Friday 10^th July Bangkok

We are sitting in the plane to Bangkok. An 8-hour + flight; luckily we have a 3-seat row in the middle of the plane to ourselves. Still, it's a long time to sit in a seat listening to the drone of the engines.

I've read a lot of book.

We returned from the Flinders Ranges in April with no plans for any more travel; but the weather was getting colder and we looked into possibilities; and in the end found an Intrepid tour from Bangkok overland to Singapore, taking 2 weeks; and then a small boat cruise around Komodo, in Indonesia; done by World Expeditions, a different company, but fitting in well at the end of the Intrepid tour.

And we've got things under control at home.

The big job has been the fireplace in Lawrence St. from where we removed the gas heater; we did a lot of mortaring and rendering, in the middle of which we decided to pull out the old mantelpiece, and ended up repainting the room, then installing the Morso wood heater which we had installed in Sheehan St. years ago. Sue wasn't using it, so we bought it from her and have put it in Lawrence St. And even tiled the inside of the fireplace as well.

And we've scraped and resurfaced all the deck at Lothian St.

Elsy's taken a bit of time too, after a little stint in hospital followed by 3 weeks respite at Aeralife in Reservoir. Now she's back at Old Colonists, and (fortunately) more accepting of assistance than she was. Though she's a month off 98, now, and it's likely only a matter of time before the next crisis.

We came down to Melbourne on Tuesday for Book club at Lothian St., and stayed down; which gave us lots of time for packing and preparation. The flight left at 1.30pm; we were at the airport at 10.30am, a very civilised time. But a longish travel day as we won't land till 11pm, Melbourne time. 8pm, Bangkok time.

We landed. Uneventful. Though there were a huge number of people, in multiple queues, at immigration; it took a long time, and when we got to the luggage carousel all our flight's luggage had been taken off it annd left next to it. We retrieved our bags and walked out into Thailand proper.

The info centre said to go to Door 4 to catch a “Grab”. So we did; and were taken to our Hotel (Nuovo City Hotel) via two tollways and a trip of nearly an hour. But got to our room, unpacked a bit; had a shower and went to bed.

Saturday 11^th July Bangkok

Our bodies tried to wake us up on Melbourne time, but we made them wait till the sun came up. After a bit more arranging our luggage (my brain is working much better this morning) we went out for a walk around the area. We are in the old part of town, it is a very touristy area, with lots of hostels and eateries. and is mostly fairly typical Asian city. I switched our “Google Translate” over to Thai. We passed a large temple (similar, but different, to those in Sri Lanka and India) then came home to a large and slow buffet breakfast.

Then, another walk. We headed to a nearby museum, which we had thought was open, to find it closed; so continued on towards the river. We passed another museum – mainly a coin museum – which was open, so we had a look around before continuing to the river, past an old fort, and along the riverfront past some tourist boat piers. Interestingly, the longtail boats here are powered by a large engine which is all mounted on the rudder, and moved side to side and up and down by the skipper.

After passing lots of flash riverfront eateries, we returned to the inland again and walked back home. Alison had found a French bakery near our hotel; we found it, but found it was more Japanese than French. But it still had good pastries; we bought some, and lunched on them (and some icecreams from 7-Eleven) with a coffee made in our room.

It was siesta time. We read, went for a swim in the pool here, returned to our room for rest and play. As the tour starts tomorrow, we read about it in a bit more detail; finding, online, some dreadful reviews of it from 2024. We'll find out for ourselves, soon.

We have to try to work out how much money to take out from the ATM, because all ATM's in Thailand charge a 240 THB (~10 AUS) fee per withdrawal. So, we need to estimate how much we'll need for the next week, so we only do it once!

We did the estimation over dinner. With any luck it will be reasonably accurate.

Before dinner, we looked up where Khao San Road is. This is a famous (?) tourist street, and it was not far from the hotel. So we walked there. It was horrible – busy with eateries, but also massage and tattoo parlours, and cannabis “dispensaries”. (It appears that cannabis is legal in Thailand.) And touts, of course. We walked back past our hotel and up to the other side – a much nicer part of Bangkok. We ate at “The Island” restaurant – a good meal served by pleasant staff.

Now it's 9pm. Midnight, Melbourne time, and we're fading.

Bangkok has a huge number of massage parlours (mostly not brothels, I think), and (around here) a lot of Western tourists. Who are mostly European – very few speak English.

Sunday 12^th July Bangkok

We slept better, and ddn't wake so early. Went for a little walk before breakfast, returned to the hotel for breakfast, went and packed up, and checked out. But only for a few hours – our booking tonight is via Intrepid, so we have to move rooms; and also will have to go out for breakfast tomorrow, as it's not included. (This is not an issue, as I don't need to repeat the breakfast here for a third time).

So we left our bags and went out. A walk of 2½ km down to Sam Yot Metro Station, passing the Democracy Monument and Bangkok City Hall. We passed a group of workers doing wire replacement high up power poles, in a fashion which would not be accepted a safe in Australia. The last section was through Rommani Park. We tried to use a ticket machine, but it wouldn't accept our money; so we bought some tokens at the ticket office, and took the underground to Tha Phra. Here, we changed onto the line to Chatuchak Park; and, to my surprise, it mostly ran above ground. Well above ground, with fine views on both sides. It brought home to me that Bangkok is an enormous city. Far, far bigger that Melbourne.

We got off at Chatuchak Park, walked through the mall there vaguely looking for something to eat, but in the end only having icecreams from 7-Eleven. Then out into the park, and across to our destination, Queen Sirikit Park. A nice very tidy and well maintained park, but sadly with quite intrusive road noise from the tollways on both sides. It did have a quite weird bird-watching tower, which we went up but saw not a single bird till we saw some sparrows back down at the bottom. The to the (unimpressive) lotus pond, and we returned seeing a couple of large water monitors and quite a few squirrels.

Next to the park is a weekend market. We walked through it – a bit hungry by now – and in the end bought a kebab to eat. It was a very large market, but we didn't need (or want) to buy anything. So we got back on the Metro and came home – around the other side of the loop, this side all underground. Only people to watch, not the city outside the window.

We walked back. It didn't seem so far, coming back; but bypassed the hotel and went straight to last night's restaurant for an iced coffee and a lovely fruit platter. The back to the hotel, and into our new room – with no canal view (only a view of a blank wall next door), but not very dissimilar. It does have a window you can open!

6pm came around; time for the group meeting, and to find out what the guide, and the others, are like. On first impression they seem quite reasonable. Natthachai (“Buddy”), the guide; Michael & Morna, retired teachers from NZ of similar vintage to us; Ruth, a HR manager from Belgium; Dani, a teacher from Perth; Paul, an overweight teacher from Ireland; Fran, a retired economist from Washington DC, and her daughter Liz, yet another overweight teacher.

After the meeting we all went out and had dinner together back at the Island.

Luckily for us, we are able to stay in our room till 5pm tomorrow, when we leave Bangkok. Ruth will share it with us during the day, but we won't have to pack up properly till it's time to leave.

Monday 13^th July On Train

Phones are a learning experience. I left mine on overnight, as I had the alarm on. But didn't sleep so well, especially with three WhatsApp notifications at 2.30am – which turned out to be coming from the last person on the tour, another Liz (from New Zealand), who wasn't here last night, and a reply from Paul. So I put it on “Do Not Disturb” and have discovered that the alarm still works like this. So there's been some benefit, I suppose.

We were up before the alarm, anyway. A shower, and we went down to go back to the Island for breakfast; but we met Dani just outside, who told us it wasn't open yet. So we all went round the corner to the cafe next to the canal and had breakfast there. It was fine.

As we were ready to leave – where is Alison's handbag? Nowhere to be found! We went down and asked at reception.

Fortunately she retrieved it from the seat in the room we had had last night's meeting in.

At 8.30 am we all met in the lobby, walked down the the river where we'd walked the first day, and along to a pier where we all got onto a longtail boat. Across the river, and then along canal for the best part of an hour seeing all the canalside buildings (most in good condition, a few disintegrating), past quite a few temples, and back to the river. We saw a couple more big water monitors on the way.

We got off at Wat Pho, one of the biggest temples, and went for a tour inside. First to look at the enormous golden reclining buddha, then around the grounds. Lots of buildings, lots of stupas; and lots and lots of explanation from Natthachai, who had spent 14 years as a monk before becoming a tour guide. It was hot, and it was after midday by the time we left. I was a bit “templed out”; there were countless buddha statues in the complex.

Time to go back. It was a 25 minute walk back to the hotel; we opted to walk, with the route going through the university. So did Natthachai, and Morna and Michael; the others used a taxi or tuk-tuk. Except for NZ Liz and Paul, who skipped most of it and had already left.

We stopped for lunch on the way at Konnichipan Cafe, where we'd been on Saturday; and were running out of cash at last. So home, get some money from the ATM, an icecream..

We have use of our room, but it's not as attractive an option as it was as NZ Liz is resting in it; and she is very talkative.

A little later, we went back to the Island cafe for a repeat of yesterday's afternoon coffee; it was just as good, and a pleasant relaxing time. Then a bit more of wandering through the streets and lanes; back to the hotel, where “our” room had been vacated again; so we had a shower and did a final packup, then down to the lobby for 5pm.

We were driven in two minibuses, in very heavy traffic, to the SRT station. We left all our bags together and went along to the food court there for dinner. Not the best dinner, but adequate. Then a bit of chatting, before we were able to board the train at 7.30pm and settle into our beds for the night. I'm downstairs, Alison is above.

The beds are quite comfortable, but it is sleeping on a train; noisier and bumpier than a bed!

We are both quite happy to be getting out of the big busy city. Three days here has been plenty.

Tuesday 14^th July Khao San

I really didn't end up sleeping much on the train. We'd been warned that it was cold in the train, but that wasn't a big issue. The bed was a tad too short – I could touch both ends and couldn't really stretch out – and it was quite bumpy at times, and noisy. Halfway through the night I put in my ear plugs, and then I think I got some sleep. But not very much.

At 6.30am we got to our destination, Surat Thani. It was raining a bit. We went across to a cafe across from the station for breakfast, then had a little walk around the nearby streets. After the night on the train all night the ground felt a bit wobbly, as after being on a boat. And then we piled into two minivans and drove out.

It was a two hour + drive, through smaller villages and past plantations of palm oil and rubber trees. We had a short stop at a market, where Natthachai showed us how to eat rembutans and mangosteens, and where we bought a smallish watermelon to eat later; and another ½ hour later go to the “Cliff and River” resort.

We are very happy to be here, out of big city and surrounded by lush greenery – and tall hills with precipitous sides of rock. And a big river running along the valley. And not only that, but a lovely cabin with balcony overlooking the valley, and a swimming pool to use as well.

We arrived about 10am, and the option was offered of a trip further to Khao San National Park for a nature trail. This was an extra cost option, and no-one was interested. I certainly wasn't. Apart from feeling a bit stuffed from lack of sleep, it was humid and rainy, and the ground underfoot tending to mud. Added to this Alison had looked it up on her phone yesterday – the big attractions are 2 pools under waterfalls you can have a dip in; but you need to go on a guided walk to go to them, and need to wear a likejacket (at your own expense) if you want to take a dip! As well, the whole place is apparently very crowded with tourists, and we're going on a similar walk tomorrow.

So, we didn't go.

It was the right decision; it rained on and off (sometimes very heavily) during the afternoon. We went for a walk around the resort, ate half the watermelon, had some lunch in the restaurant, had a quick dip in the pool; had a shower, clean clothes and wash the old ones; and I had a lie down and I think a bit of sleep.

I'm much more human now.

We went for a short walk down the road outside before going in to have dinner with everyone. But I think everyone's a bit tired after the train.

Wednesday 15^th July Khao San

I think I was fast asleep less that five minutes after going to bed last night. A good bed, comfortable temperature, needing sleep......

And when we went down to breakfast it was apparent that everyone else had had a good sleep, and was in much better shape today, as well.

We got into a minibus (one for all of us, this time) and the chatter was so much more animated than yesterday. We drove back along the road we'd come on yesterday, then turned off to Cheow Lan Lake.

(Incidentally, all the roads we've been on have been in very good condition. Much better than the Calder Highway!)

Cheow Lan lake is a huge man-made lake, thanks to five dams. We walked down to the entry point to the pier – there are a lot of boats; it is a big tourist attraction, now. We joined another group and got on a boat with a 26 person capacity. We got seats near the front – a good spot as the engine was quite noisy.

Then, a 45 minute trip over to the far end, where we got out for a very tame short walk through the forest; then over to a photo spot where three limstone karsts protrude from the water. Here, various people were able to shed their lifejackets and be photographed with them; we did too, after being described as the “honeymoon couple”!

On to a limestone cave, with stalagmites and stalactites, but no boardwalk or lighting. Everyone was issued with a torch, instead. It was quite a nice cave.

Back on the boat, and over to the Raft House for lunch. This was a large area on pontoons, with perhaps ten times the number of people on our boat; off to one side are cabins where you can stay the night. After lunch lots of people went for a dip in the lake; not really a swim, as you needed to wear a life jacket. (A ruling I broke at first, because I wanted to dive in – and in a lifejacket it just would not have been the same.)

At 3.30pm our boat returned, and we returned to the minibus, and back home to Cliff and River. After a little starting to pack up again (we move on in the morning) we went down to a chatty dinner.

We were lucky with the weather today; despite threatening storm, and thunder, while we were at the Raft House, no rain eventuated.

Thursday 15^th July Ao Nang

I felt a bit sad leaving Cliff and River – it was a lovely place to be. But – back into minibuses, and way we went. It was a couple of hours driving this morning, with a stop at petrol station complex for a walk and a coffee. Then on, to Baan Bor Tor, a little village where we were to go sea kayaking.

I had expected to see the sea, but it is in fact on an estuary lined with mangroves, looking just like a river. A muddy river. No matter; we al loaded into double kayaks, and off we went, “upriver”. A little turnoff into the mangroves brought us to a cave (really a tunnel) which you could kayak through to the other side; it was quite nice inside, with stalagmites and stalgtites. A paddle around at the far end, and we retraced our route back through the cave, and then further on to Pee Hua Tu cave. Here, a skull larger than normal Thai skulls was found, and there were some paintings inside dated at ~ 3,000 years.

We had to disembark here and walk up to and through the cave. Again, quite a nice cave, big and open. A walk along a 400m boardwalk through the mangroves, back to the kayaks, and back to the beginning – where we had lunch by the estuary.

Then another hour and a bit in the minvan on to the town of Ao Nang.

What a difference! We are staying in a “flash” hotel, the Chada. 3 swimming pools. We went out for a walk and the town reminded me of the worst of Bali; very, very touristy, with Westerners riding motorscooters without enough protective clothing, lots and lots of tourist offices, bars, cafes....and cannabis shops thrown in.

It's not really our sort of town, is our initial impression. And the hotel's not really our sort of hotel, either; but it's OK.

We met all the others at 6.30pm, and walked down to the night market, a 20 minute walk. There were a huge number of food stalls; which made it very hard to choose. But we had a good dinner there, in the end. And wandered around the market, and then home. We both felt a bit tired – for no good reason we knew of.

Friday 17^th July Ao Nang

We both slept very well here, had a little sleep in, and made a good day of it despite it being such a tourist town. We had a long breakfast (where they had good bread, for a change); and after I'd failed to find where to get coffee, Alison found it and even made me a good iced coffee as well.

We went out for a walk, with large hotel umbrellas as parasols – a very good idea. Down to our corner, and we turned left, to the “other” section of beach, Ao Nang beach. Along the seafront till the road finished; through the grounds of a resort and out the other side; and then along to the end of the beach. Here, there are two wooden walkways over the little headland to the next (little) beach. Here, also, there are monkeys; cute little monkeys which are quite aggressive. One jumped on to my backpack, and took a lot of prodding and shooing to get it off. And there wasn't even any food in my backpack!

We went on the upper path; a bit ramshackle, but nothing dangerous. At the next beach, we found resort accommodation blocks at the back, and in the front piles of debris, and work being done on a seawall and rebuilding what used to be there. At the far end was a long pier.

We walked over to it, and found the pier was a pontoon pier, wafting in the waves. We walked out on it (needing our sea legs a bit) to the end; then retraced our steps. As we were nearing the end of the construction zone, a man (the foreman?) asked where we were going; going back to the hotel was fine, but going where we had been wasn't. We were glad he wasn't there when we arrived!

Back on the wooden walkway, past the monkeys; and Alison had found a supermaket up a side road going away from the beach. Up there we went. It was busy, still, but a more “real” part of town. The supermarket was good, worth the detour; we bought beer, chips, and icecream.

And then we went home, picking up our washing on the way. Relax. Read on our balcony, swim (and waterslide), playtime; then beer and chips on the balcony before going down to the lobby to meet some of the others to walk down to Ao Nang beach again, for the sunset and fire show. Sunset was fine, the fire show I found underwhelming.

We left the others, walked back to the night market, bought two Mango with Sticky Rice, walked home and ate it. Delicious!

Saturday 18^th July Trang

We had a quite relaxed breakfast and leaving Ao Nang. Back into the usual two minibuses for the best part of two hours – with a stop for coffee at a petrol station along the way – and we got to the little village of Baan Mod Tanoy. This used to be a mostly fishing (for fish and dugong) village, but overfishing was a problem so they've developed a crab nursery and local tourism. We began with each making a tie-dyed T-shirt (the dye being and infusion of mango tree bark), before having a slow walk around the village and then lunch there. And then released thousands of tiny baby crabs – only just visible to the naked eye – into the sea.

And then, we left with our T-shirts. It was interesting, but not as enjoyable as yesterday's kayaking.

Another hour on to tonight's resort, Dugong Village, near the village of Trang. I started by doing our Malaysian immigration cards for tomorrow, then went for a walk along the road to a nearby bridge, and then back along the beach. The tide was out and the beach virtually deserted; there were lots of shells on it, and a lot of rubbish at the high-tide mark; though not as much as some other beaches we've been on.

Back for a swim in the (very warm) pool, and we're going to our last dinner in Thailand wearing our new T-shirts. Our last dinner with Natthachai – in Malaysia, we get a new guide.

Sunday 19^th July Georgetown, Penang

I was woken by a rooster crowing this morning – only to find it was 3.40am! So I went back to sleep. But nonetheless we were both awake at 6am, so we got up, packed our bags again, walked down to the beach, came back and had breakfast, at by 7.30 were back in our minibuses and away.

A lot of driving was in store for us today, and that's what we had, We both took our computers with us and labelled photos. We'd both got behind in this. It was four hours, with a little break on the way, before we stopped at a large shopping mall for lunch. There was a supermarket next to the food hall, so we went there and bought some bready things with cheese and onion, some oranges, and an icecream for lunch before joining the others.

From here, it was only 15 minutes or so to the border. A little before the border, we stopped, transferred into a large bus, and met our Malaysian guide, Chee. Then, it was a matter of finding the border crossing; the old one was closed and no-one seemed to know where the new one was! But eventually, it was found – all very large, and shiny and new – and we said goodbye to Natthachai and crossed uneventfully over into Malaysia. And put our clocks forward an hour.

Malaysia looked tidy and well-maintained, with good roads and no rubbish evident. We were sitting in the front seat, with a reasonably good view; but we had Chee in the seat next door, and he did a lot of talking. Better than not enough, I suppose. To finish off some in our group asked questions, some of which struck me as irrelevant or inane.

After a break at a roadside shopping centre (where I was able to use an ATM and get some Malaysian Ringgit) we continued on in a greater or lesser traffic jam on a freeway, over the bridge into Penang. Last time I was in Penang (1977?) no bridge to the island existed. Neither did most of the buildings – there are masses of high-rise buildings (though the central area, World Heritage listed, is preserved) and there is masses of traffic.

But we got through it, to our hotel, the Mei. We have a small but good room on the 10^th floor, with a good view and windows which open. We only had a little over ½ hour before we had to meet in the lobby to go out to the Hawker Centre for tea.

This was a slow process, with our group of ten and a guide who didn't know us yet. Eventually we all managed to walk there (all of five minutes walk away, for us) and sat in an airconditioned room; but it was noisy, and almost all of us preferred to sit outside and soak up the atmosphere. So we moved outside.

We were asked to choose a drink - a fruit juice – and a dish of fried rice or noodles. But what was the cost? And if we preferred something else? It was a confusing situation. In the end, we had a range of dishes to share, and found that it was all covered by Intrepid; despite saying in the itinerary that breakfast was the only meal provided today, this was there as a “Hawker Centre Experience”. None of us realised that this meant dinner!

Dinner finished, and we all separated. We walked down to find the bus stop for the free bus which runs around the central part of Georgetown, found it at the Komsol Centre, and walked back home. Enough for today, and tomorrow a sleep in.

Monday 20^th July Georgetown

Despite finding how to take the free bus, we haven't used it and won't be using it, as we leave early tomorrow.

After a rather poor breakfast – our most basic, so far – we were in the lobby at 8.30 for the tour of Georgetown. It wasn't very inspiring; we were wondering where we'd leave it but, in the end, stayed nearly the whole time. It did improve a bit.

We began by going by bus down to the Esplanade, the Town Hall, City Hall, and Fort Cornwallis. Then by bus to Chee Jetty (a residential stilt house area), and a walk down Jalan Armenian, the site of a lot of street art. (This was alright, but no better than other street art we've seen elsewhere.)

But then, we drove out of the centre up to the Kek Lok Si temple, the biggest Chinese temple in Malaysia; on a hillside overlooking the town, over multiple levels, with many effigies including a huge one at the top. But the main room, where we started, was exquisitely decorated and well worth seeing.

(It was here that my camera battery died. I had to use my phone instead, but by the end of the day that was nearly dead, too.)

We then were driven up to the base of the funicular railway which runs nearly 2km up to the top of Penang Hill. Some of us got off here, others stayed on the bus to be driven back to town. We got off, along with Mike and Morna, and Dani and Paul.

We lined up for tickets. After a few moments in the line for standard tickets, the others decided on Express tickets, at a cost 2½ times more. We stayed in the standard queue and got to the top perhaps 15 minutes after they did.

At the top, it was raining. It was after 1pm by now, so we headed for a cafe there and had lunch of a yummy calzone and coffee, talking to a couple from Manchester on a trip all over SE Asia. By the time we finished, the rain had cleared.

We had bought one-way tickets (which is, I think, unusual) and planned to walk down. Our noted said there a two routes, the Jeep Track and the Heritage Trail. Fine, but... where? There were no signs to either of them, and the information centre was closed. So we set off, using the phone to try to work out where we were.

We started steeply down the access road. There were signs about no-go zones related to a cable car construction, and a little later we found a sign saying that the Jeep Track was closed. So that was out, wherever it was. We continued on, and after another half hour or so came to a map which showed us where we were! (It wasn't where I thought we were.)

We were about to set off on a track which was marked on our map when we came across a shelter with toilets – and with people! A group of Spaniards on an adventure tour. They advised us not to go the way we were going go (it goes uphill a lot) and showed us an alternative (an unmarked track).

It was good advice. After an initial quite muddy section for 800m, it became a concreted downhill track, through jungle and then through durian plantations, until we got down to roads at the bottom.

From here, we could have taken a taxi back to the hotel, but we thought we'd walk. With phones these days it's hard to lose your way too much, and we didn't; but it was after 6pm when we got back to the hotel, hot, sweaty, and thirsty. (We'd done it all on the one bottle of water I carried.)

Drink, shower, clean clothes, put on a load of washing in the laundry here. Put both phones and my camera on their chargers. Then we went out to find some dinner, and ate a very good (and very cheap) meal in a cafeteria-style restaurant around the corner from the hotel.

Tuesday 21^st July Kuala Lumpur

Neither of us got off to sleep well last night, despite being in a king-size bed, with the other person being miles away. (Tonight, we're down to a queen size; but I think we'll both be happy to be back into our double bed at home.) We were both awake after an hour or so, so gave up, turned on the light, and read for a while.

Then, this morning, we were down in the lobby at 8am ready to leave. Into the big bus (multiple seats each) and we had a 5-hour drive, with two stops on the way, into central KL. A big, bustling, noisy city – not the sort of place we like being in, but....

We got out at Central Market; most of the group went to a restaurant there for lunch. We went for a walk, had a filled roti and an icecream, and joined the others at 2.30 pm for the short drive to the Ancasa Hotel. Here, we have a smallish but comfortable room on a corner.

We went down for a swim. The pool was colder than any we've been in before on this trip, but still very warm by “at home” standards. We went out for dinner; walked around, and ended up at “Ali-sons”, an Indian-Malay restaurant. A fine meal and certainly not overpriced.

Tomorrow is theoretically a free day, but Chee is taking some of the others to Batu Caves and then the Botanical Gardens. We plan to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, and then walk to the gardens.

Wednesday 22^nd July Kuala Lumpur

Sleep in we did – I slept for 10½ hours. I must have needed it. We got up slowly and went down to breakfast, where we shared a table with Ruth. I think the others had all already been and gone.

At 10.15 we left the hotel to walk to the Botanical Gardens, along a route we'd mapped out yesterday. It was no problem, though without the phone to tell us where we were, it may have been. The walk took ~ ½ hour. The gardens were quite nice – a good change from the hectic city – but not really remarkable. We wandered around them for an hour or more, walked through the deer enclosure, then went across to the Bird Park – the largest walk-in aviary in the world. And it was extensive. We thought about going in, but it was on the pricey side – 90MYR each, ~$A35. Fair enough if you were going to spend hours there, but.. we weren't.

So we walked on to the Butterfly House instead. This was much smaller, and tickets were 30MYR, so in we went. It was very humid, with a lot of butterflies flying, but usually not resting where you were; they'd rest somewhere else.

We headed for home, then – along an alternative route which took us around the main railway station (a lovely colonial building) and then along beside the river (which is, in effect, a concrete drain). Just before getting home we bought a pineapple, which the shop cut up for us; it was lovely.

At home Alison made us an iced coffee and we ate pineapple, and we read for a while. Then, out to do some shopping. We don't really need anything, but I wouldn't object to a few more silk shirts. We walked through the Central Market, which was uninspiring; then down to the far end of Jalan Petaling, a well known shopping street full of stalls. Halfway along we chanced on a large shop where there was no touting at all, prices were very low, and it seemed a bit like an op shop at home, except the clothing was new. Most was MYR 6.50 an item (~$A2.50), some a bit more expensive – but not much. I came home with 5 shirts, and Alison with quite a few things as well.

We went out to dinner at Ali-sons again.

Thursday 23^rd July Melaka

Another moving day. We're getting good at it, but we don't like it much; though we have no problem getting out of busy, noisy Kuala Lumpur.

It was a nice relaxed start; gather in the lobby at 9.30am, and get into minibuses for the ½ hour or so drive to the huge intercity bus station, which resembled an airport more than anything else. There was a bit of strolling around before we got on the bus at 11am for the 2-hour trip to Melaka. We had allocated seats, and the one next to me was empty; Alison had a single seat.

I got out the computer and spent the first part of the journey filling in our Singapore digital arrival cards; then did a sudoku, then read my book. In no time we were in Melaka, where another minibus took us to our hotel, the Ibis.

But not all the rooms were ready, so Chee walked us all down the road to an Indian restaurant for lunch; but here, the menu at this hour was limited, and we'd had Indian food the previous two nights. So we excused ourselves and went out to look for an alternative lunch. As so often, we walked a reasonable distance, down into the touristy centre of town (where nothing appealed) and then back towards the hotel, where we had a good, and not-too-big lunch upstairs in a cafe. (Their specialty was a “curry roll”, but they'd run out of small ones.)

Back to the hotel, into our room. Much quieter than the one in KL, and in better condition as well. After a little rest we went down to the swimming pool at the back of the hotel, and chatted to the others; till meeting Chee at 5pm for an orientation walk.

This was quite reasonable, with him showing us a lot of points in Melaka. We finished in Jonker Street soon after 6pm; Chee left, and most of the others went to a bar – the “GravyBaby”. We weren't interested in doing that; instead, we walked down the river to the sea.

This is one of those towns which turns its back on the seafront; there was scrub to walk through, on a sandy track, to a little sandy beach in an area mostly rocky. Interesting to see, but no reason to stay. We walked back, had another good and not too heavy dinner in a little cafe near the centre, and came home.

Friday 24^th July Melaka

A much quieter room. We got up and went down to breakfast. What a bunfight! The busiest, loudest hotel breakfast I've ever encountered. A lot of the breakfasters were children (apparently from Penang) so the noise level was high; we were lucky to find a stool to sit on, and I was unable to check out all the food on offer – it was just too crowded. But they did have some musli and some croissants, so I left it at that.

Then we all went out on a trishaw tour, in Melaka's gaudily decorated trishaws. (It was raining – we have been lucky this trip not to have had more rain.) Down to Dutch Square and the Victoria Fountain, then to the Portuguese (pre-Dutch) ruin of A Famosa; and then across to the Cheng Hoon Teng Chinese Temple. We would have gone to the nearby mosque as well, but it's Friday; so not appropriate.

The trishaws left us here, and we wandered home. Back to the hotel, and then out to have a coffee; it took a bit of finding, but we had one close by, upstairs; but with closed shutters. My coffee there was not memorable, but the cinnamon croissant we had with it was delicious.

We continued. Past the Maritime Museam again, back to A Famosa, and then up Melaka Hill to the (ruined) church of St. Paul on the top. A short uphill walk, and I have no idea why Chee didn't bring the whole group up here. It had good views over the town, and the old tombstones inside it were interesting.

We walked back down to the Dataran Pahlawan shopping mall. I'd expected a generic mall that could have been anywhere, but it was half empty of both shops and shoppers; we went up to the top floor and found a “Mr. DIY” store, where we looked around and bought a kitchen timer and a replacement umbrella for the one I brought with me – its stem is broken.

Home for a swim and siesta, till 4.30pm. We went out for a stroll along the river; it's a pleasant walk, on both sides; we walked up to the tour boat dock at the top, and down the other side. Then home, and then out to our “Farewell Dinner”. Everyone there except for NZ Liz. A good meal with good conversation, and it left us with 8.90 MYR (~$A3.00) at the end. Tomorrow, it's Singapore.

Some of the others went off to have another drink; we wandered through the very busy Jonker St. night market, and came home.

Saturday 25^th July

Thunderstorm in the night, and heavy rain this morning. The heaviest rain we've had so far; and a morning spent on a bus. We have been lucky with the weather!

We got up before 7am and went straight to breakfast – which was meant to start at 7am, but was in full swing when we got there before that. But we were able to secure a table, and, despite being very busy, it didn't have the number of children or the noise level it had yesterday.

We went back up to our room, had a shower, and checked out. There was a wait in the lobby for the minibuses to the bus station, then another wait there for the bus. Heavy rain the whole time.

The bus was a double-decker, quite luxurious, with most of us downstairs. It was an uneventful trip; we all got out to go through Malaysia emigration, back on the bus, out again to go through Singapore immigration, and then back on the bus into Singapore city. We had a 10-minute walk to the hotel (Ibis on Bencoolen), arriving at 2.15 to find our rooms not ready. It was a very busy lobby.

So we went and got some money from an ATM, had some dumplings and broccoli for lunch, then went back and checked in. We're on the 12^th floor, so we can leave our blinds open here.

At 5pm we all (except NZ Liz) met in the lobby to have an orientation walk with Chee. All down to the MRT (underground) station for 2 stops, where we went up and saw the large hawker centre of Lau Pa Sat; then back to the MRT for 1 stop (!) and up to Marina Sands, and across to the Gardens by the Bay, Here, Chee said farewell to us; and here, we left the others and wandered off. We'd been here before, and were less inclined to explore the area.

We, of course, intended to walk home. It was not so far. So we went via the hawker centre to have dinner there; but, really, this was a mistake; it took a lot of looking around to decide what to eat, and it was really crowded, and really noisy. We were happy to leave and don't plan to go back there again.

We walked back along the river, past restaurants ++ all with touts out trying to get you in; then across the river and eventually back to Bencoolen. We'd been out four hours.

Two cups of tea and Alison tried the TV, but without finding anything worth watching despite a profusion of channels.

Sunday 26^th July Singapore

Today was the final day of the Intrepid trip. So we slept in – especially as outside the window, there was heavy rain. Then I turned on the computer and got our Indonesian visas organised – at a cost of 524,500 rupiah (this comes to about $A40). After 9am (to avoid the breakfast bunfight) we went down to the last item on the itinerary, breakfast. We didn't hurry, had a chat with Dani and Ruth, and said goodbye to Mike and Morna, and to Paul.

Back upstairs, we re-packed, checked out, and walked the 500m along to the Wanderlust Hotel, in Little India.

Unsurprisingly, our room wasn't ready. So we left our bags and went out for a walk. It was very humid. We had not much of a plan, vaguely heading for Orchard Road; first finding ourselves walking over Mt. Emily, and then on Mt. Sofia Road. This was a very swish area, and we found the road did a loop but didn't go anywhere, and you couldn't get off it except at the beginning. While we were there, the humidity turned into very heavy rain. Umbrellas up, and we sheltered a bit.

The rain lightened. We found Orchard Road, and walked along it. By now, we were looking for a nice little cafe for coffee and cake. We didn't find one – only lots of very expensive-type shops. So, we headed for home. This took us to Fort Canning Park – yet another hill, as high as the other “mountains”. There were lots of people there, but we were getting hot and hungry. We found our way out, in the end, through the museum, and back down Bencoolen Road; where we stopped at a food court we'd seen and had a Vietnamese lunch.

Back at the hotel, it was after 3pm, and our room was ready; so we went and unpacked a bit, and made ourselves (at last!) a cup of coffee. And had a rest for a while, and sorted out a few things for the next few days.

The rain had stopped. We were in a much better state than this morning, and went out for a walk again at 5pm; a nice peaceful walk along the Rochor Canal. We ended up following it all the way to the sea, and then along the seafront; but here we ran into what became clear was preparations for the Singapore Grand Prix. Not what we were interested in, and it made it a bit difficult to get out of the area. But eventually we did, and walked home through the street market we'd checked out earlier; but a lot of it had packed up. But we found a nice little Vietnamese eatery and had a good dinner before coming home to two cups of tea.

Monday 27^th July Singapore

Today was much better. Not only was there no rain, we had a good sleep, and a good start to the day. We put on a load of washing in the (free) guest laundry here, had a cup of tea, put the washing in the dryer.... and went out to look for breakfast.

This is not such an easy thing, here. Most of the eateries supply an Asian sort of breakfast, with congee and noodles and such like. But we came across a “Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf” shop not far away, who supplied us with coffee, croissant, semi-poached eggs, and a tiny muffin; at a very good price.

With the washing out of the way, we set off. Today, our walking was more planned: MRT to Kent Ridge station, then walk across / along the southern ridges (one of Singapore's “green” areas) to Mt. Faber. And that is what we did.

Though when we got out at Kent Ridge station we found an underground shopping mall; all underneath a large hospital. Tthere were lots of people there in scrubs, and some patients too. We treated ourselves to another coffee and muffin before setting out, finding our way into the park quite easily and going along the elevated Canopy Walk; then along other tracks, through Hort Park, across Alexandra Arch, along a diversion where some elevated walkway was being repaired, and in the end to Mt. Faber. We had good views of the enormous dense city and the enormous dock area, from an area which was variously jungle or park.

We descended to the Harbourfront MRT station, and took the MRT home. Where we went out and lay in the hotel's dipping pool for a while, before having a shower and putting the last of our clothes on to wash. We plan to leave Singapore tomorrow with no dirty laundry.

We went out for dinner somewhere, looked around, and ended up at an Indian eatery just around the corner. A delicious dinner.