Finally...

Howdie from Kuala Lumpur!!!

Confusingly, though, I'm going to start by finishing a blog I started about a week ago:

Greetings from Brisbane!

This is our last night in Australia! After a few days in Sydney we realised we're far too poor to be here any length of time. We've had alot of stick from other hostel people for not staying in Australia long enough, but its not so much fun when you can't afford to go out, or go off on hugely expensive tours to Fraser Island/Whitsundays etc etc. This is a credit crunch trip: bring on Asia.

We have had a lovely time though. Spent about 5 days in Sydney. On our first night we headed straight down to Darling Harbour, found ourselves the biggest Imax theatre in the world (really) to see Alice in Wonderland (obv enjoyed it tremendously, but not a patch on the book). The next day we wandered around the botanical gardens and took standard photos with the opera house. Spent the rest of the week wandering around, lying on stereotypical Aussie beaches (surfers, lifeguards, VW vans and beautiful people everywhere), lounging in parks, and eating desserts. I was sorry to leave Sydney; our hostel was really friendly and we felt quite settled. We were excited, though, when we caught our night bus up to Byron Bay. Byron was very cool - more surfers, and LOTS of hippies, never seen so many people sitting around with guitars - but we had bad luck with the weather. We'd hoped for a couple of days of glorious sunshine, but turns out a cyclone hit the East Coast (brillaint), so we mostly had rain. So after a couple of days we were definitely ready to head for Brisbane.

When we arrived we found our dorm was heavily dominated by a group of gap-year-boarding-school boys. They were pretty friendly (despite the fact they demanded TimTams off us as soon as we walked through the door), and we shared some goon and had a good (ahem) night out with them on our first night. Things soon turned sour though. For one thing they wouldn't stop using my bed... every time we came back I found at least one of them reading/napping on my bed. And they played Kings of Leon constantly (because they thought they were cool). On the day they were leaving though we were nice enough to leave a little good bye note before we went out, only to find that when we returned they'd STOLEN loads of our stuff. Pft.

ANYWAY, despite the boys I really enjoyed Brisbane, and we did meet plenty of nice people. The first day was a write off because we were hungover, but we did muster the energy to find the artificial beach. Its so cool; right in the middle of the city there's a big park with a huge kids water play area, a beach (with proper sand and everything), streams, and barbecues dotted around everywhere. We went on a Saturday so there was a really nice atmosphere - loads of kids playing and people having picnics. It still kept raining though! The next day we went to the Australia zoo. I've never been to a zoo like it; there were staff everywhere walking around holding animals. You could get really close to everything. All based on the Steve Irwin philosophy: "conservation through exciting education". And I honestly fell in love with the koalas (think my maternal instinct came out after I held one) - excuse all the photos. There were also alot of Steve Irwin tributes. Spent our last day barbecuing and drinking goon in the park like proper Australians (well... not really).

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SINGAPORE

The flight to Singapore was quite stressful. The stupid cyclone meant that we nearly missed our connecting flight out of Australia (after past experience we were VERY anxious). Then when we landed Rachel's bag wasn't there - initially this wasn't too much of a worry as the jolly staff (seriously, they wouldn't stop laughing) insured us that it was on another flight, and handed Rachel $100 for the inconvenience. Only in the morning the bag hadn't turned up, and we were told they didn't actually know where it was. Thankfully 32 hours later she had the bag. Hurray!

Singapore is weird (in a good way). We stayed in the Little India district (which does what it says on the tin) - hustle, bustle, piles and piles of dried chillies, and Indian pop music blasting out from little speakers everywhere. One train stop away though and it was totally different. More luxurious than London; huge designer shops and skyscrapers. We had a really good time in the city, and definitely liked the drop in costs after Australia - we found one bar where you got free tapas with every drink you bought - nice. We also had time to take another trip to a zoo (couldn't resist the cheap price and Lonely Planet's promise that it was the best in South East Asia). The orangutans were free roaming, and unbelievably cute. Plus there was a really cool night safari where you could see all the nocturnal animals actually doing stuff. (We've recently realised that we must really like animals because we're always drawn to the zoos).

Yesterday we caught a bus up to Kuala Lumpur (though it wasn't like any bus I've ever been on - business class size seats, TVs, and a free meal). Feels quite alot like Singapore, if a little less Western (the toilets certainly are). We're kind of tired of cities now, and we're looking forward to tomorrow when we're flying up to a Malaysian island (Palau Langkawi). Our first day there will be my birthday - awesome because the island is apparently duty free, and the only place you can drink cheaply in Malaysia. (Promise not to go overboard Mum).

Right, this is really long, sorry, and really rushed. Probs doesn't make sense in alot of places (sorry again).

Love to you all.

xxxxx

Paradise Found

Bula!!

Fiji was incredible: stunning beaches and excessively friendly people.

After a night on the mainland, and a trip on a catermaran, we jumped onto a tiny boat (that was very dodgy for a clot like me) that took us to Wayalailai Island. It looked like paradise. As we got closer we could hear people on the beach singing to welcome us. Again, the hop from the boat to the beach was precarious - nearly lost my flip-flops.

Most days on the island were pretty much the same: get up, breakfast, beach, lunch, beach, afternoon tea (yessssss actual proper tea), hammock nap, dinner, Fijian entertainment, cards, drink, bed. Beautiful. The food wasn't amazing (we were sick of rice by the end) but it wasn't bad either, and our resort was costing us half the amount most other islands cost. (Kate, I'm glad there were no pineapple sandwiches). The beach was just lovely, pretty much empty, and the sea felt like a warm bath. And the hammocks, OH MY GOSH THE HAMMOCKS, they were a dream. The best naps I've ever had, and every so often a nice Fijian came along and started me rocking again.

We did do some stuff in the day other than sleep and sunbathe. We went reef snorkelling - amazing - there was proper coral and everything, huge schools of fish everywhere, and we stroked reef sharks. I was most impressed with our guide though; he could dive down so far - I totally forgot that he wasn't breathing - and dissappeared through coral tunnels. Plus, he speared loads and loads of fish to feed to the sharks. I was in awe while I just spluttered around near the surface. He also had the best laugh I have ever heard (and he could laugh underwater).

Another great character was Nepote, who took us up to the island summit at 5.30am in the morning. It was quite a scramble, no proper path, I was SWEATING (that's for you Andy) alot, but was well worth the view of the sunrise at the top. He also made us climb up the "wobbling rock", which he then wobbled, while we screamed lol.

We also learnt to weave on the beach with ladies and kids from the island village. Our whole experience was really nice because Wayalailai is the only island 100% owned by the islanders themselves, and all the profits made by the resort go back into the village itslef. The epitome of Fiji friendliness though, was the island cook Mere (Mary). I'm not sure why but she LOVED us. Seriously, she came looking for us all the time, she invited us into bures to have naps, she reserved us a table at every meal, and always invited us up first, and the one morning we got up later than breakfast she saved us a whole box of cereal, a plate of pancakes, and a plate of cake (incredible, and everyone else who'd missed breakfast was kind of annoyed lol). I think she liked that we were sisters (she thought we were triplets lol). At the end of the week we gave her our matching turtle towels because she loved them so much.

In the evenings we got to watch traditional Fijian dancing and singing, eat traditional food cooked underground, and take part in kava ceremonies. Kava is some sort of drug that tastes like muddy water that you drink out of a coconut shell; I didn't drink enough to feel anything, but Abi said her mouth went numb.

After spending 3 weeks rushing around sightseeing it was very nice to live on "Fiji time" for a few days.

Sydney is really cool, and we're having a great time. Photos/blog coming soon.

All My Love
xxxx

The Beautiful South

We were super early for our ferry to the South Island; I vow I'll never even miss a bus again. The view from the ferry was awesome - although I couldn't get Abi and Rach to come upstairs so I had to run around on the top deck on my own. Once on land we travelled down the East Coast to Christchurch. We pretty much stayed by the sea the whole way and made lots of nice stops - including a massive seal colony.

We stayed just one night in Christchurch (didn't see much because we were knackered). The next day, on our bus to Queenstown, we enjoyed the company of the BEST bus driver yet. A charming man who entertained us for the entire 9 hour journey with interesting facts about NZ geography, and great stories about the Maori, the gold-rush and a sheep stealer called McKenzie. We passed through miles of vineyards and over the Southern Alps, and got a pretty good look at Mount Cook. The driver stopped at several massive bright turquoise lakes. Beats the M6.

Queenstown is probably my favourite of all the New Zealand cities we visited. Its really small and quaint, and sits on the edge of another huge lake. We arrived about 6 in the evening, settled in, had dinner, and shared some wine with the 3 Brazillian (funny) guys in our room.

The next morning we made a quick stop at the village fete opposite our hostel (felt a bit like home) before we headed for the birdlife park where we met the kiwis! Oh, they were even more endearing than I had expected them to be - after seeing kiwi symbols all over New Zealand our expectations were high. They're quite hard to describe because they aren't really like any other bird. NZ had no mammals before the Maori arrived, but the kiwis are pretty close. Flightless, they have a hilarious walk, and their feathers are more like hair. We sat for ages in the dark enclosure trying not to laugh too loud at them (didn't want to scare them - apparently their also "profoundly disturbed" by camera flashes - we didn't try it). We spent the afternoon sunbathing on the village green that sits right in the middle of the city - has a really nice stream running through it (full of ducks, yessssss). Later on we sat on the lakefront and ate fish and chips (not as good as British ones though).

The next day we got up early to catch our bus to Milford Sound. It took us about 5 hours to get there, but the views from the coach were really incredible. We travelled up and down huge glaciated valleys and into rainforest, saw the aftermath of snow and tree avalances, and made stops at the Mirror Lakes (true to their name, and crystal clear), and a huge chasm. Its impossible to describe the scale of the valley we suddenly found ourselves in.

Milford sound is one of the wettest places on earth, and it rained (proper proper heavy rain) the entire time we were there. Initially we were dissapointed by the rain. But we've learnt since that Milford is best in the rain because of the hundreds of waterfalls that suddenly appear. Seriously, I've never seen so many. Even from the lodge (the one place you can stay in Milford) I could see over 20 waterfalls. Due to the downpour we couldn't really do much but sit in the lodge, drink tea and play cluedo, scrabble and monopoly (in that order lol). Despite that, though, it was really nice to be in such a remote and literally awesome place. The next day we braved the rain and wind and went on a cruize of the fiord. The visibility was bad, my photos almost look black and white, but it was spectacular. I'm going to try not to go on too much about it; you should all go and see. The next day we got on our coach back home. We wound our way back up the valley and went through the (relatively) tiny tunnel that cuts through the mountain. When we came out the other side it felt like we'd left Narnia lol -leaving a whole world behind.

We're back in the North Island now - ready to fly to Fiji tomorrow. Hope all is well at home. Don't worry Mum, I do miss some stuff, like you and Dad, Eastenders, Silent Witness, tea and Oscar :-)

P.S. FOA Durham folk: I saw Saggy in Queenstown! Weird. I was in a tiny supermarket, looked up, and there she was! Even stranger... I saw her AGAIN in Milford. (Also saw the same French girl in Christchurch, Queenstown, Milford, and then again in Christchurch airport). SMALL WORLD.