We left the jungle in Thailand, me with a touch of a hangover from a lovely drunken time the day before, and had quite a long truck day down to Georgetown with a nice easy border crossing and a stop at the duty free to stock up in advance of high prices in the mostly muslim country.
Georgetown is an old colonial town and is really lovely. It's tatty and faded, but lovely. And had it not bucketed down all day the one day that we were there I'm sure I would have had a really lovely time. As it was we took a wee wander round until the rain got too much, then retired for curry, beer, and a truly terrible band (so terrible we thought it was karaoke) playing across the road from the hotel all night.
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| Pretty terraced houses, Georgetown |
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| Jenn and I went out in our new Odyssey shirts, and matching trousers and shoes. Oops! |
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| No escape. This only serves to remind me that the real world awaits. |
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| Typical street, Georgetown |
From there it was good news - we went off to the Perhentian islands on the east coast of Malaysia which was therefore a little less monsoony. And it was the beach. With diving and sunbathing and all that malarky. Lovely.
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| Beach on Perhentian |
And to add to the beach vibe, we had our last big trip quiz/games etc. First of all Mandy set up a brutal photo quiz with "where's Calypso" and "what the hell is this bit of the truck" type questions. My team enjoyed trying to figure it all out, but did rather miserably!
And then Zoe & Susan ran a beach olympics which involved all sorts of beach games, mostly involving getting covered in body paint and sand and doing energetic things. And everyone that knows me knows just how much I enjoy running up and down the beach....
We had a great time and neither won nor lost which I consider quite a result (especially as Jenn and I were sneakily adding vodka to the diet cokes we were using to hydrate ourselves).
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| Red team writing quiz answers on me in body paint |
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| Mermaid competition |
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A touch sandy after becoming a mermaid.
This is before Denis added to my comfort levels by putting a handful of wet sand down the back of my bikini. Bloody west coasters! |
We were supposed to then head for another jungle, but after the monsoon like conditions in the jungle in Thailand, and with everyone worn out, an executive decision was made and we headed straight for KL. KL is a strange sort of a city in that, yes it's massive, and yes it's got history and big skyscrapers and malls and all that jazz, but there doesn't seem to be any heart to the place. There aren't really proper pavements and you can't really walk anywhere so I didn't really get a proper feel for the place. But the boys did find a pub serving draft guiness and Jenn and I spent a reasonable time in the malls and we went up the KL tower so a good time was had. Oh, and we found an M&S and bought crisps and chocolate raisins which was brilliant!
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| Me at the Petronas towers. Sadly the viewing bridge is closed at the moment. |
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| The KL tower and the Petronas towers at night (from our hotel room no less) |
Honestly though, the highlight of Malaysia for me was our wee Ben's comedy gig. Ben was fab and there was lots of beer drunk and laughter had. Ben's one to watch - he'll be a superstar some day I reckon.
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| Ben doing his thing |
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| Me and Jenn at Ben's gig |
And so to our last stop in Malaysia, and the final port of call for the truck, Melaka. Another wee old colonial town, this time with a bit more charm (mostly based on the fact that it didn't rain all the time, and had a shop that sold really good mini cheesecakes).
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| Portuguese church, Melaka |
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| Temple, Melaka |
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| The maritime museum, cunningly housed in a replica ship |
After a couple of days, we said goodbye to the truck and loaded ourselves into comfy minibuses for the easy journey down to our final destination (for most of us anyway), Singapore.
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| Saying goodbye to our trusty Calypso |
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| Sign on the Singapore metro - No durians! |
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| Singapore |
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| Love this sign! The equivalent in Malaysia had the robber being shot in the back whilst running away. |
Loved Singapore. Jenn and I managed a quick run round the colonial centre upon arrival, before allocating a couple of hours to get ourselves spruced up for a wee visit to the Long Bar at Raffles for Singapore Slings (it had to be done!). And the following day, under Mandy's competent organisation, we all went for our final fling at the Hyatt brunch buffet which was EPIC. They let us in at 1130am and rolled us out, drunk and stuffed at 330pm. The food was amazing and the fizz flowed constantly. Utterly wonderful, and a great end to the trip.
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| Jenn, Jim and I at Raffles |
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| Raffles Long Bar with Singapore Slings and Jenn |
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| With Jim and CJ and their girly pink drinks |
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| Brunch at the Hyatt, with Colin, Jenn, Jim, Sally and CJ |
The following day was spent marvelling at my lack of hangover and saying goodbye to everyone before heading back to Melaka with CJ, Colin and Wendy and taking Calypso north to KL to be readied for her sea voyage back to the UK ready for her next epic adventure.
As for me, I'm going to HK soon and then will be heading home in late Oct before deciding what to do with the rest of the year. The work avoidance continues people.....
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