"It's about time you wrote another blog entry"

Bowing to "popular" demand, it's probably time for another entry. A few things have happened since I got back from Malaysia so I'll try and make it interesting.

The big thing is that I've now moved out of the flat I was sharing with a friend and back in with my parents. Although my flatmate found another job, it didn't pay enough for her to afford to stay and I couldn't afford to stay on my own. After ten odd years of flat/house shares, I wasn't sure I could handle any more randoms with questionable living habits. At my age (late 20s), it's a bit of a change to make. Hopefully, it won't be too long term and it means I can save up with a view to making an escape to a place of my own.

Don't worry, I have also done some (less far flung) travel to balance out my failure to be an adult.

Croydon 
Actually Selsdon - a suburb of Croydon but nobody has heard of there so Croydon will do. I went there for the periodic work annual conference. Two days of talks, awkward videos and group discussions about improving strategies and developing new ideas to become a better company. To make up for this, there was a dinner on the first evening featuring a large amount of wine and a cheesy disco.

Dorchester
Another work trip including a very long train journey. On the way there, someone started a fight on the train causing the journey to take three hours, I was incredibly bored by the time I actually reached Dorchester. I also found myself there on one of the first hot days of the year but unable to enjoy it fully. I did get time to have a wander around the town and establish that nowadays there is a little bit more to do in an evening - even a cinema.

Bognor Regis
A couple of road trips down to West Sussex's best kept secret - an amazing crazy golf course. I even managed my record lowest score of 44 and rang the bell for a free game next time I'm there. The main purpose of the visits was actually to visit my Gran and on both occasions, there was nice, sunny weather so we could take her out for a walk along the promenade.

Central London
To celebrate reaching my late twenties, I had a day off for my birthday. My policy is that I should do my best to never work on my actual birthday and so far, I have successfully stuck to this policy. This year, I went up to central London with my Mum to have a touristy day on the river boat tour. Not the crazy hardcore party antics most people my age get up to but it turned out to be pretty good.

We caught the boat from Westminster Pier and joined a trip to Greenwich. On the way we had one of the crew provide a "quirky" commentary about the various sights of London. For example, "did you know that Big Ben was named after the Clerk of Works in charge of building the Houses of Parliament? His name was Ben and he was 5ft tall. He was also 5ft wide so many people thought he looked like a bell. As a token of appreciation, they named the bell after him". Who knows whether that is true...  We had a spot of lunch by the Cutty Sark in Greenwich before joining another boat for the journey back to Westminster with more or less the same "quirky" commentary in reverse. 

Tower Bridge

The Cutty Sark

Celebratory sparkling wine

I have also relaunched my fatty to fitty campaign. Over the last couple of years, I let my fitness slide a little bit so I decided to use moving in with my parents as a motivation to change that. I started by cycling to and from work every day, regardless of weather. A minimum of 2 miles each way but I've tried to go longer routes on the way home or cycle up some more hills to improve my slightly poor lung capacity. In a week's time, I'm taking part in a ride into and around Central London (part of the Prudential Free Cycle event) which will put all this to the test. Perhaps I will write an update after that to let you know how I got on.

Sorry for the delay...

Part three - Kuala Lumpur and home

Sorry for the delay, I got distracted by work and painting the bedroom I'll soon be moving into at my parents' house. Such an exciting life I lead, sure you're wondering why I only update this occasionally.

Anyway, after the amazing sing song on the plane we collected our bags and caught the bus into central KL to find our hostel. Once we dumped our bags, we headed off to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves is home to a large Hindu temple and a massive staircase to get to the temple. Once we got to the top, it was pretty spectacular. There were statues of the various gods all over the caves in two large cavern type spaces.

Outside the Batu Caves with the massive staircase behind

Once we got back from the Batu Caves, we explored Little India and I tried a pretty hot (by my slightly wussy standards) jalfrezi curry. Megan managed to find the milder option and didn't spend her dinner frantically searching for water and tissues. I think the waiters found it hilarious and clearly thought I couldn't handle curry. They were probably right but it was nice despite how hot and spicy it was. 

After that, we made our way over to the Petronas Towers. By then it was dark and we found ourselves in a square behind the towers at the right time for a water fountain show. It was pretty impressive, Megan even took a video (link available on request). We then went to a hotel bar on the 45th (ish) floor where we were opposite the Petronas Towers. Sadly, the waiter sussed we were only really there for the view and was keen to get rid of us as soon as we'd finished our drinks. It was cheaper than going up the Petronas Towers themselves though.

Water fountain show

The Petronas Towers from the square

On our final day in KL, we joined a tour which took us out of the city. The first stop was an area well known for it's large wild monkey population. The area was quite popular and there were monkey snacks available for all the tourists which attracted more monkeys. We chose not to buy any monkey snacks but still got very close to the monkeys.

Monkeys

 After seeing the monkeys, we went to a riverside seafood restaurant (if that makes sense) for dinner. The fish we were about to eat were all in tanks at the entrance to the restaurant, bit different to anything I'm used to. We got a selection of seafood to try including crab still in the shell, a first for both me and Megan. 

When we'd finished dinner, we joined a boat trip to see the fireflies which hang out along the river. It took a lot of squinting but I actually managed to see the fireflies, it was really cool although I think I was expecting them to be much brighter.

The following morning, Megan left really early in the morning. Leaving me with most of a day to fill before I needed to head to the airport. 

I started off by trying to find the botanical gardens. Megan had recommended them to me and the man in the hostel had given me what seemed like relatively straight forward directions. After about an hour of walking around in circles, I came to the conclusion I had taken several wrong turns and decided to take a different approach. I headed to the main square with the giant flag and joined a tour bus. The idea was that I would get off when it reached the botanical gardens and in the meantime, enjoy the commentary. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of traffic and after a while it started raining, monsoon style. I hadn't reached the botanical gardens stop by this point and the rain didn't ease off. In the end, I gave up on the botanical gardens altogether and stayed on the bus until the point nearest to the hostel so I could get changed, collect my bag and head to the airport.

I got to the airport about four hours too early. I filled the time by helping a Malaysian student with his dissertation (I filled in his questionnaire about food and wine). I also spotted a man wandering around the terminal clutching a giant cheque and saw about 10 groups of travellers get their bags wrapped in cling film.

That's it for the Malaysian trip updates. It was awesome, particularly because I got to see Megan. After 7 months, it was great to have a catch up and also a holiday. I don't have any travel plans that are quite so exciting coming up but I'm going to try and write some more regular updates here anyway. Hopefully it will help me improve my writing skills and be interesting to read.

To the beach

It's now nearly two weeks since I got back to the UK and more than that since a lot of the things I'm trying to remember happened. Will do my best to write something fun anyway.

Once we landed on Langkawi island, we got a taxi to our hostel. There was a bit of confusion when the taxi driver couldn't read my handwriting but we made it. Megan had stayed at the hostel before on a previous travel adventure so had a couple of friends among the hostel staff.

We dumped our bags and decided to head straight to the beach. The beach was brilliant with white sand and blue sea. Not too busy either. I had a bit of a swim/paddle and it was lovely. We spent a lot of time hanging out on the beach and occasionally going into the sea.

The beach

As the island did not have much traffic and they drive on the same side as the UK, I had my first experience of driving abroad the next day. We hired a car to explore the island further and headed first to a cable car that Megan hadn't managed to go on last time she was on the island. Sadly it wasn't to be, the cable car was shut for maintenance for the exact days we were on the island. Disappointing. We headed on to a waterfall nearby. After climbing several hundred steps (which in the heat and humidity wasn't that easy), we got to the top of the waterfall.

We then moved onto another beach. This beach was a bit quieter than the one we went to the day before so we spent more time swimming in the sea and chilling out on the sand. Lovely.

On our final day in Langkawi, we joined an island hopping tour. There are loads of smaller islands surrounding Langkawi including one called the Pregnant Lady Island (because the rocks looked like a pregnant lady having a lie down) where there was a freshwater lake in the middle. We also got to see some eagles being fed next to another island before going onto a final island where there was a beach to laze around on.

Freshwater lake with the pregnant lady rocks behind

We headed back to Kuala Lumpur the following morning on an AirAsia flight where the captain serenaded us all with a burst of "Unchained Melody" as we were taxiing around KL airport finding our gate. What a welcome back!

I'll write about our last few days in Kuala Lumpur in my next entry.

More Malaysia - Cameron Highlands

Here we go with part 2, it's now over two weeks since I was actually there so let's see how much I actually remember.

We arrived in Tanah Rata (think that's how it's spelt) quite late at night so didn't have much time to explore after finding our hotel and getting some food. 

The next day we started our exploring by joining a tour to a large tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands. There were loads of fields up and down the hills full of tea plants. I've never seen a tea plantation before so I was pretty impressed. I think Megan has so maybe it was less exciting for her. We went on to a rose garden where we saw some roses and other flowers (I'm not the best horticulturalist so I have no idea what flowers they were). After that, we visited a strawberry farm because it's one of the only places where strawberries can be grown all year round (apparently).

Stawberries

A flower that probably isn't a rose

The following day we went on a slightly more intense tour. The morning involved a long hike in the hot and humid jungle in order to locate the Rufflesia plant. Unfortunately, the Rufflesia plant doesn't grow somewhere easy to access and in large quantities. The hike involved steep hills, precarious bamboo bridges and a lot of mud. Being a little on the overweight side and very much unfit, it was a struggle for me and I ended up sitting out the end of the hike. I did get to see a dead Rufflesia though. Slightly black and disgusting so I didn't take any pictures to prove my efforts. After stopping off for a traditional southern Indian style lunch, we went back to the tea plantation because every single tour had to take it in.

Hanging out among the tea plants

The tour then took us to the Mossy Forest, something Megan was particularly keen on but involved more hiking. Luckily, it wasn't so humid or so steep this time so I made it through without highlighting my rubbish hiking abilities. The Mossy Forest is so called because of the large amount of moss found in it. It was on all the trees and the ground, making everything quite damp and spongy.

Mossy Forest featuring some insectivorous plants

The final stop of the tour was a butterfly/creepy crawly type place where we got to have a go at holding various animals. For some reason, the guide decided Megan was really keen and let her have a go on every single creature first. I had a go at holding everything except the scorpion, although it's sting had been removed it still put me off a little bit. Animals featured included large stick insects, leaf insects, chameleons, butterflies and grass snakes.

Holding a chameleon

The following morning we left the Cameron Highlands to head to Langkawi. This featured another long and slightly uncomfortable journey (I'm slightly too tall for Asia which means leg room can be a bit cosy). We had a bumpy five hour journey to the port where we caught a very fishy smelling boat over to Langkawi.

I will write about Langkawi in my next entry, before this entry goes on for too long.

Time for a reunion in KL

I'm writing this up about a week after I got back so it may not be in exact order and things could well get missed out.

Part 1 - The journey & Kuala Lumpur

My journey to KL via Frankfurt took a grand total of about 15 hours. It was pretty fun in the end. I made friends with lots of German people (it was a Lufthansa flight) and actually managed to get some sleep on the plane. This meant I was feeling surprisingly awake and alert when I got to KL and had to deal with immigration and finding my suitcase.

Megan had got to the airport before me so was there to meet me when I got out of arrivals. After seven months, it was great to see her again. 

We caught a bus into central Kuala Lumpur which got caught up with the rush hour traffic and seemed to take ages to get there. We eventually reached China Town where we were staying and found our hostel. After dumping our bags and getting changed, we headed back out again to explore and find some dinner. 

China Town in KL is pretty busy and full of loads of stalls trying to sell you handbags, sunglasses etc. 

After wandering around for a while, we found somewhere to have some dinner. Before leaving the UK my Mum had given me a Christmas cracker to take for Megan as she'd missed out on the traditional family Christmas back in December. Turns out it looks a bit strange breaking out a Christmas cracker on Good Friday but the plastic bowling set inside the cracker made it all worthwhile.

The next day we arranged coach tickets to take us to the Cameron Highlands for the afternoon so had the morning to explore KL further. We started off by going to the old square which featured a very tall flag pole and some old buildings.

After that, we went to the KL Menara, a tower you can go up and see all across the city. Great view although maybe a little smoggy.

Wandering around a hot and humid place really makes you appreciate air conditioning. Luckily, pretty much everywhere indoors had air conditioning. However, walking from the train station to the various attractions was much more hard going than a wander around somewhere like London.

Once we were finished looking around the tower, we headed back to the hostel to hang out for a bit before our coach to the Cameron Highlands. Once we got the coach, it took about five hours in pouring rain (think we were in Malaysia's rainy season) and on quite narrow, twisty roads before we reached our destination.

I'll tell you about the Cameron Highlands in my next entry.
 

York

2014 so far has been a bit of a stressful and eventful year for me. Without boring you with the details, I will try to give a quick summary. On the negative side, my housemate lost her job and we may have to move on from the flat we currently share sooner than originally planned. On a positive note, she's found a new job starting this week which may mean we could stay on until November when our contract ends anyway. Not quite any certainties but a great deal more reassuring than the update I could have written a couple of weeks ago which I've probably already told you about in great detail if I have spoken to you in the real world recently. To have a bit of a break from all this drama and stress, I agreed to go on a short break to York with my friend Robbie. 

We got the train up on the Friday morning and arrived in York by the early afternoon. We started off by having a wander around the city. Neither of us are good at map reading so we found ourselves exploring several of York's old streets more than once as we went around in circles. After seeing the same pub a few times on our wanders, we stopped in for some dinner. It turned out to be York's most haunted pub - the Most Haunted team had apparently been there and everything. Luckily for me, we didn't see any ghosts and the food was actually pretty nice. 

The next day, we went over to York Minster. As the minster is visible from most of the city, we thought it would be the best place to start. We decided to go inside and have a look around. It reminded me a bit of Canterbury Cathedral - there was a lot of stained glass and chapels off to the sides.

 Outside York Minster

Stained glass window inside York Minster

After that, we went onto Jorvik Viking Experience, considered one of the key places to visit when in York. I'd been before when I was younger but found it a bit less impressive this time. It consisted of a small exhibit with not much information then a ride around a recreated model village with robotic vikings and weird smells. Not sure I'd go back again!

We carried on the museum theme by heading over to the National Railway Museum. Being a little bit of a geek, I enjoyed this museum a lot more. The added bonus was that it was free so we didn't have to feel like staying for longer than necessary to get our money's worth!

The next day, we decided to take it a bit easier and explore the city walls. There are about two miles worth of city wall around York to wander around and we ended up covering all of it. The walls were really interesting to walk around although some parts were quite high up and didn't have railings on the edge which made walking past people going the other way a little scary. During our walk around the walls, we also went up the remains of York castle. This featured some spectacular views of the city but meant climbing some steep and narrow spiral staircases to get there. 

Once we had explored the walls, we visited the York Chocolate Story. Apparently York was the centre of the chocolate producing industry for a while with companies like Rowntrees and Terrys based there. The tour included a good amount of free chocolate and some fun chocolate based facts. It was probably aimed at a younger age range than us though as everyone else on the tour had young children.

Having covered most of York's key tourist attractions, we left this morning and got back to London before rush hour. 

Coming up - I am going to Malaysia next month to meet up with Megan (my sister and writer of a much more interesting blog http://megs-meanders.blogspot.co.uk/ ). I will try to add some updates about our trip once I get back.