For 8 days we lounged around in Kuta, Bali. I said in my last post if any amazing anecdotes came up I would share. None did. We had a wonderful week in Kuta despite the lack of things to report. Boogie boarding, eating and chilling by the pool.
On the 3rd August I got a tattoo on my right arm in a very visible place. Although very disguisable with a long shirt for those pesky job interviews. I had an idea for a long time what to tattoo. I wanted it to be a positive message. Saying to myself more than anyone else, 'do it now'. The latin Carpe Diem is too common a tattoo, so that was out. I then hit on the simple word 'Today'. The more I thought of it, I considered 'Today' to mean more than a lesson in non-procrastination. I saw a phrase in Bali in a gift shop which went something like "yesterday is history, tomorrow is unknown, today is the only thing". Ok I had my word. I thought about Oggi (Italian) but decided I wanted some exotic lettering and typed 'Today' into google translate. Of the following I short listed. Hindi, Urdu, Hebrew, Tamil and the late entry but overall winner was Korean. Chinese lettering is on every slags shoulder. Korean had bold lines, almost modern, simple and I thought perfect. Rp500,000 I was sat in a tattoo studio being cut open with a pen for 2 hours. I like the result. It's my 3rd tattoo, but this one is very visible to me most the time. My others are a tribal thing on my left shoulder, and 'Oscar' (my old dog) on my back. I can't stop looking at it.
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| Singapore again |
The 8th of August we had an early morning taxi for a 9am flight to Singapore. Arriving at Singapore at about noon, we intended to secure a bus all the way to KL or Penang in Malaysia. Whichever is cheapest or best on time. We made our way to Lavender Road in Singapore as this is where the bus terminal was, according to the map. Only it wasn't, it was just a park for buses and no tickets could be purchased. It was hot and we'd become spoilt bastards in Bali with pool and aircon in a pretty moderate heat anyway. We were confused what to do and yes a bit snappy to eachother. Sarah in looking for a toilet at Lavender MRT, happened across a travel agent who told her all buses to Penang were full. She fetched me and we asked again for KL, but no night buses were going out tonight. Sarah noticed some backpacker places in our moment of searching and we looked for a place for the night. We found one of the best hostels in our travels and I will recommend it now. Mercury Backpackers, 57 Lavender Street, Tel (65) 63960500 www.mercurypac.com. Rooms clean and minimalist. 4 floors with a couch and tv on each floor. Strong wifi. Free breakfast with amazing milky tea (I asked for another cup). To cap it all a jacuzzi on the roof overlooking Singapore. A bed in a dorm is SGD 35, which is ok for Singapore.
It was a good thing that we stayed a day as it turned out that 9th August is Singapores 47th birthday. We made our way down to the celebrations at Marina Bay about noon. The place was buzzing with stages and red flags. We killed time in the best mall in the world. The Marina Bay Shopping Complex. Many space age levels and towards the dome centre, there is a Venice inspired canal with boat trips available. We ate at a food court which although named the same as the Arndale in Manchester, this was a different class. I had Katsu curry and rice and Sarah had a hot plate salmon, for cheaper than a BK or a Maccy-D.
Unfortunately we had to be back to Lavender by 8:30pm for the bus and the festivities were obviously going to kick in when it gets dark. However, just before we set off we did see (albeit on monitors) the president of Singapore inspect the military. I don't think I've ever seen a president of any country before. There he was the white haired old Chinaman, looking severe and nodding approval at the purest of white uniformed military. President Tony Tam Kem Yan is the highest paid head of state or government in the world. Earning a salary of $2.1million per annum, compare with $400,000 for Obama and $290,000 for David Cameron. We also were treated to a show by the Singapore airforce just before we left. About 10 planes flew by and did a variety of stunts. The cost of fuel for a fighter jet is about $8000 per hour so these fly-bys are always an expensive extravagence. One memorable stunt was a plane flying so low overhead and seemingly cruising inches about a skyscraper. Anyone who has seen 9/11 footage (and everyone in the world has) had a little heart flutter watching that. Very enjoyable to see such an amazing small state celebrate it's birthday. I saw some more from a television in the hostel later. Sarah was having a shower at the time, but I got goose-bumps watching Singaporeans sing Malujah Singapura (onward Singapore), their anthem, even though I'd never heard the anthem before. Now we can argue endlessly about the greatest nation on earth, but I think it is now settled. It's Singapore, for bringing together money, harmony and a seemingly single-minded society. Single-minded in the success of their nation. Then again, I maybe need more time there. All nations of wealth have their victims.
We caught the overnight bus from Singapore to Georgetown. This bus was the most luxury bus I've been on. To save time describing it, I'll just say the this bus service took the first class section of Emirates Airlines and put it on wheels. I slept as well as I could. Immigration from Singapore to Malaysia was awkward in the sense, we had to exit with all our belongings and proceed through and climb on the bus again. I pretty much slept through to daylight coming up and about 35km from our destination. Arrival in Georgetown was an underpass of a motorway and tired and working stuff out we were surrounded by taxi vultures. Sarah would only accept MYR20 for the ride to Chinatown. The original place we wanted from the guidebook was now replaced by something many times outside our budget. We searched a bit and found 'Jims Place'. Which I also want to recommend, although Sarah won't agree. Our room was MYR 20 a night, end of discussion as far as I was concerned. The bad news in this was we had to wait for someone to check out about noon until we could have a room. After an overnight bus trip, the first thing you want to do is crash on a bed and catch up on the sleep you had. Instead we had about 3 hours to wander Georgetown. We walked up to the colonial area then down to the jetty with the plan to buy our onward rail ticket to Bangkok. This we did for a bargain price of about £22.50 each for a 22 hour journey. The bargains keep coming.
On return to Jims Place our room was ready. It was a pokey place with two fans, but no windows and air-flow. After our last hotel in Bali this was going to be a bit of an adjustment. Nevermind. In actuality I was happy deep down. We hadn't travelled just to park ourselves by beaches and aircon. Our onward journey is to Cambodia, and I was resenting how soft we'd become. Still our daytime nap in the heat wasn't comfortable at all. We had to adjust, but really so fast?
After our nap we went for some Indian food in Little India. The vegetable Tandoori was just right. Also the Indian method of serving rice with loads of little things to pick from, so different from the UK. I left really full. We finished the evening on Tiger Beers watching rowing on the Olympics. Before each race we'd pick a country. Sarah cheated constantly. That evening when we returned, we were pleased to find out the pure genius of Jim. Sarah will think of him as a bullshitting pervert. I will think of him as a god, still a bullshitter, but a god. In fact from here-on-out I will refer to Jim as The Guru. With lines which I'm sure were aimed for the ears of the pretty French girls in company he explained his success with women. His success is via his claim that women love his loving so much they fly him to Europe for his touch. He told me with feeling how a woman and man coming together is the original religion and it is so beautiful. He explained how touching for hours on end, Sting style is the secret. He informed me that men cum so quickly, two fingers have been a ladies best friend since eternity. This made the French girl shreek and agree "its so true". The Guru also advised, or maybe warned that room 4 is often his room, and he has so much sexual energy women become pregnant just sleeping in it. Sarah disliked him, I worship the man. His long hair and big grey bushy goatee. He looks like a villain from a Bollywood movie. I wanted to advise him that his movie scripts are utter crap with craters for plot holes, all of which he has cast the lead roles. Jonny Depp and Michael Caine (as Prince Phillip) are sure to jump on the opportunity, once he has got round to actually writing the screenplay.
Today is day 130 and the 11th of July. We woke up in our hot sweaty room, eventually. After a breakfast of home-made bread we ventured off to Fort Cornwallis. Cornwallis is fresh on my mind as we recently watched the second most historically inaccurate movie ever made. The first being Braveheart and the second being The Patriot. Both involve Mr Gibson. Of course Cornwallis was famous for surrendering to General Washington at Yorktown, therefore creating the United States and that god awful song about ramparts and bombs. On departure he left the USA to sort out their slavery issues and came here to Georgetown, manning a fort and putting his skills to greater use rather than ungrateful continentals. Sarah had to sit on a cannon again, just like in Plymouth. I should be concerned about this really. The fort is a fort and pretty crap. Not much really happened in it's entire existence. The big cannon which had a sign saying "strictly no sitting on cannon" was never actually used. A bit like intercontinental nuclear missiles really. No Cornwallis just lived out his Malay time in the sun.
After the fort we took a bus to a nearby town to visit a Chinese Buddhist Temple. The biggest and best in Malaysia, so is the word on the street. Kek Lok Si, is truly magnificent. Set on a hill in the mountains of Penang Island, it shines over the nearby town. The walk up through markets is steep, but even though the markets are close and narrow, for some reason the fear of constant buying pressure never materialised. Almost there you pass a Vegetarian Restaurant named 'Vegetarian Restaurant'. A bold claim as amongst the advertised menu is Crispy Duck, Beef Soup and Pork Rice. There were some Vegetarian dishes on offer too. Back to the temple; it was bright and gaudy. Big golden statues, buddhas everywhere, cushions and incense sticks.... its a bloody buddhist temple of course! The mother of mercy, the crowning glory is via a cable car and is enormous.
Tomorrow we start our journey with a free ferry to the mainland, then the 2pm train journey all the way up to Bangkok. I'm looking forward to seeing Bangkok again and especially more own temple near the Khao San Road. In fact I'm looking forward to the Khao San Road full stop.
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| Fort Cornwallis |
After our nap we went for some Indian food in Little India. The vegetable Tandoori was just right. Also the Indian method of serving rice with loads of little things to pick from, so different from the UK. I left really full. We finished the evening on Tiger Beers watching rowing on the Olympics. Before each race we'd pick a country. Sarah cheated constantly. That evening when we returned, we were pleased to find out the pure genius of Jim. Sarah will think of him as a bullshitting pervert. I will think of him as a god, still a bullshitter, but a god. In fact from here-on-out I will refer to Jim as The Guru. With lines which I'm sure were aimed for the ears of the pretty French girls in company he explained his success with women. His success is via his claim that women love his loving so much they fly him to Europe for his touch. He told me with feeling how a woman and man coming together is the original religion and it is so beautiful. He explained how touching for hours on end, Sting style is the secret. He informed me that men cum so quickly, two fingers have been a ladies best friend since eternity. This made the French girl shreek and agree "its so true". The Guru also advised, or maybe warned that room 4 is often his room, and he has so much sexual energy women become pregnant just sleeping in it. Sarah disliked him, I worship the man. His long hair and big grey bushy goatee. He looks like a villain from a Bollywood movie. I wanted to advise him that his movie scripts are utter crap with craters for plot holes, all of which he has cast the lead roles. Jonny Depp and Michael Caine (as Prince Phillip) are sure to jump on the opportunity, once he has got round to actually writing the screenplay.
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| At Kek Lok Si |
After the fort we took a bus to a nearby town to visit a Chinese Buddhist Temple. The biggest and best in Malaysia, so is the word on the street. Kek Lok Si, is truly magnificent. Set on a hill in the mountains of Penang Island, it shines over the nearby town. The walk up through markets is steep, but even though the markets are close and narrow, for some reason the fear of constant buying pressure never materialised. Almost there you pass a Vegetarian Restaurant named 'Vegetarian Restaurant'. A bold claim as amongst the advertised menu is Crispy Duck, Beef Soup and Pork Rice. There were some Vegetarian dishes on offer too. Back to the temple; it was bright and gaudy. Big golden statues, buddhas everywhere, cushions and incense sticks.... its a bloody buddhist temple of course! The mother of mercy, the crowning glory is via a cable car and is enormous.
Tomorrow we start our journey with a free ferry to the mainland, then the 2pm train journey all the way up to Bangkok. I'm looking forward to seeing Bangkok again and especially more own temple near the Khao San Road. In fact I'm looking forward to the Khao San Road full stop.
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