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Theme parks day four: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

Sun, 25 May 2008 18:39:47 +0100

Universal studios was much more a park for adults, a pleasant change from Disney. But we arrived late because Dad and Naomi went to a time-share meeting to get cheap tickets so we had to rush it a bit.

We brought fast queue passes so we didn’t have to wait long for any of the rides. The queues weren’t particularly long, as the park was quite, but they did help us out on some rides especially as we had limited time.

Universal Studios has another park next door called Islands of Adventure. Islands of Adventure is where the big rides are so we rushed around Universal to make sure we had time to do all the big roller coasters next door before the parks closed at 7pm.

Outside the park.

Universal we probably the best designed park we went to. Each section represented part of Unites States history. There was a part that looked like an old Wild West town. There was a traditional American diner with 50s style American cars parked outside.

The first ride we went on, and one of the best of the day was Shrek 4D. The story line was very clever and featured all the best characters from the Shrek film. The fourth dimension was a moving seat and effects such as water bring squirted on you whenever there was a splash on screen. All of us thoroughly enjoyed it and it was relaxed enough for Uncle John, although he’d never herd of Shrek before!

The best roller coaster in Universal was probably the Mummy. It was different and the cart kept turning around and going back the way it came, by the end you had no idea where on the track you actually were. Then it took you into a room and set fire to it. The heat was intense and people have said this was the scariest part of the ride. It was good but realistically you know it’s not going to burn you - a very clever idea though.

Jaws was the one ride at Universal I really wanted to go on because it’s a classic. Everyone has heard about the Jaws ride. It was very cleverly done with the ‘boat drivers’ acting out their roles very well. The sharks were very mechanical but certainly made you jump if you weren’t expecting them.

The newest ride at Universal is the Simpsons ride. In the queue we were able to watch Simpsons episodes on TV screens - a good thing as those without fast passes had to queue for an hour to ride! Once at the front of the queue we were ushered into a small room with four other people. Here we watched Crusty the Clown open a theme park and Sideshow Bob escape from prison to kill crusty and Homer. As Sideshow Bob began chasing them around the park the video was stopped and we were taken through some doors into a simulator. The simulator rose up to reveal a big screen. With that we were dropped onto a roller coaster with the Simpsons. It was incredibly well done. You really did feel as though you were on that roller coaser. It made me feel sicker then any roller coaster ever does! It was easily on the best ride there.

The Simpsons.

Another really good ride was the Men In Black Alien attack. We were sat in a car of six and in front of each person was a gun. Throughout the ride you had to shoot at the aliens and were given a score based on how accurate you were. It was a lot of fun. Naomi won with 109,000 points then me with 89,950 Dad and Uncle John did pretty badly, uncle John only managing 57,000. But he claimed he didn’t know what he was doing as he’d never been on a ride like that before!

Once we’d exhausted everything we really wanted to do in Universal Studios we headed next door to Islands of Adventure.

Our roller coaster extravaganza began on the Hulk Coaster. Pretty good and very big but noting spectacular.

Next was Doctor Doom’s Fearfall. A tower that according to the description: “rockets you 150 feet into the air then drops you faster than gravity itself.” I guess it did do this but was thoroughly disappointing - it was over far to quickly.

We moved onto the water rides and got well and truly soaked on the log flume then did the rapids just to ensure we couldn’t get any wetter! They were both pretty good rides and got us well and truly soaked. Although how wet you got on the rapids depended entirely on where you were sat, Uncle John was sat in the wet seat which was hilarious!

Our last stop of the day was the duelling dragons coasters - two roller coasters side by side that take different paths. We did the first then got straight back into the queue for the second, much to Uncle Johns dismay! They were both good but noting spectacular.

By the time we finished it was almost 7pm and time to head home.

Uncle John, Dad and Naomi with the Universal logo.

Theme parks day two: Aquatica

Sat, 24 May 2008 12:58:33 +0100

Day two of our theme park adventure was spent on the water slides at Aquatica. This water park is next door to Sea World and appears to be huge - but a little disappointingly it wasn’t!

Some of the slides were good, others a bit of an anti climax and there weren’t any massive kamikaze slides or such like. We arrived late (about 1:00pm) and had done the whole park by the end of the day.

Uncle John, never having been to a water park before, enjoyed himself although I got the impression his favourite part of the day was the lazy river – despite repeated failed attempts to get into his rubber ring!

There were some interesting slides; one took you into a clear piece of slide though a pool of dolphins. It would have been incredible but it was so quick you didn’t have time to notice if the dolphins were swimming around you and there were only four of them in a huge pool!

The park was more for kids than adults but luckily wasn’t busy and we finished in time to go shopping at the outlet centre near the hotel before dinner!

Theme parks day one: Sea World

Fri, 23 May 2008 16:35:54 +0100

Our Orlando theme park escapades began at Sea World the home of Shamu, the Killer Whale from the film Free Willy.

It was only a fifteen-minute drive from our accommodatiom as we arrived we marvelled at the sheer number of car parking spaces available as, being early, we drove up the car park and parked almost outside the door.

Once inside the park our first stop of the day was the Sky Tower. This ‘ride’ took us in a moving carriage to the top of a tall tower allowing us to overlook the park as the commentary told us about the things we could see.

Looking over the park.

There were a couple of must do big rides and a number of shows to watch. One of the shows, Pets Ahoy, featured a pig. With uncle John’s pig fascination (he’s been collecting them for years) we had to go and see it. The show featured dogs and cats jumping ropes, running around the stage switching things on and off. It was very clever but much more for kids than adults. We sat and dutifully waited for the pig’s grand appearance only to find it made a very brief entrance at the end, didn’t do any tricks and was that quick I didn’t even get a picture!

In the Pets Ahoy show.

The main show of the day was the ‘Believe’ Shamu show. It was held in a massive packed stadium. The show was pretty good. Some of the stunts were fantastic and the trainers obviously had a lot of fun swimming with the Wales. Before they brought out Shamu the crowd was hyped up chanting Shaumu, Shamu. He made his appearance performing jumps in the middle of the tank then moving around the edge sending massive amounts of water into the audience. I was shocked to realise just how big Killer Whales are. The show finished with a song telling everyone to believe in their dreams whilst the whales performed stunts in the middle of the tank.

A very big fish!

One of the rainer stood on the Killer Whales' nose.

Jumping out of the water.

We also watched a fantastic acrobatic show featuring a dancing spring, acrobat penguins and some girls bending into positions I didn’t think were possible!

Ouch!

The last show we watched was the dolphin show. This again was pretty impressive although I’d seen a lot of dolphin stunts in Australia and there are only certain things you can make a dolphin do! But it was a very good show with some form of storyline, lots of acrobatics and people flying around the stadium on strings!

The dolphin show.

We also spent some time playing on the rides. The log flume was fantastic. Whilst queuing there were signs telling us we’d get soaked, I didn’t pay a lot of attention knowing that on most log flumes you get splashed a bit. How wrong I was! The ride began fairly sedately then we came to the last big drop, as we hit the bottom a wave of water came over the front of the boat and landed right in my lap! Moving around the flume there were some water jets operated by people watching, they had a pretty good shot and got every part of me that wasn’t already soaked, then another much smaller drop sent even more water into the boat ensuring we were all well and truly soaked!! Afterward we had a go on the Kraken (massive roller coaster) just to dry off a bit. It was a fairly good roller coaster although noting compared to some of the ones I’ve been on. Having never been on anything like it before Uncle John really didn’t want to go but got coerced into it. And I think despite his misgivings he secretly enjoyed it!!

After the log flume.

All in all a pretty good day. We even managed to spend some time looking at the animals. My favourite were the Manatees.

A Manatee.

The drive to Orlando

Fri, 23 May 2008 15:28:04 +0100

The drive from Miami to Orland was fairly unremarkable. Much of the time I spent sat in the back reading my book listening to Naomi and dad bickering about what way to go!

Along the way we stopped off at a traditional America Diner for breakfast. Dad, Naomi and Uncle John opted for a fry up with some delicious looking ‘proper’ hash browns. I decided to try real American pancakes. My plate arrived piled high with about six large pancakes (I’d usually only eat one that size!) covered in strawberries and smothered in golden syrup – ummmm. They tasted pretty good but by the time I finished there was no way I ever wanted to eat another pancake again!

Outside the American Diner.

Inside the American Diner.

The rest of the drive was pretty mundane and we even managed to find our accommodation without event.

Once we’d scoped out our massive two bed roomed apartment with huge wide screen TV in the front room we headed for Wal-Mart to buy dinner.

Wal-Mart was massive – although no bigger than some of the superstores we get at home – and we had a good wonder around buying food for the next few days. For dinner we settled on a large ham and pineapple pizza, some boneless chicken wings, salad plus crisps and dips. Back at the apartment I set about cooking as Naomi read her Disney book and discussed with the others what we would do for the next few days.

Over dinner we discussed a plan, then as the others headed to the Alehouse for a beer I sat down to do some uni work!

Our hire car!

Alligator spotting in the Everglades

Fri, 23 May 2008 03:40:18 +0100

Alligator spotting in the everglades

It’s been a while since I last wrote so here is a bit on what I’ve been up to since arriving in America.

We had just one day in Miami and chose to head to the Everglades to see if we could have more luck spotting Alligators in America than we did on our Croc spotting tour in Australia!

We booked onto a trip organised by the hotel and the day began with the bus touring around the hotels of Miami picking other people up. It seemed to take forever but at least we got to see a bit of the City. We were taken to a central meeting place and told to get on a different bus headed for the Everglades.

As soon as the second bus set off the guided tour began. As we left Miami the driver pointed out the Tower of Freedom. This was used as the immigration building in the 60s and 70s. According to our driver in 1962 over 400,000 Cubans came to South Florida and this building is where they were processed and officially liberated from communism, hence the building’s name. Before it became the Tower of Freedom it was the printing works for Miami’s largest newspaper.

As we left Miami the driver explained that there are 37 individual cities contained within Greater Miami, each of them with their own mayor, legislature and police force. That makes for one very large city! He also told us that last least 17 million people landed at Miami airport last year and another two million people came into Miami via the seaport. Subsequently coconuts and oranges are no longer the main industry in Florida they have been somewhat overtaken by the money generated by tourism.

As we entered the Everglades National Park the bus driver told us that the southern part, the bit we were visiting, was managed by the Miccosukee Indians. The freeway we were driving along had been built on an old Indian trail. In this part of the Everglades the schools, prisons and police force were all run by the Miccosukee Indians. The northern Everglades are run by a different Indian tribe.

Along the side of the freeway was a canal with flooding control centres set at intervals. This canal was used to keep the water level in the Everglades constant and prevent it flooding.

In the 109,493 acres of the Everglades National Park there are though to be 65 species of fish, many breeds of turtles including snapping turtles along with many varieties of birds, five and a half million Alligators and a few Crocodiles. It is the only place in the world Alligators and Crocodiles live side by side.

After being bombarded with information we arrived at the beginning of our Alligator spotting tour and were given our airboat tickets. It was quite exciting to be going on a boat propelled by a massive fan!! We boarded the boat amid warnings about not putting our hands in the water if we wanted to keep them, were given some toilet roll to shove in our ears to dull the sound of the boat and set off.

An airboat. A bit larger then the one we were on.

The boat pulled out of its dock and moved slowly down the river. As we pulled away from the boat docks and into the wider expanse of the river the boat picked up speed, gliding effortlessly over the weeds and grasses growing out of the water. The driver appeared to be having a lot of fun as he glided the boat round corners at high speed sending small splashes of water onto the deck. It was a wicked experience. As we approached what looked like grassy banks the boat just skimmed over the top flattening the grass as it went. Looking behind you could see the grass slowing popping back up until it looked as though the boat had never passed over it.

Gliding along the river.

After about 10 minutes the boat slowed down and we gently moved along looking for an Alligator. The driver spotted one and pulled the boat along side it. It was hiding amongst some tress and was very difficult for the untrained eye to spot. All that was above the water was her nose and eyes as she basked in the sun.

The only Alligator we spotted.

Whilst stopped looking at the Alligator the driver explained what docile creatures they can be. He even splashed her with water to show she wasn’t going to come anywhere near us. He showed us the bank by which she was sat and explained that it was a completely dry landmass rising out of the river that contained an abundance of wildlife. Then we were off again in search of more Alligators. But it wasn’t to be! They weren’t coming out to play today.

Back on dry land we watched the Alligator show – good if you’ve never seen anything like that before but nothing compared to some of the Croc shows we saw in Australia. Then we grabbed a bite to eat before setting off back to Miami.

During the Alligator show.

It was mid afternoon by the time we got back to the hotel and the rest of the afternoon was spent chilling out on the beach trying to get some semblance of a tan before the wedding next week!

And that was it for our time in Miami. The following day we were off to Orlando to play on the rides!

You are in the right place

Fri, 16 May 2008 03:47:58 +0100

Yes, I have changed the design. It was time for a new look!

Arriving in America

Fri, 16 May 2008 03:37:13 +0100

After a fairly comfortable flight we arrived at Miami airport and I got my first glimpse of the country that dominates the world!

The first thing I noticed were the yellow taxies outside the airport – just like the New York cabs you see in the movies. Very bizarre. I would have felt like I was driving through a movie set had the first part of Miami I saw not been a bit scabby! We went to pick up our car in an industrial estate near the airport, all around were large buildings with messy concrete expanses out front. Nothing seemed glamorous in the slightest.

We checked in at the car rental office and discovered that our gold car cover didn’t include breakdowns. So if their hire car failed us we were responsible for the cost of recovering and repairing the car – how ridiculous. Very politely I told the assistant so, then through gritted teeth handed over my credit card and paid the extra money for the breakdown cover. We were told to go to the ‘full size’ row and pick any car we wanted, all the keys were in the cars!

I looked at the row of saloon cars with massive expanses of boot sticking out the back and zero reversing sensors. Not only was I going to be driving an automatic in a strange country on the wrong side of the road but I was also going to have to deal with a car the size of a small aircraft! How I wished for my little (REAL) Mini. Then I spotted it – a hideous orange Chevrolet something or other – but it didn’t have a massive boot sticking out the back, problem solved. Although dad didn’t look so happy at having to drive it, oh well he put me as the lead name on the car hire plus he can’t reverse to save his life!

I was nominated as driver and I jumped into the wrong side of the car adjusted my mirrors and prepared to set off. As I edged out of the car hire office onto the main road I realised just in time I was looking the wrong way for oncoming traffic and stopped just before I pulled onto three lanes of oncoming traffic. I was careful to make sure I was always positioned in the middle of the road and began making my way to our hotel without further incident – apart from us getting mega lost!

We eventually found our way onto the correct freeway amidst many cross words between me and Dad who was supposed to be navigating. But it fell to me to read the map when we stopped at traffic lights as Dad didn’t seem to have a clue how the American road signs worked! We passed two accidents and navigated our way around numerous women driving Mercs while talking on the phone and swerving all over the road – I was actually quite surprised to find moronic drivers drive the same cars in America as the do in England!

Luckily we managed to bump into the hotel at the end of the freeway – a very good thing as we didn’t have any detailed road map to speak of. The car was valet parked and we made our way into a massive plush hotel lobby and checked in.

The rooms were amazing. A two bedroom apartment with two separate bathrooms and a jacuzzi bath in the room I shared with Naomi - a much appreciated relaxation tool later that night.

By the time we’d checked in and gawped at the room it was time for dinner. But first Naomi and I had to drag Dad and Uncle John out of the hotel bar.

We ate dinner in a restaurant on a pier near the hotel. The views looking over Miami Beach at the skyscrapers in the distance appearing to almost rise from the water into the sky were beautiful. But the food was decidedly average and didn’t taste of a lot. Once dinner was digested it was definitely time for bed. It may have still been early in America but it was about 4am in England and my body still though I was at home. After my jacuzzi bath I flopped into bed and fell almost immediately asleep. Tomorrow was an early start as we were off alligator watching in the Everglades.

Back for more

Fri, 16 May 2008 02:41:02 +0100

Well... It’s been a while.

Since returning to England my blogging has suffered somewhat. All these promises to write Australia and catch up from where I left off never materialised. The truth be know I’ve been busy and quite frankly I’ve had better things to do with my evenings.

I last blogged during my frantic search for as masters project - the good news is I found one. I’m developing a website for a new community radio station called Phonic FM www.phonic.fm. It looks to be a promising and certainly challenging project. The bad news is I’m now mega busy with every spare second spent thinking about my project.

Other developments since I’ve been home – I’ve found myself a job! An incredible feat and something that is proving to be much more scary than I anticipated - and I haven’t even started yet. I rocked up to a ‘chat’ about a trainee reporter job on a local newspaper last week not really wanting the job – I’d already set my sights on doing some more travelling. The ‘chat’ was actually an interview and despite my lack of preparation it went pretty well. The following day I got a phone call offering me the position. I was speechless, everyone had said that cause I didn’t really want it I was bound to get it! It is an amazing opportunity and not something I would ever dream of turning down. In two to three years time I should have my NCE and some money in the bank, then it will be time to think about travelling again. For now its into the big wide world of working for a living!

Anyway, more on my home life when I have the time. For now I’m on a family holiday in the US of A and experiencing America for the first time. So stay tuned for my travels in Florida and Washington.

Aaarrrragggghhhhh! F&%£g Web design!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:32:26 +0100

As usual it's been ages since my last post and nothing about my travels has been written. I have good intentions then I get lost in a mind field of web hosting, servers, domain names and content management systems, then by the time I'm sick of not understanding what's going on my brain is so fried there is no chance of me writing a blog post!

Anyway a brief update on life back in blighty. I STILL don't have a masters project client! I thought I'd found the perfect one then the university vetoed it so it was back to the drawing board. I've now found another that I'd like to do but they are unresponsive to email and I have searched the internet for hours for a phone number for them to no avail. If by some kind of miracle someone reading this happens to be a member of the Mid Devon Mudflickers off road club please contact me using the form on this blog cause I wanna work on your website!

In the mean time I decided to have a practice run at buying some web hosting space, adding a content management system and getting a website online. The ideal practice site was my dads business the actual designing and writing of the site should take me less than a day. But it's now been three days and the domain name still hasn't registered. I can't quite figure how to add the CMS, it's all going a bit wrong and is incredibly confusing. I wish I had a techy brain!

I guess I'd better stop winging into my blog and do something useful. At least now I can tick off 'write a blog post' from my to do list.

Hopefully soon this blog will get a bit more interesting and I can update all the fun and frivolty in OZ. Until then over and out!

Ready to go again

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:01:45 +0000

Why did I come back again? I take back everything I said about enjoying being at home. It was good for a week maybe two but now I'm well and truly ready to go again.

It's Saturday night, I'm struggling with my masters project, there is bugger all on TV, it's raining outside, I'm cold, my tan is almost non existent, I'm constantly paranoid about putting on weight because of stodgy English food and I have just finished uploading the last of my travelling photos. Those beautiful Thai beaches, days on almost deserted islands, not a car in sight and loads of geckos laid on for my nightly entertainment - what happened to those days? How I long to be back there right now!

It's official less than three weeks of England and the novelty has worn off!

Do YOU need a website?

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:45:57 +0000

I've been back from travelling less then three weeks and today I booked my next adventure! Obviously I have the travel bug bad. I'm off to New Zealand with a friend next December. BUT first I have to complete my masters degree, which is kinda why I'm writing this post.

Now, I'm sure I have a readership of about one but I figured this is worth a go....

In order to complete my MA in Online journalism I have to find a real world client to design, build and write a professional website for. I've had a few ideas and made a few approaches but I'm beginning to feel like I'm hitting my head against a brick wall! Either they already have a good website or they don't have the budget for one (an argument that doesn't entirely wash because my services are entirely FREE!)

I'm an outdoorsy type person with a keen interest in extreme sports and classic cars (especially Minis). Living in the South West I didn't think it would pose a problem to find a client with a business/organisation in that kind of area that would jump at the possibility of professional web design for free, not so! Which brings me to the reason for this post..

If by some miracle you happen to be reading this and feel my masters project could help develop an existing site you have or build you a completely new site (regardless of the subject) PLEASE contact me using the contact form on this blog.

Fingers crossed!

Home: But did I ever really leave?

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:47:27 +0000

It's true - after 535 days travelling around Asia and Australasia I am back in old blighty!

I touched down on English soil two weeks ago - and yes it has taken me this long to get around to updating my blog. After a massive hug from my dad as I passed through arrivals my next concern was getting a cup of proper English tea. After 18 months of crappy tea bags and dodgy Asian milk words can't describe how good REAL English tea tasted.

With renewed energy from my cuppa I hoisted my backpack onto my shoulder for one last time and made my way to the car. Driving down the A303 towards the green fields of Devon the sun was shining and in car climate control meant the chilly February air seemed decidably warm. Probably a good thing, as although I was wearing trousers my only other clothing consisted of a vest top and pair of flip flops!

Passing Stonehenge I craned my neck to get a look at the ancient stones and realised that despite having driven past scores of times I'd never bother to stop and take a look at one of England's most ancient sites. I was filled with a determination to 'see' some of England. My first job (once I had some money) would be to get a Great Britain guide book and set about discovering some of the country I'd spent the last 26 years neglecting to (really) look at.

My first day home was a non stop round of seeing people and making plans to meet old friends. But the first thing I did was jump into The Baby (my 1991 Mini Cooper) and take her for a drive. Whilst I'd been away she'd had a full engine rebuild and tune (thanks James) increasing the bhp from 55 to 92, and she was suitably quick!

The next few days passed in a haze of people who were incredibly happy to see me. It's a really nice feeling when someones face lights up as they set eyes on you. Everyone feels the need to give a slightly awkward hug and then you set about talking about anything but what you've been doing for the last 18 months. The the next time you see each other, there's no glimmer in their face, no awkward hug and the conversation revolves around your day to day life - it takes about 24 hours to begin to feel like you never left!

Don't get me wrong some people are interested in where you've been, but most are only interested in those places they've already been to or places they intend to go - their interest being a front for syphoning off some of your travelling knowledge. I also found myself re-telling the same stories time and time again - as if 18 months didn't give me enough amusing anecdotes to tell a wealth of different stories.

I've been back for just over two weeks and I sit here writing this in the same University classroom I used to spend my days in before I left. I'm back in lectures, learning the same stuff I was before I left and attempting to find a client for my final masters project. Nothing has really changed, the room has a few more computers, the classroom has some different faces but essentially, Preston, Exeter, my whole life remains unchanged. It's like I've been asleep had some amazing dreams woken up in a slightly shifted version of reality!

So it's back to study for me. I am quite surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. I like the feeling that I'm learning something and challenging my brain again. I will be (I bet you haven't heard this before) trying to get the blog up to date very soon. I'm going to take you all the way back to Australia then write all about my adventures in Indonesia, Malaysia and Southern Thailand. Then hopefully pick up with my everyday life in England. After all 'The Journey' doesn't end here there is plenty more of life still to discover.

My poor neglected blog and Thai beaches

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 04:04:38 +0000

Well once again my updates are a little sparse. But rest assured I am returning to the damp, soggy, grey land of England in NINE days, (yes NINE days). I will endeavour to bring the blog right up to date with pictures and everything on my return.

For now a very quick update on where I am and What I'm doing.

Malaysia ended in style on the luxury island of Langkawi (luckily this was open). Here I spent my birthday being wined and dined in some very expensive Malaysian restaurants. Although the whole night actually only cost 25GBP between the three of us!

From there were moved onto the beautiful white sand of Ko Lipe in Thailand, where we sunned ourselves on the beach and enjoyed a few days relaxing. We moved onto Ko Mook, another beautiful Thai island. Here we visited the Emerald Cave - an 80 meter long, pitch black swim through a cave onto a hidden secluded beach on the other side. We also spent some time snorkeling off the coast of Ko Karaden.

Our next stop was Ko Lanta. Here the cheapest accommodation we could find was at the very cheap side of a proper holiday resort. We had everything we could ever want - western toilets, mosquito nets, plus rats, mice and large lizards living in our rooms. But the rooms were some of the nicest we'd had and the resort had its very own swimming pool! We ended up spending longer here than planned, doing... well... nothing! But at least we now have semi respectable tans to return to England in February with!

Whilst the girls were doing nothing on Ko Lanta I went on a day trip diving off the coast of Ko Phi Phi. Ko Phi Phi is the island where 'The Beach' was filmed, but not having heard anything nice about the island (apart from it having a pretty beach) we decided it wasn't worth spending the money to get there! The dive trip was awesome (I will write more about this when I get back). I saw a SEAHORSE, a SHARK and a TURTLE all in one dive. The shear number of fish were incredible - definitely some of the best diving I've done.

We are now on Ko Tao (and haven't spent a night on the mainland since the 27th January!) The reason we came here was because it is reportedly one of the cheapest places in the world to learn to dive. I intended to do my Advanced Open Water diving qualification. Although on the way here I developed an ear infection and am now preying it will have cleared up sufficiently by tomorrow to allow me to begin my advanced course. Fingers crossed.

Well that's about it for now. I'll try and check in again soon, but if not there will be a lot of updating going on in about ten days (once I've recovered from the excitement of getting home and realised nothing has changed in the last 18 months!)

It's offical Malayisa is poo!

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:57:56 +0000

After yesterday post we moved on to Ipoh hoping our Malaysia experience would get better.

Well...

We arrived at 8am this morning after a 12 hour bus journey. Kat was getting straight on another bus to go to Kuala Lumpa to get some souvenirs she'd seen when we'd been there a couple of weeks ago. (She'd tried to get them before we left but the shop was closed.) Everything went according to plan. Kat got the bus and Emily and I headed off into Ipoh.

We got to the hotel, apparently one of the best budge hotels in the area, and were disconcerted to find it was yet another scabby establishment above a Chinese restaurant! I stayed with the bags whilst Emily went off in search of somewhere better. She ended up in a hostel (recommended by the guide book) down a side street with old drunk men leering at her. She was shown a room that had a man lieing on a bed and told they would clean the room for us and kick him out! Not likeing the hostel, despite it being cheap, and seeing a sign asking guests to refrain from drilling peep holes in the walls and to leave their firearms at reception she politely declined. After walking for 40 minutes in the blistering heat Emily reappeared and we checked into the first hotel.

We walked around Ipoh and weren't surprised to discover everything was closed. Including the tourist information.

The guidebook mentioned a nearby hot spring cost 5 Ringett (less than 1GBP) and was open Tuesday to Sunday. This seemed like a good way to spend the afternoon. We walked for about 40 minutes to the local bus station where we got a bus that dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and told us to walk down the road to the springs. We eventually found it and discovered.... You guessed it. IT WAS CLOSED! Emily spotted a boat ride nearby and asked the attendant: "Can we go on the boat ride?" His response: "Closed!" By now there was nothing to do but laugh. We trundled off back to the main road to catch the bus and ended up on the return trip of the bus that had dropped us off.

With nothing else to do we came to the Internet cafe where I sit now. But more bad news was to follow! Kat had emailed us from Kuala Lumpa tourist police station. She'd fallen asleep on the bus and had her wallet stolen from her bag. She was in Kuala Lumpa, alone, with no money and no visa card. Luckily she had her mums 'emergency' credit card separate - although the only hotel that would take credit cost 150 Ringett a night, we usually pay 10 Ringett and she can't draw cash on it. Luckily she also had some spare Thai Baht in her bag and has managed to change it for enough Ringett to pay for her bus ticket back to Ipoh and some food.

The irony of this being we were chatting to a man on a bus the other day who was saying how safe Malaysia is because it is a Muslim country. He was telling us we'd have to be careful in Thailand because they have no religion and steel from peoples bags!

So all in all things couldn't get much more crappy. Kat will arrive back here tomorrow and we are getting the night bus to the ferry port to go over to Langkawi. We are due to arrive in Langkawi about 9am on my birthday after spending all night travelling. The island had better be nice because otherwise we will leave with a very bad impression of Malaysia.

It's such a shame that I am writing this post because I'd heard people say that Malaysia was a bit shit, but I desperately wanted to like it. I guess another time of year and it would have been completely different. But it really is a case of not much to do and not much to see, everything just seems to disappoint. It's a real shame that this is the first country any of us have actually wanted to leave! But never mind Langkawi is supposed to be amazing and Thailand will be good. Plus we'll be home in rainy cold England three weeks tomorrow!

Malaysia is closed

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:51:34 +0000

Well I didn't do well at updating the blog did I. Its been 23 days since my last post and in that time I haven't had a spare second to catch up with things. I have however been, as usual, having an amazing time.... until recently (more on that in a bit)!!!!

Bali was amazing. We spent New Year in Kuta and had a great night out with some Aussie friends, Renee and Nate. It was the usual New Year in the pub having a few too many beers, in reality we could have been anywhere in the world - Until we left the bar and realised rain in Bali is unlike any I've ever seen before. Streets that were dry two hours earlier were now knee deep in water with motorbikes still attempting to ride up and down the street. A short dash from one side of the road to the other left us soaked to the skin so we gave up and walked leisurely down the road watching groups of pissed revellers having gigantic water fights in the street. The following morning we found much of the pavement had collapsed due to the water!

Along with Renee and Nate we left Kuta as soon as the celebrations were over and headed to the Gili Islands. The Gili's are beautiful with sweeping white sand beaches and crystal clear waters. Kat and I took this opportunity to learn to dive and left the Gilie's certified open water divers. The diving was amazing, lots of incredibly beautiful fish and we even saw three turtles gracefully swimming and feeding on the ocean floor.

From Bali we flew into the sterile metropolis that is Singapore. Singapore was nice, for a city. The zoo was amazing and we spent an awful lot of time wondering around the electronics market.

Our next stop was Malaysia and Tioman island. Back in the 70s Tioman was voted one of the worlds 10 most beautiful islands, and it didn't disappoint. Although the developers are slowly moving in and in a few years time it will be completely ruined. This is where we first discovered that Malaysia is CLOSED!

We arrived in Mersing to get the boat to Tioman... It's outside of tourist season so there is only one boat a day. We had to wait until the next day to get it.

We arrived in Tioman, only about three places are open for accommodation. Only one restaurant is open - I guess we'll be eating there then!

We walked across to the other side of the island (about 9km through the jungle). It was incredibly beautiful - the reason why Tioman was voted on of the world 10 most beautiful islands. We ordered lunch... banana pancake - no banana. Pineapple pancake - no pineapple. Baked beans - no beans. Tuna sandwich - no tuna. Surely it would have been easier to have told us what they did have!

We left Tioman fro Kuala Lumpa and had a fantastic time (more of that in a later post).

From Kuala Lumpa we went to Kuala Lipis to go into the jungle. We arrive... it's outside of tourist season and the only available trip went earlier that morning, there isn't another for three days.

We head to Jerantut. A tour guide is due to give a talk about trips to the jungle in a hotel that night. We arrive for the talk...it's cancelled, not enough people are around.

The next day we go to the tourist information. We want to book a trip into the jungle, but they only go if they have four people. Not a problem we are told there will definitely be four people going on the trip. We need to get the bus at 8:00am the next morning.

8:00am the next morning, the bus actually leaves at 8:30 but there is no point in us getting it because nobody else is booked on the tour so it isn't going! We are told it is DEFINITELY going the following day so we book and pay.

We get a public bus to Kuala Tahan and go to the booking office to confirm our tour. Nobody else has booked so at the moment it isn't going!

The next morning, an hour before we expected to be off jungle trekking for two days, our tour is cancelled.

We book some day trips and luckily bump into Clive ( a guy we met at Tioman) making our group number four so they will actually run trips.

We leave Kuala Tahan and go to Kota Bharu looking for arts, crafts and traditional Malay culture. Everything is closed until February. No crafts, no traditional performances, no workshops, no craft market! We wonder around the local marked but none of the arts traders are there until February.

We move onto Terengganu. It's Friday the Islamic holy day so everything is closed. We wait until the next day (today) and head to the tourist information - guess what... it's closed.

We are planning to go to the Perhentian islands for my birthday and try to book a ferry. But surprise, surprise the islands are closed until February.

We give up on ever seeing Malay arts and crafts or any more islands and book a night bus to the west and more developed side of the country hoping something will be open in the city. Our plan is now to spend a day in the city of Ipoh before moving on to Thailand. Hopefully something in Thailand will be open!.

The message in this story DON'T visit Malaysia in January! The bit we have seen has been great but we are fighting a loosing battle trying to see anything!