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Kieran:
Hiya!
That's it! We've done it! We've booked it, packed it and bobbied off across the equator, and the water does indeed flow the opposite way down the toilet! It's been a while since our last blog, and there's a lot to squeeze in, so i'll try to keep each bit like a talking crocodile; interesting and snappy!
First stop in Malaysia was KL. Aside from general strolling about, the only activity was a trip to the Central market where (at Emma's behest), we had our palms read by the famous Master Chin! He has appeared on Malaysian telly 5 times and his clients include Englebert Humpedink and John Sekada! In 20 years time he'll probably be boasting about having read the palm of Daniel Bedingfield.
His appraisal of Emma was: good people person, but doesn't listen, but only doesn't listen because she has a sixth sense! So pretty spot on but now Emma has a bona fide excuse for not listening- aaaaagggh! Hopefully she wasn't listening when he said that ;-)
The next day was a long trip to Taman Negara, the oldest rainforest in the world. On the first night we did a jeep jungle safari, where we saw strange creatures like leopard cats and magpie-robins, but the best spot was on the telephone wire outside our hotel: a real life and very slow, slow loris!
The next day we trekked to the highest viewing point in the rainforest, and then down to the jungle canopy walk, the longest hanging bridge in the world! Very high up in the very high trees. In the afternoon we 'shot the jungle rapids', which basically consisted of two motor boats full of people travelling alongside each other, occasionally traversing mild rapids but mainly using oars, life jackets, anything to splash the hell out of each other. Childishly brilliant!
Next was the historic town of Melaka. Quaint little Dutch and Portuguese-inspired streets, lovely place. We visited the Portuguese fort of Porta Di Santiago, and it was like a circus at the top- we ended up with an iguana on Emma's head and me wrestling a snake!
We stayed near Jonker Street, which at the weekends turns into a big market, almost a mini festival in fact with street bars and live music. Our favourite performance came from the famous coconut man, who punches a hole through a coconut using only his index finger. Impressive!
We then had a great 2 days back in Kuala Lumpur. We went to the Petronas Towers, which were closed to visitors- thanks again to the idiot hotel receptionist who neglected to tell us that when booking our taxi! We had more joy with the Menara Tower, the fifth tallest tower in the world. Superb views over the Petronas Towers and at the bottom they had all sorts going on! The best zoo ever, f1 simulators (I won) and Emma even had a pony ride!
One afternoon Emma persuaded me to see the latest Twilight film. WHAT a shower. Even Emma agreed with my one-word sumation- dairylea. Cheese for children!
The next day we flew to Bali and went straight to Ubud, which was superb, teeming with beautiful little bars, restaurants and shops. One day we visited the sacred monkey forest, where you can feed bananas to stroppy monkeys, and not a lot else.
And then we come to the volcano trek, wow, the hardest thing we've ever done. Gunung Agung is it's name and it is the highest and most revered peak in Bali. After an hour's drive we started off at 2am from a mountain temple, so within an hour we we were above the clouds and it was like walking up into outer space, thousands of stars, breathtaking! But by golly it was steep, sheer in places, more like climbing than trekking. And in the pitch black! Emma had been ill the previous day so was already half-dead, but she put in a legendary performance and we made it to the summit just in time for sunrise, at around 6.30am. On one side were the clouds, way way down below, and on the other the crater, 700m across. An unforgettable experience. A Russian chap at the top said the climb was harder than Kilamanjiro, which had taken him 6 days!
Getting back down took just as long as we were practically abseiling, and little Em had to be almost carried the whole way by our guide. We returned to civilisation at around 11am. It was worth every step but we haven't felt ourselves since!!!!!
We'll leave it there for now, we arrived today on the Gili Islands, which are stunning, we'll tell more about those next time.
We put 6 new photo albums on from Vietnam and Thailand by the way, hope you like 'em!
Kieran and Emma
- comments
suzy and tez It all sounds amazing! Well done to the two of you (especially Emma) for climbing the volcano, would have loved to have been there! Shame about not being able to go up the Petronas Tower - you'll have to go again???? Enjoy the Gili Islands xx
Leicester Mummy We're back from our various travels (Dad Poland, Laura et moi Turkey -very hot). Your latest adventures sound terrific and I definitely agree with the fortune teller - knew I was right all along!!! Hope you're feeling better now Em. PS It's raining here! Heavily.