A Day in the Life

After the Margaret River road trip, I had to get some more important things sorted. Firstly, where I was going to live for the next month in Western Australia. The dorm I'd been sharing was already grating on me after spending a couple of nights so I decided to try and move on to a different backpackers - even though this would be more expensive.

Asking the first random person that I thought to ask, I was offered my own room in a house in the suburb of Inglewood, Perth. Extra bonuses; it being cheaper than the cheapest backpackers and the fact it has its own swimming pool in the back garden (all for 36quid a week)! It's also located 1 minutes walk from the nearest supermarket, library, garden centre, payphone, cafes etc etc etc.

So last Monday I moved in with a half hearted intention of getting a job to kill some time for a few weeks before I move on. One week on and I'm still jobless, but my suntan, swimming stroke and beer belly are all now well trained. The others in the house are foreign students or full time workers, so to be doing less than a student I'm doing okay in the lazy-stakes competition!

Despite a week of doing relatively nothing, I've still managed to push my lifestyle boundaries; experimenting with cooking as well as dealing with my washing on a full time basis.

On friday night, a few of us ventured down to Fremantle. It's a pretty cool place to go out, with lots of pubs showcasing live bands and of course the usual array of nightclubs, wine bars, posh and not so posh eateries and video game arcades. It's a little bit of a shock now after Asia, having to take ID & shoes to be given admission to most places.

Saturday we stayed a little more local; a visit to Raj's (the landlord) cricket club for their monthly curry night before a few more beers at a local brassery.

Most days I'm able to go and visit Kings Park. It's a great place to read, listen to music and generally kick back and watch the world go by. Times like these I can reflect on my travel experiences, and in particular, I realised on Tuesday that I had been travelling for exactly 4 months.

Road-trippin'

After the Big Day Out, it was an early start for the three of us. The guys picked up our hire-car and stopped by at my hostel to pick me up for about 8am. I was embarking on my first surf/road-trip in Oz. Destination: Margaret River.

With 280kms, Decca and I (the over 25's) got to share the driving, in doing so; putting me behind the wheel for the first time in 4 months. Odd at first, I soon acclimatised - helped a little by driving on the left like all normal countries of the world!! We stopped off for Hungry Jacks (Burger King) along the way and also picked up some choice Australian snacks - the awesomely named "Road-Kill - The Champagne of Beef Jerkys".

Margaret River is famous mainly for two things; its wine and its surf. Even 40kms from town the area was littered with Wineries and Vineyards. The beauty of these however is that they all offer free tasting sessions - generally 5 tastes equating to one full glass of wine - per Winery. This would always mean a pre-dinner wine session on the way back from a hard day at the beach!

We arrived on Monday afternoon, found our lodgings and then headed out on a reconnaissance mission, checking out the local beaches and points for a good wave. At this point of the trip I was taking interest from the guys words on how to spot a good swell in preparation for a days surf. At this point of the trip I also thought I could surf. That evening, we were de-toxing after a few days on the drink and the Lube-Dog and I battled out an epic chess game lasting around 3hours... quickly boring Decca who resorted to hitting the drink again.

It seems the Australian way that all guys give their mates nick-names, I was now no longer an exception, thanks to influences from 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'The Streets'; I was now affectionately known as "The Geezer".

So Decca, Lube-Dog and the Geezer made it to the Margaret River mouth beach for our first surf-session. Decca made it quite apparant that he's done this a few times before in tearing up the waves before him... whilst The Geezer struggled hard to get past the barrage of oncoming waves and swirling rip currents. It was completely out of my league and after about 20minutes I was out of the water, and out of breath. Decca declared the surf to be 'crap'.

I'd heard of the 'pre-dawn search' in surfing before, but wasn't interested in going to look for big waves at 5.30am especially after my failed efforts. The guys went for it however and returned mid-morning.

Because of the 'poor-surf', we decided to give the swell some time to grow and so took a day out to see some of this part of the country in more detail. We headed down South to the Southern most point of the West Coast - Augusta. With some breath taking forrest driving, we made it to the coast were the lighthouse there also marks the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean.

Next up we headed to the Gloucester Tree. Not just any tree, this one located in the Karri forrest, Pemberton, is 60metres tall and is regularly climbed by those brave enough. At the top was a tree-house, where you can survey the upper canopy of the surrounding forrests for miles and miles.

On the way back home we stopped in at a couple of wineries to get our first tastes the local produce. I'd never known much difference between one glass of wine to the next, but I can safely say I'm educated now - and I can't remember education ever being as much fun!

The following day the guys got up early again and found the "best waves of the year". I went along for the second session of the day, and somewhat luckily for me, they'd died down a little. This time I managed 2 minutes in the water before being swept into a rock and getting a dead leg for my efforts! I had to let that recover the next day and so didn't get out again until our last full day at Margaret River.

With some progress, I actually managed to stand up for a nano-second... before carving a 'Zorro' imprint on my chest when the sharp point of the board spun around in some rough waves. So all in all I was brought down a peg or two in learning of my actual surf ability. But thanks to the guys, I have made some good progress with the sport... I just think the next time I practice, it'll be on smaller surf.

On Saturday we returned the rental car in Perth, had a few farewell beers before Decca and the Lube-Dog flew back to Sydney.

Shuffle Your Feet

Floundering. After arriving at Aberdeen backpackers, Perth, I went to unlock a few memories from 1994. Although cool to see the city again, I was still a little jaded being in the company of a majority Western populus.

I gave the job scene the once over but soon decided to go to Scarborough beach as Flea (from Koh Phangan) was in town for one last day. I met the guys and girls she'd met along the way and was introduced to Declan (AKA Decca, Hellfish) and Brad (AKA Lubedog, Bona) - 2 guys from the medical profession on holidays from Sydney. My easy afternoon on the beach turned into a warm welcome to Australia in the greatest of Ozzie traditions... a night at the pub.

The following day, Decca, Lubedog and Flea and myself ventured into Perth and Kings Park, along the way sampling the local brews. The weather quite different from Asia, was blue skies with a cool breeze. Lunchtime I got to indulge in one of my all-time favourite meals - BBQ spare ribs from Fast Eddies. They didn't disappoint, though with my pocket $30 lighter, I quickly realised I was gonna be spending more wonga now.

After waving Flea off, the 3 of us set to work in the Shed. I'd like to say it was an inner-city Agricultural project, but it was just a shack themed pub with a live band playing. Another great night had by all.

Day 3 in Oz, and while the Lubedog attended a Chairopractors conference during the day, Decca and I killed time playing pool and cruising the streets in search of cheap eateries. The day fizzled out with a cheap night in the hostel eating pizza and watching the world go by from the front balcony. The following morning we were planning a Big Day Out.

One of the biggest Australian music festivals was on just outside of the city, and with my addiction for Summer live music it was something I really didn't want to miss. However we couldn't get tickets at such late notice, the Australian law seems a lot tighter on touts that would normally supply an Englishman a ticket at a price. However we thought we'd check the site out to see if there was any way we could get in.

Security was tight, and there were no opportunities to get a ticket, so a little defeated, we headed off to the pub and watched as the Australian cricket team beat the South Africans in a one day match... and played some more pool (can you spot a recurring theme yet?). As daylight faded, we passed by the festival gates one last time. (note: Mum, you might want to stop reading now... just joking)

We spotted a chance and within a moment or two, the three of us had jumped a wall and were making our way across an unlit carpark. A wheely bin boost, a building scaled, and we were laying low to make it into the festival boundaries. As we passed over the corrugated roof, we came to our final hurdle. Over the lip of the roof, was a 12ft drop, and almost Bond style, a fabric canopy out-stretched over a picnic area. The canopy lowered us a few feet, then a ledge on the wall, a relatively small drop and we were running for cover of the crowd. Made it.

We got the chance to see a couple of Ozzie bands play, some of 'Franz Ferdinands' set, 'Iggy and the Stooges' and the main headliners 'The White Stripes'. When those guys had finished, one of my favourite dance acts were just starting the final set of the day - '2 Many DJs' pumped out the crowd pleasers as the end of the Sunday-long festival pulled to a close. Awesome.

After a staggered start, my introduction to Australia was over... and I think you can tell - I think I'm going to enjoy it here...

Australia

With no time difference with Singapore, I had the luxury of 0 hours jet lag, sadly I also had the luxury of 60 'on-demand' movies to watch on my air journey on the 2nd February 2006. Two full movies, possibly as much as 2 hours sleep and it was time to get up and walk into a new continent, bleary eyed, and feeling as much of a culture shock as the day I walked into Asia - funny what you get used to in life!

Fake Plastic Trees

I rolled into Singapore late in the evening with no clue as to where to stay. I was lucky enough to have met a couple of guys from Canada and Australia studying in town. They recommended some places to stay and gave me a good idea of what I could expect from the areas.
I took the MRT to Chinatown. The MRT is like the London Underground, except Clean, Punctual and generally a pleasure to use.

As I arose from the stations depths, a plethora of bright colours hit me. Chiense New Year is a massive thing in Singapore; although maybe more due to its potential to earn local business more money than from an age national tradition. I found the 'Dragon Hotel', stumbled in with my 22kgs of luggage strapped on my back before hitting the streets in search of a phone box - showered (and a lovely hot one too!).

The following morning, the city was still sleeping while the festivities dragged on another day. With very little open; not even an internet cafe, I put on my tourist head and went to visited the Singapore Science Centre. It had been advertised with a Star Wars expo which was the main draw for me. However, I went for a walk around the Science exhibits first and learned some pretty cool stuff before watching a demo of a Tesla Coil. 3,500,000 volts pumped out of a small antenna to cause purple lightening to spread through the air above our heads.

Then, in an expo room (not so) far, far away.. Star Wars. It was an opportunity to look at the history of each film with areas dedicated to the various chapters. Lots of original costumes, props, sets and interactive exhibits.

On my trip around the complex, I had seen an ad for a local snowdome - could it beI could cheat my hot travels and actually go riding for just an hour or two?

Sadly, the building was quite underwhelming. I estimated the slope around 40m long, and when I saw the condition of the slope, figured no point in the probable broken hip caused by a hard stack to the icy surface. Nearby, was a cinema with a few films with English subtitles, I chose to give Jet Li's "Fearless" a crack. The film was okay, but it was cooler to see the reactions of an Eastern crowd watching a film of this nature (Martial Arts).

Before getting some sleep, I managed to track down a cheap "traditional" eatery where I got to sample some good Singapore food with a bottle of Becks! On my way there I also spotted something I hadn't seen in months... a nice car!

My last day in Singapore finally allowed me to do as I pleased as the sleepy locals returned from their holiday slumbers.

Singapore is easily the most modern country of any I'd visited on this trip (Europe excluded). It was quite surpirsing how few internet places there were; I found myself clicking in the middle of Top Man on Orchard Road!

Until mid afternoon, I walked the pristine roads along with the shopping malls. Ralph, Yves, Hugo, Giorgio & Prada all present - and usually in several places too. There had been one CD I had really missed not being able to get from the UK - Richard Ashcrofts new one. I found an HMV and a copy of the special edition for what worked out as 8.18 (UK). Grinning I set about copying it to my iPod... only to discover that it has copy protection on it!!

This had been my 2nd visit to Singapore and also to the Orchard Road shopping district. I wanted to check out Sentosa again too, to see if it had changed much in 12years. So I hopped on the lofty cable car and set foot on what is essentially an entire man made island offering the tourist the chance to lay on a beach, visit a 4d cinema, walk underwater with the fishes, take a monorail journey or watch a show with the stars being dancing water jets. Having done several of these before, I paid my $10 for a trip up the Sky tower. Just my luck that the 10mins of rain that fell that day would be while I was trying to get a good view of the city! (It would later transpire that my memory card would die on me and my photo's from this day be lost anyhow, hence a lack of pictures on this posting.)

After this I took a walk to the beach which offered some marvellous views of distant oil refineries. I opted to read until the sun went down on my final day in South East Asia.

My flight to Western Australia departed at 1.25am, I was, actually quite anxious to get away from Singapore, though I had time to reflect on 3½months away from home so far.

** ** ** ** **

From London, to Frankfurt, to Vienna, to Kathmandu, to Bangkok, to Vientienne, to Ho Chi Minh City, to Phnom Penn, to Kuala Lumpa, to Singapore - I've done what seems like a lifetimes worth of travelling in an incredibly short time frame. I've met some of the most amazing people of my life - some of which live in a a far poorer quality of life than myself - and probably most people reading this. It always amazed me to hear some Westerners complaining about how these places were developing and distancing themselves from how things were "10years ago when I first went travelling".

For me, I thought it was cool to see development in places where it really needed to happen - and more over; I was just happy and grateful to be there, in an amazing part of the world, with an amazing people to match.

Rise

Whilst I'd been sleeping, Sofia and Jessica had been chatting away to local chap. He was more than happy to help us find the underground station nearest our drop off. We'd already heard that for the Petronas Towers, you had to be there early to claim a ticket to get on the Sky-Bridge. I think 5.30 might have been a little too early.

We were hungry, and wanted nothing more than a cheap Thai street vendor. Too bad we weren't in Thailand any more (toto). The first eatery that was open (on Chinese New Year) was virtually guaranteed to get our business. It was the Impiana 5 star hotels restaurant featuring an awesome sunrise view of the Twin Towers. I spent about the 2nd most amount of cash of any meal so far on my travels (about 7 pounds), and made sure I got the most from my buffet breakfast. It was in fairness amazing. Cereals, Sushi, Curry, Pastries, Omelettes, Toast, Pancakes, Fruit Juices, Cakes, Donuts... I think I tried most of it before leaving. The hotel also let us leave our luggage with them whilst we explored the Patronas complex - jolly nice I thought since many upper class joints normally turn their nose up at stinky travellers!

We queued and got our Sky-bridge tickets for 11.15am. Then took a look at the shopping mall base in the foundations of the towers. I got some ice-cream - which I paid about 1.20 UK... the same as a full meal in Thailand... the cheap days are well and truly behind me now.

The time came, and after watching a slightly tacky video educating us all about the building of the complex, we were rushing upward at the rate of 1 floor per second. Floor 41 - 170metres above street level - but nothing compared to the towers 452metre total. We were allowed 10minutes on the bridge to take pictures and suck in the view. Pretty awesome. Just a shame the public aren't allowed to the top.

After that, a trip into ChinaTown for some lunch. Still for trying new things, we got a plate of deep fried frogs legs in. Visibly, they were indeed frogs legs with batter on them - though not particularly dark in colour. To taste; well, they taste a bit fishy to be honest - but quite tasty none the less.

After late lunch, I'd said good bye to the girls and I just had the small task of finding somewhere to sleep for the evening. Eventually I found somewhere, threw in my bag, and knowing that I had limited time in KL, decided to enjoy the city my favourite way - hitting the street... and the malls along the way!

Kuala Lumpa is in many ways different to Bangkok, I got the idea that it built itself on advertising space. Every train station along the monorail isn't just the "Station Name", but something like "The Coca-Cola Station Name". Though it seems to have worked and the city is clean, modern and very enjoyable.

There seems to be a mall around most corners, which for someone who likes to shop - isn't the best thing - especially when travelling!

The evening started to buzz. The general public were out for celebration having had no work to go to during the day. I sat and people watched a few times before making the trek back home.

Back at the Trekkers Lodge, there was a random ceremony whereby the owners daughter had been proposed to - so cake, sweets, and fizzy drinks were dished out for nout - except for having to be a pretty awkward stranger in the family video.

I awoke with until 2.25pm to see some more of KL. I hurried around some shops picking up a few things I'd spied, and then set to getting to the Butterfly Park - not something I'd have normally tried but after being so impressed with the ones in the wild thus far, I gave it a shot. I really wasn't disappointed. Some of the species were bigger than birds, and a few of the more timid ones would actually come and land on your outstretched hand.

I checked out the National Mosque as I walked past, the Islamic Arts centre and then managed to hitch a free ride to KL Sentral for my train to Singapore.