Singapore Sling

The next day we had to leave and cross another border to make our way into Singapore. This was much more of a secure border than the last one. Kit had told us that we had to try and go through the border as quickly as possible and back onto the coach otherwise the coach would leave us (and he wasn’t joking). The queues were long but we waited patiently. Kit was up first. The customs guy looked at his passport and looked Kit up and down, next thing we know Kit had been asked to wait until a supervisor was available to ask him some questions. We started to panic a little and Kit just waved us on and told us to get back to the coach asap. After we had all past customs we thought about waiting for him but he always said that if somebody got left behind to always carry on and wait at the next destination, so we made our way back to the coach. About 2 minutes before the coach was about to leave we saw Kit rushing towards us and he made it on just in the nick of time.
We eventually arrived at our Youth Hostel and we could see straight away how clean the streets were. They have very strict rules in Singapore ie you cannot bring chewing gum into the country. We were all very hungry so Kit took us to a cafe called Mr Bean’s where we enjoyed a pizza and then went shopping on Orchard Road with Lisa and Paul. Adam and i found a few places that sold camera’s and looked around for the underwater housing for it. We came across a shop that had both and even though the price wasn’t as cheap as the one we had found in Hong King it was still over £100 cheaper than what we would have paid in the U.K, so Adam was very happy with his new toy. We had to rush back to the hostel as we had all booked to go on the Singapore Zoo night safari. The hostel had arranged a private minibus. There was one other person from the hostel who was also going to the zoo – Becky who turned out to be from Birmingham, it’s a small world! She joined us on the tram ride around the park which gave us an overview of what animals were there. We got off the tram half way round to go and see some of the animals more closely. The night safari was good but not great.



We liked how there were no fences, in most cases it was just either a ditch or water that separated us from the animals, but on a negative point we could not take photos with the flash on which meant a lot of the pictures we took were very dark. When we spoke to Adam’s parents on the phone they told us of how they too had gone to Singapore zoo but in the day and had a fantastic time so i would say not to bother to go at night time. Anna’s flight was early the next day and she was leaving before any of us would be up so we sadly had to say goodbye to her that night. Kit was also getting an early morning flight back to Bangkok to start another tour, so we all thanked him for such a great time and said a sad goodbye.



The following day it was Lisa’s turn to leave us but before she left we made sure we packed in as much as we could. So off we went to go exploring around the city. We went to the Asian Cultural History museum in the morning where a tour guide took us around. He was very informative but detailed and we did end up getting a bit bored towards the end. After that we walked to Raffles Hotel where you guessed it we tried a Singapore sling. It was a little bit expensive so the cheap backpackers that we are we all bought just the one to share amongst the 4 of us.


Before we had left to go to Bangkok our flight had stopped in Singapore airport so in order to lighten our luggage we had left some things at the airport luggage storage. Adam and I had decided that we may as well accompany Lisa to the airport (wanted to make sure she actually left) and get our things and pack them for when we left the following day. This proved to be a lot more difficult than what we had thought. Whilst Lisa and Paul went to check her in Adam and I went to get our luggage. However the airport police would not allow us to enter the transit area. They told us we would have to get a pass to enter the other side. So off we went to get the appropriate pass. Security however were not too happy about letting us through, they asked why we wanted to get our luggage. We explained that because our flight was so early the following day we just wanted it so we could pack it all the night before instead of rushing in the morning, eventually the supervisor agreed but only allowed Adam to go through. Adam took his pass but when trying to enter the transit area was told he had to go another way, anyway after an hour of trying to get through and then arguing with the airport police about how we were being told to go from one place to another we eventually managed to get our stuff and quickly made our way back to terminal 2 to say goodbye to Lisa. We ventured back to the hostel with Paul on the underground train and as that was the last day of our trip with Imaginative Traveller we had booked one nights accommodation at the Summerview hotel. Paul helped us move our things to the other hotel and then we carried on to find Bugis street which there is a large night market. Bugis was so busy that it was a struggle just to walk through the market let alone look at any of the stalls which looked as if they only sold tat anyway, so we gave up on that and followed signs to a local cinema. The film we had wanted to watch had already started so we settled on watching Deception. If you are thinking of going to watch this at the cinema then don’t. In fact it was so rubbish i wouldn’t even bother getting it out on DVD. After the cinema it was our turn to say goodbye and as it was late we said bye to Paul and texted the others.

Chilling in Malacca

Until now the coaches had been below par, with old dirty seats and no suspension but Kit had really come through for us and we stood in front of a brand new executive coach. With leather seats, a/c and loads of leg room. Unfortunately it was only a 3 hour coach ride but we enjoyed every minute of it on our way to Malacca.
Malacca was a bit of a sleepy town with interesting historical sites but not really much else to do. The hotel we were staying in was the best one so far. We had a nice clean ensuite with a bath! And the hotel had a Jacuzzi on the rooftop. Paul, Anna, Adam and I went exploring around the town with Kit whilst the others made use of the Jacuzzi.



In the evening we had a Chinese by the river and then went looking for the local cinema. We walked though a large shopping centre and saw the signs for the cinema. However when we got to the entrance there was a sign displayed saying it was opening on the 5th of July so we were a couple of days too early. In the end we made our way back to the hotel and chilled out in the bar and listened to the local musician. The next morning Adam and some of the others hired bikes to go exploring, some people stayed at the hotel in the Jacuzzi and Anna and I decided to take a riverboat cruise. When Adam had returned from his bike ride i asked him what interesting things he saw and his response was “not a lot but we did find some swings”.



Anna and I in the meantime had a lovely time on the riverboat. The guide was brilliant informing us of how there were many changes afoot to be completed for 2010. Redevelopment was quite high on the agenda but what was nice was the fact that they weren’t trying to make it look too modern, in fact they were updating houses and buildings but to look as though they were from early 20th century. After our trip we went back to the hotel and joined some of the others in the Jacuzzi. Adam and the others had gone to the bar to grab some lunch after their bike ride and he then went to use Paul’s bathroom as i had got our room key. I was then told by Debra that Adam had got locked in the toilet and there were about half a dozen people trying to rescue him. In the end the staff managed to take the lock off the door which left a huge hole in Paul’s bathroom door (good thing he wasn’t sharing the room with anyone else). What a day! After a lovely relaxing day for me anyway we enjoyed a massive feast of a bbq. We couldn’t believe how much food was there from chicken satay to pasta, shrimp, jacket potato’s, it was all so lovely.

Caves and Capitals

Another day of travelling and as we arrived in the capital of Malaysia, it was clear this was a very large city. We had a small walk from the bus station to the hotel. We had a bit of free time so we went to explore Kuala Lumpar (KL), we found a huge shopping centre called Times Square, it was that big that it had its own theme park including a rollercoaster inside it. That evening we headed over to china town and the markets with Kit. After having a lovely Chinese meal, we went shopping in the markets, those of you who know TJ well know she likes a bargain and to barter, she was in her element, again!. After lots of bargains we were tired so went back to the hotel. Kit had told us that if we wanted to go up the Petronas Towers (the 2nd tallest building in the world) then we had to get there early to get tickets. So Anna, Jenni, TJ and I arrived at the towers for 7am and stood in a queue for an hour.



The doors eventually opened and we went up a lift to the 41st floor in 41 seconds. Once we reached the sky bridge that links the two towers we got to have a wander across and looked at the fantastic views of Kuala Lumpur. We had told the others in the group to meet us at KL tower, the 5th tallest communication tower in the world. We caught the underground train and thought that we had a short walk to the tower. The short walk turned out to be a trek through a rainforest reservation. We finally managed to meet up with the others in the tower and had another fantastic view of KL.
After the towers we headed off to Little India which was quite disappointing. We had been told it would be like a mini bollywood with lots of fantastic asian shops and music playing in the streets but unfortunately it was just an area with a few market stalls and Indian eateries. We didn’t stay there long!



We were told to visit the Batu Caves which is where the hindus go to pray and have their festival. We were waiting on 2 taxis which would have cost us 30 ringgits for each taxi but luckily whilst we were waiting a bus stopped in front of us with a board displaying Batu Caves. So we caught the local bus and it only cost us 2 ringgits each. When we eventually arrived the first thing we noticed was all the steps leading up to the entrance of the caves – 272 of them to be precise, which on a very hot day did not look very enticing. However we made our way up and Jenni even managed to run up the first 100. Whilst walking up we were met by some monkeys and this time we all ensured we did not have any plastic carrier bags. The caves were incredible, it was amazing to see how large they were inside and how parts of the cave had been turned into temples and shrines. After an hour at the caves we then caught the bus back half way to KL and then got onto the monorail as it stopped nearer to our hotel. That night we all wanted some “English” food and so persuaded Kit to take us to a place that served steak etc. The food was delicious and the themed naval restaurant made it enjoyable. After our meal we went back to Paul’s room where all 10 of us squeezed in and started to drink various alcoholic mixtures. The night was young and so after an hour everyone bar Kit agreed to go to a local nightclub, so Kit sorted out our taxis and off we went. As soon as we arrived we all noticed the “ladies of the night” sitting near the entrance to the club with not very much on. The music was brilliant and we all had a boogie on the small dancefloor but then suddenly a ladyboy tried to make his/her advances towards Paul, which Paul was not too happy about. We all left the club about 3am and made our way back to the hotel.

Tea and Steamboats

The next morning we had to catch a coach to Cameron Highlands, until now we had been travelling in a private mini bus which had a/c and a DVD player. Now we were on public transport which was a little less comfortable. The coach ride was endless, but we finally made it to Cameron Highlands. As we got off the coach you could feel that the temperature had dropped, this was because we were quite high. We went to dinner with kit where he told our group of some day trips available to us for the next day. It didn’t sound that exciting a day but we had nothing else to do. After breakfast the next day we met our tour guide for the day, his name was Ravi. All 10 of us piled in to the back of his Land Rover and we headed off to the tea plantations. What a sight, fields and fields of tea bushes it looked like a green carpet. Ravi was a very informed man, telling us all sorts of facts and history about the area. We then moved on to another peak. As we climbed up the stairs of the observation tower we were in the clouds, the highest point in Cameron Highlands. The ‘Boh’ tea factory was next on the trip, where I even tried tea (it was ok with lots of sugar). We saw the equipment used to collect and process the tea and where the workers lived.



We then continued onto the butterfly farm, this was more like an insect zoo. Ravi showed us the way to pick up scorpions and how to handle loads of different insects, he was just grabbing them from the cages it was an amazing place and by this time we were all having a fab time. Just to round up a great trip Ravi took us to a strawberry farm, where we all had strawberries and ice cream. We all enjoyed the day trip out and it was definitely the best trip so far. That evening Kit told us about a dish called the steamboat, this is a soup which you have boiling on your table and then you add raw meats and vegetables to it as you like, but you get a large selection of meats from chicken and beef to jelly fish and cockles. A few of us tried the steam boat and only Paul, Lisa, Hugh and I tried the jellyfish ( never again) it was an experience as Hugh kept telling me.

Snakes and Sunsets

We had another long day of travelling, we stopped overnight in a town about 5 miles from the Malaysian border. The next morning we went and had our passports stamped and entered Malaysia, 1 hour on the other side of the border and the bus was stopped by some local police who decided to check everyone’s passports, we were told to keep an eye on our passports even when the police had them. We travelled for another 2 hours before we reached our destination of Penang an island 3Km away from the mainland at its closest point, we had to go over the Penang bridge which is 13Km long.



After lunch we took a wander around Georgetown, the capital of Penang, it is a mix of colonial and shanty buildings. Kit had given us a list of places to visit, we decided to visit most of them the next day. We did visit ‘Fort Cornwallis’ which was the fort of Penang when the British colonised it. As we entered the fort we were met by a lady dressed in a period costume and told we could get our photo taken wearing colonial hats and holding a rifle. We headed back to the hotel after looking around the museum in the fort. After freshening up Kit told us he knew of a great Indian restaurant, which served food on banana leaves instead of plates.



Afterwards kit took us to a night club which was ok but in Malaysia they add 40% tax on alcohol so it’s not cheap to drink, we ended up getting a few bottles of spirits and sitting on the roof of the hotel playing poker until 2am. Whilst on the way back to the hotel Paul bought a tub of Durian, which is a local fruit which is supposed to be very tasty but smells absolutely disgusting (to me it smelt of gone off mango). He took a small piece and put it into his mouth next thing we know he spits it back out. We could smell the Durian on him and so made him go wash his hands and buy some extra strong mints to mask the smell. One of the locals saw what happened and was very happy to take the tub away from Paul and eat it himself.



The next morning Paul, Lisa, Anna, Tj and I headed out quite early for a packed day of sightseeing. To start with we made our way to the snake temple which believe it or not had lots of snakes in it. We decided to visit the botanical gardens, as we pulled up in the taxis we saw signs telling us not to feed the monkeys. As we entered the park the monkeys were all around us, we started taking pictures of the ‘cute’ Monkeys but then they turned evil. Anna had bought some syrup and ash trays as souvenirs and was carrying them in a plastic bag, in a flash one of the monkeys jumped at Anna and grabbed the bag, we tried to get it back but the monkey just hissed at us and showed his teeth. Then the monkey opened the bottle of syrup and drank it. We managed in the end to get the ash trays back, and now understand why so many people in the park carry sticks. After all the excitement we headed over to the peak, the highest point in Penang. We wanted to watch the sun set over Penang and were told this was the place to do it, but we didn’t realise how high and scary it was to get there. We had to get 2 cable cars which went up a very steep incline. It was worth it though.

Trains and Parties

It has been a while since we have had time to write on the blog, but this is a summary of the last few weeks.

On our last day in Bangkok we met the people that we would be spending the next 17 days with. It was a small group of 9, a Scottish lad called Paul, a group from Northern Ireland , Hugh, Debbie, Georgina and Jenni and two girls from Ireland, Lisa and Anna. We met our tour leader Kit at the same time, a Thai man who has been doing tours with Imaginative Traveller for years. We decided to go and have a meal and start to get to know each other. After dinner we went for some drinks, Kit told us we should go and have cocktails in the gas station, as we got there we realised it was a disused petrol station, but all the pumps and signs were still in place, weird!



Next morning we had an early start and headed for the floating market. This is a market that is on the banks of the river about 2 hours from Bangkok. It was a fantastic experience. We got on a boat and floated around the market and passed the boats full with food and souvenirs and they would pull your boat over so you could have a closer look. We spent about a hour looking around the market then we started our journey to the bridge over the river Quai. This was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, still very picturesque, but the story behind the bridge was really interesting. There was a museum dedicated to the Prisoners of War who built the bridge. We saw and read the conditions they had to work in and how people starved to death or died of disease at a very young age. I remember reading a paragraph from a paper whereby a POW survivor told his story of how he tried to imagine the maggots in his Christmas pudding to be currants – yuck! We also visited the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery where the names and ages of some of the prisoners were written on memorial stones. It was sad to see as the majority of people seemed to be in their twenties when they died – it was very moving!



That evening we had to get a train, we all were dreading it, 13 hours overnight on a train is no joke but as we got on the train we were met by the campest man, he introduced himself as Frank and welcomed us to cabin 10. He turned out to be the best entertainment on the train and made the time fly by. We all enjoyed a few drinks and Frank’s singing and dancing in the bar on the train, however it was soon time to go back to our cabin as they locked sections of the train. We made our way back and started to settle for the night. However a girl from one of the other cabins (Caroline) got stuck in our cabin as the doors had been locked so we helped her out and made a bed for her on the floor out of blankets. I didn’t sleep too well on the train and only got about 3 hours sleep. Once we had got to our stop we then went to catch the ferry and then the four by four to take us to Koh Pangan.



As you can imagine by this stage we were sick of travelling and all needed a shower to freshen up, however when we arrived at our resort we all agreed it was well worth it. It was just paradise. We had lovely little wooden cabins, basic but comfortable. The sea was so warm and inviting. We dumped our bags into the cabins and headed straight for the beach which was literally one minute away from our accommodation. We stayed 4 days on the island and had the most amazing time. We all hired canoes and canoed to the other beach, we ate most nights in restaurants which were on the beach and partied a lot in the” Jungle bar”.



We also went on a day trip out. Elephant trekking was the highlight of that day. Adam even got onto the neck of the one we were on and steered our 40 year old elephant along. We were then taken to the beach to go snorkelling but this was a bit disappointing as we had hoped to be taken out to an island by boat but instead had to make our way out into the sea clambering over rocks and coral which was very painful. Lastly we made our way to see and swim in a waterfall, but this too was disappointing as the waterfall had dried up and it was literally a puddle. Still even though the day trip had been disappointing we were still happy to be on such a beautiful island.

The following day we all had a lazy day on the beach as we knew the night ahead would be long. We were all going to go to the pre full moon party. The full moon parties are meant to be the most maddest parties but as we were going to be leaving the day it was on we decided to go to the pre party which is still meant to be brilliant. Kit sorted out a taxi to take us to the other side of the island about an hour away where the party was and we grabbed a bite to eat which was soon followed by consumption of lots of alcohol. Along the beach there were stalls selling buckets which had a choice of different alcohols and mixers a bargain at only 250 baht - £4. We enjoyed the fire dancing and Paul even had a go at skipping with the fire rope – it was scary just watching him! One girl got caught up in the rope and her dress caught on fire so i thought i would give it a miss. We partied hard and when it got to 3am none of us wanted to leave but the taxi to pick us up had been booked and so we had to make our way back as we had to be up and leaving the Island at 8am.

Temples and Theatre

I woke up feeling much better and was looking forward to another day of sightseeing. We went and had breakfast and also booked a theatre trip for the evening. We decided to visit Wat Phra Keo (Reclining Buddha Temple) and the Royal Grand Palace. We went to get on the local boat again and decided to find a pier a bit closer to the hotel. However after an hour later of walking in the heat and being told that the 2 piers we had been heading towards had both closed we were getting rather tired and annoyed. We tried one more pier otherwise we ready to give in and catch a taxi we came across one that was in operation – yippee! So we caught the boat and were on our way! The boat ride only lasted 10 mins, we made our way through a market and headed for the Reclining Buddha temple.



From the outside the temple looks like the other temples, highly decorated, but once we had taken off our shoes and entered the temple there was this amazing gold Buddha lying on its side approximately 40m long. We walked around the site looking at all the statutes and temple buildings. Time was getting on and we had to back at the hotel before 5 to catch the bus to the show we had booked earlier, so we headed towards the Royal Palace, the only problem was the entrance was on the other side of the Palace to where we were. So we decided to put our life in our hands again with another tuk tuk ride, after some serious negotiation we got our ride for 20TB and no shops. As we arrived we heard thunder but continued heading to the ticket office, just as we got our tickets the heaven’s opened (when it rains, it really rains!). Fortunately we were able to shelter under the various buildings. We got to the main temple and sat inside with everyone else just taking in the grandness of it all. We decided to brave the rain and continued to look around but it just wasn’t fun anymore. We headed towards the exit but before we left Adam cheekily took a photo of me with the guards. Another tuk tuk ride back to the hotel!



Adam’s shirt had arrived at reception so after freshening up, we got dressed up and Adam wore his new shirt. With the ticket we had bought it included food and transport. We arrived at the Theatre complex which included a Thai village. We went and enjoyed a lovely buffet style dinner and then continued into the village. In the village we saw elephants and after much persuasion from Adam I got a bit closer to one of them and even fed it some sugar cane (well it helped himself). It was then time to go and see the show. Our ticket number was V42, I thought we would be stuck right at the back but as soon as we walked in we noticed that V was only 4 rows from the front.
Before the show could start we all had to stand to the national anthem which was a bit bizarre, however from talking to people, Thai people seem to be very patriotic to their King and Queen and even wear yellow shirts with the King’s emblem.
The show started and it was wonderful. The story was about Thai culture and beliefs and was told in the form of dance. Colourful costumes, fantastic backdrops and even had a river built into the stage, which apparently holds the record for the highest stage in the world. It was a fantastic evening’s entertainment!

Bangkok in a Tuk-Tuk

This was the first day of our travels where there was sunshine as soon as we woke up, apart from the heat, we had a good night’s sleep. We are staying in a hotel called the New World Lodge, which to look at from the outside is nothing special but our deluxe double suite with bathroom is really quite nice and spacious, we were pleasantly surprised.
We had breakfast, freshened up and made a plan for the day. We filled up my camelback (a water container stored in a type of rucksack) and headed off through Khao San Road which is a market area full of stalls selling bags, clothes, food and there was even a boots pharmacy there. I bartered for a mini calculator which I thought would be quite handy to have and got the price down from 300TB = £5 to 100TB = £1.66.
Somebody had suggested we go to MBK which is a large indoor shopping area which is in the city centre so we went to find it. On our way we passed the Royal Grand Palace, we had numerous people approach us to say we could not go in with what we were wearing as you are meant to have your knees and ankles covered and your shoulders, fortunately we were already aware of this as Lizzie (our friend come travel advisor) had informed us of this. We walked past the Palace through various market stalls and got to the river. We had been advised by a travel guide at the hotel what sort of prices we should look to pay for boats and tuk tuk’s and this advice was invaluable as we found out.
We approached a desk which seemed to be selling tickets for boats and they gave us a price of 400TB each, the travel advisor had told us it should only cost us a maximum of 30TB each so we quickly said no but were confused as to why the price was so steep. The lady trying to sell us the ticket asked why we didn’t want it so I informed her that we knew the price should only be 30TB so she was very honest with us and helpful and told us and pointed us in the direction of where the local boats were as opposed to the boat cruise they were selling.



We boarded the boat and enjoyed the ride along the river. After 25 mins on the boat we arrived at the Skytrain terminal, this is a train service that runs above the city like a monorail. The Skytrain took us to the MBK.
The MBK was massive, 7 stories of shops and also market like stalls. They had one level just one restaurant’s, another one for just electronic goods and another one just for souvenir stalls. I managed to barter and buy a 1Gb micro SD card for £4 for my mobile.
After grabbing some lunch in the MBK, we headed back to the river and grabbed another boat to take us to the Golden Mount. When we go off the boat a man approached us and told us that this was closed until 5:30pm as the monks were praying, but we should go and see the Standing Buddha. So we checked our map (every time we got our map out we were bombarded with offers to take us places in taxis and tuk-tuks). A tuk-tuk driver approached us and offered to take us to the Standing Buddha, Lucky Buddha and the Marble Temple for just 20TB (about 33p) this sounded like a bargain so we asked him what the catch was, he told us that today was the last day of a government scheme where souvenir shops gave fuel coupons to tuk-tuk drivers if they bring customers to their shops. We didn’t mind going to various shops so off we went and started with the Standing Buddha. As we arrived we could see a massive golden statue, it stood 32 metres tall. We wandered around the site and then continued onto the Lucky Buddha which is a temple. The decoration of the temple was amazing, bright gold mixed with greens, oranges, reds, all colours. We got chatting to a Thai man who was a banker and had lived in America for a few years. We noticed there were small boxes with people’s pictures on them around the temple site. He explained that the building opposite was a crematorium and Thai families would keep the ashes in these boxes as opposed to having gravestones.



After this to help Anan our tuk tuk driver get some gas coupons we allowed him to take us to a tailor’s that specialised in suits and shirts. The store was very modern and there was a factory behind it. We found out that the suits made at most of the tailors in Thailand are exported and are sold as designer suits ie Armani, Hugo Boss etc. As tempting as it was to buy one because of the price Adam did not have the luggage capacity however he did order a handmade tailored shirt which we designed and cost only £15, we were guaranteed delivery of the shirt to our hotel by 3pm the following day.
We then continued onto the Marble Temple. There we paid the admittance fee and were approached by a man who said for a small amount he would be our guide, we agreed and he started to show us around. He was quite funny but very difficult to understand. He was an ex-boxer (he showed us an old picture of himself in his boxing gear) and had been guiding people around the Temple for over 30 years. He was 63 years old. He explained how there was a Buddha for every week of the year and we even stopped to talk to a monk for a little while. We saw where the monks lived and where they prayed.



From here Anan took us to a local jewellery and souvenir shop. We saw workers making up pieces of jewellery; their handicraft was very precise and detailed. There were rubies, emeralds, sapphires every sort of precious stone imaginable but unfortunately the price of these items was a little more than what we could afford.
After a long day of sightseeing we were very tired and our last stop was our hotel. Anan drove us to the hotel (have to just mention that sitting in the back of a tuk tuk is an experience in itself as they are crazy drivers) where we said goodbye to him and wished him luck for his wedding next year – it’s amazing how much you can learn about someone when you have been with them for a whole day!
In the evening I unfortunately started to suffer from heatstroke and had an awful migraine, Adam went to dinner whilst I slept. When he came back upstairs he looked after me as I started being sick and so we just relaxed in our room. I will make sure I wear a hat tomorrow!

To Bangkok

Adam and I woke up at 4am after having gone to bed just after midnight to be up and ready to catch our 5am coach from the hotel to the airport. We got to the airport an hour later. We couldn’t really look around much as it was too early and the shops were still closed so we sat at the gate waiting for our flight to open.

We eventually boarded the plane and were on our way to Bangkok via Singapore. For some reason there was not a direct flight for the type of ticket we had bought so we had to stop inside Singapore airport for 2 hours before catching our flight to Bangkok. Fortunately we were able to leave some clothes that we did not think we would need for our trip in a locker at the airport so as to try and reduce our luggage weight.



On the flight to Bangkok i got a chance to watch Fool’s Gold and the time went so quickly the next thing i know we had arrived. As soon as we came out of the airport the 32c of heat just hit us. As well as that we were bombarded by people asking us where we were going, if we would like a taxi or a limousine to get us to our hotel. Adam and i tried to find the train but the building of the line had not yet completed so we took a moment to try and work out the price of things and so hid to one side just to get away from people. One person had quoted us 700 TB which is equivalent to approx £12 which you might think is a bargain however Adam and I managed to catch a coach which stopped at various places for only £5 for the both of us.

We got chatting to quite a few people, one group from Ireland and another from Wales who were also travelling around, we advised them of things to do when they got to Australia. 2 hours later ( at trip that should have taken an hour at the most but was delayed because of the heavy traffic) we arrived at our stop. We walked 5 minutes and got to our hotel absolutely dripping in sweat. Aircon is just a brilliant invention! We were so tired from the busy day of travelling we ordered room service had a bite to eat and fell asleep straight away.

Last Day in Hong Kong

So as it was our last day today in Hong Kong we decided to go and get a camera and dive case we had seen earlier in the week. We had been comparing prices and went to the shop that gave us the best deal. We bought the camera and then the salesman started another pitch, about how this other camera (the same make) was this year’s model, and the better specifications etc. At the time we were being cautious and weren’t too sure about it. Adam tried it out and the pictures compared to the one we had just bought looked better. We negotiated a price and bought the newer model. Having gone back to the hotel to read the reviews we noticed that some of the information the salesman had told us were complete lies and it turned out that this camera was a lot cheaper than the one we were looking at originally. We were absolutely disgusted and phoned the shop to get our money back. Unfortunately consumer’s there do not seem to have many rights. We asked for our money back or even an exchange but they would not allow it. So we went back to the shop and argued the point, the manager was very rude and said he would not do anything to help. Eventually after threatening to stand at the shop and tell people not to buy any of their products Adam managed to “sell” the camera and case back to them minus £30. We were so upset by this whole episode but were glad in a way that this had happened now so we know to be a lot more cautious in the future.
As it was our last night we went to find the restaurant we visited on our first night. They had the best noodles in town! We enjoyed a lovely meal and I even tried the duck – a bit chewy and their steamed bread was a bit different!
We headed back to the hotel and continued packing our bags.

Wii!

We decided to have a bit of a lazy day. We went and had a swim in the roof top swimming pool. It started to rain but as it was warm we didn’t mind. After some time in the pool we spotted a wii in the gym. You should have seen Adam’s face, he was like a little kid, “can we play on the wii?” is all I got after that, so we got changed and had a go. We played tennis, ten pin bowling, boxing, baseball, after about an hour’s worth of nonstop playing my arm started to hurt so I left Adam to it and went back to our room. Another hour later Adam shows up after playing continuously on the boxing game, bragging how he was undefeated and only left because his arm started to hurt too!



We both were getting a bit peckish so went to find a restaurant near the harbour. After looking at a few menus we sat down at a restaurant called the Bull Dog. I enjoyed sausages, mash and gravy and for some reason it was served with backed beans and Adam enjoyed his beef burger.

Science Museum

We woke to a horrible rainy day, and decided to go and try the science museum again. We caught the free bus down to the harbour and then from there we got the train. The great thing about Hong Kong is that most stations are well connected to the main attractions, as so getting to places is very easy. Once we had left the train we had a 5 minute walk and 90% of that was undercover. The science museum cost us $25HK and was well worth the money. As we entered it were met with a huge energy machine in the atrium which covered the 4 floors of the museum. We headed off to the mirrors and light exhibit to start. Whilst we wandered around it occurred to me that we were going to be in here for some time.



The museum had lots of different areas, one of our favourites was the telecommunications area. This included a mock up TV studio and editing suite, we had loads of fun pretending to be TV news reporters and ziggy even helped.



We spent about 5 hours playing in the museum, the time just flew by. We realised that we hadn't had any lunch and were both staving. We had seen a pizza hut earlier on in the week not far from our hotel, so set off on a mission to find it. As we got outside it was still raining but fortunately we were well prepared in true scout style.



We eventually found pizza hut and enjoyed every bite. Not far from pizza hut was a local cinema, which we found out it showed English films with Chinese subtitles, result! Tj won the toss, so we went and watched "Sex and the City" which was better than i thought it would be. In previous posts we have mentioned that the seats are quite small, the cinema seats are the exception to the rule, they were bigger than uk cinema seats and in leather. Very comfortable!

Space Museum

Another late start to our day but that's the way in Hong Kong as everywhere is open till late, we headed down to the science museum for an educational day out. The science museum is housed in what looks like half a golf ball and costs $10HK which is about £0.60, good value for money i think. It was a little less hands on than i was expecting but good fun still. Tj got to practice her moon walking (not the Michael Jackson kind). I tried a bit of virtual hangliding before we went to have a look in the space shuttle cockpit with ziggy. We spent about 2 hours wandering around the exhibits.



By now our stomachs were rumbling and so we went to find somewhere to eat, Tj requested that we found a place that didn't serve noodles and we happened to stumble across an Irish bar called Murphy's. The food was great compared to noodles, we both had cajun chicken sandwiches with chips and it was proper chicken as is not the yellow fatty chicken they have here.



After we had stuffed ourselves on western food we decided to visit the science museum and headed off. When we got the science museum we found it was closed on Thursdays but the Hong Kong History museum which is opposite was open. We bought tickets and were told it was only open for another hour, we thought this would be enough time to have a look round but ended up only looking at 4 of the 8 exhibits and so planned to go back at some point.

At this point we were tired because of all the walking so decided to head back to the hotel, unfortunatly this coincided with everyone else wanting to go home too. We tried to get on the underground train but first train was so full that we had to wait for the next one and even then it was a squeeze. I don't think that I could do that everyday.



We finally got back to the hotel and got changed to try the hotel restaurant. Wasn't anything special and felt it was over priced. We don't think we will be eating there again.