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So it's my last day in Asia, which is very sad, and I thought I'd do the final update on my blog whilst I'm waiting to head to the airport. I've got quite mixed feelings about heading home, I'm sad to be leaving and that my 6 month holiday is coming to an end (and that I might have to actually make some kind of decision about what I want to do for the rest of my life) but I'm also very excited to see everybody again.
I can't believe how long it's been since I last did a blog...
Tubing was great fun, although the route was very quiet the day I did it, I think possibly because of the weather. I did find some fun people to hang around with and, despite the rain half way through (which was so heavy you could hardly see where you were going and had to rely on the bar staff pulling you in with a dingy at the next stop), I had an excellent time. I decided it was probably a good idea to stay away from the 50ft platforms, extra high zip wires and death slides after how clumbsy and accident prone I've been this trip and even a few beerlaos weren't enough to convince me to try the swings. There was a spider incident as we sat at the first bar, waiting for the rain to stop. Somebody who worked there decided to shake out the mat next to ours, and out ran a huge huge spider, straight across my foot. And then I had nightmares about it in the night! So despite the rain, the spider, the being too scared to go on anything and thinking we'd missed the place we were supposed to get out and thinking we were going to end up in Thailand, it was a really great day.
Next day, I headed back to Vientiane, which was pretty much a full day affair. On the Saturday, I decided to be a proper tourist and go and do all the cultured sightseeing things so I went for a hearty breakfrast near the Nam Phou fountain (which wasn't turned on) before walking round the slightly decrepit and dated National museum. I went to a bookshop after this to try and swap my books and had an interesting conversation with a deaf and dumb girl who worked there (she wrote excellent English!). It turned out her sister lives in Chelmsford, having moved there after marrying an English guy and the girl in the bookshop was telling me all about how she went to visit her there. In the afternoon I went and visited the Vientiane version of the Arc de Triumph - the Patuxai. It was a bit run down but the views from the top were pretty cool and there was a nice little park area around it. After a quick look around the nearby market, I then headed to Wat Si Saket - a big temple and one of the oldest buildings in Laos. Some guy there followed me round and was telling me all about the different statues - I wasn't sure if he was hanging round as a guide after money but I told him straight off that I didn't have any to give (not that this normally stops them - they normally assume you're lying!) and he still insisted on telling me the history of every statue we stopped at. Which was good for the first few, but they all pretty much had the same story! In the evening, I went to a dinner similar to the Kantoke dinner I went to in Chiang Rai, Thailand. It involved lots of local food (including laap with sticky rice, luang prubang sausage and wierd seaweed biscuits and battered eggs) and lots of dance performances. In the end we all had to get up on the stage and dance with one of the women.
The next day was mostly spent browsing the market before getting the overnight bus back to Bangkok. I'd desperatly tried to spend all my kip before leaving Vientiane as I knew you couldn't change it up outside of the country. Unfortunately this meant I didn't have the 2500 kip 'overtime fee' for the Laos immigration people at the border. Luckily, I met a nice Isreali girl who did have some kip left! We were told we'd arrive about 7am in Bangkok....4:15am we get woken up and kicked off the bus! So we were walking round Khao San Road with our big backpacks at a time in the morning where there were still people out drinking. Luckily we managed to find a nice place to stay. But I couldn't get back to sleep and ended up out and about pretty early. I spent most of the day buying presents for people and, doing my favourite thing to do in Bangkok, going to the cinema. I ended up seeing the new Disney Pixar film, 'Up' in 3d on the digital screen. It was actually pretty good.
Next day I set off for Penang in Malaysia - it was quite a journey. Nearly 24 hours of 3 buses, 1 moto and 1 car. And 1 woman trying to scam me out of 50 quid at one of the tourist offices. But I made it! I managed to find a nice place to stay in a dorm room with breakfast included and then headed off to nearby little India to find some dinner. The next day I set off to follow one of the walking tours marked out on the World Heritage map that UNESCO produce - first stop was the national museum, followed by Fort Cornelius, which was very much like a tourist attraction you would visit in Southampton or somewhere but with extra palm trees thrown in. I had lunch at a really posh looking but reasonably priced restaurant overlooking the beach. I tried the local speciality - nyona lemak, which is like a curry noddle soup thing and very delicious. Then there were various temples, governement offices and museums including the Temple of Mercy, which was pretty crazy. 'Mercy' is well known to answer more prayers and wishes than any of the other gods so her temples are always heaving. There was a sign that read something along the lines of 'In the interest of keeping the temple clean and tidy please do not burn joss sticks greater than 4ft in length inside the building'. And outside, you could see why this sign might be necessary - the joss sticks were huge! Georgetown was an interesting place, but it was one of the few places I didn't feel very safe walking round by myself after dark. Luckily the hostel I was staying at was a really nice social place and most nights I ended up sat on the comfy sofas watching a DVD and chatting to people. Next day I caught the bus to Kek Si Lok temple - a huge Buddhist temple with a massive statue at the top. It was a massive place, with great views from the top. There were also a lot of market stalls around the place, so I ended up having a nice lunch of Prawn mee (famous Penang noodle soup) followed by a cup of disgusting herbal tea that I bought because it said it was good for colds and sore throats (and I felt a bit sniffly). I'm sure it was good for colds and sore throats because it pretty much tasted like liquid Vicks.
The next day I spend the morning at a Chinese clan house, which was very over the top, before heading out on the bus again, this time to Penang Hill. This was a colonial retreat from the hot weather when the place was ruled by the British and is now a very popular place with Malay tourists. The train to get up there was pretty scary. It was so steep and went on for ages, you even had to swap trains half way through. And it was absolutely jam packed. At the top, I looked around the avairy, admired the views and ate some yummy scones with jam and tea. But there really wasn't that much to do so I decided to head back down again after a couple of hours. Unfortunatly, it began to thunder and lightning just as I got into the waiting area for the train back down, which meant the train stopped running and I was sat there for over an hour. Luckily, I was sat next to a nice Malay girl who studied English Literature in Sydney and had something of an obsession with English food. She kept reeling off all the dishes she'd tried cooking and those she wanted to try. It certainly made the time pass quickly.
I'd booked myself on a bus to the Perhentian islands for the next day, which meant an early start of 5am. Clearly this was too early for me to function properly and I ended up tripping over with my huge backpack on in the 6m walk between the door and the bus. I managed to cut all my toes and graze me knee, not what you want when you're heading to a hot sticky place with lots of sand (Very glad I avoided the swings in Vang Vieng!). But anyway, it was worth it because the islands were gorgeous, the sand was perfect and the sea amazingly clear. I met a nice Irish girl called Siobhain on the boat out there and we ended up staying in a dorm room together. I spend most of the time there topping up my tan (or burning). We also went for a snorkelling trip, which was amazing. We saw a shark and got to swim with some really big turtles. A couple of girls that Siobhain had met earlier on in the trip were also there and kept talking about how nice the Cameron Highlands were. My original plan was to spend an extra night on the island then head straight down to Kuala Lumpur for 3 nights, but, as nice as the island was, it was too hot! So, after all the hype from Alice and Rachel, I decided to tag along with Siobhain and head to the Cameron Highlands for a few nights. I'm so glad I did, the place was so nice (and the cooler weather a relief from the heat of the islands). The place is well known for it's temperate climate, forest walks, tea and strawberries. Which meant lots more scone and jam eating and tea drinking. We went for a tour, which included a look round a strawberry farm (with an amazing strawberry milkshake thrown in), a honey farm, butterfly park and a tea plantation. The tea plantation had some pretty spectacular views. In the afternoon, we headed out on a walking trail through the forest. Apparently it was one of Jim Thompson's favourites, which was slightly unnerving since this is the place he disappeared into the forest, never to be found again. We did get lost quite a few times (including just trying to find the start of the trail) but luckily we made it back in one piece.
Next day I headed down to KL and went for a bit of a wonder around Chinatown, near where I was staying. I got up early the next day to go and queue for tickets to go up the Peronas Towers... and the earliest ticket I could get was for 4:15pm! So I spent most of the day hanging around there, and playing on the exhibits in the science museum like exhibition they have there. I felt like a little kid! They also had a nice big shopping centre to keep me entertained. In the evening, I went for a wonder around the central maket, which was really nice, before heading to Chinatown for a walk around the night market there and some dinner.
And now it's 11:35am the next day, and I'm logging off to check out of my hotel!
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