When I asked Oli Lane (from my course) if I could store my kayak at his parents house in malaysia he failed to tell me that the lived in the largest most luxurious apartment in the world.  A Palace.  I was fortunate enough to be invited to stay as well.

Singapore is a pretty busy city, made up of 3 main cultural groups, Indians, Chinese and expats  (not sure how cultral expats are really) .

There are lots of tall buildings, from the appartment you get a good view across the  city, especially at night when the lights are all on.

From Singapore I got an early bus across the boarder to Malaysia then north east to a concrete jungle called Kuantan.

My first day in Malaysia came with some interesting events however.  I visited a Mosque in Kuantan, I took off my sandles as one should at these holy places, so that all the dirt that had built up during the day could be transfered to the marble floor, must make sense to someone?

I was then told I could not go in because I was not a Muslin, ok, then the guy asked me why I wasn’t a muslin, and I should maybe learn more about Islam and become one.  Oh dear they are going to try and turn me into some radical or other.  Just as I was leaving having politely refused brain washing , I was called back given some sort of skirt to wear and told I could look around quickly.  A security guard took me around, although he spoke no English he took some photos of me and was able to ask me, whilst still inside the mosque if I wanted a madam, using some suggestive hand signal to show what he meant.  I laughed at him and said no.  Being asked if I want a prostitute in a mosque, what ever next…

you want Madam?  No thank you very much I don’t.  and being ask if I want a prostitute whilst inside a mosque is one of the stranger things to happen to me this trip.

…well, next I went to get a sim card for my mobile.  No worries there.  However  whilst eating dinner that evening I recieved a text: yor benjamin art u? hello Im isac.

Me: are you the guy who sold me the sim card Isac?

Isac: yes you are a cleaver boy, do you have a girl friend, only I saw you sat on yor own.

Me: Yes, Why?

Isac: Im a gay boy hope u don’t mind,ilove you so much…

Oh dear thinks I, and I tell him that I’m not a gay boy so maybe he should try else where, I did remember noticing that he had strangly long fingure nails and an effeminate air about him, figures now.

So one day in Malaysia and I have been offered a prostitute whilst being shown around a mosque and had a proposition from a gay mobile phone shop boy, who I ddn’t give my number to, what kind of crazy country is this…

Cherating

Next day I got out out of Kuantan, and went up the road to Cherating, a little place on the sea, once I think it was a popular travellers hang out, now its pretty dead and very dull, although the sea is increadibly warm.  I stayed at a place called The Shadow of the Moon at Half Past Four, one ofthe more imaginatively named places I have ever stayed.

The main beach at Cherating, note the crowds

I took a trip up the road to see a guy called Mr Leo, who hires wind surfers out.  He turned out to be a super fellow, and I spent all day there chatting to him about wind surfing, kite surfing, spear fishing, you name it, anything to do with the sea.  A few friends of his came by, mostly brits, and we all ended up heading back into Kuantan for a Chinese meal, consiting of more courses than you can imagine, and 3 of them made with a Sting Ray that Leo had spear fished.  Quite delicious.

Getting back to Cherating was pretty interesting! I got a lift to the bus stop where Leo lived, 30 minutes bus ride from Chareting.  It was a Sunday and about 9:30 and dark, I waited, can’t be sure how long, but a long time.  “He waits… …thats what he does”, the guiness advert was on my mind.  After maybe an hour I got bored, after another half an hour a bus came, but it wasn’t going to Cherating, the conductor informed me the next one was in the morning, Crap.  none of the local restaurants had any phone numbers for Taxis, so I started walking off to a nearby rather posh resort.  on my way a car pulled up to me, with a family in it, the husband asked where I was going, then told me to get in, he gave me a lift all the way back to my Chalet, what a nice chap, what a luck chap I am.  I gave him 15 RM about 1.5 pounds, and said good bye.  Cheap to, much better than sleeping in a bus shelter.

Jungle

Temena Negara National park is in the Heart of Malaysia, its a 130 million year old Jungle, the oldest on the planet.  And full of insects, birds, monkeys, small wild cats, the odd tiger and the odd elephant.  The last two inhabit only the wildest areas far from any settlements or anywhere where I went.

On the way into the Jungle, by boat. maybe I was missing out on taking a picture of something truely interesting

 

On the way to the Park I met a couple from Spain, who I spent the next three days with, Louis is a teacher in the international school system and teaches in Ho cha mon city in Vietnam at the moment, Sabela is a translater, and works free lance.  On the first day we went on a walk into the jungle, the ’waterfalls’/small rapids, up hills and along walkways 40 meters off the jungle floor.  It was great, not so great were the leeches that stood wiggling on leaves on the path, running at your ankles to suck your blood.  I only got 2, and they had both fallen off after having  there fill of my blood before I noticed them, leaving only large stains in my socks.

the walk way 40 meters up

View from the top of the hill, well worth all the sweating uphill.

 The next day we did another day trek, this time to the ‘Bat Cave’, only this Bat Cave had no little lift to get down into it, no Batmobile, and no suit to get dress up into.  Instead this one was full of little fruit and leaf Bats that flew straight at you when you disturbed them, it was also full of bat shit, which insidently is the worst smelling thing ever.  Its so bad that all the rest of my cloths in my bag ended up smelling of it for days until I could get them washed in Thailand. 

The Bat cave

 

The next day I left the Jungle and took a trip on the Jungle railway north to the boarder town of Kota Bharu, a very Islamic town on the Boarder of Thailand, so Islamic that everthing was shut on Friday the day after I arrived, so I left.  Before I left, I did get a chance to visit the night market, lots of food stalls, some wierd and wonderful things on offer, I also met a Canadian/Danish couple who had Learnt to dive on Koh Tao 5 years ago and ended up staying for 9 months learning to be dive masters.  They were very helpful and sugested a good dive shop for when I got there. 

 

Thailand

It would be a lie to say that I saw a lot of Thailand, from the boarder I headed straight for Syratani to get a boat to Koh Tao.  I ended up staying on the so-chilled-out-its-horizontal Island of Koh Tao for just over 2 weeks.  Here I learnt to Dive with Sunshine Divers, dubious name, brilliant dive outfit.  First I did my PADI Open Water, then my PADI Advanced Open Water, so now I’m an expert, I’ve even bought my own mask and snorkle. 

James Bond, the friendly barman

The open water dive course was good, one swimming pool session to get the basic skills down and 4 open water dives, down to 18 meters, lots of tropical fish, warm water, never less than 29 deg C.  and some truely awful PADI videos.  The Advanced was even better, fewer videos, deeper dives (30 m), night dives, let off on our own in our pairs with no instructor got lost in low viz water, so much fun!!  I even saw a shark down at 28m, excellent, blue spotted sting ray on the night dive, fantastic, and clown fish nearly just like Nemo, perfect. 

 

fish

me about to go diving, giving the signal for ok

Tom going in backwards

The bay around the courner of the Island from where I was staying is called shark bay, and rightly so, go snorkling there after about 4:30 and your garanteded some close encounters with Black Tip Reef Sharks. Brilliant thinks I, and heads off for some adventures with the most notorious creatures of the deep.  The bay itself is very shallow barely a meter deep for the most part, this just adds to the fear that you feel when out of the misty water 4 or 5, 4 to 5 foot reef sharks swim towards you. Then circle you, “there more afraid of you than you are of them” says the dive instructor who told me about the bay, oh yeah well they must be bloody sh*ting themselves, because I was!! especially when I was the only one in the water and it was getting dark!  Unfortunately this time I didn’t have my camara, but I did get some pictures on one of the other 3 occasions I went snorkling there, only these weren’t so big. 

SHARK!!!

I also got quite into skin/free diving, and went to a couple of dive sites and just snorkled them, getting dives of about 1-1.5 minutes and down to about 10 meters.  Its a brilliant feeling not having all the scuba gear on you can swim much faster with very little energy, and I seemed to notice more when not worrying about all the gear getting caught on the reef.  At one dive site I free dived with a couple of sea snakes, which have poison that is stronger than a cobra, fortunately they are very placid. 

 Bangkok

My new Brummy friend Claire, who was staying at the same bungalow resort as I was, and I took a ferry and train from the Island of Koh Tao up to Bangkok, much better way of travelling than bus, plus it saved on a nights occomadation by traveling through the night.  In Bangkok I went to the Grand Palace, which was certainly Grand, and Po Wat, which is the oldest Wat in Thailand.  A wat by the way is a temple (Buddist). 

 

Singapore again

So I bayed Fairwell to my Brummy friend Claire and boarded a Jet Plane to Singapore, I’ve never fallen asleep so quickly, infact I managed to fall asleep whilst we were accellerating down the runway before we’d even left the ground.  I must be getting good at this flying milarky.  Ariving in Singapore I felt rather like a pro, no Taxis for me, just get straight on the tube and head to Oli’s parrents house once again.  They unsurprisingly were out, I had forgotten to let them know I was arriving.  It was okay though and by 9 oclock I was once again thriving in the luxuary of their Penthouse. 

I went shopping and I bought an MP3 player.

I went shopping and I bought an MP3 player and a charger for my MP3 player.

I went shopping and I bought an MP3 player, a charger for my MP3 player and a Cannon Digital SLR camara.

I went shopping and I bought an MP3 player, a charger for my MP3 player, a Cannon Digital SLR camara and a bag to put all my new stuff in.

Shopping and eating are pretty much all you can do in Singapore, I did both to a fairly high standard. 

Oli arrived on Sunday whilst I was staying in Singapore, it was brilliant to see him and together we went shopping and eating.