Sep 2007

'This must be just like living in paradice, and I don't wanna go home' - Dave Lee Roth

We've just had a splendid 3 days and 2 nights sailing around the Whitsunday Islands off the East Coast of Australia. The sun was shining, dolphins and turtles swam beside the yacht, we swam, sunbathed, sailed, snorkelled and ......well nothing else beginning with 's' as we were sharing the yacht with 19 others!

Friday 28th September
Well our first night in dorm accomodation went quite well. We were sharing the room, kitchen and toilet facilities with 2 American girls, a French guy and a French couple. No-one was loud or smelly and everyone respected each others right to a good nights sleep, so it was all good.

Our alarm went off at 7am and we checked out, putting our big bags into storage for the next 3 days. We walked along the Bicentennial Walkway to Abel Point Marina. It was only just after 8am and the sun was already shining like a big shiny thing shining it's heart out.

We checked in at Gloria's Cafe and met up with our fellow sailors for the next few days. We had a good yacht, a good crew and a good bunch of people to hang around with, including two fellow Scot's - Mark from Airdire who is into good music, so we got on well, and Nikki from North Berwick who has been living in Dennistoun - small world!

We also had Mark and Tobi from Germany, Aiko and Peggy from Germany, 3 guys Hong Kong, 2 girls from Japan, one weird German guy who didn't say a word called Alex, a very shy German girl called Anna, a really nice bubbly English girl also called Anna, an English couple - Mark (another one) and Sarah, Sara from Plymouth, mad Tina from Essex and Angeline from France, and the crew.

We sailed out of the marina and headed to a place called Luncheon Bay where we dropped anchor and the small boat took us to the shore where you could either snorkle or dive. Lynn went for a dive and I snorkelled with Mark (Scottish). The snorkelling was excellent, thousands of fish, absolutely gorgeous colourful coral and warm water! Lynn came back to snorkel after her dive and actually preffered the snorkelling. The reef started just metres from the beach and the fish came right up to your mask - an amazing experience.

We had lunch back on board the good ship Apollo and set off for another spot. We set anchor and watched the sunset from the yacht. Some people went off on a night dive but Lynn decided not to bother. I have to say that I didn't see the attraction myself either.

We sat up on deck until 11pm drinking some wine we had brought along. Mark (Scottish) played acoustic guitar and I had a bash as well, even singing one of my own songs.

Saturday 29th September
We woke early, before 7am as Chris the cook was making breakfast for everyone. Chris was a real character, not so much a dog on heat, more like 10 dogs on heat! He tried to chat up everyone, including some of the guys!

We sailed off and pitched up next to a beach to go snorkelling. The scenery wasn't as good as it has been the day before - I mean the fish and coral - but if we wanted spectacular, breathtaking scenery we didn't have to wait long! After lunch and a bombing competition off the side of the yacht between me, Scottish Mark and German Mark (won by Scottish Mark thanks to his perfect 'tuck technique') we sailed off to Whitehaven Beach - paradice!

We set anchor and the small boat ferried us all over. We started off by trekking a kilometre or so up to the view point over the beach. The view from the top was picture postcard perfect - clear blue waters and pure white sand. We couldn't get down to the beach quickly enough!

When we did we acted like kids. Running in and out of the sea, taking loads of pictures, writing things in the sand and generally being ludicrously happy. German Mark and Tobi had set off for the far side of the island and just before the 6pm pick up time Mark came sprinting across towards the rest of us - without Tobi. After he caught his breath he informed us that Tobi was marooned on the far side of the island as the tide had came in. Mark had swum across 3 newly formed rivers and ran the length of the island to get back! Tobi was guarding the cameras - at least they were OK.

Mark then astonished us all by going for a swim to cool off after his run before Nikki got everyone to shout 'help' to get the small boat in to go searching for Tobi! All was well and we all laughed about it for the rest of the night with big German Mark assuming superhero status for his rescue!

Whitehaven beach is beyond gorgeous - as the lyrics above say, it was like paradice and I didn't want to leave!

Sunday 30th September
We woke early again thanks to the sound of Chris the chefs alarm going off just before 6am. Lynn caught him in a bed he shouldn't have been in! We had a fry up for breakfast and sailed off to an island where we could go snorkelling off the beach. Everyone was pretty tired and Scottish Mark soon decided we should call for the rest of the wine to be delivered to shore! It was only 10am!

I decided to go rock climbing while Lynn had a few glasses of wine with Nikki and the two Marks. The snorkelling was good but the water was colder as the sun was hiding behind the clouds. The sun soon made an apperance though and we all lay on the rocks enjoying the rays.

We went back to the boat for lunch and had another bombing competition off the side of the boat. German Mark showcased his new 'yoga' style bomb and taught it to his two Scottish bombers. After lunch the wind really picked up and we sailed to the max, with the two sails carrying us effortlessly through the water and the yacht riding high. It was great fun.

At night we all met up for drinks and watched the Aussie Rugby League final between Melbourne and Manly. Melbourne won easily in front of a crowd of 100,000 - it's the Aussie equivalent of the FA Cup. After a few beers at one place we headed to another. After a couple of beers we moved to the seats outside and when I tried to get back in to go to the toilet I got asked for ID! The doorman was a real tosser and Lynn and I both had a few words to say to him before we were ejected from the premises! We tried to get into another club but he had radioed down to warn the doorman there about us! So we returned to our dorm around 11.30pm.

The doorman probably did us a favour as today we met some of our new friends that had been up until 4am! Ouch!

Monday 1st October
We are catching a bus at 5.30pm, overnight to Rainbow Beach where we will spend a couple of nights before heading out to Fraser Island for 3 days/2 nights camping, trekking, swimming and 4-wheel driving around the island - the worlds biggest sand island!

So we're heading down to lounge by Airlie Beach lagoon for a few hours and to get a Subway sandwich!

'Life is what happens to you while your busy making other plans' - John Lennon

How true. We talked about going travelling for years and now we are finally doing it the feeling is fantastic. The freedom, the time to think, dream, remember.....it is the best thing you could do.

Saturday September 22nd
We got up at 7am as we were getting picked up at 7.50am to head to Cape Tribulation, where the Daintree rainforest meets the ocean and the Great Barrier Reef. We stopped for breakfast at a small town called Mossman that was quintessentially Australian and then went on a crocodile spotting tour along the Daintree river for an hour, but we only saw a small one as they were all sleeping in the shade somewhere. We did see a huge colony of fruitbats flying overhead which was really cool.

Later on we stopped for a short walk through the rainforest and Lynn tasted a green ant - bush tucker! I'll stick a photo on flickr in a few days after our Whitsundays sailing cruise.

We arrived at our accomodation and booked in, immediately ditching our bags and heading for a lovely walk along the beach. We crossed a hillside path to Myall Beach and saw a snake on the path! It slithered off into the trees though - phew! We had a nice dip in the ocean and then headed back for dinner which we made ourselves in the small kitchen attached to our room. We shared the kitchen with two other rooms but we practically had it all to ourselves the whole time we were there.

It was nice to have Lynn cook for me for the first time in a few months! The simple things in life are usually the best!

Sunday 23rs September
After a quiet night we got up at 8.30am despite the alarm going off at 8am, we possibly had too much sleep. We had toast and checked out, leaving our bags at reception to go on a 10k hike to Emmagen Creek swimming hole. We walked along a country road with the rainforest one one side and the ocean on the other, it was scorching hat, as it has been since we arrived in Oz - too hot for sunbathing, we now shade-bathe!

After 5 k we came off the road and into the forest and followed a path along to the swimming area. I went in, only after throwing a rock in to check there were no crocs! It was lovely, a beautiful setting to swim in and as it was so hot the cool water was very welcome.

We walked back to the guest house and caught the bus back to Cairns, stopping at Alexandra Range Lookout where we could see the area where Steve Irwin last went swimming and then the Mossman Gorge - a lovely area and then a brief stop at Port Douglas.

We went out for dinner to a restaurant called Rattle and Hum and treated ourselves to a lovely bottle of Rothbury Estate Semillion Sauvignon Blanc - nice!

Monday 24th September
Up at 6.30am to make sure we got the 7.25am bus to Magnetic Island. We both dozed for the first part of the journey and then watched 'Free Willy' with our nano's on - you hardly need to listen to the dialect! We did watch and listen to the second film played on the journey - Top Gun - an 80's classic.

The journey passed by pretty quickly and we arrived in Townsville at 1.15pm, just in time for a bus to the ferry terminal and then the ferry over to Magnetic Island - affectionately known as 'Maggie' by the Aussies. We got the 20 minute ferry across and got another bus to our backpackers - Base.

We checked in and went to our room, opening the door to discover we had been booked into an 8-person dorm that stank! We quickly upgraded to get our own beachside bungalow. We will be staying in dorms at times (indeed we are tonight (27th) but as we were staying for 3 nights we wanted our own space. It was a wise decision.

We walked along the beach to the local supermarket and bought some fresh pasta and other goodies to cook dinner for ourselves at the communal kitchen. We also ended up buying 6 Heinekens at the bar and enjoyed drinking them on our balcony, watching the sunset and the moon reflect on the ocean yards from our feet - very romantic and very relaxing.

Tuesday 25th September
A pretty lazy day. We had breakfast on the balcony and decided to use our 1 hour free kayak hire. We kayaked round from our beach to a beach that could only be reached by the sea and had a pleasant paddle and splash around before kayaking back to our beach to go snorkelling. It was nice to go snorkelling together as Lynn usually goes diving. The reef was nowhere near as spectacular as the one off Cairns, but we saw plenty of fish and enjoyed a good hour or so in the sea.

At night we walked to the supermarket and bought a cooked chicken and potatoes and salad for dinner - someone had pinched our bread from the food area! Bloody backpackers!

Got another few beers and sat on the balcony listening to music on the min speakers we bought for our nanos. Splendid!

Wednesday 26th September
We had a great day driving round the island in a moke - check www.mokemagnetic.com

We checked out Horseshoe Beach and several others, also visitinga Koala sanctuary where we got our photo taken with Lynn holding a koala. Lynn also had a snake draped around her and we both held a baby croc! Photos will be up in the next few days!

We headed back to Horseshoe beach to watch the sunset and then got a massive $25 AUS supreme pizza and a bottle of wine and went to our balcony, listening to more music and admiring the full moon shining bright above us. The wine was $18 AUS Kalleske Barossa Valley, Clarry's Barossa White - lovely.

Thursday 27th September
We are now in Airlie Beach and tomorrow we will be going on a 3 day/2 night sailing expedition around the Whitsunday Islands - it's a tough life! We met a nice Irish couple on the ferry back from Magnetic Island and we may meet them again later in the month.

The yacht we are sailing on is called the Appollo http://www.seethewhitsundays.com/opp/tours/apollo3/index.html

It should be quite a nice few days. We are staying in dorm accomodation tonight, but it is a million miles nicer, cleaner and generally better than the dorms on Magnetic Island.

I'll update our bog when we return, before we head further down the coast to Fraser Island. We do have an overnight bus to take to get there - that should be interesting.

Keep on keepin' on
Murray and Lynn
xxxx

'I'd like to be, under the sea, in an octopus' garden in the shade' - Ringo Starr

Crazy lyrics from Ringo but after today's diving and snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns Australia I can understand why he'd like to be down there. It's peaceful, calm, beautiful, it's another planet!

Sep 20th - Thursday
Yesterday Lynn and I had a long lie before heading into town for amazing sandwiches at a place called The Big Apple. I have a bit of a sandwich fetish so I can't tell you how good it was to have proper cheese again after 3 months in SE Asia. I got a magic Turkey sandwich with cheese, salad and cranberry sauce and Lynn got a chicken one - ideal!

It's the simple things that keep us happy!

We realised in our very first hour of arriving in Cairns that Australia is one big country and, to use an Aussie expression, there is heaps to do. So yesterday afternoon we planned our itinery for the next 4 weeks or so. The schedule runs as follows.

1) Great Barrier Reef - diving for Lynn and snorkelling for me - more about that later
2 ) Swiftly followed by a 2 day/overnight trip to Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest meets the ocean
3) Hop on a bus down the East Coast for 3 days/2 nights on Magnetic Island
4) Back on a bus to go sailing and snorkelling in the Whitsundays for 3 days/ 2nights
5) Back on the bus to Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world, for camping on the beach, driving 4-wheel jeeps, trekking and generally chilling - another 2 nights
6) Then we are on the bus to Brisbane, stopping off to pay our respects to the late and very great Steve Irwin at Australia Zoo. Could be quite emotional as the guy is a legend!
7) We then have a few days to get down to Sydney - we may need to catch up on some sleep!
8) We fly from Sydney to Alice Springs, we then spend a night in Alice Springs followed by 2 nights camping out under the stars at Ayers Rock! Another night in Alice Springs before....
9) Flying to Perth to visit an old friend of Lynn's and to chill out

It's a hectic schedule but we want to pack as much in as possible to our 8 weeks in Oz. We'll have time to chill in Perth before booking a flight to Melbourne, then making our way to Sydney before flying to New Zealand. For all the flights, tours (with accomodation and some food included), buses etc, yesterday we spent about 1,800 pounds. 900 quid each.

After SE Asia this seems like a hell of a lot of money, but things are more expensive in Oz. But last night we put it into perspective. We're doing a heck of a lot for that money, including flights to the middle and the other side of the country, so we think it's a good deal.

In the afternoon we had a dip in the magnificent pool at Cairns Quay before catching a repeat showing of the 2nd half of the United game from Wednesday night in an Irish pub. United won 1-0 for those that care. The other big news was that Mourinho had walked out of Chelsea!

Friday - Sept 21st
What a fab day we have just had. It started early as our guest house drove us to the quay at 7.30am to get our yacht for the day, meet the other passengers and head 1.5 hours out of Cairns to a sandy bank named Mickalmas Cay. We split into groups of divers (of which it was Lynn, one other guy called Paul and the instructor - a good deal), intro divers, old folk for the glass bottom boat, and snorkellers.

I went snorkelling right off the beach and it was mindblowing. I had a flating device on, snorkel mask and flippers, meaning I could casually kick out from the beach and into the Great Barrier Reef. Within 2 metres of the beach you start to see beautiful coral beneath you and small shoals of fish are swimming around you. Further out I came across even more fish, bigger and just breathtaking. I came up for air and as I did a guy 10 yards away shouted that a turtle had just swam underneath me. I dove down and followed the turtle for a good few minutes. It was so graceful, it just gluided through the water seemingly effortlessly.

I really enjoyed the snorkelling. Most people went to lie on the beach for a bit but I stayed in practically the whole time, only coming out to check the time. I had 20 minutes left before lunch, so rather than come out to get the small boat back to the yacht I opted to snorkle back instead. I was rewarded with more out of this world underwater scenery and hundreds of fish, sometimes almost touching my mask. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had, I'm still buzzing from it.

Lynn was slightly disappointed with her dive, saying that she had ended up coming in to snorkle as more fish were nearer the sand bank. However she had an amazing second dive in the afternoon when the boat headed further out to sea, whereas my snorkelling was nowhere near as good as it had been nearer the sand bank.

Ths sun shone, the sea sparkled and we had an amazing day. I imagine it will be one of the highlights of the Oz trip and the whole year. I've uploaded some photos we bought from the tour photographer on to www.flickr.com/photos/murrayandlynn so check them out. We also have to get some photos from an underwater camera we got developed, I hope they turn out!

Not sure when the next blog update will be as we have so much planned. All the best until then.

Live it like you love it
Murray and Lynn
xxx

'Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.' - Ferris Bueller

Wise words from Ferris. I might start every blog from now on with a quote, lyric or comething crazy, or maybe not!

Well it's goodbye to SE Asia, our home for the last 3months. We have been to Thailand, Laos,Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. We've had an amazing time and I would thoroughly recomend heading over there if you have time. The food is amazing, the majority of people are friendly and accomodating, and it is very cheap!

We sorted out our budget yesterday and we were 250 quid under our 50 quid a day budget. That saving will soon e eaten up in Australia though. It's a lot more expensive over here, still it's once in a lifetime and we should balance the budget by spending 5 or 6 months in South America next year.

Sinapore was an alright place for a couple of nights. We went to the zoo and the night safari, both were excellent and get a big thumbs up from Lynn and I. The animals look like they could get out their enclosures any time, and some don't look enclosed at all! Pretty scary on the night safari.

As our hostel on the second night was just along from the world famous Raffles Hotel we went in every time we passed to use their extremely plush toilets, drink Singapore Slings in the Long Bar (only once) and bask in their air conditioning.

Other than that we had a pretty quiet time in Singapore. We were hungover when we arrived, practically spent a whole day at the zoo and night safari on Monday and wandered round the shops and Quay on Tuesday before our flight. The flight was fine and we are now in Cairns, staying in the Castaway Backpackers Hostel. We have a room with a shared bathroom, which is fine, we had one on our last night in Singapore. The sun is shining, the weather is sweet, it makes me wanna move my dancing feet.

We're gonna head down to the quay and decide wat we want to do. We have 8 weeks in Australia. While that ay e a long time, it's one hell of a big country. Top choices for what to do so far include.

1) Hire a camper van and drive through the outack to Ayers Rock
2) Go diving and snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef
3) Spend 4/5 days in Sydney
4) Spend 4/5 day in Melbourne
5) Get a cheap flight to Perth, probably from Melbourne to visit Lynn's old pal Amy and check out the West coast
6) Pay tribute to the late, great Steve Irwin at Australia Zoo

And we don't know what else in between. There are a lot of possibilities. If we read every flyer/brochure in our gueshouse recepion that would take up a couple of days alone!

So I'll upate you on our plans soon.

PS I think I forgot to mention Scotland's momentous result in Paris last week against France, get in!

Hey all

Lynn and I are in Singapore, almost at the end of our South East Asia adventures. We have been just a little hungover today after an amazing night out with our great new friends Frank and Kay last night - 25 Tiger Beers and a night on-stage singing with the top band in Melaka! I'll get to that in a bit.....here goes for another update.....

Tuesday September 11th
We wake at 9am as our bus to Kuala Tahan and then Teman Negara national park is at 10.30am. The bus arrived at closer to 11am and the driver somehow managed to cram all our backpacks into the minibus, as well as those of another 6 travellers!

After a lunch stop we transferred to a bigger bus that had air con on full blast and we all had two seats each - nice! We stopped at a travel agency to pick up park permits and a camera pass (2MYR and 5MYR). We then swapped buses again to a smaller minibus and we found the Dorian guesthouse in Tuala Tahan, next to the national park/rainforest/jungle. The room we rented was basic but the setting was worth it. We were 300 metres down a narrow road, literally staying in the jungle. The room was only 40 MYR per night.

We dumped our bags and headed to the floating restaurant area. Tuala Tahan is a small town, very small. It only has a few guest houses and there is an expensive resort that is officially in the national park. We had dinner and then walked back home with our torches on. It was like a jungle safari! We lay in our bed with our Mosquito net on and listened to the sounds of the jungle as we fell asleep.

Wednesday September 12th
This was a great day. It all started early when our alarm went off at 7.15am. It was still pretty dark outside but teh sun soon rose and burned fiercely all day long. Lynn went for a shower and got a shock when an animal that we think was a kind of squirrel ran along the roof!

It was the start of Ramadan (where locals fast during daylight hours) so our guesthouse didn't have any food in! So we headed to the floating restaurant area and had banana pancakes and tea. We then hopped on a boat across the river, only around 30 yards or so and entered the national park.

We headed straight for the trekking trail that led to the canopy walk - it stretches for 510 metres (feels longer) and is 45 metres high above the jungle floor, suspended between trees. I'll upload some photos tomorrow or on Tuesday when we are waiting for our flight, but in the meantime visit www.taman-negara.com for an idea of what we got up to.

The jungle canope walk was a real buzz and a definite highlight of our trip. We were with Frank and Kay and they both enjoyed themselves as well. We all went a little snap happy with our cameras so expect a few pictures on the flickr site!

After the canope walk we decided to trek to the highest point in the park. We climbed up through the forest as the sun shone through the trees and the jungle humidity caused us all to sweat buckets! The view from Bukit Teresek was worth it. We stopped for a good 15 minutes to get our breath and enjoy the views before heading down the other side. It was a challenging hike and great fun. We clambered over massive tree roots, slid down muddy banks with the help of some rope, crossed rivers, got attacked by leeches and as Lynn was leading the way she got the fright of her life when a 3 or 4 foot monitor lizard crossed the path yards in front of her!

The route seemed to be a lot longer than stated, but we may have taken a wrong turn. Eventually we arrived back at the main park entrance where we all checked each other out for leeches. Frank had 5 of the little buggers and Lynn and Kay ahd two each - amazingly I had none! The leeches came off easily with some insect repellant and according to the others didn't hurt a bit. They did leave a bloody mess though - quite literally! They start off tiny and after a bit of blood sucking fun they end up quite big. Have you seen the film Stand By Me? You'll know what I mean if you have!

It was a great 5 hours or so trekking and we were all exhausted and a little dehydrated. We went for lunch and a wander round the small town - didn't take long - and decided to book transport to Kuala Lumpar the next day. After 3 days of jungle trekking in the Cameron Highlands and Taman Negara we were all tired and had no clean clothes! It woudl be easy to spend 4 or 5 days in Taman Negara as there are loads of trekking trails you can do independently or with a guide. We were happy with a day though.

The other night Kay had taught Lynn and I how to play the card game 'Hearts', so at dinner the four of us sat down to play. If you manage to collect all the Hearts and the Queen of Spades you 'run' the game, meaning you get zero points and the others all get 26 - I managed to do this to win the game with the lowest score of 96, sending the others all over 100. I was delighted and the others were all baffled!

Thursday September 13th
The alarm was off at 7.15am again as we were getting a boat down the river and then a bus to Kuala Lumpar. Yet again we were lucky with our decision as it had rained all night meaning that all trekking trails would be slippy. We have been extremely lucky with the weather to date.

The 9am boat to Tembeling took two hours and it was a nice cruise. I listened to my Nano and admired the scenery. The bus from Tembeling to KL was quiet so we all had two seats to spread out on and snooze. We arrived on the outskirts of KL and were impressed with the view of the twin towers and the communciations tower. When Lynn and I had previously been in KL we had arrived late and left early, so we were quite glad to be going back for a day to see a bit more of the city - although it is a small city.

On a previous Air Asia flight I had read about a new hotel concept called Tune Hotels www.tunehotels.com offering 5 star beds at low prices. We got a room for 75MYR (just over a tenner). It was worth it for the power shower alone!

The hotel proved to be a lucky choice, not just because of the comfy beds and the power showers. We met Kay and Frank in the lobby at 6pm and Kay said a market was nearby. She was right and we had the most amazing street food of our trip to date - yummy chicken curry bites, cocunut cakes, BBQ chicken and some great spicy noodles. It was very cheap and we spent a pleasant hour or so just wandering down the streets. We didn't see another westerner in all that time. The Tune Hotel is situated away from the main tourist backpacker area of Chinatown and it was nice to discover a market that I imagine not many people have. For any backpackers reading this, check out the Tune Hotel - great location, good prices and top rooms.

We watched the sunset behind Petronas Towers and took loads of pictures of the towers lit at night. It was lovely. We jumped a can to Chinatown and had 9 large Tiger beers between the 4 of us. We stayed until closing time and the Chinatown market closed around us. At one point there was a great busker that played songs by The Righteous Brothers (with the 4 of us helping with the 'Baby (baby), Baby (baby), I need your love (I need your love)' section, Tracy Chapman, The Beatles and more. We broke our rule of no McDonalds for the second time - both have been in KL - and had cheeseburgers, fries and coke before heading back to our nice comfy Tune Hotel bed.

Friday September 14th
Woke up quite early at 8am, early considering we got in around 1am. We met Frank and Kay in the lobby (yeah Tune Hotels have a lobby) and Frank and I took a pile of dirty clothes to the local laundrette while Lynn and Kay mucked about on the free internet - another tick mark for Tune Hotels.

We walked down to Petronas Towers and went for an O'Briens sandwich and some fresh fruit juice to nurse our hangovers. We then wandered round the superb shopping centre under the towers, basking in teh air conditioning. KL is a cool city and I would recommend it for a short break - you can travel to the Highalands and Islands very easily from KL.

We hopped on the Underground to Chinatown and checked out buses to Melaka for tomorrow - they leave every half hour so no problems there. We then walked through the stalls just as a police raid was starting! Stalls closed faster than you could say 'Police Raid' and within half an hour they were all set up again. I imagine the police get a substantial backhander from all the stall holders dealing in fake designer clobber and pirate dvd's. Also bumped into Carrie who we had met on the Pherantian Islands and arranged to meet later.

We hopped on the monorail back to the hotel, while Kay and Frank got off at the stop before so they could go to the communications tower. I picked up our clothes and then we had a pleasant nap before meeting Carrie, Kay and Frank in the lobby bar at 8pm. Kay and Frank both enjoyed the tower, it is a spectacular view.

Unfortunately the food market was closing by the time we got there around 9pm so after an aimless wander in search of an Irish bar in the area we ended up getting a takeaway Pizza Hut and going back to have beers in the lobby. Everywhere seemed to be dead and as we were quite tired we were not that fussed.

We did polish off another considerable amount of Tiger beer and it was after midnight we got to bed again - rock'n'roll stars that we are - and we proved that the next night!

Saturday September 15th
We were up at 9.30am as we had to check out at 10am. So it was goodbye to the luxury of Tune Hotel. I imagine that in a year or two they will have expanded rapidly throughout SE Asia. We had breakfast first though and used the free internet before getting the monorail to the bus station and getting the 12.30pm bus.

It took 2.5 hours and we all slept for some of the way. At Melaka bus station there was a nice old guy with a guest house leaflet and we decided to head for his place. We hopped on the local bus into town for only 70 cents and he ended up giving us a lift in his jeep, stopping for snacks on the way. He seemed delighted that we were staying with him as the guest hosue was new. It was only 50 MYR per night, so we were quite happy.

Lynn, Frank and Kay wandered around a couple of museums while I sorted out bus tickets for Lynn and I to go to Singapore the next day. We met back up at 6pm and wandered round a backstreet market sampling more delicious street food including duck and rice for a rock bottom price - yummy!

We then found a cool bar called Bar Carabou, decorated with pictures of The Beatles, Stones, The Doors and Hendrix - my kind of place. The owner told us his band were playing at 9.30pm and I resisted the temptation of going to the bar along the street to watch the United V Everton game. Well I did run along in between beers to check the score and ended up watching the last 15 minutes with a beer and a nice chat to a fellow United supporter, just in time for Vidic's headed winner.

The 4 of us played cards, chatted, had a great laugh and proceeded to drink copious amounts of Tiger Beer. We were sitting outside and enjoyed the first hour set by the band consisting of Beatles, Stones and Dylan numbers. At the break the owner asked us if we had any requests and Kay asked for some Bon Jovi songs. The band downloaded some lyrics and chords and launched into 'Bed Of Roses', 'You Give Love A Bad Name' and more. Pretty soon we had moved inside and were dancing along to the band. The band then asked if any of us wanted to get up and sing. Kay said she would if I went first so I joined the band on stage (to a crowd of around 20 people) and sang 'I Saw Her Standing There' by The Beatles. To my amazement (and Lynn's) I was asked to stay for another, so we played 'Eight Days A Week' and it went down well. Next up was 'Ticket To Ride', a hard song to sing, so I pulled Frank up on stage to join me on backing vocals. Kay and Lynn bopped along down the front and then got up to murder, I mean sing beautifully, 'Rock DJ' by Robbie Williams. Kay then surprised us all by singing the Madonna classic 'Like A Virgin' before Frank brought the hosue down with his rendition of the Bon Jovi classic 'Living On A Prayer'.

The band were great and they played more songs including Van Halen's 'Jump' that prompted some locals to join us on the dancefloor. The owner was a great guitarist and loved ot show off his skills, although some time after midnight he announced he was leaving the stage as he was 'a bit stoned'. He joined us on the dancefloor though and it was after 1am and 25 Tiger beers (5 buckets) that the 4 of us got to bed!

We said goodbye to Kay and Frank as they are heading off to do some diving on the coast of Malaysia, while we are heading to Oz. They are a great couple and we both really enjoyed their company. I am sure that we will meet again.

Sunday Spetember 16th
OOOOOHHHHHH we were both more than a little rough when our alarm went off at 7.30am so we could get our 9am bus. We were probably still a little drunk as well!

Not much to say about today other than we are now in Singapore. It is very busy and we had a problem finding budget accomodation. We are paying over the odds for what is not the best hotel room, but we've just booked some budget accomodation on-line for tomorrow so things should balance out.

We've had a Subway and are now in Little India to get some food, then some sleep to get our money's worth out our hotel. Tomorrow we'll wander around and visit the zoo and night zoo. Then it's on to Oz on Tuesday!

Check flickr on Tuesday or Wednesday for some new photos - www.flickr.com/photos/murrayandlynn

Lots of love
Murray and Lynn
xxxx