'Singa -not so- poor'

Singapore - 27/08/2013 - 31/08/2013

A free sweet on arrival at singapore. Yummy.

I was a mixed bag of emotions when we got to Singapore, our hostel was the cheapest we could find and it wasn't cheap... We've had bungalows on the beach for a third of the price we were paying our average dorm room.

We took a wander into the center, the city has an amazing, yet confusing transport link of skytrains and underground metro's. They take you all over the city, but are a little pricey! We found a beautiful new architectural wonder, gardens by the bay! It consisted of huge 'trees' with a walkway between them and tropical gardens. It was a pleasant sight given how the towering buildings in the financial district were very overwhelming. At night the trees all lit up and a beautiful display of LED lights and music made you feel like you'd walked into a fairy's lair. 

The building behind which was marine bay sands, famous for it's casino and infinty pool which has the most amazing views of the city. It starts at a mere $400 a night to stay there, Olly and I felt so out of place skipping through in our sandals and casual clothes. You can pay to go up to the top, but it's very costly so we decided against it. We spent the evening in search of cheap food which was a challenge, so far I'm not in love with this place although it is fascinating.

The entrance to our swanky hostel...

We decided we had to go to universal studios the next day, I've never been to one and there's been a slight lack of adrenaline fueled activities on our trip so off we went. It was pretty expensive and the main roller coaster was out of action but I don't think I stopped smiling all day! I felt like I was a little kid again running around meeting all the characters and diving on every ride possible, wicked I love theme parks!

Now for something that doesn't rape our wallets as much, the next day we took the Metro to Mt Faber park, it's a huge park/junlge right in the heart of the city, there our sky walks you can do and we saw so much wildlife. Feeling impressed that we hadn't spent $20 each to go up the marina bay sands hotel as we managed to get some super shots of the city for free... no wonder this isn't advertised to the tourists! 

For the first time I actually started to appreciate Singapore, staring at it from a distance surrounded by wildlife and foliage I felt like it was the perfect escape. It's nice to look at from a distance, if anything I think it's how condensed the city is in places rather than the size and quantity of the buildings, Bangkok for instance was more chaotic but it felt more spaced out and less enclosed and in your face!!!

 When we got back we strolled around the lake, there was some live music outside the theater and we found these crazy benches... Try and sit on it.. erm how?

This is the Merlion, most photographed and iconic thing in Singapore.

The following day we knew we couldn't afford to stay here, even if we were starting to enjoy Singapore so we booked a bus to Mallaca in Malaysia the following day, we both adored Malaysia and it's much more friendly on the wallet. 

After this we wen't to the art and science museum as national geographic had an exhibition on of the best 50 photo's of all time, also they had teamed up with the British museum and there was another exhibition on the Egyptians. We watched a 3D movie narrated by Patrick Stewart which was funny, I just kept think of Mayor West from family guy... Couldn't really take it seriously.

The national geographic display was amazing, some of the photo's were just mind-blowing! At the end there was a big part about trying to reconnect with our planet which i found very relevant. Some of the photo's are heartbreaking, seagulls who had eaten rubbish and died, sharks caught in fisherman's nets and so much more. 

At the end they ask you to write how best to try and reconnect with our planet and put it on a big 'Idea tree'. It felt like a positive and unifying thing to do, it's nice to know that people are waking up to the dis-harmonic way we are living our lives alongside nature. Perhaps deep down this is why I am struggling to enjoy spending time in big cities and would much rather be in the countryside.

I love this photo, a beautiful contrast.

In the evening we found a really cheap place to drink, shock horror. We met some lovely dutch guys and the friendly bar man kept happy hour on all night just for us. The acoustic band that played were amazing, I fell in love with the guy on guitar, wow.

On the way back we caused mischief on the sky train. I've never seen the locals laugh so much.

This was our bus ticket. Off to Malacca...

'Bangkok take TWO'

Bangkok - 21/08/2013 - 27/08/2013

MeeeeeSCOOOZI... This reminds me of the film Eurotrip when there on the train.. haha

Back in Bangkok but this time we decided to stay in Sukhumvit, it's a little more expensive but it's more central to all the markets and nightlife etc. The skytrain in Bangkok covers most of the inner suburbs but it doesn't go out to Koh San Road (the old quarter), so it would of meant we would of had to get a tuk tuk in everyday so we just chilled out here.

It wasn't nearly as good as the Koh San Road area which is amazingly lively and very backpacker oriented, but we found alot to do and even just wandering about provided us with entertainment. We even saw a man dressed up as a giant pot noodle running about!

REALLLY???   Mcdonalds are EVERYWHERE!!!!!! GO AWAY!!!!!!

We had heard about a big cheap mall called M.B.K so we wandered around this hugggeeee mall in search of some good bargains before we left Asia. Also the tablet screen had been broken in Siem Reap, not sure how but we managed to get it fixed in an hour, so we were happy! 

We got some awesome bargains, fake calvin klien underwear for next to nothing, got to be done! This mall we came to realise was by far the best (except for the weekend market) It's actually fucking scary when you go to massive cities like this, you can walk down a stretch of road for half an hour and you will see maybe 7 or 8 MASSIVE shopping malls, some classier than others. It puts into prospective how much of a consumer nation we are! We managed two days shopping one here and one at the weekend market which was beyond crazy, and that was enough!!!! 

Yummy lunch to break up the shopping, I also got a colourful braid put in my hair :) she glued an extension in the back and went to town wrapping string and stuff around, I love it!

Taxi anyone? Pick a colour!

The skytrain was awesome, you are literally cuddling everyone around you, squeeeze on! 

Haha....

We found a pub in the evening that had some 'out of date' old rosie in the back, we managed to get several pints on the cheap. It tastes better with age so i wasn't complaining. Started chatting to a crazy Canadian guy called Wald, what a legend! Spent allll night getting really messy with him and sharing stories, Olly conked out in the morning and we went to a dodgy pub and carried on the drinking, I met a Danish guy who made his own liqourice vodka, for all the liqourice fans out there if you've ever had pontifract cakes, it was like a liquid version of that. I rocked up at 3pm steaming drunk shouting at Olly telling him he had to try it. We eventually found the bar again and Olly loved it, damn so good.

The famous liqourice king!!! Name unknown due to social confusion and lack of memory.

We decided to go to the IMAX in town because we'd never been before, we watched a documentory on the hubble telescope narrated by Leonardo dicaprio, it was pretty special!!!

This was on the way to the weekend market, as I said before it was absolute mayhem. We spent the day getting lost in a sea of shops, it stretched over 35 acres and had over 15,000 stalls selling anything u could imagine. No joke.

We left on the skytrain to head to the airport, next destination SINGAPORE!

I'm not sure why I have to give my seat up for a monk... anyone?

'Siem Reap-ing it in'

'Siem Reap' - 14/08/2013 - 20/08/2013

The slow boat to Siem Reap was really noisy and not so enjoyable for the first couple of hours as the river was so narrow the boat kept crashing into the bank and tree's, spiders and insects all climbed aboard. In the last part of the journey we sat up on the top deck in the sunshine passing many floating villages as we made our way across Ton Sap lake. (Which is huge in the rainy season and swells up to about 10 times its original size).

When we finally arrived in Siem Reap we wen't straight to a hostel we thought a couple of friends we'd met were staying at and pretty much partied all night and into the next day. The next day was a right-off, we had at least 5 days in Siem Reap and apart from the temples of Angkor Wat there isn't so much to do! (Except party) Oh no...

The following day we explored the city center and markets and booked a show and buffet for the evening, we went quite tipsy which made it fun as the dancing was so slow it was almost going in reverse! The women were incredibly beautiful and it was cool to have a little glimpse into there cultural dance routines which tell stories. The buffet was amazing, and we left feeling realllly fat!

We spent the next day going around the Angkor Wat temples, we were originally going to do three days but one day was enough, some of the ruins and especially the big temples were just incredible but it's hot and neither of us although fascinated by it are temple enthusiasts. I'll let the photo's do the talking, we didn't want to pay for a guide so I don't really know much about the history of them individually, only what I saw on national geographic. The best part of the day for me were the temples at the end where nature had tried to reclaim the buildings and huge trees just emerge from the bricks!

The main temple - Angkor Wat

The carvings on the walls took 17 years and were all done by hand, some of them look almost 3D.

Bayon Temple (The one with faces)

I can't remember the name of this one... looks like a Mayan temple though.

Different temple again...

It's amazing to think all the carvings and building of the temples were done over 1,000 years ago, you can't even fathom how you would do it nowadays without cement, and all the hand carved stone... mind blown!

Siem Reap had awesome night life, the bridge which lit up and changed colours looked sick at night, and the infamous pub street saw us more than once!

The final day we booked a transfer bus at 5:30am to take us to Bangkok! Excited to get back to the big city and see a different side of things!