17/10 Back to reality

Friday 19th Back to Normal Life I was up before 6, enjoyed a dawn stroll along the beachfront and kept an eye out for dolphins. None today but a squawk of pink galahs (parrots) were perched on the fence preening themselves. I started the first of many cycles of laundry. We need to wash everything just in case of hitchhikers. The garden and lawn looked good, most of the pot plants were in good nick and only one of the big palms had died. We seemed to have all the fridge magnets from our most recent trip and all the trinkets had travelled well. I haven’t given any time to draw any conclusions or reach philosophical resolution of our travels. I just know instinctively that it was the right thing for us to do at that time and I don’t imagine we will ever regret it. It was a wonderful experience and we were extremely fortunate to have had the time and the money to do it, and that it all went so well. We achieved everything we set out to do and a lot more besides. We decided at an early stage not to try for Tibet and Everest Base Camp. I feel totally content with that – it was going to be extremely expensive, uncomfortable, irritating to be stuffed around so much by Chinese authorities and the ticket scalpers, and there was a considerable risk that we would have major problems with the extreme altitude. At the end of all that, we could have got there only to find it clouded in and no view of Everest. Having subsequently seen a large group of much younger seasoned travellers have huge problems with 3600m in Bolivia, it is highly likely that 6 days at 3500-5500m in Tibet would have been miserable. No regrets. China, the Himalayas, The Great Wall, the Warriors, Yangtse Gorges, Overnight recliner bed to Paris, Paris!!! Alps, Venice!! Cunard round the Eastern Mediterranean (Athens, Istanbul, Alexandria, Croatia), Rome, Florence, transatlantic crossing, Rio!! Iguazu Falls, Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Chilean Andes, Bolivia, Machu Picchu!!! Miami, Caribbean, transatlantic on the Epic, Barcelona, fabulous Greek islands on Silhouette, Innsbruck in the snow!!, the Rhine with Elisabeth!!  Norwegian fjords, the Arctic Circle and beyond, 79 degrees N,  Paris again, EuroDisney, home for Hayley’s 21st, 3 weeks to plan and book the next leg, Milan, Israel, Jerusalem!  French Riviera, Monte Carlo!, Paris again, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Estonia, St Petersberg, the Hermitage! Helsinki, Stockholm, London!! London-NY on Queen Mary! cruising into the port of NY, Air Canada!  Vancouver, cruising the Inside Passage (twice) Alaskan fjords and Glaciers, winning ALL the quizzes, Hawaii, Waikiki beach, Pearl Harbour, Hong Kong, Penang, KL, Singapore. And so many wonderful new friends. There were some tight connections, some very tight connections, some potential documentation problems, some delays, some uncertainty . . . Some milestones where we said . . “it will be good when we get beyond that”.  We cruised, we did group overland and we carved our own trail. We did it hard and we took it easy. Some of those boats were fabulous - just plain fabulous. And the rest were very good. So much food! So many new tastes. So many extraordinary cities. You might say it was quite a commitment – to the experience and to each other. We have been together 6 years on a “while it suits us” basis and it was a poignant and beautiful moment on the Radiance to commit to love,  honour and be faithful to one another. We won’t be going anywhere for the next 12 months but after that . . who knows? And if we never do anything like it again . . . we had it already. Thank you for sharing the journey with us. Janine & Chris   In the window of the Inncrowd Backpackers in Singapore. Chris' travelling shoes.  Why so many?  Who knows.  2 pairs of crocs were bought along away - and the tiny pair for Alyssa.

 

 

18/10 Flying home

Thursday 18^th Flying home

We started off with a re-weigh of the luggage and took out a couple of heavy jackets to wear. We had to check out at 11 but we dropped in at the Villas for a shared final dosai. It was very gloomy when we got back to the hostel to get our bags – a series of taxis drove past but they were all occupied, except one who said he didn’t have any space in his boot for our luggage. Then the rain came – a solid tropical downpour complete with high pitched thunder claps.

At that stage we would have got drenched trying to get into a cab so we sat it out. Predictably, the streams of water were matched only by the stream of vacant taxis! By then it was nearly 1pm so we got the hostel to ring us one. The trip out to the airport took 30 minutes but only cost $20.

One of the major reasons for coming down to Singapore was to fly home with Tiger at a civilised hour and from the delightful budget terminal here. Unfortunately for us, flights have been redirected to Terminal 2 for the last 3 weeks. The formalities were very quickly completed and we were delighted to weigh in bang on our entitlements.

We went upstairs for a farewell gulp at Subway (in fact we had 2) and then suddenly realised that it was time to clock into the departure lounge. By then it was too late for them to deliver duty free to the plane so we missed out.  Not that it matters – we are waist deep in grog at home from previous duty free forays and we don’t really need any more. There is always the Perth arrival hall duty free but it is relatively very expensive.

There was an adequate amount of leg room and we have grown blasé to 6 hour flights. We had bought biscuits and assorted rolls from the Asian bakery and the trip passed smoothly, despite kids kicking and wailing and adults snorting and hacking. Inner Serenity prevailed.

We didn’t declare anything and sailed through the exit queues pretty smoothly. The plans had changed last night after last-minute problems with Warren’s and my cars. So Steph brought Lissa up to fetch us. They had just arrived in the parking area when we came out so we hopped in and took off. Lissa was awake all the way home, where Warren was waiting for us. It was a huge pleasure to be arriving home at a reasonable time after a short flight without crossing any time zones. We dumped all our luggage out on the verandah and sank gratefully into our own bed.

Pirates AAAAArrrrggggghhhhhh

Wednesday 17^th The Last Day L

Simple programme today – lunch at local Indian restaurant – tried uttapam. Uttapam is a thick pancake, with toppings cooked right into the batter. Uttapam is sometimes characterized as an Indian pizza. Thanks Wikipedia. Retraced yesterday’s steps to Sentosa to use free tickets for the Maritime Experiential Museum. A lot of information about Chinese trade and piracy in the 1400-1800 era. Whoopee. Some of it was kinda interesting. The best part was when I got to nap on beanbags for an hour while J went back to suck up some more info about mediaeval maritime marketing.

Zeng He's treasure ship.  He was in charge of over 200 ships and 27,000 crew.  They had many farm animals with them and grew crops on the support ships.

 He traded with civilisations in the Western Oceans and returned exotic items to China.

Did you know ? ….  The Chinese invented the compass. …  and were the first civilization to build ships with bulkheads (based on the strength of how a bamboo plant is constructed).   Interesting huh!

It rained non-trivially while we were inside and we strolled back around the bay to Vivo, where we rediscovered some sushi and chicken eateries. Home.

16/10 Universal Studios & Night Lights

Tuesday 16^th Universal Studios & Night Lights

What a great day! We rescued a Vietnamese lady who was looking for the MRT – just said “come with us” and took her to the station, showed her how to buy a ticket, rode with her to Clark Quay, told her where the attractions were and gave her our map. We went on to Harbourfront and the Vivo centre – a favourite stamping ground. We stocked up with delectables from one of those Asian bakeries for lunch and strolled out to Sentosa island.

Foreigners actually get a discount here, which is a change, but you do even better paying with Mastercard – 10% off and free entry to the maritime museum. We started just absorbing the atmosphere in Hollywood then watched street performances by Sesame St and some breakdancers, then made our way to Waterworld – a big stunt production set around a futuristic “atoll” in the theme of the Costner movie which still holds the record for the biggest financial failure of all time. The show was excellent after we got over being told to arrive early only to be herded into an area in full sun and left there for 15 minutes.

 Lots of characters about

 Dancing friends

 Waterworld explosions

 The plane coming towards us

 Booooooom

 

The outdoor auditorium was divided into a wet zone, a splash zone and a dry zone. We went dry. (No really – you would never have guessed it with a pair of thrillseekers like us but we did). They started with 3 guys coming out with buckets and huge bicyclepumps which could spray jets as far as the back of the spray zone. They had a lot of amusing tricks which always ended up soaking the victims in the front half of the audience. This made for a very good crowd warmup, particularly for those of us who were dry at the back. The actual show was a cracking good display of special effects and stunts with a lot of high falls, bangs and flashes and intruding boats and airplanes.

Then there was the Donkey show from Shrek – an ingenious animated performance with the image of the donkey on screen interacting with a host in the studio and with members of the audience. The donkey’s lips matched what the voice was saying, which was an amazing technical achievement given that he wasn’t following a script but ad-libbing about unpredictable things that happened.

 Donkey Live

 

Then there was a 4D performance of a Shrek adventure, which featured chairs that shook and bumped  in synch with the film, emphasised by puffs of wind, sprays of water coming from the back of the seat in front and even brushing against the back of your legs when spiders were about. We wore 3D glasses, which created an amazingly realistic impression of spears pointing right at us and dragons blowing fire into our faces.

 

On to a Spielberg-hosted show in a sound studio, illustrating the impact of a Category  5 hurricane in a New York boathouse. Very realistic, complete with a ship running in through the wall. Another theatre performance of Monster Rock featured actors made up as the 7 most famous monsters doing modern sing and dance routines.

Then it was on to the rides. We were never going to consider the outdoor roller coasters – 2 of them entwined and running in synch. The red one had seats placed in a typical train vehicle with about 8 cars in a chain each containing maybe a dozen victims. That was just a high level high speed rollercoaster. The blue one was really nasty – people in individual seats hanging underneath the rollers, grouped 3 or 4 abreast and maybe 20 or 30 longwise. They spent about half the time upside down or corkscrewing. The two tracks wound round each other and the effect would have been to create near collisions at very high speed and way up in the air. No thanks.

 

We did go on the indoor rollercoaster (The revenge of the Mummy) which flashed in and out of total darkness (apparently . . . although it wouldn’t matter if {hypothetically} you had your eyes closed). I had ridden this one with Warren 2 years ago and didn’t remember it as being so violent. I ended up with my neck and back feeling jarred and J was a bit bruised as well.  (her bites are still livid and itchy but at least there are no fresh ones today ).

 Egypt

 

We also went on the Transformers, which we thought was a simulator – well it was somewhat but the vehicle also moved about on a track. We were wearing 3D glasses and the effect was awesome – sooo realistic. It felt just like being smashed about by a giant robot and dropping from a tall building but you were still sort of aware that in fact it was an illusion created by tilting the vehicle sharply, showing objects flying towards you on a screen and blowing strong puffs of wind into your face while the vehicle shakes and jars with impacts. I preferred that to racing around on a rollercoaster.

 

We did the Madagascar crates ride twice.  Very cute low thrill water ride through scenes from the movie.

 

We watched the street show of  ”I Like to moof it moof it” from Madagascar, which was pretty short and not that good. I was done with rides for the day but J finished off with all the kiddy rides – junior rollercoaster in Far, Far Away Land and the Jurassic Pterodactyl.  She also did the Jurassic Park wet water ride and the Flyer, which were both pretty exciting for her.

 The Flyer

 These spit water on you just when you think you have finished being wet

 

On the way out we dropped into another restaurant (such extravagance) before we walked back to Vivo and caught the train to Clark Quay, followed by a brisk walk down to the Merlion to watch the sound and light show across the water in front of Marina Bay Sands (the building shaped like a huge boat up on stilts). The show was underwhelming but it was only 8pm and J thought it might be better from the other side at 9.30. So we took quite a long walk round the bay and across the bridge to MBS where we sat in the food court and had a choc muffin and a cold drink. We strolled out through the incredible array of designer shops – Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci etc etc and took a place on the gentle steps on the waterfront facing back towards the lights of Singapore City across the bay. Very pretty just for that - and then the show started.

It was quite stunning – a very memorable performance apparently put together by Australians. They sprayed sheets of water up into the air and then projected images and film clips onto them as though they were white sheets. The pictures were extremely clear and there were three main areas each about 20 metres apart, with great gas burners blowing flames up into the air from in front and laser lights from both sides. There was also music and effects such as streams of soap bubbles wafting in from the left.

  Real bubbles

 Guy on right was singing

 Fantastic images

The concept was to put on a display with lights and water – the two elements that are essential for Life - and to make the show a celebration of Life. It was all very clever and very beautiful and very apt in a stunningly beautiful setting on a balmy warm night – one of the great highlights of our extended holiday experience.

We then faced another long walk back to Clark Quay to catch the train home. We were well tired but feeling very satisfied after a really enjoyable day. We talked about what we will do with the $30 million OZ Lotto draw tonight. We had been extremely lucky with the weather – there was a quick and light shower while we were in one of the indoor shows so we didn’t even notice it. The weather was bearably very warm throughout the day. I had opted to hide the money belt in the room and go walking in tracky pants and my new crocs, which was very comfortable. The new tread is pretty secure unlike the old slicks which can be treacherous on smooth wet surfaces, which abound in SE Asia.

The Lotto has jackpotted to $50 mill so that will be a good start (and premature end) to J’s return to working life.

15/10 Bedbugs strike again

Monday 15^th BEDBUGS

Aaaargh. These things do happen in the tropics and with backpackers coming from all directions, often from bodgy dodgy lodgings, it is occasionally inevitable. J had settled into the lower bunk and banished me to the freezing wasteland upstairs in the full blast of the ecconshner, which she turned down to 23. So she enjoyed the full attention of the little monsters and got thoroughly gnawed.

We have shifted the luggage into a storeroom, hoping not to have picked up any hitchhikers L This is exactly the stage of a trip you do NOT want to pick up bedbugs because, annoying and uncomfortable though it is to be bitten by them, it is utterly insignificant compared to the disaster of taking them home with you! You can spend tens of thousands having every scrap of clothing and furniture transported to a fumigation site while the house is being bombed with toxic chemicals. Eeeew.

We borrowed a scale to weigh the bags last night and were alarmed though not surprised to weigh in at 73kg. There’s lead in them there Tshirts! And the fridge magnets don’t help.  Luckily we know rule 1 – wear the weight – so we shall board the plane bedecked in the heaviest clothing with sleeves and pockets stuffed with the heaviest items.

Just got a reminder from the airline, which includes the aside that it is extremely important to stay in the allocated seat, thereby assisting the airline and the authorities to maintain the highest standards of passenger safety – horse’s arse – so that they can force you to pay for the privilege of sitting next to your partner.

They had cleared a room next door by 10am and we moved in there while they fumigated the original room. They have taken our clothes for washing and (cross fingers) there have been no further bites so far today. J fires up in response to these things and erupts in big red blotches that itch fiercely.

We had Indian lunch at our usual Singapore haunt and enjoyed watching our tablemates thoroughly massaging their food by (right) hand before eating it. We tend to eat with both hands and whatever implements are available and wonder whether they are aware that we have different hygiene practices or whether they are appalled by our behaviour. They are pretty well caked in rice and relish up to the knuckles by the time they get the food in their mouths.

Our neighbours were each hacking into a large banana leaf rectangle loaded up with white rice, a pile of mixed and minced vegetables (looking not unlike Dad Mash), several dollops of sauce or relish and then 6 separate side bowls containing different sauces. The whole thing is covered by a huge crispy pancake, which they tend to dip into a mix of the rice, blended, rolled and massaged with various of the available relishes.

We then wandered down Race Course Road to the Mustafa centre – a large and crowded shopping centre. We managed to exchange most of our accumulated foreign currencies (5 of them) – they didnt want Israeli Shekels. The rates were surprisingly good and no fees.

On the way back we dropped into a few stores and could not resist buying just a FEW pairs of shoes (including black and red crocks) and some bits. We watched a bit of Pearl Harbour on DVD, which was poignant having just visited the site and stood in the monument over the wreck of the USS Arizona.

We had dinner back at a fascinating restaurant we passed this afternoon. The exterior is done up to look like a jungle setting and the outdoor tables and chairs are made out of rustic lumps of wood to contribute to the Tarzan image. The waiters are all done up in khaki with Sam Brown military belts and pith helmets. I thought I had walked into a re-enactment of a 1950s Delhi Police HQ. It was very striking – as much so as the Hospital Bar/Pub at Clark Quay, where the waiters are dressed like nurses, the drinks come in medical drip bags, and the furniture consists of clunky old chrome hospital beds, wheelchairs and operating theatre lights.

Anyway, we went to the jungle restaurant this evening. It was a bit pricey by our standards but very delicious – the Rogan Josh was excellent – fully flavoured and a warm glow in the mouth with a slight beading of sweat around your nose (the sign of a really good curry). J was ready for an early bed after taking a couple of antihistamines.

It's Diwali (or Deepavali) time when little India comes alive with lights and markets.  The Festival of Light is celebrated mid Oct to mid Nov.

 

14/10 Forward to Singapore

Sunday 14^th Train to Singapore

We packed, finding that we didn’t need to put much in the new plastic suitcase – although we haven’t ditched J’s holey backpack yet (its easier to carry). We took ourselves to the station, Macca’d (yes it’s a verb too) bought some biscuity/nutty/chippy/cakey schtuff for the train and headed off to the platform – our train is 40 minutes late L This meant sitting on the floor on the platform until it arrived.

We had good seats, albeit not in the solitary first class carriage, which had been full. My geriatric concession fare was $7 and J paid $11. We were at the front of a carriage with our own little table, facing forwards, heaps of leg room and unobstructed view of the large flatscreen which, as usual, did not work. We stowed our big luggage on the shelves about 3 metres in front of us and settled down for the trip.

We confirmed Malaysia’s place as 2^nd largest producer of palm oil. Mile after mile of plantations in measured rows.  The terrain was generally flat, unlike the first leg to KL.

About 3 hours short of the border there was a large influx of passengers. A Chinese man sat about 3 rows back and settled into a mind-numbing nerve-jangling routine of crunching sunflower seeds. For the benefit of those who were not following our blog in China 12 months ago . . .

After a while, I became aware of a persistent and insistent noise as if nails were being clipped close by. Regularly, infuriatingly regularly. On closer auditory scrutiny I discerned that it was more like nuts being cracked. Grnch-crigggt 2 3 4 Grnch-crigggt 2 3 4 Grnch-crigggt 2 3 4. The train went through a tunnel, which offered the opportunity to observe the reflection in the window of this wretched little man in the row in front cracking sunflower seeds with his teeth and reloading and unloading the husks with one hand. Practice has obviously made perfect. Grnch-crigggt 2 3 4. Pandas at the Research Centre had the ability to roll totally flat onto their backs and settle into a metronomic rhythm of cracking the bamboo shell and twisting it to expose the soft inner flesh Grnch-crigggt 2 3 4  then biting off a length. They did it with staggering efficiency and utter precision. Grnch-crigggt 2 3 4 Grnch-crigggt 2 3 4. This man is a Panda-morph. Heaven can he keep this up all the way to Chong Qing? Grnch-crigggt 2 3 4 How many seeds can he have?

There was also a large extended family of Indian folk. They based themselves around the space between carriages just in front of us and then overflowed in both directions. 2 small girls were sat on the floor in front of us and the adults jostled one another in a perpetual random Brownian motion seemingly without purpose other than to keep the automatic sliding door opening and closing. GrrrrTHUMP GrrrTHUMP. They then settled down and Mama1 stood herself just this side of the door with Papa1 just on the other side, right in the sensor field for said door GrrrTHUMP GrrrTHUMP. This also totally negated the ecconshning.

From a sociological standpoint, they obviously felt most comfortable maintaining a constant babble which nobody seemed to be listening or responding to. At least the children were quiet . . for the time being. NOOO I am NOT a grumpy old man. Grumpy perhaps but never old. We were aware that there was a solid mass of people between us and our luggage but there wasn’t a lot in there worth stealing unless you were particularly fond of football jumpers and size 2 crocs. And they looked respectable and well turned out. And we just couldn’t be bothered.

After a while the girls (8-ish) got over their awe at being in a train in close proximity to a white woman with blonde hair and started seeking attention. They hung off Mama1 until she drove them off and then they started wriggling and squirming and dancing. Which of course is code for showing off. They went through a series of Bollywood type moves and then had a go at Gangnam Style. We started smiling and they both launched into shameless flirting with J, pushing each other and jabbering away while keeping a corner of an eye out to make sure she was watching. One was very westernised and is going to be a right little movie star.

We seemed to be sitting around a lot waiting for passing trains or signals or something and it was getting late. The kids got ratty and one was obviously feeling ill. J meanwhile was fully ready to expel Vanilla Coke and Singapore was not going to come fast enough.

Eventually we arrived, after a brief stop at Johor Bahru (a very clean and modern looking station) and an on-the-run stamp from Malaysian immigration. And so across the causeway to Singapore. We have been using The-man-in-seat-61 a very excellent website for details of how to save money and book train travel all over the world. We found it a godsend in Europe and were delighted that it covers Asia and most of the rest of the world as well. We therefore knew what to do on arrival but unfortunately we had to detour to get Singapore dollars (thought we had brought some) and the train had got in very late. We caught the 911 bus to the MRT station but then found that the trains had started closing down for the night and we couldn’t get to Dhobi Ghat.

Fortunately the train ran far enough for it to be a short taxi run into Little India and we easily directed the driver to the hostel, where we settled into our favourite room and were quickly and chastely stacked in our steel bunks.

 

 

 

 

13/10 Last day in KL

Saturday 13^th The Last Shop

We walked out into the sort of breeze that presages rain. At least it was cool. We made it to the bus stop at the local station where J hoped to get a haircut but the salon was closed. So we did a full loop round  Bukit Bintang on the free shuttle bus (purple). When we got back, the lady was in the salon and didn’t have a client so J popped in and had a cut ($7).

We got back on the bus and went half way round again to where we could catch the green one (which was also painted purple) to take us to the twin Towers, now the 4^th and 5^th tallest in the world. By then it was raining quite hard and we walked through to the back where the fountains were going off full tilt in the rain. We watched a couple of different patterns and then went up to eat in the food court. This afforded us a second chance to have a go at the Malaysian dessert, known as the ABC for short. This one had a wide range of ingredients but just looks red.

Back on the bus, change buses and back home. It had rained lightly but steadily throughout the day since about 10am. We went out again to get the remaining Tshirts and some bits and pieces, which we dropped off upstairs and then went out for a Subway. Steph and Lissa were on Skype.  It is going to be interesting to find out how much our luggage weighs L