Malaysia Independence Day (50 years celebrations). Last full day at Sepilok – having a day doing nothing today. Have a late breakfast and use the internet for an hour. Then head back to room, stopping at reception to ask about reflexology as there are several advertisements at the hotel and it seems to be a rampant cash generating sideline for most Sabah dwellers.
End up booking in for a combination session of 30 mins reflexology and 30 mins back and head massage, and told to report to Room 1 at 1pm. Eventually find Room 1, only to find one of the therapists has been “held up”. Massage was very relaxing, although the lady doing my massage seemed bemused at Ieuan’s suggestion that she might be attending some sort of Independence Day celebration party that night.
Afterwards, we headed over to the orang-utan sanctuary for a spot of lunch in the café (egg sandwich / veggies and rice and ice cream) and to stock up on packets of pistachio nuts, then headed back to room. Wrote postcards for a while and then started to pack bags for leaving tomorrow. Also sorted out stuff to take on Mount Kinabalu climb the day after (difficult within the shadowy confines of the lodge room!).
Realised when looking at itinerary that need to book a night’s accommodation in Singapore on 16th Sep when we get back from Cambodia, as seem to have forgotten to do this. Go for our usual tea (although smaller portions than usual) and try to use internet but phone line is down. Note we are still not listed on the blackboard for tomorrows bus pickups so fingers crossed we really do have seats on the bus! Louise phones Orange (again!) re phone problems.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
30 August 2007: Day 11 - Sepilok Again
Up at 8.30am for orang viewing. First had breakfast (coffee/ toast and fried eggs) and then got to Sepilok for 10am feeding time. Bus loads of camera wielding tourists rolled up just before 10 – saw a handful of rangs come out for the feeding and lark about in their usual style. Met a couple of nice Aussies – Sam (worked for Michelin in St Kilda’s, and discussed delamination of tyres at high speed with Ieuan) and Margot, who offered to help us find a camper in Oz if we wanted to buy one. Was very hot as usual plus was sunny today.
Went in search of the Rhino’s only to discover they have been relocated to Kota Kinabalu wildlife park, along with all of the other wildlife which was reputedly at the rang tang sanctuary according to good old lonely planet. Decided (well one of us did, and it wasn’t Ieuan!) to do a jungle walking trail to kill some time until the next rang tang feeding session, which took us 1.4kn up to “Birders Towers” lookout point, and back – nearly 3km in total. Persuaded Ieuan out of buying leech gators, partly on the basis that they won’t do anything to prevent the ones falling out of the trees on to your head, and headed (some of us with trepidation) into the wilderness. (It didn’t help that I came across a leech happily trundling around in the ladies loos before we left, as this provided actual evidence of their existence, and admittedly, it did not bode well for our jungle excursion!).
Ieuan wore his waterproof jacket for the walk, despite it creating a sauna suit like effect and huffed and puffed his way at the rear. Saw mainly ants and lizards on the walk, and no birds were visible from what we presumed to be the remnants of birders tower (a few bits of rotting wood lying around on a raised hill).
Got back hot, sweaty and needing the loo, and bumped into a gang of rowdy macaques causing a riot in the car park. Many had babies clinging to them as they stormed the café and raided the kitchen, before being shooed out and running amok in the gardens, swinging from signs before running off like a bunch of hooligans to cause trouble elsewhere. Had nice lunch (veg / green pepper and beef with rice, then ice cream) in the usual haunt, then watched rang tang DVD and saw feeding again. Bought copy of DVD from weirdo volunteer woman. Went home, seeing the macaque gang again, plus a hornbill in a tree in the car park. Strange that there seems to be more wildlife in the car park than in the jungle! Bought postcards from rang tang centre. Rested in room for a bit, before our usual chicken curry tea.
Went in search of the Rhino’s only to discover they have been relocated to Kota Kinabalu wildlife park, along with all of the other wildlife which was reputedly at the rang tang sanctuary according to good old lonely planet. Decided (well one of us did, and it wasn’t Ieuan!) to do a jungle walking trail to kill some time until the next rang tang feeding session, which took us 1.4kn up to “Birders Towers” lookout point, and back – nearly 3km in total. Persuaded Ieuan out of buying leech gators, partly on the basis that they won’t do anything to prevent the ones falling out of the trees on to your head, and headed (some of us with trepidation) into the wilderness. (It didn’t help that I came across a leech happily trundling around in the ladies loos before we left, as this provided actual evidence of their existence, and admittedly, it did not bode well for our jungle excursion!).
Ieuan wore his waterproof jacket for the walk, despite it creating a sauna suit like effect and huffed and puffed his way at the rear. Saw mainly ants and lizards on the walk, and no birds were visible from what we presumed to be the remnants of birders tower (a few bits of rotting wood lying around on a raised hill).
Got back hot, sweaty and needing the loo, and bumped into a gang of rowdy macaques causing a riot in the car park. Many had babies clinging to them as they stormed the café and raided the kitchen, before being shooed out and running amok in the gardens, swinging from signs before running off like a bunch of hooligans to cause trouble elsewhere. Had nice lunch (veg / green pepper and beef with rice, then ice cream) in the usual haunt, then watched rang tang DVD and saw feeding again. Bought copy of DVD from weirdo volunteer woman. Went home, seeing the macaque gang again, plus a hornbill in a tree in the car park. Strange that there seems to be more wildlife in the car park than in the jungle! Bought postcards from rang tang centre. Rested in room for a bit, before our usual chicken curry tea.
29 August 2007: Day 10 Sepilok Jungle Resort
Not a good night’s sleep – mattress feels very lumpy & soggy, it’s made of foam so once hot it holds the heat in. Ieuan concerned by rustling noises on floor of the room during the night, can’t see anything with torch, Lou refuses to check under bed for snakes etc.
Get woken up early as building work going on next door, bathroom stinky with lock on outside of door. More free flip flops available for our use! Use shower which dispenses 1ml of water per minute (perhaps 2, but you get the picture) at least it was warm(ish) and head over for breakfast via a wooden walkway through some beautiful gardens and over some ponds containing unidentified fish. We’re too late for the free breakfast (it being after 10) so we have toast with some strange home made jam.
Checked reception for Orang-utan info, read for a while on our balcony then headed to Orang-utan sanctuary in time for afternoon opening. Read info in the visitor’s centre before getting some grub, really nice stir fried veg and rice for Ieuan, egg sandwich and chips for Lou. At 3 we head down the walkway to the viewing platform for feeding time, Lou enchanted as we watch 6 or 7 large & small orang-utans swing in on ropes to eat the fruit left for them. We were also treated as one male decided that he should show his audience some other aspects of orang-utan life. Ieuan thinks we now have 6.45 million ape pictures! After an hour we head back to the resort, chill out in our room/balcony for a while before having more chicken curry for tea.
Lou disappointed that pool is closed due to building work, but plans tomorrow’s adventures involving more orang-utans, some rhinos and bears.
Get woken up early as building work going on next door, bathroom stinky with lock on outside of door. More free flip flops available for our use! Use shower which dispenses 1ml of water per minute (perhaps 2, but you get the picture) at least it was warm(ish) and head over for breakfast via a wooden walkway through some beautiful gardens and over some ponds containing unidentified fish. We’re too late for the free breakfast (it being after 10) so we have toast with some strange home made jam.
Checked reception for Orang-utan info, read for a while on our balcony then headed to Orang-utan sanctuary in time for afternoon opening. Read info in the visitor’s centre before getting some grub, really nice stir fried veg and rice for Ieuan, egg sandwich and chips for Lou. At 3 we head down the walkway to the viewing platform for feeding time, Lou enchanted as we watch 6 or 7 large & small orang-utans swing in on ropes to eat the fruit left for them. We were also treated as one male decided that he should show his audience some other aspects of orang-utan life. Ieuan thinks we now have 6.45 million ape pictures! After an hour we head back to the resort, chill out in our room/balcony for a while before having more chicken curry for tea.
Lou disappointed that pool is closed due to building work, but plans tomorrow’s adventures involving more orang-utans, some rhinos and bears.
28 August 2007: Day 9 KL to Sandakan (Sabah, Malaysian Borneo)
Up at 8 as we check out today, packed up and went out for a coffee a muffin breakfast at Starbucks. Checked out and got taxi from outside hotel, driver completely mad, taxi held together with string, we had decided to get airport express train from KL Sentral but mad driver spotting up selling opportunity wanted us to take the 70km trip in his car (oh no I don’t think so we said, "we have friends waiting for us at the station"...). Train to airport had something much more express like about it than the one we arrived on.
At the airport we discover that the flight we have goes from the LCCT, which we discover is the Low Cost Carrier Terminal some 20kms away on the other side of the airport, a journey which has to made by bus.
The information we picked up describing how the terminal was laid out for optimal use by LCCs proved to be a load of rubbish. We queue in 2 different queues, hoping that one of us will join the other one when they get to the front, Lou duly arriving at the front tells Ieuan to hurry up and join her, only to be told she’s queuing for a plane to somewhere else. Lou blags her way back into the previous queue in the same place Ieuan left, and wait a further 20 minutes for the 5 or 6 sets of people in front of us to check in. Pay RM300 for our excess baggage (we’re only allowed 30kg between us, and we have nearly 50). Head to McD’s for lunch because we are spoiled for choice here!
Hang around in departures till about 30 minutes after plane is due to have left to be told that it’s going to be delayed for another hour or so. If we’d had any sense we’d have read the departure information boards, but the optimal design of the terminal for LCCs obviously decrees that information like this isn’t required by their passengers and so there were no such boards!!
Thankfully Lou had paid the express boarding premium so we are able to get on the plane first when it eventually arrives, much to the disgust of the assembled rugby scrum that had developed at the boarding gate (the scrum developed within an instant even though no announcements appeared to have been made). Bloke in seat next to us feels that our lives would be much enriched if we knew all about his life. Passed the top of Mount Kinabalu as we descended into Sandakan, where we were met by the people from the jungle resort, who seemed nice, although driver pretty grumpy, especially when asked to give us a lift to our rooms once we’d checked in – rooms were spread out over the site. Have a great chicken curry and fried egg sandwich for tea.
Room is fairly basic at Sepilok Jungle Resort even though we have the best room, but has air con – couldn’t have slept without it - we plug in mozzy repellant and go to bed.
At the airport we discover that the flight we have goes from the LCCT, which we discover is the Low Cost Carrier Terminal some 20kms away on the other side of the airport, a journey which has to made by bus.
The information we picked up describing how the terminal was laid out for optimal use by LCCs proved to be a load of rubbish. We queue in 2 different queues, hoping that one of us will join the other one when they get to the front, Lou duly arriving at the front tells Ieuan to hurry up and join her, only to be told she’s queuing for a plane to somewhere else. Lou blags her way back into the previous queue in the same place Ieuan left, and wait a further 20 minutes for the 5 or 6 sets of people in front of us to check in. Pay RM300 for our excess baggage (we’re only allowed 30kg between us, and we have nearly 50). Head to McD’s for lunch because we are spoiled for choice here!
Hang around in departures till about 30 minutes after plane is due to have left to be told that it’s going to be delayed for another hour or so. If we’d had any sense we’d have read the departure information boards, but the optimal design of the terminal for LCCs obviously decrees that information like this isn’t required by their passengers and so there were no such boards!!
Thankfully Lou had paid the express boarding premium so we are able to get on the plane first when it eventually arrives, much to the disgust of the assembled rugby scrum that had developed at the boarding gate (the scrum developed within an instant even though no announcements appeared to have been made). Bloke in seat next to us feels that our lives would be much enriched if we knew all about his life. Passed the top of Mount Kinabalu as we descended into Sandakan, where we were met by the people from the jungle resort, who seemed nice, although driver pretty grumpy, especially when asked to give us a lift to our rooms once we’d checked in – rooms were spread out over the site. Have a great chicken curry and fried egg sandwich for tea.
Room is fairly basic at Sepilok Jungle Resort even though we have the best room, but has air con – couldn’t have slept without it - we plug in mozzy repellant and go to bed.
27 August 2007: Day 8 – Kuala Lumpur
Last day in KL, Ieuan wanted o go to Islamic Arts Museum, but it’s shut on Mondays, so we decide to go to National Art Gallery. Took the monorail to the nearest station, Ieuan chatted to an Indian business man on train (don’t be daft, Ieuan didn’t initiate the conversation!). Walked from the station to the Art Gallery and arrived sweating buckets only to be told that it was closed (bloody guide books could have mentioned that!!), all was not lost though we were allowed in and the gallery was opened up for our own private viewing. As Malaysia is celebrating the 50th anniversary of independence there is a fantastic photography exhibition related to what it means to be Malaysian today as well as some great art by a local artist.
Headed from there to Merdeka Square, difficult to get a great impression of it as it’s being set up for the main celebrations on Friday (Independence Day), you can tell though that the colonists were not local, the building on one side of the square could easily have been gracing the English countryside.
Head back to hotel via unhelpful encounter with HSBC bank re switch card being stopped, and 4pm lunch at different Dome café, some nice salads and potato wedges. Got a free memory card/USB converter from helpful Sony shop people when buying yet more bargain memory cards. Pick up laundry, (planned for 2 weeks of clothes, but it’s too hot for that here).
Finally we go to Bangkok Jam for dinner (Louise winning an argument that it was owned by the same people as last night’s restaurant), more Larb for Ieuan plus red & green beef curry’s, not quite as good as last night.
Overall we find KL a much better experience than Singapore – which we find lacks atmosphere.
Headed from there to Merdeka Square, difficult to get a great impression of it as it’s being set up for the main celebrations on Friday (Independence Day), you can tell though that the colonists were not local, the building on one side of the square could easily have been gracing the English countryside.
Head back to hotel via unhelpful encounter with HSBC bank re switch card being stopped, and 4pm lunch at different Dome café, some nice salads and potato wedges. Got a free memory card/USB converter from helpful Sony shop people when buying yet more bargain memory cards. Pick up laundry, (planned for 2 weeks of clothes, but it’s too hot for that here).
Finally we go to Bangkok Jam for dinner (Louise winning an argument that it was owned by the same people as last night’s restaurant), more Larb for Ieuan plus red & green beef curry’s, not quite as good as last night.
Overall we find KL a much better experience than Singapore – which we find lacks atmosphere.
26 August 2007: Day 7 - Kuala Lumpur
Up at the crack of dawn for Petronas Towers skybridge visit. Leave hotel at 7am and get there at 7:15 – we’re about 10th in the queue. Queue until counter opens at 8:30 (by which time queue numbers around 300 people waiting) and get tickets for 9am tour. Skybridge is at 41st of 88 floors, we get 10 minutes on the bridge between the 2 towers, most of the time is spent by everyone hurriedly photographing the city. While we were waiting to go up we get to see a promotional video talking about Petronas mentioning amongst other things the FP1 (no mention of Fogarty and the amazing success the bike has achieved though).
Head back to the Dome café for some breakfast, before wandering back to hotel for a room service lunch, which was poor quality compared to the previous stuff we had from them. Went down to pool for the afternoon, Lou sunbathed and swam for a few hours, Ieuan went back to room after half an hour to read book.
Went to checkout some further recommendations from the "good food" book for dinner, ended up eating at a Thai called ‘To Dine For’, Ieuan had very hot beef salad (great) and stir fry chicken with basil (not the best) and Lou had some money bag things as a starter and red curry. Ice cream and sorbet on way home an excellent way to end the evening.
Head back to the Dome café for some breakfast, before wandering back to hotel for a room service lunch, which was poor quality compared to the previous stuff we had from them. Went down to pool for the afternoon, Lou sunbathed and swam for a few hours, Ieuan went back to room after half an hour to read book.
Went to checkout some further recommendations from the "good food" book for dinner, ended up eating at a Thai called ‘To Dine For’, Ieuan had very hot beef salad (great) and stir fry chicken with basil (not the best) and Lou had some money bag things as a starter and red curry. Ice cream and sorbet on way home an excellent way to end the evening.
25 August 2007: Day 6 Kuala Lumpur
Had lie in and missed breakfast (later realised that this was a blessing in disguise).
Headed off to see the Petronas Towers, via dodgy (according to Lou) backpacker / transport hub street stopped at little Malaysian place for lunch and had vegetables and steamed rice (vegetable content was mainly mushrooms, with 2 bits of broccoli and cauliflower in a bit of sauce - Ieuan enjoys, Lou doesn't), Ieuan has Mango and watermelon ice drink with pearls - some kind of berry/flower which didn't get eaten, they were a bit rubbery and were ordered by accident.
Headed round to Petronas towers via the KL Tower, saw loads of people base jumping from it (part of a legal 3 day organised jump). Got to Petronas Towers and discovered that tours were via free ticket available from 8:30 am and usually run out by 9:30 or so. Visited huge shopping mall for a bit, got adapter for toothbrush charger, plus found some cheap memory cards (30 UK pounds cheaper than the ones we bought at Heathrow) and a shop to unlock Ieuan's phone so we can get a local SIM card.
Went to Dome cafe for a drink then went out to find it pouring with rain, killed some further time in shopping centre, then went home. Bought a book about great places to eat in KL, so checked out that night, ended up at an Indian (Vaansh) which provided us with great cumin potatoes and honey & spice covered bread as starters, main courses were not so great, wine was very expensive and most of it was out of stock!
Headed off to see the Petronas Towers, via dodgy (according to Lou) backpacker / transport hub street stopped at little Malaysian place for lunch and had vegetables and steamed rice (vegetable content was mainly mushrooms, with 2 bits of broccoli and cauliflower in a bit of sauce - Ieuan enjoys, Lou doesn't), Ieuan has Mango and watermelon ice drink with pearls - some kind of berry/flower which didn't get eaten, they were a bit rubbery and were ordered by accident.
Headed round to Petronas towers via the KL Tower, saw loads of people base jumping from it (part of a legal 3 day organised jump). Got to Petronas Towers and discovered that tours were via free ticket available from 8:30 am and usually run out by 9:30 or so. Visited huge shopping mall for a bit, got adapter for toothbrush charger, plus found some cheap memory cards (30 UK pounds cheaper than the ones we bought at Heathrow) and a shop to unlock Ieuan's phone so we can get a local SIM card.
Went to Dome cafe for a drink then went out to find it pouring with rain, killed some further time in shopping centre, then went home. Bought a book about great places to eat in KL, so checked out that night, ended up at an Indian (Vaansh) which provided us with great cumin potatoes and honey & spice covered bread as starters, main courses were not so great, wine was very expensive and most of it was out of stock!
24 August 2007: Day 5 - Singapore to Kuala Lumpur
Up early (6 am) to get to train station to get 8:40 express train to KL. Out of hotel by 6:50 and at station by 7:15 so have ages to wait. Really old and decrepit station, no air con and no nice food and drink. Wait till 8:30 before going though customs on platform and set off. Train is super slow (brings a whole new meaning to the word express), Ieuan extremely glad we paid the exorbitant 20 UK pounds cost of going 1st class, and the family behind us were more than happy to demonstrate the swivelling seat function, which happily meant that were weren't getting our seats kicked by small children. Went through some beautiful countryside, although the journey was very long and very boring on balance.
Arrived at KL Sentral, had to walk in very intense heat over the road and across some scrubland to the monorail station to get train to Bukit Bintang. Got out and walked to hotel (Radius International). Very nice room, we are on the 16th floor in a premier room so have great view of the city, although not unfortunately of KL or Petronas towers.
Order room service as we are too knackered to go out, get very nice salads (Lou proves to be a dab hand at providing instruction on how to use replacement lettuce in salad (no romaine available, so have to use iceberg) after being told she couldn't have her salad) plus lamb kebab and chips. Remote control for tv doesn't work, and no replacement offered or provided upon pointing this detail out! Room more to Ieuan's taste than previous hotel.
Arrived at KL Sentral, had to walk in very intense heat over the road and across some scrubland to the monorail station to get train to Bukit Bintang. Got out and walked to hotel (Radius International). Very nice room, we are on the 16th floor in a premier room so have great view of the city, although not unfortunately of KL or Petronas towers.
Order room service as we are too knackered to go out, get very nice salads (Lou proves to be a dab hand at providing instruction on how to use replacement lettuce in salad (no romaine available, so have to use iceberg) after being told she couldn't have her salad) plus lamb kebab and chips. Remote control for tv doesn't work, and no replacement offered or provided upon pointing this detail out! Room more to Ieuan's taste than previous hotel.
23 August 2007: Day 4 - Singapore
Today Ieuan insisted that we visit the magical man made resort of Sentosa Island (or at least that's Lou's interpretation of events!) Went to the island on the monorail, Lou dipped her feet in the sea & we visited underwater world, where there were some fairly big sharks for an aquarium and some rays, plus an assortment of crabs and other sea creatures all viewed from a moving walkway.
From there we went up to the Imbaba viewing point via the open cable cars, a bit of an experience when feeling dizzy, got to the top and got the Luge down (not sure what we were supposed to view at the top), with Lou obviously beating Ieuan down due to his extreme cautiousness! Took the enclosed cable car back to mainland & went for lunch at a French deli, 1 salad didn't turn up and the drinks were forgotten, plus Lou wasn't happy as the goats cheese salad she ordered had no goats cheese.
In the evening we followed the advice of some fellow travellers (yes you know who you are!!) and went on the highly recommended night safari at the zoo. It was ok, took an hour to get there, including free minibus ride from the MRT station. On way back to MRT in taxi absolutely hammered down with rain, got the tube back to Raffles Place and went to boat quay for food, ate some very ordinary Indian food.
PS On examining the Night Safari tickets provided by the "free" minibus service when we left the zoo we realised that they were dated for 2008!! Fortunately no one checked in any detail.
From there we went up to the Imbaba viewing point via the open cable cars, a bit of an experience when feeling dizzy, got to the top and got the Luge down (not sure what we were supposed to view at the top), with Lou obviously beating Ieuan down due to his extreme cautiousness! Took the enclosed cable car back to mainland & went for lunch at a French deli, 1 salad didn't turn up and the drinks were forgotten, plus Lou wasn't happy as the goats cheese salad she ordered had no goats cheese.
In the evening we followed the advice of some fellow travellers (yes you know who you are!!) and went on the highly recommended night safari at the zoo. It was ok, took an hour to get there, including free minibus ride from the MRT station. On way back to MRT in taxi absolutely hammered down with rain, got the tube back to Raffles Place and went to boat quay for food, ate some very ordinary Indian food.
PS On examining the Night Safari tickets provided by the "free" minibus service when we left the zoo we realised that they were dated for 2008!! Fortunately no one checked in any detail.
22 August 2007: Day 3 - Singapore
Wake up late & get up early afternoon. Went to tourist info (after Starbucks for coffee, muffin and some air con).
Visited Clarke Quay & had nice salads for lunch sitting by the river. Then we head onto Orchard Road for a browse in the shops before heading home via a Dome cafe where Ieuan has a delicious Citron Presse & a cup of tea. In the evening we go looking for the Anna Lakshmi Indian Restaurant recommended in the Rough Guide, only to be told that it had closed down, this however proved fortunate as we go to option 2, another Indian Restaurant called Saffron (2 streets behind Boat Quay) where the food was absolutely superb.
Visited Clarke Quay & had nice salads for lunch sitting by the river. Then we head onto Orchard Road for a browse in the shops before heading home via a Dome cafe where Ieuan has a delicious Citron Presse & a cup of tea. In the evening we go looking for the Anna Lakshmi Indian Restaurant recommended in the Rough Guide, only to be told that it had closed down, this however proved fortunate as we go to option 2, another Indian Restaurant called Saffron (2 streets behind Boat Quay) where the food was absolutely superb.
21 August 2007: Day 2 - Singapore
Arrive in Sinapore, absolutely knackered! At Louise's instruction we ignore the taxis and head for the MRT to get the tube into Singapore (apparently we will experience more of the city this way, though why this is necessary when carrying a 25kg rucksack Ieuan isn't sure!!)
Go outside to get connection and hit by the heat & humidity as we walk to terminal 1 to get the train. Get MRT to Bugis Junction - a night market/shopping street area, New 7th Storey Hotel is luckily just around the corner. Room is very big, but basic - does have air con, fridge & dvd player. Bathroom has a shower suitable for people 4 ft tall, and is more like a tap rather than a shower stream, has permanently open grill at top of window. We are on the 5th floor so get the lift up and walk down the stairs.
Got changed and headed to Boat Quay/Clarke Quay area for a look around. Loads of restauants and bars etc, choose Thai place to eat, Ieuan has a superb Larb Gai and ok Jungle Curry, Lou has Satay Gai and Red Curry. Get ice cream from Hagen Daz stall and walk home.
Room has added benefit of free pair of (possibly 2nd hand) large flip flops (only suitable for the 4ft shower user with size 13 feet!)
Go outside to get connection and hit by the heat & humidity as we walk to terminal 1 to get the train. Get MRT to Bugis Junction - a night market/shopping street area, New 7th Storey Hotel is luckily just around the corner. Room is very big, but basic - does have air con, fridge & dvd player. Bathroom has a shower suitable for people 4 ft tall, and is more like a tap rather than a shower stream, has permanently open grill at top of window. We are on the 5th floor so get the lift up and walk down the stairs.
Got changed and headed to Boat Quay/Clarke Quay area for a look around. Loads of restauants and bars etc, choose Thai place to eat, Ieuan has a superb Larb Gai and ok Jungle Curry, Lou has Satay Gai and Red Curry. Get ice cream from Hagen Daz stall and walk home.
Room has added benefit of free pair of (possibly 2nd hand) large flip flops (only suitable for the 4ft shower user with size 13 feet!)
20 August 2007: Day 1 - Travel to Singapore
Leave for Singapore from London Heathrow - get lift there with Louise's Mum and Stepdad. Have dinner at fake American diner, buy some memory cards and wait (although security was supposedly going to take hours, we were through within 10 minutes, absolutely the shortest security queue Ieuan's ever experienced).
Flight to Singapore (overnight) very cramped and seems to last forever. Choice of films pretty good, (Louise misses last 10 minutes of Zodiac), Ieuan watches Flying Scotsman (film not great, better to read the book). Got a couple hours sleep - quite long periods of mild turblence.
Excellent views of peninsular Malaysia as we approach Singapore, looks amazingly green, although it's clear as we descend that an awful lot of the trees are palm trees, rather than the natural forest.
Qantas stewards are adequate!
Flight to Singapore (overnight) very cramped and seems to last forever. Choice of films pretty good, (Louise misses last 10 minutes of Zodiac), Ieuan watches Flying Scotsman (film not great, better to read the book). Got a couple hours sleep - quite long periods of mild turblence.
Excellent views of peninsular Malaysia as we approach Singapore, looks amazingly green, although it's clear as we descend that an awful lot of the trees are palm trees, rather than the natural forest.
Qantas stewards are adequate!
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