Indonesia. Cianjur.

I think all of us happily left Jakarta and we made the long bus ride to our next location. We were heading up into the hills so it was great to feel the temperature lower. We made a stop on the way to Cianjur at a tea plantation. This was for a plantation who supply to Lipton. We had a walk around the workers village and then stopped for a cup of tea. Not as good tea as the Cameron Highlands tea! 

We then made the rest of the drive to Cianjur. We were staying in a homestay, but this wasn't like the homestay in Laos, it was a big house just for us. It was really big and we had two cooks who had prepared an amazing lunch on our arrival.  It was tofu in a really light coconut curry sauce with weird solid slices of rice sausage thing and Indonesian spring rolls, which were kind of more like pancake rolls. So good!

After lunch we went out for a tour. We drove to a little village and then got into small bus to head further into the back of beyond. 

We walked through fields of peanuts and bananas to get to the edge of a huge man made lake. This was home to loads of fish farms and the families live on the lake with the farm. We got a boat trip around the lake and the lake houses before stopping at one and walking along the floating fish pens to take and seat and then get our feet nibbled my the baby nila fish. Argh!!! It was so weird I could handle it! 

I also tried my hand at fishing (outside the pens of course!) but was not so successful. A fish just ate half my worm and didn't take the hook. Next we got back on the back and went across the lake to a cacao plantation. We searched for the ripe yellow fruit and then cracked it open and saw the cream coloured seeds in the middle. The cream flesh covered the bean in the middle. We sucked the flesh off the bean which was sweet and tasted ok. 

We had to get across to the other side of the lake to get home and for this crossing we used a bambo raft which was pulled across the lake by a really old man using a rope attached at both sides. It was sinking pretty low with us on board! It was pretty worrying when we picked up our large guide from half way across and we sunk significantly deeper into the water! 

We made it across without getting too wet and then walked up back to were our bus was waiting. We got shouted "bouley bouley bouley" the whole way! We got on a little but to take us up to the coach and it beeped every time we passed a house and shouted bouley! It was so cute to see all the kids waiving. Our big coach was outside the village football field and there were so many kids there just staring at us. Some of the guys played football with them and others of us just got photographed and photographed them. It was great!

We took the small bus back home before the main group and got stated and waved at the whole time. When we got back the cook shoes us how she was preparing the food. It smelt amazing. She had cooked a lot of it already like a delicious coconut curry and some sides and had already put these out on the table. I had noticed in Indonesia that they prepare food and then eat it when it's cold, well as cold as room temperature gets. We ate a delicious meal of sweet corn fritters, noodles, coconut curry, corn on the cob, rice and long beans. It was all amazing! I wishes I could have fitted more in! We cooked smores and marshmallows on the fire and drank and chatted. We went to bed quite early as there was not much to do. I was sharing the outdoor room with three other girls which was not so private as the curtain would fly up every time the fan rotated past! But I slept well, despite the stink of mothballs coming from my Versace bed covers! Got bitten so much though on my feet as the tiny bed cover didn't cover them! Great place to be though after the grimness of Jakarta!

Indonesia. Jakarta.

We said goodbye to some of our group and also to our guide at the airport and took the short flight to Indonesia. We had to pay $25 US for our visa, another rip off! But we made it in to my final county! We had a new guide for this leg who was local and he met us at the airport. We drove to our hotel and got back into poor run down Asia again. Malaysia had been a palace in comparison! We were left to our own devises for the afternoon and told to go to 7 11 for lunch. We weren't sure so we asked the receptionist where to go and tried to follow his directions. It was closed so walked into a very local place and walked straight out! There was nothing anywhere and we felt very uncomfortable! So back to 7 11 and actually had a good nasi goreng. 

We met with our new group members in the evening and went out for dinner. Vegetarian options seek like they will be hard to find! I think I had the only veggie option on the menu. There was not much to do so we got some beer and sat in the lobby. 

The next day we had a city tour organised. We had to meet at 8am and were told we would be having this tour until 4pm! We set off up the road and understood why it was going to take so long, he would stop at so many random things and explain about then in so much detail! We walked to the national monument, which was not so impressive but we got to go up inside it and see the view from the top. This was great as it was so hot and the breeze up there was so nice! Everyone wants to have their photos taken here with the white "boulays" here. No one seems interested in me though as I'm too brown! They all love the pale newbies! 

We had a super fun time looking at the creepy dioramas about the history of Indonesia at the bottom of the monument. And posing for photos with kids and babies. It seems that the Dutch screwed then over a lot. We walked around the perimeter of the huge monument sure for what felt like miles to get to the bus stop. Here we paid our 3500 rupiah (18p) and waited at the strange elevated platform with open doors out onto the road about 1.5m off the ground. When the bus came it's doors were level with the platform and the women got on at the front and men at the back. This is so they don't get their sweaty pits in our faces and also to stop then touching us 

Next we went to the old town and stopped for lunch. We got abandoned for a two hour excessively long lunch break. It wasn't an amazing old town. Not so interesting. Very Dutch. We had to walk back to the bus sot and it was so busy! We waited for ages being penned in in the queue. It was horrible and so hot. When our bus finally arrived we all had to push ourselves on it. It was crammed! And they kept letting more people on it and the stops!

We got dumped at the worst shopping centre ever and had to make our own way home. The shopping was terrible so we went to macdonalds to get some wifi and see if there was anything better to do  or shop around and then tried to walk to another shopping centre. We couldn't find it and got totally lost and them spent ages walking home. Rubbish! The road are also terrifying to cross. Even worse than Vietnam!

In the evening we to a taxi to the backpacker area for dinner. Again so hard to be vegetarian, but they did have roti canai! Afterwards we went to a reggae bar which was great! Unlike the reggae bar in KL this one actually did play reggae and it was live! This was the only good thing about Jakarta! Not enjoyed it at all. There just seems to be nothing around and it's not even pretty or historical. Not sad to be bussing it to our next stop in the morning!

Singapore.

We took another public bus to get us to to Singapore. This time thankfully the driver was fully alert! We drove to the Malaysian boarder and got stamped out of the country before jumping back on the bus to drive across the bridge to get to Singapore. We had been warned that Te boarder is very strict about what you can bring in so we were all very anxious about what they might do when passing through security! You can bring in alcohol, more than 19 cigarettes, prescription drugs all because of the high tax Singapore puts on these, but you also can't bring in chewing gum. We all made it through with only one of it group having to have their bag searched for a rouge can of beer. But yay new stamp and no charge!

We got dropped off at the bus station in Singapore and we were going to take taxis to our hotel but there were none anywhere! So we had to walk and get very sweaty! It wasn't far luckily. 

We checked in and then headed out for lunch. We are in a food court and it was amazing! I was preparing for expensive food in Singapore but this was all so cheap! There was so much choice and it was so clean, very different to the food halls in Malaysia. I had a delicious wonton noodle made my a couple of cute old men for just 4 dollars which is just £2. I then had a char sui bao and a custard bao for a dollar. Yum!! 

After lunch we took a walk around to see the sights. We walked though Raffles hotel which is famous for the invention of the Singapore sling. It was an old colonial looking building and it was beautiful. I had every intention of going back to have a $32 cocktail later! 

We then walked past the war memorial and on to the marina bay sands. Everywhere we walked it was so noticinle clean and well kept. I loved it! It was so well ordered! Such a change from the crappy uneven pavements with random holes in on the rest of my Asia trip! Was a great change to not have to constantly look down at where you are walking! At the marina bay sands we could see the hotel where our evenings drinks would start at a skybar. The view was amazing and the city landscape was a beautiful change.

We walked though the old English part along the river and like KL this part actually looked English. 

We took the subway home and it was so clean and well ordered, of course. It was great. No pushing and very efficient, it was great! After a super quick change we took the subway again to the bay front as we were going to watch a light show. I had no idea what to expect from this light show but when we got near we saw all these huge tree like structures glowing all different colours, it was amazing! We took a seat at the bottom of one of these trees and laid back and waited for it to start. It was a 15 minute show set to music. It was all pretty abstract, but very serene and awe inspiring. 

We had another pretty cheap dinner and then walked through the very organised street to get to the skybar. We had to queue at the bottom of course and then we made it up! It was so busy but the views were great. There was a sky walk which had better views right along the edge of the building but that cost $15! But our views were great as were the $25 cocktails. Bizarrely I met a couple of Swedes from the kiwi bus up there!

After the skybar we left to go a club which also had a skybar! This is obviously  a big thing here, and I can see why the views are amazing as was the weather. We stayed there and danced with not so many other people and incredibly loud music supplied by dj modium. Terrible name! Tracy our Bristolian seems to be a firm favourite out here with the locals, and got clamped on to by a real gem who told us he doesn't but drinks in the club but smuggles vodka in in his shoe. Hahaha! He was very special!

We crawled back and got ready to leave Singapore to get to the airport at 8am! I loved Singapore and would love to come back and see more of its beautiful cleanliness!

Malaysia. Melaka.

We were travelling to Melaka by public bus today. To get to the bus station we had to take a shuttle bus as the southern bus station was out of town. The bus station we got to was like an airport. It was so organised and you has to check in before heading to the gate. We had numbered seats and mine was the front of the bus. This would have been great if it hadn't have been for our terrible driver. I though it was on something as he was so twitchy and constantly jigging his legs and shaking his face, but we worked out that he was actually knackered. It was the scariest drive ever! He looked so tierd and kept veering off the lane. He was gross too, he kept burping and hacking up a load of phlegm and spitting into a bag which he later threw out the window.  Blurghhh. Thankfully we arrived in one piece and headed to our hotel. 

Our guide took us on a tour and out for lunch. The town is not really full of great sights. It was an old Portuguese town that got taken over by the British. We took a walk up an old Portuguese fort that the britsh had tried to destroy, but could quite finish the job, up to a church to see the views, but they were not so amazing. The most interesting thing we saw were the rickshaws they have here. They are very pimped up with lights and music and Hello Kitty toys, so camp!!

We then crossed over the river, after seeing a small crocodile/large lizard swimming! We got into Chinatown and walked through the beautiful streets to get some lunch. The street reminded my of Hoi An, small and narrow with each building having a small shop. We stopped for lunch in a really cute cafe and I finally had the Malaysia dish of laksa, a coconut soup curry. It was delicious. Much nicer than the stingray that some had! 

After lunch we separated from our tour and me and some others went to the mega mall. It really was mega. It went underground to other areas and very easy to get lost. Our crazy Bristolian Tracy wanted to get her nose pierced and I was being very fussy about where she should get it done. Big cities only and not in Indonesia!! So we finally found somewhere and it looked pretty good and was also a bargain. 60 ringit which was about £12. We all had to wait outside the little shop and we all peered through the window! Then a girl from our group decided she wanted her nipple pierced so for this the shop lady put up a curtain, but didn't really cover the whole window so I sneaked a peek. Looked horrendous with the clamp grabbing the nip and the needle being forced through! She was so brave though! Finally our youngun wanted a couple of piercings up the side of her ear, but nearly passed out! All the piercings done for the day we did a bit of shopping as our lovely American Sarah wanted a dress to wear when we go out in Singapore. With no time to go back to the hotel we had a wander around the Chinatown market, same tat then went for dinner and drinks. On the way home we saw the rickshaws light up and they look hilarious!!

Malaysia. Penang.

We had a very long day of travelling ahead of us. We left for the ferry at 5:45 and caught the 7:00am ferry to the mainland. From there we got a mini bus to the boarder. As we were queueing to exit Thailand the heavens opened and it was torrential! Great timing!! We huddled undercover and got stamped out and walked over to the Malaysian side for a new stamp in the passport! We then got in another mini his for the long ride to Penang. 

We arrived in Georgetown Penang in the evening and the Mingood hotel, pretty minging! We crossed the longest bridge  in the world to get to Penang, it was 23km long! But it was in a good location. We took a walk around the city and then went for dinner at a food court. These food courts are great, but so hard to decide what to have! There was some love music which was funny, especially when this old Malay lady started yodelling! 

Georgetown was an old English town and still had a lot of the old English settlers buildings. It was a really pretty town and looked great by night. They are very keen to keep their buildings painted white and they look great. 

In the morning we had a tour of the city my rickshaw. It was two to a bike but the seats were so small! Not quite big enough for two westerns! We were such a struggle for our old guy to cycling with that he had to keep getting off and push us. I've really piled on the pounds!

We cycled around the city and were showed lots of street art, both paintings and these iron animation sculptures. 

We stopped off at a Chinese clan building which was used as a meeting place for a particular clan. It was beautiful and very ornate. They had a stage which was used for opera, but this opera looked a bit more like a pantomime. 

We then went to the harbour side where lots if the Chinese clans set up home on the water. They lived there as they did not have to pay for the land. It is still inhabited but many of the new generations don't want to live there. I can see why, it's pretty basic. 

After a bit more sight seeing we were dropped off at the Blue Mansion which was the home of a wealthy Chinese business man and was supposed to be the finest example of a traditional Chinese mansion outside of China. I had high hopes and was expecting something like Jim Thompsons house in Bangkok, but it was not so amazing. Pretty but not awesome. 

We got ready to leave Georgetown and head up to the cool hills of the Cameron Highlands. Looking forwards to some less hot weather!

Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur.

We arrived in KL in the morning and went out for a walk to a food court in Chinatown for lunch. I had an amazing clay pot noodle thing which the stall owner basically forced me into having, but it was delicious! We then had a half day tour around the sights of KL. We started off at the palace of the king. This was a newly built palace costing £1.8bn! Each of the 7 sultans gets to be king for 5 years and then it passes to the next sultan. As we were at the palace the king drove in! Exciting! Trumpets playing and guards doing stuff with their guns. Not quite Buckingham palace. It also seems like no one really cares about the king as he just spends all their money and does nothing. 

Next stop was the national mosque. This was a modern building so not so pretty as other mosques I've been to. As heathen women we had to be robed up, headscarf and all. I like to think I totally rocked it. 

The most interesting thing were the Islam information pamphlets. The anti Jesus one was pretty interesting but the sex in Islam was the most enlightening! After drowning in sweat and polyester we had a look at the old English area of KL. The daily 3pm downpour started and we rushed into the KL art gallery where we learned about the beginnings of the city, "the muddy estuary" where two rivers joined and then saw an amazing light show over miniature KL city. It was amazing!

We huddled back into the mini van with the help of a giant sun umbrella to keep us dry! Then we headed to the Batu caves. It was chucking it down so much in order to avoid a soaking when walking the steps up to the cave we stopped off at an Indian restaurant. It was amazing. We had roti canai which is a typical dish here. It's like bready pancakes served with curry sauce on the side. But these sides was literally a bucket of curry. I wished I'd taken a photo!!! It was delicious and all four giant containers of curry were delicious. The rain stopped and we went to venture into the caves. These are a branch of Hindu worshiping place. It was a long climb up and there were loads of monkeys! When we got inside it was not so interesting, except how the Indians had even set up stalls selling tat inside too!

This was our final stop before heading back into town. We were meeting the rest of our group at the Petronas Twin Towers to have drinks in a sky bar. It was one of our groups birthday so we were making a night if it. 

We got changed and went to the sky bar on the 33rd floor of a hotel opposite the twin towers. It was ladies night, so free cocktails, yay!!! The view was great and there was a pool in the bar!! 

5 cocktails later we moved onto the next bar and had an amazing drunken evening. Dancing on tables, cake fights, karaoke and more roti on the way home! Ha. Much hangover shame to be had. 

The next day I forced myself out of bed to go on a city walk. It was really hard work! But we were all feeling worse for wear. First stop was another bloody mosque. More gowns. I had to leave early as the guy showing us around just went on for ages! I was dripping and so had to do and sit down! Next stop was the old English part again. It was centres around a cricket ground and there was a club house which looked so English! This is the first part of all the places that our guide are English, that actually looked like England. There were loads of old buildings around it and we all posed in front of the I love KL sign. 

We headed next to the central market which was a market set up in 1880. Selling more of the usual tat. But we stopped for lunch which was a good rescuer! Next up was Chinatown and the final stop was a cafe which would create animals out of milk foam on the top of your coffee! Amazing! So Chinese! I got a Chinese cat on my amazing macchiato. 

We ended the tour and went back and had another wander around the market and then went to the National Textile Museum. It was pretty good and I learned a lot about the fabric and especially the iban fabric which has warp yarns wrapped in raffia before dying to create a resist pattern. So unnecessary complicated! I was the only one in the museum for most of the time! I took a little joy ride on the sky train too to have a look at the city. Such a geek! In the evening I got some knock off makeup in Chinatown. Should have haggled harder as found it cheaper on another stall. Dammit! Always the way! I heart KL!