A tale of two continents

After the massive night on the pub crawl we woke up bright and early. Not sure why, but we did. For some reason we can't seem to lay in anymore, so we staggered about in the bright morning and did some jobs, like getting the underwater photos developed and buying a fishing rod from a pawn shop!?!

Stu utilised this weapon the next morning and then promptly pawned it back in about 36 hours after he bought it. We lazed around in Cairns lagoon with Steve and new bez Ted for most of the rest of the day and lamented our lost football which unfortunately put pay to volleyball games. We also bumped into some of the girls from our Fraser Island trip who had just got back from the Whitsundays. Grrrrr. We actually quite like them though so we teamed up and planned the evening. It was Paddy's day after all! Some Guinness? Or more Goon. Well, goon is cheaper, and the chardonnay we bought was also very, very delicious...

We played some very noisy drinking games as we endeavoured to get rid of the stuff and had a fairly sizable posse, swelled to include some Welsh and Norwegians, by the time we headed into town to dance our boots off. Stu preceded to get so transmogified that he was found in another hostel in the morning as naked as the day he was born, spread-eagle on some poor unfortunate souls bed. We can only be thankful that someone was there to see it so the story could be told!

This little skirmish into the Australian night drew a close to our proceedings in this continent and we boarded a plane headed for Singapore (via a sausage roll in Darwin). Singapore certainly livened the senses after essentially a three week beach holiday in Aus. Colours, smells, lights and multiple hundred crazed drivers. We stayed in a little neighbourhood close to the centre and wandered about in the evening and ate a massive plate of (very delicious) Chinese food for about a pound. After this however things really did catch up with us, and with some of the comfiest hostel beds to date waiting, we turned in.

Fully refreshed the next day we set about exploring Singapore proper and hit up the CBD, Chinatown (perhaps the craziest yet) and the waterfront areas which gave great views of the city. After visiting a large temple we both decided to convert to Buddhism, but we are having some teething problems with the '5 Precepts'. We also took a stroll, sweating profusely, to the Singapore flyer, but before we got near we stumbled on the F1 track! Pretty darn cool, a deserted pit lane and grid all to ourselves. We also worked out the buses, which took us back to our South American days - all the tiny offices all with the 'best' price. After a lunchtime special sweet and sour pork we headed to the colonial area and saw and somehow wandered into the Raffles hotel which was very east of India, conjuring images of cigar smoking and very fine cut suits. In fact, lots of people in the markets were trying to get us to buy tailored suits. Could they not see we were melting?! Last but not least, we strolled down Orchard Road which is perhaps the most ludicrous shopping district I have ever seen. Skyscraper shopping centres lined the streets, everything was shiny and clean and expensive and we were blasted by ice cold air-con at every shop entrance. We also caught some sort of performance in the street here by some school children playing piano-harpy things which was quite cool.

On the last day in Singapore we intended to buy some bus tickets, climb a mountain, with 9km walk and see a reservoir in the rain forest. The end of Singapore's wet season intervened though and we ended up buying some bus tickets, having a huge curry and then getting a full body massage! Little did we know on entry that they took the words 'full body' very seriously, and after a while hands went a wandering and we were told we could be massaged further if we paid a little more. Resisting this proved difficult, but a swift exit was made!

Next morning we caught the bus to Kuala Lumpur, the bus driver constantly commenting on how tall we were. I was greeted with the line 'Do you play basketball for Brazil?' We were also warned about hitting our heads on the way out etc. Funny lad though and very helpful. When we stopped at some services in Malaysia our eyes opened wide. Now dealing with Ringets (5 to the pound) we were astonished at all the food that as on offer and how cheaply. We went for roasted duck noodle (about one pound). We also had some greasy Chinese thing (20p). On arrival in Kuala Lumpur we took the monorail across the city (22p) and arrived in Chow Kit, where we were to stay. That evening we took a walk round the infamous chow kit street markets (in monsoon rain) and ate the largest Naan I have ever seen (40p). This one Naan served amply for our entire dinner.

I don't know if it was the Naan, but something caught me out in a similar way to our arrival in Lima, and I was up all night with a tremendous stomach ache. I went from pure excitement at all the culinary options to eating KFC chips within about 24 hours. Things are settling though and we have just enjoyed another curry after spending today sorting out our Indian visa (don't ask), exploring KL's Chinatown and the historic centre. An evening walk beckons to get closer to the sight which dominates the skyline here - the Petronas Towers.