After arriving in to Singapore at night we went straight to our hostel, and were glad to get out of the heat and into our air conditioned room. After a good nights sleep we ventured out into the city where we spent the first day trying to get used to the city, and find out what was available for us to be doing, and seeing. The one thing that we had been told was a must do was the night safari. Basically going to the zoo at night where you see more activity as the majority of the animals are nocturnal. So we booked for the same night, and off we went. Arriving early ( 6:30 ) we had an hour to kill before the zoo opened, and as we wandered around we found a stall where you could get a fish spa... the fish are called doctor fish and they feed on the dead skin cells on your body. So we soon had our feet dunked in to the water, and the fish began feeding. The sensation is like having your feet tickled, and as you can see from the photo's Arlene is quite tickly...The rest of the zoo was good, although being in an enclosure of bats as they are flying all around you is scary, especially when it's almost pitch black,and the bats are up to half a meter in length.
The next day, we decided to take a hop on hop off bus around the city. Our first stop was to little India, where after some aimless wandering we found a nice place for a spot of lunch ( An indian washed down with Tiger beer for only £5 ). Next we went to Raffles hotel where the Singapore sling was invented, and as you do we had to have one. ( £14 each, thieving b@$ta*ds !!!) but you did get free monkey nuts which you are allowed to throw the shells on the floor. ( the only place in Singapore that you are allowed to litter ) Next stop was the Merlion park. The Merlion is the fictional animal that represents Singapore, and is a lions head on a mermaid body. So after getting some pictures we were back on board the bus and heading to our final destination of the day, Orchard Road. Orchard road is the main shopping street in Singapore, and after wandering around the shops where you need to barter for the price of anything we headed home, tired but knowing that here is somewhere we will definitely return to when we have the money to actually buy things to take home. The next day we headed out to Sentosa Island which is a mix of beaches, rain forest, and activities such as the luge, and chairlift. It was a good day and the light and fireworks show at the end of the day was spectacular.
On the whole Singapore is a beautiful place, and somewhere we will come back to...
From Singapore we headed by train up the coast and into Malaysia. Our first stop was the capital, Kuala Lumpur. We ended up in an area called Bintang, which was full of hustle and bustle, and gave us a flavour of the city. We headed out to Petaling road (Chinatown) where all of the fake clothes, bags etc were and so found ourselves bargaining for things, for example going from $120 ( £24 ) for a Malaysian football top down to $50 ( £10 ) and the banter was brilliant, as we haggled with the stall owners. The next day we booked to go on a day trip to an elephant sanctuary. On router we were stopping at a deer park, which neither of us were that excited about, and thought that it was just a way to pad out the day so that they could charge us more. How wrong were we... the first thing that we got to do was feed the deer. This resulted in 5 or 6 deer surrounding us as we fed them frozen potato wedges, but as they became impatient, they started going up on their back legs to get at the food, which the led to them almost jumping all over Arlene as she tried her best to get them to behave. After watching this and seeing what happened to Arlene, as soon as there were more than 4 around me the wedges got flung on to the floor and i escaped without being attacked. Next we were feeding and holding all sorts, silver pheasants, and their chicks, snakes, bearded dragons, ferrets, and finally we got to feed a sun bear. At the time we were just excited to be able to feed a bear and we weren't that concerned about our safety, but looking at the pictures once we had finished, we saw just how big its claws and teeth were. The bear was licking condensed milk off of our hand as we sat next to it. This was the highlight of the day for us both. After that we went on to the elephant sanctuary. The elephants here are all relocated from across Malaysia where they are loosing their natural habitat, and therefore starting to move into areas where farming is taking place So to protect the crops, and and retaliation from the farmers they elephants are brought to this area of rain forest. We were allowed to feed the 3 baby elephants, a mix of peanuts and sugar cane, while we took photos beside them. Then we watched as they bathed in the river with their handlers. Once they were clean we were allowed to ride on them before going for a swim ( well dunk ) with the elephants in the river again. On the way back we stopped off for 5 minutes at batu caves. This is a holy place for Hindu's and has one of the most impressive statues that i have seen. It is dedicated to Lord Murugan, it is the focal point of Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia, and stands over 40 m high. We didn't have time to go inside the cave, but we were told by our guide that inside there are other ornate Hindu shrines.
Friday, 15 January 2010
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Sunday, 10 January 2010
The Rest Of Australia
Well as we haven’t updated the blog recently here is a quick catch up as to what we have been doing and where we have been. We arrived back to Woodgate Beach to finally carry out the House sit that had tried to do on the pervious 2 visits. After a week of looking after the dogs Rodney and Dee returned, so we took advantage of the chance to head back up the coast to the towns of Agnes Waters, and 1770. The “towns” weren't quite what we were expecting, as the bigger of the 2 ( Agnes Waters ) was about half the size of Bonnybridge, and 1770 was made up of 3 streets. The setting of both though, more than made up for their size, and it wasn't long before the first day had passed, and we were cooking our dinner on the BBQ overlooking the bay, as we sipped on our beer. The next day we went back out the Great Barrier Reef, with the prospect of swimming with turtles. After very rough crossing to the floating pontoon where we would spend the day, we were looking forward to the swimming even more, but when we went in to the water it was full of jellyfish, so the swim was short, and without turtles. On the way to Lady Musgrave Island (another part of the tour) we did see turtles swimming but it would have been good to actually swim with them. Back in 1770, we returned to the same site where we had parked the night before, and enjoyed another BBQ and beer as we watched the sun set. The next day we returned to Woodgate, stopping off at Mon Repos at the turtle sanctuary. This is a 1.6km stretch of beach where on average 250 turtles a night return to lay their eggs on the same beach where they were born. As part of the tour we were taken to watch as a turtle laid her eggs, which was incredible to see. Another function that the conservation group performs is to transfer the eggs which have been laid too low down the beach to a spot further up where they will hatch safely. The turtle that we watched laid 115 eggs, in 15 minutes, and the location that she had chosen was too far down the beach, so once she had returned to the water the eggs were dug up again and we then helped to carry them to a safe nest above the water line. The whole night was magical and something that will live long in our memories. :0)
After looking after the dogs for another 2 weeks, it was time to say farewell to Woodgate, and head south to Sydney were we would spend Xmas and New Year. The drive was 17 hours long, and we needed to complete it in 2 days, so we could sell the car. So we set off at 9 after leaving it as late as we could to check with the post office if our parcels from the UK had arrived. Unfortunately only 1 of the 2 did ( thanks girlies x ), but we needed to be moving on. The drive was ok and Lexy ( our car ) did amazingly well ( for a £600 car ) as we drove until 7pm that night with only 1 break. We parked up for the night in Coffs Harbour in the 3rd spot we had looked at, deciding that it looked to be safer than the 1st two. We settled down to sleep but were woken at 1 in the morning by a loud bang. After looking out of the window we saw a group of boys walking down the street, and then looking at the outside of the car the back window that looked into the boot was smashed. So we drove past the group slowly enough to take a picture of them and went to the police station to report it. The police didn't seem interested, and said that unless we could pinpoint who had actually smashed the window then there was nothing that they could do. After hardly sleeping the rest of the night we then set off to drive the remaining distance to Sydney where we now needed to get the window fixed, so we could sell it. Arriving at 4 in to Sydney we managed to find somewhere to fix the window, and we then found out that GMTV were broadcasting back to the UK at Mrs. Macquarie’s point, so we headed there arriving at 6 for the cameras to be already rolling. The amount of people that were there was less than what we had been expecting so we were hopeful despite our late arrival. The first time that the cameras started shooting we saw a big problem as those near the front all has massive signs which blocked out those at the back. So the next time the cameras went on Arlene was on my shoulders, and was spotted by a few people. After that we managed to get to the front where the next section was going to be shot. They started interviewing people then filmed the crowd along the front where we were, with Arlene being right at the front and on camera for a good few seconds. What we didn't know t that point thought was that back in the UK they had cut the feed, so we weren't shown. :0(
For Xmas day we got up to find that Santa had delivered our presents to us in Sydney ( He's magic ), so after opening them, we headed off to Bondi Beach where crowds of 40,000 were expected. However due to the rain, I’m guessing that there were only 2000 when we were there. After spending a couple of hours there ( considering that it's world famous, the beach was a little disappointing, and we have been on much better beaches in Australia ) we headed back to our digs, to enjoy a cosy night in.
Boxing day we went to Julies house ( keep up here...Arlene's mum's, cousins, daughter, so whatever relation that is... ) where we were made to feel at home, and were soon surrounded by all fellow Scots that have settled down in Australia. The day was spent telling stories, finding out who knew who, and generally just enjoying each others company. In the end up we were the last to leave and had an amazing day with everyone.
Next on the agenda was visiting the opera house, harbour bridge, and the rocks, which we did in the 1 day. We caught the ferry from Manly down the river past the opera house, and into circular quay just before the harbour bridge. The views from the boat were stunning, and before long we were getting a close up view of them both. It was strange to actually be at these places rather than just seeing them on the TV. From there we went to the rock, which just sits under one end of the bridge. David Campese ( Australian Rugby Legend ) has a coffee shop here, so we were soon being served coffee by him and he is such a down to earth guy considering at his peak he was considered to be one of the best players in the world.
The following day we went to Palm beach which is 40 mins up the cost from Sydney, and is better known to us as Summer Bay!!! The weather wasn't brilliant for going to the beach but as we were selling the car to some fellow Scots the following day we have to just go. Once there we enjoyed a stroll along the beach, which looks exactly as it does on the TV. We went to Alf's Surf Club, and the Boat House, but unfortunately we were unable to find any cast members.
New Years Eve was spent at Mrs Macquarie’s Point, along with 20,000 other people. There are 39 different locations around the harbour and a total of 1.5 million people watch the festivities on the harbour. It was an early start as we got the bus into the town at 11am. We arrived at the point and found the queue was already massive, easily 2 miles long, so a little disheartened we joined the back of the queue. 2 hours later and we were in the park, and just needed to find a spot from where we could see the show. The problem was that as it is a park there are a lot of trees, and the best views were taken by the people that had queued through the night. After roaming the park for a while we eventually found a spot to squash our little bums into and settled down for the 10hr wait till the fireworks.
They first had a little firework display at 9pm, more so for any young kids that would be sleeping before midnight, and although this display was pretty good it was nothing compared to the midnight display. It was spectacular, the fireworks were all sequenced and were going off everywhere... the skyscrapers, barges on the water, the opera house and the most amazing ones was off the harbour bridge itself. They only lasted 12mins in total but the 12hr wait to see them was definitely worth it .
After looking after the dogs for another 2 weeks, it was time to say farewell to Woodgate, and head south to Sydney were we would spend Xmas and New Year. The drive was 17 hours long, and we needed to complete it in 2 days, so we could sell the car. So we set off at 9 after leaving it as late as we could to check with the post office if our parcels from the UK had arrived. Unfortunately only 1 of the 2 did ( thanks girlies x ), but we needed to be moving on. The drive was ok and Lexy ( our car ) did amazingly well ( for a £600 car ) as we drove until 7pm that night with only 1 break. We parked up for the night in Coffs Harbour in the 3rd spot we had looked at, deciding that it looked to be safer than the 1st two. We settled down to sleep but were woken at 1 in the morning by a loud bang. After looking out of the window we saw a group of boys walking down the street, and then looking at the outside of the car the back window that looked into the boot was smashed. So we drove past the group slowly enough to take a picture of them and went to the police station to report it. The police didn't seem interested, and said that unless we could pinpoint who had actually smashed the window then there was nothing that they could do. After hardly sleeping the rest of the night we then set off to drive the remaining distance to Sydney where we now needed to get the window fixed, so we could sell it. Arriving at 4 in to Sydney we managed to find somewhere to fix the window, and we then found out that GMTV were broadcasting back to the UK at Mrs. Macquarie’s point, so we headed there arriving at 6 for the cameras to be already rolling. The amount of people that were there was less than what we had been expecting so we were hopeful despite our late arrival. The first time that the cameras started shooting we saw a big problem as those near the front all has massive signs which blocked out those at the back. So the next time the cameras went on Arlene was on my shoulders, and was spotted by a few people. After that we managed to get to the front where the next section was going to be shot. They started interviewing people then filmed the crowd along the front where we were, with Arlene being right at the front and on camera for a good few seconds. What we didn't know t that point thought was that back in the UK they had cut the feed, so we weren't shown. :0(
For Xmas day we got up to find that Santa had delivered our presents to us in Sydney ( He's magic ), so after opening them, we headed off to Bondi Beach where crowds of 40,000 were expected. However due to the rain, I’m guessing that there were only 2000 when we were there. After spending a couple of hours there ( considering that it's world famous, the beach was a little disappointing, and we have been on much better beaches in Australia ) we headed back to our digs, to enjoy a cosy night in.
Boxing day we went to Julies house ( keep up here...Arlene's mum's, cousins, daughter, so whatever relation that is... ) where we were made to feel at home, and were soon surrounded by all fellow Scots that have settled down in Australia. The day was spent telling stories, finding out who knew who, and generally just enjoying each others company. In the end up we were the last to leave and had an amazing day with everyone.
Next on the agenda was visiting the opera house, harbour bridge, and the rocks, which we did in the 1 day. We caught the ferry from Manly down the river past the opera house, and into circular quay just before the harbour bridge. The views from the boat were stunning, and before long we were getting a close up view of them both. It was strange to actually be at these places rather than just seeing them on the TV. From there we went to the rock, which just sits under one end of the bridge. David Campese ( Australian Rugby Legend ) has a coffee shop here, so we were soon being served coffee by him and he is such a down to earth guy considering at his peak he was considered to be one of the best players in the world.
The following day we went to Palm beach which is 40 mins up the cost from Sydney, and is better known to us as Summer Bay!!! The weather wasn't brilliant for going to the beach but as we were selling the car to some fellow Scots the following day we have to just go. Once there we enjoyed a stroll along the beach, which looks exactly as it does on the TV. We went to Alf's Surf Club, and the Boat House, but unfortunately we were unable to find any cast members.
New Years Eve was spent at Mrs Macquarie’s Point, along with 20,000 other people. There are 39 different locations around the harbour and a total of 1.5 million people watch the festivities on the harbour. It was an early start as we got the bus into the town at 11am. We arrived at the point and found the queue was already massive, easily 2 miles long, so a little disheartened we joined the back of the queue. 2 hours later and we were in the park, and just needed to find a spot from where we could see the show. The problem was that as it is a park there are a lot of trees, and the best views were taken by the people that had queued through the night. After roaming the park for a while we eventually found a spot to squash our little bums into and settled down for the 10hr wait till the fireworks.
They first had a little firework display at 9pm, more so for any young kids that would be sleeping before midnight, and although this display was pretty good it was nothing compared to the midnight display. It was spectacular, the fireworks were all sequenced and were going off everywhere... the skyscrapers, barges on the water, the opera house and the most amazing ones was off the harbour bridge itself. They only lasted 12mins in total but the 12hr wait to see them was definitely worth it .
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Caloundra
So after not being sure what we were going to do or where we were going to go, we spent the night in Brisbane to try and work out our best plan of attack. The hostel was $85 a night so we needed to move on quickly. The following day we headed up to Caloundra where there was a room for rent at $150 a week. After looking at the room and meeting the couple that we would be staying with we decided that at that price we couldn't really afford not to take the room. So the following day we headed back with our backpacks ready to move in for 1 month.
When we arrived back we met the other couple that also shared the house and the 2 kids that were with the first couple. The kids were 3 and 1, and immediately took us. So everything was looking good. The bedroom was small with 2 single beds, but after some rearranging we thought that we could sleep ok in there.
As we thought the kids were fun to be around, and Arlene was in her element signing and dancing ( more than the kids were )but the parents were another story altogether. The kids were put to bed when the parents had had enough of them, some nights at 6:30, others at 10:30. They would then stay up all night playing World of Warcraft till 3 or 4 in the morning and sleep till 12 in the day. The kids were up at 6:30 every morning, but were locked in their room using rope to tie the bedroom door shut. So we would get up, give the kids their breakfast and entertain them till their parents got up. So we were a bit annoyed to say the least at the lack of care that they gave their kids.
To move on from here we decided that we wanted to get a campervan for Xmas and New Year in Sydney, as the Hostels were anything up to £300 each for New Years Eve. Looking at the cost of the campervans we decided that we should do what a lot of backpackers do when in Oz and buy an old car which they kit out with camping gear and use this as if it was a campervan. So after a little looking around we Bought a car for £600( which we will hopefully get back by selling it on in Sydney)... a 1991 Mitsubishi Magna Encore, and were soon fitting it out with an air mattress camping stove etc. and off on our way spending a week to travel up to Woodgate Beach for our house sit.
The first 2 nights we spent at Dickey Beach which is just up the coast from Caloundra. We had seen some pictures that were taken on the beach of the shipwreck at sunrise and wanted to try and take something similar. It took 2 days as we slept in for the sunrise after finding out that the surf club next to where we parked had some nice wine the night before. Next we headed up to Noosa Heads which is the most expensive place to stay in Oz. The houses here are stunning with many of them having their boats tied up at their back door, and using the canals to navigate their way out to sea. After that we were on to Rainbow Beach which we used to stay as close to Tin can Bay as possible, but still be outside the bay as you are not allowed too camp there overnight. The following morning we returned to Tin Can Bay at 8 am to feed the wild dolphins that we had missed before. By 9:30 there was still no sign of the Dolphins and we were told that they had not shown only twice in the past year, so we were thinking that it was just our luck to be there on time and for the dolphins not to show. But the cafe where they turn up received a radio from one of the boats saying that they had been spotted and would be in soon. Sure enough 10 mins later 2 dolphins appeared and we were able to hand feed them but not touch them ( in case we passed on an infection ). It was still worth the wait, and a unique experience to be feeding a wild dolphin.
So we have now arrived in Woodgate Beach where we house sit for a week before going away for two, then return and stay up to the 23rd of December. Then it's a quick drive to Sydney to spend Xmas and New Year.
When we arrived back we met the other couple that also shared the house and the 2 kids that were with the first couple. The kids were 3 and 1, and immediately took us. So everything was looking good. The bedroom was small with 2 single beds, but after some rearranging we thought that we could sleep ok in there.
As we thought the kids were fun to be around, and Arlene was in her element signing and dancing ( more than the kids were )but the parents were another story altogether. The kids were put to bed when the parents had had enough of them, some nights at 6:30, others at 10:30. They would then stay up all night playing World of Warcraft till 3 or 4 in the morning and sleep till 12 in the day. The kids were up at 6:30 every morning, but were locked in their room using rope to tie the bedroom door shut. So we would get up, give the kids their breakfast and entertain them till their parents got up. So we were a bit annoyed to say the least at the lack of care that they gave their kids.
To move on from here we decided that we wanted to get a campervan for Xmas and New Year in Sydney, as the Hostels were anything up to £300 each for New Years Eve. Looking at the cost of the campervans we decided that we should do what a lot of backpackers do when in Oz and buy an old car which they kit out with camping gear and use this as if it was a campervan. So after a little looking around we Bought a car for £600( which we will hopefully get back by selling it on in Sydney)... a 1991 Mitsubishi Magna Encore, and were soon fitting it out with an air mattress camping stove etc. and off on our way spending a week to travel up to Woodgate Beach for our house sit.
The first 2 nights we spent at Dickey Beach which is just up the coast from Caloundra. We had seen some pictures that were taken on the beach of the shipwreck at sunrise and wanted to try and take something similar. It took 2 days as we slept in for the sunrise after finding out that the surf club next to where we parked had some nice wine the night before. Next we headed up to Noosa Heads which is the most expensive place to stay in Oz. The houses here are stunning with many of them having their boats tied up at their back door, and using the canals to navigate their way out to sea. After that we were on to Rainbow Beach which we used to stay as close to Tin can Bay as possible, but still be outside the bay as you are not allowed too camp there overnight. The following morning we returned to Tin Can Bay at 8 am to feed the wild dolphins that we had missed before. By 9:30 there was still no sign of the Dolphins and we were told that they had not shown only twice in the past year, so we were thinking that it was just our luck to be there on time and for the dolphins not to show. But the cafe where they turn up received a radio from one of the boats saying that they had been spotted and would be in soon. Sure enough 10 mins later 2 dolphins appeared and we were able to hand feed them but not touch them ( in case we passed on an infection ). It was still worth the wait, and a unique experience to be feeding a wild dolphin.
So we have now arrived in Woodgate Beach where we house sit for a week before going away for two, then return and stay up to the 23rd of December. Then it's a quick drive to Sydney to spend Xmas and New Year.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
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