Hello from Bali!!!

My last blog finished in Penang, Malaysia, and since then I have travelled down through Malaysia to Singapore and flown on to Bali!

I have to say that I was not a massive fan of Penang, as there was very little to do there except walk around the city, and I was pleased to move on to Kuala Lumpar the following day. It was nice to see that for the first time on our travels, Malaysian transport is actually quite nice! We took a very nice cach from Penang to Kuala Lumpar, and I managed to sleep for the entire four hours. When we arrived we stupidly took an expensive taxi down the road as we had no idea where we were in order to find somewhere to stay. Unfortunatly the hostel was far too expensive and instead we decided to stay at a guest house across the road. Although it didn't look great from the outside, the room was actually really nice, and at 7pounds a night I can't really complain.

We spent our first day in Kuala Lumpar going for a very long walk around the cty. Armed with a rather rubbish map (and I have a terrible sense of direction anyway!) we got a little lost around Chinatown before we finally found the large indoor market that we were looking for. It was a great relief to get inside, as the humidity in Kuala Lumpar was ridiculous and walking around outside was quite unbearable.

After, we decided to head back for the hotel for a much needed shower and decided to stay on the main street by our guest house so we wouldn't have to walk too far to find somewhere to eat. Unfortunatly it was rather expensive everywhere we looked, but we thought we might aswell treat ourselves as we were paying so little for our room, and chose to have some sushi! Though we wern't quite so happy when the bill was more than our accomodation for that night...

On Friday we decided to make the most of the time we had in the city and spent the entire day walking. We woke at 6am (though with the hour time difference in Malaysia it felt like 5), in order to go and queue for the Petronas Towers. The towers are a central point in Kuala Lumpar, and are free to go up onto the viewing bridge that joins the two buildings. It is just a shame that you have to get there ridiculous early to queue. After walking in the rain we joined the queue before 7.30 and were to wait there for over an hour an a half before we were given our time slot to get to go up the towers. Although we got up so early, it was a good job as the queue was ridiculously long. It was a good experience to see the towers, but for anyone who has been to New York, they are not really anything in comparison.

Later in the morning we got the underground further into town which was great. At about 30p for a single fare it was not only amazingly cheap, but also incredibly clean, which definatly puts London to shame! Once in town, we got a local bus to take us about 45minutes out to the Batu Caves. The Caves hold a Hindu temple and are quite outstanding. It was just a shame that you have to climb 272 steps to get into them! In the heat this was definatly not a fun experience, but once at the top the view was definatly worth it. The caves were also amazing because of the monkeys that inhabit them, though I was quite scared of them because you are allowed to feed them so they are constantly around you expecting food and I was terrified that one would jump on me!

In the evening we went back into the city for yet more walking around in the ridiuclous heat. Luckily it rained in the evening which cooled the city down and we could actually go out and get dinner without feeling like we were going to faint! Unfortunatly the humidity in Kuala Lumpar attracted even more mosquitos to me and by the end of the day I was absolutly covered in bites but I slept like a log from the walking we had done.

On Saturday, we took another coach down to the little town of Melaka. Although we had another lovely coach, we had to get a taxi into the centre of town. Our drivers manners were certainly interesting, and it is difficult to get used to the fact that they don't even get out of their seat to help you get your bags into the car. Then on the way there whilst quietly sitting in the back seat reading a map, another car drove straight into the back of us. The driver pulled over and gave the rather large dent a smack, got back in the car and carried on driving as f nothing had happened. Not only was I shocked about the accident, but I was even more shocked when he never even asked if we were okay. I was not amused!

When we got to the town centre, the cab driver dropped us off and gave us a very vague description of where we should be going. However, he clearly told us the wrong way because we spent quite a while walking before realising that we were actually on the wrong street and the road we should have been on was the opposite way. After a local man pointed us onto the correct street where all of the hostels and guest houses were we gave up looking for the one we had in mind and instead took the first one we saw which was reasonable.

Melaka was a lovely little town, and we spent the afternoon walking around its Dutch buildings and churches. We also went on a boat down the river which was really nice because it was just as humid in Melaka as it was in Kuala Lumpar. After all the sightseeing I was again exhausted by the humidity and gave up walking round to lie under the air conditioning in our room! In the evening, there was celebrations going on in the town to mark the end of Chinese New Year. We walked around the stalls, and wondered how the 10ringit (2pounds) I had left was going to pay for my dinner, water and breakfast! But with so many stalls set up, I managed to buy a drink and some form of fish ball soup for about 3ringit which I was rather impressed with!

On Sunday, we left Melaka incredibly early to get another lovely coach down to Singapore. By the time we got to the Malaysia/Singapore border you could instantly see the difference between the two countries. For a start, it is the poshest border I have seen on my travels, and it almost looked like an airport. After getting another set of visas and stamps, we got back on the bus to continue into the city. Although we had to take another taxi (it seems such a waste of money), we did find the hostel we were looking for. Luckily they had a few beds free in the air-con room which I was happy with. When we went inside though it didn't smell so great, so the second we put our bags down we were out of there and off to go and explore the city.

The first thing we decided to do was get a bus pass so that we could hop on and off the tourist buses and easily make our way around the city. At $33 it wasn't cheap but we did spend the entirety of the next two days on it so it was definatly worthwhile. I was perfectly happy to sit on the open-topped bus with the breeze all day, and that we did. In the evening we paid extra to go over to Sentosa island and see a tourist 'light and sound show'. I had no idea that this isand exsisted and thought that it was rather strange. The island is literally a tourist development, and as soon as you drive on to it all you can see is their universal studios and theme park!

The resort on this island was lovely, but looked nothing like the rest of Singapore and could honestly have been a resort anywhere in the world. We had a look around and walked through some of the hotels in an attempt to find dinner but it was soooo ridiculously expensive that we resorted to sharing a pizza between us. (I quickly noticed how expensive Singapore is in comparison to Malaysia, and you certainly couldn't buy your dinner here for less than a pound like I had the night before!)

After spending the entire day sightseeing, we returned to the dorm late to find more people in there. We sat around chatting for quite a few hours, which was okay because it took almost an hour for me to attempt to sort out my painful mosquito bites! (I have resorted to literally pouring calamine lotion all over my legs to stop me scratching!!)

On Monday we woke early and were on a mission to cram in a full days sightseeing. However, we did waste our first hour as we waited for the sightseeing boat, only to later be told that the 2 different piers we had sat at were not in use at the moment, which we were not impressed with. We tried to complain as there was no notice, but they don't really get the concept of complaining here and the woman I spoke to just thought I was joking and couldn't stop laughing!

Anyway, the rest of the day was great, and we went to see the botanical gardens and later went to look around the hundreds of shopping malls. In the evening, we had to go and do the one thing that must be done in Singapore, and go to Raffles hotel for a Singapore Sling cocktail. The hotel is very extravagant, and we were told that a night there costs from $400!! Because of this we tried to dress up as best we could from the few clean clothes we have in the hope that they wouldn't turn us away! The bar was not actually as I expected, and they have a strange tradition of giving you free peanuts and allowing you to throw the shells on the floor which seemed odd for such an expensive place. The cocktail was nice, and had to be done, but at $30 it was the most expensive drink I have ever bought and will not be done again!

Apart from the rather expensive food and drinks, I absolutly loved Singapore and have to say that it has been one of my favourite places on my enture trip. It is spectaculaly clean (you are not allowed chewing gum in the country), is a very exciting city to look around and has more shops than you could ever dream of! I would have been very happy to stay a lot longer than I did.

By Monday night I was exhausted, but being in a dorm room, you don't exactly get the best nights sleep! We didn't get to sleep until gone one because there was a massive confusion with the room and the hostel had double booked a bed! It was quite funny because everyone was arguing over whose bed was whose but it took then so long to sort out and I just wanted to sleep! However, one of the people in the room left early, so the main light went on at 5.30am which certainly left me in a bad mood for the rest of the day!!!

On Tuesday, I was flying out of Singapore and heading for Bali!!!! Because I had 10 days left before heading to Aus, I couldn't decide what to do with my time and so decided that I may aswell go on holiday (because obviously travelling is not even remotely relaxing!!!) So, Mum booked a very last minute flight and has come to join me for the next 10 days! I feel slightly bad that I am meant to be backpacking, but as soon as I saw the hotel Mum checked us into I quickly stopped complaining!!!

We have spent 5 days in Nusa Dua, which is a built up resort of mainly 5* hotels, and are now spending the remaining 5 days in Kuta which is big town with a spectacular beach. The beaches here are amazing, and I am very happy to be relaxing everyday, and going to restaurants without worrying if I have enough pennys to pay for dinner!

Although we have spent a lot of our time sunbathing, we have also been on a trip around the island. We had our own tour guide, who with the driver spent 10 hour driving us from one place to another to show us all of the attractions! We got to see traditional dancing, wood carving, a traditional house, rice plantation, and a tropical plantation amoungst other things. We also had lunch overlooking a volcano which was beautiful. The day was really very funny, as our tour guides English wasn't great so he decided to practice with us, and several hours turned into an English lesson. He seems to have picked up an Australian accent from somehwere (absolutly no-one here is English, and we are constantly being asked if we are Australian) and we were determined to change this habit and spent a good hour practising Eliza Dolittles saying 'The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plane' which was stupid but rather funny.

This week we plan to do another trip, maybe on a boat or something. But for the rest of the time I am perfectly happy to be staying in our beautiful hotel (we got upgraded because they messed up our booking) and spending the rest of the time relaxing on the beach and watching all the surfers.

Until I get to Australia, that's all for now!

Another ridiculously long post there I'm afraid!

Hope you're all well xxx