The trip of a lifetime

Ok it's been 7 days and we've kind of lost track but we'll hopefully not miss out too much in this post. We just can't believe it's been so long since we posted!

23/02/08
Up early in order to make our way down to the ferry port to get a boat to Rottnest Island. The boat set off for its 2 hour sail at 8:45. On the way down the river the boat stopped in Fremantle to pick up more passengers before heading out into open waters to get to Rottnest. Upon arrival we had a walk round to the lighthouse and then stopped for a bit of a sunbathe and a dip in the ice cold waters. In comparison to the bath-like temperatures of Thailand, it really wasn't pleasant!! But we braved it!! Then we set of for another hefty walk through the arid conditions (to put it in perspective the island is 11km across and 4 km wide so it's by no means a small island!!). The walk was long and hard but was really worth it and seeing lakes on the middle of the island was really bizzare! We then got back to the main settlement on the island near the ferry port and chilled out on a small beach before getting some food and waiting until the boat arrived to take us back to Perth. The river leading up from the sea to Perth is lined with extremely expensive houses and yacht marinas. Many of the yachts and houses are owned by Australia's richest people and celebrities. When we got back to Perth we went back to the hostel. Luke had invited us up to his hostel for a couple of drinks and then out to a bar. We ended up spending most of the night at the hostel garden chatting and before we knew it, it was really late and we decided to head back rather than go to a bar.

24/02/08
Today was a really lazy day, we had a bit of a lie in (except for the really annoying Chinese girl who insisted that half 5 in the morning was the best time to fold up all her plastic bags!!!) and then we just sat on the hostel balcony for a couple of hours watching the world go by. At 4pm we had arranged to meet up with Gary again for a drink in the local Irish bar. It was a really good afternoon chatting about the wedding and discussing the remainder of our trip with him. We were also joined by a couple of Irish lads called Alan and Kevin who were staying in our hostel (who'd have thought that we'd meet Irish lads in an Irish pub!!) That evening we sat out on the balcony again chatting with Alan and Kevin (and a few others) before heading to bed. Oh yeah we also had a kebab, which was superb in comparison the the really naff donner meat you get in the UK!!

25/02/08
Got up at a reasonable hour and prepared ourselves for departure to Adelaide the following day. We put some of our clothes in for a wash. We also booked our accommodation for staying in Adelaide and also our transportation to get us from Adelaide to Melbourne. We managed to arrange a campervan for 3 days which will give us plenty of time to travel down the Great Ocean Road before arriving in Melbourne on the 3rd March. Finished off the rest of the washing and also got in touch with Kurt (the Aussie guy we met on Phi Phi) as he offered to pick us up from Adelaide Airport and take us to our hotel. That evening we had a walk up to Northbridge to meet up with Luke again for one last time before we left Perth. Had an early night and slept well!

26/02/08
We weren't flying until 16:50 so we relaxed for most of the day. We had to check out of the hostel at 9am but they were happy for us to lounge around until we needed to leave for the airport. We re-packed our bags and then at 14:10 we headed to the bus stop to get the bus to the ariport. It was a 30 minute ride but we arrived in pleanty of time for the flight. We got checked in and then waited to be called for boarding. The flight was only 2 hours and 50 minutes but again we lost another 1 hour and 30 minutes due to time differences!! We arrived in Adelaide at 21:10 local time where Kurt was already waiting for us! It was good to see him again and we all had plenty of stories since we last chatted. That evening Kurt offered to show us round. There's been plenty going on in Adelaide over the last week or so, including the Clipsal 500 (a motor racing event), the Fringe Festival (similar to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Kurt told us that on the main street there were over 50,000 people and he'd never seen anything like it in Adelaide! We went up to the Fringe Festival for a look around. Lots of freak shows and big top tents with some really good acts on. We then headed back to the hostel, said goodnight to Kurt and arranged to meet him the following morning. Got into the room and there are only 3 of us in a dorm which can sleep 8!! The hostel is above a 'Pokies' which is essentially a gambling establishment with various slot machines. There's also a bar which is open the 6am (not that we're used this particular feature) and it's very well located on the main street in Adelaide.

27/02/08
We met up with Kurt and he took us for a drive to Henley Beach and then down to Glenelg (cool name for a place because if you get confused and spell it backwards then it's exactly the same, for the academics out there it is called a palindrome!!). At Henley Beach we got out and had some food at a nice pub. We had a steak sandwich each! Then at Glenelg we walked along the promenade into the marina where there are some really expensive boats/yachts docked. The back along the promenade to the car. He dropped us off at the hostel as he had to get home and ready for work. He said that he'd pick us up again at 17:15 and we could go with him. We killed time on the internet for a little bit before getting changed and ready to go out to the pub. The place where Kurt works is 15 minutes out of town and his father used to own it until recently. The place pretty much has everything except accommodation. There's a sportsbar, games room (the one with the slot machines in and a bar), a bistro, a drive-through bottleshop and a nice beer garden. We sat and had a beer in the sportsbar as Kurt was working and then we went outside. Kurt arrived with a jug of beer for us and then ran off again before we could give him money for it! Then we went back into the sports bar and played some pinball before tea. Kurt had a break at 20:30 so we reconvened in the bistro for a kangaroo steak! We had a side plate of salad and the steak (medium rare on a bed of Gnochi potatoes and pumpkin) was topped with an onion marmalade dressing. The whole thing was just perfect!! At the end of the meal we came to settle the bill and Kurt announced that it had "already been sorted". Then he ran off into the beer garden before we could express our displeasure at the fact that he wouldn't take any money off us. We finally gave up trying to give him money and joined him for one last drink in the games room before arranging for a taxi to take us back to the hostel. So we sat at the bar chatting and watching all these locals coming up to the bar with $10/20/50 notes and changing them into dollar coins so they could feed the machines in the hope of winning!! Needless to say they kept coming back every 10 minutes for more coins! One woman must have put $200 in the machines in less than an hour!! Anyway Matt ahd a bit of loose change in his pocket ($2) and Rick gave him his lucky dollar coin and he set off into the games room. Rick could see Matt from where he was sitting. All of a sudden a machine behind the bar started to beep loudly. Kurt (as Junior Manager that night) began to curse rather loudly at this and indicated that one of the machines must have broken. Rick literally thought to himself: "I bet it's Matt!!" Low and behold Kurt walks over to the very machine that Matt is standing next to looking rather sheepish!! All the locals began to gather and Matt starts to walk back to the bar with the biggest grin on his face. He says "I think I've won the minor jackpot but I'm not sure because one of the screens says jackpot and the other says error!!" Anyway half a pint and a 15 minute anxious wait later, Kurt returns and hands over $348 to Matt and doesn't say a word. Rick strongly belives that if Kurt had opened his mouth, then we wouldn't be able to post exactly what he had said for censoring reasons!! Happy as Larry Matt offered to buy another midi (just over half a pint) and then booked another taxi home. It has to be said that to Matt's credit he did hand over one third of the winnings to Rick due to the fact that he had placed a $1 investment into the cause. So to quickly sum up the evening:

1) Free jug of beer
2) 2 free gorgeous kangaroo steaks
3) Matt managed to turn $3 of loose change into a small profit of $348!!!

Overall quite a successful evening and we hope that we will be able to show Kurt the same level of hospitality when he comes to visit in the UK! Mum's get the good bedding out!!! Anyway we got back to hostel and had an extremely philosophical conversation with a slightly misguided and heavily inebriated Aussie bloke who insisted that throwing rubbish on the floor was a good thing for society in that it will cause the Government to take action! Oh yeah and that feminism is a myth and they are going to be the death of mankind!! Needless to say he wasn't married and the barstaff refused to serve him, a role model to kids - We think not!!!

28/02/08
Woke up and decided to do a little bit of shopping. Rick ended up buying a new pair of headphones for his iPod (a sceptical Rick heeded Matt's insisting to buy some higher quality inner-ear ones, but was soon converted when he heard a bit of Prodigy through them!! WOW!!!). We also bought a car kit for our iPods to that we can listen to our own music en route to Melbourne on Saturday. That afternoon we watched a couple of films before heading to the supermarket to buy a beef lasagne for tea and some pasta and sauce for tomorrow's tea. After eating we went and met 2 of the 9 Aussie girls that we met previously on Koh Phi Phi. They recommended a show that we should go and see called the Tom Tom Club up at the Fringe Festival. The show started at 22:00 and was absolutely fantastic!! It was a group of 8 guys, 5 were acrobats, 1 a beat-boxer (look it up on the internet if you want but it's basically a guy who can create amazing sounds and beats with his mouth and a microphone - imagine Officer Jones from the Police Academy films), a DJ and a guy on the drums!! Again it was a really great show and the audience really got into it!! After the show we chatted some more and arranged to meet them tomorrow night for a few drinks in town before we leave. Then we headed back to the hostel to bed.

29/02/08
Woke up in the morning with the intention of going to the beach at Glenelg. However, we needed to book accommodation for Melbourne and update this blog so we decided to give it a miss. As a compromise we agreed to arrange accommodation in Melbourne that was close to the beach but with good transport links into the city centre. We've booked a really funky looking place which is very modern with pretty lights and some very good reviews!! It's a little more expensive but we're worth it!!! Later on we're meeting Kurt and the girls for a drink before getting a relatively early night. We have to pick the campervan up at 10:00 in the morning so we need to be sensible!!

We also heard about the earth tremor that you guys had in the UK, sounds pretty cool but we didn't feel it here in Adelaide (strangely enough!!)

Hope everything is good back home and keep those comments coming in!!

Matt and Rick signing off (for now)!!
xx

Hello people!

Following recent developments with technology we now think that we have cracked the previous problems we were having with photos. So we are pleased to provide you with a list of weblinks that should allow those of you who are not on Facebook to view our wonderful photos!

Here goes:

Journey + first 3 nights

Last Night in Ao Nang

Day in Railay and Krabi Town

Our stay in Railay

Last day/Night in Railay and First 2 Days in Koh Lanta

Snorkelling Trip 1 and the Last Night in Koh Lanta

Koh Phi Phi - Part 1

Koh Phi Phi - Part 2

Koh Phi Phi - Part 3

Last few days on Koh Phi Phi and Phuket

Kuala Lumpur - Part 1

Kuala Lumpur - Part 2

Kuala Lumpur - Part 3

Kuala Lumpur Aquarium

Singapore

First few days in Australia

Fremantle and the Motor Museum

South Perth Zoo

South Perth Zoo and Rottnest Island

Phew!!! Well that's all of them so far!! Enjoy!!

Rick and Mattxx

G'day all!!

19/02/08
We last left you with us having a Thai red curry (which was really nice Lucy!!) and a couple of bottles of red wine that we chose ourselves from the wine regions of South West Australia. Rick and Matt chose a bottle that Gary quite liked so that we could all share it with the meal. It was a full bodied cabernet from the PeaceTree Winery. Gary also cracked open a bottle as the first disappeared quite quickly! That evening Gary went to bed early as we all had to be up at 4:45AM to drive up to Perth and he had to drive! So in the morning (blurry eyed from lack of sleep not excess wine) we set out on the 2 hour journey stopping briefly for a coffee and then heading into the centre. Gary knew of a hostel that he had stayed at many years ago when he himself was backpacking and we were very very fortunate to get a couple of beds!! (Over the last 3 nights there have been many people turned away because there is "no room at the inn") We arrived at about 7:30 so we hung around for someone to turn up. We couldn't check in until 10:00 so we had a wander into the city for some breakfast and a map of the local area. We got back to hostel and checked in and then used our map to have a more thorough walk around Perth. We were out for about 4 hours just wandering with no aim whatsoever, we just kept going! The only place we really wanted to see was King's Park but due to back weather there had been some rock slides and they had closed it off. We also managed to sort out with Quantas about bringing our flights to Adelaide forward in order to have more time travelling between Adelaide and Sydney. The whole thing only cost us 13 pounds each. This is good considering we were expecting at least at 25 pound admin charge!! Also we went into STA Travel to discuss arranging the second half of our trip (the one that would eventually bring us home). We managed to get some credit on an Australian sim card that Jo had given us and we got in touch with Mr Luke Edwards (for those who are confused by this, it's Eddy's twin brother). He finished work early that day and met us at about 17:00. We had a catch up chat and met his girlfriend. We then went back to his hostel for a couple of drinks but didn't stay long as we were both worn out from the early start.

20/02/08
Sporadic waking up between the hours of 6:00am and 10:00 due to people going out to work (oh yeah, because Perth is a working city, the majority of people staying in this hostel have been here for months like a second home and all work through the week). We had another general walk around town and arranged to meet up with Gary to have a quick chat about what his thoughts were on us joining him for his wedding. He suggested some things which gave us more to think about so we made him leave!! Ha ha. After Gary left we had a serious discussion about what we should do. We went into STA Travel and got a good price for the second half of our journey. However, another bombshell was thrown in!! We wanted to leave it open as to when we would return to the UK due to the fact that we would come home when we had just enough money left to get a flight home! We were warned,however, that the Canadian/US immigration would probably not let us in the counrty unless we had a flight that would tell them when we would be leaving (how selfish!!). We had a think about things and discussed our options. The final decision was that instead of travelling quickly across the States in a month, we would just do the whole West Coast at our own pace for the final month of travel. We paid a deposit and would return in the morning to pay the remaining balance. Upon returning to the hostel we also booked the flights for us both (and Charlie) to fly from Perth to Sydney (and back again) for Gary and Jo's wedding on the 13th April, and we would spend 5 days with them. We had an early night as the next morning we had to pay lots of money to STA and get the train to Fremantle!

21/02/08
Got up at 8:00am and got ready. We made our way to STA Travel and paid the remainder of the money we owed them (well Matt did because Rick has no credit card yet and his banks didn't want to give any money to STA from his debit cards!!) After Matt's serious financial blow (he he) we got on the train for the half hour trip down to Fremantle. Fremantle has a little more history than Perth due to the fact that it is a major harbour and has been for many many years! We had a walk around the lovely town and had a sandwich at a cafe. We continued our walk down to the fishing harbour and along the sea front to the motor museum. We spen over an hour looking at the car collection put together by Peter Briggs. It was a personal collection of his with cars dating back to the late 1800's all the way to the late 1970's, including Australia's oldest Volkswagen Beetle!! After we had a walk towards the lighthouse and saw a couple of real dolphins entering the harbour!! Not close enough for a picture so you'll have to take our word for it!! We went back to the hostel via a supermarket and cooked our tea (pasta and sauce. It is much cheaper to cook for yourself unlike in South East Asia where its cheaper to eat out!! I suppose we are back in the Western World) That evening we chilled out infront of the TV and got another early night.

22/02/08
We woke up early and fresh in order to start our long walk to South Perth. It's a good 45 minutes (which seems a lot longer in this heat. "Mad dogs and Englishmen"!!) over the bridge and we were heading for the South Perth Zoo!! We had no trouble finding it and hastlily made our way inside like school kids!!! We were in there for about 4 hours looking at a huge variety of animals and it wasn't too busy either!! The different areas were much like the way Crystal Maze was set up!! There are the Australian Walkabout, African Savannah, Asian Rainforest, Nocturnal Life and the Australian Wetlands. It was really cool and we had sandwiches in the outback! Matt's favourite animal was the giant Saltwater Crocodile (aka 'Salties') and Rick's favourite animals were the cheeky monkeys, this time they were Silvery Gibbons!! We then walked back to the hostel and again cooked for ourselves. We're having another chilled evening before departing in the morning for Rottnest Island where we're going to sit on a beach all day (but might do some snorkelling)!

Just to let you know the rest of our trip:
26th Feb we fly to Adelaide and spend a month travelling round. Then on the 12th April we fly from Sydney back over to Perth (with Charlie) for Gary's wedding! Then on the 17th April we fly back to Sydney for a couple of days before flying out to Auckland on the 19th April. We'll spend 2 months in NZ and then on the 15th June we fly to Vancouver and spend a almost a month travelling down the West coast of America. Then on the 10th July we fly back to London and arrive home on the 11th July. Then we'll arrange an internal flight to get us back to Manchester. We might have a couple of days in London (Matt idea as he has never been before!! It seemed fitting that we do it at the end of our world tour!!) but it's not fixed as Matt wants to be home for his birthday for lots of presents/MONEY and a welcome home party (hint hint Julie!!!). The weather will be perfect for a garden party/BBQ and we'll all show you (dad's especially) how to cook a "real barbie" (Aussie accents included!!).

Well we hope you are all well and me and Matt are really disappointed with the lack of commentary on this blog!! You all asked us to do it so you could have a good old nose at what we're doing so we want some recognition for doing it!! We want at least 3 comments in a week or the blog stops!! he he :-p

Take care all and don't forget to comment!!

Rick and Mattxx

When we last posted we had told you all about our escapades in KL and the day after the KL Aquarium we had an early start to get our train down to Singapore.

12/02/08
Up at 7am to make sure we had time to get ready and make sure that we could get a taxi and get down the station in time. As we left the hostel it was just becoming light bit in true KL style there is always a Proton taxi nearby to pick you up. Effortlessly and without a hitch we arrived at Sentral station ready to board the train. Upon finding our seats we quickly got settled as the train pulled out of the station (Ric almost immediately fell asleep and Matthew got out his Ipod and settled into the 7 hour journey).

One of our main reasons for getting the train was that we knew it would be heading through the countryside and many small towns that we would otherwise not have seen should we have taken the 5 hour bus ride instead. As the journey passed we both decided to read our Tsunami books purchased at the beach bar on Koh Phi Phi, its a book written by an Italian chap (Luciano Butti) who moved onto Phi Phi a few years ago after discovering it by chance. He immediately fell in love with the place and opened an Italian restuarant on the beach called 'Ciao Bella'. This is also teamed up with the beach bar to which which we spent many an hour with a bottle of Singha an chatting to Kurt and/or the barstaff (Cob and Yen). With around 3 hours to go we could not believe how fast the time had passed and began to prepare ourselves for disembarking. Towards the end of the trip (just on the border) we had to go through customs and passport control before getting back on the train to enter Singapore.

On the final 30 mins we travelled through the outskirts of the city and neither of us could believe just how clean it was. Normally entering a big city on a train you generally travel through some of the poorer areas before entering the more impressive central areas. Upon arrival to the station we changed out last few Malaysian Ringits into Singapore Dollars before a 15 minute walk to MRT station (subway) to find our way to the Hostel that we had chosen on the Internet which apparently had a fantastic location (just next to a subway stop). Upon arrival we quickly found the Hostel and got settled in. We met up with a couple of people in the hostel and got chatting about Singapore and what we could do in the two days we had there. We came up with some ideas but soon became hungry. We ate at a little restaurant opposite the hostel and had some fantastic pork ribs and pork in beancurd with rice to share. After food we had a walk around the local area (Aljunied) before returning to the hostel to watch a film with the other packers and get an early night.

13/02/08
We woke up in our separate dorms (we'd been split up for the first time in a month as they didn't have two available beds in the same room) and got ready. We got the MRT to downtown Singapore to have a walk around and see what it was like. The first stop was in China Town where we ate some local cuisine. Matt had a double cheese burger and chips and Rick had a Big Mac (Matt had promised Rick that if he was good then he could have a MacDonalds when we arrived in Singapore). We jumped back on the MRT down to Clarke Quay which is packed with bars, restaurants and withing walking distance along the river to Boat Quay. We spent time walking around both Quays through the shopping centres (of which there are plenty) and decided to stop for a drink to quench our thirst. We then made our way back to the hostel after deciding that later on we woulod come back to have a few drinks on Boat Quay. We had a couple of hours where we just chilled at the hostel watching a film and again attempting to upload more photos (again with no success!) and then got ready and headed out for some food. We ate at another small restaurant about 5 minutes from the hostel where the food was really cheap, arrived about two minutes after we ordered it but was very delicious. We labeled it 'the Chinese version of fast food!' and it cost us $5 each (including a drink) which equates to around 1 pound 80 pence!! Affter eating we again went to the station to get the MRT to Boat Quay for a couple of drinks. It was quite lucky that the food was so cheap as the drinks are far from cheap!! Imagine beer prices of central London!! The first stop was at Harry's Bar where they had a live jazz band playing which was really good! The were skitting (which it like musical gobbledegook which sounds really cool!) and we couldn't help tap along! After Harry's we made our way round to Eski Bar. Which is an ice bar kept at a chilling temperature of -5 degrees celsius!!! after spending around half an hour (and the first stages of hypothermia starting to kick in) we stepped out into a brick wall of heat (27 degrees!!). We made our way back to the hostel after narrowly catching the very last train and stayed up with some of the other packers to watch another film.

14/02/08
Got up and get ready to go to Sentosa. This is and island off the southern point of Singapore on which they have built hotels, flower gradens, nature trails and man made beaches. It is only a short monorail ride over to Sentosa and upon arriving we had a walk through the flower gardens and up onto the nature trail which winds down the secondary rainforest to one of the man made beaches. We walked along the beach for half an hour before stopping to get a drink at a bikini bar with cheap beer. Rick popped into the shop next door and came out with a brand new rash vest in preparation for his surfing lessons in Australia! We then continued along the beach to the monorail station and got a sandwich before heading back to the hostel. We had decided the night before that for Valentines Day we would go back down to Boat Quay to have a meal. We ended up at an all you can eat North Indian buffet which allowed us to try a variety of different dishes. After food we headed to Hooters (we were both amazed at the number of couples that had decided to eat there for Valentines Day, but saying that, it is a family establishment!!) for a quick drink before going back to the hostel in preparation for an early start.

15/02/08
Up at 6am!!! and travelled a mere 30 minutes on the MRT direct from our hostel to Changi Airport (what an brilliant system)!! Arrived at the airport with no problems, got checked in and then waited to board the plane. Again the plane provided a fantastic entertainment system which made the time pass extremely quickly for Matt. Rick on the other hand slept almost the whole flight!! We landed in Perth just after 3pm and Gary was already waiting for us at the arrivals lounge! We drove about 2 hours south of Perth to his home in Australind. On the way Gary asked us if we'd ever seen a kangaroo in the wild. We both replied "no" so he took a slight detour and drove passed his fiancee's aunt's house where there were about 10/15 kangaroos just sat grazing. We also stopped at his local "bottleshop". This is a fantastic service which allows you to pull up in your car at a drive through and purchase crates of beer/spirits/mixers etc! Genius!! We then got back to his house and met his lovely fiancee Jo and her crazy cousin Michelle! Jo had made a lasagne for us and we had a couple of drinks and got to know eachother. We also discussed that the next day we would go on a wine tour around the southwest wine region. Jo had kindly offered to be our chaffeur for the day as she doesn't drink alcohol. We then went to bed to prepare body and soul for the marathon drinking session ahead!

16/02/08
We woke up at about half 7/8 o'clock and got ready for our journey. We covered a total distance of about 350 kilometers on long, straight roads which made the journey pretty effortless. The first brewery was called 'Occy's' where we sampled four of their different brews before heading to the next place (which we can't remember the name of just now). Again we got a sample board of six different brews (it is worth noting at this point that you didn't get a pint of each beer. Each glass was just less than half a pint each). We then stopped off at a cheese factory to pick up some cheese for Jo and we tried a really tasty chilli cheddar!! We then left the beer behind and made our way into Margaret River which is a well known wine making area. We visited 3 different wineries and had a taste of between 5 and 10 wines in each place through from "fruity" whites to "succulent" roses to "challenging" reds! They would always save their best red until last (which also happened to be their most expensive!!). After our wine tasting Gary asked us if we fancied going round to one of their friends houses for a couple of drinks and get to know a few more Aussies. Without hesitation and really wanting to get a glimpse of the really Aussie way of life, we said yes! Upon arrival we made our way through the theatre room, into the lounge, through the games room and out through the back to the pool and alfresco area. There we found a bunch of Aussies all chatting and having drinks. We immediately felt very welcome and they seemed to like us from the word go! After about an hour or so we needed to get some food so Jo suggested we go to the local fast food place for a quick bite to eat. They then asked us if we wanted to go back to the gathering for a couple more drinks. We didn't want to but Rick hyad stupidly left his sunglasses in the games room (doh!!) so we had to go back (what a shame!) They were shocked and pleased to see us back again (Gary admitted to us the morning after that he knew we'd end up going back there!) and we continued to make friends and chat about our trip and just get to know them. We knew we'd been fully accepted when Mike asked us if we would like to try his home made bourbon!! We felt really rude saying no (especially as Matt isn't a big bourbon drinker) but we were pleasantly surprised with it's smooth flavour and not harsh on the back of the throat like Jack Daniels or Jim Beam would be! He was pleased that we liked it and continued to pour more into our glasses until we were rescued by Jo who said that we should leave (thanks Jo!) We made it home and prettly much straight to bed!!

17/02/08
Naturally we got up late and not feeling particularly fresh Jo made us get in the car and drive to Donnybrook (where she works as a primary school teacher) to pick up some fruit and ingredients to make a Thai Red Curry on our last night with them. We stopped at the tourist information to put up some leaflets and then headed back to meet Jo's mum and aunt as they were delivering some furniture for their house. We helped unload and then get showered and changed to go down to Gary's local pub (the Collie Brook Tavern) for a beer and some food and a couple of games of pool. They also set up the karaoke and Gary couldn't resist singing one song! Gary also intorduced us to the bar manager who bought us a round of drinks and offered us a couple of their free stubbie holders. Then we went back to the house to watch a film and get an early night.

18/02/08
Today!! Gary and Jo are both at work so Gary dropped us off in Bunbury for the day to get on a quick internet for photo uploading and blog writing! Now we've going to have a walk down to the beach. Tonight we're cooking thai red curry (currently having withdrawal symptoms from Thai food), then to the pub to pick up our free stubbie holders and an early night. We're up at 5am and Gary will drop us off in Perth in the morning.

Hope you are all well at home!

Rick and Mattxx

Hi all,

We were expecting this post to be written from Singapore, however certain events (which you will soon hear about) will explain why we are still in Kuala Lumpur!!

06/02/08
So we last left you as we prepared ourselves to go and eat pizza as our last meal in Phuket before flying to Kuala Lumpur. The entire journey went extremely well (aside from some very close calls in the taxi en route to the airport and Rick's 7 pound excess baggage charge) and we arived safe and sound at Kuala Lumpur airport!! We managed to get on a coach that would "drop us off at our hostel". After the driver made many stops, at which nobody seemed to be getting off, various phone calls, it became very apparent to his 30 or so passengers that he really had no idea where he was going!! At the final straw we had spotted a couple of landmarks that had been detailed on the directions given by Hostelbookers after we'd booked our hostel. We decided that we'd go it alone from here on in!! After stopping to ask directions from a couple of people we eventually managed to find the hostel! We were very hot, very sweaty and had just spent 2 hours on a coach with a useless driver. We were naturally quite anxious to get into the room take our bags off and relax!! Not a chance!! We waited to check in and then we were eventually given our key. Still with our rucksacks on we spent 10 minutes trying to open the door before giving up and asking the receptionist to do it. After a bit of faffing it opened and she left! Rick then decided to take the valuables down to put them in the safety deposit box (which are just lockers with padlocks on them). All she could say to him was "I don't have a key". What on earth is that supposed to mean? Does she not have a key now? Will she have one later? Will she ever have one? What? Rick gave up and we decided not to bother them again with this "problem". More problems occured with the door as we still couldn't figure out the knack to opening it!! After another 20 minutes we sorted it all out and things were fine. We also came to the conclusion that if we had so much trouble getting the door open then any potential robbers would also encounter these problems and thus our valuables would remain quite safe!! In addition to this point Matthew had no clue how to open the door so Rick was in charge of the key for the entirity of the stay! That evening we had a walk around the local area, which happened to be the best place for cheap shopping and restaurants (the area was called the Golden Triangle). We found a bar/restaurant which served the cheapest Tiger Beer around and also decided to eat there. It was a Malayan restaurant and their cuising is like a fusion of different cuisined to make their own. We noticed on the way back that the streets were preparing for some kind of festivle, but didn't know if they were putting it up or taking it all down! Upon returning to the hostel there were a few lads playing drinking games with dice. The owner of the dice happen to be a very loud, care-free Mancunian called Daryl and loved the fact that this was "his game". We joined in and before we knew it, it was 1am and we decided to hit the hay!

07/02/08
At a reasonable hour we got up, got ready and were out the door in order to take in Kuala Lumpur (KL from now on!), which in the local tongue means "murky estuary/confluence". We headed first to the Petronas Twin Towers (due to the fact that we could see them!) and didn't need to use a map. Every now and then we just looked up, and then went left or right as appropriate!! After having a good look around we decided to see what the Mall underneath the Tower's had to offer. Imagine, if you will, the Trafford Centre in Manchester on six levels with all the designer shops including Armarni, Gucci, Prada, Channel, Tiffany's and Co., Davidoff, Jimmy Choo, Mikimoto and of coure TopShop and Marks and Spencers!!! We then decided that we would go and have a look at the KL Tower, which is the fifth tallest free standing tower in the world (the CN Tower in Canada being the tallest in the world). Upon arrival we made our way to the counter to get a ticket to go up. A lift takes you up 421 metres to an observation deck where you get a 360 degree view of KL!! It's a teriffic experience to be able to see so much from such a great height!! After this we headed back down towards the hostel to chill out a bit before looking for some food. We chose to wealk a little further than usual and ended up in a nice little Italian restaurant and we both had Ravioli! Awww. Again as we arrived back at the hostel, the lads were drinking and chatting and we stuck around a little to see what they had planned for the rest of their trip.

08/02/08
In the mornign we had a walk to the Petronas Towers to have another look around the mall and then, having decided the night before that the KL Hop on Hop off tour looked quite good, we went to the nearest bus stop to wait for it to arrive. They usually come every 30 minutes or so but ours was really quick and we only had to wait 10! After much deliberation we cose a couple of places to "Hop on and Hop off" on of these was the National Forrest which is the green belt of KL (similar to Central Park in New York but more out of the centre and smaller). We visited the National Monument which honours those who died in the First and Second World Wars and then wandered peacefully through a Sculpture Garden and the Lake Gardens. We then went up towards the largest enclosed bird sanctuary in the world and the orchid gardens. We didn't visit these but waited for over an hour for the next bus to come along!!! On the way back we had a 5 minute stop at the National Palace where the King of Malaysia lives (this is similar to Buckingham Palace as you can visit the main gates, poke fun at the guards who can move but not much else). We also had a 5 minute picture taking stop at Titiwangsa which is a park area which had the "Eye on Malaysia" (their version of the London Eye) and a theatre which had similar features to that of the Sydney Opera House. We then headed back to the Malaysia Tourist Centre (MTC) in order to find out if we could get a train from KL to Singapore on the Sunday. All was fine (which you will later see was not!) and we had chosen to get the 14:15 train. We then booked a place to stay in singapore for the Monday and Tuesday night and then went to A lebanese restaurant to celebrate a productive day!!

09/02/08
An early start for us as we departed for the Petrons Towers in order to queue up for the free tickets that allow you to go up the Tower's to the Sky Bridge between the two! When we got the ther queue was huge but moved relatively quickly. The system is that they give out the tickets to whoever but you can't chose what time. If you're first in line then you go up the tower first. Then at 15minute intervals after that with about 28 in each group. We were allocated the 13:15 slot. We only had to wait just over an hour so at half past 9 in the morning we decided not to stray far from the towers but have a wander round the gardens that they have. En route we noticed that we were passing the KL Aquarium so we scoped it out so that after we'd been up the Petronas Towers we knew where to come so that we could do the aquarium in the afternoon before we depart for Singapore the following day. At ourt allotted time we made our way to the Petronas Towers for our tour. It started with a short 3D film which introduced us to the Towers and the company that arranged for their building etc. After this all 28 of us walked into this huge speed lift that took us all up to the 43rd floor in just 58 seconds!! An average of 5-6 metres per second!! As the doors re-opened and our ears popped, we turned the corner to be confronted with a huge glass bridge (which has 2 levels, the lower one for the tourists and the second for the employees working in the towers). When stepping out onto the bridge our feet began perspiring and our hearts racing! We took in the amazing views of the ground which was a long way down!! The large panes of glass gave the feeling that there was no glass at all! Sudden realisation came back to the fact that there was glass when we noticed that there was a guy on the "wrong" side of the glass cleaning the windows!!! He was in nothing more than a metal bucket which he had no fear of leaning out of to reach bits that he'd missed!!! After various photos we made our way back down (again our ears popped) and out. As we chatted about getting back and chilling Rick had completely forgotten that they were suppoed to be going to the aquarium and Matt wasn't sure whether or not to mention it as we were both pretty tired. As we discussed this over our evening meal it was apparent that we were both really gutted to have missed it!! We wen't to a local Chinese restaurant with tables and chairs out on the pavement as we had been curious about the place throughout our stay! The food was delicious and very reasonably priced!! We then headed back to have a couple of drinks with the lads before we detaprt the following lunchtime!

10/02/08
The morning of our departure and we got up, packed and had our remaining Malaysian currency (except for 50 Ringgits each) converted into Singapore Dollars. We also arranged for a taxi to pick us up early enough to get us there with time to get our ticket and get the train. This was the beginning of our self-induced nightmare!! Upon arrival at Sentral Station we went to the tiket counter. Here you have to get an electronic ticket and wait for the number to be called. We didn't even need to wait around for our number due to the fact that the board said that there were no available trains to Singapore from KL until the Wednesday (you have to bear in mind at this point that it is Sunday and we fly from Singapore to Perth on Friday). Naturally a little worried we decided that we would try an alternative method of transport: the bus. Having tried to find out timetables using the 50cents we had left in Malaysian coins we found out that there was a bus for late Tuesday evening. This was better than nothing so we paid 1 Ringgit to get the Commuter train to the next station where all the busses leave from. Again please bear in mind that this is the hottest part of the day and we are carrying between 18 and 23 kilos each!! (To put this in perspective its around 3 stone and we only weigh 11 stone each) After departing to train we walked for about 15 minutes through heavy traffic and bustling crowds of downtown KL to the bus terminal. An intoxicating cocktail of heat, sweat, noise and food filled the air as we made our way into what can only be describle as hell on earth. The bus terminal was packed like a Bon Jovi concert. Yet again please bear in mind the weight on our backs and the fact that the packs made each of us two people in size!! After no more than 4 minutes the decision was to head back to the hostel we had left only 3 hours before and start from scratch! Another 25 minute walk across KL (again using the Petronas Towers at our lighthouse in the ocean of the crowd before us) saw us arrive back at our Hostel. As we entered the common area we were welcomed with comments such as "We thought you were on you're way to Singapore" and "What are you doing back?". We peeled our packs from our backs as the air conditioning was a welcome change to the blast of exaust fumes and bus radiators heat! They informed us that they didn't have any rooms left but that they had a sister hostel just five minutes round the corner. We chilled out for half an hour with a cold drink and a chat before we headed off to the new digs. They are nice and comfortable but again with a double bed! After settling in we made our way back to the Train station to arrange for the next available ticket which we booked for Tuesday morning at 8:15am. This would give us 2 and a half days in Singapore. With that sorted we headed back to our old hostel to watch a film with the lads and then to our new hostel to get changed and go out for food. We went back to the first place we ate (as we were very much ready for a beer after a stressful day) and as we arrive it had become very clear that the Chinese New Year festivities were about to begin. The restaurant had a perfect view of the parade and the performances so we decided to stay and have some food. We saw the Malaysian President and a variety of amazing performances of dancing and Chinese Dragons etc. As things came to a close we finished our drinks and headed back to see the guys at our old hostel one more time. They were just starting another film so we decided to stay and watch it with them before heading home and sleeping at about 2am.

11/02/08
Had a very welcome lie in before heading to the KL Aquarium!! Yeah!! Very excited about this following the mishap a couple of days earlier, we wandered through the streets with smiles on our faces. It seems that someone had a hand in making us stay in KL another couple of days (the Chinese New Year celebrations, that we would have missed in Singapore, the Aquarium, and the fact that KL is a lot cheaper to stay in hostels) so we embraced this. The Aquarium was great and we saw loads of different fish and wildlife. After the Aquarium we grabbed a bite to eat and then back to the hostel to update you all on our KL experience!!

So there you have it, We are pleased to have been lucky enough to have a couple of extra days in KL (someone was pointing us in teh ruight direction for that) but the Greek God of Digital Photo Uploads appears to have taken a dislike to us and will not allow us show you all the amazing wonders that we've seen in KL. We'll continue to work on it but we'll probably have to try again in Singapore. You will have approximately 250 to look through when we finally get it sorted!!

Take care all!

Love Matt and Rickxx