Singapore 28.04.2013 - 30.04.2013

I LOVE SINGAPORE!! That's basically what you shall learn from this blog post! Its very clean, easy to get around, the people are all very polite, the food is good, the shopping is good, all the attractions are amazing-its the whole package for a city lover like me!! Although in comparison to Malaysia it is SUPER expensive!!

We met up with Suzie on our first afternoon and spent a couple of hours in Chinatown-which was very large and had stalls selling so much stuff!!! I bought a really nice and very Asian tea set- dont know how I'm going to get that home but oh well :P After lunch and more shopping we changed in the hostel and headed out to Marina Bay. We spent some time in the beautiful Gardens by the Bay, huge botanical gardens surrounding the Marina Bay area which have a walkway and lights up beautifully at night-would've happily spent hours there! We had dinner underneath Marina Bay Sands-the famous hotel with the boat on the top which is the most amazing building ever!! After more photos with the Merlion (mascot of Singapore) we headed to 1Altitude-the worlds highest bar for cocktails and 360 degree views of this amazing city :)

Singapore Dollars

Prayers in the Chinese Temple

Day 2 we headed out to Singapore Zoo. We spent all day there with the free roaming orangutans and loads of other animals in a very open feeling zoo. We saw animal shows too including a sea lion show- I got kissed by the sea lion after!! I also fed 2 giraffes-which everyone knows are my favourite animals so that was my life made! We also did the river safari in order to see the Giant Pandas, Kai Kai and Jia Jia - who are the most gorgeous creatures ever and we spent ages watching them. After the zoo we stayed on for the night safari where we saw lots of nocturnal animals as well as giraffes, elephants and lions in a more natural night time setting, it was fantastic but we were really tired after a long day on our feet! Despite that we headed back to 1Altitude as the views were so amazing we had to experience them again!

 
















Our final day in Singapore was another busy one! We wandered around Little India in the morning and went shopping for Saris! Luckily for my wallet I didn't buy one! We then headed to the botanical gardens which were again amazing! We saw the famous Orchid Gardens too including the Princess Diana Orchid that Will & Kate were here for earlier in the year. After a couple of hours in the gardens we had some Lemon Meringue Pie!!!! (that's awesome trust me!!) We then spent an hour or so in the National Museum which was good but we needed more time in there! Then we headed back to Chinatown for souvenirs then again to Marina Bay to watch the light show-they project light onto fountains for the show and its amazing!! It was a really nice way to round off the trip! Finally we had a 5 hour coach ride back to KL, which was cool in itself as we had massage chairs!!! :O

So basically I Love Singapore!! I cant wait to go back at some point as there is so much more to do and its such an awesome city. I never got bored of Marina Bay and took a ridiculously high number of pictures- about 600 over 3 days!! Yeah Singapore's awesome :)

So now the blog is up to date I've got 4 very boring weeks filled with revision and exams ahead of me - we are at university after all, but after that comes Thailand etc with the girls which I'm researching in my revision breaks-its gonna be awesome!! Missing home lots but closer to coming back now then when we got here - not too long now. Love to the UK xxx

Borneo 24.04.2013 - 28.04.2013

Everyone always raves about how good Borneo is and so we thought it about time we checked it out for ourselves...

Beth and I flew out to Kuching, the state capital of Sarawak, Borneo and instantly aquired all the maps and leaflets you'd ever need to get round anywhere!! We stayed in a really nice hostel, 20minuet walk from the centre of town. We spent the first afternoon exploring the town and planning the rest of our days there. The town appeared to be pretty empty oddly-although it did get much more lively at the weekend!

Kuching Waterfront with Lightening in the background

Day 2 we set off very early for the Orangutan centre to see their morning feed. The Semmengoh centre has 27 semi-wild orangutans which it looks after. We managed to see 2 mums eating while their babies played in the trees above us, then we only saw one at the main feed but it was beautiful, and it proved how wild they really were!! Beth was very exicted as Orangutans are her favourite animal! On our way back we picked up a third traveller, had dinner together and then headed to the famous Fairy Cave. They were beautiful but very scary-there were no lights and a broken walkway through most of it and we only had phone torches to help us through!! It was fun though. On the way back to the bus we got caught in the monsoon and got drenched so had to spend 2 hours sat dripping wet on the bus home! We were so tired that night so had early nights after dinner:)

 

Day 3 was another early start as we set out to the Bako National Park for a day of trekking, jungle and monkeys. We saw wild Proboscous Monkeys in the trees!! The jungle plants and flowers were amazing too as were the beaches. We did 2 trails, one took us to the beach and the other to a view point where we got great views of the beaches below with the jungle surrounding them. Once again we were so tired at the end of the day!

 








Day 4 was our final day in Kuching, we hit the Sarwak museum which was really interesting, and then went to the Natural history museum-the worst museum ever!! They had one floor and it was dedicated to fossilised wood- pieces of wood displayed on stands of wood...was funny really!! The last musuem was the Chinese Museum and the chinese temple both of which were great. We then went shopping along the water front for souviners before having dinner and packing up.

I really liked Borneo-everyone was really friendly and lovely, the food was great to especially the Sarawak specialties - the best of which was the Sarwak cakes, thick moist and very colourful sponge cakes which were very addictive!! Kuching means Cat in Malay so there are cat statues all over the place including the 'Great Cat of Kuching' whihc was right near our hostel!! They were a tad creepy at times though! We were very tired having not stopped for 4 days and the trip took its toll on my best sandals-see photo!! However we didnot have time to rest as our flight on Sunday was taking us to Singapore...

Perhentian Islands 12.04.2013 - 14.04.2013

Ok so firstly just want to say sorry for not updating in ages-theres been alot going on here and Ive been busy with work etc so I'm very sorry but here we go again...

A group of 8 of us booked a snorkeling tour for the weekend on the Perhentian Islands-famous for their beaches and amazing snorkeling. All was well as we headed out on my first ever sleeper train for the 14 hour train journey up to the north east corner of Malaysia. On arrival it became clear we hadn't picked the best weekend to travel as it was cloudy and rainy-and it stayed that way across the weekend! Not that we let that stop us-we are children of the UK after all!! The speedboat ride from the mainland to the large island was the roughest boat ride I've ever experienced- the boat was always lurching and flew several terrifying times!! But we got there safe and checked in before being taken out on our first snorkelling session where we managed to see a turtle!! Needless to say that was amazing in itself!! At Shark Point I didn't see any reef sharks but some of the faster swimmers did. I was still very impressed by the reefs and the fish-I found them just as amazing as sharks as I was still a beginner snorkeler!! We spent the evening drinking together on the beach under the stars :)

Sleeper train

Day 2 brought more bad weather and the news that we couldn't go to Redang as planned as the sea was too rough!! But,  after a couple of volleyball games, we still went snorkeling in several different places and saw another turtle and lots more fish, and WE FOUND NEMO!!! What more do you need?? :P The sea was really rough that day and a couple of us felt really sea sick but were fine once on dry land again for dinner!! That evening was spent on the beach drinking again (well we are students right!!) watching an amazing lightening storm out to sea :)

On Day 3 we were rushed off the island as the sea was rough again and they wanted us to get back to the mainland before it got worse!! So another very bumpy speedboat ride took us back to the mainland in the early afternoon- we all had sea-legs after that and could barely walk straight off the deck!! We had lunch then wandered round for a bit untill the tour people offered to take us to a waterfall-we arrived and the waterfall was fantastic, we swam for ages and it was so good to have fresh water rather than salty sea water!! We then returned to Uni on the overnight bus-the coldest bus ever!!!

We had a fantastic weekend together despite the weather and the snorkelling was amazing! Cant wait to do it again :)

Cameron Highlands 29.03.2013 - 30.03.2013

Happy Easter everyone-am craving Easter eggs so much at the minuet!! We had good Friday off so seemed like a good excuse for a little trip out to the Cameron Highlands. The Highlands are set in the valleys of Malaysia and are the site of lots of farms- basically if it grows, they grow it in the Cameron Highlands! The main farms are the Tea farms and Strawberry farms which cover most of the lands. One of the best bits was the weather- cloudy, chilly with a bit of rain- jeans and hoody weather- perfect for some Brits missing the UK weather!! We took the 4.5 hour bus journey from KL on Friday morning, the last 1.5 hours was along the very twisty and turny roads of the highlands- I felt so sick!! But we got through it! We drooped our stuff off at our apartment and set out to explore the town and get dinner. After 'family time' ( I was the big sister) back at the apartment we headed out for a night market! The market sold EVERYTHING strawberry related- it got a bit silly including the suggestion that we all bought matching strawberry PJ's!! Fried Wantons for tea followed by amazing strawberries and chocolate-yum yum!!! We all had an early night as we had a tour booked for 9 the next day... Oh and I got a RM100 note!!!

We were all up and out by 8:30 on Saturday morning! We had a very British breakfast of Eggs on Toast with a Cuppa!!! All 7 of us piled into the 4x4 sent to pick us up and so our tour of the highlands began. We visited the Rose Garden first-interesting decor but nice flowers. Next was the tea plantations-excellent photo opportunity! The plantations spread for miles! We saw the tea being made in the factory and had samples, but the best bit was the tea room at the back with Tea and Scones with jam and cream- a proper British treat!!! After the tea rooms came quick stops at the Honey Farm and then the Butterfly/Insect house. Next we drove to one of the strawberry farms and bought fresh strawberries (very rare in MY) and had fresh strawberry juice :)
The final stop on our tour was a Chinese temple which was really pretty and peaceful as always. The tour was fab considering it cost 5 pounds for all 4.5 hours!! We got dropped back in the main town and grabbed some dinner before stocking up for the drive home. This trip was really great- fab company as well as great sights and TEA!!! Felt like a little British getaway with the scones and strawberries!! Oh and I bought a strawberry cushion for my bed :P

I really enjoyed this trip-would defiantly recommend it to everyone especially tea and scones!!! Next up is a couple of weeks on campus working hard before a trip to the Perinthian Islands for snorkeling... Love to the UK :)

Broga 27.03.2013

Here at UNMC we live really close to a massive hill called Broga, its fairly famous I think and people climb it to see the sunrise or sunset over Kajang. We decided to climb it on Wednesday morning for the full moon and sunrise. After waking at 5am (!!!) and a breakfast of leftover pizza we headed to Broga. The climb was very steep and we worked up quite a sweat as we climbed to the first peak in the pitch black! We got to the peak with plenty of time to spare and settled to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was really cloudy so we didn't see the moon or sun- but the view was still really nice and we had a great time chatting and chilling together :) We spent some time at the top before the slippery climb down, 2nd breakfast at Maccy D's before getting back home for lectures at 11... We were very tired that evening!!

Langkawi!! 08.02.13-10.02.13

We went away again this weekend (not sure Ive spent a full weekend on campus yet...) to the island of Langkawi! After a very short and bumpy flight we checked into our hostel before changing into dresses for a girly evening of cocktails on the beach, we found a great bar called Babylon where everyone was really chilled and listening to music and drinking on the beach so close to the sea, it was such a lovely sight :) We had cocktails late into the night before the compulsory tipsy pizza-which was actually amazing!!

Saturday we were all up and ready by 9! We rented a car and Suzie drove us around the island. We took the cable car up a massive hill which gave us amazing views across the whole main island and out into the sea-Langkawi island is really beautiful! The Cable was very steep however and a tiny bit scary!! We then headed to a Buffalo Park to feed the buffalo and try some milk-was an odd sight but really enjoyed it! We also drove to the 'field of burnt rice' which was possibly the worst tourist attraction ever-it was just a small patch of grass with a fence round it! The story behind it was much better but there was nothing to see-was quite funny really! We then drove to then north point of the island where we sunbathed on a private beach-living the life :) We stopped off at the jetty to watch the sunset at the giant Langkawi eagle, it was the first sunset I'd seen properly in Malaysia and was gorgeous-took so many photos although apparantly we were also a popular tourist attraction ourselves... We ate at the night market which was very busy and had some good food :) We finished this busy day with more cocktails on the beach - luxury :)

 

 On sunday we were up again at 9 and ready for Island Hopping. We were driven to the boat in a little van that had a door that fell off and no horn so when someone was in our way the driver leaned aout the window and shouted 'beep-beep' at them-much to our amusement! The boat took us first to the Pregnant Maiden lake on a different island (Langkawi is made up of 90+ apparantly), This one had hills which looked like a pregnant lady and if you bathed in the lake it was supposed to cure infertility... so we're all set for kids now!! It was on this island that people got stuff stolen by monkeys! We kept all our things though and we met a couple from sheffield (!!!) who fended off the monkeys with a very Northern ' Nooooooooorr You cant av ma bag' - a very welcome sound!! Next our little boat took us to see the Langkawi eagles feeding-I hoped for some better pictures and that we would have fed them for longer but the brief sight was amazing as they are so fast and accurate and beautiful birds :) Next we went to another island for some beach time which was nice and then back to the main island. After freshening up at the hostel we headed out for mexican food-well recommended by the large group of students that also came to Langkawi,  and it was really nice-I miss Nachos!!! We finished our weekend with a quick bit of shopping (didnt get anything) and a final bit of sunbathing before the smoothest flight home ever

Overall Langkawi was amazing and I would so go again, wish I was still there now with another cocktail on the beach!! Everyone back home would have loved it too-especially the duty free Jack Daniels at 7 pounds for a big bottle!! Anyway we are staying here pretty much for the next 2 weeks, need to get some work done and save up a bit before the next trip!! Still got plans for singapore and new plans to visit Redang and the Perinthian Islands for a long weekend at the end of the month!! I will blog if anything interesting happens before then!! Love to the UK! :)