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Finally back in Bangkok. The midterm break from school was great, but it feels good to finally be home. It doesn´t even feel weird using the word "home", since we have been here for such a long time and really like it here. The midterm break was great and after getting a couple of exams and term papers of our shoulders, it felt great getting away for a while.

We started our midterm by flying to Bali. We were all excited to finally get to try out surfing. We stayed at a nice low-budget place called Senen Beach Inn, which was located at Kuta beach. There were a lot of French travelers staying there which was explained by the fact that it was mentioned in the French Lonely Planet. Anyways, Bali was great although it´s like the Canary Islands with all the tourists. Mostly Aussies and for my amazement, a lot of Russians. All the locals were constantly trying to sell you something. If you walked around with your board they still tried to sell you one. When you where driving with your scooter they offered transportation. Once you get past that it is an amazing place. For two weeks the sun was shining constantly and there were good waves, at least for us beginners. Surfing took off really well and I felt that I was constantly improving from catching whitewash in the beginning to catching some bigger waves towards the end of our stay. For two weeks our schedule for each day was almost exactly the same. Waking up early - breakfast - to the beach surfing - lunch - to the beach surfing - dinner - evening Bin Tang - Sleep. The afternoon session usually ended in some good wipeouts as you always have to push the limits.. Surfing takes a lot of time and that is why we didn´t see anything else than Kuta beach. Ok, we did rent scooters and went to see Uluwatu, the southern tip of the island, but otherwise we used all our energy on surfing. No complaints there. Surfing is really as addictive as everyone says it is. This is sure to leave a big hole in your wallet since you always have to travel quite far from Finland to get waves.

From Bali we headed to Kuala Lumpur. Immediately we were faced with trouble as one of the tires on our buss from the airport exploded. Luckily we were able to continue, although our speed was limited to about 40 km/h. It was pretty frustrating considering all this happened at 1am. Luckily we had made a reservation from a hostel called Backhome. The place was awesome and set my standards for hostels very high (which proved not to be a good thing since all other hostels now feel like sh#tholes). We were only supposed to spend a couple of days in KL so the next day we ran around and took pictures of all the famous buildings. We also had some Indian food, which no one of us wants to talk about anymore. We had found out from the web that there should be some nice climbing routes behind Batu Caves, near KL. The setting was really nice, and so we spent two days climbing there. We met the guy who was in charge of the climbing scene at Batu Caves. He invited us in to his place where some of his friends were hanging out. One of the guys was a real Malaysian climbing legend. He had been making all the routes at Tioman which was our next destination. We took the night bus from KL to Mercing. We arrived in Mercing at 3am but the first ferry left at 7, so we just had to sleep on the floor of the bus terminal. The ferry stopped at all the locations on the island. We chose Salang beach since it was closest to Coral island, which was supposed to be a nice location for snorkeling. Unfortunately it started to rain so there was no point in going into the water. Tioman is a tax-free zone which meant that beer was very cheap (read between the lines). In the afternoon the sun came out and we decided to have a look underneath the surface. The coral itself was not that nice near the beach but there were a lot of different species of fish. After an hour or so, the sun was setting. As we sat on the beach, approximately one million sandflys attacked us leaving us with bite marks that itched two weeks after and at times have driven us crazy. A word of advice, protect yourselves when you are on the beaches of Tioman. We only spent three days on Tioman because it was raining and we didn´t have much to do. We took the ferry back to Mercing were we jumped on a bus Johor Bahru, a city on the border of Malaysia and Singapore. From there we continued to Singapore where we spent a couple of days. Already on the border you noticed what kind of a police state Singapore is. Everywhere you have signs of what you can´t do and how much you´ll be fined. The border patrol also decided to rip up my backpack and check everything with C.S.I.-like techniques. The hostel we ended up at was the worst I´d been in. It had a really funky smell and the bathrooms were disgusting. Also it seemed like the staff was high on something. We only stayed there for one night..

In Singapore we did all the things that the tourist book recommends (except for the Singapore Sling at Raffle´s). We went to the Singapore flyer, strolled around in the city centre, had some drinks at Clark´s Quay, went to the Singapore Zoo and had drinks at the top of the Swissótel.. Singapore is nice but it feels so expensive after Indonesia and Thailand. Also the 3weeks on the road made me feel like going home to BKK. We took a VIP bus back to KL. Since it was only a couple of bucks more than a regular bus, it was an easy choice. The bus had only three, enormous seats in a row, electrical adjustment of the seat, five different massage programs, dinner&coffee and individual LCD-screens. The most ridiculous part was the "Check-in" and the waiting lounge where they served refreshments. They were seriously competing with airlines..

Our vacation ended in KL where we used our remaining budget on buying electronics. It felt so good coming home to BKK. Just walking in to our own 7/11 and see the staff, who looked amazed that we were back. The best part was to empty the backpack. Three and a half weeks we were on the road and now it was back to reality (if you can call this reality). School has been pretty much the same as before our midterm. Every other morning the teacher doesn´t show up or we haven´t been informed of changes. Tomorrow we are going on a fieldtrip to the infamous Pattaya. Let´s see what that place has to offer. More on that next week..