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Well this is the last blog from Asia people and I'll try to get you up to speed with where we are.The day after I left you (20th June) we traveled down to Semporna in the south of Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo and booked some scuba diving. Unfortunately though we didn't book to dive at Sipidan because of confusion over us thinking we needed permits we hadn't got! (A sore point) But we did book some diving spots nearby. AT this point I will also tell you we were both in a lot of muscular pain from the mountain still and it hurt (A LOT!) to go down the stairs especially, and everywhere we went there seemed to be stairs we had to go up and down!The next day we headed out for the diving itself with the cheapest company from Semporna, 'Scuba Junkie' but they were obviously the most popular too as lots of boats going out to different spots. During the day we had two dives (choosing not to do a third for price and similarity of the dives) one in Mabul and one in Kapalai. The one in Mabul wasn't great, with poor visibility and not too much exciting wildlife. The one in Kapalai however was a lot better and we saw loads of big stuff as we grown to call it, such as: 'trigger fish', 'scorpion fish', 'groupers' and 'sweet lips'. We then spent the rest of the time doing some snorkeling when they went down for the third dive, which again was pretty good and there was lots to see including sting rays and even a glimpse at a giant sea turtle! In the evening we got the bus back up to Kota Kinabalu overnight (a 10 our journey!).Luckily we both managed to sleep a good bit on the bus and my chair had the added advantage of having to be reclined as it couldn't stand straight (not much good for the guy behind) but I wasn't complaining! After arriving in KK on the 22nd we watched the extra time of the Holland vs Russia game and then got a taxi up to the ferry terminal to catch a boat over to Brunei, via Labuan Island. In Labuan we managed to get some cheap beer (25p each) as it's a 'tax haven' to take into Brunei. Eventually after arriving in Brunei and after a dodgy 'taxi' driver we got into the capital, BSB, (Bandar Seri B…..) only to find the youth hostel full because we'd picked the one week of the year when the national inter-district sports events were happening! Eventually with the help of an on the street tour guide, 'Danny', we managed to get a room at the capital hotel, but a little more expensive than we would have liked!Over that evening and the next day we just generally had a look round Brunei, doing a tour of the water village, seing the giant and impressive mosques and of course we managed to catch a film! ('Get Smart' this time!).On the 24th we left Brunei bound for KK once more via Labuan again. We went to Lucy's Home stay again as it was pretty comfortable last time we stayed there and of course they had the kittens to play with! As we had already been to KK there wasn't much to do over the next day and a half before our flight back to JB, so: we watched a bit of TV at the Home stay, caught up with emails and started to organize some things ready for Oz and of course we caught a film!, the Happening but I recommend you don't go and see it, it was terrible!We left on the morning of the 26th from KK and flew over to Brunei before getting a bus down to Singapore. Crossing the border between Malaysia and Singapore involved about 3 buses and getting on and off at least twice too, a lot of effort! But eventually we did end up in central Singapore and headed over to none other than the YMCA! We reluctantly opted to stay the night after being told the price but it was quite comfortable and had a swimming pool which we used in the evening and stuff and we discovered the next morning a good breakfast too!. Once checked in we went off in search of alternate accommodation for the next two nights that was more affordable and then walked down the Orchard Road, a shopping haven if only we had some money to spend! After our swim with little to do from where we were based in the evening we went to the cinema! (Don't know how many that is in total now, maybe six or so!) This time we saw 'The wanted' which was thankfully a lot better than our last experience in KK. Then yesterday (27th June) we first headed to the national museum which was relatively interesting before relocating to our new accommodation, at an English style pub in the middle of….Little India! Weird location but a pretty comfortable place with cheap beer for residents! After that we went for a long walk down to find the waterfront and spent a good couple of hours down near the city centre there walking along the quay and sights that there are down there. We then headed back to clean up ready to go out in the evening. Our evenings adventures involved going to Hooters for dinner (had to be done!) and then to Raffles Hotel (pictured) for a customary Singapore Sling cocktail before not going to the Asian Civilizations museum (because it wasn't free like we anticipated). We then headed down to the very busy quayside to 'The Highlander' bar for a swift one before, with aching feet from the walking around again we headed back up to the Prince of Wales pub where we were staying. That's as far as we have got so far, I hope once again it is of some interest and satisfactory for my ……..avid readers! The next one you will receive will be in Australia so until then folks g'day!
Ru xxx
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