Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Thailand

After finally taking advantage of everything being free on the aeroplane. We arrived in Singapore to the 28 degree heat at 10pm!! We got a taxi and watched the skyscrapers go by before arriving at the hostel to a very nice air conditioned room!

The next day after a good night's sleep we headed in the hot, clean city + firstly explored chinatown which was a lot more chinese than the one in Sydney! After being called "my friend" in the market I purchased a watch for 1 pound 30 + we both had lunch for 2 pound fifty!

Following lunch we headed to the shopping street + it can be fair to say we have never seen so many shopping malls all in one road it was unbelievable! We continued walking around the city and ended up in "Little India" which really did feel like we were in Mumbai with the crazy traffic and little stalls! Thats when we decided it would be curry for dinner!! And it lived up to the atomsphere of mumbai with a delcious curry not exactly sure of the name but it was good!!

The following day we headed north to Kuala Lumpur! We were on a very nice air conditioned bus then to our surprise they even put a dvd on! We couldn't believe it when the dvd turned out to be Mr Bean!! So thats was us occupied for the next 5 hours! We had booked a guesthouse but had no idea where in Kuala Lumpur we would be dropped off! The next minute the guy was telling us it was our stop so we got off! We had the address of a guesthouse so it was just a matter of getting a taxi! Our backpacks being an obvious giveaway we are foreigners we were hounded by people asking us whether we wanted a taxi. We got to a taxi man and handed him the address on a piece of paper, he then called his mate over to ask where it was!! For some reason they didn't know where it was, but he started driving and reassured us he knew where he was going! We drove up the street and luckily I saw a sign and he pulled over otherwise I think he would have just left us to find it!!

The guesthouse was a nice surprise in that it was clean, air condidtioned and we wouldn't have to share a room with 6 other people as it was just to ourselves for 4 pound each!

The next day we got up early to go up the twin towers. They gave out free tickets before 10am but we were told to be there for at least 8 to ensure we got them. By 9:30am we had our tickets and allocated time of 10:15am. In the meantime we went + had coffee. Something never to be repeated as the coffee is not the same as home!! But luckily it came at a very small price!!

We went back to go up the towers and reached the 42nd floor! It was quite impressive and good that niether of us suffered from vertigo!

That afternoon we explored another Little India and Chinatown which was pretty crazy! We had our first look at a market + I have never seen soooooooo many fake handbags!! We got into the bartering which is my new favourite hobby! (I must follow my mum in more ways than one!) Nic got a casio watch at a bargain price and I got some sunglasses!

We walked back in the baking heat and headed down yet another huge shopping street which I think even topped Singapore for the amount of shopping malls! However the best thing about the shopping malls would be that they would have foodcourts which was really cheap and so many different cuisines to choose from! Both our meals came to 2 pound but we are still trying to work out how to use chopsticks and often have to ask for a knife and fork!!

The following day we were moving again this time to Thailand. We were aiming to get to the Thai islands but could only get just over the border into South Thailand to a place called Hat Yai. We panicked a little at the border wondering whether we needed a visa etc but luckily didn't and we got there ok. But again we had no clue where we would be dropped off and this time no idea where to stay! We luckily passed a hotel and thought we'd stay there. But when the bus stopped I saw our bags being taken off and taken away. We quickly rushed off to find out they'd been taken into a tour operator and were bombarded with questions "where to you want to go?" We quickly picked up the bags and headed to the hotel. The hotel was again a pleasant surprise and this time even had a tv!!

That night we headed out for our first sample of thai food. After just having a look around in the shopping mall we soon experienced our first thunder storm in south east asia and we moan that it rains in england! It's nothing like this. We thought initially that it'll be over in 20 minutes but we were wrong and instead of staying in the dry in the shopping mall we braved the rain and found ourselves a restaurant.

I ordered Pad thai and nic ordered thai green curry. Very excited we received our meals and were bitterly disappointed when mine contained egg for some reason and Nic, (usually being good with loads of chilli) had a couple of mouthfuls and had to give up because his mouth was on fire! When then ordered some nachos to make sure we didn't go hungary that night!!

We woke up the next morning bright and early to go get our bus to the islands at 8:30am. We arrived at the tour agent and sat down and waited. They said to us that we were too early but by our watches we were bang on time!! I firstly thought it was a scam and they were trying to make us miss the bus but they soon said "no it's 7:30am did you come from malaysia??" We then realised that malaysia was an hour ahead but no-one told us!! Feeling very stupid we had an hour to kill before catching the bus.

Once again we got on a minibus with no idea of how we were getting to the thai islands and we would often stop at what we thought was a service station where we had the pleasure of hovering on the toilet! We reached a ferry terminal and got told via hand gestures where to go by our bus driver. The only thing was we were waiting in the passenger terminal and were the only ones without our luggage as the driver insisted on keeping it in the bus?? So we had 3 hour ferry crossing with no clue as to whether we would see our luggage again!! We got off the ferry at Koh Samui and thankfully our bus driver was there waiting and kindly showed us to a taxi where we don't even think he got comission! We got in a taxi which was actually a pickup truck which fitted about 10 of us in the back!! We reached the beach and got out where it looked like it was busy and went in search of a guesthouse. We'd asked a couple who said they were full or were bascially too expensive until we eventually found one.

That night we headed out to dinner and ended up taking advantage of the 80p beers on the beach listening to some music and watching some fire dancing! The following day it was time to hit the beach and top up the tan. But as soon as we laid our towels down we were sweating so much we had to go into the sea to cool down. But the sea in no way cooled us down as it was more like a luke warm bath! From then on we were unable to sit on the beach as it was too hot so instead spent the rest of the day in the sea and we even rented a lielow for the day but paid the price when Nic burnt his shoulders!

The following day we decided to head off to other another island called Koh Phangnan. This time we even had a room overlooking the beach for 8 pound a night!! We did a lot more sunbathing and were finally getting used to the motorbikes in asia and further weird and wonderful things until we then saw a woman riding a motorbike with a monkey in front of her!!Crazy!

One night on the island we ended down the beach for dinner and some drinks. On the beach we found some crazy things happening including a big skipping rope which was lit with fire!! But along with it a bunch of crazy english lads getting serverly burnt!! At this point Nic and I weren't feeling brave enough to and instead ventured for the buckets that were on offer. (Thats buckets filled with alcohol!) It soon went down hill after two buckets of gin and lemonade and we found a limbo stick on fire which we were joining in on!! We called it a night at some point or another and Hannah enjoyed a lovely drunken phonecall from me as a result of the buckets!!

The following day after we paid the price of our previous night's escapades where were we heading to bangkok on a 15 hour journey! Again we had now idea exactly how we were getting their but were luckily given stickers so whenever we got off a bus or a boat we were herded in the right direction. We were meant to arrive into Bangkok at 6am but when we were woken up at 4am saying we got there we were quite surprised!

We got off the bus very dazed to then be bombarded with taxi drivers. Yet again we had booked a guesthouse where they didn't quite know where it was!! The taxi driver was then saying "how much you pay me?" But we didn't have a clue where we'd been dropped off in Bangkok, therefore how far it was away from our guesthouse. We soon got rid of him when he refused to put the fare on the meter and luckily found a driver who did. After struggling finding the place we were pleased to realise the fare was a quarter of the price the previous taxi driver was offering us!

After a good night's sleep we headed to the Royal Palace in Bangkok, which was truely unbelieveable! Better than any churches we've got in europe I think! The only thing was I had to wear a lovely, stinking, glamourous shirt to cover up my shoulders and Nic had to wear what looked like scrub trousers a doctor would wear!! Following the Palace we walked further around the city and the next day headed to chinatown where we experienced the craziest market ever!! It was extremely busy selling all types of things but the thing was the alleyways were so small and cramped two people could barely get past each other let alone the motorbikes which were trying to get down the alleyways!!

After a crazy two days in Bangkok we looking forward to heading to Cambodia where we were hoping things would be a little less hectic!!

Lots of Love

Jen and Nic

xx