Our journey so far…

September 2010

7th - Arrival Singapore (8am). Nap at hostel in Kampong Glam. Afternoon spent walking city with jetlag to Clark Quay and Chinatown. Helen just can’t help herself!

8th - Bus to Mersing, Malaysia and boat to Pulau Tioman for a few days on a beach with jungle backdrop for relaxation and acclimatisation. Only 2 hr walking round-trip dodging Komodo Monitor Lizards, Monkeys and Bats to Duty Free shop at airport an added bonus. Limited places to eat owing to Ramadan.

11th - Boat back to Mersing for bus to Cherating. Disappointed with large curved beach and far out low tide but had best chicken samosas at reggae bar on beach for dinner.

12th - Bus to Marang and boat to Pulau Kapas for more island time and beach discovery. Beautiful white deserted sands, relaxed atmosphere and great people made for excellent mellow vibe. Limited places to eat owing to Ramadan - able to cut a deal with manager of resort at next beach for all-you-can-eat buffet food at bargain price. First experience of killer spider in bathroom of beach hut.

14th - Boat back to mainland and bus to Kuala Terengganu to wash clothes, get food supplies and visit central market with amazing array of materials for sale, exotic foods and usual tourist tat. Great mix of Indian and Malay food for grabs at night market

16th - Bus to Kuala Besut and boat to Perhentian Islands for more beach downtime. Went on excellent all-day snorkelling trip and saw Turtles, sharks and Nemo. Helen soiled bikini jumping off base of lighthouse and ate many Roti. Had couple of great BBQ’s for reasonable price at local hotel. Second experience of killer spider in beach hut.

21st - Boat back to mainland and bus to Kota Bharu. Got on the McDonalds wagon for lunch and discovered 25p ice creams. Not very memorable place but more washing done, internet session and usual fare from night market.

22nd - Train on Jungle Railway to Jerantut. Quoted as an engineering feat but to us, just another (single track) train which took 9 hours not including a one hour stop to fix the hydraulics! Not as glamorous as it sounds.

23rd - Bus to Jetty for longboat trip (3 hrs) to Taman Negara National Park. Great slow ride in longboat-style vessel up-river and into jungle passing time by monkey spotting. 2 hr trek into jungle on arrival in long pants to avoid leeches. Spotted humungous centipede. Helen risked all on canopy walkway, soiled pants and nearly made first claim on holiday health insurance. Rustic jungle hut accommodation with mosquito net for protection and pet bathroom frog aptly named Mr. Frog.

24th - Bus back to Jerantut (1.5 hrs) for another bus to Kuala Lumpur (3 hrs). 2.5 hours spent in queue at 7.30am for tickets for Skybridge at Petronas towers. Nick dying of unknown tropical disease which prevented his 3.30pm visit to Skybridge. Helen Nightingale abandoned Nick at hostel to attend on her own. Visited Batu Caves, Chinatown and Little India where Nick purchased deep-fried chicken carcass.

27th - Flight from KUL (2 hrs ) to Jogjakarta, Indonesia. A chance for some down time resulted in the purchase of many doughnuts from Jco. Coffee & Doughnuts, which enabled us to use their WiFi. A break from doughnuts consisted of a trip to the local markets, the Sultan’s Palace and temples including Prambanan (Hindu) and Borobudur, the worlds largest Buddhist monument. Luxury of lovely pool at hotel for bargain price of 7 pounds a night.

October 2010

1st - Bus to Gunung Bromo (10 hrs) for Volcano sunrise tour. Cramped seating made for uncomfortable 10 hrs on full minibus en route to Bali via Bromo.

2nd - Jeep journey (1 hr) up to volcano viewing point at 3.30am.  World’s bumpiest ride and never seen so many jeeps in one place. Sunrise disappointing as too much cloud and although not epic, a great experience. 12.00pm bus to Denpesar, Bali with ferry (11 hrs) with seating only big enough for the 4ft natives. Packed with locals and memorable for the wrong reasons. Taxi to Kuta (40 mins).

5th - Hired jeep for 3 days and toured west coast of Bali in search of futile mission to find Helen‘s perfect beach. Drove to Permutan, Lovina, Singaraja, Pura Tanah Lot (temple) and the Bukit peninsula seeing some great coastline, temples, rice fields and life away from the tourist trail. Pura Luhur Ulu Watu (temple) now famed for the banana incident.

8th - Drove back to Kuta to drop off jeep and spend the night.

9th - Taxi to Sanur (1 hr) for next day boat to island of Nusa Lembongan.

10th - Boat to Nusa Lembongan at 8am (1.5 hrs). If we had realised that Lombok (3 days time) wasn‘t going to fulfil the beach mission, we would have stayed longer here. Great island, several nice beaches with white sand and a real working island full of real local people harvesting seaweed. World’s best omelette served at hotel.

11th - Boat back to Sanur and taxi to Ubud (1hr) for Helen’s spiritual enlightenment  in the form of the reading of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ in a rice paddy. Explored the streets of Bali’s capital of art and culture and visited the markets. Hired bicycles to tour rice fields. Almost had second usage of holiday health insurance policy as the Disaster from Devon fell sideways into irrigation channel on bike.

14th - Bus to Padangbai (1.15 hrs) for boat to Lombok and incidentally found the best beach in Bali. Through streets of scruffy port town of Padangbai and up and down messy, rocky road adorned with derelict buildings appeared a tiny patch of paradise with white sands, palm trees and Robinson Crusoe type huts. Had fresh mango on beach cut and prepared by local woman.

15th - Ferry to Lombok (4 hrs) and minibus to Sengigi (1 hr). With accommodation overly expensive, dark sand coloured beaches and cheap food scarce, we didn’t warm to this place. However, a quality moment spent on a nicer part of the beach eating noodles from a hawker while hanging and chatting with locals and watching the sunset saved a monotonous day.

16th - Bus to Bangsal (1 hr) for boat to Gili Trewangan (30 mins). Trewangan served to give us time to relax, recuperate and reflect before flying to Vietnam. Beautiful white sand beaches and a busy but laid back atmosphere, Gili T was exactly what we needed. Snorkelling straight off beach and swimming with turtles the highlight, as was the many baby turtles in the nearby Turtle Conservation Centre that Helen had to say goodnight to every night. Cheap local food found by jetty including world’s best pancakes consumed every night after dinner.

23rd - 8am boat back to mainland Bali (Bansal) for bus across island (Lembar) to pick up ferry back to Padangbai for one night.

24th - Bus to airport at Denpasar for flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.