G'day from Oz!

Another week or so has passed and time for us to fill you in on all our adventures!

It's been a pretty manic week.... 4 countries visited and we have gone from hot beaches to crazy, vibrant cities and finally this week we arrived in Perth to start our 9 months in oz. 

We left you in ko Tao after an amazing time. After a short ferry ride we visited ko samui, which was a far busier island. Holly had managed to find what seemed like 5 star luxury after the bungalow on ko Tao. Flushing toilet, hot shower, satellite tv and wifi. Mind you,  it wouldn't have taken much to make you feel in another world! We had a very relaxing time as we knew the arduous journey that lay ahead. Whilst london seemed to be internally combusting we ended up spending our 2 days lying in the pool and then eventually dragging holly to a local bar in order to bask in watching England's victory over India ... Woop!

So, in order to get to our next stop we faced what can only be described as torment and will forever be retold by all future Ingram descendants as: The Long Journey! 32 hrs travelling backpacker style from ko samui to kuala lumpur. No short flight for us.... No, instead we hopped on a bus, then another bus, then a ferry, then another bus, then had a 8hr wait for a sleeper train (many long hours spent browsing the local 7 eleven!) which took 12hrs to get to Butterworth, Malaysia and then finally another 7hr train to KL! We had stocked up on goodies to get us through the first part of the journey whilst we waited for our sleeper train thinking that we could do the same and get something to eat at Butterworth. No.... How wrong we were. The station was empty.... How holly was longing for a delice de france and a stuffed croissant! This left us with 6 Oreo cookies (not original, but blueberry and strawberry flavour, which the Thais seemed to favour) and water to see us through and so rationing began, one Oreo per hour! How glad we were to finally arrive in KL and see my cousin waiting there and then commence the evening with a shot of tequila! Bliss!!

KL was amazing! Craig and charlotte were fantastic hosts, showing us all the great places to eat and shop you'd only know as a local. Copious amounts of curry and chinese was consumed, as well as a vast beer tower, which made lots of locals point and laugh! We loved the city, the twin towers at night were spectacular, the 6 storey malls which were filled with British shops such as m&s and bodyshop were ultra modern and sparkly, and the food (have we mentioned the food yet?) was incredible. Thanks Charlotte and Craig for showing us all the best spots!

So, then we were left KL with one more train journey .... Just another 7hour sleeper train to Singapore which, thankfully, was completely uneventful. This gave us one day to see the city. One abiding memory of Singapore will stay with us: the rain. Once we'd found our hotel, we went for a bit of a walk but after 2 mins the heavens opened and produced more rain than we had seen for a long, long time. Fortunately, being 30 degrees, as soon as it stopped, you dried out in double quick time! It was a day to find things to do inside and so we visited the museum of science and arts, shaped like a huge orange peel, which had a great Van Gogh AV show and also an exhibition of work by Dali. Most excitingly, Holly spotted a sign for the First Emperor's Terracotta Army exhibition across a busy intersection! We had tried so many times to see the exhibition at the British Museum a few years back but it had sold out every time! Here we were in Singapore, in the wet, looking for places to go and we just walked right in... Admittedly a much smaller show but just as amazing!

And so, after an early wake up on Tuesday and short (ish) flight we have arrived in Perth! We are staying with a friends family here who have been so generous and welcoming and now with an Aussie mobile and bank account we feel a little bit more settled. We are relaxing for a few days before heading north, and then south, to explore western Australia a bit more. Although it is winter here at the mo it has still been 20/21 degrees and today not a cloud in the sky.... Perfect!

Hope you are all well?? Keep in touch !
T&h x