Deckchair Cinema

Yet another amazing cinema experience. It was the first week of the dry season and was being kicked off by the reopening of the "Deckchair Cinema" in Darwin. Right down by the sea were several hundred deckchairs and a huge cinema screen. Very, very cool! "Perfume" was screening and we'd a great time - once global warming kicks in, Ireland should consider something like this :-)

From Australia, Da...

Crocodylus

Our tour didn't leave for a few days so we went see what Darwin had to offer. On the outskirts is a park / zoo called "Crocadylus" which is a research center for crocodiles. Pretty cool place. They had hundreds of little harmless freshwater crocodiles in a huge pool which we cool look at. Then we went to feed the "salties" in special enclosed pens. It was a bit like the scene with the raptors in Jurassic park. These guys are huge and jump right up at you to get the food - you have to feed them with a fishing rod.

Take a look at the video below. Listen to the "pop" sound he makes when he snaps! This was really loud and a lot scarier being there in person!



At the end of all this we got to hold a little one year old saltie. Very cute but still quite dangerous. His jaw was tied shut. Even at this age, if he bites your finger it takes two screwdrivers to pry it open again!

From Australia, Da...

G'Day From Darwin - 17-4-2007

A late night flight out of Singapore brought us to Darwin, Australia at 5:30a.m. Don't know exactly how long we'll stay here. Gonna use it as a base to get to Kakadu and Litchfield national parks and Katherine Gorge ... Lets see how it goes ;-)

Disasters in Thailand

The early wet season seems to be causing a lot of trouble. At least 20 people were killed a couple of days ago in a flash flood at a waterfall in Trang. Meanwhile, the terrorism in the south continues with an attack on a passenger train heading to Malaysia, also only a couple of days ago.

I think it's time I went to Australia ...

Durians

The Durian is a really, really smelly (but tasty) fruit. So smelly, in fact that it's illegal on the subway here in Singapore. "No Durian" signs at the entrances.

The Singapore Zoo and Night Safari

I know what you're thinking - "Zoo?? Zzzzzzz" - but this was a zoo like I'd never seen. It was great! There's no cages here - It makes you feel like you're right in there with the animals and it was so much fun. They even had white tigers - I was there to watch feeding time.

From Singapore Photos

After dinner in the evening, they have the "Night Safari" in a separate place beside the Zoo - Full of nocturnal animals. It's quite creepy and creates a great effect. I loved it. We ended up spending the whole day there. We didn't get back to the hostel 'til almost midnight.

From Singapore Photos

Driving in Saigon Again

I found this video I took of all the scooters in Saigon. It might give you a better idea of what I was on about. It just looks nuts ...

I Found Nemo

I found Nemo and Dorey in Singapore ...

From Singapore Photos

From Singapore Photos

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping

One thing you can't escape in Singapore is shopping. I've seriously never seen so many shopping malls in one place before. It only gets worse once you hit Orchard Road - skyscrapers full of shops. Great place if you have money.

Sentosa Island

Sentosa is a tiny island off Singapore for Singaporeans to relax on. This is where the aquarium was along with beaches, resorts and various other attractions. We decided to go there by cable car. Lots of fun - never been on one of them before. Apart from the aquarium, which was amazing, the old British fort, "Fort Siloso" was pretty cool too.

From Singapore Photos

The cable cable car take you yo Mount Faber on the way - Singapore's highest peak. This is laughable because it's no more than a little hill ... Cable car is serious overkill to get to the top.

The Aquarium

The Singapore Aquarium was a touch of class - never seen anything like it. You walk through an underwater, glass tunnel with fish all around you. Really, really cool.

From Singapore Photos

From Singapore Photos

They had a dolphin show outside afterwards, which was great too - Dolphins playing soccer, jumping, etc.

I even got to pick up a starfish ;-)

The Cinema

It rained torrentially this afternoon in Singapore, so we decided to go to the cinema for the first time in a couple of months. Boy do they know how to do cinema here! We bought 'Gold Class Tickets' for a bit luxury - Motorized reclining airline seats, table service, beer, blankets, waiting lounge - Imagine if we had this at home. Oh, and the film we went to see was called "Shooter" ... it was alright.

From Singapore Photos

From Singapore Photos

From Singapore Photos

From Singapore Photos

Singapore - 12-4-2007

On the road again, leaving Melaka and Malaysia for Singapore. Singapore is an island, a city and a country - how strange! Ever since we left Bangkok, heading south it has been getting more western and here it reaches it zenith. This is an ultra clean, flash, wealthy, big, big city and prices are completely back to normal here. We've found a really nice hostel called Sleepy Sam's in Kampong Glam (kind of an Arab, Muslim, Indian district). We'll stay here for four days until our flight to Darwin on the 16th.

From Singapore Photos

Melaka

Melaka was another one of these former British colonies (and Dutch and Portuguese), although, unlike Georgetown, the place is long past its prime. I found Melaka a little sleepy. It had a nice old colonial town centre with an old Dutch windmill and church and it's Chinatown was lovely, but apart from that there wasn't many people around. One saving grace about the town was its maratime museum, which is inside a replica of an old Portuguese ship near the docks. It had a very anti European feel about it (understandably :-)) but was quite interesting. The town was a huge port back in its day but by the 19th century had been completely eclipsed by the likes of Georgetown and Singapore.

From Malaysia Photos

From Malaysia Photos

From Malaysia Photos

By the afternoon of our first day there we had run out of things to do. Melaka might be a good jumping off point for other activities, but you'll be finished with the town itself fairly quick.

From Malaysia Photos

If by the off chance anyone ever gets here - try your best to stay in Tony's guest house. Totally chilled out and Tony is really sound!

From Malaysia Photos

KL Tower

A slightly better better view can be gotten from KL tower (4th or 5th tallest tower in the world) ... nice view ... again ... okay I've had enough tall buildings for the moment. ... it was nice though.

From Malaysia Photos

Petronas Towers

When you think of Malaysia, or at least Kuala Lumpur, you think of Petronas Towers. These were the tallest buildings in the world up until 2003 and are still the tallest twin towers. Very impressive to look at. You're not allowed to the top, but you can go half-way-ish to the sky bridge - not worth the ordeal of getting tickets, but a nice view all the same - It involved queuing at 8:30 in the morning for a ticket, coming back at 12:30, watching a Petronas Oil Company propaganda movie the heading up to the sky bridge to 15 minutes.

From Malaysia Photos

The film "Entrapment" was filmed here also - remember the one with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones?

From Malaysia Photos

There is a viewing area on the very top floor, but its not open to the public - Petronas top brass only - he didn't believe me when I told him I was CEO ... maybe it was the torn shorts.

From Malaysia Photos

Kuala Lumpur

We got to Kuala Lumpur the day of the grand prix. If we'd known it was on we'd have tried to get tickets - what a pity! They were quite cheap too - 50EUR for 3 days.

From Malaysia Photos

Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia - very slick, modern and a little overpriced ... actually I take that last comment back, I think it's just us getting too used to how cheap everywhere else was. We'll have to get used to this in the future, especially when we go to Australia! This city has a lot going on and is huge considering it was only founded 150 years ago. As well as the grand prix I think the strongest man in the world competition is on at some stage also. Might be a fun place to live.

Georgetown

On the island of Penang is Georgetown. This city was the first British settlement in Malaysia and was founded in the late 1700's. This was a great town, I really loved it here. The place was very relaxing for such a big city (about 1 million) and had none of the craziness like in Bangkok or Saigon. This was refreshing. At the same time there was plenty to see since the city is steeped in history - Old forts, the first Catholic church I'd seen since I'd left, old colonial buildings and all this nestled in a very modern setting filled with skyscrapers. Also, to get out to the island, you cross the longest bridge in southeast Asia, which was pretty cool. If anyone is planning a trip, this is a must see for a day or two.

From Malaysia Photos

From Malaysia Photos

Map of South East Asia Trip

All the names of places I've been throwing around might be starting to get a little confusing. Click here to see a map that gives a rough outline of the route we took in south east Asia ... or below:



My Maps Plus - Embed Google My Maps into your website or blog.

Beer Review

In a clever move, a lot of the countries in south east Asia have their own national beers. I guess after going to the trouble of luring tourists to their country they don't want to see their money getting back to Europe via Heineken, Carlsberg and Guinness. Some are nice, some are not so nice and all are very cheap. The only odd country out here is Malaysia - Being a strongly Muslim country, sponsoring a national beer would be a big no no.

Feast your eyes on the wonders of barley, hops and water ...

From Thailand Phot...

From Thailand Phot...

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

South East Asia-isms

Not being entirely familiar with English can lead to some funny mistakes by shop owners here. Here's a few below. One of the best ones is "The Institute of Foreign Languages" with 'foreign' spelled wrong.

From Thailand Photos

Okay, what kind of pepperoni pizza has bananas and doesn't have pepperoni? ...

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

From Cambodia Photos

From Vietnam Photos

From Thailand Phot...

From Laos Photos

From Thailand Photos

From Thailand Photos

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

Differences in Malaysia

I never expected such a difference the second you cross a border, but there definitely was. Malaysia immediately seems like a wealthier country, or at least better run. Roads, cities, public places all seem to be better kept, the countryside is much greener, the language has changed and everyone seems to be able to speak flawless English.

Even though we were heading directly south, when you cross the border you enter a new time zone. We didn't realise this for a couple of days. It was kinda funny because we were a bit spaced out from all the travelling, so we were convinced that all the clocks were wrong and it was us that had the right time, until it dawned on us eventually that it might be the other way around.

There are huge Chinese and Indian populations here too, which means I can get even tastier food here now!

On to Malaysia - 6-4-2007

After Krabi we have to leave Thailand and make our way down through Malaysia to Singapore for our flight to Australia on the 16th. Plenty of time. We're gonna try make stops in Georgetown (Penang), Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Singapore. Should take a little over a week.

Geckos

These little guys, called Geckos pop up everywhere. Shy little lizardy things. Most of them are tiny, although you get the occasional really big one, called Tokays - Got a bit of a fright the first time I saw one of them, they're about a foot long (as opposed to the normal 5cm).

They're super fast (and really scared of us), so I haven't managed to get a picture of a real one yet. I'll post one up as soon as I do.

From Thailand Phot...

... Here we go, as promised, a picture of a real Gecko ...

From Thailand Phot...

Wat Pho, Bangkok

We headed to Wat Pho in Bangkok (before we headed south) to kill some time. Glad we went. A very impressive, golden reclining Buddha that barely fits in the temple.

From Thailand Phot...

From Thailand Phot...