Warni-poor in Singapore! January 14, 2008

Kuala Lumpar

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

hello all,
we are in hot sunny luscious New Zealand after getting stuck in to yet more air miles!
We left Kuala Lumpa with great anticipation as we thought the train to Singapore was going to be very swift and cool.We had images of cool drinks rising from the arm rests with smoke and “ppphhhhhhssss” noises and a computer charactor talking us through our trip.As it turned out it was just a bit grubby and old,very cheap tuck cart,due to it all being a bit out of date.
we passed plenty of greenery over the next 8 hours,banana trees,palms,grasses.All greenery supersized due to the ample rain fall and sunshine.
We stopped briefly to go through customs.There was a sign saying”no knuckle dusters,turtles or through to Singapore”which seemed like a reasonable request.Another sign said”drug trafficing penalty of death”Which made us both instantly feel guilty and scared.Did we have any drugs on us?of course not but when the sniffer dogs came by my bag i felt like i did have.Whats that all about?
We arrived at Singapore with out any currency so had to drag ourselves through the hot wet puddles of the city centre for a cash point – we didn’t realise just how much of it we’d need here! Lots of slipping in flip flop (which had become squeaky from the wet)and cursing ,sweating and tutting.We cut our losses and got a taxi as a treat,unbelievably we got in 5 minutes after the price had gone up by 35% due to it being rush hour.Damn it!
When we arrived at our hostel we were shown into a windowless room with a mattress on the floor and not much else.Double wammy when we found out we had miscalculated prices and it was about 35 pound a night. We put up our best argument but money grabbing woman would not let us cancel. We had to stay, so we left to calm down and ate noodles in an angry way before returning back,a little less angry.The plus side of our over priced accommodation was that the air conditioning rocked ,Chris said on several occasions”its so cold you could hang meat in here”much to my amusement.Due to the fact we received no natural light it was a bit like living in a burrow and we slept like logs.Every morning we surfaced freezing cold and bleary eyed ,stumbling out of our room to find out it was 12.45 or later.Top snoozing! There was also unlimited use of the internet so i had loads of wedding discussion emails with my sister.
First day in Singapore we headed off to the centre and caught a cable car up to Mount Faber.We were just in time for the big daily downpour when we hit the top,so we sat around in the expensive restaurant avoiding eye contact with waiters as it was 6 pounds for chips and we are on a budget.Great views and managed to be selected out of a huge queue to go ahead and avoid a 50 minute wait in line.We think they assumed we were with a large group who had special treatment,not sue why they thought this as the rest of the group were Indian.We tried to keep busy while the 4 indian people we shared the cable car down from the mountain stared at us,both disbelieving and disapointed with us for blagging our way into their exclusive group!
Basking in the glory of our queue dodging we popped into yet another massive shopping centre and watched “Elizabeth The Golden age”Then back to the windowless garage we call home for another dark ,cold 14 hour sleep.Met some fellow English travellers rowing with the mean woman we had words with previously.They also were unhappy with room and price and so we sat around and grumbled with them for a bit.They were travelling for a year and left England on the same day as us which was very strange.We agreed to bond over beer the at some point,great to have met drinking companions!
The next day was a big,hot and occasionally wet day trip aroung Clarkes Quay,along the river,popping into Art House,where Chris(illegally)took a photo of a photographers work and was going to pretend we had taken the picture(very wrong i know)
We walked to Orchard Road but Christmas lights already down and we were not sure whether we were in the right place as it seemed a bit dull?!!After a stoll back passed Supreme Court Building,City Hall and St Andrews Cathedral we back tracked to the Singapore Museum.Brilliant place!You get your own head set and small system called a “companion”and it talks you aroung the exhibition.So much fun and lots of messing around that probably is inappropriate for a couple of our age.Back to the garage for another massive dark sleep.

The next day we were ridiculously excited about our lunch trip to Raffles!We skipped breakfast to be at our physical best for indulging.
We arrived in our backpacking finest,smelling a little musty as we always do now.Greeted by a man dressed head to toe in white we were shown to our gorgeous white dressed table.The next hour and a half was a combination of eating food politely while still getting as much nice food into your mouth as time would allow, a tightrope for us both!We agreed that eating noodles and rice were just a waste of stomach space and Chris was the proud overall food consumimg winner, after eating10 man sized buns.Reminded me of our honeymoon where he ate 50 buns in 2 weeks,he is a very impressive man and takes his bun eating seriously as most of you probably know.Raffles was a real blow out but the lovely sandwiches(with crusts cut off of course!)and cakes,buns,biscuits,creams,sauces and all the silverware made it a great grown up tea party. We then had Singapore Slings (what else?) in the courtyard bar and wrote posh postcards!
Full of food we met up with Finton and Claire our new buddies.Chris and i have not had many friends on our trip so we agreed to try to play it cool and not be too overexcited about our meeting.We needn’t have worried as they were brilliant fun and a long beer drinking evening continued with top quality banter. Finton and chris invincible on pool table and even sang the song ‘Yesterday’ on karaoke. Returned to our hostel and garage room drunk but happy!
In true Warni style we had to catch a flight the next day so after another row with our money grabbing land lady we left for the airport(hanging) When we arrived at the check in we were asked where our visa for Australia was, to which we replied”our what?”Quick dash to internet to get visa online then finally we could check in,tired,emotional and smelling a little of beer.
8 hours to Australia and we arrived at 4 in the morning our singapore time but 7 Australian time. We wore our flashing santa hats once more and couldn’t have been happier when we saw the beaming face of Chris’s brother Phil waiting to pick us up.Lots of hugs followed and then we met Phils chap Mustaffa and the hugging started again. Mustafa was in a suit, but it wasn’t especially for us he had to go work after driving us around! Short trip to Mustaffa’s house where i was overcome with joy at the quality of his material possessions.So many beautiful things,cushions,candlesticks,paintings,even the mugs were lovely.However tiredness overcame us and we went to sleep for a few hours before breakfast in the sun and realising we really were in Australia!yippee!
We had a sight seeing tour from Phil and took in the sights of Melbourne.No one seemed to go to work,everyone was sat in cafes drinking smoothies or beer.I think i like it here!.we will have a proper look around when we come back to Oz but seems a great place to live, we went out for a meal that evening and the food,wine and company were all perfect.Great to see Chris and Phil together and hear them taking the mick out of each other!Funny chaps!
As we only have 2 days in Oz we didn’t do much the next day,Chris and Phil collected some things our mums had sent over from post office and i sat in the house and read all Mustaff’s house magazines.Brilliant.Crazy hot day though (41) and even a walk in the park at 7 in the eve was sweaty and tiring,we saw people go by on bikes,are they mad?After a great curry made by Mustaffa we relaxed and talked about lovely Plymouth in the very hot garden and laughed like drains while drinking very nice red wine.Unfortunately we were leaving for New Zealand the next day,but will be back in a few months for a proper Oz trip.
The journey to New Zealand was pretty uneventful,however when we checked in we had another check in surprise.”Where are your tickets out of New Zealand?”we were asked ,to which we replied,”what tickets?”Another dash to ticket office where we had to buy tickets back to Australia with rather less consideration on price than we hoped for.Rushed back red faced and were led to front of queue to finally check in.My heart can’t deal with any more check in suprises!I thought we were good at travelling but we seem to be missing important things like visas and plane tickets!Dont worry mum,i am sure they were one offs.
So now we are in New Zealand which is fabulous.Great weather,not too hot,cool evenings and we are next to a beautiful park which runs up tthe back of the museum. I must admit that when we first arrived at our hostel and i saw our room,bare with a bed jammed into it,dirty curtains,used sheets and no air conditioning ,i did sit on the bed and start blubbing.Visiting Phil and Mustaff gave me a reminder of home comforts and family ,so it was hard to go back to grotty back packers.Luckily i have Chris with me and he did a brilliant job of cheering me up.Today we are off for a tour of the bay,visiting Devonport area just over water, just like Plymouth it’s the area just outside the naval base. And we are also booked in to something which will be brilliant full details later in the month.But Chris and i have agreed not to tell you yet.
We are in New Zealand for 6 weeks and hoping for lots of adventures.Will go now so i can get started on them.Love to you all.Just to remind you that if you double click on our photos you can get into our album.Cheers!!!

NY in KL (C – 2 Jan 08) January 2, 2008

New Year – KL

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Happy New Year one and all, we had a fantastic time on the night and spent the evening with a german couple, a Scottish Australian, a Russian woman and a man who came from Watford but spoke like a South African and it was brilliant, but I jump the gun. We left Koh Samui vowing to definitely return at some point, if not here then to Thailand. After a last night in Samui interrupted by a live band and a singer who sounded like Cyndi Lauper (they were so loud it sounded like they were playing in our bathroom!) Early start 4 am taxi straight to the airport and we were shattered on arrrival but were soothed by the airport facilities, cushioned seating, gentle music, complementary cafe mocha, warmed chocolate brownies and football on telly (Man U losing to West Ham) – if Carlsberg really did do Airports, this would be it. The flight back north to Thailand was the long way round to Kuala Lumpar but the cheapest, it was also short and sweet much like the lovely New Zealander we met on the 1 hour trip. Doug is from Wellington and it was great to pass the time with someone with a similar sense of humour, he also offered to help us tour vineyards in Wellington, so we agreed he was a smashing fella. He also mentioned that tourism had increased in NZ due to the film Lord of the Rings and that he had auditioned as a hobbit! Back to Bangkok airport where we tried hard not to go in any shops (or at least I tried hard not to let Soph go in any shops, full time job!) 3 hour wait and then onto 4 hour flight to Kuala Lumpar in doing so we passed the 25,000 mile mark on our travels – I love the stats!
KL really organised as you’d expect, quickly through customs and onto the Tren Ekspress (the express train, yes I know it’s not difficult being a tourist here) which whistled us the 30 miles into KL centre, very tired by this time having had brekky on one flight and lunch on the next! The train ran through lush green forestry and huge numbers of palm trees, dissected by rivers and lakes – really jungly! This vista gave way to another type of jungle, the concrete type, in really short order. 1 minute green the next, a fantastic futuristic sky line of modern buildings dominating the horizon. They have really gone to town with their architecture here and it is pretty amazing stuff. From sports stadiums, to towers to bridges they’re all done in metal and glass and look great. Anyway, we arrived at KL Sentral (central) and tried to sort out our ticket to Singapore while we were there, hot and tired we had to wait for ages to get it done and I kinda lost my rag at bit for first time on trip, only briefly but felt bad! Soph took charge though, as I appeared to have stopped being able to think in a straight line – weak! We took train through city to our hotel, big adventure, but all services are clean and efficient so it is a bit easier here than maybe doing same thing in London. We have also learnt 2 words, thankyou (treemacasee) and hello (hi) – language geniuses! Hotel is big and luxurious and we love it, soph put on the towelling slippers for a roam round the huge bed, which we dove in on shortly after to catch up on some shut-eye before the NY celebrations. Choice between going to see an Elton John look-a-likee, eating in one of the hotel’s 10 restaurants or venturing out and about. This time decision making was easy so we made our way through the sticky heat, passing people carrying silly hats and foam spray, fortunately with these faces we always look like we’ve come for a party (halloween). We walked through the immense shopping centre beneath the Petronas Twin Towers and it was packed with people, none of whom seemed to be drunk, very strange not like Plymouth! Exiting the building we entered a fountain filled park area, with big screens broadcasting live pictures of a band playing Malaysian popular music, great stuff. Most of the bars had cover charges, so we slipped into one that didn’t but still had a security cordon. Luckily, found a seat in the corner of the bar and settled in to some Tiger beer drinking – roar!! Met some fine people, especially an English speaking German couple, who were amazed that after 2 years of German study at DHS, I only remembered two words, verboten (forbidden) and fliedermouse (bat), equally amazed that by the end of the evening i had brought both into conversation. They were lovely people though and we had a great time with them and the ensemble cast mentioned in first paragraph. The fire-works were amazing and our position in the bar was absolutely slap bang in front of them – lucky Soph strikes again! We were worried that we would miss the count down, as my watch is so cheap and inaccurate, then we noticed the 5 metre high numbers on the big clock strapped to the side of the highest twin towers in the world, so managed to join in the shouted countdown. The celebrations were long and loud, like my wife! You probably won’t be suprised to learn that we were the last to leave the bar and stumble home to our hotel. Passing people going to work and some kids doing break dancing in the street, thank god Soph didn’t let me show them my moves! 1 JAN 08 DID NOT EXIST FOR US. It must have been a time warp, the only thing we managed to achieve was to eat some pizza! Today great though, after free breakfast, walked to the Petronas tower and realised we should have booked days ago to get up there, so went to Menara KL tower instead which used to be tallest building in world. Went up to observation desk 276m and looked back at the Petronas, which is about twice as tall as anything else in this city stuffed with tall buildings. Also popped into post office, to finally get our gift for the Walshies baby posted (this must be a record, we bought it 15 Nov 07) when the guy at the counter asked us for the exact change, Soph asked me if we had any cents – well I’ll leave you to answer that one, but I laughed like a drain! We are now sat in the Times Square shopping Mall, keeping Soph in check in this a true shopping Mecca has been a ‘mare, her heart-beat is at a constant 130 beats a minute and she is insane with the shopping lust! Still as weather is permanently overcast and exceptionally sweaty (especially for a bloke with man boobs!) we are about to go see ‘I am Legend’ in the biggest cinema in Asia, which must mean the world surely. Anyway, have a great ‘08 all of you, thanks for Ted Getsch for saying hello and to everyone who sent us Happy Christmas/New Yearses! We have now passed 3,000 viewings on our blog (average 200 a week) and Soph is probably shading the competition at the moment – so post me some Comments please!