Sandy's winter migration

Yo yo yo!

Well, after a very long day of planes, trains and buses, I made it to Melaka, my first stop on Peninsular Malaysia. I realised when I arrived at about 8pm on the night before Chinese New Year that maybe turning up with no hostel booked wasn't the best idea ever, but after a few phone calls I found somewhere to stay, and the friendly owner even invited me out to dinner to him local curry buffet just round the corner for some super spicy food!

The following day I had my first lie-in in ages and then went off to follow the Lonely Planet's walking tour of the centre to see all the main sights. It's a really lovely city, pretty small so easy to explore and has lots of fancy colonial buildings from when the Dutch ruled here. In the evening Chinatown was very lively and I wandered around the night market and sampled once of the local cakes, pinapple tart, very yummy! I also laughed a lot at the cheesy tri-shaw drivers riding around with bright light and blaring dance music coming from their bikes!!

I got the bus to Kuala Lumpur the following lunchtime and arrived at the crazy bus station and managed to find my way on the monorail to my hostel in Chow Kit, apparantly the red light district, although I didn't see any proof of this! I went off to explore in the very hot and humid weather, and had some food in Chinatown. Had an early start again the next day to go and queue up at the Petronas Towers to get a free ticket to go up to the skybridge on the 41st floor. Waiting for ages and finally got a ticket for 3.30 that afternoon. I then had to go back to the craziness of the main bus station to buy my bus ticket for my next destination, the Cameron Highlands. It was manic - there are all these counters for each different bus company and you have to try and find the right one for where you want to go and then try and fight to the front of the line! Anyway i succeeded and then hopped on a bus to Batu Caves about 15km aout of KL, on the reccommendation of some people at the hostel. It was really impressive - huge caves with lots of shrines inside and also lots of monkeys, and a huge golden statue at the front. The I headed back to go up the skybridge and see some fantastic views across the city.

I am now in Tanah Rata, a really nice little town in the Cameron Highlands and it is lovely here. I arrived at lunchtime yesterday after a 5 hour trip on my VIP coach, teehee! Pretty nice actually, LOADS of leg room, even for me! and they are the same size as a normal coach but only 3 seats wide so you get loads of room. Luckily got a dorm bed at the most popular place to stay here, Father's Guest House, up on a hill just a few mins walk from the town. Had a lazy afternoon at the hostel and bumped into Emma, one of the girls who was on my trip to Fraser Island in Oz, super exciting!! Met a few other really nice people here too and just lazed around the hostel and watched films and ate! This morning I did the 'Countryside Tour', which involved a visit to a tea plantation and a tour of the factory, a strawberry farm, with fresh tasty strawberries to buy, yum yum, a butterfly farm, and a honey farm, and also a local market where I stocked up on some fruit. I have also just sampled the local home made tea, scones and jam! I really like it here and as it's in the highlands, it's lovely and cool, a lovely break from sweating all the time (it even rained earlier and felt a little bit like being home, except for the beautiful views of the tea plantations!). If I had more time I would stay for longer but the beach is definitely calling me now, so I head to Penang tomorrow, and then plan to get a ferry to Pulau Langkawi the following day for 5 days on the beach! Yey!

Hey everyone!!

Have had a great week and a bit in Borneo and have seen and done a lot of stuff!!

I sorted out my trip to climb Mt Kinabalu pretty soon after arriving in Kota Kinabalu and then had a relaxing beach day on one of the nearby islands, Sapi, to prepare myself for my expedition!!

On day 1 of the climb, I got picked up at 7.30 and was taken to the base headquarters, where I was assigned a guide, called Edwin, and given my packed lunch to help me on my way to Laban Rata, 6km up the mountain. 6km, I thought, that's not much at all, but once we started walking and I saw the gradient, I realised that th climb was going to be pretty tough! We set off about 9.30am and reached Laban Rata at about 3pm. The views were absolutely amazing, we were above the clouds and could see up to the summit, our destination for the following morning!! The first day of climbing was shattering, some of the steps we went up were HUGE, even for my long legs! Had a much needed shower and then had a huge buffet dinner with some of the other climbers I had met on the way up - the food was great, quite impressive as all the supplies have to be carried up on foot from the base!! Went to bed not long after 8pm to get a few hours kip before getting up at 2am for breakfast no1, and then setting off, in the dark, on the 2.5km walk to the summit at 2.30am.

We actually got up to the summit in good time, and as sunrise wasn't for another hour, we sheltered a little way down from the summit to try and stay warm - it was soooooo cold and as I walked up I gradually put every layer that I had with me on - luckily I had managed to borrow some cold weather gear from my hostel so i was fairly well prepared but it was still a shock, my hands and feet were numb!! Suppose I should get used to it as I'll be back in the arctic British winter before long (I definitely picked the right winter to go away!!). Anyway, sunrise finally came and we headed up to the summit for great views and some piccies by the sign!!! Didn't stay up there too long as we were all desperate to warm up.

The walk back down to Laban Rata was great, gradually warmed up, and could actually see what we had walked up now it was light! Stopped for a rest and breakfast no2 at Laban Rata, and then set off on the 6km walk back down to the headquarters. This was agony, my legs were so painful and my knees were aching every time I took a step down, but I made it down fine with a few rests and got a buffet lunch at the bottom (they fed us very well!!) befor getting my lift back to KK. I was so glad it was over, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done and it took my legs a good few days to recover (Joey, my walking style was similar to after the first half-marathon heeeheee!). But I am so glad I did it - was the best feeling when i got to the top and knew I had succeeded, even when I knew I still had to get back down! I treated myself to a reflexology foot massage back in KK, and then lazed on the beach at another little island the following day to recover.

Then, I got ill :o( the curse of Asian food finally hit - it had to at some point and I had a really awful 24 hours - Emma, it made me remember you on your return from China and made me chuckle!! Being ill and in a hostel is NOT fun - I was meant to take a 7 hr bus ride to Sandakan but couldn't face it so I spend a day recovering as I had no energy and then booked a flight to Sandakan instead for the following day, when, luckily I woke up feeling a lot better!

Arrived in Sandakan (not a very nice town but the hub for getting onto tours) and then headed off on a 2 night trip along the Kinatabangan River. I stayed in a river lodge for 2 nights, and even got my own room, which was a luxury!! Went on 3 river cruises to look for the animals, and a couple of walks through the rainforest too. Saw lots of wildlife, including long tailed macaques, probiscus (long nosed) monkeys, and most excitingly a wild orangutan!!! Oh and I had a really comedy moment during my last river cruise - we were watching some monkeys and one of them was moving around so i started to film him on my camera. I followed him down a tree branch where he was heading towards another monkey, and suddenly he pounced on her for a bit of 'monkey business'!!!!! I couldn't believe it and got the giggles as I realised I was still filming! Everytime I think about it I get the giggles!! It was a really good trip, although was a pretty quiet couple of days as my only other company at the lodge were a group of uk couples on a Saga holiday!! They were really lovely though and were very excited to hear all my travel stories!!! I also visited Sepilok orangutan sanctuary where I got to see some orangutans up close during feeding time.

And that brings me to the end of my time in Borneo - I flew back to KK this morning and jumped on a boat to Sapi for a day on the beach. I fly back to Singapore tomorrow morning and am hoping to be able to get an express bus to Melaka - about a 5 hour trip up the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Then my vague plan at the moment is to stop at KL, the Cameron Highlands, Penang and last of all Pulau Langkawi, where I'm going to laze on a beach for my last few days before hometime!!! I will let you know how it all goes!

Lotsa love xxxxxxx

Hey guys and girls!

Well, I would most definitely recommend Singapore Airlines - my flight was great and I even got a Singapore Sling to drink before some of the best airplane food I've ever had!! Arrived in Singapore about 10pm and successfully navigated the MTR (tube) to get to my hostel - very friendly little place called Drop Inn.

The following morning at breakfast (which was FREE along with the internet - I'm loving the cheapness/freeness of everything compared to crazily expensive Oz!) I met Charlie from England and Ferbie from Germany and we went off to explore the city. After ending up at a building site after a wrong turn on the tube, we made our way to the CBD and to the colonial areas to have a wander around. We went to see Raffles Hotel - it is soooo swanky - we wandered around the lobby and I'm definitely going to go back to have a Singapore Sling when I return to Singapore at the end of my trip! We also went to orchard Road (the main shopping street) which is just amazing - every shop you could imagine (including TOPSHOP, which Charlie and I got far too excited about seeing!!) and so many shopping malls. There are also loads of cool sculptures, statues, fountains and buildings along this road - so we strolled along and took heaps of photos. Next stop, after another wrong turn and a LONG walk, was the botanic gardens, they were so pretty and we saw turtles in the lake! Later in the evening we headed to Little India to get a curry - we went to one of the super cheap food courts and got very tasty chicken biryani for about 2 pounds, bargain! I got a really good feel for Singapore, it is a very easy city to be in compared to others I've been to in Asia and I'm looking forward to seeing a bit more of it when I return.

I'm now in Kota Kinabalu (in Sabah - northern Borneo) and have just settled into my very nice hostel and am going to sample the local cuisine with another girl I just met, Sandra (!!) from Switzerland. Then i'm going to go investigate the tours onb offer to climb Mount Kinabalu - so exciting!! Will fill you in on more adventures soon!

Sandy xxxx

Hey everyone! Arrived safely in Singapore and have the luxury of FREE internet!! Here's a small selection of my north island NZ piccies! xxxx

After a ful filled time in Sydney on Australia Day, I got up early to get the 9am bus to Melbourne - it took ALL DAY - I arrived in Melbourne at 10pm and then had to get a tram out to St Kilda where my hostel was. Was absolutely shattered despite sitting on a bus all day so went straight to bed and then had to get up super early to be picked up at 7am for my 2 day tour along the Great Ocean Road!! The tour was really good fun - we headed west out of Melbourne and first stop was Tower Hill, a volcano crater where we saw koalas and emus - the emus were so funny, I think if I was a bird maybe I would like to be an emu! We then headed along the coast to look at some of the rock stacks, including London Bridge and the Grotto - our tour guide Jude was great fun and she told us all the stories and history behind the different sights. We checked into our very luxurious hostel and then got some good 20 person team work going to crete a BBQ feast, all prepared and eaten in time to go and see sunset at the twelve apostles. The sunset was not great due to clouds but we did get to see the little penguins waddling out of the sea and back to their homes after a day out fishing, they were tiny but very cool!

The following day we went to see the twelve apostles again in the daylight and then went to see a few other sections of the Great Ocean Road, including Loch Ard Gorge which was beautiful and reminded me of some of the beaches in Thailand a bit. We went for a rainforest walk and then stopped for lunch at Apollo Bay, a really cute little seaside town with a stunning beach. Then we started our journey back to Melbourne, stopping at the lighthouse where 'Round the Twist' was filmed!!

That takes me up to my last day and a half in Melbourne - I decided I couldn't leave Oz without seeing Ramsey Street, so this morning I went on the Neighbours tour!!! We got to see Erinsborough High, and then we headed to Ramsey Street to take pictures of the houses and get cheesy pictures taken next to the Ramsey Street sign - which the tour guide provided as the street actually has a different name! Then we got to meet one of the cast - they don't tell you who beforehand, and I was really hoping for one of the old school cast like Toadie or Dr Karl!! However, we got Janelle instead, the mum of the crazy Timmons family from last year in the program - I was a little disappointed but still got my piccie taken with her and got her autograph!!

I spent the rest of the day wandering around Melbourne and have just been getting my things sorted for my flight to Singapore tomorrow - am really looking forward to Singapore and Malaysia and can't wait to get there now - looking forward to some less 'Western' experiences and some cheaper cost of living too! Will fill you in on some of my adventures once I'm there! It's quite scary to think that I only have 4 weeks left now - it has gone so fast, am trying not to think about coming back to the real world yet but I know it's going to be here before I know it!

Lotsa love, Sandy xxxxxx