad day- sometimes sly, sometimes they actually ask..we were mobbed be a group of 20 guys whilst swimming in a river and had to make a hasty exit (and even then we were swimming fully clothed!)..hence now 'im a celebrity' is now our code word for suddenly becoming very interested in the opposite direction! minus this bizarre part of being in the middle of a muslim country the jungle has been amazzzzing, starting with our 3 hour boat to get to the heart of the tasman nagara reserve were we saw crocs, huge lizards and a double rainbow..always a good sign. weve done a bit of trekking here and there but didnt venture out for more than a days walk fom camp simply because hiring a guide was to expensive and even with compass we got lost on the short walks. We did do a night safari..saw some boars, byson..birds and what our guide swore was a 'leopard' cat, though i maintain it was just a cat..bit dissapointing but i got to zoom along sitting on the roof of a truck under the stars so it was still pretty cool!
Me and em spent a very quite chinease new year and valentines day in the main village ..on one side of the river was the posh peoples resort and a boat ride away on the other was the village with the locals where we stayed(who are all very friendly..though our hostel guys were slightly obsessed with eric clapton songs) ..anyway in the middle they had a selection of floating barges which was pretty cool! we became very addicted to the pancakes at one of these (it was that or rice for breakfast) so we actually managed to have pancakes on pancake day..success!
Last night we took the night train to kota baru on the thai border..it was supposed to arrive at 2.30am but was 2 hours late..yup 4.30 am train...ouch..we arrived four hours late..luckily we are travelling on whim and had nothing planned but to explore the city.. which we tried..but then became to self concious as all our clothes are in the wash apart from our skirts that dont quite cover our knees..as mundane as that is in england i feel quite the hussy here!! oh my! ( just so you know the pic above is actually my best elephant impression..not a random spasm)

Stomache Vs. food

Food = not good..I've had one instance doubled up with stomach pain..another woke up in the middle of the night feeling incredibly ill and now i've got such a bad headache after eating some noodles and dumplings that i'm contributing it to msg. It's enough to make me want to eat macdonalds for the rest of my stay here! bleurg. On the upside the food did taste really good at the time! KL is ruthlessly hot, even my sweat is sweating..I don't want to move or do anything and when we do it's by playing leapfrog with the shadows. As expected its nowhere as clean as Singapore though has a more natural hustle and bustle about the place. The hostel just about borders on ok, though I expect the worst is yet to come..although its clean the beds are deadly uncomfortable and me and Em have mega cracking sessions when it sounds like our spines have been replaced by a set of Chinese fireworks!! We are based in China town, its pretty quite during the day but becomes a glowing market at night..my first attempt at bargaining was successful in the fact that Imangaged to purchase some sunglasses but I was completely ripped off. Damn my white skin ..I paid 50 ringits (about a tenner but there where some round the corners for 5 times less. do'h) still gotta start somewhere! As it is me and Ems age and race means we are targets for everyone trying to sell something.. people actually stare at Em's hair because its so rare to be blonde..very very creepy! hair dye maybe purchased soon!!

visa fail take 3

Ok, someone out there reeaaally doesn't want us to go to China..seriously..attempt 3 at getting a visa failed epically..why? because we didn't have a plane ticket into the country..they don't seem to understand the concept of a train...why they couldn't have told us this yesterday I don't know..the lack of info is seriouly redic..I even checked the embassy website 3 times and it mentions nada. well fine, they've just lost out on our tourism! current plan is now to bypass Vietnam and China go straight to Kl tommorrow, head up through t

Thailand loop round Laos then head back to Bankok and fly to Hongkong. Much much more simple. So that makes this our last unexpected day in Singapore..have we done anything epic? no..we played scrabble then I went off on the scooter tour for the 2nd time (we went different places) while em 'stayed to explore little India' but got coerced by our room mate into cocktails. ooh its a hard life. I never thought I would like Singapore this much but I will be very sad to leave it.. its like London but calmer and hotter..my hair is almost at Monica level due to the humidity but I will go back home loving the cold again!

Awsome weekend #12

Ten out of ten for flukey finds, Calvin Harris was on at a local club ..I found out 2 hours before hand..we went it was awsome..biggest club i've ever been to, jam packed, free drinks, dry ice blasts, amazing sets. Only 25 dollars entry which is about 12 quid! wouldnt get that in England!! it would have been 15 if we had got there before 10 but we got a little lost..ok a lot lost until we gave in and took a taxi! Pretty sweet we rolled back about 4.30 am, sat outside and chatted until we all fell asleep.. sunday was a nice do nothing day in which the only time I stirred from my beanbag seat was for food runs ( noodles crackers and chocolate milk nom) At about 6 we headed out on a free scooter tour of Singapore with a crew from our hostel. I've never had some much fun on wheels!! we went miles for hours, stopped and a hawkers for dinner ( a collection of authentic street stalls) slarlemed round pillars fell off, laughed at each other.. manoeuvred through a very crowded china town and generally just had a blast.. so buzzy when we got back at 11 that we headed out for a few drinks and ended up in this karaoke club..its such a big thing over here..apparently its used a lot to impress clients in business meetings! Anyways we got this funky little room to ourselves, got some jugs in and caused chaos until very early this morning. Erg 3 hours sleep then queing for visas was not the best thing we could have done! ( we didn't succeed but that's more to do with the fact we didn't actually know where we were going in China. They really don't make this easy for us!)..back tomorrow..fingers crossed for 3rd time lucky!!

When in singapore..do as the singaporeans do..SHOP!

Lets put it this way..there are the same amount of shopping malls as there are hotels in Singapore. That's a lorra lorra shops.. over the past 2 days everywhere we seem to go has lead us to a shopping centre( o dear) I think I have just done more window shopping than I have ever done in my life..and spent almost nothing because everything is ridiculously expensive! To while away our hours wandering around these mazes, me and Em have compiled the following
most frequent shops: body shop and star bucks
shop we were most pleased to see: cotton on ( the equivalent of primark..well almost)
Most unusually frequent: Chanel..there are like a gazillion outlets of it.
deduction: clothes aren't nearly as slutty here.. la Senza is like a grannys store..but they do have an obsession with bras ( Singapore Elle was full of them)..
Singapore smells amazing though..mostly because there is food where ever you go..we came across the most amazing Donut shop..Hargen Daas also has its own shop..oh happy days!! Its cool that everything's posh..we got free leather luggage tags just from going to the tourist info! well everywhere except where we are staying in Little India..which is a jumble of colourful and odd little shops much more akin to those I expect we will see in thailand!
The build up to Chinese new year is getting under way and there's lots of buzz to the city! Just as well as we maybe staying here a while until we can get out visas for china after the weekend!

You have No Idea

To be honest, I have only just stopped shaking. Yesterday contained 3 hours which I can safely describe as the worst 3 hours of my life so far.
Arrived at check-in for our flight to Singapore to find that the desk wouldn't let us board because our flight out of Hongkong was not enough proof to show that we would be moving out of Singapore before our visa expired. Which is ridiculous because its a long way to Hongkong so obviously we would have to be moving on. From then on it was down hill. Tourist info wouldn't help us because they only delt with domestic travel- even when I came to them in floods of tears they were about as much use as a chocolate teapot. They directed us to the internet, But it was Neanderthal and expensive and would only let us open one window at a time..if we could only book our train tickets to Kaula Lumpur we would be sorted, but the Malaysian train website was incredibly difficult to use and I could not get the form to work for me..in the end I decided it was faulty. Next I tried the bus website. still no luck. I rang the train line..the number didn't work..I rang the bus line..they refused to send email conformation. We were running out of time, my hands were shaking from adrenaline- already I had had hysterics down the phone to mum .. Em rang the airline our only choice was to change our Hongkong flights to a month earlier. After an age on hold they said her card had been declined- we think the bank cancelled it because of so much use abroad. We switched roles..Em had hysterics. Thankfully I had been threw the panic then anger and the hysterics and was now quietly resigned to the fact that there was no way we were going to get this flight. I called Dad. he suggested booking a flight..but there was no time..we had 20 mins til the plane left. Suddenly stupidly easy idea occured..With dads credit card we were able to change the flights..we arrived at the gates with 3 minutes to spare.

This was a drama on top of the other dramas..such as having to leave my memroy card behind..my email crashing so I couldn't get the hostel address..my Singapore card refusing to top up.. and it was capped off by the fact a fellow traveller on the flight wasn't even asked for his proof..and they didn't even check at the other end.

Still at Sydney my email was running and I managed to get the address and received a note from Marc saying he had found my memory card. ( I Knew karma couldn't be that evil).

At present we could well be coming home a month early but for now we are here in Singapore the sun is shining and we had free eggs for breakfast.