Hello everyone! :-D it's been a while since we've updated, apologies from us both! We've had a nightmare trying to get a signal in Malaysia, and everytime we've had free wifi, the connection hasn't been that good resulting in me losing my patience and not updating due to pure frustration!
Anyway, our last blog stated we went to Ipoh. What a mistake that was. Ipoh generally consisted of a few streets, a lot of locals that give you the wrong directions accompanied by stinking looks, overpriced hotels that don't deliver what they describe. In general it was a waste of time and we only stayed one night there.
During that one night, we tried a local dish of chicken rice in a claypot... which at first, I thought...OK,this may be nice.We ordered two small, to which the girl who took our order questioned why we didn't want medium.We stuck with the choice of small...and when it came, wondered what the hell she was on because a small was HUGE...enough for TWO people!!
Chicken rice is pretty much rice, with some kinda sauce on it, and pieces of chicken on the bone...I don't mind chicken on the bone but Luke isn't much of a fan...he prefers it like the chicken you get in chicken fried rice. ("I don't want to have to make an effort when I eat...I want it just to be there, ready to chomp down!" - his words ;-P ) We chose, however, to go for a MIXED option - where you get chicken, pork and seafood.
Oh my lord.

The chicken was ok, the rice was nice, the pork was...odd. But the seafood...WHAT IN GODS NAME DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, MALAYSIA?!?!
Maybe we had a bad experience...but we both tasted this fish that was put in with the rice, which was the most sour tasting thing i've ever had!! It was at that moment I gave up and couldn't eat anymore. The pork also kinda looked like tongue...:-S (Luke's words again!)
Clearly we've been in Asia a little bit too long, as this has been followed up by a stupid amount of McDonalds Luke has consumed in Kuala Lumpur ;-)... i'll get onto that in a bit though!

After Ipoh we moved on to the Cameron Highlands, which was nice. A lot cooler than Ipoh and Penang which we welcomed after all the intense heat. We stayed there a few days, it had beautiful views going up the mountains, when we were travelling to go up there, we saw the tea plantations and strawberry farms.

It was really cheap to stay at the start but because of the Chinese New Year the rates in our hotel went up for a couple of days, which annoyed us because the standard of the hotel is the same! It wasn't worth what they put the price up to, so we decided to go to Kuala Lumpur on the Sunday, the day before Checkie and Chris were arriving there.
The good thing about our room in the Cameron Highlands was that we got to watch a lot of films ;-) And hot water for showering, of course.
Luke has now seen Avatar twice, how to train your dragon ,date night, inception, etc etc lol.

When we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, it was Chinese New Year Eve so we decided to walk around the Chinatown area... it had a nice atmosphere and people were lighting these red strips on the side of their restaurants which were like firecrackers, along with fireworks. It was really nice to see.

We were joined the next day by Checkie and Chris (YOU TWO!), after having a 16 hour flight we didn't expect them to want to come out but fair play to them, THEY DID. ;-D We met them outside McDonalds and probably stayed there for about an hour talking, without moving on to go somewhere for food and drinks! lol! All the locals were probably getting sick of walking around us! After catching up on the gossip, we took them to Chinatown and sat down outside a pretty restaurant and had food. I had chicken fried rice (shocker!), Luke had chicken noodles, Checkie had some SHNACKY things like spring rolls and chicken satay sticks, and Chris had the most impressive prawns I think i've ever seen! Tiger prawns sizzling on a pan covered with a metal lid.We all enjoyed a tiger beer...what a treat! It was quite surreal being sat with them after not seeing them for two months! (Luke put that, but I agree wholefartedly!) ;-) After that we went to a bar and Checkie and Chris got the shock of their lives when they saw how expensive alcohol is in Malaysia... the tax on alcohol is ridiculously high compared to a few years ago, probably double the UK price for a beer! I'm not joking! That's only a bottle, you probably pay about 8 pound for a bottle of beer in some places!

We decided to go back then after all it was about 4am and Checkie and Chris looked knackered ;-) lol but it was a lovely catch up, surreal but nice!
The next day we met them in the evening, knew they'd need to catch up on some sleep, so we met them and went for food (McDonalds family bucket lol which was about 6 pound and consisted of two chicken sandwiches, a spicy chicken sandwich, 3 cokes, 6 chicken nuggets, two fries and two sundaes! PROPER VALUE!)
I couldn't eat it all but Luke managed to finish everything I didn't! We were all laughing at Luke because he's clearly missing comfort familiarity of eating like he does at home!
We later on found an irish bar and had a few mojitos there, it was along a street full of bars so we decided to come back the next night and take advantage of any happy hours or ladies nights where the ladies get a free cocktail!
Although apparently the mojitos had made us a bit tipsy, as we soon declared it "Crisp O'clock" and went into a 7-1 to get crisps to munch on on the way home... they would so happen to be onion rings, which resulted in us taking photos putting them up to our eyes like glasses. Oh dear.

We tried to see if we could go up the Petronas Twin Towers the next day but unfortunately all the tickets were sold out, they apparently sell 800 a day and were sold for the next few days! Oh poo. Stupid system because it involved queueing up at 7am, and not being let in until 9...or maybe later depending on which time slot your in! Boo!

That evening we went out and had a bit to drink, starting at Checkie and Chris's hotel with vodka they'd bought, and went out to that Irish bar we found the night before, and went in a few bars along that street we had beers, Mojitos, Jagerbombs, Shots....(Again, OH DEAR!) ...we had a good laugh and ended up in McDonalds once again!

The final night with Checkie and Chris we went to this amazing sky bar, which had a pool in the centre of the bar (Luke didn't jump in this time, like he apparently did in Italy...although Chris did dare him to do it but he's "grown up" apparently?! :-O) and an amazing view of the twin towers...we ordered some different dishes and cocktails to share, which Checkie and Chris bought for us (they really didn't need to! They've been so kind!)... The music in there was great, a female house DJ who was really good called Stella Nutella who really knew her tunes! We stayed there til about 1am, and then made our way back to our hotel so we could give our Asia lonely planet guide to Checkie and Chris, and we said our farewells which was quite sad :-( We got used to having them around and wish they could come further with us! Quite sad again. Hope you are enjoying your time in Thailand guys! Stay away from the ladyboys!

We were all set to leave on friday morning like Checkie and Chris, but decided to postpone it because I wasn't feeling well (and no,it wasn't alcohol fuelled before anyone suggests!), I was running a temperature and had a really sore throat and was shivering... the best option was to get some painkillers down me, strepsils for my throat and to get some rest. Luke went out to see when we could book tickets for a bus to Singapore but they were fully booked until monday morning (this morning!)... maybe a bit of a blessing in disguise in a way...well when it comes to my health anyway, because I couldn't shake the fever or sore throat until yesterday! Being ill in this hot weather is really not nice, it feels so much worse... my throat is still really sore but the headaches and fevers have stopped now! It was quite scary as part of you wonders what the hell it is that's making you feel that way...

The reason it wasn't a blessing in disguise though, is because Singapore is absolutely GORGEOUS. By far the most cleanest city i've ever seen. The skyline is just breathtaking! We walked around tonight for 5 hours, and I have never felt safer anywhere in my life!
We went to a bar in a street called Bali Lane called Aura, where we had a lovely chicken grill, in white wine sauce, served with a grilled tomato, mushrooms and potato wedges! (Luke actually ate his mushrooms! Wonders never cease!)
Singapore by night is just amazing, we've been told by so many people that it's by far the nicest place in South East Asia, and they are right! It's a nice end to our time in Asia, we just wish we had longer here...but it is fairly expensive compared to the rest of Asia...no wonder though, the city is just on it's own! Stunning.
Going to put some pictures on facebook now, with any luck ...took some amazing photos of the city by night...and have loads to put up of Kuala Lumpur.
Right outside where we are staying ,the view from our window now, we can see a palace which looks just like the Sultans Palace from Aladdin! It's literally across the road. There's even a shop next to it called "Aladdins" ;-) I want to get a cheeky photo of Luke stood next to it, for old times sake! Lol! Sorry Luke, but you ARE Aladdin! (Everyone keeps asking Luke if he's Arabian?? LOL!!!! He's shaved his beard off so I don't get why they still ask him??? *sings* Araaaaabiaaaan niiiiiii-iiights like Arabiannn daaaaaaayyyys...)

We haven't seen one bit of rubbish on the floor here, unlike smelly Malaysia which seems to be full of cockroaches, rats and prostitutes roaming the streets and staying in the same hotels as we do! (yes we mean the cockroaches AND the prostitutes...i'm sure I woulda had the same reaction if I found a prostitute in my room to how I reacted when I found a cockroach...or 8...as we did at one point...natural instinct is to squash them! Our one hotel clearly had a cockroach problem, when we told them we were finding them everywhere the guy at reception came up and sprayed our room...and when I said I wanted to move rooms, his reaction was "They are only small"...um...SO?! I didn't pay for extra lodgers!!) Basically Malaysia wasn't that nice,it was quite dirty.

Singapore is so different, the people really love and look after their city here...chewing gum is even banned and you get fined if you have it! (Who likes stepping on a sticky wad of gum, anyway?)

Tomorrow we intend to get up early (lol its 2:44 am now) and go to Sentosa Island (Luke was going on about it because he read about it the lonely planet book, and it had a night safari, universal studios and underwater world amongst other things to do) which we'll go to and see what we can do as I doubt we'll be able to afford it all! ;-)We get to go down the river to go there though, which has great views of the city!

We realised today, while sat next to the river in Singapore how strange we must sound...we were sat there, eating cookies and cream ice creams at about 11pm, talking about how cool it would be to have an "Arnie Party" when we get home... this basically means everyone has to come dressed as Arnie from one of his films...masks included. What has happened to us?! lol.

It's crazy to think that we'll be going to Australia on Wednesday evening... an 8 hour flight, which seems like nothing now after doing a 16 and a half hour journey in Thailand on the train! The first chapter of our travels is ending, and the next one is about to begin! :-O!

Exciting times!
We really miss everyone back home though, and hope you are all well and taking care of yourselves and each other! (HAHAH Luke just pointed out I sounded like Jerry Springers final words on his show ...JEEE-RRY JEEEE-RRY!)

Until next time...;-)

Xxxx

Ps- Mum, i've seen the photo of you on Xmas eve at Nita and Jeffs ;-) With your Santas hat with pigtails!