Matt came stumbling into the room at about 5.30am, he'd not been to bed and was going straight to the airport. I wrapped myself in a blanket and followed him into the girls room to say our goodbyes.
Matt was flying to Perth, buying a camper van and driving around Australia, we would be crossing paths again around xmas in Sydney. Nicky was also going to Perth but was only going to stay in Australia for about 3 months, so I probably won't be seeing her in Oz, but as I have found with Andy, and more so with my mate Grace, people tend to stay there a lot longer than they originally planned.
Handshakes and hugs later Matt and Nicky were disappearing into the lift, I gave them a wave and a yawn as the doors closed. Back to bed. I told Vanessa that I wanted to be up at 10am and we would go and do something fun, I wanted to do the tiger brewery tour, but she wasn't so keen. That's what happens when you're up all night drinking whiskey.
11.30am and I get up. I wake Vanessa and put some clothes in the wash and check out. I don't think we left the hostel until about 1pm, so i had about 5 hours of my last day left. We went back to a place called Clarke Quay, which is where the Clinic bar is, thanks to Sibley's photos I'd seen this before, a bar with a hospital theme, and may have been the scene for Gazza's infamous dentists chair incident. Anyway that doesn't matter because it wasn't open. I got a text from my mate Kathryn's sister who lives there inviting me out for Chinese, but as I was leaving at 6 I had to turn her down. She instead told me about a bar in the Swissotel, near Raffles. it's on the 71st floor and the views of the city are amazing. So me and Vanessa went for a drink and an Asia BBQ. It was higher than the singapore 'london eye' that I went on, and the beers were cheaper than the bars we'd been drinking in the previous nights. So it was an afternoon well spent.
(at this point you should realise that that part of the entry refers to the 'Getting High' part of the title. I'm sure my mother is breathing a sigh of relief!)
We strolled through the park in the rain, walked past the registry of Marriages, there was a queue and I told Vanessa that I thought it was a bit too soon for all that, she was visibly devastated. We had quite a good chat though as we walked for a couple of hours. She was born in Brazil, one set of grandparents were Japanese, One great grandfather was Italian, she had a bit of American in there as well, and a Welsh uncle. This was through marriage though so didn't count. Turns out that she's just broken up with her boyfriend and just up sticks and ran off around the world for a few months. A bit drastic I thought, ahem...........
Didn't leave the hostel for the airport until about 7pm. Vanessa was by herself so she came to the airport to see me off. I think this was the first time I've gone to an Airport with a girl and I've been the one leaving. She was going back to London on Sunday, to try and find a job and a place to live, so if anyone knows of a spare room going.....
We had a sandwich and said our goodbyes, again getting myself a facebook friend in the process, and a possible tour guide for Japan at some point, or at the very least a drinking buddy for London. She waved to me as I disappeared round the corner, I don't think she was looking forward to being by herself for the next 2 nights, but she's an attractive girl, she'll find someone to kick around with.
I got to the gate, 25 minutes before it closed, perfectly timed I thought. I phoned my mate Alex in Brisbane, he'd offered to pick me up from the airport when I landed, but hadn't heard from him since the 13th of May. Best leave it until about midnight his time to remind him that I'm coming in at about 7am the next day, I thought. Turns out he hadn't forgotten and has got a party on the Saturday night, result. I tried to phone my parents but they were both out, probably working and dog walking.
So I passed through security, got on the plane and here I am. I was amused to find that in my choice of programmes that I could watch were The Michelangelo Code (produced by ZCZ films – my last employer), or The Art of the Heist (produced by Electric Sky Productions, my second to last employer). I watched the Extras Christmas Special, (Susan can you apologise to Waldermar for me!) I think I work in the wrong type of programming.
So as I write this I'm just under 2 hours from Brisbane, I've over the middle of Australia, and I'm wondering how on earth I got here.
The past 6 weeks have blown me away to be honest. I'm going to try and not be the person that my mate Anna warned me about, the kind of person who only ever talks about traveling, but it's going to be hard. I've seen and done some incredible things, had some rough times and some of the best times of my life. Met some amazing people, many of whom I'll probably never see again, but will always keep in contact with and remember. I think more than anything I've grown as a person, I think my travels have given me a better perspective of the world. I had a drink with my Dad a couple of days before I left and he said to me that he hoped that going away would help me realise how fortunate I was. I can honestly say now that I do, and I don't think that I will take the opportunities that I've been given for granted. Now there's a massive part of me that wants to give something back, I think I've been pretty selfish in my life so far, well not really selfish, but I don't think I've really done enough, or thought enough about other people, and it's time I grew up and did something for someone else. The only problem is that the only way I can think of doing this is to teach English. I wouldn't have a problem with this but I've made so many teacher's lives a misery that it's going to come back and bite me on the arse, but I guess that's karma.
But who knows maybe I'll love Australia so much that I'll never come back to Asia, I guess that you never know what's round the corner.
And so here draws an end to this blog. I've tried to document everyday that I've been away so far, but I'm going to be in Australia for a year, and I can't be bothered to write 365 entries, so maybe I'll do one a week, one one every 2 weeks, but I'm hoping to just get a job as soon as so it's won't be half as entertaining.
So with 90 minutes of my flight left I'll sign off, I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog as much as I have writing it. And I'll leave you with one final heart felt comment;
there is one universal truth I that have found through my travels; no matter where you go in the world, not matter what nationality, race, religion, creed or colour, regardless of social status or wealth, no one, but no one, likes the French.
Thanks for reading, now get back to work.
Rob.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
SINGAPORE-ING DOWN
Our only full day in Singapore, was cut a bit short as Matt and I didn't get home until about 7.30am, and so slept until after midday. Did some washing and then went out to meet the Irish girls.
Nicky and Vanessa came with, and we rode the metro around town. The irish girls never showed up, apparently they weren't feeling so well after last night and had been in bed all day. I don't know why they felt so bad, it was us on the Sambuca, not them.
We spent the day wandering around various shopping centres, and saw the fountain of wealth (I could do with all the help I could get when it costs 5 quid a beer in this town). Matt and I got on the Singapore Flyer (like the London eye, but bigger, and, obviously, in Singapore). Took some great photos, the harbour is incredible, I haven't seen so many ships since I watch Flags of our Fathers.
We walked around for a bit more, tried to phone the Irish contingent to see if they wanted to come to the night safari with us, but couldn't get through, so we decided to go without them. The safari was going to take about 4 hours and it was 8pm now, so it was going to be another late night. On the way there in the cab the heavens opened. The rain was so heavy it would make your head bleed, if it was mixed with razor blades.
we got to the Safari anyway, more in hope than expectation, I didn't know of any animals that liked the rain, and so it proved. The tour had been cancelled, you could still get the tram into the park but the chances of seeing any animals were very slim, and for an entrance fee of about £20 we thought better of it. So we had a Singapore Sling instead and got the bus back to town.
It took about an hour to get back with various buses and metros. The plan is to go out and get drunk, well it's Matt's plan anyway, I think he has designs on the brazilian and tonight is his last night. He and Nicky leave tomorrow morning at about 6am, so this is his last night in Asia. It'll be sad to see him go, we've had a fantastic 6 weeks traveling together and done some amazing things, but I'll see him at xmas in Sydney, and I get to spend all day tomorrow with the brazilian girl, which i don't think he's too happy about!
After a few vodka and red bulls in the dorm, we headed out, just in time for last orders at the Prince of Wales. They had a sign out side advertising for a live in bar man, I was tempted, but one live in stint at a pub called the Prince of Wales is enough I think, although Singapore would be a better location that Wood Green!
The district we were staying in was called little india, so I shouldn't have been surprised with the bar we ended up in. Walking past it looked quite dodgy, you couldn't see in through the windows, so this is usually a sign of a gay bar or some kind of girly bar, either way we were 2 blokes and 2 girls, so could probably cope with either. The guy sat drinking outside told us it was open until 3am and only (!) $9 a beer (about £3.50), so we dived in through the door.
On a very small stage in the middle of the floor were 3 Indian girls dancing in full sari dresses, it was fantatsic. We were the only white people in there, and it was a little bit like walking into the slaughtered lamb from American Werewolf in London. A bit scary at first, but then everyone loosened up and had a great time. There was a french guy in there who lived in Singapore, who was friends with a couple of Indian guys wearing turbans. One of them was about 6 foot 6, and was spitting image of the bad guy in Temple of Doom who gets crushed by a conveyor belt. We he asks you to get up and dance with the girls, you don't say no. And I didn't. I think as a beginner I had quite a good attempt at Indian dancing, I don't think I offended anyone, which was my primary objective, rhythm comes second to that. Vanessa and Nicky got up for a bit, Matt stayed firmly on his seat, I think bangladesh is more his scene.
A few beers later and a great deal of pointy dancing and head bobbing, we went outside. I met a native who struck up a conversation with me about football, he then rolled up his trouser leg to reveal a Liverpool crest tattoo on his shin. we bonded instantly. I even got chatting to the French lad, who was a nice bloke, but there's always an exception. The two Indian Jones baddies came over and chatted for a bit, one of them lived in Australia for 9 years so we spoke about that, and he gave me his business card. I've no idea why, but he did.
Matt and Vanessa wanted to go on to a club, Nicky had already gone to bed, and I thought I'd better leave them alone, gooseberry isn't my favourite fruit. And anyway I had one day left in Singapore and didn't want to be up until 7am again and ruin it by being in bed all day.
Nicky and Vanessa came with, and we rode the metro around town. The irish girls never showed up, apparently they weren't feeling so well after last night and had been in bed all day. I don't know why they felt so bad, it was us on the Sambuca, not them.
We spent the day wandering around various shopping centres, and saw the fountain of wealth (I could do with all the help I could get when it costs 5 quid a beer in this town). Matt and I got on the Singapore Flyer (like the London eye, but bigger, and, obviously, in Singapore). Took some great photos, the harbour is incredible, I haven't seen so many ships since I watch Flags of our Fathers.
We walked around for a bit more, tried to phone the Irish contingent to see if they wanted to come to the night safari with us, but couldn't get through, so we decided to go without them. The safari was going to take about 4 hours and it was 8pm now, so it was going to be another late night. On the way there in the cab the heavens opened. The rain was so heavy it would make your head bleed, if it was mixed with razor blades.
we got to the Safari anyway, more in hope than expectation, I didn't know of any animals that liked the rain, and so it proved. The tour had been cancelled, you could still get the tram into the park but the chances of seeing any animals were very slim, and for an entrance fee of about £20 we thought better of it. So we had a Singapore Sling instead and got the bus back to town.
It took about an hour to get back with various buses and metros. The plan is to go out and get drunk, well it's Matt's plan anyway, I think he has designs on the brazilian and tonight is his last night. He and Nicky leave tomorrow morning at about 6am, so this is his last night in Asia. It'll be sad to see him go, we've had a fantastic 6 weeks traveling together and done some amazing things, but I'll see him at xmas in Sydney, and I get to spend all day tomorrow with the brazilian girl, which i don't think he's too happy about!
After a few vodka and red bulls in the dorm, we headed out, just in time for last orders at the Prince of Wales. They had a sign out side advertising for a live in bar man, I was tempted, but one live in stint at a pub called the Prince of Wales is enough I think, although Singapore would be a better location that Wood Green!
The district we were staying in was called little india, so I shouldn't have been surprised with the bar we ended up in. Walking past it looked quite dodgy, you couldn't see in through the windows, so this is usually a sign of a gay bar or some kind of girly bar, either way we were 2 blokes and 2 girls, so could probably cope with either. The guy sat drinking outside told us it was open until 3am and only (!) $9 a beer (about £3.50), so we dived in through the door.
On a very small stage in the middle of the floor were 3 Indian girls dancing in full sari dresses, it was fantatsic. We were the only white people in there, and it was a little bit like walking into the slaughtered lamb from American Werewolf in London. A bit scary at first, but then everyone loosened up and had a great time. There was a french guy in there who lived in Singapore, who was friends with a couple of Indian guys wearing turbans. One of them was about 6 foot 6, and was spitting image of the bad guy in Temple of Doom who gets crushed by a conveyor belt. We he asks you to get up and dance with the girls, you don't say no. And I didn't. I think as a beginner I had quite a good attempt at Indian dancing, I don't think I offended anyone, which was my primary objective, rhythm comes second to that. Vanessa and Nicky got up for a bit, Matt stayed firmly on his seat, I think bangladesh is more his scene.
A few beers later and a great deal of pointy dancing and head bobbing, we went outside. I met a native who struck up a conversation with me about football, he then rolled up his trouser leg to reveal a Liverpool crest tattoo on his shin. we bonded instantly. I even got chatting to the French lad, who was a nice bloke, but there's always an exception. The two Indian Jones baddies came over and chatted for a bit, one of them lived in Australia for 9 years so we spoke about that, and he gave me his business card. I've no idea why, but he did.
Matt and Vanessa wanted to go on to a club, Nicky had already gone to bed, and I thought I'd better leave them alone, gooseberry isn't my favourite fruit. And anyway I had one day left in Singapore and didn't want to be up until 7am again and ruin it by being in bed all day.
KL
ok, if that guy doesn't turn his alarm off someone's going to get hurt. By someone else obviously, I'm not about to confront a native on his own train, I just muttered a couple of idle threats from behind the safety of the curtain, the sheet, and possibly the pillow.
It was about 5am, and this guy had robbed me of an extra hour or so of sleep, unforgivable in my eyes. The train had made up the time and we got into KL at about 6.30am. The station at Kl is great, huge, clean and organised. I put my bag in the left luggage place and had a hot shower for the first time in god knows how long. I had an authentic McDonalds breakfast which didn't sit well at all, and we headed into town.
The only thing I knew about KL was the pretonus towers so we headed there on the metro. I don't know why but I love riding the metro lines in different countries, makes you realise just how bad the tube is in London.
We got out at a shopping mall in the bottom of the towers and went on a kind of science-y museum tour of the Petronus company, showing us how much they cared for the environment and how there were working to preserve the natural resources of malaysia. For a bit I almost forgot they were an evil oil company hell bent on the rape of the natural world.
However they did have some really cool toys and things to play on. Matt has a great picture of me on a digger. We ended spending far too much time wandering around this little play house, and were in danger of not actually getting to see the outside of KL, so we rushed through the last couple of rooms and headed outside.
We couldn't go up the towers as all the tickets had sold out for that day, which was a shame, but I got some good photos of the towers from the ground. We walked to the KL Tower (the 4th highest telecommunications tower in the world, and looked almost identical to the Stratosphere in Vegas). We went up and got some really good views of the city and the twin towers.
By this time it was almost 1 and our train to singers (that's Singapore to those in the know, which I'm not, so I will refer to it as Singapore from now on) was at 1.55 so we had to get a shake on. We arrived at the station with more than 30 minutes to spare, Matt went for another McDonalds and I had this curried fish with rice and potato bravas, really nice. On the way out I noticed that the TVs were showing a preseason Liverpool game, I hadn't noticed and missed most of it, and didn't have time to see any more, it was like someone was taunting me.
As expected the train was late, but not too late so it was alright. The journey took about 7 hours, and passed with a mixture of sleep, ipod, watching film trailers on the TV, and playing solitaire with my FHM cards (I don't think the Muslims were impressed with that.
Another train border crossing later and we were in Singapore. After the giant station in KL I was expecting something more than what I got. I was very much underwhelmed with the Singapore train station, there was nothing there. Nothing. No signs saying welcome to Singapore, no information desk, a small cafe and a ticket office. It was about the size of Brighton station, which considering that Singapore was a country, and Brighton was just a seaside city in east Sussex, is a bit shit.
We hadn't booked anywhere to stay and so walked around with our stuff for about an hour until we got in a cab, who took us in the general direction of where all the other backpackers were, we had a bit of help from a friendly cafe owner, and then Nicky (who had been with Matt and me in Laos) told us where she was, so we headed there.
A quick shower later and we were out. Nicky had been in the Phillippines for the past 2 weeks, and had met a new friend called Vanessa, a Brazilian girl who lives in London. I think Matt took a shine to her so I acted like the good wingman and when we went to Ministry of Sound danced all night with Nicky so he could work his magic on her. I also met an American guy called Eugine, he works “for uncle Sam”, his business card says he's Special Assistant Office of the Secretary. I've no idea what that means but he travels a lot and never stays in the same place for too long, which could only mean to me that he's some kind of CIA hitman. During the night I also got chatting to 3 Irish people (seriously are they following me?) a lad called Damien who lives here and his 2 sisters Neve and Louise. It was great fun watching the protective brother watching his sisters on the dancefloor.
When we got kicked out of there we went to McDonalds for breakfast, Eugine said he'd pay but ended up ducking out of it, typical CIA hitman behaviour. we were sitting there for about 2 hours, and had a really good chat. Eugine had to get a flight to Australia in about 2 hours so didn't bother going to bed, we got in a cab together, the cab couldn't stop outside the hotel where he was staying as it was a diplomatic hotel and there were motorcades all over the place, very strange at 7am. After he got out we chatted to the cab driver for a while, turns out he's part of the Singapore Mafia, and was on the run for 10 years for drug trafficking, it was quite entertaining listening to his tales of border jumping through Thailand and Cambodia, but then he got caught but because of his mafia connections he got quite a good lawyer who got him off.
Didn't believe a word of it, but entertaining nonetheless.
It was about 5am, and this guy had robbed me of an extra hour or so of sleep, unforgivable in my eyes. The train had made up the time and we got into KL at about 6.30am. The station at Kl is great, huge, clean and organised. I put my bag in the left luggage place and had a hot shower for the first time in god knows how long. I had an authentic McDonalds breakfast which didn't sit well at all, and we headed into town.
The only thing I knew about KL was the pretonus towers so we headed there on the metro. I don't know why but I love riding the metro lines in different countries, makes you realise just how bad the tube is in London.
We got out at a shopping mall in the bottom of the towers and went on a kind of science-y museum tour of the Petronus company, showing us how much they cared for the environment and how there were working to preserve the natural resources of malaysia. For a bit I almost forgot they were an evil oil company hell bent on the rape of the natural world.
However they did have some really cool toys and things to play on. Matt has a great picture of me on a digger. We ended spending far too much time wandering around this little play house, and were in danger of not actually getting to see the outside of KL, so we rushed through the last couple of rooms and headed outside.
We couldn't go up the towers as all the tickets had sold out for that day, which was a shame, but I got some good photos of the towers from the ground. We walked to the KL Tower (the 4th highest telecommunications tower in the world, and looked almost identical to the Stratosphere in Vegas). We went up and got some really good views of the city and the twin towers.
By this time it was almost 1 and our train to singers (that's Singapore to those in the know, which I'm not, so I will refer to it as Singapore from now on) was at 1.55 so we had to get a shake on. We arrived at the station with more than 30 minutes to spare, Matt went for another McDonalds and I had this curried fish with rice and potato bravas, really nice. On the way out I noticed that the TVs were showing a preseason Liverpool game, I hadn't noticed and missed most of it, and didn't have time to see any more, it was like someone was taunting me.
As expected the train was late, but not too late so it was alright. The journey took about 7 hours, and passed with a mixture of sleep, ipod, watching film trailers on the TV, and playing solitaire with my FHM cards (I don't think the Muslims were impressed with that.
Another train border crossing later and we were in Singapore. After the giant station in KL I was expecting something more than what I got. I was very much underwhelmed with the Singapore train station, there was nothing there. Nothing. No signs saying welcome to Singapore, no information desk, a small cafe and a ticket office. It was about the size of Brighton station, which considering that Singapore was a country, and Brighton was just a seaside city in east Sussex, is a bit shit.
We hadn't booked anywhere to stay and so walked around with our stuff for about an hour until we got in a cab, who took us in the general direction of where all the other backpackers were, we had a bit of help from a friendly cafe owner, and then Nicky (who had been with Matt and me in Laos) told us where she was, so we headed there.
A quick shower later and we were out. Nicky had been in the Phillippines for the past 2 weeks, and had met a new friend called Vanessa, a Brazilian girl who lives in London. I think Matt took a shine to her so I acted like the good wingman and when we went to Ministry of Sound danced all night with Nicky so he could work his magic on her. I also met an American guy called Eugine, he works “for uncle Sam”, his business card says he's Special Assistant Office of the Secretary. I've no idea what that means but he travels a lot and never stays in the same place for too long, which could only mean to me that he's some kind of CIA hitman. During the night I also got chatting to 3 Irish people (seriously are they following me?) a lad called Damien who lives here and his 2 sisters Neve and Louise. It was great fun watching the protective brother watching his sisters on the dancefloor.
When we got kicked out of there we went to McDonalds for breakfast, Eugine said he'd pay but ended up ducking out of it, typical CIA hitman behaviour. we were sitting there for about 2 hours, and had a really good chat. Eugine had to get a flight to Australia in about 2 hours so didn't bother going to bed, we got in a cab together, the cab couldn't stop outside the hotel where he was staying as it was a diplomatic hotel and there were motorcades all over the place, very strange at 7am. After he got out we chatted to the cab driver for a while, turns out he's part of the Singapore Mafia, and was on the run for 10 years for drug trafficking, it was quite entertaining listening to his tales of border jumping through Thailand and Cambodia, but then he got caught but because of his mafia connections he got quite a good lawyer who got him off.
Didn't believe a word of it, but entertaining nonetheless.
PENANG ON HALF DAY CLOSING
Stop poking me! There's nothing ruder than a train conductor just thrusting his fingers into your back to wake you up. Having just re read that sentence I suppose there is something ruder.
We got up and moved to the carriage that was going to Butterworth, we tried paying off the conductor on that part of the train, no dice. We would be stopping here for about 10 minutes so I jumped off and legged it to the ticket office. I got the tickets no problem, which makes me wonder why I couldn't just buy them back at Surit Thani, there were other people on this train who came from Koh Phangan and they seemed to get on no problem, maybe they were organised and booked in advance. Losers.
I made it back onto the train and we set off for another 7 hours in to Malaysia. After these journeys the 1hour and 50 minute journey from Euston to Crewe is going to seem like nothing. I slept for a bit, but couldn't really get comfortable. we got to the immigration control which was a bit of a joke. We go off the train, went through passport control, walked around through customs and out through the same door we came in, and go back on the train. If wed just hung around on the platform we could have avoided the customs. Which were also a bit of a joke, I was going through and the guy said “can I see inside you bag please”, I said no problem, he then asked me if I had anything to declare i said no and he thanked me and off I went, all before I could even take off my bag to open it for him, they're very trusting over here, especially for a country that has really strict penalties on drug trafficking, although I'm not sure they'd kill you for smuggling anti histamines, but you never know.
we arrived in Butterworth at about 2pm, and had to wait until about 9.40 for our next sleeper to KL. So instead of waiting around the station we got the ferry to Penang. A small island off the north west of Malaysia. There's a bridge going across which is the longest bridge in asia apparently, the penang bridge. I found out that they are building a second bridge, called The Penang Second Bridge. The ideas department must have had an early lunch the day they came up with that name.
We walked around Penang, found a guest house where we could have a shower, get changed and dump our stuff for the afternoon. We went for a wander to try and find something to eat, everything was closed. No exaggeration, everything. After about 2 hours of wandering, and Matt ducking into every available bit of shade to stop his bald head turning an even more pleasant shade of crimson, we found ourselves back at the guest house. we still had about 2 hours to kill so we ate at the cafe next door, there were quite a few back packers around, which is usually a good sign. I spent an hour on the internet just messing around, and then we got a cab to the ferry port.
Once again we were horribly early for our train, which once again was delayed. We were at the station by about 8pm and the train didn't leave until after 9, and I hate being early for things at the best of times. The train decided to arrive at about 10.30pm, and left at about 10.45, i was really ready for bed, i was exhausted, after the previous night of very little sleep and a day of walking around in the sun, I was up and into bed before the train doors had shut.
We got up and moved to the carriage that was going to Butterworth, we tried paying off the conductor on that part of the train, no dice. We would be stopping here for about 10 minutes so I jumped off and legged it to the ticket office. I got the tickets no problem, which makes me wonder why I couldn't just buy them back at Surit Thani, there were other people on this train who came from Koh Phangan and they seemed to get on no problem, maybe they were organised and booked in advance. Losers.
I made it back onto the train and we set off for another 7 hours in to Malaysia. After these journeys the 1hour and 50 minute journey from Euston to Crewe is going to seem like nothing. I slept for a bit, but couldn't really get comfortable. we got to the immigration control which was a bit of a joke. We go off the train, went through passport control, walked around through customs and out through the same door we came in, and go back on the train. If wed just hung around on the platform we could have avoided the customs. Which were also a bit of a joke, I was going through and the guy said “can I see inside you bag please”, I said no problem, he then asked me if I had anything to declare i said no and he thanked me and off I went, all before I could even take off my bag to open it for him, they're very trusting over here, especially for a country that has really strict penalties on drug trafficking, although I'm not sure they'd kill you for smuggling anti histamines, but you never know.
we arrived in Butterworth at about 2pm, and had to wait until about 9.40 for our next sleeper to KL. So instead of waiting around the station we got the ferry to Penang. A small island off the north west of Malaysia. There's a bridge going across which is the longest bridge in asia apparently, the penang bridge. I found out that they are building a second bridge, called The Penang Second Bridge. The ideas department must have had an early lunch the day they came up with that name.
We walked around Penang, found a guest house where we could have a shower, get changed and dump our stuff for the afternoon. We went for a wander to try and find something to eat, everything was closed. No exaggeration, everything. After about 2 hours of wandering, and Matt ducking into every available bit of shade to stop his bald head turning an even more pleasant shade of crimson, we found ourselves back at the guest house. we still had about 2 hours to kill so we ate at the cafe next door, there were quite a few back packers around, which is usually a good sign. I spent an hour on the internet just messing around, and then we got a cab to the ferry port.
Once again we were horribly early for our train, which once again was delayed. We were at the station by about 8pm and the train didn't leave until after 9, and I hate being early for things at the best of times. The train decided to arrive at about 10.30pm, and left at about 10.45, i was really ready for bed, i was exhausted, after the previous night of very little sleep and a day of walking around in the sun, I was up and into bed before the train doors had shut.
LEAVING KP AND STARTING THE MAMMOTH JOURNEY TO SINGAPORE
Felt a bit better that I'd actually had a good night on the island, and that the trip hadn't been a waste of time. I think I would have had a better time if I'd been about 10 years younger, but at least I say that I've done it, left the t-shirt behind though.
Andy and Jared were going to head to Koh Tao, an island north of here, just for a bit of R&R, as Matt and I had to be in singapore by the 25th we didn't have enough time to go with them, and it was in the opposite direction, so we got a ferry back to the mainland where we would get a night train to Malaysia.
Said yet more goodbyes, I'll see Andy sometime, not sure where or when, maybe back at home, maybe in australia. I'm going to keep in touch with Jared in the hope that he makes it big as an actor and I can sponge off him in the future.
The Ferry was pretty unremarkable, we had a couple of beers and chatted to yet more Irish girls, they were on their way to Laos so we told them about tubing and what else to expect in Vang Vieng (mainly watching Friends, when the power is on that is).
We got to the station at Surit Thani at about 10, we couldn't book tickets all the way to Butterworth (in Malaysia) as the guy said it was fully booked, but we could get sleeper tickets to pretty much the border, after that the train would split and the front half would go off to Butterworth. The guy at the ticket office said that we should just get on and maybe the conductor would be able to help us out (for 'help us out' see 'pay him money')
The train arrived late at about 1.30am, there's only so many trips to the 7-11 you can do before you get thoroughly bored of it, and we just sat in the station for a couple of hours with the other white faces.
When we got on the train we explained the situation to the conductor, who wasn't taking our offer of a bribe to get us on the next train, but just told us to jump off and buy a ticket and jump back on. I had a nasty image of the train pulling away as I bought a useless ticket. Time for sleep, which I didn't get a lot of on a rickety rocking and rolling top bunk.
Andy and Jared were going to head to Koh Tao, an island north of here, just for a bit of R&R, as Matt and I had to be in singapore by the 25th we didn't have enough time to go with them, and it was in the opposite direction, so we got a ferry back to the mainland where we would get a night train to Malaysia.
Said yet more goodbyes, I'll see Andy sometime, not sure where or when, maybe back at home, maybe in australia. I'm going to keep in touch with Jared in the hope that he makes it big as an actor and I can sponge off him in the future.
The Ferry was pretty unremarkable, we had a couple of beers and chatted to yet more Irish girls, they were on their way to Laos so we told them about tubing and what else to expect in Vang Vieng (mainly watching Friends, when the power is on that is).
We got to the station at Surit Thani at about 10, we couldn't book tickets all the way to Butterworth (in Malaysia) as the guy said it was fully booked, but we could get sleeper tickets to pretty much the border, after that the train would split and the front half would go off to Butterworth. The guy at the ticket office said that we should just get on and maybe the conductor would be able to help us out (for 'help us out' see 'pay him money')
The train arrived late at about 1.30am, there's only so many trips to the 7-11 you can do before you get thoroughly bored of it, and we just sat in the station for a couple of hours with the other white faces.
When we got on the train we explained the situation to the conductor, who wasn't taking our offer of a bribe to get us on the next train, but just told us to jump off and buy a ticket and jump back on. I had a nasty image of the train pulling away as I bought a useless ticket. Time for sleep, which I didn't get a lot of on a rickety rocking and rolling top bunk.
THE MORNING AFTER THE FULL MOON
Woke up at about 3pm with a sense that I'd just had one of the worst nights of my life. “It was alright”, reflected Andy, he'd wandered around for a couple of hours the same as me, and came home at about 7am.
I was feeling really annoyed that we'd wasted so much time on this island so I wanted another night out tonight, as I didn't feel like I'd had a good enough time last night. I wasn't feeling that bad, so was well up for another night of drinking.
The Canadians left at about 9.30pm, we all said our goodbyes and exchanged the customary email addresses and facebook names. I've now got Canada pretty sorted if I ever want to go there. which i think I do, not sure when, but one day.
we headed out to the beach, stopped off at an internet cafe to plan our next movement off the island. The beach was pretty quiet, well compared to last night. You could actually move around now, and actually had quite a good night, wasn't wandering around looking for people, had a few drinks, nothing too heavy, had a go at skipping the fire rope, got a friction burn on my leg, that was the extent of my injuries.
We lost Jared and went drinking down the beach, after a few drunken conversations with Irish people and irish people pretending to be scottish (don't ask, i never really understood), we went back to the bungalow to find Jared asleep on the porch. Bless him.
I was feeling really annoyed that we'd wasted so much time on this island so I wanted another night out tonight, as I didn't feel like I'd had a good enough time last night. I wasn't feeling that bad, so was well up for another night of drinking.
The Canadians left at about 9.30pm, we all said our goodbyes and exchanged the customary email addresses and facebook names. I've now got Canada pretty sorted if I ever want to go there. which i think I do, not sure when, but one day.
we headed out to the beach, stopped off at an internet cafe to plan our next movement off the island. The beach was pretty quiet, well compared to last night. You could actually move around now, and actually had quite a good night, wasn't wandering around looking for people, had a few drinks, nothing too heavy, had a go at skipping the fire rope, got a friction burn on my leg, that was the extent of my injuries.
We lost Jared and went drinking down the beach, after a few drunken conversations with Irish people and irish people pretending to be scottish (don't ask, i never really understood), we went back to the bungalow to find Jared asleep on the porch. Bless him.
FULL MOON PARTY
woke up in usual fashion, not really knowing where I was and wondering how I got here. That all quickly passed, and I filled Andy in on what happened to Jared (as i later found out that's how to spell his name).
Matt and some of the girls were going into town on motorbikes, me and Andy decided that walking would probably be a safer option, after what happened to jared last night. So we set off for town along the beach. It was quite a nice walk, for about 20 minutes, then 2 hours later we got there. I was happy to stump up the 100 bt for a cab back.
We walked around the town in daylight, it was so much like Newquay it was scary. everyone here was English or Irish (the majority being Irish). I've nothing against Newquay, I had a really good weekend when I was there last, which was ironically with Andy. Is that irony or just co-incidence? I've been spending too much time with American's I can't tell anymore.
We went shopping for plasters to patch up my ripped feet on the rocks from the sea yesterday, and bought some t-shirts and spent a bit of time on the net. we got a cab back to the bungalows at about 5. There were a couple of english girls in the cab with us, one of them was studying media, took me all of 45 seconds to bring up Bo Selecta, media whore that I am. They seemed suitably impressed, so that was the main thing.
After a power nap and something to eat, a shower, another power nap and a couple of beers we were ready for this famed Full Moon Party. Everyone had been building it up so much it was only going to disappoint, which I should have known about, and is the precise reason why I won't watch The Big Lebowski.
As usual Andy was preening himself in the mirror for far too long and Matt, Jared, the Icelandic girls, the canadians and Paulo the brazillian left before us, we arranged to meet in about 30 minutes at a bar on the beach. about 45 minutes later we got on to the beach. To call it rammed would be an understatement, it was shoulder to shoulder. really crammed. It was about midnight by the time we got down there so everyone had been on it for a few hours and really hammered, we looked out for everyone else but couldn't see them all night. I had a couple of buckets which I knew from Bangkok were a bad idea, bumped into Tammy the girl from New Orleans that we went tubing with in Laos, then I lost andy, Tammy disappeared, so I was on my own. I wandered around for an hour or so, got really annoyed and went home at about 5am, got into a fight with a taxi driver (not something that I've ever done before, but he was refusing to take me to my hotel even though it was about 100 yards away, and was driving past it. I said why don't you just drop me off outside the door as it's on your way, and he shoved me off the back of his wagon! we had a slight wrestle and he drove off. It seems taxi drivers are the same the world over.) I couldn't get into the room as andy had the Key so I slept on the beach for an hour until the sun came up and Jared came home.
All in all it was possibly the most over rated waste of time I've ever had. I feel a bit stupid that I'd planned the latter part of my trip around it, in hindsight I wish I would have spent more time in some other part of Thailand, or maybe a few days more in Laos, and Cambodia of course.
Matt and some of the girls were going into town on motorbikes, me and Andy decided that walking would probably be a safer option, after what happened to jared last night. So we set off for town along the beach. It was quite a nice walk, for about 20 minutes, then 2 hours later we got there. I was happy to stump up the 100 bt for a cab back.
We walked around the town in daylight, it was so much like Newquay it was scary. everyone here was English or Irish (the majority being Irish). I've nothing against Newquay, I had a really good weekend when I was there last, which was ironically with Andy. Is that irony or just co-incidence? I've been spending too much time with American's I can't tell anymore.
We went shopping for plasters to patch up my ripped feet on the rocks from the sea yesterday, and bought some t-shirts and spent a bit of time on the net. we got a cab back to the bungalows at about 5. There were a couple of english girls in the cab with us, one of them was studying media, took me all of 45 seconds to bring up Bo Selecta, media whore that I am. They seemed suitably impressed, so that was the main thing.
After a power nap and something to eat, a shower, another power nap and a couple of beers we were ready for this famed Full Moon Party. Everyone had been building it up so much it was only going to disappoint, which I should have known about, and is the precise reason why I won't watch The Big Lebowski.
As usual Andy was preening himself in the mirror for far too long and Matt, Jared, the Icelandic girls, the canadians and Paulo the brazillian left before us, we arranged to meet in about 30 minutes at a bar on the beach. about 45 minutes later we got on to the beach. To call it rammed would be an understatement, it was shoulder to shoulder. really crammed. It was about midnight by the time we got down there so everyone had been on it for a few hours and really hammered, we looked out for everyone else but couldn't see them all night. I had a couple of buckets which I knew from Bangkok were a bad idea, bumped into Tammy the girl from New Orleans that we went tubing with in Laos, then I lost andy, Tammy disappeared, so I was on my own. I wandered around for an hour or so, got really annoyed and went home at about 5am, got into a fight with a taxi driver (not something that I've ever done before, but he was refusing to take me to my hotel even though it was about 100 yards away, and was driving past it. I said why don't you just drop me off outside the door as it's on your way, and he shoved me off the back of his wagon! we had a slight wrestle and he drove off. It seems taxi drivers are the same the world over.) I couldn't get into the room as andy had the Key so I slept on the beach for an hour until the sun came up and Jared came home.
All in all it was possibly the most over rated waste of time I've ever had. I feel a bit stupid that I'd planned the latter part of my trip around it, in hindsight I wish I would have spent more time in some other part of Thailand, or maybe a few days more in Laos, and Cambodia of course.
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